Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, or any of the Bleach characters used in this fic. They all belong to Tite Kubo: the genius behind the captivating manga that started it all. I only own any of my original characters that I choose to include, as well as any of my own original plot ideas.

Bewitched

Prompt: These are the moments...

A/N: Written for LJ. Dedicated to St. Harridan.


He'd never once meant for his heart to melt at the sight of her. It had just happened. One look into those innocent eyes, and her tiny hand smiling at the blood on his blade, had been all that was needed in order to bewitch him. Perhaps it had been her helplessness, rather than her innocence. She had been naught but an infant, crawling along the incarnadine streets of Hell. And yet, she appeared to be so at home there, immune to, and unable to notice, the death and destruction that made up her whole world.

Often, he wondered why he'd gone so far as to save her from such an existence. Perhaps it had been that they seemed to share a common goal: To escape from the nightmarish underbelly of the Rukongai. But he must have just imagined that part. An infant, as she had been then, was incapable of knowing what Hell looked like, let alone that she was in it.

But now, so many years later, she was still here by his side, refusing to let him go. It certainly seemed that she had known who he was when they'd met. Almost as if she had sought him out from the beginning, knowing that, even in that sea of blood and death and desolation, he would be the one to love and care for her; to show her a life that she'd never known; to give her someone to dedicate her own feelings to.

Watching her grow up, loving her as his own, protecting her, enduring her childish games. These were the moments that meant the world to him. He glanced down at the little pink figure curled up in his lap, tiny hand clinging to his own. Truly, these were the moments he had come to love and live for .


It feels good to start the spring season with something like this.