Care Package
~One Shot 1: Treed~

Hitsugaya Toshiro sat up in the tree staring off into space. The Winter War was over and yet the pain continued to persist, that is... the pain of all the things that had happened. The breaking point of his young mind had been crossed ages ago. A voice broke him from his train of thought. "My father said all I had to do to find you was to look up. I now get why he said that."

Toshiro glanced down from where he was to see the substitute soul reaper. With a low tone he spoke, "Kurosaki?"

"How are you doing Toshiro? Everyone's worried because your moping around," the teenager grinned.

Hitsugaya ignored the remark and hopped down, his mind focused on something Ichigo had remarked upon before. "You said something weird."

"That would be?" Ichigo nonchalantly scratched his head, personally wondering what Toshiro was getting at.

"You said your father told you how to find me," the child taicho stated with a look of confusion on his face.

"He also said you weren't always this serious," the teen sighed.

Two teal eyes went wide in bafflement. "You are talking like your father and I know each other. Who is he? Is that why you're a substitute soul reaper and you were able to get the abilities you did."

"Good question... he's yet to explain a lot of things." Ichigo opened his mouth to say something when their attention was caught by a very familiar voice ringing out. Toshiro's ears perked up upon hearing the voice a the corner of his mouth moved up slightly.

"Ichigo!" Isshin popped his head around the corner. "Oh, Shiro-chan. You're with him."

The Kurosaki teenager turned to his father, but a gagging noise made him glance back over his shoulder in time to see a rather shocked preteen. He also felt the small taicho reach out to grab onto the back of Ichigo's robes. To his surprise, he felt the boy let out a tremble. "Toshiro... he's not that scary, is he?"

The small taicho peered from behind Ichigo, and blurted out. "He's supposed to be dead. He's a ghost... right? That... or I'm dreaming."

"Toshiro..." Isshin let out a deep sigh. "Bright as you are, you're the same as all ways. Need I remind you, you are a ghost?"

"Kusaka came back!" Toshiro blurted out still peering around the physically older male at the figure in from of him, his eyes wide from shock..

"Actually... I am very much alive," Isshin said with another sigh.. The younger Kurosaki suddenly felt a sudden flare of reiatsu, the icy kind. The next thing he knew a very irate preteen had moved from behind him and moved over to where Isshin was. Ichigo was surprised to see Toshiro show behavior he never would have expected from him.

Hitsugaya, through a swift action brought his knee to slam into the area above Isshin's groin. From the look of sudden frustration on Toshiro's face as his jaw trembled Ichigo knew things weren't going the child taicho's way. He had seen that look every time Toshiro's plans went off balance despite the fact it tended to quickly disappear. In response, the boy quickly maneuvered so that he swung around Isshin, landing a good hard kick to the old man's back area.

The younger Kurosaki hurried over to pull the small boy off his father. "Toshiro! Seriously! Calm down!"

"Isshin-san taicho..." Toshiro's body somehow managed to stiffen and sag at the same time. "Why? Why?"

"You were his taicho Oto-san?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow.

This caused the small taicho's jaw to suddenly drop as his eyes went wide. He then wiggled free and moved slightly behind Ichigo and stared at the man in bewilderment. He gave a small tug on the physically older boy's sleeve which caused Ichigo to bend down to listen to what the preteen had to say.

Quite a few pauses occurred, not to mention the small taicho's face flushed a few times. But after a few minutes, what he wanted to say was said and he backed away from the other a bit. Ichigo had a smile spread on his face. "Toshiro, that goes without saying? You didn't have to ask if you can think that. I actually have always felt along those lines."

"What is it that the two of you are talking about?" Isshin crossed his arms.

"None of your business, mister. I like to leave people in the dark," Ichigo stated, causing a smirk to appear on Toshiro's face while the old man let out a groan.

Author's note – This is the one-shot, that I had planned on including with this. I did actually decide to go with the format of writing a chapter, then a one-shot for this one. That being said, I am open for requests on the one-shots, the theme being caring, and after the Winter War, cleaning up the mess. No slash, nothing that would be rated M... though I could do the M rated ones separately. I'll do as many as will fit, then do a secondary fanfic, with the left over one-shots. I am not telling what order I'll do them in either.

P.S. Saw the latest chapter. It is so sad, but the latest chapters are some of my most favorite in the Bleach series non-the-less.