The bell rang for the end of school. Relieved to be out of the most boring class in the world (history), Ichigo walked down the hall to the exit. Someone started to yell his name loudly from somewhere down the hall behind him.
"IIICCHHHIIIIGGGGGOOOO!!!!!!!!" The ever-excitable Kiego yelled, running up to him.
Just before Kiego reached him, Ichigo sidestepped and stuck out an arm. Kiego was going to fast stop and effectively close lined himself on Ichigo's arm. Mizuiro walked up at a much calmer pace.
"Hey, Mizuiro. How's it going?" Ichigo asked, ignoring a whining Kiego.
"Not much. You?" he asked.
Kiego stood next to them and complain about being ignored which just made the other two ignore him even more.
"I'm going to go hang out with a bunch of the guys at Renji's uncle's shop, apparently he's trying to get a poker tournament going. You can come to if you want."
Mizuiro thought about, "I could for a little while but I'd have to leave early to get ready for a date."
"How come I don't get to come? And why does he always get dates?! I feel so unwanted!" Kiego whined.
Ichigo sighed in annoyance. "Fine you can come."
He walked with the two out of the school. Groups of students stood around either waiting to get pick up or waiting for their friends. He immediately spotted Renji's bright red hair. Renji stood talking to Toshiro, Ishida, Rukia, Tatsuki, and Orihime. As Ichigo walked up he heard them argue over what card games they should play.
"What about Black Jack?" Toshiro wondered
"Or how about Texas hold'em?" Ishida asked.
"I don't have any chips and Black Jack is too easy. We could play Gin." Renji answered.
"What do you mean you don't have any chips? You have to play poker with chips." Tatsuki said.
"I know what we could play!" Orihime said excitedly, "Go fish!"
The group just stared at her. Rangiku walked up with Kira, Chad, and Hisagi.
"I found some more people to play with us!" Rangiku said pointing at the three.
"Didn't Ikkaku and Yumichika want to play?" Rukia asked.
Kira shook his head, "They said they had better things to do."
"So are we going to stand here or we going to go play?" Hisagi asked impatiently.
The large group began its journey to Renji's uncle's place. Rangiku made a comment that made everyone in earshot blush. Rukia, Tatsuki and Orihime talked excitedly about the new Chappy Bunny items that were produced by a large company called Soul Society. Renji and Ishida talked about what they thought would happen during the next episode of a popular show hosted by a guy named Don Kan'onji, Chad listening silently and Ichigo scowled because he hated the show.
They were passing by the park when Orihime asked a question that made everyone stop and listen.
"Tatsuki, will you teach me to fight?" Orihime asked.
"Well, uh, I uh…." Tatsuki stuttered. everyone knew Orihime wasn't the fighting type but Tasuki wasn't sure how to tell her that.
"You don't want to learn how to fight." Renji said coming to Tatsuki's rescue and smirked, "You'll end up with pretty little bruises like Ichigo has."
"Well if you think they're so pretty I could give you a few." Ichigo grinned darkly.
"I'd like to see you like to see you try, Strawberry." Renji taunted.
Anger made his checks turned a slight color of pink (one of the reasons why he was called strawberry). Renji and Ichigo made fun of each other all the time but this was pushing it. Ichigo took a step forward.
"Please don't fight." Orihime pleaded and tried to step between the two. Some one made a loud whistle off in the distance. Ichigo put his arm up and gentle pushed Orihime out of the way. Renji wasn't going to get away with calling him that.
Someone put a heavy hand on his shoulder. Turning side ways he saw Chad pointing off into the soccer field. Confused, Ichigo looked.
A small group of people stood in a rough circle at the edge of the soccer field. He could see what looked like a fight going on in the middle of it. Then one of the fighters went down.
His anger forgotten, Ichigo ran off with Chad took off into the park; Renji, Ishida, Hisagi, and Kira not far behind. They heard a cry of pain from the person on the ground as the other slammed his foot onto his chest.
One of the men that made the circle had his back to Ichigo. Ichigo planted a hard kick to the middle of his back and sent him flying into another guy, knocking them down.
"What the hell?" The winning fighter said, looked up from his victim.
The two guys Ichigo had knocked over were back on their feet and one of them had a crowbar. He swung it at Chad with an angry scream. He missed and his eyes wide eyes when Chad grabbed the crowbar from him. While he was distracted, Ichigo gave the man a kick that sent him crashing to the ground and this time he didn't get up. The rest of the guys that had fallowed Chad and Ichigo walked up beside them.
Surprised, the rest of the men from the fight backed up. The one who had been fighting and was probably the leader looked at the challenging group in front of him. He made an angry face, knowing they were out numbered. He ordered his men to retreat, two of them picking the man off the ground, and quickly walked away.
With them gone Ichigo looked down to see who they had beaten up. He was surprised to see the same guy from yesterday. His eyes were shut and he wasn't moving. A large bruise stood out darkly on the pale skin of his cheek.
The rest of the group came running up.
"Oh god, is he dead?" Kiego asked in a small, high-pitched voice.
To everyone's surprise Orihime pushed herself to the front of the group and leaned down next to Shiro. She checked his pulse and shook her head.
"No but he's out cold." She said.
Then started pushing lightly on different spots on his left arm. Ichigo realized she was checking for broken bones, he had seen his father do that many times in the clinic. Ichigo wondered how she had learned that.
Satisfied with his left arm she moved to his right side. She gasped; looking over Ichigo saw a large, bloody cut on his arm still bleeding. Moving quickly next to her, Ichigo placed a hand over the wound and pressed down to try and slow the bleeding. Warm blood started to trickle between his fingers.
"Ishida, do you have a large piece of cloth?" Ichigo asked in an urgent tone.
He nodded and pulled out his sowing case, opened it, and pulled out a large strip of light blue cloth. Taking it, Ichigo started to rap the cloth around Shiro's arm. A dark red spot immediately started to grow on the cloth.
Ichigo pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. Impatiently he waited for someone to pick up.
"Hello my dear son! How are you this fi-"
Ichigo cut him off, "Dad get the clinic ready."
"What happened?" His voice suddenly serious.
"I'll explain when we get there." He flipped his phone shut.
He nodded to Chad, Chad reached down and gentle picked the unconscious boy.
Ichigo looked at the rest of the group. "Did any of you drive to school?"
Hisagi nodded and tossed the keys to Ichigo. With that Ichigo and Chad ran back to the school parking lot.
*Kurosaki Clinic*
Shiro didn't need to open his eyes to know where he was. The clean sheets and smell of over used disinfectants told him he was in one of the last places he wanted to be, a hospital. At least he still had his own clothes on.
He felt bandages rapped tightly around his arm. His side was slightly painful but other wise fine.
He was angry with himself for getting into this mess. It was stupid of him to be sitting in the open like that where anyone could see him and sneak up on him. Now he was at a hospital.
Opening his eyes, he looked around. The walls were a very bright, clean white and the white tile almost sparkled with cleanliness. Large windows showed the sun sinking behind some buildings. Next to the bed was a small rolling table, on it was a tray with a steaming bowl of soup and a glass of milk.
Sitting up slowly, he pulled the table over to the bed. Looking into it he saw small chunks of meat, noodles, and vegetables in a thick broth. The smell made his mouth water and his stomach growl. He picked up the spoon and cautiously took a small bite.
It was the most amazing thing he had tasted in a long time.
He quickly ate the rest of the soup and drained the glass of milk. Dropping the spoon into the bowl Shiro laid back onto the bed with a sigh. Shit, his life wasn't going the way he wanted it to.
Before he could continue his feeling sorry for himself the door to his room open and a small girl with light colored short hair walked into his room. She was definitely to young to be working nurse, volunteer maybe. Seeing that Shiro was awake she gave him a shy smile.
"Do you need anything?" She asked.
Shiro shook his head. There was nothing he wanted here and as soon as she left the room he would leave the hospital whether they liked it or not.
She walked over to the rolling table and picked up the tray. She started to leave the room when slightly bothering question ran through his mind.
"Wait, I have a question." The girl stopped half way to the door. She gave him a curios look.
"How'd I get here?" As far a Shiro knew there was no one around the park at the time.
"My brother Ichigo and his friends brought you here." She answered and left the room, the door shutting behind her with a small click.
Shiro let his head fall back onto the pillow. This was great, just great. First he gets the shit beat out of him, then a car clips him, and on top of that some guy named after a goddamned fruit saves him. It was so fucking retarded it almost made him laugh.
He sat up and slid off the bed. Before he could start walking to the door it opened and man with dark hair and in a white doctor's coat walked into the room.
The doctor smiled. "Good to see you're up. I'm Isshin Kurosaki and I'm your doctor for now."
He looked at the clipboard he had brought in with him.
"I did an ex-ray on your chest and you have two cracked ribs, they should be healed in about six weeks. The cut on your arm took twenty-one stitches to close. The bruises are big but they aren't as bad as they look." Fun, twenty-one stitches and six weeks of pain.
When Shiro didn't say anything Isshin continued.
"Do you have any family or friends I could call?"
Shiro sat back onto the bed and snorted. Great, the questions had started.
"Mom doesn't care, Dad's dead, and I don't have any other relatives or friends. " Shiro gave him a defiant stare, daring him to say something about it.
The doctor frowned. "What's your name?"
"Shiro."
"Just Shiro?"
"Just Shiro." He hated his last name; it always reminded him that he was related to that bitch.
The doctor stood in thought for a moment. "You're not living on the streets are you?"
"And what if I am?" Shiro watched him warily, knowing this was the question that would get the cops called.
The doctor's frown deepened. "Well I can't knowingly let a homeless minor back onto the street."
Shit, he was going to call the cops. "So now you going to call the cops on me?"
"Do you want me to call them?" The question caught Shiro off guard. Wasn't it his job to call the cops for something like this whether Shiro wanted him to or not?
He frowned. "No but what does it matter to you if I don't want you to?"
"Well I won't call them if you don't want me to but I can't let you back onto the street either." Shiro sensed the doctor was going to give him a condition for not calling the cops.
"I won't call the police if you live with me and my family. If you did live with us you would have to finish high school."
This didn't make any sense. Why would Isshin be willing to take care of him if it was just easier to call the cops to get rid of him? They were also complete strangers and Shiro had no idea if was telling the truth or not.
"Why are you doing this? We don't know each other so I have no reason to trust you."
The doctor shrugged. "It's the right thing to do and I never said you had to trust me. It's your decision anyways."
"So I either live with you or you call the cops and I get sent to a foster home?"
He nodded.
"That's not much of a choice."
The doctor shrugged again. That made Shiro scowl.
Shiro thought about it. He defiantly didn't want to go to a foster home but he didn't want to live with this weird man either. Why was he thinking about this anyway? He could just sneak out of this place after the doctor left his room.
Suddenly the doctor spoke. "Well it looks like you need time to think about it and you should probably get some rest to."
With that he left the room the door making two small clicking noises as it shut behind him.
He came to tell him all that with out waiting for an answer? Whatever, at least he was gone.
Shiro waited about five minutes before walking over to the door. He turned the knob and pulled. It didn't open. He pulled harder. The door stayed shut. Then he remembered the clicking noises when the door shut.
That fucking doctor had locked him in the room! Angrily he kicked the door as hard as he could, hurting himself more then the door.
He walked back over to the bed and sat down, still fuming.
"Shit, I hate hospitals."
-Author's Note-
yay! Shiro's butt has been saved(again)!
now to a more improtant subject that has been driving me crazy since this story began. Should this story become a yaoi? i definatly could and it wouldn't ruin the story line i have planned, it would just be longer. i put a poll up on my profile to see what you guys think. if i did make it a yaoi then nothing would happen for a couple of chapters though.
thanks again for all your wonderful reviews! they make me smilez! :)