I do not own Bleach
Dream Orchard
Chapter Four
"Wake up Shiro!" Momo said happily, shaking Toushiro. Toushiro groaned and sat up to find Momo above him, her face mere inches from his.
"What're you doing?" he asked groggily.
"Well, you were still taking a nap when I got up, so I decided to play cards with the guys for a while, but they then they said they want you to play too!"
"What guys?" Toushiro asked. He looked over to see a table set up in the middle of the room with several men sitting at it. He immediately sat up, startled by the presence of the men and annoyed that Momo had not woken him up earlier.
"Who are you?" he asked the men. He didn't like the fact that Momo had been interacting with strange men while he was sleeping. One of them, a man with curly brown hair stood up.
"I'm Carlson, that's Slim," he pointed to a lean man with a polite face, "That's Whitman," he pointed to a man with thinning hair, "And that's Walter," he pointed to a thickly built man with black hair. "Your woman told us all about you, it's nice to meet you Toushiro."
Toushiro glared at Carlson.
"She's not my woman, nor is she anybody else's," he said, giving them a look that clearly said 'don't try anything with her.' Carlson put his hands up defensively.
"Hey calm down. I just thought, y'know, with you two sleeping in the same bed…" he said. Toushiro was mentally slapping himself. He knew he shouldn't have allowed Momo to make him sleep with her, but noooooo, he had to be the nice guy and let her use him as a teddy bear. He frantically tried to think of an explanation but Momo spoke first.
"Shiro's my cuddle buddy! I can't sleep without him because he's so small and adorable and comforting!" she said. Toushiro turned tomato red as Carlson, Whitman, and Walter snickered at him. Slim smiled, but refrained from laughing, for which Toushiro was most grateful.
"What she means is, we've been friends since we were children and she gets nightmares if I'm not there. Isn't that right Momo?" he said.
"Well actually it's just comforting to cuddle him, I don't necessarily get nightma-" she stopped as he gave her a stern look. "I mean, yes! I get nightmares when he's not around!" she said quickly.
Just as the men were about to start laughing again, the door opened. An old man walked stiffly into the room. He had white hair that went down to his shoulders. His left hand was small and weak, curled up and apparently unusable. Carlson immediately got up.
"Ukitake, we need to talk," he said.
"What is it?" the old man called Ukitake said.
"It's about that dog of yours, he's thrown up in the tool shed again!" Carlson said.
"He can't help it. He's getting old," Ukitake said tiredly.
"Which is my point! The dogs not good for anything! When he was younger he could chase off coyotes and raccoons, but now it does nothing but sleep and stink up wherever it is," Carlson said.
"He's old," Ukitake repeated. Carlson sighed.
"Look, that dog is in no fit condition. It's stiff and it's gassy and it can't even keep its food down anymore," he said, "The dog is clearly not enjoying itself, so I'm thinking you should put him down."
"I've had that dog since he was a puppy," Ukitake said.
"Okay look," Carlson said, "Slim's dog is going to give birth in a few weeks. You can have one of her puppies. Is that okay Slim?" Slim seemed unsure about what would be the right thing to do in the situation, not wanting to let Ukitake get pressured into having his dog killed but also wanting to tell the truth. Eventually, he nodded slowly.
"You see? You'll be getting a new dog!" Carlson said.
"But I already have a dog," Ukitake said quietly.
"That dog is gonna drop dead soon anyways, but until then it will just be a pest. It would be doing it a kindness to put it down. I have a pistol in my cabin right next door that I can use to do the job right now. It can be quick and painless and the dog won't even realize it."
Ukitake looked helplessly at the others. Slim seemed to be sympathetic but didn't say anything. The others seemed to be silently urging him on to do it. Finally Ukitake sighed and slowly nodded his head.
"Don't worry, I'll make it nice and painless for him. As soon as Slim's dog gives birth you'll get a new puppy and you can put this all behind you," Carlson said. Ukitake stared blankly ahead as Carlson walked out.
Several minutes passed in silence. Then, a gunshot rang out and Uktake lowered his head. Slim put a hand on his shoulder in understanding. After several more minutes, Carlson walked back in.
"Slim, could you help me out? Curly and Aizen are eating the harvest!" he said angrily.
"Not again! Whenever that happens the boss blames us!" Whitman said.
"Slim is the only person that Curly shows any respect towards, if he can convince Curly to come clean then Aizen will too. Come on, we need your help Slim," Carlson said. Slim stood up and began to walk out.
"Whitman, Walter, come with us. If there's more of us there to confront them they'll be more likely to give in," Slim said. Whitman and Walter immediately got up to follow them, closing the door behind them and leaving Momo and Toushiro in the room with Ukitake.
"So who exactly is Curly?" Momo asked suddenly.
"He's the son of the boss along with his brother Aizen," Ukitake said.
"Oh, you mean that weird guy from earlier? I don't like him!" Momo said.
"Few do. Curly is small and mean, but Aizen is worse. With Curly, you know that he's mean and has an inferiority complex, but Aizen…Aizen is just an asshole, though he thinks really great. They get away with lots of stuff because they're Yamamoto's kids. Curly can usually be forced to be reasonable, but Aizen it trickier."
There was silence for a moment before Momo went over to the bed to sit down.
"Shiro, I'm tired! Let's go back to bed!" she said.
"I just got up, I'm not tired," Toushiro said
"But I am and I need my cuddle buddy!" she said. Toushiro rolled his eyes.
"It's not all about you y'know," he said.
"Aw, come on! At least tell me the story about our future!"
"You know that story just as well as I do, you can tell it to yourself," Toushiro said.
"But you do it better! It's more fun when you do it!" Momo protested. Sighing, Toushiro decided that he might as well tell her the story so she'd go to sleep and stop pestering him.
"Okay, most workers are alone, but we're different. We have eachother and we look out for one another. Someday we'll earn enough money to buy our own piece of land and we'll finally have found our place in the world. We won't have a boss, we'll be working for ourselves and living off the bounty of the land. We'll have groves of crisp apples and juicy peaches. We'll have a bunch of blueberries that we'll eat straight off the bush. We might even put in a few patches of watermelons, and we'll sit on the porch of our new house just eating them and being together."
"Tell me about the rabbits Toushiro," Momo said.
"I'm getting there. We'll live in a nice big house where it will never be too hot or too cold, always just right. When we come home from picking fruits, we'll be able to relax in that perfect temperature while we play fetch with some big funny dogs and while some kitties cuddle with us. Of course it wouldn't be complete without some nice soft rabbits that you'll get to tend and take care of."
Momo closed her eyes and smiled, snuggling up in the bed.
"It must be nice having a dream," Ukitake suddenly said. Toushiro and Momo had forgotten about him and were surprised to hear him speak.
"Having a place that you'll be at home. A safe place where you're in charge of yourself and you don't have to worry about your day-to-day survival. What a wonderful dream," he said.
"It's not just a dream, it's really going to happen!" Momo said, "It's going to work because we have eachother! We'll combine all of our pay together and someday we'll be able to buy our own land with peaches and blueberries and dogs and kitties and rabbits!" she said.
"You think you're going to succeed in this?" Ukitake asked. Momo nodded.
"Yup! We have eachother, so it's gonna happen for sure!" she said happily. They were all quiet for a minute.
"May I join you?" Ukitake said. Toushiro was taken aback by the question.
"What?" he said in surprise.
"Twenty years ago I got my hand caught in a machine here. Now it's all but useless. As compensation they let me work continuously here, but I won't be able to for much longer. All I'm good for is sweeping and mopping the floors with my good hand, and soon I won't even be able to do that. I'm getting old," he said sadly, "You saw what they did to my dog. As soon as he wasn't useful to them anymore they got rid of him. They'll do the same to me. They might not kill me, but they'll throw me off the farm, which is just as bad. It's a curse of the worker, not having a place to call home. I've been working here for years, but it's no home. I'll get thrown out the moment I stop being useful to them. I want a place in the world, a place where I belong."
"Not that we can't sympathize with you, but we can't just let you join our dream. It will be really difficult to raise the money as it is, we can't-"
"I can help you buy the place," Ukitake said.
"What?" Toushiro said.
"I can help you buy the place. I have money in the bank that I saved from my work here. If it's combined with your pay at the end of the month, it will be just enough to buy the land and the house you dream of. So what do you say? May I join you?" Ukitake asked. Toushiro thought for a moment before smiling.
"You're in," he said, shaking Ukitake's hand. Momo squealed in delight and grabbed Toushiro, pulling him into a huge hug under the covers of the bed.
"This is terrific Shiro!" she said in delight, "We can get our orchard and home now!"
"Momo-you're-choking-me!" Toushiro gasped under Momo's intense hug. She nuzzled her face against him as she crushed him in the hug. Despite the crushing hug, Toushiro smiled. The dream had never been closer.
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