AN: Gomenasai everyone for updating late again. I know I should just update more, but I can't help it.

Thanks for reviewing: Shadow Pain, MimmaMell, Yuzy, Shiramaru and Cho okami 31! I really appreciate it!

I also wanted to thank everyone who takes time to read this story and the people who have added this story to their story alerts or favorite stories! Thank you so much!

I hope this will be satisfying enough for you. Please enjoy.

Dedication: SnowCrystals


Edited 8-8-2013

Change of a few details. C:


Toshirou had been silently staring into Rukia eyes for a while now. In return, Rukia stared into his captivating eyes as well. She could not look away even though she felt scared. His eyes made her lose all reason. His eyes made her lose her fear, even though it would just last for a little while.

At first, Toshirou hadn't noticed it. He was just simply staring into her violet orbs and lost all sense of time and forgot how he should think. But after a while, he could tell that something had changed. There was something between their gazes. It was… chemistry? He was not sure about whatever it was, but he knew for a fact that he could not look away anymore. And he wasn't sure if he liked the feeling or not.

Rukia was lost in his turquoise eyes at first, but she was the one who broke their gaze by abruptly looking away. The reason behind that was simple. She had regained her senses because she had remembered something from the previous day. That man with the cold brown eyes had forbidden her to look at him. Or rather, stare at him. It was something she always had to do. Her Dad made her stare. And if she didn't obey, she would be punished.

According to the man with the cold brown eyes, it was a bad habit. And of course, bad habits should be punished.

After she had fumbled with her fingers for a while and staring intently into her own lap as if it was the most interesting thing in the whole world, she remembered something else. It was kind of related to this whole mess. She could clearly hear her Dad's voice echoing through her head. 'You will never look away or close your eyes while you're in front of me, or another man for that matter, unless they or I say so. Or else… Punishment will follow.'

She could remember that day clearly. It was the very first time he had tried something more than feeling around. He had attempted to do more, but because she had closed her eyes, he stopped for punishment. It had been a hard slap across her face. And when she looked up, she had seen his cold blue-greyish eyes staring into her eyes. They bored holes into her soul. At least, it felt that way to her. And the worst thing of all was that it made her feel weaker than ever and more useless than ever.

So Rukia, even though she didn't want to do this, slowly looked up again and met his gaze. And that had completely taken him off guard.

He had thought that she would at least continue to stare into her own lap for a while and just ignore him. But she didn't. It surprised him, but at the same time, it raised questions.

He didn't know why she had looked up. And when he saw tears forming in her eyes, he started to feel helpless and a little bit panicked. He knew he was not good with crying people. He never had been and never will be. What was he supposed to do now? Heck, what is the very first thing you should do in this situation? He knew he had to comfort her, but damn it was hard. He just didn't know how he should do that.

At the same time, Rukia was silently cursing herself. She had let her emotions get to her. She had felt lost and confused. But she hadn't wanted to cry. 'Oh god, he probably thinks I am weak…' What was she supposed to do now?

And so, she looked away again. She didn't want to show more weakness in front of him. She was aware of the possibility that it might have been too late by now. She was trying to keep her tears from falling with all her might, but it was too late. The dam had been broken and there was no way to stop it for a while. She was actually crying now.

It was then that she realized that her whole body was burning. It hurt. It really did and she wondered why it hurt to start with. She vaguely remembered sitting up in this position and feeling pain as well. She had thought that her Dad had done this to her. But he would never have brought her to a hospital.

She ignored her pain and focused on stopping her tears.

After a while, she looked up again, even though she had not managed to stop her tears yet. She didn't want to let him see her in a weak state. But on the other side, she didn't want to get punished and feel even more pain either.

And when Toshirou saw her look away when she had tears in her eyes, he knew that she didn't want him to see her weak state. He could perfectly understand that. But what he didn't get was the moment she looked up again.

He frowned a little bit while he wondered what had been plaguing her mind for the past two minutes. She had been looking up and away. It was as if she didn't know what she should do. And when she faced him for the sixth time, he still saw tears trailing down her face but even faster than before. He saw her lost expression and realized how fragile she truly was at the moment. So he silently got up while he held her gaze, hoping that she would not get startled if he held it.

When he stood next to her, he slowly started to reach out for her. He felt the need to comfort her, even if he did not know how or why for that matter. He just wanted to hold her close and protect her. And even these feelings were strange for him.

'I probably just pity her…' He told himself.

But the moment he touched her arm slightly, she completely stiffened while her eyes had widened. Even though she had seen him coming, his touch had felt foreign to her. It was a soft touch, gentle even. And it had not hurt her in any way. She had felt her eyes widen in surprise. But she was still afraid of him. Not because he was a man. But because she did not know what he could and would do.

He looked into her wide and watery eyes. And this time, he could easily recognize the fear in her eyes. It made him feel more pity and a little bit of sympathy for the girl. He was sure about the pity part now. It must have been pity. So he didn't understand why he felt a little bit of sympathy. He shrugged the thoughts off then.

He didn't know what she had exactly been through and he was afraid of the answer. But he did conclude that it must have been very bad for her. Her live had been made as a living hell. Literally. And especially since she reacted like this and feared him just like this while he hadn't done anything wrong to her. He just didn't know how much her previous master had manipulated her.

He removed his hand slowly and silently watched her as the tears were running down her face.

Rukia cursed herself once more for her own weakness and wondered what he would do to her. She had refused to make any noise and she held her body as still as possible. She did not want to shake or tremble. She knew it was a bad thing. She knew it was no good to show tears to a stranger. Let's rephrase that. It was a bad thing to show tears to a new master. Tears meant weakness and weakness should be punished. And therefore, tears would cause pain.

In truth, Toshirou was actually surprised by her actions. He could remember when Momo had cried. She would always sob so hysterically that his ears hurt after he had tried to comfort her. She would also cling onto him like her life depended on it. And it truly made him feel uncomfortable. And that was just an understatement. In the end, Momo had cried herself to sleep.

He wondered if the person whom had owned her before him had demanded this all from her. If she had needed to look at someone, even if it was painful. If he had demanded that she held her tears for herself.

When Rukia saw his frown appear again, she mentally scolded herself and willed herself to stop crying immediately. 'Damn it Rukia! You have never been this damned weak before. So control yourself and stop it now. Get your damned act together before… before it's too late.' And so, after another minute, she abruptly stopped crying. She could not understand why it didn't work before. 'Probably the confusion I felt…' She thought, hoping to reassure herself.

And that's when he realized how bad her situation must have been. How badly she must have been abused already while she was still this young. The situation must have been so bad that she had taught herself to control her emotions and her body.

She had allowed herself to cry, probably because she simply couldn't stop it then. Because she had been confused by the change of scenery. Or maybe even from the lack of abuse. He shuddered at that thought, knowing that that should not be possible. But he could understand her fear now.

He had never really comprehended the living conditions of a slave. But now he just couldn't help but do that. Since he had one right in front of him, the very one he should take care of from now unless he decided to sell her again, which would never happen. He couldn't help but wonder if all the slaves were like this. If every single one of them were in a condition similar to Rukia.

He blinked and focused on Rukia again. And he noticed that she her body had started to tremble now.

He sighed and gently put his hand on her shoulders. He could feel her tense up under his hold.

Then he held her gaze, hoping that she would realize that he had no bad intentions. He gently pushed her back onto the bed.

When he saw the surprise on her face, it made something tighten up even more inside of him. He never thought that that was possible. "You should rest..." He said quietly. Rukia was taken off guard by this and started to stare at him in surprise. "You need to heal." He concluded gently.

And Rukia winced a little bit at this while she wondered if he was going to hurt her after she had healed anyway. And as if he had read her thoughts, he said: "Don't worry, I won't hurt you…" She continued staring at him, even more disbelievingly than before.

Toshirou knew he shouldn't feel any feelings because of her expression. But somehow, he felt hurt because he knew she didn't believe him. Why? He couldn't tell. And because he didn't want to worry himself and her yet, he shrugged the feeling off and pushed the uncalled thoughts to the back of his mind. He started to concentrate on her again.

He reached over and pulled the blankets up to her chin. "Are you feeling okay?" He asked quietly.

Rukia just kept staring at him, wondering if he had really asked her that. "Please talk to me." He said after a while. He didn't want to push her, but he had to know how she was feeling. If she still felt hurt.

Rukia looked away and licked her lips a little bit, hoping to feel a little bit more comfortable because she had to talk to her new master now. "H-H-H-Hai..." She replied with a quiet and uncertain voice. She then cursed herself. She hated how weak and uncertain she just had sounded.

He sighed in relieve and nodded at what she said. "Do you think you need the doctor to check on your condition?" He asked as an afterthought.

Rukia felt her eyes widen. Toshirou had seen it, but didn't mention it. Like he had concluded earlier, he didn't want to push her. But before he could say anything, she had said: "N-N-No, it's f-fine, really." He sighed silently, knowing that she was afraid for the possibility that the doctor was a man and had to touch her. Somehow, he didn't really like the idea either…

"Sleep…" He then whispered to her. "Sleep and heal."

Rukia nodded and then closed her eyes again while she wondered if she had gone to heaven or not. He was so gentle to her. And soon, she felt tired again and drifted off to sleep.

Toshirou looked at her and actually felt relieved that she was asleep again. He absolutely did not know what the hell he was thinking and doing. He had never been, or rather tried, to be so gentle to anyone before. Not even to Momo, and believe him, that was saying a lot. He was just glad that no one had witnessed him like that except for the person right in front of him.

He sat down on the chair again and pinched the bridge of his nose. He did not know what he should do now. How was he going to take care of her? Did he want to take care of her?

He then frowned again. He would not send her back to where she came from. And he would certainly not sell her again. She had been through hell already and he was not going to let her go through another one. Her condition would only get worse and she would not even survive it. He was sure of that.

So he sighed and kind of accepted the present from Momo. He would take care of her. And ironically, it was the only thing he was sure of right now.

Toshirou had absolutely no chance to sort out his thoughts since Dr. Kurosaki walked into the room at that moment. Toshirou seriously felt like groaning, but he knew he couldn't. Who knows what Dr. Kurosaki might do to him if he did groan…

Quite soon, Toshirou noticed that Isshin was staring at him. He knew exactly what he had on his mind. It was not hard to figure out and so, he sighed silently and waited patiently for Isshin to start talking. Or rather firing the questions at him… And that he did.

"Hitsugaya-san, it might not be my place to ask this, but could you please explain to me how this girl ended up like this?" He asked while he gestured to Rukia.

Toshirou just silently nodded. He had known that this would happen sooner or later. "Well," He started. "After I arrived home after Momo's reception, I found her on my bed. She was already in this condition, so I cannot tell if her condition was worse than before whatever that happened in my room. And soon after I discovered her, I dialed the emergency number…"

Isshin just stared at him intently for a while before he nodded. He knew that Toshirou would never do such a thing and this just proved his theory. He believed Toshirou, because he knew that he could not lie. His right eye would twitch just a little bit when he did that. He had heard that from Ichigo and had witnessed it himself just once.

Then Isshin let his eyes flicker back to the girl. After a moment of silence, he cleared his throat before he asked: "Who is this girl?"

Toshirou shrugged at this. "I honestly don't know." He replied, wondering how on earth he could forget to ask her name when she was awake. And so, he started to stare at Rukia again.

He could easily explain why he didn't ask for her name now he thought of it. He didn't have the time to worry about her name back then because she was confused and scared. He was trying to comfort her. And besides, he was confused as well. If he was not as confused as he was, then he might have thought of asking her name.

Isshin suddenly coughed and that drew Toshirou's attention. He looked at Isshin. "I shall check on her now."

Isshin had actually wanted to apologize, but he didn't exactly know if he actually should. Then he shrugged it off, but he had already drawn Toshirou's attention, so he said that he would check on her instead.

Toshirou just grunted at this and let his gaze flicker back to Rukia.

Isshin then walked to Rukia and did a quick check up on the machines next to her, the tubes which were connected to her and her condition. And he was quite surprised when he realized that she was healing rather well.

When he had made sure that everything else was in order, he took the clipboard from the table next to Rukia's bed and scribbled a few things on the paper.

"Has she woken up recently?" Isshin suddenly asked without looking up from his clipboard.

Toshirou looked at him and nodded. Then he mentally slapped himself. He had realized that Isshin couldn't see it since he was too busy writing things down. So he cleared his throat as and said: Yes, she actually has…"

And that drew the attention of Isshin. He had thought that she would pretend to sleep until there was no male around. He looked at Toshirou before he asked: "When?"

"She woke up, just about ten minutes ago. And a few minutes ago, she fell asleep again." Toshirou stated while he looked at the girl again.

Isshin nodded and wrote more things down on his clipboard. "Could she talk?" he asked then.

Toshirou just nodded. "Yes, she could. And she even managed to sit by herself even though I think she was in pain when she did so."

Isshin nodded at this and wrote another few things down. "I think you could take her to your home again tomorrow. She is recovering and if you take good care of her, which I won't doubt, then she will be fully recovered within two weeks. I shall check on her tomorrow before I tell you the final decision. I will prescribe her some painkillers though."

Toshirou nodded and he was soon left alone with his thoughts. He sat down on the chair again and couldn't help but continue to stare at Rukia.

He wondered how she would handle the news of going 'home'. His home. Her new home...


Thanks you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!

Have a blessed time until we meet again. :)

-Denidene