I woke to someone shaking my shoulder. I opened my eyes and sat up with a tired yawn to focus my bleary gaze on the one who woke me from my slumber. I saw a shiny thing and someone with a bob haircut… Blinking again, I realized that it was Ikkaku and Yumichika. I yawned again and my teeth snapped together as I whispered, "What are you doing at this ungodly hour?"

"Taking you back to the division, Mercedes! That's what were doing!" Came Ikkaku's ever-wild tone. He was too loud and I held a finger to my lips to signal him to quiet down a bit. Ukitake stirred at the other end but went back into a blissful sleep. I think… he may be secretly awake and listening to us, plotting against us, and waiting to tell on us to Unohana.

"Has Unohana cleared this?"

"Nope! You coming ether way."

Giving me a once over with several winces and shivers; Yumichika stated in a snarkish tone, "Considering how you look so unbeautiful, you should be glad were rescuing you." He finished his statement by running his hand over and through his bowel-cut hairdo.

Glairing at him, I mimicked his tone, "Considering how unbeautiful you just sounded, I say you both should just go back to the division. I have things to do."

"Like what? Sit here and be invalid?"

"Big words form such a little man, Ikkaku."

Suddenly I found myself and my belongings swept up and taken out the window while Ikkaku whined in my ear, "We miss your food! The lieutenant has been cooking and well… I'd be willing to kiss Kurosaki's ass if I didn't have to eat that again!"

"Captain Zaraki requested that we come get you to cook." Ikkaku shuddered for a moment; "Actually he also wants to fight you since you're the only one in the division who hasn't fought him yet…"

Great~ "Fine." I gave in. "But I want to go to the hot springs first. I look like shit."

I heard an odd squeal from Yumichika, "Ooh Ikkaku! Lets take her to that one that allows both genders in the same room! These ways I can get that matted rats nest of yours clean for once."

"Sure! This way we get to relax and get to 'guard' random girls in the bath."

Reaching up, I smacked Ikkaku on the shoulder, "Hey! I don't want to get ogled at by you, the reaper-napping perverted bald butthead!" I also threw Yumichika a dirty look, "You… my hair is not that bad!"

I took a look at the scenery as we were passing by. It looked like it was about maybe three thirty or four in the morning. 'I was right,' I mused, 'it is an ungodly hour in the morning…' I watched Yumichika break away and bound off towards the eleventh. Don't ask how I know he was going there, I don't know. I looked to Ikkaku and he answered my unasked question.

"He's going to get some 'hair care products' as he calls them. It sounds like a bunch of girly shit." He finished with a snort.

Reaching up, I smacked him again, "Well at least I have hair to use the 'girly shit' on!"

"Hey! I shave my head so have you know!"

I giggled slightly and winced as he landed hard on a roof, "Then there would be stubble on it!" I reached up and ran a hand over it, "No stubble… hmn. That means that its not shaved!"

"I could drop you."

I felt his arms loosen and I wrapped my arms around his neck, "Don't you dare!"

"Oh, I dare." Ikkaku stated in a self-righteous tone as he loosened his arms more. So I did what comes naturally from a disciplinary instinct long forgotten through the ages of homosapians: I bit him on his jugular, not hard enough to kill him; though a familiar metallic substance did grace my tongue hairs.

"For fucks sake! Damn it woman! You have some fuckin' sharp teeth, do you freaking file them! Your teeth can't possibly be that sharp naturally." He yelped and tightened his hold on me again, "I wasn't going to really drop you, Captain Unohana would have my balls in a jar on her desk if I did!"

He made a good point… Deciding to be nice, I reached up and ran my tongue across the teeth marks to seal them up. Licking my lips clean of access blood, I squinted up at him and said, " I do not file my teeth, and they're this sharp naturally," I opened my lips and ran my tongue across them, "you just have weak flesh…"

"You better not have rabies or something."

I smacked him on the shoulder, "I do not have rabies! Your just jealous because I've done something to a higher ranking officer that you wanted to do to Yumichika for a long while… its your fault you know…"

"No way! I do not swing that way!" He sighed exasperatedly, "My fault for what?"

"I said 'don't you dare'."

"Don't he dare what?"

Angling my head, I waved my arms at Yumichika, "Yumichika! Carry me?"

He gave me an annoyed look and gestured down to his arms, he said, "My arms are full."

"So! I'll carry that if you'll carry me." I waved my arms more franticly.

He gave me an exasperated sigh, "Why cant Ikkaku carry you?"

"I threatened to drop her." He offered me over to Yumichika, "Take her, she's heavy."

I 'accidentally' smacked him with a traveling arm and pouted and waved my arms again at Yumichika, "He was being mean!"

"Oh lookie here. Were here."

I paused in my waving to look at the place that we arrived at as Ikkaku and Yumichika walked in. It was reasonably small, with an enclosed fenced area about fifty feet long next to a little fifteen by fifteen building. When we got in, there was a bored looking teenage boy standing behind the desk. Yumichika dealt with the boy as Ikkaku carried me to the bath. He set me down inside of the door and handed me a towel from a nearby rack.

"Get yourself into the bath, we're going to be in there in about three minutes. You have until then." And then he left out the same door he came in.

I stumbled over to the baskets for storing clothing, and stripped out of my hospital dress thing and my under garments. I was surprised to see that my chest binding was still in place and that none of the fourth division members had removed it. Well it is waterproof, but my bandages weren't. Oh well. As I was slipping into the water with my bath towel on, I had a familiar voice call from my mind. I tightened my towel and made sure it covered my bust-bandies.

'It's a kimono you idiot!" My ever-loud and boisterous zanpakuto, Elohcin called from the back of my mind.

'It is? I never knew that…'

'Why not? Didn't you learn this when you first picked up on the language?' Setsuna calmly asked.

'I'm American. Just because I can speak Japanese does not mean that I know what certain things are called.'

I felt a mental eye roll from both of them, 'Sure~ blame it on your race you racist.'

'Shouldn't you have already known that? I mean, you're supposed to be parts of my soul you know. I'm not racist ether.'

I heard the door open before they could reply, so I simply floated to the opposite side of the pool. Ikkaku was going commando, I had already seen it from all the drunks that got dared to run buck necked through the divisions, and had already dived into the water causing a large wave to form. Yumichika, who was setting the shampoos and stuff along the side of the hot springs, had politely wrapped a towel around his waist. Swimming slowly, as not to strain the slowly healing scabs, I went to were Yumichika, who had taken a seat on the stairs that led into the water, beckoned me over.

"Take a seat on this step." He instructed while pointing to the one between his splayed knees and looking through the different smelling shampoo, "What one do you want?"

"Cherry for shampoo," I automatically replied, "and both vanilla and lavender for the conditioner."

"M'kay." I heard the farting sound that the shampoo bottle makes when you squeeze it and moments later I felt long and nimble fingers working my long locks. "You have lots of beautiful hair, Mercedes. It's long, thick, and healthy too. How do you keep it so nice with the constant chance of it getting stained?"

Leaning into the hands massaging my scalp, I mumbled, "I don't really worry about my hair. I was thinking of cutting it to mid back though…"

He sent me to rinse, then set to work at conditioning my curls, all the while taking to me, "Oh, I think your hair is just fine! Leave it as is, and then I can braid it when you go to fight. Ooh, I can think of so many things I can do with it!"

As he continued to blab on about hairstyles, I let my hand slide into my towel to clean the scabs, and I found that they had dissolved along with the bandages and left gaping holes in my flesh. Dipping my finger into one experimentally, I winced. It hurt, as I have apparently just touched a pulsing vein. Moving my finger away, I touched my rib bone. Damn, I figured that it would have been healed a bit more. Retracting my roaming hand, I retightened my towel and made sure it covered my chest binding. "You know Yumichika, I think I just might let you take spare time and play with my hair when I do paperwork."

Ikkaku let out a loud snort, "I think you should just shave it off! Then you could be my pupil!" he broke out into loud chortles.

I picked up a bar of soap and launched it at him as I let lose a cry of "Shut it you!" it flew with precision and made it into his mouth, thoroughly shutting him up for the moment.

The door clacked open, and in waltzed Matsumoto, grinning like a fool, "Mercy!" she chirped as she slid in next to me while Yumichika kept playing with my hair. "Your out early?"

I tilted my head backwards and to the side as Yumichia started to massage my scalp. Grinning at my female companion I responded with a mellow, "Nope."

She gave me a squinty eyed sly look, "Oh? You mean you just up and left?"

"You know, you look really creepy when you do that, but yes." Running my hand over the semi gaping stab wound, I lightly washed the skin, cleaning off all blood crusties, and then I did the opposite one. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Ikkaku's form sliding under the water towards Rangiku's feet.

"I can expect that Captain Unohana doesn't know of this?" Rangiku yelped as she got interrupted and pulled underneath the surface by her ankles as Ikkaku latched on. Then their little water war began. I started laughing lightly.

"So Mercedes," Yumichika chirped to me, "what was with you calling me Yumi? I like it, its beautiful, like myself."

"Its easier to say," I giggled, at I got splashed with water.

"M'kay… I need you to dunk, so hold your breath." I got a gulp of air and then found my head submerged. I kept my eyes closed, and just as my lungs started to burn for oxygen, I was allowed upward. I sputtered and gasped as I came up, taking the air I could into my battered lungs.

I coughed a couple of times and my lungs rattled. I ignored it and just sat back up. I hauled myself up and looked back at Yumichika, "Thanks Yumichika! I got ta get back now though, my bandages dissolved in the water, so I got ta see If Hanataro will put more on."

"Alright." He grunted as he hauled himself upward, and walked towards me, and ducking out the door with his cloths.

I sighed, and ducked behind one of the screens where my clothes were located. Slipping my hospital gown back on, after I rung out my bust bandies, I trotted out the door. Yumichika just wordlessly escorted me out the front of the lobby thing, and then knelt down. He murmured a respectful, "Hop on, but watch my hair."

"You don't have to help me." I murmured back, but hopped on anyways. And just like that, we were off.

We didn't say another word, until we landed at the entrance to the fourth's hospital. We bid adieus and then I ventured back inside. When I came back to Ukitake's and mine's room and opened the door to step in. I froze, Unohana stood taking with Ukitake who was lying in his bed. "Oh Shit."

Unohana glared at me, "Get on the bed."

I didn't even object, I just went and hopped onto the bed and hung my head. Unohana blocked Ukitake's view of any of my womanly parts as she checked and rebandaged my wounds. She clucked her tongue in irritation, "You need to be more careful."

I sighed slightly, "I know, I know. What's the damage?"

She ran her hands over the now covered wounds and emitted a glowing light, "Well, not to extensive, you stressed the healing flesh a bit, however, you could have ruptured something or torn something!" the light was warm, like a summers day, and soothed my sides. "However, due to the fact you soaked the skin, I found the tissues more flexible and easier to heal now that they're already started. You may be out of here soon Mercedes, possible tomorrow or the next day."

I sighed happily and redressed myself, "Thank you Captain Unohana, now, can I get back to bed?"

"Yes, Yes." She helped me up and got me all situated in bed. When I was all snuggled in, she asked me, "Is there anything else that I can do for you?"

Looking to Ukitake, who had since drifted off to a peaceful sleep with his fingers and lips twitching in his slumber. I looked back at her with a light smile, "Promise me I will be out in two days."

"Hm? Oh, it's nearing that time isn't it? Has it been three years already?" Unohana asked as she patted knee.

I nodded, "Four actually, and in three days is the anniversary. I promised myself that I'd be there. I need to be able to prepare for it…"

She patted my knee again and turned to leave, "I'll see what I can do. Goodnight Mercedes."

"Night…"

I snuggled down and clicked off the light as Unohana shut the door. I smiled a rueful smile, feelings that had long gone came back. When I would take the day off, no one would look for me. Only I knew where I was headed, and one day in the hopefully many years to come, I would find someone to share this with. For now, however, I would settle for a little alone time and sleep…