Hey everyone! Yes I actually had to work pretty hard to get this out in a timely fashion you I hope it's worth it.

I'd like the thank everyone who's reviewed so far

And now we make way into a huge-ish plot development... Enjoy

"Well it's going to hurt to walk for a while, but just be thankful we don't have to amputate your feet."

I sighed, "I'm not in the mood for jokes, Kurosaki."

He raised an eyebrow, "I'm not joking. Second degree frost bite is not pretty. Those blisters are going to be there for at least a month. And the thermo-receptors in your feet are going to be all wonky from now on so you're going to have trouble feeling hot and cold. You know you could have spared a few more minutes to put your shoes back on."

I clicked my tongue in annoyance, but I couldn't bring myself to give any backchat today, not after all the trouble I had put him through. After an extensive lecture on Sunday morning and the announcement of my punishment - I was grounded of course, no television, no cell phone, extra chores and a ridiculous curfew, I wasn't even allowed to go to Ariwa's or Kasai's anymore – Mikami had brought me to the clinic to have my feet and wrists checked out. While she was fixing the cuts on my wrists I had to explain everything to Ichigo. He was livid to say the least but he didn't shout he just ground his teeth together and glared at me. In fact he had been silent for the whole time and I when I finished he just left the room. He had come back two hours later and warned me if I ever pulled something like that again he would hunt me down and made sure I made it safely to the afterlife. Unlike my family, I had learnt that Ichigo could not hold a grudge to save his life. But the reason for that was that he always blamed himself for everything. I had heard him talking on the phone to Rukia. He listed off the things he could have done and should have done to stop me, repeating how he was so stupid to leave me on my own and never once blaming me for my own poor decisions. I didn't think it was possible for me to feel any worse than I already did. Having Ichigo blame himself for something I did was the best guilt trip anyone could pull.

"Anyway, up you get, or you're going to be late for school."

I nodded and jumped off the bed. "Thanks, Kurosaki. You didn't have to come here so early to check on me."

He just grinned and scratched the back of his neck. "Mikami may have her degree but I would rather see that you're okay myself."

I shook my head and pulled on an old school bag. Mine along with my I-pod and wallet had been lost in Sapporo.

"Do you want me to walk you to school?" he asked.

"If you want. You'll be late for work, though."

He just shrugged and guided me out the door. "Oh, and Yuzu said that Hyourinmaru will be as good as new by next week."

I nodded and felt some sort of relief wash over me. Yuzu had offered to fix him; thank god she was a good seamstress. I don't know what I would have done if he couldn't have been fixed, but then again that had been my entire fault too.

...

School; where children could be at their worst and nothing was ever done about it. I grit my teeth in annoyance and dumped the ratty bag on my desk. Since Karakura was such a small town, of course everybody would know about my escapade. It was like the first day all over again with the amount of whispers going around.

"My mom was right, this guy is bad news. Anyone who bleaches his hair that colour is bound to be looking for trouble."

"Look at his arms; do you think he tried to commit suicide?"

"Only someone who is a delinquent would do something like that. I heard he was found by the police."

"I bet he's part of some gang, he looks tired all the time, like he's taking drugs."

"That wouldn't surprise me. I just wonder why he hasn't been expelled yet."

I closed my eyes and rested my head on the desk. My only wish at the moment was to make them all stop. Yes, I knew I had made a huge mistake; I didn't need to be reminded of it everywhere I turned.

"Please tell me it isn't true." I heard someone sit down in the desk in front of me. I raised my head to see Ariwa frowning at me. "Did you really sneak off all the way to Sapporo and try to kill yourself?"

I sighed, "Yes – to the first part."

His eyes widened. "What's wrong with you? I go away for three days and now you're some kind of suicidal rebel."

"I didn't try to kill myself."

"Then explain those bandages."

I looked at my wrists. The school sweater didn't cover the bandages completely. "Handcuffs."

"They put you in handcuffs! Hyōka what did you do? Are you in some sort of gang?"

"No. It was just me in Sapporo, no one else."

"So why were you there in the first place?"

I sighed, how to put this? "Kurosaki was hiding something from me and I thought the answer was in Sapporo."

He stared at me. "That's the stupidest reason I've ever heard. Do you know what people here are saying about you now? My parents even said I shouldn't be friends with you anymore because you're not the type of person I should be seen with."

"What?"

He hung his head. "We're not going to stop being friends though, please, just stop this. "

I scowled. "I'm not that much of a bad influence if anything I motivate you to get better marks, I'm at the top of the class for crying out loud."

"You talk back to teachers, you get into fights, there hasn't been a week where you didn't have at least one detention, and you skip classes. How did you even get the money to go to Sapporo anyway?"

I was silent.

He closed his eyes for a minute. "Oh no, please tell me you didn't. You stole it didn't you?"

"I... well-"

He cut me off with a sharp glare. "Hyōka! As if your reputation wasn't bad enough," he sighed, "Chou's the one who asked me to talk to you. She overheard a conversation from the staff room the other day. The teachers don't care how high your marks are, if you mess up anymore, they will expel you."

"For what? Talking back and getting detentions? That hardly seems fair."

"They probably know more. Hyōka just... be good."

I rolled my eyes and put my head back on the desk. This was Tokyo all over again, if got expelled my currently rocky relationship with Mikami and Teito would just worsen. Fine, I would just have to –dare I say it – be good.

...

I was honestly trying my best. I bit back every sarcastic comment; I was subdued and polite exactly how a student should be. Things were going pretty good until the period after lunch. We were reading silently for history when the intercom crackled to life.

"Takemitsu Hyōka, please report to the principal's office."

My head shot up and my stomach sank to my feet. Ariwa shot me a glare. Well it was inevitable that I would get in trouble for skipping an entire day of school. I sighed and got up. I just wished that they would keep the lecture short. And as for punishment, I believe we were talking suspension at the least. Great, Mikami was going to kill me when she found out. I walked as slowly as I possibly could, but I still found myself outside the principal's office in a matter of minutes. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Someone bade me entrance from the other side and I slowly went in. When I saw who was inside I nearly closed back the door and ran in the opposite direction. Both Mikami and Teito were sitting down across from the principal. They both looked like they wanted to kill me on sight. My stomach sank to my feet and I shuffled into the office. There was another man there as well, I didn't know who he was but he looked kind of important.

I cleared my throat. "Y-you wanted to see me, sir?"

The principal sighed and removed his glasses from his face. "This is Watanabe-san," he indicated the unknown man, "He's here because on Thursday, his wallet was stolen by a young boy wearing our school's uniform."

My eyes widened. No... No one was supposed to find out. "T-that could have been anyone, sir."

"It could have been, but it was you, Takemitsu. We saw the recording from a security camera in the dinner. It clearly shows you coming in and stealing this man's wallet."

I felt all the blood drain from my face. There were security cameras? I hung my head, I knew this would come back to bite me in the butt. I couldn't argue against cold, hard evidence, I would just have to face the music from now on.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"I'm sorry." I muttered

"What was that? Look at the person you're talking to."

I raised my head. "I said; I'm sorry."

"For what?"

I grit my teeth he was making me seem like a little child. I turned to the Watanabe man clenching my fists. "I'm sorry for stealing your money." Then I glanced towards the principal, "and for skipping classes and brining shame to the school's name." I tried to keep the sarcastic tone in my voice to a minimum, but I'm afraid it came out sounding very much like I was mocking him. I was angry at him, not sorry for tarnishing the school's reputation.

The principal let out a deep breath through his nose. "Wait outside while we decide on your punishment."

I ground my teeth and left without another word. I sat down on a bench next to a potted plant. Great, this was just great. I honestly had no idea what Mikami and Teito would do to me this time. I was already grounded, and almost all my rights as a person had been taken away from me. My stomach bubbled uncomfortably. They were going to kill me. It was bad enough that I ran away, but now they found out that I had stolen the money to do so... I shuddered at the thought. What was I going to do? They would probably hate me now. I closed my eyes and hunched over until my forehead was touching my knees. Not to mention Ichigo whose morals were built on honesty and loyalty, he probably wouldn't even want to speak to me again. How could I have been so stupid? I could just kick myself!

That would be a sight to see.

I felt something like a light tug somewhere between my stomach and heart and I was suddenly on the plain of ice again. The boy was sitting in the snow glaring at me over his shoulder. His face was still cloudy.

"You can bring me here whenever you want?" I asked.

More like you can come here whenever you want.

I sighed and sat down next to him. "Have you ever messed up so bad you don't even know how to start to fix it?"

...No.

My shoulders slumped.

You can't tell me you didn't expect this.

"I knew I was going to get into trouble, just not this much."

Learn to weigh your actions. If you can't handle the consequences then don't bother with the act.

I frowned, "Well I thought I could handle it..."

Don't think – you should know what you can and can't handle.

I chewed the inside of my cheek. "I shouldn't have gone to Sapporo."

He turned to face me.

"I could have died. Ichigo, never would have forgiven himself, Teito and Mikami would have," I stopped. "It was just a stupid decision."

What about the information you obtained?

I paused, and then shook my head, "A bunch of sketchy pictures? It wasn't worth risking my life for."

So if a similar chance for information presents itself what will you do?

"I'll actually do a background check on the informants first. I'm never going to run blindly into anything again."

He shook his head. What if it's a trap?

"Then I'll be more the wiser the next time."

Assuming you survive.

"You know you're doing a hell of a job making me feel better."

I wasn't under the impression I was here for comfort.

"So what did you bring me in... out here for?"

You looked like you need to talk. Anyway, you learned from your mistake. You won't make the same one twice. So put this behind you and walk on with confident steps.

I stared at him for a while. How could someone so young come up with advice so astute?

What?

"Nothing. You just seem wise for your age."

Do you even know how old I am?

"Twelve?"

He shook his head then stood up. He held out his hand to help me up. I'll help you up as many times as you need it.

I knew he wasn't talking about helping me out of a snow bank. I took his hand and stood up. This was the closest I had ever been to him. We were roughly the same height. He was maybe an inch or two taller.

"Are you ever going to tell me who you are?"

You're not ready for that information yet. And get back out there, you'll be needed soon.

I blinked and suddenly I was back sitting on the bench. I looked up just in time to see Watanabe leave the room.

"Excuse me, sir." I said catching his attention.

He stopped and glanced at me with unhidden disgust.

I swallowed and steeled myself. "I'll pay you back. I'm going to find a way to get that money back."

He seemed shocked but nodded. "I'll hold you to that boy." With that he left.

I drew in a deep breath and rubbed my temples. This was going to be a ... difficult meeting if my punishment was going to be discussed. Just then the door to the office was opened again and Teito stuck his head out. He looked even more disgusted with me than Watanabe.

"Come." He growled.

I grimaced and stood up. Once inside the office I knew my world was about to end. For the second time in two days tears slowly dripped down Mikami's face. I knew the words even before they exited the principal's mouth.

"Takemitsu Hyōka, you've been expelled from Karakura Middle School."

My heart beat thudded to a halt and it felt like the world had stopped spinning. "What..."

"Please go clear out your locker and desk."

"What, no. I apologised, I said I was going to pay him back!" I exclaimed. This could not be happening; I was not going to let this become Tokyo again.

"The fact of the matter is you have been dragging the school's name through the dirt for the past term you've been here. And stealing is a federal offense; the school will not provide services to a criminal. It was just luck that Watanabe-san did not want to involve the police." He shot a glance at Teito in his uniform. "The police will not be involved right?"

Teito sighed and shook his head.

"How dare you call me a criminal! This is my first offense!" I continued, "I have not been tarnishing the school's name-"

The principal took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "I'm sure you can understand this decision is for the best." he said cutting me off. "Hyōka, has special needs which I don't think this school can accommodate-"

Special needs? "That's a load of crap!" I yelled shaking with anger.

"Hyōka!" Teito shouted silencing me. "That is enough. Go get your stuff we're going home."

"No!" I cried stamping my foot. "This isn't fair!"

"Well maybe you should have thought of that before you stole the money from that man and ran away to Sapporo." Teito growled through a clenched jaw. He grabbed me by my arm and dragged me out of the office. He looked back at the principal, "We're sorry for all the trouble he caused. Mikami are you ready?"

My sister stood up and mumbled something along the lines of she was really sorry and pushed past Teito on the way out the door. She didn't even look at me.

"Mikami..." the cold glance she shot me was enough to make the words die in my throat. She rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.

"Go get your things. We'll be waiting in the parking lot." Teito ordered me. "Don't take too long."

As he left I hung my head and felt tears start to well in my eyes. I took a deep breath and rubbed my face. It was no use crying, I deserved this.

The walk back to the classroom was the most painful thing I had ever done. And clearing out my desk was like the walk of shame as everyone stared me down and whispers rose. Ariwa sat in silence watching me, his mouth open like a fish.

"No..." he murmured shaking his head.

I nodded and felt a few tears slide down my cheeks. Even Adachi stared at me like he had never seen me before. Our eyes met for a brief second. He just stared unbelievingly at me as I walked out the room. I glanced at Hamada-sensei before I left giving her a small salute before the door swung shut behind me.

...

"What are we going to do now?" Mikami exclaimed. "No school in Karakura will want to take him."

"There's always boarding school." Kisuke suggested.

I closed my eyes. The tatami mat was beginning to leave an imprint on my retina.

"That's pushing the problem away, not solving it." Ichigo ground out. I knew he was glaring at me and I think I died a little inside at his tone.

"Wait." Rukia spoke up. "Why was he expelled? I know he ran away to Sapporo but the school should not be interfering with its students' personal lives."

There was a pregnant silence.

"He stole the money for the bus ticket." Teito said at length.

"What?" Rukia exclaimed. I knew she too was now staring at me. "Hyōka..."

I raised my head. "I know what I did was wrong and I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't fix anything, Hyōka, how could you do that?" she asked in shock.

I hung my head again.

"You really stole someone else's hard earned cash?" Ichigo snapped. "Do you know what that says about you?"

"It was wrong and I know it."

"Then why did you-" Ichigo shouted banging his fist on the table before Teito cut him off.

"Stop acting so smug, Hyōka. This isn't even a taste of your punishment."

"I'm not being smug. I know what I did was wrong, I'm not denying the fact that it was immoral and stupid-"

"Enough with your smart comments, I've just about had it with you."

"I'm agreeing with you!" I almost shouted raising my head to glare at him.

"Don't raise your voice at me! And if you were really sorry, you'd be acting a lot more different than you are now."

"Oh, I'm sorry was all the crying I did on the way back home not enough for you?"

"Just who do you think you're talking to like that?"

I clenched my jaw and looked away. There was a long awkward silence before Kisuke rubbed his hands together.

"A little shouting is always good for the soul, but now that's over with why don't we discuss the real reason why we're all here?"

Real reason? I glanced back at them. "What's going on?"

Kisuke glanced at me. "You're little excursion has caused some new developments."

I frowned. "That's all you're going to tell me?"

Kisuke nodded. I looked at everyone in the room in turn. No one gave any indication of wanting to say anything else.

"After all of this you people are still going to keep me in the dark?"

"I don't think you should be talking to anyone like that, right now." Teito growled.

Then I snapped. I had never been so angry in my life. "I don't believe this! You still plan on not involving me in this!"

"It's for your own-" Ichigo started.

"Your own good, right?" I mocked him, "You're too young to know this kind of information. Well I have one word for you; bullshit. The only reason I went to Sapporo, was so I could figure out what you were trying to hide from me. I'm not stupid, I know that whatever it is you're hiding revolves around me. And somehow not telling me about the problem will make it magically disappear? Ha, and you call me juvenile? Well guess what I found out more in two hours in Sapporo than any of you would like to know. I know I'm most likely the reincarnation of a shinigami captain. What was the danger in telling me that? You all assume that I'm this helpless little child, well guess what; I'm not!"

They were all stunned into silence, except Kisuke of course.

"You would go that far just to satiate your curiosity?" he asked. "That's not a quality, you should be boasting about, Hyōka. It's good to be curious but to be overly so is a detrimental weakness. Who knows to what lengths you would go to just to satisfy yourself."

I blinked in disbelief. "Just listen to the utter nonsense coming from your mouth."

"Hyōka, watch your tongue." Mikami snapped.

I felt a fire crackle to life in the pit of my stomach. My hands were trembling and I clenched my jaw so tightly it began to hurt. Okay, I understood that they were mad at me for what I did, but I would not stand for the way they kept on excluding me like this. I was just as involved in this as each of them was. It was me who was being targeted by Aizen not them, I was the one who had to be constantly looking over my shoulder and worrying if I was going to be attacked or not. And after all of that they didn't even have the decency to tell me why and then berate me for getting angry over it. Well I'm sorry if I had to resort to my own means to find out about this 'war'.

"Could you wait outside for a moment, Hyōka-kun?" Kisuke asked.

I shot him a death stare but got up pushing myself from the table as hard as I could and slammed the door shut as I left.

...

Just what are you trying to do?

I tried to ignore him rolling over in the snow bank and giving him my back.

Who are you punishing them or yourself? Because this is just stupid, you haven't left your room in three days, you haven't eaten in three days!

"Shut up, I don't need you to lecture me as well." I muttered.

Then stop feeling sorry for yourself and hiding from everyone. Such childish behaviour will never get you anywhere.

"I tried apologising, we both know how well that turned out."

Well try again; keep on trying until it works.

"I'm not going to beg for their forgiveness. Just leave me alone already." I closed my eyes and tried to shut him out.

He huffed. Fine.

The next thing I knew I was staring at my ceiling. The room was eerily quiet. I sighed and rolled onto my stomach. I had shut myself in my room for a total of three days. I had not talked to anyone during that time either. Teito and Mikami had both given up on trying to get me out after Teito had nearly knocked down my door and threw me over his shoulder to make me eat dinner with them. After he had sat me down at the table I had just briefly glanced at them then went back to my room, locking the door this time. I knew I was being childish; I just could not bring myself to speak to them anymore. I had nothing to say, or rather did not know what to say. It was something between guilt, shame, frustration and anger that prevented me from facing them. So, I just lay down on my bed for the entire day doing absolutely nothing.

Ever since I had started talking to the boy, my dreams had been getting worse. The blizzards were stronger and the dream where I died left me with the most excruciating chest pains I had ever felt. I spent most nights tossing and turning, fighting off panic attacks or just crying. And since there was nothing during the day to distract me the anxiety attacks haunted me throughout the day as well. I was literally worn out from doing nothing. Even just laying down I could feel myself trembling from exhaustion. I wanted to do nothing more than sleep but every time I closed my eyes I was haunted by the nightmares. The only bit of reprieve I could get was when the boy talked to me, but then it was to berate me on how I was being childish, so that wasn't really much of a break. So I had taken to blankly staring at the ceiling or walls trying to forget life for a few minutes at a time.

A loud knock on the door brought me back to reality. I blinked; I thought Mikami and Teito had given up.

"Hyōka?"

I almost sat up. What the hell was Ichigo doing here? The last time I checked he was just as mad at me as Teito and Mikami.

"Hyōka, open up. I need to talk to you."

So he could yell at me some more? No thanks. I closed my eyes and hugged my pillow to my chest. I had enough of people yelling at me for the time being.

"If you don't open up I'm going to break down this door."

"Kurosaki don't you dare." I heard Teito warn him.

The idiot. I rolled my eyes. I wonder if he even heard half the things that came from his mouth.

"Hyōka, I'm serious, open this door now."

And I was tired of being ordered around as well. Don't do this, don't do that, stop being so rude; get out of your room. I needed my space goddamnit. Why couldn't they all just leave me alone?

"I'm coming in."

I ground my teeth in annoyance. He wasn't seriously going to break down the door... there was a loud crunching noise and my door banged against the wall as it swung open. I shot up, my eyes widening. He actually kicked down the door. I heard Teito yell something unclear. And Ichigo waved him off over his shoulder.

"I'll have it fixed, don't worry. Now you," he turned to me and strode into the room, "what the hell do you think you're doing?"

I looked away and drew my knees into my chest. Ichigo sat on the foot of the bed and stared at me.

"Just look at you," he sighed, "Mikami told me you weren't eating and not sleeping either by the looks of things. Why are you doing this to yourself?"

I buried my face in my arms. I heard him shift around then his fingers were on my chin forcing me to look at him. I yanked my face from his grip.

"You look like you're going to collapse. Hyōka, this needs to stop."

"Leave me alone."

Ichigo seemed to be taken aback but to my surprise he got up and left the room. I stared at the door for a few seconds before lying back down and facing the wall.

"Okay, you're going to eat this whether you like it or not."

I knew it was too good to be true. He waved a granola bar in front of my face.

"I will force you to eat if I have to."

I rolled my eyes and turned away from him. I heard him growl then the next thing I knew I was on my back with him leaning over me. One hand was splayed on my chest pinning me to the bed and the granola bar was halfway in my mouth. I blinked up at him.

"I told you. Now you better eat that before you kill yourself and that is the one thing, Takemitsu Hyōka, which I will never be able to forgive."

I think it was the sincere, worried look in his eyes that caused it. Suddenly I was coughing up the crumbs that had made their way down my throat and tears caused me to see blurred. Ichigo wasted no time in pulling me up and holding me against his chest.

"What's the matter?"

"I'm an idiot, that's what's wrong."

"You're not an idiot. You're one of the smartest kids I know." he said firmly.

"Then why do I make such poor decisions? I could have died, and I got expelled that's not exactly genius material."

He looked down at me. "Stop it, self pity does not suit you. And I'm sure you won't be doing the same thing twice."

I frowned, "That's what he said..." I muttered.

"What who said?"

I paused, how does one go about telling someone that there was a boy living in their head?

"Was it the same person who taught you how to control your reiatsu?" he asked before I could even open my mouth.

"How did-"

"It was a guess, and plus your reiatsu's no longer beckoning every hollow from here to Germany to come attack you." he paused, "I know I should have taught you how to control your reiatsu from day one, but I'm under strict orders not to interfere with you. Believe me, Hyōka, if I tell you too much your mind could 'melt' as our head healer so eloquently put it. It would be what is called a literal information overload. But now that you discovered what is going on I don't really see the harm in telling you this. If we had told you everything about soul society and shinigami the memories from your past life would have come flooding in and your brain would have had troubling in telling apart this life from the other eventually it would have become too much to handle and you would have either become stuck in a state in-between your past and present life or have gone crazy. You were supposed to be given prompts gradually but seeing as how you're more curious than a cat that didn't work out too well."

"... But my brain didn't 'melt' when I found out about the reincarnation."

"You know the general outline; it's the details that will get to you."

"So no details?"

"For now." He ruffled my hair, "We have time, you will find out everything at the end."

I sighed and held back a yawn.

"You should sleep." he stated.

"I can't, the dreams keep getting worse."

He cocked his head. "Okay how about I stay with you and I'll wake you if anything goes wrong?"

"...You don't have to do that."

"What if I said I wanted to?"

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, suit yourself, Kurosaki." I extracted myself from his grip and lay down. I felt him move around to lie down next to me. No sooner had my head hit the pillow I was asleep.

...

"Hyōka! Hyōka, wake up!"

I woke with a start, my heart beating a mile per second and sweat dripping from my forehead. Ichigo's arms were wrapped around me and I was breathing into his chest.

"Wha..."

"Your reiatsu surged, what were you dreaming of? I thought you were going to have a heart attack or something." he began to move his arms but I stopped him with a hand on his upper arm.

"Don't. I... just... I just need to be calm for a little while longer."

"Panic attack?"

"It's coming..."

In any other situation I would have shoved him away from me. But if I had known what was going to happen that night I would have never let go of his hand.

Well, any guesses as to what's coming next? Hint: a super villain finally makes his entrance.

I was debating on whether or not expulsion was too dramatic, but what the heck life is dramatic, so yeah Hyoka got expelled.

the ending was a little choppy, but meh, I tried but my muse called it quits for the night.

hope you liked it, please leave any questions or comments in a review on your way out.

- Mymomomo