Oh goodness I'm so sorry. I really left you all hanging at a horrible, horrible place, didn't I?

I'm very sorry. I just had finals, and I finished my latest novel, and now I'm just making up excuses.

Thanks to Patruelis(thank you so much! That's so nice!), Melbookgrl, and an extra special thanks to Kira440 for reviewing… glad to see I have a fan. Without you, I must admit, I'd probably never update :P

Chapter Twenty

Sunny's eyes snapped open, and for a long moment she was frozen. So many thoughts whirled around inside her head that she had difficulty sorting them out. The only one she could distinguish from the rest was the fact that she knew that Ukitake was kissing her. Other than that it was confusion; she wasn't quite sure if she liked it or not. It wasn't unpleasant, per say, but she was so confused that she didn't know quite what it actually was.

When he pulled away from her, she was still frozen. Her eyes were wide and unblinking, completely shocked. His eyes were confused, too, but in a gentler way. She blinked and looked up at him, brow knitted, stuttering. Her usual eloquent self had disappeared.

"Yeah—I—w-well—I—whoa."

"Ah—sorry." He whispered.

After a moment more of staring at him, color rose in her cheeks, and mortification built in her eyes. What she had just done hit her. She jumped up, pushing away from him, but almost immediately fell back to her knees, breathing shallow breaths.

"Sunny—" Ukitake jumped forward, putting his hands on her shoulders as if to steady her. She blushed, fell backward, and pushed him away.

"I—uh—ah." She mumbled, seeing the surprised hurt in his eyes and immediately feeling bad. But then she remembered him kissing her only a few seconds earlier, and she was too embarrassed to say any words of apology. "G-goodbye." She stuttered, and tripping over the hem of her robe, she stumbled back up the hill, pushing wordlessly past the mildly disgusted Zaraki and the giggling Yachiru. Her back hurt like hell, but she was to preoccupied to really notice.

Ukitake was left sitting on the grassy hill, his white captain's haori crumpled around his ankles. Slowly, he began to really realize what he had just done. And then he began to think about why he had done it. And then he started thinking about Sunny. And then he blushed.

"Come on, Yachiru, we're going. This is getting weird." Zaraki said.

"Okay!"

Sunny ran for a while before her back really started to hurt and she realized she was lost, in a long elegantly paneled hallway with paintings hung along both walls. She slowed and muttered a few choice curses before slumping to the ground in the middle of the hallway and sliding, wincing, over to the wall. She left a thin trail of blood.

"That stupid idiot." She muttered childishly. "Stupid, stupid."

She noticed her vision getting fuzzy. She didn't fight it. She slipped into unconsciousness as easily as water.

When she woke up it was in a room with its two doors open wide to a view of a small garden bathed in twilight. Everything was quiet save for the gentle rushing of the stream that ran through the garden. As she sat up, she realized her wound had been expertly bandaged. By the door, a meal had been left for her, and beside it, a blue kimono. She was still wearing the red-stained robe from before. She had calmed down from before, though she still remembered Ukitake's kiss. Gratefully, she slid out of her robe after looking around to make sure no one could see her, and slid into the blue kimono, tying it with the yellow sash that had been left as well. She settled down in front of the food, ready to try and sort things out in her head a little bit.

She didn't get the chance.

Komamura quietly walked through the garden's gate and closed it behind him. She smiled, a true smile, not one of her usual sarcastic ones. She was glad to see him. He always made things easier for her to understand.

"Fluffy." She smiled. He stopped, looking at her strange smiling face, and wasn't quite sure what to make of it. For once, he was glad he wasn't human and that his emotions weren't always clear on his face.

"Sunny. How are you?"

"Fine." She said, though her heart wasn't in it. He heard it and walked over to where she sat. With kind eyes, he kneeled down in front of her.

"You were lying unconscious in Jushiro's hallway before I took you here, to the seventh squad headquarters. You're not incredibly sarcastic, like you usually are. You're smiling. You aren't okay. What's going on?"

She looked up at him with weak eyes and attempted her usual grin.

She looked so small and sad. Komamaura had a strange urge to just hug her, but he fought it back. It was illogical.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't have to." He added, looking away.

"Why does everything always end up being so complicated?" She muttered.

"Complicated?"

"Yeah." She was silent. Komamura studied her silently, in his usual steady way. After a moment, she looked back up at him and grinned, a bit of her usual spark back in her eyes.

"You always manage to make things clearer, even when you don't say anything." She laughed. "Thanks for that."

"You're… welcome." He said hesitantly. He wasn't sure how to take her words, and looked down. She looked over his shoulder, out at the garden. With a light laugh, she stood up and stretched her arms.

"I guess I'll do what I always do, and take things as they come. That works best, huh?"

Komamura looked up at her, ready to answer, but found himself unable to. She was outlined in the setting sun, rimmed with gold, smiling wistfully with a burning spark in her eye. He couldn't speak. He just looked up at her. She laughed again, her hair glinting rose-red in the sun, looking darker than it actually was against the light.

He realized she was beautiful.

"Yeah. I'll do things like always." She said to herself again.

He opened his mouth, about to say something to her. He wasn't sure what; he was interrupted as the garden's gate swung open again. A young man in shinigami uniform came in, hesitantly walked up to Sunny and Komamura, and dropped to his knees, looking down.

"A minion." Sunny muttered.

"What?" Komamura asked, relieved to hear the sarcasm in her voice.

"It's a minion."

"He's not a… minion. He's a member of my squad."

"He's totally a minion. Just look at him."

"No…"

"Just look at him. He's practically muttering 'minion, minion, minion.'" She muttered dryly, as if he couldn't hear her.

"What is it?" Komamura asked, trying not to laugh as he looked down at the shinigami.

"Captain—sir—Captain-Commander said he wants to see… the girl." He said timidly.

"Oh good. My name has been taken from me. How fun. The girl." She sighed.

"What should I call you then… miss?" The young shinigami asked nervously.

She looked at him slowly.

"The trickster of the 72nd district, baby." She said, as if it should be obvious.