Chapter 21

By the time Hinamori's wound was temporarily mending into an interesting scar, a week had passed, since she arrived at the shop, no one had heard from the Aisu-Clan. The first call had come from Ichigo a day ago; he obviously hadn't asked Rukia about her friend's whereabouts, since the clan assumed that the geishas were oblivious to her being a runaway.

Hinamori found her old journal, her last entry was entered months ago and now it was lined with a thin layer of dust. There was nothing worthy of being entered into it, nothing that was meaningful, real or true. Instead her dreams were as dull as her life, consisting mostly of her lying around on her old futon, and the whole time the clock was stilling counting down, minute by minute, hour by hour, continuing she'd wake up tired and frustrated as if she never got any real sleep at all anymore.

"Well, Hitsugaya-taichou I was surprised to hear your call," Ukitake's voice was calm and polite, "are things well?"

The prodigy stared at his superior. The man's head was cocked to the side, his expression serious. "Fine." He lied.

The man nodded, sympathetic, and folded his hands in front of him on the table and his expression changed before Hitsugaya continued, "But the truth is, I'm here on business."

Hitsugaya had a sudden flash of Hinamori standing in the sunlight, in one of her many outfits, a dark curtain of hair floating in the breeze; she was wearing that angelic smile, the one completely hid the fact that she felt bitter and beaten.

Ukitake nodded, "Nothing astonishing, I suppose. Is there something you want me to look into? Or possibly there's something you need to report that's out of the ordinary? I'll do the best I can to help an old comrade."

"I want an antidote- for a toxin. I don't know if it needs to be specific to the infection, or if something general would work."

"Toushiro." Gentle light brown eyes widened. "You must be very problematic; I've never seen you like this."

It was true; he was experiencing a major loss of everything.

"What particular toxin are we discussing?" Ukitake asked when he didn't speak again.

This was the hard part. "The unknown-" His superior's expression turned emotionless with disbelief, "It's not who you think it is, this person isn't one of their kind but she's not part of our league either. She's human."

"She's a commoner?"

"She's the daughter of Yui and Fujitaka; they were old friends of my parents. Aizen seems to have an interest in her and I just need to know that something is going to protect her from the toxin, if she's ever attacked."

Suspicious brown orbs were searching his face. "You'll be stripped of your title." Hitsugaya looked back at him with hostility, determined to cover his infidelity, just when the older captain asked, "No special ties to this woman and any broken laws?"

What Hitsugaya locked away was now surfacing, a bubble of anger, frustration and sadness, mixed with so many images from the past week: His lieutenant avoiding all the things that reminding anyone of the departed, Ichigo running his hand over his face, closing his eyes along with his frustration because everyone knew that Rukia would be upset about Hinamori, yet the clan couldn't involve them. It was too risky.

"Don't say that unless you want a trial." He spoke dangerously calm. "Or you can tell the department about Aizen…Aizen is on the move." Hitsugaya murmured pushing his chair back hard, and began to walk away.

"I've known you for a long time," the older man began in a disappointed voice, "And I believe you when you say you haven't broken any laws, but I think it is best we walk away from this conversation."

"I'm sorry I even asked," Hitsugaya said flatly, turning away from his superior. Renji and Matsumoto were whispering in the next room, their eyes travelled from one to the other to their superiors. They ignored them.

"I can't stand here any longer dwelling on some treaty. Aizen has destroyed too many lives to count."

He left.

Matsumoto sighed, reaching up to flick her curls. "This is for the citizens, okay? I promise this'll be the last. Trust us."

Ukitake stared at the lieutenants. Those two words had gotten them into more trouble than he cared to remember, the head-commander wouldn't be letting them off so easily. He hesitated on the thought.

"Okay, fine," Matsumoto said quickly. "Do what the royal clans are meant to do."

"And what's that?" Renji said.

She raised an eyebrow and shook her head. She turned and smiled at him.

"Save the world," she said, standing up and taking a deep breath. Her determination was surfacing. "Kick ass."

After years of war and discussion about stopping this dilemma once and for all, no one had wanted this more than that very moment. But still, there was a price.

"Kick ass," Renji repeated with a nod and smirk, as if it would be that simple, watching as night was coming, followed closely by the moon. "I like the sound of that."

He was standing next to the black stallion, arms crossed, looking down at the horses's leg, frowning. He was in a long-sleeved black kimono with a white kosode underneath, completed with a black hakama tied at the waist by a white sash along with tabi and waraji footwear. His hair was orange, a mass of thick spikes, and he wore an oversized sword wrapped in bandages on his back. She knew he was royalty from the crest hanging out of his right pocket, yet he didn't look like anybody.

As she passed he looked up watching her, staring just as she passed out of sight. She paused and took a step back and suddenly he was just there. Up close his eyes were a deep brown. She realized she was staring but somehow she couldn't stop.

"Are you lost?" he asked suddenly, blinking once.

"Uh," she spoke. "No."

Someone was shouting in their direction, the woman was waving her hands in the air. Inoue.

"I'm coming!" she called back. She glanced quickly at the strange guy beside her and he was smirking.

"Well," she whispered just as fast, and was stepping around a building. "I should go."

"Okay," the man said nodding. "You should get back to work, geisha."

Her head felt fuzzy and strange, and she knew the man hadn't meant to sound rude, so instead she said. "It's not geisha. It's Rukia. Kuchiki Rukia."

"Wait," she said, and he stopped backing away around the corner. His hands were in his pockets. "You didn't tell me your name."

"Ichigo," he said. "Kurosaki Ichigo."

He turned his back and walked away, leaving Rukia to stand there and watch him go. When she walked into the shop, her co-workers were already waiting, sipping drinks. And then someone tapped her shoulder, she turned back out the doorway.

"You got change for five?" Ichigo asked, holding a bill folded between two fingers.

"Hold on." She said, but Inoue already walked by and slipped coins into her fingers. Ichigo smiled and looked around.

"Nice tea shop." He said, Rukia couldn't tell if he was joking. He took her hand and slipped the coins from her fingers replacing it with the paper bill, and nodded.

"See you again, Rukia."

"Okay," she answered softly and watched Ichigo disappear, step by step, out of sight.

Hinamori remembered the encounter when she watched from the window, of course she didn't know what they were saying (until now) but Rukia would spend about an hour each night on the phone talking with him, after that fateful summer day. There'd be an I love you and then she'd blush; Rukia hadn't cared that Hinamori was there. And finally the gushy exchange would end and the love-sickened geisha would be grinning and sighing like a moron.

"Ah, Momo," Rukia said, once day rolling on her futon. "Someday I hope you'll understand and that this will happen to you, at least once."

"Don't count on it," she answered with a roll of her eyes.

And that time, she really wasn't counting on anything. Hinamori remembered the first time Hitsugaya kissed her; it'd taken her by surprise and her mind had told her to breathe, open up and be free and let go.

One night Rukia had informed Hinamori that Ichigo was dropping by for a visit. There was obviously going to be questions. That night she took a bath; afterwards she looked at herself in the mirror: her hair was all wrong and her eyes were different. Ichigo would be downstairs soon. Of course he would. Wanting to see Rukia but also to see if Hinamori had informed the shop, seven days of disappearance was too long to bear. An hour passed, no one arrived. Hinamori tried to fall asleep but what if Ichigo came upstairs and found her in the bed, instead she tucked her knees against herself, trying to fight the fear and little bit of hope of being caught.

Why was the Aisu-Clan so persistent? Why was she hiding?

Hinamori had no idea why being with Hitsugaya was so wrong. As far as anyone could see, she had absolutely no contact with him, and had refrained from answering anything in relation to him.

She remembered what Rukia had told her. "This is wrong, what we're both doing. They know it. We know it." Ichigo and Rukia had tried to break their ties; they told each other so many times and each time was never the last.

Hinamori almost drifted off to sleep still clutching her knees to her chest in the dark, when a figure was illuminated by a candle outside her paper doors, its shadow flickering across the wall, as the door opened. Being discovered had sent her heart pounding a million beats per minute.

"Hey, you." Fear or hope? She didn't know anymore. When her visitor appeared, she was never ready for what came next.

Authors Note: I don't know if it's you or me, but I'm kinda excited as to what I'm supposed to write next. Special thanks go to: britneyallen1990, revolverhades12, and hell's angel heaven's devil for their alerts! Hope to see you all again soon!