Snowman
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, nor am I making profit off this.

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Yamada Hanatarou smiled brightly as he finished rolling up the head of the snowman. All that was left was to place it on top, then decorate. Rukia-san had often complained about her gigai not working, but then again, considering the truth behind that gigai, it wasn't exactly surprising when Hanatarou discovered the gigai was just as fine as his shinigami one, if a bit weaker.

Nearby, Abarai Renji and Kurosaki Ichigo were engaged in a snowball fight, though Madarame Ikkaku was hiding in a tree pelting both of them so discreetly, they thought the other was the one throwing them, and that had been what started the whole thing. Inoue Orihime and Arisawa Tatsuki were making snow angels, while Kuchika Rukia was debating which side of the snowball fight she should join.

Sado Yasutora was carrying children on his head, though oddly enough, the only child around was Kurosaki Karin, her sister Yuzu having gone in to make cookies and hot chocolate. Ishida Uryuu was talking to Ukitake-taichou about how the idea of some shinigami taking turns staying in the human realm helping out with Hollow fighting, and how well it was going so far.

That was the reason so many of the shinigami were in the living realm out in the snow in weather nearing zero degrees, playing around and having an overall good time. This was the first group to be sent to the land of the living, and so far, it had been an enormous success. Hanatarou bent down and lifted the head up, having rolling it around on the ground for shape.

Hanatarou smiled at his work after placing the head on the shoulders of the snowman. He then took off his hat and scarf, placing them on the snowman and not really feeling the cold. He took out his zanpakutou, and used the bottom of the hilt to make eyes, then used his hand to make a mouth. He stepped back and grinned in satisfaction, before falling on his back and eventually falling to sleep.

---

It was an hour later when Hanatarou awoke. Feeling much colder than before, he sat up and looked around. The snowball fight seemed to have ended, as Ikkaku was lying on the ground with several bruises and Ichigo and Rukia could be heard arguing inside the house, Renji doing something else. The only people still outside, in fact, were Orihime and Tatsuki.

Orihime had run inside now, apparently going to help Uryuu repair his coat or something, leaving Tatsuki alone, looking over the hundreds of snow angels across the field. Hanatarou gave a weak cough and fell back into the snow, his eyes staring at the white sky. This was something nice, there wasn't snow in the Soul Society, the weather never changed.

"Wow, this is a really good snowman… Wonder who made it…" Hanatarou hadn't noticed himself closing his eyes as he thought, nor had he noticed Tatsuki walk over to admire his snowman. He sat up and smiled weakly.

"I-I did…" murmured Hanatarou quietly. Tatsuki jumped and stared down at him.

"I thought everyone went inside." said the girl, offering a hand to the snow-covered shinigami.

"I didn't…" replied Hanatarou meekly, taking Tatsuki's hand. "I'll go in if you want to be alone…"

"No, no…" Tatsuki shook her head. "Hey Yamada, we should make a whole family for this snowman."

Hanatarou blinked.

"Why?"

Tatsuki shrugged.

"Why not? Besides, it'll probably look really cool! Come on, I'll help!"

---

Hanatarou wiped his brow as he finished the head for the youngest, and eighth, child of the snow family. Now all to do was attach it to the mother, so it would look like a baby. Tatsuki had gone a few minutes ago to bring their hot chocolate out, after reheating it of course, but Hanatarou had a sneak suspicion she had forgotten about him.

After all, one could only hang around the guy who made snowmen for so much, then they'd get bored and leave. After all, why stay out in the cold and catch pneumonia when you could stay inside and be nice and warm? But then… Why didn't he go inside? The sun was setting as it was, and…

"It'll probably look really cool!"

No, it had nothing to do with the fact a girl had asked him to do it. Nor had it anything to do with the fact said girl had been red in the face due to the exertion of somehow making a snowmen army in such a short time (Orihime believed they would come to life and wanted there to be lots so they wouldn't be too lonely).

Nor had it been the fact that, unlike most of the pretty girls he knew, she didn't have an aura of superiority. True, the Captain and Vice Captain of the 4th Division didn't intentionally have the aura, but it just came with the job and the skill. While Tatsuki was extremely strong, especially for a living teenager, she was also very nice, and while the other women he knew were nice, Tatsuki had a different type of nice.

It hadn't been the fact that she had drawn him and given him the drawing, because she had been bored that day and had drawn everyone. Nor had it been the fact that she was pretty, because that was a fact he couldn't get around anyway and to be fair, he knew some women who were drop dead gorgeous. But he wouldn't stand in the cold making snowmen for them. Well, he might but still…

He was so preoccupied with his thoughts, he hadn't noticed the sunset, because he had started to feel a bit off as well. Of course, if he had been thinking, he would have realized it had been plain dumb to put his coat on one of the snowmen, and Tatsuki had said it was a downright stupid idea to do that anyway.

He didn't notice himself shivering either, nor did he notice the coughing, because he had realized a snow-grandfather would look really good in-between children five and six, and had begun making one. He only noticed he had been coughing when it had become so bad he dropped the grandfather-snowman's head and fell to the ground.

He didn't notice Tatsuki walk out of the house muttering about selfish jerks drinking all the hot chocolate and forcing her to make some herself, nor did he notice her mutter about how it wasn't her fault she broke the microwave since Yuzu had gone to sleep and there wasn't going to be any homemade hot chocolate for her and Hanatarou.

Hanatarou did notice that he was in pain, and that he felt very light headed. He only noticed Tatsuki when he heard a crash and saw two broken mugs on the ground, brown snow, and her running over to him. He laughed weakly as Tatsuki multiplied. Why did she look so worrie…

THUMP

---

While Ichigo found it morbidly funny the medic had been the only one to get any kind of illness from the snow, he regretted mentioning it out loud after Tatsuki dumped her second mug of hot chocolate on his lap and punched him. Now he was out there nursing himself, according to a hysterical Renji anyway.

Ukitake recognized the symptoms. Hanatarou had not only been too in-synch with his gigai, said gigai being slightly defective in the fact that, if the temperature was low enough, it would get, to be blunt, really really sick. Which meant he couldn't go to the mountains with everyone the next day, which the group was leaving for in a few mere hours.

And oddly enough, Tatsuki seemed all to happy to ask if she could stay and take care of Hanatarou, and after convincing Orihime it would be alright for her stay alone with him for a week, and she also managed to convince Ukitake after taking him to the corner to whisper.

Smiling a realistic fake smile, Tatsuki waved the car/limo/thing (driven by Isshin, who had shown up after picking up Urahara, Yoruichi,Ururu, Jinta, and Tessai) off. She dropped the smile and pulled out a piece of paper, grinned at it, before pocketing it and heading towards the large house belonging to Orihime (which she had somehow won in a contest Uryuu entered her in after hearing she lived in a hotel. Without telling her he did so, of course)

Tatsuki stopped walked when she came across the snow-family. She really hadn't taken a good look at it, nor had she done as much of the work as Hanatarou had. They really were something too. It wasn't often you could look at a snowman and say "Hey, that's a really good snowman," but now Tatsuki was looking at eleven of them.

When she arrived inside, she was pleased to see Hanatarou waking up. She wasn't pleased that only after a few moments, he began coughing terribly and choking out cries of "water" between coughs, not really knowing where he was. Tatsuki walked over to the table next to the bed in the (one of many) guest room, and handed Hanatarou a class of lukewarm water, which he drank down instantly.

A few moments passed and Hanatarou looked at Tatsuki.

"T-Tatsuki-san… What happened?" he asked hoarsely.

"You caught something really bad that you can only get from a defective 'gigai.'" said Tatsuki, leaning back in the chair. "You know… You did a really good job on those snowmen, but you really should have come inside."

Hanatarou flushed.

"I… I guess…" he croaked, giving a weak cough. Tatsuki closed her eyes and sighed.

"Well, everyone left for the mountains already, so it's just you and me here for a week…" Tatsuki missed Hanatarou flush a deeper shade of red, as her eyes were closed. His eyes widened then.

"I-I'm sorry Tatsuki-san… You're stuck here because of me…" muttered Hanatarou, his hoarse voice making him sound even more pathetic. In his opinion, anyway.

"Hey hey, no problem…" Tatsuki grinned at him. "I needed an excuse to stay here anyway, because…"

Tatsuki trailed off, before digging her hand in her pocket and pulling out a piece of paper, which depicted two fighting youths on it.

"There's this big tournament in two days, and I'm already supposed to be in it…" Tatsuki grinned. "So it's like a blessing in disguise that you got sick!"

Hanatarou looked hurt, and somewhat scared actually, after that comment, and simply sunk into the bed. Tatsuki realized that was not something you told someone who missed out on a vacation they were looking forward to and who probably felt like utter crap.

"If it's any consolation, I'm glad it's you that got sick and not, say… That Ikkaku guy." added Tatsuki. "You'd be my first choice, since Orihime's boobs are heaters or something and she never really gets cold, or sick from it… But anyway, we'll just have to have some kind of fun here while they're off doing whatever, right?"

Hanatarou now looked extremely embarrassed, but not hurt anymore. He nodded nonetheless, still somewhat surprised at Tatsuki's comment, while Tatsuki grinned.

"Well, I'll go make some hot chocolate and then… I dunno, I'll think of something." Tatsuki then walked off, leaving Hanatarou with a small smile and a bit of warmth in his freezing body.

End