Disclaimer: Not mine.
Warnings: None
Learning
Sometimes Yachiru taught him instead of the other way around.
When Kenpachi had first found her, she taught him things like how to change a baby's diaper, how to keep said baby still while changing its diaper, and that babies really didn't need diapers at all if you paid close enough attention and had fast reflexes. He'd learned that kids were just as happy naked as clothed and that they didn't care if you cleaned their faces with a ragged cloth and spit. He'd learned that it made no difference to them if you rambled aimlessly or if you didn't say anything for days, which suited him just fine because he wasn't one for much talking anyway.
Then she'd gotten older and they'd both learned the importance of words.
"Dat?" she'd asked, pointing to a flower with a stubby finger.
"Flower," he'd told her. "It's a flower."
"Dat?" she'd asked, pointing to a rock.
"Rock," he'd told her. "It's a rock."
"Dat?" she'd asked, pointing to herself.
"Kid," he'd told her, and realized that that meant nothing at all.
He called her Yachiru, the only name that had ever had meaning in his life.
Years passed and Kenpachi learned many things: how to brush tangles out of hair, that they're lying when they say little girls are sweet and gentle, and that snowmen are fun, because they explode like anything when used for target practice. He learned that carrying a cute kid on his shoulder made him look somewhat like a pansy and that he didn't really care, because it was their fault for being stupid and underestimating his abilities and picking a fight they couldn't possibly win. He learned that when Yachiru said she had to go, she meant right then and that, no, she couldn't wait two more minutes while he offed one last bandit.
Years passed and Kenpachi kept learning. He learned that Yachiru had weaknesses he didn't have and strengths he could never match. He learned that she was his equal in all the ways that mattered and the exact opposite in countless ways that all added up to nothing. He learned that he noticed when she wasn't beside him and that he didn't notice when she was there. He learned that he would tend to her after a battle before seeing to his own zanpakuto, and that it mattered when the blood spattered across her kimono wasn't someone else's.
Most of all, he learned he never had to say any of that out loud. Yachiru had taught him many things, including how to say how you felt with only a word.
"Yachiru."
"Coming, Ken-chan!"
-end-
