Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach in any way. Hell, I don't even have the cleaning-type bleach in my house.
2. Forgive and Forget
She used the words like a mantra when they were younger. It irked him, at times, that she could just blithely repeat that pointless piece of advice and shrug off anything that anyone had ever done to her.
Forgive and forget, Shirou-chan
It might have been a side effect of Hinamori's kind nature and her innocence. Might have been her way of dealing with the world. Sometimes, hearing it was a relief on its own, just by knowing that she was still the same old Momo.
But that didn't make it any less stupid.
He had seen her begging him with her eyes when he returned from the living world.
Mou, Shirou-chan, forgive and forget, ne?
He had rolled his eyes and averted his gaze. Yeah, he could forgive and forget that Aizen-bastard…after beating him to a pulp, freezing him, melting him, then beating him to a pulp again.
He was only upholding a long, unspoken custom from their childhood. And if she never learned, then neither would he. She could go on forgiving and forgetting, and he could go wreaking vengeance on anyone she had forgiven and forgotten.
It was like an extension of every time he had beaten up a bully who decided to pick on her because she looked too damn kind for her own good.
Forgive and forget, Shirou-chan!
This was often accompanied by a light smack on the head and a brief lecture about unnecessary violence that he had learned to tune out early on.
He would roll his eyes and agree. For the next five minutes, at any rate. Then another bone-headed idiot would approach her, they would go through the entire process again.
The foolish bullies would pick on the innocent, naïve girl, and then find a shrimp beating the crap out of them. Then, when they were completely defeated and barely conscious, they would hear the voice of the girl scolding the boy, then dragging him home.
He'd think she'd get the idea soon enough and give up on her manta altogether, but the procedure happened over, and over…and over. He wondered if she had noticed the general pattern in the outcomes of these scenarios, then realized she probably didn't remember.
Forgive and forget, after all.
So she just kept trying, and he just kept tuning it out as he drove his fists into the faces of anyone who as much as looked at her funny.
The closest she had ever gotten to realizing that her mantra had absolutely no effect on him was asking him why he was choosing to ignore it. Violence was wrong, and violent people would be punished.
His eyes had softened for a moment (a tiny, infinitesimal, barely noticeable moment, but a moment nevertheless) before he shot her his trademark smirk.
Wasn't it obvious?
If she wasn't going to lift a finger to defend herself, then who would beat up the idiots who tried to take advantage of her if he was busy 'forgiving and forgetting'? If he didn't protect her, no one would.
So she wouldn't do the sinning, he'd do it for her.
Rewritten October 6th 2007
