Bit of a sadder chapter, soz fam.

Please note the warnings again, this time 'mentions of abusive parents'.

…

Isn't Always Blood

Rangiku sat on the bus beside Ichigo, her knee bouncing relentlessly as anxiety swirled around in her stomach, heart and mind. She was restless and uncomfortable in the stiff plastic seat, and her patience was at an all-time low.

Toshiro needed her, and she was desperate to get to him.

"Move!" she hissed at a car ahead of their bus, that was merging from the bus lane to the next lane over and holding them up.

"Peak hour traffic," Ichigo muttered beside her, "and shit weather. It's going to take us ages to get there."

He wasn't much better; fidgeting in his seat, clenching and unclenching his jaw, muttering obscenities that had an elderly woman a row in front of them bristling disapprovingly.

The earlier snow had turned to ice rain, and even inside the heated bus, wrapped in her layers, Rangiku was trembling – though that might not necessarily have been caused by the cold.

"Any updates?" she asked again.

"None," Ichigo answered the same. "Apparently he's okay but…"

He trailed off.

Rangiku inhaled and glanced out the window, shaking her head.

Toshiro wasn't okay.

"Why did he go?" she asked, almost rhetorically because she knew Ichigo only had the same amount of information as she did.

"He's an idiot, that's why," Ichigo grumbled anyway, his concern overshadowed by anger for a moment. "He thinks one day he'll fix things but he only ever gets hurt."

Rangiku closed her eyes and leaned her head against the window, ignoring the condensation that immediately transferred from the glass to her skin and the way the vibrations made her skull ache.

They were on their way, by painfully slow public transportation, to the Kurosaki Clinic, where Isshin was currently treating Toshiro for injuries he sustained that afternoon – when he went to visit his violent and abusive parents.

Neither she nor Ichigo knew what had happened or why, or the extent of Toshiro's injuries. Isshin hadn't gone into detail on the phone, saying only that Toshiro had been hurt and was being treated, and that he wanted his friends by his side and to take him home tonight.

It reassured Rangiku that Toshiro was coming home to the dorms that night, because that meant his injuries weren't extreme enough to warrant an overnight stay at the clinic.

She swallowed and wrapped her arms tighter around herself. The bus hadn't moved for a few minutes, and it was taking all of her willpower not to scream at the bus driver, who was almost as frustrated as her with the traffic that night. Her eyes were still closed, so at least she couldn't see the problem that was currently delaying them.

Rangiku just wanted to see Toshiro, and make sure he was okay. She always felt out of her depth when it came to his issues with his parents; she hadn't met him until after he moved in with his grandparents, but she knew the situation had taken a mental toll on him over the years; feelings of not being good enough, incapable of being loved – so many nasty thoughts. He rarely shared them with her, because they hurt too much to speak about. If he spoke about them to anyone, it was Isshin – sometimes Ichigo.

"I don't get it," Rangiku muttered against the window. "What's their problem?"

She didn't need to specify who she was referring to, Ichigo knew.

He clicked his tongue impatiently. "Drugs."

Rangiku sighed, her eyes opening to find the bus had moved all of three metres, only to stop at a red light.

She fished her phone out of her jacket pocket and opened up her messages to Toshiro. Her last message asking him where he was and if he was okay went unread, and the message before asking if he'd consider fucking her again was seen but not replied to.

It was that one she regretted now, though she couldn't really be blamed for the insensitivity of the timing when she hadn't known he was going to see his parents that afternoon. He hadn't said anything to her about it, and that made Rangiku question whether it was a planned act or a spontaneous visit. Either way, she didn't know what compelled him to do it and she hoped it wasn't her fault.

Why it would be her fault, she couldn't guess right now. All she knew was that she and Toshiro had sex yesterday for the first time, and today he'd gone to visit the parents that hated him. Both things were out of the ordinary, and she hoped there was no connection.

Half an hour's journey took over an hour, but eventually the bus pulled up down the road from Ichigo's family home and they disembarked, hurrying across the slippery, ice-covered pavement.

They reached the house, and didn't bother to shrug their jackets off or take off their shoes as they rushed inside.

Rangiku and Ichigo stopped in their tracks when they saw him.

They didn't need to go far, just into the living room.

The television was on – one of those quiz game shows Toshiro sometimes liked to watch because he knew all the answers. Isshin was there, relaxed with a cup of tea, no longer wearing his doctor's coat. Toshiro was at the other end of the couch, sitting with a blanket over his legs and looking smaller than Rangiku had seen him in years.

Rangiku's heart broke as her eyes swept over her best friend.

Toshiro's eye was black and his lip was split and bloody. He had stitches that cut through his eyebrow and got dangerously close to his eye. His wrist had an ice pack wrapped around it, resting on a pillow in his lap. He looked miserable as he sat with a mug of hot chocolate in his other hand, a straw sticking out the top as it was probably the only comfortable way for him to drink it right now.

He made eye contact with them before he looked down at his blanket-covered lap.

For a moment there was silence, except for the television in the background, before Isshin reached over to squeeze Toshiro's shoulder.

The doctor smiled at Ichigo and Rangiku and beckoned them over.

"Thank you for coming," he murmured. "Toshiro should have his best friends by his side tonight."

Rangiku moved silently to Toshiro, unable to take her eyes of him, and kneeled on the floor beside his leg, leaning her head on his thigh as Ichigo sat on the other end of the couch.

"Are you okay?" she asked him, trying to catch those teal eyes but they weren't looking at her.

He nodded slowly but Rangiku didn't believe him.

"Thanks," he murmured quietly.

Rangiku swallowed, reaching up to rub his shin. She didn't know what to say to him.

The Kurosakis had always dealt with this issue. It was a young Ichigo that had told his father about his little classmate coming to school with bruises and dirty clothes, and it was Isshin who had ultimately saved Toshiro, treating him one night when he was brought to the clinic in a bad state, and looking after him until his grandparents could be assigned guardianship.

That had all happened before Rangiku had even met Toshiro. He didn't speak to her much about it because by comparison, she didn't have the history or context that Ichigo and Isshin did that made it easier to explain his feelings to them about it.

"Nasty sprain to the wrist but thankfully no break," Isshin explained. "We're icing that now and then I'll wrap it. Keep it elevated and no soccer or sport until it's healed."

Toshiro pursed his lips at that, while Ichigo nodded and hummed, clearly knowing it was going to be him who would have to enforce that rule.

"Mild hypothermia," Isshin continued with a grimace. "Keep him warm tonight."

It was Rangiku who nodded that time. If Toshiro was happy for it, she would stay with him tonight. He needed a warm cuddle, but she just hoped that their activities the previous night hadn't scared him off letting her sleep beside him.

"Stitches above the eye," Isshin sighed as he listed off more injuries, "will need to be taken out. I've booked an appointment in for Friday night to do that. Unfortunately, they might leave a small scar."

Rangiku glanced up at the stitches as Toshiro's eyes closed and he grimaced. It killed her to see him so hurt, and it must have really upset him to acknowledge that his parents had likely marked his face permanently.

"Scars are hot," Rangiku nudged him playfully, her tone light in an attempt to cheer him up. She'd said that once to Shuuhei.

Toshiro's lips twitched, the faintest hint of a smile, and Rangiku counted it a success.

"You'll still be a handsome young man," Isshin added with a grin.

"He'll still be hopeless with the ladies though," Ichigo tacked on teasingly, and that got more of a reaction from Toshiro who opened his eyes to shoot his roommate a weak glare.

Rangiku giggled and leaned further into Toshiro's thigh, hugging his leg lightly in case there were any injuries she couldn't see under the blanket. He didn't wince or otherwise react, so it must have been fine. She could feel a slight tremble though, but she didn't know whether that was the hypothermia or the shock.

There was another minute where it was quiet, the television still on and at an ad break. In the kitchen, Rangiku could hear someone moving about, cooking. Yuzu, she assumed, since the blonde twin was the chef in the family and Karin was overseas now anyway.

"What happened?" Ichigo asked eventually, and Rangiku glanced over at him, seeing those cautious brown eyes before she turned her gaze back to Toshiro, who was looking guiltily down at his lap again.

"The neighbour called," he murmured, swallowing. "She said she could hear my mother screaming and crying in the house… she didn't feel comfortable going inside."

"Why did she call you?" Ichigo asked quickly.

"I gave her my number a long time ago in case anything happened."

"Toshiro," Ichigo's voice was stern, disapproving. Rangiku thought back to what he had said on the bus, about Toshiro hoping things would one day change between him and his parents. Perhaps that was why Toshiro gave the neighbour his number, but regardless Ichigo wasn't impressed with that information.

Again Toshiro swallowed. Though he wouldn't look at them, Rangiku could see the pain in his expression.

"She couldn't call the police?" Rangiku suggested lightly, trying to get a better understanding of the situation.

Toshiro shook his head quickly but didn't explain. Ichigo shot Rangiku a look, and mouthed the word 'drugs'. Rangiku bit her lip, remembering again Ichigo's response on the bus.

Apparently Toshiro's parents were pretty involved with drugs, but Rangiku had always assumed they had only taken them. She was starting to get the sense there was a bit more to it than that, particularly for Toshiro's father to be so violent. Rangiku suspected that nobody ever called the police on him because they were too scared to.

"So you went?" Ichigo prompted, turning back to Toshiro. "By yourself?"

There was long pause before Toshiro nodded.

"My mother had fallen over in the shower," he explained quietly, like a child in trouble. "I think she dislocated her shoulder. I tried to help her up but she… well, she didn't want me there."

He trailed off, and after a beat he flinched. Rangiku squeezed his leg in an attempt to reassure him but it didn't appear to help. She had never seen him fight to speak about something like this; she had seen him struggle to get his words out before, and when he was younger he sometimes found it difficult to express his emotions – but this was different. Every word seemed to hurt him, and more than ever Rangiku felt out of her depth dealing with this. She used to think she knew everything about Toshiro, but she didn't know anything about his parents.

"His father came home while he was there," Isshin picked up the story when it was clear Toshiro wasn't going to – or couldn't – finish it, "thought he was stealing or something, and reacted violently."

Rangiku glanced up at Toshiro again, those teal eyes downcast and gazing through his hot chocolate, seeing something else in his mind. It was clear what his father had done, at least to his son's face. He must have hit him pretty damn hard.

Isshin continued, giving more details that had Rangiku feeling repulsed. After beating his son up, Toshiro's father literally threw him out of the house, down the few steps from the front door to the snow-covered pavement below. Toshiro put out his arm to catch himself and ended up spraining his wrist. His father left him there and when Toshiro was able to, he called Isshin for help.

"Toshiro did the right thing when he called me," Isshin murmured, patting his patient's knee. "I went to pick him up but by then, he'd been in the snow and rain so long, he developed hypothermia."

Apparently Isshin also called for an ambulance to deal with Toshiro's mother, who was apparently still in the bottom of the shower with a dislocated shoulder when Toshiro was thrown from the property.

"Why did you go?" Ichigo sighed then and Rangiku could hear the frustration in his tone.

She knew this wasn't the first time, and if Ichigo's comments on the bus were anything to go by, he wasn't exactly happy about his friend putting himself in danger like that.

"I had to," Toshiro whispered.

"No, you didn't," Ichigo pressed.

"I did."

"You know every time you go there you get the shit beaten out of you."

"That's not-"

"You were an idiot to go, Toshiro," Ichigo berated him.

"What would you have done?!" Toshiro snapped then, quickly done with being told off tonight – and interrupted.

Rangiku was still as she stared at Toshiro, who in turn glared at Ichigo, his eyes more alight with emotion than before. They must have been stinging.

For a moment, Ichigo didn't answer. He leaned back, exhaling as his shoulders deflated slightly.

He would have gone. Rangiku knew that; that was the kind of guy Ichigo was, and obviously Toshiro too. They helped people, even if they put themselves in harm's way to do it, even if the person in trouble was horrible to them. They were too good, too reckless-

"I would have called my friends," Ichigo answered eventually, after he took a moment to think about it. "I would have called you. I would have called Dad, and Chad and Renji, because if they knew I wanted to go, they would have come with me."

Toshiro looked away again, and this time Rangiku really could feel the tremble in his leg.

She winced, because she knew he didn't like the people he loved getting caught in his problems, but Ichigo was right – he should have called his friends. Even if he had only called Isshin before he went inside that house, he might have come out unhurt. If he had spoken to Ichigo, maybe they'd have gone as a group and protected him. If he had spoken to Rangiku, maybe she could have talked him out of going altogether, because in her mind, no one who did that to their own child (grown up or not) was worth helping – that was not his responsibility.

Isshin cleared his throat then, and patted the knees of the two boys either side of him. One was his son and the other was the close enough to be one too.

"The main thing is that Toshiro is safe now," he told them gently. "Yuzu is making dinner for you all, and then I'll drive you back to campus."

He reached for Toshiro's arm and removed the ice pack carefully, murmuring about going to get some bandages before he lifted himself from the couch and quietly left the room.

When he was gone, Ichigo sighed and moved closer on the couch until he could reach Toshiro. He put a hand on his roommate's shoulder and squeezed.

"I'm sorry," Toshiro tried to murmur but Ichigo shushed him.

"No, I'm sorry," Ichigo sighed. "You scared us, that's all. Just… just call me next time, okay? We can work it out together."

Toshiro nodded and then Ichigo released him.

Rangiku watched it all quietly, grateful for Ichigo's history with Toshiro that he knew how to handle this situation. She didn't and she felt terrible that she hadn't been through this with him. She knew bits and pieces, but her tactic had always been to help distract him. She was good at reminding him of what he did have – a grandmother who adored him, friends who would do anything to see him smiling. It was usually effective, but Rangiku didn't think it would work today, with Toshiro sitting there in pain from all too recent injuries.

She sighed and lifted herself up onto the couch, sitting on the very edge of it next to Toshiro. He tried to move over for her but she told him to stay, she was comfortable on the edge. He sighed and leaned on her shoulder, and she tilted her head to rest on the top of his, her arm around him loosely.

He seemed younger, like this recurring issue with his parents made him feel like a child all over again. Rangiku was back to protecting him, but she was okay with that. He was her best friend, and she'd do whatever it took to look after him – just as he would, and did, do for her.

She rubbed his back as they turned their attention back to the television. It took two more ad breaks, and too many wrong guesses from Rangiku and Ichigo before Toshiro started to answer the questions as the host read them out. He got them all right of course, and for a moment a sense of normality returned.

Isshin returned and wrapped Toshiro's sprained wrist up while Rangiku accused Ichigo of cheating when he just happened to know the population of Cairo.

"We went there as a family!" he argued theatrically. "We saw the pyramids!"

"Twelve years ago," Toshiro pointed out, eyebrow raised sceptically.

"My memory is sharp," Ichigo pointed to his temple as Rangiku gave a disbelieving scoff. She didn't care really, but she would put on a show to distract Toshiro from the pain.

"Cheater," she muttered over a cough when Ichigo refused to show her the last internet search he'd made on his phone. That was answer enough for her (though, she also considered that the last thing he might have searched was porn), but Ichigo carried on the argument, his plan to distract Toshiro was the same as Rangiku's.

Not long after the show ended, Yuzu called them to dinner. She made a lovely pureed soup that no one, with a busted lip or otherwise, had to chew.

Other than watching Toshiro try to navigate the spoon over his cut lip, while sitting there with swollen eye and his wrist hanging from a sling, it was a mostly nice dinner with Ichigo's family. They spoke about college and what their friends were up to, while Yuzu caught them up on her culinary school journey and her upcoming work experience at a fancy restaurant in town. Toshiro perked up a little when Isshin asked him how the soccer team was going, but overall his mood was flat and no one could pick it up for him.

Eventually the time came to pile into Isshin's car for the doctor to drive them home. Toshiro was given a medical certificate to get him out of classes for the rest of the week – though Rangiku was certain he would still try to go – and an extra blanket, to manage his hypothermia in the car.

Ichigo sat in the front with Toshiro and Rangiku in the back seats. Rangiku watched Toshiro fish his phone out of his pocket and he gave a long sigh as he clicked around a few times before bringing the phone to his ear.

Oma was livid, to say the least. They spoke in German so Rangiku didn't get the specifics of what he told her and what she said back to him, but there was enough to her tone and volume that Rangiku could hear through the speaker that indicated that Toshiro's grandmother was furious. Toshiro's tone was softer, timid, guilty.

The only thing Rangiku really picked up was the 'I love you's traded at the end, when Oma's voice was softer.

Oma was Toshiro's mother's mother, but she had a difficult relationship with her daughter for years before eventually renouncing her completely – the day she received a call informing her that her grandson was in emergency care at the Kurosaki Clinic.

They hung up, and no one in the car dared to ask.

Rangiku glanced at Toshiro as he looked out the window at the sleet raining down in the dark. His eyes were glassy and his jaw set, but a moment later she felt his cold fingers find hers.

She was surprised but quickly held his hand, and they stayed holding hands across the middle seat for the rest of the journey back to campus. She watched him watch the rain, and when a stray tear fell from his blackened eye, one fell from hers too.

Toshiro deserved better. He deserved the world.

…

Due to the stitches above his eye, Toshiro was told not to let them get wet for forty-eight hours, and also with his bandaged wrist, showering wasn't worth the hassle. He also didn't want any help changing, so Ichigo and Rangiku left him to it.

It was getting late now, but Rangiku went about making them all teas anyway. Toshiro had asked her to stay with him tonight and she was glad he did. There was no way she was going to be able to go back to her dorm and sleep well while knowing the state he was in.

Still, she was worried about staying with him, because she didn't know how she could help him this time.

"You're the queen of getting him to talk," Ichigo pointed out quietly when she expressed her concerns to him. "You've always gotten him to open up. He responds better to you than anyone."

"Not with this," Rangiku sighed, eyeing the closed door of Toshiro's bedroom.

He was changing inside, and given he only had one arm to work with, it was a slow process – though Rangiku wouldn't have been surprised if he was taking a moment to collect himself.

Ichigo sighed before taking a sip of his tea.

"Just don't let him bottle it up," he advised. "If he needs to get upset, let him. He's more likely to be that vulnerable with you than me or my dad. I think he wants us to believe he's stronger now."

Rangiku nodded thoughtfully. Toshiro never liked people thinking he was weak, but Rangiku had always been an exception. She had seen him at his most vulnerable, and he'd seen her that way too, especially recently. It made them equal.

Toshiro emerged from the bedroom then, having changed into a pair of warm sweats and a hoodie. He had ditched the sling, which earnt a disapproving eye from Ichigo who reminded him to keep it elevated. Toshiro hummed as he sat on the couch between them, his bandage wrist resting across his middle, where the sling would have held it.

Rangiku passed him his tea, but they didn't have any straws and it was clear the cut on his bottom lip hurt whenever he touched the mug to it.

They watched some trash television for a while, while Rangiku and Ichigo attempted the near impossible task of convincing Toshiro to take at least tomorrow off from attending classes.

"You almost broke your hand today and you've got the medical certificate," Rangiku shot him a glare. "Take a damn day off."

She would take the whole week if it were her.

"My brain isn't broken," Toshiro argued. "I can still learn."

"Nerd!" Rangiku accused him jokingly. "How are you going to pull out your laptop and make notes like you do?"

"I'll record the lecture."

"Ask Rukia to," Rangiku chortled. "That's the beauty of having a friend in class."

"I don't have classes with Rukia until later in the week."

Rangiku rolled her eyes; Toshiro really did have an answer for everything.

"You're going to be in worse pain tomorrow," Ichigo pointed out, rather grimly. "You're not going to be able to concentrate and you'll potentially be prolonging your recovery and thus risking your grades more than you would be missing classes for one day."

"Doctored," Rangiku smirked when Toshiro looked horrified at Ichigo's words – more likely at the risk of bad grades than of being in more pain.

"Besides, it's all online these days," Ichigo continued. "Not to mention you're miles ahead of your classes anyway, one day won't kill you."

"Yeah, Nerd," Rangiku nudged Toshiro playfully. "Take the day off!"

He rolled his eyes, until he winced because it must have irritated his stitches – or maybe he had a headache. Either way, it looked like he regretted it.

"I'll think about it," he grumbled. "Decide in the morning."

Rangiku hummed and took a sip of her tea. She had until morning to convince him to take a break and look after himself.

They continue watching television and talking nonsense, until their teas were finished (or half finished with no will to continue as was the case with Toshiro), and then they decided to call it a night and go to bed.

Rangiku returned quickly to her dorm to brush her teeth and got stuck updating a concerned Orihime who hadn't heard much since Rangiku and Ichigo ran from the bake sale to the bus stop, other than a quick text update she got from Ichigo. Rangiku was careful with her words, firstly to protect Toshiro's privacy and secondly to protect Orihime. She didn't know for sure, but she had a bad feeling about why Orihime had been raised by her brother instead of her parents. It was the same feeling she got about Chad when she learned he had been held back a grade and raised by his grandfather.

Did none of her friends have normal parents?

Rukia didn't, she lived with her brother (or brother in law, if Rangiku remembered correctly). Nanao didn't, she'd be raised by her uncle. Nemu had her father but he wasn't exactly normal.

Ichigo had normal parents, though his mother passed away when he was a child, so he was raised in a single parent household, as Rangiku herself had been.

Rangiku had no idea about Renji, Ikkaku and Yumichika but if the pattern continued, it was no wonder they'd all developed this strong group bond. They were their own dysfunctional family.

It had Rangiku thoughtful as she returned to Toshiro and Ichigo's dorm, letting herself in with Toshiro's key that she had taken with her. The dorm was quiet now and as she entered Toshiro's room, she found him sitting up in bed, sprained wrist lying across his lap while his other hand held his phone as he typed. The overhead light was off, but the lamp beside him was on, casting a more subtle golden glow over the room.

He glanced up and pouted at her when she arrived.

"I missed the bake sale," he murmured sadly, seemingly just realising.

Rangiku shook at her head, a weak laugh in her throat. A few hours ago, his lack of attendance to the bake sale was the biggest worry she had. Now it seemed so silly and insignificant.

"You didn't miss much," she murmured, approaching the drawers beside his bed. She pulled out a t-shirt of his and began stripping off her clothes to change into it.

She rarely felt the need to be too discrete while changing in front of him, because Toshiro always looked away, but even if he did look it wouldn't matter; they'd seen each other naked now.

"I, um," she heard him swallow as his eyes returned to his phone. "I must have opened your messages when I was trying to call Isshin. I didn't mean to ignore you."

"It's okay," Rangiku reassured him as she sat on the edge of the bed beside him. "I was just worried when I hadn't heard from you, but now I understand why."

Toshiro sighed and looked back down at his phone, and Rangiku noticed he had her messages open. He opened his mouth to speak but he seemed to change his mind.

"It's not weird now," he settled on eventually as Rangiku glanced down at the message she had last sent, asking him if he thought it was weird between them now that they'd had sex. "I liked it."

His cheeks were a little red as he admitted that and Rangiku couldn't help but smile softly.

"Me too," she murmured.

"And I… I'd be open to doing it again," Toshiro's cheeks went brighter. "Only if you wanted to."

Rangiku nodded quickly. Yes, she did want to do that again with him. It had felt amazing.

At her agreement, Toshiro nodded too and moved to put his phone on the dresser as Rangiku climbed over to him to the wall side that was typically her side when they shared a bed. She slipped under the covers and moved closed to Toshiro. She pulled him closer, until he was leaning into her side.

"How are feeling?" she asked him, ignoring the slight protests she was getting from him about being held this way; normally it was in reverse and she would be curling into his side.

"Fine," Toshiro answered, but Rangiku knew that was a lie.

"How are you really feeling?" she asked again. "I have all night, so you best be honest with me."

Toshiro sighed sufferingly against her and he was silent for a long time, but as Rangiku said, she had all night. She waited patiently for him to talk, knowing the silence would drive him to eventually.

It took fifteen minutes but finally he spoke up.

"I'm just sad," he admitted quietly. "And I hate myself."

"Why?"

"I've tried to reconcile with them so many times, I've been an idiot to think that I could. All I did was upset everyone who does care about me."

"You're not an idiot," Rangiku told him quietly, hugging him tightly when he started to shake a little. "Nobody is upset with you; we just hate seeing you hurt."

"I don't think I can call my parents my family anymore and that hurts-"

His voice was thick and wavering, and Rangiku squeeze him before she planted a soft kiss to his forehead. She knew what he was saying – he'd finally decided to give up trying to have a relationship with them. It must have been a hard thing to accept, because as she now knew from Ichigo, it was something he had struggled with until now.

"You know what I realised," Rangiku murmured.

"What?"

"None of our friends have whole families either," she explained. "We've all had shit situations going on as we grew up."

To be fair, Rangiku felt like she had it possibly the best. Though she had been raised without a father, she still had one. She saw him once a year, or once every two years, but he wasn't a bad guy. He never hit her, he never hurt her at all. He just wasn't there.

Actually that did hurt, but Rangiku wasn't going to admit that if she didn't have to.

"But we all still have family," Rangiku continued. "At the very least we have each other, and we are a family because family isn't always blood. It's the people who'd do anything to see you smile and who love you for exactly who you are."

Toshiro hummed and nodded against her. "You're my family."

"I am," Rangiku smiled into his hair. "So is Oma, and the Kurosakis, and all our friends here. We want you in our lives."

This time when Toshiro hummed, he sounded happier, and when Rangiku glanced down at him, those teal eyes were boring into her, brighter than they'd been all night. There was still sadness to them, but it was duller, hidden behind love. His eyes were beautiful, though they always had been.

They flickered to Rangiku's lips and she smiled softly as they simultaneous came together for a kiss.

It was only a gentle press but it had Toshiro pulling back with a gasp and a wince, his cut lip no doubt giving him grief. Rangiku grimaced, but she quickly realised he didn't need to use his lips to feel good – she still had hers.

She sunk lower and dipped her head to kiss his jaw and she continued to kiss along the bone and down the side of his neck. She felt him freeze briefly, but then he relaxed into it and Rangiku took that as her cue to continue.

She continued to kiss his neck and then his collarbones, before she climbed over him, straddling his waist. He moved his injured wrist out of the way, but the other arm came around her middle and held her close.

He gasped when she sucked on his collarbone, in the dip over the bone, so Rangiku leaned back to find the hem of his shirt and help in out of it. He had some light bruising to his torso, but Rangiku tried not to see that.

He sat up with her, helping her quickly out of her shirt (well… his shirt on her body) too. Rangiku wasn't wearing anything underneath so it left her completely bare and Toshiro's eyes went as wide as the first time he saw her naked, like he was surprised again at how she looked.

"So beautiful," he murmured, and he leaned forward and poked his tongue out to flick against her nipple.

Rangiku sighed happily for a moment, the feeling of his tongue on her incredibly arousing, but she wanted to please him tonight. He needed it, and he'd looked after her plenty last time. With that in mind, Rangiku put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him away from her, until he was reclined back into his pillows again.

He looked confused for a moment, but any complaints were drowned out when Rangiku's lips latched back onto his collarbone and began sucking gently.

The temptation to grind herself on him and seek that orgasm was incredible, but tonight wasn't about her, so she refrained, and she kissed lower… and lower.

She reached the waistband of his pants and helped him out of those too. His cock, already hardening, bounced back against his stomach, ready for her.

Toshiro groaned when she took him in her mouth, and she pleasured him slowly. She sucked him carefully, her tongue swirling around him as his breathless pants became more obvious. Rangiku maintained eye contact, wanting to see every reaction that passed over him.

She saw the pleasure building, almost overtaking him. She could feel it to, in the subtle jerks his hips were doing, trying to restrain themselves from fucking her mouth. His head fell back against the pillows, eyes almost rolling back into his head, and that's when Rangiku knew he was really close.

She withdrew him from her mouth and climbed back up his body, kissing his neck as he sighed in relief, though he hadn't released yet.

Reaching down between her legs, Rangiku was more than happy to prepare herself, but his fingers were already there. They were warmer now, and when they touched her clit, Rangiku inhaled sharply. Until now she hadn't been touched down there tonight, but already she was aching for him.

His digits slipped inside her, straight to two fingers, and Rangiku hummed appreciatively at the stretch. Vivid memories from the previous day came rolling in and Rangiku felt the throb between her legs.

A third finger went in and Rangiku groaned quietly, right in Toshiro's ear before she bit his lobe gently, encouraging him to continue. She was almost ready to take him.

Unable to wait much longer, and also wanting to feel the full stretch of his cock sliding into her, Rangiku reach down and pulled Toshiro's hand away from her. She clutched his wet cock and moved herself over it, lining the tip up with her aching entrance.

He sat up again, his good arm around her waist as Rangiku started to lower herself onto him.

"Careful," he murmured.

She hooked a finger under his chin and guided him to look at her. She held his teal eyes to her blue ones as she slowly sunk down on his cock, her lips parting as she felt that delicious stretch.

Now fully seated on Toshiro, his arm holding her waist, Rangiku bit her lip, her arms looping loosely around his neck. He fit inside her perfectly.

She was still staring into his eyes when she began to move. It was slow and restrained, as neither of them wanted Ichigo to hear. Rangiku gasped quietly, clenching her jaw to keep from moaning; she could feel his cock dragging in and out of her as she moved her hips on him.

Teal eyes were wide, his pupils blown with desire. Rangiku swallowed; she wanted to kiss him, but she didn't want to hurt him and she wanted to keep looking into his eyes.

It was like the restraint they were showing was making the pleasure more intense. Their releases were bubbling quietly, begging them to move harder, faster. Rangiku wanted to bounce on him, she wanted to throw her head back and moan loudly, she wanted to scream his name, but she couldn't look away from him. His face was injured, but he was handsome still – she saw strength in him she hadn't seen before.

"I want to kiss you," Toshiro whispered desperately but Rangiku shook her head; he would only hurt his lip.

"Imagine me kissing you," Rangiku told him breathlessly, and in between pants she described it for him. "K-kissing your lips, my tongue in your m-mouth."

Toshiro's expression was tortured, nearing climax as Rangiku continued to move up and down on him. His cock was hot inside her and Rangiku could feel that familiar build already, her clit finding some stimulation against his pelvic bone as she made to sit as deep as possible on him.

"Say my name," she found herself demanding. "Say it as you come."

She wanted him to say it in that same tone she had heard from yesterday, she wanted him to say it while she was staring into those deep eyes.

Those were the eyes of the person who was her best friend, the person she always counted on to have her back and who relied on her equally. She didn't see the stitches above the right eye, she only saw the teal irises she'd known for so long. They were the beautiful teal of the kindest man she knew, the one who deserved everything.

"Rangiku," Toshiro whispered, choking quietly.

Her building orgasm crashed down on her abruptly, sooner than she was expecting, and somehow she kept the moan quiet and her eyes open as she stared at him.

They climaxed together, their eyes locked, and it was the single most intimate thing Rangiku had ever done with another person.

She sighed in content, satiated, and leaned in close to press a light kiss to the corner of Toshiro's mouth, her hand sliding in his hair for a moment. His arm around her tightened, and she knew she had made him feel a little better tonight.

…

The next morning, Rangiku woke up with her head on Toshiro's uninjured arm as he slept soundly. She smiled softly at that; Toshiro had ended up agreeing to turn off his morning alarm and miss classes for the day. He needed a break to recover, and she was relieved that he was taking it.

Glancing up at his face, Rangiku lost her smile. He looked worse today; his eye was completely covered in a dark purple bruise and the stitches looked painful as they knit his skin together. His lip had a dark, bloodied scab over it, and she imagined anything that touched it would sting his whole bottom lip. Still, his face was peaceful as he slept, and his bandaged wrist lay relaxed across his chest.

Rangiku sighed internally, and decided she too would take the morning off to spend it with him, to ensure he was at least mentally okay.

Slipping carefully out of the bed, Rangiku dressed quietly into the shirt she had been wearing last night and a pair of his soccer shorts she picked up first out of his drawer. She crept quietly to the door and snuck out of the room, hoping to go to the bathroom and come back before he woke.

"How is he?"

Rangiku glanced up to find Ichigo sitting at the kitchen table, eating cereal and dressed for the day.

"Still fast asleep," Rangiku smirked. "He's taking the morning off."

Ichigo nodded. "Good."

Rangiku nodded her agreement before moving quickly to the bathroom. She knew Ichigo hadn't heard them last night, firstly because they'd been quiet, and secondly because he no doubt would have had something to say about it if he knew they'd slept together.

No, Ichigo knew nothing, and the only thing he cared to ask about when Rangiku exited the bathroom was about Toshiro's wellbeing.

"Yeah, he opened up a bit," Rangiku sighed, taking a seat at the table for a moment. She told Ichigo what Toshiro had said to her last night, about giving up on his parents. "I reminded him that he's still got family in us, and he seemed to happy to hear that."

"Of course," Ichigo murmured. "I think he needs to be told that more often."

Rangiku agreed. If Toshiro was reminded that he had people who loved him, then perhaps he wouldn't try seeking out his parents' acceptance again. He was the type of person that needed to be told things like that – he didn't like to assume people's feelings.

"I'm going back to bed," Rangiku sighed tiredly. "I'll stay with him today so he doesn't have to be alone."

She made to move back to the door when Ichigo called her back.

"I'm glad he has you," Ichigo told her seriously. "I know you mean a lot to him."

"You too," Rangiku smirked at Ichigo, "but I'm his best friend."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Rangiku giggled at that before turning and slipping back into Toshiro's bedroom, finding him unmoved and sleeping just as deeply.

She smiled at him; he really did mean the world to her.

…

I have no idea when the next chapter will go up because I haven't even started writing it yet RIP. I've been out of whack lately but hoping to get back into a routine soon!

Please review if you get a chance x