Burnt

by Jo Terry

A/N: I do not own Bleach and its characters.

And you're still the same

Present time...

"He's 10 years old. What the fuck could he bloody do at that age?" Ichigo cursed into his hands-free kit on the way to the Karakura Primary School.

"Just come over as soon as you can and we'll talk about this."

"That's exactly what I'm doing now, Toushiro!" he huffed, stepping on the brakes at the red light. He was only five minutes away from his son's school.

"It's Hitsugaya!" the guy on the other end of the line snapped. He was Ichigo's classmate from secondary school and was currently the Principal of the primary school. "You're lucky Kuchiki's kid was there to stop him before he broke the nose of the other boy completely."

Ichigo exhaled deeply. Of course, Abarai Ichika would always come to the rescue. He didn't know how he truly felt about that girl covering for his son all the time and getting herself into trouble alongside him. The girl was too much like her mother.

Despite this being a fortnightly occurrence, Ichigo had only spoken to Rukia twice since the fire five years ago. Once at the morgue and once when Toushiro had called them into his office the first time both their kids got into trouble.

It was always the same thing: Kazui picking a fight with another kid because they teased him about being without a mother and Ichika pulling him away or punching the kid for him. Or the other way around, when other kids called Ichika a bastard — which was far from true.

It wasn't to say that they were both best friends. They were really not. They both had their own small circles of friends they would hang out with. But whenever there was trouble, it was always only the two of them who would end up at the Principal's office… along with whomever the kid who got bashed up was. To this day, five bloody years later, it still puzzled Ichigo why the two of them would always have each other's backs while their own friends deserted them.

Ichigo pulled up at the school's parking lot to see a heavily-tinted black car dropping off Rukia at the drive way. He waited at his Camry to give her a couple of minutes' head start before he made his way towards the main building of the school. He hadn't expected to see her there today. They would usually see Toushiro at different times. He hoped it wasn't too serious this time. But the Principal did tell him to get to the school immediately.

"Hey…"

"Hitsugaya-san," Rukia bowed in greeting. "What has Ichika done now?"

The Principal sighed, "I can honestly say she saved the day this time around, actually."

Rukia surveyed the room where the three Primary Four kids are sitting next to one another. Ichika had her head inclined, not daring to look at her mother, while Kurosaki Kazui was just staring out the window. The boy next to him, though, was in a pretty bad shape. He was covering his nose with a piece of white cloth that was stained bright red. Fresh blood was still dripping from under his hand. He had a swollen eye and a cut above his right brow.

"What happened to the boy?" she asks Toushiro.

"Kurosaki?"

"No. The other one."

"Let's wait for the parents…"

Toushiro was interrupted when a rowdy couple tore into his office and demanded what the meeting was about. The lady gasped when she saw her son's condition.

"Kami! What happened to you, Kaneki?" she shrieked as she grabbed her son's face with both hands to inspect his injuries, ignoring his cries of pain.

Removing himself from where he stood next to Rukia, Toushiro approached the distressed mother. "Mrs Takayama…"

"What did these two kids do to my son, Kochou-sensei?" the father practically roared at Toushiro, his eyes glaring accusatively at Ichika and Kazui.

But before Toushiro could say anything, Mr Takayama had directed his murderous look towards Kurosaki Ichigo, whom Rukia hadn't noticed had come through the door amidst all the chaos.

"You! It's your son again, isn't it? Don't you have any control over him?"

On instinct, Rukia took a step forward, ready to put the man back in his place when she felt Ichigo's hand gripping her forearm to stop her.

"Takayama-san. I'm very sorry for whatever Kazui did. to your son. Please take him to my hospital and we'll tend to his injuries immediately. I'll cover the medical bills," he says with a bow.

"Wait a minute, Ichigo…" Rukia began.

"It's fine. Let's tend to the boy before he loses too much blood," Ichigo said, cutting Rukia off and addressing the parents of the boy again. "May I.. may I take a look at his nose?"

"How can we trust you? It's because of your son that our Kaneki is like that."

"Hey!" This time, Rukia had put herself in front of Ichigo. "How do we know your son didn't provoke Kazui?"

"Rukia!" Both Toushiro and Ichigo called out to her at the same time.

Rukia knew she had probably made things worse but she couldn't possibly let this remain one-sided without investigating why Kazui had beaten up the boy. That Kaneki kid must've instigated it somehow and based on all of their experience the past five years, that was always the case. Neither Kazui nor Ichika would beat anyone up for no reason.

"Kuchiki-san, you should be glad we're not accusing your daughter for being an accomplice. This is between us and Kurosaki-sensei. Please do not interfere," Mr Takayama warned.

Glowering at him, Rukia ordered her daughter, "Ichika, tell us what happened."

Behind her, Ichigo tugged at her elbow. "Rukia, we don't need to do this. His nose is..."

"You may check his nose right now but while you're doing that, Ichika will tell us what happened. We'll all decide later if the boy was really that innocent or if Kazui was only reacting to an act of bullying," Rukia said with finality.

Mrs Takayama looked as if she was going to argue but she was stopped by her husband.

"May I?" Ichigo asked again, cautiously approaching the injured kid. When he got a hesitant nod from the father, Ichigo hurried to crouch in front of the boy, carefully tilting his head up while he removed the cloth.

"Ichika."

The girl jumped a little at her mother's voice. "Erm… Kaneki called Kazui's mum something nasty."

"What was it?" Rukia probed.

"I… You wouldn't allow me to say those words."

"Just say it, Ichika," the petite woman insisted, her eyes staring daggers at the Takayama couple.

"Dead wh-whore…" Ichika stammers, inclining her head again.

His parents gasped in shock and from the corner of her eye, Rukia noticed Ichigo briefly stilled his hand as he was dabbing the cloth on the boy's nose.

"You'll be alright," he told him, after clearing his throat. Ichigo stood up and turned to his parents. "But we still need to have all his wounds treated at the hospital. Just tell Dr Ishida at the A&E that I sent you there. He'll do the dressing for him since you don't trust me to do it."

Mr Takayama nodded as his wife pulled their son from the chair and hurried towards the door.

"You'd better teach your kid to use that mouth of his properly if you don't want him to get punched in the face again," Rukia remarked when the couple walked by her, eliciting a look of horror from them as they disappeared into the hallway.

Toushiro heaved a long sigh when the three of them had left, glancing from Ichigo to Rukia before settling on the kids. "Go and get your bags and change your shoes. Wait for your parents at the pick-up area."

"Hai, Kochou-sensei." They both answered, each giving him a respectful bow.

"That worked out, I suppose," he scoffed, taking his seat behind the desk.

Ichigo, who had been texting — most probably to Ishida Uryuu, slipped his phone into his pocket and mumbled, "I'm sorry for the trouble. I'll talk to him again."

"And fix his bleeding arm, please," Rukia added.

"His arm was bleeding?" Ichigo must've been too concerned about the other kid to notice his own son's wound.

Toushiro nodded. "He lost balance and fell while he was hitting Kaneki. Ichika took that chance to drag him away."

"Fuck…"

"Language, Kurosaki."

"Whatever," the doctor huffed. "I don't even know what to do with that kid anymore."

"It's not his fault," Rukia snorted. "That Kaneki kid had it coming."

Toushiro threw her a glare. "Not helping at all, Rukia. That last thing you said to them… they could report to the authorities that you threatened their son, you know?"

"They are welcome to try."

"Rukia, being a Kuchiki doesn't guarantee that you will be spared of any…"

"You, of all people, should know that I never play the Kuchiki card, Toushiro. I'm just saying that they don't have any grounds to accuse me of anything when their son is the one who runs his mouth."

"Anyway," Ichigo cut in, making his way to the door. "I'm going to take Kazui home and have a look at his arm. Thanks for backing us up." That last bit was directed at Rukia as he briefly stopped before her with a nod.

"You know I wouldn't back you up if your kid was the one who instigated it, right?" Rukia looked up at him, mentally cursing at their massive height difference. How could he have possibly grown so much taller in the past 15 years?

Ichigo chuckled. "Yeah, Kuchiki Rukia — always on the side of justice. See you around."

Rukia watched as he left the room, looking years older than he did when he first came in. She could relate to how exhausted he was raising a kid on his own. At this age, children need their mothers the most. She remembered how Ichigo himself was moody after losing his mother to a car accident at the age of nine. He used to get into fights as well whenever he was picked on for the colour of his hair.

"Are you coming over tonight?" Toushiro asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"I don't think so. I've got to talk to Ichika."

He nodded, packing his laptop bag and coming around his table to stand in front of her. "Is she still going for her therapy session?"

"Every Saturday morning. Oh, tell your sister I will be taking her there this week."

"She'll be heartbroken that she can't fulfill her duty as a godmother."

Rukia scoffed. "Momo can be so dramatic."

"Yeah, well… that's how she is," Toushiro replied distractedly, lifting a hand to scratch the back of his head.

Having spent 20 years of their lives as friends, Rukia recognised that nervous gesture. She sighed, "Toushiro…"

"What? I was just going to ask you out for a cup of coffee."

"I know that's not all you want."

He grunted in irritation at getting caught again. It's not his first time trying to trick Rukia into going out with him. "C'mon, Rukia. It's been five years. You need to move on and be happy."

"I am happy. I just don't think we should be going out going out. We're too close. It'll ruin our friendship. Remember what I told you about asking me out like that again? We will never have a cup of coffee ever, ever again if you have that kind of intention."

"We've never even tried going out going out. How would you know it'll ruin our friendship?"

Rukia secretly snickered at how she was one of the few 'privileged' ones in Toushiro's life to ever see him whine. She found it amusing but at the same time, she couldn't encourage him or lead him on to think there was any chance for them to be together. She truly ever saw him only as a friend, at most, a younger brother.

The child genius was two years younger than her. She had skipped a year herself and ended up in the same year as Ichigo. Toushiro, on the other hand, had skipped three years, earning him a place in their year as well. Momo, Ishida, and Orihime were the same age as Ichigo, while Renji was a year older than them.

"I don't want to risk it, Shiro. Please. It's not just us. There's also Momo and Ichika."

"Momo sticks to you like glue. Even if anything should happen between the two of us, she would choose you over her own brother."

"See? I don't want that to happen either."

"Fine," he grumbled. "I'll walk you out. Ichika must be wondering what her Principal is doing with her mother."

"Hitsugaya Toushiro!" Rukia seethed at his wiggling snow white brows.

"Fine! Fine! Fine!"

By the time Ichigo had gone back to the hospital, it was almost 9.00 pm. He had managed to speak to his son about getting too impulsive again, dressed his wounds, and made sure he had dinner before sending him up to his bedroom. Yuzu would be at home to watch him as she wasn't on her nurse's shift tonight. Otherwise, Ichigo would have to take him to the hospital like what he'd usually do.

Kazui practically grew up at the hospital - he'd shower, eat, do his homework, and sleep there. In the first year after his mother died, his grandfather, Kurosaki Isshin had taken a one-year sabbatical leave from his business to look after him as Ichigo was in his final year of housemanship at that time. But that was all Isshin could do for him. The kid had already lost his mother. His father being constantly absent would be even worse for him. Ichigo taking him to the hospital with him was better than Kazui rarely seeing his father. By the time Isshin had gone back to his business, which required lots of travelling outside of Japan, Kazui was ready to go to primary school.

"Kurosaki."

Ichigo doubled back to the A&E when he heard his name, to find Ishida exiting the automatic doors. "Hey. How was the kid?"

Ishida scoffed. "A bruised eye, a tiny cut over his head, and a bleeding nose. Very mild injuries. Much milder than how you described them in your text. How's Kazui?"

"He's fine, I guess," Ichigo shrugged. "I'm thinking of recording a video of my lecture so I don't have to repeat it every two weeks."

"Or you could send him to Kuchiki's school so he could learn how to fight with his words and not with his fists."
"School, my arse. She was threatening the parents on their way out of the office. Did Momo tell you about it?"

Momo and Ishida have been engaged for a year. They had been together since the last year of secondary school. Ichigo often wondered what had taken the two of them so long to hitch.

"Nope. Hitsugaya came by to check on the boy. He settled the bill," Ishida replied, going through his phone before showing Ichigo a snapshot of the receipt.

The orange-haired man scowled at the blurry pic. "What? I told them I would pay for his medical bill."

"It's fine," Ishida said, pocketing his phone. "He did it without them knowing. Wouldn't want you to look bad in front of them. But he said he felt partly responsible as the Principal."

"Not his fault at all."

"What are you doing here, anyway? Your shift was over three hours ago."

"Yeah, but I had to leave much earlier, remember?"

"Go home, Kurosaki. I'll let Ryuuken know."

Ichigo snorted, "He'll burn me to ashes."

"Nah…" Ishida dismissed him with a lazy wave of his hand. "He has mellowed down quite a lot ever since he found out he has cancer. We had dinner at Momo's place last Sunday. Imagine that."

"So you're taking advantage of your sick old man? That's not very nice, Ishida," Ichigo smirked.

Ishida and his father hadn't been very cordial with each other after her mother's passing when he was nine. While he looked a lot like his father, his dark hair and eyes reminded the elder Ishida too much of his wife. Ryuuken couldn't stand the sight of him for many years. Every time they talked, it would be about Ishida's future, with a very clipped tone and grave finality from Ryuuken.

"Just go, alright? Do you want me to drag you home?"

"Fine. I'll go."

The two cousins walk together towards the doctor's parking lot to get their cars. Despite the animosity between them during their younger days, Ichigo and Ishida have grown close, especially after the fire. Ichigo had accused the other guy for pitying him but the latter claimed that he just didn't want Kazui to lose another parent. Sometimes, Ishida would keep an eye on Kazui for him while the boy was staying over at the hospital. The little boy had come to see him as the godfather who was never appointed for him. There were times when he preferred talking to Ishida rather than to his own father.

"How was it with Kuchiki? It was the first time you saw her in ages, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. She's still the same little spitfire she was back in school," Ichigo scoffed, recalling how quick she was to stand up for him at the office even though they haven't met each other in years. Just like old times, he thought.

"And you're still missing her, huh?" Ishida nudged his elbow at Ichigo.

"Shut up!" Ichigo snarled, scanning around the area to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation. There were some things between the two of them that couldn't be discussed openly. He heaved a sigh when he was certain there was no one around. Ishida can be quite loud sometimes.

"You should tell her the truth."
"Too soon."

"Too soon after the fire? Or too soon after that incident?"

"Both."

"It's been what… 15 years? I'm pretty sure her brother is fine with you now."
"It's not that simple, Ishida. You know Rukia is Kuchiki Byakuya's pride, right. He would never interfere with her happiness."
"Then, why didn't he allow you to be together?"

"That's…" Ichigo paused as they'd arrived at Ishida's car.

"Something you can't tell me, I get it," Ishida repeated for the hundredth time, rolling his eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow. Go home and rest."
Ichigo nodded as he stepped away towards his car that was a few feet away. "Don't tell Momo."
"I know. I know. You don't have to keep telling me."

Ichigo turned around and shouted back to him as he walked backwards. "Swear on your life!"

"What are you, 10? I won't tell. Bye!" Ishida hollered back, disappearing into his car.

On his way home, Ichigo allowed his mind to drift back to the first time Rukia had stood up for him so many years ago. Seemed like a century ago, he thought with a melancholic smile on his lips. Can't believe she hasn't changed after all these years...

Thanks for all the reviews! There will be plenty of flashbacks for this fic, especially going back to the earlier days when Rukia and Ichigo were both friends back in secondary school. I'll add a timestamp so we all don't get confused. Lol!