Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of the characters. I am saving up my pennies and nickles, perhaps with that I might.
Summary: On the day of the birth of Karin & Hitsugaya's child, news arrives that he's gone missing on a mission to Hueco Mundo when his zanpaktou and a letter are retrieved from Hueco Mundo. Karin though does not believe as such along with her family, but fights the rumours of Soul Society about Hitsugaya being considered a criminal and a traitor, and must face the fact that she would be raising their only child alone.
The Bridge Of Silence
+--+
+An Oath To You+
"Karin?" Toshiro looked at her wide eyed. It had been the first time anyone ever dared to go against his own rules, and Karin was the first to break them.
"What? You weren't going to do it, so I did." She folded her arms, even if the lingering feeling of his lips against her own. The dark haired teenager loved to take things from playful to serious, but at the moment it seemed as though it was rather weird then just the normal.
"Don't do something so rash as that." He turned to leave the house, but her hand stretched out to grabbed him. Toshiro turned around, his ocean green eyes stared at her dark ones.
"Do I have to paint a damn picture for you to get it?" Karin let go of his arm and turned to leave up to her room. "Never mind it, just get the hell out."
Karin for a few days now, since the return of the mysterious boy she had met when she was ten made her world turn. Ten, that age really didn't mean much when having some feelings about 'love'. She had scoffed at that type of stupid things, seeing all the girls in her school go goo-goo on the stupid boys was really troublesome. Now, she would really regret the fact that she ever dared to insult love and its--she just did not want to think about it at all.
Hitsugaya was also awkward with having strange feelings stirring deep inside of him, it was rather trivial though. He had really tried to ignore the fact that a deep fire inside of him burned, that was only each time Karin was around. The young captain hated that, well he was only just slightly trying to convince himself about that.
"Karin." He muttered as he chased after her, only reaching as she jumped into his arms and kissed him fully again. "Stop, we shouldn't be doing this." He muttered in the kiss.
Karin smirked, mainly because it seemed as she could feel the tension on him ebbing away. She really had an effect on him.
"Just shut up." She only parted away from him a bit. He only held a bewildered expression on his mature face, but he smirked after processing that on his brain.
"Whatever." He cupped her face with his strong hand, and stared into her dark eyes. She was amazing, the fiery person that she was, and he really wasn't sure if it was correct to follow the feeling inside of him.
He closed the space between the two, the hall after all was slightly small, but Karin didn't even react so much about it because she pushed herself against him. Toshiro kissed her softly at first, slowly reacting to the kiss as she opened her mouth for access--even if he hadn't asked for it.
They fought for dominance at the start, but Karin did not want to really dominate when Toshiro started to defeat her slowly. He brought his hand to her lower back, pulling her close to him as she hooked her arms around his neck to run her fingers diligently in his hair. She had to admit that it was soft, unlike himself, but she really loved him.
They pulled away as they felt Ichigo's reiatsu nearing, and getting caught by the orange haired shinigami wouldn't do good at all.
"I'll see you tonight." He said, while having his forehead against hers.
"Hai, I'll like for us to continue this." She gave him a quick kiss before parting away. "I never thought you would be a good kisser."
"There are a lot of things that no one knows." He smirked, in spite of himself. She made him feel different, but it was a good thing because she was easy to really be around with.
+--+
Karin opened her eyes, the moon light was visible through the window as she stared into the darkness around her where the light wasn't bright enough to hit it. She hadn't been able to sleep well after Ichigo had left for a mission, it troubled her mind. Tatsuya was asleep, thankfully because she couldn't have him wake up and cry. At first though, she was glad that he wasn't the type of baby who cried over a lot of things--but at the same time it was she who cried for him.
It was like the agony never slipped away, never left her heart because it was too wounded. She wanted Toshiro to return to her so badly, but she didn't know where he was. She stood up and got out of the futon, walking towards the shoji screen and slid it open.
The fresh night air felt good against her warm skin, it awaken her senses as she stared out into the moonlight. It was often that her thoughts over took her, they were strong and impossible to evade at times. Karin had never wished to not think, well that was an absurd comment to say the least because it was nearly impossible. Her dark eyes stared at the yellow pale light, the sakura trees sure looked magical at night.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Kuchiki Byakuya appeared out of no where, wearing his sleeping robes. Karin was far too concentrated to get up and greet him properly.
"I couldn't sleep." She continued to stare at the sakura tree, as if hoping it would move so suddenly. Only the leaves bellowed with the night wind, fluttering down into the ground like snow in winter.
"Are you not finding the accommodations to your liking?" He questioned, sitting besides her. The dark haired captain watched her inhale the wind, and opened her eyes to continue focusing on the tree.
"They are…fine Kuchiki-taichou." She answered, turning to look at him. "Do you think that he's still alive? I really hope that he returns soon, before I regret throwing my entire human life away."
The usual stoic man was never bothered by emotions, somehow though after the birth of his niece and nephew he had turned soft. Now, he wished that he could answer those questions, but couldn't because only things were going to get worse. He averted his gaze out to the moon, it was a little bit complicated dealing with emotions with the young shinigami because he didn't even know her well.
Byakuya had met most of the Kurosaki family. The father Isshin was a very annoying person, and he held a grudge against him from a past problem when Isshin had been a captain. He couldn't really say much about Ichigo, only that he was there to protect his sister. Yuzu, she was a very simple person who only wanted to take care of everyone. She was the caring type and was friendly, unlike Karin.
Karin was a very complicated case on its own, and very hard to fully understand in the first place. She was tough, foul mouthed most of the time, but she was also docile. It seemed that motherhood changed her, she didn't often retaliate like most of the time, plus she had lost the one whom she promised to be married.
"I'm sorry for being a burden." Karin suddenly stood up and turned to leave.
He watched her disappear back to her room, it was bothersome to see her very hurt like that. Somehow he was reminded of Rukia sometimes, she had been depressed for a little while. The stoic captain couldn't imagine having some type of situation like that in his life, that was due to the fact that he had felt like that after losing his wife Hisana.
That memory of losing her was painful, far to painful then being stabbed by a sword many times. No, nothing in his world could ever compare to the pain of losing her at all. Often he spent his time recalling the moments in which she had been in his life, smiling and laughing when she was with him. Her scent, the taste of her lips…everything that was Hisana hadn't disappeared at all. Sometimes he missed her so badly it was impossible to concentrate at all, but slowly the pained had ease because he knew that she would never leave his heart at all.
Was it possible for someone to forget the ones they loved dearly? Everyone often said that in years the heart would heal, slowly ease the agonizing sorrow, but was that alright? Byakuya no longer knew what answers to believe because no answer seemed concrete enough, nor were the choices given at all. He sat there staring into the moonlight, lingering on his thoughts.
+--+
The black sky of Hueco Mundo was becoming more dull to look at for the past couple of months, not something that Toshiro looked forward to at all. He stared at the half moon, thinking that perhaps there was more to it then just plain blackness. That thought made him feel like a complete idiot, who could possibly laid down and question why the sky was always black at night?
He closed his eyes for a moment trying to not think about the continuous pain on his left side, but hoping that Nell would return soon. Toshiro didn't even have his zanpaktou to defend himself in case of danger, that was a bad thought. The danger that would come seemed distant, far away like light travelling in space without a certain direction. He mentally smacked himself for foolish thinking, those were obviously not the thoughts he wanted to have at the moment.
Turning to the other side, Toshiro spotted a certain patch of orange walking from the distance. He smiled in spite of himself because he knew who that was, even if sometimes he hated the poor guy. Somehow the idea of being part of his family was still strange, well that was because he still hadn't gotten used to the fact that Kurosaki Ichigo was actually a captain of the Gotei 13. Hitsugaya had to admit that he was strong, someone who Soul Society could count on in order to get saved.
"Hitsugaya-san." Nell's voice came thru fuzzy. Somehow it felt as though he had been asleep.
"What?" His voice was hoarse, the sleep deprivation was getting to him.
Nell stared at him, he looked very tired and weak. She squatted down and began to shake him a bit, somehow she didn't like the fact that he had fallen asleep.
"Oi, Toshiro wake up!" Ichigo spoke, stepping out from the shadows. His amber eyes closing and opening, the sight was not something he expected to see.
"Kurosaki?" His surname came as mumble. Ichigo couldn't even come to terms that Toshiro was actually alive after being missing for so long.
"The one and only, wake up." He answered in a very cocky manner, which he hoped it would get the white haired man growl back in anger.
"It's Hitsugaya-taichou to you." Toshiro opened his ocean green eyes. He looked up to see Ichigo standing there like a statue, an expression he hadn't seen was painted on his chiselled face. "What is with that look? Forget it--how's Karin?" He attempted to get up, but Nell only held him down.
Ichigo sat down, taking off his sword and putting it to his side. He ran a hand thru his orange locks, trying hard not to suddenly burst out into the castle and raise some hell. The older Kurosaki sibling knew better then that, let alone risking the fact that Toshiro was finally out of whatever hell he had been put in.
"She's…Karin." He smirked a little, trying hard not to think at the beating that awaited him. "I couldn't tell her that I was coming to get you. She's not in a great state to see you like this, and I am afraid that you'll have to stay in Urahara's store for a while."
Surprisingly, Hitsugaya did not say anything at that because Ichigo was right about that. He looked up at the stars again and smiled.
"That's good." He muttered, while running a hand on his own snowy white hair. "Did you come alone?"
"No, Rukia came along with our children. She's in Karakura because I didn't want to bring them here." He answered. "Nell sent her message, and as soon as I heard about it I came. Yamamoto-soutaichou wasn't happy with me coming, but I didn't want anyone else to do it."
"Ichigo, you shouldn't pry in Hueco Mundo for too long." Nell interrupted the little reunion. "You should get him out of here as soon as possible, before anyone can trace your reiatsu."
The orange haired captain nodded and stood up abruptly, and put his sword back to its place on his back. He stretched his hand out for the white haired captain to take, gladly he took it.
"Come on, we should get going." Ichigo pulled him up like a sack of potatoes and threw him over his shoulder. "Sorry, but no time for formalities between us captains. At the moment, I have a duty to take care. Better hold on, it will get fast. See you later, Nell." Without allowing Toshiro to answer, he used shunpou to get to the portal fast before it would close.
"See you, Ichigo." She answered, even though he had already left.
Hitsugaya didn't care about it, the time to go home finally came. The unceremonious rescue didn't bother him a bit, because he was going to see her again. He closed his eyes again, as the mounds of sand flew by fast around the two.
+--+
"Oi, oi--are you sure its alright?" Renji asked his long time friend, as he held the baby at arms length.
"No, but it is not beautiful to not bath a child." Yumichika said, while pulling out a basket of various soaps and shampoos. "Besides, Karin-chan is a very beautiful woman now. It is better to have a beautiful child if you are a beautiful woman, so he needs to be nice and clean."
Renji restrained himself from laughing at the fact that his very strange friend made such comments, well he had to admit that Karin was beautiful. She was very strong though, and she could easily kick anyone into the curve if they offended her easily. Though he would never say anything of such level to her face, after all, she was already with Hitsugaya-taichou.
He also had to admit that the child look like the white haired captain, that was kind of funny in a way. Tatsuya giggled as he began to tug on his long red hair, briefly chewing on it as well and continuing to giggle.
"I don't ever want to have children, in my life." He muttered, as he helped his friend bath the baby.
"Oh, I think children are adorable." Yumichika grinned like an idiot, but suddenly scrunched his face. "Ew, that is not beautiful."
"And you think they are adorable?" Renji arched his brow and began to dry out the child with the towel. "Remind me again why in the hell we agreed to take care of him?"
The bowl cut shinigami grinned slightly, helping the red head to dress the baby back up again. "Well, simple. Avoiding work." Renji smacked his forehead, completely forgetting that today was not a good day to work at all with his captain.
"There you are, I've been looking for you." A female's voice spoke, as the woman peeked her head into the bathroom. "Renji, when are you going for my food?"
"Ah, in a moment sweetheart." He smiled candidly, as he stared at his wife's bump on her stomach. "Um, Tatsuki, shouldn't you be at home?" Renji decided to take his comment of not wanting children back.
Tatsuki frowned at that, being pregnant was the only thing she hated about life at the moment. Life? That was still ironic to the fact that she was dead.
"Do you want me to use you as a training dummy?" She questioned, getting a very nasty glare about her as she came forward and grabbed her husband by the collar of his robes. "I'm going to kick you to the border of Soul Society if you don't shut your big mouth."
Renji disliked the fact that she was always furious, well she could literally get angry for no reason whatsoever, and she was a very amazing fighter. Another reason not to make her angry for no reason, especially since she was with child.
"Of course not. I'll go get you that as soon as Karin comes back." He tried to stall since did not want to really take a trip to the real world for some food.
"Ah, Tatsuki-chan is as beautiful as ever." Yumichika smiled, as he handed the baby back to Renji. "Well, I am off because I have other business to take care for Zaraki-taichou. I should find Ikkaku and remind him to get started on his paperwork." He continued to mumble off as he stepped out of the room and left.
Renji and Tatsuki became a couple as soon as she entered Soul Society only four years ago, but it had been a couple of strange few weeks though. She was strong unlike no other, she could easily beat anyone up without having to use any force at all. Renji hadn't known most of the details as to how she had died, but all of that didn't matter as he was now married to her for almost two years and a half.
She spun his world around like no other, bringing trouble and comfortable moments as well. Renji could never continue his daily routine without looking at her face. The last time he had seen her was when he was sent on a mission along with Hitsugaya-taichou, Masumoto, Ikkaku, and Yumichika. Back then he remembered that she was simply a fifteen year old girl, a boyish personality, brute strength, and with short hair.
Now, she was to his level in a sense. She had died in her young life, but Renji appreciated her nonetheless.
"Is he always that…strange?" The black haired woman asked, while trying hard not to smack the red headed man.
"Ah, well--now that you mention it. Yes." He answered, scratching his head. "I have to wait for Karin to come back, because she asked me to take care of Tatsuya-san."
She nodded and turned to leave, but Renji caught her with his free arm. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, just tired." She smiled, while stretching out her hand to touch his face. "I'm sorry, you shouldn't go anymore because I am not craving it anymore." She snaked her hand to his neck and brought him down to her level to kiss him.
She traced his lips with her tongue, savouring the flavour of the mint that lingered on them. He wasn't allowing entrance to her, mainly because he could allow himself to indulged on this kiss because of the baby in his arms. He pushed her away slightly, his head was spinning because that is how much she had an effect on him.
"Sorry, but I don't want Karin to kill me for not taking care of her child." Renji smiled and massaged her cheek with his calloused thumb. "We'll continue this later." He kissed her in the lips.
"You better, or else I'll be kicking your ass again." She smirked playfully, and ran her hand across his chest.
He nodded his head as he watched her disappear out of the room. Renji was still very much amazed at how amazing Tatsuki really was, and how much she meant to him. After seeing Rukia denying his feelings for her, it had been a hard few years. He felt somewhat lonely at the fact that his long time friend would no longer be there, she would be preoccupied with another man that was not him.
For a while, it was a bit depressing until slowly he begun to realize that the love he had for Rukia was only the one-sided one. Her heart belonged to Ichigo and no one else, so Renji's resolve was made then. He hated to give up, but suddenly Tatsuki came into his world without a single notice.
He hadn't even known her long enough to know what she was about, but slowly his feelings for the girl became too heavy until he cracked one day. Renji pulled her out of the sixth squad division, took her with him to his sleeping quarters and made out with her.
He remembered that she tasted sweet, as if she spent a lot of time chewing bubble gum. The feel of her crème coloured skin, the smell of sweet honey and cinnamon, it couldn't compare to anyone at all. Tatsuki had opened up to him that day, allowing to go far deeper then her ever allowed himself to go to.
The rest was a memory he did not want to ever think out loud because it would always be like a permanent tattoo on the back of his mind. It was special and no one needed to know how incredible it had been, how it managed to changed his world altogether. Frankly, he hadn't known much about love until he confessed to her that day.
Tatsuki was fearless, strong and very dominant about her place in the sixth squad. He had been surprised to find out that Ichigo had been there the day she had died, but Ichigo never shared the details back then because he felt that it wasn't his place to tell. Renji had stared at her firm frame, she had grown taller compared to her fifteen year old self. Her hair got longer, shoulder length and her eyes held a very sheer determination of not giving up. Tatsuki was everything to him.
"Abarai-san, sorry." Karin entered the room fast. She was breathing heavily as if she had been running. He was pulled out of his reverie and he stared at her. "Hurry, I have to take Tatsuya with me."
"What's going on?" He asked, as he followed her run out of the room.
Karin felt her heart race as the familiar reiatsu popped up into Soul Society only minutes ago, it had to be. She was hoping for so much for Toshiro to return, but could it had been possible for him to be here now? It had been a weak signal, but nevertheless, she wanted to see it for herself.
"He's here." She answered, a smile forming on her face as Tatsuya buried his face on her chest.
Renji was confused for the most part, what on earth could have happen? Suddenly, it hit him as the wind smacked against his face as he chased after Karin. The familiar reiatsus popped up suddenly at the Soukyoku Hill, and a very weak sign of a certain captain that had gone missing.
They suddenly stopped, the familiar orange head held his sword up against the two. His gaze looked solemn, as if he was apologizing ahead of time.
"Oi, Ichigo, what the hell are you doing?" Renji asked, while glancing at his friend and respected captain.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to see him, Karin." He said, his hands were shaking as it was visible of the sword twitching slightly.
"Ichi-nii?!" Karin gasped, unable to understand what it meant. "Oh--God!"
That was chapter four everyone. Thanks to WatermelonPrincess, shrimpnoodlesoup, Sonata Ann, and Tsukihime nee for reviewing. You guys are really great and I appreciate the kind words. Thanks to Mello's-Dark-Chocolate for favouring my story along with WatermelonPrincess and Starlight Luster for alerting this story. Hopefully this chapter isn't so disappointing, and I really loath myself for bloody putting a cliffhanger. It wasn't my intention really, but I felt the need to because the next chapter will continue with the rest. Don't become inpatient with me though, truly sorry. I am still in need of help with Karin and Yuzu's zanpaktous so send me your ideas via PM. And hopefully, it wasn't so confusing at all. If so, just ask and I'll gladly answer it.
I hope that everyone enjoyed the little scene with Yumichika, Renji, and Tatsuya. Renji was going to be originally be paired off with Matsumoto, but then I changed it to Yuzu, and well she ended up with Hisagi--long story short Tatsuki was my last resort. I have read other fics that have them as a couple, so I really liked it alot. I like the pair a lot, that I might add more scenes with them on it. I know that a lot of it was OOC, but what the hell--I am writing this story according to my likings and dislikings. Anywyas, the rating got changed to M 'cos I don't want for people to nag at me that I am using a lot of bad language or whatever the hell people enjoy to complain about. Sighs, I've been listening to a lot of somber-ish music so my thoughts aren't in the 'golden fields' at all and I just remembered that I am on my late teens--I can't believe it! Anyways, that was totally besides the point here. I'll explain more about the reasons why Toshrio is getting arrested and charged, and even though that wasn't even my first intention. What will happen next? Chapter five is on its works. Like it? Review. Hate it? That's alright.