Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach
It rained all night, the humidity leaching out of the air and pooling on the ground. The oppressive atmosphere did not lift, however, and finally Kuukaku was driven outdoors, to ask Zaraki Kenpachi when he planned on reigning in his reiatsu.
He gave her a blank look, which she returned with hard eyes. The dim light glowing from the window cast his face in shadows and angles, and the gash on his face gleamed a wet red. His left eye was stuck shut with coagulating blood. Kuukaku maintained eye contact with the man; after a few minutes, she felt the pressure let up, little by little, until the air was clear. He looked away, then, staring out over the rainy landscape.
"Thank you," she said, without sarcasm, and wondered why. "The girl –"
"Yachiru."
"- Yachiru is sleeping. She has a fever; it won't threaten her life as long as she has rest and lots to drink." The Kenpachi gave a non-committal grunt, still looking elsewhere, but Kuukaku noted how he shifted uneasily. There were several minutes of silence; if she squinted and focused, she could see the man was wavering slightly from exhaustion.
"The Shiba household is not a charity," she said finally, breaking the silence, "but I'm not heartless enough to kick out a sick kid and a half-dead man." Kuukaku turned and began to walk back inside. "Follow me. You need stitches."
He followed her into the room adjacent to Yachiru's, where Kuukaku's bodyguards had drawn a bath, made the bed, and laid out the first aid supplies. She was finding a needle when he spoke, standing in the doorway.
"Thanks…for Yachiru's sake," he didn't meet her eyes, and said the word as if it were an admittal of weakness. Kuukaku could predict what was coming next. "But I don't need this stitched." He gestured to the face wound. "It's enough that you're helping the kid; I can take care of myself."
Kuukaku held the needle between her teeth, threading it with her left hand, then removed it and pointed to the chair in the middle of the room. "Sit."
He remained standing. "Che."
Kuukaku sighed, marched over, and grabbed the front of his clothes, attempting to yank him down to face-level. He wouldn't be budged, but looked down at her, his mouth a grim line in his face, reiatsu flaring.
"Kenpachi from Zaraki, this is my house, got that? I say what goes. If I say you need stitches, you need stitches, and I'm not gonna let you waste my time with a tough act." She released him, breathing evenly despite the reiatsu pressure, and walked back over to the chair. "Now sit. Either deal with it, or get out."
The man turned his head to the side again, dismissively, but then walked in towards the chair. The room seemed to shrink due to his gigantic presence; his face was level with Kuukaku's, even while sitting.
Before she started, he looked up at her. "How the hell're you gonna patch me up with just one arm?" He asked. Kuukaku bit back the urge to backhand her injured guest, and said nothing except for "Stay still."
The small amount of healing kidou she knew made it easier for Kuukaku to maneuver the needle through skin and out, one-handed though she was. The man made no sound as she tugged the thread firmly through the skin of his cheek, and winced when she got close to the eye. He reeked of sweat and old blood, and she made him bathe and put on a fresh hakama before she would look at the rest of his wounds.
She wrapped his left arm from the elbow to the shoulder; it bore several long, shallow gashes, all slicing downwards. She patched up his right shoulder blade (there was a stab wound and another gash) and stitched up a deep cut running diagonally from the middle back to his left hip.
It was dawn by this time, and the Kenpachi had fallen into a deep sleep, despite her needle. Kuukaku enlisted the aid of Shiroganehiko and Koganehiko to lift the giant from the chair and on to the sleeping mat. She left her bodyguards to clean up the room quietly, and retired to her own room. It had been an eventful night.
A/N: I'm not sure what I'm doing with this. It really should have only been a one-shot, or a romance story (as romantic as Zaraki gets, which isn't a whole hell of a lot). Writing a non-fighting or powerful Zaraki is proving harder than I thought, and I'm hoping I've done justice to Kuukaku's character.