Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach
Kuukaku was gradually roused from her slumber by a slight scritching noise, which stopped and started again at random intervals. She groaned as she sat up, the noise like a painful itch on her tired brain, and, wrapping her sheet around herself, she went to investigate. She slid open the door to her room, and, seeing nobody in the immediate area, looked down the hall in search of the noise. She blinked, not quite able to process what she was seeing. There was a pink-haired toddler shuffling very slowly towards Kuukaku, gripping at the wall with chubby fingers, unsteady on her small feet. Her fingers against the wood made the scritching noise as she attempted to balance herself.

Right. The visitors. The Kenpachi. The girl with the fever...this girl? At closer inspection, the girl's eyes had bags under them, and she had an unhealthy pallor to her face. She had nearly reached Kuukaku; the woman knelt as the little girl looked up at her.

"Hallo Miss. Do you have any water?" The girl's voice was slightly raspy, but bright and matter-of-fact as only a child's can be. "I tried to wake Ken-chan, but he just rolled over, and I'm really thirsty, so I came to find some water, or someone who has water. Do you have any water, Miss?"

Kuukaku regarded the little girl for a moment - the only indication of her surprise that the tiny thing could talk - and then smiled easily. "Yeah, I have water. Come here, I'll piggyback you to the kitchen." She turned her back to the girl, hoping that the kid wouldn't fuss; Kuukaku could tell that just walking down the hall had taken quite a bit out of the little toddler. Luckily, the girl hopped on enthusiastically, nearly choking her ride.

"Oof, kid, loosen up!"

"Sorry, Bedsheet-san!" The girl clambered up so that she was riding on Kuukaku's shoulder. She was surprisingly strong for such a tiny-looking thing, but Kuukaku still had to put up her arm to steady the toddler as she swayed unsteadily on her perch.

"It's Kuukaku," said the woman, starting to walk down the hallway, "What's your name, kid?"

"It's Yachiru. Kusajishi Yachiru. Do you like it? I think it's a good name."

From the seventy-ninth, then. So this child wasn't the Kenpachi's daughter. Interesting. Kuukaku squinted up at Yachiru. "It's a really nice name, kiddo." She turned in to the kitchen, setting the girl down on the table.

"Ken-chan gave it to me; of course it's a good name," Yachiru prattled on as Kuukaku pumped water into a glass and gave it to her. "There's nobody else with a name like it in the whole wide world. Well, nobody that I've met anyways. Ken-chan's so smart to think of a name that nobody else has. One day, I'll be as smart as he is, and as strong as he is, too." She paused to take a few big gulps of water, and looked like she was going to continue when Kuukaku quickly interrupted.

"Yachiru, where are you and...Ken-chan going?" She hadn't asked the Kenpachi because she knew he wouldn't have answered; this girl seemed to small to misread a question as a threat.

"I dunno. Ken-chan and I go wherever we like, because Ken-chan's always looking for new people to fight with because otherwise he couldn't get any stronger, and anyway it's no fun when there's nobody to fight with. But there's always people to fight with, even if we don't find them, because they find us. It's really great cause Ken-chan can fight all he wants and then we get money and he can buy me crayons cause I like drawing and I think I draw pretty good pictures, only they always fall apart in the rain but that's okay because I can draw more when Ken-chan fights more people and then gets money so he can buy me more crayons and paper." She took another few gulps of water, sighed loudly, and then announced "I'm tired again. Where's Ken-chan?"

Amused, Kuukaku pointed down the hall. "He's probably still sleeping where you left him."

"Oh, right. Bedsheet-san, will you take me to Ken-chan?"

"I thought you were tired, Yachiru-chan?"

"Yes, I am. Now take me to Ken-chan." The girl looked at Kuukaku as if she might be a little slow. Kuukaku figured the girl knew what she was doing, and turned around, bending slightly, to offer her back to Yachiru. Again, the girl clambered up to Kuukaku's shoulder, and they set off down the hallway again, Kuukaku gripping the bedsheet under the stump of her right arm where it had started to come undone. It occurred to her that Yachiru had not once commented on her lack of limb, instead choosing to chatter on about how she'd met "Ken-chan" and about the one time she'd drawn this or that.

Finally, they reached the spare room, Yachiru hopping down from Kuukaku's shoulder with ease. Kuukaku could tell that the girl was practiced at this: nonetheless, she wobbled and fell after landing on her feet, and looked utterly surprised at it.

"Bedsheet-san is shorter than Ken-chan," she stated, still seated.

"Yachiru-chan is a little bit sick from being out in the rain," Kuukaku said with a lopsided grin at the toddler, "but if you rest up and get better, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to make the jump next time."

"Oh. Okay," said Yachiru, rolling over so she could use her hands to push herself off the floor. "Ne, Bedsheet-san, could you open the door for me?" She rocked the wooden sliding door in its frame, "Ken-chan says I'm still not tall enough to open doors without jamming them up." The door in question was the one to the Kenpachi's room.

"No problem, kiddo," Kuukaku took hold of the door halfway up the frame and slid it easily back to allow Yachiru entry. "And it's Kuukaku, not Bedsheet-san," she said, as an afterthought.

"Ken-chaaaan!" Yachiru called, giving no sign that she'd heard Kuukaku, and she toddled off into the room. Kuukaku smiled and was about to turn away to go get breakfast (and a smoke...did she ever need a smoke right now),when Yachiru's worried pink head popped out around the doorframe.

"Bedsheet-san, Ken-chan's not here!"

Indeed, when Kuukaku peered in to the room, the Kenpachi was nowhere to be found. At Yachiru's ushering, she came in to the room and was made to search every corner, the night table and the wardrobe. Kuukaku surmised that the man must have gone outside - for whatever reason - but humoured Yachiru nonetheless. The little girl, though very concerned as to where the Kenpachi was, didn't seem to be too distraught, instead ordering Kuukaku to search here, or look there, in an oh-so-innocent bossy voice.

After five minutes, Kuukaku - on her knees, peering under the dresser, and trying valiantly to keep the bedsheet from slipping - decided it was time to call it quits and send the girl back to bed for the rest of the morning.

"He's not under there either, Yachiru-chan," she said, straightening up and attempting damage control on the bedsheet, which seemed to have given up entirely. "I think it's time -"

She was cut off by Yachiru's joyful squeal of "KEN-CHAAAN!", and the sound of the toddler scrambling over towards the doorway.