DarknessGryphon lives!!!!!!

DarknessGryphon also realizes that she never put in a disclaimer! Oops!

DISCLAIMER: If I owned Bleach, do you really think I would be bumming around and writing fanfiction? If I was secretly Tite Kubo-san, don't you think that Hitsugaya and Ichigo would be a couple right now? Mhmm… yeah people, y'all are nuts if you think that I'm claiming ownership of Bleach, as much as I would like to.

DarknessGryphon would also like to thank random nazgul, andrewhot, and lacyrelic for reviewing. Thanks a bunch for supporting this fic guys!

Anyways, even though this fic was originally intended to be a oneshot, I decided that an epilogue wouldn't hurt, so… Enjoy!


Chapter 2 Broken Epilogue

Ichigo sat with his legs dangling over the side of the roof of Hitsugaya's apartment, watching a certain petit taichou exercise under the night sky. A small smile graced his features as he watched Hitsugaya blast moving targets (A.K.A. unseated grunts- courtesy of Zaraki Kenpachi- from the eleventh squad) with his zanpaktou in shikai form. The juban taichou had been released only three days after their run-in with the hollows and nearly readmitted once he got back into the office to find that Matsumoto was actually completing the paperwork. Despite a strict warning from Unohana against strenuous activity, Hitsugaya quickly returned to work and began a vigorous training regimen.

To his credit, Ichigo had tried to stop the young genius, but had been countered by a frigid glare and an adorable pout which melted his resolve; besides, everyone knew that he couldn't refuse his little white dragon anything. But while he couldn't refuse Hitsugaya, he wouldn't just leave him alone to do anything he pleased. No, he stayed by his lover's side every possible minute of the day to ensure the juban taichou's safety. He wouldn't risk anything nearly taking his Toushiro away from him again.

Countering his closer-than-usual nature of late, the white-haired shinigami treated Ichigo in a somewhat detached manner, almost like he was trying to avoid the substitute shinigami. Ichigo wanted to put it out of his mind, but he couldn't help but think that something was wrong; that Hitsugaya wasn't telling him something. Trusting as always, the young Kurosaki dismissed the thoughts uneasily and not without difficulty, telling himself that things just must be a little awkward between them due to recent events. After all, Hitsugaya was used to having more alone time and room to brood and Ichigo did not rest easy behind the walls of Seireitei. On top of that, they had fought devastatingly and made up dramatically in the space of two days; a stressful and emotionally taxing chain of events for both of them considering that neither of them could really stand for being even a little bit wrong and they were especially unaccustomed to apologizing to anybody.

But still, Ichigo could not shake his thoughts.

Looking at the position of the moon, the substitute shinigami realized that the time was nearing midnight. Unohana would have his head if she knew that he had let Hitsugaya stay up so late training. She had begun to harbor something like dislike for the orange-haired teen of late, born of her fondness of the spiky-haired juban taichou and her disapproval for allowing her patients to push themselves too hard. After stretching momentarily, Ichigo shunpo-ed right behind Hitsugaya, his arms reaching around his dragon and gently restraining him. The petit taichou tried to spin around in surprise, but the substitute shinigami held on fast, carefully placing his lips at the crook between his lover's shoulder and neck and stretching his lips in a smile. Even sweaty and dirty, Hitsugaya always smelled so clean.

"It's late, Toushiro. Unohana might kill me if I let you stay up and train any longer." He expected Hitsugaya to go "Hmph" or to say something bitingly sarcastic, but his brow furrowed when the ju-ban taichou shrugged out of his grip and released Hyourinmaru, sheathing it and walking away to his quarters without a single utterance.

The uneasy thoughts resurfaced with a vengeance. There was something wrong and by the looks of it, Hitsugaya wasn't going to tell him on his own.

-

Ichigo reached the quiet apartment after the ju-ban taichou, treading with extreme care as to not disturb his Toushiro. Not seeing him in the first room, he frowned, searching for the white dragon concernedly. He found Hitsugaya sitting on the edge of the bed, dressed in little more than his undergarments, staring out of his window in deep thought. Padding into the room quietly, he set Zangetsu nest to Hyourinmaru and stripped as far as his underwear before he crossed over to the bed and touched Hitsugaya's shoulder tentatively.

"Toushiro?" He called softly, not wanting to disturb the smaller boy.

"Ichigo…" Hitsugaya whispered back, bowing his head slightly and acknowledging the orange-haired boy. There was a sadness about him, pervading his reiatsu and knifing through Ichigo's heart. The substitute shinigami leaned forward a little, forehead creased with concern.

"Toushiro, is something wro-" he began but was cut off by Hitsugaya's lips upon his. He stiffed at first from the unexpected action, but soon melted into the rare and intimate touch. But this was only fuel to the fire; there was definitely something wrong.

Pulling away for air, Ichigo looked into Hitsugaya's eyes, breath catching when he saw the absolute love pouring out of the depths of the blue-green orbs.

"Tou-" he tried once again, but Hitsugaya stopped him with another soft kiss.

"No, Ichigo. Tonight, I want to share the night with you. I want you to know… that I love you…" the smaller boy murmured against his lips, sounding unlike himself.

"I already know that you love me." The orange-haired boy murmured back.

"No, not yet…"

With those cryptic words, they fell back onto the bed and Ichigo forgot his worries as Hitsuyaga gave him the dark blanket of night and the bright light of the moon and every little star afterwards.

-

After waking up leisurely, a happy buzz still in the air, Ichigo got dressed and ready with a spring in his step. Later that day, they would be back home and Ichigo would make sure that they never had an argument that bad ever again. Hitsugaya moved sluggishly, almost reluctantly, a growing anxiety inundating his reiatsu. Ichigo should have noted that the juban taichou's control was much poorer than usual, but he was oblivious to the white dragon's distress.

In the afternoon, the high officers of the gotei 13 assembled to see them off at the portal. Ichigo stood close to the portal, close to home as he thought, but Hitsugaya stood farther back with the other leaders of the squads. The portal flared into life and Ichigo said his good-byes. Unnoticed by the substitute shinigami, perhaps because Hitsugaya was often quiet, the juban taichou had not moved from his place with the other taichou and stood, face drawn and teeth gritted with his arms crossed firmly across his chest. Ichigo turned to leap through the portal, but turned back, noticing that his dragon was not with him.

"Oi, Toushiro. You've gotta come closer if you expect to get home," the younger boy grinned extending a hand to the petit taichou. Hitsugaya stood his ground, both looking at Ichigo and trying to avoid it.

"I am home, Ichigo." The words were constricted, said while trying to refrain from showing emotion.

The grin faded from Ichigo's face and a frown replaced it, "What?"

"I'm not going back Ichigo." A cloud floated lazily across the genial blue sky.

"What do you mean? You're uninjured enough to train, so I'm sure that traveling through the portal won't kill you. C'mon. Inoue and Chado and the others are probably waiting for us on the other side."

"I'm… I have responsibilities here Ichigo. I was gone from Soul Society for four months. I can't leave. I have work to do."

Flat denial sparked in Ichigo's reiatsu. The other officers of the gotei 13 took the sudden stillness in the air as a good cue to leave; the sense of seriousness in the atmosphere weighed as much as straight out killing intent. Unohana looked back sadly, sensing the freshness of the emotional wound and wishing that there was an easier way for the two boys- both of which she had a soft spot for, although Ichigo might not have thought so- to work the situation out.

In respect to their recent disagreement, some spirit of their argument ignited stubbornness in both of them. Ichigo was incredulous, "What? Didn't we just have this argument? You aren't staying here. We're going home, to Karakura. You were doing fine operating from there."

Hitsugaya sighed, exasperated, "Don't presume that you can tell me what to do, Ichigo. Besides, you're being selfish. You had me for four months. I have responsibilities to my squad that I cannot execute from the real world. I have fresh recruits to oversee. How are they supposed to follow and respect someone they don't know?"

The substitute shinigami opened his mouth to argue, but finding no retort to Hitsugaya's words, resorted to upping the reiatsu he was pumping out, "I thought we had gotten past this. Aren't you gonna choose me over Soul Society?"

Thick, dark clouds eclipsed the usually clear sky of Soul Society, bad weather impending. The air became dangerously cold, causing any off duty shinigami to take shelter. Hitsugaya's eyes had taken on a hard edge, slamming up a wall with practiced ease, "Ichigo…"

"Ugh. I knew it! You are gonna choose Soul Society! Forget this." Ichigo made as if to jump through the portal, but Hitsugaya grabbed his sleeve, a look of pleading in his eyes unlike any that the orange-haired boy had ever seen. But in his stubbornness, he couldn't see the cry for help that the other was throwing him.

"Ichigo. You can still visit here and I can visit the real world. Don't you still love me?" The juban taichou's voice was small and frighteningly fragile.

Ichigo was merciless in his state of hurt and his own walls had slammed up, causing him to be colder than he would have liked, "Don't you still love me?"

Hitsugaya cast his eyes downwards, dropping the other boy's sleeve. A snowflake floated down between them from the large expanse of sky, followed closely by others.

"I see Kurosaki. Perhaps it's best if we break this off after all. I see no compromise. Goodbye. I- Kurosaki." And with that, the white-haired shinigami walked off in what was quickly becoming a blizzard, shoulders hunched and a forlorn air coloring his reiatsu. Ichigo reached after him briefly, as if he wanted to apologize, but clenched the hand into a fist instead, a bitter scowl on his features as he stepped through the portal, not caring for a second that he didn't say goodbye.


Whew! I have officially decided that this is a chapter fic! Oh dear… I'm working on a million fics at once now and I have many more that I haven't uploaded.

Oh Gryphie! What are you going to do now? Tame thy muses!

Anyways… to encourage me to pay attention to this one, and update every so often, please review? I love your feedback!