Warnings: mild language/ blood/ violence

Noboru (Climb)

Hisagi sat outside, on a hill looking at the sky when Kira walked up.

"Hey." Kira said. "Mind if I sit?"

"Feel free." He said.

Kira sat beside his old friend and looked up at the sky.

"Where's Renji?" Hisagi asked after a couple minutes.

"He got in a fight." Kira said flatly.

"Of course he did." Hisagi laughed. "With who?"

"Some other unseated officer." Kira rolled his eyes. "Momo said Captain Aizen is going to transfer him."

"On the first day?" Hisagi chuckled. "Sucks for him. Do you know where he's transfering to?"

"Sixth Division, probably." Kira informed him.

"Ooo." Hisagi shook his head. "Captain Kuchiki is tough. A real ass, too. But he's nobility. And a damn good fighter."

"I heard about that." Kira nodded. "Rukia's brother."

"Adoptive." Hisagi put in. "He's real tough on the law. He's rather massacre ten million innocent people than have the law be broken."

"Wouldn't massacring ten million people being against the law?" Kira chuckled.

"You know what I mean." Hisagi grimaced.

There was silence for a minute before Kira felt he needed to break it.

"Have you told her yet?" Kira asked him, turning his head to look at his old friend.

Hisagi hung his head. "No."

"It didn't look like it before..." Kira sighed. "Why not?"

"It's more complicated now." He told him. "And...she doesn't feel the same way."

"Puh-lease." Kira rolled his eyes. "You know she does. She joined the 9th Division because of you. You guys are practically attached at the hip. Not to mention how she hangs all over you all the time."

"First of all, she joined the 9th Division with me because we're friends. And you know she's naturally a touchy person."

"There you go. You know her more than me and Renji combined." Kira grabbed Hisagi's shoulder and gave him a hard shake. "You need to tell her. Knowing Gina, even if she doesn't feel the same way, she won't have the heart to not still be friends with you."

Hisagi shook his head. "I can't."

"Yes." Kira said flatly. "Yes, you can. You just won't."

"I'm a higher ranking officer than her." Hisagi shook his head. "She's my best friend. I can't screw things up, especially when she's so happy. I don't have to be with her to see her smile, and that's all I need. I'm perfectly fine with that."

Kira sighed as he stood. Before he walked away he turned back to Hisagi.

"You know, she could be even happier." He told him. "You could make her happier."

Hisagi put his head in his hands. "No, I can't."

In truth, he really wasn't good enough for Gina. At least he thought so. She was just so bright and happy. She could light anyones world, cheer anyone up. She could make you laugh and give you honest advice. She was beautiful and smart and powerful. She loved her friends like family, because they were all she had. She loved everybody...

And who did he love? Her. He loved her.

He cared about everybody else, but he loved her. She was the one and only star in his sky.

And she would never know. Because he couldn't tell her.

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Flashforward...

The alarm went off.

Gina ran towards Hisagi, as fast as she could. He was standing with Kira, both alone on the street, as the force field around the 1st District glowed yellow.

She tripped just before she reached him and she was lucky he caught her before she did a face-dive into the dirt.

"Careful." He told her as he held her up.

"What's wrong?" She asked as she gazed up at the sky.

"Intruders." He told her. "Ryoka."

"They can't break past the barrier, right?" Gina looked up at him with worried eyes.

At that moment, a blinding light shone overhead and a couple seconds later, four streams of light erupted from the shield. No...it wasn't just light. It was people.

"They've spilt up." Hisagi said.

Gina looked up franticly and saw that one of the streams was heading straight towards them. Hisagi grabbed her before pulling her out of the way.

She immediantly stood as the dust began to clear. There was a crater about 10 feet away, with two bodies lying inside. The bodies slowly began to move.

She drew her Zanpaktou and glared at the Ryoka. One was rather skinny with orange hair and the other was bulky and dark headed.

They stood and examined the battlefield. The orange haired one jumped out of the crater and looked at her with interest.

"You'd think they'd send someone a little more threatening." He shrugged. "But, okay, I'll take it."

Gina rolled her eyes as he drew his over-sized blade and took a fighting stance.

"You're awful arrogant for a Ryoka." She commented.

She saw Hisagi and Kira out of the corner of her eye, slowly getting up.

"My name is Ichigo, not Ryoka." He informed her. "Ichigo Kurosaki."

"That's nice." She smiled. "Strawberry. Cute."

"My name is not cute!" He argued.

"Shut up, strawberry." Gina rolled her eyes. "Let's see what you've got."

Ichigo charged at her and she barely lifted her sword a little to block the attack.

The kid had some strong spiritual pressure, she'd give him that. But he was inexperianced and slow.

Just as she thought that, he recoiled and gave a sharp blow to the right, slicing her torso up a bit.

"Oh, that's cold." She laughed as she touched the blood and lifted it to her lips. "You have no idea how to treat a lady, do you?"

"You're no lady." Ichigo commented before striking again.

But this time instead of meeting her sword, it was Hisagi's. Kira was at Gina's side, checking her waist and trying to stop the bleeding. She swiped at him.

"Hey, I was having fun." She muttered.

"You were about to get yourself killed." Kira told her.

She rolled her eyes.

Hisagi struck Ichigo with a hard blow to the shoulder, knocking him off balance.

"How dare you talk to her like that?" He said though clinched teeth.

"What?" Ichigo smirked as he blocked Hisagi's next hit. "Is she some kind of royalty?"

"No." Hisagi pushed hard as Ichigo drove him back. "She's my friend."

Ichigo grimaced. "How romantic."

Hisagi got mad at that comment, throwing all his spiritual pressure into his next attack. Ichigo's eyes went wide before he quickly got out of the way.

Kira and Gina could only watch as Hisagi fell to the ground. Ichigo took that advantage to get at him again, raising his Zanpaktou high.

Gina ripped herself from Kira's grasp and ran to Hisagi, pushing him out of the way and taking the hit herself.

Ichigo's Zanpaktou went all the way through her left side and she cried out in pain. Ichigo looked wide-eyed at her, shocked that he had even made contact. She had put herself two inches to left of where the other guy had been. Ichigo'd had no intention of cutting anyone at all...

"Gina!" Kira called as Hisagi didn't even bother.

Hisagi nearly crawled to her side as Kira ran and took a swipe at Ichigo. Ichigo dodged it, but left in sword lodged in Gina's torso.

"Oh, dear."

Yumichika's voice rang as he stood on the roof of a nearby building. Ikkaku was beside him, still looking pissed off.

"What did you do to her you bastard?" Ikkaku yelled as he charged Ichigo.

Ichigo got out of the way and quickly ran over to Gina.

"I'm sorry." He said before pulling his Zanpaktou out of her.

She answered with a painful cry.

"Oh, ow." She breathed as she touched her palm to the wound. "That hurts."

"Get her to 4th Division." Yumichika told them. "Me and Ikkaku will hold them off."

As he said this, the once silent bulky man began climbing out of the crater they had left in the ground.

"Dear, he's ugly." Yumichika sighed. "Oh, well."

Hisagi picked up Gina and ran for it, Kira closely behind them.

Gina was hiding the pain very well, not even sheading a tear. It hurt, but she'd had worse injuries.

"What the hell was that?" Hisagi demanded of her.

She looked up at him and forced a smiled. "I couldn't let him hurt my buddy."

Hisagi shook his head. "I was fine. You didn't need to interfer."

"Yes, I did." She sighed as she laid her head on his chest. "What would I do without my Emo-Bear?"

Hisagi shook his head. "Don't do that again. You scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry." She said as she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck.

She pulled herself up and kissed him softly on the cheek before sinking back down into his arms.

His heart shattered into a million tiny little peices. Everytime she did something like that, it killed him that he didn't have the guts to tell her how he felt.

He ran twice as fast towards the 4th Division, Kira barely keeping up.

Comments:

Renji's fight: yes, Ikkaku did mention right before he began training Renji that good old Red Pineapple had got in a fight on his first day, but I am not sure when he was transfered (though I'm sure it was because of this) so it can be right afterwards that he was transfered into Byakuya Kuchiki's Division.

wtf is Hisagi thinking: yes, I know. he won't tell her cause he's stubborn. period. what a guy. :P lol

Intrusion: this is pretty much where I start adding in things that really happened and factoring Gina into the mess. but it's still not a cross-over!!!!! it's still my story. and it's still Bleach. just with a twist of a different character. :)

Ichigo and Ikkaku: Ichigo does fight Ikkaku when he first lands in the 1st district. and Kukaku's brother fights (well, I would call it running, but...whatever) Yumichika. (poor Yumichika's hair.:( ]