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"The courses of true love never did run smooth." -William Shakespeare

"Where'd Hitsugaya-san go?"

Karin looked up in response to her sister's question. They had been in the hospital waiting room for a good four hours and hadn't heard anything yet. Toshiro had left nearly seconds after Kon's announcement, as everyone else scrambled to help Rukia to the car, and headed for Urahara's, without saying a word to her--Kon had managed to slip away as soon as Rukia was wheeled away, presumably to return Ichigo's body to the father-to-be. He'd shown up at the hospital forty-five minutes later with an uncharacteristically nervous Ichigo and a stoic-looking Urahara, and the three of them had breezed through the "Authorized Access Only" doors as if there were no doors at all, unnoticed and unconcerned with hospital procedure, leaving Karin and Yuzu in the waiting room.

"Maybe he had patients to see or something," she said, shrugging it off, although his being back there didn't really make sense. He wasn't really a doctor.

Yuzu began to pace. "Why's it taking so long? Is it supposed to take this long? Why hasn't anyone told us anything?"

Karin flipped through her magazine mindlessly. "Sit down, Yuzu. Everything is fine, I'm sure."

"But you don't know."

Karin rolled her eyes but tried to remain at least somewhat sympathetic to her sister's concern. She looked up at her with a knowing look. "Would Ichi ever let anything happen to Rukia? Ever?"

Yuzu's brow arched and her look mirrored her sister's. She knew the answer. She swallowed and sat, but continued to wring her hands. "You're right."

Karin went back to her magazine. She had a growing headache and the stuffiness of the hospital waiting room wasn't helping any. The room was full, and she was sure there were more on the way. Fifteen minutes after Toshiro, Ichigo, and Urahara had shown up, Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta had arrived. Then Yoruichi came, accompanied by Renji; they had come from Soul Society where she had informed Kuchiki-taicho, along with a few others, of the news. Kuchiki-taicho was supposedly on his way but hadn't yet decided to "grace" them with his presence. Inoue was there, sitting with Ishida, and Chad occupied the far corner. At least he was quiet.

She was trying to let that, although Jinta claimed to "love" her sister, he had done nothing to calm or comfort Yuzu irk her. She pushed those thoughts aside and tried to focus on her magazine.

Suddenly, the doors swung open and Toshiro stepped into the room. He stopped when he noticed all the eyes in the room on him but recovered quickly. He only glanced at Karin once before shoving his hands in his jacket pockets and heading down the hall.

"She's fine," he announced quietly before making his exit.

Karin threw the magazine down and hurried after him.

"Tosh-" she sighed and corrected herself, "Hitsugaya-taicho, wait," she called.

He stopped and looked around. "Watch what you call me. You humans don't exactly run around using honorifics and military titles."

She scowled noticeably. What was with this guy? What had happened to him to make him so...cold? "Call you taicho, don't call you taicho," she mocked, holding her hands out like a balance scale, "make up your mind, Toshiro."

He glowered at her but continued to walk wordlessly. She followed and matched his pace. She was having difficulty reading his mood; he seemed broody and cold...but cold wasn't exactly new. She was used to that aspect of his disposition. She didn't know where he was going--she didn't think he even knew where he was going--but she followed anyway. The nighttime breeze was cool but pleasant as they stepped out of the hospital. He remained silent and she tried to let the fact that he hadn't looked at her since leaving the hospital get to her.

"Shouldn't you be with your family?" he asked suddenly.

She started, but recovered and shrugged. "It'll probably be a few more hours. They don't need me this minute."

Silence.

She pursed her lips. "Wanna get some coffee or something?" she tried.

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye but looked away swiftly.

She smirked, desperately trying not to let it develop into a full-blown smile. "Do you know what coffee is?"

He didn't look at her and shrugged.

The wind picked up and she shivered.

He stopped and said, "You're cold; let's go back," and he held his arm out to turn her around.

She shook her head and slipped her arm into his. "No, there's a coffee shop around the corner. It'll be warm there."

She didn't notice his wide-eyed expression as she lead him down the street. He watched her as she headed steadfastly into the wind. She was...different than other girls, that much he knew. Yet, despite the memory loss, she was still very much the same individual, the same spirit she had been before. She was bold and fearless and had this contagious love of life...he didn't really understand it.

They arrived at the coffee shop and she was right: it was warm. She led him to a table in the back and said, "Sit. I'll get the coffee."

Hitsugaya complied wordlessly as she returned to the front counter. He watched her as she walked in front of the pastry shelf, inspected various sweets behind the glass; as she interacted with the boy behind the register and laughed--a sincere, animated laugh which lit up her whole face and shone in her eyes--at something he must have said; as she balanced the cups skillfully in her hands with tiny white packets sitting on the lids. She was graceful and confident.

He was getting sucked back in, back into her captivating persona.

Again.

She sat across from him and handed him one of the cups. "Try it," she said, though watching him apprehensively as she began emptying three of the white packets into her own cup.

Tentatively, he brought the cup to his lips, but when he tasted the brown, bitter liquid, he recoiled in disgust. "Ugh," he grunted, "this is awful."

Her smile threw him off. "It's...different," she admitted. "Add some sugar."

His scowl wasn't terribly pronounced, but it was there. "How do you drink that stuff?"

She shrugged and smiled slightly. "I'm addicted to it." To his raised brow, she clarified, "Like your vice-captain and sake, or so my brother tells me."

His scowl hardened, and she laughed. "But not as bad, I assure you. The aspects aren't as negative, either. Just...long, sleepless nights."

He placed his coffee back on the table and, leaning back, folded his arms across his chest.

Karin tried to mask it, but her expression fell a little; he noticed. She sighed and seemed to stare into the depths of the cup. "You haven't been around much," she stated softly.

His scowl softened, especially in the creases between his eyes, but a slight frown remained set on his lips.

She leaned forward. "Look, I'm not suggesting we become best friends here, but could we at least act...civilly? I mean, I don't know what this...aversion you have toward me is--I'm sorry if the pre-shinigami Karin did something to you, I truly am-"

He opened his mouth to respond but she held her hand up. "I really don't know what my enrollment in the academy means, but I do feel it will give me some answers. Maybe not all but at least some. You have no idea how badly I need answers. I'm sorry." She was laying her whole self--heart and soul--on the table now. She was tearing down her walls, if only for this moment, and letting herself be temporarily vulnerable. He chose to let her but resolved to harden his heart in response. He didn't want her getting hurt. Again. He watched her swallow before she continued. "I don't want you to be, to feel responsible for me, in any way," she said, angling her head down to look up at him, her piercingly dark eyes holding his. "I'm not afraid, and I am capable of taking care of myself. I can take care of myself."

He thought for a moment. He hated that she thought of herself as a burden. She was truly talented and had immense spiritual pressure...Soul Society would make her stronger, better. It was what he needed. He wouldn't be selfish enough to stand in her way.

"I know," he said simply.

She blinked, having expected a fight. What the hell? He was so bipolar it was driving her crazy! Before she could comment further, her phone rang.

He watched her dig her phone out of her pocket and flip it open.

"Hello?"

Words floated from the other side of the line and her eyes widened slightly and a smile touched her lips before she flipped the phone shut.

"It's a boy."

The hospital room was even more crowded than the waiting room had been. Ichigo hovered protectively over his wife, who was holding their new son; Byakuya stood on Rukia's other side, and odd, awe-filled expression on his face. Everyone was uncharacteristically silent, too.

The whole room, filled with usually loudmouthed, argumentative, uncontrollable shinigami and humans and non-humans, who, at one time or another had either hated or fought with one another.

It was weird.

Especially to Hitsugaya Toshiro.

It seemed like everyone who had ever been involved with Kurosaki was in the room: everyone who had been in the waiting room; Isshin and Urahara; Tatsuki; Hanataro, who had shown up with Ganju; Ukitake-taicho, who had arrived to check on his vice-captain and the "newest member of Squad 13"--Kyouraku-taicho had tagged along and, of course, his vice-captain was at his side; even Ikkaku and Yumichika were there. Supposedly Kenpachi had tried to come, but Ichigo had made it clear that "no way in hell" did he want that "crazy lunatic" anywhere near his son.

Hitsugaya stood in the far corner of the room, away from everybody else. The incredible amount of reiatsu drowning the room normally would have been bothersome and overwhelming, but oddly enough it was under control.

Karin was sitting on the edge of Rukia's bed, smiling at her sister-in-law and new nephew. She looked happy, too. She was happy; he could feel it.

It just wasn't clicking for him. How could such a tiny...thing render a whole room silent, still?

Suddenly, Urahara was leaning against the wall next to him, mirroring his stance. The older shinigami folded his arms across his chest after pushing his hat down over his eyes.

Hitsugaya wondered what the man was thinking, but chose not to ask. His eyes returned to the scene in front of him, and he saw Ichigo reach for his son and, with an indescribable expression on his face, cradle the small baby gently in his massive arms.

Hitsugaya swallowed, trying to understand what he was feeling. "He looks...different somehow," he stated quietly, almost inaudibly. He surveyed the usually obnoxious, insolently disrespectful, aggressively disobedient orange-haired substitute shinigami with wonder. The man was none of those things at the moment--except for the orange-haired part--and it truly left Hitsugaya stunned. Holding his new son, Ichigo was calm and in a state of dumbstruck awe; he just looked at the little bundle in his arms, not saying a word, as if there were no need for words, as if the feeling washing over him was simply understood. Hitsugaya did not understand how such a little...thing--weak, vulnerable and totally incapable of self-sufficiency--could have such a hold on the man. It didn't make sense.

"Happiness changes a man," Urahara observed quietly in response.

Happiness? A crying, drooling, needy thing is a wellspring of happiness?

Nope, still made no sense.

But his gaze travelled around the room. Every person present had their eyes glued on the small child, even the stone-hearted Kuchiki-taicho, as if the baby was emitting some trance spell that turned the people around him into mush. They congratulated the new parents, cooed at the tiny babe, fought--but in an amiable manner--over who would have the next turn holding him.

Even the famous/infamous Kurosaki Ichigo scowl was absent.

Quietly, he passed Urahara and slipped out of the room. He wasn't needed there, nor did he particularly want to be there.

Once out of the hospital, he popped in his gikongan and, in soul form, sprinted past the noise and masses and distractions of the city to the outskirts of town, to the trees, to the dark, where he let the quiet and solitude consume him.

Karin looked up; somehow, she managed to tear her eyes away from her adorable new nephew. The room felt completely emptied--like an ever-present current suddenly died--the minute Toshiro left. She hadn't seen his departure, but she'd sensed it, sensed it in her very core.

Immediately, she felt despondent. Like someone had like someone had just told her her best friend died.

Why did he have to be so distant, so cold? Why couldn't he socialize with everyone else? Why couldn't he just talk to her? Were words so difficult? Did he dislike her that much?

She sighed. More questions...still no answers. She had a bone to pick with whoever invented the rhetorical question; they were totally useless grammatical devices, and, right now, she hated them.

Rukia threw her a concerned look, but Karin waved her off. This was a happy moment; who was she to rain on everyone else's parade?

She only hoped she wouldn't be this miserable in Soul Society.

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