Fugue
---------
Arms crossed and behind firmly plopped down on a rock surveying the clearing, Yachiru pouted most ferociously, not even the splatter of blood skillfully directed next to her enough to assuage her ire. Not even finger-painting material would get Kenpachi out of trouble this time, she decided. The sideways look granted her by said object of indignation was met with a further jutting out of her lower lip and a fearsome scowl.
"Che!" was the equally sulky reply, and Kenpachi spitted another hollow on his worn sword, almost carelessly so. The creatures had grown increasingly weaker as the weeks passed, until those left over now weren't even much sport but Kenpachi had determined that every single one of the creatures in the forest would die, and even being bored wasn't going to stop that.
He finished off the lot of hollows, each hissing and gurgling pathetically at him and then let his shoulders slump, sighing heavily. Turning around, he started to say something, then blinked a few times rapidly.
"Yachiru?"
A look to the left exposed nothing. A slow, steady swivel of the head and a look to the right revealed naught as well. A look straight ahead at the rock showed blood drops dripping down on the dirt of the forest ground, and again, absolutely no sign at all of any pink haired moppet.
A slow twitch developed against Kenpachi's cheek, along with a gradual reddening of his face.
"YACHIRU!"
----
Skimming along the ground, hands and feet pattering in a swift and agile motion, Yachiru giggled gleefully, ignoring the quickly fading shouts she'd left behind. The leaves were dancing overhead, urging her onward in her quest for something fun and new and entertaining to do, and the little girl wasn't about to let that moment go to waste. Of all the things she'd learned with Kenpachi, it was that living every moment to the utmost was the only possible thing to do if one was going to become… anything at all, really.
A high-pitched shriek of pure horror suddenly broke Yachiru's reverie, and her rhythm as well, sending the girl into a sudden head over heels tumble which ended in a whirlwind of leaves and a faint thump. Lower body propped up in the air, leaning against something as of yet unidentified, Yachiru blinked and cracked open an eye, wondering who it was that had ended up stopping her tumble.
Wide, horrified eyes stared down at her, two delicate hands clapped to the mouth underneath, hiding it from sight. Yachiru blinked once contemplatively, then grinned widely at the sight, a stream of giggles escaping her, dancing high and bright in the air.
"Oh." The horror faded (slightly) and the eyes staring down at her blinked a few times in bemusement. "Well." They came closer all of a sudden, the man bending down sharply to observe her from up close, earning himself a barefooted stop in the chin as a result. "Ow. Look at you…" The hands were removed and a sudden, equally brilliant smile answered Yachiru's giggles, eliciting yet another series of the cheerful sound as a result. "Well, aren't you thecutest little thing under all that… dirt." The last word was said with a sad little frown and Yachiru found herself scrambling to be on all fours, still smiling merrily, waving a small hand up at the man to cheer him up once more. "Well, that's all right, peanut. We know what to do about that, don't we?"
Both hands were raised up this time, Yachiru nodded cheerfully, knowing exactly what that meant and having determined within seconds of hearing the yell that the man wouldn't be any danger to her at all. The lights suddenly sparkling enticingly around the man's head had nothing atall to do with how easily she let him pick her up, of course, or the way she waved her arms gleefully as they headed towards the river.
----
The splashing sounds from the river did nothing at all to assuage the blood spattered man's mood and with a snort of disgust at the neatly folded clothing on the excruciatingly clean rock near the river, he rested his sword carefully nearby, though nowhere near staining range (a lesson learned the hard way) and then carelessly stripped of his clothing, letting them fall in the dirt near the edge of the water, before stalking in angrily.
"You bastard. You left me to deal with all the damn mopping up and it's not like that was any fun at all and - the hell are you snickering about, dammit?!" The last words ended in a roar and Ikkaku's hands, reaching out for Yumichika with no good intent at all were suddenly stopped as a pink blur suddenly erupted from the water nearby to land neatly in his grasp.
"Ken-chan!" The squirming babe's voice was all hearts and smiles, her eyes dancing in pure joy at him. And, after a moment's pause. "Not Ken-chan." The hearts dropped in the river to drown and the smiles shattered, and the little girl gave him a look of reproach fit to break the heart of the hardest of blackguards. Yumichika's accompanying glare of utter and total doom did nothing to help Ikakku's feeling of impending disaster.
"Er… Yumi? Where did you find it? Oh wait, her. …wait. Waaait!" Eyes bugging out, Ikkaku yelped and raised his hands, Yachiru popping out of his grasp like greased lightning only to be caught by a still frowning Yumichika. Neither Yachiru's whoop of delight nor Yumichika's frowns, however, were noticed as Ikkaku dove under the water, shrieking something about being naked and how improper this all was. Silence reigned after that, and it was all Yumichika could do to keep Yachiru from diving in after Ikkaku. Until the handsome man decided that Yachiru chasing a suddenly chaste and prim Ikkaku around the lake would be a riot and a half, and deliberately let go of the girl, who wasted no time in fulfilling every one of Yumichika's expectations.
----
"Bastard!" Glaring over the campfire, Ikkaku wrung out water from the last of his shirts, ignoring Yumichika's barely stifled snickers (all of which were beautifully done, of course), as well as the way Yachiru kept poking at his side, waiting for him to shriek and run away some more. "I can't believe you did that. S'just a little girl!"
"Exactly!" was the reply, Yumichika tittering and fluttering, arms waving as though that said it all and the laughter that followed was the only obvious continuation of the explanation. With a low coo, Yachiru waved her arms as well, only to pout slightly in discontent as they failed to follow the same squiggly paths the handsome man's arms did. And she couldn't do the sparkly thing either, at that - though the other man's bald head certainly sparkled nicely in the firelight, she couldn't help but notice, very pleased herself for it.
The two men continued to argue (for one) and titter (the other) at each other, their attention diverted away from Yachiru enough that neither noticed as she darted away, suddenly, the very speed at which she took off enough to dry the last of her damp hair. It wasn't hard to find the forest again, and though she didn't even try to actuallyfind Kenpachi, Yachiru knew that if she crisscrossed the place often enough, she'd eventually stumble (likely literally) over him. She'd lost herself in the pursuit of a moth (which was wondering why, oh why the forest's Hunter of Moths had turned its attention on its poor wee self on this dread night) when a pair of well known hands suddenly plucked her up in mid leap and raised her up high, bringing her up to level with a fierce (and suddenly no longer worried) glare.
"YOU!"
"Ken-chan! Love you, Ken-chan! Love you lots!"
Kenpachi's heart skipped a beat, the first he could ever remember really, that didn't involve having to pluck Yachiru from one trouble or another, usually involving instant baby death.
"Oh."
The words the sparkly man had taught her for Kenpachi did exactly what he'd promised they'd do, and Yachiru cheered out loud and clapped her hands at him, laughter rising up once more, high overhead, doing the very stars competition in its brightness.
And if Kenpachi's eyes glimmered equally brightly for a moment, Yachiru never noticed, too busy reaching up for the moon shining above.