Title: Shattered

Rating: T (For mentions of blood & things from chapter 323)

Pairing: Hisagi Shuuhei x Kira Izuru

Preview: When someway breaks slowly, how do you notice?

Warnings/Thoughts: Spoilers for 323, should read up till there.

Prompt: 076. Broken Pieces

It's difficult to hold things together.

However, Shuuhei was finding that it was harder to put it back together after it fell apart. Maybe it was easier to let it break, like he had been so naively doing without realizing, so he supposed it was the natural thing to do. Wait till it breaks and then replace it, however that wasn't his intent. Shuuhei had thought that leaving something that was cracked alone would be fine, at least for a bit, until he could come repair it. Shuuhei hadn't expected it to fall apart when he wasn't looking, while no one was looking.

He had been so wrong.

He was cursing himself now for not seeing it, for not realizing that if you don't repair something right away you might lose it. He knew he shouldn't blame himself for this but he was the only one who understood what Izuru was going through. He should have been there. I mean, who else understood that Izuru trusting Gin was like him trusting Kaname, the betrayal was just as much of a shock as his own. Even if everyone else saw Gin coming, Izuru didn't. So it's not like Izuru was suffering any less, if anything it was probably more.

Having to remember everyone saying how bad he was, that he wasn't trust worthy, yet still… Izuru trusted him… till the end. Most people viewed it as stupid but really, it was Izuru's duty to trust his taichou, it was a fukutaichou's job. There wasn't much sympathy but there were many prosecutions towards him. He wasn't injured like Momo, he didn't raise his Zanpakutou against the traitors like himself. He was judged for helping someone who he had to trust for his duties sake. How could you run a division if the two leaders of it didn't trust each other?

Shuuhei hadn't had time to help.

Iie.

He just never tried to make time, he was busy with learning new things for the newspaper to keep it running. Shuuhei had been determined to act as both taichou and fukutaichou until he could become the official taichou or a replacement was found. Editing was new to him but he should have made time or maybe in between deliveries of the newest release he could have made small talk. However he was always rushing along with his business, trying to strengthen his own heart in order to prepare for the war, to prepare for Kaname.

If only Izuru had reached out to him.

'Iie.' Shuuhei reminded himself 'I can't blame him for not seeking me.'

It wasn't Izuru's fault at all that everyone was busy and the only people who could sympathize with him was sent to the real world, too busy, or recovering. He had no choice but to bear it alone, to isolate himself like this, to sink deeper into the darkness of his own heart. To become consumed and numb to the pain around, he embraced it instead of healing it. He fell apart when no one was looking, crumbling away like he always had, subtly, slowly.

He should have realized Izuru could do something like breaking without people realizing, I mean, he did his change from the academy days to now without anyone noticing or registering the problem. How could someone so happy, so carefree with many dreams turn into someone who was quiet, reserved, and unconfident. Maybe it was Gin, but when he reflected on it Izuru only became doubtful and depressed after Gin had left. How does someone go from what he was in the academy to what Shuuhei was seeing now?

Currently Shuuhei was staring at the head of the arrancar that Izuru had defeated, blood stained ruble around and Izuru with only slight remorse. There was no shame in Izuru's eyes when Shuuhei had stumbled across his work. Shuuhei hadn't believed his eyes at first that Izuru was capable of this, when had he changed? Izuru was kind, he knew that, he was in squad four, he was innocent. Now he took lives instead of saving them, now he was cold, distant, and dark. Shuuhei wasn't sure if he'd ever figure out what had happened but he hoped that maybe there was still something left of the real Izuru still in there.

However all he had left was broken pieces of what Izuru used to be.

A/N: I don't know why but I like how this turned out. It was mainly to address the fact that Izuru went from academy!Izuru (innocent looking child) to lobbing off people's heads. He's turned into a dark, dark child.

Translations:

Taichou = Captain
Fukutaichou = Vice-Captain