To Ayumi's complete and utter horror, Soul Society had changed. A lot.
"... I don't remember a wall being here..." she looked up at the solid, sturdy divider with a grimace. She had no idea where she was now.
Oookay, Ayumi. Not such a good idea to walk out on the only bed and shelter offered to you. Stumbling in on Byakuya or Shunsui at this time of night probably wasn't such a good idea anyway... she groaned, feeling a rain drop splash onto her nose.
She looked around, no longer dwelling on her quarrel with Division 10's captain. Ayumi knew tons of people in Soul Society. Surely they would let her spend the night in their room?
If she could manage to find them.
She grunted, scratching her head as she looked back in the direction she came from. Should I... just go back to Toushirou's place?
'You should go back to his room.' Ayumi irked as that little habit popped up again. 'The poor guy's probably worried sick about you.'
If that JERTARD is worried about me, the world would be short a lot of deaths. Ayumi scoffed at herself.
'Holding grudges isn't an ability to be proud of.'
You're not something to be proud of, yet I can't get rid of you!
Of course, Ayumi didn't actually have a voice inside her head. But instead of talking to herself audibly like people usually do, she tends to fight it out with herself inside, not letting anyone see.
Yes, sometimes she does question her own sanity.
"Haneyari, what should I do?" Ayumi asked her zanpakutou.
Haneyari did not speak.
How mean, Ayumi thought bitterly.
Ayumi groaned. Okay. Back to the jerk it is, then.
She headed off for Toushirou's room. Ayumi shouted blasphemy as it began to rain, and she lost her way. The rain was splattering hard onto the rooftops and concrete, and she couldn't manage to jump onto the rooftops in such weather, or else she might slip. It was so not her day!
-X-
It rarely rained in Soul Society, but the occasional downpour during Autumn or Spring wasn't out of the ordinary at all. Toushirou stepped to his doorframe, watching the rain pour all over his front steps and sighed. She was too prideful for her own good; she wouldn't come back. The girl was probably staying with another captain. If luck was on his side, he wouldn't need to see much of her again.
She was known all around Soul Society... so she wouldn't have much trouble finding another person to stay with. Maybe Kuchiki, Kyouraku, Unohana or Genryuusai himself, even! That stupid girl had got to be perfectly fine! She's a prodigy right? He shouldn't be worried.
He shouldn't be.
I lost my temper and drove her out, that was wrong of me. However, it was her own fault that she chose to abandon the room that was graciously offered to her, which really doesn't have anything to do with how I treated her... If she's out there in the rain, I should be looking for her. If she took shelter with someone else, all of Seireitei knows she's my responsibility now. Either way, I'm doing something wrong.
Fantastic, he ruled out sarcastically, grabbing a firm hold of Hyourinmaru before facing the door to leave his room without his Captain's Garb.
He stared in frustrated confusion as Ayumi was standing outside his room, shivering like a drenched kitten, with wide, accusing eyes staring him down. He pursed his lips and stepped to the side to allow her into the room. She stood sturdily outside the room, unmoving. He glanced expectantly at her, only to realize she was giving him an even disappointed look.
"I...ah..." she was able to choke out, sniffling and hugging herself to preserve heat. His eyelids drooped down and he stepped behind her, guiding her slowly into the room. She moved at the pace of a 90 year old grandma.
Toushirou sighed, How troublesome, before lifting the shivering girl's arm over his shoulder. The minute his skin came in contact with her, he flinched. As much as he dealt with ice, she was frostbitten cold. He seated her on a chair, and tossed a blanket at her. "Wait here," he said before he stormed out of his room.
Ayumi exhaled, shivering even more. She had brought this onto herself, she was fully aware. Where places usually had divisions and squadrons were now walls. Soul Society had changed much since she had last been there. Not that she was particularly surprised, as she thought about it for longer, seeing as it had been what seemed like centuries since she had last stepped foot in the Seireitei.
Ayumi heard voices from outside the door and sniffled again, not wanting to dribble snot all over his floor.
"She's inside." That was Hitsugaya Toushirou, definitely.
"Hai." Was that... his fuku-taicho?
"Hello again, Sakurada-san!" It was his Fukutaicho, the orange haired 'mature woman', as Ayumi labeled her, until she figured out her name.
"...He-ey..." Ayumi barely got out the simple words, her throat felt like needles jabbing at her neck. It was just freezing. So cold...
"I'm Matsumoto Rangiku!" she smiled warmly. Ayumi had not known she was such a 'jumpy' kind of woman. While she saw Rangiku on the mission, she was rather composed in front of her. In her arms was a folded black cloth... or some sort. A Shihakusho?(1) "I'm the Fuku tai-cho of the Tenth Division!"
"Sakurada Ayumi," Ayumi labeled herself, feeling better as she got her mind off the hypothermia. "Former 10th Division's captain."
"Oh! So you were the Tai-cho of my division before Hitsugaya Tai-cho!" she said, handing Ayumi a change of clothes.
"...Uuuhh..."
"He told me to give you my clothes. However, he said he couldn't tend to you so he brought me here," she pointed to herself comically as Ayumi started taking off her own shihakusho.
She mused to herself, he could have brought her here because he thought I didn't like him... or because he thought I wouldn't like a boy treating me.
"Wow! You fit as snug as a bug into my uniform! How tall are you? Five seven? I'm five nine, you're just a little bit short of my height!" The orange haired woman twittered, picking up the fallen clothes she had tossed.
"Well..." Ayumi flushed. "5'7", actually. I stopped growing at fifteen when I became a Captain, and this is just where I've been the whole time."
"Fifteen? Wow, how young, but you're pretty tall for a fifteen year old. Hitsu was thirteen when he first became a shinigami. He was a bit past your age as a Captain. I hope he's still growing though! Unlucky for him that our age is slowed by so much compared to humans!" Rangiku said as she felt Ayumi's forehead. It was clearly abnormally hot.
Hitsugaya Tai-cho, Toushirou corrected grimly from outside the door, overhearing Rangiku while he (absentmindedly) eavesdropped on the two females' conversation.
"But wow, Toushirou's rather small. I mean, I supposed he's physically younger than me, but... his height is... Gosh, what is he? Stunted for life-"
Rangiku slapped a hand over Ayumi's mouth. "He's outside!" she warned in a hushed tone.
Toushirou irked furiously from outside his room. He had heard that. She was so going to be on his hit list (of-people-to-hate-but-to-ignore-eternally-and-never-speak-to-them-kind-of-hit-list -Toushirou rarely overreacted).
"Matsumoto-san?"
"Hmm?"
"Can you call Toushirou back in? It's cold outside..." Ayumi said in a quiet, subdued voice, but Rangiku caught every word, widely smiling to herself form ear to ear.
She's guilty! Ooooohh...
"Alright. I'm taking my leave. I was just here to help you change incase you went unconscious!"
"Bye...?" Ayumi looked confused. Her brain flew, adding all the pieces together about Toushirou's actions. Her eyebrows went up at her sudden conclusion. He... isn't a jerk? No, no, no, surely her calculations were wrong...
The door was ruthlessly thrown open a second time that day as Rangiku stepped out of her captain's room. She smiled at him mischievously. "She's cute."
Touhirou raised a suspicious eyebrow. And she is telling me this because...?
"She's got a fever so -"
"I know what to do when she has a fever," Toushirou said, brushing past Rangiku into the room. He closed the door slowly, glancing up at Rangiku through a crack. "Thank you, Matsumoto."
He shut the doors, turning around to face Ayumi. She was staring at him nervously, wrenching her hands.
Maaaan this is embarrassing. I threw a fit at him and in the end he's got to take care of me. I'll just go to bed now and –
"Your hair isn't dry yet," Toushirou stopped Ayumi as she attempted to walk towards the laid out futon. "Let it dry. I'll give you some sheets."
Ayumi felt ashamed, guilt prickling at her feet.
She unskillfully caught the blankets Toushirou had provided her with, staring at them awkwardly before draping them around herself. The weight made it a bit hard to walk, but she surely wasn't going to chuck them back and ask for another one.
"Here. Take it," Toushirou handed Ayumi a wet cloth and a cup of water.
"Th-thanks..." Okay. Still rather cold hearted, no?
Toushirou walked back over to the washroom available in his room. He exhaled profoundly, gazing at his reflection in the mirror. It really wasn't his fault he was so... so grave sometimes. Toushirou hated anything that he deemed childish and to be compared to someone who... was... rather...
...
Toushirou glanced back at the black haired girl, who was carefully sipping her tea, then putting it on the table next to her. Was all the comparison finally getting to him? Was it making him ill-judge others out of misunderstanding? He was proud of himself on the inside, not that he would ever fully show off his self-respect in public.
Perhaps he should put her on the bed, now? So she can get some proper sleep. Rest is essential for a fever, as was warmth.
He trudged over slowly, not making a sound as his feet came in contact with a hardwood floor. He gently brushed her hair with his fingers; wet.
He frowned, thinking. What should he do?
-X- Ayumi Sakurada –X-
I began dreaming about fishing for some odd reason. I just sat there, unmoving, until the fish finally came. I felt a tug on the end of the line and immediately began to reel it in. My grip on it was firm and stubborn, so when the 'fish' (it was probably a shark or something. there's no way a fish is that strong) tugged on the line, I lurched forward and fell into the waters.
It pulled me out into sea, but I didn't go down without a fight. I struggled. The water was rough, and it was fiercely stinging my eyes and whipping my cheeks. I suffered sputtering out the water until I realized how stupid I was being. All I had to do was let go of the stupid fishing rod.
So I let go.
Immediately I started falling - for how long, I had no idea. I didn't have a watch, and keeping track of time wasn't my priority when I was falling in a pit of blackness. Instead of cracking my skull against the cold hard floor, I just kept falling. I felt a lot like Alice in Wonderland now and began to wonder if I would meet a crazy Hatter, or if the Queen of Hearts would have a bulbous head like in Tim Burton's Movie...
As I fell, something invisible started rocking me back and forth around like a rag doll. With both arms I tried to grab something to cling to. What I ended up grabbing was a round, moss covered rock - Or so I thought, until it started speaking.
"Sakurada," it drawled grudgingly. "Please let go of my face."
I forced my tired eyes open, suddenly painfully aware of my surroundings. I met with a pair of striking teal eyes. "H-Hitsugaya?"
He stared down at me, in his Captain's garb and his zanpakuto sheathed in his back. A dissapointed look etched on his face. He was definitely not part of my dream.
-X- Third Person –X-
"I said I'm sorry!"
"I know you are. And you're forgiven."
"Then why on earth are you stomping away from me?" She attempted to become a roadblock by stopping in front of him, but he only swerved around a corner. The chase continued.
He gritted, "I'm not."
She snorted. "Yeah, and I'm gonna go rob a convenience store."
"Then why are you still here?" he glared, too angry to understand the sarcasm in her words.
"Do you hear yourself? You are mad!"
"I-!" he whipped around angrily at her before gaining composure and turning back around. "Forget it."
Ayumi frowned and huffed immaturely as Toushirou trudged off, not bothering to give her a second glance. She let out a disgruntled moan, thoroughly ticked off.
Toushirou had gone through the trouble to lightly dry Ayumi's hair with a towel as she slept. She was a very deep sleeper, as he found out. He stared at her for a good 10 minutes, wondering how on earth he was going to carry someone of her height onto the bed 5 meters away. He released her body of the blankets to get rid of extra weight, and astoundingly hoisted her up onto his back and slowly trudge to his bed. He ended up loosing balance and swinging the wrong way, hitting Ayumi's head side on his closet door. He stood there, frozen, but the girl hadn't woken up (That's not human). Then the young captain had settled Ayumi down onto his bed, tucking her in completely with extra sheets incase she started shivering. He fell asleep at the chair Ayumi had previously been sitting at, crossing him arms over his chest.
That morning apparently she had been throwing a fit in her sleep, flinging side by side, lashing her arms everywhere. Toushirou woke up from the creeking noise of the bed, and was worried that she might be having a seizure. He didn't restrict her movements as taught. Worry overcame him as he had no idea what he should have done. Try to take care of the matter himself or call upon the help of one of her older friends - Unohana? His brain began hurting as he tried to decide the pros and cons or both decisions until she started violently thrashing and mumbling 'fi... fisssssshhhh... no! Stop...gah...' in which he concluded she was just having a bad dream, so he began to shake her in order to wake her up. Instead, her arms grabbed onto his head firmly, hurting the captain excruciatingly. He had worried for nothing.
But Ayumi only knows part of that story, obviously, seeing as Toushirou did not bother to enlighten her on the details.
"What's the matter, Ayumi-chan?" Jyuushirou asked, as he happened to pass by.
"Oh!" Ayumi mumbled. "N-Nothing.. Just, uh... "
He chuckled. "A lover's quarrel?"
Ayumi's mouth went agape. He did NOT just-!
"Oh, seems that I've said something wrong?" Jyuushirou apologized insincerely, a twinkle in his eyes as he tried to comprehend the situation.
Ayumi huffed. "Toushirou's really hard to understand,, you know, Jyuushirou? He's moody: Twenty. Four. Seven."
"...I see..." Jyuushirou considered her words, understanding her sour mood. Funny, really, because the rest of the Captains thought they would be as friendly with eachother as Peanut Butter and Jam...
Ayumi was staring at Jyuushirou with a blank look, followed by a stretching mouth and an expression of horror.
"Is there something wrong?" he asked innocently.
"You... looked kinda.. evil just now," Ayumi replied, looking worried for her wellbeing. Haneyari was sheathed firmly on her back ready for use as Ayumi hoped Jushirou had not gone schizophrenic in the time she had been gone.
Jyuushirou chuckled at Ayumi's alert expression, turning around to walk back to his office. "See you, Sakurada Tai-cho."
-X-
"You liiiiiike her."
"Matsumoto, are you mentally deranged?" the young captain fired back, openly offended.
"How do you know who I was talking about?" Rangiku warbled teasingly, leaning on her captain's desk.
Toushirou blushed. He had just happened to be thinking of Ayumi, but not in any sort of romantic way. It was quiet, despite Rangiku dwelling in his office and he had pondered where the irritating girl had wandered off to. He wasn't going to step out of his office to look for her, especially with Rangiku eyeing him suspiciously. She was like a prowling lioness waiting for any kind of thing she could use against him. He convinced himself that it wasn't like she was his responsibility to lessen the guilt.
Rangiku grinned deviously. "Something's going to spark."
"Something's already sparked, all right," Toushirou muttered, grounding his pen to sign multiple papers after skimming over them restlessly. Something had sparked, all right: an irritation.
Rangiku pouted. "Tai-cho, why are you getting so worked up about her?"
"Because-..."
...
Toushirou flushed white at the answer he was about to answer. "I... am not getting worked up over her."
"Riiiight." Toushirou's anger simmered louder as Rangiku hummed a happy tune that defied his dark mood.
"Get back to work, Matsumoto. I know you have a desk of paperwork left undone."
"Geez! Tai-cho!"
"Desk. Work. Now." Toushirou wasn't one to tolerate negligence.
With one last sigh, Rangiku replied, "Hai."
She walked towards the door, opening it, pausing, and then closed it. Toushirou's eyes travelled up, as his body remained motionless. What now?
Rangiku turned around robotically, a roguish grin on her face. "She's here, you know."
Toushirou blinked once and considered the multiple possibilities she could have been talking about. Hinamori Momo? Unohana Retsu?
"Outside your door, standing there and staring at a wall."
Toushirou squinted his white eyebrows. "Who?"
Rangiku placed a firm elbow on her Captain's desk, resting her head on the palm of her had. "I think she's too scared to come in because she doesn't want to get into trouble again. You've been too harsh on her, Tai-cho. Not everyone can stand your moodiness."
The white haired prodigy immediately understood from those words, who Rangiku was talking about, as he stood up. "Go out the left door in the Member's Work Area."
"No problemo!" Rangiku confidently obliged. When she was gone, Toushirou waited a longer while to see if she would come in. Rolling his eyes, he got up and glided over to his sliding doors.
"What are you doing here?"
She looked up in alarm. "Um...Trying not to bother you?"
"Don't you have a lot of acquaintances in Soul Society? Why don't you go hang around their door?"
"...Trying not to bother them?"
He furrowed his eyebrows, rubbing his temples. "Come in."
"I'm not going in there," Ayumi replied as if it was the craziest thing she had ever heard.
"Do you want to stand outside all day?"
"You don't like me," Ayumi began with a statement, ending with a question, "do you, Toushirou?"
It's not that I dislike, but...
"Why," she began with a roll of her eyes, "would I go into the office of someone who doesn't like me? I wouldn't want them to misunderstand me for bothering them. I'm fine. The wall is highly entertaining."
Toushirou surprisingly considered her for a moment. So she was a bit loud, cocky and completely disagreeable with him. This girl would probably rather wait until he carried her into a place than set foot into a room herself, just because she was too prideful to do it. She would probably continue to wake him up in the morning with her Sleep Talking Disability (... STD?), and she might even kick him awake or end up stabbing him in her sleep if they ever argued. He wouldn't be surprised if she thought only of herself and couldn't care less if he lived or not.
She was obviously a recipe for disaster in his life.
But maybe, just maybe... with her guilty conscience and sarcastic apologies...
She wasn't so bad.
"Sakurada-"
"Ayumi," she corrected, grinning at him. "Don't call me by my last name. Only strangers do that to me."
Toushirou felt confused. Call her by her first name? Wasn't that alittle too... Familiar?
"Aren't we familiar?" He glanced up in alarm: was she a mind reader too? "You took up the mission of retrieving me yourself, didn't you? No one asked you to do it, but you volunteered," Ayumi smirked. Toushirou parted his mouth to protest, but she cut him off and started again just as quickly. "Because you wanted to see for yourself what the old prodigy was like. You wanted to check out the competition."
Ayumi's mischievous glint in her eyes challenged Toushirou's authority as he took in what she was saying and asked himself if it was true. I'm actually thinking about something so trivial?
"If I didn't know better, I'd think that you were jealous."
Toushirou looked about ready to leave just then. Jealous of someone like her? Was she flattering herself?
"And what happens if I'm not?" he challenged. She frowned at that, and shrugged, as if she hadn't thought that far ahead yet. Toushirou held back a smirk when she sighed, but nearly stepped back when she held out a hand.
"Let's start over," she suggested.
"Start over?" he repeated, confusion laced in his voice.
She held out her hand invitingly. Toushirou's finger twitched slightly, and as his arms slowly left his side, Ayumi openly grabbed them to speed up the process.
She smiled wickedly at him, causing a shiver to run up his spine. "Sakurada Ayumi, at your service. I'm looking forward to co-operating with you."
He should not have gotten involved with someone who could summon such a corrupting smile. "Hitsugaya... Toushirou Tai-cho..."
"By the way, while staring at this wall, my head started throbbing and I found a bruise," Ayumi scrutinized. Toushirou looked about ready to leave, again. "Do you have any idea how it got there?"
"I have no idea," he choked out, and Ayumi shrugged before stepping quietly into his office. He took a seat in his chair and proposed, "You should get an ice pack for that."
"Wouldn't that attract attention that I have a bruise on my head? I don't want people thinking I'm easily wounded," she had absentmindedly stepped in his office, hands on hips. Toushirou smirked; her pride was something that defined her greatly.
"Wow, Toushirou. You're kind of hot when you smirk."
"... I changed my mind. Get out of my office."
"Huh? NO! I'm staying now! You agreed to start over! And I just complimented you!"
'Wow, Toushirou. You're kind of hot when you smirk."
'Wow, Toushirou. You're kind of hot when you smirk."
'Wow, Toushirou. You're kind of hot when you smirk."
'Wow, Toushirou. You're kind of hot when you smirk."
"I don't need you to compliment me," he replied sharply, trying his best to hide a blush.
Ayumi leaned forward and guffawed. "Aren't you the cutest? I didn't know you were the type to blush over a compliment."
"HITSUGAYA TAI-CHO IS BLUSHING? WHAT IS THAT I HEAR?" Rangiku shouted, bursting into his office. She had just happened to pass by, wanting to complain about paperwork. Purely by coincidence, not that Rangiku had been waiting outside the door after the coast was clear to eavesdrop. Of course not. How could you even think of something so accusatory?
Gasp. "...Hitsu-kun, your cheeks are red," Rangiku said in shock, stating the obvious.
Several irk marks appeared on Toushirou's head as blood rushed to his head. "SAKURADA! MATSUMOTO! OUT OF MY OFFICE!"
"Aww! He's embarrassed!"
"Ranku, I think we should GOO!" Ayumi pulled Rangiku out of the room as soon as Toushirou's teal eyes glared up at her. Ignoring Rangiku's remarks about 'DARNIT, I should have brought a camera!', Ayumi bolting out the door.
The annoying shade of pink didn't leave him for nearly an hour, because every time the line echoed in his mind, he'd scrunch up his face and scowl.
If someone didn't know better, they'd say that Toushirou Hitsugaya just got owned.
-X-
(1) Shihakusho. Or however the correct romaji is xD What the Shinigami's wear, basically. I don't want to get all into detail, because their dressing procedure is actually VERY complex.
AHAHAHAA, I love bittersweet romances. Ohhh, touche? ;D
Review. Because the more you do, the faster this stupid, stupid writers block leaves me.