-Glad to be back still? Yes I am. Broke as a joke? Sadly, yes. Glad to be going home for Christmas break in two weeks? Damn skippy. Going to stop gabbing at you and get on with the drabbles now? Probably. Still taking prompt donations, see bottom for more details and commentary.
1:Shimmy
If there was one thing Ichigo had noticed about Toshiro over the years, it was that he wasn't particularly fond of bumping shoulders with people. He could only imagine that it was because when he was shorter, bumping shoulders with people meant them shouldering someone, and him getting a shoulder to the head. But the habit of avoiding people in crowds had persisted even as he'd grown taller, and had turned out to be a rather amusing habit that Ichigo often found humorous.
Especially when he was walking with Toshiro through large crowds in the World of the Living. It was most amusing then, because faced with the onslaught of people, Toshiro would fall into this fantastic, dodging shimmy in order to avoid touching anybody. Ichigo, being a bit more broad chested, just plowed through the crowds as he always had, but kept an eye on his partner the entire time if only for the sake of liking to watch Toshiro's fancy footwork.
2: Magic
Ichigo discovered when he and Toshiro had been stationed in the World of the Living for a few months that the young man had a like for older music. Not old as in classical, old as in "oldies", which were just one too many generations beyond Ichigo's to really be considered "new age". He'd discovered this one day whilst traipsing through Toshiro's iPod Classic; a gadget of Urahara's invention that also served as a nice, compact communicator to the 12th Division in Soul Society, no matter where they were.
It held music too, which was it's real perk for the young Captain. On more than one occasion Ichigo had to keep Toshiro from dismantling the thing just to see how it ticked, considering they really did need it. On one such occasion, after having kept it longer than he had intended, he'd decided to look through what the young man had put on it.
He smiled to himself when he saw the song that Toshiro had stopped it on last, and promptly sought out his spouse and gave him a well earned kiss. Curious as to why, Toshiro had asked such.
"Because, every little thing you do is magic, and every little thing you do just turns me on," he quoted from the song, promptly kissing him again with a smile on his lips.
3: Black-Eye
"I think that Captain Kurosaki had too much to drink last night," Yumichika's voice spoke out from behind him.
"What do you me-" Halfway through his sentence, Ikkaku actually looked back at his partner in crime, suddenly stunned at what he saw. "Holy bloody hell!" he nearly shouted. "What happened to you?"
The be-feathered man stuck his nose up in the air, trying to cover the rather deep black eye with his perfectly coiffed hair. "I was just complimenting Captain Hitsugaya on the cut of his yukata."
His companion rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he promptly walked away from the other, well aware of what had transpired past that point. "Idiot."
4: Screech
"No."
"Please?"
"No! Bloody hell I sound like a dying screech owl, what more do you want from me?"
"…Really?"
"Yes, Ichigo, now for the last damn time, I am not going to sing."
5: Flustered
"God! What are you, emotionally constipated or something?" Ichigo snapped at him one day, crossing his arms indignantly over his chest as he stared the other down from across the 10th Division office.
To which the snowy Captain had oh so coolly replied, "No, I'm just got a heart made of ice."
Even more flustered, Ichigo had tromped towards the Captain's desk, dragging him up by his shihakusho and ravishing his lips. When he drew away, Toshiro's expression was still cool, but losing a bit of its smooth control. "Just tell me then, ducem glaciali," he purred out against the other's slowly warming cheek, "what the hell is it that's going to get you as hot and bothered as I am."
6: Strawberry
Toshiro hadn't been fond of films when Ichigo had first introduced them to him. But after watching all ungodly amounts of hours of special features, and after having seen the inner workings of the production that went into film, Toshiro admitted openly to liking them much more. So, when Ichigo had dragged him to a matinee showing of Iron Man II, Toshiro had consented quite easily.
And, after the token awkward quarrel scene between the two romantically involved protagonists, Toshiro promptly leaned over, and whispered in Ichigo's ear, "I don't think I can think of a fate worse than being allergic to strawberries." Ichigo then gently graced a hand over Toshiro's narrow knee, squeezing gently and gracing the man's cheek with a gentle kiss, a smile pressed into the gesture just for good measure.
7: Blessing
"But my momma told me not to play with strangers," the small child sobbed from behind his sweater sleeve as he tried valiantly to wipe away his tears. Toshiro sighed, knowing that they had to perform konso on the little soul before any Hollows showed up. But he didn't want to force the child on; he wanted to give him comfort, but everything he'd said until now had been fruitless.
"Hey, kid, see his white coat?" Ichigo said, placing a hand on Toshiro's shoulder as he spoke down to the small child. He was half-kneeling next to Toshiro, but his tone still serious and gruff as it always was. The small child nodded uncertainly, blinking up at the Substitute curiously. "It means he's an angel. You can trust him; he'll lead you on safely."
The little boy looked to Toshiro with hope in his eyes, apparently believing what Ichigo had said based on Toshiro's rather angelic appearance. "Really?" he asked the Captain.
Toshiro nodded, patting the child on the head and smiling graciously. "Yes," he said. "And I promise, with my blessing you'll pass on safely, okay? Do you think your Momma would be okay with that?"
The little boy nodded, grasping onto Toshiro's outstretched hand. "Yeah," he whispered. "Okay."
8: Boy
It wasn't often that Toshiro was assigned to missions in the World of the Living early on in his Captaincy. He'd been too busy trying to learn how to handle his division to take that kind of leisure time. Which was rather sad, considering he'd thought of out-of-world missions leisure. But, regardless, he'd managed to get a bead on his Division with all the efficiency his status as a prodigy could offer. The majority of the other Captains had been impressed at his progress, and had told him so. With all their positive insight on him to the Head Captain, he was quite swiftly allotted a reconnaissance mission to the World of the Living regarding the presence of several strange sources of spiritual pressure. It wasn't the most serious mission, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth; it may as well have been vacation time, considering he was only to observe the town in question for a few days and then return with only his observations.
Two days into his four day mission, he'd made a surprising discovery.
Along with the discovery of the general source of the strange spiritual pressures, a strange vagabond group that assembled in a warehouse and generally managed to elude him out in the general public, he'd also discovered a small niche of people, apparently closely related, with rather potent spiritual pressures themselves.
Most notably, and most surprisingly, a young, orange haired boy in particular.
He'd stumbled upon the boy, or, rather, the boy had stumbled upon him as he'd been sitting along a riverbank watching the sun set. He'd been satisfied with the observations he'd made that day, sure that he'd discovered more than the Head Captain had wanted or needed. Sitting there, minding his own business, he'd felt the young boy approach, wholly unable not to considering how much spiritual pressure he bled off. But he didn't pay much mind, considering it wasn't his concern; it was a soul's spiritual pressure, and thus it was nothing unique.
"Did you see her too?" a small voice had asked from behind him.
Glancing back over his shoulder, he'd blinked slowly at the small child. He couldn't be more than… perhaps six or seven. His hair was more fiery than the skyset behind him, but there was an aged sadness in his eyes that made the fresh Captain pause.
"See who?" he asked gently, not wanting to scare the poor thing away. He looked downtrodden enough already; a coarse remark wouldn't do any good other than to send him away crying.
The young boy, apparently not frightened off by his strange appearance like most young things were, walked slowly down towards where Toshiro sat, kneeling down next to him and looking down at the ground almost guiltily. But Toshiro could see in his sad auburn eyes that it had nothing to do with anything that Toshiro had said or done; it was a previous sadness that was making him so dour.
"The little girl with the black hair."
9: Girl
Toshiro had tilted his head, looking curiously at the young boy as he spoke. "Little girl with the black hair?" he asked as the young boy rolled back to sit on his bottom. His little hands were wrapped around his backpack straps, gripping at them almost nervously.
"Yeah," he said, his voice very quiet. "If you see her, Mister…" He looked over at Toshiro, then, his large eyes suddenly very worried. "Don't go after her! Please! You'll get hurt!"
"It's okay," Toshiro assured gently, "I promise, I won't. I'll stay away from her, and I'll be fine, okay?" He looked with sympathy over at the young boy's brimming tears, tempted to reach out to him, but resisting the urge to make him feel uncomfortable, he settled his hands in his lap. "Just don't cry."
The little boy's lower lip tugged up as he tried to obey Toshiro's wishes. He curled in on himself, burying his face against his knees. His shoulders were shaking with the effort not to weep, and Toshiro sighed, giving up on being distant and slowly reaching over to place a steadying hand on the young boy's shoulder.
"Come on, now," he said, keeping his voice as gentle as he could. He really wasn't good with children usually; they were normally scared away by his appearance before he could interact with them, so he hadn't much experience. But he'd learned how after performing several konso during his time at the Academy, so he'd learned how to soothe most. "I know you're worried, but you don't need to be. I promised you, right?"
The little boy looked up, his tears licking down the sides of his cherubic cheeks. "Yeah," he whispered out weakly, smiling just barely. Toshiro smiled back encouragingly, but the moment was broken when the young boy's head whipped to the side, his eyes widening as he caught sight of something. Toshiro's eyes followed, his own set widening.
There, down by the river, was the little girl the boy had spoken of. But beyond what he assumed the little boy could see, was a massive, lurking Hollow. He grasped at the boy's shoulder, pulling him up as Toshiro stood also. His first priority was to get the boy away from the Hollow, and secondly to eradicate it before it hurt anyone else.
"Come on, now, let's get away from here," he said, urging the boy away. He could feel the little boy's panic in his spiritual pressure, and how violently it spiked at seeing the little girl. Toshiro mentally scowled, knowing that the damnable Hollow was using bait to goad the small child into getting closer. It was sick and despicable, in every way, shape, and form.
When the young boy grabbed onto his hand, he looked down a bit worriedly. He hadn't brought any gikongan with him; not properly equipped ones, anyway. He only had his combat gikongan, which would leave his gigai lying stone cold with a seven year old boy attached to it. But he glanced back, only to find the Hollow trailing after them. He needed to get out of the gigai and take care of the situation quickly. And, if anything, the sooner he got it over with, the less time his gigai would have to spend empty.
In a sudden burst of movement, the Hollow had rushed forward, apparently having caught onto not only the young boy's spiritual pressure, but Toshiro's own considerable amount as well. Even under the Limiter it was not unnoticeable. He heard the little boy yelp at the sight of the girl approaching so quickly, unable to comprehend the danger beyond her. In a swift motion, Toshiro popped one of his emergency combat gikongan into his mouth, jumping out of his body. The gigai crumbled to the ground, and he glanced back and swore when he saw that the Hollow's approach, quicker than he'd gauged, had managed to inflict a minor wound to his gigai. The fake body bled lazily, but that did nothing to quell the poor panicked boy that was still attached to his gigai's lax hand.
Turning to face the task at hand, Hyorinmaru drawn and ready in his hands, he stared down the singing blade at the Hollow. The damnable thing seemed terrified, now, and rightly so. But Toshiro could tell that there was something off about it. There was no malicious gleam in its eyes; no intent for personal agendas. It was obeying another Hollow's orders, he could see it in the mindless stare it gave him.
The one strike it took to kill the Hollow was so easy he could have just been breathing. A quick dash and a slice through the gruesome skull ended it all, but the promise of the head Hollow still lingering somewhere around was one that didn't sit well with Toshiro. If there was a Hollow that strong lingering around the city, they would be having more problems with the area in the future, to be sure. Sheathing his blade, Toshiro strode back towards where his gigai lay, a pitying glance cast down towards the boy who was still fretting over his body.
Thankfully, the gigai's "heart" was still functioning, so the boy wasn't in total hysterics. Because his spiritual pressure was still within a relatively short distance, it was enough to keep the gigai's inner mechanisms running for a short time. If he'd had to move out of that small range, the bodily functions would have ceased immediately. Kneeling back down into the gigai, he re-woke to the feel of the young boy's little hands shaking him.
He opened his eyes slowly, sitting up with a cringe. The nick was deeper than he thought, but not anything serious. He glanced down at the boy weeping next to him, apologies flooding out of his mouth in an attempt to soothe the poor thing. He'd probably traumatized the poor boy; but better to be traumatized than dead, he supposed. But when his apologizing seemed to do nothing to calm the boy down, he slowed, listening to what the boy was saying back to him.
"I'm sorry." Over and over again. "It's all my fault. It's all my fault." Again and again. He was crying into his hands, and Toshiro sighed, putting both of his hands over the small boy's shoulders in an attempt to get his attention. It worked, and the poor sobbing child looked up at him through a veil of tears.
"It's not your fault," he said sternly, staring the child down. For a moment the boy didn't say anything, and just sat kneeling there, shaking in his little sneakers as contained sobs made his shoulders bob.
"But…" he tried, wiping at his eye with a tiny little fist.
"It is not," Toshiro said slowly, his voice still commanding, "your fault. I'm fine, you're fine, and the girl is gone." His eyes softened. "I promised you I'd be okay, didn't I?"
The little boy nodded again, his tears slowly waning away. "I thought she got you," he said, his little voice still shaky.
The young Captain had shaken his head. "She didn't get me. Someone took care of her, made her go away," he explained to the child, hoping that the little boy would take his word for it. "They made her go away before she could hurt me. Before she could hurt you."
"But she did hurt you!" the little boy burst out suddenly, staring at Toshiro's still bleeding side. It still wasn't bleeding all that quickly, but he could tell where it would disturb a boy his age. Toshiro left his hands on the little child's shoulders.
"I'm okay. It doesn't even hurt at all," he assured, actually quite truthful, as he'd almost forgotten about the wound in the first place. "Now, come on." He stood slowly, letting the unsure little boy follow him up. "I'll walk home to make sure you get there safe, okay?"
The little boy tugged at his sleeve, the tears still in his eyes but the sadness now replaced with something… on the verge of… worry, almost. "But what about you, mister? Who is going to take care of you?"
Toshiro just smiled down at him, ruffling his hair. "Don't worry, little one, I can take care of myself."
10: Royalty
"Oh quit smiling," Ichigo snapped in a whisper at his diminutive female friend, who was sitting regally behind her brother as the four royal houses met for probably the first and last time to welcome in the newest one. Rukia just smiled genteelly back, waiting as the rest of them were for the ceremony to commence. Kukaku and Ganju were sitting next to them as well, Ganju grumbling about how Ichigo didn't deserve it and Kukaku avidly immersed in a conversation with Toshiro, who sat hip to hip with Ichigo.
Who the hell would have thought that his and Toshiro's marriage would have ended up in the creating of another Royal House? After all, both of their tendencies towards great spiritual pressure did requisite them with Royal House material, considering there was no other real requirement. And thanks to Rukia's… supplemental information from Captain Unohana on the matter of them both being male, they had successfully and inadvertently wormed their way into the position.
And even though Toshiro was almost too modest for the title, he wasn't cruel enough to deny that the Kurosaki House had an undeniably nice ring to it.
11: Rationality
"I suppose there is some sense to it," Toshiro conceded to Matsumoto one day upon her questioning of his and Ichigo's relationship. "But there isn't always sense in love. I don't think there needs to be."
Needless to say, Matsumoto was quiet proud of her Captain's rationale.
12: Gobsmacked
"Well I'll be gobsmacked."
"I really wish you would stop making up words whenever we hang out."
"It's a word."
"Right. I'm sure that's what you tell all the pretty girls you meet."
"It worked on you didn't it?"
Toshiro had him on that one.
13: Reincarnation
"Toshiro, have you ever performed konso on cats?" Ichigo asked his spouse one day.
Toshiro stared out of the corners of his eyes at the man in question. "Pardon?"
"Or, you know, do they just skip Soul Society and continue on in the cycle of rebirth?" the other continued, apparently unaffected by the other's questioning stare.
"Why on earth would you want to know?"
"Um… Yuzu asked me."
"Right."
14: Harmony
Most people would claim that Ichigo wasn't the most observant person in the world. When, in reality, he was much more observant than most people gave him credit for. Toshiro being one of the few people that accredited that to him properly. But, to his own continual proof, he'd been able to quickly realize something about he and Toshiro, far before they'd been married. In fact, it had been when they'd just agreed to start unofficially dating, and had fallen asleep with each other in the confines of Ichigo's small bedroom when it had still been located at his father's house.
He'd been snoozing against Toshiro's back, his cheek resting heavily in sleep against the other man's finely defined shoulder blade, when he'd made the realization. He hadn't woken Toshiro about it, considering his unofficial boyfriend was actually sleeping a few winks was more than enough reason not to. But he'd realized, in that half-awake state lingering between dreaming and dozing, that his own spiritual pressure, which was often best referred to as a torrent, was surprisingly mellow.
He also realized, then, that it was because his usually fluctuating torrent had been steadied by another strong spiritual pressure, smoothing it out into a meandering flow. Nuzzling his cheek against Toshiro's shoulder, he'd closed his eyes with a smile.
Harmony had been his first indication to what would, over time, end up being a long, beautiful relationship.
15: Meddlers
The Women's Association was often renowned for their inane ability to meddle in the affairs of the Seireitei's famous residents. And, to nobody's surprise in particular, Ichigo's and Toshiro's long standing marriage eventually came under fire. More than prepared for the onslaught, the two of them had proven more than a superior match for the Women's Association.
Mostly by providing their own material before their scouts could even be sent out to gather any material. In spite of the temptation, said material was not published in favor of believing the threat that was provided with said materials.
16: Library
"Kurosaki, for heaven's sake, we're in a library," Toshiro hissed out against the lips pressing against his own, his already bony back nudging rather painfully up against the stocky bookshelves he'd been carousing before Ichigo had followed him in and interrupted.
Ichigo seemed not to have even heard him, and continued his ministrations with all the feverish intent he showed when at home. "Dun' care," he growled out. "It's late, you didn't come home, and it's Friday."
Toshiro froze, his mind cascading with obscenities. He'd completely forgotten what day of the week it was, and, as Ichigo had properly designated Friday nights as "their" nights, he'd quite grievously made a mistake. But before he could apologize one way or another, he was dragged back to the closed off Captain's-Only section by a pair of roaming hands.
Quite possibly never to be seen again.
17: Manga
"Toshiro… why do you have manga on your desk?"
The white haired man glowered up at him. "Because your damnable Kuchiki companion insisted that I read some so that she could properly gauge my literary view on them," he griped.
Ichigo glanced over one of the apparently loathed volumes in question, skimming over the familiar pages. "So she had you read Death Note?"
"Yes," Toshiro drawled out, dabbing his quill in his ink well before returning to work. "One of the few volumes I can honestly say I'd like to burn."
Ichigo glanced over at him, surprised at the vehement reaction. "Why?" he asked incredulously.
"Because it's unadulterated nonsense, now, since you're here, would you please take those damnable things back to Ms. Kuchiki before I do something unspeakable to them? I would rather not have to replace them."
Ichigo paused after putting all of the volumes into his arms, glancing down at Toshiro with a smirk.
"You're more of a Sherlock Holmes kind of guy, aren't you?"
"Damn right."
18: Osechi
"What do you say, Toshiro, how about some daidai?"
"No."
"Kazunoko then?" The damnable berry was smirking still.
"You're hilarious."
The young man paused, scratching his chin as he looked over at his husband, before leaning in gently, placing an apologetic kiss on the other's chin. "Would you at least consent to some konbu?"
Toshiro paused, closing his eyes and sighing in defeat. "Fine," he murmured, and he felt Ichigo smiled against his neck.
-Not bad. Took me a bit longer than anticipated, but not bad. I had a lot of help from some fellow writers and close friends to help me get through this set, so I owe a lot to them for these getting done. I have quite a few notes for this set, so I'm going to try to explain them in some sort of consecutive order. First off, drabble 2: Magic. This drabble included song lyrics from the Police song, Every Little Thing She Does is Magic. Because the Police rock my fucking socks. And I'm an old toddy who likes oldies better than modern music. Bite me. Next, drabble 5: Flustered. I'll give you a hint; the nickname that Ichigo called Toshiro is in Latin, so I would recommend you go put it into GoogleTranslate and have some fun. Now, most notably, number 18: osechi. For those of you that don't know, these are the Japanes foods prepared at New Years in order to celebrate certain things in the new year. I did some research, and these three stuck out the most to me. Daidai symbolizes the wish for children in the New Year, kazunoko symbolizes the wish for many children in the New Year, and konbu most notably represents joy. Other than that, notes are done for this set, thanks again to Corisanna for the ideas, and feel free to donate if you want to! That's my two-cents worth. Enjoy.
8-90s love,
crypto