Wow guys. It's only been a few months. Right? No hard feelings? *hides* okayokayokay I'm soooo sorry. Things have been so hectic, and I just haven't been feeling any of the writing. I haven't been in the mood to write, but today I had random inspiration. So enjoy while it's here

Blech. Why a dog? Why not a cat? Cats don't have to lick people's hands. Or eat old brown meat stuff. I watched as Talia read a paper that was on the counter. She chucked to herself a little, and turned her attention to me. Her face seemed like she was deep in thought. This scared me. Then suddenly, her facial expression transformed from one of concentration, to gushing. Oh gods kill me now.

"Aww…the poor baby is dirty! I think you need a bath sweetheart!" She leaned over and picked me up. It took all of my strength not to bite her and get the hell out of there. She put me in a tub, and started to give me a bath. This went against everything I stood for. I worked too hard to be treated like an adult, and not a child, even if my size says otherwise. Just as I was plotting a way out of the room and possibly the house, she started talking again.

"Hm, what should I call you?" Oh no. Based on her reaction to needing a bath, I prepared myself for the worst. 'Shnookems', 'Hunny', and 'Baby' were the ones I was expecting, when she started throwing some out there.

"Tony?" Then I sneezed. She got soap in my nose. I was surprised she was giving normal names to me. "Alex?" I whined a little. This soap was getting in my eyes now. Damn, that stuff burnt. "Quinn? Pierce? Vince? Zander?" I kept trying to blink out that damned shampoo, and I finally get it by the time she said Zander. I just tilted my head to get some water out of my ear, and she said, "Zander then."

Does she not even care for my opinion? Wow. Then she started to scrub me. It felt really good actually, but I would never tell anyone that. She towel dried me, and laughed when I shook. Hey, it's what dogs do right? Why laugh at nature? This woman frustrated me. She then put something around my neck, and started brushing me while smiling. She seemed lost in thought, when I felt a pressure. I looked up to her, wondering if she felt it too.

There was a lost soul around here. I walked behind Talia so I could watch her back, not sure if it was a trap. Talia walked over to the little boy, which was the source of the pressure. I quickly ran to the back to change out of my gigai and help. This boy could cause a hollow to be attracted without trying. Once out of my gigai, I ran back over to Talia. The child looked up at me in fear over my assignments shoulder. I watched as she slowly turned around to assess the problem. Her spiritual pressure reached out to feel mine, little to her knowledge. She knew mine was very high now. I sensed fear in her, but she didn't show it.

She took the child's hand, and started to run. Why is she running? I know she felt my pressure! She had to have known I meant neither her, nor the child any harm! Yet, she was still running.

I ran after her, not so much chasing, as much as following. I followed her to a playground. She went digging in her bag. I took out Hyorinmaru, and tapped the butt of it lightly on the child's head, performing my konso. The boy peacefully ascended into the heavens. I turned to Talia, ready to explain, when she broke down and started crying.

I hate it when girls cry. When Momo used to cry when we were kids, I would go crazy, not sure if I should go hunting for who made her cry, or just sit and help. Either way, I was uncomfortable with it. So when this girl started to sob, I just stared at her, waiting for her to finish. Not my most sympathetic approach, but I wasn't in the mood.

When she finally stopped, she just looked at me, sighed, and walked away.

This girl was giving me a headache.

I just huffed and started following her. This seemed to surprise her. "Thank you for helping him. I could have done it though." She didn't even have the decency to turn around and face me when she talks.

"Oh really? And just how would you have done that?" There was a falter in her step. Did I surprise her again? At this time, we were walking through an old abandoned warehouse.

Suddenly, she spun around mid-step, and slapped my forehead. I was so confused. Was this some kind of an American culture thing? I thought I had this under control. But this girl was a little too spontaneous for my liking.

Talia looked down at her hand. There was a glove on it. It looked oddly familiar. I'd seen that before…

As I was pondering this, she slapped me again. This time on my arm. Then my stomach. Then the side of my head. She continually slapped me in different spots, once even pulling up my sleeve to try the skin on my arm. Then she was about to pat my head. That's where I drew the line. I grabbed her arm midair. She went to knee me in my no man's land, so I twisted her so she wasn't facing me. I could feel that she was in pain, so I let go. She fell down, and I watched her battle herself not to cry.

I sighed, and sat down next to her. I didn't even look at her. I just waited. We sat in silence for a few minutes, as I thought about what to do with this girl.

"What's with the sword?" I heard her whisper next to me, as she moved into a sitting position.

I turned to the girl. She was very random, and kept me on my toes I guess. "Hyorinmaru is here for various reasons. Protection, konso, and sometimes he's good conversation."

She stared at me blankly. "You do know you're crazy right? What are you? Why isn't my glove-thingy working?"

I glared at her. "I am not crazy. I am shinigami. And I have no idea what you are talking about with your glove." I suddenly remembered Kuchiki. She had a glove similar to the one on this human's hand. "I know someone with something like that, but it just pushes souls out of bodies."

She gave me a dumb look. I pinched the bridge of my nose and started to explain to the girl.

"Ok, I am a shinigami. When you die, you go to the soul society. If you have enough spirit pressure, or spirit energy," he paused looking at me to make sure I knew what that was. I nodded and he continued. "They can go to the soul academy. They then go through training to become a shinigami. We have zanpakto, or these swords. They are souls, and we have special connections to them. They are unique from each other. They all have powers. Mine is Hyorinmaru. He is a dragon, and controls ice. I know people whose zanpakto can control fire, disintegrate into ash looking pieces, or flower petal pieces.

"We are all souls though. The person I know with a glove like that can hit someone with a gigai, or an artificial body that the souls can temporarily reside in, and the soul pops out."

She sat there soaking in the information I had just given her.

"Why are you here then?" She asked?

I thought about how to answer this without telling her she was the reason. "The purpose of a shinigami is to save souls. I would normally not come here seeing as I am a captain, but there was a special occasion that I was needed here."

She seemed to accept this. "What did you do to that boy?"

"I performed a konso on him. He is just in the soul society now, probably meeting new people."

She seemed confused again, probably with the soul society, but she seemed to put that aside. "From what it sounds like, my glove does the same thing your zanpan-thingy does."

This worried me. "Zanpakto. And just where did you get this glove?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, some blonde guy."

No. Not him. I needed to talk to Urahara. It better not be from him. I was contemplating how to go about asking everything she knew when I felt pressure on my shoulder. I looked up, so see her looking worried and asked, "What's wrong?"

I automatically stiffened at her touching me, and she retracted her hand. "Nothing, I just need to think. Come on, I'll walk with you to your house. You'll get sick here."

We walked in silence for a while. "What's your name?" She asked out of the blue.

"Toshiro Hitsugaya, captain of the tenth division of the soul society."

"Talia Ryder, runaway of New York State."

"I know."

I started walking, even when I realized she wasn't walking yet.

She jogged ahead a little to catch up to me. . "How—how do you know my name?"

I ignored the question and kept walking. "People can hear you. Do you want to be labeled as a crazy person?"

I smirked to myself at how irritated she was getting. We got to her house finally. She ran ahead of me to get to the backyard. I rolled my eyes and walked past her. She went to punch me, when she noticed the gigai. I picked it up, and entered. I looked up to see Talia's face pressed against the sliding door, mouth wide open. Oh, she was an attractive one.

After she finally composed herself, she opened the door. I walked in all natural, and sat next to her feet. "Hitsugaya?" she asked slowly.

I looked up and gave a little bark thing. Her jaw dropped. "Oh come on. This is stalking to a new level."

I internally sighed and gave her my puppy dog face and whined a little. God this was a hit to my pride.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. You cannot just come in, a cute little puppy, all loveable, and sweet, and then turn up as a crazy kid with a sword, treat me like shit, turn back into the puppy, and expect me to be all over you because it is cute." She exclaimed.

I lied down; put my head on my paws, and pulled my ears down to lie on my skull. I gave her large puppy dog eyes. I watched her break. I gave her a sly smirk and she started to pet me. "Toshiro, you are so dead when you change back."

"Why are you in that? Why didn't you stay in your other form?" She asked. I rolled over. Stupid human. What did she think the older male human would think if I just walked around with a sword?

She pet my stomach as I thought. "Toshiro," She started. She expected me to explain, but she didn't have the respect to call him 'Hitsugaya'? Oh hell no. I growled at her.

"Why are you growling?" She grabbed something. I couldn't see. Oh no.

Next thing I knew, she pushed me out of the gigai with that glove of hers. So it worked for both? I though it just had different purposes that Kuchikis.

I didn't think of that much. I was a little too preoccupied that some human nobody had just disrespected me, and then pushed me out of my body.

"What was that for?" I yelled. I had a headache. I could feel my blood pressure rising. Her smirking didn't help lower it.

"You weren't listening, and I couldn't tell what you were attempting to say." She said smugly.

"I wonder if there is some way to fix that. I wonder…" She stopped in the middle of her sentence to look at her clock.

"Oh my god, Travis will be here any minute! Get back in the dog, I just expect you to behave and explain later." she pushed him towards the body. I glared at her, but entered my gigai.

She told me a lot of valuable information about her cousin, Travis, having powers. I found out she could sense colors in auras and he could talk to animals.

I just lay there on the rug, listening carefully, while trying to act uninterested. She eventually stopped talking, and we sat in silence. I was lying, closing my eyes, feeling around for pressures, when the door opened and closed. I opened my eyes, to see a tall man staring at me.

"Hey Travis, how was work?" Talia asked conversationally.

"Why is there a dog in here?" he asked, an emotionless face on

"Well…I found him today, he was just running around. I washed him and everything already!" she quickly added because it might change his decision.

"Yes, but why did you keep him?" he asked, exasperated

I tensed. I couldn't control this part of the plan. We had plan b's and such, but this one was going rather smoothly so far.

"Well, he was so sad, and friendly, and he followed me!"

He sighed. "Can we keep him?" Talia asked, giving him the lip

He seemed to be lost in thought, looking me. I decided to really putting on a show. I started chasing my tail, and pretended to get dizzy, so I plopped on the floor, feet pointing up like a bunny.

I watched Travis' eyes soften, as he reached down to pet me explain the Japanese name.

"His name is Zander" She simply stated, joining him in petting me. I hated this, but loved it. Gosh, I loved getting my hair pet. I just didn't let anyone do it for me.

"He's adorable!" Travis exclaimed.

I kept hamming it up, and Travis seemed to love it. Finally, after maybe half an hour of faking it, Talia took me into her room, claiming to be tired. She left me for a few minutes while she left for the bathroom. I left my gigai, and put it away.

We both just sat there, not looking at one another. "Can you explain to me why you are here? Why won't you leave?" She pleaded, after maybe ten minutes of silence.

I just shook my head. It wasn't the time for this. "Not now, but soon."

She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She seemed to do this when she was agitated. "That's not good enough" she said quietly.

"It will have to be. I will protect you though, I can tell you that."

"From what?"

I sighed. "I cannot tell you."

She fell onto the bed. "Are there more of you?"

"Hell yeah there are!" I heard an annoyingly familiar voice answer my question for me.