-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Karin kicked the ball again. After the stress from the last couple days, she was completely in need of some release.
"Yo, Karin!" came a voice behind her. She turned around to see it was Tōshirō and Wonderweiss. She smiled. She liked seeing the two of them.
"Oh! Fuwa!" Yuzu said from her position sitting on the sidelines. She jumped up and went running over to them.
Karin shook her head and watched as Tōshirō walked up to her. "Hey, how are you?" she asked as he got near.
"I'm fine, how are you? How's your brother?" he asked.
"He's still in the hospital. Probably will be there for this week. He ended up having mild pneumonia, so they're keeping an eye on him since he breathed in so much water," she said, tossing the ball back and forth between her hands.
Tōshirō shook his head and looked at her. "I still can't believe that your brother got kidnapped.'
"Again," she muttered.
"Again?" Tōshirō asked, frowning. He of course didn't know all the details of what had happened to Ichigo. He only knew something had happened to him.
Karin sighed, dropping to the ground. Tōshirō followed her, sitting cross-legged beside her. "Yeah," she said. "That's what happened to him. Our uncle kidnapped him after our mom was killed when he was nine years old. He kept him hidden away for twelve years, and that's why he's so behind in school stuff."
"Your brother has been through a lot," he told her, frowning at her. "I guess that's why he acts a little different, huh?"
She nodded. "It's hard seeing him like that. I remember when we were little. He was so happy unless our mom wasn't around; then he was always sad. I can't imagine how terrible it was to be hidden and kept away from everyone and everything for so long."
Tōshirō was quiet for a minute, not sure really what to say. "Uh, so, what's gonna happen to him? Is he going to live with your dad?"
"Nah, our Pop's looking for a house to move to Las Noches but he's looking for a small place that Ichigo and Nnoitra can live in together," she answered, picking at the grass a little.
"That's the really tall guy that was at the cabin, right? Where'd he meet him anyway?" Tōshirō wondered.
"He ran away from our uncle and Nnoitra ended up finding him and getting him help from Kisuke," she said.
"Dr. Urahara?" Tōshirō asked as he looked at her. "Why'd he get involved? Doesn't he just teach at the school now?"
Karin let out another sigh. "My dad doesn't think I know what happened, but I do. Everyone thinks they've hidden it from me and Yuzu, and I don't think Yuzu understands, but I do. I know that our uncle did something really terrible to him. Kisuke had to come check on him again, and he didn't like it at all. I didn't think about it at the time. I just thought he was being overly jumpy for some reason, but now I get it."
"Something worse than keeping him hidden for twelve years?" Tōshirō asked, eyes wide.
She looked up at him and tears came to her eyes. "He called it 'the bad thing' and that was all. He didn't want to talk about it, and Uryū was overly distraught about what had happened and blaming himself. He already beat him black and blue, so the only thing that would be worse…"
"Oh," Tōshirō said, eyes going a bit wide as he realized what she meant. "Really? You think he would have done that?"
She nodded her head slowly. "Yeah. The more I think about it, the surer I am. It explains why he took so long to even be able to hug our father. He also completely panicked the first time Yuzu tried to hug him. I can't imagine what he went through."
"Everything will come out, though, when they do the trial, won't it?" Tōshirō asked softly.
Karin looked up. "I hadn't even thought of that. How are they going to put him on the stand? Are they going to make them tell everyone what happened? He can barely talk about it as it is."
"I'm sure it depends on if the guy pleads guilty or non-guilty," Tōshirō told her.
"I bet he'll try to plead non-guilty just so Ichigo and Uryū have to talk in front of a judge and jury," she mumbled and sighed a bit. "He's a terrible man to do what he did."
"Why did he do it?" Tōshirō asked. "I mean, if you don't want to talk about it, I was just wondering if you knew what his excuse was for doing something like that and keeping it hidden for twelve years."
Karin looked over to see that Yuzu was sitting in the grass playing with the little donkey while Wonderweiss looked on with a smile. "He said that it was Ichigo's fault they were on the beach that day. That he'd cried until our mom took him. But it wasn't his fault. The guy that came after them did it because he didn't cover his drug debts. So, they put a hit out on his wife. Then the idiot was high and just shot both his wife and our mom since he didn't know which woman was his wife," she said with fresh tears welling again. She angrily fisted them out of her eyes.
"Wow. I don't know what to say," Tōshirō said. He didn't know what to do either. He wondered what she would do if he tried to hug her. "Do you want a hug?"
She looked up, eyes glistening with tears still and nodded. "Sure."
He leaned over and put his arms around her tightly. She responded by gripping him tightly. He felt her body shake as she sobbed a little harder against him. He just tightened his grip a little bit more. He didn't have words for her. It was relieving that she was letting him comfort her. He didn't know how long he held her, but it was long enough that his shirt was wet from her tears. He got the impression that she didn't cry that often.
She finally leaned back, sniffing a little and whipping her eyes with the back of her hand. "Ah," she said and cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. Things just caught up with me."
"It's okay. You needed it." Tōshirō was glad that he had been here today.
"Karin!" Yuzu yelled and waved at them. "We're going to go for a walk with Fuwa!"
"Alright, don't go too far, okay?" she yelled back. She snorted lightly. "I think she likes Wonderweiss."
"Don't think it's just the donkey?" Tōshirō said with a smirk.
"Nah, I think she likes Wonderweiss. She talks about him when we're at the dorms," Karin told him, picking at the grass.
"You know, I think I like you," Tōshirō said suddenly.
Karin blinked, then looked up at him. It took a second for her to process what he'd just said, and when she did, she felt her cheeks heat up. "Why are you telling me this now?" she asked.
Tōshirō looked at her seriously. "It just seemed like the time."
"A bad time," she muttered, then looked at him with a small grin. "But I think I like you too."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, neither one knowing exactly what to say after their mutual admission. Neither of them had ever liked someone before, so they weren't sure where to go from there. Finally, Karin swallowed and looked at him.
"So, you wanna go on a date?" she asked.
Tōshirō snapped his head toward her. "I'm supposed to ask that."
"Well, you're taking too long," she said with a wry grin.
He shook his head. "Yeah, of course I do. Where do you want to go?"
Karin shrugged. "We could just go to the Firecracker."
"Yuzu and Wonderweiss will want to go with us," Tōshirō pointed out.
"Then it's a double date," she told him. "They just won't know it yet."
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
"Are you sure you want me to bring him that?" Szayel said as he stood in the department store. "To the hospital?"
"He needs something to do, and it needs to be that kind of stuff, puta," Nnoitra told him. "He's still in his little space, and I don't think he's coming out anytime soon."
"Isn't that, you know, going to cause problems?" Szayel wondered as he picked up the coloring book to thumb through it.
Nnoitra sighed. "I'm sure it might, but he hasn't been willing to listen to me when I try to ask him to come out of it. He just doubles down. I've told a couple people, like Uryū and Chad know what he's doing, and of course his father and Kisuke. The doctors and nurses just think that's the way he is, and as long as no one complains, I doubt anything weird will happen before he gets out."
"Alright. Are you at the hospital now?" he asked, putting the book back and picking up another one.
"Yeah. I'll be in the room with him by the time you get here. Papá just dropped me off for the day."
"See you there," Szayel told him and put away his phone. The things he did for Nnoitra.
He thumbed through the book and nodded to himself. It was animals dressed up like various superheroes. He'd like that. Now, if he could find something that was just superheroes… Ah, there, he thought as he pulled out another one from the back.
"Aw, you have a little one?" a gray-haired lady asked standing next to him.
Szayel turned toward her and not thinking said, "Not me. A friend. He's in the hospital."
"Oh, well nice of you to pick up something to keep him busy. Must be hard to be a kid and stuck in the hospital like that," she said with a gentle smile.
He looked at her for a second and cleared his throat. "Ah, yeah. I better get these to him. Nice talking to you," he said as he grabbed a box of crayons and took off down the aisle.
He was almost to the checkout when he saw something that caught his eye. He stopped and looked at it. It was a set of toy cars with superhero symbols on them. He hesitated a moment. He didn't know if Ichigo even liked cars. He knew he'd like the superhero stuff on them, so maybe he'd like them. He picked it up and headed to the counter.
"Hi," the cashier greeted him and started ringing him up. "Looks like someone's a lucky boy. Your own?" she asked, smiling a little too brightly for Szayel's liking.
"Ah, no. A friend. Just picking up some stuff for a friend," he said, not wanting to talk to her that much.
She gave him his total and he handed over his card. "Well, still. Nice of you to get something like this for him. Have a good day."
"You too," Szayel told her as he took the bag and headed out the door.
As he drove to the hospital, he was actually a little nervous about the toys. Maybe he should just take him the coloring books. Then he decided, no, he bought it, he might as well give it to him. If he liked them, fine, if he didn't, that was okay too. He honestly didn't have any experience with him in little space other than the things Nnoitra had told him. He pulled into the parking garage and got out. It wasn't very busy this early, so he didn't run into many people on his way up to the room.
He knocked on the door and heard Nnoitra call out to enter. He pushed the door open and shut it behind him, seeing Nnoitra sitting by the bed watching TV with Ichigo. Ichigo looked over at Szayel and grinned.
"Szayel! Papi said you were bringing me something!" he said excitedly.
He couldn't help the smile, because it was kind of adorable. A little strange to hear a full-grown man talk like that, but it was still kind of cute.
"I did. There's some books and colors and a little something extra I found," he said as he handed him the bag.
"Ooh!" he said and pulled out the two coloring books, the colors, then the box with the little cars in it.
"I didn't know if you liked cars or not, but it had the superhero logos on it, so I thought it might be fun for you to have," he said and watched as he opened the box and pulled out the five cars one by one.
"They're neat!" he said as he lined them up on the tray table in front of him.
"What do you say, Chiquito?" Nnoitra said from beside him.
"Oh, um, yeah, thank you, Szayel! I like them very much!" he said, flashing him another big smile.
"Chiquito, Szayel and I are going to going to the cafeteria so I can get something to eat. You be okay while I'm gone?" Nnoitra asked softly.
"Uh huh," he said as he ran one car across the tray in front of him before he moved them around so he could lay the coloring book open.
Nnoitra got up and gestured for Szayel to follow him out the door. He led them over to the elevator and sighed once he got into it.
"Stressed already? You just got here," Szayel commented as they rode the elevator to the first floor.
"Just worried, is all," Nnoitra said as they got off and walked toward the cafeteria. "Have you eaten yet?"
"Yeah, I ate before I left the house this morning. I thought you'd have eaten already too. Doesn't your mom feed you before you come?" he asked.
"This is more for a decent cup of coffee," he said as they walked into the wide cafeteria. There was a small coffee shop along one wall, and the area to get food on another.
Nnoitra ordered a large caramel macchiato and grabbed a blueberry muffin. He waited while Szayel ordered himself a mocha latte and grabbed some biscotti. Together, they went and found a table and sat down. Nnoitra sipped the coffee carefully and let out a pleased sigh.
"So, what are you going to do with him like this?" Szayel asked, munching on the biscotti.
"Nothing I can do until he comes out of it. I can't imagine what it was like. First the shock of everything with Ryūken, then this Kūgo guy," he said as he unwrapped the muffin slowly.
"Did you hear what happened to that guy?" Szayel wondered what had happened to him.
"Last I heard, he was being treated like Ichigo was for nearly drowning himself. I'm sure psych got involved with him once he started talking about aliens," Nnoitra told him as he slowly at the muffin.
Szayel nodded. "I see, yeah, I can't imagine. Does Ichigo talk much about it?"
"Oh yeah, he'll go on and on about Kūgo. I can't get him to talk nearly at all about Ryūken, but Kūgo he will talk about everything that happened there," Nnoitra said, crunching the wrapper from the muffin.
"That's good at least," Szayel said as he sipped his own coffee. "How much longer are they keeping him in here?"
"At least until the end of the week. I already worked out my schoolwork with all the professors, so they're not expecting me back in class until next week anyway," Nnoitra said as he took a long drink from his own coffee. "I've managed to stay caught up to at least have Cs in classes this semester. Maybe a couple Bs by the end of the term. We'll see how well it turns out, though."
"Oh, did you hear that assistant of Gin's, Kira, he's staying in town for another week. I guess he and Shūhei really hit it off. How is Gin anyway?"
"Oh, his wife came into town. I guess they're holed up at Harribel's place for a few days before he heads back. He came to check in on Ichigo after he was released, but Ichigo was asleep, so he promised to come back before he left. I thanked him already, but I'm going to do it again. If it weren't for him, I would have lost Ichigo completely." Nnoitra paused and swallowed noisily. "Ah, I don't even want to think of that."
Szayel shook his head, swirling the coffee in his cup. "You got it bad, you know," he said.
Nnoitra looked over at him and sighed. "Has it only been like two months?"
"Yeah. And you're already thinking of moving in with him. Never even considered you to be into guys at all, let alone this type of relationship," Szayel told him, sipping his coffee again.
"I never really knew what I was into until it came up," Nnoitra shrugged. "I guess when you have someone fall into your lap like I did, you take it and run with it." They sat in silence for a little bit longer.
"Shouldn't you get back before he starts to worry?" Szayel pointed out.
Nnoitra smiled a little. "Yeah, I'm done with my coffee anyway. You coming back up with me?"
"Sure, see what he's done so far in his coloring book," Szayel said and stood up, drinking the last of the coffee.
They headed back up to his room and found him still busy coloring. He looked up as they came in. "Look, I did one for you, Szayel!" he said and held up a colored picture he'd torn out of the book.
Szayel smiled and took it. It was out of the superhero animal book and was a squid wearing a costume in the ocean. "How'd you know I liked Squid?" he asked.
"I didn't. I just liked the picture and though you might like it," he said, grinning at him.
"Well, I do. Thanks, Ichigo. I'll put it up at home," he said and smiled as Nnoitra settled back into his seat. "Is there anything else you two need that I can bring by?"
Nnoitra shook his head. "I'm having Ichigo's father bring my laptop so we can work on some of his schoolwork."
Ichigo released a groan at that. "Do I hafta?" he grumbled.
"Yes, you have to," Nnoitra told him.
"But I'm still sick," he said with a pout, looking over at him.
"You're well enough to color, so you're well enough to do some reading for your studies," Nnoitra told him.
Ichigo didn't say anything but frowned and went back to coloring, looking like he was just going to ignore them now. Szayel shook his head. "Alright. I'll be going then. Feel better soon, Ichigo."
"Okay, bye Szayel, thanks for the stuff!" Ichigo told him before going back to the books.
"Gimme a call if you need me, Nnoi," he said and waved.
Szayel smiled and left the room quietly. It was a little weird, and he was still getting used to the idea that Nnoitra was so devoted to him, but he knew that he loved him immensely already. There was no doubt in his mind of that.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Isshin glanced at the clock and saw that it was nearly lunch time. Kisuke and the girls were at the school, and Ichigo was still in the hospital. That meant that he was on his own for lunch. He was going to take Ichigo and Nnoitra the laptop later today, but he figured he'd have lunch first.
Harribel had someone come fix the door on the cabin right away, but he'd forgotten to lock it after Kisuke had come by this morning. Kisuke had been dropping by to check on him each morning after they'd had quite a few talks over the last few days about what was happening, and what to do about it. They had opted to take things slow until everything had gotten settled down again. Isshin wasn't sure what to think about the situation with Kisuke, but he could only take things one day at a time.
As he was standing in the kitchen opening a can of green beans, the door flew open and a tiny, green haired girl came running into the room.
"Is Itsygo here?" she shouted immediately.
Isshin stepped out of the kitchen and saw Grimmjow come running into the cabin after her. "Nel! Please!" he pleaded with the little girl. "I told you not to go bothering them because he's not here right now!"
"Where is Itsygo?" she demanded, glaring at Isshin where he stood holding the open can.
"Ichigo is not back yet, Nel," he said, giving her a smile.
Her face turned into a pout and she squeezed the stuffed caterpillar to her chest. "Nel want to see Itsygo."
Isshin knelt and looked her in the eye. "I promise, he'll be home soon. He got sick a little bit, so he's with the doctors."
"He got more owies?" she asked, gasping in shock.
"Some, but he's going to be fine," he said as he stood back up.
"Oh! Oh! Can Nel have some?" she asked suddenly, pointing to the can that Isshin was holding.
"Nel, you don't need to eat his food, we have food at home!" Grimmjow sighed.
Nel's face turned into a pout again. "But Nel loves greenie beanies!"
Isshin couldn't help but smile. "You can have some if you would like. Let me put them on a plate and heat them up," he said.
"No, cold greenie beanies!" she insisted.
Shaking his head, Isshin poured out the green beans into a small bowl and took it in the dining room. Nel came running and crawled up into the chair immediately. Grimmjow gave an exasperated sigh and came over to sit down at the table.
"Sorry about this. She has no boundaries sometimes," he said as he watched Isshin give her the bowl.
"So, how did you end up taking care of Nel anyway?" Isshin asked as he sat down. Grimmjow looked over at her and shook his head because she was already using her fingers to pick up the green beans and eat them.
"Well, my folks were teenage parents. My grandma and grandpa made them get married when they found out my mom was pregnant. They were from a super conservative background, you know. But anyway, their marriage lasted. I grew up with both of them. My father ran a music store while I was growing up, got into surf punk music." He smiled then. "Even had myself a band for a while, the Panther Kings."
Isshin smiled and sat down across from him. "So, when I was about twenty, my mom ended up getting pregnant again, completely unplanned, of course. She decided to have the baby because she couldn't even think of having an abortion even though she was in her late thirties already." Grimmjow's face looked a little sad. "Unfortunately, the pregnancy caused cardiomyopathy. I guess I don't need to explain that to you, though," he said.
"No, I know about it. Enlarged heart, among other things," he said with a nod.
"Yeah, it wasn't too bad during most the pregnancy, but a short while after Nel was born, she had a sudden massive heart attack and couldn't be revived."
"Oh, I'm sorry, that had to be hard," Isshin said as he watched Nel stuff her face with her hands. She'd decided she didn't need a fork at all.
"Yeah, Dad took it hard. He couldn't even look at Nel, he was so distraught. That's when I offered to take care of her. I was already dating Tier, so she would be able to help me out if I needed it. So, Dad signed over parental rights to me, and I took her and have raised her ever since."
"Momma was pretty, though!" Nel said. "She had owies that didn't get better like Itsygo's." She looked down sadly at the remaining green beans on her plate. "I didn't know Momma but Nel like her pictures."
Isshin nodded. "It was hard when Masaki was killed for me. But losing Ichigo, too, just about did me in. I managed to take care of the girls somehow, though it was hard for a while."
Nel was studiously eating every green bean in the bowl, to Isshin's surprise. He watched for a few seconds then looked over at Grimmjow again. "Ah, so you said you had a band?"
Grimmjow nodded. "Yeah, Panther Kings, like I said. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. My buddies and I put it together. Even did some promotional pictures and stuff. Here, I've got some good ones that we took. These aren't the promo pictures; I kept the funny ones we took," he said as he pulled some small pictures out of his wallet. He handed them over to Isshin.
Isshin looked through them, stopping on one. "Is that Nel?"
Grimmjow looked over and nodded. It was a picture of him standing in front of one of the band posters with Nel, as a toddler, standing beside him staring up at the poster. Near them, someone's legs and feet could be seen on something.
"I don't remember how old she was, but she loved that poster," he said, indicating the poster with the huge panther on it.
"Who's legs?" Isshin asked with a half-smile.
"Oh, that's Shawlong. He was taking a break between photo sets and fell asleep there," Grimmjow said as Isshin finished looking through the photos and handed them back. "I don't see them that much anymore, but I'm pretty busy with this brat."
Nel stood up suddenly, grabbing Bawabawa. "Nel ready to go home now, Grimmy!"
Grimmjow sighed, reaching over to wipe a bit of green bean off her chin. "Alright, I'm sure Tier won't be happy to find out you spoiled your lunch, but at least it was green beans and not candy this time," he muttered as he got up and took her hand. "Thanks for feeding her green beans. I'll see you all later."
He headed out the door with her and Isshin followed, locking it this time behind them. He glanced at the clock again, seeing it was too late really for lunch since he promised to bring Nnoitra his laptop so Ichigo could do some schoolwork while he was in the hospital. He headed to the room they had been sharing and saw the laptop lying on the bed, still plugged in. Nnoitra said his bag was right beside the bed. He saw it and picked it up, reaching down and grabbing the cord from the outlet. As he did, he saw there were two bags sitting on the floor beside the bed.
"I shouldn't be nosy," he muttered under his breath, but curiosity was getting the best of him.
He leaned over and pulled open the first one and saw that it had coloring books, markers, pencils, and a few toys in it. He still didn't quite understand the whole "little" thing, but he was starting to kind of get it with Kisuke's help. He supposed a child who had such a tumultuous upbringing would have leftover needs that were never fulfilled. He then pulled open the other bag. His eyebrows shot up and he stood up quickly. He definitely didn't want to know about that, but now he did. He scrubbed his hands over his face and reminded himself his son was an adult, no matter what, and that he and Nnoitra were sexually active. However, he still didn't want to think about it.
He supposed the problem was that he still thought of Ichigo as that nine-year-old little boy that had disappeared twelve years ago. He'd grown up in those twelve years, and even though he'd had a hard time of it, he'd still grown up. Over the last two months, he'd come a long way toward recovering, though, and this new incident just set them back who knew how far. He sighed, slipping the laptop into the bag and wrapping the cord up before putting it in. He picked it up and headed out the door, locking it behind him just to be safe.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo was just so tired all the time. He hated the hospital, but at least someone was staying with him while he was stuck in it. He coughed again, putting a hand to his chest because it still hurt some. It was going away slowly though. He was glad of that. He looked over and saw that Nnoitra was reading something on his ebook reader that he'd brought with him today. He hoped to one day be able to read the kind of books that he did. For now, he had to read texts for all the classwork. He frowned, remembering that his father was supposed to bring the laptop up to the hospital today after lunch. He didn't really want to work on anything to do with school stuff, but he knew he had to keep up with it to make Nnoitra proud of him.
He looked up when there was a knock on the door, and it opened. He saw that his father had arrived. He frowned, kind of hoping that he'd forget.
"What's that look for, Ichigo?" Isshin asked as he came into the room.
Nnoitra looked up from his reader. "He knows he's going to have to do some work and he can't just color all day."
Isshin smiled. "I'm afraid Nnoitra's right. You can't get behind on your studies. You've come too far to do that."
Ichigo supposed that was right, but he still didn't have to like it. "But I like to color all day."
Nnoitra sighed. "We've already been over this, Chiquito. No slacking off just because you're sick. You're much better than you were and will be getting out of here in no time," he pointed out.
Isshin handed the bag over to Nnoitra and saw that Ichigo had acquired some little cars that were sitting in a ring around his tray where he was coloring. "Someone brought you a present, I see," he said, pointing to the cars.
Ichigo looked up and grinned at him. "Yeah, Szayel brought me color books, colors, and some cars. They're all superheroes too!"
"Well, that was nice of him," he said.
Ichigo knew that it was childish of him to stay in little space. He was quite aware of what he was doing, but he couldn't help it. It was safer to be little for a while, and he didn't want to be an adult. Not anymore. He knew that he would eventually have to come out of it, but he was going to take as much time as he could. He knew Nnoitra understood it, and he was pretty sure everyone else was being good about it too. He just wanted to be small again, for as long as he could. He wanted to let people take care of him because he needed it in lots of ways right now.
"The girls are going to come visit tomorrow, and I believe Gin and his wife are going to come by before they leave town," Isshin told them.
"I'll miss Gin," Ichigo said. He knew how much he owed him. He owed him everything. First, he brought his family back to him, then he saved his life.
"I know, but you can still talk to him online and text message him," Nnoitra reminded him.
Ichigo smiled, knowing that it was true. He looked up at Nnoitra and then his father and thought how lucky he was after all. Things could have turned out very differently, and he wouldn't even be here. But instead, things had happened just they way they did to leave him with all the help he needed to get through everything, no matter how hard it was.