Chapter 3

"Wow, you look like shit," said Ikkaku when Yumichika led Buffy into the little bungalow the two men shared. "You survived that thrashing? I'm surprised."

"You got damn lucky, I could have beaten you Baldy," Buffy said with a weak smile as Yumichika helped her into a low chair. "I'm a hell of a lot tougher than I look, Chrome Dome."

"You're just lucky I didn't kill you, girlie," Ikkaku said before taking a drink of whatever beverage he had.

"You might want to stop commenting on his lack of hair if you want to stay alive," Yumichika whispered into her ear as he tended to her wounds. Buffy glanced at Ikkaku; sure enough, he was scowling at her. "By the way, I'm Yumichika Ayasegawa and he's Ikkaku Madarame."

"What the hell are you doing, telling her my name? D'you think I can't introduce myself or something?" Ikkaku asked, annoyed, before eating some rice. "What do we call you, little girl? 'Cause I don't want to be calling you "little girl" all the time if ya got a real name."

"Yes, calling you "little girl" and "girlie" imply that you are a child, and you're definitely not a child," said Yumichika with a kind smile. "What's your name? I hope it's a beautiful name."

"Buffy, my name is Buffy," Buffy replied, wincing again. "Don't know if it qualifies as 'beautiful' though."

"It's not an ugly name," Yumichika said as he began dressing her wound properly. As he unwrapped the makeshift bandage he had fashioned out of emergency supplies he kept hidden on his person, he looked at the wound with a puzzled look on his face. "Well, that's odd."

"What's odd?" Buffy asked, looking down at her stomach. There was a lot of blood on her robe, enough so that the cloth was probably ruined. While it had been bleeding a lot before, it appeared as if the bleeding had stopped completely.

"You wound," Yumichika replied, moving the fabric of the robe to take a better look. "The bleeding's stopped."

"Doesn't that normally happen when you bandage something up?" Buffy asked, arching an eyebrow. She knew what was going on, but she wasn't sure how these guys would react to it. While specific details of her human life were already beginning to become hazy, she still remembered what she was in that past life, what she still instinctively was – the Slayer.

"Not when the wound's life threatening, ya idiot," Ikkaku said with a roll of his eyes. He leaned over to catch a glimpse at Buffy's wound, and his eyes widened at what he saw. "What the hell is goin' on with that!?"

"I'm a fast healer?" Buffy offered with a weak smile. Both Ikkaku and Yumichika looked at her in disbelief. "Seriously, I am! You kind of have to be when you dealt with the crap I did when I was alive."

"You remember your other life?" Yumichika asked as he wrapped proper bandages around Buffy's torso. While it was healing extraordinarily quickly, there was still the off chance that it could get infected and heal improperly and scar, and he didn't want that to happen.

"I…" Buffy began before halting her speech. She thought for a moment; could she remember her previous life? Well, parts of it she could. She remembered a lot of fighting, dying not once but twice and many, many injuries that would have killed any normal person. But Buffy wasn't a normal person; while she was beginning to forget the details of her life, she instinctively knew what she was. She was the Slayer. "I remember bits and pieces. I remember a lot of fighting; I remember being the Slayer."

"The Slayer?" Ikkaku asked, trying not to laugh and failing horribly. "What kind of lame ass name is that?"

"The Slayer is the only thing that saved the human world from the supernatural," Buffy replied with a huff.

"Or so you believe," Ikkaku retorted, rolling his eyes. "You said it yourself… you don't even remember all of your past life."

"And you do?" Buffy shot back with a snort; she smirked when he snapped his mouth shut and scowled. "Thought so."

"If you believe that you were the Slayer, then I'm not going to stop you," Yumichika said as he finished dressing her wound. "You certainly have some fighting skill; you're the only person who has lasted more than ten minutes in a fight against Ikkaku."

"And she still lost," Ikkaku said with a smirk.

"Still alive, aren't I?" Buffy asked, arching an eyebrow. Ikkaku's smirk fell and he scowled yet again. "You know, if you keep doing that your face is going to stick that way."

"Shut up," he said, glaring at her before going back to his bowl of rice.

"Come on, let's get you to bed, you need to rest," Yumichika interjected, breaking up the argument that would probably lead to an all-out brawl, with Ikkaku's temper. From what he could tell, Buffy had a bit of a temper as well.

Things were about to get interesting, and he decided right then that he liked it.

Reluctantly, Buffy allowed herself to be helped up and led to the other side of the room where a sleeping mat was set up. There was only one other there; it was obvious that they didn't have guests all that often.

"Who gets the other mat?" Buffy asked, curious.

"Either myself or Ikkaku," Yumichika replied with an offhand shrug. "You should worry about getting some rest and healing up, not who has to sleep on the bare floor tonight."

"Thank you," Buffy said suddenly, gratefully. "For everything. For taking me in, for patching me up. Just… thanks."

"It's no problem," Yumichika replied, a genuine smile crossing his features. He turned his gaze to Ikkaku, who was still seated at the low table across the room, eating. "Fighting you made him happy, you know, happier than I've ever seen him. If I can keep him like that, then I'll do what I can to make it happen. Now go to sleep. Let me know if you're hungry in the morning."

Buffy closed her eyes and dropped off to sleep even though it was still rather early in the evening. Yumichika smiled softly at her before getting up and crossing the room, sitting across from Ikkaku.

"She didn't make me that happy, you know," Ikkaku said, slurping up some broth as Yumichika dished out some rice for himself. "You're not getting attached, are you? Because attachments can be seen as a sign of weakness."

"She still made you happy, happier than I've seen you in a while. I think that's reason enough to keep her around," Yumichika argued, pouring himself some tea. "And if I am getting attached? I don't think that's any of your business if I am. Can I help it if I affiliate myself with beauty?"

"What are you going to do, adopt her as your sister?" Ikkaku asked with a smirk. "Give her your last name or somethin'?"

"If she can't remember her own, perhaps," Yumichika said thoughtfully. "The idea has some merit, I have to admit."

"Well, whatever," Ikkaku remarked with a scoff, although he secretly liked the idea of keeping the girl around. Once she was healed up, which probably wouldn't take more than a day or so from what he had seen, he would see if she wanted to spar again. It had been a while since he had fought just for fun with no life and death stakes involved and he found the idea very attractive. It didn't hurt that she was very easy on the eyes. "You can keep the girl around as long as she isn't going to be a freeloader or anything. Since she took my bed, I'm taking yours and you can sleep on the floor until we can get another mat."

"Fair enough," replied Yumichika, smiling softly to himself. He knew that while Ikkaku seemed disagreeable to the arrangement, he was actually quite pleased. Yumichika almost hugged himself in glee; he probably would have if he didn't think it was undignified. "I'm going to go to sleep now; all that has gone on today has quite exhausted me. I'll see you in the morning, wake me if you need me."

"Sure, sure," Ikkaku said absently, his mind elsewhere. Shortly after Yumichika had curled up on the floor under a spare blanket, Ikkaku got up and headed to his mat. He sat on it, no intention of going to bed any time soon, and watched Buffy sleep.

***

I apologize for the length; I stop writing when I think the story reaches a good place to break. Things should start picking up soon.