Sumimasen, I did not mention this in
Chapter one but I do not own Bleach!
Chapter 2. Recuperation
The moonlight that had been filtering through the roots soon changed into dawn sunlight.
Little Hinamori shifted and then drearily, her eyes fluttered open. Next to her, the spiky haired boy was also waking up, his aqua eyes blinking as he tried to push the sleep and tiredness away.
For a split second, Hinamori thought that they had been playing too late and had simply fallen asleep. But then the horrible memories of the night before flashed back into her mind and she quivered. Hitsugaya closed his small fingers around her hand and pulled her gently, telling her that he wanted her to follow him outside.
"Come on." He said softly. "Obaa-san's probably worried about us."
At first Hinamori seemed certain that she was not going anywhere. But at the mention of the woman that was like a mother to her, she half-heartedly crawled over the roots after him. He placed his finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet, as he peeked through the roots that blocked them away from the rest of the world.
When he saw nothing out of the ordinary and no giant, lumbering shadow, he nodded at her and together the two climbed over the last root. They left the lantern behind, for they both just barely had enough strength to carry themselves.
The forest beyond their hiding place was acting as if all of the events of the past night had never occurred at all. The birds were chirping blissfully as they always did, there were the sounds of paws and claws scuttling and scrambling in the undergrowth, and the Spring winds still blew and gave off the same chilly prickle down the spine.
"Let's go." He urged her.
But the second she started walking again, her bruised and bloody feet were remembered and pain seared throughout her body and she almost fell.
Then, Hitsugaya was aware of his stomach growling, and only seconds later hers did the same. But they pushed onward, stumbling multiple times and constantly having to stop, but they went onward. Although they were walking, they could not stop the twigs from snagging on their clothes or the thorns pricking their skin. Eventually, Hitsugaya saw a familiar cottage up ahead.
"We made it!" He exclaimed, exhausted.
Hinamori said nothing, but he could sense thanks and eagerness pouring off of her like a waterfall.
As the two of them came closer, they began to quicken their pace until they were finally running. They burst through the door together, startling an elderly woman that sat inside on a chair in the small kitchen. She wore a light blue kimono and had short, gray hair that was tied into a bun. The instant that she saw the two of them, she was on her feet and rushing over to them.
"Oh Momo-chan, Toshiro! Where have you two been? I've been looking everywhere for you all night!"
The boy and the girl threw themselves into her arms and wept with joy. After a moment, the woman pulled back and inspected the two of them.
"Oh you're both all dirty! And Momo-chan look at you! You're bleeding!" She exclaimed, glancing the girls feet and ankles.
She had tracked a trail of blood in through the kitchen door behind her. "Come on." Hitsugaya's grandmother instructed them both.
She led them into the bathroom where she thoroughly washed off their cuts and bruises. Then she raced into another room and handed them each a clean white robe.
"Now Toshiro darling, go into your room and change into that while I finish up with Momo-chan." She instructed, dabbing some ointment on the girls ankles.
Hitsugaya obeyed and changed into the white robe, it was a few sizes to big for him, but it was comfortable and warm. By the time he had finished folding his dirty, gray kimono and placing it in the hamper, Hinamori was already dressed in her robe.
Never before had they been so thankful to live in Junrinan. It was the first district of Soul Society, and therefore they had the second best living standards next to the wealth of Seireitei.
The two made their ways into the living room and Hitsugaya threw himself down onto the couch. Hinamori fetched both of their pairs of slippers and brought them back over to the couch. She handed Hitsugaya his blue pair and she slid her purple ones onto her cold, bruised toes.
Then she pulled her legs onto the couch and curled up into a white ball, shivering with cold that seemed to come out of nowhere. Hitsugaya reached over to a small table beside the couch and turned on a yellow lamp.
The two friends sat in silence for a few moments, and then Hitsugaya's grandmother entered the room and sat down on the white-haired boy's other side. The boy and the girl cuddled closer to one another, sharing what little warmth that they could spare.
"Now both of you tell me what happened." They glanced at each other, and Hinamori's chestnut eyes told him that she did not want to talk about it. So Hitsugaya explained everything to his grandmother, who stayed silent the entire time.
"…And then in the morning, we left our hiding place and found our way back." He finished.
Hinamori had stayed unusually silent during the whole story, and whenever he glanced over at her, she was staring blankly downward, her eyes empty and emotionless with the memories of the terrors she had experienced the night before.
He wished that he had been there with her, and that he could have helped her, and deep down he secretly knew that the hyper little girl he had come to know so well would never be quite the same again.
And all the while, the woman nodded, with the most serious look on her face that he had ever seen. Finally she spoke up,
"Well, just be sure not to go playing there again for a while." She said slowly.
It was the only thing she could think to say to try and comfort them. Hitsugaya nodded in understanding and Hinamori blinked out of her daze and did the same. "Now then, are you hungry?" She asked them, changing from serious to caring. Both of the shook their heads, they were too tired to be hungry. "Then why don't the two of you get to sleep now? I know it's early but I bet that you're very tired."
The little boy and girl stood up drearily and mumbled agreement. Hinamori left the living room first, and Hitsugaya followed, while his grandmother went into the kitchen.
The aqua-eyed boy and the chestnut-eyed girl shared a room, and when they made their way to the doorway, they removed their slippers and crawled into the large bed that they shared. There was a table at the front of the bed so that they could both reach over for a glass of water in the middle of the night.
Hinamori and Hitsugaya slid under the sheets and pulled the thick, warm blanket over their shoulders. Crawling into bed like this made Hinamori remember the past; every night since the Spring it would happen.
Hinamori recalled the day only a few months ago when Hitsugaya's grandfather had passed away; it was the biggest reason why he hated the Spring so much.
Hinamori had cried every night for about a week afterwards, but what had puzzled her was that Hitsugaya had only let a few tears fall at the funeral, but not any other time. But she had remembered that at night, he would shudder next to her, and whimper in his sleep, and she knew that there was a secret storm thrashing about inside of him, and she could do nothing for him except cuddle close to him at night and smile during the day.
But now, this uncomfortable, nightly routine had for the most part ceased, and now she slept with a clear conscience.
Hinamori curled herself into the blankets and clutched the sheets tightly to her body. Hitsugaya twisted the sheets underneath him so that they would not slid away if he shifted during the middle of the night. The blinds of the windows were half-closed but a small, dim light filtered its way through into the room. Hitsugaya reached up and turned off the lamp on the nightstand.
"Oyasuminasai, Shiro-chan." Hinamori murmured softly, and although neither of them were aware of it, her voice was full of affection.
"Oyasuminasai, Momo-chan." He said in response.
And before the sun even went down, the two friends were already in a unanimous slumber.
Pale golden light flitted through the shades on the window, warming Hinamori's face and causing her to drowsily open her eyes.
Hitsugaya was lying beside her, snoring slightly with his mouth open. She daintily picked her way around the sheets and she crawled onto the wooden floor. She made her way over to the doorway of their bedroom and slipped on her purple slippers. She peered around a corner that led to the kitchen where there was a kotatsu with two bowls of rice and two plates with hot, Japanese omelets lying on them.
"Ohayo gozaimasu Obaa-san." Hinamori greeted.
Although the elderly woman was not her own grandmother, she had lived with her and her grandson for so long that she almost believed that they were related. Her false grandmother was seated at the small table, and looked up at the sound of her voice and smiled.
"Ohayo, Momo-chan." Hinamori walked over to the kotatsu and knelt down, leaving a space for Hitsugaya if he were ever going to wake up and have breakfast.
She tucked her small feet underneath her body, reached for her chopsticks and began to eat her rice. Her grandmother was almost finished with her own breakfast, but she stood up the second Hinamori took her seat.
"I see you're awake before Toshiro again this morning." She laughed, her blue eyes sparkling with amusement.
Hinamori nodded, but said nothing for her mouth was full of rice. "I'll go get his breakfast. He should be up soon because he always seems to wake up a few moments after you." With that she walked slowly into the kitchen, leaving Hinamori by herself; but not for long.
As if on cue, Hitsugaya walked sleepily into the room, rubbing his eyes from tiredness. Hinamori quickly swallowed her rice.
"O-Ohayo, Shiro-chan." She choked on her food for swallowing too fast.
As Hitsugaya nodded his greeting in return and sat down beside her, she coughed a few times, and he patted her on the back.
After her coughing fit was over, she sat up straight again. "Arigatou." She beamed.
He said nothing, but gave her a small smile.
A minute later, his grandmother was entering the room with his breakfast. The grandmother and her grandson exchanged greetings before he thanked her and plunged into his food. And before Hinamori had finished her omelet, Hitsugaya had devoured his entire meal. And therefore he got back to the bedroom first, as usual.
Every morning the two friends would race to their room after breakfast to try to get there first. Their rule was, that whomever finished eating first got to change first, but Hinamori had not once beat her white-haired friend.
When he had changed into his blue-gray kimono, Hinamori was allowed the privilege to get into the room. She slid the door closed behind her and picked up her favorite tan kimono that Hitsugaya's grandmother had sewed for her. She noticed, long ago that all of her kimonos seemed to be tan, and that all of Hitsugaya's were either gray or blue, and she wondered why but had never found an answer.
This however was her favorite of every one that she had. Not only because her 'grandmother' had spent so much time making it, but for some other reason that she did not fully understand. It had a dark purple stripe running horizontally around the stomach. She assumed that she loved this kimono above all the others because of the stripe, but she honestly had no idea why.
After she had changed and folded up the white robe, Hinamori slid off her slippers and placed them next to her friend's outside the sliding door. Hitsugaya was waiting for her by the door that led to the world outside and she raced over to him.
They were fresh, recuperated and ready for another day. However, before they could get outside, their grandmother was walking towards them.
"Don't go near those woods for a while." She warmed. "Stay close to the house and don't go off too far."
The two nodded, but they had had no intensions of going into those woods again for quite a while.
"Yosh." The two agreed simultaneously.
She nodded and then the boy and the girl were off.
A/N: And there is Chapter 2! Not much really happened but just be patient, trust me.
FYI: Ohayo gozaimasu means good morning, and oyasuminasai means good night. Although ohayo by itself still means good morning and oyasumi means good nigt too. The longer phrases are just more formal.
Hope you liked it! Please review!!