A/N: I think I'm a little proud that I'm typing this on my iPad. But once again, I give my thanks to all of you.
Ichigo quickly did what he has to do: stop them from getting into his room and discover Toshiro. Thanks to his talent with running, it took two seconds until he's already upstairs and he intercepted them from getting in. He tried not to sigh so loudly.
"Let me clean up first before you enter." And inside, Toshrio could see their legs go out of the hole and he has to find a good place to hide. Nothing served as the perfect spot, but he doesn't blame Ichigo for this. The Forte doesn't know anyway.
Luck is on his side as the door opens and they retreat. He mentally smiled, and Ichigo picked him up into his palm before he could say thanks to the orange head. "What's wrong?"
"My sisters want to watch a movie in my room, and you're going to hide in the drawer." Toshiro felt excited that he's going to see more Fortes, "No. Hide me in your pocket. I want to see what you're going to watch."
Well, that's another good plan. He carefully stuffed the Rene into his pocket, and the latter watched as Ichigo opened the door and two girls half his height came in. "Sorry about Yuzu. You know that she's been very patient to watch it. Let's just sit back and enjoy the movie." Ichigo couldn't agree more and sat beside his sisters.
The DVD played on the screen and Toshiro concluded that the one difference between his kind and Ichigo's kind is their size and nothing more. His phone vibrated quietly, and he immediately picked it up while dropping himself back to the base of the pretty shallow pocket.
"Hello?" He quickly pulled the phone away from his ear afterwards. The voice on the other line is so loud that it could break his eardrums, even if he set the volume of his phone to low.
"WHERE ARE YOU? Don't tell me that you're in the world of the Fortes."
He frowned and placed it one meter closer to his ear, fearing that she'll yell again. "Yes, I am. And you should have been here as well, but that's impossible in your case." He made the right choice to not listen too close, for she yelled again.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, TOSHIRO HITSUGAYA? I heard the Guards going to the Borderline because they think there's a runaway. And of course, who else would go there but you?"
Toshiro rolled his eyes but he also felt afraid. He almost got caught by the Guards.
"Risky or not, I got to do something that others wouldn't. The Fortes that I'm with are nice people. And whatever you people say there, the Fortes are just like us in so many ways, except that they're way larger than us."
"Either way you have to go back now. The Guards may be at rest for now but they'll search again."
"I don't understand, Inoue." He had to tell her about what he found fishy. "I almost got caught by the Guards, and when I went to the Borderline I hid and carefully checked if there was a sign of anyone else. How could they know I was there? I swear I carefully checked.
"Beats me. But you have to return even if you're having a fun time there. I fear that their search night get even more deeper by tomorrow. You know they don't like runaways."
He gulped nervously. He just started doing something new, being in someplace new and meeting someone new.
Toshiro doesn't want it to end, but he fears for his life and for his family. He is the only who is taking care of them and he can't bear to leave them behind. This was the worst dilemma he ever faced, but at this situation he has no other choice. He can't continue to be daring and fearless anymore, now that the authority's alarmed.
"Just let me spend a little more time with them." He hung up and cut Inoue off, and immediately turned off the phone. He finished the whole movie but the glee in his eyes were gone.
For now, the good thing is that Ichigo didn't hear the conversation.
He half-closed his eyes as if he was sleepy, but he's not tired, he's upset. He just met a Forte and now at the same day, he made the choice to not see him or any other Forte when he just startrd having fun.
When the movie ended, he was placed on a safe place on the desk, and didn't know why Ichigo would put him there but he just waited. Beside him is a large stuffed lion toy, which he smiled at.
"Never saw anyone as fluffy as you." He was already touching the soft paws while saying that, and before he could indulge himself by poking and patting the fluffy cotton, the door opened and Ichigo came in with a very small plate full of something, something which looked delicious.
"Help yourself." Ichigo passed the plate to him, and he gorged himself on the cake crumbs that tasted like heaven. He already finished them all in a minute due to his odd gluttony, but it also made him cough to ease his gullet. "Horrible?"
"It's actually one of the best I've eaten so far. Where did you get the plate? From your sisters' dollhouse?" he guessed, licking the last bits of cake off his mouth. "Exactly. It actually belongs to Yuzu. Karin is more on sports than on dolls."
"Who is who?" he questioned, his eyebrows twitching. "Karin's the one with black hair, Yuzu's the one with orange hair." Toshiro nodded, and hopped onto the orange head's palm as he was taken to the bed.
"That movie, while ago, I never heard of it or watched it in my world." he admitted, resting his chin on his raised knees. "Well, to admit, after watching you for a short while, the only thing that makes you and me different is our size, but it doesn't exactly mean that what we have everything that you Fortes have." He scratched his cheek, and Ichigo got everything that he said.
"I see. Why do you keep calling me a Forte? I can say that, you call us 'giants' that term?" Toshiro nodded, feeling a little relieved that the Forte he met is not a stupid one. "In short, Fortes are people of your size while those as big as your thumb..." He lightly kicked the said finger. "... are Renes. But that's our one difference, and I already said that."
Ichigo set him on his lap, where Toshiro sat comfortably. Right now, he didn't know what else to say that would mostly be his last words to his new Forte friend. But he kept everything as normal as possible to treasure the moment.
Soon enough, after a few smiles, laughter and words, Ichigo went to sleep and Toshiro just watched him from afar, back on the desk before the orange head slept. Carefully, he jumped down without making a noise or injuring himself, and he hesitated to go back in the hole.
"Goodbye, Kurosaki. It's a shame, that it's only a short while." He went back in, using a small flashlight key chain to guide him back. Despite it being evening, he still watched out for the Guards and sometimes looked over his shoulder or looked at the farthest corners.
No one was there, and the only other sound aside from his footsteps were the rustling of the leaves. Every time, after ten to fifteen steps, he would turn around and look at the faint light that the hole gave from the larger moon in the Forte's world, but he didn't make a step back.
Ichigo quickly woke up and bathed the next day, and immediately remembered Toshiro. He went back to the desk and checked for him, but there was no one.
He looked at the hole, and right now, he did not think about patching it back. "He had to return back to his world, obviously." Soon, the room became silent when he left for school, and he hoped that Toshiro would pop out so he would take him out.
Though the Rene never appeared, he still waited, even when it has been two weeks since. Right now, Rukia even went to the point of skipping school to nurse her brother, to keep him alive for longer. He hadn't heard from her ever since, as if her brother already died and she died as well.
Everyone else busy, and so is he with homework, but being a good student he didn't have a problem and would always stay in his room doing nothing, hoping that Toshiro would come. Day after day, when nothing came out the hole, let alone a pest, he started to doubt what he saw and believed that it was a dream.
But at the same day that he slowly gave up, Toshiro mustered all the courage he needed to go back.
For the same time that he has been away, he couldn't help but look at the path that led to the Borderline when he would go to school or go home from school. Thanks to what happened, Inoue and he grew apart but would still eat lunch together and help each other in homework, but no more than that.
And, while ignoring his math lessons, he wanted to come back. But this time, he had to evade everybody else...
...and bring his family with him.