Requested by The Crazy Chick In Black- thank you
Toushiro x Momo, and hints of one-sided Momo x Aizen
I am a man cut from the know
Rarely do friends come and then go
She was a girl, soft but estranged
We were the two, our lives rearranged
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Altruism
He was sure that he had spent all of his life knowing entirely what was going on and how to solve the problems he faced: only on a few occasions, when he was young, had he ever needed direction (and a little part of him was still angry that, on one of those times, it had been Matsumoto. Who would have known that such a useless shinigami would be the one to tell him he was near-killing his grandmother with his spiritual pressure?) He was used to knowing; not understanding left him on very unsure footing.
That was why he was at such a loss when faced with the girl in front of him, who sat with her hands folded in her lap demurely but stared into space with a look of such intense focus that it was a little scary. There was no reasonable way to make her feel better, no way to snap it out of her. People had tried; kind words, hard words, gentle touches, shocking slaps across the face. She still had not come to her senses.
It was like breaking in an animal- some days she was wild with anger, beating at him with fists and lashing with her tongue. Others she curled up, foetal-like, and sobbed almost silently.
"Give her time," his Lieutenant told him, "She'll come around in the end."
So he did- he sat with her and talked to her as she became more responsive, and sometimes when she slept, troubled and murmuring, he would hold her hand, face red-hot in a blush as he did so. He knew he had entirely selfish motives in looking after her. It wasn't for the good of her health- although that was, of course, a part of it- it was because one day, he hoped, he would be able to go and visit her, to see her open her arms to embrace him, with only him on her mind, and not her former Captain.
And then he would have the courage to finally tell her everything that he had wanted to tell her since he realised what that feeling inside him was.
So until then, he could be selfish, and try and make her better, because one day he knew that he would taste her kisses, and not have to watch her crying Aizen's name in a senseless ecstacy as she slept.