Requested by 3R15UKOUM31- thank you
Ikkaku x Yumichika
"And I remember the truth
A warm December with you"
Joshua Radin
Winter
Living in the Rukongai had been a tough, hard struggle. They moved from place to place, doing odd jobs and trying to get through the best that they could. Ikkaku had picked up a few scars there, although most of them had faded away by now. Yumichika, of course, had managed to leave the place as flawless as he always was, much to his gratification. It hadn't been the best of times, that much was true, and Ikkaku knew that it was undeniable that it was a better life here, in the Gotei 13, than it had ever been before. They had easy food and decent money for a job that they enjoyed (when Yachiru wasn't around), and nobody was seriously trying to kill them, and they actually had some respect here.
But, there was one thing that he missed, although it wasn't anything that he would ever admit out loud. Not just because it might have made him feel awkward, but also because he knew that none of his other drinking buddies, when they were all out and reminiscing about the 'bad old days', would ever really understand.
Him and Yumi', against the world.
In the depths of winter, when it had been painfully cold and ice had crisped the inside and outside of the windows, if you were lucky enough to have glass in the windows of whatever place you were sleeping in at that point, and they had been surviving on near-nothing, they had slept curled around each other for warmth, because it was the only way to make sure that you wouldn't freeze to death in your sleep.
He had a nice bed now- it was warm and soft and plenty big enough, it always smelt good and was never damp or uncomfortable, and there was even a place next to it for resting your zanpakuto whilst you slept. It was cleaned regularly, and he had a closet full of extra pillows and covers that he didn't need because his rooms were heated and the windows had real glass, to keep the chill out. He really didn't need to worry about the cold.
That didn't mean that he stopped curling up in Yumichika's bed.
It's just that now he did it for other reasons.