Christmas Nightmare
~Awkward~

"... it's never something I felt like I belonged doing," was the response that all three in the room heard. Rukia scowled at the small taicho, who glanced at the ground, a type of melancholy setting in on his facial features. This caused the female shinigami to glance away, her eyes alighting on Ichimaru Gin. The man was looking right at the boy, almost as if he were contemplating something.

"Well... I guess we'll see you at the Christmas party," the female stated, standing up and heading to the door. Ichigo gave her a funny look, almost as if he wanted to stay. "We should let Hitsugaya Taicho rest." At that, the male complied, standing up and walking out of the room with her, scratching his head as he did so. They stepped out of the room, sliding the door shut behind them. Rukia gave a rather uneasy look. "Explain to me what this whole pedophile thing is about."

"It's not something to worry about," Kurosaki stated firmly. "I mean..."

The small shinigami turned to him, her facial expressions telling him that she was completely series in what she was saying. "I know that you and Hitsugaya Taicho are choosing to trust Ichimaru Gin. I however, do not. You specifically asked him a question, then brushed it off. That isn't an accusation that is easily brushed off."

"Well, as Toshiro stated, Gin may have told him a lie," again, Ichigo was scratching his head. They walked towards the entrance of the shop. When they got to the front, they found Jinta in a rather pissed off mood. They proceeded to head out towards the street, when the red haired boy ran up to talk to them. This caused the orange haired teen to turn to look at him, along with Rangiku. "What is it?"

"I've tried talking to someone about this, but no one will listen to me," Jinta stated, his eyes glancing away.

"This wouldn't happen to do with Hitsugaya Taicho?" Rukia asked, suddenly turning to the boy.

"Yesterday, Hitsugaya Toshiro went out with Ichimaru Gin. I don't know where they went, but when they came back, that brat taicho wasn't acting like he normally does," the red head muttered.

"So... how was Toshiro acting?" Ichigo asked, seeming no where near as concerned as his companion about the whole matter.

"When they got back from where ever they had gone, Ichimaru was pulling on his sleeve and he simply followed. "I know that Urahara said that Hitsugaya Taicho wasn't feeling good, but the fact is, I don't get why... if he was willing to try and jump me when I said something simple, why he didn't even try to go after that man."

"That's it?" The orange haired substitute shinigami decided to turn away, but found the preteens voice piping up with a response.

"It wasn't the only thing Kurosaki," came the words. "Why did he have to strip down to his underwear?" At that, Rukia turned towards Ichigo, her face paled. Kurosaki reached up and scratched his head. Before he could say anything, Jinta continued. "And then I saw Ichimaru... I saw him get to close to Hitsugaya Taicho. And..."

The Kuchiki noble spoke up, noticing the young ones face suddenly turning red. "There is something you aren't exactly comfortable saying."

"It's something that Hitsugaya Taicho said to Ichimaru. Something that he wouldn't say unless..." Jinta paused. "Unless he was in a sexual relationship with the man."

Rukia paled some more. "These words..."

"Hitsugaya asked Ichimaru if he loved him. Seriously, why else would he have asked that question otherwise," Jinta stated firmly. "They did sleep together last night and this morning Gin was feeding him."

"You're thinking to much into it," Ichigo stated, turning to leave.

"You! Urahara! Matsumoto! Tessai! Now you!" Jinta's mood snapped. "Fine... I'll go find someone who will listen to me!"

As the boy stormed off, Ichigo made to move too leave, but Rukia grabbed his sleeve. "We're not leaving."

"Rukia, this is something that Toshiro has to figure out for himself," the substitute shinigami stated, moving forward again, only to find the female moving to block his path.

"I want to go and talk to Hitsugaya Taicho about these things," the female stated firmly. "You can either come with me, or go on your own way. But if you walk away from this, if you walk away from someone you claim to be your friend."

"Fine... but if Toshiro gets mad at us, it isn't my fault," the teenager grunted as they headed back in. When they got in, the boy was now eating on his own, slowly.

Ichimaru's head popped up. "You two are back all ready?"

To their surprise, Toshiro's head popped up, some of his food falling out of his mouth. He then weakly tried cleaning up his food. His cheeks flushed a little from embarrassment "I'm seriously fine."

"One of Urahara's shop assistants is in fact saying otherwise," Rukia stated firmly, causing the boy's head to jolt up.

"What did he say?" the boy grumbled.

"The best way to put it is, Hitsugaya Taicho, he accused Ichimaru Gin of being a pedophile," the female shinigami stated firmly. "Ichigo confirmed that at one point you accused him of being one too, so I can't take this lightly."

At that, the small taicho glared at the female. The temperature dropped and then began to fluctuate. "This is none of your business"

While Ichigo shivered, Rukia simply sat down in front of the small taicho. "I'll remind you that I too have an ice zampaktuo, so your little tantrum doesn't effect me. It is my business as a member of the gotei thirteen to look after the other members."

"I am also a captain Kuchiki," the small boy stated, his mood rather dark.

"Ichimaru Gin himself says that right now you can't defend yourself, so I think I can easily take you on right now. I am using my judgment and the facts point to you being in danger. You have these choices Hitsugaya Taicho. You can either come with Ichigo and me as we do the shopping we need for the Christmas Party, you'll deal with me asking you questions and you explaining away what Jinta saw, or you tell us right now what is going on."

"I don't do Christmas," the boy muttered. He then glared at Ichigo. "I trusted you!"

"This wasn't my idea Toshiro," the substitute shinigami replied.

"I know you don't do Christmas. We aren't taking you along to hear your opinion on things, we would be taking you along to keep an eye on you and make sure that you have a certain distance from Ichimaru Gin." Rukia crossed her arms.

"I can't tell you because I don't know if he told me the truth," the small boy grumbled. "Please... I don't feel comfortable answering questions either."

"Toshiro..." Ichigo spoke up. "I am willing to leave this alone until you find out the truth yourself. Rukia is not. She's not going to just walk away."

At that, the two teal eyes closed up. "What did he see?"

"One of the things he commented on was the fact that Ichimaru Gin mentioned you needing to strip down to your underwear," Rukia stated.

"That?" Toshiro raised an eyebrow, then pointed his finger at the rash on his arm, which appeared on his other limps and neck.

"I see that you have a rash, but why couldn't you heal it with kido?" the female asked.

"Because it is an allergic reaction," the boy stated. At that, he glanced away, not looking anyone in the eye. He then began to pull up his shirt, his cheeks flushing, only to have Rukia pull it down.

"Hitsugaya Taicho! What are you doing!" the female stated as the boy's cheeks flushed.

"He was trying to show you something Rukia," Ichigo muttered. "It also looks like you have to put on some more medicine." At that, Toshiro's hand reached to itch at his skin, only to have Ichimaru Gin karate chop him on the top of the head.

"No itching."

Rukia's eyes went wide at this, but she carefully lifted up the small boy's shirt, then winced when she came to realize it went over his whole body. She then pushed it back down. "That wasn't the only thing though."

"That doesn't surprise me," Toshiro muttered. He was suddenly moving to leave. "I am sick and tired of him butting in where he isn't wanted. He hasn't got a clue what is going on. I am going to hurt him." The boy stood up on his feet, wobbling due to his body being weak still. Ichimaru moved fast and pulled him down, pinning him to the ground. "Let me go!"

"I'm not going to let you go do something stupid," Gin stated firmly. "You are not going to go after that boy. In your condition he'll pulverize you."

"I don't care, you aren't my boss!" the boy snapped out loud.

At that, Gin's eyes opened up. "You may not want to listen to me, may never choose to, whether I lied to you or not, but I will tell you, if you do choose to go through this, I will let granny know what stupidity you're trying to get up to. Do you understand me?"

Toshiro's eyes opened wide and then he replied meekly. "Hai..."

Rukia's eye twitched. Her voice was rather dark. "Jinta also says that you slept with Ichimaru last night."

A shade of shock spread on the preteens face, his face paling and then his cheeks flushing up. He opened his mouth to say something, but then it snapped shut as Ichimaru moved away. "That..."

"Hitsugaya Taicho, do you have an answer for that?" Kuchiki pressed.

"Get an official order from Yamamoto." Two teal eyes snapped back open, irritation written all over his face.

"Hitsugaya Taicho. If you don't answer. Do you know what I have to assume?" Rukia folded her arms across her chest.

"What you think happened, didn't happen!" Toshiro clenched his hands so tightening that his knuckles turned white.

"Why would Ichimaru have you sleep with him." Rukia's voice was firm, making it clear that she wasn't pleased with the whole situation. "I can only think of one reason why."

"He didn't have me sleep with him! He was already asleep when I went..." At that, the small taicho's face flushed up and then he glanced at the ground.

"You really don't want to know what popped into my head," the female grumbled. "Hitsugaya Taicho... this is serious."

"All I did was... all I did..." Toshiro's cheeks flushed up even more.

"You're the one who climbed in with him," Rukia sighed. "I got that. I think you are confused about certain things, even what the problem with this situation is about. It's as if you know he's a pedophile, but your simply accepting it as it is."

"That isn't true!" The small taicho's red face showed he was quite troubled.

Ichimaru quickly spoke up though. "Go with them, Shiro-chan."

The younger three in the room glanced up, a bit surprised. Toshiro blinked a couple of times. "What? I don't understand."

"Neither do I for that matter." the female commented.

"You're starting to go into a territory that chibi taicho isn't comfortable with." Gin placed his arms behind his back.

"Don't you mean an area that you are uncomfortable him talking about," Rukia muttered.

"Nope. Shiro-chan, you should be getting dressed," Ichimaru sat up, only to catch the small female's glare. He then let out a sigh. "All right, all right. I will go and leave you all alone. Chibi taicho, just get ready to do. It is a better deal then having to answer questions." The man then simply slid out of the room.

Toshiro glanced at the ground. "Why are you pushing this?"

At that, the female's look simply faltered It wasn't a look of anger, or disappointment, simply concern. "Hitsugaya Taicho. Haven't you, whenever you talked to Ichimaru Gin, felt a bad feeling about you. Almost like you had snakes choking you?" As she asked, Ichigo went and grabbed the small taicho's pile of clothing, tossing it at the boy.

"Like snakes choking you?" Toshiro blinked a couple of times. "No, I've never felt like that. I always felt like he was up to something, hiding things from me, but I never felt that kind of feeling. Then again, I tended to see him when he was around... my fukutaicho." He made to get dressed, but then froze. He got up and walked over to a small bag at the side of the room, pulling out something. He then shoved it the way of Kurosaki. "Please?"

"Ahh, yeah, you need some more of this on, don't you?" The teenager stated, going behind the small boy and squeezing the goo out. He lifted up Toshiro's shirt, finishing in a few minutes. Toshiro then proceeded to put the rest on himself. He then pulled the clothing on, rather irritated about the whole situation.

He then got up to head out with Jericho and Rukia, only to find Ichigo pulled aside by Ichimaru. When the substitute shinigami walked up, the boy asked. "Did he tell you?"

"No. He simply had a request," the substitute shinigami stated. Toshiro's face twisted in irritation.