This is Week 1: Challenge 1 ~ part 2. Use each trait from the poem Monday's Child to write a one-shot.

Summary: Toshiro and Ichigo talk about death and the grief that comes with it. (Rating T)

Wednesday's Child
~Wednesday's child is full of woe~

"Kurosaki..." The voice came from the window of Ichigo's bedroom window. The substitute shinigami paused in his homework, instantly recognizing the voice of the child taicho. The window was open and when he turned to look at the window to see the small taicho sitting there, his arms crossed across his chest, a frown plastered on his face. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, why not Toshiro."

It's captain Hitsugaya..." Two bright teal eyes rolled back into his head and Ichigo could see the corner of the child captain's mouth twitch up as the boy tried to hide his amusement. "No, seriously. How do you deal with someone dying?"

Ichigo's eyes widened and his mouth opened as he stared at the small taicho. Eventually he reached up to scratch his head. "Well.. I didn't exactly expect you to ask me such a personal question. Why did this even come up?"

"Hinamori told me that I'm an emotionless bastard... except she didn't use the last word." The boy continued to watch the sun set over the buildings.

"Hinamori... she's..." The orange haired teen paused. "She's the girl Aizen tricked you into stabbing during the Winter War."

"She's also my foster sister. Since she and I grew up together she would know that I'm emotionless, right?"

"Yes... well, maybe. Why did she even bring up the fact you were emotionless and how did this lead to you asking me how I react to someone dying?"

"Her pet gerbil died."

Ichigo felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "I don't think that's the same thing as someone you actually know and care about dying. You weren't attached to the gerbil, were you?"

"No. Absolutely not. Actually, she'd only had the stupid thing a few days and came sobbing to me about how it had died and then expected me to empathize with the poor thing. I made the mistake of telling her it was likely better of. Didn't tell her the reason her stupid gerbil was better off was because she likely killed it."

"I'm glad you didn't say that to her. Hands down she likely wasn't looking for sympathy for the gerbil."

"That makes no sense."

"Well, I can't tell unless I actually know the conversation she had with you."

"She said, "Shiro-chan..." in that annoying way she has of calling me that stupid nickname "fluffy died." I then say, "So? He's likely better off," without saying she did ended up in the long run killing it. She then says, "Shiro-chan, you're an emotionless little..." she then clapped her hand over her mouth and hurried off."

"She was likely wanting you to sympathize with her and not the gerbil Toshiro."

"As if I could. I told her when she came up with the idea not to get herself a pet that it wasn't a good idea. She's... not exactly the brightest person in the world."

"Toshiro... isn't she a fukutaicho? Plus, how do you know its her fault that her gerbil is dead?"

"Oh, I knew full well it wasn't her fault when I said that. I'm the one who switched her gerbil out for a dead hamster. I didn't say she was irresponsible, I said she wasn't the brightest person in the world. You would think that a person would be able to tell the difference between a gerbil and a hamster. I left the gerbil on my fukutaicho's desk, but did Hinamori notice. No... she did not."

Ichigo felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "That was a rather mean thing to do."

"Matsumoto very much agrees with you on that. I may be her taicho, but she isn't afraid to tan my hide when I do something like that."

"How though did this lead to you asking me how I deal with grief?"

"My fukutaicho majorly laid into me and after having buried the pretend fluffy thing and having the real fluffy thing returned to her Hinamori started yelling at me about being an emotionless freak. That was a few days ago and it got me to thinking about how I don't think I've ever really grieved for someone."

"What about that classmate of yours who died?"

"It didn't feel like he had died at the time... which to be honest if you think about it..."

"Ichimaru?"

"He's not dead."

"Despite the fact that's how it is down in the records. Um... how about your former taicho?"

"Not dead... though I did lose my temper at anyone who insisted he was dead or a moron."

"Uh-huh." Ichigo shook his head at the boy. "Is that really what happened?"

"Fine. I didn't just yell at everyone that taicho wasn't dead, I bawled my head off as well."

"That's a form of grieving you know."

"He's not dead."

"And how do you know that?" Ichigo frowned at the boy, watching as Toshiro stared at him with a rather blank look.

"If you don't know my answer for that, then you don't need to know. But since my feeling of him not being dead was right on, my feeling that Ichimaru isn't dead is also spot on." The boy moved into the room and sat in a traditional style on the bed. "It's not that I wasn't always this way, I think I had emotions once, but when I became a shinigami... I don't feel like I've felt any real emotions."

"If you know you've had emotions before, why do you suddenly think you don't?"

"How can you tell if you're feeling something, anything?" Toshiro frowned. "My inner world is a complete sheet of ice with no changes to it. That's how it feels like when it comes to my emotions. It's always the same. I worry that I'm becoming like Ichimaru."

"Uh... well, I do experience a chance in my inner world. It rains when I'm upset about something."

"See though, I've never had that kind of thing occur. It's always the same whenever I check. Hinamori wouldn't have called me emotionless if it weren't true."

"Haven't you asked Ran-san about this? She's been around you longer, but knowing her she'll have the same opinion as me that you're not emotionless. I've seen you have emotions."

"I tried asking her, only to have her give me this horrified look. She then covers her mouth like she's going to throw up and her eyes narrow at me in this very stern manner. I haven't pushed more as I don't want to be punished again."

"Of she could be trying to hide the fact she's laughing at you." Ichigo watched the expression on the boy's face suddenly pale. Toshiro's cheeks then flushed up. "For someone who says they have no emotions they are definitely acting embarrassed right about now."

"I am not! I..." The boy frowned then, looking at the bed sheet again. "What you says implies that I do have emotions but do not know how to identify them or even handle them properly."

"Yes... no... I mean..." Ichigo looked the boy in the face. "Most likely what you say is true."

"What would ever happen then if I were to ever feel the need to actually grieve over someone. I can't control my feelings when I start feeling them."

"Toshiro... you just said that you've been emotionless for some time."

"So feeling things is emotions."

"This conversation is going no where." The orange haired teen felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "But if you ever lost it and didn't feel you could control yourself I'll come for you and make things calm down."

"Really?" The small taicho moved back to the window. "I'm not understanding why that is making me feel better right now, but I have the feeling what you said is a good thing. See you later Kurosaki."

M

The rain fell down on the small taicho's shoulders as he headed to the small house in the Rukongai. The conversation between him and the substitute shinigami had occurred a few days ago and he honestly felt better, though what he felt better about he honestly did not know. He covered his head with his arms as he relaxed. The rain allowed him to approach the place without being seen by any of the residents.

A light flickered into his vision, causing the small boy to stop walking. Realization hit him that the place was his grandmothers. Toshiro wondered why she would have the lights on this late at night and began to walk again to her place. When he got close enough to the house, he could hear voices coming from the place. He carefully stepped onto the deck next to the house and then into the doorway. He found himself pausing, his throat tightening.

His grandmother lay in her futon, fast asleep while a few members of the village remained close by. He found the tightening increasing. "She's dying... why else would they be here."

A hand went to his mouth as his stomach flinched due to the need to suddenly pull back his reiatsu. One of the people looked up, surprised to see him. "Hitsugaya-san... what are you doing here?"

Another of the three looked up. "You're a taicho?"

The boy felt himself suddenly backing up, turning to head away as the panic kept growing in his chest. He felt one of his sandals snap off as he kept moving with his reiatsu in check. He also tumbled once as he hurried along. Finally though he felt that he could no longer take it and crumbled up, his reiatsu flaring out as he let out a scream. As this occurred a sudden ice storm flared up. "Someone... make this feeling stop!"

"Toshiro?" The sound of the substitute shinigami sounded faint through the storm. "Hitsugaya Toshiro, it's Kurosaki Ichigo." Finally the substitute said something else. "It's Ichi-nii."

"I...chi...nii." The panic that Toshiro had felt subsided as did the storm. He could feel a pair of strong arms wrapped around his chest area.

"Calm down, what happened?" Ichigo received no response from the boy and instead scooped him up into his arms. "What ever is bothering you at this point in time?"

"Granny... she's..." The boy's eyes snapped shut before passing out. The next thing he knew he was waking up in the forth division. One of his hands covered his eyes, causing him to realize it had been bandaged.

"Ah... your up." Toshiro turned his head to look in the direction where the voice had come from. Ichigo was also bandaged up and was sitting up in bed smiling at him.

"You got injured because I lost it."

"You got injured as well. Apparently there is only so much even your body can handle."

"Shiro-chan!" Toshiro flinched as the shrill voice came to his ears. Momo hurried forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You stupid idiot! Granny isn't dead! She was just really sick!"

"I..." The small taicho frowned, letting her latch onto him. "Granny is all right?"

"Hey... Toshiro." The substitute shinigami spoke up at that point. "You know how you said your inner world is always snowing. Maybe it isn't because you're emotionless like you think. Maybe its because you're constantly hurting but haven't taken the time to talk to anyone about it, or do anything about your feelings.