Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

Chapter 7

Fireworks

The days had past quickly. Sayomi spent much of her time overseeing Ichigo's training, but not participating in any way other than to criticize Ichigo's foolish mistakes. When Kisuke was satisfied with the growth he saw in Ichigo he gave him time off to rest. Sayomi didn't personally think this a good idea, Ichigo may have been pleased with his progress, but he didn't know what he was up against. She feared his pride would go to his head and hinder him in Soul Society where he would face enemies far stronger than the few he had faced so far. Especially considering the fact that the powers of those he had faced so far had been severely limited.

Kisuke kept telling her to relax and Ichigo did the same, assuring her he would be alright and there was no need to worry. That was why she found herself walking down a path that led to the banks of a nearby river. There was a fireworks festival that night and Ichigo had told her that a group of their school friends would be meeting around three by the river, he had also told her she was going because it would be a chance to see everyone she hadn't seen in awhile and to relax and have fun. She hadn't been entirely pleased with being ordered around, but she had had no choice but to agree when she had been given no time to answer before Ichigo had stubbornly stalked off to go home and change.

Her hair was left down and it blew out in the wind behind her as she walked. She was dressed in a pair of light jeans and a dark blue silky halter top that had a slight turtleneck. She had a light, cropped denim jacket over it and a pair of dark blue flats.

"Hey, Ichigo, wait up!" Sayomi called, running to catch up to the tall orange haired boy she had just spotted ahead of her on the walkway that lined the river bank.

"Oh, hey, Sayomi. You're not a cat," Ichigo observed as he looked down at his rather short friend.

"Nope, figured that might be a little awkward and hard to explain," she replied.

Ichigo opened his mouth to say something, but Keigo, a boy they attended school with, suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began to run at them. All the while he was calling Sayomi's name rather loudly.

"Sayomiiiii! Where have you been my short goddess of-"

Sayomi squeaked and ducked behind Ichigo as the brown haired boy charged full speed at her.

"You're mean!" Keigo cried after Ichigo's foot connected with his face.

"Thanks," Sayomi said as she stepped from behind Ichigo to look down at Keigo who was sobbing on the concrete.

"No problem," Ichigo replied blandly. "Although I don't see why you can't do it yourself."

"I might get dirty," Sayomi sniffed indignantly.

"Did you miss me, Keigo?" Someone behind them shouted.

"Get away you devil!" Keigo shouted and then proceeded to throw salt at another friend of theirs.

"Why is he throwing salt at Mizuiro?" Sayomi leaned over to ask Ichigo as she continued to watch as Mizuiro, who was also a school friend and also much more tan than usual, tried to fight off Keigo.

"Because Mizuiro went to Phuket with his girlfriend and a bunch of her friends, but he wasn't invited."

"Oh, right," Sayomi replied as she blinked at the two before turning away.

"Whatever. Hey, Keigo, the fireworks aren't until midnight why'd you drag me out here, when it's only three?" Ichigo asked, irritated.

Sayomi sighed and looked out over the river as Keigo proceeded to overreact and rant about how important the festival was and how glad he was to be there.

"Ah!" Sayomi yelped as she jumped out of the way when Keigo suddenly face planted into the ground where she had been standing. She blinked down at him in confusion, not entirely sure how he had ended up there.

"Sorry about that, Sayomi."

"Oh, hey, Tatsuki. It's no problem," Sayomi said as she looked up to see another classmate, a girl with short dark hair and a cast on her arm that she knew hadn't been there the last time she had seen the girl. "What happened to your arm?"

"Oh this?" Tatsuki replied, she waved her right arm in the air. "Nothing really. I was hit by a car at the Nationals."

"You were what?" Ichigo asked.

"I was hit by a car," Tatsuki replied again with a shrug. "Right before my next fight too. I got through that fine by using just my left hand, but the last guy was like a gorilla and I only came in in second place."

"Impressive," Sayomi mumbled.

"Hey, Sayomi, where have you been?" Another girl asked as she walked up beside Tatsuki with a dark skinned teenager that was almost twice Sayomi's height.

"Hi, Orihime. I had to go and help some family in another prefecture, I didn't have much notice so I'm sorry for not saying bye," she answered.

"Oh, that's alright. I'm just glad you're back," she chirped, smiling brightly.

"Hi, Chad," Sayomi said to the guy she dubbed in her head as 'the tall one'.

"Hey," was her only response.

"So where is it again?" Sayomi asked the group while they walked along the bank of the river.

"It's on the banks of the Onose River," Keigo answered.

"Oh, so aren't we there then?" Sayomi asked as she stopped and looked at the river.

"Not yet. They're shooting the fireworks off at the field across the river, we have to go further down to get a good view," Mizuiro replied.

"What's wrong with right here?" Tatsuki asked, plunking herself down on the grass. "Besides, if we get too close we'll just get lost in the crowds of people and the street vendors."

"Wha?" Keigo cried.

"I'm just going to keep walking," Sayomi said when Keigo began yelling about the importance of a festival and that a part of the fun were the vendors and beautiful women.

"I'll walk with you," Ichigo said, not interested in hearing Keigo rant.

"What's that?," Sayomi asked noticing the ground seemed to be shaking and footsteps echoed loudly around them.

"Ichigo!"

Sayomi blinked at the three people running haphazardly towards her and Ichigo. "Oh no," she said as they neared them.

She cringed and closed her eyes, expecting to be bowled over by the quickly approaching trio. There was a loud crash and a scream followed by excited laughter.

Sayomi blinked her eyes open and breathed out in relief that she hadn't been taken down by Ichigo's sisters, or his father for that matter. She looked down at Ichigo who was laying on the ground, his two younger sisters Yuzu and Karin sitting on him and happily chattering away about their day. She winced as Yuzu yelled at Ichigo who was refusing to eat her chocolate covered banana.

"Turn the volume down, will ya! Are you drunk or somethin'?" Ichigo shouted while he struggled to get away from his sisters who were grasping onto him.

"Actually, I'm absolutely wasted," Ichigo's dad, Isshin, said with a blank face as he picked at his pink cotton candy that he had held before him.

Sayomi looked at the man with a raised brow before shaking her head. "How did that happen, Mr Kurosaki?" She asked.

"Well, it was like this," he answered dramatically, waving his hands out before him and nearly hitting a passerby with his pink cotton candy. "Old man Ken put out a fruit juice stall, and I drank some of his juice, but apparently the old man's going senile," at this point he was facing away from them and pointing at his head while spinning a finger. "He thinks water is sake! So he diluted the juice with sake, it's not my fault!"

"Of course not, Mr Kurosaki," Sayomi replied seriously with a nod. "You're not to blame at all."

"He knew exactly what he was drinking," Mizuiro said as he leaned towards her.

"Oh yeah," Sayomi agreed.

"Oh, but forget that. I found us seats. I've been saving them since seven this morning," Mr Kurosaki called pridefully as he placed his hands on his hips in a very superman-esque pose.

"Let's go!" Keigo shouted, pumping his fist in the air as he and Mizuiro ran towards the older man.

"How about you lovely ladies," Mr Kurosaki said as he turned to wink at Sayomi.

"We'll be over there in awhile," Tatsuki said dismissively.

"Great!" he yelled before turning to run off, Yuzu, Karin, Keigo, Mizuiro and even Chad following him.

"Sorry about the chaos, Tatsuki," Ichigo said.

"Whatever. We'll be over there later, go ahead and catch up with them you two," she replied.

"See you later," Ichigo shrugged.

"See you guys over there then," Sayomi said with a smile as she waved at Orihime and Tatsuki.

"Are you nervous?" Sayomi asked while they walked a few yards behind the rest of the rowdy group.

"Nah."

"Not even a little?" Sayomi inquired, a brow raised in knowing disbelief.

"Well, maybe a little," Ichigo relented as he scratched at the back of his head.

"You'll be fine. Just stay away from the captains, they're in a completely different class than the others."

"What were you ranked?" Ichigo asked curiously, glancing down at Sayomi as they made they're way through the crowded streets.

"I was a-" She began before cutting herself off to stare ahead of her at the man who was making his way towards her.

"You alright, Sayomi?" Ichigo asked as he looked down to see that Sayomi was looking ahead of her, a scowl forming on her face. Looking around he saw a guy with gray hair, an eyebrow piercing and two gold rings in his upper ear walking towards them.

"Hey, who's this, Sayomi?" The man asked, walking dutifully up to her and nodding towards Ichigo.

"None of your damned business," she hissed vehemently.

"Who the hell are you?" Ichigo asked, angry at the blunt question and the way Sayomi seemed to not be happy about seeing the man who had shown up.

"I'm a friend of Sayomi's, you little punk," the man said roughly.

"Just what's your prob-"

"Enough," Sayomi snapped angrily, she raised an arm between Ichigo and Kensei who were glaring at each other. "What do you want, Kensei?"

"Where have you been?" He asked Sayomi.

"Again, none of your damned business," Sayomi growled coldly.

"Dammit, Sayomi, everyone was worried about you and you've been off playing with the little Soul Reaper," Kensei said angrily while shooting another glare at Ichigo.

"Who are you calling little?" Ichigo barked, balling up a fist to shake at Kensei.

"What do I care if everyone was worried? Everyone lied to me! The whole time I thought he was dead, he was actually alive, and married," Sayomi shot back her voice rising dangerously.

"No one else knew, Sayomi. Shinji told us all he was dead and we all believed him. We had no reason not to," Kensei said calmly, even though Sayomi could see the surprise from her statement about Byakuya being married in his eyes.

Sayomi sighed and shook her head. "I don't care anymore, just leave me alone. You've done an excellent job of that in the last several years."

"Sayomi," Kensei pleaded.

"Go away," Sayomi sighed, waving her hand at him carelessly and walking off.

Kensei cursed as he watched her walk away, but didn't follow.

Ichigo watched her walk for a moment before shrugging and following after her as he looked for his friends and family.

"Is Sayomi alright? She's been pretty quiet all day," Orihime observed to Ichigo while she stared at the white haired girl in concern.

Sayomi had been withdrawn and silent since her encounter with Kensei earlier in the day, she had stayed a little apart from the group and watched as they all talked and laughed happily.

Ichigo shrugged in response to Orihime's question.

"Well, I should try to cheer her up," Orihime said determinedly.

Sayomi looked up from the blades of grass she had been pulling from the ground when a shadow fell over her. "Orihime? Everything alright?" She asked as she as she stared up at the girl whose hands were on her hips and she had a strange look on her face.

"You've been sad and quiet all day, but I have decided to take it upon myself to cheer you up. So come on we're going to get some ice cream. There's a vendor down the street that sells the best bean paste and pickle flavored ice cream," Orihime informed her ecstatically as she reached down and pulled Sayomi off the ground.

"No, I'm fine really. I don't like ice cream. How about some cookies?" Sayomi suggested hurriedly, trying to avoid eating strange flavored ice cream.

"Poor, Sayomi," Mizuiro said to Ichigo as they watched Sayomi struggling uselessly against Orihime's tight grasp on her hand.

"Yeah, Orihime does have some strange tastes in food, but at least Sayomi's not sulking anymore," Ichigo replied.

"True," Mizuiro agreed.

"Orihime, really I'm fine, I swear, see," Sayomi pleaded. She threw on a very big smile and tried to back away from the little stall they were standing in front of.

"But the red bean paste goes really well with the chocolate and strawberries and the sprinkles are so pretty," Orihime said as she held out a bowl of very strange looking and colorful ice cream out to Sayomi.

"I'm not hungry," Sayomi replied, placing a hand over her mouth while she shook her head.

"Oh, well I guess that's ok," Orihime said sadly, her head drooping in disappointment.

Sayomi sighed, she really didn't like making Orihime sad and it was hard to deny the girl when she was looking so dejected. "Oh, fine give it here."

Orihime brightened instantly and thrust the ice cream at Sayomi, grabbing her own from the large man who ran the stall before paying and then happily digging into her ice cream.

Sayomi gulped as she looked down at the mess in her bowl and wearily picked up her spoon, she took a small portion of the ice cream and cautiously put it in her mouth, her stomach instantly revolted and she had to force herself to swallow and smile at Orihime who was watching her in anticipation. "Good," Sayomi choked out.

"See, what did I tell you?" Orihime chirped.

'You've fought against some of the most fearsome Hollows, but you can't say no to a human teenage girl?' Fuyukaze asked teasingly.

'Oh, shut up you stupid jewelry wearing pretty boy before I make that little mountain paradise you're sitting in a desert,' Sayomi snapped.

She scowled when she heard Fuyukaze's amused chuckle echo in her head.

She and Orihime walked along, Sayomi taking small bites of the ice cream whenever Orihime would look over at her. They were on their way back to the seats that Ichigo's dad had saved for them all when Sayomi was suddenly grabbed from behind and yanked into a dark alleyway that was in between two brightly decorated street vendors. The ice cream dropped from her hands and splattered on to the ground as a hand wrapped itself around her waist and another covered her mouth.

Orihime looked around in confusion and scratched at her head when she saw no sign of Sayomi who had moments ago been right next to her. "Maybe she wanted to get more ice cream, I would have gone back with her."

"Hey, Orihime, what happened to Sayomi?" Tatsuki asked when Orihime rejoined the group.

"I think she went back for more ice cream, she just kind of disappeared," Orihime answered.

Ichigo looked over at Orihime and frowned. "Did she say anything before she left?"

Orihime shook her head. "No."

"Well, I'm sure she'll be fine," he replied, wondering if he should look for her. Knowing what he did about her, which wasn't much, but it was enough to make him wonder if she was alright. He figured that she could take care of herself though and would be fine.

Sayomi grunted as she was turned around and pushed back into a wall, she glared menacingly up at Kensei who had one arm on either side of her head and was scowling angrily at her.

"Why are you hanging around them? It's dangerous, Sayomi."

"Awww, is the big bad Kensei worried?" Sayomi taunted haughtily with narrowed eyes.

"Dammit, Sayomi, the kid's a wanna be Soul Reaper."

"And?"

"You're going to end up drawing unnecessary attention to yourself. Why are you risking it? Soul Society wanted to kill us for what we are, the order to terminate us still stands. If they come looking for that kid and you're nearby-"

"I'll kill them first," Sayomi said with a calm coldness while she folded her arms over her chest and stared bitterly at Kensei.

Kensei sighed exasperatedly. "Why? So that you'll be hunted? We've stayed out of Soul Society's way for over a hundred years, and it seems they've either forgotten us or have decided it wasn't worth the time to hunt us down and kill us. I like it like that. I don't want to fight Soul Reapers, Sayomi."

"I don't either, but I will do what is necessary to stay alive and make sure they all do too."

"You're not only putting yourself at risk, you know that, don't you?"

Sayomi scoffed. "I'm not involving you or the others. So long as you all leave me alone, like you have been, no attention will be drawn to your whereabouts. You'll all be just fine if you mind your own damned business like I told you to."

"Are you really that stupid?" Kensei shouted angrily. "If you're in trouble I don't plan on standing off to the side and watching you get killed, you know the others wouldn't either."

"That's not my problem. I don't need your help, Kensei. I'm not a little girl anymore and I've managed just fine on my own without you for years," Sayomi said icily. "Now move."

Sayomi narrowed her eyes at Kensei when he didn't move and a chilly wind whipped through the alleyway lifting her hair from her shoulders and causing little bits of frost to form on her eyelashes.

"I'm not going to let you go back over there," Kensei told her resolutely.

"Oh?" A snowy brow rose challengingly.

"We can do this the hard way or the easy way."

"Hn," Sayomi sniffed as the corner of her lip twisted up slightly.

"Sayomi," Kensei warned.

"Move. Now." The wind in the alley was bitingly cold now, the moisture in the air was beginning to freeze and causing a shimmering layer to form on anything it touched.

"No," Kensei replied, he appeared to not care about the dropping temperature or the icy glint that had appeared in Sayomi's eyes.

Shoving Kensei back forcefully and ducking when he tried to grab her, Sayomi raised her right foot at the same time and thrust it in to his stomach. She smirked at the 'umph' she heard him emit.

"Dammit, Sayomi," Kensei growled. Moving his head to the right as she threw a punch at him he grabbed her wrist and jerked her towards him, spinning her so that her back collided with his chest.

A growl rumbled from her throat when he pinned both her hands to her sides.

"Are you done yet?" Kensei asked angrily while Sayomi struggled against his hold on her.

Managing to get one arm partially free, Sayomi smashed her elbow into Kensei's ribs. When his grip on her slackened she stepped away from him, turning to glare at him as he grimaced and rubbed at the spot she had hit.

"That hurt," he grunted.

"That was the point," Sayomi shot back pompously.

Massaging his side, Kensei straightened up and sighed at Sayomi. "I don't want to fight with you, Sayomi. I just want to go home."

"Then go home."

"Not without you."

She snorted bitterly. "The definition of home, Kensei, is someplace where a family unit resides together. I don't have a family. I don't have a home. Not here."

"You do, you're just too damn stubborn to care. Everyone cares about you-"

"That does not make them my family!" She shouted before looking away and clenching her hands at her sides. "Just because everyone cares doesn't mean they're family. They're friends, Kensei, and nothing more."

"And what about me, Sayomi? Am I just a friend and nothing more?"

Glancing at Kensei out of the corner of her eyes, Sayomi felt a twinge of guilt slice through her gut. Her words were harsh and they had hurt him, she could see it in his eyes. She was probably the only one who would even have noticed, Kensei didn't express much emotion aside from anger to anyone. To him though, she wasn't just anyone. She never had been, she just didn't always know that.

"That's not what I meant, Kensei," she answered quietly.

"It doesn't matter, Sayomi. I don't expect things to be the same as they were, but that doesn't mean I don't still care," he said gruffly.

She closed her eyes and breathed out a long, slow breath before reopening them. "I want to go home," she murmured softly, her eyes glistening with tears that she wiped away before they could fall.

Kensei sighed and wrapped his arms around Sayomi's shoulders. "Come on," he said before kissing the top of her head and letting go of her to grab her hand.

"I don't want to go back there, Kensei."

Kensei didn't reply just kept leading her along, but he did give her hand a reassuring squeeze. She stared at the hand that had enveloped her own, it was warm and stirred old memories that made her heart ache.

Loud whistles filled the night air before erupting in crackling bangs. Sayomi paused and looked up into the starry night sky. A series of colorful blasts of light bloomed in the sky, throwing a wide array of colors splashing across her face. Kensei stopped when he saw her upturned face and the small smile that was there as she watched the fireworks explode into showers of reds, blues, golds and every other color imaginable.

When Kensei noticed he still held her hand, he looked down at their hands. Hers was incredibly small compared to his own. He loosened his grip on the thin fingers he had been holding so tightly and glanced back up to see Sayomi staring at him with an unreadable expression on her face.

For several moments they stood there, just staring into each others before Sayomi slid her hand out of Kensei's and blinked her eyes away from his.

"We should get going," she murmured.

"Yeah," he agreed, staring after her as she walked away from him. He hadn't lied when he had said things wouldn't be the same, he doubted anything would ever be the same. Especially between the two of them.

~A/N~

What happened to all of my reviewers? Only 3 people reviewed last chapter. That's down from the 7 the chapter before that... The poor review monster is hungry. He needs to eat or he's gonna get grouchy and that's never good. ;)

Thank you everyone!

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