Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Growing Up ❯ Chapter 4: Let it Be ( Chapter 4 )

Title: Growing up

Serie: Bleach

Warning: Shounen-ai / Yaoi

Note: Before you ask, what happens he is after Soul Society and the current arc. Aizen is yet to be defeated, but Hinamori is out of her coma, and NOT dating Hitsugaya. If I'm correct, this would happen a year after Soul Society arc.

Summary: What if they found out the cause why Hitsugaya hasn't hit puberty? What if the solution is in Ichigo's world?

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, but the current plot is my own.

 

 

 

Chapter 4: Let it Be

 

It's been a few hours since Ichigo fought the Hollow; it was already dark outside. Ichigo was looking outside his bedroom window and sighing. Hitsugaya had been injured badly on his left shoulder. To add to his discomfort, he was ignoring him. It was actually making him wonder if the Tenth division captain was about to snap.

 

Hitsugaya was just staring at the ceiling, expression blank. But inside, he felt miserable. The last time he felt that way was when he failed to protect Hinamori. It was not helping that his shoulder was sore, even if Inoue had healed it. He turned on his side and just closed his eyes; he was cursing however though it was funny to have put him through this.

 

Ichigo just sighed and decided it might be time to talk with Hitsugaya about this whole ordeal. He knew that it was better for both of them to discuss this now, rather than later.

 

“Hitsugaya, you still awake?” asked Ichigo.

 

“I wish I wasn't but yes, I'm still awake,” he replied, not even turning to look at Ichigo. “What do you want?”

 

“Listen, I know you're not happy about what's going on and…” stated Ichigo, stopping when Hitsugaya turned around.

 

“So?” replied the white haired captain.

 

“Hitsugaya, you're acting as if you're going to leave in a few weeks while the process is taking months, even years to be fulfilled,” said Ichigo. “You might not know this, but…”

 

“I perfectly know that!” said Hitsugaya, annoyed.

 

“Then stop acting as if you didn't know!” replied Ichigo, equally annoyed.

 

“As if I wanted to be here at the first place!” added Hitsugaya, with a cracking voice.

 

That stopped the white-haired captain dead in his tracks and he softly grabbed his throat. This was not something he had expected to happen. He looked at Ichigo, who had a huge grin on his face.

 

“What are you laughing at!” said Hitsugaya with a cracking voice.

 

“First sign of puberty: changing voice,” replied Ichigo.

 

“You've got to be kidding me…” said Hitsugaya, not liking one bit what was going on with his voice.

 

“Deal with it,” said the orange haired teen, grinning even more.

 

Hitsugaya got really annoyed with the grin Ichigo had that he did something that he wouldn't normally do; he grabbed a pillow and threw it at Ichigo's face. That amused the orange-haired teen highly and he started to laugh. Hitsugaya just glared at the younger shinigami.

 

The next day

 

They were walking to school; Hitsugaya was silent and very much ignoring the representative shinigami that was trying to make him talk a little. Even death glares didn't stop the orange-haired teenager from bugging him, so Hitsugaya just ignored him.

 

Ichigo noticed Hitsugaya's patience was wearing thin as they came closer to the school. He was about to say something when the temperature dropped a few degrees below zero and Hitsugaya just glared at him. He backed away a little, knowing that Hitsugaya was going to do something drastic if he didn't shut up.

 

A few minutes later, they both entered the class; Ichigo joined the gang and Hitsugaya took his seat and got out his books. He had decided this morning to not talk unless it was absolutely necessary; he really didn't want people laughing at his cracking voice. It was enough that Kurosaki was bugging him about it.

 

The teacher finally arrived and everyone took their places. She was making the call, to see if everyone was there. She took everyone's presence; it went without incident for Hitsugaya, his voice didn't crack — it was his normal voice. He was actually relieved.

 

The teacher started the lesson and Hitsugaya was concentrating like most students on it, but, again, it was too easy for him. He was concentrating on his notebook when the teacher turned around to ask one of the students to answer the mathematical question.

 

“Hitsugaya-kun, could you please answer question one?” she asked, totally oblivious to the current problem he had.

 

Hitsugaya couldn't help to curse his luck - or lack of - and got up. He could tell that Ichigo was trying not to grin and ignore him. He looked at the question and thought it was too easy.

 

“It's five,” he said, trying to keep the cracking of his voice on low, but failed. He quickly sat down; he was very embarrassed by the turn of events.

 

Many of the students noticed Hitsugaya's voice had cracked. Most found it very funny. Some of them were suppressing their giggles, others were grinning. But some of them were feeling bad for Hitsugaya - that included Ishida and Inoue - they somehow knew that he was going to get teased by some of the other classmates.

 

Later

 

Hitsugaya decided to avoid everyone, so he went to the roof, where he thought he was going to have some peace. He sighed and got his cell phone out and decided to write a message to Hinamori, but he was interrupted by someone grabbing his cell phone.

 

“HEY!” he yelled, his voice cracking again.

 

A group of school bullies had found him. They all had smirks on their faces as they looked at Hitsugaya, wondering what they could do to him. The Tenth division captain was not taking lightly what was going on. He knew that he had his normal strength and abilities - like changing the temperature around him - but right now, he couldn't use it on normal humans.

 

“So, kiddy wants his cell phone back?” said one of the bullies.

 

“You better give it back,” said Hitsugaya, totally pissed off and not caring anymore about his changing voice.

 

Some of the bullies laughed while looking at each other. That pissed off Hitsugaya greatly and he decided that, no matter what, he was going to have that phone back. He walked up to the bully who had his cell phone and kicked him in the stomach, hard. He let the cell phone go, which Hitsugaya grabbed and pocketed.

 

The bully that was near him grabbed him by the right arm, to make sure he was going to stay right there. Hitsugaya tried to get away, but that bully had a solid grip on him. The one who got kicked caught his breath and gave a death glare to Hitsugaya.

 

“You shouldn't have done that, kid…” he said, his voice dripping with venom.

 

Hitsugaya paled a little; now he knew what the members of the Fourth division felt when the Eleventh division shinigamis bullied them.

 

Downstairs

 

Ichigo and the others were eating lunch under the tree. Ishida and Inoue were worried for Hitsugaya; they knew that he was going to get teased by other students because of his voice. Ichigo had decided to leave the white-haired shinigami alone for a little while; Hitsugaya had made clear that he was able to use some abilities to a certain limit to make his statement clear. Ichigo sighed, wondering what he should say to Hitsugaya. They all ate and talked about the recent events and didn't see the time pass. They returned to the classroom, but Hitsugaya didn't.

 

Later

 

Ichigo was really worried; Hitsugaya had missed class all afternoon. He knew that he had gone on the roof during lunch, but he didn't come back. He had grabbed the white haired captain's bag and gone upstairs, to the roof. He looked, but didn't see anyone until he heard a week moan coming from the side of the stairs. He headed over and saw something he never thought he would see.

 

“Hitsugaya!”

 

The white haired captain was leaning against the wall, sitting on the floor, holding one of his sides. From what Ichigo could see, he had a lot of bruises and some cuts; his shirt had a few blood spots. He had a split lip and a cut on his forehead.

 

He stood right next to him, checking to see if he was still awake. The captain looked at him and you could see the hurt in his eyes, but his expression was not showing the same thing.

 

“What the heck happened to you?” asked Ichigo.

 

“I shouldn't have retaliated I guess…” Hitsugaya told him.

 

“You got beat up because you retaliated?” Ichigo asked, surprised.

 

“What could I have done?” said Hitsugaya. “They got a hold on my cell phone. You know that a shinigami's cell phone is very important tool and it would have taken way too much time to get mine replaced.”

 

Ichigo sighed and helped Hitsugaya onto his feet. The white haired captain was not steady on his feet and he was feeling dizzy. Ichigo took notice of it and helped Hitsugaya to get out of school. Downstairs, Chad, Ishida, and Inoue had decided to wait for Ichigo. When they saw Hitsugaya's state, they ran and joined up with them.

 

“What happened, Hitsugaya-kun?” asked Inoue.

 

“Nothing,” replied Hitsugaya, not wanting to say more. It was humiliating enough that he got beat up by normal humans. And it was enough that Ichigo knew about it.

 

Hitsugaya walked past the group, slowly, and out of the school's property. Ichigo just sighed and said goodbye to the others; he was not sure if Hitsugaya was going to make it home without help. He walked out the gate and saw Hitsugaya leaning against the wall, gripping his left side.

 

“You really are too stubborn for your own good sometimes…” said Ichigo, helping Hitsugaya.

 

The white haired teenager didn't reply to the comment and followed the orange haired shinigami. They got home and Ichigo went straight to the clinic side of the house with Hitsugaya. He asked Hitsugaya to sit on one of the tables while he got what he needed to patch up some of the bruises. He left the captain alone for a few minutes.

 

Hitsugaya sighed; this was not something he liked at all. He grabbed his cell phone and typed a quick message to Hinamori. When he was done, he put it back in his pocket, just as Ichigo got back.

 

“Take your shirt off,” said Ichigo, putting the material next to Hitsugaya.

 

Hitsugaya sighed and obeyed; the sooner it was done, the sooner he got to their room to try and sleep it off. He pulled his shirt off, wincing a little. Hearing the wince from Hitsugaya, Ichigo helped him. The shirt off, Ichigo looked at Hitsugaya; he could see that the left side was heavily bruise and wondered if the ribs were broken. He shook his head and grabbed a small gauze pad and a disinfectant bottle. He had to clean up the cuts first.

 

Hitsugaya could feel the burning sensation of the disinfectant liquid, but didn't make a move. It didn't take long before Ichigo was done and he grabbed a cream to ease the pain of the bruises. It was when he barely touched the left side that Hitsugaya winced.

 

“Sorry, but I have to put that there too,” said Ichigo, making sure to be more careful.

 

“Whatever…” said Hitsugaya, trying to calm his pain.

 

Ichigo continued to put on the cream. When he was done, he grabbed the bandages and started to wrap the wounds. The ones on his arms and face were quickly take care of, but with the one on the left side, he did it carefully since he wasn't sure that the ribs were broken.

 

When he was done with the bandages, he put everything away. Hitsugaya was glad that was over and grabbed his shirt. He put it back and got off the table. He didn't say a thing to Ichigo and went straight to the room they shared.

 

Later

 

Hitsugaya had skipped dinner, wanting to be alone so he would not be asked what happened to him. Ichigo was still downstairs and he was sure that his father was asking a lot of questions about why his friend wasn't with them. He sat on the bed, looking outside the window.

 

A few moments later, Ichigo came in, with a food tray. Hitsugaya looked at him, actually surprised that Ichigo had brought the tray with him.

 

“I thought you might be hungry,” said Ichigo, putting the tray on Hitsugaya's nightstand.

 

Hitsugaya looked at his food and at Ichigo. He took the tray and looked again at Ichigo. “Thanks…” he simply said, starting to eat his dinner.

 

“You're welcome,” replied Ichigo, sitting on his bed and starting to read a book they had to do an essay on.

 

Somehow, this event had brought an understanding between the two shinigamis.

 

Note: This is what happens when you don't have Internet… You write. Again, I'm sorry if any of the characters are OOC. Also, thanks to my beta-readers and to the readers. You guys rock! So please, read and review!!!