Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ His Azure Eyes ❯ Introduction ( Chapter 1 )

His Azure Eyes

 

A/N: This will be three chapters in total - no warnings for this chapter but yaoi will occur in following chapters. The next will be Ikkaku/Yumichika, and the final chapter will be Zaraki/Byakuya.

 

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Kenny always looked so peaceful during his afternoon naps, of course Yachiru always liked his happy, fighting face best, but Sleeping-Kenny was just as happy looking too! She always wondered what he dreamt about because his face was always so expressive when he dreamed. Sometimes he'd have a devilish smile like he was facing a strong opponent, and sometimes he'd have an empty expression like he was remembering their time back in Rukongai, but no matter what face he wore it was never a sad one. Yachiru never liked a sad Kenny because that made her feel sad too, mainly because Kenny always made her feel happy so she wanted Kenny to be happy as well, but sometimes he'd get sad anyway and she didn't like that . . .

 

Right then, as she looked down on her father figure, he looked kind of funny. His scar on his face was kind of taut and his eyes were slightly frowning, she could tell even underneath the eye-patch that the eye was making a funny expression, and his mouth was in a thin line. It looked a little like he was annoyed, but Kenny had no reason to be annoyed! Today was a really nice day and even the koi fish in Uki-san's pond looked happy! Yet come to think of it Kenny wasn't breathing funny too, when he slept he looked a little like everyone else and his chest went up and down slowly, and his hair always got a little ruffled . . . so maybe he wasn't napping after all? Maybe he was awake? If he was awake she'd kill Baldy, Baldy had told her that Kenny was sleeping!

 

She gave a little frown and sat beside Zaraki's head.

 

Kenny wasn't ignoring her because she'd been very quiet and because he couldn't sense spiritual pressure he wouldn't know she was there, but if he wasn't sleeping then maybe she could ask him after all! She couldn't disturb his nap but she could if he wasn't actually napping, and she really wanted to know the answer to her question! She'd been all over Bya-kun's house and he wouldn't tell her and when she asked Ichii-nii he just blushed and shook his head. Kenny knew a lot of things; maybe he'd know this too! She just hoped he wouldn't be mad if she disturbed him, if he was she'd just blame Baldy.

 

“Kenny? Kenny? Are you awake?”

 

Zaraki - Captain of Squad Eleven - opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was his little Yachiru-chan's big, bright, brown eyes looking down at him with a mixture of worry and happiness, and her beautiful, pink hair bobbing slightly as she leaned closer for a better look at him.

 

Her face was a little flushed so she'd probably been busy running about Soul Society, which was a thought that always made him proud to call her his adoptive daughter, after all not many Shinigami after all put such emphasis on information gathering and Yachiru was already a master at it. He hated to admit it but he was proud of everything she did. She was so young and yet her powers were so great, almost all the Soul Reapers liked her, and no doubt when she became old enough she'd be a captain with enough strength to give him a decent fight.

 

The very sight of Yachiru always made his heart swell in a way which - to be honest - scared him, and not because he had fears of attachment, but because he was the fearsome Zaraki and yet he had a paternal bond with a small child. He felt an urge to protect her, nurture her and adore her and should anyone hurt her his blood would boil and his eyes would see red, she was - and always would be - his little girl. It made him feel weak to need another and their presence, almost less of a man, and yet he wouldn't trade this feeling he had for her for anything in the world, she was his and he loved her. He would never admit it to anyone else or even say it aloud, but his feelings were there nonetheless. So when he saw her he smiled. It was a long, toothy kind of smile but it was there nonetheless.

 

“I'm awake.”

 

Yachiru pouted. She was perhaps the most adorable creature in the world when she used that expression; her lips would come out and her cheeks would turn red, and they'd be a slight frown in her eyes that made her look even younger than she was, and the very sight made even manly men like Ikkaku find a girlish, maternal instinct and bend to her will. Zaraki was terrified of the time when she'd grow up, especially if she became a stunner, he'd be fighting away men by the boatload, and being in an all-male squad too . . . it almost made him shiver.

 

“Kenny!” She whined, “If you're awake why are you lying all alone here for? Why aren't you out training or napping?”

 

He smiled broadly before closing his eyes. He took a few deep breaths and that sat up, the hard wooden floor underneath him making his older body ache in protest as he moved.

 

“I was talking to my Zanpakuto. He still won't tell me his name.”

 

“Aw! I'm sure he will do, Kenny! Before you didn't even know he was a he, so that has to be good right? It's progress! Soon you'll have a bankai just like Ichi-nii!”

 

“Yeah.”

 

He gave a deep sigh and looked out across the Soul Society.

 

His room was a lot like the head-captain's room in style, open so that he had a perfect view of the gardens and Seireitei, and each day after his nap he could open his eyes and see the landscape in one large go, thankful for the change in surroundings and being able to escape his past. There was other rooms of course, and he made sure to use them all except for the office, being in there meant paperwork and that was one thing he never deigned to do, in fact he wasn't even sure who the hell did the squad's paperwork for that matter. No one ever disturbed him wherever he was, and for that he was both relieved and frustrated, one of these days he wanted someone to barge in just for the fun of fighting him. One day . . .

 

He sighed and rested his hand on the hilt of his Zanpakuto: silence. Of course he expected silence, but he longed for words and speech, he longed to speak to that soul which had been twinned to him since birth, that soul which walked his path and lent him its power. If only he could speak to that soul! He wanted to communicate with it, learn its name, and learn how to wield bankai! At the minute he merely stole from his Zanpakuto, he couldn't call it borrowing when both he and his weapon were out of sync, harming each other more than they helped one another, but he'd change that, he'd get stronger and he'd change that.

 

It was then he remembered Yachiru.

 

He looked down at her as he stood and wondered lightly what brought her back so soon, usually she'd leave him during his naps and be back in time for more training or for a drinking session. She was too young to drink but he always allowed her a tiny sip of sake, the rest of the evening she drank green tea, and then of course they'd retire to bed. Today however he'd napped late so that he'd probably skip training, meet squad eight for a drinking party, then retire for his daily bath before sorting his hair and going to bed. It still begged the question though what his little Yachiru-chan wanted from him, especially so badly as to disturb him.

 

“You're back early, Yachiru.” He said, the bells in his hair gently tinkling as he moved his head, “Is something the matter?”

 

Her little pout changed now into a full-out angry face. Her eyebrows knotted together and there was a fire in her eyes that made him smile, one day he'd teach her how to harness and use that anger and use it in her fighting, if she could only reign in that rage and use it at will it would increase her strength tenfold. There were signs of her already being able to use it at will, but she wasn't quite there yet . . .

 

“No one will answer my question, Kenny!” She whined with a tone of irritation, “Bya-kun just said it wasn't his place and to ask you, then when I asked again gave me a sticky bun! It was yummy but when I'd finished I forgot what I'd wanted to ask.”

 

She gave a confused face at that that made Zaraki smile, she had yet to work out the sticky buns were a clever act of manipulation on Byakuya's part, a ruse to either distract her or shut her up. He couldn't wait to see her reaction when she was old enough to understand, she'd either manipulate the situation for all it was worth or be royally pissed, and he hoped to God it was the latter solely for entertainment purposes. Eventually her face changed back to a pout, and she folded her arms childishly as she looked up at Zaraki.

 

“Then I spoke to Ichi-nii!” She said excitedly, “He just blushed though and told me to go ask someone else too! Why won't they tell me, Kenny?”

 

Zaraki blinked a few times and then put a hand to his head. He was starting to feel the beginnings of a migraine coming, he knew how easy it was to frustrate Byakuya but to make Ichigo blush required some skill, or at least as far as Zaraki knew . . . So it could only make him wonder what questions she had, if it was `the' question then he wasn't sure how he'd react, and he was oddly terrified. He was sure that puberty was a long way off yet, so there was little point sending her to Unohana for a talk of that nature, and if it was the baby talk then he definitely didn't want to tell her about that himself . . . Yumichika seemed stable and mature enough, maybe he could make him do it?

 

“What's the matter, Yachiru?” He asked, feeling a déjà vu.

 

“I want to know why Yumi and Baldy are acting so odd! Baldy keeps beating up the new recruits and Yumi keeps filing documents, they won't talk to each other and when I ask them why they blush and go all weird! Baldy promised to make me a playhouse if I didn't ask questions, and Yumi said he'd give me sweets if I didn't talk about Baldy, and it's even more weird considering what happened last night, Kenny!”

 

“Yeah? What happened last night?”

 

“I went to Baldy's room and the door was locked! He was making these odd noises but so was Yumi, I know he was in there too because he kept yelling at Baldy, it sounds like they were sparring but I think Baldy was winning! I went back to my room after but Yumi seemed to walk funny in the morning so Baldy really did win the fight! So if they were sparring how can they be angry at each other today, Kenny? Angry people don't spar, they fight, and they weren't fighting noises, they were sparring noises.”

 

Zaraki made a noise in the back of his throat somewhere between shock and confusion, which luckily came across as a masculine grunt, not that anyone else was around to hear it, and even if they were they wouldn't have dared said anything to their captain. Truthfully, he was quite stunned.

 

There was relief at the fact she hadn't any serious adult questions or had a curiosity for adult issues, but he felt a complete puzzlement at how to answer her without explaining anything out of her depth, or ruining her innocence. He considered himself beyond lucky that Yachiru seemed to find her colleagues' behaviour normal, something related to sparring and fighting, but at the same time this was a dangerous territory that bordered that line between adulthood and childhood. If he played this wrong he could slip up and have a whole new set of questions to answer, or he could unwittingly make the whole thing seem too childlike to the point she'd want to join in with the `sparring', which would be a whole new level of embarrassment for everyone.

 

The problem was he lacked a way with words and he wasn't sure he'd be able to explain this to her, but he knew he couldn't send her to anyone else because she was his and she trusted him, looked up to him and came specifically to him. He had a duty as her father figure to deal with the issue, but he also knew that if he sent her to another captain to deal with she'd feel unable to come to him with questions or problems, and that was not what he wanted. He knew the teenage years to come would be a bitch, and the last thing he wanted was to inspire secrecy now in her childhood years, he wanted her to be open and honest with him so he could deal with later problems as they arose. Besides . . . he couldn't trust any other captains to tell her, after all Kyoraku would be brutally honest, Ichimaru was long gone and Byakuya wouldn't do it even if he asked. He didn't particularly like or trust the other captains enough to even consider them.

 

Huh, one thing was for sure, the moment he found Ikkaku and Yumichika he was going to make them pay for this, because no one got the better of Zaraki, and this -? This was getting the better of him . . .

 

“Heh, Yachiru,” He said, deciding to follow the `sparring' analogy as it was clearly something his little girl understood well, “There's different reasons people spar. People like you, me and Ikkaku are natural fighters and people like us enjoy the heat of battle, the violence and the blood, whereas people like Yumichika, Byakuya or Ukitake prefer friendly sparring and don't like to get hurt. If Yumichika and Ikkaku are angry at each other it's probably because of how they fought. Ikkaku probably hurt Yumichika or maybe Yumichika went easy on Ikkaku.”

 

That was probably the most awkward thing he'd ever had to say, not because he'd said anything particularly awkward but because as far as analogies went he knew what that one really meant, and the thought of discussing his third and fifth seats `sparring matches' made him sick.

 

Zaraki was a simple man with simple needs, like an animal he lived for survival and the basic `eat, kill, fuck, repeat' approach - he ate to survive, he fucked for pleasure and he killed for fun, that was his life. He was also everything his squad aspired to be, a `manly man' who was a capable fighter and all around tough and hard. He knew his men were all of the same breed as him but that didn't mean he wanted to think about what they were doing, after all he logically knew what they did, but knowing something rationally and then actually thinking about it were too different things. He could sit around and discuss anything with his men, but there was a line and anything personal crossed that line, because that's how his men were, talking about sex was fine but their own personal sex lives wasn't. Yumichika and Ikkaku were friends to him, and thinking about what they did was just downright borderline traumatising. He was definitely going to kick their asses when he saw them, if only just to distract himself from the scarring mental images.

 

He looked down to see if what he said made sense to Yachiru, or at least on a superficial level she could relate to. He wanted her to know that at some point the `sparring match' had gone wrong and the two were left unsatisfied with the fight, that explanation should have suited her after all and hopefully put an end to this whole topic of conversation.

 

Yachiru however still seemed confused . . .

 

“But, Kenny,” She asked innocently, looking up at him with wide eyes and a tiny little pout, “Their sparring match seemed to go well, they weren't angry at each other and they really enjoyed the fight! It's just this morning that they seemed angry at each other. Why are they angry at each other when they enjoyed sparring so much last night? I heard Maki-Maki say to someone that the two were insecure, but why would being insecure make them mad at each other?”

 

Zaraki let out a low groan and cricked his neck.

 

He could understand physical things like the thrill of a fight or the lust for blood, and he could figure out people's reactions to hunger, pain or arousal, but when the issue lay deeper it made things more puzzling for him. It wasn't that he was stupid and couldn't understand deeper problems or emotions, but it was simply that such matters bored him and he liked to keep things simple. Why worry what someone thinks of you when their opinions are worthless, why trouble yourself with love when there's far more important things to worry about? It didn't make sense to him to look too deep into things, but that's exactly what Yachiru was doing: looking deeper.

 

So what if his men were angry at one another? They could either fight it out or shut up and put up, it didn't seem to matter why they were mad or how to fix it, but to Yachiru it seemed that it did. Who knew, maybe it was a woman thing, like how that Ryoka girl seemed to be so in touch with things, but if that was the case it just proved that women were the weaker and irrational sex.

 

Still, if he had to guess what was bothering those two knuckleheads he could hazard an easy guess, after all they were both so predictable in everything they did and said, always the same problems and same attitudes, like they were constantly reading off a script. Ikkaku would worry about how he looked and spout the same nonsense about his lover finding him unattractive, whilst Yumichika would complain that he couldn't trust Ikkaku not to abandon him when he opened up or not to get killed in the heat of battle. It seemed pretty much to Zaraki that the two had trust issues, which worried him and not because he cared about their loves lives, - hell no, he didn't care in the slightest - but because if a squad didn't completely trust one another then it was weaker in the heat of battle. He didn't want a weak squad. If he had to beat trust into them then he would, he wasn't going to let them take the squad down with them.

 

“Yachiru,” He said firmly, “You know what Zanpakuto it is that Yumichika has?”

 

She tilted her head and raised her finger to her lips in thought, like Zaraki she had a habit of looking upward when thinking and it was a gesture that looked truly adorable on her too. When she'd thought long enough she gave a bright smile and jumped up a few times, “I know, Kenny! It's a peacock!”

 

“Right, and what's so special about peacocks?”

 

“Err, they're pretty?”

 

Zaraki smiled. “They are, but there's more to it than that.” He sat down on the floor cross-legged to become on eye-level with her, to make sure she knew he was talking to her as an equal and a fellow Shinigami. “Peacocks are really good-looking birds with huge tails, and they use those tails to attract a mate, it's the only thing they can do to a attract a mate. Yumichika is kind of like a peacock.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yeah. He thinks the prettier he is the more people will like him, he doesn't think he has anything else to offer, and hidden beneath those feathers he's hiding something, something he's scared to show us. Those feathers distract all of us from the real him.” Zaraki said with a sadistic-looking grin before staring off into the landscape, “Ikkaku is just pissed because he loves Yumichika for who he is, and Yumichika is still scared and won't tell him his secrets, he still keeps his tail up to distract Ikkaku.”

 

Yachiru smiled warmly.

 

Now she understood! They sparred because they loved each other but they fought because they were angry, and Baldy was angry with Yumi because he was hiding something and was insecure! That was stupid though, because Yumi was nice and friendly and always on her side, he'd never hide anything nasty or mean from Baldy, so why was Baldy so worried? Maybe he was just selfish and wanted to know everything, he seemed selfish, he'd always fight the best opponents and not save any of the fight for anyone else, and poor Yumi was always forced to watch the fights. Maybe that's why Yumi was mad, because he didn't get to spar as much as Ikkaku?

 

She hummed in thought and then let out a loud giggle, it was a happy sound because she knew nothing bad would happen because Kenny wouldn't let it! She didn't quite understand everything but she knew she didn't need to, because she knew everything would be okay, it always was. So she bounced a little and then ran over to the steps and into the garden, stopping the moment she set foot onto the green grass.

 

“But Kenny? If that's why Baldy is mad at Yumi, why is Yumi mad at Baldy?”

 

He couldn't bring himself to roll her eyes at her, so instead he gave a kind of embarrassed grin and stared up lazily to the ceiling; “Unlike a boy peacock a female peacock isn't pretty at all, Yachiru. It's ugly, plain and it's pretty aggressive. Ikkaku thinks he's nothing more than a peahen - a female peacock - and so he doesn't think Yumi can love him, which is why Yumi is angry with him. Ikkaku goes around acting angry, fighting all the time, just to show off and prove he's got something that's good about him, even if he's not pretty. Yumichika's just pissed because he's worried about Ikkaku, he could die fighting and if he did it'd be believing Yumichika didn't love him, that he wasn't as good as his partner.”

 

“That's silly!”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Yachiru would never understand grown-ups at all. Yumi was like a peacock, he thought he only had his looks to make people like him and hid things, and Baldy was like a peahen and was argumentative because he thought he was ugly, and was willing to die to prove himself worthy. It made her wonder if all the other grown-ups were like animals too. The thought made her laugh! If that were the case then she had to wonder what the other Shinigami would be, she'd be a cat because they were pretty and cute, but what about Koma-Koma, he was already an animal! Maybe if he was a doggy that meant he acted more like a person than the people did, because people could only act like animals? That meant Koma-Koma was a person!

 

She looked out over the garden and thought for a long minute. The gardens were pretty today, maybe someone from squad four had came to make them pretty, but they still weren't as nice as Bya-kun's! Oh, speaking of Bya-kun, she had to wonder about him and why he was so strange around Kenny, after all the two always seemed to argue but it was a different kind of arguing that never seemed to go anywhere, and they were always on missions together too but when they were Yachiru couldn't go with them! Bya-kun was all pretty and nice but he was so cold and quiet with people, but Kenny was the opposite, he tried to scare people when they saw him but he acted all happy and nice with them! Maybe - maybe - oh! She understood; she knew now what was up! She'd go tell Bya-kun and then it'd all be fixed and he'd be happy again, just like Kenny!

 

“You're so smart, Kenny! Thanks for explaining things to me! I'm going now!”

 

Zaraki stood up slowly and shrugged, “Where to, Yachiru?”

 

“To go tell Bya-kun he's being silly of course! Just because he's a peacock doesn't mean he has to be all grumpy, he can be happy like you, he just needs a peahen to play with! I'm going to tell him what you said about peacocks, Kenny!” She said jumping up and down, “See you soon!”

 

“Hey, wait a -.”

 

Before he had time to even blink she'd flash-stepped out of the garden and out of sight. He could already feel a sense of dread but knew better than to chase her, she was faster than he was and he had no sense of direction, plus he doubted the Kuchiki manor would be open to him just `dropping in' like how Yachiru tended to do. Then again he hadn't anything to worry about, she was just a kid, whatever she'd say no one would take any notice and if they did they wouldn't dare say anything to him. He was Zaraki Kenpachi after all. It was then something struck him . . .

 

Ugh, he could only hope Peacock and Peahen were two nicknames that didn't stick. One day he'd have to have a word with her about those damn nicknames of hers, but until then at least he was better off than `Pachinko Head' or `Doggy'.

 

“Wait,” He mumbled to the air, “Did she just call me a peahen?”