Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Tales of a Broken Society ❯ Fixing the Hurt ( Chapter 18 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Looking around me, I can’t help but smirk as I spot that orange hair that fascinates me so. It was like fire, telling everyone to stay far away but drawing them close, wanting to feel the heat and face the danger. His temper was just like fire too. It was harsh and cruel but can be blissfully warm and comforting to those who were close to him. It sent shivers down my spine and a smirk curl on my lips.

Every fukutaicho, taicho and a few others were sitting in during a meeting, waiting to hear about what had happened during the time that Ichigo and a few select others had gone after Aizen while everyone else had taken him on in Soul Society. I watch as Ichigo moves up to the front and start to speak, his voice dispassionate, tinged with some sadness. It made me frown before I remembered that he had lost Orihime to Ulquirro.

Listening to how Ichigo told us about that battle, it made me sad that I couldn’t be there for him, no matter how much I wanted to. Watching his face as he finished his report and move to stand apart from the others and I couldn’t help but think of that one song he had introduced me to. It was by some pseudo-Christian group, as he liked to call them. Cried…Creek, something like that. The sound was good and I moved my lips, forming his favorite lyrics.

“Should have been dead on a Sunday morning, banging my head. No time for mourning, ain’t got no time,” I whisper as Ishida goes next, still a little bruised and battered, two fingers in splints, while the brilliant bloom of color spreads across his face, drawing attention to it. I listen with half an ear as he talks about how he and Rukia had taken an Arracar on, only he walking away from it. He continued to talk about how he moved on to help the others, but I was paying attention to Ichigo and how the words affected him.

Soon we were let free to go about getting better and helping the restoration effort, most of us only able to work on paperwork and getting the divisions in order. I head to my office and smile softly as I hear the group asking, in their own way, why they lived and what their lives meant. Shaking my head, I move to slide open the door and step into the office, finding Ichigo, my sweet fukutaicho, already rearranging the various scrolls.

“Ichigo, you shouldn’t be doing that,” I say, just loud enough to be heard above the music. He turns to me and smiles shyly at me, something that he hadn’t done in the past. I suppose loosing his friends hit him harder then I thought. Sighing softly, I move to the odd thing that he had brought from the human world and flipped it to a new song.

Listening to the guitars and the drums, I nod and move to my desk and sit down. I start to do the paper work in front of me, loosing myself to it and the rhythm of the music. I can’t help but smile softly as I listened to the other sing to the lyrics and bounce around, his body moving to the beat. I idly think to myself that he really shouldn’t be moving around that damn easily after nearly being sliced in half.

Shaking my head again, I brush my hair back and go back to my paperwork, intent on finishing most of it before I forced Ichigo to let go finally. It doesn’t take long before I’m done with the days paperwork and putting my brush and ink away. The song from earlier, the one that haunted my thoughts as I contemplated Ichigo, was playing, filling the room with the soft sound of guitars, drums and a smooth voice. Looking over at him, I smile sadly as I see him staring out the window at the sky.

Standing up, I move and tap him on the shoulder. Seeing him jerk around and look at me with wide eyes, I simply take the brush and ink and put them both away. Taking his hand, I grab the mini stereo, as he called it and headed to my room. Stepping into the front of my door, I open it up and pull the still dazed Ichigo into the room and put the machine down onto a small table. From there, I step into my bedroom and pull Ichigo tightly into my arms.

“Let it go. I’ll catch you,” I say softly, nuzzling the skin just above his ear. I feel his body shudder before he lets go finally, the sobs wracking his body, but he makes no sound, not until he starts to talk about everything that led up to that point, starting with his mother.

I move us to lay upon the bed and continue to hold him close, running one hand through his hair slowly, helping him calm down slowly, showing that he wasn’t alone and he could finally let go and fall. I listen as he stutters and staggers through the attack on Aizen and his feelings in losing his friends, including the two that he considered family.

Finally, his flood of words stop, but his tears still continue. After a while, I notice that his tears had stopped and he had fallen asleep, clenching my top as one leg wrapped around my waist, holding me close. It made me smile softly and nuzzle close to him. I knew that were well on our way to getting him all better and I couldn’t wait for that time, when the only sadness I saw was when we went to visit Rukia’s and Orihime’s graves.

I suppose that we would work on my own problems, but I needed to do that on my own. Maybe…next week I could finally face Gin and put my history to rest. I suppose, I could do that, with Ichigo there by my side and in my heart.