[Bleach] Guidance
Title: Guidance
Series: 50scenes Prompt Table No.2 (#047-Bells)
Author: Kanon
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kurosaki Ichigo x Hitsugaya Toushiro
Disclaimer: Bleach sovereigns over me, not the other way round.
Summary: Hitsugaya returns with a present from Soul Society for Ichigo after hearing the news of his injury.
Spoilers: None
Warning: None
Author’s Note:
…I think I’ve fallen in slump. I just can’t really seem to write anything nowadays. This was written a LONG time ago.
:::::Guidance by Kanon:::::
The Karakura town was caught in the turmoil that was a transition of the season and the notorious heat of the summer was subtly but surely creeping in by every minute of the night, the humidity in the air rising. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple as he dashed through the silent streets and the perpetual scowl grew tighter. Though water was an element he thrived in, it was an absolute killer for him when it was coupled with the scorching temperature. However, it was not just the profuse perspiration that was pulling the white brow together.
As soon as he turned the last corner and caught his destination in sight, he jumped on the walls aligning the gardens, the footsteps completely soundless. The speed only grew faster, if that was possible, making him look like nothing more than a blur of white and when the green sign reading Kurosaki Clinic zoomed past him, he was up in the air, heading for the opened window on the first floor.
Then the moment his foot landed on the window frame, he froze and blinked.
Hitsugaya remained motionless at what was now effectively his ‘door’ to this room, his other foot still dangling in midair. It was a precarious position yet he could not help it. Although he had been forewarned, to see it real for himself was nothing like what he had imagined from the descriptions that the others had relayed to him while he was in Soul Society.
Just then, a waft of precious cool breeze darted past him and rushed into the room and the silent change in the atmosphere jerked the sole occupant towards him, giving him a full view of what had rendered him speechless.
“Who is it?!”
It was a short, simple question but in the three words, Hitsugaya could hear the tension and anxiety tittering on the edge of turning to panic-fraught hostility, something rarely heard from the frowning substitute shinigami. The untamed reaitsu flared dangerously in the room, threatening to break the special shield set around the area, and the wild grating kick-started the stunned captain back into action as he landed deftly on the bed. The mattress sagged, and the black reiatsu spiked precariously before it quickly calmed down from the high alert; a reiatsu so cold and so familiar was seeping in, caressing the alarmed one with surprising gentleness. It brought a wry smile on the teen’s face as the anxiety made its leave and HItsugaya glowered at the sight in discontentment.
“Welcome back, Toushiro.”
“…Idiot.” The captain tonelessly muttered, the voice barely audible in the quietness of the moonlit room, and a resigned chuckle followed it.
“I knew you’d say that.” Ichigo sighed then tousled his hair, relaxing back against the wall now that he knew who the late-night intruder was. “Though, this time, I have to agree with you.”
There was no reply from the obviously irritated prodigy and Ichigo honestly could not say he found it surprising. Those piercing emeralds were most likely scrutinising him at the moment. Perfectly aware that the distasteful frown would be spoiling his dragon’s face, Ichigo put on a sheepish smile instead of trying to string pretentious words which would only aggravate the situation even more.
Suddenly, cold fingertips came out of nowhere - from his point of view - and landed on his marred eyelids, and Ichigo could not stop the surprised gasp escaping him. The feather light touch also startled at the jump, leaving him briefly, but it soon returned once again, this time much more cautiously and slowly. The gentle caress first ghosted over them as if afraid that he might shatter irrevocably then turned firmer when there was no sign of discomfort from the teen; instead, astonishment filled the face and though the brown eyes were hidden behind the clamped shut lids, the captain could clearly see them widening to the size of full moon in his mind.
Regardless of the quiet gasp from the idiot, Hitsugaya glided his fingers over the other’s eyes light as feather. Clear glue-like substances were spread over them like a web, gluing the eyelids and robbing the substitute shinigami of his sight. The strange material had hardened like plastic and the fingers continued following one of many tail ends that fastened onto the warm skin, the teal orbs filled with vexation but not without concern.
“What happened?” Hitsugaya half-snarled, not wholly managing to hide the frustration he felt. Ichigo scoffed derisively, more at himself than anything, even as he relished in the rare caring strokes of the dainty hand.
“I let my guard down after slashing an Arrancar. Didn’t expect it to explode, never mind splatter this gunk.”
The airy hovering of the soft touches halted then just as Ichigo started to wonder what was going on-
“Ouch! Hey!”
The contentment disappeared fast as Ichigo screwed up his face in pain, his hands reflexively shooting up to rub the sore spot on his head where the small hand had come back with a vicious bonk.
“I go back just for a day and this is what greets me on my return?”
The baritone voice was flat, almost placid, as if the whole situation actually did not bother the aloof prodigy. It made the entire sentence seem very incongruous, given that the words, however harsh they were, were of concern; but Ichigo knew the lack of the usual annoyance was in fact the first sign that he should run for it if he wanted to avoid the wrath of the legendary creature. He needed to salvage the situation, and fast.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered with a rueful smile and slowly reached out for the small hand he hoped was still near him. However, all that he could grasp was empty air and after a few attempts all ending in failure, the aggravation was beginning to show in the frown creasing the unhappy face.
“Stupid prick,” Ichigo heard his ruffled dragon muttering in sheer annoyance not long after then the blind searching came to an end, the dainty hand he had been looking for fitting into the empty space of his loosely curled fingers and he clutched it as if it were his lifeline without a moment wasted. A soft sigh akin to relief escaped the injured - in a manner of speaking, since apart from the sealed eyes, Ichigo was as good as new - and the captain did not protest when his hand was dragged across and pressed against the cheek; putting aside the unimpressed tsk he let out, that is.
“I wish I could see you,” Ichigo murmured, pressing a chaste kiss on the velvety palm. The wishful statement roused a new wave of worries in the prodigy and though the teen could not see, the white brows were now newly angled from the vexation, a hint of concern weaving into the stoic voice as Hitsugaya confirmed what he had heard from Urahara.
“I thought it was temporary.”
“Apparently.” Then Ichigo looked up to where he assumed Toushiro was sitting, hoping that he was right and was not making a fool of himself. “But I meant I want to see you now.”
The relief in the cold emeralds was only short-lived, quickly giving way to ire that the fool had nearly tricked him; not that it was intentional but that did not make any difference.
“Impatient prat, it’s not like I’ve been away for weeks and months,” Hitsugaya replied coolly but unknown to Ichigo, the small face did not make any effort to hide the concern and the willingness to help. After all, there was no one here to see the stark display of affection from the glacial prodigy; not even his lover.
Silence descended on them once more, the two sitting there and Ichigo relishing in the tiny, innocent contact. With the lack of sight, all his other senses were heightened unnaturally despite the short span of time he had been thrown abruptly into the darkness. Urahara had played it down to his battle trainings that had honed them through the countless brushes against death. Frankly, he did not care about hows and whys; he knew the situation could have been a lot worse had it not been the time he had spent as the substitute shinigami and for that, he was grateful. However, it was still vey surreal; he could literally feel on his skin the cold shimmers of the thin slice of silver in the midnight sky showering over them through the open window. The direction of the slightest of breeze was unmistakable from the way his short mess of orange rustled and the warmth gently cupping his cheek was smoother than ever. Yet frustration began to build up within him; it did not matter if he had Toushiro’s hand planted firmly on his face. He still had no way of telling just where his dragon currently sat or what kind of expression the aloof but caring shinigami was wearing and he wanted to embrace the cool frame within his arms.
Hitsugaya sat in silence, watching the shift in the emotions on the teen’s face. Without the ability to see, it seemed Ichigo was unaware of how starkly they were being displayed and knowing the one-way minded idiot, he did not have to ask why the long face. A quiet sigh left the thinned lips and using his free hand, the captain searched the inside of his sleeves. And out of the blue, the dark serenity was shattered with a crisp jingle of-
“…A bell?” Ichigo asked in confusion, fairly positive of his auditory deduction. The same clean sound rang once more, confirming his suspicion, and then a few more, quieter ringing continued to ripple the lukewarm air. The toll did not stop until the blinded teen figured out the direction and turned towards it; to his right side, and Ichigo hazarded a guess that it was somewhere just within his arm’s reach as well, which figured, considering that only one person could be tinkering the little metal ball whose other hand remained on his face.
“Toushiro?”
The orange eyebrows knitted when another toll of the bell was the only response he received to his perplexed call. It was only a second before the sound that supposedly purified the souls came again and this time, Ichigo cautiously reached out for the origin, guided by the intermittent jingling. The entire journey felt like hours but in the end, his fingertips met the cold, round surface of what was undoubtedly a small bell, perhaps with a golden shine.
But it was not the success that had the teen’s mouth shaping into a little surprised ‘o’; it was the unmistakable warmth emanating from somewhere very nearby, more specifically, just a layer of cotton away from where the bell rested.
“Toushiro?” Ichigo enquired once more, the puzzlement evident in the single word.
“Good,” came the monotonous reply. It was as if he had just got a maths question right instead of grasping the tiny thing without his sight. “It took awhile but you’re better at this than I had expected.”
“But… a bell? What’s it for?”
“What do you think? It’s for you to follow.”
The lids lifted as if to open but all it managed was mere lifting of the orange eyebrows. Hitsugaya managed to stop another irritated clack of his tongue; the sight was becoming truly vexing, only adding fuel to his already brimming annoyance.
“Did you think that we were going to leave you defenceless in your current condition? It’s not as if you’d stay in your room until you’ve recovered.”
“You’ve got that right,” Ichigo muttered resolutely then a teasing smirk slowly curled the lips. “Toushiro, did you volunteer for this? Because I doubt this exactly warrants a captain-class to be taken away from his initial duty.”
For the first time, Hitsugaya was glad that the idiot could not see, feeling his blood rushing to his face at a record-breaking speed.
“Shut up.”
The lopsided grin on Ichigo’s face stretched wider but on the contrary, the emeralds narrowed once more; that stupid arrogance was simply not the same without the unrelenting fire lightening up the warm brown eyes.
The merry jingle echoed again and Ichigo dropped the unbalance in his smirk, instead wearing a simple, soft smile. No matter how detached Toushiro appeared, at times like this, it could not become any clearer that in that notorious fortress of ice lived on a compassionate fire. The little metal merriness that would be his guide until his recovery jingled once more lightly as he gave a tiny flick with his fingertips, making sure he would not lose it. The hand that had been his sole contact with his prickly boyfriend left his warmed cheek and wrapped around his fingers as if to stop the pointless ringing but it did not diminish the smile on the teen’s face at all.
“Thanks, Toushiro.”
Ichigo only heard the quiet harrumph that he probably would have missed if his vision had not been impaired, and chuckled.
“What on earth would I do without you?”
“Probably get killed in the stupidest way ever possible.”
The words were unsympathetic but neither took them seriously and both of them knew it was only a cover-up for the concern the icy shinigami did not know how to show. Instead, Ichigo snuck his hand out of the light grasp and held the dainty one in his instead, hesitantly and carefully closing the distance between them as he tried to remember where the ringing had come from. For all he knew, he could be heading for a wall instead of the plump lips and the possibility of it rose the tension inside him to the limit with every inch he moved forward.
Then the hand he had captured within his wiggled and jerked to right, making him halt for a minute in confusion. There was still no verbal explanation from the captain who was evidently feeling even more reticent than usual - most likely from the annoyance and worries - and then another press to the right came, as if to direct-
A wide grin stretched out on Ichigo’s face as he realised what the little twists were for and obliged the silent instruction. Only if he could see Toushiro’s face right now; he had no doubt that those velvety cheeks were burning in bright, bright red as the prickly prodigy guided him to his destination. The aloof shinigami had not yet learnt to overcome his embarrassment and awkwardness to initiate an intimate contact himself even in the current circumstances but Ichigo understood the meaning of these wordless navigations.
A content sigh dissipating into the tranquillity of the night marked the end of the heated kiss and Ichigo could not stop grinning like an idiot as he licked his wet lips, the refreshing taste of snow lingering elusively at the tip of his tongue. The sultry act had the porcelain cheeks staining in crimson once more and Hitsugaya swatted the callused hand away rather roughly, causing the bell to dance in the air. The cleansing sound rang out vibrantly, the echoes only widening the smile on the teen’s face if anything, and then Ichigo suddenly tilted his head to a side. Hitsugaya could practically see the question mark flashing neon above the orange tuft and though his scowl was dark enough to probably silence the invincible Matsumoto Rangiku, he patiently waited for the query.
“Toushiro.”
“What?”
“Where did you get the bell from?”
A moment of silence then-
“Why?”
“It’s just… you came from Soul Society… and the size is awfully similar to the ones someone I don’t particularly want to meet again wears.” Then Ichigo added, as if there was a need to make it any clearer. “At the tips of his hair. ”
Another slice of quietness; for Ichigo, it was growing quite disturbing by now.
“…It could be from someone that you don’t particularly want to meet again.”
Ichigo blanched and decided not to enquire any further into the matter for the sake of his sanity.
Series: 50scenes Prompt Table No.2 (#047-Bells)
Author: Kanon
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kurosaki Ichigo x Hitsugaya Toushiro
Disclaimer: Bleach sovereigns over me, not the other way round.
Summary: Hitsugaya returns with a present from Soul Society for Ichigo after hearing the news of his injury.
Spoilers: None
Warning: None
Author’s Note:
…I think I’ve fallen in slump. I just can’t really seem to write anything nowadays. This was written a LONG time ago.
:::::Guidance by Kanon:::::
The Karakura town was caught in the turmoil that was a transition of the season and the notorious heat of the summer was subtly but surely creeping in by every minute of the night, the humidity in the air rising. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple as he dashed through the silent streets and the perpetual scowl grew tighter. Though water was an element he thrived in, it was an absolute killer for him when it was coupled with the scorching temperature. However, it was not just the profuse perspiration that was pulling the white brow together.
As soon as he turned the last corner and caught his destination in sight, he jumped on the walls aligning the gardens, the footsteps completely soundless. The speed only grew faster, if that was possible, making him look like nothing more than a blur of white and when the green sign reading Kurosaki Clinic zoomed past him, he was up in the air, heading for the opened window on the first floor.
Then the moment his foot landed on the window frame, he froze and blinked.
Hitsugaya remained motionless at what was now effectively his ‘door’ to this room, his other foot still dangling in midair. It was a precarious position yet he could not help it. Although he had been forewarned, to see it real for himself was nothing like what he had imagined from the descriptions that the others had relayed to him while he was in Soul Society.
Just then, a waft of precious cool breeze darted past him and rushed into the room and the silent change in the atmosphere jerked the sole occupant towards him, giving him a full view of what had rendered him speechless.
“Who is it?!”
It was a short, simple question but in the three words, Hitsugaya could hear the tension and anxiety tittering on the edge of turning to panic-fraught hostility, something rarely heard from the frowning substitute shinigami. The untamed reaitsu flared dangerously in the room, threatening to break the special shield set around the area, and the wild grating kick-started the stunned captain back into action as he landed deftly on the bed. The mattress sagged, and the black reiatsu spiked precariously before it quickly calmed down from the high alert; a reiatsu so cold and so familiar was seeping in, caressing the alarmed one with surprising gentleness. It brought a wry smile on the teen’s face as the anxiety made its leave and HItsugaya glowered at the sight in discontentment.
“Welcome back, Toushiro.”
“…Idiot.” The captain tonelessly muttered, the voice barely audible in the quietness of the moonlit room, and a resigned chuckle followed it.
“I knew you’d say that.” Ichigo sighed then tousled his hair, relaxing back against the wall now that he knew who the late-night intruder was. “Though, this time, I have to agree with you.”
There was no reply from the obviously irritated prodigy and Ichigo honestly could not say he found it surprising. Those piercing emeralds were most likely scrutinising him at the moment. Perfectly aware that the distasteful frown would be spoiling his dragon’s face, Ichigo put on a sheepish smile instead of trying to string pretentious words which would only aggravate the situation even more.
Suddenly, cold fingertips came out of nowhere - from his point of view - and landed on his marred eyelids, and Ichigo could not stop the surprised gasp escaping him. The feather light touch also startled at the jump, leaving him briefly, but it soon returned once again, this time much more cautiously and slowly. The gentle caress first ghosted over them as if afraid that he might shatter irrevocably then turned firmer when there was no sign of discomfort from the teen; instead, astonishment filled the face and though the brown eyes were hidden behind the clamped shut lids, the captain could clearly see them widening to the size of full moon in his mind.
Regardless of the quiet gasp from the idiot, Hitsugaya glided his fingers over the other’s eyes light as feather. Clear glue-like substances were spread over them like a web, gluing the eyelids and robbing the substitute shinigami of his sight. The strange material had hardened like plastic and the fingers continued following one of many tail ends that fastened onto the warm skin, the teal orbs filled with vexation but not without concern.
“What happened?” Hitsugaya half-snarled, not wholly managing to hide the frustration he felt. Ichigo scoffed derisively, more at himself than anything, even as he relished in the rare caring strokes of the dainty hand.
“I let my guard down after slashing an Arrancar. Didn’t expect it to explode, never mind splatter this gunk.”
The airy hovering of the soft touches halted then just as Ichigo started to wonder what was going on-
“Ouch! Hey!”
The contentment disappeared fast as Ichigo screwed up his face in pain, his hands reflexively shooting up to rub the sore spot on his head where the small hand had come back with a vicious bonk.
“I go back just for a day and this is what greets me on my return?”
The baritone voice was flat, almost placid, as if the whole situation actually did not bother the aloof prodigy. It made the entire sentence seem very incongruous, given that the words, however harsh they were, were of concern; but Ichigo knew the lack of the usual annoyance was in fact the first sign that he should run for it if he wanted to avoid the wrath of the legendary creature. He needed to salvage the situation, and fast.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered with a rueful smile and slowly reached out for the small hand he hoped was still near him. However, all that he could grasp was empty air and after a few attempts all ending in failure, the aggravation was beginning to show in the frown creasing the unhappy face.
“Stupid prick,” Ichigo heard his ruffled dragon muttering in sheer annoyance not long after then the blind searching came to an end, the dainty hand he had been looking for fitting into the empty space of his loosely curled fingers and he clutched it as if it were his lifeline without a moment wasted. A soft sigh akin to relief escaped the injured - in a manner of speaking, since apart from the sealed eyes, Ichigo was as good as new - and the captain did not protest when his hand was dragged across and pressed against the cheek; putting aside the unimpressed tsk he let out, that is.
“I wish I could see you,” Ichigo murmured, pressing a chaste kiss on the velvety palm. The wishful statement roused a new wave of worries in the prodigy and though the teen could not see, the white brows were now newly angled from the vexation, a hint of concern weaving into the stoic voice as Hitsugaya confirmed what he had heard from Urahara.
“I thought it was temporary.”
“Apparently.” Then Ichigo looked up to where he assumed Toushiro was sitting, hoping that he was right and was not making a fool of himself. “But I meant I want to see you now.”
The relief in the cold emeralds was only short-lived, quickly giving way to ire that the fool had nearly tricked him; not that it was intentional but that did not make any difference.
“Impatient prat, it’s not like I’ve been away for weeks and months,” Hitsugaya replied coolly but unknown to Ichigo, the small face did not make any effort to hide the concern and the willingness to help. After all, there was no one here to see the stark display of affection from the glacial prodigy; not even his lover.
Silence descended on them once more, the two sitting there and Ichigo relishing in the tiny, innocent contact. With the lack of sight, all his other senses were heightened unnaturally despite the short span of time he had been thrown abruptly into the darkness. Urahara had played it down to his battle trainings that had honed them through the countless brushes against death. Frankly, he did not care about hows and whys; he knew the situation could have been a lot worse had it not been the time he had spent as the substitute shinigami and for that, he was grateful. However, it was still vey surreal; he could literally feel on his skin the cold shimmers of the thin slice of silver in the midnight sky showering over them through the open window. The direction of the slightest of breeze was unmistakable from the way his short mess of orange rustled and the warmth gently cupping his cheek was smoother than ever. Yet frustration began to build up within him; it did not matter if he had Toushiro’s hand planted firmly on his face. He still had no way of telling just where his dragon currently sat or what kind of expression the aloof but caring shinigami was wearing and he wanted to embrace the cool frame within his arms.
Hitsugaya sat in silence, watching the shift in the emotions on the teen’s face. Without the ability to see, it seemed Ichigo was unaware of how starkly they were being displayed and knowing the one-way minded idiot, he did not have to ask why the long face. A quiet sigh left the thinned lips and using his free hand, the captain searched the inside of his sleeves. And out of the blue, the dark serenity was shattered with a crisp jingle of-
“…A bell?” Ichigo asked in confusion, fairly positive of his auditory deduction. The same clean sound rang once more, confirming his suspicion, and then a few more, quieter ringing continued to ripple the lukewarm air. The toll did not stop until the blinded teen figured out the direction and turned towards it; to his right side, and Ichigo hazarded a guess that it was somewhere just within his arm’s reach as well, which figured, considering that only one person could be tinkering the little metal ball whose other hand remained on his face.
“Toushiro?”
The orange eyebrows knitted when another toll of the bell was the only response he received to his perplexed call. It was only a second before the sound that supposedly purified the souls came again and this time, Ichigo cautiously reached out for the origin, guided by the intermittent jingling. The entire journey felt like hours but in the end, his fingertips met the cold, round surface of what was undoubtedly a small bell, perhaps with a golden shine.
But it was not the success that had the teen’s mouth shaping into a little surprised ‘o’; it was the unmistakable warmth emanating from somewhere very nearby, more specifically, just a layer of cotton away from where the bell rested.
“Toushiro?” Ichigo enquired once more, the puzzlement evident in the single word.
“Good,” came the monotonous reply. It was as if he had just got a maths question right instead of grasping the tiny thing without his sight. “It took awhile but you’re better at this than I had expected.”
“But… a bell? What’s it for?”
“What do you think? It’s for you to follow.”
The lids lifted as if to open but all it managed was mere lifting of the orange eyebrows. Hitsugaya managed to stop another irritated clack of his tongue; the sight was becoming truly vexing, only adding fuel to his already brimming annoyance.
“Did you think that we were going to leave you defenceless in your current condition? It’s not as if you’d stay in your room until you’ve recovered.”
“You’ve got that right,” Ichigo muttered resolutely then a teasing smirk slowly curled the lips. “Toushiro, did you volunteer for this? Because I doubt this exactly warrants a captain-class to be taken away from his initial duty.”
For the first time, Hitsugaya was glad that the idiot could not see, feeling his blood rushing to his face at a record-breaking speed.
“Shut up.”
The lopsided grin on Ichigo’s face stretched wider but on the contrary, the emeralds narrowed once more; that stupid arrogance was simply not the same without the unrelenting fire lightening up the warm brown eyes.
The merry jingle echoed again and Ichigo dropped the unbalance in his smirk, instead wearing a simple, soft smile. No matter how detached Toushiro appeared, at times like this, it could not become any clearer that in that notorious fortress of ice lived on a compassionate fire. The little metal merriness that would be his guide until his recovery jingled once more lightly as he gave a tiny flick with his fingertips, making sure he would not lose it. The hand that had been his sole contact with his prickly boyfriend left his warmed cheek and wrapped around his fingers as if to stop the pointless ringing but it did not diminish the smile on the teen’s face at all.
“Thanks, Toushiro.”
Ichigo only heard the quiet harrumph that he probably would have missed if his vision had not been impaired, and chuckled.
“What on earth would I do without you?”
“Probably get killed in the stupidest way ever possible.”
The words were unsympathetic but neither took them seriously and both of them knew it was only a cover-up for the concern the icy shinigami did not know how to show. Instead, Ichigo snuck his hand out of the light grasp and held the dainty one in his instead, hesitantly and carefully closing the distance between them as he tried to remember where the ringing had come from. For all he knew, he could be heading for a wall instead of the plump lips and the possibility of it rose the tension inside him to the limit with every inch he moved forward.
Then the hand he had captured within his wiggled and jerked to right, making him halt for a minute in confusion. There was still no verbal explanation from the captain who was evidently feeling even more reticent than usual - most likely from the annoyance and worries - and then another press to the right came, as if to direct-
A wide grin stretched out on Ichigo’s face as he realised what the little twists were for and obliged the silent instruction. Only if he could see Toushiro’s face right now; he had no doubt that those velvety cheeks were burning in bright, bright red as the prickly prodigy guided him to his destination. The aloof shinigami had not yet learnt to overcome his embarrassment and awkwardness to initiate an intimate contact himself even in the current circumstances but Ichigo understood the meaning of these wordless navigations.
A content sigh dissipating into the tranquillity of the night marked the end of the heated kiss and Ichigo could not stop grinning like an idiot as he licked his wet lips, the refreshing taste of snow lingering elusively at the tip of his tongue. The sultry act had the porcelain cheeks staining in crimson once more and Hitsugaya swatted the callused hand away rather roughly, causing the bell to dance in the air. The cleansing sound rang out vibrantly, the echoes only widening the smile on the teen’s face if anything, and then Ichigo suddenly tilted his head to a side. Hitsugaya could practically see the question mark flashing neon above the orange tuft and though his scowl was dark enough to probably silence the invincible Matsumoto Rangiku, he patiently waited for the query.
“Toushiro.”
“What?”
“Where did you get the bell from?”
A moment of silence then-
“Why?”
“It’s just… you came from Soul Society… and the size is awfully similar to the ones someone I don’t particularly want to meet again wears.” Then Ichigo added, as if there was a need to make it any clearer. “At the tips of his hair. ”
Another slice of quietness; for Ichigo, it was growing quite disturbing by now.
“…It could be from someone that you don’t particularly want to meet again.”
Ichigo blanched and decided not to enquire any further into the matter for the sake of his sanity.