Bonus Chapter: Aftermath

Hitsugaya returned to his office feeling even worse than he had when he woke up with a headache this morning. All those pictures… his dignity… gone! Why did that have to happen? What possessed them to take all those pictures and allow half the Soul Society to see them? How could this happen to him? Why did things like this always happen to him? And Momo… She saw all those embarrassing photos. His face turned red just thinking about it.

He sat down in his chair and banged his head on the desk. It hurt like Hell… Never bang your head with a headache. He rubbed his head, ruffling up his white hair. He turned his head to the side and spotted something near his desk. The three sacks from before. Yumichika must have brought them back with him when Renji chased them down before they returned. He growled and kicked them over out of sight. He wanted nothing to do with them.

They hit the floor and opened allowing the contents to spill out onto the floor. One bag contained candy while the other contained toys. But the third held something else. It caught his attention. Two of the objects that fell out was a box of crayons and a sketch pad. Hitsugaya frowned. He didn't draw. Why would he ever use that? He held up another object. It was a small blue blanket. He held it at arm's length and frowned again. He didn't have too much of a problem with the color, but he wasn't too big on the picture. It was a picture of a dragon, which he did like, but it was far too cartoony for his taste. Plus, the clouds behind it were in the shape of hearts. The words 'so cool, I'm hot' were written in big yellow letter across the top of the blanket. His eye twitched and he threw the blacket to the floor. He was in a very bad mood and seeing all these childish things weren't helping to improve it at all.

"Damn them…" he muttered under his breath. "If I was in that state, why didn't they do anything to help me? They could have found me a doctor, but no! They had to take pictures! They had to cuddle! They had to tease! They had to humiliate me!"

He moved back to his seat when he felt his foot hit something hard. He looked down and picked up the object. It was a small box in the shape of a heart. What the Hell was this thing? He turned it over and found a crank. So this thing needed to be wound up, whatever it was. He set it down on the corner of his desk. He was in no mood to experiment with it right now.

At last he had gotten rid of all the humiliating photos those idiots took and made copies of. He couldn't believe some of them. Him cuddling willingly with Rangiku, playing with Renji and Ichigo, playing with his food, sucking his thumb… He did all that? That wasn't like him. Not like him at all. That bump on the head must have knocked all the sense out of him. Really, him doing all that? Ridiculous.

He glanced down at the last remaining photos in his hand. This was the last of them. Once he had gotten rid of these, the ordeal would be over. One of the pictures was of him burying his face in Rangiku's bosom to sleep. That once made him shudder. He must have been out of it to do that. The next one was of him handing some outfits to the girls as they unpacked their shopping bags. In the picture, it looked as if he had been holding the outfits to his body and modeling them. In another photo he was trying to walk in a pair of high heels Rukia had bought for herself, but he kept falling down in them apparently. His arms were outstretched and was down on one knee, a high heel not too far away. Why he had been trying to walk in them was beyond him, but… Then there was another picture of him sucking his thumb, playing with the toy dragon, another one of him sleeping in Rangiku's arms, thumb sucking, and another, and another…

"For God's sake, we get the point! Sheesh! Just how many times are they going to take the same picture?! One of me sucking my thumb is enough. You don't need more of me doing it in different positions! You've seen one, you've seen them all…" He slammed the pictures down on the desk. He was still fuming mad! At least now it was over. All he had to do was destory the pictures and end his personal Hell on Earth.

His gaze drifted back toward the object on his desk. The one from the third sack of 'goodies' Ukitake gave to him. Why did that capatin treat him like such a child? Constantly giving him these ridiculous things… He picked up the object and turned it over in his hand. There was the krank. Maybe if he turned it something would happen. Hitsugaya started to wined up the strange heart shaped box and set it back down on the desk. Nothing happened. Irritated, he gave it a good hard smack. The box rattled and opened.

Inside were brightly colored orniments mounted on thin metal rods. Three flowers: pink, light blue, and purple. The other was a bee rotating slowly around the flowers. Hitsugaya cocked his head to the side. Well, this was strange. What was this thing? That's when he heard soft music emitting from the box. Soft, gentle music.

"I get it, it's a music box!" Hitsugaya thought aloud. The soft soothing music filled the room, leaving behind a sense of serene calm. Hitsugaya rolled his eyes. "Honsetly… Only someone like Ukitake would think to give me something like this. I can't think of anything more childish than a music box that plays lullabies…" He glanced down at a baby rattle laying on the floor next to the desk, also a gift from the third sack. "Then again…"

The music continued to play and the bee continued its dance around the painted flowers.

Hitsugaya shook his head. Ukitake is an idiot… Giving me something like this. It's so stupid. Ha! Lullabies don't work on me at all. They may have worked on me before when I had that alternate personality and all, but certainly not now. Seriously. Me? Falling asleep to lullabies? Hmph! Utterly ridiculous… He let out a yawn. Honsestly… Giving me something like this..? What use would I have of it? I don't listen to music. It's a distraction. I certainly never listen to music when I work. Far too distracting… Lullabies. I ask you… He let out another yawn. They have no effect on me whatsoever…

He watched the bee spin and listened to the music. It seemed to be calming him down. He was so angry before… Now he was feeling strangely relaxed. The bee spun. Hitsugaya watched, letting his mind wonder off as he did.

Yup. No effect on me whatsoever. None at all. Lullabies don't work at all on me… Not one bit… Not… at… all… His eyes started to droop. He gave them a rub. That's when he got the feeling that something was wrong. Another yawn escaped him. "Strange… I'm feeling a bit… sleepy…"

He slumped in his seat and made himself more comfortable. Why did he feel so calm and relaxed? Perhaps his rampage on the Soul Society in an attempt to retrieve all the photos took more out of him than he originally thought.

The bee ornament continued its dance, casting its spell over Hitsugaya.

His head started to bob. He let out another yawn, much bigger than the others. He watched the bee spin. He blinked a few times, trying to shake off the heaviness weighting them down. His eyelids fluttered in a futile attempt to stay open.

Maybe.. if I just rest my head for a… minute…

Hitsugaya's body fell forward onto the desk. He rested his head in his arms and closed his eyes, still listening to the sound of the music box.

Lullabies… Really… They have no effect on me… Not at… all…

Those were his last thoughts as the soothing music carried him away into a world of his own.

~*~*~

"WAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"Renji, help me! He won't shut up!"

"But, Rukia! Every time I get near him, he either beats me up flailing around like that or pulls my hair! Just get some duck tape and…"

"It's duct tape and we're not putting it over his mouth, no matter how tempting it is!"

Rukia bounced a sobbing Ichigo as best she could on her lap in a futile atempt to get him to stop crying. He hadn't stopped since Renji came in. Acutally, he started up two minutes after Rukia walked in. Renji arrived five minutes later when he heard screaming on his way back to Kisuke's shop. He hadn't stopped crying since then.

"He won't stop! Do something!"

"What?!"

"Anything!" Renji covered his ears and moved to the other side of the room. "God! I never knew he could cry so much before! The guy must be waterlogged!"

Rukia shushed him again, but Ichigo just screamed even louder in her ear, thick tears running down his face. She patted his back. That didn't work either. She tried to rock him, but it proved to be far too difficult, seeing as how Ichigo was much taller than she was. No matter what she did, Ichigo just kept on crying.

From his behavior, they deduced that he was under the belief that he was a baby. He didn't know how to form words and could no longer remember how to walk. This wasn't good. Most babies who didn't know how to walk or speak, also weren't potty-trianed. They had to snap him out of this fast!

"Please, Ichigo," Rukia pleaded with him. "Come back to yourself! Please, I'm begging you!" He sobbed again, now hiccupping as well. "God, Toshiro was so much cuter…"

"I know! And he knew how to use a toliet, too!" Renji called while stuffing a wad of tissues in his ears. Anything to muffle the racket Ichigo was making.

"Renji, please! I need your help!"

"What to you suggest I do?!"

She looked around and spotted something on the floor by the table. "The music box! If it worked on Hitsugaya, it should work on him, too, right?"

Renji followed her pointed finger to the dented object on the floor. "So you think it'll knock him out, too?"

"It's worth a shot. Bring it here and turn it on."

Renji did as he was told and opened the music box inches from Ichigo's head so he could hear it over his own screams. He sniffled and looked at the music box. Then with another cry, he batted it out of his hand where it crashed to the floor.

"Hey! Little brat!"

"WAAAAAAAAAHH!"

"Renji, don't yell at him!"

"But he-"

"You made him cry!"

"He was already crying!"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Ichigo sobbed again and pulled on Rukia's shirt. When Renji came to help her out, Ichigo instead latched on to his red hair and refused to let go. Renji managed to pry his head free from Ichigo's grasp and backed up, out of reach.

"I can't take it anymore! I've gotta get back to Urahara's shop. We can take him with us."

"But he told us that he couldn't do anything about Hitsugaya's contition. What makes you think that he can do something about Ichigo?"

"Well, if he can't cure him, maybe he can find a way to shut him up!

That's just what they did. Unable to walk on his own, Ichigo was carried piggyback style on Renji's back down the street. He was a sight to be seen as he was carried screaming and sobbing through the streets all the way to Kisuke's shop. Rukia rushed ahead, unable to take the awkward stares of the public any longer. She reached the shop first and entered as quickly as she could.

"Kisuke! Kisuke, are you here? We need to speak with you."

She heard groaning coming from behind the counter.

"Kisuke?"

"Ugh..! Stop shoutin'! I hear ya!" Kisuke appeared from behind the counter, hat slightly askew.

"What were you doing back there?" she asked.

"Takin' a nap." He ran a hand through his hair and adjusted his hat. "I sorta fell asleep. It hasn't been very busy lately."

'Lately'? she wondered to herself. "We need your help with something."

He groaned again and got to his feet. "Well, seeing as how I'm so refreshed after that five-minute nap… What's the problem now? Toshiro staying here?"

"Oh, no. No. He's recovered and went back to the Soul Society."

"Then what's the problem?"

Renji came bursting through the door with a hysterical Ichigo on his back.

"That."

Renji closed the door and dropped Ichigo on the wooden floor. Landing on the hard floor only made him cry even harder, if such a thing was possible.

"Renji! Don't drop him!"

"What?"

Kisuke stared at Ichigo for several moments and then back to Rukia. "So… What seems to be the problem here?"

"As if you didn't know!" Renji growled. "Ichigo got hit in the head by Rukia-"

"Hey!"

"Well, you did!"

"But I didn't mean to! It was an accident!"

"You threw the thing at his head!"

"I thought he'd catch it!"

"Yeah, he did! He caught it in the head!"

"So now what?" Kisuke interrupted.

"So now he thinks he's a baby."

"Like Hitsugaya?"

"Well… No. He thought he was a toddler. Ichigo thinks he's a baby."

"And he won't shut up!" Renji added. "We were hoping you could do something about it."

"Like what?"

"I dunno! Just calm him down somehow!"

Kisuke knelt beside the hysterical Ichigo and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He took Ichigo's jaw in hand and turned his head this way and that. ""Hmm. Mm-hmm… Hmm… Ah! I think I have an idea."

He went to the back room and they could hear him shuffling things around. They could hear the sound of boxes being torn open and the clattering of dishes. Then the sound of something being ground up. Kisuke returned and picked up a box of sugar-free lollipops from a rack and motioned for the others to follow. They picked up Ichigo and dragged him into the back room. Kisuke was sitting by a small table surrounded by empty boxes and plastic jars. A single pot sat in the middle of the table.

"Set him down there," Kisuke told them as he opened the box of lollipops. The unwrapped the package and took out a single lollipop and dipped it in the pot. He stirred the pot with it occasionally and let the lollipop sit in the strange colored liquid.

Ichigo wailed again. "Is this going to take long?!" Renji barked.

"No. Almost done." Kisuke removed the lollipop and held it in front of Ichigo. "That should've soaked up nicely… Ok, Ichigo. Open wide."

Ichigo sobbed again and Kisuke took that opportunity to pop it in his mouth. Ichigo coughed and choked slightly on the lollipop. He sniffled and looked back at Kisuke.

"Mmm..! Good, huh? You like that don'tcha?"

Ichigo sucked on the lollipop greedily while Kisuke held on to the stick, just in case he sucked too hard and it slid down his throat. Slowly, Ichigo's eyes started to droop. He yawned and wrapped his lips around the tasty treat again. After several moments, Ichigo's eyes finally drifted closed.

Once, sure Ichigo was completely calm, Kisuke gently pulled the lollipop from his mouth. "There we go. All better!"

Ichigo's body went completely limp and slumped against Renji's leg. "Dude, what did you do to him?"

"Ah, nothing. You wanted him calm, right? So that's what I did."

Rukia looked back at the pot on the table. "Yeah, but… What exactly was in that thing? What sort of potion was that?"

"No potion. It's just a little something I whipped up just now."

"Which was..?"

Kisuke shrugged. "Ah, nothing much. Just a little muscle relaxant, a few sedatives… and a mixture of different sleeping pills and tranquilizers. Nothing special."

"You did WHAT?!" Rukia grabbed Kisuke's shirt and shook him. "You idiot! How could you do something like that?"

"Well, first you get a pot. Then you grind up the pills and-"

"That's not what I meant! I meant how could you?! What if he got an overdose? That's dangerous, you fool!"

"Relax! I know what I'm doing. I'm an expert after all."

"Sometimes I wonder…"

"Trust me. I know what I'm doing. He'll be out for a couple of hours. That's all. He didn't get that much in his system. It was just the amount that lollipop managed to soak up was all. It wasn't that much, but it was powerful. Don't worry about it. He'll be fine."

After hidding out at Kisuke's shop for a few hours, Rukia and Renji decided to return Ichigo to his house. As long as he was still asleep, they could hide the truth about what really happened to him from his family. Hopfully his family wasn't home just yet from their father-daughter's trip just yet.

"You know, we could have just left him at the shop, Renji. No matter what Kisuke said."

"Oh, no!" Renji folded his arms. "Remember, I still work there. I'm not having that over-sized rugrat crawling around the shop touching everything he can get his hands on! Forget it! No way!"

Rukia shushed him and pointed to Ichigo on his back. Renji turned his head as far as it would go to look. Ichigo was begaining to stir. But stubborn about his sleep, he merely rubbed his face against Renji's back and went back to sleep.

That was rather cute, but certainly not as cute as Hitsugaya. He was just precious. An absolute darling. Ichigo… not so much. Hitsugaya could pull it off, seeing as how he was already so short and young looking. Ichigo on the other hand… Well, he just looked plain weird.

They tip-toed back to Ichigo's house and opened the door as carfully as possible.

"Alright, Renji," Rukia whispered so as not to wake Ichigo. "Take him up to his room and we'll figure things out from there."

"Right." Two steps in, and Renji found that he was under attack by some strange man rushing towards him at top speed.

"THERE YOU ARE, MY DEAR SON!!!"

Renji had absolutely no time to get out of the way as Ichigo's father tore down the hall and tackled him. He was slammed into the wall while Ichigo was picked up and elbowed in the head.

"Some son, you are! Look alive, boy! Is this any way to greet your old man when he comes home!"

"But, daddy…" Yuzu said timidly. Something didn't look right about her big brother.

Her father hit him in the head again and Ichigo's eyes snapped open. He snarled and punched his father back. "What the HEEL is your problem, dad?!" He held his head in his hands. "OW! Ack! My head is killing me! What'd you do that for?!" Ichigo was in a terrible mood thanks to all those drugs and his very rude awakening. He and his father immediately went at it, while Rukia and Renji stood off to the side.

"… I guess he's ok."

"… Yeah. Guess so…"

"He just needed another hit in the head was all..."

~*~*~

"Captain!" Rangiku entered her captain's office bubbling with giddiness. "You'll never believe what I heard from Rukia. It seems that Ichigo… Captain?"

There was no answer.

"Captain?"She moved around to the other side of the desk, stepping over sacks of spilled goodies in the process. What she saw made her coo out loud. "Aw, Captain..!"

Hidden behind the tall stacks of papers was Hitsugaya, fast asleep on the desk, resting his head in his arms. He was snoring softly, a thin trickle of drool dripping down his chin and forming a small puddle on the desk. The music box from Ukitake sat opened and silent inches from his head, its song finally over.

"How cute..!" she whispered and cupped her hands under her chin. He was so adorable. He always looked so peaceful when he was sleeping soundly. He just looked so at ease. Deciding that her news could wait, she picked up the small blanket off the floor and draped it over his shoulders. He shifted once the fabric touched his body. Rangiku froze, hoping that he wouldn't awaken and see her. He didn't. He merely yawned and snuggled into his arms, loving the warmth of the blanket upon his body.

She started to walk away when she spotted something on the desk by his hand. The last few photograph that remained undamaged… for now. She quickly snatched them up and tucked them down her kimono. There was no way, she'd let them get torn up like all the others or bruned.

Giving Hitsugaya a quick pat on the head, she quietly tip-toed out of the office to let him sleep. But on her way out, she also snatched up the music box on his desk and tucked it away. It may come in handy one day...

She smiled to herself and litterally skipped down the hall. What was there not to be happy about? She got to see Hitsugaya as a toddler, saw him asleep at his desk, had the music box that could put him to sleep in her possession and managed to save the last few pictures of the events that went on for the past three days.

To her, this was a huge accomplishment. She only wished it had lasted a bit longer.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Thanks to everyone for reading and for all the nice reviews! ^-^

Thanks to fullmetalgirl65 for telling me this was a good idea!

And by the way, the song that Ichigo sang to Hitsugaya was called, 'Dreamy Moonlit Night'. Sorry I didn't mention that before…

Story ended! Please review and tell me how I did!

Peace out! XD