Characters: Kenpachi, Yachiru
Summary: Okay, so it's not a heart attack.
Pairings: None
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Timeline: pre-manga
Author's Note: Just a sweet little piece I wanted to do.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

When he first feels it bubble up in his chest, he thinks he might be having a heart attack. Given his reputation, that would certainly be an anticlimactic way to go out—So Zaraki Kenpachi bites it like a punk, he muses gloomily—and the little girl doesn't need to be left alone again.

The little girl… She's the focal point of the whole issue.

Kenpachi doesn't know what on earth possessed him to name the child Yachiru. If anything, he's even less sure of why he even decided to take responsibility for her in the first place. When they move through a town and someone comments "What a charming daughter you have!" or something of the like, Kenpachi doesn't notice for about the first thirty seconds after the words have been said, specifically because he's convinced it must be being addressed to someone else. His reaction when he realizes that those words were being addressed to him, while Yachiru is dashing from shop to shop, shrieking for him to come look, don't usually go over very well.

He doesn't know why he took Yachiru, but he has her now, and Kenpachi doesn't even have to come to the realization that there's no getting rid of her; he wouldn't even if he wanted to.

A small, tiny girl with hair so pink it outdoes even the most vivid of cherry blossoms and almost impossibly brown eyes. A hyperactive little girl. An at times obnoxious little girl. A little girl as bloodthirsty as Kenpachi himself when the situation calls for it.

Amazing, how she's managed to worm her way into his heart.

Now, sitting by the campfire and listening hard to be sure that no sounds of rustling comes from the brush beyond, Kenpachi leans over to absently pat Yachiru's head before lying down himself—it's been a long day and any chance for rest is perfectly welcome in his books.

This is the first one he's cared about since the woman he named her after.

"Even animals can care about others," the canny voice says, eyes narrowed against the sun as usual. "It's hardly a weakness."

Yachiru's words, the one who was first to bear that name.

And oddly, Kenpachi finds that discovering he actually cares about the little girl who latches herself to his shoulder when he walks isn't all that disturbing a discovery at all.

Just a false alarm, Kenpachi thinks to the tightening in his chest, and closes his eyes with his sword lying across his stomach.

Nothing to be afraid of here.