Written for 5 Prompts on LJ.

Table: 25

Prompt: #4 - We'll bleed together

We'll Bleed Together

Yumichika let out a light-hearted chuckle, but the pain that it led to erupted in his chest, cutting him off, and instead of lifting the mood of the situation, he ended up with a mouthful of blood. The red, hot liquid trickled down the sides of his parted lips, staining his chin and jaws with its thick bitterness. If he had just an ounce of strength, he would be rushing to the bathroom to find a mirror and bemoan the blemish before setting to work on redoing his entire appearance from scratch.

Beside him, his companion reached out a hand and swiped the blood away. Though the gesture was rough, Yumichika could sense an ounce of affection laced through it, and the corners of his lips twitched with a smile of gratitude.

"Why don't you...go back to...the Seireitei?" he rasped out, each word squeezing past the invisible boulder that had been rolled on top of him, weighing down upon his chest.

"Bullshit," Ikkaku spat. His saliva landed just inches away from Yumichika, but the man, oddly enough, paid no heed to it. Maybe it was the prospect of approaching death that numbed him to his usual pet peeves.

"You...need to report...to the...captain..."

"If I do that, who's gonna stay here with ye, dumbass?"

His words sent a needle piercing through Yumichika, a needle poisoned with guilt, and the toxic spread throughout his system like nothing he had ever experienced before. He had always thought of himself as the one person who knew Ikkaku better than the man he knew himself, but in spite of that, he found that he was indeed astonished at the way Ikkaku was going against orders just for his sake.

And, being the Fifth Seat and admittedly the saner of the two, he couldn't allow that to happen.

"Leave me...Ikkaku..." he wheezed out, squeezing his eyes shut as the pain enveloped the left side of his torso from where a hollow had ripped his arm right out of its socket. "Just go...the captain-"

"The captain can wait!" Ikkaku snarled, wiping the back of his hand over Yumichika's chin once more to catch fresh blood. "I'm stayin' here, and you can't make me leave, so jus' shut up and lie there, asswipe."

Yumichika let a disapproving hiss of breath whisper between his teeth, but he chose to say nothing more. If Ikkaku made up his mind about something, there was no way in hell was he going to change his resolve. He was known to be the more rebellious of the two...but going against the captain was really suicide.

"It's...it's no use, Ikkaku," Yumichika murmured after a moment of uncomfortable silence. "You...have to go... It's no use..."

Yumichika's eyes snapped open when he felt warmth enclosing his wrist, and when he looked up past the blinding sunlight, he saw Ikkaku's all-too-familiar smirk plastered across his bloodstained face.

"I'm stayin'," he said, and his voice held a tone that told Yumichika that it was useless to go against him. Ikkaku's fingers, long and slippery with his own blood and Yumichika's, tightened their hold around the other man's wrist, trying to offer reassurance but at the same time seeking some for his own mental tumult. "Remember what ye used to tell me way back? When I was a fuckin' lousy fighter and always got beaten up by 'em asswipes out in the pub?"

All Yumichika could do was stare into his friend's eyes, reliving the past life they had had before coming to settle in the Seireitei as shinigami. They seemed so far away now, mere memories that were fading into oblivion.

Yumichika's eyelids felt heavy, and Ikkaku's words seemed like they were being spoken through water. The grip around his wrist tightened, squeezing the skin between bony fingers, but he was already numb to it as his lids came to a close.

"Yumi..." Ikkaku reached out and brushed his tangled hair out of his face, feeling an overwhelming relief wash over him when Yumichika responded with one of his vain smirks.

"I said...I said that...we'll bleed together, right?" A chuckle left him, not only physically agonizing, but mentally torturing as well. "Right, Ikakku?"

Before drifting off into darkness, Yumichika managed to catch sight of his companion's grin, and Ikkaku's words fed him the will to continue living the next life that was already waiting for him.

"We'll bleed together."