Note – For those who've read chapter five and are coming back to read chapter six, I've got some bad news. What I posted was the rough draft for chapter five, not the actual chapter I meant to be posted. Evilhumor and I would like to thank punk lolita23. If they hadn't brought up "korroke" in their review I would never have realized I posted the wrong chapter.

Touchan Taicho
~Progressing~

Gin lay in his bed looking at the ceiling, his arm over his forehead. He had changed his clothing in the bath area only to find his men staring at him, causing him to glare at them. The mask he had put up so long ago was hard to put back up in part because his focus was on the child. He came back and saw the child still burying himself under the blanket. He crashed onto the bed, physically exhausted from the stress.

A sudden muttering sound could be heard from the other bed and he sat up and looked at the bed, watching as a small figure moved. Letting out a deep sigh he got up and untangled the child's limbs from the blanket before rubbing the boy's back and singing softly a lullaby that he remembered singing Toshiro when he was younger, the few times he had been able to be around the child when he was small.

The sound of someone stepping into the doorway caused him to look up. Kira stood in the doorway. "Sorry taicho, I couldn't sleep and I heard Hitsugaya Taicho through the wall." Gin paused, looking back at the boy who had calmed down. He choose not to say anything and simply closed his eyes. "Taicho... I can take on some of the paperwork. You don't have to do everything yourself."

Gin then leaned back on his heals, dozing off for a few hours. The sunlight came through and caused him to open his eyes. He pulled the blanket back over the boy's shoulders and got up and headed to the kitchens, making a bit of rice porridge and coming back. He shook the boy's shoulders, causing the boy to flinch as he woke up. Toshiro then pulled away, his eyes wide with fright. The man held out the tray of food to the boy. "You need to eat."

He watched as the boy obstinately shook his head. "All right. When Unohana gets here we'll have a repeat of what happened yesterday. At least rice porridge doesn't taste nasty."

Two teal eyes widened again and Toshiro snatched the bowl from the tray and began to eat it in the manner that he had tried to eat the day before. The silver haired man though quickly pulled the bowl away. "Hold it! If you eat it that fast you'll have another repeat of yesterday." The child taicho's stomach grumbled, his cheeks reddening upon this happening. The boy glanced down and his hands grasped at the bowl in a desperate manner. Gin pulled it away. "I know you're hungry Shiro-chan, but you have to eat slowly."

The man handed the bowl back with one hand and a spoon with another. Despite the fact he had told the boy to slow down Toshiro still shoveled the food into his mouth. When he was done he lay back down. The taicho of the third frowned. "It can't be fun just lying around like this. I'll see if I can't get you something to read."

The man stood up, only to find Kira standing in the door. "I've brought the paperwork. These are the items I couldn't fill out easily on my own."

"You didn't have to do that Izuru." Gin let out a deep sigh.

"I'm your fukutaicho. It's my job to do this." The fukutaicho paused, frowning as he did so. "Stay with Hitsugaya. I'll go and get him something to read."

The silver haired man frowned. "He has very particular tastes when it comes to what he reads."

"I think I can manage, and even if everything I get isn't to his liking I can try again." Kira slipped from the room and headed elsewhere. The boy continued to remain curled up.

The next time Gin found himself looking up it was Unohana. "He's already eaten."

"Really? How did you manage that?"

"How do you think? Threatening him with that nasty crap was enough to get him to eat on his own." The man sat in traditional style next to the bed. "Why didn't you try something like this while he was in the forth division?"

The woman frowned. "It's bad enough that only a few of my division members have ever been able to work with him before this. Isane's already upset about the situation and despite the fact Hanataro is more then willing to help he doesn't have the strength you do. There is a reason he carries a sedative in his kit all the time. I'm also needed for that purpose."

"Let him help." Gin spoke up. "He wants to."

Unohana ignored the silver haired man and instead spoke to the boy. "Hitsugaya Toshiro? You understand that if you don't eat that I will feed you that particular food?" She watched as the boy buried her head. "So behave for Ichimaru. He is your taicho." She then stepped out of the room and Gin followed. "Hanataro still has a good relationship with Hitsugaya Taicho. Save him for when you absolutely need him."

"Why me?"

"Excuse me?" Unohana frowned at Ichimaru as if his question was strange. "Of course it has to be you. You are his hero."

"Hero? I am far from being a hero."

"That's just the way that you see yourself." The female turned to see that Kira was approaching with a few books. "I see that you're trying to give him something to do."

Gin let out a deep sigh before heading back into the room. He sat at the edge of his bed while his real fukutaicho set the books on the table next to the flowers. "Shiro-chan, I'm going to work on my paperwork. Izuru brought you some reading material."

There came no response to this and the silver haired man instead picked up the paperwork and began to get to work, frowning at the fact there wasn't that much to keep himself busy as well as keep his mind off things he didn't want to think about. The sound of soft footsteps caused him to look up and see that Toshiro was wobbling on his two feet, his attention focused on the stack of books. When the silver haired man looked up the boy suddenly flinched and fell to the ground.

The third division taicho frowned before getting up and heading over to grab the stack. "I'll get them for you." The man looked at the top book and found an eyebrow raising up at the title, recognizing it as a lower reading level. Flipping through the books he let out a sigh before heading over to the bed. "Just to forewarn you, he didn't bring any classics like you normally read. This will have to do until I can get you something else."

He set the books on the edge of the bed and walked back to the bed. He watched as Toshiro sat on the floor looking up at the books then back at him with a look of indignity. "Look... you aren't fond of me touching you. It will do you good to get back into bed on your own. Particularly when you could have just asked me to bring you the books."

Gin went back to the paperwork. The division remained quiet until a knock came on the door frame. The man looked up to see that Kira had brought a tray of food. Looking back at his work he waved his hand at the bed. "Just take it over to him. He's actually eating on his own." There came a silence and he looked up to see that his fukutaicho was surprised. "Let him eat at his pace."

There came a shuffling of feet as the blond fukutaicho took the food over to the boy as well as when he left. After a bit of time the silver haired man looked up to see that Toshiro had eaten a few bites but was looking at him. The man let out a deep sigh and walked over, kneeling next to the bed. "Shiro-chan, if you don't eat..."

A swift movement and the man found a spoon of food shoved into his mouth. Gin's bony hand grabbed the spoon before he swallowed the food. "Look, if this is about trying to get revenge on me for what happened yesterday it isn't going to work." Silence came then and the man let out a sigh and headed back to his work. The sound of a spoon could be heard a few minutes later the sound of the spoon being thrown onto the floor could be heard. The man looked up, the corner of his eye twitching as well as the corner of his mouth. "Shiro-chan, this isn't funny."

The man stood up and walked over to pick up the spoon and wiped it off and set it back onto the tray. He turned to go back to his paperwork only to find a tug on his sleeve. He turned around, glaring at the boy. "Shiro-chan, if there is something you want to say to me then just say it." He watched as the boy swallowed before tugging on his sleeve again. Letting out a deep sigh Gin headed over to the bed and picking up a pad and pencil. He then headed back over and handed the items to the boy.

At first Toshiro simply stared at the pad but then carefully picked up the item. He scribbled something onto the pad but didn't hand it back until the man held out his hand. Gin flipped it around so he could read what the boy had written. "Why aren't you eating?"

The man's eyes widened before looking at the boy who glared at him before swallowing again and looking away. "I forgot how observant you are. Let me guess. You don't understand why I've been neglecting to eat yourself. It's not going to be an excuse for you not to eat." Toshiro shook his head at the man. Gin let out a deep sigh. "If I go and get something to eat, will you promise me that you will eat while I'm gone?"

A glare came his way and Gin let out a sigh and scratched his head. He then turned to leave the room to head back to the kitchens to fix himself something. On the way he noticed a few of his division members and glared at them, causing them to scurry off. He grabbed some food and headed back, pausing upon seeing that Toshiro had fallen asleep. Half the food was eaten and something else was scribbled onto the pad.

Picking it up he saw two faces drawn. One had a creepy looking smile while the other had a frown. Both were simple with the creepy smiling face having been crossed out while the other circled. There was then an arrow draw from a check mark to the creepy smile face and an arrow drawn from a cross to the frowning face. Gin let out a deep sigh. "Way too observant."