Author's Note: Last chapter was probably the worst...It was way too short and way to weird and cheesy and boo-hoo-look-at-me-I'm-Hitsugaya-and-I'm-an-angsty-little-boy-ish for me...And I am also aware of the fact that these flashbacks have almost no connection with the actual events that happened in Hitsugaya's past, but that's why it's called fiction. Here's Chapter 18. Hope it's better than the last one.
As Ichigo listened to Renji recounting Hitsugaya's past in regardance to Kusaka, he couldn't help but feel a little pity for the pair. Kusaka had loved Hitsugaya almost to the point of obsession, he figured, and maybe that explained why he seemed to be a little unstable in the head.
But, according to Renji's story, Kusaka hadn't always been like that. Maybe something happened to him in the period of time that he was supposed to be "dead." Perhaps he had hit his head on something and acquired minor mental retardation. But that still left the mystery of why he had suddenly taken an extreme liking to the word "fucking" all of a sudden.
"I was the one who delivered the death notice to Hitsugaya-taichou," Renji explained solemnly. "Wish that it wasn't me that had to deal with it. He started blubbering right away. You have no idea how weird that felt. But it's pretty pathetic, really. After that day, no one's ever heard him laugh again, and nothing anyone did could make him laugh, either, or even smile. Seems Sojiro was the only one who could, until you came along."
"Stupid!" Ichigo reprimanded. "You should have comforted him!"
"Oh, so you say that now!" Renji retorted, "But if I comforted him, say, today, for example, you'd accuse me of hitting on him."
"Hmm, that's true," Ichigo agreed in a serious voice.
Renji stared at him and blinked. "Wow…You're kind of stupid, Ichigo."
"Am not!" Ichigo snapped. "I'm smarter than you'll ever be, and smarter than Plastic Surgery Boy over there, too, for that matter."
"Oh, yeah? Prove it!"
"I read in a science magazine somewhere that redheads are even dumber than blondes!"
"Then your mom must have been a redhead, too!"
"No way! I inherited her orange hair!"
"Yeah, right! I bet your hair's colored with fake dyes! How much beta-carotene do you need to eat a day to keep that freakish color, huh!?"
"It's natural! Perfectly natural! You're just jealous because your hair looks like an overgrown pineapple covered with tumors!"
"Well, your hair looks like freakin' Strawberry Fields Forever!"
"It does not!"
"Hey, you two over there, will you both just fucking shut up!?"
Both Renji and Ichigo froze, turning their heads to look at Kusaka, in a guilty fashion, like two children caught in the act of making mischief. Their surprise did not last long, however, as Ichigo was not about to submit to him.
"Who are you to tell me to shut up?" he demanded.
"If you really care about Toshiro, you'd better fucking be quiet."
"Why, you-" he stopped, however, realizing that Kusaka was right. He looked to his side, where Hitsugaya's motionless form was lying on the ground. On Hitsugaya's other side sat Orihime, who Matsumoto had hurried to fetch. Under Ichigo's begging and requests, she had agreed to do her best to heal him, and now, she was finished. Whether or not her treatment was effective was something they would have to wait for to find out about.
"This is the best I can do, Kurosaki-kun," Orihime explained apologetically. "He hasn't shown signs of waking up anytime soon, and his wound needs to be bound so it doesn't re-open itself later, but I don't have the materials to…"
"Bindings?" Ichigo repeated. "I'm on it," he added firmly as he promptly began to tear long strips of cloth from the sleeves of his shihakusho without so much as a single thought to the fact that he was mutilating his own shinigami uniform, and how retarded he would look later, like he had been attacked by a troop of vicious gnomes.
As soon as he had acquired several strips that seemed to be long enough to go around Hitsugaya's slender middle, he pulled the unconscious boy's body on his lap and gently pulled the folds of his robe open at the waist to access the wound. He then began to fasten the strips of cloth around his midsection where Orihime had indicated, securing each strip with a hard, tight knot.
"Come back to us, Toshiro," he begged mentally, pondering if attempting telepathy would be a smart option. "Come on," he whispered, stroking his hair. "Don't you dare leave me…If you leave me, I'll never forgive you…"
He concentrated hard, thinking and wishing with all his might.
This misled Renji to believe he was suffering from constipation, due to the expression on his face that was a product of his extreme focus.
One second, Ichigo was there, in the material world, and in the blink of an eye, he suddenly found that his surroundings had changed.
"Where the hell am I?" he demanded bluntly, but there was no one around to reply. The area was completely barren, like a desert, save some sparse, skimpy, sad excuses for vegetation. It reminded him unpleasantly of Hueco Mundo, but there was no way it could be a desert.
First of all, the temperature was killer cold. His teeth had already begun to chatter. And second of all, the ground was covered entirely by a thick layer of ice and snow.
He took a step forward, only to slip and fall, landing hard on the ground, his poor rear end sore and cold from the impact on the ice. Muttering to himself and rubbing his throbbing behind, he stumbled clumsily to his feet and slowly took another step.
"Hey," he announced proudly to himself, "I'm starting to get the hang of walking on this damned hunk of ice…Huh?" Directly ahead of him was what seemed to be a large river, frozen over. He wondered if it was solid enough to step on.
Deciding to press his luck, he placed a foot firmly on the icy surface.
And he instantly wished he hadn't.
The "river" moved viciously underneath his foot, whipping around, sending him toppling off balance and skidding across the ground. A split second later, rows of razor-sharp teeth made of ice snapped like a steel claptrap, and he was able to scramble out of the way only by a hair's width.
Eyes glowing red like freshly spilled blood glared malevolently at him, icy breath misting over and hitting him head-on, chilling him to the very bone. He realized that he had just stepped on the tail of an ice dragon, and a really pissed off ice dragon at that.
But even he was able to realize, this was no ordinary ice dragon. Not that ice dragons were remotely ordinary at all, anyway.
"Hyorinmaru," he breathed, the words barely able to fight their way past his violently chattering teeth. That could only mean one thing – He was in Hitsugaya's mind. But how the hell had he ended up there?
"Who are you?" the dragon hissed, nearly knocking Ichigo over again with another wave of icy breath and reiatsu. "How is it that you know my name, boy? Answer me, or I will kill you."
"H-Hang on a second, Hyorinmaru!" Ichigo spluttered. Crap. He was so not about to be eaten alive by his boyfriend's zanpaku-to. "I'm not here to hurt anyone! I just want to see Toshiro for a sec-"
That was apparently the wrong thing to say.
"Stay away from my master!" Hyorinmaru roared, and this time, the burst of reiatsu that was produced really did knock Ichigo off his feet.
Hyorinmaru and Hitsugaya really did have something in common – both of them had really bad tempers.
"N-No!" Ichigo protested, "It's not like that! I swear I won't hurt him; I'm only trying to help! Look, he's dying, and…and…"
"Why do you value his life so much?" Hyorinmaru demanded.
"Because," Ichigo snapped heatedly, "Because I love him, okay? It's really none of your business, and-"
"You love him? Then you must be Kurosaki Ichigo, correct?"
"Um, yeah," the strawberry answered, surprised. "How'd you know?"
"Oh, I know lots of things. I know how your mother died. I know the names of everyone in your family. I know that you have a thing for Shakespeare. And I even know where you live, too, so you'd better be careful."
"Shakespeare!?" Ichigo spluttered, his face turning red. "I do not like Shakespeare!"
"Yes, you do too. My master told me so."
"He did?" Ichigo muttered sheepishly, slightly embarrassed. "Um, so…Where is he anyways?"
At these words, Hyorinmaru's body instantly curled defensively around something, or someone, who, or which, Ichigo could not see, as the coils of Hyorinmaru's icy body were protectively hiding its form.
"Please?"
"Even if my master trusts you, it is difficult for me to do the same."
"Oh, come on, Hyorinmaru!" Ichigo whined. "Be a pal!"
Reluctantly, Hyorinmaru slowly moved his body, flickering his tail outwards to allow Ichigo access. "If you hurt him, I will freeze you in a very special place, and you will never be able to have children, do you understand?"
"U-Uh…Yeah. I understand," Ichigo answered, a bead of sweat forming on the back of his head. Hyorinmaru's threat had been really scary. Without further hesitation, he hurried forward, running around the dragon's tail.
That was when he saw what Hyorinmaru had been shielding.
Hitsugaya's motionless form, lying face-down in the snow, surrounded with a puddle of his own blood.
He inhaled sharply, caught off guard by the sight. It was really heart-breaking, to see Hitsugaya in such a fragile, helpless state.
"Toshiro," he murmured, hurrying to his side, kneeling by him and scooping up his body, holding him tightly against his chest. "Toshiro, please, stay with me…"
He heard a small whimper escape from the white-haired boy's slightly parted lips, and he promptly looked down, just in time to see Hitsugaya's eyes begin to open.
"Thank you, Kurosaki Ichigo. I knew you would save my master, no matter what the cost…I am indebted to you."
Those were the last words he heard from Hyorinmaru, before in a rush of reiatsu, he suddenly found himself back in the material world, Hitsugaya's body still in his arms, his eyes now fluttering open.
"Ichi…Ichigo?"
"Toshiro!" Ichigo spluttered, delighted. "Toshiro, you're okay! Thank god you're alright, seriously, you had me scared to death there…"
He held Hitsugaya tightly, before looking up at Renji, who was staring at him with a very weird expression on his face.
"What?"
"What did you just do, strawberry?"
"What do you mean?"
"You just suddenly spaced out. It was freaky. I thought you died or something."
Ichigo stared back at him sweatdropping, and deciding not to tell Renji about his brief adventure inside with Hyorinmaru in Hitsugaya's mind.