Author's Notes: This here is my first foray into the Bleach fandom. I haven't watched the anime, but I have read through a little less than half of the manga (last I checked, the series was up to 51 volumes), and I plan to move through the latter half relatively quickly, finances allowing. The pairing featured in this fanfic has grabbed a hold of my heartstrings and won't let go. I have a very active yaoi/shounen-ai fangirl within me, and I find these two best friends to make an adorable couple. I just had to write something for them.

We've seen (though I haven't gotten that far yet) Yumichika's panicked reaction when Ikkaku is defeated and perhaps killed, and I wondered how things would go if the positions were reversed. This isn't a rewriting of that scene, but an unrelated situation in which Yumichika is the one in danger of dying. I don't have a specific timeframe for this story. Before canon, perhaps.

Bleach, Yumichika, Ikkaku, and any other characters used herein don't belong to me. They belong to Kubo Taito (or Tite, whatever). I'm just borrowing them for the time being.

Downpour
By Annie-chan

Cold.

Ayasegawa Yumichika felt a bone-deep shiver rattle his frame. He was freezing; he couldn't remember being so cold in his life. It was as if every ounce of heat had been stolen from his body, leaving behind a chill that penetrated to his marrow.

The next thing he noticed was that he was wet. Soaking, in fact. His kosode and hakama were sopping, heavy and clingy against his skin. His hair likewise clung to his neck and face, little drops of water hanging from the tips, occasionally dropping off only to be immediately replaced with another. The surface he was lying on was soggy and cold, and he could feel more water falling upon him from above.

Waking further, he realized why. He was lying in the middle of a grassy field during a rain. A very cold, harsh rain.

Memories continued to surface as he blinked slowly, water flowing into his violet eyes and blurring his already skewed vision. He had been fighting a hollow, one of a pair that had been causing trouble in the living world, and that he and Madarame Ikkaku had been dispatched to eliminate. The hollows had fled in different directions upon being confronted, and Ikkaku had followed one while Yumichika went after the other. Clouds black with heavy rain were approaching from the west, threatening to drench the world below in a torrential downpour.

It was that downpour that Yumichika was now caught in. He lay on the saturated ground, all but paralyzed with cold. He couldn't feel his body, so he was unsure of what position he was in, other than he was on his right side.

His recollection of the fight was hazy, unclear. He knew he had won, as he remembered the hollow collapsing to the ground and dissolving into dust, drifting away on the wind as the first raindrops began to fall. The look on the beast's face had been murderous, furious that it had been defeated. That was the last thing Yumichika recalled before blacking out.

His right arm was stretched out in front of him, his shoulder twisted underneath him at what had to be an uncomfortable angle. Through his blurred vision, he could see that his arm was bent unnaturally a few centimeters below his wrist. Both bones in his forearm had been snapped in two, the flesh around the break discolored an angry shade of reddish purple. If he hadn't been so profoundly cold, it likely would have been much more swollen and painful. As it was, he couldn't feel any pain at all from the horrendous fracture. He was too numb to.

Ruriiro Kujaku lay just out of reach, reverted back to its sealed form. He could just barely see its slender shape in the drenched grass, having fallen from his grasp as his arm was broken, a last-ditch attempt by the hollow to bring him down with it.

Should have unsealed it entirely, he thought vaguely. Ikkaku had been far away, unable to see Yumichika, and there were no other shinigami in this sector of the living world. No one would have ever known that he had unleashed his zanpakutou's true capabilities, siphoning his opponent's reiatsu away and adding it to his own. He would have been left in much better shape than he was now.

Yumichika hadn't unsealed Ruriiro Kujaku entirely, instead settling for the four-bladed sickle that manifested upon the use of its false name. He had won, but had suffered terrible damage. He wasn't even entirely sure of the extent of his injuries. The numbness that permeated to his bones blocked any awareness of his physical state. All he could feel was cold.

A sound reached his ears through the hiss of the rain. For a moment he thought he had imagined the sound, his confused senses sending random signals to his brain. It wasn't until he heard it again, closer this time, that he realized it was no hallucination.

"Yumichika!"

Ikkaku. Ikkaku was calling his name, coming rapidly closer. Panic and fear laced the other man's voice, his reiatsu lashing out around him in his anxiety. And then suddenly he was over Yumichika, blocking the rain. He was little more than a dark shadow in Yumichika's blurred vision.

"Yumi!" Ikkaku nearly shouted in his ear, his panic more apparent up close. "Shit! Stay with me, baby!"

Strong hands were on him, lifting his torso and turning him onto his back. He felt his right side split open, exquisite pain flooding him as a deep gash was disturbed, blood gushing forth. It, along with Ikkaku's touch, was the first warmth he had felt since waking up, and it burned. He groaned in anguish, the sound coming out as little more than a gurgling exhale. He tasted blood in his mouth.

Ikkaku swore again when he saw the gaping wound. He gripped Yumichika's chin in his fingers, turning the injured shinigami's face up toward him, looking into his lover's unfocused eyes. "Yumi! C'mon, speak to me!"

"Ikka...ku..." Yumichika managed to reply, his voice a raspy whisper. He slumped against the other man, his head lolling against Ikkaku's shoulder, eyes sliding closed. "Sorry...didn't fight hard enough..."

"Hey, you won, didn't you?" Ikkaku said, trying to sound as if he were chiding. The tremor in his voice indicated only gnawing fear, however.

"Mmhm..." Yumichika coughed weakly, feeling blood run down from the corner of his mouth.

"C'mon, I'll get you to the Fourth." Ikkaku's voice was hitched, as if he were fighting back tears. He had never seen Yumichika so injured before, and it terrified him. The smaller warrior's life was slipping rapidly away, and there was nothing Ikkaku could do about it. All he could do was race back to Soul Society and pray he made it to the Fourth Division in time.

"Wait," Yumichika murmured as Ikkaku stood, lifting him easily. "Fuji Kujaku..."

Ikkaku spied the katana lying in the grass nearby and went over to it. He crouched down to retrieve it, balancing Yumichika's body on his knees.

Yumichika reached for his zanpakutou with his left hand - his dominant hand being entirely useless now - and clutched the handle to his chest as tightly as he could, hanging on as if it were a lifeline. This sword was a part of his soul, and he would die before he left it behind, no matter how much he despised its true nature.

He felt blackness overtake him again, and he lay bonelessly in Ikkaku's arms as the larger warrior went into shunpou, speeding toward the nearest portal back to Soul Society.

Ikkaku...

Yumichika was jerked awake by a pain in his left forearm a few centimeters above his inner wrist. Something small but sharp had pierced his skin. He had seemed to be teetering between consciousness and unconsciousness, and this sudden prick and broken him out of it. He wasn't properly awake, however. It felt like he was floating, and all he could hear was an unintelligible buzz that sounded like the muffled babble of voices. It was as if someone had stuffed cotton into his ears.

A bone-deep ache throbbed through him, concentrating into an almost unbearable burn in his right side. He tried to groan, but couldn't. Something long, narrow, and firm was stuck down his throat and into his trachea, rendering his voice useless.

He opened his eyes, seeing nothing at first but a vague blur of colors. He couldn't open his eyes all the way, too weak to lift the lids entirely. The blur gradually separated into shapes until he could discern that three people were standing around him, all focused intently upon him, including one whom he thought he recognized as Kotetsu Isane. Everything was too fuzzy to be sure, though.

"He's awake," one of them noticed.

"Ayasegawa-goseki, can you hear me?" the one he thought he recognized asked, and it vaguely registered that it was indeed Kotetsu-fukutaichou's voice. When he didn't respond, she continued. "Unohana-taichou is on her way. You're going to be fine." If Yumichika had been fully aware, he would have recognized the uncertainty in the tall woman's words.

"Yumi...?" a very quiet voice said to his right, and he looked to the side. Just that small movement seemed to take so much time and effort. His head felt so heavy.

He saw a blurry shape a short distance away, and he thought it was Ikkaku sitting against a wall. The man seemed to be curled in on himself, overcome with anxiety. Even though most details were lost to Yumichika, there was an unmistakable feeling of despair surrounding the huddled shape. He longed to reach out to his lover, but his muscles wouldn't cooperate. All he could do was twitch his limbs futilely, a stabbing pain shooting up his right arm as he did. He stiffened up, shocked, his eyes squeezing shut again. He tried to cry out, but the thing in his throat only allowed a pained gurgle.

"Easy," one of the people around him said, and he couldn't tell if it was Kotetsu-fukutaichou or not. "Don't move. You'll hurt yourself."

He lay there weakly, unable to move even if he wanted to. He gasped in air as deeply as he could, his breath quickened by the sudden pain in his arm. He finally realized that the thing blocking his throat was connected to something that covered his mouth and nose, a mask of some sort.

There was suddenly a fourth person hovering over him, and before he knew it the throbbing pain in his side exploded into unbearable anguish. Some kind of power was entering him, and by the gods, it hurt. He convulsed as much as his weakened body would allow, trying to twist away from the offending touch.

"Yumi...!" Ikkaku's voice said again, this time spiked with terror.

"The pain is too great," the new person said, and he thought it might be Unohana Retsu. "Sedate him, please."

A cool hand was placed on his forehead, and within seconds he was slipping away, sinking back into the blessedly painless void.

The sight of dark wooden rafters greeted Yumichika as he slowly opened his eyes, coming up out of a dreamless sleep. For a moment, he just stared at the ceiling. An annoying pain was throbbing in his left temple, but other than that nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

When he looked around, however, he realized that he didn't recognize where he was. It appeared to be a small house, little more than a hut, sparsely furnished and apparently deserted. He had never been here before, that he was sure, nor did he know how he got here. It was a little disconcerting.

He turned his head to his right, and found himself looking at a man sitting cross-legged a few feet away, watching him intently. Shocked that he was not alone, Yumichika sat bolt upright with a gasp. He then promptly fell back down into a lying position, suddenly overcome with dizziness. His head hit the modest pillow with a muffled thump, and he again found himself staring at the ceiling, the room spinning around him.

"Whoa, careful," the man said, coming closer and kneeling next to him. "You took a nasty hit to the head."

"Who are you...?" Yumichika managed to croak out, his voice raspy and dry. It had been a while since he had had anything to drink. He slapped at the man's hand as he reached toward him, starting to panic at the unfamiliar situation. "What do you want?"

"Hey, easy," the man said, holding his hands up. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

Yumichika watched the man, his hands held up near his face, ready to strike out if need be. When the man made no further moves to touch him, he began to slowly relax. Now that he really looked at him, he didn't seem all that threatening. His most striking features were a totally clean-shaven scalp and vivid red markings at the outer corners of his eyes. Yumichika briefly wondered if they were tattoos or makeup.

"Where am I?" the raven-haired man finally asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. "What happened? How did I get here?"

"You chose the wrong pocket to pick, that's what happened," the man replied, giving him a slightly appraising look. "That guy you tried to rob didn't take too kindly to you reaching for his money-purse. Whacked you in the side of the head with a plank of wood he just happened to be standing next to."

Yumichika frowned slightly, trying to recall those events. That's right...he had just been about to liberate a man of the money he seemed not to be using, when something had alerted his target to his presence. There was a blur of motion, then a solid impact on the left side of his head. That was the last thing he remembered before waking up here.

"How humiliating," he grumbled, scowling. "I'm usually much better than that."

The man smiled at him, a twinkle of understanding in his eyes. "It happens to the best of us."

"Mm." Yumichika took another look around the small, one-room building. "So, where are we?"

"We're in a little house on the edge of town," the man explained. "Wouldn't really call it a 'house,' though. It's more like a shack. It doesn't seem to belong to anyone, so I'm staying here for the time being until I decide to move on again."

"You brought me here?"

"Uh-huh. I saw you go down, and once I realized there wasn't anyone with you, I brought you here. Figured you'd be safer here than lying at some alley entrance." The man gave him a wry smile. "Thought you were a woman at first, seeing you from a distance. I was a bit surprised to find out you weren't."

The corner of Yumichika's lips quirked up in a smirk. "I get that a lot."

The man's smile widened into a grin.

"So, you're a drifter, like me?" Yumichika asked, sitting up again, moving much slower this time. When the man nodded, he continued. "You said, 'It happens to the best of us.' Are you a thief, too? Or do you earn your money in more 'honest' ways?"

"I generally take odd jobs as they come to me," the man said. "If there's something that needs doing and they're willing to pay me for it, I'll do it. Sometimes I'm hired to take out some bastard who's making trouble for the locals."

"You kill people?"

"Nah, I don't kill them. I just let them know they're not welcome around here. Usually means beating the shit out of them, then dumping their unconscious asses outside town. If they have any money on them, I consider it a bonus on top of what I'm being paid."

"So, you are a thief." It was Yumichika's turn to smile wryly.

The man grinned back. "Only when the opportunity arises."

Yumichika laughed, then suddenly his face fell. He had just noticed the state of his clothing, smudged with dirt and mud. Bringing his hands to his head, he realized his hair was also a mess, half pulled out of the tie at his nape and sticking out in all directions.

"Oh, this is so unbeautiful," he moaned, alternately trying to fix his hair and rub the smudges out of his sky-blue kimono. The golden birds that adorned the bottom hem had lost their luster.

The man laughed, obviously amused by his dismay. "Your appearance should be the least of your concerns."

Yumichika scowled at him and pulled the tie out of his hair, combing his fingers through the long strands in an attempt to detangle them.

The man knelt there beside him, watching him try to salvage his dignity. Once Yumichika seemed satisfied with his hair, he spoke again. "I have a proposition for you."

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow slightly, curious.

"I've been looking for a partner for a while now. Two heads are better than one, y'know? You don't seem to be attached to anyone. How about you and me work together? It's always good to have someone at your back."

"You and me, work together?" Yumichika repeated. He looked at his hands. "I've...always worked alone. I prefer it that way, actually."

"Yeah, a fat lot of good it does you."

"Hush!" the longhaired man snapped, scowling again. "I told you, I'm usually much better than that!" Calming again, he looked back down at his lap. "I'll think about it, I suppose. If only to pay you back for helping me."

"Gee, thanks," the man snorted, though the laughter in his voice indicated he wasn't really upset with the proposed method of payment.

"You never told me who you are," Yumichika pointed out after another short moment of silence.

"Ah, that's right. Madarame Ikkaku." The man, Ikkaku, dipped his head down in an abbreviated bow of greeting.

"I'm Ayasegawa Yumichika." He bent forward slightly as well. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Madarame-san."

"Ikkaku," the man said, smiling. "Call me Ikkaku."

"Mmnnn..."

Yumichika's eyes cracked open, and for a moment all he saw was a colorless blur. He wasn't sure what he was looking at, or where he was. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, and his vision seemed to clear a little. After doing it a few more times, he was seeing almost as well as he normally did.

He was lying on a bed, one that wasn't his. As he stared up at the uneventful ceiling, memories started returning to him.

I must be at the Fourth Division, he thought, remembering his fight with the hollow and Ikkaku coming to him in the freezing rain. He was dry now, and warm, and he couldn't feel any pain anymore.

"Ikkaku...?" he said quietly, looking around for his companion. He could feel the other man's reiatsu, so he knew he was around. His reception was fuzzy, though, as if a thick blanket had been thrown over his senses. It was difficult to tell if he was near or far.

"Yumi?" a voice answered, and then the taller shinigami was leaning over him, looking intently into his face. "Yumi! You're awake!"

Yumichika smiled weakly. "Yeah."

Ikkaku let out a relieved sigh. He slowly knelt down beside the bed, his head hanging as if in exhaustion. He was muttering something too quiet to easily make out.

"Ikkaku...?" Yumichika felt concern thread through him. Ikkaku was never weak, but now he was acting as if he couldn't even hold himself upright.

"Thank the gods!" Ikkaku said again, loud enough for Yumichika to hear. "You're finally awake! This has been the longest wait of my life!"

"How...how long was I out?" Yumichika asked, though nervous to hear the answer. What if he had been unconscious for a really long time? If so, what kind of lingering consequences would there be? He knew that the longer a person stayed in a coma, the more likely it was for complications to arise. More importantly, how long had Ikkaku been forced to endure waiting anxiously for him to open his eyes again? It must have been excruciating.

"You were in an induced coma for four days," Ikkaku explained, pulling the chair he had been sitting in closer so he could be near the bed. "Unohana-taichou said that was the best thing to do, since you were in so much pain. It's been another four days since they stopped drugging you." Ikkaku bent forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped together in front of him. "It's just been watching and waiting since then."

Eight days. It was shorter than he feared, but longer than he hoped. He had made Ikkaku worry over him for more than a week, anxious for him to wake up and fearful that he would go on sleeping forever. Yumichika was sure that if their positions were reversed, the feelings of helplessness would have driven him absolutely mad, and everyone knows that insanity is not good for one's skin. Not good for one's looks in general, actually.

He felt Ikkaku enclose his hand between his own, and he noticed there was a catheter inserted into a vein about halfway between his wrist and elbow, an IV line attached to it. A healing needle-mark closer to his wrist indicated that at least one more had been placed in his arm and since removed. Ikkaku held his hand firmly but gently, mindful of the IV.

"Taichou's been letting me stay here with you," the taller man continued. A half smile came to his face. "I think he realizes that I wouldn't be much good around the division if I'm too busy worrying about you."

"Wait, you've been here with me the whole time?" Yumichika's eyes widened in shock. Ikkaku had been watching over him for eight straight days?

"I haven't left your side," Ikkaku nodded, squeezing his hand. "I couldn't stand to leave you alone."

"Oh, Ikkaku," Yumichika sighed, fondness welling in his chest and throat. "Dear, loyal, stubborn Ikkaku. Thank you."

"Anything," Ikkaku replied.

"Anything?" Yumichika repeated, looking into his lover's eyes.

"Anything," Ikkaku said again firmly, staring resolutely back.

Yumichika smiled then, an almost coy little grin. "Then...kiss me?"

Ikkaku chuckled and leaned toward him, covering Yumichika's mouth with his own. The kiss was slow and affectionate, only their lips coming into play. The larger warrior ran his hands through Yumichika's midnight-black hair, loving the feel of it as it slid through his fingers. It was finer than even the softest, most expensive silk.

When he pulled away, he didn't lean back, instead pressing his forehead to Yumichika's, looking into those lovely violet eyes. Yumichika stared back, a hint of a blush coloring his pale cheeks.

"I love you, Ikkaku," he whispered, their breath mingling in the small space between their lips.

"I love you, too, my Yumi," Ikkaku replied. His eyes tightened then, a look of pain settling over his face. He raised his head and pressed a tender kiss to the injured warrior's forehead. "I've never been so scared in my life," he murmured against the smooth skin. His voice was hoarse, wavering, as if tears were threatening to fall.

"Shhh," Yumichika soothed. "I'm sorry, my love." He wished he could raise his hands to touch Ikkaku. His left arm had an IV in it, though, and shouldn't be moved, and his right was wrapped in a cast that, in Yumichika's current state, felt extremely heavy. He had to be satisfied with Ikkaku's closeness, the warm embrace of his reiatsu. It was enough for now.

"Don't apologize," Ikkaku said, looking back down into Yumichika's eyes. "It's not your fault. You have nothing to be sorry for."

Oh, but it is my fault, Yumichika thought. If he had realized that it was safe to release Ruriiro Kujaku in its true form, he wouldn't have gotten hurt, and Ikkaku wouldn't have been made to worry so much.

"Don't look so sad," Ikkaku smiled. "You're okay. That's all that matters to me."

Yumichika smiled back and leaned up. A single tear had indeed escaped to trail down Ikkaku's left cheek. Yumichika's pink tongue darted out and deftly licked it away.

Ikkaku's smile widened as he sat back in the chair again. His lover was not only stunningly beautiful, but he was adorable as well, playful with a mischievous streak.

A comfortable silence descended between them. Yumichika closed his eyes, resting, and Ikkaku watched him doze, the anxiety he had suffered the past several days finally lifted from his heart.

"You know," Yumichika said after several moments, opening his eyes again, "this reminds me of the first time we met. Do you remember it?"

"Of course," Ikkaku replied. "How could I forget?"

Yumichika smiled. "I've come to realize since then that I should thank my lucky stars that man knocked me out. We may never have met if he hadn't."

"I suppose not," Ikkaku shrugged. "Maybe we would have bumped into each other some other way."

"Maybe," the raven-haired man agreed, nodding slightly. A wistful smile came to his face. "I like to think that we're fated for each other, that we'd eventually come together no matter what."

"You'd say that," Ikkaku grinned. Yumichika was much more of a romantic than Ikkaku was. Describing the two of them as destined to be together was exactly the kind of thing the smaller man would say.

Yumichika pouted cutely, knowing Ikkaku wasn't seriously making fun of him but playing along anyway. He then looked up at the ceiling. "Sometimes I wonder what the two of us would say back then if someone told us how far we'd go together, how close we'd become." His gaze traveled back to Ikkaku. "How much we'd love each other."

"Hard to say," Ikkaku said, tilting his head in thought. "It's not like we had a storybook romance, or anything."

Yumichika laughed. That was most certainly true. There wasn't much of a courtship to speak of, if you could say there was any at all. A month and a half after Yumichika had agreed to become Ikkaku's partner, the larger man had come home one afternoon from a particularly vicious fight with a couple of thugs who thought Ikkaku was a threat to 'their' territory. Yumichika knew before he even saw Ikkaku just how pumped up he was on adrenaline and battlelust. He could feel it in the man's reiatsu from fifty meters away.

He had just realized that Ikkaku had entered the house and turned to greet him when his lips were taken in a bruising kiss. Taken completely off guard, Yumichika offered no resistance as Ikkaku pushed him to the floor, stripped their clothes off, and utterly ravished him.

Not that Yumichika would have resisted even if he'd had the wits about him to do so. The sex had been fantastic, the body dominating his own possessing a perfection he thought allowed only to the gods. He had screamed his rapture to the heavens, not caring if anyone heard him through the tiny house's thin walls.

He had lain beneath Ikkaku afterwards, breathless and blissfully sated. He was completely stunned by this turn of events. First, it was the first time he had witnessed just how wild his new partner could become with the thrill of battle surging through his veins; second, it had been a while since he had had sex with anyone, and a very long time since it had been anywhere near as intense as what he had just done with Ikkaku; third and most shocking, he hadn't thought Ikkaku was into men. He seemed like the type who'd love to take home some busty broad he had met at a bar, but evidently that wasn't the case.

Their subsequent - and frequent - couplings were based mainly on lust at first. They both enjoyed how the other made them feel, and neither had any qualms about indulging in their mutual desire. Over the next few years, however, things had slowly changed, gradual enough that neither recognized the shift until it was all but complete. The sexual passion they initially shared had morphed into a soul-shaking love. The realization had frightened them both at first, even drove them apart for a few days, but it hadn't taken long for them to accept this new level of their relationship. They had been inseparable up until then, and they were inseparable ever since.

Ikkaku's voice suddenly broke into Yumichika's thoughts. "Reminiscing?"

"Yeah," Yumichika replied with a smile. "You ever wish you could go back to before we became shinigami, when it was just the two of us?"

"Occasionally," Ikkaku admitted, "but all I really want is to keep moving forward with you."

"Aww, how romantic," Yumichika giggled, earning a grunt from Ikkaku. That only made him laugh more.

"Ayasegawa-goseki?" a quiet voice said from the door, alerting them that they were no longer alone. They both looked over, beholding a smallish man standing just inside the room, holding a tray of bandaging supplies.

"Hana-kun!" Yumichika chirped, greeting the seventh seat of the Fourth Division with a cheery grin. "I haven't talked to you in so long!"

Yamada Hanatarou smiled self-consciously. Despite Yumichika being a member of the Eleventh Division, the young healer couldn't help but admire the narcissistic fifth seat. He hadn't seemed mean or brutish like most of his teammates, and had even engaged Hanatarou in conversation on occasion. That and Hanatarou secretly wished he could be as confident and self-assured as Yumichika was.

"It's good to see you're awake, Ayasegawa-goseki," he said, coming forward and setting the tray he carried on the edge of the bed. "Madarame-sanseki has been at your side the whole time. His dedication to you is amazing."

"Of course it is, it's me he's dedicated to," Yumichika replied flippantly, his vanity coming through in spades. "And I've told you before to call me Yumichika."

"Y-yes, you have, Aya - eh - Yumichika-goseki," Hanatarou said, looking embarrassed.

"What's that for?" Yumichika asked, nodding to the tray of bandaging supplies.

"It's time for the cast on your arm to be changed," Hanatarou explained, "and since I was coming around to check your vital signs, I brought what I needed to do so along with me." He bowed to the fifth seat. "But since you're awake now, is there anything I can get you before we start?"

"Could you get me a glass of water?" Yumichika asked. "I am absolutely parched, and this brute hasn't even offered to get me anything." He jerked his head at Ikkaku, an indignant look on his face.

Ikkaku snorted, glaring right back at Yumichika. "You could've asked, y'know."

"Hmph!" Yumichika sniffed, doing his best spoiled princess impression.

"I'll get that water for you, Ayase - Yumichika-goseki." With that, Hanatarou scurried out of the room, fetching Yumichika his water. Then, using bandage scissors, he cut the heavy cast from Yumichika's right arm, exposing the healing fracture.

"Oh!" Yumichika yipped, his eyes widening at the sight of the catastrophic bruising, which was starting to display green and yellow patches, the blood slowly being reabsorbed by the surrounding tissue.

"What's your problem?" Ikkaku asked, giving Yumichika a look.

"Oh, that looks ghastly!" Yumichika cried, shutting his eyes tightly and turning his head away. "How utterly unbeautiful! STOP LAUGHING, IKKAKU!"

"Yumichika-goseki, please don't move around so much..."

End

Author's Notes: Well, I think my first Bleach fanfiction turned out all right. I hope I kept everyone in character, and also that I captured everyone's emotions adequately. Losing one's beloved can be one of the most traumatic events in a person's life, and I think even a bloodthirsty bastard like Ikkaku would give in to fear if that possibility was looming over him. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I'd love to hear what you guys think of this story.

Also, I'm gonna throw out there that I like interpretations of Yumichika and Ikkaku where they're just friends, too. My enjoyment of how other fans interpret things is very flexible, be it in fanfiction, fanart, doujinshi, or whatever. No matter how much I may love a pairing, I can also enjoy fanworks where they're not romantically involved, or involved with other characters (Yumichika with Shuuhei, for example). It's very rare that I "ship" a pairing to the extent that all other possibilities are dismissed.

As for Yumichika being nice to Hanatarou, I have no idea if he would be or not. As far as I've read in the manga, I don't think I've ever seen them in the same scene together. Maybe they will be later on, but I don't know yet. I thought it'd be cute to have Hanatarou and Yumichika interact that way, though. Yumichika calls Iba Tetsuzaemon "Tetsu-san," so I thought it plausible that he'd give Hanatarou a nickname like "Hana-kun."

Anyway, please review. I do so love getting feedback on my stories, and I want to know how my first Bleach fanfic goes over with readers. Thanks in advance!