Not long after everyone came back from their vacation, Ichigo had disappeared, leaving no note of any sort, or telling anyone anything. This left the icy captain distraught, but he didn't show.

The child prodigy sat at his desk trying to focus on the document he was reading and sign when needed

"Taicho!" Matsumoto slammed open the door to their shared office causing the latter to jump almost knocking over the neatly stacked documents, fixing the papers accordingly he glared at his lieutenant "I found out where Ichigo went." Going back to reading and signing papers, but closely paying attention to the strawberry blonde "I'm listening Matsumoto." Setting the paper aside and starting on another

"Well I was walking past the 9th squad division, and I heard some of its members talking. Ichigo's name got brought up, so I was listening in on the conversation and found out that he had left on a mission, but the thing is that..." Matsumoto bit her lip when her captain lifted his head, heart pounding against his rib cage, fearing for the worst, he didn't speak it but his eyes pleaded 'please-tell-me-he's-not-dead' look

"Its a suicide mission...so he could come back, or..." he didn't want to hear the rest if what she had to say, and brought his hand up to stop her "Taicho?" Worrying about her captain she walked over pulled him out of his chair and into a bone crushing hug.

'If he makes it back alive, I'm going to murder him...if not I'm still going to murder him.'

"Mat...Rangiku, I'm okay, I know you're worried about me, worrying about him, he can handle himself though." Pushing her away gently, the busty woman looked at her captain with caution but decided to leave it at its best, reluctantly she walked over to her desk and sat down hoping this would put her captain in a better mood than he already was.

*******I'm Yours*******

Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months. Even Momo awoke from her coma, and everyone had her up to date with everything, she even tried her best to help the icy captain cope with Ichigo being gone.

Toshiro sighed softly as he looked at the full moon, it reminded him of Ichigo as always, the icy captain ran a hand through his hair. He couldn't believe it...his birthday...their anniversary, he was upset, hurt, worried, and scared. Ichigo wasn't back from the mission still, and to make it a fact that it's a suicide mission didn't help, he truly feared the worst. What if he was dead...

"no." He couldn't think like that, "but still..."

he couldn't handle it if he lost Ichigo, he couldn't lose another person right before him.

Momo watched Toshiro closely, her childhood friend, he was like a brother to her and the lieutenant couldn't stand to see him like this, it hurt. Her brown eyes watched the icy captain light a cigarette, a new habit developed thanks to Renji, since Ichigo was no longer in Karakura town, usually Rukia or Renji went to deal with the hollows, and seeing something he never tried before, he experimented and found the newly developed habit nice. And somewhere along the line it somehow had gotten to the child prodigy, and here he was smoking his second pack that night.

"You know those are bad for your health, stop smoking." Long fingers reached over pulling the cigarette from the smaller male's hand and put it away tossing it over the wooden railing.

Toshiro turned, walking away from the carrot top. "Toshiro!" Ichigo ran after the captain grabbing his wrist, only for the shorter to turn, his hand landing across his lover's cheek

"I don't even want to look at you...but I can't bring myself to!" Momo stepped out to see the commotion as did Matsumoto, and a few other people, the atmosphere around them changed the temperature dropping a bit more than it originally was

"Toshiro..."

"You left without even saying anything, I'm over here worrying my ass off stressing myself sick, because I was wondering if you were okay, I feared for the worst after two months had passed and nothing! Did you ever stop and take into consideration about how I felt...you're the second person I've opened up to in my entire life! ...I was scared...I'm scared of losing another person I love...I'm scared of losing you." The last part came as a whisper but he heard it, everyone heard it.

Ichigo pulled the smaller into a hug not letting go, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry I left. I promise, to never leave like that again." Carding a hand through the white hair rubbing his back.

Matsumoto placed a hand on Momo's shoulder looking at the brunette girl "Shiro-Kun really loves Kurosaki-Kun."