Title: Blood Instead of Roses
Author: Eumenides (flowerofsin)
Pairing: Kenpachi/Yachiru
Rating: T
Warnings: mild violence
Summary: An older Yachiru tries to get Kenpachi's attention.

As Kenpachi walked back to his office, he felt a familiar form leap onto his back. He shook his head, knowing that it could only be one person.

"You're getting too big to keep doing that," Kenpachi told Yachiru.

Yachiru giggled. "What's wrong? You're not strong enough to carry me anymore, Ken-chan?"

"Well you are putting on weight," he said looking at her over his shoulder with a smirk. "It's probably all that candy you've been eating."

Arriving at the office, she slipped off of his shoulder, following him over to the desk littered with paperwork. Sitting down behind the desk as Yachiru hovered nearby, Kenpachi cut a glance at her. "You know, some of these papers are for you."

Moving behind him to throw arms around his neck, Yachiru groaned. "Aw, doing paperwork is awful! Maybe I can get Ikkaku to do it for me."

Kenpachi sighed, feeling suddenly uncomfortable by the press of her body against him. "You can't just keep pawning your work off on Ikkaku all the time," he told her. "If I can do some of mine, you should do yours too." His frown deepened as he stiffened. Kenpachi had the odd feeling of wanting her to move away from him as much as he wanted her to cling tighter. He tried to ignore both in favor of work.

Chastened, Yachiru sighed, moving away to pick up the mound of paperwork meant for her. She flopped down at her desk a short distance away noisily, gazing over at Kenpachi who was bent over a document, reading. Frowning, she tended to her own tasks as she bit her lip.

The afternoon saw Yachiru heading over to Matsumoto's quarters, pleased to find the woman in. The blonde ushered her inside, always glad to have company. As Yachiru sat down at the small table, the other vice captain placed a sake cup in front of her, pouring the clear liquid inside. Yachiru shook her head before saying."Well, I don't actually drink, so-"

"Oh, come on, a shinigami that doesn't drink is like one without a zanpakutou. It's not like you're still a kid."

Sighing, Yachiru picked up the cup, muttering, "Tell that to Ken-chan," in a low voice.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing," Yachiru lied. Though she wanted to ask the woman for advice, she didn't want to burden her with her problems. It was enough for Yachiru to just enjoy the woman's company for the meantime.

After a round or two of drinks, Matsumoto regarded the tipsy vice captain, sighing as she leaned against her propped up hand. Yachiru was groaning, her head pillowed on her arms. "You're always so bubbly," Matsumoto remarked. "Who would have known you'd be a sullen drunk?"

"'S Ken-chan's fault for being stupid," she complained. "No matter what I do, he doesn't notice me."

The other woman sighed. "I had a feeling that's you were depressed over something like that."

"It's just that, he still acts like I'm a kid," Yachiru explained, her voice muffled by her arm. "He doesn't look at me the way some other guys do."

"Why don't you just tell him how you feel?" Rangiku suggested.

"I don't know about that," the other shinigami said, a little unnerved. "What if he just laughs or even worse?"

Matsumoto gazed at her, a sympathetic look on her face. "Like telling you he doesn't feel the same way about you that you do about him?" When Yachiru nodded in response, the shinigami added, "It's possible that he doesn't. But you'll never know either way if you don't try. Some guys are really dense, you know. Zaraki doesn't strike me as the type of man that's good with women. You might have to do something to get his attention."

"Get his attention," Yachiru echoed sleepily. "Yeah, that might work," she uttered before she dozed off.

Rangiku chuckled gazing at her sleeping form. "She's such a lightweight when it comes to alcohol."

"Hey, Yachiru," a familiar voice in the hallway called before murmuring, "Where did she get to?" In a few moments, the door opened as Kenpachi entered, taking in the scene in the room.

"Hey, Zaraki," Matsumoto greeted before picking up a half-empty bottle of sake to shake it. "Want to join us for a drink?"

"Eh?" he uttered, annoyed. "What are you giving Yachiru liquor for? She's just a kid. If you want to get drunk with somebody, go bug Kira or something."

Matsumoto sighed, watching as Kenpachi bent to pick Yachiru up, cradling her in his arms. "She's not a little girl anymore, you know. She hasn't been for a long time. When are you going to stop acting like-".

"Mind your own business," Kenpachi told her before stalking from the room. "I know how old she is. It's not like she hasn't been with me this whole time."

Rangiku watched the other shinigami leave, taking a sip of sake. "One day, he's going to have to open those eyes of his," she said to the empty room.

Arriving at Yachiru's quarters, Kenpachi laid her down on the bed, slipping off her sandals to place on the floor before tugging the blanket up around her shoulders. He gazed at her for a few moments as she nuzzled against the pillow before murmuring something unintelligible. Kenpachi watched the gentle rise and fall of her chest. Despite still having a youthful appearance, Yachiru had changed much in recent years. His mood darkened at the memory of how she'd been turning the heads of many of the new recruits lately.

'She's not a little girl anymore, you know. She hasn't been for a long time,' Matsumoto's words echoed in his mind. Kenpachi sighed, turning away from the bed. He paused at the doorway to give a backward glance. "I know that," he muttered in answer as he left the room.

---

The following day, Kenpachi was walking toward one of the outside training areas when his attention was caught by a crowd of shinigami on its periphery. It sounded like some fierce swordplay was going on beyond the crowd.

"Hey, what's all the excitement out here about?" Kenpachi asked a pair of shinigami standing near the rear of the action as he approached. They cringed as he loomed over them.

"Well," the first one began, "Kusajishi-sama is having a contest. The first man who is able to cut her wins a kiss."

Kenpachi's frown deepened. "Eh? What kind of weird contest is that?" He grumbled, balling up a fist. "Why does everyone have to go around putting weird ideas in Yachiru's head?" His eyes widening, Kenpachi glared down at the two shinigami as he realized something. "Hey, you guys aren't here to participate in this, are you?" He cracked his knuckles as the spiritual pressure in the area increased.

"No, Zaraki-sama! Of course not!" The shinigami and his friend beat a hasty exit.

Edging toward the front of the group, Zaraki caught site of Yachiru facing off against the fifth seat of Sixth Division. As the man rushed forward, his sword drawn, Kenpachi had the sudden urge to rush between them, but held himself back. Moving quickly, Yachiru dodged the other shinigami's blow, her sword connecting with the man's forearm, slicing it open. Groaning, he dropped his zanpakutou, clutching at the wound with his other arm.

"Aw, it's no good," Yachiru complained as she flicked her sword, the blood flying from the blade onto the ground. She sheathed her zanpakutou as she sighed. "Why are you all such weak guys? All you have to do is cut me once to win."

"Forget about all these other guys," a tall shinigami said, stepping forward, his zanpakutou held at his side. "I'll win for sure. Don't worry, I won't cut you too deeply."

"Do you really think something like that would worry me?" Yachiru asked, her hand on the hilt of her zanpakutou. "As a baby, I crawled across the blood of the dead that ran through the streets of my town. Since then, I've lived for it." Yachiru unsheathed her sword slowly, letting the sound echo through the air. "The smell of it as it flows across the ground, soaking into the earth. All of you claim to be so strong, yet you don't love this the way that I do. The blade of someone like that can never even touch my skin." She ran forward as he did, a wound across his stomach causing him to double over.

One by one, the men fell, some younger, some older. None of them managed to make Yachiru even break a sweat let alone put a mark on her skin. Kenpachi watched her take care of each man effortlessly, leaving them bloodied for their trouble. Though he watched her now, Zaraki rarely watched her spar, the times he did leaving him feeling things that he refused to admit. It was something about the way the sun had caught her hair. Or was it the way she sliced through an opponent with such a determined gaze. The sight of Yachiru in action now made Kenpachi's heart rate speed up in a familiar way.

"You guys are pathetic," Kenpachi declared finally, walking out from the midst of the group of men. He moved to stand opposite Yachiru as her fallen opponent limped away. He watched her take a ready position.

"Are you going to fight me, Ken-chan?" Yachiru asked, a faint smile on her face and eagerness in her voice.

"Heh, I might as well," Kenpachi answered, unsheathing his sword. "If you're that anxious for a good workout that you went to these lengths, how can I refuse?"

The crowd watched with interest as the captain and vice captain of the 11th Division crossed swords. The sound of their zanpakutou clashing echoed through the air. The group of men had at first feared for the diminutive shinigami when Zaraki had stepped up as her opponent, but it became clear that the girl could hold her own against him. She met his strength with some of her own as well as speed. Yachiru dodged a wide blow from Kenpachi, moving past him to land a glancing blow to his flank. Kenpachi gave a bark of surprised laughter as the shallow wounded oozed. Onlookers murmured their surprise at the shinigami being able to do such a thing to the captain.

Bouncing away as he turned to face her, Yachiru met him with a frown. "Ken-chan! You're not taking me seriously," she accused, pointing at him. "If you don't fight me like you should, I'm going to get angry."

Kenpachi gazed across at her, his heart pounding at the sight of his blood staining her cheek and the determined look in her eyes. He took in the pouting lower lip on her girlish face that almost belied the body that was anything but childlike.

"Sorry, Yachiru," Kenpachi said, his free hand raising to his face. "I forget sometimes that you're pretty strong." He tore off the eye patch, the spiritual pressure in the area increasing dramatically.

Yachiru beamed at him, moving into position. "I can forgive it since it's you, Ken-chan. Let's have a good fight!"

Kenpachi laughed, his eyes glittering with excitement. "Okay! Show me how strong you are, Yachiru!"

The spiritual pressure thick in the air, the crowd watched as the pair rushed toward each other. There was a collective gasp of horror when Kenpachi swung his sword in a downward arc, then a gasp of surprise as Yachiru blocked it with her own sword, bracing it with her other hand against the back of the blade as Zaraki tried to press his downward. The transmitted force of the blow had cracked the ground beneath the vice captain's feet. Shoving upward, she was able to push Kenpachi's sword away, flitting to the side to land a glancing blow on his opposite arm. Staring at the red that rose to darken his torn sleeve, Kenpachi grinned despite the pain.

"Wow, I can't believe it," Kenpachi remarked before turning to gaze at her excitedly. "When did you get this strong, Yachiru?"

Yachiru frowned, pouting. "Silly, you'd know if you'd spar with me some time."

"Heh, I'll spar with you as much as you want."

The vice captain giggled. "You have to win this one first, Ken-chan."

The metallic sound of their swords glancing off each other filled the air. Kenpachi beamed at how the girl was able to deflect his blows and land a few of her own, though they were shallow. He grinned at her, his blade striking hers to grind against it.

"Hey, you were telling me not to take you lightly and here you are not putting everything into the fight. What's with these little cuts you're giving me, huh? You're going to make me jealous, Yachiru. You gave those weak guys better wounds than these."

"Okay, if you insist," she answered, glad to see him look at her with that eager glint in his eye that he reserved for good battles. She tried not to let his claim of jealousy go to her head. Even if he never thought of her the way she did of him, Yachiru thought that this might be alright, as long as he could look at her with that fire gleaming in his eyes.

Yachiru landed a blow to his thigh, making Kenpachi's grin widen. "Hey, Ken-chan, you're supposed to be trying to cut me, not so much the other way around," she remarked. "I think you like getting cut by me too much." Somehow that thought made her happy.

When their eyes met as their swords did once more, there was something in the eyes that glittered at her that gave Yachiru pause, something that she couldn't quite place but made heat bloom inside of her. The kind of heat that she felt when she watched Zaraki on the battlefield, red marring the skin of his chest and his white haori. With that look still in his eyes, Kenpachi rotated his blade. It skidded off Yachiru's to graze her arm as she staggered backwards.

Wincing, Yachiru paused to gaze at her sliced sleeve as the material hung downward, blood from the shallow wound trickling down her arm. She sighed. "You still went easy on me, Ken-chan, even though I asked you not to."

Kenpachi approached her, a strange expression on his face. "Sorry, I can't help it, not when..." His words trailed off as he reached out to pull her form close to his own with his free arm, looming over her.

"Not when, what?" Yachiru asked, her face flushing at being held in such a way.

Kenpachi's eyes glittered down at her. He took in her flushed cheeks, one stained by a spatter of red. Zaraki found himself dropping his zanpakutou to the ground in favor of smearing the redness across her pale skin with his thumb as her eyes widened. "When did you become so beautiful, Yachiru?" he asked in a wondering voice. He didn't answer her question, but perhaps what went unsaid did.

Yachiru smiled as Kenpachi loomed closer. "Silly, it's not like it happened overnight."

"That's true," Kenpachi agreed in a low voice as he leaned down further, his heart pounding.. "I must have been blind or something. It's a good thing that I can see now." With that, their lips met. The pair ignored the startled gasps from some of the onlookers as the kiss deepened.

Kenpachi pulled away slightly to regard Yachiru through half-lidded eyes. "Hey, can you forgive me for being so dense all this time?"

Yachiru chuckled in response, a hand raising to card through the hair at the base of his skull. "Only if you kiss me like that again."

Smirking, Kenpachi murmured, "I should have known that you'd be greedy," before claiming her lips again.

End