A/N: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY NEW FRIEND xTKx! :) I wish you all the best, have all the fun you can, take all the love you can get and always, always follow your dreams! And never choke on fried egg, it happened to me once - not pleasant. :)

Anyway, this story is my humble present to you, girly, I hope you like it.

For the rest of you guys out there, this is a two-shot... I think. Well, you tell me, I think I'm gonna make it a two-shot with a lemon in the next chapter. It might have some spoilers - I don't know, I haven't been paying much attention to bleach recently. Don't be mad. I hope you like this though! Review!

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

That little, egoistic part of me was seeking an excuse for the accident, something that could make me feel less bad for being such a slow-reacting and deprived of thoughts douche when he was around, but the moment I saw him in the morning, struggling to come down the stairs, that part committed suicide. And I was left in a pool of my own, boiling guilt.

"Kurosaki, quit staring." Hitsugaya Toushiro snapped instead of "Good morning!" and I grinned stupidly and rubbed the back of my neck as I secretly fought down the fluster that was heating my skin. The captain snorted and shook his head almost condescendingly before focusing on adjusting his crutches more conveniently so that he could climb down the stairs. It made my stomach drop in my feet.

It's true – I am the reason why Toushiro broke his leg yesterday. I was the damn asshole that did this to him. Me and me only.

What happened?

Lemme tell you the whole story so you can realize just how stupid I can be.

See, I tend to manifest all sorts of idiotic reactions when I think about him, or speak to him or let alone be in the same room with him. One of these reactions is that I become virtually incapable of paying attention to any potential danger.

It was quite late, long after dark and I was walking down the street towards home, my hands in my pockets and my gaze glued on the ground. I let my feet carry me lazily towards the needed direction while my thoughts wandered over their most favorite topic – the little ice-wielder that now stayed in my house because Orihime, most of my friends and my family had gone out of town for a few days of the summer holiday. I invited him over because I knew he was reluctant to stay at Urahara's with Renji and whatnot and – okay, fine – because I've had some serious crush on the guy ever since I first met him. I mean – you have to be blind not to see how beautiful he is or how much passion and will he puts in every battle he fights, or how interesting he can be if he just loosens up a bit…

But anyway… I'm just your typical infatuated guy, ranting about the person he can never have, so I'll try not to bore you with details of why I love Toushiro. There is no rational explanation. I love him for everything he is, everything he has been, everything he'll ever be, period. So let's get back to the main story.

I had just found a small pebble to kick in front of me as I strode, when my cell began buzzing in my pocket. I picked up absently without really paying attention to who it was.

"Hello?"

"Kurosaki!" Toushiro's voice sounded peculiarly. Like he couldn't catch his breath. That made me frown and I stopped dead on my tracks, my pulse steadily rising.

"Hey, Toushiro, is something wrong?"

"Argh! How many times do I have to tell you, it's Hitsu-… Nevermind, Kurosaki, listen to me…"

"Are you running? What's going on?" I cut him off, my hand now clutching the cell phone almost painfully. "Are you in danger?"

"I'm fine! Just…"

"Is someone chasing you?"

"KUROSAKI! SHUT UP AND TURN AROUND DAMN IT!"

And then I felt it. Too late, I admit, but I did. I turned around just in time to see the sky tear like a giant hand had cut through it with a dagger. Next thing I knew, half a dozen hallows and a Menos Grande were heading my direction. Usually this wouldn't have been such a big problem if, of course, I had noticed the last hallow, coming from completely different direction and attacking my still paralyzed form from behind.

"KUROSAKI!"

I felt, rather then saw Toushiro, still in his gigai push me out of the way in the very last second and thus expose himself to the hollow's attack. I sat up on the ground just in time to see the monster crush the captain's leg and the half-choked scream that tore from the boy's lips cut in my heart like millions of blades.

The rest of the story is pretty boring – I killed the damn monster that hurt Hitsugaya, then Renji, Ikkaku and Rukia arrived, helping me out with what was left. But the damage was done – Toushiro was injured in his gigai and we had to take him to the hospital and have his leg put in plaster at least till we figured a faster way to heal him (without Orihime…). And that was that.

"Wait, lemme help you!" I enunciated, rushing to give Toushiro a hand. Immediately, the captain's teeth were bared and a long crutch was pointed menacingly in my direction.

"I don't need your pity, nor do I need you guilt, Kurosaki!" he spat stubbornly, glaring daggers at me as though I was the one who had crushed his leg and was now planning to do the same with the other one. I stepped back, letting him have it his way, even if it was going to take forever till he reached the bottom of the staircase.

"I'm not offering you my help out of pity or guilt." I pointed out, folding my hands in front of my chest as I waited for him to reach the third step. It was true – I really did want to help him because I just wanted to do it. I would've wanted to help him out even if I hadn't been the one to blame for all this.

"I don't want to hear it." Came the sharp reply and I sighed, deciding to change the topic.

"What are you planning to do today?" I asked when he was finally standing in front of me. He lifted his eyes, giving me a half-amused, half-irritated look and I kicked myself mentally. Right. What could he plan to do in his condition?

"Sorry." I mumbled, grinning sheepishly. "But do you want to go to that big bookstore in the center that you like so much? I have the keys for dad's car and I know you haven't had time to go there in awhile, soo…" my words trailed off when I saw the look of distaste on his face. It was like he was torn between throwing himself on me and throttling me or just plain hit me with the crutch and walk away, leaving my twitching form behind him.

"Kurosaki," he began and I could see the patience in his voice was thin and breakable like an early winter icing. "I really appreciate what you're trying to do, but what I did was my choice and my choice only. You don't have to fawn on me just to get rid of some nasty and truth to be told unreasonable guilt."

He then tried to excuse himself and go to the living room but I grabbed his arm and stopped him, my eyes hard with determination.

"I want to do something nice for you. Not out of guilt or pity, but because I want to. So please, I'm asking you and I would really love it if you to gave me an honest reply – do you want to go to that bookstore with me? Please?"

For a couple of seconds I got nothing. Hitsugaya's eyes were locked on my hand that was holding his arm and I half-expected him to swat it off of himself and kick me in the crouch with his plaster-free leg, but no such thing happened. Instead, he lifted his eyes slowly and nodded, his expression the embodiment of almost perfect indifference. In the cracks of the smooth surface I could see just a tiny bit of ruefulness and maybe a little surprise.

Bookstores are not my thing. I don't read much and I admit it. Sometimes, when I really feel like it, I ask someone to tell me the name of a good book they had recently read and I give it a try. But those are individual, rare cases that I tend to recall when Toushiro starts talking about some book he finds extremely interesting. When he does that, I really begin wishing I was more of a book-worm like he is. Not only because I'd love to be able to give an opinion on what he's describing, but also because it's a fascinating thing to admire… him… Seeing him in the state of talking about something that he truly has enjoyed. His whole expression changes, his frown relaxes, his unbelievable eyes brighten up and sometimes, if you get lucky, you can catch him smiling unconsciously as he keeps narrating. I don't even listen to what he says at times – I just watch him and revel in feeling of being next to this amazing creature.

But anyhow! Back to the bookstore.

Being the smart little boy he is, Toushiro knew exactly what I was going to do if I went with him on the second floor. He was going to go about, read the backs of the books, maybe take a look at a few pages and I was going to stand beside him like a stupid pole and wait for him to finish. A.k.a. annoy the hell out of him.

"I won't take more than half an hour – forty minutes tops. You can go do something else in the meanwhile and pick me up when I'm done." He suggested. I mused over it for a second, then nodded.

"We could go grab a sandwich or something after you're done?" I offered hopefully. Much to my surprise Toushiro nodded, the edges of his lips twisting a bit in the shadow of something that could turn out to be a smile.

"Sure Kurosaki, as long as you try not to be the voracious pig you usually are." He said before disappearing behind the bookcases.

I spent the next 30 minutes or so in the café opposite of the store, drinking coke and watching some stupid show on the small TV on the wall opposite of my table. I was glancing at the watch every minute or so, my foot tapping impatiently on the floor. I didn't want to rush Toushiro to finish doing something he liked doing (and I was pretty sure he would've normally stayed in the book-store much longer if he didn't know I was waiting) but it was still irritating. Especially since I had no one to talk to.

"Hey…" one of the waiters suddenly said, blinking curiously against the window. "What is going on there?"

I didn't even have time to swallow the nasty feeling that suddenly settled in my stomach at what he said as I turned around and followed his gaze.

It took me about three seconds to comprehend what was going on before I was up on my feet and running. The bookstore was smoking. The bookstore was on fire!

I mentally cursed myself as I ran towards the entrance. Why did I have to pick the biggest store in the town? Couldn't I be a little more unpresumptuous? Dammit! There was a whole herd of people coming out of this place!

My head was throbbing painfully with the blood rushing through it. The image of Toushiro inside this building, with those fucking crutches and the fucking plaster and… FUCK! HE WAS ON THE SECOND FLOOR!

I basically dug my way through the crowd, elbowing and pushing as hard as I could, without a care for the cursing and screaming that I left behind. When I was finally inside, I was suddenly hit by a chocking wave of smoke that burned its way down my throat and made my eyes water. I quickly covered my mouth and nose with a part of my shirt and looked around frantically. I could hardly see any fire here, so I quickly presumed it wasn't coming from this floor. Then my eyes found the staircase and my mind went blank with horror.

I was running up to the staircase to the second floor before I could even think about what I was doing. I almost ran into some worker who screamed at me to get out, but I merely rushed pass him. I pushed the glass door open and I found myself in a flaming nightmare. Most bookcases were on fire, so was the carpet and the chandeliers. The heat wrapped around me like a hellish embrace but it quickly occurred to me that this was far from the worse part – because the smoke was. I realized it fully when I removed the shirt from my breathing passages and called Toushiro's name blindly, in search for any clues whatsoever. No reply came and all I succeeded in, was choking with the fumes that quickly wormed their way in my lungs. I put the cloth back on my mouth and ran forward, looking frantically in both directions in search for a familiar figure between the bookcases. I could feel the thin layer of sweat on my back grow as my heart raced in my chest, and my eyes widened with terror as my efforts were proved fruitless. But I kept going, my intuition telling me that the captain had not gone out of the bookstore. He was still here, somewhere in this hell, hardly capable of walking, let alone running. And if something happened to him, if he… it would be all my fault and I would never, ever forgive myself for being such a…

Then I saw it. It was a piece of a crutch, lying on the floor by the furthest end of a flaming bookcase. By now, I had gone in the deepest part of the floor and I was losing hope and strength, but the moment I saw this, my heart started beating even faster and I rushed towards the place. Several feet away from where the crutch was lying, there was another one, and then…

"Toushiro!" I exclaimed. He was on the all fours on the floor, one hand on the frame of a large square window and the other one against his lips. He was bend over and he was coughing violently. At the sound of his name he slowly looked up and fixed moist, hazy eyes on me with disbelief. For a moment I couldn't believe the boy that was kneeling there and trying to open that window was my Toushiro. The way he gazed at me was so desperate, filled with so much misery and resignation that it almost broke my heart.

"Kurosaki… you came…" he uttered so softly that I basically had to read it on his lips.

"What do you think you're doing? We have to get out of here!" I called.

"I tried, but it's stuck…" he replied weakly, his eyes drifting to the window and back absently. His voice was thick from all the smoke he had inhaled and he looked so pale that I feared he was going to collapse any minute now. "Kurosaki, you fool…" he burst into another coughing fit "…what are you doing here, get out…"

I almost laughed at that.

"Get out? Why do you think I got here in the first place. It's a bookstore for crying out loud." Half of what I said was muffled but I was sure he could understand me. I bent over him and quickly slid one of my hands under his knees and put the other one around his back. His hands shot up and wrapped around my neck as I picked him up. He wasn't very heavy, even with that plaster attached to his leg and I was surprised to see him so willing to be carried. And even more surprised when he buried his face in my neck.

We got lucky on our way out. One of the bookcases collapsed right after we had ran pass it and the firefighters found us just as I was going down the stairs with my precious luggage snuggling in my arms. They took care of both of us and I got called a hero for saving Toushiro. But I didn't even care. All I wanted was to go home and take care of him.

Toushiro didn't speak much on our ride back from the hospital where they checked us up for any serious damage. He did, however, remember to protest when I said I was going to carry him in the house (since he lost his crutches) but it was a feeble attempt nevertheless. To some extent that was a good thing, since I really enjoyed carrying him around, even if I was never going to admit it, but on the other hand I was sure there was something wrong with him. And I wanted to know what it was.

I laid him carefully on the sofa in the living room and went to make some tea. When I came back, I found him in the very same position I had left him, his eyes staring blankly at the wall.

"Toushiro?" I called carefully as I walked to the sofa and sat down next to his feet. He sighed, closing his eyes for a second.

"It's Hitsugaya-taicho, Kurosaki." He corrected me wearily. I ignored him, as always and continued with my questions.

"What happened with you back there?" I asked, my frown deepening as I handed him the tea and looked down at my own cup. "I've never seen you like this… Not even when you thought you were going to die in a battle…"

Toushiro didn't say anything for a few seconds and just stared vacantly down at his hands. Finally, he sighed and replied, his voice dry like paper:

"Heat has a different effect on me."

Something snapped inside of me at those words and I pulled back abruptly, my eyes wide. The realization struck me hard like a hot poke through my stomach.

"You didn't use your spiritual pressure." I choked out.

He lifted his eyes, staring at me with shock.

"W-what?"

"You didn't use you spiritual pressure!" I repeated now almost aggressively as I felt a spark of anger flicker inside me. "Your ice reiatsu, you didn't use it! You could've slowed down the fire or something to protect yourself! But you didn't. If I hadn't come, you could've…"

"Kurosaki!" he cut me off, indignation clear in his voice. But I wouldn't have it. I was angry, I was frustrated and shocked that he had exposed himself to danger so easily when he could've at least tried. I knew it was probably harder for him to do so in his gigai and that maybe the injury and the smoke could've weakened him, but he could've at least made and attempt!

"What the hell was wrong with you?" I was this close to yelling and I didn't like it, yet I couldn't stop myself, I just… What if he had actually…

"I blocked, okay?"

"You blocked? What kind of an excuse is THAT?"

"What the hell gives you the right to talk to me this way!" he was becoming peeved and I could see it clearly. I could feel it too – the room was becoming colder. Again, I didn't care.

"I CARE about you, unlike yourself!"

"Oh, yeah? Then shut up and leave me alone, damn it!" he took a deep breath, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment and just as I was opening my mouth to continue, he blurted out. "I died in a fire."

I froze. He didn't open his eyes.

"I died in a fire much like this one." He said, his hands around the cup tightening. "I don't remember the details. But I was in this room… it was evening and I was in this room… my room… There were so many books… I woke up from the screaming and when I opened the door of my room to go out, I found myself in a burning corridor." He paused, his eyes opening slowly as he swallowed with difficulty, his eyes glossed over. "My family didn't love me for being so different... for looking like this, for having white hair... They feared me, just like everybody else. That night… No one came for me, Ichigo. I suffocated and no one… No one even tried…"

I was shocked. Not only had he called me by my first name for the first time since I knew him, but he told me about something that was so personal, and important for him. Probably more than I could even imagine. And coming from him, this share was even more valuable…

Toushiro lifted his trembling hand and wiped his eyes.

"I shouldn't have told you this." He whispered. "I don't… It was long, too long ago. Not worth remembering. Not worth talking about."

I shook my head.

"Everything that has to do with you is worth remembering. It's worth talking about." My mind had stopped working. I didn't realize what I was doing, I had switched on some sort of auto-pilot. I placed the tea on the table and then reached with both hands, cupping his face. Next thing I knew I was kissing him softly on the lips.

But more importantly, he was kissing me back.

I thought I was going to die at that moment. That my heart was going to explode from the happiness that was overriding my senses. Happiness that was so powerful, that it almost mingled with sadness and desperation.

"Toushiro…" I breathed against his lips. "I'm sorry to hear that you… about what happened."

He nodded quickly, his head still in my hands.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you." I added. "I just don't know what I would've done if something had happened to you again." I swallowed. "I love you."

He gasped, his body tensing for a moment before turning limp in my arms.

"I love you, too." He uttered and I kissed him again, more passionately this time.

I promised myself that tonight I was going to make him feel loved and wanted and cared about. I wanted him to know that I would always come back for him. And I would always be there when he needed me.

A/N: Please review! *Bambi eyes*