ICE HEART
xxxix. destroyed
❝SHE'S LUCKY TO BE ALIVE.❞

The rain sang its 'pitter, patter' song as it fell against the landscape underneath it. Leaves fell against the ground lightly, the weight of the solemn tear drops from the crying sky cracking their fragile skins. The dark clouds that hovered over the Seireitei haunted Toshiro as he entered the Fourth Division barracks, the weather matching the emotions that welled up inside of him. The white-haired Captain strolled down the corridor, nobody questioning him on where he was heading. The door glided open and he made his way inside the room and sat on the chair next to Ayame's bed, his eyes setting their sights upon her unconscious form. His fists clenched as guilt overwhelmed the male, forcing a tear to trickle down his cheek before he wiped it away with his sleeve. Hatred filled Toshiro's being - hatred of himself, hatred of Sosuke Aizen, hatred in general.

Toshiro knew that he had been neglecting himself recently. Hell, he had received a two hour lecture about it from Rangiku a few days ago. However, he didn't care. Toshiro knew that the dark circles that were under his now dull, teal eyes were extremely prominent. Toshiro knew that he had become much skinnier, however more muscular. Toshiro knew about the awful state he was in. Toshiro just didn't care. The only thing that Toshiro cared about was getting stronger so that he could protect the people who he cared about, and as that thought came to his mind, pictures of Ayame and Momo flashed through his mind.

Even though Toshiro had been neglecting himself a lot, the male had been tending to myself a bit more during the past few days. The smaller male didn't exactly know whether it was because of Rangiku's lecture that he had begun to care about myself a bit more, but whatever it was; he was glad that it caused him to tend to his own needs and Squad more. When Toshiro had arrived back at the Office for the first time since the incident, it was stranded in paperwork. It took him a few days to complete every single piece of the dreaded work and luckily, the male had managed to convince Rangiku to help him with it.

Fortunately, Ayame's injuries were healing quicker than most people expected them to and anybody could definitely see that when you looked at her appearance. Most of the wounds that she had received had vanished and no trace of them had remained. The only wound that was still visible was the stab wound that Toshiro had caused approximately a week ago. Her face had gained more colour within the past few days and her breathing had become more stabilised. She was returning to her old self once more. It was a miracle that she was still alive, according to Unohana.

Toshiro's thoughts were cut off when he heard the door slide open along with two pairs of footsteps, causing the male to snap his head towards the people who had just entered. A small, but barely noticeable, smile crossed his face as the white-haired male gazed at Jushiro and Shunsui, who just smiled back at him before taking a seat in the chairs in the corner of the room.

"She looks a lot better today, doesn't she?" Jushiro smiled warmly, gazing at the unconscious woman who he saw as a younger sister.

"Yeah. I told you that she was a stubborn, little fighter." Shunsui chuckled, grabbing hold of one of Ayame's hands and squeezing it tightly. "Now, we're just waiting for her to wake up."

"According to Captain Unohana, most of her injuries have healed. She's lucky to be alive." Toshiro informed the two males, his arms crossed against his chest and his gaze fixated on the ground.

"That's good. At least she is recovering rather quickly." Jushiro grinned, before his eyes brightened massively, like he was a child who had just received a present that he had been begging for. "I almost forgot!"

"Forgot about what?" Shunsui asked curiously, a small smile on his face as he wondered what his best friend was speaking about.

Jushiro quickly reached into the sleeve of his shihakusho and pulled out a large sack of candy, causing Toshiro's blue orbs to widen dramatically before he began shaking his arms around furiously, not wanting to receive any more candy from the white-haired male.

"I nearly forgot to give Captain Hitsugaya this candy that I got!" He exclaimed, handing the sack of candy towards Toshiro, a wide smile still plastered on his pale face.

"No, no! It's fine! I already have enough candy!" Toshiro protested, still shaking bis arms furiously.

"I insist." He told the young man, pushing the large bag of candy into Toshiro's arms while his brown-haired best friend was doing his best to hold back a chuckle.

"Why do you give me this candy?" Toshiro questioned, giving up as he took the candy from his arms.

"Because we both have 'Shiro' in our names!" He answered like it was the most obvious thing in the entire world while smiling brightly.

The smaller male sighed deeply, placing the bag of candy onto the floor next to the chair that he was seated on before turning to the older male and scratching his head in a confused manner. "I-I don't understand. Thank you anyways, Captain Ukitake."

They both sat back down in our chairs, and Toshiro took a glance at Shunsui, who was still attempting to hide the large laugh that wanted to escape his throat at the sight of his over-excitable best friend handing candy to a confused, younger male.

Suddenly, the sound of groaning and somebody tossing and turning caused all of them to snap their heads towards the direction of Ayame's unconscious form. Her mouth kept opening and closing, forming inaudible words, while her body kept shifting around in her bed. Toshiro rushed towards her side, gripping tightly on her hand as he watched her eyes flutter open and her blue eyes gazing into his.

"Toshiro..."