Christmas Nightmare (Bleach Fanfic)

Substitute

When Gin had been applying the ointment, Hitsugaya could go into his own little world, and ignore the fact that a lot of things that he didn't want to happen, were going. He could ignore what was the possible truth, that broke possible lies that surrounded his life. That was until, he heard the door slide open, and a familiar female voice call through the darkness, and bring him back, whether he wanted to leave the mind numbing experience. "Taicho…"

He knew that he had tensed up, and that his reaction was far from desirable, but one of the things about letting his mind go numb, was the fact that he didn't have to deal with the whole pain that came from a certain train of thought that cropped up, when he thought of Matsumoto. He heard her speak up, her tone negative to the person currently helping him, not that he could blame her, as even he… knowing the possible truth, found it hard to trust the man. "Ichimaru… I can take care of this, would you please leave?"

He didn't know what the two talked about, however, he felt a clenching in his gut, when she stated rather negatively, "I really don't want to talk to you." This caused him to flinch, as he thought of the fact that there was the possibility, she wouldn't let Gin tell her the truth, when he wanted her to know. That train of thought was going through his head. "Hey… taicho, has he been treating you all right?"

Suddenly, he choose to lean back, to look her straight in the face. Toshiro knew he wanted something from her, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He just knew that she was hiding something from him, and there was something that he was trying to grasp, but also… there was the fact that, he also had the feeling, if he discovered what it was, he wouldn't be happy about it. He simply stared, until she spoke again, concern in his voice. "Has he done something to you?"

This rather surprised him, considering the fact that ever since he came to the living world, Gin had only tried to take care of him, to his best ability. Toshiro had to admit, he wasn't very fond of some of the man's tactics, he also knew, if what Ichimaru had told him, was true, that the man wouldn't let any harm come to him. Of course, there was the fact that Matsumoto didn't trust him, and likely wouldn't even if she knew the truth. "Has he said anything, that hurt your feelings, that insulted you?"

This statement was startling, as deep down, what Gin had told him, had hurt his feelings. However, he saw it more as something he needed to know, rather than something that he felt insulted by. However, he knew he couldn't hide the fact that the man had said something to him, that had caused some form of hurt, and thus he refuse to look in her pale blue eyes, lest he betray himself. "Gin… no… it's not really what he said or did that I am upset about."

"I see," He could feel her applying ointment, and while it felt good, something was still bothering him. He had an idea of what it was. He said her name aloud, and waited for her to be listening to him.

"Why do you always forget about my birthday?" His mind was, for some reason, fixated on this one thing. He had always thought that his birthday, was a lie that his Grandmother came up with. Well, if she picked out a birthday for him, it wasn't really a lie. It just wasn't the truth either. "If you knew my birthday matched, why didn't you ever say something to me about it. You knew how I felt about my birthday…"

"Taicho…" the tone wasn't a very happy one.

"Can I have an answer?" His thoughts continued down a path he didn't like. "She keeps avoiding telling me the truth. I thought I could trust her to tell me something as important as this, and not avoid it."

"I told you… I thought that you didn't care for your birthday," came her reply. Yet, for some reason, he knew that was simply an excuse, if what Gin had told him was the truth. Why he was trusting that man, more than Rangiku, he didn't quite understand.