soul_logs | [Closed] Alone again in some new wicked little town

Entry tags:

[Closed] Alone again in some new wicked little town

Characters: ~~Reuniting loving partners~~ Hitsugaya and Sougo
Location: Shibusen stairs
Rating:PG-13
Time: Jan 28th
Description: Hitsugaya's not happy or anything to see his partner return, nope. That's not why he's racing towards the location Sougo appeared in when he arrived back in Death City.

Wait a week, then cut your losses. That had been Nezumi's advice to Hitsugaya when he'd realized his partner was missing. And he'd intended on searching the city for that entire week, exhausting all the possibilities until there were none left. It had only been a few days before Hitsugaya had managed to cover most of the city and realized that Sougo was not in it. If he'd been hurt or killed, he'd have found a body. If it had been the Witches, the city would have known about it. The only explanation was that he'd returned home. He'd seen it happen to others enough to know that BREW didn't discriminate, it just took whoever it felt like, leaving many people without partners. There was no reason he and Sougo were any different.

So for the few days, he'd dwelt on what he would do now, after what he'd worked for since his arrival was gone. Sure, there would be other people in the city he could probably work with. But he didn't want to try. Working his way up again with someone new seemed tedious, exhausting, and possibly pointless. The new partner could be taken as well (another good point Nezumi had made). But what else could he do?

And then, like nothing had even happened, he'd seen the familiar video Sougo had posted on his return. It had been a short return home, after all. He couldn't stop from feeling a wave of relief, not only that his partner was home, but that he was unharmed. An eagerness overtook him, sending him racing towards Shibusen steps where his meister was waiting for him.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

By this point, Katsura was long gone. Either Sougo got tired of waiting for the Watch or tired of Katsura...or both, and just let him go. Idly, he twirled the empty handcuffs around his finger, remaining in place because although it would've been funny to up and leave and let Hitsugaya search around for him, like he said earlier he just wasn't in the mood for it. Sougo was feeling a little less energetic since his return -- not necessarily because of going home and being plucked back here again. But because once he got there, he hadn't even realized he left. Being home and experiencing everything the way it would run, it was like his memories of this alternate universe had been erased.

And it made him realize how fragile these relationships here even were. At the end of this war, Sougo would still know who Hitsugaya was, sure. He had an advantage that a lot of the other people didn't have here. But he wouldn't remember they fought alongside each other, and he wouldn't remember this annoying but somehow worthwhile partnership.

He glanced up from his reverie by the time the captain made it up the steps and came into view. The handcuffs were strapped to his belt once again and he leaned forward. "Took you long enough."

The thought crossed Hitsugaya's mind again, like nothing ever happened. Sougo didn't look any different, just as Rhode hadn't when she'd returned from her brief visit home. He wasn't acting any different, and he remembered everything, despite a small attempt to tease Hitsugaya. The relief was still there, almost, almost bringing a smile to his face that all his doubts and stress about what to do with himself had no stock anymore.

The thought that he might have missed Sougo didn't come into his mind. Their partnership wasn't like many of the others he'd seen: partners who were best friends, lovers, practically family members to each other. Neither of them needed that extra presence along with their fighting partner. That was one of the very reasons he'd been so reluctant to think about partnering with anyone else. Where else could he find someone who didn't expect him to coddle them emotionally, put more stock into the relationship than actually was there. He didn't need that; Sougo and he trusted each other, knew each other better than most, and had each others' backs, however they might try to deny it.

He couldn't help studying his meister when he got closer, looking for any apparent change he could have missed. None. Moving to cross his arms over his chest, he looked up at Sougo, raising an eyebrow at the comment, "Took you long enough to get back here."

An amused smirk tugged at the corner of his lips after Hitsugaya's retort, "I dunno. I think I made pretty good time considering I went home for a few months." There was nothing noticeably different. This was Gintama, after all. They would probably never physically age -- unless he had come back from one episode earlier. Then he would have aged two years and been a megalomaniac emperor. But that would have been really confusing to explain by the time things went back to normal. And at least right now, Hitsugaya was of the delusion his home was remotely normal while he was just the strange one.

"What was it? A few days here? You didn't cry or anything, did you?"

"As much as you'd like that, there was no crying," he said with a touch more exasperation than he felt. So it had been a couple months for Sougo, huh? He wondered if like the others he'd talked to, his partner hadn't remembered this world at all while he'd been home. It seemed like as a general rule, no one could remember things they'd lived here upon their return. It made sense that they wouldn't; there were people in this world who could tell them their futures, so it'd make quite a mess if they knew what would happen.

He turned away from Sougo a little bit, giving a soft sigh, "If you'd have been gone for a lot longer, I would have had to find a new partner."

Sougo spared a glance at Hitsugaya after his remark before he leaned back against the stairs lazily, elbows draping over the one directly behind him. "You wouldn't have. You're a stubborn guy who's set in his ways. Even if it took me a month to get back, you'd come back to me..." he spoke with a confidence in his ability to predict Hitsugaya, but it was more than that. He had doubt that Hitsugaya would be able to find someone he worked so well with.

Let's face it, neither of them had the most agreeable personalities. It would likely cause dissonance in resonance with many other people around here. What they had was far too comfortable and familiar by this point to abandon just because BREW decided to cockblock them for a little while. "I know that's what you'd do because you're just like me."

And just like that, Sougo had called him on his bluff. Without even attempting to resonate with anyone else in this city, Hitsugaya didn't think he would have been able to trust in anyone enough to truly be compatible. His resonation with Sougo had been on a whim, and it was what he'd come to know when it came to fighting.

He watched his partner quietly, then gave a slight nod, "You're probably right." With that, he gestured his head in the direction he'd come from. "You seem tired," he wondered if it was just an process of world skipping so rapidly, "let's go home. Your stuff is all still there."

"It better be. That'd be a pain in the ass to have to collect it all again. And why the hell does it disappear in the first place? It's not like I bring it home with me," Sougo shook his head, taking a moment longer to just laze out on the stairs before he finally pushed himself up to his feet and proceeded down them (all the way down, ugh so many stairs.) He shoved his hands in his pockets, looking ahead of himself as he spoke.

"We should hit up the mission board. We fell behind a little bit. And I want you to at least fifteen souls by the end of next month."

He raised his eyebrows a little, glancing at his meister. It was right back to business, just like that. Hitsugaya felt a bit relieved that there was no wasting of time between them, just like it should be.

"That's 7 souls in roughly 30 days, so about 2 a week," he considered, then nodded approvingly, "we can definitely manage that, if not more." He gave Sougo a look, "You're ready to go back in full? No recovery time needed?"

"None needed. I mean, if Kondo-san would've been pulled back from the same point, I'm sure he would've been in the hospital for weeks. But I'm fine..." he extended the arm that had been injured here -- broken from their first big battle and then cut deeply from the earthquake. Everything about it was healed -- as though it never even happened. He had no pain, no catching, no scar. He flexed his fingers and then opened them, repeating the process a few times.

"You could almost say I restarted at a new save point after turning off the game for a while and by the time I got back to it, all my injuries were healed." Hitsugaya wouldn't understand the reference, but that was the nature of their relationship -- Sougo making stupid comments and Hitsugaya calling him an idiot.

He didn't even glance at his partner while he spouted on his usual nonsense, but he figured that he got the point anyway. Whatever had been happening in Sougo's world, he'd returned home exactly as if nothing had happened here in this world. And at least nothing had happened to him there that had followed him here.

"It's true what they say then?" he asked, looking over, "you didn't remember this world while you were home and nothing had changed?"

Sougo regarded Hitsugaya quietly, allowing silence to carry down the stairs with them. It almost felt a little too cold in this desert right now. He shook his head slowly, "No. Nothing about it. When we leave, it really is gone. I didn't even feel the slightest bit disoriented when I got back."

With a little nod, Hitsugaya spoke, "Good. I thought they might be lying to us when they told us time froze and things were normal in our own world. It's only more confusing when people come in from times that are far into the future from what we know."

Which he supposed was what Sougo was now for the people of his world. He thought too of what Takasugi had said, of Sougo hating him based on the person he was in the future, and his own leniency with Gin because he knew details of his motives from the future. BREW really hadn't put any thought into bringing people in, had it, if it wanted to avoid them warring with each other alone.

"It depends on the world. Some worlds are less confusing than others. Some worlds don't really have a lot of serious things that go on so it's not really that confusing to catch up. Me? I finally caught up to everyone that matters. I was behind for a little while. But it didn't really matter because we're roughly on the same page. Nothing important happens for us beyond what's happened already. It's not like if you had gone back to your world and become all grown up or something. You might even grow a few inches and reach my chin."

He pointed to his face with a faint smirk before canting his head curiously, "How does it work for you in your world? Aging-wise?"

Hitsugaya regarded Sougo with a small frown but ignored the jab at his size. It occurred to him that most people in this place didn't buy the fact that he wasn't a child, despite what he said. Some though, his partner included, didn't seem to care what age he said he was or appeared to be, but regarded him on his experience.

"Time moves very differently in Soul Society. I couldn't give you an exact ratio of days or years, but I was very young when I died, and in over 50 years I've aged perhaps 5 years or so."

He realized he hadn't really talked with anyone in this place about his death and the slow process of aging in his world. He was all too used to his age and size being pointed out, even in his world, where he was the youngest captain on record.

Coming back from the dead didn't seem that unusual anymore -- not in this world. But dying so young and then being forced into the position Hitsugaya held? No wonder he was always so serious. Sougo reached out, plopping his hand on the boy's head casually and ruffling his hair. It was a very patronizing action -- probably one most, except Hitsugaya's closest comrades, wouldn't even dare to try.

"Could be worse. You could be stuck as a real little kid forever. Kids can be pretty scary, but I don't think people would take you nearly as serious if you never grew up." The hand drew back so he could fish around in his pocket and pull out a piece of bubblegum, unwrapping it and sticking it in his mouth. "But it's a good thing in some ways -- you and me. We don't look like it, but we're both deadly threats."

He blew a bubble at the end of his words, the pink popping all over his face.

He was just moving to brush Sougo's hand away from him, frowning a little at the gesture. It might have been a sign of camaraderie but it still implied that he was being looked down on by Sougo to him.

He canted his head to the side at the rest of his statement. "You mean it's a good thing because people don't expect it from us?" he shrugged a little. "Being underestimated does cause the enemy to keep their guard down."

He watched his partner a little, unimpressed by the bubble gum. Their enemies weren't really rational creatures, to say the least, at least not the ones they went on missions to fight. The element of surprising opponents with their strength really only came into play if they were fighting humanoid opponents.

He absently pulled the gum from his nose, slurping it back into his mouth. "That's right. We're team pretty boy. We become a target because we look weak and that's when we slaughter." When they finally made it down the staircase from hell, he hopped off the last step, sparing a glance back up the thing. "Ugh. I didn't miss that, that's for sure. Who even thought all those stairs were a good idea? They really should put an elevator next to it."

He gave a glance back up at the stairs, feeling slight agreement with his partner. Back home, he hadn't had any trouble with long sprints of any sort, but his human body here felt the exertion more clearly.

But he didn't address it and looked back forward, "So that means there are things here you did miss?" Pausing he gave a small nod. "Ah... Lucy?"

They hadn't really talked about the situation with Lucy, even though he knew more or less what was going between his partner and the bubbly blonde. He wondered if he should mention to Sougo that he'd met her.

His shoulders lifted in an absent shrug. It wasn't as though he was going to just volunteer information that would make him seem weak. He wasn't a sadist for no reason, after all! "I didn't miss her bitching and nagging." But he did miss her. Except he didn't realize he missed her until he got back and it seemed like months ago since he last saw her. Sougo really did make a shitty boyfriend if he could forget about his girlfriend so easily.

"But honestly, I didn't remember anything enough to miss it. It's only now that I'm back in this place that I can think 'oh yeah. I used to do this months and months ago.' And then for you guys it's only been a few days. Talk about some serious jet lag. But I think resonance will come back to me like second nature. I'm not the type of guy who loses his fighting skills just 'cause I haven't put them to use in a while."

"It's a good thing. I wouldn't have you as my partner otherwise," he said, a small hint of pride in his voice. He'd been fairly idle since Sougo had gone, save for running around the city, and it'd been even awhile before that since he'd gone on a mission. Part of him felt an urge to get back into training as soon as possible.

"I wouldn't let you ditch me even if you wanted to. Otherwise I'd be stuck with some shitty mayonnaise cannon and who wants that?" Not him! Not ANYONE. It was too gross for words. He absently blows another bubble, popping it with his teeth. "Guess even BREW realized that guy was useless and gave him an equally useless weapon form."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Closed] Alone again in some new wicked little town

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

here we go with my head-canon! o/

Yaay for head canon!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject