I guess this could fall into either the AU or Smile category (I just really wanted to draw this more than anything else). It’s been snowing a lot here lately, so I wanted to draw a nice peaceful stroll at night.
A/N: Ahh, I missed the actual day!! I feel so bad for coming in a lil late, hope this is fine!
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo.
She looked outside the window of her small room. The sky had been immensely cloudy and gray and the weather cold and harsh, far more so than the autumn season warranted. Many in the village had suspected the worst and she couldn’t help the fear she herself felt. But the day was looking much better, still no blue skies but the clouds white and safe. The girl smiled to herself, hopeful that this day was the first step to the villagefolk feeling better.
She rushed out of her room and into another one, slightly bigger in size and belonging to her grandmother. The elderly woman looked at her and the girl saw her smile widen.
“Granny! The weather’s so much better!” the girl exclaimed, jumping up and down. “I can go out now? Please? Pleeease?”
The grandmother laughed softly and patted the girl on her head. “Yes yes Momo. It seems the danger has passed on. I think it’s safe enough for you to hunt now.”
“Yes!” Momo yelled, before bounding out of the room and back into hers. She hurriedly changed from her sleeping wear into clothes fit for the outdoors. Before she could run out her grandmother called out to her.
“Do remember to be careful Momo!”
“I will!” Momo called back. With that, she ran for the nearby woods.
Or, “nearby” more like. While they encircled the small village it still took one an hour to truly be in the woods, which was the case for Momo despite her house being on the edge of the village lines. The time it took to get there gave her a chance to calm herself, let the nerves and adrenaline of the hunt and the joy of being able to do something she does well fade away into a need for food for her small family. Once she was well into the trees she crouched down and watched for any animals to pass by, watched for any change in the rough terrain of the forest floor, kept an ear out for any noises, whether from her or from a foreign source...
...
...
...There!
“Byakurai!”
Said in a harsh whisper, and a lightning bolt followed after. The four legged creature fell with a thump, and the sounds of nearby animals frightened by the unseen threat of the girl filled the air for a moment before silence filled the air again. Momo breathed out a sigh. For just a few minutes, she had some time for herself, with no worry for other animals possibly charging her. Byakurai was a simple spell, but still quite bright and loud. It tended to scare off the surrounding animals away from her and gave her a brief time of relief.
She went over to the dead animal; a particularly big stag. Her eyes filled with sadness, Momo looked at the creature. She knelt down, closed her eyes, and offered a prayer for it, as she and the other villagers always did, giving thanks for the food it will provide and asking forgiveness for ending its life.
As she was about to get up, perform the Horin spell to lift the animal and bring it back, she heard something. A rustle, in a bush near her.
Her head snapped towards the sound, alert and tense. An animal, coming back so soon after Byakurai? She’s never seen such a thing happen, but that could mean this would be her first time. She crouched back down, preparing herself to launch another spell, waiting for the noise to happen again though she was sure she knew where it came from. Momo stared at the spot, waiting, waiting, waiting for something to happen, something to move.
And something did.
From the patch of bushes, in front of her to her left, she saw something come out of them. A thick, dark liquid, slowly making its way across the uneven grounds. Blood. Something was bleeding. Still living, still moving.
Momo felt panic set in, and she tried her best to push it back and think. An animal that was here before she was? No, no, it would be trashing about, crying out in pain. At least, in her experience. Perhaps this was different? It couldn’t be another person, right? Surely they would call out for help? She swallowed down the lump in her throat and slowly made her way towards the patch. An animal, she puts it out its misery, offers another prayer, brings it home with the stag. A person, she helps to the best of her ability. Simple, right?
She takes her hands and forced the twigs and leaves apart.
“----!”
She jumps, bringing her arms to her face and squeezing out a Seki spell instinctively. She could feel a cold wind wrap around her thick pant-legs and saw her small barrier covered in frost before it cracked and shattered.
Momo could feel herself shaking. She looked down at the now-exposed figure.
A small boy. Even in the dark of the woods his hair shone bright white. His sea green slitted eyes glaring at her in desperation and fear. He was breathing quick, quiet, shallow breaths, and Momo’s eyes traveled down from his head to where his tense arm was clutching at a gaping wound in his leg.
“Y...You’re hurt...” she sputtered the obvious, unsure of how else to react. She went to come down to his level. “I-I can help you-”
“----! ----!” he swipe his hand and bared his teeth - his fanged teeth - and screamed something she couldn’t understand. He hissed in pain at the movement, and she could hear his breath hitch and hasten even more.
‘What do I do?’ She couldn’t get close to him with him lashing out at her, and they don’t seem to speak the same language. Something, there had to be something she could do to show this... boy, that she was trying to help. ‘Think, think, think...! That’s it!’
He wouldn’t keep his eyes off of her and she used that to her advantage. She took a deep breath and produced a small flame at her fingertips and put it against the skin of her arm. She winced at the pain, but the look of shock on the boy’s face meant that what she was doing was working. She put the flame out and started performing healing magic, the soft green glow taking over her hand as she put it over the small burn.
“Help.” she said slowly, hoping to get the word understood as her burn healed away. The boy’s eyes were wide now, the look of fear replaced with a sort of wonder.
She held her glowing hand out, slowly, hoping she wasn’t threatening. “Help.” she said again.
It felt like an impossibly long passed before the boy moved his bloodied hand away from his wound. He was still tense, still eyeing her with those large, cat-like eyes, but he made no move as she went closer. The better look at the wound nearly made her gag. It was horrible, a gaping gash running down the side of his calf, the muscle of the leg peeking through the oozing blood. Momo could feel her stomach lurch and she swallowed back the urge to vomit and she placed both hands on the wound and injected more of her magic into the healing spell. Slowly, slowly, far more slowly than her small little burn, the wound was closing up, muscle coming back together and skin finally closing.
Momo slumped over, completely drained. She had never had to heal something as bad as the one this boy had. She tried to stand but couldn’t even gather the strength to get to her knees, falling to her side instead. Was it even worth it? This “boy” wasn’t human - one needs no training to tell, no human could live that long with an injury so severe. And what brief display of power he showed in an instinctual moment was even more worrying.
She felt herself be moved side to side. Momo looked up to find those strange eyes look down on her, the young boy’s face now overtaken with worry. His face, so human, so genuine, did it really matter if it wasn’t? She felt a small surge of energy run through her, enough to sit up. The boy was awkward, clearly not knowing what to do, so it was up to her to get out of this.
She tried hard to think, exhaustion making her thoughts slow and foggy. He couldn’t stay here, and she needed to get home. Why not kill two bird with one stone?
“Home.”
She watched the boy tilt his head in confusion. “H-o-m-e?” he repeated back to her. Nodding her head, she tried once again to stand. She got much farther, nearly a slouched stand, but faltered. Momo braced for when her face hit to hard ground but felt herself be caught. She felt her arm get wrapped around the smaller boy’s shoulder. It was awkward, but she could move.
And thus they walked, slowly but steadily, the young inhuman boy following the pointing finger of the girl towards her home. Nothing was said between the two - what could be said between two people who only shared one word? It made the time pass by so slowly, and Momo looked up in slight horror to find the night sky greet her as she looked up once the canopy of the woods cleared.
She never thought she’d take for granted how short an hour truly was. The hour long trek between the woods and her village transformed into something that felt like days on her tired mind and body. Momo could see it was having its effect on the boy as well with his constant adjustment of her body weight and his own slouching figure.
But finally, finally, she could see the little house she shared with her grandmother, lantern light still on and a huddled figure on the back doorway.
“Home,” she croaked out, looking at the boy. He looked back, relief clear in his eyes.
“Home?” he repeated back, the relief pouring into his voice.
Momo couldn’t help but nod vigorously, life coming back to her at the thought of sleeping in her bed and hugging her grandmother.
Speaking of her-
“Granny!” she yelled. The boy jumped at the sudden life that’s rushed back into her.
The elderly woman’s figure moved, possibly asleep from waiting but certainly awake now at the sound of her voice. Momo pulled away from the boy and ran sloppily forward, and she could him yelp before his footsteps followed hers. She soon crossed the distance and fell into her grandmother’s arms, lax and crying.
“By the Gods Momo!” Granny chastised, but Momo could feel the small hand caress her back in comfort. “You’ve had me so worried! What in the world-”
Momo heard her grandmother cut off mid-way, and she looked up to see why. The elderly woman’s was tense, looking behind her, and Momo followed her eyes to the young boy with white hair and slitted sea green eyes.
An uncomfortable silence stretched between the three of them. Momo tried to think about what to say to her grandmother, to convince her this inhuman boy needed somewhere to stay if only for a little while, but in her panic and exhaustion nothing would come to mind. It seemed an eternity passed before the boy started to back away, clearly trying to leave.
“Wait!”
It came out before she could think. The noise made the two of them look at her, both with shock on their faces.
“Momo-”
Please, Granny!” she pleaded, clutching onto her granny’s clothes with the little strength she had left. “He helped me make it back here! I-I healed him a lot and-and it made me really tired but-but he helped me come home! He didn’t have to do that, Granny, please let him stay! Just for a little while, please!”
She could feel tears tickling her eyes but she kept her stare solid on her granny, hoping she could convince her. Her grandmother opened and closed her mouth, trying to come up with something to say Momo was sure, but she eventually just sighed. Momo felt a smile spread across her face, and she turned towards the boy, standing there by himself. Not anymore.
She waved him over, and he did, slowly and with uncertainty. Once he was close enough she hugged him. He tensed immediately at the action, but didn’t reject it. She pulled back, looking him in his strange eyes, and she realized something in that moment.
She pointed to herself. “Momo.”
He took a moment. “M-o-m-o?”
She nodded. “Momo.” She then points to him. A brief moment of thinking comes across his face before she sees the moment he figured out what she was asking.
He points to himself. “Toshiro.”
Momo, so happy to learn this strange creature’s name, goes to jump as she usally does. But that was the straw that broke her back and she stumbled forward, unable to keep upright by herself anymore. She’s once again caught by the bo- Toshiro. Caught by Toshiro. And he follows her grandmother inside. It was sometime during this walk that she finally passed out, a smile on her face.
