(FOR THE RECROD: this story was formerly known as the "Untitled story" kudos to axelslilgurl for coming up with a title)

“Hey,” Shuhei gently shook the beautiful woman awake. Her eyes were scrunched and her lips were pulled into a pouty frown. “Do you want something to eat?”

“Where’s that damned cat…?” Rangiku groaned as she rolled away from where Shuhei sat on the edge of the bed.

“Cat…?” Shuhei wondered curiously.

“The one that crapped in my mouth,” grumbling, Rangiku rose to her feet. Shuhei shook his head in bewildered laughter.

“You kind of had it coming…” Shuhei twitched his shoulders in an amused manner, though her eyes were still sad and tired. “How much did you drink last night?”

“Too much,” Rangiku made a face at him. “Where’d you sleep?”

“Ah…” Shuhei’s neck reddened suddenly. He had very tentatively considered joining the beautiful woman in his bed, but he determined that would be taking advantage of the situation. Shuhei had slept on the couch instead, but the temptation was still strong…

“Hey, Matsumoto,” a cool voice called from the entryway of the barracks. Rangiku sighed. That voice, while still as serious as ever, was no longer bursting with vitality. It had been replaced by a tired old tone of a man who had lived too long and seen too many bad things.

“Coming, Captain Hitsugaya,” Rangiku sighed as she stumbled to her feet and into the hallway where her diminutive, snowy-haired superior awaited her.

“Uh, Captain,” Shuhei muttered, following her, “can I offer you anything to eat or—?”

“You need some more rest, Hisagi,” Hitsugaya’s tone was reserved and clipped, though a large amount of empathy softened his cool aqua eyes. “I apologize for my Lieutenant’s lack of consideration.”

“No, it’s—”

“Forgive me, Lieutenant Hisagi,” Rangiku bowed to him, suddenly more distant. As Hitsugaya gave him a final nod, the boy and his subordinate flash-stepped away from the 9th Company.

“You shouldn’t impose on Hisagi like that,” Hitsugaya told her frustratedly. “You of all people should have some idea of what he’s going through.”

“I’m sorry, Captain. I wasn’t thinking,” Rangiku was shocked to feel her eyes fill up with tears. The way Hitsugaya had said that made her think all too much of Gin.

“Matsumoto, don’t look at me like that,” he sighed as they stopped short. The young man already wanted to pull back his words as a mournful loneliness flooded his Lieutenant’s eyes.

“I couldn’t help it,” she insisted suddenly, some of the old fire reentering her. “You’re the one who—”

“Shaddup and get to the Lieutenant’s meeting,” he cut her off with a stern bark. “You’re only lucky I came and got you. Iba might have killed someone if he found out you slept with Hisagi.”

“What?” Rangiku yelped. Her captain suddenly looked very uncomfortable. He shiftily avoided her gaze as he suddenly sped up his speech.

“Well, I guess everyone has their own separate ways of dealing with this sort of thing and I certainly wouldn’t know anything about this method, but—”

Rangiku mouthed like a fish out of water as Hitsugaya’s implications sunk in. Oh, it certainly looked that way, but—

“And, I mean you both had a lot to t-talk about, I’m quite sure,” Hitsugaya’s speech got even faster as he looked desperately as though he would rather be anywhere else in the world.

“Captain, we didn’t—”

“Okay, okay!” Hitsugaya jumped backwards almost a yard, his demeanor clearly expressing his disbelief. “You don’t have to tell me if you did or didn’t talk!” Muttering something about paperwork, her captain embarrassedly flash-stepped away from the courtyard.

“…damn him to hell…” Rangiku glared frumpily after the snowy-haired young man. She stalked off in the direction of this morning’s Lieutenant’s meeting.



Shuhei gave Rangiku a small smile as she entered the courtyard a little later. Chojiro Sasakibe of the 1st Company gave her an important nod and glanced around the room.

“It seems we’re just missing Kira,” he sighed frustratedly after a moment. Renji’s scowled angrily as Shuhei muttered some pretty harsh words beneath his breath. Isane narrowed her eyes into a cool glare at the man’s pompous demeanor.

“S’there a problem with that?” Rangiku barked, righteously furious. She was still a little mad at her captain for assuming her to be such a scarlet woman, and Sasakibe’s pretentious attitude wasn’t helping things.

“When one gets promoted to Lieutenant, Matsumoto,” the man said in a clipped tone, “one accepts certain responsibilities. One also should not allow personal loss to get in the way of duties.”

Rangiku stepped close to the man, a snarl twisting through her beautiful features. “Oh yeah? Let’s see how you feel when the person you admire most in the world betrays you and helps to almost kill one of your best friends! Let’s see how concerned with duties,” she spat the word, “you are then!”

To the Lieutenants’ collective shock, with the last sentence, Rangiku grabbed the white-haired man by the front of his coat and slammed him into the wall. Everybody waited with baited breath, unsure if they would see yet another battle between two Lieutenants.

“Rangiku,” Shuhei closed a hand around her upper arm. “That’s enough. We’re all tired and we’re all freaked out, so just calm down.” He gently pulled the beautiful woman away from her quarry. Narrowing his eyes at the Lieutenant of the 1st Company, he added, “And Chojiro? You should really learn when to shut the hell up.”