Hitsugaya Toushiro was sitting on the tenth division building porch, thinking about how his life had changed since Kurosaki Ichigo and his friends had entered Soul Society, in order to save Kuchiki Rukia from certain obliteration.
At first he hadn't understood why the same boy who had stolen Rukia's powers, would then try to save her, risking his own life and that of his friends. It wasn't until the end, after he discovered the conspirers and their plan, while he was recovering from his injuries that he understood. He had seen Rukia and the red-headed guy hugging breathlessly, not ten feet from his bed in the fourth division building, as if it had been too much time since the last time they saw each other. He had seen, for the first time, tears leave Rukia's eyes without the young shinigami trying to hide them, and the relief in the boy's eyes because she was safely in his arms again. He realized then: they were nakama, maybe even more. It wasn't that the human stole her powers, she had given them to him of her own will.
Toushiro's world had changed in that moment. It wasn't black or white anymore. It had acquired countless shades. He knew that he cared for Momo because she was the closest thing to a sister he had, and that he always worried for Matsumoto not because she was his fukutaichou, but because she was his friend. They lived together, worked together, grieved together. One never moved a step without the other one following close. They were almost symbiotic. They put their lives in each other's hands without question. It was Matsumoto who saved him, almost forcing him to attend the shinigami academy, when he was just a kid. She had saved him again when he fought against Ichimaru Gin. When he saw her, Gin had simply retreated, he didn't want to fight her.
Hitsugaya taichou felt his lieutenant's reiatsu even before she left the house. He felt himself smirk.
"Couldn't sleep, Matsumoto?"
Matsumoto Rangiku smiled and sat on the porch, next to her captain, putting the cups she was carrying between them. The young captain eyed them warily.
"I'm not in the mood for sake, you know."
The blond woman laughed out loud.
"It's green tea. Baka!"
The boy frowned.
"You shouldn't talk like that to your taichou, Matsumoto."
She sighed.
"You could call me Rangiku when we are alone, taichou. I wouldn't consider it disrespectful. After all, we've known each other for a long time now."
Toushiro didn't answer. He drank from his cup, then he looked at her for the first time since she sat down next to him on the porch. She looked tired, exhausted really, and so very defeated. Suddenly he remembered the look on her face when they had discovered Ichimaru's treachery, the sadness in her eyes when she'd told him she'd be his opponent, the heartbreak in her look when he finally escaped with Aizen. Ichimaru Gin was her nakama long before they became shinigami. She had considered him a brother, a comrade. He betrayed her worse than he betrayed anybody else. The young man's blue and wise eyes softened.
"You know what I was thinking about?" He told her with a little smile. She looked at him and returned the smile.
"I never know what you're thinking about, taichou."
Toushiro sighed.
"I was thinking about Kurosaki-kun and Kuchiki-san."
Rangiku frowned.
"What about them?"
"I understood something, watching them earlier. He didn't steal her powers. She gave them to him of her own free will, to save his life."
Rangiku gasped.
"How do you know?"
He smiled sadly.
"I just can tell, by observing them. It sounds absurd, I know, but they were nakama even before they knew each other."
She nodded pensively. He looked firmly into her eyes.
"We were too, you know, Rangiku. You saved me. You shouldn't feel like you failed for what happened to Ichimaru taichou."
He noticed her eyes were shining with unshed tears.
"May I ask you something, taichou?"
He smiled.
"Of course. And you can call me Toushiro when we are alone, you know."
Rangiku chuckled wetly.
"Why did you choose me as your fukutaichou? Was it because you felt you owed me, seeing as I am the one who helped you to understand the voice within you?"
Toushiro studied her for a moment.
"No. not really. Actually, Old Yama wanted to assign the position to another shinigami."
She gasped again, her eyes big with surprise. He took her hand in both of his, showing the softer and younger side of himself.
"I told him I trusted nobody but you with my life… I still do…"
Rangiku made a strangled sound –half a sob, half a laugh– and threw herself at him, hugging him tightly. The stoic captain blushed like an adolescent.
"Rangiku! You're suffocating me!"
The busty woman laughed merrily.
"It's not my fault they're so happy to see you! It's time to bring out the sake, Toushiro!!"
The short captain groaned. Some things never changed, apparently.
Thank God.