"Brr!" shivered Rukia as she and Ichigo dashed inside his living room from the blizzard.
"It took you long enough!" grunted Renji as Toushiro sat in silence.
"Oh, shut up!" exclaimed Rangiku as she moved to smother the cold teenagers in her breasts. Quickly sidestepping the ever-excitable Matsumoto, Ichigo gave Renji a stern look.
"I can't help the weather, you know." He stared pointedly at Toushiro.
"Are you implying that Hyourinmaru would stoop to altering your weather?" the icy captain finally spoke, narrowing his eyes at the substitute shinigami.
"Nah, that doesn't sound like me," Ichigo winked. Orihime and Uryu appeared from the kitchen.
"You finally made it!" the voluptuous ginger exclaimed.
"Nice of you to finally join the party you organized," Uryu smirked.
"Do you really wanna start today?" Rukia arched an eyebrow. Uryu quickly changed the subject.
"Orihime and I have been cooking the soba," he said with a sly smile.
"He wouldn't let me add pocky to the broth." Orihime pouted, and the others thanked him inwardly.
"Cheer up, Inoue. We'll make something fun tomorrow." Rukia took Orihime's hand and glided into the kitchen, with Ishida close on their heels.
"Ugh." Rangiku sighed, "This party is no fun. Let's get some sake!" she jumped up and pranced to the dining room. Ichigo and Toushiro made no move to follow, so Renji groaned and reluctantly went after her.
"I'll make sure she doesn't do anything more stupid than usual," he said with a sheepish grin and left. Toushiro and Ichigo sat in silence for several tense moments, neither looking at the other, when Ichigo turned and stared the young captain dead in the eyes.
"What is your problem?" Ichigo asked exasperatedly.
"I don't have a problem," The captain responded stiffly. Ichigo rolled his eyes.
"Well, if you won't admit it, at least try to have fun while you're at a party," he sighed, "C'mon, let's go join the others." He moved to grab Toushiro's hand to pull him to his feet, but the young taicho moved it out of his reach and stood on his own.
"I don't need your help, Kurosaki."
Ichigo shook his head and moved towards the dining room, looking back to see if Toushiro was following.
It wasn't that Toushiro didn't want to tell him, though why, he did not know; he just couldn't. He didn't even know why he was intrigued by the moronic antics of the substitute shinigami. All he knew is that he was never this confused about someone before, and it pissed him off.
The hotheaded teenager stood observing the usually emotionless captain standing rigid, having an obvious internal struggle. The fact that the icy Hitsugaya's guard was slipping both worried and amused him, and a rampant chuckle slipped out, pulling the taicho out of his reverie.
"What are you staring at?" Toushiro chided, defensively.
"Nothing much." Ichigo scowled and made to walk off, but thought better of it when he noticed the captain flinch ever so slightly.
"Are you sure everything's alright, Toushiro?" Ichigo's chocolate eyes softened in concern.
"Fine, and it's Hitsugaya taicho." Hitsugaya brushed past him and entered the dining room where Matsumoto and Renji were thoroughly saturated with sake. I'll deal with them if it means getting away from him…