A/N: I really don't have anything to say about this one. Just enjoy it and leave a review, please. Thanks.
"Captain Hitsugaya?"
Toushirou Hitsugaya turned away from the pale face of his childhood best friend and stared at the tall, skinny blond standing in the doorway. He waited, a little impatiently, for Izuru Kira to continue with whatever he wanted to say,
"How's Momo doing?"
"Captain Unohana said she should pull through", Hitsugaya replied.
"That's good." Kira's hands fiddles nervously with the white sash tied around his narrow waist. "Umm...I..."
"It's OK. No need to apologize. You were doing your job, I won't fault you for that. Matsumoto actually asked me to have you go drink with her if I saw you. Go ahead and go."
Kira hesitated. His whole body trembled and Hitsugaya could see his heavy-lidded blue eyes were on the verge of tears. He wondered if the blond would ever stop beating himself up over the chain of events that had played out a week ago.
"Kira, no one's blaming any of this on you-if we were, you'd be in a prison cell awaiting punishment. Now go. Don't keep Matsumoto waiting."
Kira bowed.
"Thank you", he whispered and left the room.
Kira's next stop had been Matsumoto's place anyway. He still owed her an apology for coming at her with Wabisuke.
He pushed open the door to her apartment since she'd been waiting for him anyway.
"Ummm...Matsumoto?..."
She smiled at him warmly.
"Are you hungry, Izuru?", she asked. "Do you want some soba buns?"
"Matsumoto...uhhh...back there..."
"You were coming at me quite seriously..." she burst into laughter. "But I don't recall doing the same!"
Kira moaned and hung his head.
Matsumoto set a plate of food in front of him and poured him a cup of sake. She pressed a pair of chopsticks into his hand.
"Go ahead and eat. You need to gain about twenty pounds so you can be a real man. Like Renji or Shuuhei."
"I need more than just weight. Real men don't draw their swords on women", Kira muttered bitterly. He grabbed his glass of sake and swallowed it in one gulp. It tasted awful and burned his tongue, but he didn't care.
Matsumoto refilled his cup for him. At this point, a sensible person would have realized Kira had already had enough to drink and would have given him tea instead. Matsumoto however had gotten drunk past the point of sensibility.
"Ugh. Matsumoto. I feel sick...", he groaned.
"It's OK. Just drink your sake."
"I never wanted to go after you, you know...but Captain Ichimaru said..." a watery gulp escaped Kira and he drank more sake. "He said they wouldn't hurt Momo if I did..."
Matsumoto gently patted his back.
"I know. It's all Gin's fault." Her eyes suddenly glazed over with anger and she threw one of her sake bottles across the room. The ceramic container burst, spraying ice-cold sake all over them.
"GIN, YOU PIG!!", she screamed. "WITH YOUR SQUINTY LITTLE EYES! I HOPE YOU DIE!"
Kira waved his cup.
"Yeah, yeah", he cheered. "Matsumoto! Matsumoto! I'm going to drink until I puke!"
Matsumoto ignored him. She brushed her long red hair away from her face and gazed out the window.
I wouldn't have minded being your prisoner a little longer. Rangiku, I'm sorry.
Gin's apology was till on her mind. Though he had smiled, his voice had sounded genuinely sad. No, his apology had definitely been sincere.
She sighed.
"Stupid man", she muttered. "Were you that afraid of being loved? I hate you..."
Her gut lurched, a feeling that had nothing to do with sake. She could hate Sousuke Aizen-she already did hate him-and in time, she might be able to accept Kaname Tousen as her enemy. Gin Ichimaru, however, was not someone she could hate. Her feelings for him were too strong. She had more pleasant memories of Gin than she did unpleasant ones. In her heart, Gin's good traits outweighed his bad ones.She drained the rest of her sake in a single gulp and poured herself another cup. She knew her life would be easier if she could learn to hate Gin.
Shuuhei Hisagi had never felt so confused as he did now. Though he was far from a child-he knew he bore the look of a human in his twenties and his maturity made him seem older-he couldn't help but feel like a lost little boy seeking answers. Why had Tousen left? Out of all the captains, Tousen had been the most peace-loving and justice-driven. The man had hated violence. Hisagi himself had idolized Tousen, had hoped to one day be like him. He could recall to mind so clearly his first meeting with Tousen.
"So you're my new lieutenant", Tousen had said, his sightless eyes never once leaving him. Even though he was blind, Tousen had given Hisagi the impression that he could see things better than any man with vision could. "Your reputation precedes you. Not because your skills are so great, but because it took you multiple tries to pass the entrance exam."
Hisagi had felt warmth creep into his cheeks.
Tousen had chuckled.
"Your temperature went up. I didn't mean to embarrass you. It's not as bad as it sounds. Actually, it's good. It shows you are a determined individual and you know how to pick yourself up when you fall."
Hisagi sighed again. So this is what he'd been reduced to doing-wandering around aimlessly while he remembered things. The memory of Tousen praising him their first meeting had always made him smile. Today, however, it left him feeling just plain confused. He stopped in his tracks at the sight of an extremely tall, broad-shouldered man standing before a stake in the ground. The large stake was surrounded by smaller ones. Saijin Komamura, with his strange, dog-like appearance, had been Tousen's closest friend. Hisagi approached the older man just in time to hear the words strong enough to break his heart:
"Friend of Tousen, though I do not know your name, I ask you-what would you have done or said to him to convince him to stay?"
Hisagi smiled weakly at Komamura. The dog-faced man returned the strained smile with one of his own and Hisagi saw the tears that rolled along Komamura's snout, clinging to the golden fur that covered his face. Those tears put Hisagi at ease and gave him the courage to address something that was bothering him.
"Captain Komamura...Do you think Captain Tousen will come back here?"
Komamura nodded.
"Undoubtedly", he said. "And when he does, you and I, with our own hands, will knock the cobwebs from his head."
Hisagi nodded even as he wondered if they'd be able to deliver Tousen back to justice.
"I was thinking", he told Komamura. "Captain Unohana said that Aizen used an illusion only a blind person would be able to see through. That kind of makes me wonder if Aizen wasn't using Captain Tousen. Manipulated him somehow."
Komamura nodded.
"I've wondered the same thing. Guess we'll find out."
Komamura rested a giant paw on Hisagi's shoulder. It was warm and comforting.
"Shall we go?", the dog-man asked.
Hisagi nodded and they walked off in silence.
"OI! SHUUHEI! COME HAVE A DRINK WITH US!"
Hisagi stopped short at the sound of a woman calling to him. Rangiku Matsumoto stood in the window of her apartment, waving a sake bottle at him.
Hisagi hesitated, unsure what to do.
Komamura smiled at him, encouraging him with his eyes to go.
"WHAT'S WRONG?", Matsumoto insisted. "DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING BETTER TO DO? COME HAVE A DRINK. THE SAKE'S ICE COLD."
"Yeah, OK", Hisagi agreed, going over to the voluptuous woman's apartment. "That sounds good."
"What about you, Captain Komamura?", Matsumoto offered,
"No. No, thank you", Komamura said. Before Matsumoto could protest, he was gone.
"Man, what a stiff!", Matsumoto said, stepping away from the window so Hisagi could climb through it. "But at least he stopped wearing that iron pot on his head."
"Maybe since he's part dog, alcohol is toxic to him or something" Hisagi shrugged his shoulders. "Anyway, I am already used to seeing him without the mask. His real face isn't as bad as he thinks it is."
"Yeah. It's a big improvement", Matsumoto agreed. "I really didn't like that helmet. Made it seem like he had something to hide."
Hisagi was about to point out Komamura had been hiding something when a groan caught his attention. He glanced down at the floor, where a painfully thin blond man lay sprawled across the ground.
"Woah, Izuru!", he gasped. "What happened to you!? You're wasted!"
He knelt down beside Kira and shook his shoulder. Hisagi heard Matsumoto offer tea to someone outside.
"TEA!? GIVE ME SOME, RANGIKU! IZURU IS FOAMING FROM THE MOUTH!" He slapped Kira's face. "IZURU! WAKE UP, IZURU...Why are you only wearing your loincloth!?"
Matsumoto went on talking to whoever she was talking to outside, completely oblivious to the black-haired man's frantic requests and the semi-conscious blond on the floor.
"Rangiku! Please, hurry!", Hisagi cried.
"Oh, the tea's on the table, Shuuhei", Matsumoto waved her hand at him and turned her attention back to Captain Kyouraku.
"No, you can't have a drink...Nanao will get mad at ME for giving you alcohol. Actually, Nanao was looking for you..."
Hisagi frowned. He was afraid to leave Kira for fear the younger man would start convulsing. He'd never seen anyone foam from the mouth before. Carefully he eased Kira up off the ground and carried him to the table. He propped him up in a chair and fixed a cup of tea the way he knew Kira liked it.
Kira cracked an eye open.
"Isai?", he asked weakly, using his nickname for Hisagi.
"Shh", Hisagi said, helping Kira take a few sips of tea.
"I don't feel good...", Kira moaned, pushing the cup away. "Please, Isai. I can't drink anymore."
"Izuru, you've got to. It's only tea. It's good for you."
"Nooooo..." Kira's head dropped onto the table. He was out cold once more.
Hisagi frowned again and sniffed the cup. Come to think of of it, it did smell a little weird. He brought the cup to his mouth and took a sip. Sake. Matsumoto had put sake in the tea. The combination of green tea mixed with sake and sugar was revolting. He had just made Kira drink the single most disgusting beverage in all of soul society. It was no wonder the blond had pushed the cup away. Surely there was no person with a stomach strong enough to take such a thing.
He retrieved Kira's hakama, gi, and sash and brought them to his friend.
"Come on, Izuru. Get dressed", he said.
"Too hot", Kira complained.
Hisagi shook the clothes at his younger friend.
"There's a woman in here! Be decent!"
"Oh, leave him alone, Shuuhei", Matsumoto cut in, seemingly just remembering she had visitors. "He's not hurting anyone."
"He's in nothing but his loincloth!", Hisagi argued.
"It's fine. Now sit down and have a drink."
She poured him a glass of sake and set it in front of him. He didn't like the look she was giving him, but he never-the-less took a hesitant sip from his cup while she drank straight from the bottle. The sake was extremely strong and set his tongue on fire. He winced.
"Rangiku. It's..." he rolled his tongue in his mouth, trying to make the burning stop "...very strong."
"Would you prefer the tea?", she asked.
Hisagi took a big gulp of sake.
"No, this is fine", he said quickly.
Matsumoto flopped back in the chair across from him. One of her large breasts popped out of her gi. Hisagi made a noise as though being strangled and covered his face with his hands.
"Be careful where you swing those things! You could bludgeon someone to death with them."
Matsumoto could see him peeking through his fingers, his face underneath a brilliant scarlet. She grinned.
"Shuuhei, are you blushing? Don't tell me there's an innocent person hiding under such a sexy appearance."
She fixed herself and rubbed against him.
"You can look now. I'm decent."
Hisagi dropped his hands.
"I think you've had enough to drink, Rangiku", he said. His face was still horribly crimson.
"No", she replied. "I'm still in pain...I...I don't want to accept that he's gone..."
"You could drink sake until you passed out like Izuru here and you'll still feel the pain. Let yourself grieve and move on..."
His eyes slipped closed and he drew a deep breath, as though in great pain.
"You're a fine one to talk, Shuuhei Hisagi! You've been so immersed in your work that there's no way you could have had the time to grieve properly!"
"Captain Tousen and I were not lovers. My case is quite a bit different from yours. Yes, it hurts to lose a respected teacher, but I am willing to bet my year's salary it hurts a lot more to lose a boyfriend."
Matsumoto nodded.
"It hurts so much..."
She reached for the sake bottle again, but in her drunken state, Hisagi was much quicker. The black-haired man pulled the sake bottle away as the redheaded woman tried to curl her fingers around the neck of it.
"No fair", she whined.
Hisagi gave her his mostly-full cup.
"You may drink this-and only this."
The woman's pretty lips formed a pout.
"I guess it's better than nothing...but if you keep the bottle, you have to finish drinking it."
Hisagi's eyes widened.
"No way. I'll die if I drink all the sake in here."
"You have to. You're not going to let such good sake go to waste are you?"
Hisagi frowned but went ahead and brought the bottle to his lips. He took a drink, wincing once more as the sharp taste rolled over his tongue.
"So how are you coping", Matsumoto asked.
"You called it. I've thrown myself into my job."
He took another mouthful of sake. Admittedly, this one was much easier to swallow. He blinked a few times to try to steady himself. His head was starting to spin and the room had grown painfully hot. He ran his hands up his bare, muscular arms, trying to push up sleeves that weren't there.
Matsumoto smiled sweetly.
"If it's too much for you, I'll take it off your hands."
Hisagi shook his head. There wasn't much in the bottle now. He brought the bottle back to his mouth and drained the contents. His stomach lurched this time and he dropped the empty bottle on the floor in his haste to get to the window.
He hung onto the window frame as his insides seemed to twist inside out. Matsumoto gently supported him until he was done being sick. Then she helped him back to the table and sat him in his chair.
"Ready for round two?", she asked, pulling another sake bottle out of no where and setting it on the table.
Hisagi screamed.
"Isai? Why are you screaming?", Kira asked.
"Oh, good. You're awake, Izuru, you can join us."
Kira saw his life flash before his eyes.
Having finished his visit with Momo Hinamori, Hitsugaya decided it was time to check on Matsumoto and see what his lazy lieutenant was up to. He pushed open the door to her apartment without knocking and walked in. And blinked. And looked around the room. And blinked again. And pinched himself to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Kira and Hisagi were both lying on the floor, in nothing but their loincloths.
"We're not taking it easy...", Kira babbled.
Hisagi lifted his head up off the ground and stared at Hitsugaya.
"Please...help me..."
Hitsugaya started to walk towards them when he heard a gasp as though someone had just been rescued from drowning.
"Oh, thank goodness! I thought I was going to die!"
Hitsugaya ran to his lieutenant's side.
"What's wrong, Matsumoto!?"
"Oh, Captain!", Matsumoto gasped. "It was awful. They were trying to crush me and I couldn't breathe..."
"You don't say", Hitsugaya said, turning his face from her in disgust.
"I tried leaving them out more, but then they get caught on things and it hurts..."
"Shut up!"
"But Captain..."
Hitsugaya looked over at Hisagi and Kira. They looked seriously ill.
"I'm sending some people from Squad Four to help them. I want you to get some rest, OK?"
Matsumoto nodded.
A little while later, Hitsugaya peeked into the medical relief center. Kira and Hisagi were lying side-by-side on hospital beds, getting massaged by two nurses.
"Isai...it...hurts...", Kira ground out.
Hisagi reached over and squeezed Kira's hand.
"I think I'm at my limit...If I die...please take over my work..."
Hisagi let out a blood-curdling scream that made Hitsugaya shudder.
"No, Isai! Get a hold of yourself...AUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH"
Kira's scream was worse.
"Your liver is weakening, isn't it? This is from drinking too much sake", the pretty nurse with brown hair massaging Kira's foot said.
Both men screamed again
"Ah, Captain Hitsugaya", a blond-haired nurse said, seeing him. "Is everything alright?"
Hitsugaya nodded.
"Just checking up on those clowns."
"They'll be alright...though I imagine they won't want any more sake for a while. They're still very sick from their alcohol poisoning."
"Thank you", Hitsugaya replied.
He left.
His last stop before going to his own apartment to get some sleep was to check up on Matsumoto. Once again he stood before his lieutenant's home, but this time, he knocked.
"Come in", Matsumoto called in a raw voice that was completely unlike her usual cheerful tone.
Hitsugaya pushed open the door and walked in.
"You OK?", he asked.
Matsumoto, curled in a chair with a pink blanket wrapped around her, smiled weakly.
"Bad question, Captain.", she said.
His green eyes met her blue ones.
"I want you to take the day off tomorrow", he said firmly.
Matsumoto sat up in her chair.
"Captain-"
He held up his hand.
"I don't want to hear anything. You're in no shape to work. Take the day off and get yourself sorted out."
The woman hung her head.
"Understood, Sir."
"Good."
Hitsugaya left her then. He should have paid better attention to her, should have noticed how badly she was suffering. Not just his lieutenant, but her friends, too. The event that had played out that afternoon had shown him just how much he'd missed.
He sighed. He would be keeping a better watch on everyone from now on. Eventually, the wounds would heal, and Matsumoto would go back to being her usual bouncy self. Kira would stop blaming himself for what happened to Hinamori and see that no one hated him. Hisagi would smile again.
Until the day came when everyone returned to normal, he would watch over them and deal with their normally unacceptable behavior. He would deal with sorrows being drowned in sake, and the tears and sickness that would follow.
It was all anyone could do.