One late night, after leaving Hinamori safely sleeping in the 4th division, Hitsugaya was on his way home, walking through the streets of the Sereitei, practically empty in the evening.
He looked around and sighed, hesitating outside the doors of his quarters before turning and giving into the subconscious pervasive loneliness. He headed to a different destination, the 10th division headquarters.
He could hear a loud racket even before he entered. It was the newly familiar drunken chorus of "Gin pig-head! Gin pig-head!" eagerly chanted by Rangiku and Kira as they watched each other do shots.
Hitsugaya entered to see Rangiku sitting cross-legged on the sofa and Kira next to her, clutching a trash bag and looking a bit sick.
"Captain!" Rangiku exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"
He sighed wearily, "Sadly, Matsumoto, the paperwork will not complete itself."
Rangiku waved her hand in the air as though dismissing his concerns, "Care to join us?"
Hitsugaya glared at her. "The office is hardly a place for this ruckus, Matsumoto."
"We have tea, too, captain!" said Rangiku, rather too eagerly, "You can probably use it after sitting in the 4th division all day."
Hitsugaya wearily accepted a cup of tea. It tasted a bit odd, but he dismissed it as Matsumoto's lack of domestic skills. After he swallowed, there was a bit of a kick.
.
Half an hour later, there were three people chanting, "Gin pig-head, Gin pig-head!"
Kira frowned, cocking his head and looking at Hitsugaya, who was quickly gaining enthusiasm for their mantra.
"Rangiku-san, you didn't happen to spike his tea, did you?"
Rangiku winked at him conspiratorially, "OHOHOHOHO. What kind of person do you think I am, Kira?"
Kira sighed, "So you did."
"What's going on!" Hitsugaya barked, "Why did you stop!"
"OHOHOHO!" Rangiku laughed again, pulling Hitsugaya into a tight hug and suffocating him with her ample chest before he managed to free himself. "You see Captain! Isn't it fun!"
Hitsugaya stood up sharply, swaying a bit, "NO, Matsumoto! We must do paperwork!"
He waved his hands around, gesturing around the office, "The office is not a place for these distractions!"
"You mean Kira-kun, sir?" Rangiku asked, puzzled.
"Well, Kira as well, but those!" he said, pointing dramatically to a tall white vase with two flowers, set neatly on the window. He referred to Rangiku's stolen minutes gazing at the flowers when she should have been efficiently sifting through the paperwork.
"You need to let go, Matsumoto, it's interfering with your productivity! Kira! Go back to your division!"
Kira frowned, lifting his head up from the trash bag long enough to say, rather philosophically, "No disrespect, Captain Hitsugaya, but it's not very different from what you're doing, spending all day in the 4th division with Hinamori."
The room suddenly quieted as Hitsugaya plopped down into his chair with uncharacteristic childishness, observing the two vice-captains. There were no sounds except for the occasional retching from Kira.
Even Rangiku quieted, staring morosely at the flowers on her desk.
She was finally the one to break the silence, with a crash, as she tips the vase over with the flat of her palm.
"Truth and faith" she said softly.
"What?" asked the two men, wondering if she had even spoken.
"One white chrysanthemum and one daisy," she explained, looking at the floor, "One means truth, and the other means faith."
Kira laughs bitterly from inside the trash bag, startling Hitsugaya a bit, who was still adjusting to his altered perceptions.
"At least he left you flowers, Rangiku-san!"
Kira continued, rather hysterically, "He left me months of unfinished paperwork for the 3rd division! And that's not all you know! Like that's not enough! There's more paperwork you have to do when your Captain disappears into a hole in the sky with some Menos. So I guess he left me that paperwork too!"
His rant was interrupted by another bout of retching, and he groaned, reaching for the trash bag that was fast becoming his second skin.
It was Rangiku's turn to sigh as she rubbed his back understandingly.
And then there was another muffled statement from inside the trash bag, "You were right, though, Rangiku-san."
"Hmm?"
"You asked me about my orders from Captain Ichimaru. Outside the central 46, when we—" Kira faltered, "When I had to ah… distract you," he said delicately, "Captain, all he said was, 'Keep Rangiku away from here.' And you know, he wasn't smiling."
"He's an idiot," Rangiku said flatly, but a smile tugs at the corner of her mouth and Hitsugaya feels the dark tint to her spiritual energy lighten a bit.
Hitsugaya, who Rangiku and Kira had almost forgotten was even there, suddenly banged the desk with his fist.
"He is an idiot."
.
"If you make Hinamori shed even one drop of blood, I'll kill you."
"My… my… my… What a terrifying thing to say. If you feel that way, you ought to be careful not to let bad guys get close to her."
.
Hitsugaya hated Gin. Naturally, he hated Gin for supporting Aizen and driving Soul Society into chaos. But more personally, he hated Gin for what he put his Hinamori through. And most of all, something he perhaps wasn't ready to admit to himself, Hitsugaya hated Gin for being right. Hitsugaya had failed in his duty to protect. And judging from Matsumoto, sitting on the sofa, miserable but safe, that pig-head Gin had succeeded where he, Hitsugaya, had failed.
"Matsumoto," Hitsugaya said in sharp, clipped tones, "Nevermind what I said. You can keep your flowers."
And with that he headed back to the fourth division, with all intentions of spending the night. There would be no more failures; he would protect.
Rangiku smiled softly as she watched her captain leave, getting up and gently putting the flowers back in the vase, which somehow managed not to crack.
She supposed the flowers were his reassurance to her that their had been truth to everything they had shared over the years. And she would have faith in him.
"Gin," she said out loud, shaking her head, "Enigmatic as ever. Couldn't you have left a note?"
And she laughed a little to herself, gazing out at the moon, wondering if he was thinking of her, and keeping the flowers in her peripheral vision. She was comforted, and the next day even managed to make a significant dent in the paperwork.
All of that left only Kira, with no direction. In that sense, perhaps he was the worst off of everyone.
.
"Gin, what do you plan on doing with this kid?"
.
Even Rangiku had no idea. The pig-head was still a mystery to she who knew him the best out of everyone in Soul Society, except perhaps Aizen, and this she thought with a trace of bitterness.
But until Kira figured his life out for himself, he would always have Rangiku's commiserative support, the sofa of the 10th division headquarters and his new best friend—the trash bag.