The rain hit the rooftops hard in the night. Toushiro Hitsugaya sat at his desk, working into the wee hours to finish his paperwork. The room was dark except for a single desk lamp, and in the shadows Rangiku Matsumoto was asleep on the couch- er, at least she looked asleep, for she had an empty sake bottle in hand and at least three more of them littering the floor around her.
Shiro tucked the few strands of hair that fell in his face behind his ear. He checked the clock. Already 1:30? And still so much more work to do… This was the bad part about being a captain. Shiro sighed and continued to the next sheet. The rain started to beat louder, faster, harder, in an almost rhythmic way, it almost sounded as if it were footsteps.
Or maybe it was. A loud knock made Toushiro jump and Matsumoto twitch in her sleep. Hitsugaya stood and turned on the lamp, then made his way to the door. He turned the bolt opened it a crack to reveal Momo Hinamori standing at his door, drenched to the bone and shivering.
"H-Hitsugaya-t-taicho!" she stuttered as she invited her self in. Toushiro winced as he saw the water form puddles of wet carpet on the floor, dripping down from Hinamori's kimono.
"What are you doing here, Hinamori?" Hitsugaya asked, crossing his arms. Matsumoto snored loudly in the background. "Never mind, lets just get you some dry clothes..."
Hitsugaya walked out of the main room and into his bedroom. He opened up his wardrobe and pulled out a baggy white, button up shirt and a pair of black pants. He walked back out to the main room to see Hinamori standing in the same exact place, still shivering like a cold, wet, dog.
"Here, go into the bathroom and put these on," Hitsugaya said as he tossed Hinamori the clothes. She waddled down the hallway and closed the door. Hitsugaya sat back down at his desk to continue his paperwork. Might as well, he thought. He poured himself a cup of tea and got back to work. That's when he heard it.
Shriek. Crash. Thump, thump. Shriek. Silence. More thumping. More silence.
What on EARTH could she be doing in there!? Hitsugaya wondered as he dashed towards the bathroom. He put his ear to the door but heard nothing. He knocked. Nothing. He tried to turn the knob, but it was locked. Hinamori?
Hitsugaya stepped back, then, with all his strength, he rammed his shoulder into the door, knocking the lock loose as the door came flying open.
"Hinamori! Are you al-"
Hitsugaya blushed furiously, for Hinamori stood there in a baggy, kinda-see-through white shirt and a pair of pants that were much too short yet the waist was way too big.
"Hitsugaya-taicho!" she screamed, a single tear falling down her cheek. She lunged at him and hugged him, making his face an even deeper shade of red. "I'm sorry, there was a big scary spider on the wall, so I threw a vase at it-"
"My vase!" Hitsugaya cut in, pointing at the broken shards of glass on the floor
"-but it was still alive! So I started hitting it with a plunger, and then it fell off the wall but it still wasn't dead-"
"It only fell off because you bashed a hole in my wall!" Hitsugaya cut in again.
"-so I had step on it and now it's dead," Hinamori concluded. Hitsugaya stepped back to examine the damage that had been done. His vase, which had been a birthday gift four years previously, was smashed to pieces; his wall had a huge hole and your could almost see into the next room; his plunger was covered in drywall and the stick was broken in half. Hinamori simply blushed.
"I-I'm sorry, Shiro-chan," she said in the cutest voice she could put on. Hitsugaya rolled his eyes and went back into the main room, where Matsumoto was still snoring into the darkness. Hinamori followed him and settled herself into a comfy chair.
Hitsugaya poured her some tea and resumed his seat at his desk. He picked up his pen and began writing a summary of something-or-other.
"Hinamori… why are you here so late at night?" he asked, not looking at her but at his paperwork.
"I don't know," Hinamori replied, looking anywhere but at Hitsugaya. "I just felt scared… and alone." Her cheeks turned from creamy white to deep red. Lighting flashed outside the window and thunder clapped seconds afterward. Hinamori winced at the noise and curled herself into a ball.
The lights suddenly flickered out. Oh great, now a power outage. Hitsugaya sighed and put the pen down, pulling a candle from his desk and lighting it with a match. He walked over to the couch where Matsumoto was passed out in a drunken slumber, and began to shake her, trying to wake her up.
"Rangiku. Rangiku!" She turned over and the snoring ceased, her eyelids flickered but did not open.
"Did you win the race, Taicho?" she asked in her odd, drunken state.
"Uh, sure," Hitsugaya said, then pushed her off the couch, kicked her a across the floor a little bit, and rolled her to the other side of the room, where she began snoring once again. Hinamori stood up and walked over to Hitsugaya and sat down on the couch. Hitsugaya put the candle of the coffee table and sat next to her just as lightning struck once more.
Hinamori let out a slight shriek hugged Hitsugaya around the chest, burying her face in the captain coat utterly terrified. Hitsugaya blushed, clearly unsure of what to do, and then put his arms around her.
"H-Hinamori…" he said, and rested his head on top of hers briefly. She lifted her head to look up at him, both of them looking straight into each other's eyes.
"Toushiro…"
They both closed their eyes just as their lips met. Thunder clapped again but ti didn't matter; they had each other now, kissing in the candlelight.