Disclaimer: Bleach is the property of Tite Kubo.
Really, out of all the annoying habits she could've developed, Hinamori had picked the worst.
The beautiful midday sun shone brightly over the Soul Society, elite superhero community of the Rukongai districts, and Hitsugaya cursed it inwardly. It was already noon and he hadn't caught a glimpse of Hinamori. While that by itself wasn't a particularly unusual phenomenon, today was training day, and she had been scheduled to met him at the practice grounds that morning. Except she hadn't showed, and Hitsugaya had spent an hour training alone under the hot sun, waiting for her to show up, looking exactly like a fool that had gotten stood-up. His cloak (a white, silky thing given to the top members of the Soul Society) was sticky and clung oppressively to his uniform, and the whole thing was probably drenched in his sweat.
Goddammit. Hinamori was probably spending too much time with his blonde partner, Kitten, and they were probably trading tips on how to slack off. Dehydrated, irritated, and possibly hurt, Hitsugaya trudged angrily into the Soul Society Headquarters.
Or, at least, they called it that, but in actuality the Soul Society Headquarters was nothing more than a glorified business building. The front doors lead to a spacious waiting room filled with tacky green sofas some of the girls had placed around the front of the room in an attempt to make the place more homey; behind that, the receptionist deck and paperwork cabinets were manned by White Hound and Sleeve (known respectively in other circles as The Butler and The Librarian). Even further back were the division cubicles, small offices spaces sectioned out to each pair of heroes, and in the very back was the Captain Commander's office.
Hitsugaya glanced around warily for a hint of Hinamori. His eyes first landed on Wolfman, his partner Terminator, and the silver-haired Gemini chatting quietly on the sofas; next, he spotted the medic Quicksilver and her partner, The Doctor, working on paperwork in their cubicle. Byakuya (aptly yet unwilling nicknamed Hair Clip Guy) and the rather oddly named sakelover888 seemed to be having an argument in the latter's cubicle. The rest of the spaces were empty and devoid of any Hinamori; Hitsugaya snagged The Reaper as he walked by and set a glare in his direction. "Where is everybody?"
The Reaper (named for his uniquely shaped twin sickle blades) shrugged his shoulders. "Well, today's Black Hornet and Cannonball's patrol day, so they're probably out doing that. Mayuri and Nemu are off researching at one of Aizen's old labs, and I think Kenpachi took the, uh, Pink Puff Blood Smasher out for some training."
Hisagi made a funny strangling noise, like he wanted to laugh and gag at the same time. Hitsugaya resisted the urge to roll his eyes; it had been three weeks, three weeks, since he had protested against allowing Kenpachi to bring in that pink menace, and now suddenly everybody had decided to agree with him. He stifled a snort.
"Where's Kitten?" Hitsugaya said shortly, and The Reaper gave a sheepish smile. "Did she go off to that bar again?" The Reaper forced out an awkward laugh. Of course, Hitsugaya thought, he has something to do with this. "Did she take her drinking buddies with her?"
The other hero released a sigh. "Sorry, White Dragon, but I might have accidentally let it slip the bar was having a two-for-one sale, so she dragged Yellow Cockroach and Red Pineapple with her." (That was a sad story if there ever was one; a couple years back, both Renji and Kira had been so caught up in some obscure dare by Matsumoto it had resulted in the aforementioned embarrassing codenames)
This time Hitsugaya didn't fight the overwhelming urge to snort disparagingly. "Che. That just means more paperwork when she gets back." There were mountains of the stuff piling up on his desk. Kitten was in for a surprise. "And have you seen Fireflower anywhere?"
The Reaper looked vaguely surprised. "I thought she was with you? She left earlier this morning for the training grounds…" He trailed off uncomfortably when the air around them dropped suddenly. Hitsugaya took one steadying breathe and the temperature spiked up to a normal level; but it was enough for the other hero to start backing away slowly.
"Thanks," Hitsugaya muttered, and then the White Dragon was out the door in a flash.
Well, that was completely wonderful. Stupid Hinamori, getting herself into trouble like that. She was probably using one of her back alley 'shortcuts' again; how many times had he told her those were unsafe, even for her? Apparently not enough, and now look where that got her. He was going to have to run off and save her from her own clumsiness again. For a second Hitsugaya entertained the thought of leaving her to clean up whatever mess she had gotten herself into.
But both of them knew he would never do that, and it was with a sigh that Hitsugaya finally located the tell-tale heat spot that signified Hinamori had released a fireball. With one strong push against the roof of the building, Hitsugaya dropped down into a narrow alleyway, right beside Hinamori.
"White Dragon," Hinamori exclaimed, and the red glow in her hand faded. There were up to seven men (big, hulking guys that made up for their lack of brainpower with muscles) surrounding her, wielding wooden bats or metal pipes. Hitsugaya made a contemptuous noise in the back of his throat. "That's it? You got held up for an hour by seven guys? I thought you'd run into Aizen or something!"
Hinamori had the decency to blush. She opened her mouth to retort at him, or yell something, when whatever she was going to say was cut short and her eyes suddenly widened. She pointed behind him with a cry of, "Watch out!", just in time to see Hitsugaya catch the pipe coming down on his head with one hand and flip his attacker over his shoulder.
"Well? I'm waiting to here your excuse." Hitsugaya said coolly, as the man feebly stirred at his feet.
That turned Hinamori's blush twice as vivid red as before. She stuttered something incomprehensible, gaping at him with her hands making several fast-paced hand gestures, and stopped just long enough to toss a fireball at her opponents. "A-ah, just cut it out, Whitey! Is this really the time to be talking about this?"
Her fireball took out two men and the alley filled with smoke. Hitsugaya punched another two from behind while they were distracted by the eye-watering fog (practice enough with Hinamori and you get used to that sort of thing), then caught another in the stomach with a kick when he stumbled towards him. The last one was trickier than others; during the time Hitsugaya had focused on the others, he had snuck up on the white-haired hero and swung a wooden bat at his head. Hitsugaya dodged it, but just barely, and his opponent was out with a well-aimed punch.
By the time the smoke cleared, all seven men were on the ground unconscious, and Hinamori had run out of time to verbalize her excuse.
"I see nothing stopping us," Hitsugaya smirked, and Hinamori had only a second to fume at him before he dragged her out of the alley and into the bright sunlight. "Now tell me what happened, Hinamori." I was beginning to worry about you.
Hinamori grinned sheepishly. "Well, I know it sounds kind of silly, but…" She trailed off, and fiddled nervously with the ties of her hair cloth. "I just wanted to see if you were going to rescue me."
A beat. Then Hitsugaya's smirk grew wider than even Hinamori had ever seen before, and he fondly ruffled her hair with his hand. The hand dropped, slowly, down to her waist and Hitsugaya pulled her close, so very close, and dipped his mouth down to drawl in her ear:
"Well of course, stupid Momo. I'm always going to rescue you."
A/N: In essence, this author figured she had too many fluffy little AU one-shot ideas floating around in her head, and didn't want to clutter her profile, so this is hopefully a five-section series of AU's with no connection to the Bleach canon. Or, she just had too much fun writing this and imagining Hitsugaya in tights (or Byakuya in tights).