A soft breeze blew though Seretei. It touched very few people, as they were mostly inside sleeping at this time of night, but Keiko alone was graced with it blowing through her short messy purple hair. It was late and she should have been in bed, but she was never one to get much sleep. Even if she could fall asleep, it usually wouldn't be in her bed. Her desk, her office couch, the office floor, in a tree, 10th squad's couch, on 10th squad's desk, 13th squad's couch, 11th squad's office floor, various roofs amongst her squad, or any where in her lieutenant's quarters were all plausible areas where you could find her napping now and then, but never her bed. Even now as she sat on her windowsill, her bed was covered in paper work instead of blankets and had become more so a table than a sleeping area.

As she looked out at Seretei she smiled at the shimmer of a light in the distance. 10th squad's office light to be exact. Oh Toushirou, up all night working again? Baka…

Deftly jumping from her open window she quickly made her way to Hitsugaya's office to give him a pick-me-up. She had been worried about her friend. He'd been down lately, well, more than usual.

She stopped outside of the door, recognizing Matsumoto's reitsu, and listened to the conversation from outside. "Captain, don't you think you should take a break? It's two in the morning, I'm worried about you – "

"– quiet Matsumoto. Go back to your room and let me finish this paper work"

"Would you at least let me help you?"

"Go to bed Lieutenant Matsumoto." A third party said as the other two looked over at the office door which was now open with a short but incredibly intimidating younger woman leaning up against the frame casually.

"H-hai, Captain Nuyaka." Matsumoto replied in defeat.

"Good night Captain" she turned to Hitsugaya and bowed slightly and then left for the door. Right as she was leaving the office, Keiko lightly grabbed her arm, looked up at her and smirked.

"Don't worry Rangiku; I'll talk some sense into him"

"Hai Captain. I know you will" she replied with a smile looking down into Keiko's wise golden eyes. She always marveled at how naturally beautiful Captain Nuyaka was. She never wore make-up or did anything to her wavy purple hair, but always looked perfect, even in the middle of the night. Matsumoto also always wondered if the two little captains would ever get together.

With that thought she turned back and smiled at Hitsugaya, who grumbled something inaudible, and left for her quarters.

There were a few moments of silence between the two Captains after the door closed. It wasn't out of awkwardness, but because Keiko was too busy looking around Hitsugaya's bookshelves. Browsing the titles with her pointer finger, she finally selected one and took it out. She then silently walked over behind Hitsugaya, who continued to work, and hovered over his shoulder reading the papers. He couldn't help but notice how close her face was to his.

"You know – "she said, finally breaking the silence "– Doing fifth squad's paper work isn't going to make you feel any better Shiro. "

"Who ever said anything about my feelings?"

"150 years of first hand experience with them did"

"Hmph"

"At least let me help you – "her hand advanced to take the pen out of his hand, but she was stopped by his hand gently wrapping around her wrist.

"Keiko, please" He finally looked up from his desk and met her sharp eyes which were full of compassion.

"Alright, if that's what you want. I'll let you torture yourself." She said with a sigh.

Walking away from the desk, book still in hand, she walked over to the couch that she had slept on countless numbers of times in the 150 years she had been 14th squad captain. She plopped down, put her feet up, opened the book up to a page in the middle whose corner was folded down, and began reading. After a minute or so of silence she casually spoke up.

"Toushirou"

"Hmm?"

"Don't sell yourself short, okay"

"What are you talking about?"

"You're the most noble and responsible captain in Seretei. You have more respect from your comrades than you could ever know. Just don't beat yourself up over something that you had no control over"

The sound of his writing stopped, but she knew he wasn't going to say anything, so she continued to talk, although it sounded more like her thinking out loud to herself than a conversation.

"If anything you should be pissed at me."

"- that's not true and you know it. You're just trying to get me to react."

"Yes and no. I mean, it is true that if I hadn't grabbed Matsumoto and stopped your fight, you would have killed Gin like you wanted to…."

"No, I'm actually grateful for that. You tell me I'm responsible, but initiating that fight was the most careless thing I've ever done…"

"All fights of honor are irresponsible, but it can't be helped."

She paused again to think.

"But it's not like you completely initiated it. Gin's been asking for it for years. There have been plenty of times I've wanted to go full out Bankai on him. In a way, you were just living every other captain's dream…"

Sitting up, she looked over at Hitsugaya and smiled. It was returned with a small smirk, which was all she needed. Even the smallest smile from him was enough to keep her happy for weeks. He always looked so cute when he smiled…..