A/N: I wrote this one-shot while I waited for my new beta to check my next chapter of one of my in-process stories, so there might be spelling and grammar mistakes. I just felt like writing something like that after reading the extra chapter in the Bleach manga about Hitsugaya's past. If you hadn't read it, go to YouTube and type down 'Hitsugaya's past', you'll definitelly get something. So, yeah, if you feel like reading my not very meaningful one-shot, here it is and leave whatever kind of review you like. Thank you very much for not being lazy and reading my note.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

'GET HIM!!!!!!'

'WHY YOU LITTLE FREAK… JUST WAIT UNTIL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!'

'COME BACK HERE, SHRIMP!'

Hitsugaya Toushiro, a freshman in the Academy and a boy as light-footed as a little cheetah, glanced over his shoulder at his four chasers with growing hatred in his aqua eyes. They were indeed much slower than he was, but he knew well enough that if he stopped running, they'd manage to catch up with him in no time. And that was something he definitely wanted to avoid.

With a small growl, he jumped over the bench that was in his way and continued his sprint without slowing down even the slightest bit and ignoring the odd looks the few people he passed by gave him.

Why,… those are persistent…

Reaching a staircase, the boy swiftly got to the top, missing more than half of the steps in the process and then continued running down the corridor that was revealed in front of him without caring where it was leading. He could hear the loud yells of the four shinigami behind his back, still threatening him to stop if he didn't want things to get worse. For what kind of moron did they take him? The fact that he was a freshman didn't mean he had no brains in his head.

With a quick motion he removed a sweaty silver lock of hair that was stuck to his forehead and made a sharp turn to the right. The next thing he saw were the black robes of somebody before running straight into him or her. The force of the impact sent him to the floor, sliding back a bit on the surface when he landed. A moan he tried hard to hold back escaped his rather dried up lips as he placed a hand over his face and rolled to a side, attempting to get rid of the dizziness.

'Ooops! Are you ok?' a voice asked above him.

'Yes, I'm fine!' Hitsugaya snapped, as he tried to stand up despite the fact he could hardly focus. Running so much and then bumping into somebody with great force wasn't exactly the best thing that could happen to you.

'Ummmm, you don't look very fine to me… Oh, well. Here, let me help you up.' The voice continued and before Hitsugaya had time to argue, which he wanted from the bottom of his heart, a strong hand grabbed his arm and pulled him up on his feet.

'Ok, ok, I'm fine!' Toushiro irritably exclaimed pulling away from the grip. Unfortunately that turned out to be a not very smart thing to do as he reeled dangerously backwards. He would've most certainly once again fall on the ground if the strong hand hadn't interfered, grabbing a hold on his elbow to keep him still. It was just then that the boy finally removed his palm from his eyes and managed to focus enough to see who was standing in front of him.

Blink. Blink.

Blink. Blink. Blink.

'YOU!' he shouted into the face of a busty tall beauty with a pink scarf tied in a pretty bow around her neck.

'Hi there, kiddo!' the woman beamed happily and, as it seemed, completely oblivious to the annoyed look he was giving her 'Long time, no see! How's the life in the Academy going?'

His glare only hardened. He still remembered that day when he met her in that shop. When she had tried to look all brave and mighty in front of him and the shop assistant, by scolding the latter for dropping the change on the counter, instead of handing it to Toushiro. She had almost suffocated Hitsugaya by hugging him in what seemed a pathetic attempt to look overwhelmed by maternal love and then accused him of crying, which he obviously wasn't and was merely trying to recover from the dizziness from the embrace. This woman – whatever her name was – also happened to be the very same one that had convinced him to become a shinigami so he could learn to control his enormous spiritual power and avoid terrible accidents he could cause without the needed skills and knowledge. To prevent hurting one of the few people who didn't assume he was a freak – the woman that had taken him and his friend, Momo Hinamori, under her wing – or in other words his 'grandmother'.

'Well.' He answered dryly, eyes narrowed. In return the woman blinked, then pouted and put her free hand on her hip.

'What's with the coldness, kid? Aren't you glad to see a familiar face?' she asked, shaking her head a bit. Snorting, Hitsugaya pulled his hand away from her once again and after gathering what was left of his dignity, started to make his way pass her:

'Stop calling me 'kid', dammit! And don't think you're something special, just because you-… Uhhh…' he had only made a step or two forward when everything started spinning all of a sudden and his knees went weak.

'Whoa!' the woman exclaimed, eyes widened as she quickly wrapped both hands around his waist from behind to keep him from collapsing on the ground 'Hey, hey… What's with you?'

'I'm… fine…' Hitsugaya answered weakly as he fought to regain control over his suddenly extremely heavy body.

'I don't think so…' she murmured, frowning slightly as she released one of her hands and carefully put it on his pale forehead. Her eyes quickly widened and a worried expression appeared on her face.

'You're burning!' she exclaimed, but the boy didn't seem to be very affected by the discovery, for he was too occupied with the fact that he could hear the voices of his chasers dangerously close.

'Dammit… I-I need to go…' the words came out as a soft exhale as his exhausted body only slumped more in her hands.

The woman glanced at the direction from which the voices came.

'Are those after you?' she questioned, raising an eyebrow. Hitsugaya lifted his face to direct half-lidded aqua eyes at her and nodded.

'I see. Got into a mess, didn't you?' she murmured, thoughtfully chewing on the inside of her cheek 'I guess I'll have to get you out of here, isn't that so…'

Without waiting for him to say anything, she bent down a little and swiftly, yet carefully, slid an arm under his knees before lifting him up bridal style. Hitsugaya let out a small groan in protest but didn't fight against her, for he already knew he wouldn't be able to continue his sprint and his only way out of the situation was with this woman, whose name he didn't even know…

At that point the four shinigami burst out from behind the corner, faces red as overriped tomatoes and glistering with sweat. Four pairs of angry eyes focused on Hitsugaya, narrowing dangerously yet somewhat contentedly as they realized in what position their prey was.

'Oi!' One of them yelled, pointing an accusing finger at the woman, while she answered him with a cold raise of her delicate eyebrow 'Give us the spoiled brat!'

The woman felt the boy in her arms stiffen instinctively and his hand clench in a fist on her robes. She glanced at him, the frigid face he showed the men changing to a worried one for a moment.

'Hey, I'm talking to you! Give as the kid!'

A smirk quickly formed on her lips as she lifted her gaze to look at the four. There was a devilish little spark in her ocean blue eyes as she shook her head slowly, before replying in a very bold tone:

'Nah-huh! I got him first. So get lost.'

Her words were welcomed with a short puzzled pause, as the four of them stared at her rather stupidly. She didn't mind really; as a matter of fact their expressions seemed to actually amuse her. What were they thinking, anyway? The kid wasn't some sort of package you could fling about (even though the size pretty much fitted) and give to people whenever they said so. Thus, as long as it concerned her, she was not going to surrender the boy to those noisy pot-heads OR grant them the right to stare at her bosom whenever they assumed she wasn't looking.

After a few more second, the man that had spoken to her, finally came to his sense well enough to master a glare with his small black eyes.

'Why you little…' he begun, reaching for his katana maybe in attempt to scare her or something as ridicules, but didn't have time to do anything. Smirking, the woman blew him a kiss, squat a bit and within less then a second was gone, leaving him to once again stare – this time at the empty space in front of him.

'She shunpoed!' one of the chasers exclaimed, seeing the figure reappear far in a distance on the top of a building's roof, before once again vanish. The man who had reached for his weapon let out a low growl, before simply dropping on the ground in a sitting position.

'Well, it was obvious she was a senior, wasn't it? No wonder she can shunpo!' he let out an annoyed sigh as he crossed his hands in front of his chest 'We won't catch that kid anymore... She's probably taken him far away already…'

Meanwhile…

'Do you want me to bring you to the doctor?' the woman asked as she stopped shunpoing near a house's chimney and looked down at the boy in her hands with concern 'It's not good to walk around with fever, let alone run.'

'I know…!' Hitsugaya moaned, burring unconsciously his face in her bosom to hide his eyes from the bright light 'Don't bring me to the doctor… Just… somewhere where it is cooler… I'm not interacting very well with heat when I'm not in a good shape...'

The woman raised an eyebrow.

'Are you sure?' she asked suspiciously. The boy let out a sigh, before reluctantly looking up at her with his serious aqua eyes.

'Believe me, that's exactly what I need…' He answered softly.

Frowning slightly, the woman observed him carefully for a few seconds, not very certain of what to do. He looked completely positive about his decision, not even a hint of hesitation on his face as he gazed back at her with those incredible teal orbs of his. He knew what he was asking her, she could tell…

'Alright.' She agreed and lifted her eyes to look around and locate the right direction. Her lips curled into a smile, before she once again begun shunpoeing from roof to roof towards the forest…

Few minutes later…

'Thank you…' Hitsugaya whispered as the woman carefully placed him on the fresh green grass, his back against the trunk of a giant shade-casting tree next to the bank of a small river. Inhaling deeply the fresh cool air, he felt his body relax and a tiny smile form on his pale lips. Eyelids lowering, he slowly directed tired teal eyes to his savor as he watched her walk to the stream, kneel on the ground and dip a white piece of cloth she had just pulled out of her pocket into the cold water.

'Feeling any better?' she asked gently, glancing with concern in his direction.

'Uh huh… I'll be up and about in no time.' He replied, shifting a bit to adjust himself more comfortably against the trunk. The woman stood up and walked to him, placing the cold wet cloth on his hot forehead.

'Will you now tell me why those were after you?' she asked, sitting beside him and casually slinging a hand over his raised knee. The boy rolled his eyes with annoyance.

'It's not big deal, ok?' he snorted, eyes locked on the stream 'It's just that… It's been a very hard week for me… with the exams and all… and here those four show up, planning to bully me just because I look young and… and… Oh, just drop it, ok?' Hitsugaya let out a low growl and folded his arms in front of his chest, earning a raised eyebrow from his companion.

'What exams are you talking about? It's the middle of the term…' she pointed out, the rather obvious traces of amusement in her voice making the boy purse his lips and inhale sharply.

'I'm taking exams to move prematurely to the next grade!' he hissed, shooting her a very well-mastered glare. The woman blinked a couple of times, pulling away a bit to have a better look at Hitsugaya and then finally let out a short dry laugh.

'You're not serious, are you?' she questioned, poking him a bit too boldly in the ribs. Hitsugaya didn't move, enduring her pokes without a word, for he knew that if he said something, it would quickly turn into a consecution of yells, which he assumed would be very disrespectful since she had got him out of a very sticky situation. So he continued being quiet and composed, ignoring the very much disturbing way his eye was beginning to twitch and waited until she finally stopped teasing him and the realization sank in her denying mind, carrying the shock that irreplaceably followed it.

'Oh my God…' she murmured, retrieving her index finger 'You're that kid, aren't you? That boy-genius they talk about… that moves to the next grade in no time… The young prodigy…'

'Yes, well, I suppose that's me.' Hitsugaya answered without much enthusiasm as he reached to rub his aching side 'Unfortunately, skipping most of the school year also means covering all the requirements and therefore all the theory that needs to be learn through the whole year, so even though I'm very good at the practical stuff and I get things very quickly, reading few textbooks isn't the easiest thing to do.'

'Ahhh, I see…' she nodded thoughtfully 'But that still doesn't explain why you were chased by those shinigami…'

'As I told you' Hitsugaya begun, stressing on the words 'It's been a hard week for me, so I was really not in the mood to get into fights or anything, but those had to burst out of that damned accommodation of theirs and actually make me lose my temper… Damn snobs… I don't know where they're from, family or whatever, but they fucking got their own house, for the four of them alone and I knew they were bragging about it all around the Academy and that fact only got me angrier. So I… sort of… 'he looked down at his hands, neatly folded in his lap 'I lost control and… well, I accidentally… turned their whole house in one hell of a giant ice-cube…'

'You… WHAT?' the woman screeched, eyes big as saucers 'You-you… actually… How can you possibly FREEZE A BULDING on your age and still be CONSCIOUS! And conscious enough TO RUN! No wonder you're not feeling well! Jeez! You should've been UNCONSCIOUS... I mean... How did… how did you… I… huuuuh?'

Hitsugaya rolled his eyes.

'I just did. Can we please just drop it now?' he asked, raising an eyebrow. The woman kept staring at him for a second or so more, before finally looking away with a sigh.

'Well, I suppose that's why they call you a… prodigy.' She mumbled, running a hand though her silky locks.

They went quiet for half a minute or so, staring at everything else but each other. First to speak was Hitsugaya, as he reached to pull the still damp piece of cloth from his head and handed it to her.

'I'm alright now. You might want this back.' He said, his voice soft and unusually gentle as he spoke. She took it and looked at him oddly:

'Are you sure?' the woman asked, pure suspicious radiating from her tone. Hitsugaya waved his hand dismissively:

'Yeah, don't worry about it. I don't usually have a fever for too long… My body tends to re-cool itself very quickly.' He answered casually. The woman nodded with understanding, eyes thoughtfully glued down on the cloth in her hands.

'Hey…' Hitsugaya begun softly and a faint, almost imperceptible blush crept up his face '… You've never really told me your name…'

The woman's eyes quickly snapped up and a large cheesy grin appeared on her face as she stretched her hand towards him:

'My name's Matsumoto Rangiku!' she sang, slightly tilting her head to a side. Hitsugaya looked down at her hand for a moment, before hesitantly taking it.

'…Hitsugaya Toushiro.' He answered, lips curving into a uncertain smile.

'Very nice to meet you!' Matsumoto cheered, shaking his cold hand a bit too hard for his taste. When she finally released him, she raised her gaze up to the sky and bit her lower lip with wonder.

'It's about five in the afternoon.' Hitsugaya answered the unspoken question and Matsumoto's eyes quickly widened.

'Really?' she exclaimed, jumping on her feet 'That late? Oh, I must go!'

Hitsugaya nodded with understanding, giving her a weak smile.

'I see.' He said 'It was nice meeting you, Matsumoto Rangiku.'

'It was nice meeting you, too, Hitsugaya Toushiro!' she replied, grinning 'I suppose we'll see each other around. Who knows? Some day you might even become my subordinate.'

At that statement, Hitsugaya let out a dry laugh.

'Naaaah! I think it'd be more likely the other way around.' He said with a smirk. The woman shrugged, before turning around to prepare for shunpo.

'Well, I wouldn't count on that, but hey! It's not bad dreaming! Oh, and I hope you won't get in too much trouble about that house. See ya!'

And with that, she was gone…

Years later, the office of the 10th division:

'Oi, taicho! Wake up!' Matsumoto whined, poking Hitsugaya's ribs mercilessly, exactly the way she had done that years ago when they were sitting under that tree 'Who's gonna do the paperwork, TAIII-CHOOO! Wake up!'

The boy frowned in his sleep, shifting uncomfortably on the desk he had fallen asleep on and a small groan escaped his lips. Pouting, Matsumoto placed her hands on her hips, before bending down so her mouth was next to his ear and shouted:

'TAICHO, WAKE UP!'

That actually had effect.

Hitsugaya jumped, startled and fell off his chair and on the cold unwelcoming floor, letting out a small yelp of surprise. Grinning victoriously, Matsumoto threw her hair over her shoulder with one hand and walked to him to check if his brain was damaged and he was capable of doing paperwork.

'Are you alright, taicho?' she asked innocently.

Groan.

'I can't hear you, taicho…'

Groan.

'You must get up now, taicho, paperwork is waiting.'

At that point a hand seized her ankle and gave it a sudden and very powerful tug, making the woman lose balance and fall on the ground face down.

'Ouch! That was mean!' Matsumoto whined, rubbing her nose to ease the pain from the hit. In return Hitsugaya smirked, his eyes still closed.

'Well, wasn't it meaner to wake me up like this? The only time I actually fell asleep at work?' he murmured, yawing and turning to the other side so his back was now facing her 'And come to think that I was dreaming about you…'

Matsumoto's ears immediately perked up and she rolled next to him, supporting herself on her elbows.

'Yeah?' she asked curiously peeking at him 'What about me?'

Hitsugaya let a small sly smile lazily form on his lips.

'Oh, nothing much, really…'

'Don't be like that, taicho! Teeellll meee!'

'Nahhh…'

'Please?'

'Nah huh.'

'Pretty please?'

'No…'

Growling with annoyance and impatience, Matsumoto reached up and pushed on his upper shoulder so he was forced to lie on his back with his face right under her own. Hitsugaya sighed, eyelids half lifting as he raised an eyebrow expectantly:

'Taicho…' she begun, mock seriousness in her voice 'You shouldn't refuse to tell me things that are related to me.'

'Oh, yeah? Why not?'

Before Hitsugaya had even realized what was going on, Matsumoto was already on top of him, straddling his hips to keep him in place.

'Because…' she begun, long soft locks of hair draping around them like a curtain as she bend over 'I won't let you go, until you do.'

She heard him chuckle underneath her before letting out a soft sigh.

'I guess I have no choice then…' Hitsugaya murmured, now his turn to mock despair ' I dreamt about that time you carried me to the forest, remember? Saved me from those four morons…'

Matsumoto's eyes darkened a bit with disappointment.

'Is that all?' she asked as she sat up.

'What more does it have to be there?' Hitsugaya asked, placing his hands on her shoulders and trying to push her off him with very little success. Matsumoto simply looked down at his hands, before seizing his wrists with each of her hands and pulling him in sitting position.

'Oh, there could be so much more…' she replied as she wrapped a hand around his shoulders to keep him steady 'Use your brain, boy genius, what else could it be there?'

Hitsugaya sleepily let his head fall on her shoulder, before mumbling almost inaudibly:

'Maybe… Dreaming about you actually doing your job?'

Matsumoto rolled her eyes, before cupping his face with her free hand and lifting it to make him look at her.

'Oh, I don't know.' She snorted 'Maybe something like this…'

At that point she leaned forward and gently pressed her lips to his. Hitsugaya's eyes widened with shock, letting out a very interesting noisy, that sounded much like 'Mmffll!!' as he wondered whether to be mad or happy with what was going on. Eventually he decided that 'happy' was much better option and slowly closed his eyes, kissing her back. Feeling his lips move against hers, Matsumoto grinned into the kiss, then pulled away before it was deepened and swiftly got on her feet, leaving a very diappointed and confused boy genius on the floor.

'Well, then, taciho…' she begun, while fixing her robes 'I think you're finally completely awake, ne? Now let's get to work. You, more importantly…'

Hitsugaya eyed her oddly for a couple of seconds, before chuckling softly and getting on his feet.

'I could use such waking up, you know…' he murmured, fixing the mess of documents he had slept on. Matsumoto giggled.

'Ahh, well, we really could think of something, you know…' she agreed, chucking on her chin thoughtfully 'Care to join me for dinner tonight, taicho?'

'I thought that was my line.'

'So? You were supposed to dream other things about me, too, but did you do it? No!' she shook her head with dsappointment 'Sometimes I really wonder why they call you a prodigy if you can't even dream properly!'

A/N: Yup, I know the end wasn't exactly the best, but I felt like ending it like this, ok? Please don't let this get on your nerves.