Disclaimer: I own nothing about the characters or the settings.
Scratch, scratch.
The captain of the 10th Division, Hitsugaya Toshiro, filled out the papers without hesitation. Although he had been working on it for two hours, the papers still remained tall in a mount. After a quiet sigh, Hitsugaya grabbed the ink pen and started filling out the papers again. THUD! Suddenly, a sound resembling the bumping of head on the desk broke the silence of the office. Few seconds of awkward silence passed. And followed by the outraged shout of Hitsugaya:
"MATSUMOTO!"
"Hai- hai! I wasn't sleeping! Wasn't! I was just merely filling out the papers…" Rubbing the spot that she bumped her head on, the vice-captain of the 10th Division, Rangiku Matsumoto, lifted her head from the desk. "Ugh.." she let out a groan. That was a hard hit. Though it was indeed painful, she couldn't help but sit straight in her chair after receiving such a strict yet scary glance from Hitsugaya. Just then, with a thundering sound, Matsumoto's chair fell backwards, and automatically Matsumoto kicked the desk with her foot. The neatly stacked papers seemed to sway back and forth for a while anxiously, and finally fell to the ground also.
Dang, Matsumoto thought. There was nothing I can do about this now, can I?
Ignoring Hitsugaya's lectures, Matsumoto picked up the papers. Just when Hitsugaya reached his peak in his lecture, a girl came running in.
"Shiro-chan!"
"How many times do I have to tell you that it's Captain Hitsuga-"
"Hitsugaya-kun, look at this." Completely ignoring Hitsugaya and the 'Captain' part, Hinamori Momo, the vice-captain of the 5th Division, pointed at the poster she held.
"Oh, nice timing, Hinamori!" Matsumoto finished picking the papers up, arranged them couple times on the desk, and gave Hinamori a thumps-up. Thanks to Hinamori, Matsumoto won't have to listen to the rest of Hitsugaya's lecture.
"Ah, Rangiku-san,"
Even before Hinamori began talking, Matsumoto Rangiku pointed to the poster and asked, "What's that?"
"Um, this is-"
"Oh yeah, I have this sake that I got from this store I go often, and-"
"MATSUMOTO!" Hitsugaya shouted, followed by the low threatening voice, "Don't you dare think about making Hinamori drunk in the middle of the day."
"H, hai!" Discouraged by Hitsugaya's death stare, Matsumoto put away the alcohol bottle.
"Haha, Hitsugaya-kun, look. It says that they'll have the fireworks this Friday," Hinamori said, reading off from the poster.
"….What..? Why are they having fireworks all of a sudden?" His face blank, Hitsugaya wondered. Fireworks or such festivals weren't at his best interest.
"Taichou, it says here: 'since people are so busy taking care of hollows these days, the Shiba family will perform fireworks.'" Matsumoto cut in. To her, Hitsugaya was just a cute young boy that seemed like a little brother. "And since it's a festival, how about a drink…"
"MATSUMOTO" Hitsugaya emphasized every syllable and said her name for the third time. Scratch what I said about a cute young boy, Matsumoto grumbled.
"O, okay. Fine."
"So, Hitsugaya-kun, wanna go to the fireworks together?" Hinamori asked.
"…If I have time." Hitsugaya had a face expression that you couldn't quite tell if he was happy or not. If I do go… He repeated to himself, If I do go with Hinamori, it'll just be awkward. Yes, Hitsugaya liked Hinamori's smile, her laughs, and everything around her. She seemed to make things much lighter, easier, and more worth it. Perhaps that was why Hitsugaya was so willing to protect Hinamori.
"All right. You have to finish up the papers, right?" Hinamori said, still with a bright smile on her face, and walked out of the 10th division office. "I'll come by later."
Don't smile at me like that, Hitsugaya wanted to plead. I couldn't protect you. I couldn't protect you from Aizen. I failed to kill him. So why are you smiling at me? You have no reason to.
-Few days later-
"Taichou!" Matsumoto's voice rang loud and clear.
"What." Hitsugaya's curt reply told Matsumoto that the Captain of the 10th Division wasn't in his best mood.
"Today's the fireworks- remember?"
"…it is?" Frankly, Hitsugaya never paid any attention to days. He just wanted to get over with the papers, and maybe take a brief walk outside.
"You didn't forget it, did you, taichou?"
"….No."
It's obvious that you did, Matsumoto silently laughed.
"Taichou,"
"Now what?" Hitsugaya definitely wasn't happy. He knew that he was being played around by his vice-captain, and with Hinamori nowhere in sight, all Hitsugaya felt was annoyance.
"Um, it's about the time for dinner…." Matsumoto started cautiously. If she were to go to the sake place, she knew better than not to upset Hitsugaya. She inspected Hitsugaya's face, his mood, and the timing. Not yet-
"What do you want?" Hitsugaya spit out the words.
"Well…"
Wait for it… wait for it… NOW!
"Uh, I'll be out!" Matsumoto pushed her chair back and flew out of the office in the speed of light.
It was Hitsugaya that was left with the clean-ups. Even him, who was ignorant to his feelings and petite things, could not help but sigh.
"Shiro-chan!" With a crash and a thud, Hinamori entered the office. She must have ran from the 5th Division to the 10th, for her breath was rough and her face had a slight shade of red and pink.
"Hinamori?" Forgetting to remind Hinamori to call himself 'Captain Hitsugaya', the silver haired captain just stared at Hinamori. Hitsugaya wasn't someone who was surprised easily- in fact, he was cold- that was just his personality. Nonetheless, Hitsugaya was taken by quite a surprise this time.
"Today's the fireworks. Do you want to go?"
"I told you to call me Captain Hitsug-"
"C'mon, let's go." Again, Hinamori ignored Hitsugaya and pulled him by hand.
"Hey, wait, where are you taking me- hey!" was what came out of Hitsugaya, but he admitted to himself that he was in a much better mood.
After a while, the darkness came by. And that was when the fireworks shot up the sky, breaking the silence between Hitsugaya and Hinamori.
"Whoa-" Hinamori gasped.
"What the-"
"It's the fireworks! They're starting it!" Hinamori pointed at the sky, amazed at the colorfulness. Variety of colorful flowers were blooming in the night sky.
"…Yeah." Hitsugaya said, as if watching the fireworks is what he does every single day.
"What, you don't think that this is cool?"
"Well, fireworks only last for a second. It doesn't even lighten up this dark sky."
"You're so stupid." Hinamori said, smiling.
"What-?"
"You don't know how important the fireworks are to the night sky. You know, fireworks aren't meant to lighten up the sky, Shiro-chan."
"Then what is it?" It was the riddle-like saying that Hitsugaya disliked the most, but having it come from Hinamori, he wanted to listen to it this time.
"Look up there. Aren't they pretty?" Hinamori asked, gesturing Hitsugaya to also look up at the fireworks.
"It's okay."
"What do you think it would be like if they had the fireworks in the day?" Hinamori asked.
"Hmph. You're talking nonsense." Being grumpy seemed like the only thing Hitsugaya could do, for he didn't know what to reply.
"You see, if we had fireworks in the middle of the day, they won't be as pretty. In fact, you'd barely notice the fireworks. But how about at night, with the dark sky as the background?"
"…"
"Because there's the night sky, there are fireworks. Because there are fireworks, there's the pretty night sky. The dark sky helps the fireworks look pretty, and the fireworks help the night sky look beautiful. Fireworks and the night sky are very important to each other." Hinamori said.
Even as the owner of a cold personality, Hitsugaya knew very well what Hinamori was referring to. The fireworks and the night sky- Hinamori was talking about herself and Hitsugaya. Afraid to make this conversation awkward, Hitsugaya kept silent.
Definitely the last but not the least, the last remaining firework was shot up.
It was beautiful up in the night sky.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Hinamori said Hitsugaya's thought out loud.
"Well…" Hitsugaya was about to reply 'I don't know', but he stopped himself. Instead, he said, "Sure it is."
Sure, Hitsugaya said to himself. Sure, from now on, I'll try…. I'll try to be an important being to Hinamori. Someone who she needs.
"Hinamori," Hitsugaya rose up from where he was sitting.
"Huh?"
"C'mon. Let's go now. And…thanks for bringing me here, Hinamori."
"Ehhh? What did you say?"
"Nothing." Thought that was what Hitsugaya said, the corner of his mouth was going up.
Okay, He thought. It's not a bad start.
A/N: I really hope you guys enjoyed it! As you can tell from the way I write, English isn't my first language, so there should be grammar mistakes here and there. However, I hope, by publishing more stories, I can improve those errors and write even better fanfics. Thanks! :)