"Matsumoto please let Hisagi know that some of these files here actually belongs to the Sixth Division. I think he should take a closer look at the amount of error from his office. Obviously someone is either half asleep or distracted." Hitsugaya pushed another file to the left where a short stack of files lay on his desk. It was the seventh file from the Sixth Division he found in his Divison's stack.
"How can they make so many mistakes?" Hitsugaya grumbled to himself.
"Hai, Taicho," Matsumoto nodded as she busied herself with separating another stack of files in front of her. For the last two to three hours, the two had locked themselves away into their office, working on separating the annual file reports for storage purposes.
"Taicho, here's another file from the Sixth Division," Matsumoto pulled out another file.
"Well I got no more files from the Sixth Division," Hitsugaya drew a breath.
"I'm done here as well," Matsumoto leaned back and sighed.
Hitsugaya straightened the stacks properly and got up from his seat. He brought the stack of sixth division files over to the coffee table and placed it next to Matsumoto's finds.
"Take a short break and then bring this over to the Sixth Division." Hitsugaya took a seat next to Matsumoto.
"Ahh…" Matsumoto whined.
"Don't whine. You've been sitting here for the last three hours. You could use a little stretching." Hitsugaya flexed his right shoulder muscle and arched his neck. He seethed at his cramped shoulder muscles and stiff neck.
"Are you okay?" Matsumoto asked as she noticed her Captain stretching his arm. She was about to open her mouth when she noticed a mark toward the back his neck when he tilted his head to the side. It looked very much like a hickey. He had no indication of hiding it so it was obvious he had no idea of its existence.
Matsumoto grinned. "Rough night?"
"You could say that," Hitsugaya cracked his fingers, unknown to Matsumoto's grin.
"Were you practicing in the divison dojo last night?" Matsumoto asked. Satisfied with his stretching and cracking of fingers, Hitsugaya reached for a pot of tea in front f him and poured some tea into the cup.
"No. My own dojo." Hitsugaya simply replied her.
"And you had no sparring partner?" Matsumoto asked. Hitsugaya raised the cup to his lips and blew lightly at the steam that rose from the liquid.
"Why are you asking me these questions? You very well know I practice in my own dojo mostly at night alone." Hitsugaya sent her scowl before sipping his tea. Matsumoto shrugged and got up from his seat. She swayed her hip to the side and stretched her arms. She bent down and picked up the stack of files.
"Sorry, I was just curious," Matsumoto said as she rounded the couch and headed toward the office door. Just as she about to step out, she turned back to her Captain.
"You should probably pull up your haori. Karin's love bite is quite obvious when you're standing or sitting next to someone." Matsumoto smirked. She wanted to burst out laughing when her Captain stiffened at her words but she knew better than to stick around.
As Matsumoto headed down the corridor, she spotted Karin walking toward her, flexing her shoulder. Her sleeves were rolled up and her hair was wet. Draped around her neck was a short orange towel. She looked like she had just gotten out of the shower. Matsumoto smirked again. Orange towel around the neck after shower eh? Karin was obviously putting on a show.
"Morning, Karin-chan!" Matsumoto greeted. Karin looked up and smiled.
"Rough night?" Matsumoto asked.
"You could say that I guess." Karin rubbed her neck.
"That's funny. Taicho said the same thing. He's also having a very stiff neck." Matsumoto smirked.
"Well, I best be off. I need to deliver this to the Sixth Division office. See you Karin-chan!" Matsumoto continued on walking, leaving a confused Karin.
Did I just see her smirk? Karin thought to herself.
Karin headed toward the office and slid open the door. There was Hitsugaya standing in front of a glass cabinet, looking at his reflection. He had his hand feeling the back of his neck, his eyes roaming and straining to see more of the back of his neck.
"What are you doing?" Karin asked as she closed the office door.
"Matsumoto said she saw a hickey." Hitsugaya sighed. Karin giggled and stood behind her boyfriend. She pulled his haori down a little and looked at his neck.
"She's right. That's my signature." Karin stated proudly.
"You say it like it is a good thing." Hitsugaya snarled and pulled his haori back up in attempt to hide it.
"Of course. We should be proud of ourselves. We did a bang of a job last night, didn't we?" Karin whispered in his ear. Her breath tickled his ear as he adjusted his haori. At once his mind brought him back to the shower room where they hurriedly took off each other's uniforms. He planted her against the wall and turned on the shower. Soon enough, steam flooded the shower room as they exchanged pleasures. Her rapid breathing and his beating heart collided in an explosion as he touched her chest and caressed her womanly gifts. The moment she started to release loud moans while he ran his lips over her neck, he got both of them on the floor and lined his back against the wall. He positioned her to sit on him and they both continued to escalate in their pleasures. When the final blow came for both of them, she had both her hands planted on the wall above his head as he delivered hard bites to her breasts and squeezed her ass as tight as he could.
"Well I got nothing to worry about. She can't see my love bites unless I got naked in front of her." Karin smirked as she pulled her towel off her neck and ruffled her wet hair with it.
Matsumoto knocked on the Sixth Division door. It was locked and no one seemed to be around. This is just great. I come all the way here and no on is around! Matsumoto looked around. Well at least he's not around. Matsumoto thought to herself as she headed up the stairs. Renji had informed her that he and his Captain would be reviewing the squad's barracks the whole day so she was clear off the nobleman's radar.
It was not that she was avoiding him but she was not a master of awkward silences. She thanked the heavens she was in division far away from the sixth division. It meant the chances of her having to be confronted him was very unlikely. She slid open the office door and thankfully, it was empty.
It was a month ago and things had happened really fast. Matsumoto knew very well she had crossed over the line with the Kuchiki Captain. It was a secret she had kept to herself. No one knew of it, not even her own Captain. For a good three weeks or so, Matsumoto had suppressed the questions in her heart and buried the memories. It scared her beyond all belief but recently, what she had tried to bury for good and forget, started to surface forcefully.
She proceeded to place the stack of files on the table and wrote a message on a piece of paper to indicate these files were mistakenly sent to the Tenth Division. She backed out of the office and closed the door. As she turned to head off, she felt her heart drop to the pits of morbid.
"Kuchiki Taicho." Matsumoto quickly recollected herself and bowed.
"Matsumoto Rangiku." He greeted back. She straightened her back and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.
"I was just delivering files that belonged to your division. They were mistakenly placed in my division." Matsumoto explained.
"Thank you," He stoically replied.
"I should return to my division. Good day, Kuchiki Taicho." Matsumoto bowed and took her leave.
"Wait." He said. His eyes still fixed on the spot where she had stood. Matsumoto stopped. No…not now. She squeezed her eyes shut. She could feel her heart gripped with fear. I don't want to hear anything from you.
"We should talk." Byakuya managed to say.
Why is it important? Matsumoto wondered. There's nothing to talk about of a one-night stand.
"With all due respect, Kuchiki Taicho," Matsumoto started as she turned around to face him, her icy bright blue eyes met his dark grey ones.
"We both know we were just looking for comfort and company. We didn't mean it, it just happened. And if you're worried I would go and tarnish the name of your family, I won't. I have my own heart to protect and you have yours. I respect that." Matsumoto stated, gathering what courage she had in herself and putting that force in her words.
She watched the Captain study her for a short moment. She felt naked in front of him, this time metaphorically speaking.
"If that is how you see it, then I'm rest assured." Byakuya stated apathetically.
What? Rest assured? Matsumoto thought.
"Good day, Matsumoto Fukutaicho." Byakuya bowed his head a little and headed into his office.
Matsumoto sighed as she was left standing outside the office.
I hate my love life…
"Wait, wait, I think I get it now. So if I see this paper, it means it has to go back to the office but if it has this marker on it, it has already been viewed and corrected. Right?" Ichigo asked, as he looked a sheet of paper with a red tape on it. A new system of filing work really confused the hell out of him.
"Correct," Hinamori smiled as she picked up a pot of tea and poured some hot tea into Ichigo's cup.
"Great. Now I can work." Ichigo cracked his fingers. He reached for a stack of files and began to look through them. Hinamori smiled. She watched him read through the files, her heart slowly picking up as she thought of how much he made up for the big hole in her heart. Though he wore a scowl, he always lifted it when he was alone with her, and she appreciated it. He always looked to her when he was unsure of certain work and always treated her with the utmost respect. She was very sure her love for Ichigo could never be compared to what she had felt for her previous superior. Ichigo was special.
"I'll take half," Hinamori offered. As she was about to lift off half of the files from the stack, Ichigo placed his hand on hers. Hinamori froze at the touch of his hands.
"Take a break. You've done enough going through the new system of filing with me." Ichigo gently pulled the stack back down, her hands under his palms.
"But…Taicho, it is also my responsibility." Hinamori reasoned.
"I know that. But you've done your part of it by explaining the new system to me. Go and have some lunch." Ichigo nodded his head to the door.
"I can have lunch later. I'm not that hungry yet," Hinamori smiled but as luck had it, her stomach growled loudly. Hinamori felt her cheeks go red as she looked at her stomach and then back up at Ichigo who was smiling at her. She gulped.
"Go and have lunch. I got this situation under control. Maybe you could bring some lunch back for me?" Ichigo lifted Hinamori's hands off the stack of files. She gave him a hard stare and a pout.
"How about we have lunch first then we get started? I'm not going to let you do this all by yourself." She huffed and placed her hand on her hip.
"Hinamori-san, go and have lunch, then come back and resume your duty in separating the files," Ichigo gave up and sighed. He knew arguing with her was not going to get him anywhere. Her stubbornness was as strong as kido.
"Hai, Taicho," Hinamori bowed. Even though she would have preferred to stay, this was only as far as she was going to get. Either have lunch and come back to do work or have lunch and don't do it at all. Like that would happen.
"See you later, Taicho." Hinamori waved to Ichigo and left the office.
Ichigo shook his head and resumed his work. What could I ever do without her?
Nothing. Zangetsu replied.
What do you mean? Ichigo asked, surprised Zangetsu replied to his thought.
Do you think she will ever let you do work without her around? The spirit replied.
Ichigo smiled.
Matsumoto kicked a pebble as she strolled down the street, on her way back to her division. Although she had settled things with the nobleman, she could not help but wonder if he was glad or unhappy. He sounded unhappy when he ended their conversation, referring to her name with honorifics. At the start, he bypassed it by just using her full name. And then there was the whole tarnish statement. She knew how much it meant to keep the name of the Kuchiki clean but could it be that was all he was worried about?
She kicked another pebble.
She loved a man and he betrayed her and the whole of Soul society. She gave herself away to a man she hardly spoke to and all he ever had been concerned for was the pride for his family. I need better choices in men. Why do I surround myself with men who have such quiet, distant or cold personalities?
Her Taicho, Gin, and now the Kuchiki Captain. They were similar in certain traits.
What if I dated other men that were like… Hisagi? Renji? Kira?
She thought of it for a while but found herself shaking her head. They're personality was more of a buddy interest to her. If she wanted a partner, it would certainly be more like the two remaining men in her life.
"Rangiku-san!"
Matsumoto turned around to see Hinamori catching up to her. Matsumoto smiled as the young girl caught up to her.
"Hinamori." Matsumoto greeted.
"What are you doing on this side?" Hinamori asked in curiosity.
"Oh I had to drop off some stuff at the sixth division. Screw up with file placement." Matsumoto explained as they started to walk together.
"Where are you headed?" Matsumoto asked as they rounded the corner.
"I'm on my way to lunch. You?" Hinamori replied.
"Same." Matsumoto decided with a faint smile.
Matsumoto pushed the cloth aside as they stepped in. As soon as they entered, a group of familiar faces waved toward them.
"Hinamori, Matsumoto-san!" Karin called out. Next to her was Nanao and across them was Isane. The two lieutenants headed over to their table and a waiter brought out two more chairs.
"A round of sake!" Karin ordered.
"Karin-chan!" Hinamori looked surprised.
"That's my girl!" Matsumoto cheered. Karin turned to Hinamori with an innocent look on her face.
"I'm in a good mood today." Karin smiled widely. Nanao giggled and Isane shook her head.
As lunch progressed, the girls shared stories on their usual duties and work. Nanao once again got into a lost argument with her Captain over his reluctance to touch or go through the annual file storage routine. Isane was down to her last dozen of files but could not wait till later for lunch so she headed out early. Karin basically was chased out of the office for reasons she would not disclose.
"He chased you out?" Hinamori looked surprised. Why would Hitsugaya-kun do something like that? I should have a word with him before I return to my division. As much as she loved Hitsugaya, she could not tolerate mistreatment towards Karin as her hope to be future sister-in-law. Quick to read the thoughts off her face, Karin laughed.
"No Hinamori-san. He didn't really chase me out like that. I was distracting him from work so he sent me to lunch so I would leave him alone," Karin laughed.
"Do you remember how I moaned last night?" Karin whispered in Hitsugaya's ear as he read a file. He snapped the file shut and turned around to verbally snap at her for teasing him like that. However before he could have done so, Karin had already disappeared out the office, her laughter lingering within the walls of his office.
While the guys chatted, Matsumoto withdrew into her own thoughts. Her mind wandered back to the sixth division. She felt like someone had dented her heart when she recalled of how he cared about was his family's name, as prior to her statement. In her heart, she half hoped that there could be something a tiny bit more. Sure they were two very different people but she could not deny that night when it happened.
The door flung open and two struggling figures stumbled into a large bedroom.
Matsumoto moaned and tilted her head back a little as the nobleman reached for her scarf and pulled it off her shoulders to the floor. He closed the door behind her and held her closer and tighter against his chest. Teasingly, Matsumoto ran her lips across his jaw line and placed her slender hands on his parting uniform. As her hand touched his naked chest, she felt a slight shiver. Just as quick to cover that slight betrayal of emotion, Byakuya rubbed his head against the side of her head and tucked his head into the crook of Matsumoto's neck, his face cushioned by her hair. He inhaled the fragrance of her hair and explored her neck with the touch of his lips.
"No…wait. Kuchiki Taicho. Please, we shouldn't do this." Matsumoto regained some composure and she squirmed in his grasp. As she made attempts to release herself, Matsumoto froze as she found herself being kissed by the Captain. What surprised her most was that she kissed back with fire and found herself helping him take off his haori and uniform.
"Rangiku-san?" Hinamori shook Matsumoto. Chin resting on her palm, Matsumoto shook her head and turned to the girls.
"You've been really quiet." Karin observed.
"Y-yeah, just a little zoned out from all the filing this afternoon." Matsumoto laughed sheepishly.
"You're to complain. You're poor Taicho is always the one cleaning up after you." Isane pointed out. Matsumoto merely laughed and took a cup of sake that she had not noticed was placed in front of her while she was lost in thought.
What happened? How did all that happened? Matsumoto continued to wonder as the girls drifted off again.
It was a simple dinner. She offered to accompany him back to his barrack as part of a lieutenant's duty to a Captain, even though she was not his subordinate. So what pushed them? He looked particularly sad that night though. But why?
And then it hit her. His wife…Matsumoto thought. It was the anniversary of Rukia's sister's death. It was the day his wife left him, brokenhearted. Renji mentioned it before. Why haven't I thought about it? Why did I let him….why did I let myself be used…? It was very clear that he was upset and it was very strange to her that he had slipped his stoic nature under the rug and took her into his arms.
"Rangiku-san"? Hinamori poked Matsumoto's shoulder.
"Hmm?" Matsumoto returned back to the world she worked in.
"Another cup of sake?" Hinamori offered. Across the table, Karin was happily away ordering a number of dishes.
"Why not?" Matsumoto accepted. Glad to know I was of some help to ease someone else's pain…
An hour through their meal, suddenly they heard a loud shattering and a body fall. Karin turned around to see a lady customer on the floor unconscious. The whole restaurant had their attention toward the fallen woman. The man accompanying her got to her side and tried to wake her but she remained still.
"I should go and help." Isane started by getting off her seat. Just as she got up, she grabbed hold of the table quickly.
"Isane Fukutaicho?" Karin reached across the table and grabbed hold of her wrists.
"Are you alright?" Nanao asked worryingly.
"I…the whole world….it's…spin-" Isane tried to focus. The whole world stretched and spun everywhere she looked. She looked down at her table. This was not natural. Their food, drinks, desert…something was not right. Isane bowed her head into her palms as she swayed left and right. Karin quickly got up and held her hands.
"Isane-san!" Karin steadied her.
Realizing what kind of effect this was, although she hardly had any evidence to prove the danger, Isane mumbled 'run' before darkness enveloped her.
Hello readers!
This is a request by xXChocolateGoodieBasketXx.
Due to constrained time, this first chapter was rushed.
I apologize for it. I will work on the second chapter with hopefully more time and produce a longer and better chapter.
This chapter may be a three-shot. It really depends on how much time I have and the length of the story.
As for now, I shall put a stop to taking in requests as I'm currently very busy with my final year project.
Thank you for understanding.
Inky!