A loud obnoxious ringing sound next to my ear abruptly awakes me. I open my eyes and peek at my alarm clock that reads 6:30 am. Groaning, I reset the annoying alarm while simultaneously swinging my feet onto the floor, my elbows resting on my knees. I hear soft footsteps approach my room. I glance over to my door to see a tiny hand grip my bedroom door that is slightly ajar. I smile as another small hand grips the door and successfully slide the door open. My small child shimmies her way through the widen gap without her nightgown catching on the door. Her long silver hair is all in a mess.

She watches the door as she steps further into my room, "stay!"

I chuckle at her attempt to control an inanimate object with such a simple word. This proves my child's biggest concern is mastering the door. She looks at me with her big turquoise eyes and runs to me with a grin on her face. I open my legs, which she runs between, and she proceeds to attempt climbing my leg with all her might, but she has little success.

She tries again, "help daddy, help please."

I pick her up and sit her beside me, her little feet dangling over the bed, kicking happily in the air. She looks up at me, "morning daddy!"

I rub her head, "good morning Kaya."

She rolls over onto her tummy and crawls to the center of my bed. She stands up a little wobbly and then starts to jump, giggling loudly.

I lean back and place a hand on her stomach and her back, "no jumping on the bed please Kaya. Remember you did that yesterday and you ended up hurting yourself."

She twists her arm to peek at her elbow that has a little bruise on it, "but I'm okay! See?"

I tickle her stomach, making her fall on her butt as she laughs, "no daddy!"

I groan again as I sit back up and stand, stretching out my toned arms over my head. I feel something poke my side and look down to see Kaya giggling as she pokes my side again.

She kicks her feet, "I got you daddy!"

I tickle her feet making her scream and wiggle with delight, "daddy! My feet!"

I pick up my wiggly daughter and carry her into the bathroom that is just down the hall between both of our bedrooms. I sit her next to the sink and pull open a drawer to take out a silver ouch-less brush. In the mean time Kaya grabs her pink toothbrush from a cup next to the sink and waits for me to put a pea size amount of toothpaste on the bristles. As I brush her hair she brushes her teeth slowly while staring into the sink.

I remove a pink hair elastic that I had tied last night from around the handle of the brush, "look at me saru please."

Saru means monkey. She immediately looks up at me as I put her neat silver hair into a ponytail. I put the hairbrush away to give Kaya a chance to spit into the sink. I turn the tap on and fill up her little blue plastic cup with some cold water. She takes the cup with two hands and rinses out her mouth. I prepare my own toothbrush and begin brushing my teeth. Kaya dumps the rest of her water down the sink and places the cup back in its original spot. I tap the sink and Kaya turns the water back on to clean the sink. I walk up to the door, slightly close it, and grab her pink starry towel from a hook to give to her to dry her mouth and hands. I push her down the counter as I finish up brushing my teeth. I grab my hairbrush as Kaya reaches up to the medicine cabinet behind her head to pass me my hair gel.

"Here otousan," she claims happily as I take it.

I open the lid, take some gel, close the jar, and then hand it back to her to put back into the cabinet. I spike my hair the way I like it and then wash my hands.

Kaya offers me her towel, "thanks Hun."

I motion to my daughter to cling to me so I can put her on the ground. She walks in front of me to lead me to her room that has a simple bed, rose coloured walls, a pile of stuffed animals at the end of her bed, a large round mat for her to play on and a closet off to the right wall. Kaya walks up to the circular purple mat and sits down as I go to her closest to pick out her favourite black yukata. I turn around to see Kaya has removed her nightgown so I can dress her. I hold up the sleeves of the yukata for my daughter to slide her arms into and then I gently turn her back to me so I can tie up her pink obi.

I pat her back, "you can play until I get your breakfast ready."

I watch my daughter hurry over to her enormous stuffy pile and begin to play. I return back to my room to get dress into my captain robes and to quickly polish my Zanpukato. Twenty minutes later I head down the stairs that leads to a small kitchen. I open the fridge to take in the food inventory. After hymning and ha-ing for a minute I decided to make Kaya her favorite breakfast. I collect a few white eggs, a frying pan and the black toaster. I make some scrambled eggs and toast and neatly arrange the food onto a plastic plate.

"Kaya breakfast is ready," I call up to her as I set the round table and sit down in my spot.

I hear the little pitter-patter of her feet as she walks down the stairs and into the kitchen. She pushes the chair back making the legs squeak across the floor. She hops up and then pulls her plate closer to edge of the table. Kaya picks up her fork and admires her name that is engraved on the pink handle.

"Thank you otousan," she says as she puts a small fork full of egg into her mouth. I glance up at the stove to see the time, 7:10 am.

"Your very welcome Kaya," I reply as I take a bite of my warm buttery toast.

I watch Kaya slowly devour her eggs happily. She then sets her fork down on the plate and picks up a piece of toast that I had cut into fourths.

She holds it up to me, "it's a square!"

I chuckle at her silliness, "eat up monkey, we have a big day ahead of us."

She sits back against the chair and munches on her toast as I finish my breakfast. I stand up and go to the sink to rinse my plate, "would you like some juice Kaya?"

I open the fridge, "apple juice please otousan."

I take out the apple juice and open the cupboard above my head to take out a green plastic cup to fill. I put the juice back and place the cup on the table. Kaya finishes her second piece of toast before taking a long couple of gulps of juice.

"Finish your toast please Kaya," I kiss her head and walk back to the sink to fill it halfway up with warm soapy water.

I hear her put her cup down and her plate rattle as she takes another piece of toast. A few minutes latter as I wash the top of the stove Kaya walks up to me with her empty plate and cup.

"All done!" she says proudly as I take her plate and cup.

"Good girl! Now go put your shoes on please." I finish washing up the dishes as Kaya sits by the front door on her butt fighting with her shoes.

I rinse out the sink, slip into my shoes easily, and then assist my daughter with her last shoe. I offer her my hand to help her stand up as I toss a bag filled with toys and snacks I had packed last night over my shoulder.

- In the Soul Society, Toshiro's office -

I let Kaya open the door for us and help her inside, "take your bag saru and put it on the couch please."

She turns around, hands outstretch to take her bag, and bring it to the couch. I walk up to my desk and sit down in the chair.

Right on cue Matsumoto walks in, "good morning captain!" She greets me extra cheerfully.

I sigh, "don't think you're getting out of doing your paperwork today."

Matsumoto pretends to play dumb, "what? Of course not captain!"

She then notices my daughter strolling over to her, "hello Kaya! You look adorable!"

Annoyance hits me, "don't use my daughter as a distraction!"

She crouches down to pick up my daughter who replies, "morning Matsumoyo!"

I chuckle as my lieutenant frowns; "I've told you before sweetie, my name is Matsumoto." She places a lot of stress on the second T in her name.

My daughter ignores Matsumoto and plays with the chain between her large breast, mumbling,

"Matsumoyo."

Determination flashes in Matsumoto eyes, "I'm not giving up!"

I listen to Matsumoto attempt to teach my unwilling daughter how to pronounce her name correctly when I hear a familiar shy female voice, "captain Hitsugaya?"

I speak up over the two girls who are now having a shouting contest, "come in!"

The door opens to reveal my old friend who Kaya greets, "Momo!"

Matsumoto grumbles, "how come you can say her name just fine?"

I grumble back, "Because Momo is only two syllables and not four."

Momo walks up to my daughter with a huge grin on her face, "hello there little Kaya! You remember me?"

Kaya almost falls out of Matsumoto's arms into Momo's arms with the want to be held by Momo.

My daughter hugs Momo, "Yep yep! You're daddy's friend!"

The brunette nods, "that's correct!"

Kaya giggles happily and looks back to me for approval, I smile.

Momo runs her fingers through Kaya's silver hair, "did you do this?"

My daughter takes her hair back from Momo, "noooo my daddy did this morning before I got to play with my toys."

All of a sudden Kaya's eyes widen as she wiggles out of Momo's arm, "my toys!"

Momo struggles to keep my daughter from falling as she lowers her to the ground. As soon as her two little feet hit the ground she runs towards the couch where her bag sits.

Kaya hops onto the couch and unzippers it as Momo turns to me, "I just thought I'd pop in to see how you guys are, I need to go and ge-"

"Sheeepy!" Kaya interrupts Momo as she lifts an oval shape lamb with black eyes, a fluffy body and little white legs.

Matsumoto laughs, "oh to be young without a care in the world."

I chuckle and gaze at my child with a father's love, "I don't know what I did before her."

Matsumoto pokes fun at me, "being short."

I glare at her, "I'm not short!"

Kaya stands up on the couch with her sheep in one hand and the other resting on the head of the couch, "chibi!"

"Chibi, chibi, chibi!" she yells loudly.

I give a cold look to Matsumoto, "thanks! Now my daughter is calling me short!"

Momo walks up to Kaya and distracts her by asking her things about her sheep like its name, favourite colour, favourite food, etc. Kaya answers every question with a very straight face. As she answers I couldn't help but think how much of a coincidence it is that her sheep likes the same things she does. I gaze at a nearby clock that reads 8:30 am.

I stand up, "well time to get going on the paperwork."

Matsumoto groans as I walk up to the couch to pick up Kaya with one arm. Matsumoto and Momo follow behind me as we exit the office.

"See ya Momo," I say goodbye to my friend who begins to head off in the other direction until,

"MOMO!" Kaya screams at the top of her lungs with desperation making me worry and Momo stop in her tracts.

Momo looks at Kaya with an expression one would give if you were caught sneaking cookies out of a cookie jar, "nani?"

Kaya opens her arms, "hug."

My lieutenant laughs as she holds her sides, "awe!"

Momo jogs back to give Kaya her hug who then smiles and begins to talk to me like Momo doesn't exist anymore, "k bye! So otousan…"

Kaya begins to rattle of things to me very rapidly as I mouth goodbye to Momo yet again. We then head off towards the direction of the building that resembles a post-office.

Matsumoto spikes up a conversation with Kaya, who looks over my shoulder once in a while as she sticks her sheep in my neck, eye and ear systematically.

"Please stop Kaya, you're bothering daddy," I tell her nicely.

She takes her sheep out of my ear and hugs me, "sorry otousan."

Matsumoto huffs, "she listens to you pretty well."

I nod, "yeah she does."

Kaya is normally a good girl and does what I ask of her but every so often she has a tantrum to keep things interesting. I see Kaya is now amused with one of the ears of her sheep. She gently yanks on the ear this way and that way while mumbling to her sheep about how funny its ears look.

We finally arrive at the 'post-office' as we walk up the stairs and through the open door. On one wall are locked silver mailboxes, the other has a long bench with pens and pencils, and directly ahead of us are some open wooden mailboxes behind a wooden counter.

At one end of the counter is a young man who greets us, "hello captain and lieutenant, how may I help you?"

I sit Kaya down on the counter who faces me and keeps amuse with her sheep, "division ten weekly reports please."

The man nods, scans through the mailboxes and hands me some papers. He then goes through a door to enter the back room, "just one second captain."

He disappears into the back and comes out with three huge stacks of paper. "Wow!" Kaya comments as she looks at the stacks side-ways.

Matsumoto grunts and takes a stack as I place Kaya down on the ground, "you'll have to walk sweetheart."

Kaya reaches up as far as she can and grabs a mitt full of my kimono as I clutch the other two stacks. Finally with our paper work in hand we begin our journey back to the office. I say journey because Kaya wanted to investigate every single thing. If a leaf moved, she chased it, if we saw people cleaning she had to show them her sheep. At one point she started to climb a tree and then got stuck and cried for me to get her down. Then to say thank you she screamed at me. And to top if all off she almost tripped Matsumoto a few times. So much for Kaya being a good girl.

We finally arrive forty-five minutes later, half an hour more than it should have taken us, when Kaya realizes she has lost her sheep. In that moment my daughter world comes crashing down all around her as she sit on floor crying and begging me to go get it.

"Where did you lose it Kaya?" I ask feeling a little frustrated as I sit the papers down beside my desk.

She rubs her eyes, "I don't know otousan."

I sit behind my desk, "didn't I tell you to walk beside me?"

Kaya walks up to me and hugs my thigh, "yeah… I am sorry daddy."

I rub her head and grab a piece of paper.

"Sheepy?" Kaya asks me heart broken. I look down at my daughter to see her hurt face and sad eyes.

I was not going to go back and get her sheep but her little sad face hurts me. I can see that she is sorry, as she looks up at me, "sheepy?"

I sigh and rub my neck, "Matsumoto could you please go find her sheep?"

Matsumoto jumps from the couch, graciously accepting the excuse to postpone her paperwork, "sure!"

Matsumoto leaves the office a lot quicker then necessary, "be sure to say thank-you to Matsumoto."

Kaya rubs an eye, "I will."

I glance down at the paper and begin to read as Kaya continues to stand next to me, unsure of what she should do.

A few minutes later Matsumoto comes back, "Kaya? Look who I found!"

Kaya shimmies to her left and gasps," sheepy!"

She runs over to Matsumoto and takes her sheep, "thank you!"

Matsumoto returns to her seat, "no thank you Kaya!"

Kaya walks back up to me, "look! Sheepy!"

I place the paper in the done pile, "I see that Kaya."

She tries to crawl onto my lap but I gently push her down, "daddy is working saru, go play."

Kaya walks away and goes to her bag, which Matsumoto had placed on the ground. She pulls out some crayons and blank paper and begins to draw. Half an hour later I see a piece of paper with some colourful people slide across my desk. I look beside my desk to see Kaya stretching on her tippy-toes. She gets the paper onto my desk and returns to her crayons, which are scattered on the floor. I tilt the paper to get a better look at it but what catches my attention is what she wrote in big red letters,

I AM SORRY DADDY

NO MORE MAD AT KAYA

I LOVE YOU

I can't help but grin at her scribbled lettering as my love for my daughter grows. My daughter's attempt to cheer me up works despite the fact that I wasn't even mad at her in the first place. I peek over the paper to see Kaya scribbling on another blank paper, her back towards me.

"Kaya…" I call to her quietly.

She looks back at me and then walks up to me, taking a second to hide behind the front of my desk.

She approaches me with caution until she is close enough to me that I can lift her onto my lap. I rub her belly and then tickle her feet, making her laugh and squirm.

I pretend to eat her ear making her giggle more, "Otousan don't eat me!"

I continue tickling her belly, her feet, her sides and her back until she is all giggled out. I kiss her forehead and grin, "go play now saru baby."

I help her off my lap and she runs over to her sheep, flying it around the room, back to her happy self. I pick up another paper to see Matsumoto giving me an "awe!" smile.

"What?" I ask pretending her look doesn't embarrass me.

Matsumoto grins, "you're such a good daddy, captain."

I shrug, trying to be cool, and begin to read the paper.

Matsumoto laughs and then stands up, "want a tea?"

I nod, "sure."

Kaya continues to zoom around the room with her sheep when an uninvited guest steps into my office. A tall man with a black face wearing a captain's robe grins at me and then notices my daughter playing. Mayuri Kurotsuchi tilts his head to the side, a disgusting expression appearing on his face, like he wants to dissect her. My innocent daughter runs by with her lamb and Mayuri stops her. My fatherly instincts kick into overdrive at seeing him touch my daughter. I flashed over to them, gripping his wrist tightly as I push Kaya behind me for protection.

In a low voice voice I warn, "don't touch my daughter please." Kaya must have sensed my mood for she hides behind me more, out of sight.

I hear Matsumoto squat down, "come here Kaya sweetie."

I gently push my daughter towards my lieutenant who takes the cue and runs to Matsumoto as quickly as she can. Kaya hides behind Matsumoto, completely invisible. Mayuri try's to watch Kaya run but I get in front of him to block his view.

"What you do with your daughter is your business, but don't think I will let you do it to mine," I warn again.

Mayuri is the head of the researcher center. I know he likes to tinker with things and see what he can come up with. He created his daughter in some experiment and uses her as a tool for fighting.

Mayrui chuckles, "I don't know what you're talking about! I won't hurt her!"

I glare at him for I do not believe a word he says for a second. Mayrui shrugs, "I have come to inform you that my division will be running some medical supplies through here because the main underground tunnel is under construction."

Wanting to get him out of my office I agree saying that it's fine so long as they don't interfere with my division. Mayuri says good-bye to Matsumoto and I and takes his leave. I personally close the door behind him.

Once everything has calmed down I hear my daughter running towards me with her arms outstretched, "otousan!"

I squat down to hug her and rub her back, "did I scare you?"

She nods, "that man was scary."

I kiss her forehead, "I know sweetheart but he is gone."

Kaya looks at her belly and I rub it, "did he hurt you?"

I begin to feel worry for I know his division is the medical division and specializes in producing poisons.

"No," she says watching my hand.

I stand up and Kaya embraces her lamb, "I'm hungry!"

I laugh and push her in the direction of her bag. Kaya sits in front of her bag and pulls out a purple lunchbox. I watch her un-zipper the box as I squat down. I look into the lunchbox to recall what I had packed her for a snack. Kaya of course notices the goldfish crackers and takes them out first.

I grab a blue plastic container that has some apple slices in it, "have some apple first and then your goldfishes."

Kaya puts a goldfish in her mouth and then sets the bag beside her, "okay."

I watch her pick up a thin apple slice and start eating. I lay four more on the lid, "eat these and then you can have –"

I pour a small amount of goldfishes onto the lid beside the apple slices, "then you can have these."

Kaya finishes her first apple slice and then moves onto the second, quite content sitting on the floor.

Happy to see my daughter eating I return to my desk once again. Matsumoto has gone into the next room to make our teas. A few minutes later she returns with two teas, one for me, and one for her. Matsumoto steps over Kaya to sit down on the couch.

I take a sip of my tea when I hear Kaya start singing, "fishy, fishy."

I shake my head at my child's silliness, unable to fight back a grin. And that's when it hits me again, what did I do before my daughter?

Matsumoto looks at Kaya, "aren't you a lucky girl!"

Kaya smiles at her and eats the cracker, still singing, "fishy, fishy."

Yes she can be a pain at times, I look at her drawing she drew for me and re-read the apology, but I wouldn't give her up for anything. She is my entire world now and I want to give her a prosperous life.

Some time goes by of Matsumoto and I doing paperwork. I just happen to notice the time is 1:13 am. Kaya needs to have her nap now. With this is mind I look up to see Kaya has ventured off somewhere and is oddly quite.

Wonder sets in, "is Kaya with you Matsumoto?"

I see Matsumoto look around her area, "no, why?"

I look at the door, she wouldn't leave, thankfully its closed.

Panic sets in as I glance franticly around the room for my daughter or her lamb.

"Kaya?" I yell a little loudly, nothing. Matsumoto races to the other room and comes back shaking her head no.

"Kaya!" I yell louder.

I feel something stir around my feet and I immediately roll back to see a sleepy Kaya siting up. She had been using her lamb as a pillow.

She rubs her eye as I pick her and her lamb up. Her head falls onto my shoulder as she resumes sleeping.

Matsumoto stares in bewilderment, "how did she get there?"

I squat down near her bag and pull out a beige blanket, "I don't know."

I lie her down on the other couch and tuck her under her blanket. I place her sheep above her head and then clean up her scattered toys.

"You know," Matsumoto begins, "she might make a good black ops member? She's very quick and an excellent hider."

I shrug, "maybe, but I don't know if I want her to get into the military."

Matsumoto helps me finish cleaning up the toys, "that's just the daddy in you."