A/N: Ha see! I am not dead. I have however graduated with a degree and am buried neck deep in job hunting.

I have started working on a little fifty scenes writing challenge – so this is the first of the little entries I will be posting up. It is similar to the character study that I am still working on, but quite different.

Prompt 02 - Cold

Hinamori had never liked the cold. It had never been her element, though she was not naive enough to think that it was just her own personal disquiet with it that affected her patterns when it came to the weather. Tobiume had quite a bit to say on the matter as well when she got riled up. She tightened her shawl around her shoulders and reached up to blow on her hands. Her breathe was visible in the cold air and she glanced at Hitsugaya who was training – again. It had been a few weeks since he had returned from the living world and she hadn't quite gotten the courage to ask him too many questions about what was going on. The Shinigami who had been sent out had all come home and Renji, who she would have felt the most comfortable questioning had disappeared as quickly as he had arrived. Kira and Shuuhei, the only other people she felt she could talk with about this with had their own trials at the moment and she was loath to cause them any more worry.

That left Hitsugaya or Matsumoto and after their last disastrous conversation she hadn't quite worked up the nerve to talk to him. She couldn't make herself approach Matsumoto either; if she was going to talk to her she needed to get over her hesitation and just go talk to him. Then if she couldn't get any answers, then she would stalk Matsumoto. She would tell him whatever they discussed anyway.

Only she hadn't quite gotten to that point yet.

Instead she found herself out here on a rooftop, watching him train from a safe distance and ignoring the cold as best she could. It was, she decided, somewhat refreshing. Mostly though she was just cold, the only reason that her teeth weren't chattering was the fact that she was cheating for all she was worth with some low level kidou. Captain Unohana wouldn't necessarily yell at her if she managed to get chilled, but she the gentle tone and quiet discussion that would result from it was worse. It was more than just disappointing her. It was like she had personally let the kind fourth division captain down all by herself.

She briskly rubbed at her shoulders and shook her head at Toushirou. He had to be making it colder; she didn't know why he was pushing himself so hard. Wished she was brave enough to go and ask him.

She sighed and stood quietly. The last time she had been out here, in the cold, watching the comings and goings of Soul Society. Captain Aizen had been with her and that was the root of all her problems. Captain Aizen… she sighed and glanced at the stars, always clearer when the summer haze disappeared from the sky. Maybe that was why Hitsugaya liked it so much; her lips quirked up a bit at the thought. Knowing him he just liked the cold, didn't pay much attention to how it affected the things around him.

Maybe… maybe tomorrow she would be able to ask him.