Matsumoto was bored. Very bored. And as anybody who knew Matsumoto knew, this was an extremely dangerous state for her to be in.
As she lounged on the desk, she idly looked up at her captain, Hitsugaya Toushirou, who was currently engaged in what appeared to be a mountain of paperwork.
"Captaiiiiiinnnnn!" She whined, raising her voice to make it sound as pathetic as possible.
Hitsugaya turned, a slow, deliberate motion he must have unconsciously picked up from Byakuya.
"Yes, Matsumoto?" he asked, a dangerous edge in his voice. One that Matsumoto identified, and immediately ignored.
"I'm booorrreeeed," she said, again raising the pitch of her voice to make it as whiny and obnoxious as she could.
Hitsugaya's jaw clenched and she could literally hear his teeth gritting against each other.
"Why don't you do all of your paperwork? I've been saving your stack for you," he said, his voice a low, angry growl.
Matsumoto sat up, and her face grew extremely cheerful. "Oh captain, you're so silly. Anyway, I think I'm going to go shopping. I'll pick you up something nice. Bye!" She said this all in a stream of words, talking so fast that it took Hitsugaya a moment to process what she had just said. At which point, Matsumoto was already out the door.
"MATSUMOTO!" Hitsugaya yelled after her retreating form.
---
Matsumoto bounced cheerfully around the Seireitei, heading in the general direction of the market. Her mood and boredom had improved dramatically, not uncommon when teasing her captain was involved. She couldn't help it. He was just so LITTLE and so SERIOUS.
As she walked, she noticed Hisagi running around, a stack of newsletters in his hands.
Perhaps it was the fact that she just happened to be getting thirsty, or perhaps Hisagi's presence sparked it, but Matsumoto suddenly had an idea. A wonderful, wonderful idea.
"Oh Hisagi," Matsumoto called, a mischievous grin on her face.
---
Tenth Division Captain Hitsugaya Toushirou sat at his desk scribbling meaningless drivel onto assorted stacks of paper, stamping, and signing them. While he did this, a stream of sulfurous curses that someone his apparent age shouldn't even know, much less be using spewed from his mouth in an acerbic and utterly annoyed tone.
"Useless never does anything always lies around leaves everything for me…"
Just as Hitsugaya's tirade was reaching epic proportions, the door slammed open.
"Oh captaiiinn!" Matsumoto called cheerfully as she stood at the door.
Hitsugaya turned, about to turn his muttered tirade into a full blown admonishment. However, something warm and squishy suddenly engulfed his face entirely.
"Oh captain I just had the best idea! You just have to come with me!" Matsumoto said, her voice, if possible, even more cheerful than it had been when she left.
Hitsugaya's reply was a bit muffled as he attempted to scream something at her, but his voice was understandably muffled as he disappeared even further into the folds of her breasts.
"Shush captain, you may be my superior but I'm still older than you and I definitely know what's best for you in this case," Matsumoto said, suddenly taking on a very motherly voice.
"Oh, and you probably don't want to try to talk. It'd be really troublesome to explain bite marks there."
Hitsugaya suddenly froze, and Matsumoto could see his ears turning bright red.
"Anyway," Matsumoto said, still not letting Hitsugaya go. "There's this great place I've been dying to visit. We should go!"
Hitsugaya made a strangled noise, almost as if he was trying to breathe but failing miserably.
---
Four hours later, Hitsugaya sat in the chair of a popular Seireitei clothing store, glaring at the door of a nearby changing room. Instead of the standard shinigami shihakushō and captain's haori, he was instead dressed in a green scarf with a white shirt and jeans. An outfit Matsumoto had just picked out for him prior. He did, however, still have his zanpakutou, which he had refused to relinquish and leave behind, even at Matsumoto's insistence.
Inside the dressing room was Matsumoto herself, who had, after ransacking the store to find appropriate clothing for her captain to where for wherever the hell she was taking him, forced him to try on countless outfits until she had found the one she felt would work. She had then ordered him to purchase it – with his own money – and put it on.
After that she again ransacked the store, this time gathering up as many dresses and other interesting frilly feminine garments. Hitsugaya, all in all, was a bit disturbed by the entire process. Being dragged through the dress section had been bad enough, but the lingerie? He was relatively sure he must have died again, only this time of embarrassment.
As he sat there contemplating why, exactly, he was letting his vice-captain boss him around, the door to the dressing room slammed open.
"It's perfect!" Matsumoto squealed as she dashed out of the room. She was wearing a long dress with fur covering the shoulders and a black top that tapered off just under her breasts into white fabric with several black star-like patterns on it.
"Great," Hitsugaya said in a tone that clearly indicated his firm desire to be removed from the premise immediately if not sooner, as well as his extreme irritation at being in the situation in the first place.
"I'll go change back, and then you can buy it for me!" Matsumoto said brightly, before dashing back into the changing room.
"Wait! I… MATUSMOTO!" Hitusgaya screamed.
---
"Hisagi!" Matsumoto called out as she led (see: "dragged") Hitsugaya through the street. The sun had set about an hour ago, and Hisagi was standing outside a rather sleek, modernistic nightclub. He was wearing a fishnet shirt, denim jacket, and jeans, and he raised his hand and waved when Matsumoto greeted him.
"Were you waiting long?" she asked happily as Hitsugaya eyed the building with equal parts unease and irritation.
"No, I just got here myself. Let's go, there's already a pretty large line forming."
The trio got behind a throng of primarily younger, off-duty shinigami. Most of them were wearing street clothing, and very few had their zanpakutou with them. The line seemed to move at a snail's pace, and Hitsugaya's expression grew more and more irate the longer they waited, something Hisagi started noticing. If Matsumoto noticed, she seemed blissfully unconcerned, already humming a song to herself and smiling cheerfully.
"This is ridiculous," Hitsugaya growled. "Come on!"
He walked out of line and stormed his way to the front. Hisagi seemed a bit conflicted, but when Matsumoto cheerfully followed behind her captain he had no choice but to follow.
"I'm not waiting in that line," Hitsugaya said angrily to the bouncer at the door, a tall, broad-shouldered shinigami in the standard shihakushō. He had his zanpakutou belted at his hip, and his face was covered in piercings. "Let me in to the damn building."
The bouncer gave him an incredulous look.
"Let you in? Right. Your friends can go to the back of the line and wait like everyone else, and you can go home, kid. It's way past your bed time."
Hitsugaya's eyes seemed to spark with blue flame. Hisagi drew away, while Matsumoto's grin grew even broader.
"What did you say?" Hitsugaya asked, a dangerous edge creeping into his voice.
"You heard me, kid. Go home. Come back in a few years when you're old enough."
Hitsugaya's eyes were blazing. He clutched the hilt of his zanpakutou, his knuckles white.
"If you don't let us in right now I swear…" he said, trailing off dangerously.
The bouncer scoffed and drew his zanpakutou, pointing it at Hitsugaya's throat.
"A kid like you shouldn't even have a toy like that. I won't repeat myself again, get lost."
"Soten ni zase…" Hitsugaya hissed. "HYORINMARU!"
---
Hitsugaya, Hisagi and Matsumoto sat at a table in the club near the dance floor. There were a lot of shinigami on the floor, many dancing and flirting. Hitsugaya's face was fixed in a scowl, and he seemed intent on his drink, some mysterious liquid that Matsumoto had ordered for him. It was sweet, and made him feel a bit warm and tingly, thus making it infinitely more interesting than any of the idiots on the dance floor.
"Let's dance, Hisagi!" Matsumoto said suddenly, grabbing him and pulling him to the floor. Hitsugaya smirked grimly. His earlier thought had just been proven right.
"Waiter, give me another one!" he shouted at a nearby waiter, who jumped to agree. As the waiter collected Hitsugaya's empty glass, he gave the bouncer-shaped block of ice a fearful glance before dashing to the bar as quickly as he could without dropping the glass. He returned a few moments later with another, which Hitsugaya immediately began drinking, slurping loudly on his straw.
This went on for about half an hour before people started clearing off the dance floor. Hisagi and Matsumoto returned to the table to find Hitsugaya in pretty much the same position they had left him, dourly sucking the drink out of the straw. His cheeks were quite a bit flusher than before, something Matsumoto noticed right away.
"Having fun?" she asked cheerfully.
"Not on your life," Hitsugaya said immediately, his speech slurring slightly.
"They're doing karaoke next!" Matsumoto said. "You should do a song!"
Hitsugaya scowled, and went back to his drink.
---
The karaoke was apparently a big event in the club, and they had allotted several hours to it, allowing people to dance to the songs by using the outer part of the dance floor. There was an elevated stage that they raised to allow the singer to step up during their song, giving them the attention of everyone in the room.
As Hitsugaya watched the most recent singer, a young woman singing a song from an anime that Hitsugaya actually knew very well but would never admit to, his leg started to twitch a bit. He glanced over at the song list, and found himself wondering what other songs they might have, especially those that he might be able to sing.
Were Hitsugaya in possession of his normal sense of dignity and propriety, this idea would have been immediately squelched and shoved to the darkest recesses of his mind. However, after several drinks that, unbeknownst to the young captain contained high quantities of alcohol, Hitsugaya was most certainly not in his normal state of mind.
Matsumoto watched with interest as Hitsugaya's eyes went to the playlist and lingered there. She saw the look of longing clearly stamped on Hitsugaya's face, and a broad grin started to form across her features.
"You should sing a song, captain!" she said.
Hitsugaya scowled. Well, he tried to scowl, but his face wasn't quite working how he wanted to, and it almost looked more like a grimace of pain. Shaking his head, he tried to reply, but he seemed to not be able to clearly think of something and babbled something that vaguely sounded like a denial. Frustrated, Hitsugaya got to his feet, swaying unsteadily for a moment, before stomping over to the book, which he began to furiously flip through.
Matsumoto squealed with glee and Hisagi just shook his head and chuckled in disbelief.
---
Hitsugaya flipped through the book, going straight to the anime music. He immediately saw a song that caught his eye, and, in his inebriated state, immediately went and signed up for it. The song was Ashita e no Basho, the image song from Full Metal Alchemist and one of Hitsugaya's secret manga obsessions. He absolutely loved the character of Edward Elric, and while he liked the song a lot, he felt he could do a lot better job with the song since he wouldn't be singing in a female voice.
Plus, the song was originally sung by Paku Romi, who Hitsugaya had an equally secret crush on. He just thought she was so cute, and she tended to voice all his favorite characters.
He waited through several songs with growing impatience before finally he was called up to the floor. By now, the excitement had started to die down and the wait was a lot shorter between turns to sing, as people were now primarily hanging out at the bar or at the tables around the dance floor.
Drawing himself up to his full (if not unimpressive) height, Hitsugaya took a deep breath and began to sing.
Kagayaku sekai ga kono te ni afure
Kagirinai toki wo daite
Boku wa susundeku
From their table, Matsumoto cheered her captain on loudly and boisterously.
Tooku kara kaze ga fuite
Nagareru kumo wo miageteru
Furikaeru nante dekinai
Matsumoto suddenly grabbed Hisagi and pulled him onto the dance floor again. As her captain sang, she danced around energetically, Hisagi barely able to keep up. As the song ended, Hitsugaya was almost immediately tackled by two teenaged shinigami, who immediately started talking to him very quickly.
Matsumoto looked curiously at the girls, before watching Hitsugaya, who seemed to be agreeing to something. As she took her seat with Hisagi, she watched intently as the girls dragged Hitsugaya over to the table and went through the song book with him.
After a few more songs, Hitsugaya again ascended the stage, this time with both of the girls at either side. One of them was wearing a sparkling black-sequined halter-top and tight black leather pants. She had blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, and had a decent bust, although nowhere near Matsumoto's. The other girl had long black hair and was wearing a red and black dress with a skirt that was so high it almost reached her crotch. Each person grabbing a microphone, an upbeat tune started and Hitsugaya began to sing.
Torimodoshite miseru
tsukamu no sa kono te de
hohoemi to namida no ato wo
As he finished his verse, the black-haired girl stepped forward and she began to sing.
Wakatteru sono kimochi
dakara shinpai nanda
isshou da yo donna toki demo
The black-haired girl finished and the blonde was next to sing.
Tooku hanarete ite mo
omoi tsutawaru
sonna ki ga shite'ru no
Matsumoto once again grabbed Hisagi, who was starting to look quite worn down, and began to dance again as all three broke into song in unison.
Hagane no kokoro hitorizutsu
omou kimochi wa chigatte mo
omoi yari wa tashika dakara
itsudatte shinjite ireru
Matsumoto glanced over Hisagi's shoulder (not hard to do as his shoulders were bowed, as if there were a great weight upon them) and looked at the girls. They were having a bit too much fun, and getting a bit too close to her captain. She'd have to remember to kill them later and stash the bodies behind the club.
Hagane no kokoro bokutachi wa
nakushita mono ooi keredo
dakara koso tsuyoku nareru
kizuna tsuyoku fukai kara
---
Matsumoto carried Hitsugaya on her back as she made her way back to the 10th Division's office. Hitsugaya himself was fast asleep, his head resting on her shoulder and his face far more serene than normal.
Bypassing the office, Matsumoto took him straight to his room. Carefully, she deposited him on his bedroll, pulling the covers over him tightly. Smiling and humming the first song he had sung that night, she turned off the lights and closed the door.