Yay for HitsuMatsu! It's all Kristine93's fault. Her HitsuMatsu fanfics are really good, so she influenced me. Darn you, Kristine! p

This was simply written to clear my head…

Please enjoy.

Dislcaimer: I don't own Bleach.

The snow was falling gently onto the ground, collecting in great white piles. Intricate snowflakes drifted around, swirling in the breeze. Even from Seireitei, the shrieks of delighted children could be heard, youngsters in the surrounding districts making icy forts and hurling snowballs at one another.

Even some of the Shinigami, cracking under the temptation, had decided to troop outdoors and challenge one another to a snow war. Renji gave a very un-macho yell as Hinamori creamed him with a well aimed throw. Screaming, she ran away as he chased her, determined to avenge himself. He was so fixed on her that he didn't even notice Matsumoto, who aided her female comrade by scooping up another pile of snow and hitting him squarely on the head as he zoomed by.

Mayuri, wanting to test his clones' temperature range, sent two shivering specimens outside so he could make observations. Ukitake was safely indoors, watching the merry scenes with amusement. Even Byakuya had decided to take a break and walk along the cold path, snowflakes miraculously seeming never to touch him. Everyone was enjoying the cold weather, or at least taking advantage of it.

All except Hitsugaya Toushirou, that is.

He had remained at his desk the whole day, stubbornly doing the paperwork and determinedly blocking out the sounds of winter fun as he steadily filled out documents and forms. He loved the snow. The fact he was forcing himself to avoid it until the work was done caused him to be moody and grumpy.

Naturally, he wasn't very pleased when his fukutaichou barged in, her hair covered in snow and her nose pink from the cold. "Taichou!" She exclaimed, still hyper from the intensity of the snowball battle. "Why are you still here?"

"Paperwork," he replied shortly, completing a pile of forms and starting on another.

"You love this kind of weather! Stop for today, and come outside!"

"No." He placed another sheet of paper on top of the finished collection. "I'm busy."

Matsumoto impatiently watched him serenely continue his work. It seemed he was doing it in a maddeningly slow fashion to intentionally torture himself. Finally, she couldn't stand it anymore. Making a grand sweeping motion, she pushed all the papers off his desk. All the forms, finished and unfinished, swirled together in a great rustling pile.

He stared in horror at the mess, temporarily speechless. She knew his shock wouldn't last long, and seized the opportunity to act when she still could. Grabbing him by the wrist, she dragged him outside.

The sudden cold seemed to snap him back to his senses, and he once again was capable of speech. "MATSUMOTO!!! Damn it, why did you do that? I'm going to skewer you! I was almost done!"

"Oh, well," she replied, not caring in the slightest regarding his threats. "You don't want to go back inside and sort out that humongous mess, do you?"

Tics appeared on his forehead. "I didn't even have a mess, until you came along!"

To his annoyance, she didn't even look concerned. "Yup! And you should thank me for it!"

"Matsumoto-fukutaichou and Shiro-chan!" Hinamori called to them. "You want to join us? We're going to start an official Shinigami snowball fight!"

"I wish she'd quit calling me that dreadful nickname," The short taichou muttered.

Matsumoto ignored him, and seizing his wrist once again, pulled him towards the large group of people congregated in a circle. "We're coming!" She called back. As the pair approached, they could hear some of the Shinigami discussing how to split up the group.

"Should we have more than two teams?" Hinamori wondered.

"No," Madarame said flatly. "Or else we'll lose track of who's on what team."

"We could have boys versus girls!" Matsumoto put in. "Taichou can be on mine, considering his hair's so long he'll be mistaken for a girl anyway…"

Her captain's head was littered with tic marks once more. "Shut up! I want to be on the opposing team so I can barrage you with snowballs for that remark!"

"Guys versus girls? That's a good idea," Renji mused. "We can do that. How about fifteen minutes beforehand for discussing tactics? And we can call a time out after thirty minutes."

"Yeah!" Everyone agreed. They split up, with the females retreating a fair distance away.

"All right, women," Soi Fong muttered. "Here's our strategy: Be careful. Retreat only when you must. Always be aware of your surroundings. And don't show any mercy, because they'll give us none. Got it?"

"Hai!" The girls cheered, and dispersed. Across from them, the boys did the same.

"Ready?" Renji asked, poking his head out from behind a building. "Begin!"

Just as he uttered the words, Hinamori promptly hurled a snowball at him and crowed as it found its target. "Yes! I got you twice, Renji-kun!" She vanished before he could pinpoint her location. Nevertheless, he sprinted around the corner of the building, on a mission to find her.

Battles began to ensue all around. Soi Fong came face to face with her vice captain, who slowly began to back away as she stared him down. Izuru gave a shocked yell as he came face-to-face with Isane, but pulled himself together and managed to strike her first. Hinamori, much to her surprise, managed to score a direct hit on Renji, and once again she was gone before he realized what had happened. Laughing, she decided to make it a game as to how many times she could cream him in this battle.

With everything else going on around her, Matsumoto still hadn't seen her taichou. Quickly ducking behind a pile of wooden crates to avoid an icy missile thrown by Madarame, she peered cautiously around. Leaning too forward on her knees, she almost toppled over. Instinctively, she hurriedly pulled herself back to avoid falling face first onto the ground. But as a result, she ended up overbalancing and toppled over.

"OW!"

She sat up, extremely surprised. She turned around to see what had made the sound, and her eyes widened. "Oh, hello, taichou! You were here all this time?"

The snowball scooted away from her towards the wall. "Yes, and having a good time before you came and sat on me," he replied dryly, gingerly testing his crushed limbs. "Damn you, Matsumoto. You always take a situation that's perfectly fine and turn it into something worse."

"I do not!" She protested. "I disrupted your paperwork so you could have a good time!"

"What about this then?" he snapped. "I don't see anything positive about you crushing me with your weight."

She smirked. "I do. You can barely move."

"And you consider that a good thing?" he retorted. "People are going to be giving me weird looks tomorrow because I'll be waddling around with my sore limbs!"

She blinked. "Oh. I wasn't thinking of that. But it's true; you'll probably be hurting all over in a couple hours."

He scowled at the way she stated the fact. "One day, when I grow big enough, I'll sit on you, and then you won't be saying that with such an I-don't-care kind of tone!"

Matsumoto grinned. "We'll see. Still, that won't be for a long time, taichou. But while you're still small and cute, I should take advantage of the way I can pick you up so easily- like this!" Her arm curling around his waist, she scooped him up and plonked him onto her lap.

"Matsumoto!" He protested, trying to ignore the red blush steadily creeping up his cheeks. "Put me down! Now!"

"No," she answered simply, her hands firmly around him. "Geez, taichou, stop squirming."

"Let me go! This looks - improper. We're supposed to be on opposite sides, Matsumoto!"

"Mmm," she replied absentmindedly, her fingers running through his white hair. His face turned an even darker shade of red. "I don't think you really care about that, taichou," she whispered. He jumped as she placed her head on his shoulder.

"Since you don't mind that we're on different teams," she continued, gently turning him around to face her, "you won't care if I do this."

Cupping her hands around his burning face (his green eyes were wide), she pulled him towards her. Leaning forward, her lips were about to meet his…

"Matsumoto-fukutaichou!"

She turned around at the sound of the voice. A small group of people were running towards them, Hinamori in the lead. As the fifth squad vice captain approached, Matsumoto quickly dumped her taichou on the freezing ground and stood up.

"Matsumoto-fukutaichou, you were here all this time?" Hinamori asked, not noticing Hitsugaya. "No wonder we didn't see you when Renji called a time out! But why are you so far away? Are you guarding something or other?"

Matsumoto's face looked blank, and then an evil smirk suddenly disrupted her normally good natured features. "Yes, I was! Look!" She pointed down at her captain, who was staring at her, still shocked from what she had been about to do. "I trapped him in this corner and waited for you guys! Come on, let's get snowballs and throw them at him!"

His face became one of pure terror. "What? No! Get away!"

The last thing he saw before his vision became obstructed by snow was the devilish grins on about half a dozen female faces.

-Otinga-

Finished! If you liked it, review!

-Tide