Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach; I only wish to.

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'I'll take these three, captain, and you go take on the Espada chick', she told him, as if she was as far from the danger of dying as the others were. And he had consented, with the least of worries, not knowing he had as good as dispatched her to hell. For all he knew, he wasn't given a choice to start with, and she was asking for it. Now, though, he only wished to never have bowed his head in that swift, fateful second of uncertainty.

Now at a point where nothing else seemed to matter anymore, Hitsugaya Toushiro idled on a chair beside a bed, on which lay a woman fair to look upon. The only problem was, there had been no movement from her for the last two weeks. Strange as it was, he would pull out the chair day after day occupy it to let the time melt as it should, to wallow in a grave inactivity, hoping that some progress would come to light. A slight twitch of her eyebrows would've sufficed.

"Hitsugaya-kun, I'll look after Rangiku-san today, so please take a break for now." Hinamori offered.

"It's okay, Hinamori. I only wish to make sure she's—she's doing well." He assured her and went to stare at some imaginary point somewhere, just as what he would be doing every time he came for a visit.

Hinamori could only procure a faint nod of reluctant acquiescence before turning to leave.

The young captain, now enclosed in the privacy he longed for, began counting the odds against Matsumoto Rangiku's survival. For one thing, Captain Unohana's abilities had done very little to relieve her of the most serious complications in her injuries. For another, there had been no significant improvement in her consciousness that might have hinted on an immediate recovery. And lastly, Inoue Orihime had lost her powers.

No hope in sight, he thought.

He roused himself, tried to sharpen his senses as best as he could, to pull himself together, and maybe to prevent his throat from tightening and his tears from breaking loose, lame as it was. When finally, with labor at that too, his composure was regained, he spoke, in a voice barely above a whisper,

"Maybe it's over, my lieutenant, from the time it was made clear to me that Ichimaru Gin's name was etched in your heart and would remain so for as long as you'd live. But I would have wished it not to end this way where I can only watch as you slip away alongside the continuity of time. I'm too young for this suffering, and too young for you, so please don't die now. Live, live to hear what I have to say." He rose from where he sat, making only a slight difference in the general mood in the room as he cast his face upon his unconscious subordinate. Once again he opened his mouth, "Live, for me to go on living too."

He closed his eyes and heaved a sigh, and upon realizing he could be leagues distant from getting what he had always desired, stooped low, lowered his face close enough to hear her breathing, and kissed her.

He was too young for it, without a question, but that was nothing of any consequence now, of course, for Rangiku Matsumoto's brow curled in what must have been discomfort or some sign of life.

--

"But listen now, captain, I was dreaming I was Sleeping Beauty. And I was in a mesh of darkness I couldn't get out of. And then suddenly, like some wholly visible light, someone brought me back to life—not that I was really dead…" Rangiku Matsumoto was telling her story, as though her excitement could be shared with the same jubilant energy by someone like her captain.

Hitsugaya could hardly yield to the fact that he was back in this state again, back to square one where the last thing she'd suspect was the truth about him and what he had for her.

"Matsumoto, get to work already."

"Wait, captain. I'm sure you'd wanna hear the rest of it."

"I'm sure I've heard it quite often enough to know what happens next."

"But you'd always cut me off before I get to the best part."

"The best part is when you finally wake up. And as such took place in reality, I can now assign you to your post and stop doing double overtime every night."

Rangiku pouted her lips in dejection, and upon finding herself deprived of any consolation from her joy-killing captain, puffs up her cheeks,

"Wrong! The best part is when this guy kisses me, just so you know. I can't remember his face though; I wish I could. Man, it could've been anyone!"

Well, it made sense, actually. Sensible as it was, however, Hitsugaya stopped dead on his tracks, unable or unwilling to accept what he heard.

"What?"

"The kiss revived me, I'm sure. I know it must have been in my mind while I was unconscious, but don't you think it romantic, captain, like a fairytale?"

His mind became a perfect blank. If there were inconsistencies in Rangiku's version of the story, he would, without second thoughts, oppose them in vocal terms. But as there were none, he only had to remain, or pretend, undisturbed, so as not to unveil what he had in mind.

"Well, that's insignificant now, isn't it?—now that you're very much alive and elusive to your duties. I need the reports now."

"Fine. Give me twenty minutes, tops." She snatched the papers from his table. Unceremoniously she turned to her heels and brushed past the expanse from his table to the door. Before making a complete exit, she swiveled around to ask, "Hey captain, d'you happen to know anyone who has silver hair, besides Gin, of course?"

"Is this another one of your silly train of thoughts?"

"Er, I was just wondering 'cos the one who kissed/revived me had silver hair."

Hitsugaya, with all his faculties summoned, couldn't fathom what sort of cruel joke she was trying to pull on him. Slowly, and perhaps painfully, it struck him that this was a sincere question, an honest display of innocence. Apart from it all, he was just there, only a few feet from where she stood, and to think she couldn't determine what color of hair he was sporting made him feel thoroughly awkward, and vulnerable more than anything.

"Captain Ukitake is one. Would that do?"

"Uhm, the guy's hair wasn't on the long side; I can give you that, and if there was the slightest possibility that Captain Ukitake would kiss me, even in dreams… oh, forget it. Well, don't sweat it, sir. After all, it might have been just a dream. Ciao."

She blew him a kiss and attempted to disappear in the hallway.

"Matsumoto?" Hitsugaya called after her.

A faint commotion issued from beyond the door, suggesting that the lieutenant heard her captain's appeal.

"Yeah, captain?"

"Would it kill you to look at me, and I mean, really see me? Would it hurt you to know me as what I really am? Would it pain you to notice I have silver hair?"

Her lids expanded to accommodate the astonishment brought to her by his queries, personal as they were. She knew at once what he wished to convey, recognized instantly the unlikelihood of it all, concluding it was impossibility as much as anything else.

"I—of course you have silver hair." She exclaimed, now blushing, and continued her incoherent banter, shakily, "Only that, I never would have imagined or considered you'd…d—did you, captain?"

He looked at her, and she did the same. He remained unmoving, which was in its own way a form of affirmation, and he spoke no more.

"…"

"Thank you, captain, for saving my life."

Finally she left the room, believing her cool verification and gratitude would end the uneasiness plaguing her captain, not realizing right away that what had transpired was as far from a fairytale as world history was.

For Hitsugaya Toushiro, on the contrary, it was a happy ending, notwithstanding her indifference.

END