Amber eyes flashed violently. Kami, she hated him. Hated his guts with a heated passion. Despite Rangiku's obvious amusement, their fights were usually in danger of turning into a homicide. It wasn't unusual for one of them to end up paying a visit to the 4th Division, who tended their wounds with knowing sighs.

Kohana Chikamatsu had more than once thanked her lucky stars that the medical shinigami of the 4th Division were beings endowed with immeasurable patience. If not for shinigami like Yamada Hanatarou, it was guaranteed she d have worked herself into Unohana-taichou's bad books. Although Unohana Retsu was a sweet woman and a talented healer, her anger was more feared than Zaraki-taichou's was. Kohana had seen Unohana's infamous rage make the most fearless of shinigami quiver in fear (Madarame Ikkaku and Kurosaki Ichigo included in that number).

Sitting cross-legged on the hospital bed, she let Kotetsu Isane fuss over her. Kohana was mentally preparing herself for the lecture she was bound to receive from her fukutaichou later on, while trying not to wince as Isane applied disinfectant to the scratch across her upper arm, and half-listening to the lecture the fukutaichou was giving her.

"We can't afford to keep treating you every time you two get into a fight, Kohana-chan. Unohana-taichou is starting to feel suspicious, and if she finds out that our stocks are lower than usual because we're patching you up, she'll be furious! I know that deep down, even you-"

Kohana tuned her out again. If Isane had anything new to say, she would have said it by now.

"Are you listening to me, Kohana-chan?"

"Not really."

Isane sighed and sat down next to the fourth seat. "I only lecture you because I worry about you. You know that."

"Yeah, yeah. Who are you, my mother?"

Isane rolled her eyes affectionately. Kohana had a reputation for being a master sarcasm. "No, just a worried friend. I don't understand how you two can fight all the time."

"It's his own fault for being so irritating."

"You'll get yourself into trouble if you go around saying that about a taichou, Kohana-chan."

"Whatever."

Isane slid off the bed and moved towards the door. She would back away for now. She knew that trying to reason with Kohana when she was in a mood like this was a lost cause. A small smile graced her lips. It seemed Hitsugaya-taichou had yet to learn that lesson. If Isane understood the situation correctly, the cause of today's argument had gone along the lines of Hitsugaya trying to reason with his hot-headed fourth seat, and Kohana had accused him of manipulating her opinion (Isane didn't understand that logic, but she'd just nodded her head convincingly), and then she'd punched him for being an "stupid white-haired midget".

Of course, that had made Hitsugaya loose his temper. Flash forward two hours, and here they were. Matsumoto Rangiku had broken up the fight and dragged them both along to see Isane, and insisted that she heal them (as an afterthought, she'd also asked Isane to cool off Kohana's hot temper). The 4th Division shinigami had made sure that the pair had been placed at different ends of their division building, so there wasn't any risk of them starting a fight in the middle of the corridor.

Isane rubbed the back of her head in exasperation. It was amazing. Even with the threat of the Xcution hanging over their heads, they found time to start arguments over the pettiest things imaginable. She tended to take it in her stride, but it was becoming more difficult to hide the evidence from Unohana-taichou, and she knew they (they being herself and Rangiku) had to find a way to stop them arguing before they did any real damage.

Kohana sat stiffly as Isane quietly shut the door. When she was sure that the fukutaichou wasn't coming back, Kohana let out a deep sigh and flopped backwards onto the bed. Her eyes narrowed at the ceiling as her thoughts drifted.

"Where are you, Nee-chan?"

It had been bothering her for a few days. Her brother was out on patrol in Karakura Town. It irritated the hell out of her, knowing that Kenta was out there risking his life fighting Hollows, and she was stuck here on patrol duty. Kohana felt useless. She knew she shouldn't be here. She knew where she wanted to be. But two days ago, the Senkaimon had been placed under a bakudo that would only allow shinigami of lieutenant-level and above to pass through it.

It was as if Yama-jii had known that she would want to go to Karakura and fight the Xcution. She'd had an escape plan set out, but now the old man had forced her into a stalemate, and she hated him for it. Her hands curled into fists, clenching the sheets. Her knuckles turned white.

"I'm going insane in here! I need to be out there, not stuck in here! I hate it, hate it, hate it, dammit! How can Isane and Rangiku-chan be so calm about it all?! I want to fight for the Soul Society! Does Yama-jii think I can't look after myself?! Dammit, I hate that old man! I-"

Kohana paused mid-sentence and took a deep breath. Another thing she hated was Ukitake-taichou's anger-management classes. However, as much as she hated them, the man gave some pretty good advice. Kohana started counting in her head.

"One. Two. Three. Four."

The tick from the clock on the wall echoed in her head. Her eyebrow ticked angrily. Taking another breath, she continued.

"Five. Six. Seven."

Her hands clenched. It wasn't working as well as it usually did.

"Eight. Nine-"

The door swung open. An all to familiar voice spoke, interrupting her counting.

"Baka, it's time to go."

Hitsugaya turned away from his fourth seat. It would have been easy to assume she was asleep, but her hands had given her away. He rubbed the cut on his cheek, his expression sour. He would get her back for that one. Hitsugaya wasn't one to be superstitious, but he now firmly believed he was cursed. First off, he had the laziest fukutaichou around, and then his fourth seat seemed to make a hobby out of assaulting him. Sighing, he turned back to Kohana, to see what was taking her so long.

Kohana burst out laughing at the expression on her taichou's face. While he'd been daydreaming, she'd been carefully angling the pillow, so when it connected with it's target, it would have the maximum effect. Said pillow smacked into Hitsugaya's face, and threw the 10th Division taichou face-first into the wall across the corridor.

"That'll leave a mark on his pretty-boy face."

Still laughing, she shunpo'd to the body heaped against the wall, sat down cross-legged and ruffled his white hair in a way that was guaranteed to annoy him.

"You walked right into that one, Hitsugaya-chibi!"

Hitsugaya sat up sharply and glared at her. He hated that nickname. And she knew it. The nickname "Hitsugaya-chibi" had sprung from an idea Kohana's friend Sarugaki Hiyori had given her after she (Hiyori), Yadomaru Lisa and Hitsugaya had faced off against the 3rd Espada. Hiyori had called Hitsugaya a "chibi", and his response had been (according to Hiyori) funny as hell. Ever since finding out about this particular incident, Kohana refused to call her taichou by anything other than "Hitsugaya-chibi". In turn, Hitsugaya refused to call her anything other than "baka".

"Aw, did Hitsugaya-chibi fall down?"

"How many times, baka?! It's Hitsugaya-taichou to you!"

Kohana smirked. "Well, I guess being a chibi is better than being a irritating white-haired dwarf."

Hitsugaya, needless, to say, lost it. And when Isane returned returned five minutes later with Unohana-taichou, they were at each other's throats.

That night, Kohana stormed around the 10th Division Quarters, uptight and angry. She'd tried several times to fall asleep, but she ended up tossing and turning restlessly. Unfortunately, Unohana had been less than kind in her punishment, even though Hitsugaya was a taichou himself. Isane had had to explain why they were there, but Unohana had turned psychic on them and guessed just about everything. In fact, her accuracy was borderline freaky.

"Guess that's why Unohana-taichou is in charge."

Kohana and Hitsugaya had been humiliated, and were sent back to their quarters in shame. They'd sent each other dirty looks and then gone their separate ways. Kohana knew that was probably for the best, but right now, she longed to break something; anything. If she had a choice, it would be Hitsugaya's nose, but then that might get her trouble with Unohana-taichou and Yama-jii. Dropping herself in deep water was the last thing she needed.

As Kohana turned back into the corridor that led to her room, loud laughter stopped her. It sounded like Rangiku had been drinking Again. It also sounded like she'd now deposited her behind in the main office. Again. Running a hand through her dark hair, she back-pedaled to the office. When she slid through the open doorway, Kohana was met with the sight of Rangiku sprawled face-up on the floor, drawing seemingly random shapes in the air with her zanpakuto, Haineko. Hitsugaya was sat at his desk with his paperwork; he was ignoring his lieutenant's babbling and high-pitched laughter.

"No surprise there," Kohana thought dryly.

Unsure of what to say, Kohana stood there awkwardly, until Rangiku let out a squeal.

"Ko-chan!"

Kohana swallowed. Rangiku was always going to be the scariest in Soul Society. There was no competition. Even Izuru wasn't as bad as Rangiku; Izuru was more of a lazy drunk than scary.

"R-rangiku?"

"Hellooo!"

"H-hi. Um, Rangiku, why are you on the floor?"

"Because I wanted to sit down!"

"But you're lying down, not sitting."

"Same thing!"

Kohana sweat-dropped. It was? "Rangiku, how much did you drink?"

The strawberry blonde clambered to her feet, giggled, tripped sideways, then righted herself again. "Not much. Only nine bottles of sake! Do ya want some?"

"Uh... Rangiku, I'm allergic to sake, remember?"

"Spoilsport!"

Kohana deadpanned. "It's not fault I'm allergic."

There was a few moments of heavenly silence. Then Rangiku flung herself at Kohana, and before the girl move out of the way of her friend's drunken rampage, was caught by the shoulders. Kohana staggered. She was half an inch shorter than Hitsugaya, and as Rangiku towered above them both, her dead weight wasn't exactly easy to hold up. She shot Hitsugaya a pleading look, but he just smirked, and turned back to his paperwork. Her eyes narrowed angrily.

"Bastard. I'll get him later."

Hitsugaya watched as Kohana staggered under Rangiku, trying to hold up the busty strawberry blonde. He couldn't stop the small smirk of amusement that made it's way onto his face. It was quite a sight to behold, and it was a rare moment; Kohana was rarely out of her element or caught off guard. That was one of the reasons it was handy to have Rangiku around. She could take anyone out of there element.

"Hitsugaya!"

He glanced up when Kohana hissed his name. She was shaking under the strain of holding the woman up, and he knew that Kohana didn't have the heart to let the fukutaichou fall. However, this was the perfect time to get revenge - she would have to ask for his help.

"Yes?"

Kohana gritted her teeth. She hated it when he did this. She knew that he knew that she wanted his help with shifting Rangiku to the couch. Kohana glared; Hitsugaya smirked. Their staring competition continued for several moments, until she caved.

Cursing him to hell and back, she spat, "Help me put Rangiku on the couch. Please."

Hitsugaya almost grinned; almost. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Don't push it, chibi, don't push it."

Rolling his eyes, he got up, and moved to help his fourth seat. Typical Rangiku. Even when she was drunk, she caused him more problems than he could really afford to deal with. Sighing, he reached to take one of Rangiku's arms. Unfortunately for him, Kohana's knees chose that moment to give out. Said girl fell forward into Hitsugaya with a squeak of surprise; Hitsugaya toppled over under the combined weight of the two women; Rangiku had fallen asleep leaning on Kohana, and thus, was unaware of the trouble she was causing.

Kohana, who had shut her eyes during their domino-like fall, was contemplating whether it was safe to open her eyes not. She was aware of Rangiku's dead weight sprawled out on top of her, and how it was pressing her front into Hitsugaya. Her hands were clenched into his shihakusho. A light blush dusted her cheeks. Shaking herself for being so cowardly, Kohana opened her eyes. And froze. Surprised jade eyes met hers. Her cheeks reddened even more.

"H-he's kissing me!"

Kohana tried not to focus on the feel of his lips against hers. But, it was surprisingly difficult. Hitsugaya felt his cheeks pinken even more as he met her amber gaze. He'd never been this close to anyone before, not even Momo. Her lips were smooth, and felt good against his own. His eyes were trying to close again. He tried to resist. Kohana wasn't sure what to do. One thing was for sure - murdering Rangiku was now on her to-do list.

Somewhere, in a distant, partially fried part of her brain, she thought, "This gives 'threesome' a whole new meaning.

That's finished. And it's a cliffhanger xD I hope you all enjoyed it :) I'll try to update soon :)

Teddy x