Snow Angel
By: Sakura-Moonlight
Hitsugaya Toushirou was the 10th division's captain. The youngest ever to become one, with white silvery hair and a pair of jade cold eyes that froze anyone in sight, and he was turning 180 today.
"Taichou! Happy Birthday!" Matsumoto, his lieutenant jumped up and down in their office as she hugged him from the behind. Hitsugaya scowled and shrugged his overly large vice-captain off his shoulders.
"What's so special about it?" He mumbled, growling.
"You're 18 now taichou!" Matsumoto screamed, using the human years in comparison, looking absurd that she was answering such a useless question. "You're legal now!"
Hitsugaya sighed. "That's special? Last time I checked, being legal wasn't very important, or exciting in that matter."
Matsumoto pouted. "You don't understand the definition of exciting taichou. Anyways, you have the day off, curtsey of no paperwork!" She seemed too joyful for Hitsugaya to take.
He almost laughed. "And who is doing the homework when I won't be? I don't suppose you will."
Matsumoto chuckled. "You see through me every time taichou! The paperwork's being distributed evenly to every other division as we speak. And in that way you were speaking," Matsumoto teased lightly, "it almost seemed like you don't want me at your celebration!"
Hitsugaya knew then that something was up, and he had no control over it. "Celebration?"
"Yep! I'm in charge of it, so there's NO WAY I'll be here doing that hideous paperwork!" She laughed.
"Like you ever do it anyways." Hitsugaya muttered.
"Taichou, that's not nice! Hina-chan won't like this one bit!" Matsumoto screeched, grinning from ear to ear.
"H-Hinamori?" He stuttered, getting the hint immediately.
"Yep!" Matsumoto said happily.
"I don't have a choice in this…do I?" Hitsugaya asked helplessly, knowing how useless even asking it was.
"No taichou. You most definitely don't." Matsumoto smiled joyfully. Her mission was complete.
Hitsugaya was out of his office in a heartbeat, chased out of it actually. Matsumoto insisted that she had left a full sake bottle somewhere in the large area and refused to let Hitsugaya anywhere near it. She had no excuse anymore as of now though. Just as she had said, he was now, legal.
Hitsugaya was left in the empty hallway. He was certain Matsumoto had just wanted him out of the place so they could decorate it up and force him back in some other time, using a crazy, or if not, insane method.
He smirked suddenly.
He'll just give them a much harder job than they had intended for it to be. Why not have a little fun? It was, after all, his birthday.
And with that, Hitsugaya left the division.
The snow was still falling, and Hitsugaya loved it when they fell on his hands, the warmth of his body heat burning away the snowflakes' forms, deducing it to nothing but small particles of water on his palm, exposing him to the utter cruel powers of winter.
It made him feel closer to ice than ever.
Maybe that's why his birthday befell December 20th, in the month of winter in which he enjoyed the most. Hitsugaya began to leave a trail of foot prints in the deep layer of white.
He was wandering away from his division consciously to the deepest parts of Soul Society in which the snow was purest and least intruded. The most angelic, he preferred.
He stopped.
Hitsugaya remembered the time when he had called upon Hyourinmaru first, it was here. The cold icy feeling inching towards every part of his body through his veins, his blood freezing up from its presence, the power rushing through him the moment his hands touched the blade, and nothing else mattered except for releasing the raw strength, pushing his limits far away into non-existence.
"Shirou-chan!"
Hitsugaya turned abruptly, seeing the person he had expected the most out of the two that dared to say the nickname. Hinamori Momo.
"Hinamori, what are you doing here?" He was surprised after all. It seemed like she was looking for him. Quite suspicious.
"Oh nothing! Just hoping for a chat or two you know? We haven't seen each other in so long since we have our respective divisions to go to… and… I just thought…" Hinamori rambled; speaking so fast Hitsugaya could hardly understand her.
"H-Hinamori…" Hitsugaya was at a loss for words. Partly because she had asked him to do something he's been hoping for, for a long time, but had no time to, and also partly because he didn't exactly understand what she had just said. He wasn't a genius at understanding the magic of speed talking.
"S-so… would you?" She asked hopefully and shyly, her blush contrasting the soft white scenery that befell everywhere.
Hitsugaya had a feeling this was another part of Matsumoto's scheme or something, but there was a part of him that desperately wanted to accept. They fought together, his muses going wild inside his mind. Oh his self-conscience was hard to control when they always took opposite sides.
"Sure Hinamori. That'd be… nice." He replied, blushing as well.
Seemed like his softer side won in the end.
They were walking, closer towards the quiet places of Rukongai, closer towards the gates and Hitsugaya knew it too.
"Hitsugaya-kun, I'd like to ask you something." She spoke at last, stopping, glancing casually around him.
"Yes?" Hitsugaya said curiously, suddenly interested at her sudden change of his name, not that he minded of course.
"What do you think of the snow?" She whispered, her voice mixing with the wind. Nothing more heartwarming than this, Hitsugaya thought, a conversation that he thought out in his head many times before, but never the courage to speak.
"The snow…?" Hitsugaya smiled faintly, his hands reached out for that frosty feeling once again. "The snow is the purest thing I know of. It may be cold, but it's angelic, touching in a way I just can't explain."
Hinamori nodded her face pale and white. "I think so too. The snowflakes are like people. Apart from each other, each distinct and different, unique and special, they are, aren't they? It just feels like you're in heaven, waiting for something, something hopeful like an angel…" Hinamori said dreamily, her head up in the clouds where the small crystals befell from.
"It's just wonderful to watch it dance in the sky, so lovely, so innocent…" Hitsugaya stopped, his icy eyes softening as he ran them over Hinamori's.
Hinamori could hardly breathe. Is this the friend I grew up with? The friend who did nothing but tease me with nicknames? The friend who acted like he never cared at all?
"Just like an angel up above, watching us." Hitsugaya stopped, and stepped closer to Hinamori, the faint sounds carried away by the wind.
"As beautiful and angelic as…" Hinamori's body shook as Hitsugaya's arms snaked around her neck, pulling them closer together. She could feel his breath on her nose; his warmth what she desperately needed.
This was not part of the plan at all.
"You." Hitsugaya whispered huskily, and leaned forward to kiss her. Maybe boys are just like that. Her thoughts carried away into the non-caring zone as she went with her instincts.
Their lips met together in a light embrace, and Hinamori hadn't been expecting what she was feeling right there and then. Her eyes closed naturally and her arms fell around his neck, their bodies sharing heat, hard and intense.
The kiss was so soft and caring, as if a million words could be expressed within it. Hinamori loved every moment of it, and her mind momentarily cursed as they pulled apart for air, panting softly and blissfully, seeing it fade into the background.
"I-…" Hitsugaya started traditionally.
"We should go." Hinamori cut him off, holding his hand and running off.
"Demo…"
It was no surprise where they were going as soon as Hitsugaya's brain kicked in. The 10th was filled with people as soon as he stepped within the door. Matsumoto and the others had completely transformed his office into the greatest, and the messiest for that fact, party central in the history of Soul Society.
"Happy Birthday!" A chorus of screams met his ears.
"Arigatou." Hitsugaya replied politely. He was right after all. No doubt he would be expecting this.
Hinamori began clapping and after a moment of silence, everyone else joined in. Hitsugaya didn't know why however, was it just a spur of the moment?
"Taichou! Speech! Speech!"
Maybe he wouldn't really enjoy this after all.
"So I see Hina-chan has done pretty good in distracting you." Matsumoto said as she took another drink of sake, her endurance coming through for her, for Hitsugaya could still understand her semi-slurred words.
"W-What?" Hitsugaya asked. He wasn't at all too surprised to be honest, Hinamori had been stuttering for too much for it to be normal.
Hinamori blushed but nodded. "Gomen…"
Hitsugaya couldn't help but sigh.
"So taichou, how was the kiss hmm?" Matsumoto began, and Hitsugaya's face turned crimson. "It seemed like becoming legal was the only thing that could've made you making the first move."
The two blushed simultaneously.
Matsumoto took her signal to leave, waving at Renji with her bottle in hand.
"You know, I never got the chance to say this. I love you Hinamori Momo." Hitsugaya said, feeling less like himself by the minute.
Hinamori smiled softly. "Me too Shirou-chan, me too."
The snow kept on falling outside, Hitsugaya saw from the windows, and Hinamori was more beautiful than all the snowflakes combined together. No matter what he had told her after them being angelic and whatnot, as long as it made her feel better.
Because now, she was his, and only his.
His very own snow angel.
OWARI
Omake
"Hitsugaya-kun, here we are!" Hinamori said happily, leading him to a pair of doors.
"Where are we exactly Hi-Momo?" Hitsugaya replied, obviously confused.
"Let's go in, and you'll find out!"
What he heard was definitely NOT happy birthdays, instead, all he saw were a bunch of drunken people, slurring words after word, and their leader, Matsumoto in the middle of it, dancing and singing in a way that made Hitsugaya cringe.
"E-er…" Hinamori stuttered.
"Let's just get out of here." Hitsugaya started, blushing madly.
Hinamori nodded.
She knew it was a bad idea for Matsumoto to choose a bar for the location.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading & review please! Happy B-day to Shirou-chan!
