"Matsumoto-san, please remember to be careful with that vial. It is the only prototype we have and we still have yet to test whether or not it works." the vice-captain of the twelfth division said as the cheery tenth division vice-captain was leaving. " Also remember to be weary in the first 24 hours of its consumption and that all it takes is a split second of direct eye contact for it come into effect."
"Yes, yes, I hear you, Nemu. I'll make sure to be careful. Bye!" yelled back the voluptuous strawberry blonde as she made her way back to her own division. Now I wonder who I should give this too thought the mischievous vice-captain as she poured the vial's contents into a spare cup. Oh well, I'll figure that out later.
"Hitsugaya-kun, are you-" Hinamori started as she opened the door to the tenth division main office. "Hmm, he's not here…" she resumed after having quickly scanned the area. That's a shame she thought as a frown appeared on her face It's been so long since I've last seen him.
"Oi, Hinamori, is that you?!" called out a female voice from behind Hitsugaya's desk. "Ouch!" said the voice once again as Matsumoto bumped her head while trying to get out of her hiding place.
"Rangiku-san? What are you doing behind Hitsugaya-kun's desk?" questioned Hinamori as she watched her friend slowing get up while rubbing her injured head.
"Oh, I was just hiding from Taichou. You know, the usual." Matsumoto replied as she finally straightened herself up.
"And the best place to hide from Hitsugaya-kun is under his desk?" Hinamori asked while trying hard to suppress her laughter..
"Well, of course!" exclaimed Matsumoto. "It's the last place he'd think to look for me!" The tenth division vice-captain then started to laugh aloud as though her plan to escape her captain by hiding under his desk was foul proof. After about 30 seconds, she paused and directed her attention once again to the fifth division vice-captain. "So, what brings you here, Hinamori?"
"Oh, I was just wondering if Hitsugaya-kun was around is all…" the shorter girl replied as the initial disappointed of not being able to see her childhood friend returned. "Anyway, I see that you're both busy, so I'll just be on my way-"
"Oh nonsense!" exclaimed the voluptuous tenth division vice-captain as she began to escort Hinamori to one of the couches present within the office. "Come sit down! Taichou will probably be back here soon anyway, so you might as well wait!"
"O-Okay, if you insist, Rangiku-san" Hinamori stuttered as she made her way to one of the couches. "Are you sure I won't be bothering you in the meantime?"
"Of course not!" Matsumoto replied. "It's not like I was planning on working till he got back here anyway. Now help yourself to one of the glasses of water on Taichou's desk while I go get one of my magazines!" the tenth division vice-captain continued as she made her way to the other side of the office.
Since Hinamori was quite thirsty, she decided to take Matsumoto up on her offer. She decided to grab the cup nearest to her and immediately downed the entire glass. She then paused for a minute when she realized that the water had an unusual aftertaste. "Um, Rangiku-san…" the fifth division vice-captain called out. "Was that really water on Hitsugaya-kun's desk?"
"What do you mean, Hinamori? Of course it was-" Matsumoto started to reply as she made her way back to the fifth division vice-captain but then stopped as the realization hit her that Hinamori must have just drank from that cup. Oh she thought Now this will be interesting.
"What's wrong, Rangiku-san?" Hinamori questioned as she started to turn her head in Matsumoto's direction. Just as she was about to make eye contact with the older vice-captain, Matsumoto suddenly yelled and quickly brought her hands up to cover her eyes. "W-What? What's going on?" Hinamori continued as she started to worry.
"Ok, Hinamori, don't freak out, but what you just drank was…"
"Oi, Matsumoto, what's so important that I had to rush all the way back here for? I was in the middle of a captain's meeting, you know" stated the tenth division captain as he entered his office. He then paused as he caught sight of Hinamori sitting down with a blindfold over her eyes. "What's going on here…?" he resumed cautiously as he began to glare at his vice-captain.
"It's actually a pretty funny story, Taichou" Matsumoto began as she tried to force out laughter "You see, Hinamori accidently drank the vial prototype I received from Nemu earlier today. The prototype is only activate on direct eye contact, so I figured the best way to stop that from happening was to blindfold her."
"...And what exactly is this prototype suppose to do?" Hitsugaya further questioned as he increased the intensity of his glare.
"Well…" his vice-captain replied and she tried to think of a way not to further anger her already angry captain. "You see… This prototype makes it so that the consumer and the first person he/she makes eye contact with fall in love with each other…."
"WHAT!?" the tenth division captain yelled as his spiritual pressure began to soar.
"Wait, now Taichou, before you get too mad" Matsumoto quickly replied "The consumer has has to make eye contact within 24 hours of consuming the prototype for it to work! So as long as Hinamori doesn't make eye contact with anyone until her 24 hours are up, she'll be fine!"
At this, the tenth division captain started to regain his composure. He sighed and began to make his way over to Hinamori to see if she was alright.
Noticing her captain's sudden decrease in spiritual pressure, Matsumoto felt like it was now safe to carry on with the reason why she asked him to come back to his office in such a hurry. "Yeah, so, the reason why I called you back here was so that you could look after Hinamori until her 24 hours are up…"
"Very well" Hitsugaya replied "But you are going to help too. It is your fault she is like this in the first place, so that responsibility for your actions!"
"Yeah… About that…" Matsumoto began and then immediately flash stepped out of the office, leaving her captain and the fifth division vice-captain alone.
"MATSUMOTO!" the tenth division captain yelled only to shortly realize that it was pointless since his vice-captain was already long gone. "I swear… I don't think I could have gotten a more irresponsible vice-captain" Hitsugaya sighed and then turned to face his childhood friend. "Come on, let's head on to my room. No one will expect to find you there, so you shouldn't accidentally run into anyone."
Hinamori nodded as she began to stand up. Unfortunately, she let out a yelp seconds later as she banged her knee on the coffee table in front of her. Oh right she thought to herself as she began to massage her knee I forgot that the table was right there.
Hitsugaya sighed once again as he realized that there's no way his childhood would be able to safely make it to his room on her own. He then came to the conclusion that there was only really one way for him to bring her there while she was blindfolded: he had to carry her. So he scooped her up in his arms and began to make his way to his living quarters.
"W-What are you doing, Hitsugaya-kun?" Hinamori stuttered as desperately tried to hold on to the figured that suddenly picked her up.
"Relax, Bed-wetter" Hitsugaya replied "I'm only carrying you because it would be too much of a hassle and a waste of time to have you stumble your to my room. So just bear with this till we get there."
Hinamori shyly nodded and began to curl herself up against Hitsugaya's chest in an attempt to both hide her rising blush as well as prevent herself from falling.
On the way to his room, the tenth division captain couldn't help but notice that he was getting quite a few looks from his subordinates. Some of them were merely confused or curious as to what their captain was doing, while others seemed to have a smirk on their faces.
What's their problem? Hitsugaya thought as he continued to make his way to his own living quarters. It was only when of his seated officers yelled that he should was "the man" that he realised just how his and Hinamori's current situation would appear to an ignorant bystander. The captain immediately started to blush and started to quicken his pace as he made his way to his living quarters. However, this only resulted in further misunderstanding as his subordinates interpreted his sudden change of pace in a very different way than what Hitsugaya had intended.
"Listen, Hinamori, feel free to make yourself comfortable while you're here. I just need to take care of something and I'll be right back" the tenth division captain said as he place his childhood friend gently down on his futon and exited his bedroom.
"Alright, Hitsugaya-kun!" Hinamori called out after Hitsugaya as she heard his steps get further and further away. Hmm, what should I do while he's gone? she thought to herself Oh, I know! I'll grab a quick shower while he's out! If I remember correctly, the bathroom should be this way… Hinamori then proceeded to stumble her way around across her childhood friend's room in her until she found she found the restroom.
Ah! Finally found it! She thought to herself as her opened the door and entered the bathroom. Little did she know, the "business" that Hitsugaya had to take care was, in fact, grabbing a shower. Therefore, when Hinamori abruptly swung the door, she was actually interrupting her childhood friend while he was getting undressed. Too shocked to say anything, Hitsugaya remained silent as Hinamori made her into the bathroom and towards the shower.
As Hinamori began to undressed herself, Hitsugaya flushed as he immediately turned his back to her and cursed at himself for not saying anything earlier. Now he was stuck in the bathroom with Hinamori until she caused enough noise with the running water to allow him to escape the room undetected.
"Hmm, since no one is here, maybe it's safe to take off the blindfold…" Hinamori whispered as she began to raise her hands to untied the piece of cloth covering her eyes. Hitsugaya then started to panic, desperately trying to think of some way of getting himself out of his current situation. "Actually, that might not be a good idea… Who knows what will happen if I end up making direct eye contact with myself?" Hinamori concluded as she lowered her hands once again and hopped into the shower.
Hitsugaya released the breath he didn't even know he was holding and quietly exited the bathroom while the running water was loud enough to cover up the noise of the door opening and closing. Once outside, he collapsed on futon and thanked his lucky stars that he was able to make it out of that situation without Hinamori finding out he was even there. I'll have to be a lot more careful from now on he thought to himself.
Once Hinamori was out of the shower, Hitsugaya was final able to resume his previous attempt at taking a shower himself. When he was finished and made his way back to his bedroom, he noticed that Hinamori had fallen asleep on his futon. Or, at the very least, he assumed she was asleep, since he couldn't exactly tell whether or not her eyes were closed.
In any event, Hitsugaya was actually growing quite tired himself and set up his second futon next to Hinamori. After whispering a gentle goodnight to his childhood friend, Hitsugaya fell asleep with a faint smile on his face.