Bad Habits

Momo has a bad habit, and who better to help her kick it than Toushiro Hitsugaya? One Shot!

First one shot! I know I should be working on Roommates, but I had a sudden burst of inspiration and had to write it out somewhere.

Her heart wildly banged against her chest and adrenaline surged through her veins as she stood outside the door to the tenth division's captain's office, her fingers pursed against her pink lips as she resisted the uncontrollable urge to shove the ends into her mouth and bite her nails to nubs.

But for the third time that week, she pushed her shaking hands deep into her shinigami robe's sleeves, and ran out of the division.

Yes, Hinamori Momo had a bad habit. Not only did she chew down her once long and healthy nails to the second knuckle, she was a helpless coward when it came to dealing with her best friend.

It wasn't always like this, Momo thought as she sat back at her old desk in the fifth division and started at her index finger's slowly recovering nail. She used to be able to tell Hitsugaya-kun everything, and she knew he would listen without judging her for a moment of weakness.

That was before she realized she was in love with him. Excuse me, in a deep feeling of infatuation on top of extreme physical attraction…. Yeah, that's it….

It was after his mission to the real world, and before he'd slain Aizen that Momo found herself yearning for his touch, his voice, his company, his affection. And that made everything awkward.

Unfortunately for Momo, Hitsugaya Toushiro was not oblivious to her hesitance and introverted tendencies around him. It did indeed spark his interest, and he knew he wanted to investigate her odd behavior. But that would have to wait, there was, after all, much work to do paperwork wise….

Momo had started her habit, both of them, after Toushiro first came to see her when he got back from a particularly risky mission. For almost a week she'd lost sleep, turning the possibility of him never returning over in her mind. The second she felt his reiatsu, she leapt from her seat and dashed through the door, directly into his arms, and pressed her lips to his. He had grown considerably taller, now almost an inch and a half above her head, not including the gravity defying hair that she found undeniably sexy.

In that instant, they were both lost in the ecstasy of the moment, but as soon as the initial excitement cleared from Momo's brain, she pulled away like he had bitten her (A/N: not that he wasn't thinking about it…) and made her escape before he could gather himself.

After that, she avoided him like the plague, humiliated, mortified even, and so she turned to the habit she had believed to have been kicked long ago, before she entered the academy.

Her nails were the victims whenever she began to think about Hitsugaya Toushiro, which, if you looked at them, was quite often.

She had gone to see him twice since that incident, both times against her will, one to deliver more paperwork, which she seriously considered burning through kido, and the second time she had been dragged in by her hair to sit and have tea with her and her taicho. That had not been a good day for Momo….

"So… Hinamori…." Hitsugaya started, hoping for some kind of conversation with the red faced girl that sat in front of him with his drunken fuku taicho.

"Mou, Taicho, you 'n Momo-chan have been all budy-budy for years and years… and …years…." Matsumoto drifted off and nearly fell face first into Momo's tea, before catching herself and launching right back into everything. Momo wasn't even fazed. "And years and so you should call each other by your names…"

Her face scrunched, "I mean your first names, not, you know, your…what's it called?"

"Last names?" Hitsugaya offered idly.

"YES!" Matsumoto shouted triumphantly, throwing her hands in the air and waking Momo from her self induced coma meant to preserve what little was left of her pride.

"Yes, well, thank you, Rangiku-chan, for inviting me to tea, but I really should get back to work…" she hadn't spoken the whole time, and at the sound of her fragile and so familiar voice, Hitsugaya's head snapped up.

But he didn't get a chance to say anything before Momo stood and walked out as calmly as she could manage in her panicky state.

Matsumoto was suddenly directly behind Hitsugaya as he looked after Momo with a forlorn expression hidden expertly underneath his icy exterior.

"You liiiiiike heeeeer. You wanna juuuuump heeeeer." She said while spinning on one foot, arms outstretched, it was a wonder how she didn't collapse….

Before Toushiro could turn red and angrily pull a paper thin excuse, Matsumoto turned serious.

"What did you do to her, anyway? I've never seen her this way…"

"I wish I knew," he said honestly.

After that, she avoided BOTH of them.

Momo steeled her resolve that night, tired of regret.

But not before she chewed her nails so far down they bled. They shook as she walked towards the tenth division, small droplets of blood sliding across her palms as she wrung her hands to keep from biting them further.

At such a late hour, she knew she didn't have to worry about being interrupted, and Momo was sure he would still be there, in his office, doing paper work. She gave a wry smile as she reached the door. Now or never.

But before she could even nock, the door was roughly thrown back to reveal a very stressed looking taicho and an office covered in ice, paperwork frozen in mid air, icicles hanging from the frozen ceiling beams.

He had finally broken. Momo had been waiting for the day he would tire of paperwork.

Hitsugaya had a crazed look in his eyes that made Momo giggle, which turned into a chuckle, which escalated into a full blown laughing fit, her hands braced on her legs, her eyes tearing at the edges.

Toushiro stopped where he was; wide eyed he mentally prepared himself for whatever was to come, but stopped himself. This was Momo, his Momo, and she had finally come to see him. Good timing.

"Momo…" his voice was raspy and tired, it reached out to her, and she stopped her laughing to look up, yes, up, into his deep blue eyes.

His strong and calloused hands slowly went to her cheek, brushing away the stray strands of hair from her face, his touch leaving the lingering sensation of burning cold, the sensation that drove her mad with longing.

He looked down and as he took hold of her hand, he noticed the blood on her finger tips. Instead of berating her like she had expected, he simply frowned.

She launched into her explanation of why and that she really didn't mean to hurt herself, but was cut short when he lifted her fingers to his lips, and used his tongue to stop the bleeding.

Though Momo was sure that the bleeding had stopped, Toushiro continued on, licking the blood from her finger tips, all the while his eyes never leaving hers. His mouth was warm, hot almost, in contrast to his cold blue eyes. Except, they weren't cold. Not when he looked at her, never when he looked at her, she realized in a flash of anxiety. Momo's heart skipped a beat and picked up double time.

Like deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck, her brown eyes shone with doubt, and fear. Not of Toushiro, not her Shiro chan, but that she was perhaps miss reading his intentions when she hoped for the best.

By the time her fingers were clean, the ice around his office had completely melted away, small puddles in place of large ice formations.

Momo blushed as he lead her deeper into the office by the hand and sat her on his desk. Toushiro walked slowly with purpose, and she knew he could feel her intense stare on his back, now considerably wider than her own.

Toushiro pulled her into him suddenly, and spun her around so that she was pressed into his hard chest. She took in the feeling of his arms around her as he backed her up until her legs bumped the edge of the desk. Momo was momentarily lifted up as Toushiro sat her down on its polished surface.

"I thought I would go mad, you know?" he laughed humorlessly as he positioned himself so he was standing in front of her, her legs on either side of him, his palms flat against the wood of the desk next to her thighs, his head resting in the crook of her neck, breathing in her scent.

He felt her confusion, and without being prompted, he sighed and pressed his lips to her neck. A chill ran down her spin and she shuddered beneath his touch. His mouth was still pursed above her porcelain skin as he told her.

"I missed you, Momo. I can't stand to be away from you. And I'm tired of being chained to my desk by paperwork, and I'm tired of being too damned proud to approach you. I'm tired of waiting for the right moment to tell you." She could feel his breath slide down her skin, her whole body tingled.

Momo's heart jumped into her throat, her shaking hands snaking behind his head and tangling into his shocks of white hair. He lifted his head to face her, and she pulled him forward until their foreheads touched.

He moved slowly, tracing his nose across her left cheek, and then his lips along her jaw line. Momo leaned into him and sighed deeply into his hair. She tightened her grip on him and wrapped her leg around his waist. "Toushiro…"

With a shuddering breath of relief and still yet anticipation, Toushiro breathed into her ear.

"I don't ever want to be away from you, Momo. I love you. Now, then, and forever."

She fell into his touch, his hands glided over her, and she welcomed his embrace. They spent the night in each other's arms, enjoying the feel of their lips moving in tandem, and their souls becoming one.

Among other things….

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