A.N. A White Day gift for all you HitsuHina fans :).
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of Kubo Tite's characters.
Relief
"Hinamori, I have some paperwo-" Hitsugaya stopped as he heard the sound of someone sniffling. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, he saw a small shape huddled in the corner.
"Hinamori?"
She had her knees to her chest and her face turned away from him, but he could see her shoulders shaking. He walked over and sat next to her, close enough that their shoulders rubbed.
"What's wrong?"
"It's nothing, I was just…" She took a long, ragged breath and turned towards him. "H-Hitsugaya-kun, Aizen…"
He felt his fists clench. If she'd been worrying about that man again, he'd-
"He knew what he was doing, didn't he? When he stabbed me, and – and he tried to kill you, Sh-Shiro-chan, and…" Her face crumpled, and she buried her face in her hands and let out a little wail. "He betrayed us, and I…why did I ever trust-"
Hitsugaya put his arm around her hesitantly as she started crying, and when she didn't shy away he picked her up and placed her unceremoniously in his lap.
Hinamori grabbed a fistful of his cloak and buried her face in his chest. As she sobbed forlornly he held her free hand in one of his and rubbed her back with the other, making soft soothing noises.
He thought he would be happy when she finally realized Aizen was the traitor – so why did it feel like his heart was breaking?
They stayed like that for what must have been an hour, she crying, he consoling. One time Renji, newly appointed 5th division captain, walked in, froze, and walked back out without saying a word. Hitsugaya sighed; he would never hear the end of this.
When it was over she clung to him, limp with exhaustion. He said nothing, contenting himself with pushing the hair away from her hot, wet face.
"Shiro-chan, I'm…I'm sorry," she said, looking up at him. "I didn't mean to-"
She quieted as he leaned forward and placed a kiss on her forehead. "It's all right, Momo. Don't worry about it."
She smiled, a smile he hadn't seen in ages, and he felt relief spread through him. He had his Hinamori back.
"Come on, he said, pushing her off without letting go of her hand as the blood rushed back to his legs. "Let's take the day off and go eat watermelons."
She giggled slightly, but her eyes grew wide as he tugged her forward.
"But your cloak! It's wet and rumpled and…" she pulled a hanky out and started wiping at his crumpled uniform. "You can't go out like that, Hitsugaya-kun!"
"Baka Momo," he said as they stepped out into the sunlight. "Haven't you learned anything yet? It's Hitsugaya-taichou to you."