AN: hey everybody!! yeah, i finally finished the stupid thing! lol. no seriously, here's my hitsumatsu oneshot that i started, what? last march? something like that. actually, i'm /really/ happy with how it turned out... 3300 words of hitsumatsu goodness. (smiles). also, in case you weren't real sure, ryuu means dragon. just so you don't get confused. hope you enjoy and have to time to leave me a review!! (dances happily).
Rangiku had never felt quite so confused. Or so harried.
He just wouldn't quit bloodywatching her!
Every time she turned around, he was there, teal eyes latched onto her face in a calm and strangely assessing gaze. And for some reason, it just froze her right in her seat.
It was not an appropriate reaction for Matsumoto Rangiku. Matsumoto Rangiku would have stared back, eyebrows wiggling and voice positively teasing, bringing that thoroughly adorable blush to her Taichou's cheeks. But every time she felt the words rising to her lips, she'd look too closely into his eyes and literally see something stirring deep inside them.
She froze every time, breath catching abruptly low in her throat, her very fingertips sizzling.
The very worst part was, she couldn't even tune him out to sleep during work hours!
It seemed that, after all, the war had changed everything. The list of losses was impossibly long and apparently, Rangiku had spent so much time mourning, she'd missed some important changes around her. Like the inexplicable behavior of her Taichou. She would have been hard-pressed to even pinpoint when exactly he had started paying the silent attention to her that she found so… arresting.
She acknowledged the situation as being so incredibly uncomfortable that she was avoiding the office even more often than was typical for her. And every time she thought she'd made a successful escape, almost out the door, she would spot him staring, one brow quirked in what was undeniably amusement, though his face still held that blank quality.
Next thing she knew, she'd be blushing crimson and bolting out of that office, to what she could have sworn were chuckles.
Rangiku wasted no time in picking through the narrow streets towards Shunsui's place. Their drinking parties were literally the stuff of legend and she had never wanted one more than she did after these constant weeks of tumultuous, unidentifiable emotions tied with uncomfortable scrutiny.
"Oh, Shuuuun-chaaan!" she called out in a singsong voice from just outside his office. For a moment, there was no response. She called out again, certain that he was still in there. He enjoyed staying late, attempting to convince his poor fukutaichou to join him in inebriation. He hadn't succeeded as of yet, but it certainly didn't stopping him from continuing to try. "Shun-chan, it's Rangiku! Open this door!"
Long silence stretched into the next few moments. Then, a rustling from inside as sandaled feet rushed to the door. It cracked open and a sliver of Shunsui's face appeared.
"Not now, Ran-chan! I've almost got lovely Nanao-chan to drink with me!" he hissed out, all almost a single breath and whispered at that.
"Ah!" She covered her disappointment in joy for Shunsui. He had been attempting this particular feat for quite a few decades with no hope of succeeding. Having ever come close was something that had not even been done before. Reluctantly, she bowed towards superior priorities. "Another time then, eh, Shun-chan?" She winked suggestively at him.
"So I hope," he grinned before retreating back into the office.
Rangiku frowned, wondering what the heck Shunsui thought he was getting if Nanao was still in the office, but hey-maybe the Eighth Division fukutaichou was kinkier than she'd thought.
Pushing such interesting thoughts to the back of her mind, she turned and sauntered on to second best-her drinking partners Shuuhei, Renji, Kira, etc.
Bottle in hand, voice anticipating, she walked into the ninth division's office that, with the absence of its captain, had become a fairly unmonitored drinking corner for her little gang of sake compatriots. "Shuu-chan!" she called out eagerly. "Are we on for drinking tonight?"
Shuuhei glanced up from his desk to turn his attention towards her. "Ah, I'd like to Ran-chan, but you know today's the one I reserve for paperwork in the division. Sorry."
Rangiku let her face droop as she sighed dejectedly. "Not you too, Shuu-chan! You know drinking parties are never as fun without you!"
Shuuhei let out an amused bark of laughter. "Kyouraku-Taichou turn you down Ran-chan? I know desperation when I see it."
Minimal conversation later, Rangiku was traipsing out of the office, once again unsuccessful. How was she ever supposed to release this stress if no one was around to even drink with? Tired routine compelled her to check up on the other drinking mates, but it was as if Fate herself had intervened. No one was available to drown themselves in sake with her.
It wasn't that she disliked her Taichou. It was more that she didn't even know how to process how she felt about him. For some reason she couldn't quite place, the whole topic just made her uncomfortable. Maybe it wasn't the bravest thing she'd ever done, but for now, she was just running away. It wasn't very Rangiku-ish, but so what? She was Rangiku and she'd do what she liked.
However, she was running out of places to run and getting more and more desperate for some excuse to stay out of the office. Of course, she could just not go, but she wanted, no needed, to actually be doing something. So, out of sheer despair, she ran to the last place she would have anticipated ever going voluntarily.
It was a new sort of organization. A system built within the Gotei 13 since the end of the war as an alternate method of dealing with rogue hollows while the ranks were being replenished. Essentially, a shinigami could quickly come in and select a hollow from reports according to his rank to kill. Sometimes the reports required a group or a shinigami of at least a certain level, et cetera.
Rangiku stepped quickly up to the current shinigami running the small office, smirking playfully. She might have felt in a hurry but she always had a little time to play. Especially since the poor darling behind the counter looked like a fairly young specimen of inexperienced male. She leaned over the counter, letting her elbows fwump onto the hard surface to prop up her chin. The whole pose served mostly to push her boobs forward where they'd be unmistakable. That always confused the younger ones.
"Matsumoto Rangiku of the Tenth Division," she stated, flipping her hair easily and smiling at the little shinigami. "Fukutaichou."
The cute little guy was flabbergasted, standing there for a few moments looking utterly lost. He didn't seem as if his chin would ever come off the floor.
Her grin widened.
He really was kinda cute, with dark spiky hair and kinda scrawny… He had light brown eyes, but they would have been better blue, she decided. Maybe even green… And if his hair was a bit lighter too…
Rushing past that thought, she attempted to snap the starstruck fellow out of his blank stupor. "Any new missions in lately?" Her question might have been a tad too rushed. She fluttered her eyelashes a bit to make up for it.
"Ah, uh, erm, let me check um…" He stood a moment, slack-jawed. "…Matsumoto-fukutaichou," he finally finished. Whipping around, he seemed determined to find something as quickly as possible to prove his efficiency. Rangiku rolled her eyes while his back was turned.
Still, he was too adorable! She resisted the urge to glomp him, boobs and all. "Say, what's your name?"
"Ah, Tanemura Ryuusei," he said, turning back slightly. "From the second division."
Ryuusei… Ryuu…
She wrenched herself out of the thought. Stupid mind, betraying her that way. "Did you find something good?" The flirtatious smile was in her voice, but then again, when wasn't it?
He snatched at a report finally and whirled around, appearing triumphant. "This report just came in last night! It's rather an emergency for a fairly dangerous hollow just outside the 82nd district that's camped out slightly to the north—"
"Great!" Rangiku replied enthusiastically, smoothly grabbing the report and immediately heading out the door. "Thanks for the help, Ryuu-chan!" She quickly raced out of the Seireitei, excited to have a challenging mission ahead and opening the file to learn a bit about the hollow.
In her rush, she didn't hear the distressed cry from behind her calling out, "But Matsumoto-fukutaichou! That's a captain-class mission! Wait!"
Rangiku was beginning to rethink this whole running away thing. It wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Frowning, she glared at the towering hollow in front of her who had ruined the whole gambit.
From the beginning the thing had just been toying with her, trying to let her feel as if she might succeed and then ripping the ground out from under her. Literally, as it turned out.
And then, it really was toying with her, trying to trap her with some complex kidou and attacks from unexpected directions. It hadn't particularly helped that the location worked in its favor.
She was in a deserted, barren canyon, covered in piles and piles of rocks, far as the eye could see. Actually, it rather resembled an extremely unstable maze. And this particular hollow—Ground Zero, as he'd so uncreatively been dubbed—seemed to enjoy destabilizing (and thereby rearranging) the rocky gorge.
So far, she'd sustained only one serious wound on her upper right arm and a series of minor cuts elsewhere. Her clothing was torn and face dirty, which was what she really counted as the tragedy. Well, that and since the stupid hollow was only toying with, she had the distinct feeling that it was making it last as long as it could.
Gritting her teeth, she only just dodged another blast from behind that cut another slash into her lower back. She flashstepped quickly behind her opponent, releasing her sword with the equally quickly muttered release. She followed that with a hasty binding incantation as another explosion sounded behind her. The hollow froze obediently before her and she knew she had only moments.
Another flashstep and she stood off to right, shouting for her zanpakutou. "Haineko!" Nodding to the spirit in her mind, she managed to grin at the swirls of ash diving for the hulking hollow.
"A pathetic attempt," the hollow boomed in its loud, echoing voice. "Ash is part of my element! Such a weapon cannot defeat me!"
Desperately, she flashstepped again, chanting again. "Soukatsui! Byakurai!" Blue and white lights darted towards the shadowy figure which laughed mockingly. He stepped quickly, expertly dodging the deadly reiatsu as more rock fragments attacked her from beneath. She rolled over in the air, taking the surface wounds on her left arm this time and grunting slightly.
She flipped over, skidding on the air to face her opponent once more just as he let out a sudden and bellowing scream. It sounded more like metal tearing, but, even better, it was clearly a smile of pain. Rangiku allowed herself to smile grimly as she flashstepped into a closer range and summoning Haineko back to the sword.
When she had attacked earlier, she had let some of the ashy fragments attack separately and fuse with the hollow's body and, more particularly, its mask.
She brought her newly reformed sword down on the screaming hollow's mask with a sort of vindictive pleasure. However, the zanpakutou only clanged ineffectively on the mask's surface, refusing to cut through as she had intended it to.
It laughed. "Fooled you."
She froze for one (she admitted it to herself anyway) terrified moment before the creature's claw had grabbed at her temporarily shocked body. It squeezed its claws tighter and tighter around her, pulling her down to where he could see her better.
"My little toy," it laughed again. It squeezed and unsqueezed at her relatively crushed form and she definitely heard the cracking of several words. The sound echoed in the air, punctuated only by the ugly guffaws issuing from the hollow's throat.
Yes, Rangiku was seriously reconsidering the whole running away thing. There was no sake, she definitely wasn't drunk (or even buzzed!) and the physical pain really wasn't working for her.
Maybe, and she admitted this with serious hesitation, just maybe, she should have thought out the whole Taichou thing first.
"Think you can fight me now, shinigami?!" the hollow shouted mockingly, rather deafening her as he gave another unpleasant squeeze.
"Shut up!" she shouted back, maybe a little foolishly. Only maybe though. "I'm trying to think something through here, so give me a minute!"
So, being around her Taichou was awkward. Why was she so willing to settle for that? What even made it awkward?
It wasn't as if she hadn't been subjected to unwanted stares before.
But were they really unwanted?
Well, that question fairly well stumped her.
"How dare you disrespect me!!" it shouted again, the roaring echoing around her ears as an unpleasant wind.
"Mouthwash!" she replied, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
It roared wordlessly in response, anger seeming to blot out its distinctly irritating voice completely. Using its free claw, the irate hollow, stabbed between digits to impale her left leg.
The pain ripped up her spine so intense that she didn't even know if she screamed. It didn't really fade, more that she managed to tap into her other senses again a few seconds after the blinding anguish. Her mind wondered idly if its claws were poisoned before deciding that she felt strangely cold.
An effect of loss of blood, perhaps? She wouldn't have been surprised.
And then a freezing ice sent fragmented scissors of absolute cold up through her entire body, submerging her in what felt like an icy prison before the rest of the world hazed out.
When Rangiku woke next, the first thing she noticed was how horribly, horribly sore she felt all over. Her absentminded brain pondered casually if something totally inexplicable had happened before passing out from yet another drunken spree before recalling what had happened. Her eyes flew open in surprise, immediately taking in the white walls of fourth division infirmary.
Oops.
Well, at least she had survived.
Yeah, she was sure her Taichou would look at that as the bright side. Speaking of which…
She turned her head slightly (an oddly difficult task) to see the very same Taichou staring at her face, apparently totally immersed in examining every odd detail to see if she was all right. She felt her throat clog a little at the sentiment the sight aroused in her.
"Aww, Taichou, you were worried about me!" she managed to rasp out, only a tad incoherently.
At those seven, measly words, Taichou's face contorted into the angriest face of true rage she had ever seen him muster.
Rangiku shrunk back a little in surprise.
"Matsumoto Rangiku," he began, speaking so slowly and in a voice so heavy, she could literally hear the barely suppressed fury. "Do you have any idea just how much trouble you're in?"
Rangiku resisted the urge to start gasping a little. Well, it was terrifying, but it was also terrifyingly compelling. Nearly irresistible.
Stupid Taichou.
"No?"
The real fury in his eyes seemed to only increase at the simple response. "You avoid me for weeks, never doing your work, always trying to go drinking… And then, then, when you do finally decide to do something, you take a mission above your level! You didn't even stick around long enough to find out what rank it was, did you?!" He crossed his arms, so livid, it appeared he'd ran out of words.
Rangiku cleared her throat a bit awkwardly. She decided against, answering that last question, knowing it would only get into more trouble. 'Sides, the kid had probably already ratted her out. "So aware of me, are you Taichou?" Even though her voice and face were playful, she herself was quite serious.
At that, Toushirou's face wiped clean of all emotion (something she wouldn't have believed possible, considering the intensity of his previous expression) and he was staring at her again, eyes calculating intently. "You're my fukutaichou, of course I am. Especially since you don't take nearly good enough care of yourself." He snorted, remembering her latest drunken escapade, no doubt. It hadn't been one of her better moments. But then, neither was this. She shrugged that off. "Now, what do you have to say for yourself?" he demanded, voice perfectly even.
"Ne, Taichou," she began, smiling at him, "don't you think I need to sleep?"
"Matsumoto!" His face contorted again, the rage escaping once more. "Why won't you just tell me what happened? Why in the name of Soul Society did you take that mission alone?" His eyes were boring into hers, burning, and her pulse was suddenly racing even though her body could barely move.
"Taichou…" Her voice was barely above a whisper now and it was rather shocking that she could still inject a playful tone into it. "If you were so head over heels for me why didn't you say something?"
He almost looked disgusted at the question, backing away and crumpling into the chair next to her bed. "Why do you do this?" Toushirou asked, voice sounding tired. "Why can't we finish this one topic…?"
"I fail to see the difference." It was the tone of her voice—serious, for once—that had him looking up suddenly in surprise. "Aren't we discussing the same thing?"
His brows furrowed in confusion. "Aren't we talking about your idiotic bout of fighting hollows single-handedly?"
Though she failed at trying to sit up, Rangiku took second best, firmly locking eyes with the tenth division's captain. "You know very well why I've been avoiding the office. Why have you been staring at me?"
She could tell Toushirou wanted to break eye contact—the conversation was reaching usually untouchable territory—and yet, he couldn't, each beat of silence stretching the crackling bond between them. Strangest of all though, was the urge she felt to run her hands through his soft, white, spiky hair.
His voice was so low when he finally started speaking that it took her a moment to realize he was.
"When that kid came up to me, tripping over himself to tell me you'd taken a captain's mission… I've never known fear like that before," he whispered. "And then I saw you there, in that disgusting thing's grip…" His voice trailed off and for a moment his eyes looked so old as he lost himself in the memory. A dark smile twisted his features. "I've regretted making it so quick, waiting for you to wake up."
"Oh. OH. That was your ice." So she hadn't been hallucinating death or suffering from poison. It was just Toushirou. Wait, since when had he become Toushirou?
His expression had turned guilty now, a little wary as he examined her facial expression. "It's probably my fault it's taken you so long to recover. The cold seemed to convince your bones to set all wrong. At the time though, I was already half-convinced you were dead. I apologize, Matsumoto-fukutaichou." For the last, his voice became formal, as if professionally apologizing.
"May as well call me Rangiku, Toushirou. Leastways, if you're gonna think of me that way anyway."
He stared at her, blinking slightly before blushing bright red.
"There it is!" Rangiku laughed, a little breathily, but still triumphantly. "Knew I could still make my little Taichou blush."
Toushirou frowned, still unable to stop blushing. "Not that little." He leaned over her, eyes capturing hers yet again and her breath may have hitched a gasp. Not that she'd admit it.
And when their lips met, her eyes fluttered closed, heat racing through her immovable veins and, crazy as it sounded, she might have liked it better than being drunk.
But when her lips parted slightly and his tongue slid between her soft lips she knew she was lost.
"Toushirou…"
Why had she been hesitant about this again?
Shrugging the useless doubts aside, she settled in to properly returning her Toushirou's kiss.