Frozen Flames
The very cold and timid Hitsugaya meets the dark and fiery Kurenai. Can she melt his ice guarded heart or will he freeze her out like he's done everyone else?
Chapter 1
Toshiro sighed as he finished the last of the paperwork for the day. All his memos read and all his forms filled out. He had even managed to do the schedule for patrol. He was feeling pleased with his work before he realized that Rangiku had not even came close to touching her paperwork. Sighing lightly, he decided that this time he would not go looking for her. She would just have to deal with the consequences this time. She would have to learn how to be a decent lieutenant without her captain always protecting her. Stand up from his chair; he stretched a bit as a hell butterfly fluttered through the office window. Landing on his finger, Toshiro got the message to meet for an immediate captain's meeting. Heading over to the Captain Commander's assembly room, he noticed he was the first Captain there again. It seemed like the last few meetings he was out running Soi-Fon, which was not normal. Shrugging it off, he awaited the arrival of the other captain's. It only took a few minutes for them all to arrive and get in place as the Captain Commander cleared his throat and prepared to speak.
"We've got reports from a few scouts. There have been a few attacks in the Rukon area. It's been a few years since we had a major outbreak and I want to make sure this isn't going to be a new wave of hollows. I don't expect all of you to volunteer but I leave it up to you on how you will settle this. I want at least one division covering the area each night. You may discuss it amongst yourself. I expect reports on everything. You are dismissed."
Certain captains like Kurotsuchi and Unohana disappeared; they were never ones to go out for fighting. They had other more important issues to deal with here in the soul society. Kuchiki left without a word, another normal response to things like this. Zaraki brushed it off as well, figuring the hollows weren't very strong anyways. Leaving only a handful of captains, none of which seemed excited by this time consuming demand. Sighing, Toshiro began to speak.
"How about this, my division will spend the first week scouting the hollows. Seeing how strong there are and what exactly is going on. After reading the reports the other divisions can talk to their subordinates and figure out who wants to go next week and so on?"
The other captains agreed and vanished off on their own to do whatever they were doing prior to the meeting. Honestly, he only spoke up because he wanted to get this over as soon as possible. He hated scouting missions such as this. They weren't usually any strong enemy on the other end and it was really just a waste of time. Especially since he now had to do paperwork for both the fifth and his own division. And, his lieutenant wasn't one to be helpful in doing paperwork, so now he was going to be days and days behind. Shaking his head he quickly flash stepped back to his barracks. Walking into his office and closed his eyes. Rangiku was asleep on the couch that was in the middle of his office. Slamming the door shut and waking his lieutenant from her slumber, he smirked a bit when she looked extremely pissed.
"What did you do that for?"
"Because, you are asleep in my office instead of doing your job as a lieutenant and if you didn't drink all night and party with the other lieutenants, maybe you would actually be awake at two in the afternoon."
"But Taichou, I have to keep my social standards in order or others will think less of me!"
"If you did your work maybe the important people around here would think more of you. Anyways, since you won't read a shred of paper I'll tell you what's going on now. The Captain Commander has decided that each division must take a week to explore the hollow sightings in the Rukon district. We have the first week so the other divisions can figure out the order they want to go in. I'm heading out tonight by myself and then tomorrow you and a few others can go the next night and then the rest of the division can go the rest of the week."
Not really caring what else she could say, he sat back down at his desk and began going through the rest of the fifth division paperwork. He noticed that his lieutenant's eyes were still on him but he tried to shrug it off. He really needed to finish the rest of this paperwork. Rangiku had eventually wondered out of the office, leaving him to relax a bit. Leaning back in his chair, he sighed. Tonight would be fairly great, no one around him. The clock seemed to be counting down to the time for him to quit working on these papers. At last, it was dark outside and time for him to go check out these hollow sightings. Not really thrilled by this, he flash stepped his way there but not going nearly as fast as he possibly could.
The winter season had just begun and that was probably why Toshiro wasn't as angry as he used to be. He really hated the hotter months and for some reason fall was entirely too hot for him. Snow hadn't reached the Seireitei just yet but the outer Rukon districts had experienced major snow fall. Everything was covered in the white powder and the further he went the more it seemed to be. After a while, snow was still falling in some areas. He sighed, where was the supposed hollows? Just as he was about to take off and leave he felt it. A bit of reiatsu that quickly registered as hollows and it was only a few from the reiatsu he felt. Heading off in that direction, the reiatsu was beginning to grow. Was this one powerful hollow or a bunch of small hollows? Appearing on the scene, he noticed that he wasn't the only one there now. A different reiatsu had appeared. Was it a shinigami or was it a new enemy? His green eyes searched the area as he masked his reiatsu. He wanted to wait and watch and see what exactly would happen. This was a scouting mission so why not see why the hollows were never a problem until now. There weren't many hollows this time but it was clear that they were being controlled or at least organized. They were attacking this small village type place. No kids or people seemed to be getting hurt, just buildings. That's when it happened. A girl stepped forward, sword by her side. Her reiatsu flared for a moment before her hands began to glow in an orange color. "Flames?" She began to punch out a few hollows, using flash step to get to them. "Who are you?" Toshiro whispered softly. She quickly disposed of those lower leveled hollows and the area calmed down. The people began to appear and she helped them fix the buildings that were destroyed. Toshiro turned and began heading back to the Seireitei. This might prove to be interesting week for him.