Hello again!
This is just a short story that I had stuck in my head and had to write. I'm planning on doing one more chapter but I can't say when or if that'll happen.
I can't say this is a romance but if you want to see it as one, you can. It's just a snippet of Shiro-chan's thoughts after the war.
Spoilers for the end of the winter war!
I still don't own bleach...
Picking up the Pieces
In the months since Aizen's betrayal, Hitsugaya had become a regular sight in the 4th Division. Hinamori had been in intensive care for several weeks and, not unexpectedly, Hitsugaya had visited the young Fukutaichou daily.
Now, however, it was his own Fukutaichou who was in intensive care and, like Hinamori, Matsumoto had been here several weeks now too.
Nobody really knew what had happened. Kira had seen her going through a senkaimon after Aizen and, more specifically, Ichimaru. After Kurosaki defeated Aizen, Matsumoto was found lying over Ichimaru's body. He was dead and she wasn't far from it, the wound from the creature, Allon, having reopened somewhat.
Nobody asked Aizen what had happened and Matsumoto having been kept sedated on Unohana's insistence, was the only other person to know what really had happened.
Despite her wound healing well, Unohana had refused to wake her up until she had recovered fully, claiming that regardless how anybody else felt about Ichimaru's death, Matsumoto would suffer enough emotional pain upon waking up that she wasn't going to add physical pain on top of it.
Even Yamamoto hadn't been able to sway the seemingly gentle Captain, despite the fact that courtmarshall was still a possibility. Matsumoto had after all abandoned the fight against the Espada and chased after a traitor. Until she woke up to explain herself the matter wouldn't be dropped.
Hitsugaya didn't know what had happened in Karakura, didn't really care. At least not in the same way as the Soutaichou. Matsumoto had proven herself often enough as his Lieutenant, he hadn't for an instant questioned her loyalty. He just hoped she'd gotten the answer she'd been looking for because he knew that was what it had been.
In the months after Aizen's betrayal Matsumoto had hidden her pain well, if Hitsugaya hadn't worked with her as many years as he had, he might never have noticed it. When he imagined the tables had been turned, that it had been his best friend, or maybe lover (he never had been sure about Matsumoto and Ichimaru) that had betrayed him and left him behind he knew that, more than anything else, he'd want answers.
Listening to Kotetsu Fukutaichou's daily update on Matsumoto's condition, he was relieved to hear that they would be waking her up any day now. Like Hinamori, she had lost a lot of weight and really, it just wasn't Matsumoto if she wasn't teasing him or driving him crazy or bringing him tea moments before he realised his cup was empty. If he hadn't been able to see her breathing he'd have thought she was as dead as Ichimaru.
Packing away his brush which had dried hours ago and the paperwork he'd brought with him knowing that, like every day so far, he'd barely touch it, he made his way back to his office. He might have been leaving the division to run itself ('neglecting it' a voice in the back of his head whispered) but there was still paperwork only a Captain could sign off on.
Maybe tomorrow he'd get his Fukutaichou back. Maybe tomorrow they'd be able to start piecing her broken heart back together.