Chapter 2 - Recruitment

Two peaceful weeks went by without any mention of the Hinamori situation. Ichigo tried to help, he really did, but no matter how many hours he spent sitting in his swingy chair, pondering what he could do for Hinamori, he only managed to come up with the thought that lightening her work load might make her more cheerful. Unfortunately due to many hours of thinking of what to do and not working, his own stack of paperwork was becoming unbearable, and if he let her go work free now, the whole division would be left in a state of chaos for months.

Meanwhile, unlike her husband, Rukia not only spent hours thinking about how to cure Hinamori from her blue mood, but instead brainstormed for days. Not one day went by without Rukia interrupting herself mid sentence to burst out in cries of ideas that no one understood. Ichigo managed to catch her half yelling at a shinigami, crying "That would NEVER work!" over and over again after he had run into her into the hall. The poor thing was left in a bed in division 4 for days after Ichigo had to pry Rukia away from beating the poor thing to death in self aggravation.

So here it was, weeks later without a word exchanged over Ichigo's adorable vice-captain, when Ichigo was regretful to admit that nearly nothing could be done. Respectively, Ichigo had successfully settled into bed away from another day of tiresome work dealing with idiotic interns who messed up almost all of his finished and signed documents, and managed to wrestle the covers away from his lovely wife, when said sheets were pulled from under him, hurtling him off the bed.

He shot up right away and tackled his moronic wife who stole his bed sheets, tumbling around the floor with her until she lied on her back with him holding her down.

"What the HELL is WRONG with you, woman!" Ichigo glared at his love, looking like he was about ready to eat her face off when she caught him off guard by smiling. He felt an unsettling weight of doom settle in his stomach right before she punched his face.

"GAH! You blinded me!" He cradled his left eye in pain while watching her skip out of the room. This crazy woman barges in, interrupts his sleep, tries to beat him up, and then she has the nerve to skip away giggling like mad? Ichigo stormed out of his bed room, ran, taking two steps at a time towards the study where breaking noises were emerging from and burst open the door. Revenge was the only thing on his mind.

"Oh Ichigo, don't just stand there in the doorway, come here and help me," looking up from her place, messing up the desk, Rukia shot Ichigo an exasperated look.

"Help you…" if there was one thing she could've said to make the situation better, this was not it. "Help you after you BEAT ME UP FOR NO REASON?" he said, poking her in the forehead after every word. His glare intensified. "Why the HELL would I do that!"

The stunned girl was blinking up at her hubby, all in perfect knowledge that he was unable to resist her wide eyes. "Ichigo, you know I'd never do that without a reason! I was just excited." A few more seconds of this cute torture and he would cave and be a good slave and help her find a pen that worked.

He broke away from her, a stony look on his face. "Rukia, that look never worked on me, no matter what you might think." She dropped the cute look and frowned.

She started rummaging around the desk again, hazardously throwing everything out of her way. "Oh come off it, you're just angry that now you have to explain to everyone that your wife beat you up again."

Damn it, how did she know! After one final deadly look, Ichigo walked over to her side, sighing all the way. Once he allowed an awkward hiatus to pass between them, he spoke again. "… What are you excited about anyway?"

Rukia's eyes gleamed up at Ichigo for a 2nd time that night as she spun around. Excitement dripped out of her voice as she giggled, "I had an epiphany." Her smile softened as she turned her body around, never breaking eye contact. "I know what we have to do with Hinamori."

Widening his eyes in surprise, Ichigo grasped her by the shoulders and shook her intently. "Spit it out already, damned woman!"

She merely gave him a look that lacked amusement as she flicked away his hands, focusing her attention back to the desk. After a joyful cry of finding a working pen, she sat down, motioning for Ichigo to come closer and read over her shoulder. After a few sentences, his face paled in realization as his head started to move back and forth. It was at the third paragraph that he finally snapped.

"No... No way. Are you out of your blasted MIND?"

XOXOXO

"What's this?" The vice-captain stared at the paper before him barely making out the chicken scratch words written down. He massaged the back of the head with his free arm; he stood there for a moment trying to decipher the letters on the page. Crunching his eyes together in confusion, he spoke after several minutes. "Who the hell wrote this unreadable garbage?"

The girl in front of him glared and spoke in a deadly tone, her tight smile set in place. "Do you have a problem with my writing, Renji?"

Renji lowered the paper and looked at Rukia in the eyes with a stoic expression. "Yes."

"OW, you BITCH!" A second later he was sporting a large bruise on the side of his head he was rubbing moments before. "Wrong answer," blabbed a chuckle from behind the tiny girl, breaking the silence from his whimpers of pain. Renji scowled at the captain behind Rukia, "So you've been trained to know right from wrong by your wife. Whipped so soon, Ichigo? Looks like I win that bet." The red haired giant made extra whipping sound effects to prove his point.

Ichigo exchanged a dirty look with 6th division's second ranked member. "I'm not the one nursing a wound from a girl half my height." Ichigo replied, smirking at the large bump appearing at the side of Renji's head.

"Then where did you get that nice shiner from, eh?" Renji asked smiling.

"Well, at least I don't have a complex with Rukia's brother, you red hair dye accident-"

Rukia stepped in between the two. "You both better stop talking before I make sure that it's impossible for you to anymore." She spent her time giving the two of them an equally ugly glower. "Ever."

"Like I'd be intimidated by weakling like-"

"I'm no push over, like your ugly husband who-"

The girl pulled a hand up to interrupt the two. "Save it for a time when I can pretend to care." She slowly lowered her hand giving Renji a look full of seriousness.

"This is about Hinamori."

Subconsciously the fire coloured hair of spikes boy straightened his already tall frame, as his eyes softened, then hardened the next second. "Look, we all know that she's been depressed, but I honestly don't know-"

Rukia cleared her throat, pulling the piece of paper in front of her vision, she began to read.

"Dear listener." She glared at Renji's unimpressed look at her opening sentence. "You have been informed for some time now of the situation of Momo Hinamori. It is has been evident that something must be done in order for her emotional balance to be restored to its original state." She glanced up Renji now, not bothering to read off of the paper for the next sentence.

"What if we could be that something?"

XOXOXO

Rukia glanced up at a, astonishingly enough, sober Matsumoto, who smiled back at the younger looking woman.

"And how would be do this, exactly?" The orange haired beauty inquired, stretching her curvaceous figure out against the wooden hallway, ignoring the longing looks of the shinigami passing by.

The shorter girl exposed a dangerous smile as she lowered her letter again, "I ask you this: who is the one person that Hinamori cares for most of all?"

Matsumoto exchanged another devious grin as she emptied another shot of alcohol down her throat. "Toushiro Hitsugaya, of course."

Rukia gave a sigh of relief. "Thank God that you think so too. You have no idea what Renji looked like when I told him that."

XOXOXO

"Oh no, I think I could imagine Renji's look. Does it look anything like mine?!" Looking into the one eye she could see, Rukia gave Kira an annoyed stare.

"Are all men oblivious?" She pierced the blue eyed man with a glare that showed only wariness. "Look, just clear out that dumfounded look on your face and listen, alright?"

The purple-blue eyes followed the lines on the letter in her hand again, trying to find the right place. Rukia's glower softened when she found the right place. "Who has known Hinamori the longest in Gotei 13? Who was her beloved friend growing up in the countryside? Who did she turn against and mourns over every day?"

Rukia looked up at the tall man; she used her more gentle tone. "I know you know all of this, but try to think about her feelings in all of this. Who do you think Hinamori thinks of when she's staring out at the rain? Everything reminds her of him and in her opinion, she committed the worst crime possible, she turned her back on everything that mattered to him; their friendship."

After the look of comprehension glittered in Kira's eye, he looked away, debating these questions over in his mind. Rukia gave him a half smile he missed as she whispered loud enough only for him to hear. "And in my opinion it wasn't just friendship to him."

XOXOXO

The dark haired woman quietly sipped her tea, thanking God for the soothing liquid after her numerous talks. After her satisfying drink, she turned to the people across from her.

"I always knew he loved her!" Orihime cried delightfully, giggling up at her friend. Ishida sighed looking back at her. "You were completely confused about it until after Rukia explained it all."

Orihime pouted, "Okay, so you're right. But it still doesn't make it any less cute. You can't know a person for that long and not feel something towards them!" She gushed again; missing a very obvious look pointed her way. "What else does the letter say, Mrs. Kurosaki?"

Rukia had the decency to flush, as she busied herself with pouring more tea. "Orihime, please, what do I have to do to make you stop referring to me by that?"

Orihime ignored her embarrassed look and stared intently into the other woman's eyes. "Finishing the letter would help!"

XOXOXO

"The plan is simple. Fix those two up with each other."

Yachiru gasped dramatically from her place fixing ribbons in Kenpachi's hair.

"You mean like a DATE?"

Rukia shifted, wondering how she could explain this to the girl. "Kind of… but more like a long term date." After switching her eye contact from the confused pink one's to Kenpachi, she spoke again. "Or at least get them to talk to one another again. That would at least be necessary in this mission."

Kenpachi put down his vice-captain as he grinned at Rukia. "As long as it makes Hitsugaya interesting to fight again, I don't care how we do it." His smile grew in thought as he finished, "Although maybe loosing her all together would be create a more interesting power surge in that kid."

Yachiru pouted at Kenpachi, "No way! They have to date forever! That's the plan, Ken!"

Kenpachi smiled down at the girl, "as long as the job gets done, doesn't matter how; just putting that option on the table." Turning to Rukia again, he asked, a dangerous glint in his eye, "Who's in on it?"

Rukia arose from her place on the floor, "Over 15 people are informed. All of which cannot be disclosed now." She made silent strides towards the exit, making sure to stop in front of the sliding door. "The first meeting is tonight, at quarter past 11, in the 13th division's Captain's room." She opened the door enough to slide out, "Don't be late; or followed." Closing the door behind her, she met up with the Orange haired man a few feet away.

"And you said they would all laugh." Rukia chuckled to herself in disbelief to her husband. "Half of them did," he retaliated, glancing at her from the corners of his golden gaze. Rukia rolled her eyes and continued on her walk. "5 people don't count."

"You forgot about Shunsui and your brother."

She sighed. "Shunsui was probably drunk, he doesn't count. And brother didn't laugh."

Ichigo paused in mid-stride to ponder this. "Yes, however that look of shock was probably the closet thing he can get to laughter."

It was Rukia's turn to freeze as she turned to give Ichigo the one eyebrow salute. "You do realize that his eyes widened for less then half a second."

"Yes, however that's his way of expressing shock." His wife chortled softly, while rubbing the space between her eyes. The cold air hit her as the two made their way through the court yard. "You think you have my brother all sorted out, hmm?"

Ichigo smiled as he glanced at his vice-captain in the distance, being lectured again for not paying attention and going outside. He saw the slight curve of her lips in her version of a smile, and started wondering what it would look like enlarged. "Just like how you think you've got Hinamori and Hitsugaya figured out."

Ichigo turned to his wife, brushing her hair behind her shoulders, sighing contently as they walked against the autumn's breeze. "Let's just hope you're right."