Well, Its been a while since I've had any good ideas, and honestly, I'm unsure whether or not this idea will be any good at all... but I feel that I need to update something. Hopefully, you will enjoy this and not want to come and throttle me for the little amount of writing I actually did for the day...

Akira smiled as she passed the two third seats arguing. She was starting to get used to their ways and knew that she might as well just go ahead to see Captain Ukitake and not worry about them. As far as her captain went, she was surprised to learn that he was in his office today. For most of the time that Akira had been a shinigami, she had never came to the thirteenth when he wasn't sick at home.

Maybe he's there since its my first day. Once he knows that I'll be fine as his lieutenant, then he'll be able to rest soundly again. The new lieutenant took a deep breath before she knocked on her captain's door.

There was a moments pause before she heard his tired voice call out, "Come in."

Opening the door, she was shocked at how well Ukitake looked. Just the other day he had been coughing quite severly when he had informed her of her new position. Just yesterday he was so sick... and now he looks as if he's not really sick at all. I wonder how he manages to do that. Maybe today is just destined to be a good day. He gestured at a chair infront of his desk, and the young lieutenant took it without further ado. For the next few moments the two stared at each other.

"You needed me for something, Captain?" Akira asked once she had realized that Ukitake wasn't going to start.

Ukitake shook his head, stopping the starring contest and coming back to reality. "Yes, I wanted to talk to you about your new responsiblities. As you may know, I am... not here most of the time, so it will be like you are both the captain and the lieutenant... If you ever need help, the rest of the division is at your command. But, none the less, you will probably spend more hours working than anyone else in any other division."

"I think I can handle that, Captain. I look forward to learning my way around here." Akira felt confident in her words, maybe having no social life would work out to her advantage afterall.

"I'm glad to hear that you feel up to the task. For the most part, the rest of the division should be able to accept you easliy, but there may be some who are not so sure. As you may also know... its been several years since we've had a lieutenant... things have been difficult since Kaien died."

"I remember Kaien.... he was a wonderful person."

"Other than that, your office is down the hall... I doubt that its been cleaned in those long years since Kaien's been gone, but I'm sure that you can ask some of the others to help you out... I'll send your paper work over in a few hours." Akira knew this tone of voice, it was very clearly a dismissal.

With a smile, she rose from her seat. "Thank you very much, Captain Ukitake, for giving me this chance. You don't have any idea how much this means to me."

Ukitake smiled as well and watched as his lieutenant opened the door. He added one last thing before he left her alone for the day, "If things here ever get out of hand and you need help, call on Captain Kyoraku or myself..."

"Thank you, Captain... I'll remember that." With another smile, Akira shut the door behind her.

Now, its off to my office... I just hope I don't get lost on my way there. There it was, though, right next to Ukitake's office. Finally, somewhere I can go without having to worry about getting lost on my way there.

Taking a deep breath, the lieutenant opened the door to her new office. What she would find inside shocked her. Holy Crap! This place is a mess! Strewn about the room were paper of all sorts, on the desk were some unidentifible objects that she was sure was making the smell that had nearly knocked her down, and covering all of it was a inch thick layer of dust.

"This has got to be worse than Matsumoto's office... and she rarely ever cleans it!" Perhaps today won't be such a great day afterall...