Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach… (Peers around) Okay, the lawyers are gone. Bring out the sake for the "I Own Bleach!" Party!!! (Seriously, only in my head)

…I have no excuses for this installment…it just popped into my head…

--

Captain Hitsugaya sat at his desk, and tried to refrain from snapping at his oblivious lieutenant.

He gave up rather fast.

"Matsumoto," he gritted out, eyeing the mud adorning his once pristine office floor, "why in Hell's name is there a mutt in the office? And why is it so…muddy?"

Muddy didn't even come close to describing the…thing…sitting in front of him wagging its stumpy tail. He couldn't even tell what colour the dog was! Not to mention the fact that there were a lot of leaves and twigs sticking out in random places from the muck, turning the puppy (at least, he thought it was) into a walking mud-monster.

A happy mud-monster whose tail was flinging more of the infernal stuff everywhere, including on the very irate Captain. It was trying what very little patience he possessed.

"Isn't he cute?! I found him just sitting next to the road on the way here, and he was really, really wet and muddy and…" she gushed, pleased with herself. She paused when she saw her Captain's disbelieving look. "Okay, okay! I brought the dog as revenge on Kasumi!"

Hitsugaya stared at her. "What did Kasumi do? And is she even aware that she did something wrong?"

His lieutenant nodded vigorously, shaking her fist at the air. "Yes, yes! She refused to treat me to lunch! But, after careful study, I have discovered her weakness!"

"She's allergic to dogs?"

Matsumoto pouted. "No, not that I'm aware of."

"Then why is the dog here?!"

"Because I discovered Kasumi's weakness!"

The poor guy twitched. This was getting nowhere…then again, he wasn't all that surprised by that fact. Reasoning with Matsumoto was like trying to reason with a rock—except that (in his expert opinion) the rock had a higher IQ than this woman. A rock knew to roll downhill. "Care to elaborate?"

"Well, you've seen how well she gets along with Yachiru, right?!" He nodded, suspicious for absolutely no reason that he could see. "She also likes you a lot!"

"What do Lieutenant Kusajishi and I have in common?" This seemed like a logical question to him, although it sent his lieutenant into fits of laughter. "What?" he snapped.

"I've also seen how she looks at little animals! It's the same!"

Okay, he really didn't like where this was headed. "What are you trying to imply?!"

Grinning broadly at her own cleverness (or lack thereof—it remains to be seen) Matsumoto held up the Abominable Mud-Dog in front of her. "She likes small, cute things!"

He twitched again. She did not just call him cute and place him among the same category as that…thing. "So, your brilliant plan is…"

"Kasumi's weakness is cute things!" she deftly avoided his question and gave a proud look at the puppy now sitting at her feet again.

The puppy stared back at her with the biggest, brown eyes she had ever seen. She was immediately trapped as she stared back. She glomped the little dog, not caring about the muck now on her front.

"And, apparently, yours too…" Hitsugaya remarked dryly, watching the hearts coming off of the two. Then the puppy squirmed in Matsumoto's grip until he could focus on the Captain as well. They stared at each other for a minute.

No, must…must resist…

Awwww….

He gave up. The dog was just too cute.

Noticing the softer look in Hitsugaya's eyes, Matsumoto took the opportunity to glomp him as well—declaring that he was the 'cutest captain ever.'

Unknown to the occupants of the room, Kasumi had been standing by the door the entire time, holding paperwork to be delivered to 10th.

'It seems that this is Captain Hitsugaya's weakness as well.'

Armed with this powerful information, she set the paperwork down quietly and tiptoed off back to her own waiting mountains of paper.

--

…No excuses…

But it was cute, right?!

Please review; I don't know how anybody actually feels about these side stories.