Disclaimer - I do not own Bleach nor any of the characters. just having a little fun with them
Chapter Seven - Butterflies
Rukia had abandoned him earlier in the day and Ichigo was sitting in the office that the two of them shared, a glum expression in his brown eyes. A stack of paperwork lay on the desk in front of him and he gazed down at it as though the documents were poisoned and he would die a slow and excruciatingly painful death if he so much as touched them with one finger. Rukia had asked him to please have the forms completed when she returned from a vice-captain's meeting but Ichigo wasn't sure that he had it in him. He hated doing paperwork with every fiber of his being and Rukia knew this fact.
"I can't believe that she seriously expects for me to do this," Ichigo muttered to himself as he toyed with the pen that he held in his hand. He had been staring at the papers for the last half an hour and so far nothing had happened.
This was the part he hated about being captain. Fighting Hollow he could handle, hell after Aizen everything that he encountered was easy, but sitting in a stuffy office filling out forms was almost more than he could take. Ichigo began grumbling to himself as he pulled one of the hated forms toward him however before his pen touched the paper a black butterfly with pink markings flew through the open window.
Ichigo's gaze instantly focused on the butterfly and he watched as it flew across the room toward him.
Now Ichigo was familiar with the Hell butterflies that the Shinigami used to relay messages to one another but they always gravitated to Rukia so he had no experience with them. Unsure about how to proceed the Squad Five Captain held out his finger but the butterfly merely hovered in the air at eye level.
Ichigo's eyes went slightly crossed as he gazed at the butterfly, confused.
"Ichigo,"
Ichigo jumped as he heard Rukia's disembodied voice seemingly coming from the butterfly. This was a new development, the butterflies had never came with audio before, and Ichigo found himself wondering if this was a new invention of the Technology Bureau or something.
"I'm going to be later than expected so you have a little more time to complete your paperwork." Slight pause. "You are working on your paperwork right? Remember Ichigo, you promised."
"Man," Ichigo muttered as he watched the butterfly retreat, going back out the same window that it had entered through. "Even the bugs are on me to do this damn paperwork."
Muttering darkly to himself Ichigo once again picked up the pen and pulled one of the hated forms toward him. He had promised Rukia that he would finish this paperwork before she returned from her meeting in Soul Society and he would not go back on that promise. But he hadn't promised to enjoy it and he felt the need to utter a couple of swear words. It helped to relieve some of the stress.
"Why do they have to have so much damn paperwork anyway?"
With her meeting over with Rukia was on her way toward the Senkaimon that would take her home. The vice-captain's meeting had ran longer than expected and she needed to get back to the world of the living to make sure that Ichigo hadn't gotten into any trouble while she was away. He was supposed to be doing his paperwork but with Ichigo it was far from a certainty that he was actually doing it. In fact he was far more likely to be out battling the random Hollow that were still dumb enough to venture to Karakura Town.
"He had better not be slacking off," Rukia muttered to herself as she arrived in Karakura Town and made her way to the small house that she and Ichigo shared.
As soon as Rukia arrived at the house she quickly made her way upstairs to the office. Opening the door she stepped inside and when her eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness of the room she saw that Ichigo was asleep, his head resting on a stack of papers on the desk.
Rukia sighed, shaking her head. Honestly, she really should have expected it but Ichigo had promised that he would complete the paperwork. It had to be turned in to Head Captain Ukitake at a captain's meeting tomorrow and that meant that she would be up all night finishing it. Why did he insist on being like this?
"Ichigo. . ." she muttered as she walked toward the desk.
"What?" a groggy voice asked, startling her.
Rukia was forced to smile as Ichigo raised his head, bringing a piece of paper along with him. The top document of the pile was stuck to his cheek and when he raised his head up it came along with him. Shaking her head yet again she walked over and pulled the piece of paper from his face and as she did so her violet eyes noticed something unusual.
The document was complete.
With a small gasp Rukia seized the stack of paperwork from the desk and began thumbing through it. Her surprise grew with each completed form that she scanned and by the time she reached the last one in the stack she was completely at a loss for words.
Ichigo had actually finished the entire stack of paperwork.
"You don't have to look so surprised," Ichigo said, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. He hadn't meant to fall asleep and the short nap didn't seem to have done him any good. "I told you that I'd do it so I did it."
"I'm sorry that I doubted you Captain," Rukia said as she patted Ichigo on the head.
"Again with the sarcasm." Ichigo pulled away from her touch before she messed his hair up worse than it already was. It never failed; whenever she called him captain there was always a sarcastic quality to her voice. "So how was your meeting?"
"About the same as always," she replied as she sat down at her own desk. She had her own paperwork to get done, having been busy with the Shinigami Women's Association this month. Opening a drawer she pulled out the folder that contained her own paperwork and, placing it on the desk, she opened it and pulled out the contents.
Rukia picked up her pen and prepared to fill out her papers only to find that they were complete as well. The only thing missing was her signature at the bottom. Gasping a little in surprise she gazed over at Ichigo, who wore a little smirk on his face.
"I would have finished it completely but I haven't learned to forge your signature yet." A roguish grin appeared on his face as he said this. The expression probably had something to do with the fact that Rukia could forge his signature perfectly, owing to the fact that she usually did his paperwork.
"I can't believe you did this," Rukia said, her voice filled with amazement. It had been a stretch to get Ichigo to do his own paperwork and yet he had. And not only that but he'd finished hers as well. All thoughts of a long night vanished and Rukia couldn't help but smile. Getting to her feet she walked over to Ichigo's desk and pulled him into a hug.
"Thank you," she murmured before touching her lips gently to his.
"Wow," Ichigo thought to himself as Rukia kissed him. "Maybe I should do paperwork more often."
The next day Ichigo was walking down the street, on his way to the Squad Five barracks to check on his subordinates, when he was once again approached by one of the Hell butterflies. Curious as to whether or not this one was like the other one Ichigo merely stared at the butterfly as it hovered in the air in front of his face. And sure enough he heard a disembodied voice coming from nowhere.
"Ichigo Kurosaki, your presence is requested in Soul Society immediately."
Instinctively Ichigo glanced down at the watch that he was wearing and his eyes widened as he saw what time it was. Having been rounding up Hollow most of the morning he had completely lost track of the time and was surprised at how late it was.
"Shit!" he exclaimed, quickly pulling his Gikongan from his pocket and using the embarrassing device to switch into his Shinigami form. He was supposed to have reported for the captain's meeting a half an hour ago. "I hope Ukitake doesn't hold a grudge."
After giving the Gikongan that was now in control of his body instructions to go home the Squad Five Captain hurried to the headquarters of his squad. That was the location of the nearest Senkaimon and he didn't really want to be any later to the meeting.
"Running late today Captain?" Kaiya asked, offering her superior a smile, as Ichigo dashed past her.
"You could say that," Ichigo called out over his shoulder, in too much of a hurry to stop and explain the situation to her. "I'm supposed to be in a meeting right now."
Kaiya laughed as she watched her captain disappear out of sight. The man was never on time and the other captains really should know that by now.
As soon as Ichigo arrived in Soul Society he made his way to the Squad One barracks, where the captain's meetings were always held. Sliding the door open he stepped into the room and all eyes immediately focused on him.
"Nice of you to join us Captain Kurosaki," Head Captain Ukitake said, his gaze following Ichigo as he walked across the room. His tone was neutral however there was a smile on his face that told Ichigo that he wasn't really angry over the fact that he'd been late.
"Sorry," Ichigo said as he took his place in line. "I got caught up fighting Hollow."
"You mean there are still Hollow in Karakura?" Renji seemed somewhat shocked by this little piece of information. He'd thought for sure that Ichigo would have taken care of all of them by now as much as he liked to fight them. After all that was his favorite way of avoiding his paperwork, according to Rukia.
"A few," Ichigo said.
"Alright," Ukitake said, addressing the group and immediately gaining their attention. "Now that Captain Kurosaki has joined us let's begin."
Forcing himself to ignore the look that Renji was giving him, Ichigo focused his attention on the Head Captain. And as he listened to Ukitake speak he found himself hoping that the meeting didn't take long. He simply didn't have the attention span for things like this.
"Please let this end quickly," he thought to himself, already having to fight the urge to let his mind wander. These meetings were always boring and were only slightly better than doing paperwork.
As the week progressed Ichigo found himself suddenly bombarded by Hell butterflies, most of which contained messages from Rukia. He had never had to deal with this before but Rukia seemed to have decided that it was the best way to relay messages, even though they had recently been issued communicators by Head Captain Ukitake. Rukia seemed to prefer the Hell butterflies and used them frequently. Ichigo wasn't sure he liked this method of communication and he quickly learned to judge her moods by how the messages started out. Just by listening to the first couple of words he could tell whether or not he was in trouble.
Ichigo was in one of the Squad Five offices, talking to Kaiya, when one of the Hell butterflies entered the office. Both officers gazed at the butterfly, which immediately fluttered over to the spot where Ichigo was seated. The Squad Five Captain gazed at it expectantly.
"Captain Kurosaki. . ."
Without even waiting to hear the rest of the message Ichigo reached up and quickly smashed the butterfly between his hands. Phwap!
"Captain!" Kaiya exclaimed, fixing her captain with a shocked look. She couldn't believe that he'd just squashed one of the Hell butterflies. This was weird even by her captain's standards. She stared at him with wide eyes. "Why did you do that? What if the message was important?"
"It wasn't," Ichigo said without hesitation, wiping his hands on his pants. A smile appeared on his face as he saw how freaked out normally easy going Kaiya had became. It was obvious to him that she'd never seen anyone rid themselves of a Hell butterfly in that manner.
"How do you know?" Kaiya wanted to know.
"Because any message of real importance always starts out with Ichigo and then goes from there," Ichigo replied, having learned that during his research on the butterflies. After all, he'd received a lot of messages over the past week. "No one calls me captain at the beginning of a message except for Rukia. And she only does it when she's angry."
Kaiya's mouth formed a silent "o" and she nodded. What her captain said made sense but she still thought that he should listen to the message. If Rukia was angry now it would only make her angrier if Ichigo ignored her messages. She didn't tell her captain any of this however.
That was something that he'd have to learn on his own.
A/N - and there's chapter seven. I fore see Ichigo getting into trouble over this one but oh well. He wouldn't be Ichigo if he didn't. Hope you enjoyed, please review and tell me what you thought. Til next time this is Hitsu-taichou signing out.
