Please Enjoy,


Once the ceremony finally concluded people were allowed to start mingling again so the squad members could start to become acquainted with each other. Gin watched Toshiro quickly move away from the crowd, virtually ignoring his squad members. Seeing an opportunity he did much the same and followed the boy leaving Aizen and the graduates behind, he was fairly sure Aizen's fans wouldn't miss him. Gin noticed Toshiro seemed to be looking around for someone, but Gin wasn't entirely sure who it was.

"Shiro-chan, congrats on yo' new position," Gin said as a means of greeting. The boy immediatly focused his attention on Gin and seemed slightly suspicious of his congratulation.

"Apparently I don't deserve it," Toshiro rolled his eyes and Gin was pleased to see he didn't let the event affect him too much. Though Gin had to admit his own blood was still boiling at the mention of the man.

"Now don' go sayin tha', yer captain believes in ya," Gin waved off Toshiro's words.

"He doesn't really know me, we met briefly a few times, but it was hardly enough for him to develop any belief in my abilities," Toshiro seemed insistent on not accepting any positive comments. Gin wondered if his time in Rukongai damaged his self-confidence or self-worth.

"So go talk ta him, dun worry Ah'm sure he'll like ya," Gin gestured in the direction he thought the 10th was gathering.

Toshiro shook his head, "That's not the issue, I'm not concerned about how he'll react, but I'd rather stay away from the people who despise me for receiving the position. I'll speak to him later when I can get him alone, until then I'm going to avoid drawing too much attention to myself."

Gin didn't point out his looks and new position made him very noticeable regardless of what he did, but after seeing who was approaching he shrugged, "Tha' may be harder than ya think."

"Why?" Toshiro asked not sparing him a glance, instead he went back to silently searching the crowd.

"Cause Ran-chan's comin'," Gin pointed to the rapidly approaching woman out of Toshiro's line of sight.

"Wha-," before Toshiro could actually speak he was swept up into a hug from behind by Rangiku which did indeed draw attention from plenty of the males in the room who had been busy staring at her.

"So that's how you got your position," the same man who bothered Toshiro during the ceremony appeared with an ugly smirk, "You had this one whore herself out to the captain to convince him to give you a position."

Rangiku looked angry and Gin was sure his expression matched hers, but before either of them could say anything Toshiro extricated himself from Rangiku's arms and turned to face the man. Gin suddenly felt the temperature in the room drop and saw Toshiro's eyes flash, the boy fixed a glare on the older male and said in a deceptively even tone, "I'd take that back, if I were you and apologize to Rangiku."

"Or what?" The man blustered, but he looked slightly afraid of the ice that started spreading from underneath Toshiro's feet and approaching him.

Gin for his own part was fascinated with the power Toshiro was displaying, clearly he had an ice type zanpaktou. Gin wondered if he'd already fully discovered his Shikai this early or this was just unconscious.

Before Toshiro could actually make a threat a hand landed on his shoulder Gin glanced at the owner of the hand and quickly realized Captain Shiba noticed the disturbance. It was hard to miss, Toshiro was leaking spiritual pressure and plenty of people were staring at the scene.

"What's going on?" the captain asked in a calm voice resting his hand on Toshiro's shoulder.

Toshiro quickly reeled in his power, only bits of frost and cool air remained. He looked about ready to apologize, but Gin quickly cut in before he could say anything, "He was jus' defendin' Ran-chan's honor." He was quite proud of Toshiro and didn't want him to be sorry for defending Rangiku.

"Really?" Isshin asked raising an eyebrow at the retreating man, but made no move to go after him.

"Yes, he was standing up for me," Rangiku confirmed pulling Toshiro into another hug, " he's such a gentleman." Gin pretended to pout that he wasn't the knight in shining armor.

"Well we in the 10th division certainly value loyalty, so I can't fault you Toshiro. If anything I'm proud," Isshin confirmed and helped remove him from Ragiku's grasp much to her annoyance. Just as Toshiro gathered his breath and seemed to relax, Isshin pulled him for a hug of his own and swung him around suddenly taking on a much more childish tone, "I'm so happy you finally joined our division, you're so cute."

Gin hid his smile at the scene, the man insulting them had run off at the appearance of the captain leaving Rangiku and Isshin to fight over who got to hug Toshiro. Gin had a feeling they would be able to chase away Toshiro's loneliness and Gin wanted to play his own part.

"Put me down," Toshiro struggled until he finally was released. "Am I going to deal with this everyday?" He asked aloud, but not to any particular person.

"Yes," Rangiku and Isshin confirmed at the same time giving him a thumbs up. Gin noticed a grudging smile on Toshiro's face, though he tried to hide it.

"Whatever," Toshiro mumbled pointedly looking away. Suddenly it seemed to hit him that he was speaking to his captain and Gin quickly saw him dip into a bow and apologize for being so rude.

"It's fine, you can be open with me Toshiro," Captain Isshin patted him on the head gently, "I'm a cool captain." Matsumoto snorted, but tried to look innocent when Isshin glared at her.

"Regardless, I'm thankful that you took me into your squad and gave me the twelfth seat," Toshiro thanked him stiffly, but this time managed to refrain from bowing.

"No problem, you earned it," Isshin smiled, "and don't worry Rangiku and I will help you get settled."

As relieved as Gin was that Toshiro would be fine, he still felt slightly sad that he wouldn't get to be there all the time. Toshiro was his first, but he reassured himself that it was for the best. He couldn't bear if Aizen somehow got his claws into Toshiro, he made a silent pledge that he would protect him even if Toshiro was unaware he was being protected.

"Gin are you alright?" Rangiku knocked him from his thoughts.

"O' course, I was jus' thinkin' bout all the work I have ta do," Gin replied as an excuse.

"Just push it on someone else, that's what I do," Rangiku offered helpfully.

"Should you be admitting that in front of your captain?" Toshiro asked glancing between her and Isshin.

"Where do you think I got the idea?" She asked at Isshin who looked slightly guilty.

"Rangiku, you're ruining my image," Isshin whined while Toshiro silently observed the exchange, Gin could practically see his respect for his superiors melting away.

"Yo Toshiro," a voice called out and everyone followed the voice to a red haired boy with tattoos on his face who clearly just graduated.

"Renji," Toshiro crossed his arms, "Have you seen Momo?"

"She's busy with Captain Aizen," Renji answered.

"Ah," Toshiro looked annoyed, "I guess she forgot she was supposed to meet me back here after the graduation ceremony."

"Yeah she seemed a bit distracted," Renji supplied though Toshiro seemed to be slightly more annoyed by the answer, "She's hoping he'll talk to her."

"She's just hoping to speak to him? So she's not really busy, she's just standing around staring at him?" Toshiro asked his annoyance now showing in his voice.

"Uh, yeah I guess," Renji scratched the back of his neck, "If you want I can take you to where she is."

"That's fine," Toshiro seemed to be pulling his temper back, "I suppose it can't be helped, she's rather absentminded isn't she?"

"Um, okay," Renji didn't seem to know how to interact with the younger male, rather than make any further conversation he started to lead Toshiro to this Momo. Gin followed him with Rangiku and Isshin on his heels. They were the third seat and the captain, Gin was surprised they weren't more interested in getting to know the other recent graduates entering their squad.


They easily weaved through the crowd until Renji finally stopped in front of a group of people surrounding Aizen who was aimably chatting with them. Apparently Toshiro found whoever he was looking for because he took a few steps and over the noise called, "Oi Momo."

A girl turned and Gin recognized her as one of the top graduates, "Shiro-chan?" Gin felt an irrational flash of anger at hearing her calling him 'Shiro-chan' with such familiarity. He quickly swallowed the anger to stop it from showing and instead watched the exchange.

"Don't call me Shiro-chan, I've graduated from the academy and achieved Shikai I'm not a child anymore. You made a promise, besides I have a higher rank than you do," he sounded vaguely smug, but there was a slight undercurrent of something Gin couldn't place.

"Are you sure they should have given you that position?" Momo asked delicately, but Gin could see Toshiro was affected by her words far more than the man who questioned him before.

"What does that mean, Momo?" He asked frigidly.

"I mean, you're so young. Can you really handle it?" She asked and Gin could see her features turn into something doubtful and his anger flared up again.

"Momo, I was first in the class and just because I'm not old doesn't mean I'm not qualified for the position," Toshiro defended himself. Isshin looked like he was going to say anything, but seemed to decide to let them handle it without him.

"I'm just worried about you,"she admitted.

Toshiro seemed to relax a bit at that, "I know Momo, but you don't need to worry about me," he half smiled and added, "You should worry about remembering to keep promises like meeting me after graduation or not calling me Shiro-chan."

They continued to talk and Gin decided he hated the girl, partially because he found her annoying, but also because Toshiro seemed to like her so much. As far as Gin was concerned she was just another Aizen fangirl, but he did slowly remember her from the giant hollow incident Aizen orchestrated. He also realized that if she was in his division he would have to keep her from getting too close to Aizen for Toshiro's sake. He had a feeling it was going to be a big headache, but he wanted to do everything he could to protect Toshiro and this girl would be a liability if Aizen could use her.

"Toshiro you should come meet my captain," Momo looked excited, but Gin decided to shut that down.

"Captain Aizen wanted to spend today with his squad members new and old, you should probably meet him another time," Gin cut in before the subject could be pursued further.

"How would you know?" Momo asked and Gin decided the girl was either an idiot or wasn't paying attention to anything, but Aizen during the ceremony.

"I'm his lieutenant," was Gin's easy response and he shifted his arm so she could get a good look at his badge.

She flushed and apologized profusely, Gin decided to pretend it was perfectly fine despite his annoyance. Thankfully the tactic worked and Momo promised to introduce them another time as she chased after Aizen who was beginning to leave.

Finally things began to clear out and after a few quick goodbyes Toshiro followed Isshin and Rangiku back to his new division. Gin felt vaguely lonely, something he hadn't felt in a long time, but quashed the feeling and focused on the fact that he finally found Toshiro and he was going to be a shinigami.


A/N

Okay, so I know I haven't really posted in a while, but I basically stopped writing fanfiction this summer. Now that it's winding down I'm going to continue my stories.

I edited the last chapter to correct the continuity of the story, I screwed up my timeline a bit and made a few mistakes. Honestly they don't matter much so if you've read the chapter already it shouldn't affect the story line, but for anyone who hadn't read it I felt I should make the corrections.

Alright Toshiro has graduated, he's met his captain who will be playing a role in the story, and this is basically where I start messing with Bleach's actual story line rather than just my own background. However a few flashbacks to 'human Toshiro' will probably pop up.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think, also am I the only person who dislikes Momo?