Author's Note: I know I haven't updated this in forever, but this chapter snuck into my head today so I thought I'd share it.

The sunlight was shining far too brightly, even through Hisagi's eyelids. He moaned and threw his arm over his face before realizing that he must be late for the captain's meeting. Sitting up, he thunked his head solidly against the underside of a desk.

"It hurts," he exclaimed, slumping sideways onto the floor. The patch of floor under the desk was cold, and Hisagi wondered absently where his shirt had gotten to as he rubbed his aching head.

The thud woke Kira, who groaned and tried to move his arms, which felt like lead for some reason. A ceramic bottle which had been resting in the crook of his arm clattered to the ground, spilling liquid across the wood floor and onto Kira's bare back. "What the...?"

"Matsumoto!" someone growled from the far corner of the room. Hisagi blinked an eye open to see Renji crumpled into a shirtless, hungover mass.

Hisagi rolled his way out from under the desk. "I knew she was going to get us drunk and leave us to suffer," he muttered, "but why did she steal our clothes?"

"At least she left us some sake," Kira replied, as the alcohol in question pooled around his shoulders, "and our hakama."

"Speak for yourself," Hisagi retorted.

"Whoa, Shuuhei, she really took your pants?" Renji exclaimed, propping himself up on his elbows. "Why would she take just yours?"

Kira sat up, squealing embarrassingly as the sake dripped across a scrape on his back, stinging horribly. "Actually, I think I remember you betting Matsumoto a bottle of sake that you could fold a paper crane out of them," he explained.

"No wonder I'm so drunk," Hisagi mumbled from where he was using the desk to pull himself to his feet.

"What do you mean?" Renji exclaimed, then, wincing and lowering his voice, "there's no way you can do that!"

"A bottle of sake says I can," Hisagi retorted.

"You're on!" Renji replied.

"You're going to have to find your hakama before you can make a bet like that," Kira objected. "And before you can go to the captain's meeting in five minutes."

"Shit!" Hisagi exclaimed. "Renji, lend me yours!"

"No way!"

"Come on, Renji, take it off!"

"Take Kira's hakama!"

"I have to go too," Kira objected, "My squad doesn't have a captain either."

"Anyway, he's too small; it won't fit!" Hisagi lunged clumsily at Renji, seizing his obi. "Give it to me!"

"Oh my!" a voice came from the doorway, accompanied by a flash. "I'm sorry to interrupt whatever you boys are up to," Matsumoto sang, waving a camera. "But taicho said if I took you out drinking last night, I had to make sure you got to the meeting on time. But Shuuhei-san, you're not going to go like that, are you?"

"MATSUMOTO!" the men yelled in unison.


---------- A few weeks later ----------


Kira held onto the arm of the couch in the Eighth Division's office for support as he dragged himself up. "And I thought drinking with Matsumoto-san was bad," he grumbled.

"At least I still have my hakama this time," Hisagi said with considerable relief.

"At least I don't have to go to those stupid early morning captains' meetings," Renji gloated groggily from a corner.

"I wish I was really a captain so I could have a lieutenant to take me home after a night of drinking before the captains' meetings," Hisagi added.

"Whatever," Kira retorted. "Somehow Kyouraku's always late anyways."

"'Cause Lieutenant Ise only brings him home," Renji commented, "she doesn't stay the night."

"Well waking up on wood floors sucks. Ise can bring me home and not stay the night any day of the week," Hisagi said.

"I'm afraid Lieutenant Ise has her hands full with just the one drunken shinigami each night, thank you very much." A very peeved-looking Nanao leveled her glasses at the men who were stumbling around her division's office.

"Lieutenant Ise!" the men exclaimed in unison.


"It was weird that Hinamori didn't come to the meeting," Kira remarked as he and Hisagi filed out of the meeting past a decidedly less hungover Captain Kyouraku.

"Yeah," Shuuhei agreed, "but I doubt she was out drinking herself silly last night. Think maybe she's sick?"

"I guess we'd better go check."

"Sure, but after that, I'm going home to take a nap."

"Me too. Breakfast, and then a nap."

The two lieutenants walked to Hinamori's quarters and knocked on the door. There was no answer.

"Hinamori-san, are you alright?" Kira called. There was silence. He looked over at Shuuhei, who shrugged and reached for the door. Sliding it open, they entered the dark room to find Hinamori soundly asleep. Kira knelt next to her and gently placed a hand on her forehead. "She's got a fever," he reported.

"And no wonder," Hisagi replied with a low chuckle. "Look!"

Kira turned to where Shuuhei was standing near the far wall. On a bookcase, a copy of the annual yearbook lay open with a page torn out. On the wall above the bookcase, the page was taped haphazardly. It was a picture of Kira, Shuuhei, and Renji, sleeping shirtless on the floor of the 9th Division office. There was a giant black origami crane next to Shuuhei.

Kira blushed brightly, his jaw dropping as he looked back at Hinamori's sleeping form. Hisagi was barely containing his laughter, and the girl was beginning to stir.

"Let's go!" Kira exclaimed in a panic. They scrambled out of the room and just managed to slide the door shut before Hisagi broke out laughing.

"Let's go buy a copy of the yearbook!" he exclaimed.

Kira stared at him, horrified. "Why?!"

"Because Abarai owes me a bottle of sake!"