Going through a major rut. Emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Not good. Not good.

Happy New Year, everyone! Thanks for the six reviews; it is much appreciated!

Arigato Wry Bread, who has taken the time off her holidays to read my chapters. Croissants are a type of bread, and they contain chocolate, don't they? Yes they do….

Recap of OCs:

Seishin Kei: 14th division captain

Hissori Takara: 14th division vice captain

Sora Hanabi: Fourth traitor to Soul Society

Excerpts are taken from Bleach 141, one of my favorite episodes!

Note: In the anime/manga, Ichigo was supposed to be in bed all beat up by Grimmjow, but I just decided to tweak it a little.

Hitsugaya cursed for what felt like the millionth time the next evening. His fingers were simply not cooperating, and kept failing him on the quest to clock the game on his cell phone. He thought sitting out on the rooftop would give him the quiet concentration he needed to advance to the next level.

So much for that.

"Hitsugaya-taichou?"

He turned around. Kei was standing right behind him, looking anxious. She always looked anxious. It was annoying, but the worst part was when she wore that look, it reminded him of Hinamori, who was forever timid and nervous.

He vaguely remembered Hinamori stating in a past conversation that she and Kei had become friends. Well, that was no surprise. They had been in the same squad; they were bound to find each other and click because of their similarities.

"Hitsugaya-taichou?" The girl tried again, noticing that he wasn't replying. Her hands twisted nervously as she spoke. Pretty soon they would be knotted together from so much intertwining, he thought. "Um… can I talk to you for a second? It's pretty important…"

The snowball sighed. He didn't want to talk to her, due to the fact he was losing to a hunk of metal and frustrated because of it. But at the rate he was going, he wasn't going to progress much on his game anyway. "What do you want?"

Kei found herself still intimidated by his cold manner, despite having talked to him at least once before. She had never made the effort to talk to someone like him. That was why it had taken her so much time to pull her courage together. "I- got a message from Yamamoto. It says that- my squad's coming in a week."

"So?" He asked coolly.

She looked about ready to turn around and run away from him. "Um- you said yesterday evening that- that you would help me with my division, so- so I was just asking to make sure…" Her dark eyes darted to the roof tiles. "But if you can't or- if you don't want to- I'll understand. I mean- I know I'll be hard to work with, and, you know…" Her feeble voice trailed off.

She certainly had severe self esteem issues. It was almost like she expected him to bail out on her.

What a pathetic person she must imagine herself to be.

When he still said nothing, she continued to ramble on. "I'm so sorry about annoying you, Hitsugaya-taichou! But I felt so bad about asking for your help that I came out here, just to make sure, because I know you're busy with things, and you probably don't really want to help me, it's just you feel like you need to because-"

He cut her off, already tired of her babbling. He'd had to put up with Hinamori's often, and had learned the telltale signs. "If you're going to treat your squad like you're treating me now, they'll never respect you."

She blinked at his unexpected input, temporarily taken aback. "H-huh?" was her intelligent response.

His impassive green orbs were now focused on the setting sun's last rays. "You need to stop that habit of apologizing for everything you do, or people will just see you as a doormat and walk all over you for the rest of your life."

He guessed that she didn't seem the type who took criticism well, and wasn't disappointed. Indeed, her expression seemed to cloud over for a moment, and it looked like she was going to yell at him like she had the day before. But instead, her face took on a look of frustration and defeat.

"People already think of me as a doormat, Hitsugaya-taichou," she replied with an exasperated sigh. "And that's because I am one." Dejectedly, she plopped down next to him on the tiled floor. "People are always telling me I need to be more assertive and confident and whatnot, but I've tried to change so many times and it's never worked! And I know I have to work even harder to become so, now that I'm a captain! You're lucky that you didn't need to change a thing about yourself for this job! You're already logical and impartial and cold."

Unexpectedly, she gave him a rather steely look. "How do you do it?" she demanded suddenly. "Act so impassive and unemotional, I mean."

"That's the way I am."

"No, that's not what I mean," she replied, still in an extremely direct voice. "Fine, let me reword it: How do you hide your emotions so well? Your coldness may help your reputation as a taichou, but I've never understood how you've kept it up. People have feelings, and that doesn't exclude you!"

"I'm sure people like it better when I'm not a mushy, sentimental mess of a person," the snowball retorted.

"Is that why you don't ever let down your guard? Image?" she scoffed. "Would it kill you to drop it just once? Around a certain person, maybe?"

"How I act is none of your business!" he snapped, feeling annoyance starting to rise.

Kei almost screamed with frustration that was now directed at him. Biting her lip, she barely contained her temper. "Don't you understand?" she said, in a voice of forced calm. "Hinamori! Why didn't you ever tell her you liked her? I was almost going to tell her myself, because you let yourself get in the way for far too long! She's with Kira now, but it could have turned out differently if you did something about it! In fact, it's so simple I shouldn't even need to tell you this! Don't you realize?"

He failed to reply. "Well? Don't you?" she asked, relentlessly. They were even now, since he had just berated her about her faults. Let him suffer a little!

Still Hitsugaya said nothing, his eyes no longer visible in the dark. In those crucial minutes, Kei felt her anger receding again, exactly like it did when she argued with Takara: dropping to the point of embarrassment and guilt once more. After a few more minutes of silence, she couldn't bear the tenseness any longer. "Well?" she prodded again, sounding gentler now and much more like the shy Kei everyone saw.

Finally the snowball spoke to the stars, still choosing to look away from her. "You're going to have to do better than that. Temporary assertiveness isn't going to get you anywhere, especially if you only display it when provoked or around friends."

For the second time during that conversation, Kei was at a loss. "H-huh?" she said again, confused. She didn't know whether to be relieved that he was still speaking to her, or to get mad again because he was changing the subject and not admitting to his weakness, like she had done.

"You heard me, Seishin."

Hmm. He appeared to be as stubborn as her, and most unlikely to admit the truth any time soon. Deciding to take his silence as his consent, she felt her lips curve into a smile as she said, "Yeah, Hitsugaya? Well, so do you. Hiding your feelings all the time isn't going to get you anywhere, either."

"Taichous!" A familiar voice called down below, interrupting their conversation.

"Matsumoto-fukutaichou?" Kei called back, looking over the edge of the roof. "Is something the matter?"

"It's Orihime. She's supposed to be in Soul Society, but Rukia's been trying to reach her all day and she's not responding." The vice captain's voice sounded worried. "Hissori-fukutaichou's going around the city to see if she can find any traces of Orihime's reiatsu, but I'm getting a bit nervous."

"Yamamoto said she was going to be escorted to Soul Society by armed guards," Hitsugaya said.

"I know. But things don't feel quite right."

"I don't think there's much we can do just about now," Kei called back, now slightly concerned as well. "So there's not much point in worrying."

"I suppose," Matsumoto said, sounding as if she was trying to convince herself of the fact. "We're probably just overreacting, aren't we?"

"Probably," the female taichou replied. "Are you cooking something, Matsumoto-fukutaichou? I can smell something coming from the house."

"Yes! It's a cake, and I made up the recipe! The only problem is, I need someone to taste it. Orihime's not here, and Hissori-fukutaichou and taichou said no, so how about it, Seishin-taichou?"

"Okay!" Kei called back, flattered by the invitation and thus temporarily forgetting about Matsumoto's unusual taste. "Just give me one more minute!"

She turned back to Hitsugaya, who was surveying her with an astonished look. "What?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"You do know why Hissori and I refused, right?"

She blinked, still innocent. "No… why? Why didn't you agree? I'm sure Matsumoto's cooking will be perfectly- oh, gosh!" The truth conveniently hit her then. Clapping her hand to her forehead, she moaned in horror. "Oh, no! What do I do?"

He couldn't help smirking at her misfortune. "If you don't die from the food she feeds you, I expect you'll spend at least three days in the latrine."

"How mean of you!" she exclaimed, her navy eyes wide. "Quick, help me get out of this! I can't believe I forgot!"

"Taichou!" Matsumoto called once more. "Come on, don't be left out! I've given you a special treat: you can taste the left over cake batter!"

The open door illuminated the first smile he had ever seen from Kei. "I won't be alone in my suffering!" she cried happily, seizing his arm. "Hurry inside, before she changes her mind and lets you off!"

"Why me?" The snowball groaned.

Flashback: the previous evening

"For laundry, the towels go in the right corner of the dresser. Put clean towels in the bottom and stack them. Make sure to put the burnable garbage out before 8:00 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays…" Orihime, seated at the small round table, was busily scribbling in a notebook.

"Okay, that's about everything!" she announced triumphantly a few minutes later, using her fingers to count the chores and make sure she hadn't missed anything. "Rangiku-san and Toushirou-kun are helpless on their own…"

The silver bracelet around her wrist sparkled in the dim lamplight, catching her eye. It reminded her of Ulquiorra's final words.

"We will meet at midnight. Finish up whatever business you have and meet me at the designated area. Don't forget. You can only say farewell to one person."

Silently, she rose and left, the notebook still lying open on the table. Four words were written at the bottom of the page:

"Good bye, halcyon days."

Next Chapter Preview! (words subject to change):

Resolutely, Hanabi aimed her Zanpaku-to at the retreating figure and charged.

All was quiet except for the sound of a body hitting the ground.

Sorry, only two sentences! But you'll find out what happens next chapter!

Hm, so now in a way, Hitsu and Kei are accountable for each other. That's how people need to be in order to achieve their goals, I think- to depend on others as well as themselves.

Review please! They encourage me greatly!

-Always, Tide