Title: Cry It Out

Genre: Hurt/Comfort

Characters: Matsumoto, Hitsugaya

Author's Note: This one isn't actually in Hitsugaya's point of view, but I decided to put it here anyway. So there.

Summary: She had heard it too many times before.


Matsumoto had often heard that a good cry would help make her feel better. Hinamori had cheerfully explained it to her only weeks before Aizen's betrayal, smiling brightly as Matsumoto burned her finger yet again and cursed the day she had ever learned that her Taichou was fond of yakizakana (1). Shunsui had consoled her with it as they drank together on the roof one night. Isane had tried to comfort her with the phrase when she had visited the Fourth Division to see her Taichou all but dead and slashed nearly in half by Aizen's merciless blade.

Gin had chided her with it as he left her alone in Rukongai in order to join the shinigami.

But Matsumoto knew better. She had always known better. Crying would never ease the pain. It only led to more crying, more heartbreak, and more time to endlessly wonder what she had done wrong. To cry was to wallow in the weaknesses and doubts she refused to let anyone else realize she had.

It was not the crying that made her feel better. No. It was what followed.

It was when that closet door opened and the office lighting revealed a spiky-haired silhouette, when she'd see that familiar scowl, and he'd step into the closet with her, shut the door behind him, and lean against her side. It was when she could feel the light pressure against her body as he reclined against it to stare up into the darkness and share her solitude. Silent. Unexpectant. There.

That was what always made her feel better. Because someone was by her side, and he understood. And that was all that mattered.


(1) Yakizakana: flame-grilled fish