Hello again my dear readers ^^
I'm happy to say that I'm finally back home! After seven months, it seems like ages though.
Anyway, enjoy the chapter cause we only gots two more before I'm done :)
This fanfiction has been disclaimed.
Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. A half asleep ginger woman stomped down the hallway to the office, knocking over everything in her path. She had gotten out of bed that morning by consoling herself that there was only one more day to this bet thing. Afterwards she would be able to sleep in a bit. She smiled inwardly, she couldn't wait for tomorrow. She stumbled all the way to the office and what do you know, it was locked. She put all her weight on the door trying to slide it open but it didn't budge. She groaned in frustration, Toushiro had the key. She had lost hers ages ago. So what was the reason she had even gotten up early for? The office was locked. She could be in her nice warm bed right at this moment but no, she had to wake up at this ungodly hour just to come to work... in the locked office. She rested her forehead against the cool wood of the door and closed her eyes. She was so tired, she couldn't remember the last time she had worked so hard for an entire week, and she hadn't even slept in once! Toushiro better be happy with her after this, because this was the last time she was waking up early every day. It was so exhausting-
"Matsumoto, what are you doing?" Toushiro's voice echoed in the empty hallway. She didn't even jump in surprise at his sudden appearance. She didn't have the energy to.
"The door's locked." She muttered.
"No it's not." He raised an eyebrow and to prove his point with ease he slid the door open... a few feet away from where she was standing.
Rangiku blinked stupidly. So what the hell was she standing in front of? She needed to go back to sleep or needed a big cup of strong coffee. She stumbled into the office and promptly plopped herself on the couch. She felt rather than saw Toushiro stand over her.
"You look like death, Matsumoto." He stated.
She grumbled. "I'm tired what do you expect."
He scoffed. "It's the last day. You can't possibly back out now."
"Who said anything about me backing out? I just need a few minutes more of sleep. Wake me up in a few."
She heard him chuckle quietly and followed the sounds of his light footsteps to his desk. "Sure thing, Matsumoto."
"That's Captain Matsumoto to you."
She snuggled into the couch. Toushiro had been more lenient with her these past few days... oh yeah, that because she was the captain. He was probably itching to tell her to get to work... or maybe not. She thought back to last night when he had personally tended to her wounds. She had never known him to be so gentle. The only person he ever acted like that with was Momo. She had sat on the couch while he knelt by her feet with medical equipment scattered around him. He had first healed her cuts and bruises with kido, but since he wasn't an expert they still had to be bandaged and cleaned out manually. She had been surprised at how small his hands were. They were as rough and calloused as any other shinigami's, but she had not expected them to be so small. And then she realised that they had never held hands before. He wasn't a touchy feely person and whenever she dragged him along on her whimsical adventures she usually grabbed on to his wrists. And so being Rangiku, she snatched up one of his hands and held it in hers. He stared at her with a raised eyebrow and his face read slight annoyance as his kido was effectively stopped.
"What are you doing, Matsumoto?" He deadpanned.
She grinned. "You're hands are so tiny! They're so cute!"
He scowled and roughly pulled his arm away from her. "How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not cute? And you better not be making fun of my size, I'm going to get bigger soon enough."
"And then you'll no longer be my cute, little captain but my hot, sexy captain."
The blush that spread across his face was absolutely adorable. She giggled in contentment. Teasing him was just too much fun.
"Shut up, Matsumoto." He growled. His actions became choppier after that, but he was still impossibly gentle.
"Am I hurting you?... Tell me if it hurts... Was that too hard?... Are you sure I'm being gentle enough?" Rangiku smiled at his questions and reassured him that he was being gentle enough each time. She was a warrior too after all; she could handle a little pain.
In the end he just scratched his head and grimaced. "Sorry, I'm just not used to doing this to other people."
Her smile had stretched from one end of the room to the other. In that one statement she had realised just how much he really did care for her. When she told him though, he denied it as if she had asked him if he thought of Momo as more than just a friend.
She sighed happily at the memory and shifted on the sofa. Yes, Toushiro was definitely getting nicer. She wondered what was bringing about the change but soon realised that her sleeping time was ticking away. She without delay put her mind into shut down mode. Minutes later she was fast asleep.
("\(^.^)/")
Rangiku awoke to something very cold and very wet being dashed all over her. She screamed and jumped off the couch. She somehow managed to catch her foot on the coffee table and tumbled to the floor. She landed with a thud on her butt. That was the worst wakeup call she had had ever. She raised her head and glared at the small boy who was standing above her with an empty glass in his hand.
"Finally." He sneered heading back to his desk. "I've been trying to wake you up for the past twenty minutes. You've had your rest, now get to work."
Rangiku got to her feet and wrung out her wet hair. "Toushiro, what the hell? Everything's wet now. Just how do you expect to dry that couch? And I'll have to go change before I'm able to start any work."
He glared at her over his shoulder. "You set one foot out of this office, Matsumoto, and I'll kill you. Get to work."
She shook her head. "In-sa-bor-din-a-tion." She sang and skipped over to the door. "I'll be right back, lieutenant."
She could tell that he was bristling with anger and actually heard the air crackle around him. "Matsumoto, get back here this instant. You've slept for two hours and there is a ton of work to be done."
"Great, you can get started then-"
"MATSUMOTO!"
She giggled. "Relax, Toushiro, I was joking. Just get me a towel and a cup of tea then I'll get started right away." She skipped over to the desk and sat down obediently. She smiled up at him. He looked like he was going to explode. But he took a deep breath and slowly headed over to the door. When he passed her desk she could have sworn she heard him chanting under his breath, 'one more day'. She hid her smile by pulling a pile of papers towards her. He was ready to crack, and that meant that she was going to win.
Toushiro shut the door a bit harder than necessary. She winced at the loud noise. She pulled out a brush and ink pad from the drawer and began to read through the files. So, she was signing the pay checks today. She sighed as she noticed the noticeably lower number written on it. That one had been her fault. The men were not going to be pleased about this. How would they react? Would they hate her for it? Would they start a riot? But in her defence it had been necessary. The tenth would have gone into red numbers if she hadn't decided to cut back on their pay. And neither she nor Toushiro was even getting paid that month. She blew a lock of hair out from in front of her face. She still felt bad for doing this though. The men didn't deserve to be punished like this. The only ones that should have been punished were then men who had been involved in the fight. They should not be getting paid at all. It wasn't fair to have every single person in the squad pay for it as well. But then again, as Toushiro would have said, life isn't fair. So she took a deep breath and signed her name and put the check into a new pile. Great, now she only had to do it 237 more times. Hold up, she had to sign her name 237 more times and feel bad for each one of them. She raised an eyebrow. Scratch that, hell she was feeling bad for them. If anything they should come up to her and thank her for do such a tedious job. Their pay deserved to be deducted for having her go through 238 checks and sing them all. She huffed. Two down 236 to go. This was going to be a long day. Maybe she could use her captain-y powers and make Toushiro do it for her. She instantly discarded the idea. She had one more day to go; she was not going to ask for his help.
Three hours later her hand was cramping but she only had four more to go. She was jumping up and down inside. If that didn't make her feel accomplished then she didn't know what would. There and... done!
"Yes!" she exclaimed jumping from the chair and pumping her fist in the air. "In your face, paperwork. Matsumoto Rangiku has once again come out on top!"
The papers did not move or even react to her outburst. She sighed, what did she expect, they were just papers. "Look at yourself, Rangiku," she muttered. "See what working too hard does to a person? This can't be good for you."
She fell back into her chair. It did feel good to be done with all of that. Now she felt sorry for the poor sucker that had to fold them all and put them in envelopes. Actually, now that she thought about it, who did put the checks in envelopes? By right, that should be the job of the lieutenant. Ha, Toushiro was going to have so much fun with that. She had always run away when pay time came around. She had forgotten why but now that she remembered she was glad that she made herself scarce. Signing her name was bad enough but to have to meticulously fold each paper and then put them into envelops was talking monotonous to a whole new level. Poor, poor Toushiro.
Speaking of the boy; where was he anyway? He had left three hours ago to get her tea and towels. The tea and towels had come back but just not with him. Hmm, she had never thought him one to shirk his duties. That must have meant that he was doing work outside the office.
But anyway it was almost two o'clock. That meant that she only had a few more hours until the work day was done. She may as well start celebrating! A party was definitely in order. She should put in an order for sake, and a few snacks. This was going to be so much fun!
She summoned a hell butterfly and gave it several instructions. Food and sake had to be prepared, the soldiers had to be notified, the grounds had to be tidied up, and so on. She giggled in excitement and bounced up and down in her seat. And since she was still captain for the day, Toushiro couldn't punish her for doing this. Her grin grew even wider and she started to bounce from side to side. She couldn't wait for tonight- oh shoot. Her hand had knocked over a stack of papers. She huffed and bent over to pick them up.
"Hmm, what's this?" She asked herself. She hadn't even noticed that these were on her desk. "Money transfer form... Oh, damn."
Those were kind of important. She rubbed her temples and placed the files back on top of the desk. Now this was going to take forever to complete. The entire thing was made up of three files, each around seven pages long. They stated the grounds on which the transfer took place, the rules and regulations and everything the money could and could not be used for. She had to sign at least ten different areas and Zaraki had to go through it as well. It already held Yamamoto's seal of approval so that was one thing she could forget about. She took a deep breath; might as well get started now.
("\(^.^)/")
Rangiku flitted around the party that night with a cup of sake in her hand. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. The noise from people chatting and the music was exhilarating to her (ever since Ichigo had introduced her to cd's and stereo systems the Soul Society had a music revolution). She smiled; it was good to see everyone take it easy like this. She needed to plan more parties more often. Everyone looked like they had lost five years in an instant. It was good to see them not busy with jobs or assignments. Everyone needed to let loose and have fun once in a while. And this had been a pretty draining week, and not just for her. Everyone had extra duties due to the renovations taking place. And the battle with the eleventh had affected every single person, not just with their pay checks. Though, Rangiku thought that she pretty much made it up to them by throwing them this party. She had more or less finished the sake stores in the kitchen for this party. They in face owed her. But whatever, she was going to have fun tonight. It was the last night of the bet and since she had complete jurisdiction over her party pooper captain, she was going to go all out. She pulled her hair behind her ears and stepped into the middle of a throng of dancing people.
A bit later Rangiku splayed herself on a blanket. She had been dancing for nearly two hours. She needed a short break before she jumped back in. During the three hours the party had been going on for she had made her way around the entire area and talked to everybody there. She had lost count of the amount of people she had danced with, though it had to be somewhere above twenty. She had had at least six cups of sake, but was only slightly tipsy, thank you. Basically she was having the time of her life. Parties were Rangiku's natural environment. If the world was a party she would be the president. She lived to have fun. Just as she thought this she jumped up from the blanket and grabbed a man who was uncomfortably standing to the side to the dance floor. She could not have this, every single person was supposed to be enjoying themselves. Within minutes he was laughing and smiling along with her. This was just way too much fun. Soon enough she found another woman to dance with the man and she flitted around the dance floor once again. Drink, dance and repeat; so went her night.
She decided to give her feet a little rest when she noticed that she had been running around for nearly an hour more. It had to be around eleven by now. A few people had gone home and a few people were just starting to come. She knew the party was going to run like this until wee hours of the morning. Tomorrow was going to be hell for everybody. She had had a few more drinks and there was a slight buzzing in the back of her skull. She sighed and leaned against the drink table. What a night. This was the first time she had so much fun in the division. Toushiro forbid her to organise such parties, though they did have some once in a blue moon. And it was just as she expected. The white haired boy had not even showed his face. No, actually what she had really expected was for him to come barging in, yell at her for dong this behind his back and possibly tell everyone to go home. His absence was odd. She began to wonder where he was. She hadn't seen him since that morning and he could not be working still. He had finished all his paperwork and as far as she knew he didn't have anything else to do. She poured herself another cup of sake and sat down on one of the blankets at the edge of the dance floor. Minutes later she was up and dancing again.
Around thirty minutes later she halted her dancing when she felt a familiar icy reiatsu approaching. So he had decided to come after all. Well at least she got a few decent hours of having fun. She skipped away from the dance floor and waited for him by the entrance. Maybe she could convince him not to end the party as soon as he got there.
Toushiro appeared next to her with his arms folded across his chest and his lips set into a thin, angry line. But before he could berate her, she was going to squeeze her last few moments of being captain dry.
"And just where have you been for the entire day, lieutenant?" She asked folding her arms across her chest in fake displeasure.
The look on his face was priceless. He had come expecting to shout at her but she had berated him instead. Oh how the tables had turned. Rangiku just laughed showing him that she was joking and thrust her half empty cup of sake into his hands. He looked down at it confused.
"You better not be expecting me to drink this." He scowled.
"I am. And I order you to have fun tonight, so drink up." She grinned as the oddest more disbelieving expression crossed his face. He couldn't refuse a direct order, and she had ordered him to down a glass of alcohol.
"I can't believe you're making me do this." He grumbled but otherwise made no move to drink anything.
"Come on, Toushiro. I just want you to enjoy yourself for once. Let loose, live a little! Is that so wrong?"
"What if I don't want to? I've seen the thing you do when you're drunk and I have no intentions to follow."
"You're not going to get drunk from half a glass."
He shot her an exasperated look but hesitantly brought the cup to his mouth. He glared at the clear liquid inside the cup like it was a hollow going to attack him. Then ever so slowly he tilted it towards his lips. He took a deep breath then tilted it the rest of the way. Rangiku chose that moment to pounce. She tapped the bottom of the glass causing the sake to jump up into his face. Toushiro immediately jumped back coughing and spluttering sake dripping down from his face and soaking into his kodose.
"What the hell, Matsumoto!" He yelled wiping his face.
She was laughing so hard her stomach started to hurt. "You should have seen your face!"
"I'm gonna kill you." He growled.
Ordinarily she would cower at his tone but tonight she was feeling extra playful, or it could be the alcohol in her system. "You're going to have to catch me first."
She jumped into a shunpo and disappeared from the party area. She actually had no idea where she was going but to hell with that. She was having fun and that's all that mattered. She grinned when she felt an icy wind blow by. That meant that Toushiro was following her. Maybe she could get him to loosen up tonight after all.
Ha I love doing that drink thing to people. It's hilarious, especially when they're drinking from bottles. And of course Rangiku would have thrown a part to celebrate her finished week of work, even though she doesn't if she's won yet.
Next time we'll deal with where Toushiro went missing for the entire day. Hmm Rangiku is really growing on him, don't you think?
Review please ^^
-Mymomomo