'Matsumoto! What do you think you're doing!' Hitsugaya exclaimed as he was forced into the corridor by his cheerful lieutenant, the door swiftly being kicked close behind them.

'What does it look like I'm doing?' she asked as she continued to drag him away from the living-room. He let his eyelids lower with annoyance as he attempted to yank his arm away and only succeeded in tripping and almost falling on the ground. Matsumoto didn't seem to mind, though, for she was so very aware of the fact that he didn't like the treatment at all. But did that fact bother her at all? I say no. She says no, too.

Hitsugaya let out a small gasp as he suddenly found himself trapped between the wall and Matsumoto, his back pressed against the cold solid surface while his fukutaicho's hands caught a firm hold on his shoulders.

'Now, taicho' she begun, giving him an incredibly serious look 'I need you not to move much. Just stay still and try not to hit, punch or kick me. Oh! And screaming wouldn't be welcomed with opened arms, either.'

'Screaming?' Toushiro repeated weakly and instinctively shrank against the wall as she leaned forward, her face just inches away from his.

'Don't worry, it'll be over very quickly.' She promised, but he couldn't help it but gulp rather audibly as he spotted the small smirk that was forming on her lips…

'M-matsumoto…?' he uttered, his eyes widening as she began to close the gap between them.

Meanwhile:

'He's awfully quiet…' Kyouraku pointed out, raising an eyebrow 'Do you think she could've knocked him out to fulfill the dare?'

'I sincerely hope she chose not to be so extreme.' Nanao murmured, fixing the position of her glasses absently as she glanced in the door's direction 'I can't be sure, however, for Rangiku could be quite unpredictable sometimes… Especially when it comes to her captain.'

Ichigo and Ishida exchanged worried looks, while Kyouraku just sighed and shook his head broken-hearted:

'I wish my fukutaicho would be a little unpredictable sometimes…' he groaned. In respond, Nanao slowly turned her head to him and eyed him with her brow indifferently raised.

'I hope you won't be too precise in public, now will you?' she asked in a way that made a few of the shinigami around them to pull back and swallow with some difficultly. In contrast to those individuals, Kyouraku gave her a calm amused smile, his hand reaching for the brim of his hat.

'Well, if that's not according to your desires, we could always discuss that in a more private place, my dear.' He cooed. There was a pause, during which nobody dared to move or even breath, their gazes all locked on the dark-haired woman and her frigid face.

'I'd rather decline, Captain.' She finally replied 'But thank you for the offer, nevertheless.' The edge of her lips flinched almost unnoticeably as if she was about to smile, but stopped herself just in time. This reaction, however, didn't remain unheeded by her taicho and he could help it but respond to it with a smirk.

'Any time. Inform me if you change your decision.' Kyouraku said, smirk growing even bigger before he turned his attention back to the others and opened his mouth to say something to them. However, he most shamelessly was prevented to for at that point the door burst open soundly, revealing a very satisfied-looking Matsumoto, with suspiciously large grin on her face.

'Done!' she announced happily, reaching to fix the head-cloth with the dinosaurs before putting her hands on her hips triumphantly. The others exchanged puzzled glances.

'Well… Where's he then?' Rukia finally asked, raising a quizzing brow. Matsumoto waved her hand dismissively.

'He's over here. He's just being shy.' She explained, nodding a few times to support her statement. At that point Momo, who'd been staying quiet and uninterfereful so far, frowned, before spatting somewhat viciously:

'And what is he being so shy about?'

Matsumoto's large grin half-faded at the harsh way the question was asked and she eyed Hinamori with a hint of annoyance in her pale-blue eyes.

'Just because of the dare I had to accomplish.' The strawberry-haired woman told her slightly tilting her head to a side. Useless explanation, no doubt, but she wasn't sure if she had to give a too detailed one considering the circumstances. The little peach was a touchy person. And she was mad about something. So telling her what her favourite Shiro-chan had just experience might as well not be the greatest idea ever.

'Really?' the younger girl asked, folding her hands in front of her chest and raising both brows 'And what was that dare, huh?'

Matsumoto's grin completely vanished as she looked to her right with a bit of a concern in her eyes. A sigh sounded from somewhere in the corridor and after a short pause, Hitsugaya walked into the room, face bright red and palm clapped on the side of his neck.

'Ah!' Yachiro exclaimed, happily clapping her hands together 'There he is! Show me, show me! I wanna see if Booby has accomplished my dare strictly!'

Hitsugaya flexed his fingers reluctantly, eyes drifting to Matsumoto for a second and causing his cheeks to redden even more.

'Well…' he sighed with defeat.

Everybody in the room craned their necks in curiosity as he slowly removed the hand that was blocking their view.

'What the…' Hinamori begun, eyes widening as she sought the three red spots on her childhood friend's tender pale flesh 'What kind of dare is that?'

'She had to give him three hickies.' Ichigo explained unnecessarily. Hinamori shot him a very indistinctive for her personality glare, before shifting her gaze to Hitsugaya. There was a very awkward pause, during which Toushiro's blush only became redder, then Momo shook her head disapprovingly, gathered her stuff and before anyone could stop her, rushed out of the room.

'Momo, wait!' Hitsugaya yelled as he realized a bit too late that she had just stormed out. And what seemed to be less than a second later, he was also gone.

The room went quiet for a couple of seconds before Kyouraku's voice finally broke the silence:

'Well, let's leave the kids deal with their feelings and hope our little Captain will be back before his ice reiatsu's effect wears off and in the meanwhile, let's keep it up with the game. Rangiku, it's your turn.'

Matsumoto, who was staring distractedly after her taicho and his childhoodfriend, reluctantly turned her attention to the anticipating players:

'Well, Zaraki, truth or dare?' she questioned him without giving it much thinking. The giant captain grinned maniacally, a few bells accompanying his low chuckle with their gentle ringing as he bellowed:

'Dare!'

'The lick the ear of the player opposite of you. I'll be back in a few minutes. Continue without me.' She blurted without stopping for a breath and dashed out of the house in the direction Hitsugaya had disappeared, leaving a very confused bunch of shinigami staring after her. A couple of moments later, Zaraki finally decided he could as well do as he was said and turned his attention to the player opposite of himself.

His eyes widened.

'Ishida?' he exclaimed, while the Quincy himself paled dangerously at the realization of their terrible luck that evening.

A few half-muffled chuckles sounded at the background.

Meanwhile:

'I honestly don't understand what you are being so angry about!' Hitsugaya exclaimed as he continued walking after the very exasperated Hinamori Momo 'It was just a dare! Besides, does it even make a difference to you whether it's a dare or not?'

'Shut up!' she shouted without looking back.

'Shut up? Well, if isn't that mature!' Hitsugaya exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

'What do you know about maturity? And yeah, SHUT THE HELL UP! You don't want to listen to me, so neither do I! GO away!' Hinamori yelled, making the boy roll his eyes with annoyance.

'I do know MUCH about maturity unlike some people who wouldn't stop and GIVE A PROPER EXPLANATION TO THEIR ACTIONS!' he found himself also yelling.

Halting at an instant, Hinamori turned around abruptly to face him.

'Think, boy genius!' she hissed, catching him completely off guard 'You and that lieutenant of yours!'

'Matsumoto?' he questioned weakly.

'Yes! Can't you see?'

'Uh…'

'CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT SHE'S DOING?!'

'Um…'

'Exactly!'

'Wh-wha-…?'

'She's doing it so well that you CAN'T SEE!'

'See what?'

'What she's doing! She doing… She's doing everything to get under you skin!'

'I don't get it…'

'See?? She even destroys your brain cells! You can't think straight!'

'My brain cells?'

Is there something wrong with me or does that girl make no sense at all?

'I think it's the second…' Hitsugaya murmured, which only made Momo thrust her face into his, her expression pure suspiciousness.

'What was that?' she asked.

'Nothing. Keep going.' He replied, sweatdropping.

'What I mean to say is…' Hinamori continued, after retrieving and putting her hands on her hips 'Is that that woman is doing anything in her power to get to you and what's more important you are allowing her! She drags you here, on a holiday where it'd be mainly she and you, she gets in a dare where she gets to give you love bites and God know what else she does that I don't know about!'

Pause.

'Is that bad?' Hitsugaya asked, blinking. Hinamori threw her hands in the air with exasperation.

'YES!!'

Uh… no? Can I knock her out now? Pretty please?

'No.' Hitsugaya answered his zanpakuto, making sure not to move his lips much as he watched Hinamori continue to try to convince him of something he wasn't even listening to.

Puh-lease?

'No.'

But she's gone hysterical!

'Girls do that.'

Said the big pro.

'What's that supposed to mean?'

Nothing. I'm just fooling around.

'…Sure. Now shut up.'

Ok.

By the way…

'What?'

Here comes Matsumoto to the rescue! YAY! Go, oh, valiant lass! Armed with beauty and enormous assets! Gifted with magnificent courage and legs that…

'Shut the hell up, dammit!'

(acts heart-broken) You hurt my feelings! (sniff)

'Whatever.'

At that point Matsumoto finally approached them, looking somewhat puzzled and just a tiny bit annoyed.

'Come on, you two, what are you fighting about?' she asked, folding her arms 'Let's get inside and have fun with the others.'

Hinamori glared at her, then gave Hitsugaya a long intense look until he finally sighed with defeat and turned to Matsumoto rather reluctantly:

'I'm sorry, can we have a moment of privacy, please?' he asked carefully. Matsumoto frowned and rolled her eyes before retreating a few steps and leaning against the trunk of some tree, while waiting for them to deal with whatever kind of problem they had. Hitsugaya removed his eyes from his fukutaicho's rather irritated face to give Momo a quizzical look.

'Now calm down and explain to me what is bothering you so much.' He said, voice exceptionally soothing as he approached his friend and placed his hands on her shoulders. Hinamori took a couple of moments to cool down, lips pursed and body stiffen with anger.

'Well…First you tell me to shut up.' she finally began, looking down for a moment 'Why did you do that?'

Hitsugaya shot a glare to his sword.

'That wasn't meant to be for you.' He explained 'Hyourinmaru was buzzing in my head and I wanted him to stop it. I swear, Momo, that's what it was.'

But you did want to make her stop chattering like a imbecile, no? I just did you a favor, because you didn't have the guts to tell her that yourself. And what are you doing now? Ruining the fruits of my labor! So ungrateful…

'And you weren't listening to me, were you?' Hinamori continued, sulking 'You pretended to, but actually were spacing out constantly!'

That would be because of your boundlessly enthralling and wonderful personality!

'I'm a bit tired these days, that's all. Don't worry about it.' Hitsugaya assured her.

Right. Keep lying. It's still a mystery to me why you do it, but, oh, please, continue, it's such a fascinating sight to see you willingly doom yourself… Where's the popcorn?

'And!' Hinamori finished, scowling 'She is troubling me.'

'Who? Matsumoto? Yes, I understood that, but why do you think she's doing anything wrong?' Toushiro continued patiently.

Oh, please… Isn't it perfectly clear?

'But she's trying to get to you, Shiro-chan! She's trying to get to you!' Hinamori insisted 'She's with you all the time and she keeps finding ways to touch you and… and…'

Boy, can girls be jealous…

'That's just the way Matsumoto is!' Hitsugaya said, ignoring his zanpakuto 'Cheerful and likes to hug people and all. And just for the record, she's my lieutenant so it's sort of her duty to be with me most of the time.'

Right. Keep telling yourself that. But, OH! Ran and Shiro, sitting on the tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! Oh, yeah!

(Very unwelcomed for Hitsugaya kissing sounds)

'Yes, that's exactly how it is.' Hitsugaya emphasized, glancing hatefully at his weapon.

'Is your holiday also a time when you have to be with your fukutaicho?' Hinamori questioned, narrowing her eyes and folding her arms in front of her chest. Hitsugaya felt himself blush.

'Well…'

Hell yeah! Don't you know that they can do STUFF together when there is nobody and oh, YOU, around? Oh, yes, they can! So sod off!

… I asked where my popcorn was!

'So what if she invited me to spend some time with her?' He snapped, now taking the role of the one being attacked. Hinamori gave him the I-told-you-so look and shook her head. Hitsugaya's frown deepened.

'You are not acting yourself anymore, do you know that?' she pointed out 'She's changing you. And that's what worries me the most! And… And what's with this stupid head-cloth anyway? Why do you both wear it?' she reached to pull it off, but he pulled back just in time, his eyes widened with horror.

'Don't touch it, Hinamori! I swear, you'll be sorry!' he shouted, hands protectively holding on the sides of the garment as he stepped back. Momo blinked a couple of times with confusion, then narrowed her eyes.

'Oh, don't be such a baby! Give me this ridicules head-cloth!' she insisted making another attempt to catch a hold of it. Fortunately, Hitsugaya was faster and managed to get away in time. However, the refusal he demonstrated, made Hinamori grow irritated, persistent and determined. So that turned into a chase…

…Which Matsumoto followed in attempt to help her captain…

…And which ended up tragically in Orihime's house, where Momo finally jumped on Hitsugaya's back, tackled him to the floor just in front of the door-steps and pulled the head-cloth off…

… Drawn by the noise, everybody popped out of the living-room to see what was going on. And became witnesses to the following scene:

Matsumoto, horrified, stands at the door-steps of the opened door.

Few steps away there's juuban-tai taicho Hitsugaya Toushiro in all his glory, lying face down on the floor and moaning.

Hinamori – the cherry of the picture, is straddling her childhood friend's back and holding his head-cloth with one hand. Her face is, as it seems, one of pure confusion as she stares down at the bright pink mop of spiky hair that presents Hitsugaya's hair.

Wouldn't that be a merry sight!

I'VE GOT CHICKEN POX, PEOPLE! AT THE AGE OF 15! MERCY ME!... AND REVIEW!