Number: 14

Title: Occupational Hazard

Date: May 16, 2009 (oops, it's been a while hasn't it?)

Characters/Pairings: HitsuxMatsu of course, plus a itty bitty mention of ShunxNan

Summary: Working with Matsumoto is one big occupational hazard.

Word Count: 460

Dedication: TopazDrgaon (i meant to give the last one to you, but i just realized that i forgot to dedicate it at all)

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Hitsugaya knew that working in the Gotei 13 was hazardous.

For example, it was common knowledge that it was hazardous to work in the 12th Division because when Captain Kurotsuchi tended to blow things up when he was in a bad mood.

And it was equally hazardous to work in the 11th Division because Captain Zaraki tended to blow things up when he was in a good mood.

But Hitsugaya considered his own division to be one huge occupational hazard. In fact, he knew better than anybody else that even when compared to those other two divisions, his was the occupational hazard of all occupational hazards. His viewpoint could be summed up in one word: Matsumoto.

To start off with, he could never understand how somebody who was so graceful on the battlefield could be so clumsy. He supposed that her chest must be disrupting her center of gravity or something.

When his lieutenant was around, ink was spilled, important documents flew everywhere and Matsumoto's half of the paperwork tended to stack up into towers taller than he was, which had lead to several accidents. Not to mention all the times he had nearly suffocated in one of his lieutenant's hugs.

But then again, the short captain mused. Whenever—and this was occurring more and more frequently now—he arrived late to captain's meetings with his haori rumpled and his white hair disheveled, all he had to do was roll his eyes and say "Matsumoto" and the other captains would smile at the thought of the boisterous lieutenant's antics. Even General Yamamoto just nodded sagely and didn't say another word, while the boy-genius smirked inwardly.

In fact, the only one who seemed to guess the truth hidden behind the simple word was Captain Kyoraku. And the older man's leers were quelled by an icy glare that effectively promised that if he followed the path of his perverted—though technically correct—thoughts, he would be in for a world of pain that his precious Nanao-chan would not appreciate at all later.

No indeed. So Hitsugaya grinned to himself as he entered the office, neatly side-stepping the various piles around the room that were just screaming "Matsumoto-caused safety hazard". And his grin only increased as he saw a familiar figure snoozing gently on the couch, more papers strewn around her. And his grin grew so wide that it threatened to stay that way—which would be horrible for his image—as she woke up and saw him, a matching smile appearing on her face as her arm extended out to draw him closer.

Because even though he knew that even being in the same room as his lieutenant was hazardous, he also knew better than anybody else that working with an occupational hazard had its benefits.

0-0-0

yay, i'm not dead!

though it has been almost 2 months since i've last updated...yeah, um..sorry about that *grins sheepishly*

anyway i know this chapter was really random and i probably used the phrase 'occupational hazard' WAY too much.

but you forgive me, right?

review?

till next time (whenever that may be...)

-stormwolf527