Hana had made successful contact with Kaminari on many occasions lately. Reaching her through meditation hadn't worked before, but there was no guarantee that it would never work for her. She sat in the center of her room, on the floor, Kaminari laying across her lap.
It seemed like only a few moments, but before she knew it she was waking up, sprawled out on the floor. Sleeping heavily.
What time is it? She wondered remembering her afternoon appointment to have tea with her captain. She rushed out of her room heading for the showers.
She took a two minute shower, that felt really good, and practically jumped into her clothes, her hair dripping still as she ran a brush through it. She almost ran towards the common room, and skidded to a stop when she made it there.
Her captain was waiting patiently along with Hisagi. Hana hadn't expected him to be there, and was even more pleased with herself for having showered before coming. She quickly sat down at the empty place setting and muttered an apology.
"Are you alright?" Ukitake asked as he sipped from his cup.
"Yeah," Hana said shifting under his gaze, "just a little behind today."
Someone had opened the doors to the walkway outside and the sun shone brightly inside. Hana didn't enjoy the sun as much as most of the people in Soul Society seemed to, she was sure that it had something to do with Kaminari. Even so, the warmth that flowed into the room felt good on her damp skin.
"How are you enjoying your vacation?" he asked her after a moment of silence, "being able to relax and enjoy yourself."
"Honestly," Hana paused, do I really want to be honest about this? "I hate it. I'm going nuts. I just want to go somewhere, do something. Train. Something. Anything."
Hisagi stifled his smile.
She caught herself scowling at him, she silently reprimanded herself, "how about you, Lieutenant Hisagi? How are your wounds healing?"
"They're fine," he said, "I've been able to return to my normal duties. I've returned to the Academy, and my squad."
Hana closed her mouth quickly, clamping her eyes shut as well. She breathed deeply.
"It will be over before you know it, Hana," Ukitake said touching her shoulder, "Captain Unohana is just worried about your well-being is all. She thinks that the constant rotation of injury and healing is unhealthy for you. And I'm inclined to agree."
Hana sipped at the tea, it was lukewarm and she felt bad for running behind. She felt more stressed with nothing to do, then she did when she had things going on. Training felt like a relaxation to her and not training stressed her. The idleness of it all was driving her nuts.
A drop of water from her hair landed on the table and she tucked her loose wavy strands behind her ear, wiping the table off.
"Just take it one day at a time," Hisagi told her, "by the time it's over you won't even realize it."
She looked up at him, she wasn't really mad at him, she was jealous and bored. And if she had better reading material she might be able to stand the stay longer.
Afternoon tea didn't last too much longer, and very little was said as they looked out over the yard and the pond. The company actually made it feel a little better and Hana's nerves calmed a little.
But before long, Ukitake had to leave, there were other things he needed to do before the end of the day.
Hana and Hisagi in silence for some time, it was a nice silence though, and Hana was beginning to warm up to having someone to share in the nothing she was allowed to do.
"I brought you a few books," he said looking at the selection in the corner, "I thought you might need something to read."
"Thanks," she said eagerly taking them, "I have that book on kido and then these. And these aren't at great." She indicated the corner of books, looking down at the books in her hands. One was on meditation methods, another was on kido, others ranged in topic, one was even a novel, and she looked at him suspiciously after reading the title. She set them down on the floor between them.
"Don't worry about it," he said leaning back on his palms, "just hang in there, I kinda like you the way you are. You know, only a little crazy."
She glared at him playfully, trying not to smile. It felt good to talk to someone, relaxing wasn't as hard if you're relaxing with someone. "So, does it feel good to have everything back to normal?"
"Eh," he tilted his head back and forth a little, "it's not bad. But it might be more interesting if I had some crazy human following me around."
"Excuse me?" she scolded still playing around.
"I'm just kidding," he said, "but it is strange to not have you around when I'm trying to work."
"Sorry, I can't be there to annoy you," she said with amused sarcasm, "I've been busy doing nothing."
"You want to walk for a bit?" he asked standing up, he held his hand out to her, "we'll stay around here, so you don't get in trouble, but you look like you could use some fresh air."
She took his hand and he practically yanked her to her feet. After gathering the books up they made their way to the deck and walked quietly outside. The common room was on the second floor of the main hall for the Thirteenth Squad. The higher levels showed a longer view and they slowly made their way up to the fourth floor, walking quietly or talking about something random.
"Hey, you think we could make a stop so I could put these in my room?" she asked indicating the books, "they're getting kind of heavy."
"You want me to carry them?" he offered.
"No, it's okay," she said feeling like a wimp, "I just want to drop them off."
"Lead the way," he said smiling.
…
"Renji!" Matsumoto said entering into his tiny office, her voice was bubbly and excited, "Renji?"
She looked around at the empty office, he wasn't there. She checked to make sure she wasn't hiding under the desk and upon finding he was not, sat in his chair, propping her feet up on the desk.
She began to sort through papers on his desk and after about twenty minutes of nosiness she heard footsteps approaching.
"Ra-Rangiku?" Abarai asked surprised to see her sitting in his chair when there was a perfectly good sofa nearby, "what are you doing here?"
"I came to see if you were busy later," she smiled brightly.
"I don't think so," he said, "something going on?"
"Well, poor Hana is going out of her mind. She's all alone in the Thirteenth Squad building with nothing to do, I thought we could have a small get together and get her back to normal."
Abarai looked sold, he hadn't been able to go see her since returning from the real world. There had been so many things he had to take care of after the long excursion, that he'd been unable to do any celebrating. And with the weekend coming, this was the perfect opportunity.
After demanding a promise of attendance, Matsumoto left satisfied. She made her way quickly to see Hisagi. After two hours of waiting she almost forgot what she'd come for, and finally decided she'd have to come back for him at a later time. She had too many things to do before then.
