Rukia fussed over the tie of her obi as she secured her zanpakuto to her waist. She'd overslept again, something that had become a habit since getting back from the world of the living. The barracks were just as loud as Ichigo and Isshin's snores so Rukia had very little problem sleeping through the noise, but it didn't make her look like a capable seated office.
She had been training harder and harder, trying to push herself since showcasing her shikai to her captain and now she was determined to make seated officer before the end of the month. Rukia wouldn't be able to do that, however, if she kept sleeping in and missing her training sessions.
'Third seat Kiyone,' Rukia said as she slipped onto the floor in dogeza outside Kiyone's living quarters.
'Stop being so formal,' the door was slid open and a bleary eyed Kiyone was gazing down at Rukia, yawning widely and covering her mouth with a hand. 'We spoke about this.'
'But I was late again,' Rukia sighed. She'd become very fond of Kiyone but it had taken her much convincing to call the third seat by her first name. Since she'd been assigned as Kiyone's assistant, Rukia had been training exclusively with her. Kiyone often joked that Rukia could easily overpower her, and Rukia assumed it was just the third seat being friendly, but the more they trained the more Rukia found herself pulling back her own power.
'We're not training today,' Kiyone grumbled leaving the door open and waving Rukia inside with a hand. The seated officer living spaces were generally one room and a bathroom, very small and compact but they offered everything a soul needed, including privacy.
'We're not?' Rukia asked, her voice quirking up at the end in question.
'No, if you're going to become a seated officer there's so much more to the job than training,' Kiyone smiled and then nodded her head to the small desk in the corner of her room where a large stack of paperwork sat. The papers had been sprawled across the desk and the candle beside it had almost burned down to the bracket that held it, indicating that Kiyone had been working late into the night.
'Of course,' Rukia bowed her head. She knew that any seated officer had to help with paperwork. Given the condition of their captain's health, Rukia understood that more paperwork fell on his seated officers since he had yet to replace his lieutenant.
The constant lack of a lieutenant in the thirteenth had been a topic of hot debate among many souls. Rukia was sure that her captain had good reason for withholding, vowing never to question him on it.
'Actually there was a piece of paperwork that came through exclusively for you,' Kiyone mumbled as she put a fresh pot of water over the burnt out fire and poked it awake.
'For me?' Rukia asked, dumbfounded as she blinked at the girl. Kiyone nodded and then pointed to the group of scrolls sitting beside her futon. Rukia made her way over, looking across the names, Kiyone had been sorting them into piles, most of them addressed personally to captain Ukitake. One stood out, not just because it was addressed to her, but because the seal was a standard of the Gotei thirteenth instead of a family clan crescent or division seal. Rukia blinked at her name, not recognising the writing and picked it up.
The only person who frequently wrote to her was her brother, but this letter wasn't from him.
'It's addressed to be opened on the 14th,' Rukia said, curiosity piquing as she broke the seal and unravelled the letter to read. Her eyes swept across the page, growing rounder with each word she read, her face growing hotter.
'What is it?' Kiyone asked, and Rukia heard the tinkle of porcelain as the cups were placed down on a low wooden table to her right.
'Nothing,' Rukia said, hastily stuffing the letter into the inside of her shihakusho.
'Rukia,' Kiyone's voice was tinged with amusement and Rukia kept her gaze on the pile of scrolls she'd been looking through a moment before, willing her face to cool down. 'Why are you blushing?'
'No reason, someone playing a prank, probably Ichigo,' Rukia hastened to throw the third seat off but it was too late. Kiyone leapt across the table and after an undignified yelp, had Rukia pinned to the floor and pulled the scroll from the inside of her uniform. Rukia had been unprepared for the attack and tried to scramble to get the letter back, but by the time she did, Kiyone had seen enough to know what was going on.
'It's a valentine's day letter,' she'd squealed, 'I RECOGNISE THIS WRITING!'
Expecting Kiyone to be quiet was like expecting Ichigo not to rush into a battle headfirst. Rukia was too shocked by the woman's second statement that it threw off her hush and she blinked stupidly at her.
'Wait, you do?'
'YES!' Kiyone scrambled across the table again, this time Rukia had to catch the tray to stop the tea flying over the floor. Kiyone got to her desk and flicked through paper after paper, muttering to herself as she did so. Once the cups were balanced again, Rukia moved over toward Kiyone and the girl finally extracted a piece of paper from the pile. 'Here it is!'
With a smirk that stretched her whole face, she handed the report over to Rukia. Taking it, Rukia let her eyes travel down the page, the handwriting was indeed identical, Rukia thought, as she compared it with the letter that she now held in her other hand.
'It's his writing,' Kiyone chuckled, 'what happened between you two?'
It took Rukia a moment to work out who it was, her eyes finally getting to the bottom of the page after critical evaluation of each character.
Her heart skipped a beat.
The report had been written by Captain Hitsugaya.
'Nothing,' Rukia said, feeling her face heat up, 'we've barely spoken.'
'You were on that mission in the world of the living together though weren't you? Did nothing happen?' Kiyone pressed, her tone similar to the tone Rangiku used when she wished to extract gossip.
'No,' despite what she was saying being true, Rukia could still feel her face growing hot with embarrassment.
She hadn't even thought of Captain Hitsugaya that way, she hadn't thought he was even paying her any attention at all in the world of the living. Rukia groaned internally, she'd done so many embarrassing things in front of him, she'd gotten pretty badly wounded, she'd beaten Ichigo in front of him and been loud and rambunctious. What part of any behaviour she had displayed could he possibly have found attractive?
'He obviously saw something he liked,' Kiyone chuckled finally settling to sip her tea.
'I still think it's a prank,' Rukia shook her head.
'Why?' Kiyone frowned.
'He'd sealed this scroll with the seal of the tenth division,' Rukia nodded to the report that Kiyone had given her, where half the seal could still be seen, but clear as day was the symbol of a daffodil. 'This one he sealed with the standard Gotei thirteen? Why wouldn't he use his own?'
'Maybe because he doesn't want it to be so official,' Kiyone winked at her, 'if it's the tenth, then it's for work right?'
'Isn't the Gotei thirteen still work though?' Rukia frowned, 'I'm still convinced this is a prank.'
'What if it's not though,' Kiyone said seriously, leaning across the table, 'what if it's real, are you seriously going to stand him up?'
Rukia's heart twisted in her chest. The letter asked her to meet him under one of the cherry blossoms of the thirteenth training grounds of the evening of the 14th February.
'Do you find him attractive?' Kiyone pressed and Rukia floundered.
'We shouldn't be speaking about a captain like that,' she retorted, mostly to buy herself thinking time. Rukia had never thought of captain Hitsugaya as anything more than just a captain.
'You two have a lot in common,' Kiyone shrugged, finishing her tea. Rukia picked up the cup that had been intended for her, feeling rude for not having done so already, and began to drink.
'Do we?'
'You both wield ice type zapakuto, you're both really strong, you're both friends with Kurosaki, Ichigo, you both enjoy to read, you both hate getting drunk, you both love winter sports-'
'How do you know so much about him?' Rukia asked, her mouth falling.
Kiyone grinned at her, 'Rangiku is a fountain of knowledge on her captain, sometimes I listen, and sometimes I don't.'
'Yes, well,' Rukia cleared her throat, the heat still radiating from her cheeks, 'how do we know this wasn't done by Rangiku?'
'Rangiku has a lot going on,' Kiyone frowned and Rukia flinched. She'd forgotten about Ichimaru's tribunal.
The two ladies sat in companionable silence as they digested the situation. Rukia could feel Kiyone's eyes on her face as she studied her, and Rukia thought about how this could impact their working relationship if she decided to take a leap of faith.
'So what will you do?' Kiyone asked.
Rukia sighed and glanced back down at the two letters with identical handwriting, thinking hard. Whatever she did, she knew she couldn't just stand him up.
