Hello my lovelies,
I present to you an olden days Squad Ten fic! It will be a collection of moments from way back when Isshin, Rangiku and Toshiro worked together. These will be uploaded in unchronological order, and will contain plenty of family fluff, humour, hurt/comfort, drama, maybe slight angst.
It is, for the most part, canon compliant – but you'll notice some obvious changes I've made to satisfy my papa bear!Isshin needs.
Cover art by Ammsterdamn – check him out on DeviantArt!
Arigato~
…
Dad
What could be more embarrassing than accidentally calling your captain 'Dad'?
Accidentally calling him 'Dad' in front of the entire squad, that's what.
Toshiro pouted his lip and brought his knees up to his chest, grateful that at least no one could see him sulking about it now. He was a kid but gods forbid he acted like it.
He sat on the rooftop of the officer dorms – the tallest building inside the barracks. It was the middle of the day and the sun was unpleasantly beating down on him but Toshiro couldn't hide anywhere else, and he needed a quiet place to ponder how he was ever going to face anyone again.
They had all laughed.
It had been during the weekly Friday morning briefing. The meeting was attended by all available squad members. It was a chance for their captain to catch up with all the teams and make sure everyone had completed their tasks for the week, and that they knew what they were to complete in the approaching week. It was an opportunity for the squad to come together for the final push of the working week.
It started fine, nothing out of the ordinary. Captain Shiba and Lieutenant Matsumoto stood above everyone on the low-rise stage in the barrack's central quadrant. Toshiro stood in the front row of the crowd with the other seat officers, and behind them the unseated officers strained their hearing to listen to what was being said. Toshiro was the squad's third seat so thankfully he had front row rights, especially since he was about half the height of everyone else.
Fourth Seat Takeo updated them on his progress with the new drills being taught to the unseated officers. Fifth Seat Mei explained how the patrol officers were getting on in their World of the Living jurisdictions. Sixth Seat Kubo lied about how much of Toshiro's completed paperwork he had delivered to the other divisions (typical). Other seated officers explained how their recent troop visits to the Rukongai had gone. Nothing particularly interesting was mentioned.
"Lastly, we need to finalise the student recruitment before the Spiritual Arts Academy graduation in two weeks," Isshin read off his clipboard agenda. Toshiro had made that clipboard for him as well as the carefully written agenda, as before that Isshin was writing notes on his hand and hoping they weren't smudged too much by the time he got to the briefing. "How are we with that one?"
Isshin glanced down at the seated officers, looking amongst them for an answer. Obviously he had forgotten who he assigned that task to.
"It's finished, Sir," Toshiro called up to him. "I put it on your desk this morning for your review."
"Oh good boy," Isshin flashed him a smile that made Toshiro's shoulders straighten. "When was that due again?"
"Next Friday," Rangiku supplied, with an eye roll.
Toshiro shot her a glare, and she responded by sticking her tongue out at him.
Some responsible Lieutenant, she was! How was she the same woman that had saved his life in the Rukongai? Rangiku was like an older sister – she was so annoying, though deep down Toshiro loved her (albeit deep, deep down).
Isshin didn't seem surprised at this news, but he was still impressed.
He beamed at Toshiro proudly, "Well done, Kid!"
"Thanks, Dad," Toshiro had replied automatically.
Suddenly the squad froze. The birds in the sky seemed to freeze too, and everyone turned to look at him.
Toshiro frowned and shifted uncomfortably, feeling hundreds of eyes turn to him.
"Why is everyone staring?" he asked no one in particular. They were all listening.
"You called Captain Shiba 'Dad'," Takeo, the squad's fourth seat and probably the only soldier that was always nice to Toshiro, answered quietly.
"No I didn't," Toshiro argued immediately, flushing bright red. "I said 'Thanks, Sir'."
"You said 'Thanks, Dad'," Kubo, the sixth seat, corrected with a smirk.
Toshiro's face was on fire. As much as he wanted to continue to deny it, he knew he had said 'Dad' the moment Takeo informed him of the fact. How could be so stupid?! How did he let that one slip out?
Of course, he didn't actually think Isshin was his father, but… well, every time the captain beamed at him with pride, Toshiro wanted him to be.
It was so silly.
"Yeah you did!" a voice called from the back of the crowd – an unruly unseated officer. "We all heard you."
There were some chuckles then and Toshiro looked down at his feet. This was so humiliating!
"Toshiro, do you see me as father figure?" Isshin asked brightly, his voice playful.
"No, of course not," Toshiro barely kept his annoyed tone at bay. "I see you as a… a-a bother figure… because you're always bothering me. Sir. And it's 'Hitsugaya'. Sir."
"Hey!" that same voice from the back called. "Show your father some respect!"
More laughter, this time far louder.
"I didn't call him 'Dad'!" Toshiro turned around and shouted back at the voice.
He was losing his cool fast – like Toshiro needed another reason to be made fun of in a division where he was already the youngest and smallest by miles. They hated him. They said he was cold, and childish, and too immature to be in a third seat's position just because he was powerful and good at paperwork.
"No, no, Kid," Isshin chuckled, smiling playfully when Toshiro looked back at him. "I take it as a compliment."
Toshiro's face was probably redder than Lieutenant Abarai's hair by now. He wanted so badly to flash step away.
"Don't worry about it, Toshiro!" Rangiku smirked cheekily from up on the stage. "I call Captain Ichimaru 'Daddy' all the time."
More laughter, and Isshin shot her a warning look.
"He's not old enough for that," Isshin hissed at her. "When he calls me 'Daddy' it doesn't mean the same thing."
"I didn't call you 'Daddy'!" Toshiro shouted, forgetting for a moment that these two were his bosses. "I've never called you that."
Of course these two would team up against him. Rangiku was wild – nothing was too inappropriate for her to mention – and Isshin was charismatic, charming his squad into more laughter and grins. Together they could make the squad feel playful and at ease, all the while inspiring devotion from their soldiers.
It worked on everyone but Toshiro.
"But you did say 'Dad'," Kubo offered unhelpfully.
"You shhh," Toshiro hissed at him. "You've done nothing but lie all morning."
Isshin threw the sixth seat an interested glance and Toshiro raised a challenging eyebrow at the man. Discreetly crossing his fingers, Toshiro prayed this would be the distraction everyone needed to forget he had just called the captain 'Dad'. He didn't care who he threw under the bus at this point.
"Alright, I lied about the paperwork," Kubo held his hands up in defence, chuckling, "but I'm not lying about you calling the captain 'Dad'."
"I told you he lies!" Toshiro turned to look pointedly at Isshin. This was not the first time they'd had this discussion.
"I believe you…" Isshin's disappointed eyes left Kubo to meet Toshiro's. Hopeful teal beamed up at proud brown, "Son."
Toshiro deflated as more laughter erupted in the quadrangle. This was definitely the most embarrassing moment of his afterlife.
He stared at his shoes, face on fire and eyes stinging. He refused to cry though. He refused to give the squad what they wanted. He wasn't a child. He was a third seat, damn it!
In his peripheral vision, Toshiro saw Isshin gesture to their audience to shush.
Suddenly the man was popping into Toshiro's personal space and Toshiro barely withheld the glare as the man crouched in front of him, determined to see his face.
"You okay?" Isshin asked, hand squeezing Toshiro's shoulder encouragingly.
Toshiro shook it off. "I'm fine… Captain."
"Do you want to talk about it later?" Isshin offered. "Maybe over a game of Spinning Tops?"
Toshiro swallowed. He loved playing Spinning Tops with Isshin, but he didn't like talking. He also didn't like the Squad knowing he played silly childish games.
He shook his head and turned his stare back to his feet. Isshin regarded him for a moment before he sighed and stood back up to full height. Toshiro felt him move away and hop back on the stage.
"Alright, everyone back to work," he called loudly. "Dismissed!"
Toshiro flash stepped away so quickly, he could probably have broken the Soul Reaper speed record.
That was how he had found himself on top of the officer dorms roof. He wanted to curl up in his bunk and cry into a pillow, but the dorms were never empty. Off-duty officers would be in there sleeping, reading, mucking around. He didn't need them to see him more humiliated than they already had that morning.
Thankfully Toshiro had completed all his paperwork for the week so hopefully he wouldn't get in too much trouble for not heading into the office after the briefing.
Toshiro had no idea how he was going to face anyone later, but hopefully whatever drunken scandal their lieutenant caused this weekend would be enough to distract the squad for a while.
Until then, Toshiro just needed a moment's peace to get his emotions back in check and some of the heat out of his cheeks.
"Hey, Kid," Isshin's voice called from behind him.
A moment's peace ruined.
Toshiro ignored him. Any other captain would have reprimanded him for that, but luckily Isshin wasn't any other captain.
Unfazed by the cold reception, Isshin ambled over to Toshiro and groaned as he lowered himself to sit on the tiled roof. It wasn't exactly comfortable up here, but no one could see them and that's what Toshiro liked about it.
He also liked it for its view of the stars at night, though the roof of Isshin's office was actually more comfortable for a long night of star gazing.
"How are you feeling?" Isshin asked once he was seated.
"Fine," Toshiro lied.
"Are you coming back to work today?"
"I finished all my work for today."
"Then are you coming to play Spinning Tops with me?"
"No."
"Chess?"
"No."
"A card game?"
"No."
"How about to tease Rangiku?"
Toshiro hesitated on that one. He did enjoy helping his captain gang up on their lieutenant, and after this morning, Rangiku probably deserved it.
A slight smirk formed at the thought and Isshin chuckled and poked his cheek gently.
"There's that smile," he sighed happily.
The smirk quickly vanished and Toshiro shot him a glare, to which Isshin laughed loudly.
"Come on, Kid," Isshin nudged him. "Let's go back to the office, it's almost lunch time anyway."
Toshiro swallowed and shook his head; he didn't want to see anyone that wasn't Isshin or Rangiku.
"They're going to laugh at me," he explained pitifully when Isshin refused to go anywhere without him.
"I won't let them," Isshin threw an arm around Toshiro's shoulders and brought him closer. "They'll get over it by this afternoon."
"How do you know?" Toshiro asked, his voice muffled now that he had turned to bury his face in Isshin's haori.
Isshin sighed and rubbed Toshiro's back gently.
It was hard, when they had moments like these, for Toshiro to not think of Isshin as a parent. The man had welcomed him into his family, had enrolled him into the Academy and every Thursday night, Toshiro accompanied Isshin back to his family home for their weekly 'family dinner', not to mention the fact that Isshin had been the one to eventually name him.
"When I was at the academy, there was this nasty old bat who taught Seireitei History…" Isshin began.
"Mrs Ito?" Toshiro asked, removing his face from the white folds of the haori and frowning up at his captain.
"Still there, is she?" Isshin raised an eyebrow at Toshiro. "She's got to be about a million years old now."
Toshiro shrugged. "She was there when I went through the academy. She liked me."
"All your teachers liked you," Isshin commented dryly. "You actually did your homework."
"They told us to?"
"Anyway," Isshin ignored that. "One day, I accidentally called Mrs Ito 'Mum' and the whole class laughed. Ito, the old hag, called me out in front of everyone about it."
Toshiro frowned deeply at that, trying to imagine a younger version of his captain calling the meanest teacher in the academy 'mum' when his real mother was the loveliest woman in existence.
"Just habit from using the word so much," Isshin shrugged, answering Toshiro's unspoken question, "but the point is, my classmates forgot about it very quickly. Aizen tripped over walking out of the classroom and suddenly everyone thought that was funnier."
"That's awful," Toshiro chuckled, imaging Captain Aizen stumbling out of a classroom to the sounds of laughter.
"Then why are you smiling?" Isshin teased and Toshiro rolled his eyes and shrugged.
He didn't hate Aizen, but he hated how Momo fawned over him. It was more annoying than anything else, so it was even worse that the man was so humble and nice and just damn perfect. The idea of him tripping was oddly satisfying, and that probably made Toshiro a bad person.
"I promise you," Isshin grinned, standing up and holding a hand out to Toshiro. "By lunchtime today, no one will remember the briefing this morning. They'll have something else to laugh at by then."
Toshiro knew that Isshin couldn't actually promise that, what with lunchtime being in three minutes time, but knowing he had his back made him feel better. The third seat took the outstretched hand and allowed Isshin to lift him up. Together, they climbed down from the roof and headed back to the office.
They were walking past the division canteen, that was full of seated and unseated offices alike on the start of their lunchbreaks, when out of the blue, Isshin tripped over.
He was okay, but he landed face first on the dirty path.
Again, the squad erupted in laughter, and Isshin winked at Toshiro as the third seat helped him stand.
"I promised you, didn't I?" Isshin murmured quietly, only for him to hear. "Son."
"Thanks," Toshiro flushed, but he was happier about it now. "Dad."
Parent or not, Isshin was his family in this afterlife, and so was Rangiku. They were his afterfamily.
…
Afterfamily
(n). The family one has in their afterlife; family after death.
(Disclaimer – not a real word, not a real definition)
Also points to people who have seen Brooklyn Nine-Nine and noticed the quote references.