WELL HEY!

STORY/RANT TIME: I was totally going to post this last night, but then this big storm hit, and I was without electricity for too long. My little town copped it hard apparently, because there were broken/uprooted trees everywhere, like all over the road and footpaths. Also the next day was bin day, so everyone's bins were on the side of the road at the time, and they all got tipped over by the wind and there was rubbish absolutely everywhere.. and since it was recycling week, there was also cans and bottles everywhere, it was ridiculous really. Anyhoo, we were without power for agesssss (probably only 24 hours but it felt much longer) and I had 1 hour of laptop battery life, no Wifi, no TV or anything like that and my phone was only on 30% all night. I was so bloody bored. I just sat there trying to read my book in the candlelight. The struggle was real, let me tell you. First world problems, I know, but they say Australia has five seasons; winter, summer, autumn, spring and fuckyou season. The last can strike at any time, which is how it went from being nearly 40 degrees to under 20 degrees within an hour yesterday (feel free to google Celsius to Fahrenheit, Americans.)

Well now that rant is over, please enjoy chapter 6! We are over half way now, kids!

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Chapter 6: Rangiku.

"Would someone care to explain just what is happening here?"

Rangiku was harshly withdrawn from her shocked daze.

She had slapped Renji.

Her captain had seen her slap Renji.

She prayed to whoever was listening that her captain had not been present for Renji's outburst. She could not bear to see the hurt look in her lovely little captain's eyes.

She turned to face him. Everyone did, but no one answered him. They were all too terrified to face the dragon's infamous wrath. His eyes were almost radiating cold they were that icy.

Suddenly Toshiro flash stepped beside her. He grabbed her arm, looked at Ichigo and growled, "Sort this out now," and with that they vanished.

Ichigo's room disappeared from her sight as she was dragged over countless rooftops by her captain's speedy shunpo.

Eventually they stopped, and Toshiro released his grip on her arm, muttering a soft apology for grabbing her so harshly. Rangiku took in the familiar surroundings of Orihime's rooftop as her captain took a seat on the cool, grey tiles and patted the spot next to him, indicating for her to sit. She could feel Orihime's odd spiritual pressure in the kitchen below; she was no doubt cooking up a storm. Oh, how she could go for some of that wonderful food right now.

She walked over to her captain slowly, trying to figure out how she was even going to begin to explain the events that transpired in Ichigo's room.

"Now, I didn't actually see it," Toshiro began as she took her seat beside him, "but I believe you hit Abarai just now, am I correct?"

Rangiku nodded slowly, not trusting her own voice.

"Why?"

He knew. He must have. He was talking to her with great care and gentleness. That only happened when he was really worried about her or when he understood her feelings. She was betting on the latter.

"He said something terrible," Rangiku responded shakily, considering each word carefully before she said it.

Toshiro didn't say anything in response; he just continued to stare up at the darkening sky.

"I'm really sorry, Captain," Rangiku blurted out, "I don't know what came over me. I just hit him without thinking. I just…I was just so mad."

Toshiro sighed deeply and turned to face her. She saw exactly what she was hoping not too see; the familiar look of hurt in his beautiful teal eyes. Well, 'hurt' was probably the wrong term; it was more of a hardened gaze that he used to cover up his unhappiness and it was something only she could recognise as his go-to look for emotional turmoil. She inhaled sharply. She hated seeing that look, and this was certainly not the first time she'd seen it.

She had seen it the day they first met, when a shopkeeper was rude to him for no reason. She had seen it on his first day in the division, when no one believed a child could graduate out of the academy straight into a seated position. She had seen it when he was made captain, when quite a few division members loudly declared that they wouldn't be ordered around by a 'little brat'. She smirked a little, thinking about how quickly he had been able to shut them up with the release of his powerful bankai, the sheer force of his spiritual pressure bringing many of them to their knees. The division had come to trust and respect him eventually, although he had to work hard at it for many years.

"It's okay, Matsumoto. I know why you did it," He replied, "You did exactly what you said you would do. You defended me."

"You heard what he said?"

"No. I didn't have to. It was written in your eyes…and in your furious spiritual pressure," He answered, and then added with a half-shrug, "Same as Kurosaki's."

Rangiku didn't know what to say. What could she say?

"You'll have to apologize to Abarai later though," He continued after she didn't reply, "He is still your friend."

"Friends don't insult your other friend…or your boyfriend, in Ichigo's case."

"Matsumoto, I couldn't care less what Abarai thinks about me. It's Kurosaki I'm concerned about," Toshiro responded, "I hate that I have caused problems amid him and his friends. I don't want him to have to choose between us."

Rangiku frowned, "But he would choose you."

"You don't know that," Toshiro stressed, "And even if he did, there would be underlying resentment at the loss of one of his good friends. No one can win in this situation."

Rangiku was thoughtful. It was true that Ichigo held his friends close to his heart; he'd do anything to protect them.

"Well, I'll talk to Renji when I've calmed down…and when he gets some sense beaten into him by Ichigo and Rukia," She announced, smiling a little at the thought of Renji getting beaten up by little Rukia Kuchki.

"I don't need you to fight my battles for me, Matsumoto," Her captain frowned, "I'm just going to have to prove myself to him over time, that's all. I'm sure he is just concerned for his friend."

"You shouldn't have to prove yourself, Captain."

Toshiro hummed in response as he closed his eyes. He pulled his knees to his chest and folded his arms on top of them to create a pillow for his head. He seemed way too relaxed, given the circumstances, but that's the way he coped with these sorts of things. Rangiku knew him long enough to know that this is how he reacted when he didn't know how else to respond; forever stoic was Toshiro Hitsugaya.

"You're my best friend, Sir," She whispered.

"And you mine, Matsumoto," He replied tiredly.

She grinned. He never admitted stuff like that, even though she already knew. He was a complete hard ass on the outside, but a big softie on the inside…kind of like a cat. She held back a giggle; her captain would not like to be compared with a human's domestic pet.

They sat in comfortable silence for nearly twenty minutes before two spiritual pressures came within range that the Tenth Division officers had recently become quite acquainted with. A little too acquainted, her captain might say.

"Oi! You two haven't even left for the meeting yet!" came Ikkaku's loud voice as he appeared beside them, "I told you we wouldn't be late, Yumi!"

"Well now, Captain, you must know how unbeautiful tardiness can be," Yumichika's slightly-feminine voice drifted teasingly through the night air from behind them, "We should get a move on, Sir."

"Relax, you two," Rangiku ordered playfully, "We have temporarily…uh, postponed the meeting until…until further notice."

"Tomorrow morning," her captain confirmed, "It's the weekend, Kurosaki and Kuchki won't have school."

"YES!" Ikkaku cheered loudly, "Sorry, but we are Eleventh Squad members, meetings are not our thing."

"We know," Rangiku and Toshiro replied in unison with identical deadpan expressions.

"Hey, what are you guys doing tonight?" Ikkaku continued his celebration, "Let's eat!"

Ikkaku went on to enlighten them on the big discovery that they had made the previous night; take-out delivery.

"You just call them up on these phone things," He explained, holding up his soul phone and wagging it in front of their faces, "Place your order, and then 20 minutes later, BAM! It's at the front door, freshly made and piping hot! Isn't that incredible?!"

Rangiku laughed whole heartedly and her captain gave one of his rare half-smiles. Trust the idiocy of Eleventh Division members to turn that frown around; he always found humour in those fools. Rangiku was pretty sure Zaraki's lunacy and accompanying ability to always ask stupid questions was the only thing that kept her captain awake during those long captain's meetings, although he would argue that it was his own complete professionalism.

As the four of them stood up, planning to go inside and test this whole 'delivery' thing, the sky suddenly ripped opened; a pitch black tear they knew all too well.

Four arrancars stepped out of the opening and stared down at them. Rangiku shivered, she could feel their spiritual pressure from here. They were strong.

"Espadas," Her captain hissed.

"All of them?" Rangiku gulped. They had only ever encountered the Sixth Espada, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez. Well, Ichigo had been the one too fight him, but they had all felt his spiritual pressure, and Ichigo had been defeated, which was not good news for them as Ichigo was captain-class in strength.

"No, just the two in the middle," Toshiro informed her, "The other two aren't as strong, they'd just be regular arrancars."

"The one with that ghastly blue hair must be that Jaegerjaquez fellow, I can see his '6' tattoo from here," Yumichika added, "Marking the skin like that, how ugly."

The two Espadas and two arrancars floated down to meet them half way in the sky.

"Oi, soul reapers!" exclaimed the one they now knew to be Grimmjow, "Where is Ichigo Kurosaki? We have a fight to finish."

"This must be that big attack, huh Captain?" Rangiku whispered. She wasn't going to lie, she was incredibly nervous; this was not something they'd faced before. The Espada were Aizen's crazy new invention and even arrancars – though they had previous existed in imperfect forms – were new enemies to the Soul Society. She had never faced hollows of this power level before, none of them had…and if Ichigo could defeat the likes of Kenpachi and Byakuya Kuchki, but not an Espada…well, they were in trouble, and Aizen knew that.

Toshiro hummed in reply.

"Matsumoto, you need to call Kurosaki and the others, as well as Urahara; we will need back up. Then I need you to call the Soul Society and get these limiters off," He ordered, full captain mode now in force, "Thirdly, I need you to make Orihime Inoue's safety your top priority as I'm sure we won't be coming out of this battle unscathed."

"Yes, Sir!"

She whipped out her soul phone and called Ichigo's number, glad she'd put him on speed dial, as her captain and the two fighting specialists ascended to meet their opponents.

'Rangiku?' Ichigo's concerned voice filtered out from the speaker at her ear, 'Is Toshiro there? I really want to speak to him about what happened.'

"Ichigo, I need you, Renji and Rukia here now," She ordered with as much authority as she could muster, "We've got two Espada and another two arrancars. Ikkaku and Yuminchika are here too but we won't be able to hold them for long without you guys"

'Where?' Ichigo responded without hesitation.

"Orihime's place, come quickly," Rangiku finished, hanging up and already dialling the number for Urahara's shop.

She made the mistake of looking up. Both sides had seemingly picked their opponents and were already clashing swords. Yumichika had one of the regular arrancars; a tall, thin man with obnoxiously yellow hair. Ikkaku had taken on Grimmjow, while her Captain was forced to take on the other Espada; a gigantic man with a confident grin, and the final arrancar; a teenage looking girl showing more cleavage than Rangiku herself. She could see her Captain was flat out trying to dodge two attacks and fight them both at the same time.

Having finished her phone call with the flirtatious former captain and current candy store owner, Rangiku punched in the numbers of her final call. She prayed that the others would get here soon, and that the Soul Society wouldn't muck around releasing their seals this time.

Hang in there, Captain.

… … …

AN: Also, if you're wondering why Rangiku refers to Toshiro by his first name in her head, let's just say that constantly typing 'her captain' was annoying me…they're probably close enough anyway that she would think of him as 'Toshiro' more than 'Captain' but she still calls him by his rank out of respect, and because he'd undoubtedly kick her ass if she didn't.

PLEASE REVIEW AND I'LL UPDATE ASAAAAP