Note: Hitsugaya POV.
Rated: K for some swearing
„Taichou..."
Hitsugaya sighed. How long had his Fukutaichou been drunk by now? He wondered. It must have beenweeks, at least. Maybe ever since Ichimaru had left.
"Taichou... I'm shoooo shorry..."
Matsumoto apologizing? She had to be i reall /i drunk. Or sick. Or both. Next, she would promise to be hard working for the rest of her life and claim to be the most reliable person in the whole Seireitei.
"I wun- won't do shish anymore..."
He gasped and gave her an odd look. Did she talk about drinking? That couldn't be. Impossible, absolute impossible. Rather would Kuchiki dance trough the streets singing "The hills are alive with the sounds of music..."
He reconsidered this. Well, maybe not. But it was likewise impossible.
"Taichou...?"
"Yes?"
He was really worried now. Since he had found her in this North Rukongai Insakaya, he had grown more and more confused. Not about Matsumoto drinking, though she hadn't been drinking as much eyer before. It was rather the fact, that she didn't try to make any excuses nor to pretend to be still sober. Maybe she couldn't anymore because she had lost control due to the alcohol. But he strongly doubted that. Not Matsumoto. The women could beat any man in the Gotei 13, the 11th squad included, if it was about alcohol. She wouldn't lose to herself. Or maybe... maybe was she the only person whom she could be beaten by?
"What should I do now?" She reached out for the bottle of sake.
His hand stopped hers, lifting the beverages out of it, placing it far enough that she couldn't grab it anymore.
"First: Stop drinking."
He couldn't help it, he just wasn't the most sensitive among the shinigami. Rather the other way round. He never had been and never would be good on the feelings of others.
Maybe he should have sent someone else. But whom? If the times had been ordinary, he would have sent Hinamori, but the girl was at the 4th squads relief station, as was Kira. He had been thinking about asking Iba to search for the orange haired woman, but the 7th squads vice was busy maintaining the working of his squad and comfortig his captain at the same time. Too many people were suffering just because those three bastards had left for Hueco Mundo.
He clenched his fists. And wondered again, how intimate the fox faced former captain of the 3rd squad and the 10th squads vice had really been. Matsumoto had never talked about it, but she sometimes had mentioned things she couldn't have known if it had been a relationship between friends.
He remembered (of course drunk) talk about her and Gin being trapped in places they shouldn't have been in, and after drinking some more, when he had walked her home (or rather carried her home, as always), she had suddenly laughed and murmured something about the funny face the owner of a certain bar had made when he found his door blocked with their whole clothing...
So what had they worn then?
"Second: Stop whining."
"Budddddd... Taishoooo... I duuun- dooon't ..."
She couldn't even talk proper anymore. As for everyone else, he would have found it pathetic. Not for her. Not in this situation. But it still was disgusting.
"Ok, let's change it: Stop thinking about him."
She raised her had a little bit and gave him an odd look.
"Whut?"
"Stop thinking about Ichimaru. He's gone."
"Budddd... he-"
"He'll eventually come back, won't he?" She had told him about this long ago, but Hitsugaya wasn't someone who forgot things easily.
The boy wrinkled his eyebrows even more than usual at that thought. And when that bastard came back, he'd kill him. Or worse. Rather worse. But that was nothing to bother his Vice captain with. Not now. Maybe never until Ichimaru returned. "So why do you worry about it?"
"Shuuuuure?" Her eyes, hardly visible in the twilight, carried hope.
"The one who should know the answer is you, ain't it?"
Slowly, she nodded.
"I... know..."
He nearly jumped, when she all of a sudden buried her had in his hair, as if she tried to find something in the pure white on his head...
"I... know... he 'll be back... he... always.. comes back to me."