A/N: This one's a request by mrdbznarutofan. Hope you like it:) I don't bite, so drop a request!
Doctors AU
All was quiet at the Karakura hospital. The patients were fast asleep in their rooms as nurses on the night shift made their rounds. In the rest room, one nurse was bent over a thick stack of books, her eyes scanning the yellowing pages. She yawned and stretched, cursing herself for enrolling herself in the hypnotism course. There was so much reading to do! Her teacher was not any better, that slave driver. He was none other than the young prodigy, Hitsugaya Toushiro. He had been appointed to be her mentor, and he had asked, no, demanded, that she finish the thick readings by the week's end. Matsumoto sighed, running a hand through her hair. If only she had the foresight to bring the books along when she went to do her hair.
She flipped another page, quickly ingesting it's contents. It was about post hypnotism. According to Hitsugaya, it was what they were trying to pilot in this hospital. He did mention that if the program was successful, it will make the people involved very famous. The girl moaned softly, if only she had realized that there was a reason that no one had signed up in the first place! The readings alone were enough to kill, and she had a practical session with Hitsugaya the next day after her shift had ended. She took shaky sips of coffee that had long gone cold, promising that she would sleep for only a few minutes and then get up to finish the book.
The very next morning, a very irritated Hitsugaya stormed into the rest room to find that his student and subordinate was fast asleep. There was even drool on his precious copies of textbooks.
"MATSUMOTO!" He bellowed, not caring that the rest of the junior doctors and nurses were staring at them.
"Yes Hitsugaya-san?" The lady sprung up from her sleep, fixing a bright cheery smile that was impossible for someone who had just woken up.
"Are you ready? We're going to run a trial on a patient in an hour. Fix yourself up quickly." He instructed, his eyes sweeping over her disheveled appearance.
"Yup yup!" She replied as a makeup kit and an assortment of other beauty products appeared on the table in front of the busty woman.
Exactly an hour later, Matsumoto appeared freshly dressed in her nurse's outfit. She knocked on the door of Hitsugaya's office and let herself in. Neither the doctor nor the patient were there yet. She busied herself tidying up the room, putting the loose sheets of paper and the like away. The door opened again, revealing a pretty young lady with her long black hair tied up in a loose pony tail. She was tall and lanky, a far cry from the young children that the doctor usually treated.
"You must be Kurosaki Karin-san, am I right?" Matsumoto asked as she pushed a stack of books off the couch and motioned for her to seat. "You're here because?"
"My idiot brother thinks I'm too obsessed with soccer or something and I'll fail all my classes since I spend quite a lot of time on the field." Karin replied, rolling her eyes as she crossed her legs. "He said that he knew of someone who would be able to 'cure' me of my addiction."
Matsumoto laughed. That sounded like the elder Kurosaki alright. Although she did not know him personally. (They worked in the same wing), she had heard about his insane ability to successfully execute an operation, no matter how hard it was. He was also very protective of his sisters, not allowing them to train in surgery as he deemed it too exhausting and trying. He wanted the best for them, since their father was what he called a 'joker' and would happily send the twins down the wrong path.
"Well then Karin-san, we'll see if Hitsugaya can do anything about your problem!" Matsumoto replied cheerily as the door opened, revealing the tiny doctor.
"Speak of the devil! Here he is! I'll let him do his thing." She said, grabbing another chair for her to sit and observe.
"Wait wait wait," Karin exclaimed, almost jumping out of the sofa. "That little kid there is a doctor?"
"I am not a kid, thank you very much." He said coldly, receiving a clipboard full of details from Matusmoto. In a stage whisper she added "He just turned 21. Vertical problems."
Karin snickered as Hitsugaya shot Matsumoto a cold glare.
"Karin-san, just to make it clear, today we'll try to change your mindset towards studying." Hitsugaya stated as he took a seat behind his desk. "Do you want to say anything before we begin?"
"Yep. I'm doing this because my brother won't leave me alone otherwise."
Hitsugaya sighed. Of all kinds of people he had to deal with, the unwilling ones are the worst.
"Please lean back and close your eyes. We'll be starting now anyway." He commanded. She did as told.
"Now, Karin-san, whenever you approach the field, you will have the urge to call- MATSUMOTO! SILENCE THAT INFERNAL RINGING SOUND!" His words punctuated by the shrill ring of his nurse's hand phone. He specifically told her before that it should be kept in the lockers. How she ever became a nurse, he had no idea. Her work ethic really needed some improvements.
"Sorry Hitsugaya-san!" She replied sheepishly. He gave a her a pointed look which said that he would be having some very strong words with her later. Fortunately Karin had not came out of her hypnosis or he would have skinned Matusmoto alive.
"As I was saying, when you have the urge to play soccer with your friends, you will instead want to have a group study." He said in a soothing voice.
"I'm going to count to 5, and when I count to 5, you will open your eyes and feel refreshed and ready to learn." He said after a few minutes of talking to Karin.
"1...2...3...4... and 5." And he snapped his fingers, breaking Karin out of her hypnotism.
"Do you feel refreshed?" Hitsugaya asked seriously, taking a stationery set out to record her answers.
"Meh. Same old same old. We're done right?" Karin replied quickly, pulling her hair band out to re-tie her hair.
"Yep, we've finished today's session. Come back again in 3 weeks for another session. And if you feel anything wrong, call the hospital."
"Will do." She yelled as she shot out of the room at break-neck speed.
The white haired prodigy swivelled around on his chair, glaring at Matsumoto. She gulped knowing she was in a lot of trouble. "What did I tell you about your hand phone 2 weeks ago?" He thundered.
Karin was taking the long way home. It brought her around the town's field where a group of middle-schoolers were kicking a ball around. She sighed as she sat across them, next to the river bank. The familiar feeling of wanting a ball between her feet was growing stronger as she thought about it. All of a sudden, she was overcome with the urge to call someone. She whipped out her phone, and almost mechanically, typed in the name 'Matusmoto'. There was no such contact and she frowned, one part of her wondering why she did that, the other telling her to call someone who can get her Matusmoto's number. She found herself listening to the dial tone.
In the hospital, Hitsugaya was making his afternoon rounds, checking on his patients. Despite the rough start to his day, he was feeling much better. He always felt good after checking up on them.
Matsumoto was hanging around one of the wards chatting with a patient when Hitsugaya popped his head in a few minutes later. She got to her feet immediately. It was her break and he wouldn't have called her if it were not a serious issue.
"Matsumoto, could you please come with me for a short while." His voice betrayed no emotion, and he turned around and stalked off.
She followed immediately, wondering what had happened. He led her to the call room where unanswered calls were transferred to the relevant department. Why on earth would he bring her of all people in here? Her question was soon answered when a man walked up to them, his face looking like he swallowed a lemon.
"87 missed calls and 22 voice mails for Doctor Hitsugaya and Nurse Matsumoto. From the same number" He said, irked. "Please pick up your calls next time, or stop giving out your line." Hitsugaya's eyes narrowed. Which idiot on earth had so much free time to do such a ridiculous thing?!
When the man had nothing else to say, Hitsugaya stomped out of the room with as much dignity as he could muster. He would get to that person and give them a piece of his mind. Matsumoto was fuming as well. Idiots wasting her time!
The answering machine in his office was beeping like there was no tomorrow. He pressed the button for missed voice mails and it was the same message replayed 22 times. "Hey Matsumoto! Do you wanna do a group study with me?" It was Karin.
He did a double take. First of all, why would she call Matsumoto of all people, they hardly know each other. Secondly, Karin wanted to study?! He wanted to punch his fist in the air, but his dignity as a doctor grounded him firmly. His treatment had be some what successful. More importantly, how did the instructions get messed up? He was pretty sure that he said to call her friends to study with her, not a nurse she had exchanged a few sentences with. How could that happen...
Matsumoto stood frighteningly still. She had a good inkling on what was happening in Hitsugaya's brilliant mind. She had made the connection herself as soon as she heard Karin's voice in the answering machine. Hopefully he doesn't remember the full happenings of the hypnotism session or she can kiss her job bye-bye.
"Uh Hitsugaya-san, I think I need to go, uh, help the front desk, um sort out the medicine?" Matsumoto spluttered, running out of the office at break neck speed as she saw the young doctor's face change from mildly angered to full on ice storm mode.
"MATSUMOTO RANGIKU!" Hitsugaya yelled at her retreating figure.
Several days later, a very embarrassed nurse paid a visit to Karin. Over the few days, she had so many times it was more practical to unplug the phone and answering machine than to take her calls.
When Matusmoto rang the door bell, a disgruntled looking girl wrenched it open. Days without being active really took the kick out of her. She really hated it. When she went near the field, she wanted to go and study. When she called Matsumoto to study with her, she wouldn't pick up and Karin wasted much time on those useless phone calls indeed.
"Hi Karin-chan!" Matusmoto greeted.
"Matsumoto-san? What are you doing here?"
"Ah... mind if I come in? I need to talk to you about something."
"Ah sure, come on in." Karin said, stepping back and plonking into a sofa. "Now what was it you needed to talk to me about?"
"Well... this is rather strange, but remember when you went to the hospital for the Hypnotism therapy?"
"Yeah! That thing's bullshit! I swear every time I get near a soccer field I end up wanting to go studying then I waste a truck load of time calling you and somehow that's gonna get me to study? I end up wasting the whole damn day and I can't play soccer." The girl crossed her arms angrily and glared at the nurse.
"You see... there was a mix up with the instructions..." Matsumoto trailed, not knowing how to continue. It was one thing being berated by her superiors about her mistakes, it was another admitting it to the patient involved.
"A mix up? Well what a great treatment it is." Karin snarked, observing her fingernails with great interest.
"The instructions weren't to call me. They were, um, to call Hitsugaya-san!" Matusmoto blabbered, the first thing on her mind coming out of her mouth. Oops.
"Hitsugaya-san? Isn't he the doctor?"
"Uh yes, yes. He said that, um, he had more free time than me and was willing to ah, tutor you! Toushiro's the youngest person in a long time to get his medical certification! He's very smart!" Matusmoto blabbered, trying to cover things up.
"I see, so my idiotic brother even got one of his friends to tutor me. Great. Thanks a lot though, Matusmoto-san."
"You're welcome Karin-chan. I've got to go now, bye." And Matusmoto left as quickly as she had come.
Back at the office, Hitsugaya felt a chill creep up his back. Oh what has happened now?
Matusmoto walked into their shared office, a bunch of books and papers hiding her from view as she quickly shuffled from one end of the room to another.
"Alright, what did you do Matsumoto?" Hitsugaya asked, pushing himself away from the table.
"Um.. I may or may not have told Karin-chan to call you if she ever wanted to group study?" Matusmoto dropped her things immediately and dashed out of the office.
"MATSUMOTOOOOO!" Hitsugaya yelled as their phone began ringing again.