AN: Ok, hopefully this is a quick update. As we are speaking, well I'm writing to you, I have just read the reviews. THANKS GUYS! (That didn't make sense…)And any of you who picked up on my mistake last chapter, well I fixed it now XD Mistake? Lol, if you didn't pick up on it don't worry. Now, enough blabbling, and more writing.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach…
A Summer Job – Morning Work Meetings
Ah, Captain's meeting. Boring as usual. Hitsugaya yawned quietly. At least everything seemed normal amongst the captains. Well, 'normal' being the usual death threats from Zaraki to everyone in general, the annoying weasly voice of Kurotsuchi Mayuri muttering to himself about how he was going to kick his stupid vice-captain Nemu for burning his breakfast (which by the way, wasn't her fault), then there was loud depressing sighs from Kyouraku Shunsui, still dreaming about his vice-captain (it was the only time he could without getting hit by her), Ukitake looking around the room absentmindedly, Soi Fong, who stood up straight, serious, and looking annoyed as usual.
Then there was…Hitsugaya looked further down the line. Kuchiki Byakuya looking as disdainful as he could in front of the first division captain, Unohana who was looking as peaceful as usual, well, as peaceful as you can be, if a certain bloodthirsty 11th division captain was growling out death threats to every other person in the room, although funnily enough, none of those threats were EVER directed at her, Hitsugaya noted with a smirk.
Then, of course, towering above the rest, was Sajin. Hitsugaya shivered. That wolf/fox guy was weird. Not to mention scary. And tall. Hitsugaya averted his gaze. There was that orange haired guy that was somehow so, so annoying.
The orange-haired captain turned when he felt someone gazing at him. And met ice cold eyes. Well, actually he looked at some spiky whitish blue hair, then realised who he was actually looking at.
"Ahem."
The first division captain cleared his throat, suspiciously louder than usual. It was hard to believe that this rowdy lot called themselves captains. Eventually the noise died down, and the captains started to pay attention. The old man sighed inwardly. Though the captains didn't know it, but the reason why he had to schedule the captain's meeting so early in the morning, was because they didn't settle down for about half an hour.
So now the ruckus had died down. The old captain waited for complete silence, but there was something niggling in the back of his mind. He heard…snickering? His eyes shifted to the source of the sound, and saw the new captain, Kurosaki Ichigo, snickering like a little girl. He made his eyes flash dangerously, but the new captain just kept giggling away.
"Ah-HEM!"
Ichigo looked up from his snickering and looked around. Oh. They had actually started the meeting. He stifled his giggling and stood up straight, trying keep a straight face.
The old man sighed. That would have to do. Though, he wondered absentmindedly, what would make Ichigo snicker like that.
"Let's start the meeting."
Ichigo zoned out after that. He just couldn't help but remember last night – and the old man's voice was so boring.
FLASHBACK
It was getting late. They had passed the living quarters of the first four divisions, and they had paused at the vice-captain's quarters of the fifth division.
"Oi, Rukia, why did you stop here?" Ichigo grumbled as he nearly bumped into the short shinigami.
She looked at him blankly. "Go check on your vice-captain, idiot."
"Huh?" He returned her blank stare.
"You're a captain. Captains always check on their vice-captain's before the day ends."
"The day ended a long time ago, Rukia."
Smack. Her fist met his chin.
"Ow, ow, ow, ok, ok…" Ichigo rubbed his chin. Now that they were in Soul Society, her punches actually hurt a bit.
"Jeez…" He grumbled. It was too late at night to argue, and even though he loved to argue with Rukia, he really wanted to sleep right now. He slid the door open a crack, then closed it.
"Ok, done." He straightened up. "Can I go to sleep now?"
She kicked him in the back.
"OK! I'll check, I'll check!"
"Properly."
"Properly." He mimicked in an annoyingly high voice. Which earned him another kick in the backside.
This time he slid the door open more than just a crack. Yes, yes, there was Hinamori, sleeping peacefully. Jeez. What did Rukia expect to find anyway? Her sprawled out on the floor, bleeding? Hold on. Was it his imagination, or did Hinamori look a bit larger than usual. Like, two lumps, of…people? Two people?
Ichigo took a step inside the room. He was about to take another step, when he was caught by Rukia.
"What the heck are you doing?" She hissed. "You checked already, no need PERV on her."
"Wh-wah?" Ichigo blinked.
"Perv-ert."
"Shutup!"
"No. Loser."
Friken Rukia. Leave it to her to think that he was perving on his vice-captain. But it was too late at night, and he couldn't give a stuff anymore.
"Look at her bed. Doesn't it seem kinda fake to you?"
"Huh?" Rukia asked. This was weird. Ichigo didn't name-call her back. She looked inside the darkened room. She saw what he was wondering about.
"See? That's why I was checking." He rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah." She paused, one step inside the room. "Look, wait here, and I'll see what's going on. We wouldn't want people to think you were perving on your vice-captain now would we."
Ichigo groaned. Only Rukia, would think something as absurd as that. Why would he want to check out his vice-captain anyway? For sure, he acknowledged that she was prettier than most other lady shinigami's but he held no interest in her whatsoever. And since it was so obvious to the rest of the court of pure souls that her jealous protector was that little brat of a captain, who, even though was a little brat, he was a strong little brat, that most people wouldn't want to mess with. Besides…
He was knocked out of his train of thought when Rukia hissed at him. He looked into the room. And blinked. Rukia wasn't there.
"Oi." She tugged his captain uniform from behind him. "I'm here, idiot."
"Huh?" Ichigo whirled around. "Wha-?"
"Lets go." She started walking away from the room.
"Er…Rukia, did you check already?"
"Yes, yes I did, now lets go."
Rukia had suddenly started acting strangely. Tired as he was, he knew he wouldn't get any sort of response from Rukia when she acted like this.
"Ichigo?"
"Just wait." Ichigo quietly stepped into the room and walked to the side of his vice-captain's futon. He looked, then before he started bursting into laughter, he quickly ran outside the door (as quietly as he could), closed it, then hurried over to where Rukia was standing.
"Hey-hmmphhhh" Ichigo would have awakened the whole gotei-13 if it wasn't for Rukia's fast hand which clamped down over his mouth. She dragged the laughing Ichigo with her other hand to a safe distance and waited for him to calm down.
"Finished yet?" Guys were so immature at these sorts of things.
"Yeah…" Then he started rolling on the floor in laughter. "Did you see the look on his face?"
"Yeah, yeah, get over it Ichigo." Rukia frowned at him. "I thought it was sweet."
"You what?"
Rukia continued frowning down at him. Honestly, this guy acted so mature at times, and at others, acted so…friken childish. Ok, ok, so the most widely spoken about couple in the Court of Pure Souls were sleeping together (in a good way that is). And this was the first time she had seen them. Ok, she would allow herself a small giggle when she got to Byakuya's mansion, but that would be it. Only for the sake of Hitsugaya-taichou's face. No need to roll herself on the ground like this idiot in front of her.
"I can't believe they actually sleep together!"
"They don't." Which was the wrong thing to say Rukia immediately told herself.
"Oh." Ichigo's mouth curled up into a smirk.
"Don't even think about it Ichigo."
"What?"
"Don't 'what' me. No blackmailing." She demanded.
"Yeah, yeah, goodnight." Ichigo picked himself up off the ground, and headed to his living quarters. Rukia looked at his back. That loser. He didn't even walk her home.
'But', she chuckled quietly to herself, 'that was probably because of her brother.'
END FLASHBACK
"OK. That's all for today."
Yamamoto's sharp old voice cut through Ichigo's thoughts.
"Before you all leave, please remember to confirm your vice-captain's choice about going into the all out competition for the remaining two vacant captain places. If there is anyone else wanting to try out, other than your respective vice-captain, just tell me. I will take care of all other shinigami's wanting to try out. That is all."
The captains shuffled out the door. Ichigo caught Hitsugaya's eye. Then cracked up laughing again.
"What?" Hitsugaya scowled.
"Hmm?" Ichigo looked back at the white haired genius. "Oh, funny joke."
The genius looked at the orange-haired captain then strode off, his nose in the air. Ichigo was about to follow suit (well without the nose in the air bit) when he heard the old man say something.
"Kurosaki-taichou."
Ichigo turned around to see Yamamoto speaking to him.
"Yes?"
"Because I am concerned about your well-being, please refrain from letting your vice-captain try-out for captaincy. Even though she may well have the skills and abilities to become a captain, the duels are, after all, life-threatening." Yamamoto looked at him.
Ichigo looked back and blinked. "So? I'm not taking part in it."
Yamamoto smiled. Sometimes, humans could be so dense.
"Yes, I know that. However, if your vice-captain tries out, she will have her life on the line."
Ichigo looked at the other captain. Did this guy think he was dumb? "Um, yes, I know that as well. You just told me the duels were life threatening right?"
The old man's eyebrow twitched the tiniest bit. "If," he grated out with much difficulty, "she tries out, you may be in danger of your life."
"Huh?" Ichigo blinked.
The old man could feel some burning desire to fry this ignorant captain right here, right now.(AN: No pun intended...) "If," the old man's eyebrow twitched, "she dies, a certain captain may not be very happy. You may have an unwanted fight in your hands."
"Who's this 'certain' captain?" Ichigo asked as innocently as he could.
The room exploded into flames. Ichigo leapt backwards outside the room. "OK, Ok, I get you." He left the smouldering room. "Jeez, old man, can't even take a joke." He muttered under his breath. "Of course I knew who it was, its not like I'm dumb."
Meanwhile, Yamamoto sat in the meeting room, clenching and unclenching his fists. "Young-fri-ken-hool-i-gans-these-fri-ken-days." He then proceeded to mutter a collection of colourful profanities. Which was alot, since he had been alive, well dead, but still alive, for an extremely long time.
Hinamori walked out of her vice-captain meeting. Nothing new. She looked around, then decided to head off to her quarters to her new captain. As she was walking towards the fifth division she almost bumped into Hitsugaya.
"Oh, Shiro-chan!" She immediately blushed.
The white haired captain looked up at his childhood friend. "What? And don't call me Shiro-chan." He looked away to hide the slight tinge of red coming to his face. He left her room extrememly early in the morning. There was no way she possibly knew about...And what about last night anyway? That had been on his thoughts ever since...well ever since last night really. She...
"Um, Shiro-chan…can I ask you something?"
"Yes, but only if you would.stop.calling.me.shiro-fri-ken-chan!" Oh...What the hell was she gonna ask? She doesn't know, she doesn't know, she doesn't know... he chanted mentally.
Hinamori giggled. "Ok, Hitsugaya-kun."
Hitsugaya looked at her, and arched an eyebrow. "What?" She doesn't know, she doens't know, she - but she kissed...SHE KISSED ME! How could she NOT possibly know, when she kissed me!
"Um," she blushed deeper, "What were you doing in my room last night?"
The white haired genius promptly fainted.
AN: Another chapter…-sigh-… please review – thankyou to those who do, you guys seriously ROCK! Lol, ok, ok, I know there are like a lot of loose ends I still need to tie up, but I made it like that so I continue writing. XD… Coming up next – umm, a little blackmailing power? -evil grin- Yeah, and maybe I should get together Hitsugaya and Hinamori. Its taking them a hell of a long time. Cya next time.