A/N: I just had my heart being broken yesterday, so I guess I was in the best mood to write something like this. It might be not very good, for which I deeply apologize.

I need a Japanese name of a man for the next chapters. I need it for a big, strong Zaraki-type man, only not really nice. I'm ot very good with Japanese names so if you don't help, I'll be forced to use an English/Bulgarian one, which I don't think will sound very well...

And one more thing: I decided to extend the story since more than three people asked me to (five, I think) but it's still not going to be very long.

'Rangiku, open up!' Ikakku shouted, knocking on her door for a hundredth time. And, just as every time before that, she didn't listen to him. He sighed glancing at Hisagi desperately. Shuhei just shrugged, not really knowing what to do.

'Maybe we should go find Hitsugaya-taicho?' Kira suggested carefully, but got just an annoyed snort in retort as Ikkaku rolled his eyes and bent down to try to look through the keyhole.

'It's not like he can do anything! He's just… you know… Shorty-blizzard.' the bald shinigami murmured. Kira just frowned and folded his arms in front of his chest.

After a few fruitless minutes of trying to see something through the keyhole from different angles, Ikkaku finally gave up and once more started to knock on the door and plead Matsumoto to open it. This happened to end with the same successes, so thirty seconds later Hisagi finally got irritated and pushed his friend aside.

'Rangiku!' he shouted 'Come out of there already! We'll take you somewhere to have a drink and relax, ok?'

'This isn't going to work…' Kira murmured under his breath. However from the other side of the door, footsteps were heard and a moment later Matsumoto opened the door. Hisagi grinned happily, missing her grim expression and exclaimed:

'That's my girl! Now let's…'

SLAP!

A very angry Matsumoto let her hand drop at her side as she glared at the stunned Hisagi with the large red handprint on his cheek.

'Rangiku…' Ikkaku begun, his shocked eyes shifting from her to Shuhei and back.

'You… 'she begun, breath coming out on sharp gasps and her beautiful blue eyes watering 'You made me sell Toushiro for a few drinks!'

'Did you just called him Toushiro??' Ikkaku exclaimed, his face twisting into an odd grimace. Matsumoto just redirected her glare to him, making him shrink and step back.

'So… You really are going to hide all day long?' Kira suddenly interfered.

'I'm not… hiding!' Rangiku growled. In return the blond guy rolled his eyes.

'Well, it seems like hiding to me.' Kira absently ran his hand through his hair 'If I were you, I would hurry to explain to him…'

'What? You think I didn't try to explain?' she snapped angrily. Kira just shrugged.

'Maybe you didn't try hard enough.'

Matsumoto narrowed her eyes and was about to something snap at him, but was cut off when Ikkaku shouted:

'Hey, look! A hell butterfly!'

Matsumoto was definitely not in the mood to go on meeting. She had a terrible headache and she had an odd disturbing feeling in her stomach. The feeling she hated the most…

Guilt.

She couldn't get rid of the image of his eyes. His big jade eyes, so betrayed, filled with so much hurt… They were following her around, burning her insides, reminding her of what she had done…

She had to fix this. She had to. She couldn't just leave it behind like a minor event, because for onece she knew for sure – this was not just a simple crush, it wasn't about to go away. It was something more. It was a deep, strong feeling that was affecting her whole body – and mostly her heart. And as much as it had been beautiful and wonderful before, it was painful now…

... Rangiku loved him. She loved him more than everything. More than she had ever assumed she'd be able to. More than herself, more than her life. And she was ready to do everything to get him back.

'Late again Matsumoto.' Kyouraku whispered to her with a small smirk as she sneaked in the room and stood next to him.

'What's the meeting about?' she absently asked while her eyes searched for Hitsugaya. Kyouraku shrugged in return.

'Boring stuff… You know…'

Where is he? She narrowed her eyes ever so slightly and scanned the faces one by one, wondering why wasn't there a serious silver-haired taicho among them.

'…Organization… blah-blah-blah… Oh yeah! And…'

Aha! There you are! How could I not notice you! Standing right there… next to… Hinamori? Matsumoto's eyes widened with displeasure and annoyance. Oh, yes -Momo. Hitsugaya's childhood friend. For too long people told gossips about her and Toushiro. For too long they twisted every minor detail of their behavior to create some strange, ridicules stories without actual reason. Tons and tons of gossips, relating with different words the same thing – that she was the one he had given his heart to…

'… They say Hinamori can't handle the division by herself, so they're searching for a new captain for her. So… yeah, mostly that. We're discussing some candidates for the job. You don't need to listen…'

Why are they standing so close?

Growling under her breath, Matsumoto felt the sudden urge to go grab Momo's ridicules bun and pull her outside by it... What she wished to do next was a thought filled with violence and many screams and blood…

'…and yeah… stuff like this. Are you listening? Obviously not. Too busy killing Hinamori with our eyes, aren't we?'

Matsumoto snapped out of her thoughts to shoot Kyoraru a very annoyed glance, then returned to her previous occupations. Well, almost… Now, she was looking at Hitsugaya.

The young taicho looked different. She couldn't meet his eyes, but she could see enough of him to judge. His thin figure looked somehow even smaller than usual. She couldn't exactly say why but in some way his captain haori looked loosen and too big for him, his shoulders were drooped and his tired half-closed eyes were concentrated on some spot on the floor. His eyes… his eyes weren't alive and on alert as usually. There was some spark missing in them… and they looked so empty, so sad, so hurt, so… betrayed…

Rangiku examined his pale face with growing worry and bit her lower lip. He looked sick. He looked fatigued and unable to work… What WAS he doing here in such state?!

'Hitsugaya-taicho? Are you feeling alright?' Matsumoto heard Unohana asking. Toushiro sighed and a small smile appeared on his lips.

'How many times are you going to ask me that?' he said. Matsumoto was rather surprised to hear his firm and certain voice, so inconsistent with his appearance.

'Maybe you should come with me after the meeting?' Unohana suggested, her calm eyes examining him with a hint of sincere worry.

'Naaaah! I'm fine.' He assured her, waving his hand dismissively. Unohana didn't look very pleased with the answer but simply nodded, guided by some strange intuition that told her not to bring up the subject anymore.

Matsumoto spent the rest of the meeting in pathetic attempts to meet Hitsugaya's eyes or speak to him. But he never looked at her. And he never paid attention to her words. As if he was trying to imagine she didn't exist, that she wasn't there… That she had never been…

Rangiku didn't hear anything of what was discussed at the meeting. She had been too occupied with other things, so when the meeting was suddenly over, she was caught completely off guard. She tried to catch up with Hitsugaya as everybody left the room but just as her fingers were about to reach his shoulder from behind, he shunpoed.

'Damn…' she murmured, letting her hand drop, still satring at the empty space where he had been standing a moment ago. She knew for sure that Hitsugaya didn't like shunpoing. He preferred walking. And if he shunpoed that meant that he was tired, depressed, sick or everything altogether. Which was definitely not a good thing…

'Are you ok?' Kyouraku asked carefully as he approached her 'Did something happen between you and your lil captain? You were staring at him during the whole meeting.'

Matsumoto sighed and shook her head.

'It doesn't matter…' she softly said while slowly making her way to her apartment 'I'll to him tomorrow… when I go to the office… I still have some sort of day off today…'

Kyoraru nodded and waved her goodbye, before turning around and heading to the opposite direction…

The next morning Matsumoto woke up from a knock on the door. She sleepily got up and went to open it. In front of her stood a very embarrassed Ikkaku with a cup of hot smoking coffee in his hand.

'Good morning.' He greeted carefully 'I brought you some coffee.'

Matsumoto gratefully took the cup and leaned against the door-frame.

'What is it?' she asked sleepily, before having a sip from the coffee.

'I just…' the bald shinigami scratched the back of his head 'Kira kind of explained everything to me… No idea how he found out, but anyway… So, I just wanted to…' he paused '…apologize… I guess.'

Matsumoto sighed and took another thoughtful sip from the coffee.

'Apologizing won't help much, but I accept yours anyway. Besides…' she ran a hand through her disheveled hair '… It was mostly my fault… And only I can fix everything…'

Ikkaku stood silent for a couple of seconds, not really knowing what to say, then suddenly remembered something and started rummaging his clothes.

'On my way here I met Yamamato. He asked me to bring you something… he said it was important for you to read it right away… Now… Where is it… Where is it… AHA!' he triumphantly handed her a piece of folded paper. Matsumoto rolled her eyes as she absently took it and opened it.

'I hope it's nothing too urgent, I really don't want to lose any time in stupid meetings, where all I do is to nod from time to time…' her eyes half-closed lazily shifted from side to side as she read the content of the letter 'I'm going straight into the office and I'm not going to leave taicho alone until… what the hell?'

'What's wrong?' Ikkaku asked worriedly as he watched Rangiku's expression change from sleepy and regardless to a pure horror.

'WHAT THE HELL??' shouted again and her eyes winded 'This… this can't be true…'

'Rangiku, what's going on?' Ikkaku insisted as he watched her face become paler with every passing second.

'I-I need to go… right now…' she suddenly exclaimed before storming back inside her apartment'Thanks for the coffee!'