After shinpoing away from his now former office, Hitsugaya found himself near the fifth division, with the cardboard box in his hands. He looked around to see if there was somebody nearby and after making sure he was all alone, leaned against a wall. He squeezed his eyes shut, letting his a deep sigh escape his lips. God, he hated his life…
Just a few days ago he had been in love with the most amazing woman in the whole universe; he had been happy, really happy for the first time in so many years and now… Now he doubted he'll ever let himself love ever again. Matsumoto Rangiku – the fukutaicho, famous with her loyalty had betrayed him in the worst way possible. She had cut out his heart right out of his chest and broken it into million tiny pieces… And all that with a single telephone conversation he had accidentally overheard…
Hitsugaya bit his lower lip and slid down the wall until he was sitting on the ground. He placed the cardboard box beside him and buried his pale trembling fingers into his hair. He wished so badly that he could just forget all about it. He wished he could believe that one day… he would remember this with an apathy and boredom… That he would shrug, not carrying at all and his thoughts would drift away to something more important… But he knew… he would never be able to do that. His heart, broken into million pieces or not, would always belong to Matsumoto Rangiku…
Meanwhile Matsumoto found herself sitting in front of three gigantic stacks of paperwork. Her eyes went big and she sputtered, unable to hold back her shock and horror. And just as she thought it couldn't possibly get any worse, her new captain dumped down yet another terrifying stack on her desk. He then stood up straight, putting his hands on his hips and examining the stacks carefully with his cold black eyes. After a moment he finally nodded with approval.
'I think that's all.' He announced indifferently 'I want this finished by tomorrow afternoon.'
Matsumoto sputtered once more, here eyes becoming impossibly big as she lifted her gaze to stare at him as if he was insane.
'You want me to do all this… All alone? By TOMORROW?' she exclaimed, indignantly pointing at all the paperwork.
'Yes.' He simply confirmed, not even slightly touched by her reaction.
She let out a dry laugh.
'Well, I can't.' Matsumoto admitted, throwing her hands in the air. 'That's impossible!'
'Are you trying to tell me you can't deal with simple paperwork?'
'I can deal with paperwork! It's just that this is too much for one person to do in such a short time!' Matsumoto said, while picking the first sheet of paper on the top of the stack and examining it. She then put it down in front of her and shook her head.
'Nope, this can't possibly be done by tomorrow afternoon.'
Kenji let out a soft snicker.
'Well, I don't care how your former taicho treated you, but while under my command, you won't spend the time in the office napping and chatting, you will work!' he leaned over the desk and over the stacks of paperwork so his face was centimeters away from hers 'So I strongly advise you to pick up the pen and start working to prove you're worthy your high rank! Those stacks – done by tomorrow afternoon. Are we clear, Barbie?'
Matsumoto's jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed, but she nodded. Kenji pulled back and without a word headed to the front door.
'Hey, HEY!' Rangiku shouted with confusion, when he opened the door 'Where are you going?'
'That's out of your business.' Kenji snapped 'Now get to work.'
And with that… he was gone. Matsumoto blinked a couple of times at the now closed door, then sighed and redirected her eyes to the paperwork. She made a grimace and shifted a bit in her chair to get more comfortable. She was going to spend some loooong time here… in the sweet company of these wonderful sheets of paper…
This day couldn't get any worse. She didn't work for Hitsugaya anymore, she hadn't had the chance to tell him how she felt and her new boss was an odd creepy man that didn't seem to like her or anyone else at all...
Boy, this is… MUCH! Even Toushiro won't be able to finish all this in such a short time… And he's one hell of a worker-bee…
Where did all this work come from? Were they that close to the deadline? If they really were, why wasn't her new taicho here to work with her? And... What was he doing anyway? Why did he just leave? And where to? Was he on work or what?
Matsumoto sighed, biting the top of her pen and begun reading the text on the first sheet of paper with a slight frown on her face.
For the next two hours or so she managed to deal with one seventh of the first stack. Her head was already beginning to ache and Kenji was still nowhere in sight. Feeling tired of all this, Matsumoto leaned back in her chair for a ten minutes break. She let out a small sigh and begun massaging her temples.
'How does Toshiro do this? To stay concentrated on paperwork for such a long time…' she murmured, then stretched her arms and sank into the chair. She spent the next few minutes like this – not moving much, just resting and not thinking of anything. And just as her ten minutes ended, from the room next to the office someone turned on their radio and increased the volume to almost maximum. Matsumoto let out an exhausted moan. She had no idea how people found a way to catch radio signals from the real world and she honestly didn't care, but in times like this, this could be a terrible pain in the ass…
She hit the wall behind her with a dictionary she got from the desk, shouting to the people on the other side to turn down the volume, when the words of the song that was playing finally reached her mind...
Don't leave me in all this pain
Don't leave me out in the rain
Come back and bring back my smile
Come and take these tears away…
What the hell was that? Matsumoto blinked, letting the words sink in.
I need your arms to hold me now
The nights are so unkind
Bring back those nights
When I held you beside me
Ok… So this sounded kind of familiar… Didn't it?
Unbreak my heart
Say you'll love me again
Undo this hurt you caused
When you walked out the door
And walked outta my life
Uncry these tears
I cried so many nights
Unbreak my heart, my heart
Suddenly the image of Hitsugaya, leaving her apartment popped into her head, making her shoulders droop and her expression change from annoyance into guilt and sudden longing for those times before the day he found out about the bet...
Take back that sad word goodbye
Bring back the joy to my life
Don't leave me here with these tears
Come and kiss this pain away
I can't forget the day you left
Time is so unkind
And life is so cruel
Without you here beside me
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to chase the image out of her mind. But it didn't work out very well. No matter how hard she tried it was still there. Stuck… deep inside her heart, mind and soul… She couldn't change that. She couldn't… no matter how painful it was…
Don't leave me in all this pain
Don't leave me out in the rain
Bring back the nights
When I held you beside me
What if he never forgives me? What if he never gives me another chance? What if this is it? The end… And there's no more of the story to tell. Maybe the hurt I caused him is unfixable and he doesn't love me anymore…
… What if all that is left is hate, anger and sadness?
Unbreak my, unbreak my heart,
Come back and say you love me
Unbreak my heart sweet darlin'
Without you I just can't go on
Can't go on…
Matsumoto listened to the rest of the song in silence and when it was over she carefully wiped the single tear that had rolled down her cheek. She then returned to her work. No other song was played… It seemed like the guys in the next room had lost the signal.
Fifth devision office…
'I can't believe it!' Hinamori admitted leaning over Hitsugaya's new desk with a warm smile on her face 'I can't believe the little Shiro is my boss now…' she giggled reaching to ruffle his snowy-white hair. Toushiro let out a small growl in protest but didn't stop her. He let her do what she wanted, then fixed his tousled hair as much as he could without using a mirror.
'I'll ask you very politely not to do that…' he murmured, while putting his stuff into the drawers. Hinamori giggled.
'Ok, ok… Whatever you say… taicho…' she grinned 'This sound soooo strange, you know?'
'Yeah… I know…' Hitsugaya agreed softly. Momo bit her lower lip in waht seemed to be a childish excitment, then after relizing he wasn't in a mood to talk too much, walked to her desk and sat down. For the next couple of minutes she just silently watched him put his stuff into different drawers. When he was finally done, he let out a sigh and looked around the office. His new office… It was the so different, yet he couldn't say exactly why. It was… something in the atmosphere… Something that was missing…
'Hey… taicho?' Momo begun, slightly tilting her head to a side.
'Yes, what is it?' he asked, redirecting his teal eyes to her.
'Can we go to the festival tomorrow?' she asked, a small blush creeping on her cheeks. Hitsugaya blinked.
'What festival?'
'What do you mean what festival? There's a festival tomorrow!' she frowned a bit and folded her arms in front of her chest.
Hitsugaya needed a couple of seconds to understand what she was talking about and when he did, he slapped himself mentally. How could he forget something like that? He and Matsumoto had even planned to go together… but considering the circumstances, that was impossible now. So…
'Alright… I guess we can go…' he shrugged.
Ok... so, here's the fourth chapter. How was it? I'm sure you know the name of the song, but I'll say it anyway: 'Unbreak my heart' by Toni Braxton. I hope you liked the chapter!