Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Bleach characters mentioned in this series. All characters belong to the original author Tite Kubo.
However: I do own Haruka Kaenbyo and Umeko Fujiwara.
Warning: Spoilers may be present.
Haruka wandered around Seireitei. It was almost noon and she still had yet to hear from Gin. Usually he was in her office bright and early to bring her food or just hang out. It was odd that he was missing since his morning visits had become routine. Haruka had no idea where he was. He could have been anywhere in Seireitei.
She searched the local vicinity for any trace of Gin's reiatsu. She located it to the far north. It was weak, but probably only because of the distance. She guessed he was probably still at the Squad 3 barracks or in his office. Haruka found that odd since he wasn't one to spend his days in his office doing paperwork, but instead he shoved it off onto his lieutenant. Some days she felt sorry for Kira and wanted to scold Gin for it, but she did the same to her Lieutenant Umeko all the time.
Haruka ran using shunpo and landed on top of the Squad 3 barracks. She jumped to the ground with a soft thud, her captain haori flowing loosely around her. Now that she was closer she was able to feel Gin's reiatsu more clearly. She could tell that he wasn't in his office but instead in the opposite direction in his room. She began to worry. Gin was never one to sleep in late. He was always up and about early in the morning, finding his way to Haruka's office before even she had gotten there.
Haruka walked into the barracks and down a hall. Gin's room was in the very back or his squad's barracks, in a room that was, for the most part, hidden. Many people didn't even notice that there was a room there because his door was the same pattern as the wall and slid perfectly into place to align with the wall. If you had never seen Gin open the door then you weren't likely to notice that it existed. The only reason she knew of its existence was that on quite a few occasions she had passed out in the lab and Gin would bring her there to rest because he could not get to Haruka's room.
She knocked quietly on Gin's door. From the other side of the wall Gin mumbled something that Haruka could not make out.
Haruka pushed on the door slightly, moving it from its position in the wall and pushed it aside slightly. She looked inside to notice that Gin was lying in bed, a thick blanket laid on top of him. His head was buried in his pillow.
"Gin," Haruka said softly. "Are you alright? Have you been in bed all morning?"
"Haruka?" Gin muttered, not lifting his head from his pillow.
Haruka laughed and stepped inside. "It's past noon, Gin. You should really get up. I bet Kira is worried about you. He's probably wondering why you haven't checked in yet."
Gin mumbled something and lifted his head to look at Haruka. "My head hurts. I shouldn't have let Rangiku drag me out last night."
"Well it's no wonder that your head hurts if you went out drinking with Matsumoto," Haruka laughed. "You always drink too much when you're out with her. I wouldn't be surprised if your hangover lasts until tomorrow. Haven't you learned your limit yet?"
Gin sighed. "Well when you're drunk you end up losing track of things. I can't even remember how many bottles of sake we went through. Two or three, maybe four bottles. I don't know anymore."
"Well, you still need to get up," Haruka stated. She picked his captain's haori off the ground and threw it at him. "Come on, get dressed. We have a captains' meeting in an hour if you've forgotten. The captain commander will be quite upset if you ditch. I don't think you want to get in trouble again do you?"
Gin sighed and sat up. He was still wearing his shihakushō from the previous day. He was probably too drunk last night to change out of it before he crawled into bed.
"Grab me a towel, okay?" Gin asked as he got up from his bed. "I'm going to take a shower."
Haruka laughed and walked to his closet, pulling a towel off the top shelf. "Is that you're attempt at trying to look sober?" she asked as she threw the towel at him.
"No," Gin smiled slyly. "It's my attempt at looking a little less hung over. I'll be out in a minute. You can wait here if you want." And with that he disappeared into his bathroom, closing the door behind him.
Haruka sat down on the floor and leaned against a nearby wall. She had been in her office all morning trying to catch up on the paperwork she had left sitting around the previous week so that she could work in the lab. Luckily, Umeko had done a majority of it for her but there was still a giant stack of reports that required her signature to be completed. Haruka hadn't held a pen for that long in ages because in the lab she preferred to use a computer. Haruka closed her eyes to rest. Even though she had slept the entire night for once she was still tired. But that was what she got for staying up so many days in a row.
Haruka sighed as she felt the beginning of a headache come about. She didn't have the time to deal with one that day. She had a captain's meeting in less than an hour and had to be back in the lab to finish up the project. Haruka was quite lucky that Umeko decided to finish up the paperwork because if she had to do that too she probably would never get anything done.
"Wake up sleeping beauty," Gin whispered.
Haruka opened her eyes to see him squatting in front of her. He was dressed in a fresh shihakushō with his captain's haori thrown over. His hair was still damp.
She grabbed the towel that he held in his hand and threw it on his head. "Dry your hair silly," she laughed. "You don't want to get sick now do you?"
Gin laughed. "Me? Sick? Are you kidding me?" But he obliged anyways and rubbed the towel against his head. He shook his hair out and it fell into place. He threw the towel into a dirty laundry hamper in the corner of the room.
"We should get going, don't want to be late now do we?" Haruka said as she slid open the door to the hall. "Or else Captain Commander Yamato will have our heads. Or worse."
Gin smiled and followed her out into the hall. They headed out of the barracks, passing the persimmon orchard Gin had planted when he first became captain. The flowers were already in bloom and he could tell there was going to be a bounty of fruit during the next harvest.
"It smells so sweet out here," Haruka said as she stared at the trees. "I can't wait for your dried persimmons, they're always the best."
"I can't wait either," Gin smiled. "Now let's get going. He used shunpo and landed on the roof of the barracks in front of her. "You're so slow Haruka."
She pouted. "Not my fault you ran away." She got up with him in an instant. "I'll race you, and no cheating this time."
Gin nodded and they took off towards the captains meeting hall. By the time Haruka had come to a stop on top of the meeting hall Gin was already sitting there smiling at her.
Haruka took a few quick seconds to catch her breath before she began to complain. "Ugh, I'm so slow now. I haven't used shunpo that much in ages. Sitting in the office really does get you out of shape, huh? The moment I finish this damn assignment I'm going to start training again. I'm winded from such a short run."
Gin laughed. "You're just out of practice. And we both know you've never been that good at shunpo."
"I'll admit to that one," Haruka laughed. "My kidō in general has never been too great. Actually I'm surprised I ever got out of the academy."
"It's not that bad," Gin smiled. "Just not that good either; which might explain why you're a captain instead of in the kidō corps."
Gin jumped to the ground and Haruka followed closely behind him. They walked slowly, at a lazy pace. After that race they weren't in much of a hurry to get to the captain's hall for they had plenty of time. They headed to the main hall and opened the door to the captain's hall. They were nearly the last to arrive. They took their positions in the oval that the captains stood in during a meeting. Gin stood near the captain commander because he was captain of squad 3 while Haruka stood at the opposite end for she was of squad 14.
They stood in silence as the remaining captains entered. There were a total of eleven of them in the room by then. Ukitake and Shunsui arrived together increasing the number to thirteen. Only one of them was missing. Haruka looked around to see who it was. The empty spot was between Captains Shunsui and Mayuri, which meant that the captain of squad 10 was missing.
Haruka was tempted to laugh. The thought of Captain Hitsugaya late was hilarious. He was always so punctual, precise, perfect. Haruka was almost sick of being compared to him. Other than her height and age she was nothing like him. He was cold, anti-social. Haruka loved to hang out with her friends. He acted so mighty, like he was better than everyone else. She hated people who put others down like that. Even their appearance was completely different. He had short white hair. She had long black hair. He had green eyes. She had purple. They had nothing in common. Nothing at all.
Toshiro Hitsugaya loudly stormed into the room bringing Haruka from her thoughts. He quickly took his position and crossed his arms in front of his body.
"Glad you could join us today, Captain Hitsugaya," Captain Commander Yamamoto stated. "Now, shall I begin?"
Haruka spaced out while the Captain Commander informed them of such routine tasks that it almost seemed trivial that he repeat himself every meeting. Things such as large hollow manifestations and menos appearances were becoming a normalcy. Haruka sighed softly, a barely audible sound. She was bored and wanted to get out of the meeting so she could get back to her lab in the SRDI department and finish her assignment so she could finally get some rest.
They had been standing in that room for nearly an hour before the Captain Commander dismissed them.
Haruka turned for the door and was walking out when Gin walked up behind her.
"Care to join me for lunch?" Gin asked.
Haruka laughed. "Isn't it a bit late for that? And I need to get back to the lab. As soon as I finish my write up report I'll be done with this dang assignment. How about dinner? I'm feeling like ramen. How about you? Meet me at the ramen shop at five?"
Gin smiled. "Okay then. I'll see you tonight."
With that Gin walked out of the room and out of sight. Haruka headed out herself and turned right. She headed to the exit and stepped out into the sunlight. Haruka sighed. She hated captain meetings because whenever they had one she ended up so far from the SDRI department and had to waste time getting back.
By the time Haruka had actually gotten back to her lab she was exhausted. She didn't feel like working but she knew that the faster she finished her work the faster she could get out of there and maybe take a nap before dinner.
She tapped in the code to her lab and pulled open the door.
"Finally you're back," a voice said from inside. "I've been waiting all day."
"Umeko?" Haruka was surprised to see her lieutenant in her office. "What are you doing here?"
Umeko had been Haruka's lieutenant from the beginning of her term as captain. They had been in the academy together and grown to be best friends since the day they had first met at the academy introduction ceremony. When they graduated Umeko and Haruka had tied for first in class. It was the first time in years since there was a tie for first in class.
"I thought you might need some help," Umeko smiled. "I finished your write up for you. Check it over so I can turn it in. And so you can go get some rest. You've been working non-stop for months now. I heard that Gin had to force you to go to bed last night even though you were half passed out in your lab."
Haruka laughed. "You know me so well Umeko," she began to read over the document.
Umeko had filled out everything perfectly. But how could she expect anything less from her second in command. There was a reason Haruka had chosen her of all the shinigami assigned to her squad to be her lieutenant even though there was others who were stronger and smarter, Umeko was the only one Haruka saw fit to be her right hand. They'd been together through everything and knew each other like they knew their own zanpakuto.
"It's all good," Haruka stated as she handed back the documents. "Go ahead and turn it in. I'm heading out to go take a nap. Feel free to take a break, not like we have much of anything else to do since you finished all the paperwork already."
Haruka wondered around Seireitei. She was tired but she didn't feel like going to bed. Eventually she made her way to the river that flowed through the middle of Seireitei. She sat down next to a tree and stared at the crystal blue water as it slowly traveled down the length of the stream.
"Finished your work already I see," Gin smiled.
"Umeko did it for me," Haruka stated. "How'd you know I would be here?"
Gin laughed. "You always come here when you're tired. You hate taking naps inside your barracks; you always complain it's too stuffy when you do."
Gin sat down next to Haruka leaning against the tree.
"But it is too stuffy in there during the day," Haruka whined. "It's too hot and there is just too many people roaming around in there. They should find a better way to ventilate that place than just leaving the windows open."
Gin laughed and shifted his seat forward a bit. He then pulled Haruka next to him and laid down on the soft grass. He motioned for her to lie next to him and she did. She rested her head on his chest and listened as his heart beat softly. It had been a while since the last time they laid around in the grass while watching the clouds float in the sky. Haruka missed having the time to do things like this. She smiled and yawned quietly, drifting to sleep to the sound of Gin's heartbeat.
Toshiro didn't understand why he was upset he just knew he was. It probably had to do something with the fact that when he had awoken his entire room was covered in a thick frost and he had a massive headache. He didn't even understand why he had frozen the room over like that considering how fine he had felt when he had gone to bed after talking to Momo. He felt like something had decided he wasn't fit to live happily and placed a curse on him.
He had been walking around most of the day, leaving all of his tasks to Matsumoto. The only thing that he couldn't shove off on her no matter how much he would have liked was his captains' meeting. He hated attending those but he did anyways because he knew he would have gotten in massive trouble if he hadn't. As soon as the meeting had ended he barged right out of the room and headed in some direction, not completely sure on where he was trying to go. Eventually he found himself following the length of the river.
Hitsugaya turned a bend to feel a familiar reiatsu wash over him. He looked up from the water to see the two people he was trying to avoid. Haruka was laying next Gin, her head on his chest. The sight made him want to cry. He took a deep breath and turned around. He tried his best to keep a straight face as he headed back to his barracks. He walked into his room and locked the door. Hitsugaya curled up on his bed and buried his face in his pillow in attempts to fall asleep knowing perfectly well that if he did sleep at that moment he would awake to a frozen room again. But he didn't care. He needed some escape from the pain.
His head began to throb badly. Eventually he became numb, not feeling or remembering a thing. He didn't know whether or not he had fallen asleep, but he didn't mind because at least the pain had faded. There was only one thing he could still remember at that point.
That Gin had lied.
Arigato. Reviews welcome.
A/N: This chapter took forever to write. Although it took me less time to write this than it did for me to finish chapter 4 (which makes no sense considering how chapter 4 is almost 2k words shorter than this one), it still took a while. Finally glad I got this one finished because now I can plan out the next few chapters. I have this timeline set out in my head of what I want to happen in this story it's just I don't have every chapter planned out perfectly so it's always a giant question of how do I move this story along so I can get to the next major event. Ugh. Well at least this chapter is finally done. (:
- Haruka Shinigami