Author's Note: Gah. It's been a really long time now, hasn't it…? Gomen ne...

Disclaimer: Read previous chapters.

Chapter 8 – The One Being Trusted by the 6th Division

Ever since the rather embarrassing GameBoy incident at the neighbouring division, Hitsugaya had been avoiding Captain Madman-Loves-Violence whenever captain meetings were held. The black, spiky-haired taichou of the 11th Division had been giving him 'the eye' during meetings secretly, and Hitsugaya pretended not to notice even though the malicious-looking glares seemed to be hinting at the desire to fight things out. He'd…rather not fight and let bygones be bygones, unless Toushirou would do something stupid again.

Speaking of the white-haired troublemaker, where was he?

He had been quite jumpy these past few days, Hitsugaya noticed. Jumpy, as in, literally jumpy, not out of anxiety or anything suggesting that. Take last night for example; the poor sleep-deprived taichou was kept up all night trying to get a hyperactive Toushirou to bed. He had been jumping around all over the place and utterly unwilling to sleep. The strange thing was, the white-haired taichou didn't notice anything high in sugar in the other's meals. They had been perfectly healthy and balanced with a salad to top it all off.

And now that – dare he say it – little brat had gone off somewhere when he clearly told him to stay put in the 10th Division barracks while he'd attend the captain's meeting that morning. Returning to his office with Toushirou missing and Matsumoto rushing off to meet her friends at the bar was definitely pissing him off to no end. He demanded to know where that white-haired child had gone off to, but as expected, Matsumoto his lazy sow of a fukutaichou didn't give a very satisfactory answer. Hell, 'I don't know' didn't even qualify as a proper answer. And before she even said anything else, she instantly shunpo-ed off to the bar. How irksome.

As long as Toushirou didn't go to the 11th Division, Hitsugaya would be a bit more content. But still, running away for no apparent reason was frustrating by itself; searching for a little white-haired kid (other than him) would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. He hadn't exactly gotten used to the feel of Toushirou's reiatsu since it was sealed within himself twenty-four seven as he didn't know how to release his reiatsu, and with just a tiny flame in a sea of spirit particles, it would be quite a challenge to find the white-haired lookalike.

He had started to look in the 12th Division, only to find the scientists all busy with their experiments and no white hair except for his own and this seated officer who was forced into testing Mayuri's new potion and gained a whole new hair colour which totally did not suit him at all. The 11th Division was the last division he would check; Zaraki still misunderstood him as Yachiru's attacker.

9th Division was practically deserted; they had all gone out to their area to train. Kyouraku and Nanao didn't see his white-haired partner pass by as the flamboyantly dressed captain was too busy ogling his lieutenant, and she was too busy teaching him a lesson about being a pervert and the whatnot. Komamura had taken most of his officers out for training so he couldn't ask him, and when he arrived at the 6th Division barracks…

"ONII-CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!"

Bam.

"…Have you been taking coffee lately, Toushirou?" Hitsugaya asked coolly with his palm pressed against the hyperactive child's face in mid-air. With the small, lithe body dangling and his short limbs swinging around like mad, the white-haired taichou couldn't help but find the sight slightly amusing, to a certain extent.

"Eh eh eh eh eh eh…!!" the white-haired child squealed, swinging his arms at a much faster rate than before. "Caffeine is good, but Kuya-kun's tea is better!!! I like tea! Whee…!!"

It might have been one of the most ridiculous things he had ever heard, but Hitsugaya wasn't going to fall for that kind of excuse. No child would like tea that much so as to go as high as sugar rush; he was an exception, because as much as he liked having tea more than he liked any other drink including milk, he would not go sugar high – or tea high, in this case – and he would not declare his love for tea to the world. He didn't exactly like tea that much anyway; he just hated the thought of drinking milk because it was implying something he didn't want to know.

"Oi oi oi, Toushirou, don't run out like that and-oh, Hitsu-I mean, Hyousetsu-taichou," Renji corrected in a rush, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly with a little grin of perhaps guilt or something.

With a glare, Hitsugaya carried the white-haired boy by the arms and handed him over to Renji. "You should have made a report to me about this, Abarai," he scolded sharply, folding his arms and sighing a little.

"H-hai, when I found him in Kuchiki-taichou's office, I tried to keep him in hand and it totally slipped my mind…" Renji explained, raising Toushirou at a distance away from him to prevent the tea high child from giving him a hug which he wanted to give Hitsugaya. He hadn't expected the young child to go high; he thought only sweets could do the trick and he barely added any sugar into the cup of tea which Toushirou had asked for. In fact, he had drunk the tea meant for Byakuya which was totally low in sugar so there was no way the white-haired boy had gone sugar high...tea high was the only plausible outcome.

Hitsugaya sighed, trying to forget that the matter had ever happened. "Never mind, Abarai..." Opening his emerald eyes, the white-haired captain continued, "Just report to me about the crimes he has committed so far. I'll be sure to account for them to Kuchiki-taichou."

Silence.

"Erm...I'm not exactly sure if you'd be able to do that, Hyousetsu-taichou..." mumbled a rather ashamed Renji who had begun scratching his cheek.

"And exactly why not?"

"Kuchiki-taichou is...uh, outside right now, so if Hyousetsu-taichou would like to drink all of the tea I made for Toushirou here..." Said white-haired troublemaker squealed before Renji continued with a sweat drop, "...then it'd be ok, I guess."

"...I suppose." Taking a step into the 6th Division barracks, Hitsugaya eyed the overturned kettles and the tea seeping into the assigned paperwork on the desk, folding his arms and narrowing his eyes. Ah, no wonder Abarai looked so flustered; the place was a complete mess. Knowing Kuchiki-taichou, he would slaughter his own fukutaichou when he would return from who-knows-where, if not, chop his arms off to prevent him from making anymore tea and give the soutaichou a good reason to get rid of the red-headed clown (yes, Byakuya was actually that smart and brutal). Eyebrow twitching a little, Hitsugaya spoke after a long pause of silence, "So, I assume that you would expect me to clean this up for you before Kuchiki-taichou returns." Sighing, he continued, "You should've been more careful, Abarai..."

"Wh-what!?" the pineapple exclaimed in surprise, pushing the white-haired insect crawling all over his face. "I didn't know the kid was so obsessed with tea and sugar, Hyousetsu-taichou! Really, I didn't!"

"I am completely aware of the situation," Hitsugaya replied coolly, eyeing Renji's futile attempts to get his 'split personality' off his face. "However, that doesn't mean I will findthe solution to the problem at hand...Well, I'm sorry, Abarai, but you'll have to take care of this on your own."

Eyes widened to the size of saucepans with red pupils dilated. "H-huh!?"

The young prodigy sighed in frustration as he stepped towards the intensely surprised red pineapple, arms still stubbornly folded across his chest, and looked at the other in the eye. "I came only to find Toushirou; nothing more, nothing less. I didn't come here to help you, and I certainly didn't come here to prevent Kuchiki-taichou from coming back to see this mess. I myself have other more important matters to attend to; I don't have time for all of this."

"But...but...Kuchiki-taichou will-"

"And I will, what?"

'Eeep'ing as he heard the familiar, stony voice behind him, the red-haired fukutaichou of the 6th Division gulped silently as he took in a deep breath to calm himself down, and turned to see the person he expected and didn't want to see. The nobleman, statue-like as ever, stood dignified and proudly, and narrowed his eyes to thin slits as he laid them on the tea spilling over his working deskand dripping onto the floor, staining it dark brown. In the corner of his eyes, a rather temperamental Hitsugaya was doing the best he could to pin the other white-haired child down to prevent him from doing any further damage to his office, and was sendinghim a few obviouseye signals. Closing his eyes, the raven-haired taichou moved over towards his chair and stood beside it, back facing the office doors as if giving Hitsugaya the permission to leave. Not like the other was actually asking for it; just wanted to make sure it was alright to leave so that he could lock Toushirou up and chain him to his table's leg before giving him a good lecture...of course Hitsugaya wanted to leave.

Thanking the head of the Kuchikis mentally, the white-haired taichou proceeded on to leave the 6th Division barracks with Toushirou tucked in between his arms nicely and tightly, shunpo-ing off into the distance. Renji, on the other hand, stayed upright when facing his captain, hands behind his back and fingers twidling around as if in a nervous state. Finally, after a moment of silence, Byakuya turned and opened his eyes, locking them with his lieutenants. "Renji," he began stoically, taking a pause to glance down at the puddle of tea on his (very expensive) cushion chair with a glare, and then continued, "I assume you know what exactly happened here."

"Eh...Hai, taichou..." came the sheepish reply.

"...Clean the area. I won't have a pigsty for an office, and I don't want to have a pig as a fukutaichou as well," Byakuya noted, taking silent steps towards the office doors, about to leave once more. He halted to a stop, all of a sudden, but remained in his back-facing-Renji posture. "Remember; the next time that child comes over for tea, do not make any for him."

"Hai, hai, Kuchiki-taichou," Renji replied in a bored manner, rolling his eyes a bit as he moved towards the storeroom.

"...I have not finished, Renji. Do not show such rudeness in front of me ever again."

"Yes, taichou? What do you wanna say?" the red pineapple asked, turning around to face his taichou's...back.

"...The next time that child comes over for tea, do not make any for him," he repeated, turning slightlyto face his fukutaichou. "I will see to that matter personally."

Blink blink.

"T-taichou, you don't mean...?"

"...It is...very rare to see such appreciation for tea in a child, after all."