A/N: Hey guys, thanks for the awesome reviews, they made me smile :) and like to say thanks to everyone who added it to favourites and alerts so far! Well, here's chapter 3, enjoooooy!

Toushiro sat at his desk with a light headache between his eyes as he sat and filled out paper work. He looked up at his lazy lieutenant and scowled. As usual, she lay on the sofa snoring softly.

"Matsumoto."

She didn't respond. Her well endowed chest moving up and down with her deep breathing.

"Matsumoto." He said, a little bit louder. Nothing.

His eye twitched as he stood and walked around his desk, standing over the girl before leaning right down to her face. "Matsumoto!" He screamed.

"Gah!" The woman's eyes shot open as she sat up abruptly, effectively bashing into Toushiro and sending him sprawled out on his back.

The beautiful, but slightly slow, woman looked around, blinking a couple of times before her eyes fell onto her captain who lay on the floor, moaning quietly.

"Err, captain, why are you on the floor?"

He climbed up, rubbing his head as he felt his headache intensify a bit. "You hit me."

She blinked. "I did?"

"Yes. Now get up and do some godamned work."

"But captaaaain-"

"Just do it Matsumoto! I'm not in the mood for your whining!"

Rangiku pouted, a little hurt by the captains outburst. She stood and walked to her desk, settling behind it and starting on her paperwork. God, she hated paperwork.

She looked up at him and noticed the dejected look on his face as he continued to do his paperwork and wondered what was wrong. He spoke to her more than did before the war, treat her like more of a friend than a subordinate and she didn't like how upset he looked. Plus, he'd never shouted at her like that for years.

"Captain?"

"What is it?" He sighed.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," He responded, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I just have a head ache."

"I didn't know head aches made you upset."

Toushiro blushed, was it really that obvious?

"It's about Ichigo isn't it? Me and Momo saw you carrying him out of the 11th barracks last night…"

Apparently, this vain and lazy woman could be very intuitive sometimes. Rangiku and Momo had been his closest friends within the Thirteen Court Guard Squad for number of years now, and he'd never really been able to hide much from Momo to start with. They noticed not long after the Winter War that he obviously had some kind of feelings for the orange haired boy and had confronted him about it. It had taken probing and near torture, but he had admitted that he had 'feelings that he didn't quite understand' and, since then, they had been the people he spoke too about it when he needed too. That was rare though, he spent most of his life isolating himself, it wasn't a hard thing for him.

"Did anything happen?" She probed.

He contemplated her, deciding to tell her a slightly edited story. "I thought something did, I just can't remember. And he doesn't remember the night that well either." He sighed.

He hated lying to her but he really couldn't be bothered with her gushing and reassurances and her trying to push him out the door to go tell him his true feelings and other dramatic shit. She frowned a little, sensing he wasn't being quite truthful;, but didn't push it. He obviously didn't want to talk about it.

"If it's meant to happen, it'll happen." She said simply, "I'm sure you'll work it out."

He smiled slightly at his lieutenant before returning to his paperwork. He didn't respond and she didn't feel the need to say anymore (which was quite unusual) , so all that could be heard was light scribbling and the birds singing outside.

Ichigo walked through the Seireitei, cracking his neck and stretching his aching muscles, he'd sat under the tree for so long that he'd went stiff. He thought about his promise to Rukia that she made sure he remembered before he left, but he didn't feel ready to go through with it. As he walked, his mind went back to the corridor and what had happened there, the thought making him both blush and smile at the same time. He must have looked unusual, because all of the soul reapers he walked past did a double take on him.

A question was bouncing around in his mind though, and it was probably the most important thing to consider at the moment. How the hell did he tell Toushiro about what really happened in the corridor that night and tell him how he really felt? Without causing him so much embarrassment that he would never come back to the Soul Society? Every time he thought about it his stomach flipped. The thought of doing it was actually terrifying him.

It was a while before he noticed where he was. He was on a direct path that led to the 10th division. Joy. He continued walking hoping that somehow, and miraculously, he would walk in and tell Toushiro, it would work out and they'd get together and be all happy. Ichigo snorted at his own line of thinking, like things could ever be so simple for him.

"What're you laughin about?"

Ichigo turned at the sound of Renji's voice and snorted again when he saw his dishevelled appearance. His striking red hair was messily tied up and his tanned skin was unusually pale, making his tattoos stand out even more. His bandana was folded messily and he had dark circles under his eyes.

"You now." He responded.

"Wow, such a comedian," the redhead grumbled, falling into step beside him.

"You're a mess Renji…"

"Yeah, I've already had Captain Kuchiki on my back about it. But man, I'm just too tired to care at the moment."

Ichigo laughed, "I take it you had a good time last night then."

Renji's face stretched into a wolfish grin, "Definitely. Me and Shuhei copped a feel of Rangiku's boobs and she didn't mind. Awesome."

"You're a pervert, you know that right?"

He chuckled, choosing not to answer that question. "So where are you headed?"

"I'm not sure, just wandering really. I was thinking I might go visit the 10th division but I dunno…"

"Why do you wanna visit-"

Renji's sentence was cut short by someone's laughter. The kind of laughter Ichigo knew could only bring trouble. The pair froze and turned around slowly, looking up at the giant behind them.

"If you're not busy then you can fight me!" Zaraki said, his grin big and wide.

"No, I'm busy." Ichigo said quickly, starting to walk away as fast as he could.

Within seconds, felt something and flash stepped away, narrowly missing a heavy blow from Zaraki's nameless Zanpakuto.

"You haven't lost you're touch." He laughed.

"Hey you psycho! You coulda killed me!" Ichigo yelled.

"Isn't that the point?" The kenpachi asked in reply, launching himself at Ichigo, who only just stopped him with his Zangetsu. "C'mon, enjoy the fight!"

"I'm just gonna go!" Renji yelled from their original place, turning to leave.

"Don't move! I want a witness!" The psycho captain yelled, freezing Renji in his place. Technically, he couldn't disobey a captain's order, even if it wasn't his squad leader. It hadn't stopped him from doing it before, but he stayed anyway.

Ichigo pushed Zaraki away, taking a leap backwards. He couldn't be bothered with this, he wanted it over as quickly as possible.

"Bankai!" He yelled, black spiritual pressure exploding from around him as his attire changed and his large sword turned back and thin.

Kenpachi launched another attack that Ichigo dodged, but instantly regretted doing so straight after. A whole portion of the wall, (and thank god it was just a wall!) collapsed, leaving a way of passage. Yamamoto was gonna kill him. Too distracted by the wall, Ichigo only sensed Zaraki's attack at the last second and tried to dodge, almost making it but getting a pretty deep cut in his arm.

"Dammit." He growled, he didn't wanna attack him, but someone didn't come soon to stop him, he was gonna have to do it himself.

Swords clashed as Ichigo tried to defend himself against Zaraki's relentless onslaught of swipes and stabs. The sound of metal hitting against metal brought back memories to the orange haired boy, most bad, but some good, like training with Urahara and Renji…but most of all, the rush of adrenaline and enjoyment of fighting, even when fighting to save the life of someone, came back to him. He began to get into it, swinging his own blows at the scarred giant, completely unaware that a crowd was gathering. He was so absorbed in the fight that, when what looked like dragon made of ice flew right at them and forced them apart, he temporarily forgot where he was.

He blinked twice, standing on the reishi thick air, before looking down at the ground to see a mop of white hair and fiery red stood side by side.

He (what only be described as) floated down and landed on the ground with the elegance of a well practised fighter. He sent a kind of nervous/sheepish grin at Renji and Toushiro before a more Shinigami appeared, whether by flash stepping or running it didn't matter.

"What on earth did you think you were doing?" Toushiro asked, exasperated and but with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. Completely different to what it would have been years ago.

"That maniac started it," He answered, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder at the 11th captain, who was currently getting an earful off the Head Captain with a bored look on his face.

"I don't care who started it, you broke a wall!" The white haired man cried, trying not to smile.

"He broke the wall!!" Ichigo retorted defensively.

"You sound like a child," he answered, not able to stop the smile as Renji snorted at his comment.

"Shut up." Ichigo muttered, as the Head Captain descended on him.

All hell broke loose quite frankly and by the time the old man had finished, Ichigo's headache, which was an odd twinge here and there became a full on throbbing.

"Don't let it happen again!" The Head captain commanded, before turning and walking away flanked by his lieutenant and others from his squad.

Ichigo scowled, it wasn't even his fault! That fucking crazed captain always managed to get him into trouble. Ichigo grumbled to himself as he stalked off, returning to his Shikai state and hanging his sword on his back again.

It was a couple of seconds before he felt someone walking along side him.

"Don't even start-" He began, thinking it was Renji or someone, but stopped when he realised it was Toushiro. "Oh, sorry, I thought you were Renji or someone."

"Thanks." The smaller man retorted, his tone laced with sarcasm. He looked up at the brown orbs that were staring down at him and smiled. "Do you want to come back to office with me? Matsumoto disappeared during the fight and I could do with a break from all the paperwork."

Ichigo nodded, smiling back at the white haired boy before continuing their walk in silence. It was only just before they reached the 10th division that the silence was broken.

"You seemed to be enjoying yourself up there."

Ichigo looked down at boy when he spoke, but he wasn't looking at him. "Yeah, I kinda forgot what it was like to fight properly again. Hollows are child's play these days."

Ichigo followed him into the 10th division and along a series of corridors before they reached the office.

"Sit." Toushiro said, pointing to the sofa as he set about setting some water to boil, "So how did the fight start?"

"I was walking with Renji and Zaraki just popped out of no where shouting about how I could fight him if I wasn't busy."

Toushiro turned to him and shot him an incredulous look.

"It's true!" Ichigo cried before pouting, "Why won't anyone believe me?" Everyone being the man before him and the Head Captain.

Toushiro laughed in response, finished making the coffee's and handed one to Ichigo before taking his place on the sofa too, on the opposite arm and facing him. Ichigo turned his body slightly too.

They sat and talked about nothing in particular, Ichigo becoming more and more nervous as time went on. He realised how perfect this opportunity was, he just couldn't make the words come out. He started mentally preparing himself which, needless to say, made his hollow laugh.

Silence fell upon the pair after so long. Ichigo's mental preparation stopped when he noticed Toushiro staring serenely out of the window behind his desk, looking at peace and young. He hadn't noticed however, that he was staring at him, mouth wide open.

Toushiro noticed out of the corner of his eye and turned, smiling as he asked, "Why are you staring at me?"

Ichigo's jaw snapped up as he searched for what to say.

'It's now or never, it's now or never!'

'Just do it ya damned pussy!' His hollow screamed.

'Shut up!'

"Toushiro, I have to tell you something-"

His words were cut short at the sound of creaking wood and they swung round as the door to the office collapsed inwards, Momo and Rangiku rolling in with it. They looked up at the pair in horror of what had just happened, and it took the boy genius a few seconds to realise it as well.

"Have you been spying on me?!" He roared. The damned pair had ruined the godamned moment!

"No- Captain- I-" Rangiku sputtered.

"Shiro-chan, we-"

"Get out!" He screamed. Ichigo was laughing at the event that had played out in front of him, thinking Toushiro was just being pissy, which he was really. But Toushiro could feel there was some real anger there as well.

Today had sucked.

When the girls had practically clawed and crawled there way out of his immediate vicinity, they dragged themselves up and ran like professional sprinters out of the barracks.

Toushiro threw himself back on the sofa and growled while Ichigo still laughing slightly. Yes, Ichigo had found it funny, but he was really annoyed too. He was just about to tell him, finally spill the truth, but no! Fate was evidently working against him today. He sighed, sadness washed over him as he realised he'd lost his chance.

"So what did you want to tell me?"

Ichigo looked up, a pink tinge covering his cheeks at the captains gentle face. He didn't know what to say, whether to even say anything like he was going too. But then he realised, fuck it, the moments gone. He just decided to play it cool instead. He should be used to it, and he was, but today was different. They'd had moment, and he'd come so close, but he'd let it just slip away…

"I wanted…I wanted to tell you I'm going back to the world of the living in a couple of days."

Toushiro tried to hide his disappointment with a smile. "I'll have to come down and see you."

Ichigo nodded, looking out of the window himself.

'You're such a douche King.'

'Bite me Horse.'

MisaxMisa: Ah Ichi, just tell him!

Ichigo: I already told you no woman!

MisaxMisa: *big sigh* You're so stupid.

Ichigo: Oh yeah! *draws Zangetsu* Whatcha got ta say now?

MisaxMisa:…did you forget I have my on Zanpakuto? *draws Raikan*

Ichigo:…oh shit.