Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

Chapter 7: The Division

When Jushiro entered the Division Thirteen front office, he instantly caught sight of the large stacks of papers that sat on the desks opposite the front door. Surveying the stack, he began to hope that the First Division had made a mistake about where they had delivered the forms. He really didn't want to have to fill all of those papers out. He made his way over to the front desk and looked down at the top paper on the front stack and sighed. Nope. Those forms were indeed his. He picked up the stacks and turned around to head down the hallway and to his office. His eyes widened for a moment and he nearly dropped the stack of papers he was holding from the surprise of realizing that he wasn't alone in the office. He was greeted by a pale face framed by coal black hair. His eyes were once again drawn to her black ones, the sheer intensity of them rendered him senseless for a moment.

"Oh," he said once he had recovered from his stupor. "You're here already." Although he knew that she would be staying with his squad, he hadn't expected her to come into the office so early in the morning. He tore his eyes from hers and glanced around the room. "Kiyone?" he asked when he found it to be empty.

"She had to go take care of a food fight that broke out in the mess hall."

"Right, right," replied Jushiro as he desperately tried to ignore the urge to tug on the sleeve of his captain's haori. There was a moment of silence between them before he spoke again. "I don't believe that I ever did get to introduce myself properly. I'm Jushiro Ukitake, I'm the Squad Thirteen Captain." He transferred the stack of papers into one hand and held out the other.

"Miya," she replied as she shook his hand. A shiver shot down his spine the moment their hands touched.

"Well Miss Miya, It's nice to officially meet you." He gave her a smile. She looked away. "I take it your hands is all better," he said after a moment. He saw her eyes widen slightly when she looked down and realized that she was still holding his hand. She quickly dropped his hand and crossed her hands behind her back.

"Yes, it is. Thanks again."

"Have you been settling in well?" he asked after another moment of silence.

"As well as can be expected sir," she replied, her voice flat and emotionless. He frowned at her answer.

"As can be expected?" he asked.

"I lost both my friends and my freedom all in one day. How would you feel?" Jushiro thought about it. A long silence filled the air.

"The Seireitei's not such a bad place," he finally replied. "I do hope that you will eventually enjoy living here." She turned to stare out the office window.

"I seriously doubt that." Although her voice this time had come out barley above a whisper and still was emotionless, Jushiro could tell that she was upset. She just didn't want to show it. From the way that the early morning light fell at an angle through the window next to her, Jushiro was able to see that her eyes were in fact brown, the darkest shade of brown he had ever seen. When she turned her head away from the light of the window to look at him, her eyes went back to their captivating black color. And, in her eyes, Jushiro could see the emotion that she had tried to keep from her voice and face. Sadness saturated her eyes. He wanted to say something that would cheer her up, that would reassure her but he just couldn't seem to find the right words to say to her to make her feel at ease.

"So, what happens to me now?" she finally asked.

"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. For the time being, you'll be staying and working with Squad Thirteen. The Head Captain will eventually decide where he wants to permanently place you." Miya opened her mouth again another question but the sound of the front door suddenly swinging open stopped her before any words came out. Shunsui marched into the office wearing his traditional straw hat and ridiculous pink kimono.

"Hey Jushiro do you have any—" the Shunsui stopped abruptly when he saw Miya standing next to him.

"Good morning," said Shunsui, smiling widely at Miya. "I'm Captain Shunsui Kyoraku."

"Nice to meet you Captain Kyoraku. I'm Miya." She replied timidly.

"It's nice to have you joining us here in the Seireitei. I'm sure Jushiro is more than glad to have such a lovely young lady working with his squad. He's not as mean as he might seem. If he gives you any trouble, just let me know." Jushiro felt his face warm slightly.

The door behind Shunsui creaked open and in walked Kiyone, a pissed off look on her face. As soon as she saw him standing in the office, however, her expression instantly changed and a huge smile crossed her face.

"Good morning Captain Ukitake," said the girl in a bright chipper voice. "I trust you slept well."

"Just fine Kiyone, thank you," he replied.

"Good morning Captain Kyoraku," said Kiyone as she turned to bow to Shunsui. Shunsui bowed back at her. "I'm ready for my orders Captain," said the girl in the same bright and bubbly voice.

"Thank you for taking care of Miss Miya yesterday Kiyone. First thing I would like for you to do today is to introduce her to the rest of the squad captains and lieutenants. After that, you can take her on a tour of the Seireitei. Once you finish, you can come back to the office and show Miss Miya how to do some of the paperwork." Kiyone glared at Miya briefly before looking back at him.

"Couldn't we find somewhere else to place Miya?" When he gave her a questioning look, the girl quickly amended her statement. "I mean, um, I don't really need any help here in the office. Isn't there some other place where she could be of better use?"

"For the time being, Miss Miya will be helping you out in here." Although it was apparent that she wasn't happy with his answer, the small girl nodded and turned to leave.

"Come on Miya, let's go. Captain Ukitake gave us orders." Miya turned and followed the small girl. With one hand on the door, Miya glanced at him and their eyes met for a fraction of a second before she stepped outside. The door swung closed behind her. Through the office window, Jushiro saw the two girls walk down the gravel pathway towards the Eleventh Division grounds.

"Shunsui, you're here early," said Jushiro when he finally turned his attention back to his friend.

"Ugg, I know," replied Shunsui as he leaned against the wall and pouted. "Yuki's got the flu and I was up most of the night taking care of her. When my mother took over this morning it was already time to go to work. You know how Nanao is. If I would have stayed home to take a nap instead of coming into work, she would have smacked me wither her fan and gone to the office herself. I can't even nap in the office anymore without her finding out. I swear, Nanao is paying off some of the office workers to spy on me and report back to her. That's actually why I came here—Jushiro do you have any of that coffee stuff from the world of the living?" Jushiro placed his hand on his chin and thought for a moment.

"Yeah, I think I do have a can of instant coffee that Renji brought back for me on his last trip to the world of the living."

"They did it again!" The two captains turned to face to door as in walked Toshiro carrying a large stack of papers. He stomped across the office and dropped them on one of the desks. "Stupid Squad One members! How many time do I have to tell them that we don't use forms 221 and 573 in the Tenth Division!" Shunsui laughed. "If I didn't know better, I would swear that they had a bunch of monkeys working in their office!"

"Are all of those mine?" asked Jushiro. A miserable look crossed his face as he eyed the new stack of papers.

"Yep," replied Toshiro with a scowl. "But this is only half of them. You can send someone over to the Division Ten office to retrieve the rest later." Jushiro signed.

"Well it looks like you'll be busy for a while," said Shunsui as he gave his friend a pat on the back.

"That reminds me, Shunsui, could you send some of your squad members over to the division Tenth Division office as well?"

"Whatever for?" asked Shunsui, his eyebrows raising.

"I found mountains of paperwork that Matsumoto hid in the storage cabinets where she usually hides her shake bottles. Squad One also screwed up with sorting those. Most of them are yours." Shunsui's shoulders fell and he pouted.

"I can't ever catch a break." Shunsui perked up a moment later. "Hey, speaking of Squad One, what was up with Old Man Yama yesterday?" asked Shunsui as he rubbed the stubble on his chin.

"What do you mean?" asked Jushiro confused.

"Oh come on, Jushiro, you can't honestly tell me you didn't think he was acting strange yesterday," said Toshiro crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Yeah," continued Shunsui, "He looked like he was about to have a heart attack when the girl first entered the meeting room."

"Then he drops his cane and then he agrees to let the girl fight Byakuya right there in the middle of the meeting room. A captain! Against a girl who has never had any formal shinigami training," said Toshiro. "How could he of allowed such a thing? I'm glad that she ended up having some skill. Things could have ended very badly for her."

"I wasn't worried about her fighting Byakuya," said Shunsui confidently. "I knew she would win. After all, she did kick Jushiro's ass."

"What?" asked Toshiro, a confused expression on his face.

"She's the one that did that to his eye." Toshiro turned to see the purple and yellow bruise on Jushiro's right eye. He and raised his eyebrows at him.

"You've fought against her?"

"Yeah, in the woods before she was caught and brought here," replied Jushiro.

"Wait a minute, I thought it was against your great principles to fight in front of women, much less fight one," said Toshiro.

"I didn't know she was a girl at the time," he replied in a rush. Toshiro eyed him incredulously.

"How could you not tell that she's a girl?"

"She was wearing a mask and a really baggy black kimono at the time. And plus, it was really dark. I couldn't tell," replied Jushiro in a slightly panicked voice. Toshiro gave him a skeptical look.

"If you say so. I sure as hell wouldn't have made the mistake," replied Toshiro. "I have to get back to my division. I'll see you two later." And with that, Toshiro turned and headed out the front door.

"She is beautiful," said Shunsui after a moment of silence, "but I think you've already noticed that."

"Of course I have." Jushiro looked away from his friend. He could feel his cheeks warm slightly. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Just stating the facts my friend. Just stating the facts. But I do have a feeling that things are going to get pretty interesting from here on out."

"Oh yeah, why would you say that?" asked Jushiro turning to face his friend again.

"Well, since that girl showed up, Old Man Yama has freaked out. Byakuya has been acting weirder than usual with his whole 'disrespect my family and die.' I mean, the guy's always been hardcore about protecting his family and all, but yesterday was the first time I've ever seen him prepared to cut someone so quickly for it. Byakuya also got his ass kicked yesterday for the first time since he fought Ichigo eighty years ago." A lazy smile crossed Shunsui's lips as he lifted the brim of his hat to look at Jushiro. "But, the most interesting thing that I've seen happen since the girl has been here is the fact that and I've seen you blush for the first time in decades." Shunsui's last statement only made Jushiro blush even deeper. Shunsui chuckled. "Yep, like I said, things are definitely going to get interesting."

"Come on," Jushiro said as he turned to head down the hallway that lead to his office. "I'll get you that coffee." Jushiro heard Shunsui chuckle again before he started following him.

Shunsui was right. Jushiro wasn't blind—he had noticed how beautiful Miya was from the very beginning. But what did that matter after all?

Review Please :)

A/N: Hey guys! I just wanted to explain how old everyone in my story is. It seems like every 10 years that pass in the world of the living is equal to one physical ageing year that passes in the Soul Society. So, Toshiro is around 20 years old physically since my story takes place eighty years (8 physical years) after the main Bleach story line. All of the other characters in have also aged by eight physical years. As for Miya, she's around 23 years old physically.

Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up soon!