Not Mine Valentine
Naivety

Rangiku headed back to the division and got to work on cleaning up her small taicho's bedding. She then headed to the office and waited for him to get back to the office. She glanced up as soon as she felt his reiatsu and saw that his face was twisted up in frustration. He sat down, picking up his brush with his small hand.

The woman stood up and headed to the door. She heard Toshiro's chair suddenly scrape against the floor and she found herself turning her head in time to see him glaring at her. "Don't worry. I'm going to go and get you some tea so that you can relax. I'll be back as soon as I make it. I have a note for you from Unohana. There are some things she wants you to do."

Again the boy flinched. "I'm not sick."

Rangiku took a deep breath. "It's to keep you from getting sick and there are also some ideas she has to make it so you don't have problems at night."

"Go away."

The woman let out a deep sigh before heading to the kitchen. She placed a pot of water on to boil and grabbed the small container of tea leaves. She soon headed back to the office and closed the door behind her. She set the tray down on the desk before pouring her small taicho a cup of tea and handing it to the boy. "Why don't you sleep with me tonight?"

"What!" Toshiro's voice cracked. The next thing she knew he was standing up, knocking over his chair. The door to the office slammed open and the closed, causing her to let out a deep sigh. However, he came right back in, closing the door behind him. "I can't believe I walked out like that..."

"You're stressed out. You've always slept better when you've spent the night with me."

"I'm not a little kid you know!"

"I know that. If it makes you feel better, Hyorinmaru can go between us. That will solve the problem, right?"

"Solve the problem? Hyorinmaru isn't a stuffed animal!" Rangiku's hand reached up and touched her mouth, stifling a giggle. "It's not funny!"

"You misunderstood me... and no, I'm not going to explain my comment to you. Trust me on this one. Plus, you know I won't tell anyone. I also told you you're free to use my room."

"You aren't mad at me still for going through your jewelery and makeup? Because... well..."

"Fill free to use any of it. I don't mind." Rangiku took a deep breath. "Sleep with me tonight. I haven't been sleeping well either."

"Well... yeah. You seem to know exactly when I wake up from..." The small boy took a deep breath. "All right. I don't like it, but all right."

The two continued their work, going their separate ways for the rest of the day. Matsumoto spent the time having a few drinks with Nanao before coming back. The door to her room was open and the light on and she crept forward and slid the door open in hopes that the small taicho would be asleep. Instead he was sitting on the bed, dressed in only his sleep ware. Hyorinmaru was clutched in his hands, pressed against his chest.

"Perhaps you should use the restroom before we go to bed. This will give me a chance to change before you get back."

The boy blinked a couple of times before swinging his legs over the side of the bed, leaving the blade on the bed. He then left the room without much of a question. Rangiku shut the door and changed into her own sleep ware. She then walked over to the bed, her hand brushing across Hyorinmaru. "Such a precious child. Protect him for me, will you Hyorinmaru. As if you could hear me. When would be a good time to tell him. Not now, as he's obviously upset about something."

The door slid open then and Toshiro slipped back into the room, quickly moving to the side of the bed closest to the wall, tucking Hyorinmaru close to himself as he lay down. Rangiku pulled the covers over his shoulders before turning off the light. Soon the boy's breathing indicated that he was asleep, not to mention completely relaxed. She soon fell asleep, only to be woken up the sound of someone outside her and her taicho's room.

Sunlight filtered under the door frame and her eyes took in the small taicho still sleeping on the bed next to her. Nothing had occurred during the night. She heard someone call out her captain's name and she sat up and hurried to the door, sliding it open. She blinked a couple of times upon seeing that Hisagi was next door trying to get her taicho's attention. He heard the door slide open and turned his head towards her.

"Why are you here?"

"My taicho want's to see Hitsugaya Taicho in the ninth division offices today. I went to your office, but for some reason he isn't there. Which is strange because he is usually there by this time. He's also not answering when I knocked on the door to his quarters."

Rangiku quietly slid the door shut. "Actually, taicho's been having problems sleeping at night so he stayed the night with me."

Hisagi stared at her for a short period of time then took a deep breath. "Have you also noticed that he's been acting strangely? Actually, do you know exactly why he's not been sleeping at night?"

The busty female frowned at the man. "I'm not sure if that is any of your business."

"It's a little hard for it not to be any of my business when he blurted it out in front of Abarai and Kira. That's one of the things my taicho want's to talk to him about."

"You..." Rangiku felt her chest tightening. "Why did you have to go to your taicho instead of me?"

"Because..." The fukutaicho of the ninth division paused. "You do know what he blabbed to us, right? "

"Of course I know!" The woman's tone of voice became louder.

"And if you didn't know would it have been appropriate to tell you?" Hisagi's entire body tensed up.

"Of course! I mean, he's..." Rangiku's mouth snapped shut. She carefully opened the door back up and let out a sigh of relief upon realizing that the boy was still asleep. She shut it again, only to hear the other fukutaicho speak from behind her.

"He's what? Your taicho? That's not enough here. Even if you were his mother I would have a problem telling you about this."

The busty female's eyes narrowed at the dark haired shinigami. "Let's say I was his mother. Why would it be a problem telling me something was bothering my own son?"

"Shouldn't that be obvious?" Hisagi watched as Rangiku continued to glare at him before letting out a sigh and looking away. "Fine. The issue is whether or not he would feel comfortable talking to you about said subject matter since you're female. This is stuff guys talk about around girls you know, even if the person is their own mother. You should know that quite well."

The woman crossed her arms across her busty chest. "No. You're right. I just wish I could do more for him. I'll tell him that he needs to head over to your division when he wakes up. Leave though before he wakes up and don't let anyone know he's sleeping in my room right now."

"Hai, hai."

After the fukutaicho of the ninth division left, Rangiku found herself letting out a deep sigh before closing her eyes.

M

Toshiro walked into the ninth division's area, his body tense as he wasn't sure what Kensei wanted with him. Someone noticed that he was standing in the entrance, his hands behind his back. "Taicho told us to pass on the message that he is in one of the small meeting halls, the one next to the news staff room."

"I see..." The boy walked quietly towards the room he had only been to a few times but knew the location of very well. He took a deep breath before knocking on the door frame. "You wished to see me Mugurama."

"You know... you can call me Kensei-san."

"Murgurama-san..."

"No... Kensei-san." The man paused his legs crossed as he sat in the chair. "Close the door behind you. This is a private conversation between you and me."

"About what." The small taicho slid the door shut.

"Originally it was just going to be about what kind of class we were going to be teaching at the academy, but my fukutaicho brought up an interesting conversation the two of you had." The man watched as the boy flinched, before glancing at the door as if he was going to bolt. Kensei narrowed his eyes. "Don't you dare bolt on me. I won't only hunt you down until I find you, I won't hesitate to tan your hide until you listen. This isn't something you should be running away from."

"I haven't hit puberty."

"We're having this conversation whether you've hit puberty or not, so sit."

"Excuse me?" Toshiro's eyes widened. "What do you mean we're having this conversation whether or not I've hit puberty?"

"Because eventually you're going to hit puberty."

"I am not!"

The man paused. "Fine then. You're never going to hit puberty, but those your age will. You should at least know what goes on. Sit."

Toshiro let out a deep sigh before sitting down in a chair at the opposite end. He glared at the man. "All right Muguruma. Talk."

"First, call me Kensei-san." The man watched as the boy's face suddenly flushed red. "It's all right. We're not talking as captains here. We're talking as a mentor and the mentored."

The boy's mouth opened forming a circle as he tried to speech. He finally stammered out the first sound to the man's first name, finally giving up. "I can't."

"Hmm... so you do have a serious problem with calling everyone by their first name." The man folded his arms across his chest, his mouth twisting up into a frown.

"There is nothing wrong with the way my granny taught me to address people!" The boy's cheeks flushed again.

"Say what?"

"I said what I meant! My granny taught me to respect my elders. I'm not blind to the fact that everyone is older then me or that I'm not close to. Calling you by your first name would be highly disrespectful."

"Disrespectful? You call everyone by their last name regardless of rank. You don't bother to attach taicho to any ones name. It's kind of like Ichigo really. He could afford to be polite."

Toshiro stood up, the palms of his hands slamming down. "Don't talk about Kurosaki like that! Anyways, calling anyone in the Gotei Thirteen by their title makes no sense at all. Not when..."

Kensei's eyes narrowed. "You stopped. And no, I wasn't dissing Ichigo there. The two of you could take a few lessons from each other about when its appropriate to use ones titles and not. I've given you permission to use my first name Toshiro. That means I consider the two of us to be close. Also, we're in a private setting."

The man watched as the boy sat down, glancing at the man. "Still, calling you by your first name doesn't seem right."

"Good grief... it's just a name. I mean, what would you feel comfortable calling me in a private setting?" Toshiro frowned, glancing away. "Oh come on... just spit it out. I don't care if you call me Ken-chan either, though the problem with that is there's already a Ken-chan in the Gotei Thirteen."

"I'm not that little!" The boy's cheeks puffed out.

"Fine. Tell me what you want to call me."

Toshiro's mouth opened and closed his mouth, glancing away as he did. Finally he let out a deep breath. "Oji-san..."

"I'm not old enough..." Kensei paused, frowning. "No... now that I think of it with your age range oji-san isn't an inappropriate thing to call the adults around you. Actually, I'm surprised that you don't use it more often. I've heard from Shinji himself that you're ultra polite."

"Protocol."

"I see." The man took a deep breath. "Back on the subject of puberty..."

"We didn't finish talking about what I'm supposed to call you."

"Oji-san is all right in private settings. When protocol is needed you can call me by my last name."

"I need to think about that."

The man let out a sigh. "Then we'll put that conversation on a hold and move onto our next one. Puberty." He watched as the boy leaned back in a chair and wrinkled his nose at him. "As I said, whether you ever hit puberty or not you need to know what goes on."

"Fine... whatever." The boy crossed his arms across his chest. Kensei then began to list off the changes that a boy's body went through as their body developed, watching as Toshiro's mouth twitched every so often. When the man finished he spoke up. "Then it isn't possible for me to have hit puberty."

"And why is that?"

"I don't have a problem with acne and I didn't grow any hair on my body,"

"They're signs of puberty. Not everyone has them. The major sign really is when a boy's started having wet dreams."

"Such phenomenon isn't normal."

"Excuse me?" The man shook his head at the boy.

"Why would males end up wetting the bed and girls don't?"

Kensei found himself paling before pinching his nose. "What goes on for girls... lets just say that we've got it easy. You don't want me to explain to you what their bodies go through, other to say that's why girls get big busts."

"Is that why Kurosaki's no longer flat chested?"

The taicho of the ninth division felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "You're referring to Ichigo's sister here, right?"

"As if I'd be referring to the substitute. Guy's not having flat chests is weird. Which by the way, is something else I didn't go through for any period of time."

"Toshiro... I told you it's a sign. Also, now you've got me with a disturbing mental picture of Ichigo in my head."

"What do you mean?"

Kensei felt the corner of his mouth twitch again. "What were we discussing?"

"About whether or not Kurosaki..." Toshiro's face paled and then garnered a green pallor. The corner of his mouth began to twitch.

"Serves you right for putting the picture in my head."

The small taicho's head suddenly darted to the ground and his voice became loud. "Why the hell do I need to know all of this! This stuff about hitting puberty is absolutely disgusting!"

As Toshiro began his words the door slammed open, causing him to freeze in said position. "Kensei! Why'd you have to go and disappear! Ahh! It's the kiddy taicho!"

"Mashiro..." Kensei felt the corner of his mouth twitch a third time. "Please close that door. In case you haven't noticed I'm speaking to a captain right now." The door closed with her still on their side. "Mashiro! This is a private conversation between two captains!"

"It doesn't seem like a private conversation between two captains. The two of you aren't talking about Gotei thirteen matters. Plus... the entire division knows what the conversation is about now. Why are you talking about puberty stuff with another captain?"

"Mashiro!"

"Why's he even here? Huh, huh, huh?" The female bounced over to the small taicho. "Hey, why is the kiddy taicho crying?"

Kensei's mouth twisted up into a frown before hurrying over to see what Mashiro was talking about. The man reached a hand behind his head to rub his hair, watching as a few tears fell onto the boy's hands. "Seriously... this is not my day. Mashiro... got get some tea and snacks. And don't you dare tell anyone that you saw Hitsugaya Taicho in this state. Do you understand me?"

"Hai!" The female saluted before turning to head out of the room.

The ninth division taicho shook his head. "Something is really off for the kid to be doing this in front of me."