Author's Note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU.


But He's a Nice Man

Momo was feeling more than a little crazy. Since their first date, she and Toushiro had gone out another two times. All of them wonderful dates. They were still working on restructuring the math class for the education majors, and they hadn't really fought in at least two weeks. Things were going pretty well up until yesterday. Yesterday Momo had found an old file of Dr. Aizen's in the office at the back of a file cabinet, and her world had gone into a tailspin.

The file had been both explicit and clear about Aizen's plans for the future. And about his feelings about her. She had merely been a useful tool to him, and he had planned to use her to not only destroy another student's life but to also destroy the university. He was also clear that he had no qualms about disposing of her once she was no longer useful. Momo had read the entire thing.

It had been eye opening, depressing, and had left her doubting herself. How had she missed seeing what Aizen was? Oh, before the accusations were made, didn't really count as he had fooled most everyone at that time, but once the accusations had been made, why had she still been so blind. Toushiro had been right about that. Toushiro had been right, and now Momo wasn't sure if she could face him knowing what an idiot and fool she had been.

With a sigh, she tried to get her attention back on the task at hand: getting her desk cleared of all the pending paperwork. Momo really wished she had an older sister or something like that. Continuing the slog through the various forms and reports that came with running a department at a university, Momo didn't notice someone enter her office until a throat was cleared. Startled, she looked up.

Rangiku Matsumoto, one of the master's students from the math department was standing in front of her desk.

"Am I interrupting something? I can come back later, Ms. Hinamori. This isn't urgent."

"No, that's all right." Momo smiled. "Anything is better than this paperwork."

Rangiku laughed at that. She was famous for hating the administrative end of things in her department. The woman was actually a couple years older than Momo. Rangiku had always struck Momo as a rather odd mix of things. She was probably the party girl of all the graduate students, but she was also a brilliant mathematician. Not that anyone would ever expect that from her looks. With strawberry-blond hair and a generous bust, Rangiku looked more like a supermodel than a math student. Momo didn't really know her all that well, but since Toushiro was Rangiku's faculty advisor for her thesis, the two women had met once or twice before.

"Dr. Hitsugaya just wanted me to drop off some copies of some curriculum ideas." Rangiku tilted her head to the side, considering Momo. "Are you all right? No offense, but you kind of seem distracted."

"It's nothing. Well, not nothing, but it's not really important. At least not to the university anyway. But--"

Rangiku cut her off with a knowing smile. "Ah, guy problems. Let me guess. My boss is being an idiot."

Momo shook her head. "I'm the one who's an idiot. I just can't figure out why he would be interested in me now."

Rangiku patted her hand. "We all make mistakes. Look, I consider Toushiro my little brother. My obnoxious, know-it-all, little brother, but still my little brother. And I know him well enough to know that he'll forgive you for making a mistake about Aizen. He loves you too much not to. He's just not very good at the whole dating thing."

"You're sure?"

"You two are adorable, you know that?" Rangiku laughed. "Yes, I'm sure. It won't hurt his ego if you admit you were wrong, but he's not going to hold it over you. He just doesn't like to see you hurt, and Aizen hurt you. That's why he couldn't let it go. Now, here are the papers, and I'm off to grade freshmen's math tests."

Momo watched the other woman leave in something like awe. Then she reapplied herself to the paperwork with renewed vigor. If she got it done by tomorrow, she could see if maybe Toushiro wanted to see a movie on Friday.