Title: The Way We Are
Genre: Theoretical
Characters: Bambietta, Toshiro, Rangiku
Summary: People deal with feelings in different ways.
Rating: T
Notes: Nothing really.

Rangiku turned around the office door in time to see something come hurtling at her head. She dodged the item and looked her daughter right in the eye. "What do you think you're doing? If you break stuff your brother is going to be mad at you."

"As if I care."

The busty female took a deep breath. "All right. Why do you say that?"

"He doesn't speak to me! He left almost as soon as I came in to see him! He hates me!"

"He does not."

"Then why can't he have a conversation with me."

"That's because..." Rangiku frowned. "Why don't I go talk to him? Could you hold off trashing the division quarters for just a bit?" Despite the fact there came no response from the girl the busty woman went to look for her son. She found him in his private quarters like she thought. "Taicho?" The boy's head darted up. "You've been crying, haven't you?"

"I have not." The tone of voice though told her he had been trying to hide the fact his emotions had gotten the better of him.

"Uh-huh, sure."

"Matsumoto, may I remind you that I am a captain of the Gotei Thirteen and thus I am expected to act like one."

"May I remind my son that if he bottles in his emotions trying to act like an adult he will eventually find said emotions building up so he loses it in some manner that will lead to his personal embarrassment."

"Sheesh... Matsumoto."

"Matsumoto?"

"Ka-chan..."

"Come on, let's go talk to your sister."

"I..." There came a pause as Toshiro looked at her. "She..."

"All right, what did she do."

"She got mad because I didn't speak to her. She began yelling and telling me that I'm a bigot."

"What?"

"She thinks I hate Quincy and that's why I don't talk to her."

"Come on... let's go talk to her." Rangiku watched as her son let out a deep sigh and rolled his eyes. Rolling his eyes was a behavior he had picked up from Bambietta. They returned to the office to find the purple haired female sulking. "I brought him back."

"It's not as if you can make him like me."

The busty female turned towards her son and saw the rather hurt look on his face. "No... I can't make him like you, but you can't also say that he likes or hates you unless he personally tells you himself."

"He doesn't speak to me. He's got this cold attitude towards me because I'm a Quincy."

"Actually, he's like that with a lot of people regardless of whether they're a Quincy or not."

"Great. So he doesn't care if the two of us have a relationship. I give up."

"No! Wait! Toshiro's hand raised up and his eyes filled with panic."

"No. I'm tired of getting hurt by you."

"Hurt by me!" The temperature in the room changed causing Rangiku to cover her eyes. "I've not done anything to you that warrants such comments."

"Anything? What do you call not speaking to me? You're avoiding me on purpose."

"I am not!" Toshiro paused, taking a deep breath and looking at the ground. "Maybe..."

"See!"

"But it's not as if... look! You shouldn't talk about me hurting your feelings when you keep yelling at me when I can't muster up the courage to speak to you about how I'm a bigot, how I hate you. It's not as if you care enough to try and get to know me, you just start yelling and pushing. You also talk about me behind my back with them.I've heard you guys talk about how I'm stuck up and other things like being a narcissistic pig."

"That last one was Liltotto."

"It doesn't matter! All five of you are mean!"

Bambietta stopped short. "Wait... what did you say."

"I... I have to go." Toshiro shook his head before hurrying off.

"Now hold on." The girl tried leaving through the door only to have Rangiku hold her hand up.

"Can we talk before we go after your brother?"

"Why? He's acting like a little brat. He doesn't try to interact with any of us. He always ignores us when he's around."

"If he ignored you then do you think he would know what you guys say about him? If he could interact with you he would, but he can't."

"How can someone not be able to interact with someone? He's just a cold hearted jerk! If he wanted to he could."

"No, he couldn't. You may be his nee-chan, but you're still a stranger to him. You haven't tried to get to know him, you've just... well, you just assumed that he would just be able to start up a conversation with you with little effort. He can't do that."

"He wants to make friends? Why can't he?"

"Because he's to scared too. He's too scared to do or say the wrong thing. He's afraid of you rejecting him. Which by the way you have managed to do just now."

Bambietta frowned. "Yeah... you're telling me that the brat Bazz-B griped about is... no. My brother is always calm and collect. He's not some cry baby that becomes an emotional wreck. I mean, I've seen him control his emotions way better then me."

"Well, you're also a girl. You don't have to worry about anyone teasing you for having an emotional outburst."

"Yes I do. Guys are always saying how women are too emotional."

Rangiku took a deep breath. "All right. Maybe that wasn't such a good thing for me to say. Your brother is... he's a very emotional child who is afraid of opening up to people he doesn't know. He has a really bad habit of holding things in until they explode."

"I'm always exploding with anger."

"Actually... you typically remain calm until you find something or someone to take it out on. He..." Rangiku bit her lip. "I don't have time for this." She turned then to go back and see how Toshiro was doing, not realizing that her daughter was right on her heals. She headed back towards the captain's quarters, opening the door as she did. "So you're not out training and instead in hear mopping?"

The boy looked up, his eyes slightly wet. "If you're going to ask if I've been..." His voice stopped short. "What is she doing here?"

Rangiku turned her eyes to see that Bambietta was close behind her. "What indeed."

The purple haired child however slipped into the room and walked over to the boy. "You've been crying."

"Have not!"

"Have too."

"Have not!" The boy turned to look at Rangiku. "Matsumoto! Do something!"

"Taicho..." The busty woman let out a deep sigh. "You were crying." She saw the look of shock on the boy's face.

"I'm not a crybaby."

Rangiku reached out with one hand to touch the boy's shoulder and used the sleeve of her other arm to wipe away his eyes. "Uh huh. People aren't crybabies just because they sometimes have to cry."

Toshiro tried pushing the woman's hand away. "Really... who said I was crying?"

"Taicho..." The woman's voice became more stern in tone.

"You were crying." Bambietta spoke up. A horrified look spread across the boy's face and his mouth opened to say something, only to find himself being interrupted by her. "Why are you trying to hide the fact you were?"

"Just leave." The temperature in the room dropped.

The purple haired girl's hands clenched into fists. "I haven't done anything wrong."

"I wasn't crying!"

"Yes... you were." Silence came over the room.

Toshiro finally looked away. "It's not as if anything you said to me hurt my feelings."

"Nothing I said..." The girl's hand sliced the air. "You told me before you stormed off after you.."

"After I what? I simply said that you shouldn't talk about me hurting your feelings when you've done plenty of things that could potentially hurt another persons feelings."

Bambietta looked at him in shock while her mind tried contemplating what he said. She finally spoke up. "Why is it that you don't want me to know that I hurt your feelings?" There came no answer. "Why aren't you answering me? This is what makes me so angry at you! You refuse to talk to me! I'm your sister!"

"Taicho... try speaking to her." Rangiku sat down next to him. The boy remained stubborn but then leaned over to whisper into her ear. The woman's mouth twisted up into a frown. "What do you mean you want me to tell her what you want to say?" There came silence and the woman let out a deep sigh and listened to him whisper something else into her ear. "The first thing he wants me to tell you is that while it is true that the two of you are siblings you two are also strangers as you don't know each other."

"I don't care about that. I want to know why he couldn't tell me that I hurt his feelings."

Toshiro whispered into Rangiku's ear again. The woman folded her arms across her chest. "To sum up what he said your brother has a severe persecution complex."

"And that is supposed to mean what?"

"Matsumoto!" The boy's face flushed up. "I said to tell her that I don't want to tell her because I don't want her to make fun of me!"

Babietta stared at him. After a short bit of time she shook her head. "All right... look... I really don't get this."

Toshiro turned to stare at her. He then looked away. Rangiku took a deep breath. "Look... as I said your bother has a severe persecution complex. He's afraid that people won't accept him and he's also afraid that if they do come to accept him that he'll do something so they no longer accept him."

The small female took a deep breath. "Well, I get that. I still don't like the fact he avoids talking to me." There was a pause and she spoke again. "I'm sorry I said that you hate me."

The boy looked away. Rangiku touched his leg in a comforting way. "It will take time. Your brother is good with formal conversations but informality is hard for him."

"Well... now that I know he doesn't hate me and that he's not doing it on purpose I can be patient awhile longer."