Wow...31 reviews for the last one. Guess you guys liked it, huh? Well, I'm glad that so many people understand my sentiment regarding recent events. One of the reviews I received, though, made me wonder. Evidently, HitsuMatsu is"definitely" a crack pairing. Now...maybe I haven't been writing fanfiction long enough to fully understand what those are, but...I've always thought crack pairings were those match-ups that were so far from canon as to be completely nonsensical...i. e. HitsugayaxIkkaku, or KenpachixIshida (Great...now I'm going to have nightmares; thanks, me). It would seem to me that, since Hitsugaya and Matsumoto already have a relationship, and a bond, it wouldn't seem so out of the ordinary that they would end up together. Is age difference the problem? Come now. I hardly think Soul Society puts much stock in that, considering looks are most definitely deceiving in a place like that. Office romance? I've never seen any evidence that Soul Society forbids such things. Hmmm...maybe I'm just thinking too much into this.
Anyway, I doubt this one will live up to the last one, but I think it works. Enjoy.
In retrospect, he supposed he should have listened to Rukia's warning.
She'd told him before he left that, "Once you get involved with the Kurosaki family, you can never leave. Your life will never be the same."
He'd thought that to be a highly confusing warning. After all, he was only patrolling, and if he and Matsumoto happened to run into that Ichigo kid, how would that change his life?
He didn't realize that it really wasn't Ichigo who was responsible for the life-changing...it was the rest of those psychos.
It was really just a chance happening. He'd been walking the streets of the city, waiting for Hollows to show up, hoping to run into one soon so that he could release some of the tension that had been building up throughout the day.
Matsumoto had pointed out the girl, saying, "I think that's one of Kurosaki Ichigo's sisters."
Hitsugaya had been about to respond with, "Good for her," because he wasn't in the best of moods and really didn't want tosocialize, but then he'd looked over at her.
She was having some sort of trouble.
And he found he couldn't turn away now.
He walked over.
"C'mon, sweetie, share!" a young teenage boy was saying with a smirk on his face, and Kurosaki's sister was obviously frightened. She was wearing a pink dress, and had light brown hair.
Hitsugaya thought her name was Yuzu.
"But...but it's mine! You have your own lunch!"
Oh, for the love of...terrorizing a little girl for her food? It never failed to amaze the white-haired captain how low some people sank...
He thought fleetingly that Kurotsuchi would like this idiot.
Hitsugaya didn't.
"But...but...it's mine!" the boy mocked, grabbing the boxed lunch Yuzu had placed in front of her. "Didn't your parents ever teach you manners?"
"Irony is lost on primitive primates..." Hitsugaya muttered, rolling his eyes, and the boy whirled around.
"What was that, shrimp? Hey, mind your business!"
"...Or what?"
The cool, confident expression on Hitsugaya's face was one he was known for. He knew this kid was no problem. Sure, his power was vastly limited in this false body, but he was still well-trained.
He didn't need Hyourinmaru to deal with this. The sword would have been insulted if he had.
"Back off! I'm talkin' t' cupcake, here! Don't make me knock you flat, weirdo!"
"Somehow I doubt her name is cupcake. It's rude to call someone you don't know by anything other than their name...didn't your parents ever teach you manners?"
"Shut up, shrimp!"
Hitsugaya sighed. "They never get it..."
Matsumoto shook her head. "Nope."
"All right," Hitsugaya said, "let's set things straight here, shall we? You put that lunch down and walk away like a good little boy, and I won't say or do anything. Otherwise..."
He left the threat unspoken.
"Looks like I gotta teach you respect!"
"...I don't take lessons from boys who pick on girls...isn't my style. Especially not thieves who pick on girls...it's unsightly, as an associate of mine might say."
"Oh, yeah! I'll show you, you little--"
He went down in three seconds.
Hitsugaya handed Yuzu's lunch back to her. "Here. I believe this is yours."
Yuzu was staring at the offered food. "You're...Hitsugaya Toushirou, aren't you?"
"Hm? How do you know my name?"
"Oniichan told me about you," she said. "He said you were a little guy with white hair."
Hitsugaya scowled. "Figures he'd say that...well, yes, that is my name. Yours is Yuzu, if I'm not mistaken."
She nodded. "Uh-huh."
"Well, it was nice to meet you, Yuzu."
How she had coerced him into eating dinner at her house, Hitsugaya would later marvel at. He didn't even really remember what had happened, just realized later on that night that he was sitting at the Kurosakis' dining table, with Isshin talking up a storm and Yuzu fluttering about the kitchen setting up the meal, Ichigo and Karin saying nothing, identical expressions of boredom on their faces.
As they sat down to eat, Yuzu told her family what had happened earlier in the day. And when she gave him an extra large portion because "Hitsugaya-niichan was so brave," he knew he was stuck.
When Isshin began patting him on the back and proclaiming at the top of his boisterous voice that Hitsugaya was a "fine young man" and "welcome anytime," and Ichigo nodded to him with a quiet, "Thanks," and Karin looked at him with silent approval, the smallest of smiles on her young face that he somehow knew she didn't give out to many people, he sighed heavily and began to eat.
Yes...he should have listened to Rukia.
Son of a bitch...