Sorry about taking so long to update, but December was not an easy month for me. I had almost no time on my hands to sit down and think about, much less write, this story. Or...collection, as it were. School's starting this coming Tuesday, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again, but hopefully it'll be soon. Maybe I should start writing short ones again. Well, enough of my excuses. Enjoy.
"Matsu...er, I mean...Rangiku."
A deceptively delicate eyebrow rose slowly over one gray eye. "Yes?"
Hitsugaya drew in a deep, calming breath. This was absolutely ridiculous. How hard could it be to tell someone something they obviously already knew?
Judging by the knot in his stomach and the way his hands were beginning to shake, he thought it must be pretty damned hard.
He wished some hotheaded, overzealous arrancar would leap out into the site and declare war on them. He was suited to battle. Fighting was something Hitsugaya could understand, something he could deal with.
This was not.
He hadn't felt this nervous since his first day as a captain.
"...Do you...remember when we met, Rangiku?" he asked finally, completely unsure as to where he was leading the conversation.
"How could I forget?" she replied, smiling. "You were the most pleasant surprise I'd ever had."
"...Really?"
"Sure. I'd thought...no. I'd been sure that Kazuhiko-taichou had been replaced by some other hot-blooded, empty-headed old man who'd wanted the position of captain for the real estate, or maybe because they'd heard stories about my...talents."
She said the word with particular distaste, and Hitsugaya's face twitched. He scowled.
"Talents?" he repeated.
"Kazuhiko-taichou liked to...make up stories."
"What kinds of 'stories?'" he demanded.
Matsumoto seemed taken aback by the question, and by the particularly venomous tone with which it had been asked. Her eyes widened slightly.
"W-Well, Taichou...it was the general consensus among the Gotei 13, at the time of my instatement, that I was accepted for...less than honorable reasons."
Eyes narrowing, Hitsugaya made a note to investigate the matter further when he made it back to Soul Society. "I see...and where did that consensus come from?"
"Not from me, certainly!" Matsumoto said, somewhat defensively.
Realizing how the question must have sounded, Hitsugaya held up a hand. "I-I didn't mean it that way...I meant...who would make up such stupid rumors?"
"I don't remember now, actually."
Another matter to look into.
"Anyway, Kazuhiko-taichou decided to enlist me because of my looks and thought, because of the stories that had been spread about me, he could...well, coerce me into his bed."
The first question that rose in the boy captain's mind was, "Did you?" but he'd already asked one bad question. He didn't intend to ask another.
"Even though I never did, I thought of it as a game more than anything and I was determined to win, he liked to tell the other captains that I had. Actually, he liked to tell everybody he came across that I had. I always felt sympathy for Nanao because of that. But I always thought, 'At least Kyouraku-taichou doesn't lie about it.'
"When Kazuhiko-taichou died, and you took his place, I was positive that I'd end up with another captain just like him. When I saw you, though...well, I think we both remember that."
Hitsugaya chuckled slightly.
"As soon as I saw you, I...I just knew you weren't the same. And it wasn't because of your youth, Taichou, I assure you that. I just...sensed that you had more honor in you than that."
He blushed now. "...Thank you."
"And I was right. You've never tried to take advantage of me. Ever. Aside from the occasional joke regarding my ability to walk upright..."
He smirked. He remembered that.
"...You've never mentioned my...particular assets. You treated me like a person instead of a trophy."
"You are a person. One worthy of far more respect than my predecessor evidently thought."
"He wasn't all bad, you know."
"Still doesn't sound like I'd have...gotten along with him."
"Oh, I doubt it."
"A shame he's dead...I'd have liked to...discuss some of these things with him."
Matsumoto's lips twitched upward in a playful, and slightly sadistic, smile. "...Feeling possessive, Taichou?"
Hitsugaya's eyes widened to saucers. "What?! No! I mean...I just...it's beneath a captain to spread such...such stupid stories! To lie about whether or not you...you...!"
The smile widened into a full-blown smirk. "I don't think the fact that it's 'beneath a captain' is what's bothering you."
"I...I...uh..."
He fidgeted, eyes averting hers.
"...It shouldn't be possible for a shinigami captain to look so damned cute," Matsumoto mused.
He snapped his gaze back to his vice-captain.
"D-Don't call me cute! I'm not—"
"Oh, yes, you are. It's not an insult, Taichou. It's a compliment. Why don't you just admit it? You're cute."
Hitsugaya crossed his arms. "Tch. I am not."
"Oh, like you'd know. It's a girl's call on whether or not you're cute, Taichou. And I call it. So get over it."
Matsumoto stood up and sauntered over to him, leaning down so that her face was mere inches from his. "You know, Taichou, it really is a good thing when a girl calls you cute."
In response, Hitsugaya scowled.
Still smirking, Matsumoto leaned in, closing the distance between them, and kissed him. It was slight, just a peck on the corner of his mouth, but it was enough to cause his entire face to go bright red.
"...It means she likes you."
This time, he couldn't even find enough of his voice to stutter. He simply stared.
He remembered the few occasions that they had been intimate...well, sort of, anyway. There was the time he had been sick, the one other time that she had kissed him. There was the time she had been upset about Hinamori, and he had comforted her. There were any number of times when they had been...closer than what might have been proper.
But this...was different.
He touched the spot where her lips had been, as though unsure of whether or not it had actually happened.
Matsumoto's smirk softened.
"And I do...Toushirou."
He finally found his voice.
"I...I do...too."
Isshin and Yuzu could barely contain their giggling as they watched the scene unfolding in front of them. Karin rolled her eyes at their immaturity and looked over her shoulder as Ichigo strolled up to them, lost in thought.
"Oh, Ichi-nii, where have you been?" Karin muttered with a complete absence of enthusiasm. "You missed the show..."
"Great. Just what I'd hoped."
He pushed past his father and sister and walked into the campsite, earning him disappointed groans (that sounded eerily similar) from the two of them.
Karin followed her brother's example.
Isshin, sharing a conspiratorial grin with Yuzu, chuckled evilly as he revealed the camera he had been hiding in his coat.
"How hard do you think it'll be to get them to do that again?"
Kazuhiko, the name I picked for Hitsugaya's predecessor, is one that I just picked randomly out of the air for another story. I decided to use it here, too. It has no special significance.