Title: Overprotective vice-captain

Characters: Hitsugaya, Matsumoto

Rating: PG for language

Disclaimer: Don't own anything!

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Tuesday nights were movies nights.

Granted Hitsugaya did not approve, especially since Matsumoto used the telecommunication screen—that should have been used strictly as a communicator between Soul Society and the Advance Force—as a wide screen TV. He had no idea how she got it to play movies, though something told him that Nemu from the Twelfth Division had played a role in it. All Hitsugaya knew was that Matsumoto was sitting before the giant screen one Tuesday night watching some science fiction movie.

At the beginning he had wondered why the commander-general would transmit images he had never seen before, but when he saw 10 foot tall, blue creatures (that were obviously not hollows) he knew something was wrong.

"Matsumoto what is this?"

"It's a movie taichou," she had answered causally.

Immediately he had yelled at his vice-captain for carelessly using expensive equipment for her enjoyment, yet again."What if Soul Society is unable to contact us while—"

"Shh... taichou it's getting to the good part."

He had proceeded to unplug the screen before Matsumoto began whining that her taichou was no fun.

"I don't care Matsumoto… look at me… we do not use the telecommunication screen as a television set."

"Rangiku-san I got ketchup for the popcorn," Inoue said holding the red ketchup bottle.

"Inoue you're in this too?" Hitsugaya said face palming him—was he the only adult around here?

"Sorry Toshiro-kun, but I haven't seen this movie before and everyone's talking about it in school. Besides Rangiku-san said you wouldn't mind," the younger girl said sheepishly. "I'm sorry if you got mad."

Hitsugaya took a breath. Inoue was a kind and sweet girl that had already done so much for them—providing a roof, clothing, and somewhat edible food. He couldn't possibly inflict his wrath upon her.

"You should have known better Matsumoto! Now put away that... that thing!" he said pointing to the DVD player. Hitsugaya had yet to memorize all the names associated with appliances and electronics; and it irked him that he had no clue what people were referring to when everything looked like a box. The other day Inoue had asked him to start the laundry machine- what the hell was that?

"And put the communicator back to normal."

"Don't worry taichou. If there's a message from Soul Society then the screen automatically goes to the message… In fact we could actually be missing a message since the communicator is completely turned off."

At this Hitsugaya winced before plugging back the screen. Thankfully, there were no messages but the movie was continuing from where it left off. "Still you shouldn't be using the communicator so carelessly," he sighed, pressing random buttons on the DVD player—he had no clue what he was doing but he figured one of these buttons should put the communicator back to normal.

"But I wasn't using it careless!" Matsumoto protested, slightly amused that her smart and gifted captain hadn't the slightest idea that he was resetting the DVD player's clock. "Taichou it's for research purposes. Don't you realize how outdated the manuals are? All of them are from the 70s, do you think anyone still acts and dresses like that? Watching films helps us understand—"

"Stop it with your bull Matsumoto!" Hitsugaya yelled becoming increasingly frustrated on the despicable object. He had a good mind to chuck this horrible box out the window—if only he hadn't broken Inoue's window last week when he threw out the toaster. Apparently, windows and toasters were expensive to replace.

"There are thousands of things you can do to learn about this generation—like read a few books for instance!"

"Yeah taichou you seem to be adjusting well to this generation," Matsumoto answered sarcastically. He threw her a look that said 'shut it!' before yelling out in frustration and calling for Inoue to fix another box. She grabbed the remote, clicking a few buttons before the screen turned blank and the disk ejected from the DVD player. Another few clicks and the communicator turned back to its home screen- a large center image of the Gotei-13 symbol.

Matsumoto pouted at her lost fun before an idea popped into her mind.

"Hey taichou," she asked as innocently as possible, slowly bending down to get the discarded DVD box- allowing plenty to see through her low cut blouse. "What if we made a deal?" She smiled suggestively before Hitsugaya rolled his eyes. He wasn't a simpleton to be easily subdued by Matsumoto's charms. "I am not making a deal—"

"What if I do one week's worth of paperwork?"

That suddenly picked his interest. "Make it three weeks."

"One."

"Three."

"One and a half."

"Matsumoto I shouldn't be haggling with you to do your work," Hitsugaya sighed. "Make it two weeks and you can finish seeing your movie."

"Yay!" she rushed over, shoving his face into her bosom, of which he loudly protested. "Oh, you should see the movie with us too taichou! It's about blue people."

Seriously, Hitsugaya wondered how this could constitute for research. Although he didn't approve of these movie nights at least Matsumoto got her work done and they never did get a message from Soul Society this late at night either. So for the moment he could only sigh and let his vice-captain have her way.

"I picked out a really cool movie for us to watch taichou!" she said eagerly skipping through the promos. "It's a horror movie!" Inoue didn't like to watch horror movies but since she was staying over at her friend's Tatsuki's house, Matsumoto had jumped at the opportunity to watch something scary. "I think it has to do with some curse and hell... it says on the title."

He picked up the movie box, seeing an image of a girl screaming out while gray hands pushed her down. At least it didn't have to do with ghost or something, last time it had been somewhat bizarre watching dead spirits come back to life, when by definition both he and Matsumoto fit that category. Still looking at the cover it didn't seem particularly scary, not at all compared to the actual gates of Hell.

Matsumoto sat down next to him, squirting ketchup in the bowl of popcorn while the opening credits began. "Want some taichou?"

"I'll pass," he answered still unable to comprehend why both Matsumoto and Inoue ate such weird stuff.

The movie began with dark, sinister music and two panicky parents running into a mansion, with their dazed son. Somehow the ground split open and the son was dragged away to a supposedly fury death. Hitsugaya sighed; so far it wasn't that impressive.

'Ring! Ring'

"Taichou turn off your phone!" Matsumoto said, quickly going back to the movie.

He flipped open his cell phone receiving two texts. Scrolling down to the attachment he got a live feed back image of a blinking light.

"There's a hollow three blocks from here."

"I'll have that report on your desk." She answered clearly not hearing or seeing anything but what was on the screen.

"A hollow," he repeated loudly. "There is a hollow in our area Matsumoto."

"Yes taichou I'm pretty sure you grew an inch this week."

Hitsugaya scowled at her. He hadn't grown in the past thirty years- she of all people knew that! "I'll deal with it."

Karakura Town was fairly quiet on this Tuesday night, except for the occasional passing of cars and bystanders. He checked his phone once more before pulling out the familiar tube of Soul Candy and popping it into his mouth. At once he felt the strange tingling sensation as his body and soul were separated. To any causal stranger, it merely looked as though he had stopped for a second, to glance at the ground. No one would ever see this bizarre transformation.

The duplicated Hitsugaya blinked back at him, wearing jeans and long sleeves, and waiting for orders. This he would never get used to- ordering himself around.

"Walk around the block and act as casually as possible. I shouldn't take too long."

"Yes sir!" the look-a-like Hitsugaya responded loudly earning a few stares from some strangers before they shrugged and continued. The second Hitsugaya shoved his fists into his pockets, walking in another direction.

Hitsugaya's white haori swayed from an incoming wind as he jumped from building to building to the hollow's whereabouts, completely invisible. Like the map said, the hollow was roughly three blocks away, by an apartment complex at the corner of the street. Already he could see that there were less people approaching that area, which was good since he didn't have to deal with bystanders. But the closer he approached, the strong a putrid odor seemed to hang in the air. Indeed it was such a foul odor that he guessed it was keeping the ordinary humans away.

An ugly, slime covered hollow look up at him, a toothy grin appearing on his features at the sight of possible food. Hitsugaya swiped out Hyorinmaru from its green sheath, quickly going into battle mode. The hollow was relatively slow but the more it moved about, the more it stunk and when it opened its mouth it brought a sort of nausea over him. Perhaps, it was this horrible odor that had caused the fight to continue for much longer than necessary. But within a few minutes Hitsugaya had defeated the hollow, cleansed its soul and transported him to Soul Society.

He sighed when his work was done, ruminating why he was stuck doing this stuff. He was a captain and yet he was stuck doing the most meager of task. Granted back in Soul Society it wasn't that different either, more often he was stuck working in his desk than in the field. Being captain wasn't as excited as so many believed it to be, in fact it was rather dull. But he supposed that boredom was much more preferable than these constant activities from arrancars.

Just then he felt the oncoming presence of two people.

"What's that smell?" came the abrupt voice of Abari Renji, vice-captain of the Sixth Division. A short distance was Kuchiki Rukia, whom stopped suddenly at the detested odor.

"It was a hollow," Hitsugaya answered. The hollow has covered him in slime and he absolutely stunk. Seriously, he should not be doing stuff like this. "What took you guys so long?"

"Renji," Kuchiki said with an annoyed look towards the taller shinigami. "Couldn't find his Soul Candy and he absolutely refused to take some of Chappy."

The red head muttered something under his breath, but when the shorter girl turned to glare particularly sharp daggers at him, Renji became quiet. Rukia took any ridicule to her beloved bunnies as personal, and she could get very angry. Renji looked about the area, unable to locate the hollow before realizing where the putrid smell was coming from. "You stink Hitsugaya."

"It's Hitsugaya-taichou," the younger captain corrected, of course he was well aware of the great need to take a bath, but he couldn't quite leave at the moment. "Do a quick check around the area. I'm pretty sure there were no bystanders, but we can't be sure."

"Do we really have to? This smell is really killing me," Renji complained turning a nasty green, looking as though he might puke.

"As a precaution," Hitsugaya answered.

Renji looked like he wanted to argue again until Rukia elbowed him roughly on the ribs, causing the red head to tumble over and clutch his belly to prevent the vomit from spilling out. Hitsugaya probably wouldn't have paid much attention to the exchange, if he hadn't distinctively heard his vice-captain's name.

"What about Matsumoto?"

"Huh?" Rukia blinked, becoming slightly embarrassed that she had been overheard. "No one mentioned Matsumoto's name."

"Yeah, Hitsugaya... I mean Hitsugaya-taichou, no one mentioned Matsumoto's name," Renji continued the green in his face disappearing somewhat, though it wasn't because he was getting better, rather something like fear.

"See no one mentioned Matsumoto's name, so if you excuse us, we'll be doing a quick survey of the area," Rukia said trying to draw the conversation away. He could tell that both of them were growing uncomfortable, which only picked his curiosity.

"You two are acting suspicious," he responded. "What did Matsumoto tell you guys?"

Again they continued with a staggering account on how Matsumoto didn't say anything. Hitsugaya watched both of them figuring that they were probably trying to hide one of Matsumoto's pranks. His vice-captain loved to play pranks, especially on him. Once she had tie-dyed his white haori the morning of a captain's meeting- to this day he's never seen the strict composed captains of the Gotei-13 laugh so hard. What was she going to do this time?

"You can tell me," Hitsugaya informed them, wondering what sort of elaborate prank Matsumoto was coming up with. "I'm not going to tell her. I just want to be prepared."

They remained silent, looking every other way and trying to act as nonchalantly as possible. But the foul smell was getting to be too much and eventually both of them caved in. They didn't tell him about some hoax or prank that Matsumoto had up her sleeves- rather they told him something much more seriously. Apparently Matsumoto had threatened everyone in the Advance Squad- Kurosaki and his friends included- to follow her captain's orders and demands, otherwise suffer a slow painful death.

"She really said that?" he questioned. From what Kuchiki described there would be no 'ands, ifs, or buts' when it came to her captain's orders. There would also be no form of disrespect, smart mouth, mockery, or defiance, otherwise Matsumoto was sure to track you down and kick your ass. Thinking back on the various battles and bar fights Matsumoto had gotten into, he was pretty sure she was a force to be reckoned with.

"Yes sir," Rukia finally explained. "But she told us not to tell you."

Hitsugaya looked at Kuchiki Rukia, the younger sister of the Sixth Division captain. Kuchiki was well protected by her brother and if any shinigami, vice-captain, or captain so much as got her upset, Kuchiki-taichou would take care of it. Kuchiki Byakuya was extremely overbearing and doting over his younger sister, so much so that he had completely opposed the idea to sending his sister away to Karakura Town- though he didn't care so much for his vice-captain. Eventually Kuchiki-taichou agreed, only with the reassurance from Hitsugaya that no harm should befall his younger sister. On top of that, Hitsugaya had to report to Kuchiki-taichou every night that Rukia was safe and unharmed.

This idea that Matsumoto had managed to threaten Kuchiki Rukia utterly astounded him. It seemed that either Kuchiki-taichou did not hear of Matsumoto's threat or that he was simply too intimidated of her.

He easily slipped back into his faux body and walked the rest of the way to Inoue's apartment, thinking about what Kuchiki and Abari had told him. He wasn't particularly upset but for he was somewhat surprised that Matsumoto would go out of her way to make sure that he was treated properly and with respect. Now that he thought about it, he didn't get that much disrespect and defiance ever since he became captain. When he was a third seat, he got a bunch of rude shinigami that would roll their eyes at him whenever he gave them an order.

When he met Matsumoto again and they struck a friendship, he began to get less of that rudeness. Then when he was promoted as captain and he asked Matsumoto to become his vice-captain, the rudeness stopped all together. Sure people would still coo on him for being a kid but at least they weren't shrugging off his orders and constantly questioning him. At least they were treating him like a proper captain should be treated.

He unlocked Inoue's apartment and set aside his shoes before walking into the dark apartment. The light from the communicator provided some source of light as he entered the living room. Matsumoto was still sitting watching the movie when she turned to look at him, holding her nose.

"What is that horrible smell? Have you been playing in the mud, taichou?"

"It was the hollow."

A surprised look crossed her pretty face as she realized a hollow was lurking, before she smiled sheepishly. "Well thanks for taking care of it taichou."

"Whatever," he answered heading to the wash room. "I'm going to take a bath."

The cold water felt nice against his bare, sweaty skin, helping to ease his trouble mind. He'd been thinking a lot ever since he arrived to Karakura Town- this generation was just plain weird. He thought again to what Kuchiki and Abari said about Matsumoto. Despite his complains that Matsumoto was a bad subordinate- she tended to not do her work, coming to work late, pull pranks on him, acting so causal toward him, the list goes on- he had always trusted her. Whenever they were in the battlefield he knew that he could trust Matsumoto with his life.

But hearing how she had threatened the other shinigami to follow his commands, he couldn't help but feel maybe she had gone past his trust. It was stupid, really since he knew Matsumoto had well intentions, but still he couldn't help but feel like a child- constantly needing someone to protect him.

He left the wash room wearing pajamas and a towel over his shoulders. The apartment was lit again and the communicator was turned off. He walked into the kitchen, seeing Matsumoto trying to stack the numerous dishes on the sink.

"How was the movie?" he asked causally though he really had no interest.

"It was kinda disgusting," she answered making a face. "I think it was more disgusting, and besides the actual gates of Hell are scarier." She finished stacking the dishes before wiping her hands on a dish cloth and looking at him. She examined his face closely, before smiling. "What's up taichou?"

He shifted his weight. "Nothing."

"C'mon taichou something's wrong, so what's on your mind?"

"I heard a few things about you," he confessed.

At this Matsumoto gaped, her eyes becoming somewhat shocked. She had purposefully told him everything about herself- all the good and bad stuff- if only so he'd know what fact was and wouldn't believe the nasty gossip that followed her. Her captain would never let anything as gossip bother him. "You know that none of its true..."

"Kuchiki and Abari said that you threatened everyone."

At this she became quiet as she considered to what he was referring to. Gradually, though her eyes began to darken and she began to fume in anger. "I told them not to tell anyone. Great now I'm gonna have to kill both of them- and I don't care what her brother says. No one has immunity!"

"Matsumoto," he interrupted. The constant loom of the Sixth Division captain petrified him. He was pretty sure that Kuchiki-taichou would end up killing him, for failing to stop his vice-captain from killing his precious little sister. "So did you really threaten everyone to listen to me?"

She became quiet, the anger that she had harbored gone momentarily. She bit her bottom lip- a habit Hitsugaya knew that meant she was uncertain about something.

"Look taichou, I'm sorry I know it's not in my place to be forcing people to listen to you. I know that you're a great captain, you really are. It's just that a lot of people fail to see that. They first see that you're a kid and then automatically thinking that they shouldn't be taking you seriously. Remember the time you were Third Seat, hardly anyone obeyed you or they were constantly talking behind your back. I wasn't trying to offend you or anything I just wanted to make sure that you didn't get a hard time."

He was silent for a moment. "You're an idiot. You know that?"

She blinked, not expecting the reaction.

"I can take care of myself. I didn't go through six months in the Academy, three years as Third Seats as though it were a breeze. I know what people think of me and I want to show them better. I want to show other people I can be a good captain with my efforts. I appreciate your help Matsumoto, but I think I can take care of myself." He smiled then, a charming smile that for some reason make him seem much older. It was true that a lot of people muttered what a precocious child he was, but for some reason that smile made her think of him- made her think of the future him, of the possibilities he could hold.

She hugged him then; her famous hugs that made him turn a bright red. She looked over him, smiling. "You know I love you taichou, and I would never do anything to make you upset."

Hitsugaya flushed red, redder than a tomato with a severe sunburn. "Why do you have to say such stupid things? You get me upset all the time! You pull pranks on me, you don't do your work, and you use the communicator to watch movies!" He turned his head, the red still evident on his face.

Matsumoto giggled. "But taichou you like watching things on the communicator, remember that one anime we watched with the orange ninja? You like it!"

"No, I didn't!" he answered, crossing his arms.

"You did. I'll have to download the rest of the episodes."

Hitsugaya sighed before reaching the kettle for some fresh tea. "Oh I've already heated your tea, taichou. It's in the microwave."

She smiled once more at him before going into the wash room to take a bath. The embarrassment he had felt moments ago was quickly subsiding and he felt better at ease with what Matsumoto had told him. She had understood that he needed her but at the same time he wanted to do things for himself. He wanted to grow up without people constantly watching over him... wait Matsumoto was seriously not planning on killing Kuchiki? He didn't mind Abari so much but he knew that Kuchiki-taichou would hunt him down if anything were to happen to Rukia.

Whatever. He'll talk to her about it later.

He looked at the messy kitchen in front of him, remembering that Matsumoto put his tea in the microwave. Hitsugaya paused, seeing a medium size box in front of him, a large box behind him and another small box on the table. Damn, which one was the microwave?

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