All characters property of Tite Kubo…

The Trials of Hitsugaya Toshiro

(Takes place at roughly the same time as Szayel and Nanao's first meeting)

.-.-.-.

That final fight with Aizen was still affecting his mind. Yes. That must be it. He must still be experiencing adverse side-effects from the physical and mental trauma he suffered in the Winter War, and it was dampening his decision-making abilities. That was the only reasonable explanation Toshiro could think of for the temporary madness which had possessed him to volunteer to look after one of the espada…former espada…whatever…while the treaty was being worked out.

Well, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if it had been any of the others, but the Soutaichou (in his infinite wisdom) had seen fit to assign him the apparently-recently-restored-to-her-adult-form Nelliel Tu Odelschwank to look after.

And "look after" was the correct term here. Really. She was obviously no sort of threat to Soul Society or the world of the living, unless one considered excessive cheerfulness threatening. The paperwork on her had mentioned that she might be feeling rather depressed about leaving her fraccion in Hueco Mundo, but he had seen no sign of that thus far. No, it seemed more likely that at the moment she just needed a chaperone to ensure she didn't get too carried away having fun with her new friends in Soul Society.

And at this point, Toshiro rather wished she would hurry up and do exactly that. Have fun with her new Soul Society friends, that is. In fact, sending her off with Matsumoto to do the social rounds (become unconscious from drink) was an idea rapidly gaining in appeal. And who could blame him? It was getting increasingly hard to breathe here – seeing as he was at this moment being crushed into a rather ample bosom yet again. And judging by current circumstances the chances of that event occurring in his daily life had just increased by 100%. To yield a new daily likelihood totaling 200%. Particularly if Matsumoto and Odelschwank teamed up in their efforts. He could really do without the squealing, too. And the hair-ruffling. And he was fairly certain that one of these days he was going to snap and painfully murder the next person to call him cute – no matter who they were. Really, he had enough trouble being taken seriously, even without certain older women glomping him every chance they got.

And he hated that he even knew what 'glomp' meant.

But mostly, right now, Toshiro just wished that Odelschwank would let go.

.

.

.

(No, it was not a relief to have something – someone – to take his mind off of how he'd failed Momo in the war. It was not. Really.)

.-.-.-.

Yes, Toshiro, the Soutaicho knows what he is doing.