Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Tempests of the Heart ❯ Chapter Seven ( Chapter 7 )

Title: Tempests of the Heart (7/10)
Author: blue_crystal_9
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Eventual Hitsugaya/Hinamori, Kira/Hinamori
Spoilers: Anything up to episode 62 at this point.
Warnings: Innuendo, swearing.
Summary: It is years after the betrayal of Soul Society. Hinamori's finally beginning to move on with her life, and with that comes much change. Can Hitsugaya handle these changes?
Disclaimer: I do not own Beach; Tite Kubo does. I am not making any profit from this; it is for entertainment purposes only.
Author's Notes: So I finally decided that this fic will definitely be 10 chapters long in total. There may or may not be an epilogue as well, I'm not entirely sure yet.

 

 

Tempests of the Heart

Chapter Seven

 

_____________________________

 

 

They hadn't spoken in two weeks.

 

Well, that wasn't entirely true; they exchanged a few words while at work. But it was stiff, customary, required. Whenever Hinamori said anything to him it was always extremely formal, and she always called him Hitsugaya-taicho, never Hitsugaya-kun or Shiro-chan. It didn't give him the satisfaction he thought it would. It didn't feel right, somehow. In normal circumstances he would be glad but not now, not when she was still angry at him. Not when the last time he had really spoken with her was the night they had argued.

 

He wasn't really all that angry with her anymore, mostly because the argument between them had been foolish and had just resulted in both of them saying things they shouldn't have. He was, however, still rather offended over the fact that she had told him to stay out of her business.

 

Well okay, he had sort of brought it upon himself. He'd grudgingly admitted to himself that he'd gone a little too far with Kira. But he had only been trying to protect her.

 

He just wished she would realize that.

 

_____________________________

 

Matsumoto was annoyed. Very, very annoyed.

 

Good grief, they were acting like children. They hadn't talked for days and days and it was getting on her nerves. She'd bugged Hitsugaya about it several times, trying to get him to go talk to Hinamori, or apologize, or something.

 

Unfortunately, she hadn't succeeded in that venture.

 

Hitsugaya had said that he wasn't mad at her anymore, but that Hinamori was obviously still mad at him. He'd said that the only thing to do was wait until she was less angry and then go talk to her. Otherwise, it would be pointless as she wouldn't listen. He would just wait until she was ready to talk.

 

That had made sense to Matsumoto. At the time. But now two weeks had passed and still nothing had progressed. If it was up to them, they would never apologize and forever be in a grudge.

 

The stupidity of it all made her head ache.

 

So now she was going to do something about it, unlike them. She'd already tried to nudge Hitsugaya into action, but that had been fruitless. So now she was going to go to Hinamori and give her a rather hard shove in the right direction.

 

Matsumoto was a little annoyed with herself. She should have ambushed Hinamori days ago. She was the easier of the two to pushover and manipulate, after all.

 

She'd been stalking her for the last ten minutes. It was nearly the end of lunch, but there was still fifteen minutes left of the midday break. And this way, Hinamori didn't have any excuses to use in order to escape. She'd already had lunch and she didn't need to be back to work yet, so there was no reason she couldn't have a nice… chat with Matsumoto before the end of the lunch break.

 

Matsumoto grinned slyly; oh yes, she had her.

 

She waited until Hinamori had split up from Kira after lunch and was walking back to the fifth division before she pounced.

 

She snuck up behind her, before saying very loudly and cheerfully, “Hellooooo Hinamori.” She draped an arm around the younger girl's shoulders in case she tried to escape.

 

The poor girl didn't know what hit her; she squeaked in fright and jumped about a foot.

 

“Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you.” Matsumoto said brightly, nearly blinding Hinamori with the force of her smile.

 

“It's alright.” Hinamori could hear her heart beat in her ears. “What's up?”

 

“Oh, not much.” Her voice was purposely light. “I was just, you know, wondering when you and Hitsugaya were going to get over this ridiculous fight of yours and start talking like civilized people again.”

 

Hinamori gaped at her in shock before desperately trying to think of an escape method. “Uh, I have to-”

 

Matsumoto rolled her eyes as her grip around Hinamori's shoulders tightened. “Don't even try that, Hinamori. You I and both know you are perfectly free for the next fifteen minutes.”

 

Hinamori sighed, her shoulders sagging in defeat. “Okay, fine. What do you want?”

 

“I want you and Hitsugaya-taicho to get along again.”

 

“Ugh. No way. I'm still severely displeased with him.” Hinamori grumbled.

 

“An enormous `obviously!' to that. So what. Get over it. Your argument was stupid, anyway.”

 

“Hey!” Hinamori protested.

 

“Well, it was.” Matsumoto was unrelenting.

 

“I'm shocked Hitsugaya-kun told you anything about it.”

 

“Well, I'm quite certain he only told me the basics, but I still got the general idea from what I managed to weasel out of him.”

 

Hinamori sighed, “Regardless, he seriously overreacted.”

 

“Of course he did. He was trying to protect you, and when he does that he tends to go a little overboard. We've seen evidence of that before. But it's not like he actually got into a full blown fight this time.” Matsumoto reminded her.

 

“Yeah, I guess.” Hinamori bit her lip. “I just wish he'd talked to me first before he went all nuts.”

 

“Well, when concerning you, Hitsugaya-taicho doesn't really think rationally.”

 

“Yeah, he snaps.” She grumbled.

 

“It's because he cares, Hinamori.”

 

“Yeah, I know, and I'm glad that he does. But he could have shown it in a less violent manner.” Hinamori paused, and then her eyes widened. “Wait, you don't think Hitsugaya-kun thinks that I don't appreciate him protecting me and everything?”

 

“Well, I think that might be part of the reason he hasn't tried to talk to you. He's probably a little hurt and offended.” Matsumoto replied.

 

“Aw, crap!” Hinamori smacked her head with her hand. “I never wanted him to think that!”

 

“Then you should go talk to him.” Matsumoto prodded.

 

Hinamori sighed again, before nodding. “I will. This has gone on long enough; I miss talking to him. It's like there's… something missing, without his presence there.” She brushed a hand through her hair, looking slightly sheepish. “You're right, this whole thing was foolish.”

 

Matsumoto nodded encouragingly, “Yes, go now.”

 

Hinamori suddenly grinned, “He's been heaping the paperwork on you, hasn't he?”

 

Matsumoto sighed, “Yes. By the tons. He's a slave driver when he's cranky. Make it end, please.”

 

“Aw.” Hinamori patted Matsumoto's shoulder, a teasing light in her eyes. “I knew you had an ulterior motive for doing this.”

 

“Oh, shut up,” She complained. “It's all your fault I've had to work in such conditions over the last two weeks.”

 

“Well, at least he didn't take away the sake.”

 

“Dear God, don't even say those cursed words. If he'd done that, I would've convinced you to talk to him ages ago.”

 

Hinamori snorted with laughter. “I don't doubt that one bit, Rangiku-san.”

 

_____________________________

 

Hitsugaya was just tidying up his desk and getting ready to leave work for the day when there was a knock on his door.

 

“Come in.”

 

Hinamori peeked in shyly, “Hello.”

 

“Hinamori.” He blinked, slightly flustered. “Er-”

 

“Look,” She stepped in, closing the door quietly behind her. “I just came to, well…” She trailed off before rolling her eyes at herself and crossing the room to wrap him in a hug. He froze for a second before relaxing and wrapping his arms around her, returning the embrace. “I'm sorry.” She whispered against his shoulder. “I said things I didn't mean. I'm grateful that you look out for me Hitsugaya-kun, I just think you could have done it a better way.”

 

Hitsugaya-kun. She was calling him that again.

 

This time he certainly wasn't going to complain.

 

“You're right.” He agreed, and her breath fanned against his neck, making him shiver. “I shouldn't have acted so rashly. I'm sorry too. Forgive me?”

 

“Always.” Hinamori murmured back, hugging him tighter. “So, this week had been a lot of stupid.”

 

“As was last week as well. I assume by the use of the word `stupid' that you've been harassed by Matsumoto?”

 

“Yep. She really hates that paperwork, huh?”

 

Hitsugaya's chest rumbled with laughter. “That she does.”

 

“So, I think we should agree to never be that foolish again?” Hinamori smiled at him.

 

“Deal.” Hitsugaya gave her a crooked grin in return. “And I'll apologize to Kira tomorrow.”

 

“Thanks, Hitsugaya-kun.” She hugged him once more before releasing him. He missed her warmth immediately. “Have you had dinner yet?”

 

He shook his head. “No, I was just about to go and get some, actually. What about you?”

 

“I haven't had anything yet either. Do you want to go eat together?”

 

“Sure. Maybe one of the restaurants around instead of at the mess hall. We haven't done that in a long time.” Hitsugaya said thoughtfully.

 

Hinamori smiled brightly at him, “Yes, let's! I'm starving.” She looped her arm through his and tugged him outside.

 

The storm had apparently calmed.

 

For now.

 

_____________________________

 

End of chapter seven.

 

 

Notes: This chapter was a little shorter than usual, but the next chapter is going to have a lot going on in it, so it'll be nice and long. :)

 

And there was a serious lack of Kira in this chapter. There'll be plenty of him in the next chapter, for those of you who are Kira lovers, so don't worry. ;)

 

And yes, I went with another overdramatic, foreboding `dun dun dun!' sort of ending again. Yeah, I know, I'm made of fail and lameness. *lol*