Title: Alice
Date: 19 April, 2012
Words: 1122
Characters: Toshiro, Rangiku; mentioned Renji, Kira, Hinamori, Toshiro's Granny
Pairings: Rangiku & Toshiro, implied Hinamori & Aizen and/or Kira
Summary: How Toshiro's feeling toward Alice in Wonderland have changed over the years.
Inspiration: I love Alice in Wonderland. Plain and simple.
Rating: PG

A/N: Um, yeah… Well, the good news is that there's an update! The bad news? I don't know when I'll update again, hehehe. On the bright side, I did update the ByaChiru fic "Obvious Outcomes". Read this and leave me a comment, then go read that one and… I don't think that one is as good as I want it, but, meh. Let me know what you think I can do to improve.

I love you all!
-Rachel Noelle

oOoOo – RN – oOoOo

He loved Alice in Wonderland. Granny had been reading it to them at night for a few weeks, and he loved how it made Momo's eyes sparkle with excitement as she let her mind wander through the scenes, imagining herself as Alice, talking to flowers, eating cakes and cookies to make you grow larger or shrink, and playing chess with the red queen. Even up until Momo entered the academy, she liked imaging she was Alice and he was the White Rabbit when they played together.

She was like Alice: creative, innocent, sweet. And naïve.

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He was beginning to dislike Alice in Wonderland. He'd gone to the academy because the woman with the big boobs said he could save Granny that way, and he was even more thrilled because he'd get to see Momo. Only, Momo didn't spend much time with him now. She was usually busy with work and things like that, and when she did have a day off, she spent it with Kira and Renji and that Rukia girl, she and Kira making fun of Renji for following her like a lost puppy.

Toshiro disliked Alice because he was no longer Momo's White Rabbit. He had been replaced by Kira and Renji, who he thought of more as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, but she seemed to think of as the Hatter and the Hare. She'd stopped at their tea party and chosen to stay, the White Rabbit no longer of importance.

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Toshiro hated Alice in Wonderland. Hinamori was like Alice, naïve, childish, and living in an imaginary world where everything was "just perfect". She had Kira and Renji, and her ever-so-beloved Aizen-Taicho. There was something about Aizen that Toshiro couldn't quite place. In fact, he didn't want to. All he wanted was to impress Hinamori and win her affections back toward him. She had been seated after just two years working as a shinigami. She was working on her shikai and quickly moving up the ranks. She was still in the much higher numbered seats, and not quite near a position of any kind of power in her division, but as much as she worshiped Aizen, Toshiro knew it would be just a matter of time.

Aizen would advance her, even if just to keep her hero-worship of him nearby.

Toshiro tried to quit fuming as the woman with the big boobs – now a friend he knew as Matsumoto – ran up and tried to strangle him in a hug. She gave him chocolates and a small bottle of sake then kissed him on the cheek and wished him good luck with his captaincy exam.

Toshiro cursed under his breath about how much he hated Alice in Wonderland, now that he didn't have an Alice anymore, and watched the strawberry blonde walk off, imagining her in a light blue dress, talking with the flowers…

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Toshiro loathed Alice in Wonderland. Matsumoto, his newly assigned second-in-command, tried to force him to be the white rabbit for Halloween (after multiple protests and empty threats of demotion she succeeded). All in the name of "But it'll be so cute, Taicho!" He felt the future turning bleak before his eyes. If they both made it into old age, like the sou-taicho and his fukutaicho, he saw a lot of horrible Halloween costumes in his future. The damnable woman was hard to say no to. Scratch that – she was impossible. When she gave him those big, sad puppy dog eyes and puckered her lips just a little he tried to look away, but to no avail. He turned his head and caught a glimpse of her shimmering hair, and those omnipotent boobs of hers, and, he lost before he could even try to fight back.

Stupid bunny ears. As long as she didn't expect him to hop around like a rabbit…

oOoOo

Toshiro had finally braved asking Rangiku for a date – which was embarrassing and awkward at the very least, and things seemed to be going well for them, when the mass chaos there were absolutely no words for broke out. He sighed and sank back into the pillow on his bed in the infirmary.

Like there were no words to describe what was happening in Soul Society, there were no words that truly expressed his hatred for that manipulative caterpillar Aizen and what he'd done to Hinamori.

He wished Alice in Wonderland would sink into the furthest circle of Hell and burn there. Hinamori was Alice: creative, innocent, sweet. And above all, naïve.

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Toshiro sat on the sofa, Rangiku's arms wrapped around him tightly. He let a few silent tears slide down his cheek, as he knew she was doing. Somehow they had survived. Somehow they had been blessed by the sheer grace of God.

Rangiku rested her head on his shoulder. She smiled and whispered "I used to think Alice in Wonderland was foolish and stupid, and about how I never wanted to act that way. But now I think there's really more to it. I feel like Alice, like I'm lost in a world of strange and unusual happenings. I feel like Alice must have when she fell down the rabbit hole. Everything's been turned upside down. But, you know, it's okay, because you are my Hatter, and you've helped me find my way through and make some sense of things when everything else was going absolutely crazy."

Toshiro's eyes grew steadily wider, his thoughts running many miles an hour. Suddenly, Alice in Wonderland wasn't so deserving of a fiery sentence into the deepest reaches of Hell.

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Toshiro walked into the hospital room, gazing down at Rangiku lovingly. Everyone had recovered accordingly, and Hanatarou and Isane were bringing in their new little bundle of joy. Toshiro and Rangiku cooed and awed over the tiny infant, already showing signs of the beautiful blonde hair Toshiro so loved on Rangiku. Toshiro took the baby from his wife and cuddled her lovingly.

"I've been thinking, Toshiro," Rangiku said, "I think I'd like to name her Alice. It has such meaning to me, and to you, too, that I think it would be something good for both of us."

The look of surprise and discomfort on Toshiro's face must have thrown Rangiku off, as she amended with, "Of course, we can always find something else. She'd only a few hours old. We can take a few days to decide."

"No, no," he replied. "It's okay. I like it. Very simple and easy to remember. Hitsugaya Alice. It is very nice. I like it."

As he later penned in the information on the birth certificate, Toshiro decided that he might just love Alice in Wonderland after all.

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