Chapter 3: Routine

The desk in front of Hinamori was spotless. Every information form was filled out and arranged in their correct place on the spotless desk. Any pen in sight was in its corresponding area. The shelves around the desk were so organized they looked as if they didn't know how to be dirty. The windows were closed and no echo could be heard from outside the paper thin walls. Everything in the room was picture perfect and Hinamori realized that something was horribly wrong.

Hesitantly, Hinamori pushed back her chair and stood up, looking around the barren room. Timid eyes gazed around the room, her body helplessly following her pupils circling the room from every angle. The short girl blinked twice. True that everything was in its place, but that was perhaps what scared her the most. She took a step to the side of her desk, hand guiding her to the front of the wooden hunk, eyes locked with the door. Around 10:17 every morning, Ichigo would slam the wooden frame of the door to one side mercilessly, yawn, groan about his wife for good 4 seconds until he realized that his vice-captain was staring at him, smile sheepishly and great her a good morning. It was now 10:23.

The dark haired girl slumped against the desk, letting her hands support her weight against the cool wood and closed her eyes. She sighed. She didn't mean to sound whiney, but it was routine! Ichigo never forgot to come in 10:17 at the latest. Even if he overslept he would come rushing in, mumbling something regarding Rukia and a frying pan aimed at somewhere too painful for any male to suffer the thought of. There was this one time where he came in 3 seconds away from 10:18 because he'd ran into a group of a dozen walking shinigami and managed to evade running into one, but other than that, he always came in exactly on time. She repeated a sigh. Something was wrong.

She turned away from the door and walked towards the closed window. Her fingers rested on the frame, seconds away from opening the panels to see the view beyond, until she noticed it. Other than an odd bird or two singing a love song to the sky, there was no sound from outside. Her brows furrowed together. Always after Ichigo came barging in he'd complain about the room being stuffy and order her to open the window, and continue to whine about the noise from outside two minutes later. But this time Hinamori was so close she could hear everything outside the frail window, and there wasn't much she could hear.

There was always noise coming out from outside. It was as dependable as Ichigo coming in exactly on time, day after day. She closed her eyes and opens the window, just in case. In case she's going deaf and just can't hear the obvious voices from behind the window, incase its day lights saving time and she forgot. In case she wasn't going crazy, and her routine is back to normal. She opened her eyes and no one was there. There was no loud argument echoing from all directions, no giggles from gossiping girls; no noise at all. Her hands clutched the edge of the windows doors. Okay something wasn't just wrong. It was horribly wrong. It was so wrong, that there weren't enough adjectives to describe how wrong it felt. Even her own nagging assistant wasn't anywhere to be found, that's how wrong she knew it was.

BAM. The door opened and Hinamori screamed. And then something screamed behind her. Hinamori closed her eyes, trying to adjust her heart beat. Okay, first off that voice was too feminine to be Ichigo's and the door bang was too loud to be his touch either. Turning around and praying that she wasn't going to be attacked by Yachiru giggling about playing horsy again, Hinamori locked eyes with purple-blue eyes that glittered. That alone was creepy. Maybe not as creepy as being made to run laps around the Gotei 13 with a cackling kid on your back, but a lot creepier than normal Rukia. For instance, normal Rukia's eyesdidn't glitter. Chuckle and chortle, perhaps, but glittering wasn't something they did. Especially to Hinamori.

"Why… did you scream Rukia?" It wasn't the question that Hinamori wanted to ask. Maybe the better question would be something along the lines of: "What are you doing here?" or "Did you finally murder your husband and now need help burying his body?" But it was the first thing she blurted out and now she clutched the cloth by her heart and wondered if Rukia was coming for the lieutenant now that the captain was gone.

"…Why? B-because you screamed first!" Rukia stumbled over her words as she pointed an accusing finger at the shorter girl, her brow twitching nervously.

Hinamori cheeks flushed. "O-only because you opened the door so violently!" She hesitated for a moment. "Why are you here anyway, Rukia?" She gulped before asking the next question. "…And… Where's Ichigo?"

Rukia seemed startled for a moment. She closed her eyes and composed herself briefly before opening her eyes and sending a sweet smile Hinamori's way. Hinamori gulped.

"Don't worry where Ichigo is, its fine," Rukia's smile grew. "I just came by to ask a favor." Hinamori was preparing herself to tell Rukia that she wouldn't help her bury her husband's dead corpse when Rukia pulled out a folder from behind her back.

"Can you deliver this to Matsumoto?" Rukia's mega-watt smile met with Hinamori's blank face.

"…Huh?" Momo's one syllable echoed in the large room.

Rukia's grin slipped for a moment before she arranged it back in place. "I asked Ichigo if he could go do me a favor, that's why he's not here. But he mentioned that he needed to get this folder to Matusmoto as soon as possible." She took a step forward, thrusting the folder under Momo's nose. "That's why I'd like to know if you could do me this favor and bring it to her."

Hinamori looked from the tan folder to Rukia's joyful face, back to the papers in her hand. "But, if Ichigo needed them to get to Matsumoto right away… Why didn't you just deliver them?"

Rukia stumbled and mentally cursed herself. It was such a logical question, why didn't she think of that earlier! Oh, there was no time to curse anyone, let alone herself. Rukia needed to lie; a quick lie!

"Because…" she dragged out the word, looking around the room for the right answer. Hurry, she needed a good lie! Her eyes lit up with an idea as she quickly shoved the folder into Hinamori's hands and opened the door to Ichigo's office. "Because he needed me to deliver him… his…" She quickly crossed the room and reached under his desk and yanked out the first thing her fingers touched.

"His pillow?" Hinamori asked, clearly confused. Why would Ichigo need a pillow? What kind of errand was he running? And she knew she wasn't going crazy when she heard all those snores when he claimed he was doing his "personal thinking" time.

"Yes! …. His pillow." Ichigo, you idiot! This is the karma she got for marrying an idiot who keeps a pillow under his desk. "Of course he needs a pillow… Now just run along with that folder now, okay dear?" Rukia pushed the girl out of the room, falling apart at the seams. Just get her out of the door then it'll all be over. "Don't worry about a thing in that pretty little head of yours, just go on and give that to Matsumoto alright? No one else, just wait for her there! Make sure to hand it to her alone. I think she's in her division's office, now go run along now, go on, get!"

Hinamori didn't exactly believe all of the words coming out of Rukia's mouth, and although the sentences didn't make sense, she attentively walked out that door, looking over her shoulder briefly to get a glimpse of Rukia waving erratically back at her, sprouting her 20-watt smile. Momo waved back half heartedly as she turned around and walked faster in the direction to the 10th division. At this point, Momo would do anything to get away from that creepy grin. She shuddered and walked faster.

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Rukia opened the supply closet a 6 feet away from the 5th division headquarters and squinted into the shadows below. She closed the door behind her and clicked on the light bulb a few inches away from her head, instantly illuminating the room.

Rukia smiled. "You see? The plan worked out beautifully due to my majestic acting skills," she bragged before glowering at her husband. "No thanks to you."

"HMMMmmm!!" The pitiful muffled sound was the only thing that could be heard from underneath the duck tape covering Ichigo's mouth. The chair he was in shook back and forth as the duck tape kept him safely attached in place.

"Now, now dear, you really shouldn't' do that, you'll tip the chair over." She carelessly inspected her nails as she shifted her gaze from her husband to her chipped nail. "And you really banged up my nails with all of your struggling earlier." She looked at him again, an obvious vein popping out from her forehead. "Maybe I should get my revenge, hm dear?"

Ichigo immediately stopped his muffled protests to glare at his beloved. However instantly more outraged muffled sounds came from the duck taped sack of mass behind the chair Ichigo was taped to.

Rukia's left eye did an ungraceful twitch. "Now you should just shut up." However Hinamori's assistant began to wiggle more and more as he cried out from underneath the grey adhesive restraint. "Or do you want me to come over there?" Her voice was a semitone darker as she glowered towards the young shinigami. His muffled sounds began to resemble those of whimpering puppies as Rukia sent him a smile that chilled his bones.

"Well, I should meet up with Rangiku now, to review the current situation." She chirped towards the two of them. Turning towards the door, she paused and looked back.

"Oh! I almost forgot. Here you go, Ichigo! You're pillow!" With that the fluffy mass was hurtled towards Ichigo's head, tipping him over and landing him on his back and on the now squealing assistant. Rukia blew a kiss to her husband before turning off the light.

"Thanks for your help earlier, dearest husband!" She left them after her sarcastic remark and then shut the door, leaving the two men in the dark with nothing to listen to other than the deafening laughter of the horrifying Rukia Kurosaki.

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It didn't hit Hinamori that going into the 10th division office meant seeing Hitsugaya. Maybe it was the result of not seeing him for so long, that it became part of her precious routine to avoid anything to do with Toshiro. Not that she had any right whatsoever to call him by his name at all, let alone his first name, but whatever she called him; she didn't expect to see him again. The thing was, although she thought about him daily, every moment she had to herself, in fact, she never thought that she'd see him again.

It wasn't just the naive little girl talking here, thinking that she'd never lay eyes on Toshiro Hitsugaya again; it was just because she had evidence that he avoided her. In her overactive little mind, she remembered every time she'd gone to the 10th division on a mission like this, and every time it ended without catching one glance at Hitsugaya. Matsumoto always gave Hinamori the same smile and said the said speech about Hitsugaya working hard, but every time she would brush it off with a smile of her own, chuckle it off with a simple "of course," and leave without another word.

As sad as it was, it was part of her routine that he'd ignore her too. It was their reciprocal agreement that broke her heart. At least until she told herself that she didn't have a right to be broken hearted over Toshiro, anyways. And then she'd tell herself she didn't have a right to call him that, either.

So as Hinamori stood in front of the 10th division door, she knocked twice against the wooden frame and waited. And waited and waited. But Matsumoto didn't come to the door, so she knocked again, louder this time. Her heart started beating faster. But after a minute of waiting and still Matsumoto-less, Hinamori realized that she was probably left sprawled across her desk, passed out from over alcohol use and told her heart to stop beating like that.

So after coming to this realization, she knew that the only way to deliver the folder would be to go in. Hinamori rested her hand against the door. Her brow pressed together in concentration; she pushed it open and stepped in and looked around. Matsumoto wasn't in sight. Her heart started beating faster.

Of course! She should've realized it sooner, around this time Matsumoto stumbles out of bed too, she sometimes meets Ichigo on their path to the office and stops by to great Momo in the morning. There was no reason for her heart to beat faster than normal. Everything was normal, it was routine after all. She'd just wait here until Matsumoto came in, no problem; it'd be just a few moments until that door would open.

But then something went horribly wrong. A loud thump came from the door to her right and footsteps moved closer and closer to Momo. They seemed to be in synch with her erratic heart which was pounding harder and faster. The sound was coming closer with every thump against the floor. She could swear she heard a voice boom something about a disrupting noise, but that was impossible. She was the only one close by. Anything remotely disrupting couldn't be from anything but her. And why would someone be there. It couldn't be, it couldn't.

Momo knew that something was horribly wrong. But then the footsteps stopped altogether and her heart halted with it as the door slid open to reveal a slightly annoyed Toshiro Hitsugaya.