Disclaimer: All rights belong to Kubo Tite and I don't make any money with this story.

A/N: A challenge by my sista YuryJulian...I like the idea that Hitsu and Matsu had met before Soul Society, though I don't really know if this works out.
This story takes place during the Arrancar Arc. No real spoilers though.

Thanks to my beta Anaaä! Mai inglisch masta! XD

Past

by Samusa

It was lunch time and all the students ran outside to enjoy the bright sun, warm air and to eat some food. The Shinigami, who were living a kind of double life , had settled under a big tree and were in the company of Ichigo and his friends.

While Yumichika tried to convince Ikkaku that the sizzle sells the steak, Rukia annoyed Ichigo, Renji tried to bum Chad's food and Matsumoto clapped Orihime on her shoulder for making such delicious food for her and her taichou, Hitsugaya was having major problems even thinking about eating this stuff.

What was this supposed to be anyway? Sushi and...jam? He didn't want to imagine what this stuff was, if it wasn't jam. He thought he was going to be sick. The only thing edible was the rice ball that Inoue had made as well. The only thing was, one wasn't enough at all. His stomach was telling him as much.

Carefully he looked over to Matsumoto, who – as always – seemed to like Inoue's food, but didn't seem to be too much interested in her rice ball. Should he simply ask her? No. No way. She would probably make a huge fuss over it, announcing how delighted she would be to share her food with her cute...Toushirou. Hitsugaya just knew it.

But maybe he could just roll the rice ball over to himself, without anyone noticing it. Matsumoto seemed to like the other stuff anyway, so she wouldn't really mind, would she? Hitsugaya swallowed. Carefully – armed with his sticks – he approached Matsumoto's bento box and...

"Taichou!"

Shoot. It couldn't be. "This rice ball is mine now." He made a little use of his authority. He was the taichou after all, if he said it was his rice ball, then it was.

Matsumoto laughed out loud. "Taichou, you rice thief!"

Her laughter vanished all of a sudden. She looked at Hitsugaya, perplexed, who just looked at her back in the same way...

"Rangiku-san? Toushirou-kun?" Orihime asked worriedly, as the rest of the group directed their attention to the two shinigami of the tenth division who kept on staring at each other.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Wiping sweat from her forehead, she stood at the edge of the rice field and collected what her older sisters had dropped during the harvest. If she hadn't known better, she could have sworn they had left an extra amount of plants for her to pick up. It was almost dark already, so she was actually happy that she had finished almost all of her work. Looking across the field she saw others, who still had a lot of work left.

She smiled. Now who would dare and say she was lazy and wouldn't do a proper job. Tired, but in a good mood, she turned around and wanted to put the last few plants on the small carriage next to her, when her glance fell on a boy who was busy filling his small arms with a nice amount of rice plants.

Noticing he had been caught, he immediately turned in the other direction and ran as fast as his short legs could carry him.

"Oi!" She couldn't believe it. She had worked so hard and now there was this kid swiping her rice away under her fingers! "Rice thief! Wait!" Pulling her yukata up, she sprinted after him. It would be a joke if she wasn't able to catch up to such a midget as him. Unfortunately the midget was not that slow either, so she had to put some effort in reaching him.

Sooner or later she had caught up with him and pushed him to the ground. She sat herself on top of the boy, preventing any kind of opportunity for him to run away, while the boy still clung onto the plants. "So, you dwarf of a thief...give them back!"

"Forget it!" came the stroppy answer. "And I'm not a dwarf!"

"So, we're objecting, huh?" She couldn't believe it. "Oh and you are a dwarf. You're not one day older than six, so shut up!"

He didn't feel the need to tell her that he was actually five years old. "This rice is mine now."

She laughed scornfully. "Well, I'd know that. Give it back to me!" She began pulling his arms, trying to make him let go of the plants, but she didn't have any luck at all. How could one little kid be so stubborn? It was obviously he couldn't win against her.

"No, I won't!"

"You have no chance, give up!"

"No!"

"Listen, you don't want your parents to hear what you did, do you?"

He looked away. "Hmpf."

What kind of answer was that? "Fine, I can go to the village eldest and sneak on you, so the whole village knows what you've done, how does that sound?"

"You would have to get off me to do that." He grinned. Her eyebrow was twitching. Looking desperately around her, she hoped for some help, but they were too far from the field and the others, so there was nothing she could do. She crossed her arms. "Okay. I have a lot of time on my hands. You will have to give up sooner or later."

"I think it's going to be you who has to give up."

"Pf, as if I would lose to some nipper like you!"

"I'm not a NIPPER!" This time it was his eyebrow that twitched.

She was ignoring his little outburst completely. "And what is it with your hair anyway? Is it really white? Did you use some bleach or something?" She could be wrong, the light wasn't the best at this time of day, but it looked white to her. Just like the hair of the old people in the village. And that couldn't be, this boy wasn't old. Definitely not.

"None of your business."

"Oi, listen. For a little nipper like you, you have a pretty gloomy face and on top of that you're cheeky. I asked you something. Never heard of respecting your elders?"

"You're really annoying."

A little vein popped up on her forehead, starting to throb. Nice answer. "Okay. Okay." She tried to stay calm. "Maybe we had a bad start from the beginning. Let's try this: what's your name? I think I've never seen you before. Did you just move here?"

"Hitsugaya Toushirou..." He paused, thinking. "And the rest doesn't concern you at all."

She sighed. "And my parents keep saying I am a difficult child. Listen well, Shirou-chan. My name is Matsumoto Rangiku and now be a good boy and give Rangiku-sama the rice plants. Or I'm going to eat you and your white hair, waaaaah!!!" Rangiku made a scary grimace and began to flail wildly with her arms.

"And you're silly." Toushirou was not impressed. "Annoying and silly."

Rangiku let her head down. "And you're a little...gloomy looking dwarf!"

Hitsugaya wanted to counter something, but his stomach interrupted and grumbled something in Rangiku's direction. The boy couldn't help but blush. "Now, let me go already!"

Rangiku looked at him surprised, while he tried – without any success at all – to free himself. "Are you hungry? Is that why you stole the rice?"

Toushirou stopped. "Why else would someone steal food, baka!"

"Eh, but your parents! Shouldn't they..." Finally Rangiku understood the look in the boy's face. "Oh...I'm sorry."

"Will you let me go now?"

"Are you nuts? If you don't have parents then you should find yourself someone to help you and to give you something to eat...to care for you! Do you have a home?"

"Pf, who needs things like that?"

"Anyone!" Rangiku was more than furious. "Poor cute thing, I'll take you home and care for you!"

Toushirou blinked and wondered what he had missed for that girl to change her mind all of a sudden. So now he was cute? "Oi, I'm not a puppy or something! I'm fine all by myself."

"Noone should be all by themselves, Shirou-chan." She smiled and ruffled his white hair. "And you don't have to be afraid, my family is quite okay. Well, watch out for my sisters..they're always laughing at me and mocking me... 'cause I'm still flat."

"Flat?" Toushirou didn't get it. At all.

Rangiku blinked. "I'm flat up here...you know...no...melons..."

"Melons!" Toushirou's eyes grew large. "I like melons!"

Rangiku had no control over herself and burst into loud laughter. "Ahahahahaha! Shirou-chan, you're so funny! I'm talking about boobs."

"Eh?" Toushirou definitely hadn't got that one. "You are weird."

She smiled again. "You too, Shirou-chan. You too." She stood up and helped Hitsugaya getting up to his feet as well. "So, let's go..." But he didn't move one inch. "What's up? I promise I won't tell anyone you tried to steal the rice."

"I'm... not going with you."

Rangiku didn't understand. "You...you can't stay outside..."

Toushirou looked at the ground. "Thanks for the rice..." And so he left.

"B-bu..." Rangiku wanted to chase after him, but she didn't move. Something told her he wouldn't let her help him at all. Feeling sad, she kept on staring into the direction Toushirou had left and after a while walked back, wondering if she would ever see him again.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Oi, Hitsugaya taichou, Ran-chan?" Renji had approached them and was waving his hands in front of their faces. The shinigami of tenth division blinked and looked around, obviously a bit confused. "Taichou...what...?"

Hitsugaya looked at her.

"Taichou?"

"Hm?"

"You can have that rice ball."

The End...

...or TBC?

A/N: Actually this was supposed to be a one shot, but Yury complained ;) cause she wanted it to be longer and so I have thought of a, you know, whole plot, so it's going to have more chapters in the future. I think Hitsu and Matsu as children are great fun to write (...actually Hitsu still is a child, but...you know what I mean) and it's going to contain a good dose of angst XD

Furthermore I don't know how this whole thing works for you, as Matsumoto is probably a - ahem - bit older than Hitsugaya so there's little chance they could ever have met in real life, but...ah well. Anyway, tell me what you think, please...