I'm really excited to finally start writing this one. My friend and I came up with this idea almost immediately after Akatsuki Baby. Since it's the summer I can finally work on the rest of the 'baby universe' (sorry can't think of a better name) fanfics.
Matsumoto sighed as she carried the extremely heavy box. The box contained the new captain coats and the new lieutenant armbands. Matsumoto had never realized clothes could weigh so much. She finally reached the door to the meeting room and kicked it open.
The captains and vice-captains all stood half of the captains on one side, the other half on the other. Their respective vice-captains stood behind each of them. They all looked at Matsumoto expectantly. Matsumoto placed the heavy box in the middle of the room. She opened the lid and began pulling out the robes and armbands, tossing them to each person. When she got close to the bottom, she paused.
"What's wrong, Matsumoto-san?" Kira asked.
"There's a weird lump moving under one of the coats."
Matsumoto moved the coat aside and clapped her hands together excitedly. She picked something up out of the box and held it up for everyone to see; it was a baby. Matsumoto began bouncing the sleeping baby up and down. The baby was wrapped tightly in a dirty blanket.
"She's adorable!"
The room broke out into a ruckus, everyone shocked at the discovery. All the loud noises woke the sleeping baby. The baby opened her eyes to reveal a deep blue color which matched the small patch of blue hair she had on her head. The baby began wailing, clearly not approving of all the noise.
"That's enough!" The 1st division captain hit his stick on the ground twice and everyone was silent, save the baby that Matsumoto was cooing at. "Get rid of that child, Matsumoto Rangiku. Take it back to wherever you found it!"
"But, I found her in the box, sir. Do you want me to put her back in the box?"
"No! Take her back to wherever you got the uniforms from!"
Matsumoto flinched. "But the uniforms were packaged in the 76th district! You can't possibly want me to send her back there!"
The baby continued crying. She grasped onto Matsumoto's uniform and began tugging on it.
"Aw, she's hungry!" Matsumoto cooed softly to the baby. "See, that means that she has spiritual energy! We can't send her back there!"
The 1st division captain sighed and rubbed his forehead. It was true that if the child was hungry that she had to have some spiritual energy. For her to display the need for food at such a young age also indicated that she might have a great deal within her.
"Very well. However, one of you captains must take care of her!"
All the captains looked at each other, none stepping forward. The baby had finally calmed down and was tugging on the necklace around Matsumoto's neck.
"The first division can't take care of her." Yamamoto said. "We have far more important duties to attend to."
"There's no way the second division can have a baby." Soifon argued. "We're the special forces and have no time to care for her."
Gin grinned evilly. "The third division would be happy to take her."
The small baby took one look at Gin and began crying and shaking her head. Matsumoto laughed. "Or not."
"I'll take care of her." Aizen stepped forward. He reached out to take the baby from Matsumoto.
The minute Aizen touched her, the baby began screaming at the top of her lungs. She didn't stop screaming until Aizen took his place back in the line of captains.
Yamamoto rubbed his temples in annoyance. "That's enough everyone! We are going to solve this in the most professional way possible; we're going to draw straws! Whichever captain gets the shortest straw, must take the baby."
The captains crowded around the vice-captain of the 1st division. Yamamoto drew first, then Soifon, and so on down the line until everyone had a straw. Everyone took a deep breath and opened their hands to reveal their straws. They all looked around and all eyes fell on the straw in Hitsugaya's hand. Hitsugaya groaned when he realized that he had in fact drawn the shortest straw.
Yamamoto let out a sigh of relief. He was too old to take care of a small child. "The straws have spoken. Hitsugaya will be the guardian of this baby."
The baby turned her head and looked at Hitsugaya. Hitsugaya returned the stare and for a moment, the whole room was silent. Then, the baby giggled and reached out towards Hitsugaya.
Kyoraku laughed. " Congratulations on the new baby, Hitsugaya."
Hitsugaya sputtered indignantly as Matsumoto handed the baby to him. "I can't possibly take care of a baby. I don't know how to make it stop crying."
The minute the baby was in Hitsugaya's arms, she fell asleep. The baby snuggled her head close to Hitsugaya. Some of the more refined captains hid their laughter behind their hands while others openly laughed.
"Looks like you have a knack for taking care of kids." Ukitake said. "What are you going to name your baby girl?"
Hitsugaya mumbled something unintelligible.
"Taicho, you need to speak up!"
Hitsugaya growled at Matsumoto. "I said, her name is Hitomi. She has the deepest blue eyes I've ever seen." He blushed when the others laughed at him. "Shut up! It just seemed appropriate!"
Matsumoto leaned over and tickled the baby's stomach. "Hello, little Hitomi. Welcome to our charming, slightly dysfunctional family." Matsumoto straightened up. "We need to get baby supplies!"
Hitsugaya sighed and began walking out of the room, Hitomi still asleep in his arms. "I'll leave the shopping to you."
Hitsugaya went straight to his office. He placed Hitomi on the couch and sat down at his desk to finish his paperwork. He had barely begun when Hitomi began screaming at the top of her lungs. Hitsugaya growled and went over to the couch. He picked the baby up and she stopped crying. He put her back on the couch. The minute he took his hands off of her, Hitomi began screaming.
With a resigned sigh, Hitsugaya picked Hitomi up and held her in his lap with one arm and did the paperwork with his other.
Hitomi giggled and began chewing on Hitsugaya's captain sleeve. Her teeth were starting to come in and it really hurt! She was starting to doze off again when Matsumoto burst through the door with Renji, Shuuhei, and Kira trailing behind her. All four of them had at least five bags in their arms.
Hitsugaya felt his anger rising. "Matsumoto, what are all the bags for?"
Matsumoto laughed and put the bags down on the couch and motioned for the others to do the same. "Hitomi-chan needs clothes. Those rags she's wearing just won't do for someone so cute! Then I had to get her some bottles, diapers, blankets, toys, a changing table, baby shampoo, and a crib."
"Where is the little tyke anyways?" Renji asked.
Hitsugaya looked down and realized that Hitomi was no longer is his lap. The five shinigami searched the room frantically, before any of them realized the door was wide open. Hitsugaya growled in annoyance. "Hitomi!"
Hitomi was crawling around Soul Society, taking everything in. Nobody seemed to notice the small baby crawling around on the ground. Hitomi was crawling around when she bumped into a pair of feet. She looked up and began screaming.
"Now, that's not very nice, kiddo." Gin grinned eerily down at the baby. He leaned down and picked her up, ignoring her kicking and screaming.
"Gin, what are you doing to that poor child?"
Tousen had walked up and frowned disapprovingly. "Put Hitomi down."
Gin continued grinning and nuzzled Hitomi's cheek. "But she's so cute. I just wanna play with her."
"Gin, give Hitomi back!"
Hitsugaya came up and quickly snatched Hitomi from Gin. Hitomi immediately stopped screaming and buried her face in Hitsugaya's neck. Hitsugaya held Hitomi as close as he could and walked backwards a few steps before turning around and taking Hitomi back to his office.
Hitomi cocked her head to the side when Hitsugaya sat her down on the couch. She held her hands out and began touching Hitsugaya's face. She let out a happy giggle when she saw his eye begin to twitch.
Hitsugaya held Hitomi's hands firmly in his. "Now listen very carefully to me, Hitomi. You can't just run off like that. There are some very dangerous people here. Do you understand?"
Hitomi giggled and blew a spit bubble. She clapped her hands at the furious look on Hitsugaya's face.
Hitsugaya rubbed his temples in frustration. "This is serious, Hitomi. You better do what I say or…or…I'll do something you won't like."
"Having trouble already, Taicho?" Matsumoto skipped into the room. She held something behind her back.
"What are hiding, Matsumoto?" Hitsugaya eyed her warily.
Matsumoto pulled out a cute white kimono with blue fish on the fabric. She came over and pulled the ragged kimono that Hitomi was wearing. She put the new kimono on and tied the blue obi around Hitomi's waist.
Hitomi waved her arms up and down, enjoying the feel of the silk kimono against her skin. She clapped her hands excitedly.
"Aw, she's happy, Taicho!"
Hitsugaya rolled his eyes and stood up. "I have to go to another meeting now. Watch Hitomi and make sure she doesn't get into any trouble."
Matsumoto scooped Hitomi up and followed Hitsugaya out of the office. "I'll take Hitomi on a tour of Soul Society."
Hitomi fell asleep about an hour later. She was curled up in Matsumoto's arms, chewing on the sleeve of her new kimono.
Matsumoto looked down and smiled. She smoothed Hitomi's blue hair down, being careful not to wake the sleeping baby up.
"Oi, Matsumoto!"
All the vice-captains ran up excitedly, clamoring to see the little baby. Yachiru jumped up onto Matsumoto's shoulders and began playing with Hitomi's hair. Renji and Shuuhei were each holding one of her small hands and waving them in the air. Hitomi slept through all the attention until…
"Can I hold her?" Hinamori asked.
Hitomi began crying. She flailed her arms around and grabbed onto Matsumoto's necklace. She tugged on the chain, indicating that she did not want to be held by Hinamori.
Matsumoto rocked Hitomi back and forth, calming the small baby down. When she noticed Hinamori's sad expression, she smiled reassuringly at her. "She seems wary of a few other people. I'm sure she'll get used to you."
Hinamori smiled and nodded. "I better go. Aizen-Taicho will probably be back from the captain's meeting."
Slowly, the group of vice-captains dispersed until only Matsumoto, Shuuhei, Renji, and Kira were left. Matsumoto grinned at the three men. "How about the four of us go get a drink?"
Kira gave Matsumoto a disapproving look. "What about Hitomi-chan?"
Matsumoto laughed and adjusted Hitomi so she was holding her with one arm. She waved her other hand at Kira dismissively. "She'll be fine. I've a got a bottle for her in my bag so I'll just give that to her."
The three men reluctantly followed Matsumoto to one of the closest bars. Matsumoto sat Hitomi on the table and handed her an empty bottle.
Hitomi gave Matsumoto a blank stare and threw the bottle back at Matsumoto. She began pouting and sniffling.
Kira quickly picked Hitomi up and held her so her little feet touched his legs. He bounced her up and down and let out a sigh of relief when she began giggling happily. "Matsumoto-san, you forgot to fill up the bottle?"
Matsumoto laughed, already finishing off one bottle of sake and having another one brought. She poured some of the sake into Hitomi's bottle.
Hitomi wriggled away from Kira and crawled back onto the table. She snatched the bottle from Matsumoto and began gulping down the alcohol. Kira let out a shriek of terror and tried to take the bottle away from Hitomi. Hitomi growled and clutched onto the bottle tightly.
Matsumoto laughed again. "Lighten up, Kira-kun. One bottle won't hurt her. Now then, let's drink!"
A few hours later found Hitomi sound asleep in a drunken Shuuhei's arms. She had puked all over Renji after finishing off her bottle and promptly fell asleep. Shuuhei stroked Hitomi's cheek and gave a drunken grin.
"You know, Hitomi's going to be a hottie when she gets older."
"Oh, will she?"
The group turned and saw a furious Hitsugaya standing in the entrance to the bar. He ran over and yanked Hitomi out of Shuuhei's hand. He practically growled at the drunken vice-captain. "You are NEVER to come near Hitomi ever again! If you do, I'll make sure you regret the day you were born."
Hitsugaya stormed out of the bar, holding Hitomi as close as he possibly could. He made his way to the squad ten barracks and finally came to his own quarters. Inside, a crib was set up beside the bed. Hitsugaya took Hitomi over to the changing table and changed her into a white sleeping kimono. He then took her over to her crib and tucked her in.
Hitomi sleepily held her hands out to Hitsugaya. She made a small, happy noise in the back of her throat when Hitsugaya let her hold one of his hands. She fell asleep, holding Hitsugaya's hand.
Well, there's the first chapter. Please let me know what you think! If I get enough positive feedback, I'll continue the story! Constructive criticism and ideas are always welcome!