Thank you to everyone who left a review. I'm sorry I can't give individual replies right now because I'm in a hurry. I just dropped by to leave this update. And oh, HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO EVERYONE!

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. How many times do I have to say that? XD

"Thoughts"

Chapter 3: You give love a bad name

Slow and heavy deliberate footsteps echoed from the path leading to the entrance of the Tenth Division Headquarters. The ground shook with each advancing step. The areas nearest to the fuming Hitsugaya were slowly covered with thin layer of frost. Freezing reiatsu poured out of his every pore; even the irises of his eyes disappeared beneath the energy that leaked out unchecked because of his anger. Every shinigami with an ounce of sanity fled within sight of the approaching captain who seemed more than livid.

And he was indeed more than livid. Hitsugaya was furious. He had never felt more humiliated and taken advantaged of in his life. He gritted his teeth upon remembering the events of the previous day.

First Flashback: During lunch

"Try this cheesecake taicho, it's very tasty but it's not very sweet." Matsumoto leaned towards Hitsugaya, as he was biting into a slice of pizza. Her exposed cleavage fell just below his line of sight in a very suggestive manner. He turned his head away a little to avoid his gaze but Matsumoto leaned in further. "Because I know that you don't like sweet stuff that much. Didn't I tell you that I made this with you in mind?"Her shoulder and the side of her breast rubbed against his upper arm making his brows furrow deeper with annoyance. He was the famed iceman and after decades of putting up with his touchy-feely fukutaicho, he'd already been used to her less than, err, restrained, ways but her actions as of the moment were making truly him uncomfortable.

Second Flashback: After work hours

"Matsumoto! The reports are unfinished yet. You would need to stay behind to work through them all."

The redhead pouted and was about to retort when he glared at her with his trademark shut-it-or-you'll-have-it-worse look. He was surprised when the usually glib lieutenant heeded his silent order. He was even more surprised when she actually sat down in front of her desk without any argument and started going through the papers.

Hitsugaya hardly believed his eyes and thought that Matsumoto was just going with him until she can find a chance for escape. Afterall, she did it many times before so he pulled his couch from his office into hers and sat on it so he could watch over her and make sure that she doesn't play hooky.

And so he sat there, and stayed there, and stared at her in amazement, and sat there, and stayed there, and stared at her in increasing amazement until he fell asleep on his own couch.

He woke up with a start when something warm fanned across his face. When he snapped his eyes open, his view was greeted with Matsumoto's large rack, again. She was leaning suggestively over him. Caught off guard, Hitsugaya tried to get out of the couch and he stumbled to the floor with a thud.

"Taicho, it's already dark. I'm all done, can I go now?" she said coyly but her eyes were dancing with mischief.

"A-ah," was all that he managed to say. When Matsumoto left, he leafed through the papers and true enough they were indeed all finished. They were done very well too. Which left him all the more puzzled.

End Flashback

Now he understood why. He knew that something was off when her walking-dead of a lieutenant came in early this morning, he did not entertain his suspicion because he thought, no, he stupidly hoped that it was just in consonance with her actions the previous day. He hoped that he would finally be able to have more than half of his burden lifted but no, no sir-ee! That wreck of an officer just had to pull this stunt off!

Hitsugaya valued his privacy thank you very much but the source of his fury wasn't so much because of the pictures as much as Matsumoto had one up on him.

"Ooh! There'll be hell topay!"

.

-oOo-

.

"Nine hundred and ninety-seven…Nine hundred and ninety-eight…Nine hundred and ninety-nine…One Thousand! Wow! Two million and three hundred thousand yen in just one day!" Matsumoto exclaimed happily. She placed the wads in a nondescript bag. "Taicho IS famous! Nanao will be happy. Hahumm!"

Matsumoto knew that her racket would be a hit but she didn't expect it to be that big of a hit. But then again, Hitsugaya's fame was only a close second to Byakuya's in all of Seiretei. Especially now that the prodigy had grown from his pre-teenaged body into a budding hunk of a young man, women everywhere were dying to have piece of him.

"I knew I should have placed bugs in his house too! Hey, why not?" Matsumoto was too happy with her success and her next plans that she didn't notice the whole building was starting to resemble an igloo.

Eventually the cold crept into her office, the door of which for the nth time opened with a bang.

Matsumoto Rangiku, queen-of-composure-in-the-presence-of-iceman-Hitsugaya, jumped in surprise; her crown was threatened to be removed by the look on her captain's face.

"T-taicho!" Matsumoto flustered. She moved in front of her desk to hide the remaining stack of Hitsugaya pictures from his view. "Dang! Taicho is soo gonna kill me…It was a good thing I left the soft copy at the SWA Headquarters."

Nevertheless, she knew she was already found out.

"T-taicho," she repeated. Hitsugaya continued to advance menacingly towards her and she took a defensive step back in response, "it's not what you think Taicho!"

But she had to try right?

Hitsugaya was undeterred. "I was here the whole day! YOU saw me, so I couldn't have had….!"

Matsumoto let out a small shriek when Hitsugaya lunged at her with the astonishing speed of his shunpo and slammed her to the wall.

Matsumoto could only gawk up at the white-haired shinigami in surprise. She never realized how much he had grown until now that he was looming over her, his merciless turquoise eyes boring down into her blue ones. Ordinarily, Matsumoto would be able to think of a way to get out of trouble but Hitsugaya's closeness and his immense reiatsu were pressing heavily on her. And he did manage to back to her up in a corner. Both of his hands were on her either side imprisoning her and Haineko was out of her reach. There was no way for her to escape without first being frozen solid by Hyorinmaru

"You…" he seethed between his teeth. Matsumoto gulped.

"…sneaky…" he continued between gritted teeth. Hitsugaya grabbed the front of her shinigami uniform earning a gasp from the stunned Matsumoto.

Then the door opened to accept Kyoraku and Ukitake and this was the scene that met their eyes. For a brief moment, everybody seemed too stunned to move. Ukitake's jaw hung towards the floor and then Shunsui exclaimed excitedly, "Our little prodigy is really now a man!"

It was Hitsugaya's turn to blanch this time. Matsumoto didn't take too long to recover and her instincts kicked in. Her hand rose on its own and connected with Hitsugaya's nose.

Shunsui whistled admiringly.

A/N: So who else loves cheesecake? I do! XD Read and Review people.