Hitsugaya Tōshirō knew he had to be an alternate universe when he entered his office and saw his lieutenant working at her desk.

She was not working very hard, mind you, but she was still sitting at her desk, slowly but steadily filling out forms and putting in the correct information and placing her signature where necessary. But what was most disconcerting was the dreamy smile she wore on her face as she dutifully filled out the paperwork.

In the many years they had served together in the Tenth Division, Hitsugaya had seen many different types of smiles on Matsumoto. Most of them were either cheerful or drunken smiles, and there quite a few more mischievous grins that usually spelled headaches for him, but he did not recall her ever having such a content smile before. He truly was glad for her happiness, but he could not help but feel curious as to what spurred on this new attitude.

Matsumoto seemed to have finally noticed his entrance, because she looked up from her paperwork and gave him a very sunny and chipper smile, and greeted him with a slight sing-song in her voice, "Good morning, captain!"

"Uh, good morning," Hitsugaya said with a little uncertainty, "You seem to be in a good mood."

"Oh, I guess I am," Matsumoto replied with a slight shrug without losing her smile, "I've been spending a lot of time in the Third Division lately."

Oh. Oh. He decided that was all the information he needed. He knew that she had been visiting the Third quite frequently after the end of the Winter War, and those trips had only increased after reinstatement of their captain.

Satisfied with his answer, Hitsugaya went to perform his duty of maintaining the Seireitei's bureaucratic machine.

Over the next several days, Hitsugaya noticed that Matsumoto had been consistently coming in to work on time and sober and doing actual work. She had done sprees like this before, but mostly it was because he had been especially cranky with her, and she sought to return to his good graces, or she was trying to butter him up for a favor. But this time, there seemed to be no ulterior motives for her newfound work ethic. Matsumoto simply seemed to be in such a good mood that the normally tedious paperwork was no issue for her anymore. Hitsugaya was not foolish enough to believe that the trend would last forever, but he could enjoy it while it lasted.

After a week of having a semi-hardworking lieutenant, and showing no signs of ending anytime soon, the white-haired captain decided to pay a visit to the Third Division and give his personal thanks for the improvement in his lieutenant.

He barged into the captain's office without knocking. Usually he was more polite, but he tended to make exceptions on politeness for this particular person.

"I don't know what you're doing with my lieutenant," Hitsugaya said before the other captain could speak, "And frankly, I don't want to know what you're doing with her. But whatever it is you're doing, please keep it up."

Ichimaru Gin's smile broadened into an amused grin, and he replied, "Well, if ya insist, Hitsugaya-taichō."

Author's Note: Yes, Hitsugaya is correct: he is an alternate universe, and Gin is still alive. I'll leave the details of his survival and return to captaincy to your imagination.

I think that if Gin had survived and Hitsugaya had learned about their common hatred for Aizen, his line of thought would be, "On the one hand, you once tried to kill Hinamori. On the other hand, you tried to kill Aizen. ...Fine, I'll let it go this time."