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Something was different.
She had watched her captain since the end of the Winter War. He had been like a block of ice before with a hidden hot spring inside before that. Afterwards, he was a glacier for the longest time, not wanting to let anyone in. Hinamori-san had healed from her psychological wounds faster than he, and it took the two of them conspiring to get her captain to realize that his oldest friend did not blame him. And while that had only been about seven months prior, it was still taking him a while to defrost.
Until today.
There were two courses of action he could have taken when he came into the office to see her resting her head on her arms, crossed on her desk: yell and scream, or shake her awake and force her to work. She would admit she had been more productive lately, but even she needed a break. She had just done so, and waited to see what he did, bracing herself for either reaction.
But there was none. Instead, there was humming.
She waited a moment, and then lifted her head up slightly. What on earth would cause her dear grumpy captain to hum? She ran through a list in her head of all the things that might have elicited that reaction. He staunchly refused to drink so he wasn’t drunk, he had already seen his Granny earlier in the month so it wasn’t a visit home, and he was too young to have had sex, and besides, there wasn’t…anyone…he liked…
It went off with a blinding flash in her head. Silly her, he’d gone to the world of the living on assignment and brought someone back with him yesterday. Young Ichigo had a sister who was a substitute shinigami. Karin was her name, if she remembered correctly. And he had talked about her before. Could he…? No. No way! Ichigo would have killed him because his sister couldn’t have been more than thirteen, fourteen. But maybe…had he kissed her?
“I did not do anything you need to know about,” Hitsugaya said matter-of-factly, looking down at her from in front of her desk.
She started, and it took her a moment to realize she had said her last thought out loud. She flushed, then closed her mouth. But then she got a good look at him, and her eyes narrowed. He was blushing! “You lie, Captain,” she crowed, standing up with a smirk and planting her hands on her desk. “You’re blushing!”
He sputtered, then glared at her. “I am not!”
“You are!” she said triumphantly, pointing at him. “So what happened?
“I merely brought Karin here to get her injuries looked at and then I took her home,” he said, his glare intensifying.
“She was here in the morning. And I heard that you did not come back until after midnight,” she said, her smirk widening. It dimmed considerably when she caught full sight of his gaze. “Of course, it really isn’t my business what you do in your personal life, so I’ll keep my mouth shut and get back to my paperwork,” she added quickly and quietly, sitting back down and pulling some of her paperwork in front of her.
“Remember that,” he huffed, and he stalked to his desk and sat down, yanking a pile of paperwork closer. She looked up and smiled, but hid it carefully. Something had happened. Maybe a kiss, maybe not, but there had been some change for him that last evening. And she’d wear him down and find out eventually. For now, though, she had to be patient. And patient she could be for a sign that there was a change in her captain, a change that signaled it was time for the glacier in his heart to come crashing down.