"Hey!" Momo shouted as she burst into the 10th division, holding a hard wooden object.

"Hello…" Toshiro muttered, barely acknowledging her before turning back to his work. Rangiku was passed out on the couch, so he had to do double the work. "Well," he thought, "It isn't really double the usual work if I always end up doing hers anyways."

"Look what I brought back from the world of the living!" Momo excitedly held up the stick. "It's a baseball bat! We've seen people playing it before, so I thought we could learn! I have a ball too, one of the white ones with red stitching." She placed the hard sphere on his desk and smiled.

Toshiro was about to say no, but he made the mistake of looking up at Momo before responding. She looked so excited, so happy. "No." Toshiro told himself. "No means no means no means-"

"Yeah, I'll play baseball with you," the white-haired boy sighed. Toshiro gave in to the eyes. It was always the eyes that broke him down into submission, and he hoped that one day he would be able to overcome that weakness. "Just let me finish this up and I'll meet you outside in thirty minutes."

The girl let out a small cheer before taking both the ball and bat and running out to the grass field.

30 Minutes Later…

Toshiro walked over to where Momo was standing. She greeted him happily and handed the bat over. "I'll pitch first!" She exclaimed, running a good distance away before preparing to throw.

"Okay." Toshiro readied himself with the bat positioned behind his head, and as the ball came flying towards him, he swung…

And missed.

Momo giggled. "How is it that you can be so good at fighting and not even hit a baseball?" She called to him as he went to retrieve it. As it was tossed back to her and she caught it, Momo added, "You would think a captain would be able to handle something this simple!"

A vein throbbed on his head as he shouted irritably, "Shut up! Let me try again!" He was determined not to go without getting it a good distance at least once.

It took seven more times for Toshiro to hit it a satisfying distance. This is where he and Momo switched places, him pitching and her batting.

"Shiro-chan, don't throw it too hard!" Momo begged.

"I won't." He gently lobbed it at her, and she was able to hit it on the first try. Her face lit up with happiness and pride as she shouted, "Throw it harder this time, Shiro-chan! At least as hard as I threw it!"

"Don't call me that." He complied with her wish and pitched harder. It appeared to be on course, but soon Toshiro could tell that the ball was going straight towards-

"Ow!" Momo exclaimed as the ball made contact with her cheekbone. Toshiro rushed over and worriedly asked, "Are you okay? I'm so sorry Momo, I didn't mean for it to hit you."

She smiled at him, after all it was only a baseball. "I'm fine, Shiro-chan, I've had worse. You don't have to worry or apologize! I was probably standing in the wrong spot anyways."

He let the 'Shiro-chan' slide, but Toshiro immediately felt guilt. "Great, now she's blaming herself."

"Do you need to go to the fourth division? I can take you there."

Momo laughed lightly, "Geez, it's fine!"

Toshiro refused to play baseball with her for the rest of the day, and she went back off to her quarters, still assuring him that she wasn't at all injured.

The next day, Momo went back over to the tenth division, this time without the baseball stuff. She knew Toshiro was probably still feeling guilty, so it would be better not to remind him with the things he thought had hurt her.

"Shiro-chan! Rangiku-san!" Momo exclaimed as she walked through the door, seeing the orange-haired woman first. Said woman ran over and gave Momo a giant hug.

"Momo-chan! I'm so glad to see you! That demon over there wants me to do paperwork! Tell him to stop, Momo-chan!" Rangiku whined, hoping that her little friend would be able to get rid of her little captain for her. She was distracted from her original mission by a blemish on Momo's face. "Huh? What's this?"

Toshiro glanced up from his desk and started going over slowly, watching as Rangiku touched Momo's cheek and Momo winced.

"Oh, that! I must have a bruise!" She was trying to avoid telling where she got it, and she had done her best to hide it, but the bruise itself was pretty big and was extremely noticeable.

"A bruise, huh? Where did you get it from?" Rangiku inquired, bending down to get a closer look at it.

Momo hesitated. "Uh…Well, you see…IgothitinthefacewhenShiro-chanandiwereplaying baseball." She rushed, hoping that neither person would be able to understand the mashed-together sentence.

Both, however, could hear it perfectly. Rangiku wrapped her arms around Momo in a joking, protective hug. "Captain! How could you do something that horrible to my little Momo-chan! Look at her!"

Toshiro sighed and turned around, going back to his desk and working like usual. But there was a more menacing aura coming from his direction.

"Shiro-chan…" Momo reached towards him, hoping to comfort him.

"You can leave, both of you." Rangiku and Momo knew that it was more of an order, and not a suggestion. They took their leave, and left Toshiro to his thoughts.

"It's not a deep bruise," Toshiro knew. "It will only take maybe a couple of weeks to heal entirely..." He sighed and rested his forehead in the palm of his hand and knew that no matter what, he would have to see what he had done almost every day until then.

A couple of days later, Momo came back and, to Toshiro's dismay, the bruise looked worse than ever. It had just gotten past the 'I got hit in the face yesterday' phase and the bruise had now darkened.

"Momo, come with me." He took her by the hand and dragged her out of the room.

Momo was confused as ever. "Shiro-chan, why did you want to talk to me outside?"

Toshiro was almost her height now, just an inch shorter, so he barely had to tilt his head up to kiss her on the cheek where it had been bruised. Momo blushed, and she was hoping the purple mark on her face would help cover up her redness.

"Um…"

Toshiro continued speaking, interrupting her. "In the world of the living, I heard that people kiss the injured areas of people they love, to help make them feel better. At least, that's what they do for small children."

"I am not a small child! This is coming from the person who didn't even start growing until a year ago!" Momo huffed, pouting at him.

"That's what you took from that?" Toshiro asked, embarrassed that he would have to say it again. "I said, and I'll repeat it slowly, that people kiss the injured areas of people they love."

"Yeah, I heard you the first- oh!" Momo brought a hand to her lips when she realized what he was truly saying. "I understand now! Well, Shiro-chan, there's something I have to tell you."

"Huh?" He asked.

She shrugged. "I-I was going to tell you that the baseball also happened to hit me right here." Momo lied, pointing to her lips.

"Oh? Then we have to make it feel better, don't we?" He pulled her into a deep but gentle kiss, only releasing her when they needed air.

"Better yet?"

"No, not quite…"

So, how was this?

Anyways, please review and I'll be very happy :D Please check out my other stories also, like Chance Encounter, 20 Meetings, and the recently completed Falling for One Another.

~SnowKoyuki13