Souls Reapers parted for you as you walked, but it was not because you were respected.

"There's something wrong with her." Though you could not hear them, you read their lips. They didn't know. Only a select few knew your secret. Your deafness. Head Captain Yamamoto, Captain Tousen, and a few others. You had been placed in four different court guard squads, and you had been kicked out of four. The head captain was getting tired of placing you in different squads, though he understood why.

In the lower ranks, teamwork is key to get things accomplished. With rumors flying around about you, no one considered you apart of their team, not really. Rukia Kuchiki and Renji Abarai had been your friends, but their associates tried to get them to stay away from you. They spoke about the rumors.

The rumors went something like this: "You can talk to her in a normal conversation, but as soon as she stops looking at you, she acts like you don't exist," or "I heard that she isn't allowed to be promoted to a seat higher than the thirteenth, she must have something wrong with her," or possibly "She may seem nice, but there's something odd about the way she looks at you. It's fiery, and almost poisonous."

You didn't really mind them too much after a while, but in the beginning they hurt a lot. People had talked like that often in your previous positions, and after a while they became uncomfortable with you around. Now you were being re-assigned to a new court guard squad. You were headed to see Head Captain Yamamoto so you could find out who your new captain would be. You hoped that it would be the 9th Division so you could be under Kaname Tousen. You two shared similar disabilities so-to-speak, and you had been friends with him for quite a while. That was hopeful thinking. You knew in the back of your mind that two people with impediments would not be allowed on the same squad.

You sighed and brushed your (h/l) (h/c) hair from your face. There was no use thinking about it and worrying. All you could do is accept the squad that was given to you. You stopped yourself in front of the door. The soft wind tousled your hair and pushed gently against your back. You quickly steeled yourself, then pushed open the double doors.

There, all by his lonesome, was the head captain. He wore his shinigami robe like you current did, and sat on his throne like chair with both his hands resting on the top of his gnarled walking stick. You noticed that his grey-white beard nearly brushed the floor. You knelt and bowed your head. "Head Captain Yamamoto." He tapped your shoulder, and you were allowed to look up. You saw his eyes soften just the slightest when he gazed at you. When he opened his mouth to speak, you began to read his lips.

"Welcome (y/n). I know you would like to be assigned to the ninth division, but that cannot be permitted for reasons I'm sure you already understand. It is hard enough to convince them to let you stay a soul reaper, young one. There is one more division I can place you in, but this time, you cannot allow your captain to know about your deafness. That would only incite him to remove you from his squad, that is the kind of person he is."  You couldn't help but gulp, hard. It was difficult not letting anyone know, but a captain? That was nearly impossible.

Nearly.

Since your spot as a soul reaper was on the line, you would have to make do. "Yes, Head Captain."

The edge of his lips curved into an almost evident smile. "Your speaking has improved."

You smiled back at him. "Thank you, Head Captain." Normally, a person who could not hear, could not speak, since they don't know how a word is supposed to be pronounced. Through sensing vibrations and feeling the air and moving the lips properly, one can learn to speak. You copied that human woman, Helen Keller, you believed her name to be. You refocused on the Head Captain when he opened his mouth once more.

"Your new division shall be..."

-

You stood in front of your new division barracks door. As you played with your hair, you wondered if the rumors about you had reached this division yet. You were quite sure they had, but maybe luck might shine on you. Just then, you felt the vibration of tapping feet off to your left and you turned. Then you were suffocating.

After wrestling with the figure, you finally managed to pry her large breasts off you. You sent your friend a poisonous glare that, if she hadn't been so wasted, would have mockingly pretended she was scared of. "Rangiku." You groaned as she slung her arm over your shoulder. You were shorter than her, so that put you at a disadvantage. Then again you were sober and she was not.

"(Y-y/n)! Come have some sake with me!" She shouted, her orange wavy hair bounced on her shoulders. Or at least you think she said. It was always harder to read her lips when she was drunk. You could tell she was drunk by the way she stumbled at she tried to balance her weight, how her eyes couldn't quite focus on one thing, and also that she reeked of sake. You sighed. You should probably take her back to her room before it gets too dark, or she decided to do something even more stupid. You looked up to see the sun setting. It's decent tinted the sky a violent shade of pink before it faded to orange and purple. It was blurred into the clouds, making it hard to distinguish one for the other. You stared at it a while longer. Colors always fascinated you. Since you only had four out of the five senses working, sound had no appeal, because for you it did not exist in the first place. Your other senses on the other hand had become stronger.

When Matsumoto shifted and placed all of her weight on you, you couldn't help but deadpan. Time to get you home, you thought miserably. You started to pull her, and within ten steps it turned into dragging. You couldn't even tell if she was faking it or she had truly fallen asleep. So without further adieu, you hoisted her onto your shoulder, of course with much struggling. She was a good twenty pounds heavier than you at least. You were lucky that her room wasn't too far from the underlings' barracks.

You mumbled incoherent curses as you trudged down the walking path. Something glinted in the corner of your eye, and your head whipped around see it. The sun had caught the reflection of a window. You breathed a sigh of relief. You weren't sure what you were expecting, but you were glad that whatever it was wasn't there. A flicker of movement within the building caught your eye. You leaned closer to the window to try and make the glare lessen. Inside there was a boy, probably shorter than you, with spiky snow white hair that had been pushed back. He wore the unmistakable white cloak of a Captain. His back was facing you so you couldn't see his face, but even if he was facing you, you wouldn't be able to see anything with the sun's glare anyways. Then, he vanished. A Shunpo maybe, but you didn't have any time to dwell on it. You still had to make it to Lieutenant Matsumoto's chambers which was still far enough away, and she wasn't getting any lighter.

Once you had moved her weight onto your back and carried her like that, suddenly reaching the Lieutenant's room seemed like an attainable goal. You slid the Japanese style door to the side and hauled your friend inside. Closing the door, you dragged her to her room and draped her over her bed, then rotated her until she fit properly. You sighed and collapsed next to her, breathing heavily. All the extra weight of her chest made her at least twice as heavy if not more.

You sat down on her couch in the next room. Her door was left open, so you could make sure she was still sleeping and not just faking it. You rested you chin in the palm of your hand and leaned against the arm of the couch. Your day wasn't too eventful, but you couldn't help but feel tired. You glanced around her room in a mild daze. Her furniture was plain and frankly quite boring. The wooden cabinets above and below the kitchen were all closed except for a single one left ajar. The gap wasn't very wide, but you could clearly see the outline of Sake bottles.

You stood up with some effort, since your body had just settled down, and walked over to the open cabinet. You knelt and pulled out all three bottles, and you just happened to notice that one wasn't full. You couldn't help but let out a small sigh. You rolled the half empty bottle around in your hands, feeling its contents sloshing inside. The clay it was made from was dry and delicate, almost like it would shatter in your hands. Tapping the floor next to you with your free hand, you felt the vibrations for a weak spot. After about a dozen taps, you found it and pried open a panel in the rough floor. You swiftly stashed all three bottles in the floor and laid the board back over the hole. Standing up, you brushed yourself off. You made your way back to the couch and sat down heavily, but instead of looking back at Rangiku, you gazed out the window.

In the short while it had taken you to get Rangiku to her quarters and hide the sake, the sky had drastically changed. The warm hues that were previously prominently displayed on the canvas in the sky, had been toned down and replaced with dark blues and purples. At night, even the sky became colder.

You hadn't noticed you were falling asleep until your chin slipped off your palm and startled you awake. You shook your head to rid yourself of the haze that was taking over your senses, but to no avail. So instead of going to your new barracks and having to explain why you arrived so late into the night, you decided to just sleep on the couch. You hoped Rangiku wouldn't mind, and the more you thought about, the more you realized that she would be ecstatic that you were there with her.

Oh man, she was going to wake you up in the worst possible way, wasn't she?

-

You woke up to a wave of something cold and wet.

"Rangiku!" You shouted as you sat up, currently drenched in water. You swiftly stood, even though your hair and the top half of you soul reaper uniform were dripping. Your hair stuck to the sides of you face, making your appearance even more frightening.

Rangiku was currently shaking and rolling on the floor with a silver colored bucket. Probably a previously filled silver colored bucket.

"What was that for?" You questioned rather dangerously. You caught a glimpse of her mouth moving and sighed. "I need you to face me if your going to answer, or did you forget that I can't hear?"

She turned to face you, now sitting on the floor with her legs crossed. "Well of course I knew that. I was just testing your skills like I always do."

"Oh yeah?" You challenged, placing your hands on your hips. "Well what part about dumping water on me while I was sleeping was testing my skills?!"

She smiled cheekily. "Oh that? That was just for fun."

Your hands threaded through your wet hair restlessly and you began to pace. Sometimes you just wanted to strangle her for her antics, but unfortunately, that was one of the reasons she was your best friend. Then you sighed. She was always having fun, and more often than not, you would get caught in the middle. Her incredibly heavy vibrations from banging the ground brought you back to your senses. You sighed once more, and undid the soaked top half of your uniform, allowing it to be folded over and lay on the bottom half. You grabbed a towel from a nearby cabinet and began wringing out the fabric. Even though you were exposed from the waist up, there was a wrap over your chest. Not to try and flatten it, but as a 'Just in case Matsumoto does something'. Like dumping water on your head for instance.

Out of the corner of your eye you saw movement. You turned your head towards Rangiku. "Pardon?"

"I said--" But she didn't get any farther than that, because the front entrance sid open with a heavy vibration. Your head whipped around. It was the white haired male from last night. His face was stern and almost angry, and it was clearly directed at Rangiku. He didn't even seem to notice your presence.

"Lieutenant Matsumoto, you were supposed to be working on your papers half an hour ago." From the vibrations in the air, you knew he was talking loud. You glanced at Rangiku.

She grinned and stood up, hooking an arm around your shoulders in such a way that made you slightly irritated. "But (y/n) and I just woke up."

The males eyes flitted to you, and only now, as your (e/c) eyes connected gazes with his sparkling turquoise ones, did you recognize him. He was to be your new captain.

"Captain." You bowed respectfully. When you lifted your head, you realized that Rangiku was her hardest to cover up her laughter. You raised an eyebrow. What was she... Then you saw it. The mix of emotions flying across your Captain's face as he stared at your half undressed body. You felt colored embarrassment fill you cheeks and quickly slipped on the top half of your uniform, now only partially wet. "M-my apologies Captain." The emotions on his face stopped at a rather plain one.

"Matsumoto." By the low vibrations, he was most definitely not happy.

"Chill out, Captain." Rangiku said, then appeared to be laughing because of the joke. "This is your new thirteenth seat. (Y/n) (l/n)." His calculating gaze was set back on you. It was a little unnerving, but you smiled nonetheless.

"A pleasure to met you, Captain Hitsugaya."