#003 - Love

[notbantamweight]

Title: Love
Series: Bleach
Written: Jan 2009

 

She had been drunk. He remembered it well. He'd gone out to his usual bar, and found his Nanao – chan there, face pleasantly flushed with the glow of alcohol.

"Shunsui!" She'd exclaimed, from where she was precariously perched upon some strange man's knee. He'd gone over and picked her bodily up and off the lap, glaring down any complaints, before walking out of the bar. They were half – way there, when she'd stumbled so badly that he'd had to pick her up, lest she fall over. He'd swung her up, into the protective circle of his arms. They'd managed to make the final few blocks like that, and had gotton inside her apartment before she'd murmured in his ear,

"I love you, Kyouraku Shunsui." He almost dropped her, and then looked at her in shock. Her amethyst eyes were clear, and strong, and she'd reached up and removed her glasses at some point.

"I haven't been brave enough to say it before, but... I love you. Truly. I know I probably won't remember this, but... I know you will." And something in that tone of voice told his it wasn't just the alcohol, that it was something deeper, and that she was sad that it had to be like this.

Shunsui had known that she had liked him, if he hadn't, he wouldn't have kept up with his ridiculously flowery propositions and declarations of love. He started as a small hand pressed against his cheek, turning his head, before a warm pair of lips pressed themselves to his, melding together quite pleasantly. Although the first taste he had of his Nanao, was overwhelmingly sake, as he deepened the kiss, he began to discern tastes of jasmine, and a hint of human world perfume. Chanel No. 5, if he remembered correctly. As the need for air grew more pressing, he drew back, smiling a little at the mewling sounds his Nanao made.

"Now, Nanao, you need all the sleep you can get." She'd smiled at him, breaking his heart.

"Will you stay with me?" That hopeful question broke his will, and shattered his heart. He couldn't take advantage of her now, she had to face up to her feelings whilst sober, and so, as much as he wanted to, he couldn't.

"Nanao... I can't." He stepped forward, into her bedroom, feeling her falling asleep in his arms. He placed her on her futon, gently undressed her, ridding her of the stained yukata, and re-dressing her in her nightgown. As he tucked her in, he couldn't help but be reminded of when she had just started in his division, just before Lisa's betrayal, when Lisa would take the time to tuck in this tiny girl, and read to her, until she fell asleep.

After Lisa had left, he'd taken up that nighttime ritual, he'd held Nanao when she was still Nanao – chan, and she cried, because she thought that she had been the reason for Lisa's leaving. To this day, even he didn't know why. And then... Shunsui stopped that train of thought. He would NOT go there, not when he had his Nanao to look over and protect.

She was still so innocent, he decided. Far too innocent to be left alone, in such a state. So he sat, seiza – style, by her futon, and, with the patience accumulated over two millennia, Kyouraku Shunsui waited. As he would, until his Ise Nanao would face him, sober. And he could wait another millennia, if he had to. Such was his love.