Match Me - Mail Call
34. Mail Call
Monday morning was the usual at Eighth Division. Nanao collected the Division's mail from the central post before arriving at her desk in Eighth's already warm offices, sighing in the early morning breeze that found its way in through the open windows. She knew her captain was already there, and probably sleeping, as indicated by the level wave of spiritual pressure emanating from further inside the building.
She set the mail on her desk and sorted through it for a moment. Correspondence from Second Division, bearing Soi Fon's personal seal, a few notes from assorted other shinigami, replies to a few forms she'd submitted to oversight expenditures. Her eyes narrowed behind her glasses, recalling which forms she'd submitted recently.
While she wouldn't open anything from another captain, Nanao had Shunsui's permission to handle all other incoming mail. She separated the pieces of mail into a few stacks, carefully setting aside the letter from Soi Fon, and then looked with new regard at the last item she'd overlooked initially.
She held up the letter folded into thirds and fastened with First Division's unmistakable seal in red wax. Cold washed over her mind, her fingers seeming to grow numb on the paper, not because she knew it was from First, but because she recognized a matching questionnaire when she saw one, even from the reverse of the form.
Anything from First Division unsettled her. She began to mentally make excuses. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Vice-Captain Sasakibe was in last week," she reminded herself, taking a deep breath. "A little late, but maybe Captain can match him. There aren't many female shinigami left."
She set it to one side and opened the expense report reply. Her eyes quickly deciphered the formal wording until she got to the last paragraph of the short correspondence.
"'Your expenditures for the last month regarding the Soul Society Canteen bill has been paid in full and will remain so for a further thirty days,'" she murmured, reading aloud. She smiled. So he's found a way to do it, she thought. Her eyes dropped to the bottom of the page where a sentence in jerky handwriting appeared.
"'Not perfect, but not too poorly done, Shunsui,'" Yamamoto had written.
It was as close to a compliment as her captain would get, she knew. He hadn't been forthcoming with the details, but Nanao had seen enough and could guess the rest. She'd heard the stories about Shunsui and Yamamoto observing the matches at table Eight, and had gotten enough offhand hints from her captain to know. She breathed easier, gathering the mail into two stacks and heading down the hall to his office.
Shunsui wasn't there, but she found him in the day room, in his usual manner, lying on the takama with the morning sun stretching across his face.
Probably too lazy to move, she thought, watching his eye twitch slightly as the sun hit it squarely just beneath the brim of his hat's shadow despite being tilted down. She paused in the doorway, the mail in her hand clutched to her chest, her fingers pressing on the wax seal from First Division. How he slept so soundly so often, she didn't know.
She crossed the room and knelt at the side of the takama, watching him snore softly, thinking, as other times, it was a sound she'd gotten accustomed to, and one that she probably shouldn't have, considering he was her captain.
She saw his eye twitch again, a faint grin at his lips, and knew he was awake. She sat straighter. "I know you're not sleeping, Captain," she said with mild irritation, seeing his grin take hold. "What if I had something important to tell you? You're in here sleeping like you don't have a Division to maintain."
He looked at her, enjoying the slight blush on her cheeks he knew she'd blame on the sunlight. "Do you, Nanao? Something important?"
She couldn't quite make herself chance it, but settled for other words. "Every Friday morning you're out of sorts and it puts us behind for the day." She'd meant to say every morning, but somehow the word Friday had come out. Before she could correct herself, he spoke.
"Ah, a trend I see continuing... But it's Monday, Nanao." He pushed the hat back farther, studying her closer. "Just Fridays?"
She dropped the mail on the floor beside him. "Nearly every other day, too, it seems." She busily leafed through the mail. "Some of this is important. You have items from First and Second Divisions."
The humor left his face, eyes growing rounder. "Ah, so we have." He sat up and sighed, looking down at her as she watched him. She looked to the mail and gathered it quickly. "I suppose it can't be avoided. Oh, we have a few matches left to arrange."
She sighed and sat back on her ankles, hands in her lap with the mail. "There aren't many applications left, Captain. I'm afraid you've done your job and those who are left have already had one match."
He frowned at the piece of mail he could see beneath her hands, the red wax unmistakable. "Not everyone has had a failed match yet, sweet Nanao."
He stood up before she could comment and gently took her elbow as he rose, ushering her out of the room. "I know we have a few more, and there's always your application, vice-captain."
She had little choice but to take his escort down the hall to his office, fumbling to keep the mail from slipping out of her grasp. "But I don't want a match, Shunsui. I don't..."
He turned a grin on her as they rounded his desk and he pulled her chair closer to his own. "I insist. Nanao."
"Captain," she corrected herself.
He sat down and pulled her into her chair next to him, jerking it closer when he deemed her too far away. He took the mail from her and placed it on the desk before them, his arm automatically draping across the back of her chair.
"Let's see what we have." He opened his desk drawer and pulled out the few unmatched applications. "I've been thinking about several of these, Nanao. Tell me what you think."
She put a hand on the mail on the desk, her mind running in many directions, but making an effort to focus on what she considered the primary issue. "Shouldn't you look at Captain Soi Fon's letter? It might be important."
He nodded, sifting through the few applications he'd taken from the drawer. "Go ahead and open it, Nanao. It's her withdrawal from our services."
She looked sharply at him even as her hand found the letter from Second Division. "You sound certain about that."
He grinned wider, fingers nudging her shoulder. "I have it on good confidence that she is quite a Go player, and has sufficed herself with that for now."
She raised an eyebrow at him, tempted to smile at his pleased look. "Do you?"
"Oh, yes."
She found the letter and broke open the Second Division wax seal and read the short note from Soi Fon. He was right. She gave his best charming smile one of her own before giggling. "You didn't match them, Captain. Remember?"
Most of the smile fell from Shunsui's face. "Hmm, you're right. I forgot that part." He set four applications on the desk. "About these ... How about these two?" He put a finger on two forms in turn. "Not opposites, but not alike, either."
"She's been matched twice," Nanao reminded him. "Neither had second dates."
"That's why we need to set her up with someone, show her we're not giving up." He tapped another form, sighing. "And we owe him a decent match. Hmm, with someone durable."
Nanao looked to each of the forms, her thoughts straying. "I suppose it could work."
He nodded. "I say they give it a try." He picked another form up and examined it. "These two," he tapped another form, leaning to the desk, "in theory should work, but I'm not sure. They're already friends. Maybe it would have worked by now if it was going to work at all."
"Maybe they don't see it. What's right in front of them," she added carefully, her voice softening as she watched him study the applications.
He looked back to her, gaze lingering on the solemn expression on her face. "It happens, you know," he said. "Friends of decades becoming invisible to each other."
She nodded, feeling his hand move to her shoulder, wishing she could ask the more pertinent question she'd been wanting to ask for four days now. Their time together had been scarce recently, and now that they were alone, the words wouldn't come out in the order she wanted to say them.
She wanted her glasses to steam up.
But that wasn't how she wanted to say it aloud. There had to be a better way.
He glanced back to the forms. "Shall we match them, Nanao?"
"Yes."
"Good."
He placed the forms to one side and pulled the stack of unmatched ones closer. He set one to his left. "Soi Fon is no longer interested. If that was hers, which I believe it was." He read the next form. "Same for Juushirou." Another form to the left. "This one has declined our services. So has this one. I wonder why." He set Gin and Ulquiorra's applications to the left. "This one is a pompous bastard -- sorry, sweet Nanao -- and doesn't deserve a match." He pointed to a line on the form. "' ...world domination and soul destruction?' What kind of a description is that? Someone's idea of a joke." He set the form to the side, and then four more. "These have all agreed to second dates." Six more forms to the left. "These all are, shall we say, happy with their matches?"
"But I'm not sure those are matches," she finally said, watching his smile dim only slightly. "Compatible, and certainly friendly with each other, but we can't say matched. Not for certain."
He nodded, sitting back looking to her, the brim of his hat hovering over her. "It's a start, Nanao. The rest is up to them."
She nodded, swallowing as he looked to her eyes before his gaze paused on her lips. She looked quickly away and sat forward, her nerve lagging as her pulse jumped. She put an unsteady hand on the small pile of forms. "You've done well."
He sighed and sat forward. "I think we have. A few bumps, but otherwise...I'd say yes."
Nanao made her hand steady as she placed it on the mail. "You have something from First Division, too, Captain."
A pained look leased his face, which confused her, and he was none too eager as she waited for him to address the letter. He finally took his arm from the seat back and reached for the mail.
She watched him crack open the red wax seal, her curiosity leaning toward the First Division's lieutenant. "Oh, we got an approval for the expenses Form 218."
"Oh? Good. I figured we would after last Saturday," he said matter-of-factly. He opened the application reluctantly.
"Why after last ...?" Nanao's voice trailed off as she read the paper in Shunsui's hands as he looked at it. Before thinking, she snatched it away from him and stood up abruptly, violet eyes widening. She whirled to face him, shocked at his lack of surprise.
"Captain-General Yamamoto?"
"Aye, that's what it says, Nanao," he said with a sigh, sitting back in his seat, arm going back to the second chair's back.
"We can't match him!"
He shrugged, tilting his hat back, nearly able to feel the sudden heat of shock emanate from her. "I know it's a challenge, Nanao, but --"
"We can't! It's impossible, Shunsui!" She whisked the form eyelevel before her, the horror renewing when she read it again. "This is suicide!" She waved the application in his face, leaning over him, one hand braced on his thigh for balance as she neared, the form inches from his nose. "We can't do it! No one can!"
He grinned wider at her proximity as she lowered the from, detecting the faint sandalwood scent she wore, her eyes large, lips close enough that he could feel her breath on him. His hand moved from the chair back to hers on his leg, covering it in a light grasp as she remained near. "It might take a while, sweet Nanao, but we have to try to match him."
Her eyes dropped to his hand, her hand, his leg, and then she quickly straightened, turning her back on him as her cheeks flushed bright red.
"Nanao," he said when she remained immobile for a moment, head lowered over the application she pretended to read. "Nanao."
When she made no answer, he tugged gently on the back of her shirt. She slowly turned to face him, the application in her tight clasp.
For a moment he was caught in the tangle of emotions in her eyes. She looked almost angry, but it wasn't the same smolder he'd seen before, like the times he'd said something a little too insensitive about Rangiku, or something too revealing about Juushirou, but another level of spark. "Don't be angry, Nanao," he said, fingers catching the edge of her sleeve, pulling her arm until her hand lowered from the form, her eyes softening. "We can match him."
She shook her head, and then they both looked to the doorway, feeling the same familiar reiatsu.
"I'm not angry," she said in a quiet voice, not looking to him.
"That's Captain Ukitake," Shunsui said, sighing as he looked from the doorway to the sleeve hem in his fingers, wishing she'd turn her attention to him. "Nanao..."
When she looked back to him her eyes were clouded, unreadable, and she was making an effort at composure, and succeeding. "I'll make tea, Captain."
Next Match: Must Love Tattoos
-- from Match Me