Match Me - Form Revision
Ch. 18 Form Revision
The vice-captains meeting was a bit livelier than usual, with Renji sustaining an unusual amount of ribbing from his peers until his face was as red as his hair, and then growing a darker shade as he reminded everyone that he had won the candle demo, and still had the blister to prove it. The meeting had closed with Yachiru handing out applications anew, of which she intended to collect the fifteen buck booty to fund her dwindling candy supply.
After the meeting broke Isane headed to her own Division, picking up her pace to reach Momo and Nanao as they turned down a hot dusty street corner. She towered over both of the darker haired women, feeling less feminine in their company, but intent on getting her question answered.
"Sounds like there's been quite a response to the questionnaires," she said leadingly, grinning as Momo looked up at her, smiling a bit.
Nanao nodded, conceding silently that her Captain's venture was both popular and entertaining, albeit at Renji's expense. "Some matches have been turned out better than others."
Isane bobbed a nod, looking to Momo as they neared the section of street that branched out to Fifth Division's sector. "Have you filled one out yet, Momo?" she asked, and then shook her head, knowing the answer. "Have you gotten any response back?"
The smaller girl blushed a little, averting her eyes to the street she was to take. "No. Not yet."
Nanao looked from her to Isane. "The male applicants outnumber the female by a wide margin," she said by way of excuse. "Obviously, it's a system that's going to need some work."
"How did Renji get matched up with that Kurosaki boy?" Isane giggled. "I can't imagine he put down he was looking for a male."
Nanao sighed. "Some of the questionnaires got wet and weren't entirely legible."
Isane nodded, cautious about her next query. "You're not done matching yet?"
Momo shot her a curious look, her steps slowing as she glanced down the street to Fifth Division.
"No," Nanao said, smiling at the taller woman's unvoiced curiosity. "It was just the most recent forms that were rain-damaged."
Momo looked down at the form in her hand. "I'm helping Shuuhei fill one out. I've already turned in one for myself and a friend," she said carefully, "and he said he'd submit one if I got one for him."
"And Yachiru gets another fifteen bucks," Nanao said with a shrug. "You know how much that girl's made off the Women's Association and this vice-captains meeting today? Enough to keep her in sweets for a month."
"Not with the way she goes through sweets," Isane said. "Ikkaku's been in twice in the last week with bite marks on his scalp when he tried to hide her licorice. Captain Unohana has threatened to vaccinate him."
Momo giggled, folding her form. "I'll see you later. You better be checking Captain Kyouraku's decisions, Nanao!"
They waved as Momo broke away and followed her own streets. Isane waited until she and Nanao were alone, passing and greeting several lower ranking shinigami on their way through the intersections, until she found the nerve to inquire.
"Has my application come up yet?" she asked, immediately regretting voicing the words. "I mean, well, Captain seems a little happier the last week or so, and she's been talking some, and I think she's ..." Isane faltered to a stop, not finding the fine line between girl-talk and privileged information. "She's been a little different. In a good way. Ikkaku said Captain Zaraki's been in a better mood." She rubbed the back of her neck, trying not to look as awkward as she sounded. "But it hasn't changed the amount of wounded we get from Division Eleven."
Nanao nodded, smiling. "We've been keeping the applicants anonymous." Some of her smile dropped. "It sounded like a good idea until this last match. I think we've still got a few problems with the forms." She gave the other woman a sharp look. "Some of the applicants seem to think the phrase 'Sexual Preference' refers to positions desired." She fought off a blush at thoughts of mentioning the wording issue to her captain. "We'll fix the problem before the next forms go out."
Isane nodded, looking to the sunny street they neared that went to Fourth Division. "That's a good idea." She fingered the new form in her hands, folding it too many times until it was hopelessly creased, marked. She unfolded it, stealing a guilty glance at Nanao. "I was just ... wondering. I'll see you at the Women's Association tomorrow."
A smiled touched Nanao's lips as the taller woman parted her company. "Bye, Isane."
The blunder was on Shunsui's mind all day, too, and he had become scarcer than usual in his office. Nanao didn't find him anywhere in the Eighth Division grounds before or after her vice-captains meeting.
Not even in his day room, as he called it, which meant he spent most of the day napping there, she knew. When she'd finished most of her paperwork after returning from the meeting, she headed home, feeling inordinately alone without finding her captain. She resolved to sorting the few applications that had trickled in from the day, determined to find a better system that would rule out gender misidentification while still keeping privacy intact.
She arrived at her modest quarters as early evening was settling across Seireitei, diluting the scorching afternoon heat with a more tolerable glaze of cool air. She lowered the bamboo blinds over her small living room's windows, straightening the few pillows on the futon near the low table, glancing around at the usual tidiness of the room. She switched on a floor lamp by the futon in the semi-dark of the room.
She got little company, and when she did it was usually Rangiku, searching out Shunsui to go drinking with her. That's not how her fellow vice-captain put it, but Nanao knew, and had heard a variety of excuses from the buxom strawberry-blonde woman, some creative, others thinly veiled lies.
Well-meaning lies, Nanao knew, but sometimes the amount of time her captain spent in the taller woman's company struck a nerve in her.
Not a jealous nerve, she'd always told herself, confident her captain would certainly take her drinking if she chose to accept one of his numerous invitations.
And at times she wondered why she didn't say yes, on occasion, just to see ...
"I don't want to know what its like," she told herself stoutly, now in the bedroom where she took a few moments to slip off her vice-captains armband, placing it on her dresser. "Slobbering drunk, spouting more innuendoes than usual." She took the decorative sticks and combs from her hair, letting it fall low on her back, pushing both hands through the dark tresses until it was fuller around her face, undoing the straightness the severe bun imposed.
She found her ebony brush and pulled it through her hair, smiling at thoughts of receiving the brush.
A gift, from her captain. It wasn't out of place for a captain to present a new vice-captain with a token gift. She knew that.
But most vice-captains received something more generic, less personal. She knew Rangiku had gotten a fancy set of pens from Hitsugaya -- which got little use -- and Shuuhei a book of haikus by his favorite author, but most gifts were more practical tokens.
Except Momo. Aizen had been certain to find the girl's favorite flowering shrub and have it planted outside her office window in Fifth Division, but in hindsight that was probably part of the traitor's deception. To her credit, Momo had dug it up since.
Nanao twisted her hair back into a bun, coiled looser this time, but deciding the weather was too warm to leave it down despite the growing dusk. She went into the small kitchen and started a kettle of water, and then looked to the door as a shuffling sound came from her front porch.
She knew who it was before she reached the door, and smoothed her black robes before opening it, bracing herself at what she was sure to be a drunken captain.
Shunsui grinned back at her as the door opened, tipping his hat, eyes dropping over her fuming features as she looked back at him. He put a steadying hand to the doorframe and bent closer. "You weren't at the office, sweet Nanao, so I came here."
The smell of saké wasn't nearly as strong as she'd expected. "You weren't at the office all day, Captain." She took a step back, eyes going beyond him at the small abodes of the few other ranked officers within sight. "Come in before you fall over."
"Why, thank you, Nanao. I shall."
He stepped in, a waft of saké following him. He looked around the room, nodding to the futon as she shut the door behind him and turned to look at him.
"I like this," he said with a nod, gesturing in a sweeping movement that encompassed the entire space, indicating nothing in the room in particular. "Very... Nanao."
She slipped past him, seeing him sway to watch her, surprised that there was no bottle in his hands. "I know you're not lost."
"No." He pushed his hat back, watching her go into the kitchen where the kettle was making a soft bubbling noise, but not whistling. He stepped over the rattan rug and around the low table, dropping heavily onto the futon cushion. "Mind if I sit down?"
"Sure, Captain."
His eyes remained on her slight form in the kitchen, watching her pour the hot water over the tea net of loose leaves into the slate gray tea pot and set it and two matching cups on a tray. She remained in the kitchen for a few moments, fingers tapping rapidly on the tray side in hopes the tea would steep faster, refusing to look at Shunsui.
She finally discarded the used tea leaves, picked up the tray and brought it into the living room, her attention on navigating around Shunsui's legs, which had sprawled to either side of the table, taking up most of the foot room.
He retracted a leg as she sat on the futon, farther away than he deemed necessary, but closer than he had expected. "How was your lieutenants' meeting?"
She looked to each of his eyes, knowing he didn't really care about the meeting. "Vice-Captain Abarai was a laughingstock after his match."
His lopsided smile dimmed. "Aye, that's why I'm here. Partly why, Nanao." He looked to the forms on the table. "Oh, we've got more? I thought my faux pas on Renji's match would scare others away." He grinned wider, leaning toward her. "That's Franch for dumb shit, Nanao."
"No, it's not," she said, looking to the pot and pouring them each a cup of tea. She handed him one and he took it, his hands steady.
"Thank you, my dear." He glanced at the forms on the table. "We can keep the anonymity of the applicants, but I think it's mandatory to know the gender."
She pulled one of the forms closer, setting it between them on the table, leaning slightly toward him on the cushion. "The gender section is clearly marked. The mix-up came from the forms getting wet." She paused to sip her tea, feeling his eyes rest on her lips, making her swallow quicker.
He nodded, leaning his elbows on his knees, looking back to the forms. "I was thinking about these two today," he said, separating two papers, and then two more. "And these, also. These first two are a definite match."
She gave the forms only a brief glimpse. "Are you sure you want to match applicants while," she hesitated to say the word, and opted for another approach. "We have all day tomorrow, Captain."
"We're not at the office now, Nanao." He smiled, gaze rising from her lips to her eyes, his tone unwavering. "You can call me Shunsui."
She looked back to the questionnaires. "I think we should wait until tomorrow to match anyone."
"Hmm." He nodded, noting her small knee now rested against his leg, and that she seemed either oblivious to it, or tolerant. "I suppose you're right. Oh, I have something I want you to read," he said, reaching into a pocket of his haori, fumbling for a moment as he pulled out a folded stack of papers, sifting through them, mumbling to himself. "I want your opinion on something."
Now her leg backed away from his, the snap coming back into her tone. "Not fan fiction, Captain."
He found the paper he wanted, setting the rest of them on the table. "Just a poem."
"I don't read that stuff." She picked up the tea pot, anxious to busy herself. "Would you care for more tea?"
He set the paper with the others on the table, watching it flip over folded on itself after having been creased for so long. "I suppose not. I should be going." He smiled at her unguarded expression, wishing he could keep it longer. "My intention was not to crowd your evening, sweet Nanao."
"I don't mind your company," she said, the words barely above a whisper. She cleared her throat, keeping her attention on the forms, sitting straighter, pulling slightly away.
For a long moment he studied her eyes, wishing she'd look at him, but not wanting to push the line to which he'd inched nearer. "Good." He drank down the last of the tea in his cup. "I won't sully your reputation with your neighbors." He stood up, nearly unseating her from the futon when they realized she'd sat on the edge of his haori.
She decided to stand up, seeing as she'd been partly ripped off the cushion anyway.
"My fault, Nanao," he said, taking her elbow as her hands brushed nervously at her robes.
She looked to him, adjusting her glasses, and then her attention went to the papers on the table. "We have a problem with a question on the applications and it needs to be corrected, but we can address it tomorrow. Shunsui," she added, feeling her cheeks warm. "A simple revision."
He grinned, nodding, eyeing a loose tendril of dark hair that had fallen from the bun at the back of her head. "Your hair is different."
She put a hand to the comb securing her hair. "It's the same. I just --"
She left off speaking as a knock came to the door, followed by Momo's voice.
"Hello?" her timid tone called from outside.
Shunsui straightened his hat, sighing as he stepped away from the table, knocking into the floor lamp and catching it before it toppled. "I didn't realize you were expecting company. I wouldn't have tarried."
"Oh, it's just ... I wasn't expecting anyone." She followed him to the door, hating her jittery hands as she reached for the latch, finding her breath faster than it should have been.
He smiled, hand moving to the loose wisp of hair that hung at her shoulder. "We'll do our matches tomorrow, Nanao." He let his fingers touch just the ends of the strand, seeing her eyes follow the movement, wondering if she wished Momo had passed on her ill-timed visit as much as he did. "Goodnight."
She opened the door just as Momo was getting ready to knock again. The younger girl looked to Shunsui with surprise, and made a quick bow, wide eyes darting to Nanao.
"Captain Kyouraku! I didn't know you were here," Momo said quickly. "I'm sorry. I --"
"Quite all right, lieutenant," he said, tipping his hat to her, seeing her smile. "Just dropping off paperwork for my overworked lieutenant."
Shunsui moved past Momo as she stood in the doorway, seemingly frozen in the warm evening air. Nanao looked to her with mixed sentiments, unable to decide if she was angry or relieved at the fellow shinigami's interruption, or simply confused by herself.
"I'm sorry," Momo said again, both of them watching Shunsui disappear down the street, the haori merely a patch of muted pink in the growing twilight. She looked to Nanao and held out a form. "Shuuhei finished his questionnaire, and I told him I'd drop it by tonight. He said he was in no hurry and that I could wait until the Women's Association meeting, but I think he's secretly more anxious."
Nanao remembered to nod, and then stepped back, thoughts elsewhere. "Come in, Momo."
Next Match: Inner Child (from Match Me by x nihilo)