Week of Love: Summer Clothes
Title: Summer Clothes
Rating: T
Contains: Shunsui and Ukitake enjoy a summer afternoon and Shunsui contemplates Nanao’s summer wardrobe.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“Oh?” Ukitake didn’t bother looking up from his book. The wind stirred above them, changing the light as it slanted through the leaves. This was a common summer activity since their academy days. Ukitake read or worked on paperwork and Kyouraku napped. Lately however, their talk mostly mostly centered around Nanao Ise.
“Summer clothes.” Kyouraku answered when Ukitake finally did glance up.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Summer clothes, Jyuu. You know. Bathing suits and little skirts.”
“I hardly think you will have much luck convincing Captain Commander Yamamoto that there needs to be any alteration to the dress code for female shinigami.”
To Shunsui’s credit, he’d tried at least once a year. That is until Captain Unohana sweetly called him aside after one meeting in which Shunsui rambled for nearly half an hour about the deficiencies of the shinigami uniform for women. While he might not know the specifics of the conversation, Ukitake noted smugly that Shunsui had not brought up the topic again.
“Such a pity, isn’t it? Though I wasn’t thinking about dress codes.” Kyouraku’s voice drifted up from under his hat.
“… Yes?”
“I was thinking of Nanao-chan, of course.” The sun slipped behind a quickly moving cloud, briefly casting a shadow over Shunsui’s sun patch.
Ukitake sighed, pushing his fringe back from his eyes. “Kyouraku, Nanao-san is going to wear her uniform. She always does.” He looked meaningfully over the top of his book. Shunsui might not be able to see it, but he could certainly feel it.
“I know, Jyuu. That’s just the trouble.”
“I fail to see the problem. The shinigami uniform is not the most flashy thing, perhaps, but it is very practical.” He didn’t bother adding that the practicality was probably what appealed to Nanao.
“She’s hot, Jyuu.”
“Nanao-san has dealt with the heat quite well every summer.” Ukitake said, remaining pointedly tactful.
The sun reappeared from behind the cloud and Ukitake resumed his reading, glad of the added warmth.
“Jyuu-kun.”
Ukitake sighed and put down his book for the second time in the past fifteen minutes. “What is it, Shunsui?”
“I was just thinking,” the lazy voice floated up from beneath the hat.
Ukitake frowned. Kyouraku thinking potentially carried a host of dangerous possibilities. After years of friendship, Ukitake knew that laziness meant Shunsui was likely no longer thinking at all. Laziness almost invariably meant awaiting a result. The thought chewed at the edges of Ukitake’s mind.
“Shunsui? What have you done to that poor girl now?”
A long silence ensued, punctuated at the end by a soft snore. Settling himself back against the tree, Ukitake once again picked up his book.
“I bought her a bikini.”
“Excuse me?”
“Jyuu-kun, you’re starting to worry me. I think Retsu has been hiding you away in the 4th too much. A bikini is one of those two piece bathing suits that women in the living world wear these days. The tops have these lovely ties and,”
“I’m well aware of what a bikini is, Shunsui. I’m not blind.”
“Hn.”
“What I meant was, why on earth did you buy one?”
A sudden spike of reiatsu charged the air.
“Was that…?”
“Nanao-chan.”
Ukitake glared pointedly. “Why?”
“Rangiku gave her the bikini at the women’s association meeting today.”
The raging reiatsu was coming closer at an alarming speed and Ukitake noticed belatedly that Shunsui had not bothered to mask his spiritual pressure today.
“One thing, Shun.”
The hat raised just enough to reveal dark eyes glittering in the dark beneath.
“… What color is it?”
Shunsui lips curled wickedly. “Pink, of course.”
Ukitake smirked. “Excellent choice.”
A/N: Inspiration came from the Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book 44 :) Hopefully I got all of the headings right. For some reason, LJ keeps messing with the formatting, so apologies for any strange spacing. I don't know why it's doing that. Thanks for reading!