Week of Love: Dolls
Title: Dolls
Rating: T
Contains: Shunsui and Nanao sort through a storeroom and run across some old memories.
Note: This is my final entry for week of love, and yet again I've enjoyed immensely. Thank you to r_dahlia and kyliwolf for keeping this community going. It is always fun to come here and see other Shunsui/Nanao fans. I can't wait for the next time. またお会いしましょうね。
“Nanao-chan, have you seen last summer’s training schedule?”
Nanao sat back on her heels, resting her arms on the edge of the box she was currently sorting. A light breeze stirred through the small window high in the wall of the storage room momentarily making her forget everything in sudden bliss.
“I’m sorry, Captain. What were you saying?” She answered his raised eyebrow with one of her own.
“Last year’s training schedules should be in this box,” he indicated the shelf. “Though,” he added, “I am quite happy to watch Nanao-chan revel in the delights of a summer day.”
She gave him a chilled look, pointedly ignoring the lascivious grin. “I moved all of the training schedules from the past ten years to the file cabinets upstairs.” She paused. “I did tell you, though you obviously did not feel it was necessary to listen.” The last part was unnecessary, but she ignored that and busied herself with the current box.
Their current predicament was, if she was honest, entirely her own fault. This particular storage room had been a thorn in her side for the past couple of years, but every time she tried to clean it, something invariably came up. So when the day’s training had been cancelled following sudden heat wave, she had seized the opportunity. Shunsui, of course, had been less than enthusiastic. She had cornered him just as he was leaving the office and demanded his help. No amount of pouting, descriptions of her cruelty and praise of her industriousness had dissuaded her. So they found themselves, in the middle of a hot July afternoon, sorting boxes in an unvented store room in the 8th.
To his credit, Nanao grudgingly admitted, Shunsui had actually been helpful. Probably because he did not want to spend the entire day trapped indoors with no air conditioning. If she was honest with herself, she did not find that prospect particularly agreeable either.
The rustling stopped, and Nanao found herself looking up in spite of herself. Shunsui’s back was to her, but something in his posture registered surprise. He was facing a row of file boxes, the last on that wall.
“Nanao-chan.” His voice was amused, and she could just his smile turning mischievous. Perhaps, she reflected, they really had worked together too long.
“Captain?” She responded out of habit, not noticing the habitual tensing that came with that tone of voice.
He turned, something tucked neatly behind his back and her stomach churned uneasily.
“You’ll never guess what I found.” He sauntered towards her and his eyes sparkled with impish delight beneath partially shuttered lids. This, she had come to realize over years of experience, was his most dangerous look. She glanced nervously towards the door, cursing her lack of escape planning.
You’re being ridiculous, she scolded herself, forcing her face into a cool mask.
“You are correct, Captain. I simply can not guess.”
He pouted. “But Nanao-chan, you have not even tried.”
“I see no point as you have declared yourself that it would be impossible.” She met his sad expression with a raised eyebrow of her own.
“Nanao-chan should at least try. My Nanao-chan is many things, but a quitter isn’t one of them.”
She bristled. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
He just smiled, and Nanao felt her temper soaring. It probably was too much to hope that she would really get off dragging him down here in the middle of a hot July day without foolishness of some sort.
Nanao rolled her eyes, ignoring his widening smile. “Paperwork.”
“That’s unimaginative, Nanao-chan.”
“I am unimaginative.”
“On the contrary, lovely Nanao-chan is wonderfully imaginative. For instance-“
“Love letters.”
This time it was his turn to raise an eyebrow.
“That you wrote to one of your girlfriends but she wouldn’t receive them.”
“That’s mean, Nanao-chan. What makes you think that any woman would scorn my love letters?”
She snorted with laughter, causing his eyebrows to elevate further.
"I found this." He gave in unexpectedly.
Nanao stared, reaching out gingerly to touch the soft dark hair. "That... Doll?"
Shunsui nodded, "how did it come to be in here, I wonder."
Nanao looked up quickly at that. "I put it there."
The ease with which she said it made him raise an eyebrow and Nanao shook her head laughing a little as she took it from him. "It always bothered me, but seeing as I got it from a friend, I didn't want to just get rid of it. So, I hid it in here. I had forgotten about that."
She glanced up at his bemused expression smiling lightly.
"Dolls never were my thing anyway, Captain."
"No," he agreed, leaning against a stack of file boxes and Nanao could feel his interested gaze on her. "Is something wrong, Captain?"
"Wrong? No," he smiled and shifted to look towards the small window, his eyes taking on a far away look and Nanao waited patiently for him to continue. "When you first joined our division, I was delighted. I had never seen Lisa-chan so excited about a new recruit, and truthfully I wasn't sure if you would take our offer or not."
Nanao blinked up in surprise.
"I knew you would have other offers, Nanao-chan," he laughed, not unkindly. "So you see, we were both overjoyed when we received your acceptance letter."
"But I didn't have any other offers," she looked bemused. "I had interviews, but no other divisions offered me a position. It was only the 8th and the Kido Corps."
He nodded. "When I first met you, I was surprised. Lisa had told me that you were young, but--"
"My age has always caused raised eyebrows." She suddenly found herself sympathising more with Captain Hitsugaya.
"It was an asset to you," he said, and the conviction with which he said it caused her to come up short. "Youth," he hesitated, searching for the right words. "Youth is invincible to itself. That's the beauty of it. Age has knowledge and experience, it's true. But youth is too young to realise impossibilities, so it attempts and achieves them where age would never try."
She frowned, mulling his words over in her mind.
"I do wonder though," Shunsui continued. "If we didn't do you a disservice by pushing you so hard."
"You never pushed me. I pushed myself."
"Not overtly," he smiled. "But we did want you to succeed."
"And that was wrong?"
"I don't know," he motioned to the doll in her hand. "You tell me."
Now she understood. She sighed, rising gracefully to stand in front of him. He had always been protective of her, something that she had not always welcomed, and he often pushed her to try things that she found ridiculous. But it was not born out of his own boredom. "You were not wrong." She hesitated. "It's true that I didn't have much of a childhood, but I wouldn't have had much of one anyway." He looked like he was about to argue and she shook her head. "Had I been from a safer place, perhaps that might have been more of a possibility, but I wasn't. The truth is, I was grown up long before I came here. And had I now come here, the situation would have been so much worse for me.. You can't blame yourself for that."
He chuckled, his eyes dancing with amusement and another emotion she wasn't quite sure of. She settled for glaring at him.
"What's so funny?"
"Not funny, Nanao-chan. Just interesting is all."
She arched an elegant eyebrow.
"My Nanao-chan is always very interesting to me." He made a kissy face and she instinctively reached for something to slap him with.
"I am not that interesting."
"On the contrary, Nanao-chan. You are most interesting. I learn new things about you every day. It is one of the great joys of my life."
"Your life must be very boring then," she quipped.
His eyes glinted with mischief, "On the contrary, my dear. My Nanao-chan makes life most interesting."
Her nostrils caught the scent of smoke an instant before she saw the blue kido spark ignite the papers he'd sorted.
"Captain Kyouraku!"
He vanished in a wink of shunpo, just in time to avoid her water kido. "They are trash anyway, Nanao-chan." His voice floated in from the window. "Catch me if you can."
Her reiatsu flared. This was a game she intended to win.
Note: Thanks so much for reading!
Rating: T
Contains: Shunsui and Nanao sort through a storeroom and run across some old memories.
Note: This is my final entry for week of love, and yet again I've enjoyed immensely. Thank you to r_dahlia and kyliwolf for keeping this community going. It is always fun to come here and see other Shunsui/Nanao fans. I can't wait for the next time. またお会いしましょうね。
“Nanao-chan, have you seen last summer’s training schedule?”
Nanao sat back on her heels, resting her arms on the edge of the box she was currently sorting. A light breeze stirred through the small window high in the wall of the storage room momentarily making her forget everything in sudden bliss.
“I’m sorry, Captain. What were you saying?” She answered his raised eyebrow with one of her own.
“Last year’s training schedules should be in this box,” he indicated the shelf. “Though,” he added, “I am quite happy to watch Nanao-chan revel in the delights of a summer day.”
She gave him a chilled look, pointedly ignoring the lascivious grin. “I moved all of the training schedules from the past ten years to the file cabinets upstairs.” She paused. “I did tell you, though you obviously did not feel it was necessary to listen.” The last part was unnecessary, but she ignored that and busied herself with the current box.
Their current predicament was, if she was honest, entirely her own fault. This particular storage room had been a thorn in her side for the past couple of years, but every time she tried to clean it, something invariably came up. So when the day’s training had been cancelled following sudden heat wave, she had seized the opportunity. Shunsui, of course, had been less than enthusiastic. She had cornered him just as he was leaving the office and demanded his help. No amount of pouting, descriptions of her cruelty and praise of her industriousness had dissuaded her. So they found themselves, in the middle of a hot July afternoon, sorting boxes in an unvented store room in the 8th.
To his credit, Nanao grudgingly admitted, Shunsui had actually been helpful. Probably because he did not want to spend the entire day trapped indoors with no air conditioning. If she was honest with herself, she did not find that prospect particularly agreeable either.
The rustling stopped, and Nanao found herself looking up in spite of herself. Shunsui’s back was to her, but something in his posture registered surprise. He was facing a row of file boxes, the last on that wall.
“Nanao-chan.” His voice was amused, and she could just his smile turning mischievous. Perhaps, she reflected, they really had worked together too long.
“Captain?” She responded out of habit, not noticing the habitual tensing that came with that tone of voice.
He turned, something tucked neatly behind his back and her stomach churned uneasily.
“You’ll never guess what I found.” He sauntered towards her and his eyes sparkled with impish delight beneath partially shuttered lids. This, she had come to realize over years of experience, was his most dangerous look. She glanced nervously towards the door, cursing her lack of escape planning.
You’re being ridiculous, she scolded herself, forcing her face into a cool mask.
“You are correct, Captain. I simply can not guess.”
He pouted. “But Nanao-chan, you have not even tried.”
“I see no point as you have declared yourself that it would be impossible.” She met his sad expression with a raised eyebrow of her own.
“Nanao-chan should at least try. My Nanao-chan is many things, but a quitter isn’t one of them.”
She bristled. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
He just smiled, and Nanao felt her temper soaring. It probably was too much to hope that she would really get off dragging him down here in the middle of a hot July day without foolishness of some sort.
Nanao rolled her eyes, ignoring his widening smile. “Paperwork.”
“That’s unimaginative, Nanao-chan.”
“I am unimaginative.”
“On the contrary, lovely Nanao-chan is wonderfully imaginative. For instance-“
“Love letters.”
This time it was his turn to raise an eyebrow.
“That you wrote to one of your girlfriends but she wouldn’t receive them.”
“That’s mean, Nanao-chan. What makes you think that any woman would scorn my love letters?”
She snorted with laughter, causing his eyebrows to elevate further.
"I found this." He gave in unexpectedly.
Nanao stared, reaching out gingerly to touch the soft dark hair. "That... Doll?"
Shunsui nodded, "how did it come to be in here, I wonder."
Nanao looked up quickly at that. "I put it there."
The ease with which she said it made him raise an eyebrow and Nanao shook her head laughing a little as she took it from him. "It always bothered me, but seeing as I got it from a friend, I didn't want to just get rid of it. So, I hid it in here. I had forgotten about that."
She glanced up at his bemused expression smiling lightly.
"Dolls never were my thing anyway, Captain."
"No," he agreed, leaning against a stack of file boxes and Nanao could feel his interested gaze on her. "Is something wrong, Captain?"
"Wrong? No," he smiled and shifted to look towards the small window, his eyes taking on a far away look and Nanao waited patiently for him to continue. "When you first joined our division, I was delighted. I had never seen Lisa-chan so excited about a new recruit, and truthfully I wasn't sure if you would take our offer or not."
Nanao blinked up in surprise.
"I knew you would have other offers, Nanao-chan," he laughed, not unkindly. "So you see, we were both overjoyed when we received your acceptance letter."
"But I didn't have any other offers," she looked bemused. "I had interviews, but no other divisions offered me a position. It was only the 8th and the Kido Corps."
He nodded. "When I first met you, I was surprised. Lisa had told me that you were young, but--"
"My age has always caused raised eyebrows." She suddenly found herself sympathising more with Captain Hitsugaya.
"It was an asset to you," he said, and the conviction with which he said it caused her to come up short. "Youth," he hesitated, searching for the right words. "Youth is invincible to itself. That's the beauty of it. Age has knowledge and experience, it's true. But youth is too young to realise impossibilities, so it attempts and achieves them where age would never try."
She frowned, mulling his words over in her mind.
"I do wonder though," Shunsui continued. "If we didn't do you a disservice by pushing you so hard."
"You never pushed me. I pushed myself."
"Not overtly," he smiled. "But we did want you to succeed."
"And that was wrong?"
"I don't know," he motioned to the doll in her hand. "You tell me."
Now she understood. She sighed, rising gracefully to stand in front of him. He had always been protective of her, something that she had not always welcomed, and he often pushed her to try things that she found ridiculous. But it was not born out of his own boredom. "You were not wrong." She hesitated. "It's true that I didn't have much of a childhood, but I wouldn't have had much of one anyway." He looked like he was about to argue and she shook her head. "Had I been from a safer place, perhaps that might have been more of a possibility, but I wasn't. The truth is, I was grown up long before I came here. And had I now come here, the situation would have been so much worse for me.. You can't blame yourself for that."
He chuckled, his eyes dancing with amusement and another emotion she wasn't quite sure of. She settled for glaring at him.
"What's so funny?"
"Not funny, Nanao-chan. Just interesting is all."
She arched an elegant eyebrow.
"My Nanao-chan is always very interesting to me." He made a kissy face and she instinctively reached for something to slap him with.
"I am not that interesting."
"On the contrary, Nanao-chan. You are most interesting. I learn new things about you every day. It is one of the great joys of my life."
"Your life must be very boring then," she quipped.
His eyes glinted with mischief, "On the contrary, my dear. My Nanao-chan makes life most interesting."
Her nostrils caught the scent of smoke an instant before she saw the blue kido spark ignite the papers he'd sorted.
"Captain Kyouraku!"
He vanished in a wink of shunpo, just in time to avoid her water kido. "They are trash anyway, Nanao-chan." His voice floated in from the window. "Catch me if you can."
Her reiatsu flared. This was a game she intended to win.
Note: Thanks so much for reading!