Fic: Sunlight and Song (3/11)
Title: Sunlight and Song
Author: Venefican
Pairing: Nanao/Shunsui
Rating: PG
Summary: Rangiku tries to defend Nanao's honour against all odds, and all of Nanao's protests, pulling half of Gotei 13 into the affair. Nanao drinks tea and considers murder. Ukitake remains the only sane one.
3
‘How is it going with Shunsui anyway?’
She and Rangiku are walking together back from the First, orders and patrol lists neatly stacked (in Nanao’s case) or bundled together into a makeshift fan (the heat defeats the need for creaseless paper, in Rangiku’s opinion).
And with all the work and Shunsui’s usual absence, Nanao has managed to almost forget. Almost.
‘Nanao?’
‘Hm? Oh.’ Swallowing against the tightness crawling up her throat, she says, ‘I think we broke up.’
It takes three paces for her so realise Rangiku has stopped. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘Broke up?’ It’s a squawk and Nanao cringes at the interested heads popping up over the wall of the Ninth.
‘Rangiku, please, quietly. I’d rather this didn’t end up in the newspaper.’
Her hand is grabbed, and she’s enveloped in the dizzying sense of moving with someone else’s shunpo. She shivers, rubbing her now released hands over her arms and blinks when she notices Hitsugaya-taichō sitting at a desk, bending over an impressive mountain of reports. They had shunpo’d right into the Tenth’s office. Surely Rangiku didn’t want to do work that badly?
‘Captain!’
His hand twitches, his brush flicking ink onto the paper and she absently hopes it’s not bound for the Eighth. He might not have the beautifully elegant calligraphy of the Captain-Commander or Kuchiki-taichō, but next to what she gets from the Eleventh Hitsugaya’s neat, sparse hand is something to be treasured.
‘Matsumoto.’
‘What kind of trouble will I get into if I challenge a Captain?’
‘Rangiku, no-’
Rangiku flaps a hand at her, eyes fixed on Hitsugaya as he puts aside his ruined paper, pulls out a new sheet and finally sighs, ‘Reason?’
‘A lady’s honour, sir.’
‘Rangiku, I do not need my honour defended. And anyway, that’s usually a male thing.’ She has no problem with women fighting duels, all the better, really, but if it will get Rangiku to drop this stupid idea she’ll play up all the stereotypical gender roles she can.
‘Oh.’ Rangiku wilts a little before she gets that look and Nanao feels the stirrings of true terror as her friend points at her Captain. ‘Taichō! Go and defend Nanao’s honour from that cad Shunsui-kun!’
Hitsugaya’s eyebrow twitches a little - that man must have the patience of a saint - but he finishes writing his sentence and glances from his Vice-captain to her. Nanao’s fairly sure he sees her as something between ‘someone to commiserate with’ and ‘God of Paperwork’ but he sounds sincere when he asks ‘Ise-san? Is my assistance required?’
While a duel would be adorably nobly intentioned, it would also be horrifically one-sided. ‘No thank you, sir. Rangiku was being overdramatic.’
‘But Nanao! We must avenge you!’
‘Trust me; if I felt I needed to be avenged I’d be doing it myself.’ And Shunsui would probably let her, if he thought he deserved it.
‘But-’
‘No.’ Nanao sighs, feeling every one of her years plus a few. She wonders if Rangiku is using this as an excuse to think about something not-Gin. She can’t blame her - Nanao has been doing much the same thing. ‘If this ends up in Hisagi’s newspaper, Rangiku, you’ll have to worry about more than my honour.’
She really should have guessed that her warning would not be the end of it, but retrospect was little comfort when the next week or so involved more people going through the 8th’s offices than an army recruitment station.
Renji had been through already. As had Nemu. Soifon had appeared yesterday with an offer that might or might not involve a battle, which might or might not involve a Second Division assassin squad with a security classification so high she couldn’t even admit they actually existed.
Yachiru had just bounced in to offer the Eleventh’s services: ‘Glasses! Ken-chan hasn’t had a good fight in forever! I can tell him to fight Shun-Shun for you!’
She had left after Nanao had refused her offer of mindless violence, and Nanao took a moment to thank whatever god was listening that apparently nobody had heard of this apart from the Vice-captains and the SWA.
‘Ise-san.’
Thanks, Gods. Were prayers not good enough nowadays?
‘Ukitake-taichō.’ She pauses. He’s her captain’s oldest friend, but still... ‘If you’re here to kill the captain for me, thank you but no.’
He looks quietly amused, but smiles and shakes his head. ‘I had heard, but no, Ise-san, I’m not here about that. Not completely, anyway.’
That will do for the first real conversation she’s had with anyone in days.
‘I’ll make some more tea.’
She bustles around the tiny kitchen attached to the office, the routine of making a fresh pot of tea soothing some of her more frazzled nerves. She sets the tray down with a sigh, letting the heat radiating from the cup sink into her aching fingers.
‘How are you?’
She smiles. How long has it been, since anyone asked her that? ‘Fine, Ukitake-taichō.’ His eyebrows twitch into an expression that makes it clear that he doesn’t quite believe her. ‘And you, sir? I hope you’ve recovered.’
‘As well as can be expected, thank you.’ He tilts his head, eyes considering, and she flinches away from the inherent kindness in them. ‘He worries, you know.’
Ukitake doesn’t define ‘he’, but she knows as well as he does. Nanao wishes that she could have, just once, a conversation were she doesn’t have to pry the meaning out of sentences like an oyster someone has seen fit to attach explosives to.
‘Of course he does. He always does.’
‘Ah. It’s that, is it?’ Ukitake’s eyes crinkle at the corners as he summons up a sympathetic smile. ‘I’m sorry, Ise-san.’
The cup pauses in front of her mouth, and she blinks through the steam. ‘What for, sir? Shunsui will never really be reined in by anyone, short of divine intervention.’
‘True. But I rather think my own past decisions may have influenced his behaviour.’
Kaien.
She sighs, shakes her head at the pinched expression blooming across the Captain’s face. ‘No, sir. It’s not your fault, and the cause is immaterial and of little concern to me. What matters is that I thought he understood me. What?’ She asks, frowning at his unhappy smile.
‘I think,’ Ukitake begins slowly, ‘That I need to give you a full account of what happened, one hundred years ago.’
Onwards to Chapter 4
Author: Venefican
Pairing: Nanao/Shunsui
Rating: PG
Summary: Rangiku tries to defend Nanao's honour against all odds, and all of Nanao's protests, pulling half of Gotei 13 into the affair. Nanao drinks tea and considers murder. Ukitake remains the only sane one.
3
‘How is it going with Shunsui anyway?’
She and Rangiku are walking together back from the First, orders and patrol lists neatly stacked (in Nanao’s case) or bundled together into a makeshift fan (the heat defeats the need for creaseless paper, in Rangiku’s opinion).
And with all the work and Shunsui’s usual absence, Nanao has managed to almost forget. Almost.
‘Nanao?’
‘Hm? Oh.’ Swallowing against the tightness crawling up her throat, she says, ‘I think we broke up.’
It takes three paces for her so realise Rangiku has stopped. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘Broke up?’ It’s a squawk and Nanao cringes at the interested heads popping up over the wall of the Ninth.
‘Rangiku, please, quietly. I’d rather this didn’t end up in the newspaper.’
Her hand is grabbed, and she’s enveloped in the dizzying sense of moving with someone else’s shunpo. She shivers, rubbing her now released hands over her arms and blinks when she notices Hitsugaya-taichō sitting at a desk, bending over an impressive mountain of reports. They had shunpo’d right into the Tenth’s office. Surely Rangiku didn’t want to do work that badly?
‘Captain!’
His hand twitches, his brush flicking ink onto the paper and she absently hopes it’s not bound for the Eighth. He might not have the beautifully elegant calligraphy of the Captain-Commander or Kuchiki-taichō, but next to what she gets from the Eleventh Hitsugaya’s neat, sparse hand is something to be treasured.
‘Matsumoto.’
‘What kind of trouble will I get into if I challenge a Captain?’
‘Rangiku, no-’
Rangiku flaps a hand at her, eyes fixed on Hitsugaya as he puts aside his ruined paper, pulls out a new sheet and finally sighs, ‘Reason?’
‘A lady’s honour, sir.’
‘Rangiku, I do not need my honour defended. And anyway, that’s usually a male thing.’ She has no problem with women fighting duels, all the better, really, but if it will get Rangiku to drop this stupid idea she’ll play up all the stereotypical gender roles she can.
‘Oh.’ Rangiku wilts a little before she gets that look and Nanao feels the stirrings of true terror as her friend points at her Captain. ‘Taichō! Go and defend Nanao’s honour from that cad Shunsui-kun!’
Hitsugaya’s eyebrow twitches a little - that man must have the patience of a saint - but he finishes writing his sentence and glances from his Vice-captain to her. Nanao’s fairly sure he sees her as something between ‘someone to commiserate with’ and ‘God of Paperwork’ but he sounds sincere when he asks ‘Ise-san? Is my assistance required?’
While a duel would be adorably nobly intentioned, it would also be horrifically one-sided. ‘No thank you, sir. Rangiku was being overdramatic.’
‘But Nanao! We must avenge you!’
‘Trust me; if I felt I needed to be avenged I’d be doing it myself.’ And Shunsui would probably let her, if he thought he deserved it.
‘But-’
‘No.’ Nanao sighs, feeling every one of her years plus a few. She wonders if Rangiku is using this as an excuse to think about something not-Gin. She can’t blame her - Nanao has been doing much the same thing. ‘If this ends up in Hisagi’s newspaper, Rangiku, you’ll have to worry about more than my honour.’
She really should have guessed that her warning would not be the end of it, but retrospect was little comfort when the next week or so involved more people going through the 8th’s offices than an army recruitment station.
Renji had been through already. As had Nemu. Soifon had appeared yesterday with an offer that might or might not involve a battle, which might or might not involve a Second Division assassin squad with a security classification so high she couldn’t even admit they actually existed.
Yachiru had just bounced in to offer the Eleventh’s services: ‘Glasses! Ken-chan hasn’t had a good fight in forever! I can tell him to fight Shun-Shun for you!’
She had left after Nanao had refused her offer of mindless violence, and Nanao took a moment to thank whatever god was listening that apparently nobody had heard of this apart from the Vice-captains and the SWA.
‘Ise-san.’
Thanks, Gods. Were prayers not good enough nowadays?
‘Ukitake-taichō.’ She pauses. He’s her captain’s oldest friend, but still... ‘If you’re here to kill the captain for me, thank you but no.’
He looks quietly amused, but smiles and shakes his head. ‘I had heard, but no, Ise-san, I’m not here about that. Not completely, anyway.’
That will do for the first real conversation she’s had with anyone in days.
‘I’ll make some more tea.’
She bustles around the tiny kitchen attached to the office, the routine of making a fresh pot of tea soothing some of her more frazzled nerves. She sets the tray down with a sigh, letting the heat radiating from the cup sink into her aching fingers.
‘How are you?’
She smiles. How long has it been, since anyone asked her that? ‘Fine, Ukitake-taichō.’ His eyebrows twitch into an expression that makes it clear that he doesn’t quite believe her. ‘And you, sir? I hope you’ve recovered.’
‘As well as can be expected, thank you.’ He tilts his head, eyes considering, and she flinches away from the inherent kindness in them. ‘He worries, you know.’
Ukitake doesn’t define ‘he’, but she knows as well as he does. Nanao wishes that she could have, just once, a conversation were she doesn’t have to pry the meaning out of sentences like an oyster someone has seen fit to attach explosives to.
‘Of course he does. He always does.’
‘Ah. It’s that, is it?’ Ukitake’s eyes crinkle at the corners as he summons up a sympathetic smile. ‘I’m sorry, Ise-san.’
The cup pauses in front of her mouth, and she blinks through the steam. ‘What for, sir? Shunsui will never really be reined in by anyone, short of divine intervention.’
‘True. But I rather think my own past decisions may have influenced his behaviour.’
Kaien.
She sighs, shakes her head at the pinched expression blooming across the Captain’s face. ‘No, sir. It’s not your fault, and the cause is immaterial and of little concern to me. What matters is that I thought he understood me. What?’ She asks, frowning at his unhappy smile.
‘I think,’ Ukitake begins slowly, ‘That I need to give you a full account of what happened, one hundred years ago.’
Onwards to Chapter 4