Title: nobody's business (but my own)
Author: me ^^
Characters/Pairing: Hisagi Shuuhei & Soifon
Rating/Warnings: R
theme: #14- conspiracy
Author's note: Settled in a quite remote future, they are dating, still not committed. A chat of duties and betrayals.
- You don’t like it..
Shuuhei raised his head from his ramen bowl and stared at her for a minute. They were talking randomly about Gotei 13 and the way a taichou’s life, someday, sucked so badly, when, in the middle of his last complaining, she came up with that blunt comment. Perfectly Soi style, but still, it was rare for her to speak her mind this directly. He looked back at her, questioning
- What do you mean..?
- You don’t like it… you don’t like being the 9th squad taichou, do you?
Shuuhei laughed , and chug his green tea with a slight trace of regret almost well hidden in the depth of his dark, narrow eyes - you caught me. Ok, I admit I’m not suitable for this job. I feel like the power gap between me and you is wider than it should.
- You can overcome it, with training - she said severely, picking up a mushroom from her bowl.
- Yes, but it’s not just that… - Shuuhei started to feel cornered. Every time he managed to have a date with the stubborn 2nd squad taichou, it was him to bring up argument and lead the chat. Soi was a good listener, but a shy, silent person; so he’s usually in charge of the main part of the conversation. This changed immediately when she found an argument to stuck on. It was impossible to distract her from something she’s focused on, once it happened. She would not let him go until she had look through that small rip in his self confidence he allowed her to barely see…
- It takes more than a bankai to make a Gotei 13 taichou - he said, toying with the chopsticks and a rebel shrimp that stubbornly refused to be caught. - it’s.. not my thing, Soi. You are born for imposing your authority, I am not. And I hate bureaucracy with all my heart - he added with a grin.
Soi paused. She knew that there was more than this to him, but he was right: the boy from Rukongai had never forget about his origins, and his free, anarchist nature clashed with the role he was covering in that moment. No matter that he was the one giving order - and he was extremely good at it - he was unable to look at his subordinates not as equals. Through respectful of the rules and loyal to death to the Gotei 13, Hisagi Shuuhei’d always be an outcast in the military top class assembly.
- Then , why don’t you quit?
- Because this is my business... - he raised his cup to drink again, but then stopped in mid-air, looking at a more distant point down his memories, and eventually regrets - I know there are people like Renji, and Ikkaku, and maybe some others that are good for this role, but I was the one that was in the 9th squad when our former taichou took part in Aizen’s conspiracy, not them. I was the one that should have notice there was something wrong with Kaname Tousen, and I didn’t - he smiled, and drop the cup on the table - so I have to stay here ‘till the day it'll be over. I couldn’t stop him, so I have to fix things he left behind. Nobody but me has to take care of this duty, or has this right, whatever you wanna call it.. simple, ain’t it?
Soi nodded, silently. He could tell he had seen some new glance of respect in the way she was looking at him from the tiny corner of her ebony eyes.