AN: I wrote the start of this one after I finished University in 2011 when I was playing far too much Assassin's Creed since my parents had bought the games and a PS3. I was supposed to be looking for work, but I was looking at Ezio's ass. However I only ever got the first two paragraphs written for my friend on lj. I made a deal with myself that this year I would try and finish my unfinished writing. So I came across this and since I have been playing rather a lot of Assassin's Creed III recently the idea still fit, I just had to change the time frame. Obviously Ukitake-san has my taste in games and I didn't write this to offend people that play COD. The opinion is my own, I'm not a FPS sort of girl. Haytham Kenway *swoon* is the property of Ubisoft Montreal although I wish he were mine ;P. Please enjoy xx.

Shunsui was getting annoyed. He turned to Jūshirō who was asleep on the sofa with the game controller in his hand and sighed.

"Damn him," he muttered under his breath thinking about Shūhei; it seemed that each time he left the Seireitei he would come back with some other part of modern technology to annoy everyone that enjoyed the peace that their home had to offer, first was that ridiculous motor bike where he had to trade in his shihakushō for tight clothes made of leather, next he came back with a television because he said it was far more fun watching 'moving stories' than it was reading them and then to go with his television his next purchase was to come back with a... Shunsui sat forward to read the name on the infernal machine PS3 it read and on this infernal machine people would sit for hours on end playing through hyper violent and ultimately pointless stories.

And what do you know? Jūshirō loved it! He claimed that it calmed him and made him feel as if he weren't locked in an eternal hell of ill health and impending death; that he could connect with others, be it in Seireitei or the real world since Urahara had done something to the infernal box that meant that Jūshirō could communicate with others whenever he wanted. It meant that Shunsui was now lonely because all of Jūshirō's free time when he was feeling okay was used playing game after game on the stupid machine, or talking to Shūhei about one or other of the games that the pair had been playing. Shunsui brushed a soft kiss across Jūshirō's forehead and took the controller out of his hand turning to switch the infernal device off when a voice inside his head whispered to him.

Shouldn't you find out what the magic this thing possesses for the sake of science and your relationship with Jūshirō? It had a point, so instead of switching off the game system like any sane man who had a hatred of technology; would have done, he switched on the remote in the way Jūshirō had showed him and opened the game menu on the most recent game that had been keeping his lover occupied for the last couple of days. He saw Jūshirō's saved game with a 79% completed score next to it and flicked the... what was it called... joystick?! Down to an empty save slot and pressed the 'x' button that the screen told him was the confirm control. At this the screen seemed to splinter in to a million different colours and directions in a way that Shunsui didn't much like, but he wouldn't let it get to him, it was after all an experiment, so he had to be objective about this. When the picture came back together again it showed a scene of a place that Shunsui remembered well. He had been to Covent Garden at this point in time and had even seen a performance of the show the game was showing. There had been the soul of a depressed actress that had become chained to the theatre and was causing havoc during performances, he had been dispatched to free the soul before it became a hollow and he had gotten there just in time. He listened to the characters talking not really understanding what they were referring to, but saw they were pointing to one of the boxes to the left of the stage and then all of a sudden a character in blue who had been talking stood up and didn't move. Now what was he supposed to do?

"Push the left stick away from you," said a sleepy voice from behind him, "Get to the end of the aisle and then stop." Jūshirō yawned and from the noise he was making was stretching on the sofa. This had not been part of Shunsui's plan. Jūshirō was supposed to stay asleep and him being sat here playing the game was going to be his little secret. Saying that though he followed Jūshirō's instructions and made the character halt when he got to the end of the aisle, "Now you have to get him to climb that wall in front of you," Shunsui turned around and stared at Jūshirō,

"That is completely ridiculous, no one can climb up a sheer wall with no hand or foot holds." He said shaking his head,

"It's a game Shun," Jūshirō replied using his pet name. "It's not all that realistic." With that he snuggled in to the cushion that was behind his head and draped one of his long pale hands over Shunsui's shoulder, "Now press that button at the top on the front of the controller and go forward." Shunsui did as he was told and watched in awe as the character began to climb up the walls of the theatre, "stop," Jūshirō said with a smile, "Now move Haytham sideways below the eyes of the crowd." Shunsui followed his lovers lead as he took him step, by step through the opening sequence of the game encouraging him and never getting annoyed even when he got it wrong, which he did... a lot; since one of Jūshirō's chuckled comments had been that he had never seen Haytham get killed during a fist fight. When Jūshirō finally said "Climb the main mast," Shunsui could finally understand what had fascinated him so when Shūhei had brought it home. He had the character in the crow's nest and the landscape that surrounded him was so detailed that it was like the pair of them were there in Boston in 1753. Which at some points during the Revolutionary War they had been and it had looked just like the landscape he could see. The pair had been there in the midst of war because Battlefields were always filled with shinigami since they were overcrowded with lost souls.

Shunsui made his character step off the ship and had no idea what to do next so turned to Jūshirō to see him smiling one of the warmest smiles that Shunsui had seen in a long time.

"What is it?" he asked still looking at Jūshirō more than a little confused.

"Thank you," he said simply, "For doing this. I know you weren't at all interested and I know that for the last few weeks you have been frustrated that I have been ignoring you, so thank you for trying to take some time to understand why I became so enthralled so to speak."

"I can understand the beauty, but I don't understand why you would enjoy something that blatantly advocates war." Shunsui replied frowning at his lover who smiled again and leant forward to kiss him lightly on the lips.

"Once you play through the game you will see that it doesn't advocate it at all. When you get to the end even more so as Connor, who my love you are yet to meet finds out that all he worked for was in vain. He tried to protect his people and the rest of the world, but in the end accomplished neither of these goals." He ran a hand through his long white hair and smiled softly, "I'm sure that not everyone that plays these games feels the same way and I'm pretty sure that they don't, but I see the set as a beautiful heartfelt tragedy where the hero is nothing of the sort, although he tries so desperately to be so. It shows the bond of family and how betrayal affects us all, but most of all the games show that at least some of the time love can conquer all." Shunsui looked in to the dreamy eyes of his lover and felt a smile curve his own lips, how like him to see things that way. "Also it made me feel connected to something, they are places I have seen before, the battle fields, the casualties of war and the burning buildings in the great fire of New York, I have walked those streets saving the souls I could find, when no one knew I was there. Most of all seeing someone else's version of a world I once saw makes this prison I have to live in more bearable and you must admit that is a blessing." Shunsui couldn't argue with that and he didn't even want to try, though he hated to admit it, since they had gotten the infernal machine as a gift he had been happier.

"Why don't you play those ones?" he asked pointing at a stack of black boxes that he had noticed Jūshirō had never touched,

"Oh," he said offhandedly, "Those do glorify and advocate war and have no moral compass or story at all. They bore me." Shunsui stifled a grin,

"Right. I'll remember that." He kissed the crown of Jūshirō's head softly and heard his lover purr in reply, "So what do I have to do now Jū?" he asked stroking Jūshirō's hair, "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do..." He stopped talking when he saw the competitive look in Jūshirō's eyes,

"You are supposed to give the controller to me so the master can show you how it's done," he sat up on the sofa and pulled Shunsui up to sit beside him, "Now Shun you are going to get the master class in how to be an assassin."