bTitle:/b Take Care
bFandom:/b Bleach
bRating:/b PG
bCharacters/Pairings:/b Shunsui/Nanao
bSummary:/b Shunsui and Nanao have tea, the day before he leaves.
bWarnings:/b none
bNotes:/b Written for lj user='fae_of_the_rose'
lj-cut text="Read More"Nanao scooped some tea into the teapot and poured hot water into it. She settled back on her heels as the tea steeped. Next to her, her taichou sipped slowly on a bowl of sake, watching the leaves fall slowly from the trees outside the Eighth Division headquarters. There was a bitter bite in the air that smelled like snow, despite the clear, pale sky. The angle of the sun in the sky told her that it was well after the time she should have gone back to work. But just today, just this once, she didn't care.
"I think the tea's done, my adorable Nanao-chan," Kyouraku rumbled softly.
"I'm not your anything, sir," she said, but she couldn't bring herself to really mean it, not today. Not when he'd be going off to fight so soon, and she wouldn't be with him. She poured the tea through the strainer and then into two cups. It was far simpler, far less intricate than the proper tea ceremony she'd learned in the Academy, but she shared her captain's dislike of the powdered tea used on such occasions.
Handing one cup to him, she sipped her tea in silence, intently watching the leaves on the ground dance and twirl in the wind. She'd have died before she admitted it, but she was drinking in his presence: his scent, the smell of flowers and sake and earth; the look of his pink haori blowing in the late autumn wind; his reiatsu, all bright and pink and cheerful, with that deep purple streak of ruthlessness he tried to hide or forget.
As she took a deep sip of tea, she swallowed and spoke softly, her eyes fixed on a brown leaf as the wind gently pulled it from the tree. "Take care of yourself tomorrow, sir," she said.
He reached out and tucked her hair softly behind her ear, leaving a soft trail of warmth on the side of her face. "I will, Nanao-chan," he promised. "You take care of yourself, too."/lj-cut
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