Huh. Trust Kyouraku-taicho to come in even later than usual on Tuesdays. Nanao had no idea what he had against Tuesdays, but it was a Kyouraku tradition, apparently, to be late on Tuesdays. He was never in the office before twelve on normal days, and one on Tuesdays, but this was already a bit much. It was already two. He was normally in the office at two, albeit drunk in a pink heap somewhere around the compound, but still there.

It felt a little awkward to be in the office without the presence of the pink lump to bother about signing forms. It really felt awkward. And what was even more awkward was that there did not seem to be anyone else in the compound. That was odd. Normally even Tatsufusa was in the office by ten. Even though Kyouraku-taicho was overly lax with the division members, it was very unlike them to risk their fukutaicho's wrath by turning up four hours late for duty.

Frowning slightly, she buried herself back in the heap of forms that had materialized on her table the previous day, courtesy of a sheepishly grinning Ukitake-taicho, muttering something about members of the Eighth and Thirteenth being challenged to a drinking contest by the Eleventh, and winning, though not after half of them had been beaten to a pulp, ruining his compound in the process. And apparently it was something to do with the head office of the Eighth, which was why she was stuck with a stack of forms nearly up to her thighs when placed on the floor.

This was odd. Where was everyone? Casting her glance outside to the courtyard where shinigami would laze around on an ordinary day, she found it spotless. Spotless, but completely empty. This was odd. This was very odd. She did not feel like completing all the paperwork by herself, as much as she was the only one capable enough to do up to the proper Eighth Division standard. There had to be somewhere and someone she could unload this on. The question was where this somewhere was, and who was this someone?

Nanao considered getting out of her seat to go look for people. Then decided not to. Based on how far she had gotten, which was about three inches of paperwork in the past hour, she would get done soon enough, perhaps in about three hours' time. Then she would go look for them. Until then, paperwork had to be settled. The shinigami in question, a few names which she vaguely recognized for being perfectly ordinary, were in rather serious trouble. Honestly, what was it that she had told them about not messing with the Eleventh Division, regardless of how 'wimpy' Third Seat Madarame tried to insinuate they were, again? Memories like colanders, the lot of them.

Sighing, she picked up her brush again, moving it quickly over the stack of paperwork. Settling herself into a rhythm, her movements were smooth but mechanical, doing the same thing again and again. Quickly skimming over the pages, she was vaguely reminded of her childhood when she had been reading almost all the time, back when she had been read to by Yadomaru-fukutaicho, back when she had been the littlest shinigami in Eighth Division, younger even than Ichimaru Gin. Those were the good days, back when she was too young for paperwork.

Contrary to popular belief, she did not enjoy doing paperwork. It just happened that she was particularly good at skimming through the pages and signing in the appropriate places, forging her captain's signature as she went along. It was all too easy, especially since his captain's seal was kept in the drawer right in front of her. She was good at it, so good that she seemed to be getting faster. And these forms were getting a little familiar. That did not make sense. How could forms be familiar? These forms, they seemed a little repetitive. And it was not like Ukitake-taicho to get his forms wrong. This was interesting in a way that slightly annoyed her. She did not like confusion with her paperwork. Paperwork was supposed to be brainless.

Pursing her lips slightly, she leant down to her right, picking up an inch thick stack of paper and flipping through the completed paperwork. Placing it back, she pulled the inch thick stack of paper in front of her towards her. Hmph. Just as she had thought. Ukitake-taicho had somehow mixed up his division's copies into hers. And here she had been wondering how come a few fights, disagreements and last month's sake division budget were so thick. A slight smile came to her face as she stacked the duplicates neatly to one side. There. She was done, and had completed only one extra sheet of paperwork. This was good.

Getting up from the table, she smoothed her robes. Time to pop into the mess hall for a quick bite. Just on cue, her stomach rumbled a little. Yup, definitely time for some food. Three was pushing it on a normal day, and it was already four. But perhaps it would be good to check on Ukitake-taicho, in case his was deathly sick and that was why everyone was not in the compound. Oh dear. What if he really was that sick? Frowning, she picked up her pace, quickly turning in the direction of Thirteenth, ignoring her growling stomach.

"Jyuu, are you sure you did it correctly?" Shunsui frowned, pacing up and down the spaces in between the benches, ignoring the faintly annoyed expression on his best friend's face. The shinigami around them groaned inwardly, Tatsufusa looking severely annoyed, but since this was a captain they were talking about, and since his power was not even close to any captain, there was no chance at all that he could do anything about the situation with Kyouraku-taicho, who seemed frustrated, anxious and worried all at the same time, though how he did that, Tatsufusa had no idea.

"Yes." Jyuushiro sighed, looking incredulously at his fellow captain. "Honestly, Shunsui, for the millionth time, yes, I did it perfectly." A slightly smug smile came to his face. "You're talking about the person who charmed Soi Fong into doing the paperwork for both our divisions, and then who persuaded Zaraki's entire division to leave Thirteenth alone. Of course I did it correctly. C'mon, it was just a stack of paperwork too large to be natural. Of course she would notice, and come looking for us. Just, be patient." He leant back on the wall. "And stop asking me that question."

"Then why isn't she here yet?" Shunsui did not get it at all. Nanao-chan was not the type to let insubordination get away from her, and even if she did, she should have come for lunch by now. The latest that she went for lunch was three-thirty, and it had been immediately after the crisis with the ryoka and all. Half the division had been handling the paperwork about the incident, and even then, it had taken close to forever. What was Nanao-chan doing? Wasn't she hungry anyway? Shunsui frowned.

"Ukitake-taicho has not been in here since morning?" Nanao frowned. This was not good. What if he had been so ill that he had been carted off to the Fourth Division? But she had just seen him the day before, and he had seemed to be his same jolly old self. Perhaps there was something else to the story. (Having learnt from Isane, she knew that the best thing to do was to leave Kiyone and Sentarou alone to let them unload all their 'grievances' on her, and thus gain information.)

"Hai, Ise-fukutaicho." Sentarou answered in all seriousness, taking a step in front of Kiyone, who immediately looked unhappy. "Ukitake-taicho said that he had business to conduct, and left at five am sharp. He didn't…"

"Yes he did, Sentarou." Turning to Nanao, Kiyone beamed happily. "Ukitake-taicho told me that he was going to the Eighth Division to handle some work, though he did not say what that was."

Raising a slightly amused eyebrow, Nanao thanked them before leaving and making the rather long trek back to Eighth. So Ukitake-taicho was fine, huh. Interesting. What on earth was going on? She did not like being kept in the dark. Were the two of them going gallivanting off to somewhere to attempt to save the world again? The last time they had done that, she had been of not much use, having nearly passed out from Yamamoto-soutaicho's reiatsu. Was that why Kyouraku-taicho had not told her anything about it? All her instincts were screaming at her to go check out the library, but she was hungry, really, really hungry and it was now four-thirty. Food or duties?

Sighing, she changed course once more, heading towards the library. Kyouraku-taicho was so going to get it from her. When she found him.

"Jyuu…" Shunsui began to whine, only to be swiftly cut off by Jyuushiro.

"No, Shun, do not finish that question. The answer is no, I do not know where she is."

Tatsufusa groaned.

"Sumimasen, Ise-fukutaicho. Neither Ukitake-taicho nor Kyouraku-taicho have stepped into the library for the past two weeks."

"Jyuu?"

"Stop asking stupid questions."

"But I haven't even started!"

"I'm your best friend. I can read your mind."

"Eh? Nanao? Eighth Division shinigami? Nah, sorry. As much as I would love to go out drinking with them, I haven't seen a single one since last night, when the whole bunch of them totally kicked Ikkaku's ass. You should have seen it."

"Matsumoto, get back to work."

"Taicho is so cute when he's annoyed."

"MATSUMOTO!"

"She's still not here."

"Why thank you, Captain Obvious."

Nanao groaned. Where to next? Where could they be? But in any case, he was so dead. Kyouraku-taicho was so dead. What was with the day off for all the Eighth Division shinigami? Why had no one else seen them? What was going on?

She was hungry. So very, very hungry. It was already five thirty, and she had exhausted all her options. Not a single shinigami in Seireitei had seen a member of the Eight Division. She was very, very annoyed. Marching off in the direction of the mess hall, a furious scowl was on her face as she reached and pushed open the doors roughly. She was in no mood to take care of division property, she just wanted food.

"Jyuu…"

"Shut up… Hang on." A sly smile came to Ukitake's face as Shunsui brightened like a light bulb. For the past one and a half hours, the two of them had been tracking Nanao's reiatsu as it trooped all over Seireitei. The control they had on their own was far too good to be revealed, and the whole bunch of rambunctious shinigami has theirs under control as well. And now, it was finally happening, albeit two hours late. But finally, finally, Shunsui would stop whining. "Get to your positions, everyone."

Smiles broke out amongst the shinigami as they took their positions swiftly and silently. They would have cheered if that would not have completely given the game away. Shunsui looked as though his birthday had arrived early. (Or if Valentines' Day had arrived completely out of season, but that was a different matter.)

Quite a number of them remembered the littlest member of the Eighth Division fondly, remembering the little girl with the cutest little smile, and all those times they tried to make her smile or even laugh with their jokes, their games and sometimes even some sweet bribery. As she had grown up, however, Ise Nanao had matured into a stern young woman. Few of them had seen her laugh, very few indeed. Hopefully, this would work. Hopefully, they would succeed this time.

The doors flew open, and most of them were surprised, the few behind the doors yelping at their temporarily crushed noses. The rest however, continued on with the plan, rushing forward with party poppers, real world things which supposedly, Kyouraku-taicho had bribed someone to bring back, though from where was unknown. (It was rumored that the poppers had originated from Urahara Kisuke, but that was merely speculation.) Streamers well, streamed from the little containers, landing on the shocked Ise-fukutaicho.

Party blowers blew and a banner was unrolled from the ceiling, emerging from a secret compartment, reading in the nicest calligraphy possible, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ISE-FUKUTAICHO!" Food was nicely arranged around the tables, drinks at a separate one, and though the decorations were a little odd, they still looked nice. (The secret compartment was supposedly Soi Fong-taicho's idea of a gift, the banner supposedly written by Kuchiki-taicho, the food supposedly contributed by Hitsugaya-taicho, the drinks by Zaraki-taicho and the decorations, surprisingly, from Kurotsuchi-taicho.) The older shinigami could not be more proud as to how popular little Nanao had become with most of the captains. After all, who would not love such an efficient, organized lieutenant level shinigami?

Nanao blinked. "W-What's going on?" Her eyes had taken in the banner, but her brain had not yet processed it yet. It just looked like black squiggles on red paper to her. Some very nice squiggles, but still squiggles. And squiggles were unintelligible. She did not understand squiggles, and neither did she read squiggle-speak.

Silence fell upon the room. Half the shinigami blinked, and the other half keeled over and fainted. (Okay, they did not actually faint, but well, for dramatic effect, let us suppose that they did.) "W-What?" Kyouraku-taicho stared back, open-mouthed and shocked. It took him a good five seconds to regain his senses, during which Ukitake-taicho had regained his normal self and the previously fainted shinigami were now picking themselves off the floor.

"What's going on? Why was no one in the office? What are you playing at? Wha…" It kicked in, the banner. Nanao gaped, continuing in a completely different tone of voice from the sharp and authoritative tone previously. "I-It's m-my birthday?!"

Shunsui laughed out loud half in relief and half just because he was happy, sweeping down from his position next to the banner switch, leaning an arm over Nanao's shoulders, sing-songing, "It's your birthday, Nanao-chan!" Ukitake beamed, the shinigami grinned happily and cheered.

Nanao just blinked.

The subsequent party was a whirlwind of food and drink, something which not even Nanao remembered in detail. It was one of the more fun things she had done in a while, even though nearly every male shinigami in the room insisted on a dance with her afterwards, something about having fun with the birthday girl. She semi-dreaded the dance with Kyouraku-taicho, but there was not much of a choice anyway. He was after all, the taicho, and a gentleman at that. It certainly did not help, when the room turned and whirled in time to the quick music, and she found herself being passed from Ukitake-taicho to Kyouraku-taicho amidst catcalls and cheers.

Blushing, she was surprised to see herself being treated like a proper lady. It was surprising to not having to duck his advances, to not have to ignore all those words he was constantly spouting. It was true, she had had a crush on him when she was really little, but then again, that was when she had been at his knee height. (Fine, maybe a little taller, but well, dramatic effect takes precedence.) She was now just about a head shorter than him. That was how much had changed.

She knew it was too good to be true when he refused to relinquish her once the music had ended, to more catcalls and cheering. Even Ukitake-taicho looked to happy to be natural, the grin on his face now widening to Ichimaru Gin standards. It was a tad freaky, or would have been, had she been taking note. But even so, she had not been taking not, busy trying not to blush when the slow music began. Her luck was just completely fantastic. This was not exactly how she had envisioned her birthday to play out, not at all. Swaying to the music was not exactly her forte, and even though she did have quite a few glasses of sake in her, she was also an Eighth Division member, and could hold her liquor.

But the music was rather nice, and as much as it embarrassed her to admit it, Kyouraku-taicho was a good dancer. She was enjoying herself, and in a good way at that. Not thinking of him as anything more than a superior had been a bad idea. Perhaps thinking of him as a friend was possible as well. Nanao did not many close friends. Even so, his hand on her waist was, she liked to think, a little uncomfortable. She was unused to such close contact, having never actually been close to anyone except Yadomaru-fukutaicho who had been taking care of her before. Somehow, the dance seemed almost dreamy, and the music ended too fast for her liking, not that she was going to say anything or even complain. He was probably going to keep her for another dance anyway, if Ukitake-taicho's really smug look was anything to go by.

To her greatest surprise, she was relinquished over to the punch table, where a few drinks and a few stern glares silenced a few giggles, though nothing seemed to stop that smug, smug look on Ukitake-taicho's face that was not going away. The euphoric look on Kyouraku-taicho's face was not helping either, as she blushed once more, remembering the surprisingly and surprisingly not disturbingly close contact she had just had with him. Mingling around with the shinigami, she quickly forgot about the day's troubles, instead focusing on the party itself, which ended soon after that dance, since more and more shinigami were leaving as it was getting late.

Making to leave herself, Nanao was even more surprised when she was not being followed by Kyouraku-taicho. This was interesting. Usually, he would insist on accompanying her back to the office and the barracks, something about making sure that his Nanao-chan was perfectly safe. But in any case, perhaps he was already too drunk to notice her sneaking off. Parties, while fun, were not Nanao's favorite types of celebrations. She liked small gatherings with fewer people. As such, as she slunk off, she was rather pleased to see that no one had noticed.

Tough luck. Nanao turned a corner to find a goofily grinning Kyouraku-taicho leaning against the wall, looking amusedly at her. "It isn't good manners to leave early from a party dedicated to you, Nanao-chan. We were having such a good time. And I haven't given you your gift either."

"It was getting late, sir." She could not think of much else beside the fact that she did not exactly want to be in the same room as him until she figured everything out. The dance had been new territory, territory that she was not willing to cover just yet. Not just yet. Ah crap. "And I did enjoy myself. There is no need for a gift." Bad move. Urgh. What was she saying? Brain, come back under control! It had to be the sake. It had to be the sake. It was definitely the sake's fault. Most definitely.

Trying to calm her heart from it's fluttering at his deep chuckle, Nanao decided that it would be good to leave. It would be a very good idea to leave, right now. Taking a step forward, she bowed slightly to him, before quickly moving away, as fast as she could without seeming impolite. This was not a situation she wanted to find herself in, not at all. This was not a good idea. (Although she could not quite pinpoint exactly what was not such a good idea, due to her brain turning to mush. Something was wrong, and she did not like it.)

A hand on her shoulder startled her. Turning around, she came face to face with a smiling Kyouraku-taicho. Bad, bad, bad. He never smiled like this unless he was about to get something that he had been wanting for a long time, like that time she confiscated his sake only to give it back. This was no good. And there was no one around. Oh dear. Oh dear. She had a real bad feeling about this.

An amused eyebrow raised on his part, as another chuckle resonated from him. Uh oh. It did not quite occur to her that she could run away. Nope, not at all. She had a bad feeling about this, because she had no idea what was going to happen next. Or rather, she had a perfectly clear idea as to what was going to happen next, and could not quite fathom why she was not running away. Oh dear.

He leant down swiftly, capturing her lips in a quick kiss before pulling back, a huge grin on his face, looking like the happiest man on earth even though it was her birthday.

"Happy Birthday, Nanao."

She was now the happiest woman on earth.

I could not resist. I really could not resist. Even though it is now 1 am in the morning and I should have been asleep for the past one and a half hours, which were spent writing this. Hope you guys liked this! It's my first real attempt at romance. I'm hoping I didn't fail horribly at it. Anyways, the most important thing... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NANAO!

Cheers,
Tan