Author's note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU and set at University of Cambridge in England.

The Better to Dream of You

The first time he saw her, Shunsui had this odd sense of double vision. One moment she was dressed like the rest of the college students on campus, the next she was in a World War Two ATC uniform, and then she was back to normal again. He chalked it up to too much time spent in his study room at the library pouring over old books and documents. He was almost finished with writing his dissertation, and the fact that he was working on it nearly eighteen hours of the day was showing. Still, it was odd, and he made a note of it.

When it happened again two days later (the woman passed him in the library), Shunsui mentioned it to his best friend. Jyuu was also working on his dissertation, though he had a lovely wife who was rather insistent about keeping his study hours within reasonable limits. Jyuu had frowned and told that he was working too hard.

"But the thing is though I swear I've never met the woman, the one who's in regular clothes, before I have seen the woman in the uniform somewhere before. And I can't think of where."

Jyuushiro shook his head. "I think you need a break from you manuscripts. Come have dinner with Retsu and me tonight. You haven't been over in ages."

Shunsui agreed, and he had to admit the dinner with friends was a nice break. But the woman continued to haunt him. He saw her two more times in various places on campus before deciding that he really needed to do something about this. Hell, he was even beginning to dream about her. Though in the dreams, it was always the woman in uniform. There were a few slight differences between the women besides their clothes. It was a mystery that Shunsui just couldn't resist.

It took some doing, but he managed to find out that the woman he kept seeing around was Nanao Ise. The reason he didn't know her was because she was an undergraduate at Clare College in the music department. Shunsui himself was at Selwyn College and almost done with his doctorate. There was no reason for him to know her. However, that didn't explain why he knew her alter ego, the woman in the uniform.

Truthfully, Shunsui was beginning to think that he was going crazy. And he would have been certain about except the next time he saw her, she did a double take. So, she was seeing something too. It was enough to convince him that he hadn't lost his mind. It was also enough to convince him to finally approach her. He'd been hesitant to do so before because what was he going to say? Hey, did you know you have an alter ego from World War Two? She would probably either hurt him or run away. But if she was seeing something too, maybe it was worth a try.

"Excuse me, miss?"

She stopped and took a step towards him uncertainly. Shunsui smiled gently. Now that they were face to face. The second woman had disappeared.

"Hey. My name is Shunsui Kyoraku. I know this is going to sound a little odd, but I keep seeing you around, and I wanted to introduce myself."

She met his eyes, clearly searching for something in them. Then her expression cleared.

"You're seeing something too. It's not just me." Shunsui could hear the relief in her voice.

He nodded, not bothering to deny it. "Yeah. Can I buy you a cup of tea some place so we can sit down and talk?"

She nodded. "That sounds like a good plan. I'm Nanao Ise."

It didn't take him too long to find tea shop. He ordered a pot of tea and scones for them both. Shunsui waited until they had been served to get to the matter at hand. As it turned out, Nanao had the same odd double vision when she saw him. Only she was seeing a young man in a soldier's uniform. And she had no idea why.

"No one in my family even lived in England at the time," she admitted. "I've seen enough movies to recognize an RAF uniform when I see one, but other than that I have no idea what I'm seeing or why."

Shunsui shrugged. "It's a mystery all right, and I never could resist those. Still, you said he was an RAF pilot? Would you recognize him if you saw a picture?"

Nanao gave him a look.

"Right. Dumb question. Let me see what I can dig up. Thankfully, the RAF pilots tend to be well documented." At her puzzled look, Shunsui explained. "I'm a doctoral candidate in the history department at Selwyn. Actually, my dissertation's on the role and experiences of women in the Auxiliary Territorial Service and Mechanized Transit Corps."

The second he said that it occurred to Shunsui that there might be a connection between the two figures they kept seeing. He would have to go back through his research materials and see if there was anything that might help them. But he could do that later. Shunsui would admit he was quite curious about Nanao Ise, and he wasn't going to waste the opportunity to get to know her.

"What about you?"

"Oh." She flushed. "I'm an undergrad at Clare. Music major, but what I'm really interested in is composition. I've played at writing music for years, but it's not very good for the most part."

It took some coaxing, but Shunsui managed to get her talking about music, and once she started, Nanao lost most of her self consciousness. He was actually pretty impressed by both her maturity and her intelligence. Nanao might only be nineteen years old, but she give some graduate students he knew a run for their money. He was disappointed when she had to leave for class, but Shunsui managed to get her phone number and her address, so he could contact Nanao if he found anything.

He took himself back to the library determined to see if he could find any answers. There was probably something in his piles of research. He'd start with seeing if he could find there RAF pilot. Nearly five hours later, he had a list of five possibilities. Well, Shunsui was pretty sure it was the third man on the list (Sean Kenzie bore a startling resemblance to Shunsui), but since he hadn't actually seen the man, he wanted Nanao to confirm it for him. He hadn't had as much luck finding the woman, though he still thought there was a connection between the two. Unfortunately, it was nearly eleven and too late to call Nanao tonight. He'd have to wait until morning for confirmation. Shunsui sighed; he probably should go and get some sleep himself.

The next morning Shunsui arrived at Clare College at nine armed with an offering from Starbucks. He wasn't sure he would actually need it, but it was better to be safe than sorry. He didn't know how Nanao liked her coffee, so he had gone with chocolate to be on the safe side. However, it turned out that Nanao had been up for several hours. They sat down with the photos that Shunsui had found, and Nanao picked Sean Kenzie right off the bat.

"That's him," she sounded startled as if she hadn't expected the man to really exist.

Shunsui nodded. "Sean Kenzie. Okay, let me see what I can dig up on him. When would be a good time for us to meet later?"

Nanao frowned. "Can it be tomorrow? I have class this afternoon and choir practice this evening."

"Sure."

"How about one o'clock then? At the University Library?"

"Sounds good to me."

Shunsui headed back to his study room. As much as he wanted to dive right into the research on Sean Kenzie, he did have to get some work on his dissertation done today. So Shunsui got back to work, though he was careful to keep an eye out for anything that might pertain to his current mystery. After lunch, he decided he deserved a break and began seeing what he could find out about Sean Kenzie. The university actually had a surprising amount on him. Of course, he had been a student here before he had gone off to fight as a pilot. Shunsui made a mental note to go check out Clare College's library to see if they had any further documents since that had been his college.

When Shunsui met with Nanao the next day, he had compiled quite a bit of information on Sean Kenzie. He smiled when she met him at the library doors.

"How do you feel about a field trip?"

Nanao raised an eyebrow at him, and Shunsui laughed.

"Sean Kenzie is buried here in Cambridge."

"Ah." Nanao considered this. "Why not? What have you found?"

He explained as they walked. "Well to start with, Kenzie was originally a music student at Clare. He was a year away from graduation when he joined the RAF. He served for three years before he was killed. I found a bunch of his letters too. Most of them are to and from his family, but there are a set that look like love letters from signed by N. I. There weren't any of Kenzie's replies in the archives."

"So what does N. I. stand for and is that the woman you keep seeing I guess is the million dollar question."

"Exactly."

"Hmm."

He distracted her with stories from his undergrad days for the rest of the walk. Shunsui did his best not to look at Nanao while he spoke. It was rather disconcerting. She and the other woman seemed to flicker in and out. One moment it was Nanao beside him, and the next it was the woman in the ATC uniform. It had a rather dizzying effect. Still, he liked bringing Nanao out of her shell. She seemed like a very reserved person, and he thought that it was almost too bad. Shunsui doubted he would have gotten a chance to know her at all if it hadn't been for this odd mess they found themselves in.

They arrived at the cemetery with no problem, and it didn't take them too long to find the grave. The two of them stood standing in front of the grave for a few minutes in silence. Shunsui wasn't sure what he expected seeing the grave to do for him, but whatever it was, it wasn't happening. Nanao let out a soft gasp beside him. Shunsui turned to her only to find her staring in the opposite direction of the grave.

"You said the letters were signed N. I. right? Do you think that could stand for Nora Isenhart?"

"I suppose. Why?" The name was familiar to him somehow.

She pointed at a grave that read Nora Isenhart. The date of death was a month before Kenzie's. Shunsui turned back to Nanao to make a comment and froze. The woman in uniform, Nora he assumed, stood beside Nanao. But her eyes were on something behind Shunsui. He watched as her eyes lit up and she ran forward only to be caught up in the arms of a man in an RAF uniform. That had to be Sean Kenzie. Shunsui watched awestruck as Sean whirled her around and kissed her. When he set her down, she said something to him, nodding. Sean smiled and took her hand, and then they both disappeared.

"I…did you see that?" Nanao's voice was shaking.

"Yeah." His own wasn't quite steady. "Why don't we go now?"

The two of them retreated to the nearest Starbucks. Shunsui felt much better after a cup of Earl Grey, and Nanao's chai latte seemed to have steadied her nerves. He sighed.

"We both saw it. I've got no explanation for it, but it did happen."

"But why? It doesn't make any sense."

"Well, today is All Souls Day oddly enough," Shunsui mused. "I know the name Nora Isenhart though. I think I saw it in my research. Do you feel up to a trip to Selwyn?"
Nanao nodded. He led the way back to his college. Shunsui was rather glad that he hadn't left his room too mush of a mess. There were photocopies, books, and other research materials everywhere, but at least his bed was made and all his clothes were put away. He waved a hand at the mess.

"Feel free to move anything you need to in order to find a place to sit."

Shunsui focused his attention on the stack of folders, each bearing the name of a woman who had been in the ATS or MTC.

"Here she is. Nora Isenhart."

Nanao had perched on his bed, and Shunsui went and joined her. He flipped open the folder. On top of the copies of photographs and other documents was a typed sheet of paper. It was a summery of what Shunsui had been able to find out about the woman. He handed the rest of the folder to Nanao and began to read his notes.

"According to my notes, Nora was in the MTC and a driver either of an ambulance or for an official. It wasn't clear which. She had been a student here at Cambridge at St. Catherine's College. She was killed when her superior gave what just about everyone agreed was bad orders. It wasn't entirely clear just what happened, but there was a shell involved. I think either they were shelled or a shell exploded by them." He frowned when came to the next paragraph; how had he forgotten this? "I think I found our answer. Two days after Nora's death, she got a letter from her sweetheart. Her roommate opened it. It contained a ring and a proposal. He was killed before he ever got the news that she was dead."

Nanao offered him a picture from the file. "They must have met as students. They look so happy together."

Nora and Sean smiled at him from a punt in one of the canals. Shunsui sighed. They had solved the mystery, but he found he was put out to no longer have an excuse to see Nanao. He still wanted to get to know her better. He reached for her hand.

"Well, it may have taken some time, but it seems like their back together." Shunsui smiled at her. "What do you say we go out to dinner and celebrate that? My treat."

Nanao hesitated a moment then squeezed his hand. "Yes. That would be lovely."

There wasn't anything Shunsui could do to change the past. He knew that. All he could do was learn from it and use what he learned to build the future. And he wanted a future with Nanao.