Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach
Warm Fuzzy
ShunNao (Ficlet for LazyNezumi)
Perhaps the greatest and most troublesome aspect of winter is the snow.
It doesn't come often in Soul Society (it is mostly the product of Hitsugaya-taichou's temper, Rukia-san's practicing or poor control by one of the few young squad members who's zanpakuto is snow or ice by base element) rather than an occurrence of the forces of weather. (Soul Society is notoriously warm-weathered - this is because the sky of the after-world is an illusion). All the same, Nanao enjoys the snow. Mostly.
Sometimes Kyoraku-taichou is not around and these are the times Nanao indulgence the innocence in her heart and she quits work just a half an hour early and shunpos to the deep woods where the snow is very fresh, very white, and very all her own. The benefit of being a shinigami, and a kido master at that, is that certain spells can be used to lessen the effect of the cold which inevitably follows in the wake of wintery days. This is beneficial as it allows Nanao a solid hour of book-reading in the white-blanketed wonderland before the cold becomes unbearable and a hot tea in the tea house fifteen minutes to the north is in order. It's not exactly routine, but days like these (rare, once or twice a year days) have become something of a tradition for the bookish woman.
She reached the empty expanse of land just out of the way of the eighth division at about the time the toll rang across Soul Society to announce the end of another work day. It was a pretty sound, deep and powerful, soothing and greatly loved. Nanao loved it also, being good at administrative duties didn't mean she particularly cared to spend her life doing them, and although activities outside of work weren't as enthralling as she was often told they should be, she did enjoy the time which proceeded that which was spent in stuffy quarters; especially stuffy quarters which happened to lack a certain, more pleasant, stuffiness provided by one very large, intrusive, man … Nanao pushed her glasses up the bridge of her pink nose and dismissed the thoughts. This wasn't about him, he hadn't even bothered to come into the office today so she'd best think of him as little as possible, lest some sort of taichou withdrawal begin to suck all the pleasure out of her pale skin.
"Which is ridiculous." She muttered to herself for good measure, even if it wasn't.
The tree which Yadomaru Lisa had often taken Nanao to in her youth stood proud and tall in the middle of the field, appearing to not be weighed down in the least by the snow which clung to it so viciously. It was a rather plane tree, the bark had scares from when Nanao had practiced with her tanto for the fukutaichou qualifications on it, the roots stuck up out of the ground and dived back in in an odd manner which had fascinated Nanao enough to review a book on the phenomenon (and for that reason only, certainly not because her taichou had been known to shown a curious amount of interest in nature, and trees like this in particular) and the branches which sprouted so plentiful at the tree's peak spread out impossibly far and shielded the ground beneath it in such a way that on hot days, one was guaranteed to never overheat, and on snowy days one was guaranteed to at least somewhat avoid being completely drenched.
Nanao found her spot among the roots at the base of the trunk where she fit perfectly and snuggly as if this place was specifically carved for her to sit in, and then looked briefly at her trail of footprints and the flurries which fell before she opened the book in her lap and began to read of arrogant partners and the punishment of crimes.
Fifteen minutes passed in this way and on the sixteenth minute Nanao had become so absorbed in the story that she didn't even notice the warm presence at her left.
"Is it a good book Nanao-chan?" Her taichou asked, his voice rich and good-natured. Nanao flinched, but gave no other outward detection that his appearance had caught her off guard, even though it had. It was odd because she'd missed him throughout the day, but she'd also been excited for this excretion and she wasn't quite sure which she was more annoyed about – his interrupting it, or his not having interrupted her work earlier. She decided to be annoyed by both of them.
"You were absent from the office today, sir." She said evenly, studiously ignoring his question. He grinned broadly, the kind that he often gave when he knew a fact to be just that and didn't particularly care that it was.
"It was a beautiful day to be away from the office," he said, "and I didn't want my lovely Nanao-chan to feel as though she thought she'd need to stay indoors when her heart so clearly wanted to be here."
"You had work to do." Was Nanao's response, because she'd long since learned that not only was her taichou intelligent, he was also aggravatingly observant … and also apparently as acutely aware of her reading spots as she was of his sake stash spots - she couldn't recall a time when her taichou had ever been to this tree with her.
"I'll get to it tomorrow." He smiled, his eyes reflecting ages she could only barley comprehend "time is going nowhere without us, it will be at our office steps bright and early when we wake up and we will greet it then." Nanao thought that only her captain could use an excuse like 'We've got all the time in the world' and make a legitimate argument of it.
"Perhaps, but you won't greet it until well into the afternoon and by that time I will have already forged your signature and sent the paperwork on its way." Nanao said, rolling her eyes and dogearing her book.
"Even better!" Grinned her taichou and then chuckled when she gave him a scathing glare. "Now that we've got that settled, and the unpleasant work talk out of the way, I've come here to hear my lovely Nanao-chan read me beautiful literary works!" He paused briefly for the added effect and then pulled out a picnic basket from behind one of the gnarled roots. "And to have a nice dinner with her. I cooked!"
"Taichou," said Nanao, "how long have you known about this spot?" Shunsui made a show of smiling sincerely and mischievously as one.
"Since I showed it to Lisa-chan when she first became vice-captain." He said, and began pulling out items and setting them in the snow, simultaneously ignoring Nanao's varying expressions of rage, astonishment and concern. "Relax lovely Nanao-chan, I know this is a special place for you, I wouldn't interrupt for just anything." He smiled.
"No," Nanao replied, "just while I'm reading to inform me that it isn't as secluded as I once believed it to be..."
"Please humor me Nanao-chan, have dinner with me, I spent most of the afternoon preparing it."
"While you were supposed to be working…" She reminded him, but not in a reprimanding way, and he smiled guiltily but not apologetically.
The food was fantastic and diverse, filled with things Nanao loved and things she knew her taichou liked. She tried a couple of those dishes to humor him, and because his tastes had always been on par with her own, and tried not to be annoyed with the spontaneous dinner, because even if they'd never had a picnic together (not for lack of her taichou's trying) they did often have lunch and occasionally dinner together, and she had missed him throughout the day.
"Nanao-chan is being refreshingly unprofessional this evening." Kyoraku-tiachou said, as if reading her thoughts.
"I had already left work early, I was hungry, and if I had told you no, would you have actually left?" Kyoraku laughed.
"Not without at least reading my Nanao-chan the poetry I wrote about her this morning. It came to me as I was brushing my teeth!" He grinned, and Nanao knew something bad was coming even before he pulled out the crinkled paper from his uniform. He began:
"I'll bet my Nanao has breasts inf-"
Nanao lunged across the picnic, throwing her hand over her taichou's mouth before she could quite comprehend what it is she'd just done and before another word could escape, her pale cheeks flushed red and there was a strange mixture or mortification and murder in her stunning violet eyes. For a long moment the only sound was the puffs of air she exhaled which floated away in white puffs in the cold air. Then something in Kyoraku-taichou's eyes changed and the glint was mischievous. Nanao felt the warm silky feeling on her palm and couldn't register what it might be before Shunsui placed a kiss there. She jerked her hand back quickly, holding it to her chest protectively and sending variants of the same accusing glare at the man across her.
"Kyoraku-taichou!"
"Nanao-chan tastes lovely too."
"This is highly inappropriate sir." Nanao stated stiffly.
"Perhaps I could try my poetry again then?" He chuckled, because a red and flustered Nanao was unnatural and always beautiful.
"Absolutely not," she said, adjusting her glasses. She made to pick up her book and stand, having had enough of the dinner and her taichou's antics, but he placed his hand on top of her own, stopping her from doing so. Shocks of heat and electricity raced up her forearm, fighting to capture the nerve ending there.
"Nanao's eyes are the bluest embers," he said, his face dangerously close to her own, her glasses fogged at the heat and he slid them off with an easy smile, setting them on the twisted root, just out of the snow's reach "shielded but infinitely on fire."
"Sir," Nanao said, but there was no steel there.
"And I want to kiss her lips."
Nanao knew if she'd wanted to she could have told him to stop and he would have easily, so when he did press his lips to hers, she wondered why it was she'd only said "yes, sir."
Out of character :'D
For LazyNezumi, because she's awesome and I couldn't get an update out … sorry, I'm not at a computer now. :P But I got your message to my e-mail and it was inspirational so today while I was waiting in traffic at the border of two states I wrote this out … I don't recommend writing fanfiction while driving as it doesn't do much in the way of creating a story or solidifying attention, but it did alieviate my boredom. Hope you like it LazyNezumi, and I feel your pain because I like reading other people's ShuNao more than I like writing, but right now there aren't any updates and I've gone to rereading my favorites again. :')
Hope this helps you a bit? (Again, really sorry for OOC-ness…)