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Author's Universe

After Hours

ShuNa

This is not the first time Kyoraku Shunsui has seen his Nanao intoxicated. He remembers very well an only slightly tipsy Nanao leaving the office New Years party last year. Though, to her credit, it is the first time in the eight years she has worked for him that he has seen her full-blown drunk. She is an expert with limitations and prior to tonight has gone to every length possible to preserve herself. He knows that mostly this is his fault, because she has seen him walk into the office drunk too many times before to ever be comfortable with the notion of getting drunk herself in his or any of her co-worker's presence, and because Nanao is not stupid, and she is strong; but even a strong smart woman, if impaired, can be overpowered. Nanao knows this very well. Kyoraku also knows that the reason she has succumbed to the pressure of her peers tonight is because he is also there, and he is sure she figures that she is not that drunk, and that even if she is a little more drunk than intended, he is there to take care of her.

She made him promise beforehand that he would not try anything.

She is making this a very difficult promise to keep.

His hands slide lower on her hips when she presses herself fully to his chest, her breath is warm and tickles the skin of his slightly exposed chest. He reminds himself that they are on a dance floor, that she is drunk, and that prim-proper Nanao-chan would not approve of having herself ravished in the midst of a bar at four o'clock in the morning by her boss. These thoughts are all that stands between she and he.

Thoughts don't make a very large barrier and so his hands also begin playing with the hem of her uncharacteristically casual sweatshirt.

When she walked into the bar nearly six hours ago he'd been surprised. Mostly because it'd been the first time in the eight years she'd worked as his secretary that he'd ever seen her outside of the office, and partly because the Nanao he knew wore only pencil skirts of the navy and gray coloring and a matching blouse. Always. Proper hair and prim glasses that were never too high up or too low down her nose. This Nanao was wearing jeans and a hoodie and . . . no pantsuit. Grant it, her hair was still immaculate, even in a ponytail, as were her glasses, but this didn't stop the fantasies that were playing through Kyoraku's mind a mile a minute at even such small changes. The why to 'why is she here?' was completely ignored. . . . that is, until she'd gone to the bar and asked where Rangiku was.

Matsumoto Rangiku who Kyoraku regularly drank with, who complained religiously of her best friend and roommate a woman who apparently owned "Like a million books!" and never got out. Truthfully, when the busty blonde had first mentioned this friend Kyoraku couldn't understand why Rangiku stayed by her. If this was Nanao, as he was beginning to think it was, the question had made the subtle shif to 'how could she possibly not?' Pieces were falling into place and Kyoraku nearly laughed at the irony when the bartender pointed to Rangiku and the studious secretary marched over and began yelling at the woman. Shunsui had never seen Nanao yell. Ever.

Shunsui had joined the two women after Rangiku had gotten Nanao through her second glass. He considered it a safe zone after that. Nanao's shock and mortification were not easily missed when he made his appearance and it took persuasion on both sides from he and her friend to convince her that when working hours were over it was not against the law to have drinks with friends. This didn't sedate her much, but Rangiku's iron grip did.

Now, Rangiku and mostly every other bar patron were gone and Nanao had cuddled herself so tightly into his chest, Shunsui thought if she got too much closer she was going to start feeling things where other parts of their bodies rubbed and that that would be a bitch to explain away.

The music had gone from rambunctious to calm and the two of them were mostly swaying from side-to-side more than actually preforming an action. Around them chairs were being stacked on top of tables. Things were settling down, the sun would be up soon. Where would Shunsui be when it rose?

"Sir?" Nanao mumbled, the noise reverberated off of his skin like a wind-chime.

So formal.

She'd always been formal. For all the eight years before and even now when she probably wasn't even coherently thinking things through anymore.

"Hmm?" He hummed. Sway left. Sway right.

"This is highly inappropriate." She stated absently.

"We're not working Nanao-chan," He reminded her, "consider this a dance among friends." His smile was charming and full and real. The music faded for a moment, but a moment was really all it took. Kyoraku blinked once, then twice as her lips met his - all warmth and softness, kind of like he'd always imagined with a sensation millions of times greater - His eyes slid closed shortly after and a fuse blew in his mind. A single thought - this is most definitely not a kiss among friends naughty Nanao-chan.

A different song picked up behind them, in a place past the buzz of his ears that never fully registered beyond his own thoughts. She pulled away, red faced and looking to the side.

"I wasn't talking about the dance." She stated after a moment, adjusting her glasses slightly. Her sobriety was feasible but distant. All Shunsui could really say on the subject was that she wasn't black-out drunk, and she'd remember this all tomorrow. She was probably already regretting the action. "I've wanted to do that for several years."

"My beautiful Nanao-chan may do it again if she'd like to." Shunsui smiled, hoping the sincerity in the statement would show.

He knew perfectly well that he was labeled notoriously as a womanizer, and Nanao had gotten the blunt force of his flirtations since she was hired.

In the past three years, she'd gotten all of it. All together. It was a little known fact, shared only between two very close friends, that Kyoraku Shunsui might have, for the first time in his life, fallen in love everlasting with a single woman. It was a shame, his best friend had mentioned, that the woman herself had no clue whatsoever.

"No," Nanao backed off, separating them with steps that Shunsui did not appreciate in the slightest. She swayed slightly, groping an upturned chair leg on a nearby table, before staring properly over his shoulder.

"You know Nanao-chan, a kiss like that is not capable of meaning nothing."

What a mess this woman had made of his otherwise comfortably disheveled life, Kyoraku thought with lightened spirits.

Well, I've had this idea for awhile . . . It's mostly the result of hearing the song 'You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This' by Toby Keith (country singer, again, not really worth looking up unless you like the genre :P) and then wrote this because it was driving me mad. It is AU, incase that was missed. I'm not sure that I like it, and was debating on whether or not I should upload it, but ultimately decided to hell with it, and did.

I've been writing an awful lot of ShuNa, I think I'm getting a little obsessed. . . But whatevs. :P

Enjoy, and I love reviews. ;)