Standard disclaimers apply.
Attentions ---
"Please explain to me, Taichou, why we are gathering flower petals," Nanao said from several feet above the ground. Her hands were full of sakura blossoms to put inside of the wicker basket she had wedged between the branches beneath her.
"These flowers are beautiful," he replied with a grin, "just like my Nanao-chan."
Nanao, who had until then been moments away from telling him to pick his own flower petals, blushed prettily and continued her task. It wasn't until moments later when she heard Shunsui's telltale snoring that she gave up on the blossoms in favor of more productive things.
Sitting beside her sleeping taichou, she cracked open the large tome that she had left at the base of the tree. So engrossed in her reading, she wasn't aware of the gradually more conscious state that Shunsui had come to after his short nap.
"Nanao-chan," he drawled from under the hat that covered most of his face, "read me a story."
"This isn't a storybook," she snapped. "And I'm not your personal storyteller."
He lifted the hat just enough to look at her seemingly annoyed face. She wasn't quite angry. If anything she seemed almost playful for someone who showed almost no external emotion to the rest of the world for weeks on end. If anyone else knew Nanao it was Shunsui, and he knew how to push her buttons quite effectively.
The fukutaichou was only half surprised when a very determined (albeit lazy) head worked its way under her arm to lie in her lap. He was still resting comfortably on his back which gave him the advantage as far as looking at Nanao's face went. When she finally took a cautious glance down at him, he gave her his most charming, boyish smile.
"Nanao-chan," his deep voice called.
"Taichou, this is highly inappropriate," she said stiffly, cutting off any remark that he had been about to make.
His only response was to turn on his side and curl his face into her soft stomach. He took in a deep breath of the scent of her clothing, something which she obviously did not find amusing in the least. Her protests were painful and brief. Useless as well, since Shunsui suffered the wrath of her tiny fists quietly in his happy place, breathing in the essence of his favored subordinate.
"A man could die happy here," he sighed, closing his eyes.
"Or they could die painfully here at the hands of my kidou."
That was an obvious cue that his life was better kept when out of the reach of Ise Nanao's dangerous hands. Then again he was a captain and as such was supposedly accustomed to living life dangerously. He wouldn't be a captain if he ran away from a pretty woman in glasses at the first sign that she might be serious about causing him bodily harm. As if she was the only one. There were plenty of women out there who were surely waiting to get their hands on him in a bad way. He couldn't help it that he couldn't choose just one.
The growing sensation of heating skin was enough to at least make him roll his face away from her stomach long enough to catch another glimpse of her face before moving. The steady light of demon magic surrounding her hand was reflected in her glasses, blocking the view of her eyes.
Standing up swiftly gave him a slight head rush, but it was gone just as quickly as it had come. He took in a deep breath of the fresh, summer air and gave silent thanks for the nice weather. It was the perfect drinking weather for long afternoons spent outside.
"Where are you going?" she asked, shifting her glasses back up on her nose.
Shunsui grinned at the cuteness of the gesture and wondered idly exactly how bad her eyesight was to need glasses. Could she see the words on the pages of her book? What about her face, how did it look without the glasses? The curiosity was too much to ignore.
"What are you- hey! Give those back!"
She reached out to grab them, but he was much faster, pulling them out of her reach. He studied the glasses with interest, having never worn a pair himself. Nanao looked very blurry through the lenses as he surveyed her face. Trying to clear his vision while looking through the glasses was very stressful on his own eyes, but amusing all the same.
"Can you see me?" he asked as the Nanao through the glasses stood up to face him.
"The only thing I see is a captain who is preoccupied with irritating his second in command," she said while grabbing her property and pulling the lenses down to clean the smudge prints that he had left. "I don't know why you do these things."
"Because you like the attention," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
She looks up at him sharply only to find his retreating back. He has one hand poised in the air in a 'see you later' kind of gesture that is so utterly him that she doesn't know what to shout to let him know that he's wrong about her (even if it is a terrible thing to lie to one's captain).
The frustration that comes from the lack of attention he gives her in his retreat only confirms the fact that she does enjoy his attention. If it wouldn't be such an odd request she would shout at him to come back and steal her glasses again. She likes being blind, only because it means she knows he would be smiling somewhere in the slightly blurry mass that would be his face.
Sighing heavily, she sat back down on the grass with her book, fully prepared to spend the rest of the rare free afternoon reading instead of following around a captain that was only truly content when he was drowning in his sake. Besides, the sakura blossoms that he was so fond of really were beautiful when the wind was blowing them from the tree to scatter on the breeze.
They were, however, not so beautiful when the wicker basket was blown from its branch and she was covered in a pile of what was most definitely his negligent mess.
---
AN: Kind of a sudden end. That's something I need to work on…
Somewhere in the middle of this my past tense writing changed. I'm way too lazy to go back and fix all that since the ShunsuiNanao portion of the Bleach world needs more love now (and not in two months when I'm more likely then to come back and fix errors).
Anyway, if you want this fandom to grow then you're gonna have to give a little to get a little.
Silent readers go to the Eighth Circle of fanfiction Hell.