As much as he appreciated his best friend, as much as he valued Shunsui's peculiar brand of intelligence, Ukitake still had a lot of moments where he thought Kyouraku was out of his sake-brined mind. This was definitely one of them. He was standing in the middle of his quarters, gaping as the eighth division captain laid out his Brilliant Plan(tm).

"Why are you looking at me like that? I know it'll work." Shunsui went blithely on to describe how their two chosen victims - er, subjects - would be brought to this particular point. Little notes, a few hints here and there, maybe some support from others..."I'm sure Renji-kun would help, I KNOW Rukia-chan would help, maybe we can get that rather amply-endowed girl from the living world to give us a hand...oh, this will be absolutely perfect, just you watch. I'm already planning on-"

"Shunsui, when in the name of all that's holy did you decide that we ought to play matchmakers? The last time I checked, 'would-be cupid' wasn't part of a captain's job description." Sure, he could do a lot, but Ukitake was severely doubting his ability to wave a magic wand and Unite Two Hearts In Bliss(tm). (He found himself mentally adding the trademark symbol to a lot of what Shunsui said these days, ever since he'd discovered it down below and learned what it meant. Most of what Shunsui said was...unique...enough to be trademarked, that was for sure.)

"Oh, it's not in the description, but neither is champion booze-slinger, or writer of obscenely popular novel series." Kyouraku smirked at Ukitake, who rolled his eyes. "Taking care of one's subordinates, though, is definitely in the description."

"But they're not even our subordinates!"

"Details, details." Shunsui waved a hand negligently, dismissing such petty thoughts as unnecessary. "You can't possibly deny that they're both in great need of companionship and caring right now, so why not be the ones to help out?"

That, at least, Jyuushirou was forced to agree with. Izuru and Shuuhei had both taken ridiculous emotional blows following the three captains' betrayal of the Gotei 13. He knew how deeply attached they were to both their captains, and they'd both taken it very hard. Izuru spent most of his time sequestered in his rooms while Shuuhei buried himself in as much administrative work as he possibly could in his attempts to forget. This would be a phenomenally stupid idea, though, if he wasn't equally forced to admit that he'd seen the way those two had looked at each other in the past and known there was already a major attraction there. It had just sort of gotten shoved aside in light of all the crap that had happened.

Of course, Shunsui would never let something like that go to waste.

"So, this is what I'm going to do."

About a week later little things started showing up around both vice-captain's quarters; tiny hints and reminders, delicate little ideas designed to nudge rather than deceive into thinking the other person had sent anything. Jyuushirou, who had reluctantly agreed to help, had stopped both of the boys in passing with simple little lines. "Izuru-kun, how is Shuuhei-kun doing?...oh, you haven't seen him recently? Huh, you two seemed very close, I thought you might have...oh, it doesn't matter, I can't keep track of these things. I'll have to go check on him, for certain." He could almost see the poor creaky wheels of that portion of Kira's mind starting to turn with the idea of going to see Hisagi. He knew Shunsui had unleashed the same tactic in reverse. Nothing like assumptive psychological tricks to get people thinking.

It was after one of those random encounters that he bumped into Rukia, who'd been leaving the Sixth division's office area (Jyuushirou always assumed it was because she'd been visiting Byakuya but he had a verrrrrry strong hunch it had less to do with her brother and more to do with her brother's vice-captain). The tiny girl blinked up at him in some surprise before she said anything. "Captain Ukitake! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there, I apologize!"

"No, no need to apologize, Kuchiki. Distraction happens to everyone." He chuckled, reaching out to absently squeeze the girl's shoulder. He had long ago adopted a very paternal attitude towards her...he would have been very proud to have a daughter like Rukia. Sometimes it distracted him from his own inability to have children. He squashed that thought pretty quickly. It was depressing, and at any rate Rukia had just given him a hell of a lot more to think about.

"I'm so used to seeing Captain Kyouraku with you and it's much easier to see all that pink, since it's so distinctive...is he busy?"

Ukitake was a little bit surprised at first. "Hm? Oh-you are? Yes, he's a bit occupied with squad business. He's a bit hard to miss, isn't he?" He chuckled, thinking about his rather large wall of a best friend with his ridiculous pink kimono. He was such a dolt sometimes. He couldn't even pick a color that would look good. Ukitake could pull off pink. His partner, not so-

Partner? Since when did everyone start thinking-eh, it makes sense, we ARE battle partners after all. That's it. He was distracted from finishing that train of thought when Rukia said something else.

"Definitely hard to miss, and I'm so used to seeing you two together, since you always are." The girl gave him a smile, and he had to smile back. "When you see him, could you say hello for me? Oh, and tell him thank you for the flowers, they were a very nice pick-me-up." The girl headed off, and not for the first time Ukitake marveled that such an enormous spirit could be stuffed into such a tiny body.

Flowers, hm? Sounds like him. He always sends me flowers when I'm particularly sick or feeling down. Usually a big bouquet of red...

He was halfway to his office when he stopped, brown eyes widening as he finally started putting two and two together. Always with him. Always making sure he was all right...sending flowers when he was ill, or in need of cheering up. Now, flowers alone probably wouldn't have phased him. The routine bouquets of a dozen or two red roses, on the other hand...that was a different story. Red roses were one of the most romantic flowers you could give a person.

...that dumbass.

He hurried back to his office. By the time Shunsui waltzed on in, looking smug, Jyuushirou was sitting crosslegged on the floor and looking a few things over. He'd actually tucked one of the latest batch of roses behind his ear, a splash of vivid color against snowy white hair. Shunsui didn't notice at first; he was too busy chortling to himself and looking very much like a cat who had gotten into the dairy. He settled down next to his best friend, grinning before relaying his story.

"It worked! Worked like a charm, too! Izuru-kun went over there to visit Hisagi-kun and damned if I didn't catch a glimpse of one rather involved make-out session. They kind of forgot to close the window." He smirked, glancing over at Ukitake. "We're amazing, aren't we, handsome? Regular professionals. We could charge for our services." He would have gone on, but the rather sardonic expression on the other captain's face shut him up. He looked confused. "What? What did I do now?"

"It's not what you did, it's what you didn't do." Jyuushirou scooted a little closer, enough that Shunsui finally saw the deep red rose tucked behind his ear. Shunsui's eyes got very big for a moment, before he did something that Jyuushirou was definitely not used to...he blushed. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said, kind of stumbling over his own words. He was silenced by an elegant finger pressing against his lips. Ukitake was just eyeing him, one eyebrow raised.

"You could have just told me, you know. It's a great deal more efficient." Seriously, beating around the bush like that? Definitely not like his partner. He was fairly effusive in pouring out admiration for almost every woman that crossed his path, so why in the world waste time like that?

Shunsui looked very sheepish and a bit worried. "Well, er, um...oh crud." He exhaled rather heavily. "Come on, Jyuu. It's not like this is the kind of thing you just come out and say to your best friend of what, two thousand years now? Last thing in the world I wanted to do was spook you into hiding from me."

That one got Ukitake to roll his eyes. "Moron. You know me better than that." He scooted closer, leaning in to plant a kiss right on Kyouraku's lips. It didn't last long; when he pulled away he was treated to the sight of Shunsui looking quite like someone had smacked him in the back of the head with something very heavy. "I've been in love with you for years. Which you would have known if you'd been paying attention." He just shook his head, eyeing the other man with a certain amount of annoyance. "For someone so perceptive you have an amazing inability to miss what's right in front of your nose. Honestly." Hmph. He'd gotten very used to dealing with the inevitable jealousy and frustration, to the point where coping had become habit. To finally realize that for a damn long time Shunsui had been saying the same thing without saying it...

...well, it made him both deliriously happy and so exasperated he wanted to throttle the other man until he turned blue.

A moment later Shunsui finally broke out of his paralysis and big strong warm arms enveloped Ukitake, pulling him up into the larger man's lap. "Well...can you forgive me and let me make up for lost time?" The expression on Kyouraku's face had Ukitake almost speechless. There was so much love there it was mind-boggling.

"You've got a couple millennia to make up for, so I'd suggest you get started," Jyuushirou answered very dryly before leaning down for another kiss. He'd forgive Shunsui this time, since he had a feeling his partner would be putting a lot of effort into making up for all of that time. That was just the way Shunsui worked.

At least this time he was putting the effort where it mattered.