A/N: This chapter took freaking forever to write out by hand, and even longer to type up. So I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. I make no profit from this.

"You're sure about this?" Kaname asked as he drew his zanpakuto. "Because I don't think you should be sparring after last time." Akina looked down at that, trying to steady her shaking hands.

"I need to be able to fight." She murmured, "I'm not even sure why they let me graduate the academy when I can't fight at all. I don't want to let anyone down or anyone to get hurt because they have to protect me. I'm sick of being a liability, Kaname!" Akina flinched at the volume of her own voice. She only yelled when she was extremely mad, and even then her anger was almost always directed at herself anyway.

"Alright." Kaname relented. "Tell me if you need to stop." He stood in a defensive position, and waited for her to make the first strike. Akina hesitated, and then made a move as if to knock his sword from his hands. Kaname retaliated just enough to switch her to defense, then took a few more strikes at her zanpakuto; he was impressed, really, she wasn't panicking like she had last time and so many times before. Still, he sheathed his zanpakuto and stepped back. "We're done for now." He paused, realizing just how hard she was breathing. "Akina, are you alright?" He stepped forward, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, yeah, I'm ok." Akina gave a little, nervous laugh. "Sorry, I think I'm out of shape. No one usually spars with me." Another little laugh tailed that. Kaname felt paranoia kicking in, saying that Akina was going to have another nervous breakdown. "Please don't take me to the fourth." Akina murmured. "Please. I've been looking into transferring there and they won't want me if they know I still get like this." Akina sounded close to tears.

Kaname gave up; he didn't care what people saw or thought. He drew Akina close and held her there. Their relationship had been on the fence for years; they were more than best friends and less than lovers. Still, the lingering hugs, kisses that were never lips on lips, and overall closeness tended to confuse their friends.

"Sorry." Akina's tears dripped off of her chin, into Kaname's shihakusho as she faked a smile. "I must be an embarrassment to you when I'm like this." She swallowed hard. "I'm sorry. I'll do better next time." Kaname caught her chin, feeling the tears and running his thumb across her bottom lip.

"You're never an embarrassment to me." He said evenly. "You're kind and you try as hard as you can to help. I knew the day I took you from Rukongai you would make a great soul reaper. Just because you're not there yet doesn't mean you'll never be." He paused for a moment to knock his mask away from his face, then, using his hand on her chin as a guide, he leaned down and kissed her softly.

From a distance, Shuuhei and Komamura watched in silence.

Hours later, Akina sat in her Captain's office. Her Captain Ukitake had gone to bed nearly an hour earlier.

But Akina still sat in a chair, one hand clutching papers she had been told to toss out, the fingers of the other hand running across her lips.

Kaname, her Kaname Tosen, had kissed her. Sure, his lips had frequented her cheeks, temples, forehead and her hair, but Kaname had genuinely kissed her. Slowly, her mind drifted to sadder things. She'd wanted to have a romantic relationship with him since a few days after he took her away from that horrid place she had called home. She tried hard not to think about that place with her Mother, but some memories creep in no matter how hard you try.

Her mother trying to drown her after the stillborn was born. It had barely been two weeks, and Akina was sure her Mother should still be resting. But she had been in the bath, and Mother had walked in, pushed her head under all the while crying and screaming. The murder attempts hadn't stopped, and every time her Mother said something about killing Akina "before someone else did". Drowning, knives, strangling, Akina had escaped everything she could've never wanted to think about before she turned eighteen. But on her eighteenth birthday, she had run away. Anywhere is better was her motto, but she hadn't gotten far before she ran into Kaname Tosen. He asked her what she was running from, and when she explained, he took her back to Sereitei and enrolled her in the academy. She had trusted him implicitly ever since and he had never let her down.

"Why are you still up?" Kaname stepped inside Juushiro's office. "And why are you alone?" Akina jolted to present, laughing out loud at herself.

"I just got caught up thinking. I need to clean up a bit and then I'll go to bed, ok?" Akina stood and dropped the papers in the trash. "Why are you still awake?" She bustled around the office, cleaning up.

"I couldn't sleep." Kaname sighed, taking large steps over to her. "I needed something."

Akina froze and then looked at him. "What do you need?" She hopped up and hurried to him, closing the distance. Kaname rarely needed her help with anything.

"I need to know you're not just compliant because you care about me platonically." Kaname's voice was even. "I want to know that you care about me in the same way I care about you."

Akina dropped the rest of the trash into the bin and hugged him gently. "Kaname, I've been in love with you practically since I met you." She smiled up at him, unbothered that he couldn't physically see it. "That's never changed. So you don't have to worry about that, ok?" Reaching up, she pulled him down enough for her to kiss his forehead. "Now, I think we should both get some sleep. I'll talk to you in the morning, ok?"

Kaname nodded, pulling his mask aside to kiss her forehead and then leaving without another word.

Akina smiled and wiped the happy tears gathering in her eyes away. For once, everything was going exactly her way.

A/N: This chapter took a long time to type up from handwritten, and then everything had to be re-edited. I had to forget an important element, of course. That's just how I am.