"Too early," he moaned and wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Shunsui, let go," she ordered, pushing at his arm. "I have work to do."
"Five more minutes," he complained.
"Five more minutes becomes two more hours with you," she said rolling her eyes. "Look, I'm not even asking you to get up, just let go."
"Like it better when you're here," he complained, nuzzling his face into her neck.
"It's a work day," she argued, squirming in his hold.
"Work starts too early."
"It wouldn't if you hadn't stayed up so late drinking with Jyuushiro-san," she chastised. "Is that even good for his health?"
"Oh, don't mother him, he gets enough of that from his siblings and division," he said, letting her go only to snag her again as she tried to bolt from the bed.
"At least he can get out of bed come the next morning," she said with a snort.
"So why don't you go date him," Shunsui replied sarcastically.
"I just might," she teased. "Then I could stay in my own home, as Boo likes him just fine."
"So mean in the morning," he pouted as he rolled over to pin her under him.
"Not a chance," she said, glaring up at him. "One of us has to be on time."
"Your boss says it's ok if you're late," he replied, grinning and shifting down closer to her. He kissed her bare shoulder and she was hard pressed not to respond in turn.
"Hey, if you get to use it in our private life then I suppose it's fine for me to call you Taicho and sir," she said.
"Fine, you win," he replied with a sigh, releasing her. "Although I really don't consider leaving, winning."
"Go back to sleep," she said with a laugh, getting up and heading towards the bathroom. "I expect you in this afternoon though, it's a budget week."
He groaned and threw a pillow at the door as she shut it behind her. Nanao smiled to herself as she went through her morning routine, and despite her earlier admonishments, tried to be quiet as she moved around the room. Some things were just never going to change, and she had quickly discovered that trying to wake him up at a reasonable hour only succeeded in making her late too.
She arrived at the 8th right on time and made a cup of tea before heading to her desk. Division members called out greetings as she went and she smiled back at them. She'd been doing that a lot more recently, smiling. At first she was pretty sure it had freaked some of her subordinates out, but they'd gotten used to it, and it hadn't seemed to cost her any of her hard won respect so she'd continued to do it. Besides, Shunsui was so fond of telling her how beautiful she was when she smiled that she was loath to take away his fun.
The morning was rather productive overall and when she felt Kyouraku's reiatsu signature coming towards the office she felt like she'd gotten enough done to let him distract her and get her out to lunch. That was until she realized something was off about it, and quickly noticed, after a more thorough scan, that it was not Shunsui, but his mother coming towards the 8th. She groaned out loud and wondered if it was too late to hide. His mother was obviously looking for her if she was coming to the office first, and Nanao just didn't know if she had the patience to deal with it today. Maybe she could make up some business with the 1st.
"Nanao-san," his mother greeted, as she slid open the door like she owned the place.
"Kyouraku-dono," she said, standing up and giving the woman a small bow.
"How many times have I told you that Hana is just fine?" his mother asked waving her off. Well, at least she appeared to be in a good mood today. "How's your headache dear?"
"It's fine, all gone," Nanao said, watching the woman as she went to Shunsui's desk and unconsciously began tidying it. Nanao would have laughed and told her not to waste her time, as Shunsui would just mess it up in two minutes, but she had a feeling the woman was doing it more out of habit than in any real hope it would stay clean.
"Well that's good," his mother said, sounding like she couldn't care less one way or another. "You know, some women get headaches when they're pregnant."
So that was it, Nanao thought with a groan. At least you couldn't accuse the woman of being subtle. Much like her son, she liked to get what she wanted when she wanted it. "Is that so?" Nanao asked patiently. "I shall have to remember that if I ever am pregnant."
"Then your not?" his mother asked with a disappointed sigh.
"Just like all the other times, the answer is still no," Nanao said evenly. His mother was obsessed with checking for signs of pregnancy, and she couldn't say Shunsui helped, as he like to torture the poor woman. At one Christmas party, when he knew Nanao had a stomachache and didn't want to drink, he purposefully forgot just so that he could ask her if she wanted a glass of wine and have her turn him down in front of his mother. It'd taken her the rest of the week, and ultimately an entire bottle of wine, to convince his mother she actually wasn't pregnant.
"Are you ever planning on it?" his mother asked bluntly.
"I'd like to have children someday, just not now," Nanao replied by rote. This conversation was getting tired fast.
"Why not now?"
"I've explained this all before," Nanao said, setting down her pen and settling in for the long haul. There were certain drawbacks to dating Shunsui, and his familial persistence on obnoxious topics was definitely one of them. "I'm enjoying my career right now, we're not even married, and I don't see any rush."
"Shunsui's not getting any younger you know," his mother pointed out, sitting down primly on the edge of the couch her son so liked to nap on. "You could have one child and only miss a few months of work. We have the means to hire a nanny. You wouldn't have to stay home for any longer than a couple weeks. I'm sure your career could handle that."
"I'm not just going to pop out a kid and then hand it off to some stranger," Nanao said while trying not to roll her eyes. She'd heard the nanny argument before and it just wasn't going to happen.
"It wouldn't be a stranger, all the nannies that work for the noble families have been around for years with excellent recommendations," his mother defended. "In fact, I heard the Shoji family's son is becoming a tad too old for their nanny. They just think the world of her, and she'll be out of work soon enough."
"Well, I'm sorry, but I'm not getting pregnant to give someone else a job," Nanao said firmly. If Shunsui didn't wake up and save her soon she was seriously going to dump him for Jyuushiro. The Ukitake siblings she had met were nothing but kind and had never once hounded her for personal information.
"So when are you going to feel the time is right to leave your job?" his mother asked, not entirely hiding the bitterness in her tone.
"Kyouraku-dono, we haven't planned that far ahead," Nanao replied. "We're just going with the flow."
"My son always goes with the flow, and nothing ever gets done," the woman said. "I'd hoped when he started to settle down with you, a goal-oriented person such as yourself would change that."
"My goals and yours obviously just do not coincide," Nanao said, hoping the secretaries weren't listening too hard and weren't going to gossip too badly.
"Well, I'm sorry that the Kyouraku family's needs don't factor into your life," the woman said harshly. "My son is so busy making sure you get everything you want, that I'm not sure you take into consideration at all what he wants."
"I think I would know if Shunsui's biological clock was ticking," Nanao said equally as coldly. She hated having conversations like this in the office more than just about anything. "As he hasn't made that known to me, I'm going to continue to assume that he's happy with the way things are."
"You won't even marry him," his mother argued, leaping to her feet and starting to pace. "What signal is that supposed to send other than you're holding out in case something better comes along?"
"That is absolutely not the reason!" Nanao replied standing up as well. The Kyourakus really could get her agitated unlike anyone else. "I just don't need a legal document to tell me whether or not I'm faithful to someone. There is no hurry, and Shunsui agreed."
"Has he asked you to marry him?" his mother inquired.
"You know he has," Nanao replied stiffly.
"Well, then that would imply that he does want to get married, and there is only 'no hurry' as you put it, because you turned him down," his mother said frostily. "In which case, my son is yet again bending to your every whim while getting nothing in return."
"And he's said that to you? That he's upset about it?" Nanao asked coldly.
"He didn't have to. I'm his mother, and besides that, what man is ever pleased when their proposal gets shot down?" she said scornfully.
"I didn't turn him down, I just told him to wait," Nanao defended.
"Yes, wait. Wait for you to be in the right mood, wait for your career to be in a good place, wait until you don't feel insecure, wait until the moon turns purple," his mother ranted. "Wait until what? Wait until everything is perfect? I've got news for you, the time is never going to be perfect, sometimes you just have to do things now."
"Well, if you think I'm such an awful demanding person, I really can't imagine why you'd even like me to say yes in the first place," Nanao said, sitting back down and trying to regain her inner calm.
"Because he wants you to say yes, obviously, and despite what you may think I do want to see my boys happy," she replied.
"This is between me and Shunsui," Nanao said quietly. "No one else."
"Silly child," his mother chastised saccharinely. "With noble families that's never true, and despite what Shunsui might say or do, he is a noble and can't shake all of the responsibilities that goes along with being one. Not even for a pretty little girl. He'll always have a collar he can't remove. I would think you'd understand that best of all, or at least as much as a commoner can understand it that is."
Nanao felt that comment hit her in the stomach. Of course, his mother would have looked into who she was and discovered her 'family' history. It still didn't make the comment surprise or hurt her any less. "Well, I doubt Shunsui is impotent just yet, so we have plenty of time to protect your precious lineage," Nanao snapped. "The Kyouraku name shall not end with him, I'm sure."
"Sarcasm is unbecoming on a lady," his mother replied coldly. "You don't have any idea what you're talking about."
"Oh yes, I know. How could a simple Rukongai brat have any even limited understanding of the vast and magnificent ways in which nobles work?" she asked sarcastically. She really hadn't meant to get so offended, but the woman's earlier remarks had stung, and it wasn't as if Nanao had chosen to grow up the way she had. To imply that she wasn't good enough for Shunsui because of it, just rubbed her all sorts of the wrong way.
"You're going to get him killed," his mother said, and it was only the quite conviction in her tone and the sudden change of approach that left Nanao speechless.
"Mommy-chan, I didn't know you were coming," Shunsui exclaimed bursting through the door. He looked as laid back as ever, but Nanao saw his eyes scan both women and assess the situation rapidly.
"I only stopped by for tea," she replied stiffly.
"It does look like you both enjoyed it," he said easily, glancing at Nanao's one abandoned teacup from earlier this morning.
"It was enlightening," his mother said. "Well, I do have things to do. Both of you must come by after your cousin's recital next week." She gave a quick nod to Nanao and kissed her son on the cheek before moving regally out of the room.
"Nanao-chan?" he asked as they felt his mother's reiatsu make it to the front door.
"I'm fine," she lied instantly.
"Ise-fukutaicho?" came a timid voice of one of the secretaries. "Are you alright? We sent one of the girls to get Taicho the second she came in, but it sounded like we weren't fast enough."
Kami, even her squad thought she was pathetic. "I'm completely fine, and in the future getting Kyouraku Taicho is unnecessary. I should think I could handle one woman on my own," she said calmly.
The secretary looked uncertain, but then nodded and shut the door behind her. She heard whispering voices out front and sighed, leaning her head back in her chair. People had adjusted quickly to her and Shunsui being together, but it didn't mean it made their relationship any less of a public topic, especially amongst the 8th.
"What happened?" he asked, coming to sit on the corner of her desk.
She quickly batted him away and pulled the now crumpled paperwork out from beneath him. "The usual," she said with a shrug. "She thought my faked headache meant I was pregnant and got rather agitated when she found out I wasn't."
"Then why are you this upset?" he asked, watching her closely.
"I'm not anymore upset than usual," she replied, getting up to file some paperwork.
"Liar," he said, catching her around the waist.
"Look, we're at work," she said, and he made a face knowing what was coming next. "I know you don't think it's important, but I do. Work and our personal lives are separate."
"You're clearly not happy," he argued, as she tried fruitlessly to wiggle away from him. "Why be like this for the next few hours when we can just settle whatever it is now?"
"Because we're not getting paid to settle our personal problems," she answered smartly, finally escaping from him.
"Then we do have a problem?"
"I won't do this here," she reiterated. "The Soutaicho allowed me to keep this position on the assumption that we could continue to operate regardless of our relationship."
"One afternoon will hardly hurt," he offered.
"One afternoon will turn into one day, which will turn into one week, which will turn into us just dating all the time and never functioning as a Taicho and fukutaicho," she said.
"I'm ok with that," he replied grinning.
"I'm not," she answered seriously. "And if we can't handle it then I need to transfer."
"Yare, yare, Nanao-chan," he said, scratching the back of his head. "You win, but we're leaving at five."
"Well, then there is a pile of paperwork on your desk I could use help with," she said.
"Joy," he answered. "So far I consider waking up today a total waste."
The next few hours were full of stilted silence and paperwork. Kyouraku surprised her by dropping his stack on her desk an hour early, filled out properly no less. Then he plopped down on the couch and proceeded to take a nap. At least it seemed that way, until Nanao felt a hand on her shoulder and realized that he'd gotten up at exactly five o'clock.
"Work day is over, Nanao-chan," he said smiling.
"I have one more," she started.
"Nope, a deal's a deal," he said. "Don't make me throw you over my shoulder and walk out."
"Fine," she grumbled putting everything in its appropriate spot. "But I'm coming in a half hour early tomorrow."
"Workaholic," he teased as they walked past the front office where all the secretaries were slowly packing up and chatting.
"Someone has to be," she commented with a sniff. They reached the gates of the 8th, and she shunpoed back to her apartment, confident that he would follow easily. She unlocked the door and let him follow her in, taking a brief reprieve from the tension to say hello to her cat, Boo. They'd gone straight to Shunsui's from his family's, and she hadn't gotten to see the little furball all weekend. The cat meowed and purred as it wound through her legs and snuggled in her arms when she scooped him up.
"How's my little Boo bear?" she asked in a baby voice, nuzzling the cat up to her face. He answered with a meow and she couldn't help but giggle. "Mommy missed you too."
"This is sick," Shunsui said, sulking in a corner by the door. Boo seemed to take notice of him for the first time and growled over in his direction.
"You just ignore that mean old man," she comforted grinning. "He's just jealous. Isn't that right? Yes, it is. Yes, it is, little one." She scratched up the cat's neck and he purred appreciatively.
"I read an article the other day in the news that said women who are overly affectionate with their pets are just trying to fill a void due to lack of children," he pouted. "If we have children, can we get rid of the cat?"
That stopped all of her teasing, as she remembered the original reason they were out of work so early in the first place. She sighed and put Boo down moving towards the living room.
"Nanao, seriously what did my mother say?" he asked, catching the shift in mood.
"Are you angry at me because I said no to marrying you?" she asked turning to face him.
"What? No, Nanao," he started, but she cut him off.
"Don't answer so quickly. Are you honestly not mad at all that I turned you down?"
He paused and put the thought into his answer that she had requested. "Nanao-chan, I obviously want you to marry me, or I wouldn't have asked, but I'm not angry about it. Maybe a little disappointed, but then again to some extent I didn't expect you to say yes. I figured it'd be like everything else, where I had to wear you down into submission."
"It's not funny," she said grumpily. "I don't want you secretly hating me or thinking that I don't want to be with you because I said no."
"If this is what this is all about, then you're being ridiculous," he said grinning. "I don't hate you in the slightest, and you've never been quiet about voicing your opinions. I'd like to believe that if you ever did want to leave me, you'd just say so instead of just refusing to marry me and waiting in the hopes that I'll get frustrated and move on. If you'd like to demonstrate your dedication though, I'd be game." He tugged her into an unwilling hug and chuckled. "You really shouldn't let my mother get to you."
"It's not normal," she said, pushing back from him gently. "How obsessed she is with it all." She saw an unidentifiable emotion flicker across his features and she didn't like it one bit. She pressed further, "She said you had certain responsibilities, and basically told me that by putting you off I could be costing you your life."
"She's always overdramatic," he said with a sigh, but he pulled away from her too.
"Shunsui, what did she mean?" she asked seriously.
"It's a long story," he answered gloomily.
"Since when have you ever not enjoyed telling long stories?" she asked.
"Nanao-chan, I'm happy the way things are. Just ignore my mother," he said.
"If it's possible that you could get hurt, then I want to know about it," Nanao replied sternly.
"I'm not going to get hurt. It isn't a big deal."
"Perfect, then it shouldn't be a problem telling me. We can have a good laugh over it, and then we can go out to dinner somewhere," she said.
"Sit on my lap while I tell it?" he asked hopefully.
"Well it can't be too serious, if you're still being an idiot," she said rolling her eyes. "And no way."
"Nanao-chan," he pouted.
"Last time that happened we never got through the conversation," Nanao said feeling a faint blush rise to her cheeks.
"That just proves the discussion wasn't that important in the first place," he said with a grin.
"I'm sitting over here," Nanao said moving to a chair. Boo instantly leapt up to claim ownership of her lap and glared out over at Kyouraku. "And you are going to explain to me why your mother is so insane."
"I thought I only had to tell one story," he whined.
"Shunsui," she said dryly.
"Fine, although you aren't going to like it," he said.
"Couldn't be worse than having a sex slave trader as a father," she pointed out calmly.
"Once upon a time," he started.
"Shunsui."
"What? I can start my story however I want. Now, do try not to interrupt," he said with a wink.
*~*~*~*~*~*
He glanced at the small woman sitting primly across from him and wondered again if he had really exhausted all of his distraction techniques. He'd honestly not been looking forward to this eventual conversation. The cat in her lap twitched its tail almost impatiently and he smirked at it.
"Shunsui?" she prompted quietly.
"Have you ever thought about how noble families become noble?" he asked.
"You mean besides having more strength and monetary funds than the common person?" she asked raising an eyebrow. "Most of them were just the most powerful warlords that swore fealty to the king back in the day."
"And why some nobles are higher ranking than others?" he added.
"I assumed that was again based on money and power," she said frowning.
"To a large extent that's true," he said, "but you're also forgetting politics. Winning the Imperial family's favor leads to money and power. This doesn't have as much effect anymore as the royal family has mostly cloistered themselves off in their own dimension, but it wasn't always like that."
"It's been like that for thousands of years," Nanao said shaking her head. "I don't understand where this is going."
"Now who needs a lecture on patience?" he scolded jokingly. He knew he was probably driving her nuts. Nanao liked simple straightforward answers, and he preferred the long intricate ones.
"Right, being quiet," she said.
"Many of the noble families of today are distant blood relations of the royal family," Shunsui said with a shrug. "The Kuchikis, for example, are the result of a marriage between one of the younger sisters of the King long long ago."
"And the Kyourakus?" Nanao asked catching on.
"We're officially not related to the royals in any capacity," he said. "But technically, and off the record, we're the bastard children of one of the old Kings."
"And no one knows this?" Nanao asked surprised.
"Well, it's more like an open secret. Everyone pretty much knew about it at the time too, as far as our history tells it," he said with a shrug. It was pretty common knowledge that the King was sleeping with my great, great, great, great, you get the idea, grandmother."
"Why wasn't she made a concubine? Most of the Kings have had multiple wives," Nanao said logically.
"He probably would have, had it not been for the fact that she was already married to one of his greatest supporters and powerful fighters," Shunsui explained. "So everybody knew, but nobody talked about it, at least not to their faces. And when my great, great, great,"
"Just say great once, I get the point," she said rolling her eyes.
"When my great grandmother started having children, even though her husband hadn't been able to produce offspring with the two wives he'd had before her, or with her in the first years of their marriage," Shunsui continued. "Nobody pointed out the obvious. Well, at least not in polite conversation."
"So man whoring runs in your family," she commented with a snort.
"Hey! One of Kyouraku's wives died young of a fever and the other fell off a horse and broke her neck," Shunsui defended. "Plus he isn't technically related to me at all. As for the King, like you said, he was legally and morally allowed to have as many wives as he wanted so long as they weren't married to anyone else. He was just following social custom. Most nobles at the time had more than one wife and concubines. And why does my great grandmother get off the hook for sleeping around just because she's a woman?"
"She doesn't, I'm sorry, continue," Nanao said contritely.
"Anyway, the Kyouraku family had already been noble, but suddenly they were the royal family's best friends," Shunsui said.
"But not officially," Nanao put in. "So I'm presuming you aren't in line for the throne, and your mother isn't worried about conspiracies of having a child to be next in line for the crown in case all of the royal family dies off in some freak accident."
"Officially speaking, our family has less right to the crown than even the Kuchikis," Shunsui agreed. "The problem arises from the fact that the King wanted to insure the future of his children by his lover. The first son was all well and good, as he would inherit the position of head of the Kyouraku house, and as I said, the King had worked very diligently to make that title a great honor indeed. The two daughters were also not issues as they could be married off to some of the King's official sons from his harem."
Nanao made a face at that, and he laughed. "You know how the nobles like to keep their bloodlines pure. Inbreeding wasn't such a big thing back then. Even now a lot of the nobles marry second cousins and such. You kind of can't help it, if you won't marry commoners. Anyway, the problem was the younger son. While he'd still be well off, simply by being a Kyouraku, he'd have no particular claim to status on his own. So the King decided to give him a great honor that would pass down through the ages."
"Oh, this can't be going anywhere good," Nanao commented, while she absently rubbed along her cat's back. He did like the animal in one respect. It made it much easier to tell when she was agitated, as she'd taken to comforting the animal when she herself was the one in need of comfort.
"There was a weapon of great importance," he continued hoping to get this over with quickly. "In order to protect it, the King locked it in another dimensional bubble. Of course there had to be a way to retrieve it if the King ever needed it, so he had a dimensional doorway and key created."
"Which he gave to the youngest son," Nanao filled in.
"Kind of," Shunsui said with a sigh. "The doorway was given to the son, but the son himself became the key."
"What?"
"Something that can never be stolen," Shunsui explained. "An honor that can never be removed. They infused the key in his blood itself, to be passed down youngest son to youngest son."
"Ok," Nanao said as he paused, obviously mulling the story over. "But then it shouldn't have anything to do with you. You're from the direct Kyouraku line. You'd be an ancestor of the older son."
"The older son died, and the younger one took over as head of the family," Shunsui said looking tired.
"Still, if it passes to the youngest son of each generation as you implied, it would still be safe to assume that somewhere along the way it would pass out of the direct line," Nanao pointed out.
"Well, the direct Kyouraku decedents from the original youngest son have had a bad go of sons," Shunsui explained with a shrug. "If you follow our family tree back, you'll see that while we have lots of daughters, we're rather scarce on the sons. There's always only been one, or if there were two, one always died before procreating. It's a bit of a joke within the family, the youngest son curse and all. Seichii and I are the first of two sons to make it fully into maturity together. Some of our extended relatives are just waiting for one of us to pop out a kid to see if the other one will die off."
"But if the youngest son dies doesn't the key go with him?" Nanao asked. "So again, this should have been over a long time ago."
"Whatever magic they used, it works to tie the key to whoever the youngest son in the family may be," Shunsui said shaking his head. "If I got killed, then Seichii's blood would become the key, and his youngest son after him. If Seichii and I never have sons, then yes, the key would cease to exist, but I believe the King never even took that into consideration, as the first duty of a son of a noble house is to produce heirs and continue the bloodline. Any nobleman worth anything wouldn't let some mysterious danger hanging over his head stop him from producing sons. In fact, the King may have simply believed that if one of the sons didn't produce any male heirs, then the family was simply not worthy of having the key at all, and it was fair for the honor to be removed. Given that would have restricted his own access to the weapon, so who knows for sure what the King was thinking."
"Your mother believes this youngest son curse?" Nanao asked shocked. "That you'll literally die if you don't have a kid first? And what about Seichii then? She doesn't care if he dies?"
"There's no such thing as a curse, silly Nanao-chan," he scolded teasingly. "We don't live in a fairy tale."
"If this was all some big made up story," she threatened glaring at him.
"It's not made up," he reassured. "It's just that my mother isn't worried about the curse, she's worried about the key part. As it is, currently my blood is the key to opening the door."
"And?" she asked.
"Were it well known that my blood could open the gate to a powerful weapon there would more than likely be some competition for it. As I'd have to be careful not to bleed, defending myself would be a risk."
"So she'd rather put a defenseless baby at risk?" Nanao asked surprised. "And what if the baby was a girl? That wouldn't do any good at all."
"The baby wouldn't be at risk because the assumption would be that the father would defend it. As my blood would no longer be the key, I'd be free to do so. It's how my family has always functioned," Shunsui said patiently. "And I believe she wants us to start sooner rather than later for the express purpose that we usually do produce females. The more babies we have, and the faster we have them, the sooner we get a boy."
"So she's been terrified your entire life that someone would try to take you and use you to open the gate? How much blood does this thing need?" she asked.
"It takes a significant portion of blood to make it uncomfortable, but not deadly, at least not for an adult," Shunsui replied. "The real problem is that the blood donor has to go through to the other dimension too."
"Well, why doesn't someone just do that then?" Nanao demanded. "Go in, get the stupid thing, and either give it back to the King or destroy it."
"Some have tried," Shunsui said shrugging, "It's what's helped contribute to the youngest son curse. We don't know what's on the other side, just that no one comes back once they get over there."
"Wait," she said looking frustrated. "By, you don't know what's on the other side, does that include the weapon?"
"Seems to have gotten lost over time what exactly it was," Shunsui admitted shrugging.
"Ok, so not only is it getting people killed, but we have no idea if it's actually worth the cost. This doesn't seem like much of an honor," she said harshly.
"Yes well, path to hell is paved with good intentions and all that," Shunsui commented.
"So your whole family has always been baby crazy then?" she asked as Boo got tired of her attentions and jumped down out of her lap.
"Nope, that's pretty recent," he said. "See the other problem with the whole inbreeding thing is the deterioration of the family genes and reiatsu levels. You know my father is basically reiatsu-less. It's the main reason the marriage was arranged between him and my mother. While she was a lower ranking noble, she had reiatsu to spare. It's one of the main reasons my family hasn't been more vocal in their disapproval of my dating you. The family needs the fresh blood."
"Why do I suddenly feel like a brood mare?" she asked crossing her arms.
"As far as my family is concerned, that is what you are," he replied bluntly. "Obviously I don't share their feelings."
"But that still doesn't explain why your mother is so obsessed about getting a grandson right this instant," she said confused.
"Like I said, my father has little to no reiatsu. He can't protect me even if he had any inclination to. It was fine while my grandfather was still alive, but she started to get antsy as the years wore on," he explained.
"But if something happened, the whole Gotei 13 would be behind you, not to mention Jyuushiro and myself," she said looking more upset than ever.
"My family trusts family, and family alone," he said. "That's the way it's always been."
"How come I've never heard of any of this before?"
"Because its been purposefully suppressed for obvious safety reasons. Yama-jii was very helpful in ridding the Seireitei library of any books with reference to it," Shunsui said, waiting for the horrified look he knew was coming.
"He destroyed books?" she asked appalled.
"More like relocated them to his personal library," he soothed.
"And none of this concerns you, like it does your mother?" she asked quietly.
"Like you said, Nanao-chan, I'm not worried about people being there to back me up if I'm unable to fight," he said. "Beyond that, one of the most prolific readers and researchers I know had apparently no knowledge of it, so I'm not entirely concerned that anyone else will figure it out."
She gave a pretty blush at his sideways compliment and he grinned at her. "Still your mother has a point."
"You want to marry me and get pregnant Nanao-chan?"
"No, I mean I don't know, kami, Shunsui," she said looking confused.
He got up and moved over to her, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "Nanao-chan, don't worry about it. I'm perfectly safe. I have been for all these years. It's not going to suddenly change now. My mother is just being a mother. She's always going to worry about her sons. Now can we stop talking about this?"
"There must be something we can do though," she argued. "If you and I went through the gate?"
"Absolutely not," he said firmly. "We don't know what's on the other side and it doesn't matter as no one knows it even exists anymore. So you and I can just ignore that it exists and go on the way we always have."
"But Shunsui," she said, and he kissed her to shut her up. "You should know by now that distraction works better on you than me," she commented when he moved back.
"It's been known to work on you too," he smirked. "Look, Nanao-chan, I know you don't like letting anything go, but really this time you should. It's only an issue for my mother. The rest of us sane and functioning human beings get to ignore it and go on with life. So unless you're ready to have a baby, just forget about it."
"I'm not ready to be a mom," she said shaking her head.
"Wonderful, as long as we get to keep practicing, I have no complaints," he said, kneeling down in front of her and tugging her to the edge of her chair.
"You really do take everything too lightly," she chastised.
"I take some things very, very seriously," he countered, moving forward to kiss her throat. She let her head fall back to give him access and he smiled into her skin.
"So how inbred are you exactly?" she asked suddenly.
He laughed and pulled away from her, realizing she just wasn't going to focus on what was obviously, at least to him, more important in this situation. "You want my whole family tree?"
"I'm just saying, I think I should know what I'm marrying into," she said.
"Marrying into?" he asked quirking an eyebrow at her.
"Well, it will obviously probably happen eventually," she said flushing all over again.
"You make me very happy," he commented, watching the blush darken at his words.
"I'm hungry, what do you want for dinner?" she asked, standing up abruptly.
"Is my Nanao-chan embarrassed?" he cooed.
"You're an idiot," she said, marching primly into the kitchen.
"I think she is," he sang out behind her as he followed. "All because she wants to hug me, and she wants to kiss me, and she wants to marry me, and she wants to have my babies."
She kissed him and he lost his train of thought.
"See, I told you that works better on you," she said smirking.
A/N: This was going to be two chapters, but as it really is taking me about a week to update I figured I'd make it a bit longer when I had the time. So now we have a bit more of an explanation on Shunsui's family history and his mother's wackiness.
As for all those reviewers worried about Jyuushiro's relationship status… so far I don't have plans to match him up with anyone, but we'll see how it goes. The reviews seem split on whether they want me to or not anyway, haha.
As always please review, and tell me what you think! It's what keeps me interested in my own stories, because it's boring to write for just yourself :)