I think we know how this works. I don't claim anything of Bleach but that is rocks, and I like to borrow things. Mildly klepto, I'll put them back where they were, I promise.
Theme 10: and we all age
Were but the heart so fickle as the time.
The seasons change, but they aren't anything but the mark of time passing. They have no purpose, only changing the screen behind which we hide our naked hearts, dressing them colored silk to match meaningless attitudes. Spring is only for flowers, there is no need to plant, to tear up the soil and create something for the future. Only a few here need such sustenance, and fewer still have the promise of a future, a destination that will change as they choose the paths they walk. Summers are nothing but heat that can not really kill; they waste away, blurs of distorted air and doing nothing at all. Autumn brings cool breezes and falling leaves, and the sense of something that has gone unfulfilled. Winter chills bite in mocking jest, blunt teeth and sheathed claws, breathing icy patterns into the air.
Perhaps it was the fault of the time that refused to pass. There is only so long you can live through so many seasons before realizing you are walking in circles, not advancing on a spiraling ascent.
No older really, and no wiser. Otherwise she wouldn't be contemplating the gentle caress of spring scented zephyrs and becoming depressed. She wouldn't be wondering what it would be like to be alive again, to be able to do things that might not occur tomorrow. She wouldn't be wondering if Kyoraku-taichou ever got tired of being who he was. He'd been that way as long as she could remember, as long as anyone could remember, and surely it must take a great deal of effort, something rarely ascribed to him.
We live on time neither borrowed nor our own, but it is all we have. And we all age, changing from day to day, like the seasons that only progress but do not mature. Springs do not change what we reap in the fall; winters do not make us appreciate summers. But I supposed at least a few things must change with time, even time as stagnant as ours.
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"Nanao-chan, you're not listening to me! Are you thinking naughty thoughts?"
"Kyoraku-taichou only said I must not become bogged down by the ever constant work, not that I should listen to him after he went through all the trouble of removing my books, desk, inkset and assignments." She kept her eyes firmly fixed on the view beyond the window. She would never have imagined she would be so tart to any captain, once. She would never have imagined any captain being so brazen either, though.
"Nanao is so cruel to me!" The whine was not as grating as it had been.
"Would you take another lieutenant?" They both knew the answer to that.
"Now you're being cruel and malicious. As if I would ever surrender my quest to win your heart. I shall carry on my lonesome ordeals, knowing that the pains and labors will be mere nothings after…"
She stopped paying attention, his voice becoming a distantly pleasant murmur. At least some people don't change. It makes it easier to change oneself for them.