Nanao dropped into a roll as his long sword swept down into the space she'd just been occupying and, regaining her footing, caught the edge of his short sword on her own blade. She hated sword fighting. He modified his style to work with hers, but she always got her ass handed to her when he didn't allow the use of kido. Luckily those instances had been rare over the past six years that they had been training together. She disengaged to dodge his long sword again and backed up.
"Come at me," Kyouraku commanded.
"Why? It's pointless."
"Use your advantages."
"What advantages?" she asked sourly backing up across the secluded field.
"Speed and size, come on, slip past my defenses."
"You're faster than me, you ass," she griped. They'd had a fight the other night, and she was sure he was punishing her for it indirectly.
"Never get any better if you don't try," he commented with a shrug.
She lunged forward using her fastest shunpo to come at him with quick strikes and retreats trying to find an opening. The fight the other night was his stupid fault anyway. They'd been at a birthday party for the Soutaicho, which had consisted of familiar faces from the Seireitei and some minor nobility from outside of it. She'd met a perfectly nice man who she hadn't been totally averse to going to bed with if things had happened to go that direction, but she hadn't been aware at the time that the man and her Taicho despised each other. Apparently it was some old childhood feud, but Kyouraku had had no qualms about demanding that she stay away from the man when he'd managed to get her alone. She'd not taken that very well and stormed off to continue her conversation. He'd taken that equally as badly and proceeded to get wasted to the point that she wound up having to take him home. The resulting fight they'd had the next morning had left them not speaking for the rest of the weekend and, she was convinced, to this particularly brutal training session.
She missed a step and his short sword left a deep gash in her left thigh. Blood started gushing out and Nanao nearly missed stopping his next swing.
"Focus," he chided.
Screw it, she thought, fed up with sword fighting and hammered off a litany of kido spells at him. The onslaught sent him slamming back to the ground and tumbling a few meters before a tree stopped his progress. It was the wrong move. He came flying back across the field at her, leaving her desperately trying to fend off his kido attacks as well as his sword. She quickly found herself on the ground with the tip of his long sword pressed firmly against her throat.
"That was dirty, Nanao-chan," he said neutrally.
"It's not like you wanted a fair fight," she said glaring up at him. "I can't beat you with swords, and that wasn't training, that was punishment."
"You're bleeding out," he commented moving to re-sheath his swords.
"You aren't even going to deny it then?" She moved to sit up and ignored her bleeding leg.
"What could I possibly be punishing you for?"
"I don't know," she growled. "Daring to disagree with you?"
"You disagree with me constantly," he countered.
"Then maybe showing interest in a male other than yourself?"
"You aren't my property," he said with a shrug and watched her passively as she struggled to her feet.
"Then you tell me what you're pissed about."
"I told you that man was bad news, and you completely disregarded it," he said simply.
"I knew it!" she crowed. "Just admit that you were pissed that I disagreed with you, and thought he was nice, and wouldn't have minded sleeping with him."
"You're missing the point entirely." He started walking away, his whole body rigid with anger.
"How's that?" she demanded limping after him.
"I could care less if you disagree with me and I have never intervened with your dalliances." She snorted at his turn of phrase. She had by far less "dalliances" than he did. "What I don't like is that you didn't trust me enough to walk away. That man is bad news. Sure he seems nice on the surface, but he's a snake in the grass, and you should know me well enough to know that I wouldn't ask you to stay away for anything less."
"Kyouraku Taicho," she said in surprise.
"I have never given you a reason not to trust me at my word," he finished sharply. He continued his long strides across the field and away from her.
"I didn't," she started and nearly lost her footing. She lunged at him and caught his arm preventing herself from falling completely. "Would you stop?"
He stilled but didn't turn to face her. "I'm sorry," she said simply. "I wasn't thinking of it that way. It's not that I don't trust you. I just thought you were being possessive. You are aware that your flirtation with me has scared off nearly every man in the Seireitei, aren't you? I thought perhaps this was an extension of that. If I'd thought for a second it was anything else I would have walked away."
"I've never stopped you from your relationships."
"I wouldn't call what I've had relationships," Nanao said flippantly and at his withering look backtracked. "Look, you've been a little over the top lately with the flirting and I just thought this was the next step up in protectiveness."
"It's just a joke," he said crossly. "I wouldn't even flirt if it didn't rile you up so badly. I've never in my long life met a woman who reacts so terribly to a compliment. I only wanted you to stay away from that man because he dated my cousin a long time ago and beat her horribly. She covered it up and said she fell, but I know it was him."
"Kyouraku Taicho," Nanao sighed. "I appreciate the thought, but if he'd tried to hurt me he would have gotten a nasty surprise. We haven't been training all these years for nothing."
"I know that," he growled frustrated. "Again it wasn't about him being able to hurt you or not, it was about him being a disgusting excuse for a human that you shouldn't even waste breath on."
"Why didn't you just tell me what he did instead of just saying a vague he's a 'bad guy' and I should stay away?"
"I didn't think I had to," he said pulling away from her hold. She stumbled and nearly fell before righting herself. "I thought you would just trust me, considering I've never butted in or lied before."
"Taicho," Nanao started and sighed. "I'm sorry, ok? But you have to admit you could have handled that better too."
His shoulders slumped and she waited in silence to see if the apology would be enough. "You trust me on the field, Nanao-chan, but you're never going to trust me as a friend, are you?"
"Sir-"
"Stop," he sighed. "That was a good enough answer on its own. Can you make it to the 4th or do you need me to take you?"
"Shunsui-san," she said quietly and he glanced at her over his shoulder. "You are my friend, and I do trust you, but I'm new to this alright? You are going to have to cut me some slack."
"New to what?"
"The friend thing, ok? I've never had anyone I would really call a friend. I have acquaintances, and work friends, and people I would call on to get lunch during the workday or do group activities with, but no one who is invested in my life. No one I could call if I got sick and just needed sympathy and no one who I could just believe because they asked me to with little to no proof to back them up. The closest I ever had to that was Yadomaru-san and she was more mentor than friend. I grew up in the Gotei 13. I grew up at work. Half the time I don't know what the hell you're thinking or feeling or how I'm supposed to react."
"I'm not hard to read, Nanao-chan," he said dryly
"That's bullshit," she argued. "You play like you aren't hard to read, laughing and joking and always so lighthearted, but that isn't everything. That isn't you, and we both know it. So don't you dare ask me to be a friend and trust you blindly if you are only willing to offer up the façade you give to everyone else."
She started limping to a nearby rock and a moment later got scooped up in strong arms and then settled on the boulder gently. Kyouraku didn't say anything, but ripped the pant leg open further and kneeled down to get a better look at the gash he'd created. His hands lit up with kido, and she let her eyes flutter closed when the pain receded as he worked on the injury.
"Sometimes I forget that someone so brilliant at all things technical could be so emotionally stunted," he said, but there was teasing in his tone
"Sometimes I forget that someone so ridiculous can say something he actually means," Nanao snapped back, opening her eyes again and glaring at him.
He looked up from her leg and caught her gaze. His eyes said that all was forgiven and she begrudgingly gave him a small smile. "I'll cut back on the flirting."
"You don't have to. I know it's just you being silly and having a go at me, and it's not like I really want to sleep with people I work with in the Seireitei anyway. Let the idiots be scared off. Besides I don't think you are actually capable of not flirting."
"Still, it can't help your authority," he admitted softly.
"Shunsui-san, I could give a shit less what those morons think. If they want to say I got this job on my knees let them."
"They say that?" he asked disgusted.
"Of course they do," she said with a shrug. She'd been dealing with it for years now. "But if they ever want to follow their words up with actions I'll show them exactly how I got my job. Let them talk."
"I don't mean to get in your way."
"So you're obnoxious and occasionally scare potential one night stands off." She lifted a foot to his shoulder and shoved him off balance with a laugh. "I'd rather have you as a friend than find an easy lay any day."
He didn't bother to get off the ground as he smiled up at her. "Come home with me next weekend."
"What?"
"You heard me, come home with me. You can meet my family and get to know me better," he offered. "That way you'll know you can trust me on and off the field."
"Isn't that a bit inappropriate?"
"Not if we're friends. Jyuushiro visits my family with me all the time, and I'm not asking you to go as my Fukutaicho."
"Sir, I'm not good with nobles," Nanao said quietly.
"Good, neither am I," he answered with a laugh.
"Fine, but I'm leaving if you tell them something ridiculous like I'm pregnant with your child."
"Nanao-chan," he said wide-eyed. "What a brilliant idea!"
She threw a half-hearted kido at him and he rolled out of the way. "We should be getting back. There's a pile of paperwork to be done."
"I think I better go check in to see how Jyuu's day is going."
"Don't even think about it," she chastised standing up and testing out her newly healed leg. "If I have to go to your family's this weekend it means I won't be able to get any work done, which means you are helping me this week."
"But Nanao-chan."
"No, I'm changing and then we are going into the office."
"Do I get to be there for the changing part?" he asked quirking an eyebrow.
"You may stand out in the hallway."
"Okay," he agreed happily.
She glared at him and knew he had the full intention of bailing if she left him alone. "Sir, I will hunt you down and burn your hat if you run."
"You'd have to catch me, and I know for a fact you aren't as fast as me."
"Fine, then I'm not going this weekend," she said with a shrug.
"Yare, yare, Nanao-chan is no fun. I'll do the work," he said sounding like the most abused man who had ever walked the face of the earth.
"I am sorry I didn't take you at your word."
"It's fine Nanao-chan, I'm sorry I didn't explain myself better. I'm also sorry I beat you up quite so badly."
"Yeah well if you hadn't cheated by making it swords only, you'd have never gotten that many hits in."
"Big talk," he said with a laugh that made her grin. "Next training session is all kido."
"Get ready to get destroyed," she challenged.
He threw his arm around her waist and she allowed it since no one was around for miles. He was glad she'd at least come to trust him enough to stop flinching away from his touch in private a few years ago. "My sweet Nanao-chan, could never destroy me. If she did who would drink all the sake the division piles up?"
"Idiot," she sniffed. "Last one home buys dinner." She waited for him to start to shunpo, tripped him, and then took off with a smile while he whined about her being cruel behind her. This friendship thing might not be so bad after all.
A/N: You guys are the best. Your reviews make me excited to keep writing and posting. Currently working on another smutty fic and I can't decide if it will ever see the light of day since it's outside of my wheelhouse as I've never done lemons before. Anyway tell me what you think of this chapter, and thank you Megiddo, Lillololly, Neko-Natsu, laughingspider, and liferscove2118 for the feedback and encouragement!