I do not own Bleach.

Nanao slowly opened her eyes and looked around her. Both the Soutaichou and the scientist seemed to be looking at her with a bit of worry.

"Is everything alright. Ise-san?" Urahara examined the girl curiously. She had been standing perfectly still for at least an hour.

Nanao stretched a bit as she slid her zanpakutou back into it's sheath. "Everything is just fine. Shiroga here is a sweet child. Not harmful at all."

"Good to see you have control over your zanpakutou. Ise-Fukutaichou. You were greatly missed in your absence." Yamamoto noticed the woman was a bit surprised by what he was doing. "You should change back into your uniform before you return to 8th squad." He watched as she walked towards them and took the uniform Sasakibe held out for her. "Do not go off like that again. It was something I would expect Shunsui to do, not his very professional Fukutaichou." Yamamoto hoped neither of them would vanish again. It was trouble for him either way.

"Sorry for the trouble, Yamamoto-Soutaichou." Nanao bowed as she left the room. She clutched the uniform in her arms tightly. 'I'm back.'

She went into the first bathroom she came across and changed. It felt good to be in a less revealing outfit. Since all she had left of her Eapada uniform were her shorts and boots. She slid her zanpakutou into her sleeve, it's normal spot, and tied her Espada uniform into a tight bundle. She would keep it, and remember what she once was. 'Maybe I could go back to Los Noches and pick up a full one. I can always alter it.' The last touch was pinning her hair back up, now she was ready to return.

She walked back to 8th with a smile on her face, she was going home. She took a deep breath as she walked through the gate. She had heard chatter as she walked on the outside of the wall, but it was now deadly silent. She looked around curiously, everyone was looking at her. She stopped in the middle of the courtyard and placed a hand on her hip. "If you all have time to stand about, maybe you can help me with the paperwork."

She saw a few people cringe at her words, then they all burst into loud cheering. "BOSS IS BACK! WE MISSED YOU BOSS!" Nanao easily avoided as people rushed at her and tried to hug her. But there was one set of arms that she couldn't avoid.

"Welcome back, Nanao-chan." Nanao looked down at whose shoulder she was now sitting on. She blushed as she instantly recognized the pink kimono and sakkat. "The squad has been worried about you." Shunsui smiled as he kept an arm on Nanao's legs to keep her in place.

"Taichou! What are you doing?! Your still injured! Put me down!" Nanao didn't struggle, she just yelled at him. She didn't want to injure him further by moving about on his injured shoulder. She frowned as Shunsui seemed to ignore her request and just smile at her. "At least tell me there isn't an office full of paper waiting for me."

"There isn't an office full of paper waiting for you." Shunsui nearly laughed at the look of disbelief on Nanao's face. "Shall I show you?" Shunsui took her off of his shoulder as she nodded. He kept a hand on her waist as they walked towards their office. He grinned the whole way there, Nanao didn't try to remove his hand from her waist.

Nanao was completely stunned when they reached the office. True to his word, there wasn't a scrap of paper on her desk or his. She walked to her desk and smiled as she noticed her Fukutaichou badge sitting on it. "It's been waiting for you to get back." Nanao turned back to Shunsui as she ran her fingers over it. She slid it back onto its rightful place on her arm. "And now, the finishing touch."

Nanao looked back at him as he slid a pair of glasses onto her face. "What are you doing?" She took the glasses off of her face, but Shunsui just slid them back on.

"Putting things right. They may only have been to keep everyone from knowing you were a Hollow, but they became a part of you." Nanao just looked at him as he spoke. "You may say that I didn't really know you, but I think I did. You love to read books and you never skip a page, even if it is boring. You always eat the fruit off of your dessert first. And you can fight with your zanpakutou in either hand, although you do seem to favour your left hand. Despite the fact that you say you are right handed." Shunsui didn't bother holding back the chuckle that bubbled in his chest. He seems to have surprised his Nanao-chan again.

Nanao pushed her glasses up her nose. "So you do pay attention. Do you fool everyone by playing the drunken fool? Because I doubt everyone knows much about you. I don't think they know how much you love philosophy, art and history. And that you have a great love of cooking. And that you sign all of your forms with your non-dominant hand on purpose. Despite being ambidextrous and all. Though you do favour your right hand more." Nanao fixed her glasses again as she finished. She leaned on her desk and smiled at Shunsui's surprised face. "You give quite a bit away, Shunsui."

Nanao expected him to pick her up and spin with her, but he didn't. He just smiled at her and pulled his hat down over his eyes. "It seems we both like to hide things in shadows. And when you are in a shadow, you can see into other shadows." Nanao was worried she had said too much. "You should take the rest of the day off. You deserve it." Shunsui turned to leave the office and let Nanao relax the rest of the day.

"Shunsui wait." Nanao pushed herself off of her desk. She had expected him to keep going, but he had stopped. "Did you get my package?"

Shunsui had a hand on the open office door. He looked back out of the corner of his eye. "Yes I did. But I don't know what to do with."

Nanao wasn't too surprised by that. It had been decades since she had made up that package. "Is your memory recorder still on the shelf?" Nanao looked on the shelf to try and find it, but it had been years since she had seen it.

Shunsui walked back into the office and shut the door. "Memory recorder? You mean that crystal ball thing you gave me one Christmas?"

"Yes. Do you know where it went?" Nanao took a few steps back as she looked for it on higher shelves. She spotted it, but knew it was too high up for her to reach it.

Shunsui walked over to the shelf and grabbed the ball. "So those were recorder chip?" Shunsui passed Nanao the recorder and followed her to the couches.

Nanao saw that the box of chips were on the coffee table. She set the recorder down beside the box and opened the lid. Nanao sat down on the couch and watched as Shunsui sat down beside her. "Pick one."

Shunsui looked at all of the black chips in the box. "How many are there?" He picked up the first one in the box and the recorder. He slid the chip into the bottom of the base of the recorder, then set it back down.

"A dozen or so. I have actually forgotten which memories I recorded." Nanao wasn't even sure which one Shunsui had chosen. She sat back and waited for the memory to start as the machine turned on.

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