I do not own Bleach.
I will say in advance that I didn't kill myself writing the baby shower, but I feel like I let you know what was going on anyway. I will be going to a Christmas party this weekend and probably won't update until after that. I will howver tell Jushiro Ukitake Happy Birthday early. His b-day is on Dec. 21st and maybe the world won't end on that day. Okay, read and let me know what you think.
At twenty-four weeks (six months), it didn't take Jushiro long to get tired doing anything. This meant walking, standing around for long periods of time, sitting for long periods of time, and his sex life with Shunsui had come to a very slow crawl and they barely had sex at all. Also, it was kind of hard to have sex when the bottom partner needed to pee right in the middle of everything. Jushiro slept most of the time and his paperwork was piling up on his desk.
The thirteenth captain decided he would start on it when Shunsui left for his own squad duties and he had every intention of keeping his word, but unfortunately he dropped his pen on the floor where it promptly rolled underneath the desk. The white haired shinigami did his best to retrieve the pen, but he just couldn't bend very well and he knew if he got down on the floor, he'd never get back up. He finally gives up and makes his way to the bedroom where he flops down onto the futon to take a well needed nap.
When the eighth captain comes over during his lunch break, he notices his lover sound asleep on the futon. He carefully gets onto the futon with him and lays down to whisper in Jushiro's ear, "Finished with your work already, love?"
Jushiro slowly opens his eyes and blinks several times before he's fully awake and able to respond, "Shunsui? What time is it?"
"Lunch time." He smiles as he pushes a piece of white hair behind his lover's ear, "That's why I'm here, but it's funny. When I walked in a saw a huge stack of papers on your desk and I could have sworn you said you were gonna work on them today."
The thirteenth captain lets out an irritated sigh and frowns, "I was going to work on them, but I have a legitimate reason for not doing them."
"Which is?" He gives his friend a curious look awaiting his explanation.
Jushiro sits up and stretches before beginning his story, "I was sitting at my desk and when I picked up my pen, it slipped out of my hand and landed right on the floor. Well, I tried to pick it up, but with this stomach of mine, I just couldn't do it. So I figured the next best thing was to take a nap."
"You mean to tell me that you didn't have another pen lying around here?" He shoots his lover a skeptical look.
He gives the brunet an accusatory look, "I did have another pen, but someone claimed they needed one so many times and took it back to Squad Eight that I ran out and I only had just the one."
"Oh, yeah…sorry." He reaches out and caresses his lover's baby bump to greet his little baby with his reiatsu before speaking again, "Why didn't you call someone to help you pick it up? I bet Kiyone and Sentaro would have given their life to be the one to pick that pen up."
The thirteenth captain's face twists into a look of annoyance at Shunsui's statement, "Not those two, they argue about everything!"
"You're just now realizing that?" He lets out a soft chuckle, "Didn't you notice that when you made them your third seats?"
"I did, but it never bothered me until I got pregnant." He sighs woefully, "Now, I'm ashamed to say that I just want to strangle them both and hide their bodies."
Shunsui leans in and gives Jushiro a soft kiss on the lips before pulling back and smiling, "I see." He stands up and helps his lover off the futon as well, "I'll help you with the paperwork and get you all caught up. I owe you anyway for all those times you helped me with my paperwork."
"But, what about your own work?" He gives the eighth captain a confused look, "Don't you have to go back to your squad after lunch?"
"No." He shakes his head, "Nanao told me to take the rest of the day and spend it with you."
"Oh, that was nice of her." He sits down at his desk as Shunsui retrieve the illusive pen.
He hands the pen to Jushiro and pulls another 'borrowed' pen from his kimono, "Yeah, but I think she was just trying to get rid of me to be able to plan the baby shower without me being in the way." He sits down beside Jushiro and continues talking, "You know that the shower is tomorrow, right?"
"What time?" He begins writing on one of the pages as he and Shunsui converse.
The bearded shinigami thinks for a moment trying to remember when his lieutenant told them to be there, "Eleven."
"In the morning?!" A look of panic fills his features at Shunsui's words.
The brunet looks up from his own paper with an odd expression on his face, "Yeah, who ever heard of having a baby shower at eleven p.m.?"
"That's so early! You know I'm slow nowadays and I'm so sore in the morning and the baby kicks all night!" He has a pouty expression on his face to go along with his whining voice as he tries to make Shunsui feel sorry for him.
The eighth captain shakes his head in astonishment, "I can't believe you, Ju. The SWA have been working on this shower for weeks and they are so excited about it. You should be happy that our fellow shinigami care enough about us to throw us this shower, but no…you're complaining." He shakes his head again and gives Jushiro a reprimanding look, "You should be ashamed of yourself."
"But…" The expression remains on Shunsui's face and the white haired man lets out a sigh, "Fine, I'll go and I'm glad they want to do this for us, but I'll be slow about it and if I'm late they'll get over it." Shunsui chuckles at his lover's line of reasoning and begins filling out the paperwork on Jushiro's desk.
The next morning, Shunsui is awake and preparing breakfast waiting for his grumpy lover to wake up and stumble into the room, but after Shunsui finishes breakfast and sets it out on a plate, Jushiro still isn't awake. He lets out a sigh and enters the bedroom to see the thirteenth captain sleeping soundly on the futon and snoring slightly. He hated to wake up his friend because he knew it had taken Jushiro several hours to get to sleep, but he was not going to let him miss the shower.
He walks over to the futon and pulls the cover away from his lover's body and watches Jushiro curl his body up as best he can from the draft at the loss of cover, "Wake up, Ju. You gotta get dressed because the shower is in an hour." When the white haired shinigami doesn't move, Shunsui lets out a sigh, "Jushiro, I'm serious. Get outta this futon or I'll drag you out myself."
The thirteenth captain finally opens his eyes and reaches for the missing cover, but Shunsui pulls it farther from his grasp, "No! Get up now. We have to eat breakfast and you're drag assing is gonna make it get cold."
A pained expression appears on Jushiro's face when he realizes he won't be getting his cover back, "But, Shunsui…just five more minutes."
"We don't have five minutes. Get out of that futon this instant." He begins walking toward Jushiro's side of the futon, but he's stopped when his lover sits up.
"Okay, okay." He rubs his eyes, "Just don't force me out of the futon. I'll do it." When Shunsui relaxes his posture a bit, the thirteenth captain rebelliously lays back down, "Just a little more. My back hurts."
The brunet takes in a deep breath and slowly lets it back out, "I am not gonna tell you again. Get out of that futon…NOW!"
When the white haired Soul Reaper just ignores his friend's orders, the eighth captain walks to the futon and lifts Jushiro out by picking him up in arms, "Shunsui! Stop it! Put me down!"
"I warned you and you didn't listen." He begins carrying his heavier than usual lover to the dining area, but is quickly stopped by Jushiro's pleading.
"Wait, Shunsui! I really have to pee." The thirteenth captain wiggles around uncontrollably in Shunsui's arms, "Please, Shunsui, I need to you the restroom."
The eighth captain lets out a frustrated sigh, "Fine, but after that you'd better come in here and eat."
Jushiro nods and Shunsui puts the thirteenth captain's feet on the floor. The white haired shinigami promptly makes his way to the restroom where he shuts and locks the door. The eighth captain leaves the room and heads back to the dining room to eat his own breakfast. After about fifteen minutes, Shunsui begins wondering what's taking his lover so long to use the restroom. Shunsui makes his way to the restroom door and knocks, "Ju, are you okay in there?"
He hears water splashing around and knows Jushiro decided to take a bath, "I'm fine. I'll be out in a few minutes."
"Were you sleeping in there?" He presses his mouth as close to the door crack as possible, "Tell the truth."
The pale captain doesn't answer right away and when he finally answers, the eighth captain knows he's not telling the truth, "No, why would I sleep in the bathtub?"
Shunsui decides not to press the issue as he backs away from the door, "Well, hurry up. We only have thirty minutes to get ready. If you don't come out soon I'm gonna drag you out naked or not."
"I'm getting out now. Don't rush me! I'm pregnant!"
The brunet lets out a quiet sigh at the statement he hears on a daily basis. He'd be glad when Jushiro wasn't pregnant anymore so the thirteenth captain wouldn't have that excuse anymore for the things he didn't want to do. When Jushiro finally emerges from the bathroom and sits down at the table, he takes one bite of his breakfast and frowns. Shunsui notices the frown and questions it, "What's the matter? You don't find that food appealing anymore or something?"
"It's cold." The pout appears on his face again as he picks at his breakfast.
Shunsui grits his teeth and balls his hands into fists under the table, "It wouldn't be cold if you had gotten up when I told you to and if you hadn't lounged in the tub for so long."
"You're being mean, Shunsui." A few tears well up in his eyes as he shoves his plate away from him, "My back was hurting! I'm pregnant!"
The tears finally fall from his eyes and the brunet swallows his first response to Jushiro's words and quickly changes what he was going to say, "I'm sorry, Ju. There will be food at the party and you can eat then. Can you wait that long?" The thirteenth captain nods and Shunsui forces a smile to his face, "Good, I'm gonna take a quick shower and while I'm doing that you can be getting dressed and then we'll leave, okay?"
"Okay, Shunsui." He stands up from the table and enters his bedroom to begin getting dressed as Shunsui enters the restroom.
When the two men finally make it to the shower, they're fifteen minutes late and Shunsui can't believe they weren't later than that. The two of them are seated at the front of the room and just from looking around it seems as if most everyone was there even if some of them did look less excited than others. As Jushiro looks around, he sees all the members of the SWA which was expected considering they were hosting the baby shower. He also noticed that even though Kenpachi wasn't there, his third and fifth seat were there giving off angry expressions directed toward their lieutenant. She had no doubt asked them why they hadn't had a baby for her to play with which would explain the angry looks. Rukia and Renji were sitting together as were Shuhei and Izuru and of course Nanao was there bossing the others around.
Every captain minus Kenpachi, Mayuri and for some reason, Byakuya were there including the Head Captain and he surprisingly looked happy about being there. No one from the Living World was there due simply to the chaos it would cause trying to accumulate that many Hell Butterflies for so many people to go through the Dangai and back. They all sent gifts by throughout the week and they were wrapped beautifully and piled up with all the others. There was also a huge cake made with a collaborative effort of all the people who had been to the Living World and eaten one.
The shower started with cake because Jushiro and Yachiru insisted they needed a piece right away. After the cake was passed out, the gift giving began and the two soon to be parents got plenty of everything they needed and a lot of things they didn't know they needed or even knew how to use. As Shunsui expected, they got a baby bed from the Eighth and Thirteenth Squads as well as enough clothes and diapers for a small country worth of babies. They received a set of baby monitors from the Living World that had a monitor on it making it possible to see the baby as well as hear it and a camera with a note taped to it. The note was from Urahara saying, 'The camera is disposable and when you send the camera back I'll send you a new one with your newly developed pictures.' The Head Captain was the last one to give a gift and it had nothing to do with the baby considering it was a package of pens and a long handled pair of grabbing claws for picking up fallen pens. Apparently, Shunsui had explained the late paperwork.
Needless to say, when the two shinigami got home, they were very tired. Jushiro immediately goes to the bedroom and lays down on the futon with a sigh, "Well, that was nice and I'm glad you made me go."
Shunsui lays down beside him and smiles, "We got everything we need and then some." He kisses his lover on the cheek before speaking again, "I hope our baby likes to wear yellow and green cause we got a lot of those colors."
"I'm sure the baby won't mind." Jushiro is quiet for a long time and when he finally speaks he has a serious tone to his voice, "Shunsui, can I ask you something? You'll probably think it's self evident, but I want to make sure you know."
The bearded man gives him a puzzled look, but nods anyway, "Yeah, you can ask me anything. You know that, Ju."
"I know you spend the night here all the time and you've been here every day and every night since we found out about the baby, but…" He licks his lips nervously before continuing, "I want you to move in with me officially and I want us to be together as a family. I want me, you, and the baby to live here together and I'm not asking you to give up your barracks because I know you'll still need them if you have to work late, but I want you to move all your important things in here and live here." He lets out a sigh, "I know we'll never have the most conventional family, but I want us to have as normal of family as possible and I want you to be here with me and our baby as much as possible."
Shunsui lets out an amused chuckle, "Did you actually think I might say no? I would love to stay here for always and I'll start moving in what isn't already here tomorrow."
Jushiro lets out a relieved breath and smiles, "I'm glad and I can't wait for us to be a family."
"We already are, Ju." He strokes his lover's white hair until the thirteenth captain is asleep and then the brunet slips quietly out of bed to get the disposable camera that Urahara sent them. He walks back into the bedroom and snaps a picture of Jushiro sleeping on the futon. The white haired man had already requested that no pregnant pictures be taken of him because he was swollen and fat, but Shunsui thought he looked more beautiful than ever before with a nice glow to his cheeks. He lets a smile grace his features as he sets the camera down feeling very proud of himself for getting the first photo of the mother and baby together.
TBC...
Okay, I forgot my special thanks at the beginning so here it is now, stephfarrow94, Misc. Ink, and gunsAndROSES2656 for reviewing. I want to say thanks to gunsAndROSES2656 and Moegi for following and dead-eye666 for favoriting! Thanks everyone!
Also, next chapter you will find out why Byakuya wasn't there...it isn't anything mysterious, but you do get to find out what his gift to them is. I'm also probably gonna make this fic 13 or 14 chapters. Thanks for reading!