"What are you doing?" Ukitake demanded watching Shunsui as he looked through the papers on Nanao's desk.

"What does it look like, Jyuu? I'm doing the paperwork," Shunsui said as if it should be obvious.

"I can see that," Jyuushiro said calmly, "I meant what are you doing in regards to Nanao-san."

"I believe I'm doing exactly what she wanted, the paperwork," Shunsui replied looking bored as he read over a form.

"Why did you just let her go to lunch with Egami-san?" Jyuushiro asked honestly bewildered.

"I told you, Jyuu," Shunsui replied sighing and finally dropping his attempts to get through the form. "She asked me if she was allowed to date him, like I was her damn father or something."

"I'm sure she didn't mean it that way," Jyuushiro said as his friend plopped down in the recently vacated fukutaicho seat.

"Then why ask it?" Shunsui replied mournfully. "She thinks I'm some doddering old fart who's been cock blocking her for years."

"She also burned off a woman's dress in a fit of jealousy," Jyuushiro pointed out. "Not many women do that for a father figure."

"She did that because that woman," Shunsui said with distaste, which was the closest he'd ever get to insulting a female, "poured wine down her back. There was no jealousy involved. Otherwise don't you think she'd have done something like that years ago? A few times in the past I even intentionally tried to make her jealous when she'd come to get me and received absolutely no results. I suppose that should have been a big enough sign in the first place."

"No results that she allowed you to see, you mean. Furthermore, you forget she stayed the night with you, not Egami-san," Ukitake said trying desperately to redirect his friend's thinking. Shunsui had always been an emotional man, and as he generally stayed pretty happy that was fine, but when he got in his morose moods they tended to last a while and drive everyone around him mad. It looked like he was headed for one of those gloomy periods fast.

"And you forget that it wasn't me the whole Seireitei apparently saw her kissing last night," Kyouraku fired back. "What a terrible piece of news that was to hear on the way over to the 13th this morning."

"A couple drunk guys from the 3rd said they saw her and Egami-san. Who knows if that's true? Besides, do you think she would have come to retrieve you if the night had been going that well?"

Shunsui just gave a grunt and started sifting through paperwork again. "I meant what I said about wanting her to be happy. If that is with Egami-san, so be it."

"I think she's happiest with you," Jyuushiro argued sadly. His friend was very good with wooing the ladies, but very bad at seeing past Nanao's defenses. Shunsui never seemed to notice the small things with her, which was odd since he saw the details in pretty much everything else.

Shunsui seemed not to notice how he was one of the few people that could touch her without her flinching away or quickly removing herself from the contact. He'd also missed another detail entirely, in that Nanao had never complained about the obvious fact that Shunsui had killed her love life and had instead merely stayed at his side, or that only his compliments made her blush that particular shade of red, or that Shunsui was the only man, as far as Jyuushiro knew, who's presence she'd fallen asleep in and left herself completely unguarded. As far as Jyuushiro was concerned, if Nanao saw Shunsui only as a father figure he'd eat every last koi in his pond while they were still alive.

"She's never really been with me," Shunsui sighed.

"That's because you're too busy chasing every skirt that sashays by," Jyuushiro said reasonably.

"Should I have been celibate for the last 50 or so years in the vain hope that she would crawl into my bed?" Shunsui demanded. "If she'd wanted the spot it was hers. All she had to do was ask."

"Well, perhaps there is your problem," Jyuushiro said nodding his head. Shunsui glared at him and Jyuushiro decided to elaborate, not sure his thick friend was getting the point. "A woman like Nanao-san is never going to ask. It's part of what makes her so different from the women at the bar. You'll have to ask her seriously and make her believe it isn't just for the night."

"It doesn't matter one way or another, Jyuu," Shunsui said as his shoulders slumped. "She has Mamoru-kun now," he ended sounding sick.

"You know, of all things I've ever described you as," Jyuushiro began, "A loser was not among them. An idiot and a womanizing scoundrel, yes occasionally, but not a loser who gave up in the middle of the game."

"How can I win a game, when I was never truly a participant?" Shunsui asked staring out the window. "I want her happy. If this is the way to her happiness then I'll step out of her path. There are other women."

"None of who are Nanao-san," Ukitake finished for him.

"No, no they aren't," Shunsui said turning back to the paperwork. "Make yourself useful and help me figure out form 183 section B before I throw myself off a bridge."

A/N: I know it's shorter than usual, don't hate me for it :) My first day at work was long and exhausting, but I came home to all those wonderful reviews!! It made me so happy that I figured I'd get the next part out, short or not. Now off to bed with me. I'll try to update soon.