Author's note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU. I am not very familiar with the Bleach anime, and Katen Kyokotsu's personality is based on the manga and my own suppositions.
Clearer By Morning Light
Nanao woke in the morning feeling rather rested. She would have thought that last night was a dream except for the fact that this wasn't her room or even her apartment. Nanao slid on her glasses and took in her surroundings. Shunsui Kyoraku had a lovely home. It was very traditional in style, though that did not bother Nanao in the slightest. Quite honestly, she was very much at home in tatami mat rooms with sliding shoji. Her room happened to face the gardens, and she slid the shoji aside to gaze at the morning sunlight illuminating the lovely scenery.
She stretched slightly and turned to her bag to pick out clothes for the day. She didn't know what she would be doing. Neither Shunsui nor Jyuushiro had mentioned much of what they had planned for her.
Wear something comfortable. Yamazakurakaze advised. Shunsui will probably take you through the basics of sword work at the very least, and I rather doubt you'll be going anywhere fancy.
With that in mind, Nanao changed into a comfortable pair of jeans and a plain t-shirt. Then she slipped out of her room to see if she could find a morning cup of tea. She found the kitchen easily though Nanao did not come across anyone else awake. It felt a little odd helping herself to someone else's kitchen, but Shunsui had assured her when she had first arrived that she was welcome to help herself to anything in the kitchen. Nanao found a wide selection of herbal teas. She ended up selecting a citrus tea that smelled faintly of mint. It did not take her long to locate a tea pot, and Nanao soon had the tea brewing.
Checking the cupboards for food, Nanao was disappointed in the selection. Clearly, Kyoraku needed to do some grocery shopping. Unfortunately, she really wasn't able to find enough to make herself a decent breakfast. She settled with her tea at the little table tucked in the corner and set about organizing her thoughts. Clearly, this was all real and happening, so Nanao would need to come up with a plan of attack to deal with the changes in her life. For one thing, Nanao needed to find out if she could be a shinigami and still keep her job.
She sighed and sipped at her tea. And really, that was only the first in a long line of questions. Nanao really knew very little about the situation she now found herself in, and she had always dealt with things like this by gathering as much information as she could. She needed to know more about the Gotei Thirteen for one thing. She wanted to have a better idea of its organizational structure, and how it operated on a day to day basis. Another thing that Nanao wanted to know was how this Stark person had found her in the first place, and if he was likely to come back and hassle her again.
For that matter, how had Shunsui and Jyuushiro found her in the first place? That was another issue. Of course, Katen Kyokotsu had said something last night about calling for help, but then why couldn't have he just contacted Shunsui earlier? Hopefully, either Shunsui or Jyuushiro would be awake soon, and she could get some answers.
Something nuzzled her ankle, causing Nanao to start. She glanced down to find a kitten with large green eyes and silver coat dotted with dark spots looking back up at her. It mewed softly then jumped into her lap.
"That's Ume. Her sisters are probably still napping, but she has always been something of an early riser." Shunsui smiled at her as he set about pouring himself cup of tea. "Jyuu ran out to Mr. Doughnut to get us a proper breakfast. Things have been rather crazy lately, and I haven't had the chance to catch up on housekeeping tasks like grocery shopping."
Nanao pet the kitten. "She is very striking."
Shunsui smiled at her. "She's an Ocicat. All of the trio are. There was this breeder in town for a show that got possessed by what essential was a greed demon. She was a bitter old biddy, and honestly, I don't think she wanted to survive the encounter. There were people at the show who took in most of her cats, but no one wanted three of the kittens from her latest litter. So I took them home. It wasn't like I could let them fend for themselves. Sakura and Nashi will probably introduce themselves to you at some point in the day."
"Plum, Cherry, and Pear?" His choice of names was interesting, and that story had told her far more about this man than anything else so far.
Shunsui just shrugged. "Flower names did not quite seem to suit kittens."
"So what exactly is the order of business for the day?" Nanao asked, changing the subject.
He grinned at her. "So serious so early, my Nanao-chan."
"I'm not your anything," was her automatic reply.
"Mostly I had planned on dealing with your questions and getting you used to this new world your are in. If you have time tomorrow after work, I'd like to take you by the division headquarters and introduce you around."
"Yamazakurakaze said something about taking me through the basics of the sword work."
Shunsui looked a little startled at that but nodded. "It is a good idea. I was planning on teaching you some basic kidou as well. I have a feeling that it will come pretty easily to you, and that way you'll have a method of defense at hand should anything happen."
Nanao frowned. "Are you expecting something to happen any time soon?"
Shunsui looked away. "Not exactly, but it is best to be on your guard when Stark is around."
He must have seen the look on her face because he continued on. "I promise you will get a full explanation later on, but there are other things you need to know first so that the rest of the explanation will make sense."
There was the sound of a door closing, and Shunsui's entire face brightened.
"That will be Jyuu with breakfast. Let's eat, and then we can get to work."
