Exciting Proposal

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

A/N: So many supporting characters! Oh wait, I used more for Tetsuzaemon and Sajin. :D

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While some lieutenants were ripe for the promoting, others had to be cajoled. Luckily for Jyuushiro, everyone agreed Kaien was being a moron.

"Onii-san, I don't get."

Kukaaku not getting it was a fairly common occurance, so Kaien concentrated on patching up baby Ganju's nappy, his back to his little sister.

"Mm-hmm?"

"Why won't you become Ukitake-san's vice captain? I thought you liked him!"

Yoruichi broke the surface of the pristine mountain pool she, Kukaaku and Kisuke were wallowing in. Kuchiki Byakuya sat close by on a flat rock, eyeing the wet woman balefully.

"Demon cat, how can you stand the cold water this early in the year?"

"Worried for my health, Byakuya-bo? Why don't you get in here and warm me."

Kisuke dunked her head back under to save her from the stone he threw and Kukaaku laughed unkindly.

"Ganju can aim better."

"My aim is perfect! Blame him," Byakuya jerked his chin at Kisuke, "For moving her."

Kisuke said, "Take a deep breath."

Byakuya said, "Huh?"

Yoruichi resurfaced next to him, encircled his waist with her arms, and pulled him into the pool with an understated splash. Soifon standing a demure distance from them twitched displeasurably.

"Serve him right," Kukaaku said with no little satisfaction, "Onii-san, tell me. Why won't you be Ukitake-san's vice-captain?"

Kaien cradled Ganju in his arms and frowned at her. He was deeply regretting giving in to Kukaaku's whim this morning when she felt like going for a spot of skinny-dipping. A family outing indeed. They'd met Kisuke on his way to their house; Kukaaku had invited him to join. Once they'd reached the pool and done a lap, Yoruichi had shown up. Byakuya's hair tie had been in her hands and the boy himself close behind. Screaming with delight the purple haired pretty had leapt in between her two best friends. Soifon had, of course, been tailing her mistress and despite repeatedly being asked refused to enter the water. Kaien with the baby kept her company.

Byakuya and Yoruichi emerged: the former gasping for air and the latter sporting a fine grin. By the looks of it she'd worn him down out of sight; he was exhausted enough to float sulkily against her.

Snickering at his plight, Kaien spoke to his sister. "I told you already. There are plenty of other, more suitable candidates."

"But," Kisuke pointed out, "Ukitake-san wants you."

"Yeah," Kukaaku smirked, "He might get angry if you go on turning him down like this."

Even Soifon's lips wobbled at the preposterous idea of Ukitake Jyuushiro displaying signs of bad temper. Byakuya broke free of Yoruichi's grip and stalked heavily to dry land.

"You're sawing off the branch you're sitting on," he warned, "You're gnawing the hand that feeds you. He might not get angry, but you're hurting his feelings. Barbarian," he added, though it wasn't clear if he was telling off Kaien or Yoruichi, who flicked water at him.

"I can freakin' tell if I'm pissing my own sempai off," Kaien said crossly, "He's taking it well."

"So it seems," Byakuya was haughty about the ears as he shook a hand through his dripping hair, "Only because you are stupid enough to believe him when he tells you he's alright."

"You impudent little wretch."

"Byakuya-kun is correct," Kisuke overruled, "Kaien-san, you must be breaking his heart."

"I can only imagine," bemoaned Yoruichi, "How terrible he must be feeling."

"Look, you weedy punks..."

"Onii-san, you're such a jerk." Kukaaku rose out of the water as she condemned him. "And stop giving us 'there are better candidates'. What's your real reason?"

"That is my real reason."

Stubborn as a mule.

"Swear on Ganju," demanded Kukaaku.

"This is stupid," Kaien dodged, "I'm not going to sit around discussing my career with a buncha kids."

"Yoruichi and I are captains," Kisuke said calmly, "Hardly children any longer."

"Always will be t'me," the brunet snorted. Wrapping up his baby brother in a blanket, he stalked away on annoyed legs. Byakuya's rancidly eloquent eyes passed disparaging comment, and Kukaaku threw him in the pool for it. Yoruichi, at least, was happy with that.

000

Ground control to major Tom...

Commencing countdown; engines on...

Take your protein pills and strap your seatbelts on!

Ahem, yes. Landing on Kaien's heart, a strange and unexplored surface that will reveal many illuminating secrets. If you let it. If you listen.

Then again you're so self-conceitedly mundane you probably won't. So let's just...try this...

"Ah, it's Kaien!"

"Kyoraku-sempai," the family guy (yes, a very good pun) greeted him, "What brings you to my neck of the woods?"

"I'll tell you," Shunsui's voice was buoyant with gaiety. He patted his robes down as Kaien nodded to his lieutenant.

"Yadomaru."

"Shiba," Lisa returned coolly. Shunsui turned to her.

"Lisa, help me look for it, please?"

"You mean lay my hands on you?" she scoffed. "You must be joking."

"Ahh, such a suspicious woman I've saddled myself with...here," the kimono captain took Ganju from Kaien and handed him to the brunette. "Hold the sweetheart. Kaien, you help me look."

Half-outraged and half-bemused (his stock standard response to most everything Shunsui did) Kaien slipped his hands up the man's sleeves and pulled out a sealed note.

"It's for you, from Ukitake." Shunsui took Ganju from Lisa and cooed at him. The infant blinked and made spit bubbles, something Shunsui thought the benchmark of high intelligence. Kaien scanned the note; it was an invitation to have tea the next morning. He looked up.

"Ostentatious to send a captain-lieutenant pair to deliver something this trivial."

"He wasn't going to send us," Shunsui agreed ineffably, "I wanted words with you and volunteered to bring it. Lisa came out of the kindness of her heart."

Lisa raised an eyebrow that said you mean the cold lump of perverted putty in my chest and Kaien braced himself. "What kind of words?"

"Will you be my fukataichou?"

Lisa shot her boss an alarmed look and Kaien skipped back.

"Wha-!"

"The answer when asked that question by Ukitake," Shunsui continued, "Is 'yes'. I thought you'd like a hint, seeing how much trouble you're having finding the right thing to say to him."

"Kyoraku-sempai..."

"I'm sure you have your reasons for saying 'no'." Shunsui's mellow eyes were on fire with hidden things. "I think he'd pay dearly to hear them. If you must disappoint a senior whom you've been favored by since our school days, you owe him an explanation. A satisfactory one."

"Sempai, I..."

"You're not answerable to me, Kaien." The lesson having ended, Shunsui's voice was carelessly jovial again, "So stop looking ashamed. Lisa, shall we go?"

Kaien took Ganju back and watched them tread the beaten path. A hundred yards down, Yadomaru Lisa turned over her shoulder and smiled.

000

During tea they talked about changes in the Gotei 13 and a young upstart of a genius named Ichimaru Gin who had recently joined the 5th Division.

"Hehe...I guess this puts me one step away from the lieutenant post, huh?"

"You don't have to look so happy about it," Jyuushiro raised his eyebrows. "And how does a recruit in the 5th Division affect you in the 13th?"

"Well," Kaien said, "Kids are so much sharper these days! You want to choose someone better than me."

Jyuushiro seemed weary beyond words. "I don't, Kaien."

They avoided each other's eyes and also the sore subject that had time and again ripped into hearts until Kaien, unable to bear it, excused himself. Doubt heckled him mercilessly until he was monstrous, lousy with it. Like a retired sumo wrestler's, his heart felt heavy with fat and inaction. His feet dragged him away from Jyuushiro for a while further, and then they could go no more.

Kaien turned and sprinted back, shedding kilos of regret per step.

Jyuushiro was still sitting at the tea table, peering remorsefully into a box of something. Upon Kaien's reappearance he slammed guilty the hinged top shut, and peered remorsefully at his kouhai's sweaty frown instead.

"Of course I want to be your vice-captain!"

Delight bloomed bountifully on Jyuushiro's carved face.

"But I have to ask you to consider carefully, sempai. Am I the best man for the job?"

Confusion drowned delight.

"I have two younger siblings...one's only a baby...to care for. I can't afford to spend long hours away from home. I refuse to put career before family! And also with your frail health the lieutenant's duties will often double. Am I equal to this challenge?"

Earnest regret filled Jyuushiro's face as he measured his panting underclassman with wise eyes.

"Kaien, sit. You look ready to keel over."

The captain poured him a fresh cup of tea and broke his heart with a well-calculated smile. "I never knew you thought so badly of me."

Kaien gagged. "What...!"

"You think I forgot Kukaaku and Ganju when I asked you to be my lieutenant? You think I'm selfish enough to force you to pick between them and me? After all, I would lose badly."

"Jyuushiro-sempai...!"

"Kaien we've known each too long for you to underestimate me like this."

The brunet gave the diseased captain a long, hard look before prostrating himself in an apologetic bow.

"You're right. I'm sorry."

Jyuushiro sighed. "To make mistakes...it is in all of us. Trust me more in the future, alright? Trust me as I trust you." He smiled again. Like superglue he put Kaien's heart back in its place. "I trust you to bear this burden, and I'm sure of your ability. Kaien, haven't I been your favorite upperclassman all these years? Don't I know you and your limits? Since my graduation there has been no one I even considered for this position but you. You're right...with my illness your duties will be more than that of a normal deputy. And I think you will enjoy them thoroughly, because you are the kind of man who feels a day is wasted unless he has worked hard enough to feel his back dying a miserable death.

"Don't look at me like that. You know it's true."

But Kaien continued to look anyway.

"Ganju..."

"Oh, Kaien. Haven't I just asked for trust, a little faith? You can move out of the Rukongai; the Shiba family has endured enough. You can move into the 13th Division quarters. Ganju and Kukaaku will be under your nose all day.

"What are you afraid of?"

The brunet lowered his head. "Have you really only ever considered me?"

"For heaven's sake," said impatient Jyuushiro, for whom at one point enough was enough, "You're hesitating like a schoolgirl with her first kiss. Give yourself to me, kouhai."

This was as aggressive and forward as Jyuushiro would get, and Kaien was happy to take it, and also the box in his lap which he thrust at Kaien. The Shiba prince opened it and stared.

"I had that commissioned," Jyuushiro said quietly, "The week after I joined the Gotei 13."

And the last of Kaien's moronic tendencies drained to the ocean. He reverently reached in to lift the solid gold lieutenant armband with the silk sash, his name and rank etched into its back.

"Jeez, sempai," he laughed shakily, "You could've have shown this to me earlier?"

Jyuushiro turned up his nose at the last dregs of tea in the pot. "What would you have done?"

"I...I don't know." Kaien grinned soporifically, "Help me tie it on."

They sat together afterwards, drinking in each other's company.

"Sempai, I have the highest opinion of you. Okay?"

"Well. It's taichou now," Jyuushiro, teasing! "But thank you."

"Sempai, I love you."

"Well. Sentarou and Kiyone might give you competition," Jyuushiro, amused! "But I love you too."

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I don't think I can ever write Yoruichi without mentioning Byakuya.