One Hundred Ways to Love
21 of 100: Bathing Suit
Ise Nanao was one of the most orderly people in Soul Society. She ruled her life with lists and saved all her receipts. There were those who thought her boring and even more who thought her "stiff". The number of insults she'd heard attached to her name were plenty. She'd taken particular offense to the speculation that she had gotten her place as Vice-Captain by using her body against her well-known womanizing Captain. While that was a bit flattering, that anyone would think that she, plain, small chested Nanao, could seduce her way into power, was woefully untrue. And in some respects, laughable.
Now, having been cowed into going to the pool with said Captain and his good friend and fellow Captain Ukitake, she regretted having ever met the man. She spent several long minutes cursing him thoroughly in her head as she wrung her fingers, twisting them anxiously in her flower print towel. Said towel had been a gift that morning from her well-meaning Captain.
Slipping her arms into the three-quarter length, mostly sheer cover-up she'd brought along she sighed. The towel wouldn't do it and she had to protect her back… the upper kanji of her tattoo was quite visible on her back without it. She hadn't been able to find anything that covered her back completely. At least the back panel of the cover-up was solid and would hide the mark.
"Nanao-chan! Stop hiding or I'll come in after you."
His sing-song tone ratcheted her annoyance up another notch. That insufferable-
It would be worth it, she told herself, to have him in the office to go through the new recruit interviewing, one of the busiest times of the year. All she had to do was stay with him at the pool for a couple of hours and wear this… this… swimsuit. She considered herself lucky that the swimsuit wasn't held on with a couple of strings and wasn't some ostentatious pink.
Pulling the towel around her as if she'd just stepped out of the bath, she headed out. Both Captains were there, hers leaning against the wall of the changing rooms chatting with a slim blonde.
"Ready, Ise-san?" Ukitake smiled gently at her. He was the first to turn in her direction, always the epitome of politeness.
Apparently the two men spent a great deal of their time at the Soul Society pool during the summertime. It was something she typically tried to avoid. In one of her hands she held a book; the other firmly grasped her towel to her body.
"Nanao-chan!" she turned her eyes toward her Captain to see he was lazily smiling. "You're not supposed to wear the towel."
With a barely perceptible growl she slipped it off, curling it over her arm, pleased she'd thought of the cover-up ahead of time. He couldn't possibly complain about it. Except for the back panel where goldfish were embroidered, the rest of the thing was sheer. The suit itself had been her own choice, a rather nondescript purple that almost matched her eyes in one long, concealing piece of material. There were no frills, no gold clips, no peep holes for peeking, and no cleavage, nothing even remotely frivolous. It was a plain purple suit cut high on her thighs and moderately above the breast.
She was a little self conscious in the skin tight outfit but if she refused to obey him she'd only add fuel to the fire as far as the rumors about her being "cold" went. And then there was the fact that she didn't want to convince her Captain to supervise her day. In fact, with the look the blond was shooting at her, Nanao considered it in her best interest to leave. Maybe the woman could keep him occupied and away from her for a while. She'd thought she'd overheard him telling someone he intended to get her drunk today.
"I'm going to go read." She escaped before he could protest, but he called after her anyway.
"You agreed to have a drink with me, Nanao-chan!"
She ignored him but she wasn't far enough away to miss the woman's comment. "I'll have a drink with you," along with the accompanying giggle.
As she wandered toward a set of vacant chairs by the far side of the pool she wondered. If she had been beautiful and heavily curved, would she have had the nerve to even try seducing a man, let alone one like Kyouraku Shunsui?
She hated when people made her doubt herself. She hated it even more that she knew they were indirectly manipulating her behavior. For that, she hated herself for not being strong enough.
Kyouraku Shunsui was the only man she knew who frolicked. He splashed around in the pool, picked flowers, sang love ballads, and recited poetry. She'd never even read a character in romance novels like him. He was so… he was beyond description. Really, he was beyond what she considered reality.
She watched him over the edge of her book. She watched him swim with a couple of red heads. They looked liked twins. Actual sisters, she thought, one man…that was appalling. She watched the women dunk him under and then all of them came up splashing water, his arms around one and the other pressing her large bosom to his back.
She watched him whisper lines of poetry by the chairs on the other side of the pool to a pouty woman while a short brunette patted his hair dry. The giggles carried far enough for Nanao to hear them and the blushes were a bit more than she could handle.
Then she watched him sipping sake with a circle of women. The flirting was outrageous. The laughing, the batting eyelashes, the touching… if they started groping she was going to make an excuse to head inside for a while. Actually, heading inside did sound appealing except she'd caught sight of a bar and far too many roving male eyes looking to pick up a girl. She didn't want company.
Nanao kept a close eye on the hand of the brunette on her Captain's thigh and wondered just how close the woman would get to his crotch in public. He certainly didn't seem to mind if the looks he kept tossing at the little woman were any indication.
"Having a pleasant afternoon, Ise-san?"
She jumped, her eyes darting up at her guest. The neglected book slipped from her sweaty palms, her heart thumped hard in her chest and a flush warmed her cheeks.
Caught.
Would he mention it?
She cleared her throat awkwardly. "It's about what I expected. Are you having a nice afternoon?" she forced her tone to be even and dared not look back at her Captain.
The man with the white hair smiled gently at her. "Lovely. Shunsui always has such a nice time in the sun and I think I enjoy it more just watching him."
Her face flamed but he continued to smile at her. If the remark was deliberate or innocent, she couldn't tell. Captain Ukitake was slick and very observant. She dry swallowed.
"I hope he gets a good deal of it out of his system before he comes back to the office."
"I daresay he won't, but we can always hope. Can I get you anything?"
She declined gently and he wandered off with the same knowing smile in place. He was not cruel enough to force the issue of her staring, but mischievous enough to indirectly mention it. Nanao glanced toward her Captain to see they had descended into some kind of drinking game. As a woman leaned forward to smack her lips to his, Nanao leaned back in her reclining chair and closed her eyes, abandoning her book on her lap.
She would never have a life like that. For the longest time she'd never wanted it. It was only when her Captain shoved it in her face did she realize her life was very much like an empty closet. Suppressing the ugly feeling, she closed her eyes. She wouldn't think of it anymore.
"You going to play all afternoon?"
Shunsui looked up as Ukitake returned with another bottle of sake and sat down beside him.
The Captain's lounge was a resort for the executive Gotei-13 officers and the pool was one of Shunsui's favorite hang-outs. It was a pity that Nanao didn't enjoy it more, he thought as he glanced over at her. Her slim figure in a bathing suit was a fine spectacle. He should take a photo for his office, he thought, offhandedly. One of her knees was bent up revealing the gentle curve of her calf and a book was spread across her flat abdomen. She was beautiful. Pity she didn't understand that.
"Play?" Shunsui inquired as he took the sake bottle from his companion.
"With all the women… didn't you promise a drink with your Vice-Captain? You've neglected her all day."
He cocked his head as he opened the bottle. "She looked so relaxed; I didn't want to bother her."
"Relaxed?"
The astonishment on Jyuushiro's face caused Shunsui pause.
"You think she looks relaxed today?" the curve on Jyuushiro's mouth widened. "I think she thoroughly regrets ever agreeing to come here today."
Shunsui's face fell. "I have not seen anyone bother her. Is she too warm? Should I call Fourth Division?"
"Until about the last hour, she's spent the entire day watching you."
The silence between them stretched after the statement. Nanao didn't watch to admire, so what did she see when she looked? His mouth tensed into a straight line. Now she was still and quiet and looking very much asleep. Now, it seemed, she was relaxed, when she was not looking at him.
"In fact, I think Ise-san is looking a bit red. What do you think?" Jyuushiro suggested absently as a girl with a tray brought him a cup of cold tea.
Shunshui's eyes darted again toward the girl, this time trailing slowly along her exposed legs, taking in the color. He trailed his way up to her face, assessing, noting the increased pinkness the higher up.
Had she put nothing on before coming out? He stood abruptly realizing he'd made a horrible oversight. He'd missed the opportunity to touch so much of Nanao's skin? It was a lapse that was positively amateurish.
"I'll see you later."
He stalked directly toward her, not noting his friend's smile as he did so. Nanao was stretched languidly in her chair looking very much like a contented kitten sleeping in the sun.
"Hey, Nanao-chan." He called to her before he reached her side and noticed how her eyelids fluttered before she awoke. The second her eyes opened, they immediately closed again, no doubt pained by the brightness of the afternoon sun, and she brought her hand up to cover them. Was she disoriented?
"What time is it?" she murmured.
"Late afternoon." Reaching down he grabbed one dainty hand and pulled her up on her feet. "You haven't been in the pool all day."
"I'm not fond of-"
She squeaked when he reached beneath her and scooped her up.
"Nanao-chan, my sweet girl, you need to live a little more."
"I agreed to come down here and to have a drink with you, I never agreed to anything-"
At the edge of the pool, he simply threw her in. The water swallowed her with a splash and he laughed leaping in after her. She came up with a growl and a glare and threw an armload of water in his face. He sputtered.
"Now, now… no hard feelings, Nanao-chan," he chided with a grin.
"You lunatic," she growled moving toward the edge. He watched her swim, the white sheer of her shirt becoming transparent against her skin. it clung to her body, her suit… and through a gap in the solid stitching on her back he thought he saw something dark.
Nanao's back held a secret.
Quickly catching her, he pinned her against the edge of the pool, staring down her spine. He couldn't see through the thread but if that didn't look like…
"Nanao-chan," he breathed in her ear. "It's words."
"What?" she asked, turning her head toward his mouth.
"Nanao's secret," he whispered. "She's got kanji down her spine."
Her reaction was too powerful for words. She leapt from his arms and fled. He wasn't sure to be thrilled over his discovery or moody that she was reneging on their deal. It wasn't possible to distinguish any part of the kanji but he was certain that's what it had been. He knew one thing.
There were words on his Nanao-chan's body.