Okay, I know Sunday starts weeks for some, but I see it as the end of the week. I think it's a Jewish tradition, though Christians used to see Sunday as the beginning of the week too. I can't pinpoint why this was changed, but it has something to do with Slavs, Constantine, and Jews. Go look it up (I wish I paid attention when my History teacher was telling me about that but I was reading Clive Barker and just mumbling "Yeah, yeah, old things. Okay, I get it. I'm reading about someone named Jakabok Botch and having fun with it, so you can go fall face first into a spike pit and I won't look up from this damn book, do you think I care about what you're talking about? … Oh fuck, there he goes again! Shut up!" Oh well. It's on the internet, I checked but didn't feel like reading a lot about it). It's now Christian tradition to number Monday as the start of the start of the week and that's how I know things to be in Ohio, we be simple folk.

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Monday, being the first day of the week, was normally a dreadfully boring day in the fourth divisions. Fights didn't occur because everyone was too tired, many found it tacky to be drinking so early in the week and any other harmful excess was best put off till the week's end when there were parties being hosted. For the reason of everything being calm, with hardly any medical treatment required, Hanataro was instantly attracted to a scuffling outside. There was a bit of an open space for breaks on stressful days where he heard the noise, but certainly there wasn't any need for taking a break when there was no work being done.

Since he wasn't occupied with any task, and even his janitorial duties had been completed, he followed the noise to see Yumichika with the new arrivals from his division and the fourth division, along with a very pretty – if not, a bit gaudy – Isane standing next to him with her head in her hands. He understood why too, he could hardly believe this.

"All right, you be Sampson. What are you looking at me like that for? You want to be Gregory?" Yumichika was pointing and giving orders, casting for a scene in Shakespeare. Or at least, that's what Hanataro assumed.

"Um... Yumichika, Lieutenant Isane?" Hanataro stepped out of the building he'd been walking around aimlessly just moments before a bit tentatively. He had a feeling he'd become part of the cast if he stayed to talk, but he was too curious to let this go without commenting at all.

Isane looked up at him, showing she had pronounced but not painted on make-up. Maybe if he wasn't so used to seeing her look like a tomboyish type person, he would've thought she looked nice, but he almost jumped at the appearance of his Lieutenant. He could have dealt with the silver beads and blue earrings but the make-up was just too foreign on her pale face.

"Can't you appreciate the beauty of her new look?" Yumichika asked, and if Isane wasn't so fond of Hanataro he might have gotten angry for jumping instead of praising. He couldn't quite go off on the seventh seat so he settled for the rhetorical question before Isane caught his attention.

"This isn't my 'new look', all right? I'm not always doing this, Yumichika," she instantly said.

"Nonsense!" He exclaimed. "You look beautiful like that, Lieutenant."

Hanataro wondered why he was calling Isane by only her title, when before he might have not even bothered with it at all, and even more confusing was how he let the rank become like a pet name. Yumichika let it flow off his tongue without too much exaggeration, but he made it click, and Isane letting him be so formal was beyond what he thought he knew about the pale woman. He let it pass without saying anything, though, and tried to make sense of what was going on.

All the recruits stood, somewhat confused as to what exactly was going on, but none of them daring to speak up. Isane sighed, and for a moment Hanataro thought she was going to try to offer some sympathetic words to them, but instead she turned to her seventh seat with a tired smile. "As you can see, I'm kind of caught up in this. You better go before you're dubbed Tybalt."

Now Hanataro was wondering who or what a "Tybalt" was.

"He can't be Tybalt! Tybalt fights all the time and is violent." Yumichika instantly said. "Wait, he's a voice of reason. Hanataro, be Friar Laurence!"

"I thought he was going to be Juliet, and Ikkaku be Romeo," Isane said and as Yumichika paused to think, she motioned to Hanataro to run before he really did become a part of the insanity.

"But, someone has to be the Friar. I can't be addressed by that name at all, it's just too ugly. And in the Living World, the Friar had a mole in the move. I simply can't be him anymore, so I'll just be the beautiful Juliet," Yumichika said, and the moment before Hanataro was able to creep back in the building he continued. "Hanataro, Ikkaku's looking for you."

"I-i'm working," Hanataro protested.

"I can see it's very busy around here. Though, if you do want to stay, you can be in my play! Actually, let's do that. Ikkaku can wait, but the show must go on!"

Isane intervened for the second time. "You can leave for today, Hanataro. I heard how you haven't been able to spend any time at all with Ikkaku because of his Lieutenant."

"But, my play!" Yumichika protested.

"Let's have someone else play the Friar."

Letting out a sigh of relief, Hanataro flash stepped away before Yumichika was able to chase after him with a change of heart. It was funny how he was handling his sudden love of Shakespeare, mainly because Hanataro was fairly sure that none of the recruits had any idea of what he was talking about. Either way, he was staying out of that mess before he got dragged into what was sure to be hell. He could only imagine the beauty's anger when someone forgot their lines.

Hanataro shivered at the thought as he stopped running, thinking of his poor recruits but at the same time assured that Isane would be a mediator of Yumichika's crazyness. He sensed Ikkaku's spiritual pressure just two streets over and smiled at how easy it was to run into him. His boyfriend didn't seem to be moving at all, so he walked to where he felt the pressure's source and saw Ikkaku lying next to a building, presumably asleep. Why would he sleep in the middle of nowhere instead of in his room, though?

The bald man woke with a start, sitting up to see Hanataro looking at him curiously. "Hanataro, why do I have to put up with that she-devil?"

"Why are you sleeping on the streets?"

"I'm too tired to go home. This is where I dropped Sunday night."

Though he probably should have been worried about Ikkaku's health, Hanataro smiled a little bit. It was understandable that he was exhausted after the time he spent with a never-ending bundle of energy. "Hasn't your Captain been wondering about you after not being at work at all?"

"Screw work, his brat caused this," Ikkaku mumbled, sitting up and leaning against the building. "Wait... He's at a Captain's meeting today, or else Yumichika would've brought me to the dojo so at least Captain would see I'm there - and be happy that I'm miserable."

That's right, Hanataro thought. There was a meeting, or else Isane wouldn't be anywhere but by her Captain's side. "Why would he be happy to see you miserable?"

"Cause that's Captain Zaraki," Ikkaku said smiling, speaking fondly even though the words by themselves seemed spiteful by themselves. "Anyways, it doesn't matter. Captain ain't missin' me."

"As long as that's true, then I guess it's fine..." Hanataro trailed off, wondering if he could make it all the way to the eleventh division's barracks before he went on. "Ikkaku, would you like for me to take you back to your place?"

"That's too far for you," he immediately said, and he was probably right.

"Then, back to my room so you can sleep in a bed?"

"Ya don't need to worry about that – hey!" Hanataro was already picking him up and carrying him over his shoulder.

"Don't say that I shouldn't worry," he replied. Though he knew Ikkaku wanted him to speak his mind, it was still too foreign to come naturally to him. "If you get sick then it'd be my fault for not taking you inside."

"It doesn't work like that," Ikkaku grumbled. He knew that he was too heavy for Hanataro to have an easy time lifting, being a foot taller and maybe five times as bulky, at the very least. It was strange, but he felt kind of bad for making Hanataro feel like he had to help him. Ikkaku didn't even accept help from Yumichika without putting up a fight, but if he struggled here chances were that he'd knock the smaller man off-balance and, because it made sense in his mind while he was tired, possibly squish him.

Once they got to Hanataro's room, he had some difficulty opening the door but managed to open it and push it with his free hand and carry Ikkaku inside to put him on the bed somewhat roughly. He wasn't strong enough to hold Ikkaku long enough to manage putting him down gently, and was already panting. The idea of training him seemed all the more impossible to Ikkaku as he looked at his boyfriend and he sighed.

"S-sorry, Ikkaku, I-"

"Thanks for the help," he said to cut the unwanted apology short.

Hanataro visibly relaxing, knowing Ikkaku wasn't upset with him acting rashly. He went to shut the door, then found a chair and sat next to the bed, facing his boyfriend with a tentative smile.

"Hey," Ikkaku began awkwardly. "Yumichika said that I... Well, the reason that you were actin' weird earlier was 'cause you weren't strong." Ikkaku had every intention of weaseling out of that in any way possible during this conversation. With someone like Hanataro, it should be a breeze.

It was fair to say that Hanataro was expecting Yumichika to tell Ikkaku of their conversation, but he was a little surprised that it would be brought up now, when Ikkaku was so tired. He wondered maybe if his difficulty carrying Ikkaku reminded him? "Yeah. I couldn't do anything on my mission," Ikkaku regretted bringing it up immediately when he saw how upset Hanataro was over it. What was Yumichika telling him the other day? To use tact and grace with words? He should ask how the hell to do that. "I really wanted to do something to help. But it didn't matter."

"You were up against that freak of nature's test dummy, weren't you?"

"Huh?"

"Mayuri's thing... That whatever it was that he made."

"Yeah."

"Then what the hell are you upset about? Everyone was dead before you got there, hell, they were dead before I left the place," Hanataro lowered his head and Ikkaku thought maybe a less blunt method would do wonders. He didn't know how to go about that, though, so he stuck to what he knew with a softer voice. Until he worked out something with learning "tact and grace", whatever the hell Yumichika even meant by that. "I mean, really. You should be happy 'cause next time you go on a mission you'll be stronger from this one and you'll have a chance to make a difference."

"I won't be stronger, though. I'm just not suited for combat, so no one will even try to train me-"

"No one?"

"No one," Hanataro repeated, kind of confused that Ikkaku would ask that. He of all people must be aware of his boyfriend's ineptitude when it came to fighting.

"So you've asked?"

"I already know – I mean, who wants to train someone as weak as me?"

"Ya got a point there," Ikkaku said. The guilt, though it was new or at least so rare that he didn't remember the last time he felt it since getting together with Hanataro, was starting to make Ikkaku forget his wish to not have to train Hanataro. Or, not forget it, but push it to the side at least. "No one, I guess. Unless they wanted a challenge."

"Do you know someone?" Hanataro asked, his big blue eyes looking at Ikkaku, who had a cocky grin painted on his face.

"And Yumichika says I'm slow. Hanataro, I'll train you. Provided you promise me a few things."

"Anything," the smaller man smiled ear to ear. There were a lot of things that Ikkaku wanted to use the clearance of anything for, but Yumichika's voice was scolding him without the body having to be around.

"You're gonna work hard."

"Of course."

"You ain't gonna give up after a few beatings."

"I-i guess."

"And ya aren't gonna say sorry every other word."

"Okay," Hanataro smiled a bit.

"One last thing."

"Huh?"

Ikkaku sat up, though it was somewhat difficult since he was so tired, and pulled Hanataro in for a kiss that was reluctantly returned, and when they parted the raven haired man was blushing bright red. "Let's meet after work tomorrow."

"I-i... All right." Hanataro was surprised. Sure, that wasn't their first kiss, but it was the first one that occurred while they were both in their right minds. Unless of course Ikkaku was tired enough to be hallucinating. Either way, it caught Hanataro off guard.

"In the mean time, you should probably get some stuff in to prepare ya. It'll be a pain in the ass if you're really sore, so I'll go easy on ya. Three laps around Seireitei."

"What?" Hanataro asked as all the romantic feelings of the moment left while Ikkaku pulled the blanket over his head to protect him from the light of mid-afternoon.

"Come on, ya said you wouldn't complain 'bout this. So don't complain and go run. Then do a hundred push-ups and you're done. My Captain's given me that time twenty just ta keep me busy while he takes a nap."

"I-ikkaku!"

"Shoo," Ikkaku urged. "Then when you're done I won't have anything else for ya today."

"But-"

"No buts, so get movin'!"

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Ha ha. Yumichika should have taught Ikkaku how to be romantic before he even allowed any of this to even begin. But what fun is that?