It was pretty much pointless to have taken a shower in the first place… he ended up having to take a second one just a few hours later.

But that subtle yet satisfying groan that left her when she stretched right when he reappeared in the bedroom once more was something to take into account; her purple eyes were lazy as she barely opened them at his arrival, the corners of her lips lifting just ever so slightly. What part of the covers hadn't been kicked off the side of the bed scarcely covered her body and revealed the smooth skin she often liked to show off.

"Well I'm looking forward to breaking in that new mattress when you get it."

"And then I'll have to immediately replace it." he chuckled lightly enough as he pushed himself out of the doorway; fingers moving to brush aside the wet locks of his hair. He now had about half an hour before he had to return to the hospital, which was by no means a rush… it just kind of showed how easily time passed with her around. "Should I even bother asking if you're going to show up to work or not?"

"I'll be there until noon." she answered as she stretched once more before she slowly rolled over onto her side; one hand taking a hold of the covers as she casually pulled them closer around her. "I have a date scheduled around one that I'm going to need to take time off for."

"A date?" he repeated as he made his way over to his closet for the second time that morning. "With who?"

"Tatsuki and I were texting each other while you were in the shower." she answered. "We finally decided on a time for us getting together and figured hell, we're not busy today."

"Even though you were scheduled for a full day, right?"

"Oh, details aren't important, don't cramp on my much needed girl time." she remarked. "Besides, the few times we've run into each other, she seems like a really nice person… wouldn't hurt for me to branch out into your group of friends, right?"

"I don't know, sounds a bit frightening if you ask me. I mean, me introducing you to my friends was a big enough of a step but now you want to hang out with them?"

"I'd offer to let you hang out with mine-"

"That's fine, I'm not interesting." he quickly replied, shuffling through his shirts once more before he pulled one loose and slipped it on. "In fact, I think I would be just fine without knowing your friends; I already know quite a few of them very well."

She chuckled once more and slowly rolled over to watch him get dressed; watching as he slipped into the usual outfit he wore day in and day out. Even if she saw it everyday, she still loved the look of him all dolled up like that- although he certainly looked much better in a full suit. What was that saying, something like 'tuxedos to women was like lingerie to men?' Either way, it was completely true in her opinion. "What tie are you going to wear today?"

"I wear almost the same one everyday."

"You should wear the silver one then."

"It doesn't match with this jacket."

"Oh, but I thought you wore the same one everyday." she repeated as she slowly pushed herself up and away from the covers below; one hand moving tiredly to brush her tangled bangs out of her face. She didn't attempt to keep the sheets from tumbling away from her bare skin and simply let the thin material fold into a mess into her lap.

"I wear the black one, not the silver one; that goes with my suit, not with my work outfit." he corrected, turning back to figure out if he had left his shoes in here or in the living room somewhere. He paused briefly as he watched her stifle a short yawn before she slowly inched her way out of bed, causing for the sheets to drag themselves away from her skin. If he stayed looking much longer though… neither of them would get to work on time. "I'll make some coffee."

"Pft, mood killer."

"I've got important calls today, can't miss them like the last ones." he started, watching as she stepped into the bathroom to take her turn in the shower. "Besides, I already answered your call."

"Only because I left a dozen messages."

"Oh I know." the words left him in a brief chuckle as he touched at the sore area along the back of his neck.

Making his way back out into the corridor, it felt like he was simply going through a session of déjà vu but instead of going towards the front room, he turned towards the kitchen instead. There was still a cold pot from the night before, he guessed Cirucci never got around to actually finishing it. Dumping out the remains, he filled it up once more before he reset the machine and started on a fresher pot. A brief frown caught onto his lips as he noticed the slight disarray of the counters before he moved to clean them down next.

He guessed work had been so consuming- along with Cirucci taking up what little time remained- he just hadn't gotten around to keeping the house in order. Well… if work went easy this weekend, he had some plans ahead for him.

Hopefully Millianne would have that appointment list printed out for him today so he could be sure to attend to all of his patients today; the last time he accidentally looked one over… well, it wasn't pretty and the hospital waiting room might've suffered some property damage. He knew about Mr. Henderson's hip ordeal, and he should really look into getting that matter with the city solved today; he wasn't sure how to go about it, but it was better than letting it simmer about.

Sighing, he crossed his arms and leaned back against the counter for a moment, taking in the quiet moment as best he could for now; it wasn't very often he got one, so he was quick to take advantage of it. If the day permitted it, maybe his work schedule would be lighter than it has been recently… then he could catch up on all of his paperwork and get his reports done. That was wishful thinking though.

"Ah, well that was relaxing while it lasted."

And there went the quiet moment.

He glanced up at the voice and watched as she slowly stepped out from the hallway; hands busy tying her still wet locks up into a small clip to keep them from dangling into her face. She had slipped on a new outfit for the day although it followed the style of her usual pencil skirt and tight blouse with a curious plunge. She always chose white although always added in a splash of purple to make things interesting, tying her purple heels to a matching choker and bracelet combination. He supposed he could see why patients and workers alike at the hospital had a difficult time paying attention when she was at the front desk; she played into her looks and threw in an attitude to match, making her almost cunning and predator-like to anyone who didn't know how she worked.

Luckily he had a few months of experience though and wasn't so easily fallen to her look.

"Well that was quick."

"I got shampoo in my eye." she replied. "It was painful and ruined the whole experience for me."

"How unfortunate."

"Don't patronize me."

Chuckling briefly, he pushed himself from the counter and moved to grab two cups from the cabinet behind him. "Come on, we're taking the coffee to go."

"Do we have to? Can't we just waste a few more minutes, get there late and tell everyone the alarm clock was off?" she offered, watching as he split the coffee pot between the two cups before he offered one of them to her, which she gladly took.

"I have a full day ahead of me, can't really afford to look the other way with it." he remarked. "Besides, you need to get your hours in before you take the afternoon shift off."

"Ugh, fine."


"Good thing you got here when you did, Mr. Henderson's going to be in in about fifteen minutes." Millianne started about as soon as he got to his office door; he guessed the woman covered the nightshift and was working only part of a morning shift to cover her remaining patients. He couldn't really remember what schedule she had signed on for but knew she didn't really seem to care with either morning or night shift.

"That'll give me enough time to send an email off to the city." Ishida remarked as he fumbled with the keys in his jacket for a moment before he managed to pull them loose. "On second thought, I probably need to give myself a good hour of prep time ahead of it to make sure I don't say something I might regret later."

"Or you could tell them that you're engaged but there's no wedding in the immediate future." she reminded. "I know a few people who were engaged for years before they finally walked down the aisle."

"See, it's the whole 'walking down the aisle' part that I don't want to experience at any time, near or distant future."

The older woman gave a brief chuckle as she continued on her way, carrying a bundle of folders in her arm as she usual did at this hour. "What is up with men not wanting to marry these days?"

"It's mostly the women involved." Albert butted in as he nearly ran into the woman while he was coming down from the opposite end of the corridor; seemingly busy enough in his papers to not see where he was going, but still able to listen in on the conversation. "No offense."

"You know that phrase is useless when the first half of your statement is already offensive enough." Ishida commented before he pushed the door aside and stepped into the room. "And no, it has nothing to do with that, I just don't see myself wearing a ring."

"You could put the ring on a necklace."

"Shut up Albert."

"Necklaces are in this year."

"Don't you start either, Millianne."


She ended up wasting as much time as she could at the front desk, doing as little as she could in the few hours she had left in the day. All she had to do was wait until noon and then… she was off for a minor shopping spree. After batting around a few ideas all this morning, she and Tatsuki ended up settling with simply stepping out to the nearby shopping center for a few hours. While the two of them had only met up a few times before, they had a fun time talking and sharing stories with one another. They figured sharing a day with one another would be fun enough since they both had difficult working schedules and they could probably use the day off. She wasn't going to hesitate, she was always up for time off from work and she'd be the first to admit she didn't have all that many female friends- especially not now.

Hmm, she wondered if she could convince him to let her go an hour early for the hell of it.

He was apparently going to be busy all day with patients, which wasn't new but that usually meant she'd have to deal with the paperwork and setting up follow up appointments. If he could just write them down though and hand them to her later, she could put them in the computer and send out voicemails or something. That was a good excuse not to work now though, which she was all up for.

Picking up the phone, she dialed in his office number and waited briefly for the other line to answer- although she didn't consider if he was off with another patient though. A faint click said that she had managed to get him when he was still at his desk.

"Stop calling me when I'm just a short walk down the hallway." he sighed. It was barely noon but his tone already sounded as though he was exhausted.

"Yeah but if I walk myself down to your office… I might take advantage of a closed door." she remarked as she traced a small circle onto her desk with the eraser end of her pencil. "Hey look, it's kind of slow up here, can I just leave now and make up for it another day?"

"Considering you took part of the day off without really giving the twenty-four hours call ahead of time, I don't see how I can let you take an extra hour off as well." he started.

She gave out a playful scoff and a roll of her eyes. "I thought sleeping with the boss would make my job easier."

"Please tell me you didn't just say that in the waiting room."

"Oh please, no one heard me. And even if they did… what's it matter? You should be proud of yourself for getting someone like me." she retorted, chuckling lightly at the sound of his faint groan on the other end. "So is it a yes or a yes?"

"I don't know… I'm still kind of at odds with this whole thing."

"Really? We're going to play Mr. Conspiracy Theorist now? After everything we've dealt with up to this point, you're worried most about me hanging out with one of your friends?" she remarked, giving off a subtle click of her tongue at the end of her words. "Look honey… we're just going to shop around for a bit, do girl talk, maybe get our nails done, that's is."

"… Tatsuki is not the type of girl to get her nails done."

"Well then I can just get my nails done and she can laugh at me during the process. How about I buy a nice piece of lingerie for the both of us-"

"Okay, okay, you can take the extra hour off, just please stop talking like that in the waiting room; I have to deal with the city enough as it is, I don't need someone to turn in an awkward complaint about the front secretary."

She chuckled lightly and tapped the pencil in hand. "Thanks sweetheart."

"Don't mention it- and I really mean that."


The shopping center itself wasn't all that impressive but it was enough to be entertaining for a few hours, just to waste the time. She remembered shopping here a few times with Nell and Harribel… although at the moment, she supposed she really didn't want to remember that. Come to think of it, she didn't think she had ever been here without either of those two with her- actually she did come here once before with Szayel but that trip didn't last long; she was glad for that.

Humming lightly, she made her way down the mostly empty walkway and casually skirted the few lingering groups with her eyes just in case the woman was standing near one. On second thought, she hadn't thought to call the woman ahead of time or even set up a place to meet at… she usually drove with whoever she was hanging out with, so there was no need to search around for each other. Man, she really should've thought this one out, but judging from the crowd, the woman couldn't be that difficult to find in the first place. She just had to look for a short, black-haired athletic woman… it'd be like looking for Loly, except Tatsuki would more than likely have clothes on.

"Hey Cirucci, over here."

She paused briefly at the call and looked around until she spotted the woman walking towards her. Her dark hair was still wet and weighed down from a recent shower. A loose pair of sweatpants hung to her waist and fluttered down to her comfortable-looking slip-ons. She had slipped into a black leather, corset-looking piece that looked a bit more like her usual type of wear; it certainly helped to accent her chest and slender waist, as well as her toned shoulders and arms.

And suddenly, she felt a little overdressed for this occasion.

Tatsuki frowned briefly before she gave a short chuckle, one hand moving to ruffle her still heavy locks. "I was going to say that my last pair of jeans were still in the washer but… I think you'd still make me feel underdressed even with them."

"Well, I just snuck out from work and barely had time to get to my car, let alone find a change of clothes." Cirucci remarked. "We can always just buy a new outfit here anyways."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." she nodded. "Where do you wanna go first?"

"There's a great store on the second floor that has an amazing shoe selection, let's go there."

Out of the few people who were here, both she and Tatsuki seemed to be the loudest ones- which she guessed really wasn't much of a surprise; she was pretty loud by herself and could probably get away with having a conversation by herself. But Tatsuki seemed to match her easily and the two of them shared the few pieces of information about their days so far.

"So I managed to talk him into letting me go even if I was on schedule for the rest of the day." Cirucci remarked, slightly riding the railing of the escalator as it took them to the second floor. "I know, not as entertaining as your full morning judo contest."

"Actually we just had training this morning, we won't be hosting another tournament for a few more weeks; I'll be fighting if you want to drop by." Tatsuki offered.

"Of course… there's nothing I love more than seeing a bunch of people beat the shit out of each other in a glorified ring." she humored with a brief chuckle, sliding back to her feet just as the escalator reached the top. "Actually, I do enjoy a good fight every now and again; I've got a friend, Dordoni, he used to participate in bare knuckles matches in back alleys. Really fun to watch but you gotta be fast when the cops show up and you gotta be quick to stitch those wounds up too."

The darker-haired woman gave a brief shake of her head and followed her off the top step and around the corner railing. "Did you ever participate in some? You've got some pretty slick arms, those don't always come naturally- especially for a secretary."

She chuckled briefly and gave a slight roll of her eyes. "Well… uh, let's just say that being a hospital secretary was not my first job. I took some exotic lessons and may have drabbled in the experience of becoming a dominatrix…"

"Are you serious?" Tatsuki questioned, giving off her own laugh. "Well, I could kind of see it. Do you have your own costume and whip?"

"Just the whip."

"That is… very interesting. I did not know I would ever discover something like that about you."

"Well hey, who knows, maybe some poor sucker out there will recognize me as making a test dummy out of him."

"… Figuratively?"

"Who knows."