Author's Note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU.


Be Glad You Got a Man

Retsu Unohana was beyond tempted to lean over and kiss Jyuushiro senseless. The only thing that was stopping her was the fear that she would ruin the relationship they had and drive him away. But that fear was currently having some trouble winning out over the rest of her emotions. It had been a hell of a day. Retsu had lost two of her patients. There had been a major snafu with paperwork that she had spent nearly four hours sorting out, and then she'd had a meeting with the police only to find out that they had nothing new yet. She hadn't exactly been in a great mood when she came home.

She didn't know how Jyuu had known, but somehow he had. Within moments of her arriving home, dinner in the form of Chinese take out had arrived. After they'd eaten, Retsu had changed out of her work clothes and wandered into the kitchen to find there was an unopened pint of Cherry Garcia in the freezer. With the ice cream carton in hand, Retsu had settled in front of the TV with Jyuushiro's collection of Rick Steve's Europe DVDs. Then she sat back, at her ice cream, and let herself decompress.

And Jyuushiro had seemed to know exactly when she needed to be left alone and when to provide her with company. It was extremely nice. There had been very few people in her life (friends or lovers) who had understood when she needed space and when she needed someone else's presence. It also helped that Jyuu seemed to share her ideas of what made for good mindless entertainment. And there was something extremely peaceful and soothing about being curled up on the couch with this man, both of them just content to sit here and be. Now if only he shared her feelings.