Chapter 11

Next day

Kyouraku

He woke up, as always, by a book hitting his head. 'Captain! Get up and work!' He fought the urge to bark at her to let him sleep, since he was ill after all, because he realized before opening his mouth that that would not be nice, and she didn't know anyways.
He sat up slowly, giving her a smile, or as close as he could manage, and answered 'Sure Nanao-chan. I'm coming.'
She noticed his discomfort, and scoffed at him. 'It's your own fault for getting that drunk yesterday.' before pointing to a glass of water and a pill against headaches on the table and leaving him to get ready.

So she thought he had a hangover. Well, that was probably good.

He got ready slowly, checking his body while doing so. Headache minimal, easy to ignore. Joints hurting badly on all four of his extremities, rather annoying, but it got slightly better as he got dresses.
His mind was working well enough, but his mood seemed rather… jumpy right now.
That too got better, when he remembered the last evening, but thinking of Ukitake was not as calming as it usually was, as he noticed his mind turning again to all the things he had not done.
He sighed, pushed all of that away as well as he could, and went to his office.

After working some hours, he excused himself, and went to talk to Katen Kyokotsu.
He entered his inner world with some more difficulties than usually, but he was not sure if that was because of the illness or his unrest.
The usually blooming plum tree looked like it was close to wilting, and his Zanpakuto were waiting for him, both looking at him. 'How are you, dear ones?' he asked, forcing himself to be calm.
'We cannot tell anything specifically wrong with us, but we are incredibly uncomfortable, and don't seem to be able to change that.' Katen reported, serious for once.
He wouldn't have needed them to say it, he saw Kyokotsu's hands and feet twitching slightly, like she wanted to move, and Katen making a fist with her left hand, constantly tensing and untensing it.

She continued 'We are trying to shield you from us, but we are very unfocused, and it is not working. We seem to be less restless when you are near Ukitake, and thus near Sogyo no Kotowari, but then there are other problems. Because then we feel calm, but really want to merge with him, and I think that is affecting you as well. We are not directly causing your head and limp pain, that is probably a side effect from the imbalance we feel and thus push on you.'
He smiled at them. 'Thank you. Is there something I can do to help that does not conflict with my plan?' he was sensing their distress, and hating it.
'No. We do not know what is ultimately causing this, so we don't know how to change it. Thank you Shunsui.' Katen answered, giving him a smile. Kyokotsu nodded and bowed to him.
He sat down on the grass. 'Stop that girls, you are being silly.'
'No, you are. Because you know that we are the cause of this, and you still feel bad for not sleeping with him, even though that was your decision from the beginning, and a rather well though through one compared to your usual actions I might add.' Katen sat down beside him, now tipping the ground rhythmically with her fingertips.
He acknowledged her with a smile, knowing he would not change his mind anyways.

After some time, he suddenly asked: 'If I am in a coma, you will be unaware as well right? You won't get worse while I sleep the time away?'
'Don't worry. Of course we will.' she answered quickly. 'Is that a hope, or a fact?' he inquired.
She sighed. 'We think we will be unaware, as we are when you are unconscious. Of course we cannot be certain, since we have not tried this before. We also don't have any information on which to predict whether the illness will proceed or not while we are in a coma, so it is pointless to worry about it. Now stop fretting, damn it.'
He didn't comment, and they sat in silence for some time, before Kyouraku left his inner world. It was time for lunch with Ukitake.

Ukitake

Kyouraku had seemed slightly distracted during lunch, and Ukitake had asked if everything was fine. Kyouraku had answered yes, and smiled at him.
Ukitake wondered if one of his division members was having problems with this, and he was worrying about them. Maybe Nanao-chan had gotten infected? He dropped it, and they talked about other things.

In the evening, they meet again for dinner, and then walked through the Seireitei again. 'Would you like to train again, Kyouraku?' he asked him.
They hadn't trained in the last few days, and Ukitake felt slightly nervous about the closeness it would bring, but he knew it would calm them, so it was a good idea anyways.

Kyouraku

That seemed like a great idea, since it would calm them and… it definitely was not a good idea. They would probably do the mirroring forms they usually did, and Kyouraku never felt as close to Ukitake as he did during that.
Either Ukitake would notice that he was off, since it would be impossible to hide during that kind of training, and start asking more persistent questions.
Or Kyouraku would do something stupid, like trying to kiss him or something.
So he regretfully shook his head. 'Let's not train today, we should walk around and talk to more people. Another time.' Ukitake nodded, accepting his decision.

Next day

Ukitake

When he woke up checking how his body was holding up, he noticed immediately that he felt off. His head hurt too… but it was not his sickness that was acting up, so Ukitake decided not to jump to conclusions and got up as usual. He greeted everyone on his way to his office, and smiled at Rukia when they greeted each other. Though he skipped breakfast, just cause he didn't feel like eating.

Still, when captain Unohana called him outside to report how his division members were doing, he was not surprised when she calmly informed him that he had been infected.
'I understand.' he replied just as calmly, and calculated in his head.
'The day after tomorrow, I will come to your division in the morning, if that's alright? So you can put me under.' Most people were fine for 3-4 days before loosing control, but it would not hurt to play it safe.
She returned his gaze. 'I see. I will make some time at 10 o'clock then. Please contact me if you feel you need assistance before then.'
He nodded and smiled at her gratefully. 'Of course.'

He sat down on the porch to consider his next course of action. Unohana would inform head captain Yamamoto after he was in a coma, and also the rest of the captains. He considered telling Kyouraku… would he understand?

After considering how he felt at the moment, and some more deliberation, he made his decisions. Today, he would spend as a last day in peace with everyone. Then he would tell Rukia that he had been infected tomorrow, and spend the day organizing his office, and the day after go to division four.
He would not tell Kyouraku. He could read him too well, and Ukitake didn't know how to address the subject without giving too much away. He decided to write a letter, to apologize for hiding it at least.
His head already felt strange, like he was getting mentally dizzy, and he wondered for a second if he would be even able to hide it from them for a single day.
Then he straightened in determination, and went back into his office, to continue working as usually.

Kyouraku came to get Ukitake for lunch, and they spend the hour sitting on a table in front of the canteen. Ukitake had trouble focusing for long, but that was fine since every few minutes some other Member of his division would come up to talk to them.
Constantly changing topic meant that it would be less noticeable if he was distracted. And he was quite distracted, having to keep himself from reaching out to touch Kyouraku in some way continuously. It was… unusual. He was used to being drawn to the other mentally, wanting to spend time in his presence, but this was rather different. And not something he was used to at all.
Still, it was an enjoyable meal. Ukitake also got the impression that Kyouraku was slightly agitated as well, but that was probably just him projecting his own state of mind on others.

After the lunch break they separated again, Ukitake finishing his work in his office, and then walked through his division, talking to people again.
He noticed how he already anticipated the evening, when he would meet Kyouraku again, and how his thoughts kept focusing on him.
It might be a good idea for him to avoid Kyouraku tomorrow, since he seemed to be loosing his mind at a steady rate.

Still, today was his last day, and he intended to enjoy it. So he set off to Kyouraku's office a little earlier than usual, deciding to see if Kyouraku was ready to go have dinner yet.