Chapter Seventeen:
(Jūshirō's POV)
I walked down the winding roads of the Seireitei with Heather by my side. I was glad I ran into her, she looked so upset when we bumped into each other, almost quite literally. I had offered her to come with me to Ugendō for a little while to calm down. She was hesitant but had come with me anyway. We had talked about a lot of things and I had eventually wound up asking what had happened to get her so upset. "It's a long story, all these guys are just acting like jerks." she admitted softly. "I thought you liked Shunsui, he's never behaved wrongfully to a woman." "I honestly don't know what to think of him." Heather blurted. That testimony threw me off, I did not expect her to say that. "What do you mean?" I could not help but ask. I thought those two were getting along great. My new friend sighed and acted as if she did not want to answer me. "He's great as far as friends go, but he's…" Heather stopped and sighed as if she did not know what to say. "He's?" I prodded gently. "I think I would be into him more if he were less… you know." she tried to explain and finished lamely. I could not help but to reply, "I don't know, Shunsui never tried to seduce me." To my surprise, Heather burst into a fit of laughter, almost falling over. "I wish half the Bleach pairing shippers heard that!"
Did that mean what I think it does? Surely no one would think…"What do you mean by that exactly?" I inquired, cutting my own thought off before I could finish. Heather just smiled at me but did not answer then reached over and pulled me into an embrace. "I love you, man." "O—okay." I replied uneasily as I pat her back softly. Where was she going with all of this? I hope she was not dropping Shunsui because of…me. Heather pulled away as suddenly as she embraced me and said, "I always wanted to do that, you always seemed like a huggable person." Oh, that makes sense. "So… if it's not Shunsui that upset you, who did?" I asked her trying to get off of the subject as fast as possible. She calmed down and looked at me as if wondering if she could trust me or not. "It's Byakuya and Rose." Heather confessed. Captain Kuchiki's grandson I could understand a little but her teacher on top of that. She must be having bad luck with men. "What did they do?" I inquired, curiosity getting the best of me. "It's what they didn't do." she told me. That statement piqued my interest and I did my best to encourage her to continue, "Oh?"
"I just feel like they want me to pour my heart out to them but they can't talk to me about anything on their minds." she replied in a huff. "I'm afraid you're going to have to elaborate." I responded. "Byakuya had been bottling stuff up for a while and he finally blew up on me after I told him that I went on a date." Heather started and continued, "He finally admitted he liked me… like that. I didn't see it coming until Yoruichi pointed it out to me." "Well, he's young; he doesn't know how to handle things like this yet." I told her. The poor boy must be distraught right now. "I know. I tried to let him down softly, but I don't know how much good that did." my friend stated somewhat sadly. It must be really tough for her as well, she's so different. That major difference is bound to catch a lot of unwanted attention. I only hope that this is the only kind of attention she'll get. "Don't worry, he'll get over it." I assured then questioned, "Now what is this about Rōjūrō?"
"I don't know, it just seems like he's not telling me something and it seems important." Heather sighed softly then continued, "It bites 'cause I don't know if he's mad at me or anything and I can't get him off my mind on top of that. I mean, I was hoping that going out with Shunsui would help." "You mean you're interested in your teacher?" I could not control the question that spilled out of my mouth. That information shocked me more than anything. Heather nodded miserably, "I know it's wrong, but I can't help it, and I can't just go out and tell him because everything will get weird after that." That does put her in quite a spot. "Well why do you like him?" I questioned trying to find a way to talk her into just deducing this as spending too much time with him. "I don't know, he's got a certain charm to him, he's a sweet guy, artistic, it doesn't help that he's a gorgeous man on top of that." "I don't pay that much attention to physical attributes." I replied feeling awkward. "I know, I'd think it were weird if you did after being so shocked about the idea of you and Shunsui getting together." Heather laughed. "Let's never speak of that again." I half joked but could not have been more serious. "Okay." she giggled.
I looked at the clock and exclaimed, "Ooh!" "What's wrong?" she questioned and then made a face when she caught wind of what I was looking at, "Ew!" One O'clock in the morning and Heather had not alerted anyone that she was here. "Ginrei must be worried about you." I stated what felt like the obvious. She nodded lightly, acknowledging that I had said something. "We have a couple of options, we could just send a message to Kuchiki Manor and you could sleep in a spare room or I could walk you home." "I think I should go home. It wouldn't look right if I stayed over." Heather replied and I had a feeling that she was right. I stood up and said, "Alright, we might as well get moving now before someone forms a search party." Heather chuckled and followed my lead. We left quickly and had been travelling for a little while and when we were half-way to Kuchiki Manor I heard someone shout, "Heather!" I turned to face the voice to find Rōjūrō making his way to us. He suddenly scooped her into an embrace and kissed her deeply.
I looked away from the two awkwardly, this felt like a delicate moment and I did not really belong here. The younger captain pulled away from her and demanded, "Where have you been?! You scared me half to death!" "It's alright, Rōjūrō. She was with me." I informed the Third Division Captain for her, "Heather and I had quite the conversation, ironically, with you involved." Ōtoribashi turned to me and replied sheepishly, "Good things, I hope." Heather seemed at a loss for words at what had just happened. "Spoot!" she blurted out, seemingly the only intelligent thing that she could say while nodding. Rōjūrō smiled softly at her and I could not help but to grin at her antics. The younger captain's face suddenly dropped and he sighed, "You know what this means now, Ukitake." "What?" Heather asked looking between the two of us with confusion. "Rose can't be your teacher any longer." I replied softly. "Then…what's going to happen now?" Heather inquired with a hint of worry in her voice. Now that was a very good question.