A few days later, Muguruma was visiting the Kenkou Rando Spa, which he thought he totally deserved, given that his lieutenant had been especially annoying this day. The sun was already setting, and he had planned to just soak in the hot onsen for a while and have a tea in the relaxation room afterwards. At this time, there weren't many other people around, and he hadn't met anyone he knew, which he found quite agreeable. He really wasn't in the mood to talk.
Damn, if he could only figure out how to get that annoying Mashiro Kuna to shut the fuck up, if only for ten seconds!
With a relieved sigh, he let his body immerge into the hot, steaming water and laid his head comfortably back against the edge of the bath. He stayed immobile like this, listening to the distant sounding voices of other guests, somewhere inside the spa buildings, until he felt his tensed, stiff muscles slowly relax. That was more like it...
When he opened his eyes again, the night had fallen, and the area around the onsen was only sparsely lit with a few dim lanterns. He already felt a bit light-headed – an effect of the hot water – and was thinking about leaving soon, when the fusuma of a nearby spa building were sled open, light falling on the grass outside and letting it seem green again. It had been an employee of the spa who had opened the sliding doors, now moving back inside and asking: "Is that better?"
"Yes. A lot better, thank you."
Muguruma instantly recognised the second voice – it was that of Jūshirō Ukitake. Curious, he craned his neck to get a better look inside.
Obviously, this was a massage room, since Ukitake lay face down on a high lounger, while the girl from before was applying some oil to his back. He was naked, except for a small towel that covered his bottom. It felt almost like a shock, seeing the other man, unexpectedly, laid bare like this, thinking of how his body was always hidden under the many layers of clothing that comprised the traditional captain's uniform. But even from the distance, Muguruma found that Ukitake's physique was just like he had imagined it to be. He was not very muscular, but his body was well trained and perfectly in shape nonetheless. His skin was quite fair and seemed very smooth and virtually hairless; right now it was all shiny with the oil the girl had spread during the massage.
Muguruma spontaneously decided to prolong his stay in the hot water – he wanted to enjoy that view a little bit longer. But lucky for his circulation, the girl was finished already fifteen minutes later, asking if everything had been all right.
"Yes, it was very relaxing. Thank you", the white-haired man answered with his soft voice, undoubtedly giving her one of his infamous smiles that made all women blush, like she did right now.
"You're welcome." With this, she bowed slightly and left the room. After she had closed the door, Ukitake slowly sat up straight on the lounger, his back turned towards Muguruma, who was still watching his every move from his hiding point. When he was done with extensively stretching his arms and yawning discreetly, Ukitake got up and walked towards the door, giving the man hiding in the onsen a full view of his naked backside, for almost five glorious seconds.
What a nice ass... Muguruma felt the heat rising to his spinning head. He really needed to get out of the water...
If he hurried, he'd maybe even meet Ukitake in the dressing room!
Spurred by that thought, he climbed out of the onsen and hurried through the shower room in record time, just to stroll casually into the dressing room, greeting Ukitake as if their meeting was completely coincidental. They seemed to be the last customers, since the spacious room was empty except for the two of them. Jackpot.
"Muguruma-san", Ukitake said, flashing him a big smile. He had been drying his wet body with a towel, which he now held in front of himself to discreetly cover his private parts. "What a surprise! I've never seen you in the spa before."
"Good evening, Ukitake-san", Muguruma smiled back, not even trying to hide his nakedness. And he could have sworn that, for a split second, Ukitake had been checking him out, too. "Yeah, I rarely come here. I think one shouldn't indulge in such luxuries too often."
They both carried on to dry and dress themselves while they talked.
"So, today you've allowed yourself a special reward?", the white-haired man asked.
"Yeah, today was especially annoying."
Muguruma tried really hard to peek inconspicuously, but Ukitake kept turning his back towards him. Which wasn't too bad, either.
Damn, I'd like to smack that...
"I know days like that", the older man said, chuckling softly.
"Any plans for tonight?", Muguruma asked, offhandedly.
"Well, yes. I'm going to have dinner with my hopefully soon-to-be lieutenant and a few of the seated officers."
"Sounds like fun."
"We will be talking about squad coordination and politics, mostly."
"Yeah... at least there will be dinner", Muguruma grinned.
"Jūshirō~", they heard a cheerful voice call from outside the door, "are you in there?"
Ukitake just rolled his eyes, but smiled. "I'm here, Shunsui", he answered, "I'll be done in a second."
Nonetheless, the door was torn open, and Kyōraku stuck his head in.
"Jyuush", he began, but fell silent again when he noticed the other man in the room, before he started to grin. "Muguruma-taicho, what a surprise."
"Good evening, Kyōraku-taicho."
"Jyuush", he continued, "me and Hirako are gonna meet up with Shihoin later, wanna join us at the bar after your dinner?"
"Well..."
"Of course", Kyōraku said, facing Muguruma and smiling, "you are invited to join us, too, Muguruma-san. The more, the merrier, as they say."
"I don't know when we will finish dinner", Ukitake replied, slipping into his captain's haori, "but I will join you if it's not too late."
"Great", Kyōraku grinned, "what about you, Muguruma-san? You'll come too, right?"
When Muguruma regretfully woke up the next morning, he felt like someone had driven a long, rusty iron nail right through his head.
"Damn you, Kyōraku", he mumbled in a hoarse voice, rubbing his hands through his face and carefully feeling whether there was an actual nail stuck in his skull. There was none.
How the fuck had he ended up like this?!
The evening before, he had originally agreed to the meeting because he thought it wouldn't be such a bad idea to get in touch with Ukitake's best friend, and trying to get some insider-information about the white-haired man out of him. Plus, with the chance of Ukitake himself joining them at a later point, the evening had seemed quite promising. The plan had been absolutely foolproof. Until...
Until that damned Kyōraku and that damned Shihoin had drunk him under the table - skilfully.
He remembered them filling up his sake cup time after time, he remembered some singing and laughter was involved, and he remembered drinking sake right from the bottle. And then... nothing. Groaning, he tried to slowly get up, but a wave of nausea forced him back onto his futon.
Fuck you, Kyōraku.
He tried to remember if he had embarrassed himself in front of Ukitake, but he didn't even know whether the captain of the 13th squad had showed up at all. Hopefully not.
Wait... How the hell did I get home...?
Muguruma lifted up his blanket, just to discover that he wasn't wearing his shihakusho any more, but the simple blue yukata that he usually wore to sleep.
He was pretty sure that in the state in which he had been the night before, he hadn't been able to change into his sleepwear all by himself, let alone find his way home. Which he took as further proof that he had, in fact, embarrassed the shit out of himself last night.
Kyōraku was so going to die for this...
"Bless you", Ukitake said, after Kyōraku had sneezed. They sat on the rooftop of one of the 8th squad's building, where Ukitake had found his friend drinking tea.
"Thank you."
"How was your little get-together last night?"
"Oh, it was so funny", Kyōraku answered and laughed at the memory, "a pity you didn't come, in the end."
"Why, what was so funny?"
"Well, apparently Muguruma felt challenged when Shihoin made fun of him for rejecting drinks, and things went a little bit out of hand..."
"Muguruma actually came, and he got drunk?", Ukitake repeated, not quite believing the news.
"Oh yeah, they both got drunk all right..."
"And you were completely innocent, of course."
"Of course! You know me, Jyuush. I was the one who dragged both of them home, after they fell asleep under the table. Or should I rather say, passed out."
Ukitake just raised one eyebrow at this, and Kyōraku laughed.
"Don't worry, Jyuush", he said, "I won't tell you any more details. I'm sure you wouldn't want Muguruma-san's honour to be stained in your eyes."
"Why is it that you always try to imply there's something between me and Muguruma-san? I hardly even know him. Besides, I'm easily twice his age!"
"Because he's interested in you, and you like him, too", Kyōraku stated plainly. "It's only a matter of time."
"Shunsui, you are nuts."
"Oh, so am I? Then why was Muguruma on about pestering me with questions about you, yesterday, asking all kinds of stuff about your personal life – and especially your love life?"
Kyōraku watched with satisfaction how Ukitake's face dropped upon that last remark.
"He was not!", the white-haired man insisted, although not sounding very confident.
"Oh yes, he was. But don't tell him I told you. He'd kill me. Well, at least he'd try."
"What..." Ukitake didn't know what else to say.
Kyōraku was seemingly enjoying his friend's confusion and gave an amused chuckle.
"Ah, playing match maker is so much fun!"
"Could you please stop doing that? It's quite unnerving."
"Why? Don't tell me you're not into him, even I think he's hot."
"Yes, he's hot. There, I said it."
"Then what's the hold up?"
"Well, foremost, I never thought that he'd want me in the first place. And secondly... he's so young, it makes me feel really old."
Kyōraku laughed out loud, patting Ukitake on the back. "If you want my advice: Just stop over-thinking things and nail him."
"Shunsui!"
"What? It's about time you got laid again."
"Psh!" Ukitake gave a disbelieving snort. "Who the hell are you to talk? When was the last time you got laid? Besides, since when do you take such a great interest in my sex life?"
Obviously, Kyōraku found this situation very funny.
"Don't get angry, Shiro", he laughed. "If you really want it, I'll stay out of this from now on."
"Thank you... By the way, what did you tell Muguruma-san when he was asking you... about me?"
"Nothing too explicit. Anyway, you needn't worry, I'm pretty sure he has no memory of last night."
Despite Kyōraku's persuasive speeches, Ukitake still wasn't convinced about Muguruma's intentions. Especially since during the next few days, the young man kept his distance, greeting him only quickly when they met here and there. Ukitake wasn't surprised, but disappointed nonetheless. Stupid Shunsui...
So when one sunny day he was taking a walk in the streets of the Seireitei, and he saw Muguruma coming his way, he was prepared to simply give a greeting nod and pass by. Thus, he was surprised this time, when Muguruma smiled and stopped to talk to him.
"Ukitake-san. How are you?"
"I'm fine, thank you. What about you, Muguruma-san?"
"Me too. Except that, thanks to your friend, I recently had the most terrible day of my life - so far", the young man added with a fierce grin.
"You mean Shunsui?"
"Yeah. I'm sure he told you what happened."
"Not in detail", Ukitake replied, smiling. "he follows the philosophy 'what happens when drunk didn't happen'. Besides, he's not the one to gossip about others."
"That's good to hear", Muguruma said, seeming actually relieved.
The only thing he remembered about the said night was that he had somehow forgotten about the concept of discretion, and had asked Kyōraku some explicit questions about Ukitake, based on which it must have been easy to guess his true intentions. Unfortunately, he couldn't even remember if he had gotten any valuable answers at all, which rendered his already stupid actions completely useless. Until now he had been positive that the captain of the 8th squad had told his friend all about this embarrassment straight away. Seemed like Kyōraku wasn't such a bad guy, after all...
"And what happened on the, so far, most terrible day of your life?", Ukitake asked curiously.
"Well, let's just say that my lieutenant, who is the super most annoying person in the world, now has something she can rub into my face for the rest of my life", Muguruma answered with knitted eyebrows.
"Oh no", Ukitake chuckled, "I'm sorry."
"Never mind, I blame it all on Shihoin and Kyōraku-san."
They just smiled at each other for a second, until Muguruma suddenly lowered his gaze and nervously cleared his throat.
"Are you going to see the fight for the 3rd seat's position of squad 11 tomorrow?", he asked.
"Of course."
"You know the two guys competing?"
"Not personally. I just know that according to their captain's assessment, they're of fairly equal strength."
"Sounds like it's going to be interesting."
"It does."
"So... I'll see you there, I guess?", Muguruma said, and immediately wanted to bite his tongue. Since when was he such a socially awkward dork?! But Ukitake just smiled amiably and nodded. "Until tomorrow, Muguruma-san."