Kyōraku was humming to himself as he shunpo'd his way across the stony fields, wild flowers and tough grass growing in crevices of rock, battered by the cutting mountain winds.

He knew that his friend liked to come here and meditate. Although he didn't like to disturb him, they hadn't seen each other in a while, and he needed to talk in private.

As he neared the green mountain lake, he could see Ukitake from afar, his white hair a bright spot illuminated by the sunlight.

Meanwhile, Ukitake was standing on the shore of very different waters; the sky was dark and cloudy, huge waves crashing against the black rocks beneath him, the taste of the salty wind on his lips.

He felt the raw power of the ocean tides and currents tugging at him, calling him. Deliberately, he let himself fall – a moment later, he found himself deep below the water surface, a familiar pressure enveloping his body. It was very dark; looking down, he saw nothing but a black void underneath his feet. But he felt their presence. He closed his eyes, and the blackness started to rise towards him, wavering shapes in the dark waters. They began to circle him, and soon two distinct silhouettes formed out of the darkness. They were the two spirits of Sogyō no Kotowari.

He had seen them take many shapes, depending on their mood and his own. When they felt happy and lazy, for instance, they liked to present themselves as beautiful, colourful koi carps. In an intense battle, he had seen them take the shape of Chinese dragons, their bodies long and stretched out, glistening with dark scales, summoning thunder and lightning around them.

Today, they seemed slightly agitated, but not in a bad mood. He could feel them pushing him up, up, through the water column, until his head breached the surface. He took a deep breath; at least in this world, he could breathe freely. They pushed him a bit higher still, until his body was completely out of the water, hovering above the surface, atop their wavering black bodies. Apparently today was one of the days when they chose not to take any particular form at all.

"What is it?", he asked them. "Is there something I'm missing?"

They took some time before they responded. "We are not sure", they finally communicated to him. "Something is happening in the Seireitei."

Ukitake sighed. Something was always up in Seireitei… he wondered if it was something to do with the mysterious hollow sightings and disappearances of Rukongai citizens. There must have been a connection that he was simply not seeing, and with every day that passed without this mystery solved, he grew more concerned.

Pensively, he held out his hands, into the swirling black shapes around him. He liked to think that he was petting the water spirits, in a way.

As they swirled around him, he could feel their immense power, bottled up like in a pressure cooker. It had taken him years – decades - of training to be able to safely tap into that power and control it – they sure had given him hell during the process. He smiled at the memories.

"We are not alone", the spirits let him know. "Kyōraku is here. Can we play with him?"

"Let us first see what he wants", Ukitake answered and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was looking at the green mountain lake in front of him, and blinked in the bright sunlight. He felt the weight of his sword on his crossed legs, and the roughness of the hilt on his hand.

"Kyōraku", he greeted his old friend, as the man in the flamboyant pink kimono sat down on the rocks next to him. "We haven't seen each other in a while. How are you?"

"I knew I'd find you here", Kyōraku just said with a smile, without answering the question, "it's good that you're reliable in your habits."

"Well, thank you."

"How are the twins?"

Ukitake smiled leniently. "They asked to play with you".

"Oof", was Kyōraku's answer. "Let's see about that…"

"They also feel that something is up", Ukitake added in a serious tone. "But they cannot pinpoint it either."

"Mmmmh." Kyōraku let his gaze wander across the green lake. "I spoke to Old Man Yama. Something is stirring. We need to keep our guard up."

Ukitake nodded with a stern expression. They exchanged a long, meaningful glance. Whatever threat they were going to have to face, Ukitake thought, he was glad that he could always count on Kyōraku to be by his side.

"How are you, Shunsui?", he asked finally, slightly cocking his head.

The other man sighed deeply. "I'm gonna have to tell Lisa that we need to… return our relationship to a purely professional level. And I'm afraid of her reaction." He looked at Ukitake with a crooked smile. "You must think I'm crazy. Hell, I think I'm crazy…"

"I don't think you're crazy", Ukitake said. "If you feel that is the right thing to do, then it's the right thing to do."

Kyōraku sighed repeatedly. "The thing is, I'm like, ninety percent sure." He turned to look at the white-haired man and abruptly changed the subject. "How are things with Muguruma-san?"

Ukitake laughed and let his gaze shift up to the sky. He was used to Shunsui taking weird turns in a conversation before he finally arrived at the topic he actually meant to talk about.

"Very good, I'd say. He opened up to me a little about his past… I feel we've gotten closer."

"So, it's definitely more than a fling?"

"I don't know." Now it was Ukitake's turn to sigh. "At the same time, I can see our differences clearly. It is hard for me to keep up with him."

"Keep up?", Kyōraku asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well…" Ukitake blushed. "I'm not sure if I should discuss things like that with a third party..."

"I think you should", Kyōraku stated plainly and grinned.

Giving in, Ukitake continued, while blushing even harder: "You know. He's still young. He has a lot of… sexual energy. More than… I would be able to match."

His words ceased, and Kyōraku began to laugh. "Oh my. How problematic." He shot his friend a reassuring smile. "Knowing you, I'm sure he's more than satisfied with you, Jūshirō."

"Knowing me, how?", Ukitake repeated and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He was pretty sure Shunsui knew little to nothing about his sexual prowess...

"What can I say", Kyōraku laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "You're a giver, Juu-chan. That surely extends to all parts of your life."

Ukitake just shook his head in exaggerated exasperation. "Let's not worry too much about my sex life. There surely are more important things at hand."

"There's a time for everything." Kyōraku smirked and cupped his chin in his hand. "But, like always, such things are best addressed directly in a conversation."

"You're a wise man", Ukitake said, shooting his friend a probing look. "When are you going to talk to Lisa-san?"

"Hmm dunno. As soon as possible I guess."

"What made you change your mind about her, if I may ask?"

Kyōraku sighed. "Things are getting too… intense. I cannot square it with my conscience any longer."

"Too intense?", Ukitake repeated with a wry smile. "Do I even dare to ask, Shunsui?"

"I'm gonna tell you anyway. I need you to agree with me."

"Fine. Hit me."

"So... everything started out quite innocently, with some little schoolgirl/teacher role play."

Ukitake raised an eyebrow over the word innocent, but didn't interrupt.

"Sometimes we would switch roles and she would boss me around and be all dominant. You know I'm really into that."

"I do... worryingly. But carry on."

"Well... eventually she started to demand I call her things like slut and whore, and spank her really hard and stuff like that."

"Oh my... who would have thought..."

"It's not that I don't enjoy it at all. But the whole thing kinda starts to gnaw at my conscience, you know? I've known her since she was a little kid, and I can't help it and sometimes look at her through a father's eyes. If I knew my daughter was doing stuff like her with a dirty old man like me, I'd totally kill him."

"Oh dear…"

"On a scale from one to ten, how fucked up do you think I am?"

"I really don't know…" Ukitake was decidedly at a loss. "Maybe I'm not the right person to talk about this", he said finally with a slight smile, "but I guess it's normal that, if you have a relationship with a girl who's young enough to be your daughter, you sometimes think about her as such. Even if your relationship is partly sexual."

"So you don't think I'm a sick pervert?"

Ukitake laughed. "No. But then again, what do I know." He shrugged apologetically.

Kyōraku gave him a wry look. "Your lover is also quite young, right?", he said after a few moments of silence.

"You know that, Shun. What are you trying to say?"

"Have you ever thought about Muguruma as your son?"

The absurdity of the question made Ukitake stifle a laugh.

"Duh, of course not. That'd be totally fucked up, Shunsui."

"You little...!" Kyōraku had been about to land him one with his hat, when Ukitake flashed away, with a big smirk on his face and a provocative wave goodbye.

"You think you can outrun me?!", Kyōraku yelled after him, laughing, "Well, let's see who's faster, you little shit!"

Yamamoto Genryuusai stood on the balcony outside his office and let his gaze shift across the rooftops of the Seireitei. He had been pondering the fact that the young Urahara Kisuke today had his ninth anniversary of becoming the captain of squad 12. The kid was brilliant, no doubt, but the head of the Seireitei even after nine years wasn't so sure if the quirky youth was fully ready to be a captain.

Even though they seemed to be present inside of him, the kid had yet to fully develop important qualities needed for captaincy: a firm hand in leadership, solemnity, temperance...

Right there, his train of thought was momentarily interrupted. Puzzled, he opened an eye and observed what happened down below his balcony in a matter of seconds.

… Had he really just seen his oldest students, Kyōraku and Ukitake, joyously chasing after each other across the rooftops and laughing like two little boys in a free-wheeling game of tag?

Ukitake lay on his futon, his arms crossed behind his head, and he glanced sideways at Muguruma's relaxed face. The young man was lying right next to him, his eyes closed, but he was still awake.

The sex had gone by quickly today, and Muguruma had still been erect for a long time afterwards. But he hadn't said anything, and Ukitake hadn't asked if he wanted more, he simply felt too tired today to give more than he already had.

Now, the sound of Muguruma chuckling pulled him out of his thoughts.

"You know what happened to me today after training?", the young man asked, his voice sounding amused.

"What happened?", Ukitake asked back.

"You know my fourth seat, Eishima-san?"

"Yes, I've seen him on some occasions."

"Well, after we were done with the daily reports, he lingered in my office, babbling about petty stuff like the weather. When I asked him what he wanted, he just hummed and hawed and after some time he said how much he admired the work I did as a captain, and how he would do anything I asked of him. I thought he was being weird, but looking back now, I'm pretty sure he hit on me."

"Of course he did, Kensei", Ukitake chuckled, "how have you not noticed?"

"It was kinda awkward. I didn't get at all what he wanted from me, it was so... random."

"What do you think of him?"

"Hm. He's a good fighter, of course. Quite good looking, too. But... you know."

They were quiet for a while. Muguruma was now staring at the ceiling, thinking, still pensively observed by the older man.

"Kensei", Ukitake said after a while, propping his head up on one arm to get a better look at his lover, "I'm aware I can't always… give you what you want. So... if you wanted to get that from Eishima-san, or from someone else... it would be okay with me."

Muguruma returned a puzzled look. "Did you just tell me you wouldn't mind if I fucked around with other people?", he asked after a few seconds.

"Well, if you're going to word it like that..."

"Hm." The young man returned to stare at the ceiling, his face darkened.

"Now don't get that the wrong way", Ukitake hurried to add, when Muguruma pushed back the blanket and got up.

"Don't worry, I got'ya all right", the young man said, briskly putting on his clothes, "I gotta go. But I guess I'll see you around."

"Kensei, don't leave like this, I didn't mean to..."

"Night, Jūshirō."

With that, he disappeared from the room. Sighing, Ukitake fell back into the cushions.

"Shit."

Ukitake slowly approached his old friend, who was sitting on the porch of squad 8th's headquarters. The man in the pink kimono had pulled his hat deep into his face, and was limply holding an apparently unopened bottle of sake in his hand. It seemed he had been sitting like this for a long time.

Ukitake didn't know what to say. He could barely feel the other man's spiritual pressure; Kyōraku had locked and hidden away his feelings deep inside of him. Ukitake struggled to do the same, but his despair still leaked out of him in waves he couldn't control. He was pretty sure that at least captain-level shinigami all over Seireitei could feel his spiritual pressure spiking every time he lost it, and in some corner of his mind he was very ashamed about that.

"Shunsui", he finally brought himself to pronounce, "I am sorry... that I'm unable to bring comfort to you at a time like this..."

Slowly, Kyōraku lifted his gaze to meet the eyes of his long time friend. He noticed the pain and grief that Ukitake was unable to contain within himself, but he just couldn't bring himself to feel anything at all. It was like he had become empty and numb on the inside.

"I don't want to talk, Jūshirō", he said calmly, "but I would like it if you just sat here with me."

The white-haired man nodded and slowly sat down next to his friend, without uttering a single sound.

He still couldn't believe how quickly the events had unfolded, after Yamamoto had ordered a group of high ranking shinigami to search for captain Muguruma and the members of his squad, after they hadn't returned from their reconnaissance mission as planned.

Ukitake had had a very bad feeling after he had learned that the communication with the squad 9 members had broken off, but he hadn't for a second doubted Kensei's abilities.

Then, suddenly, in the middle of the night, they had been dealt orders from Central 46 to stay inside their barracks by all means, and it had been made very clear to them that failure to follow those orders would have dire consequences.

Shortly after, he had been pretty sure he had felt faint traces of Kensei's spiritual pressure somewhere within the walls of the Seireitei, but it was twisted and barely recognizable. Maybe it hadn't been Kensei after all. Into the bargain, it had lasted for only about ten minutes. After that it had simply disappeared from one second to the next, when repercussions of a high level kidou spell had pervaded the air.

The next morning, they had been called to a captain's meeting, but Hirako, Muguruma and Urahara had been missing. They were told that the missing captains as well as the others who had been on the mission with them, had been killed in an illegal experiment conducted by the traitors Urahara Kisuke and Tsukabishi Tessai.

"I don't believe it, Shunsui", Ukitake said after a while, his voice slightly trembling, his gaze locked to something in the darkness.

Kyōraku gave a big sigh. "You don't believe what?"

"I don't believe that Urahara-san and Tsukabishi-san are traitors. I don't believe that Kensei and Lisa and the others are dead. I don't believe anything of what we have been told about last night's events."

"Every stone in Soul Society has been turned on the search for them, and even the Human World has been scanned for their reiatsu", Kyōraku answered, "where do you think they are? And why should Central 46 and the Old Man lie to us?" There was no sarcasm in his voice, he was asking a genuine question, but still Ukitake felt attacked.

"I don't know", he answered tensely, a wave of desperate reiatsu washing over Kyōraku. "But he was here last night. I could feel him. He was here, and then he disappeared again. Kisuke and Tessai are alive, apparently, and they can't find them either, or can they? They are hiding somewhere, and where ever they are..."

He fell silent. Kyōraku noticed the hands of his friend firmly clutching the fabric of his hakama.

"Who was here last night?"

"Kensei. I sensed his spiritual pressure within the Seireitei, shortly before that kidō was performed."

"Really?", Kyōraku said. As much as he trusted his friend, he couldn't help but doubt that, since he also had felt the powerful kidō spell, but he had sensed absolutely nothing before that had happened.

"Are you really sure it was him?", he inquired in a soft voice.

"Yes", Ukitake answered immediately, but then he nervously ran his fingers through his hair and said: "No... I mean... I believe it was him, but... I couldn't tell for sure."

Ukitake's clenched hands began to tremble in his lap. Kyōraku was slightly taken aback. It had been a long time since he had seen his friend in such a distressed state; it seemed like he could barely hold down his spiritual pressure.

Without further ado, he pulled the other man close and wrapped his arms around him.

"Calm down, Shiro", he whispered, trying his best to give his own reiatsu a soothing note and mingling it with Ukitake's, which was flowing all over the place. "I bet things aren't as bad as they seem", he added softly.

Ukitake gave a somewhat tense laugh as he hugged his arms around Kyōraku's chest. "You bet", he said and pressed his forehead against his friend's shoulder. The warmth and closeness of his body indeed had a calming effect. After a while, he seemed again to have gained control over himself.

"I'm sorry, Shunsui", he whispered, not yet letting go of his friend. "You have also lost someone who was dear to you. I'm ashamed of my weakness."

"It's okay, Shiro", Kyōraku answered with a faint smile, "Usually you are the one to console me. This time it's my turn."

"It is still demeaning", Ukitake insisted, "to lose control in such a way... I am sorry."

"It's rare for you to get worked up like that", Kyōraku observed, soothingly stroking Ukitake's back with one hand. After hesitating for a moment, he added with a gentle voice: "You really love him, don't you?"

The body he was holding in his arms tensed notably. When after a few seconds he still hadn't received an answer, he was pretty sure that Ukitake wouldn't answer at all.

The more he was surprised, or rather horrified, when he heard a stifled sob escape Jūshirō's throat.

The last time he had seen his friend in tears had been many, many centuries ago.

With a trembling voice, Ukitake answered: "I have never... ever in my life allowed myself the luxury to fall in love…"

Shunsui sighed and hugged him even closer. He wasn't sure if that answer meant yes or no, but Jūshirō didn't seem like he wanted to carry on, and so they just kept sitting together in silence, until the cold crept into their clothes and they decided to part for the night.