I am so sorry for the delay to this! My computer has spent the last week being fixed and I'm still trying to work out how my laptop works. Thank you for your patience, and I intend to have the next chapter typed up as soon as possible.
Paradox
Chapter Two
The role reversal was unexpected, sudden and endlessly disturbing. Before Nanao had finally settled with Shunsui – by realising that the last thing he would ever do is cast her aside, and the last thing she would ever do is walk away – she had spent time buried in her friend's embrace, pouring her soul out to the sympathetic ears of Matsumoto Rangiku. But to anyone else the situation reversed with simply bizarre – Nanao was not known for her gentleness nor warmth, though her subordinates often came to her when the needed calm, wise but kind advice. Rangiku had her arms firmly locked around Nanao's waist, face hidden from view in the dark-haired fukutaichō's shoulder.
Nanao, however, had known Rangiku long enough that she had seen her more fragile moments, times when she couldn't hold her natural smile up in public. Nanao petted the luxurious hair softly, as she used to when Rangiku was drunk and depressed. She touched Rangiku's shoulder gently, before remembering with a slight wince that that was the numb side.
"Rangiku, what happened?" She asked, her usual blunt manner asserting itself. Although her practical manner annoyed many (including herself, on occasion), her tendency to say things as they were healed more hearts than broke them. With Rangiku, she usually listened quietly to her friend, working as a sounding board for her ideas – though Rangiku always insisted afterwards that Nanao 'always knows exactly what to say'. Here, however, she had been caught unawares.
Rangiku's sobs continued, and Nanao felt a hot spike of anger that translated into a sharp spike in her reiastu. There wasn't a man in the world who had the right to make Rangiku cry.
A flash of insight.
"Byakuya, ne?" She decided, and was rewarded by her friend's sharp, hitching intake of breath.
"Bastard" Came the mumble from her collarbone, near where an Arrancar in the war had attempted to take her head, with an almost successful result. Her taichō's borderline suicidal behaviour during her week-long coma was still a taboo subject amongst the 8th Division, and Rangiku had refused to tell her what Shunsui had done to wind up in a bed next to her the day she woke up.
The perfect hunting-bow mouth pursed and indigo eyes narrowed behind her glasses "Indeed" she agreed mildly, before frowning "Rangiku, you're..."
"An idiot of gigantic proportions?"
"No more so than anyone else" Nanao replied firmly "I was going to ask if you were running away"
Another sharp breath "There's something called sensitivity, Nanao"
"I am well aware of the concept, Rangiku, I just have no need for it" and because Nanao also had a stubborn unwillingness to let topics slide, she asked again "Well?"
"I can't see him, Nanao. I'll either cry and beg him to take me back or kill him"
"So you are running away from him then?" She repeated, jumping when Rangiku poked her sharply in the ribs. The bubbly woman sat up, straightening out her uniform and delicately wiping at the mascara lines down her cheeks. Nanao felt another twist of anger.
"Curse of pride, remember? The point of being with him was to walk next to him as an equal, not trail behind him like a love-sick puppy, Nanao"
Nanao blinked "I thought you were in it for the sex, Rangiku". Shunsui appeared in the doorway after hearing the word, but Nanao's barely restrained glare sent him back to the piles of paperwork on his desk.
"That too" Rangiku sighed "This is the stupidest thing I have ever done"
She gazed at Nanao as her friend tilted her head, piercing gaze for once gentled to match her low voice "What?"
"Falling in love with Kuchiki Byakuya" Rangiku lifted her head and gave a smile that was just a shadow of a memory of its usual brightness. Nanao had never seen her look quite so broken before. Not after Ichimaru's betrayal. Not even after his death. Rangiku had finally fallen for someone and fallen hard.
She suddenly knew what to do.
She rose with her usual grace for her seiza position and hugged Rangiku once more, just for luck. If she thought it was odd that her reserved, shy friend was starting their hugs she didn't say anything, intent on the floor as she was.
"Shu-Kyōraku-taichō" She called, correcting herself out of old habit. As he sidled into the room she glanced down at Rangiku, telling him with her eyes what she wanted him to do.
"Nanao-chan, where are you going?"
She paused in the doorway and turned, giving her lover a smile that was serene but filled with malice. Nanao had been angry in her life a handful of times – in her youth she had struggled with her temper, but had managed to control it with years of practice. The last time she had gotten angry had been years ago, on a rainy night when she had woken up and realised Kaien, a friend since childhood and an ally since their Academy years, was dead. But even that anger had faded into a soft, sad melancholy – Kaien had died because he loved Miyako, after all. The hot rage that she was struggling to force down now was entirely new.
She continued to give the smile that was beginning to terrify the captain when she spoke "I'm going to talk to Kuchiki-taichō".