Author's Notes: Shunsui and Nanao and a moment on earth.
Cat In a Cardboard Box
Shunsui once found a kitten in a cardboard box. It mewed at him as he passed and so he noticed it, bending down and tilting back his hat slightly to peer inside at the small gray fluffball. He hadn't moved to pet it or pick up, simply knelt there watching it calmly. The kitten scratched the side of the box, almost as if to get his attention, but still Shunsui didn't move.
Nanao remembers thinking that the whole situation was very surreal. She couldn't read her Captain's face and it was unlike him to be still in the presence of cute things. Finally a little unnerved by his silence, she reached over his shoulder to pick up the kitten when his hand curled around her wrist, halting her.
"Don't," he said lowly, and with a firmness usually reserved for battle. "There's nothing we can do."
That was suddenly unacceptable. "But," she said, "he's going to die..."
Her words suprised even herself. She hadn't known she was sick of death.
"Wait," Shunsui advised. A moment later, a little boy walking with his father spotted the cardboard box and it's occupant. He scrambled right past Nanao and picked up the animal, pleading with his father to let him keep it. The older man relented. The cardboard box was left empty.
Shunsui straightened and offered her a little smile. "The power to give life isn't ours, Nanao-chan." His gaze followed the boy and his father. "We can only protect those who can."
Nanao arched an eyebrow. "You're being very insightful, Captain."
Shunsui tilted his hat back down over his eyes and smiled genuinely.
"It happens."
The End