Paper Flowers

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

-Written for BlackVelvetBand's Shunsui/Nanao challenge.

-A/N: This is part two, the "budding" chapter. Thanks so much for all the great reviews! You guys just make me feel warm and fuzzly inside. Hee. Anyway... Here we go. This is also one of my first "action" sort of scenes, so I'm hoping it doesn't suck.

Enjoy everyone!

You walked into the office, with a huge grin and a wink -
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye; your haori... it was pink.
You had one eye in the mirror - I know your ego will never shrink.
And all the girls wish that you were their captain, you were their captain.

Chapter Two: A Budding Understanding
(In Which There is a Shunsui-Mandated Excursion)

xxx

Nanao was a qualified, efficient vice-captain, and no one said a bad word about her performance. It was ironic that she only worked so hard because she needed a distraction from the fact that she absolutely loathed her new position. How had she come to work under such an idiot? She didn't care what people said, or how strong he was - she had not seen Kyouraku Shunsui do anything that proved he deserved his captaincy. He was the most infuriating man she had ever met!

Day after day, she dealt with his drunkenness, his laziness, and the absolutely repulsive "Nanao-chan"s that he'd spout out whenever he needed her. To her inconcievable dismay, he never called her anything else.

Which was why she had begun tuning him out whenever he addressed her, giving only short, clipped "yes" or "no" responses. And so...

"But Nanao-chan, you promised!" Shunsui pouted, facing his scowling vice-captain with a solid defense of inanity. He had his lunch and sake all packed, but Nanao didn't seem to want to join him on their mission that afternoon. "When I asked if you wanted to accompany me on the wonderful taichou/fukutaichou bonding mission I so thoughtfully planned, I was given an enthusiastic yes."

"Sir, I can't recall that conversation at all. And I seriously doubt I was anywhere near enthusiastic. Perhaps you - "

He stopped her with a grin and a wag of his finger. "Uh uh uh - It's mandatory, Nanao-chan."

She gritted her teeth together as he smiled pleasantly. Without another word, she neatly stacked the paperwork she had been doing in the center of her desk and turned towards him, her face deadpan. "Then please, Kyouraku-taichou. Lead the way."

Nanao's patience was running out quickly as they stood under the seventh tree that afternoon. Her captain gazed up at the green, leafy canopy with a practiced eye. "Hmm..."

She bit back an extremely agitated sigh of impatience. "And what's wrong with this one, taichou?"

He stroked his chin thoughtfully. Sick of being left in suspense, Nanao was on the verge of doing something regrettable to her captain's person when he said, "This one, Nanao-chan, is perfect."

She let out a huff of breath in relief, and spread out the blanket she had been carrying on the soft, vibrant grass. A second later Kyouraku-taichou had plopped down with a bottle of sake, leaving Nanao with only a tiny corner of the big, yellow blanket to sit on. She shot him a sidelong glare.

He had explained on the way to their current location that they were officially on a mission to look for hollows, but he had decided to use the outing as an opportunity to "get to know" her a bit better. Nanao was not happy about that. They sat in silence, the vice-captain picking at her food as the captain downed more and more alcohol.

It was a beautiful day; the sky was a warm, muted blue, with fluffy white clouds drifting around aimlessly. Nanao even thought she heard a bird chirping. The effect was spoiled, however, by the large, drunken mass of Kyouraku that had oozed out over their entire sitting space. He was mumbling some random, idiotic drinking song beside her, and it took all her will power not to give him a good whapping with their picnic basket.

But suddenly, the atmosphere changed. There was a new pressure in the air, malevolent and foul. "Hollows," Nanao breathed. She stood instantly. Gazing off towards a copse of trees, she saw three large, hulking bodies.

Kyouraku yawned. "Ahh, Nanao-chan, what's this? You look worried." He smiled innocuously, and made his first attempt to stand up. Upon falling back down, he chuckled and tried again. Nanao was appalled. They had been sent to look for hollows, and the first thing he did was start to drink? He couldn't even stand up straight? She felt suddenly disgraced, being in that man's division.

"I'm sorry, sir," she said, pushing him back down. "You're in no state to handle this situation." And with one last, narrowed glance, she shot off like a bullet towards the hollows.

Her captain raised a brow in disbelief. "You're fiery, aren't you Nanao-chan?" He slowly got up, a hand on the hilt of his zanpakutou. For a full minute, he stood there silently. He closed his eyes for a moment, sensing Nanao's reiatsu spiking from her battle. Against three large hollows, he feared she might be slightly outmatched. With a beleagured sigh, he followed slowly after her.

Nanao spit out the blood in her mouth, and took up her position again. She took a deep breath and rattled off another incantation. A shot of glowing red burst from her hands, hitting the smallest hollow in the middle of its mask. With a horrible, mangled scream, it disentigrated. Nanao was breathing heavily, relieved that she had finally made progress. She turned towards the other hollows.

The largest grunted and lashed out at her with it's large, reptilian tail. She used shun-po to get out of the way, but the third hollow attacked as soon as her feet were on the ground. She tried another kidou spell, but missed. With a curse, she ran around it. The hollow was so large that it couldn't follow quickly. She used the opportunity to shoot more spells towards it, crippling it's large, stalky legs. It fell to the ground with a dull thud, sending shocks through the earth.

But her victory, before she could finish the hollow off, was destroyed. The largest, lizard-like hollow shot at her with a cero blast; she dodged, but in her haste to escape the blast, it caught her with it's enormous tail, flinging her into the nearest tree.

The pain was terrible - her arm was broken, she felt certain, and blood was dripping from her forehead into her eyes. Her glasses were broken, one of the shards embedded in her cheek. Everything was blurry and she felt weighed down.

It took a moment to register that part of the pressure she was feeling wasn't from her injuries. A huge reiatsu was near, sending little jolts of electricity to crawl up and down her skin. Her head ached. She saw a broad, pink back before her. A glint of steel caught her eye as her captain drew his zanpakutou.

The proceeding fight was really more of a slaughter. He was so strong - with three strokes, both hollows were gone. Nanao lifted herself up using her good arm. He hadn't even used shikai. He turned to look at her as the remaining pressure in the air dissipated. Before she passed out, she swore she saw his mouth form a slow smile.

"There you are, Ise-fukutaichou," Unohana said kindly. "In a few days, you should regain full mobility and the pain should be completely gone."

Nanao nodded her thanks. Her short stint in the fourth division recovery ward had been tedious, but at least she was nearly well again.

Unohana smiled and said, "Well, I'm all done. You have a visitor; Kyouraku-taichou is here to see you. May I send him in?"

"Ahh. Yes, Unohana-taichou. I'm well enough to receive him." Unohana nodded and walked gracefully out to get him.

Nanao felt sick with shame. If she hadn't doubted him and gone off to fight on her own, then she never would have been injured. He had come twice to see her, and both visits had been almost completely silent. Nanao had nothing to say to him - she had made a mockery of her position as vice-captain and honestly she wouldn't have blamed him if he asked her to transfer or if he demoted her.

"Nanao-chan."

She looked up to see him standing there, looking at her with an expression of sympathy. "Hello, Kyouraku-taichou." She would never again chastise him for that stupid name.

He sat down in the chair beside her bed. She adjusted her thin, white robe nervously. "How are you, Nanao-chan? I've been worried and you don't seem very willing to talk about your condition."

"I'm fine. I'm sure you know that Unohana-taichou is a master healer, and she worked on my arm herself." She cleared her throat and adjusted her new glasses - a pair that, incidentally, he had left as a gift for her.

"I'm glad your feeling better. Oh, how I missed my Nanao-chan! The office is so lonely without my dear fukutaichou there to scowl at me and mutter under her breath about how I never do my paperwork." He sighed forlornly and put a hand under his chin.

She started to glare at him, but quickly caught herself and shifted her gaze down to her lap.

Kyouraku sighed. "Nanao-chan..." Their eyes met for a moment. Then he gasped. "I know! You need sake! Ran-chan and I will take you out for - "

"I don't think sake will help anything, Kyouraku-taichou. I just need rest."

He decided to prod a little further. "Ahh. Well if that will help you heal. I seem to have misplaced all the division's ink, and so no paperwork has - "

"What!" She looked up at him furiously. "Taichou, are you saying that no paperwork at all has been done while I've been here in the fourth division?"

"Oh dear. I don't suppose so." He grinned. "Dear Nanao-chan will have to come back and fix that for us! Even your big, strong, handsome taichou can't seem to handle himself without you."

"Why do you do that?" she asked angrily. "Why do you act like such a..." She pressed her lips together tightly for a moment. "A fool! You're so much more capable than you seem; why don't you ever - " She stopped, realizing she was bringing up the topic she had been avoiding since the day they had fought those hollows.

He looked at her calmly. "Why don't I ever what?"

She flushed and looked down. "Sir, I - "

"No, Nanao-chan, if..." He cleared his throat and then smiled. "Ise-fukutaichou, if there's something you need to say to me, please feel free to say it."

Her cheeks were burning. "It was my fault my arm was broken. I only saw that you were silly and something of a drunk, and I ignorantly assumed you... didn't deserve to be a captain. I thought that in the battle you'd only be a liability. I don't deserve to be your vice-captain. I'm sorry, Kyouraku-taichou." She looked down at her arm. "Trust me, I've learned."

"That's good, Nanao-chan." He smiled wryly. "You misjudged me, yes, but let's not let that get in the way. You're completely capable - that's why I chose you for my fukutaichou in the first place. I may be capable, Nanao-chan..." He took off his hat and put it on her head. "But I most definitely will never be serious."

She knocked it off and shot him a look of annoyance. That seemed to please him.

Suddenly - and very unexpectedly - he grabbed her hand. Nanao swallowed a gasp and her eyes shot to his face. That was not a slight or tentative touch; it was firm and full of purpose. "Silliness is what works for me. And trust me, I can hold more liquor than most people can drink in a week." He winked and stood up, letting her hand slip out of his. "Be the kind of person you want to be, Nanao-chan. And even if you forget yourself and think your old Kyouraku-taichou's a fool, I'll still be there to bail you out." He walked over to the exit. "See you back in the office, soon?"

For a moment, she didn't answer. But then, "That's right, Kyouraku-taichou. I'll be there as soon as I'm released."

: end chapter two :
-End A/N: There we go! It took longer than I had hoped to get out. (Obviously...) I didn't like this chapter at all; the writing isn't near my best, and it just... fell flat somehow. Oh well. Look for chapter three in a few hours.