Hello everyone, I guess you could say that I'm back? But just know that nothing new will really be coming until May, cause that's when I'll be out of school and it give me plenty of time to catch myself up with the plans for this story.
This is my new profile page as I will no longer be using the other one, I wanted to start fresh and not think about how I've abandoned my story. I want to finish this one and I will!
Go to my profile so you can read what I've been up to!
REVISED VERSION! FROM MY BETA DREAMLESSRIVER FROM BACK THEN! THANKS!
Beep Beep Beep.
Shunsui's alarm clock went off for the third time that morning, and all he
could think to do was glare at the thing as he unplugged it from the wall and
shoved it to the floor. The twenty-eight year old realized he had an hour
before he was to be at work and even less time before his best friend, Nanao
Ise, called him to complain. He figured that it wasn't going to take a whole
hour to get dressed, so he decided to stay in bed a little longer on this late
August morning.
As big as his three bedroom, three bathroom condo was, he couldn't help but
think about the same thing every morning. He wanted to have a partner and some
kids, but there was one problem with that: he was gay man. Nanao knew it and
he knew that she didn't care. That's what best friends were for, right? He
wanted to find a partner that could fulfill his need as well as he could
fulfill theirs, but all these blind dates Nanao was setting him up on weren't
exactly helping him since the dates she chose weren't exactly what Shunsui
would call "appealing". He wanted someone who didn't want him for his money or
his looks; he wanted someone with character; someone that didn't put on a
false act just because of who he was. Someone he could wake up next to in the
morning and know that that person was the love of his life, who would bring
him out of the darkness called loneliness and into the light called happiness.
He could only dream about that kind of partner.
He looked to the side, only to pout as he remembered that he unplugged his
alarm clock. Not knowing how much time he had spent daydreaming about that
'someone', he got up and headed for his bathroom, a few feet away from his
bed.
Now, Shunsui knew he was a handsome guy, but he was in no way flamboyant about
his appearance. Being six-foot-three made people think he was a gregarious
man, but in fact he was the exact opposite, preferring to stay in quiet
environments where he could relax and not have to worry about people being all
over him.
His hair was not in a loose ponytail as it usually was, so it dangled to the
middle of his back, with some strays hanging down in the front of his face. He
hadn't had the time to get a haircut in a while so he opted to just let it
grow out. The ladies at the office loved that, and he hated it. All of them, a
bunch of gold digging women, save for a few, just hanging around him because
he was vice-president of the Seireitei International. His late father was a
close friend of the current president, Shigekuni-Genryusai Yamamoto, who had
guided Shunsui and been like a second father over the years.
Turning on the shower, he stripped off his pajamas he had been wearing the
night before and stepped under the hot spray. Shunsui couldn't help but moan
as the water hit his body and made him relax. He washed up and stepped out a
few minutes later, feeling refreshed. Drying off, he was interrupted by the
sound of his cell phone ringing in his bedroom, so he just wrapped his towel
around himself and went to go answer it. He didn't have to look at the caller
I.D. to prepare himself for the verbal lashing he was about to get. Opening
the cell phone, he pushed the speakerphone button and threw it on his bed.
"Hello, Nanao." Anybody on the other line who knew Shunsui would know that
there was a cheeky grin on his face as he spoke.
Nanao and Shunsui had met when they were younger, her being the new kid in
elementary school, having to sit next to some 'perverted hormonal bastard' as
she would call him. Everyone would say that the two were inseparable (which
was true), calling them a couple. But the two knew that they didn't have
feelings for each other; Shunsui being gay and Nanao…who knew? But she was
divorced with a kid, which he was the godfather of, so he guessed that she was
straight. He didn't really care as long as she was happy with whoever she was
with. They both went to Rukongai College together and both graduated with
Master's Degrees in International Business and minors in other foreign
languages, and now she was his co-worker at Seireitei. His thoughts were
interrupted as Nanao came into the dining room and began eating.
"You sound awfully composed for someone who's just about to get yelled at."
Shunsui just chuckled as she continued.
"I brought breakfast so come open the front door." He didn't respond back as
he just hung up the phone, walking out of his bedroom and towards the front
door, still in just his towel. Nanao noticed this and was highly unimpressed.
"Why the hell are you just getting out of the shower?" As Shunsui began to
shut the door in her face, Nanao just pushed it back open and walked in,
making herself right at home.
"Why don't you eat and I'll go pick out something for you to wear?" Handing
the food to him, Nanao walked to his bedroom as he went to the dining room to
start on his breakfast.
"Did Yamamoto call you this morning?" Nanao questioned from down the hall.
"Not that I know of, why? Something good happen?" The lazy Shunsui asked as he
took a bite of food.
"I don't know if you would consider it a good thing, but we got a new
employee."
"Less work for me." Nanao smiled at his answer.
"Yamamoto hired you another assistant." Shunsui's facial expressions changed
in an instant as he remembered the last time he had an assistant; the guy was
a nut case. He told Yamamoto to never do such a thing again or else he would
end up killing someone. Nanao only laughed.
"I'm sure it won't be that bad." she tried to assure her best friend.
"Heh," Shunui laughed. "You try working with someone who doesn't know what
he's doing without going crazy. I would love to see that."
Nanao rolled her eyes. "Whatever. He's supposed to be at the office today, so
we've got to be leaving soon. Go get dressed and you can finish eating in the
car."
"So you're driving us to work? My little Nanao, how-" Nanao was so swift in
delivering punishment whenever Shunsui called her that. He dodged her attacks
plenty of times before, but he learned that she got quicker every time. In
effort to escape her punches, he tumbled to the floor.
"I'll break your nose again if you don't get yourself dressed. And cover
yourself up; I don't want to see that useless thing hanging around!" Shunsui
tried to resist smirking as he untied the towel and left it on the floor,
softly skipping back to his bedroom in all his glory.
"What an exhibitionist. Pervert, stop hopping around like that, it's
disgusting." He only laughed as he closed his bedroom door. Throwing on his
white dress shirt and the black slacks Nanao picked him out, he quickly
grabbed his pink tie before heading over to his mirror. He then threw on his
black blazer and tied his hair back with the scrunchy(1) and pinwheel hairpins
Nanao got him as a gag gift when he turned twelve. In return, he had got her
the glasses that she still wore to this day. He probably wouldn't admit it out
loud, but it was his most precious possession next to the Floral Kimono his
mother owned before she had died when he was very young.
"You ready, Casanova? Wait, I though you didn't care about your looks." Nanao
was in the doorway now, and Shunsui turned around to find her looking him up
and down.
"For someone who doesn't care about how he looks, you sure are dressing sexy."
She smirked, and Shunsui retorted.
"You picked it out!" he growled and Nanao let out a chuckle.
"First Impressions." Nanao waved her finger at him like a mother scolding her
child. He just shook his head as he walked up to her.
"Like I give a damn." The two just looked each other in the eyes before Nanao
sighed and rubbed his arm.
"I'm sure you'll find someone soon, Shunsui." She now had a serious expression
replacing her amused one.
"Yeah right, like I'll meet the love of my life today." Her friend rolled his
eyes.
"You never know. He might be waiting for you." Nanao made sure to sound
enthused. She really did believe he would find someone. He deserved it.
"Tch. Let's get going." Shunsui looked at her impatiently and she pulled him
out of the room. After Shunsui grabbed his wallet and keys and Nanao her
things, they both left his condo and headed to work.
Arriving at Seireitei International, both Shunsui and Nanao got out of her car
and headed inside the building into the lobby. After showing their I.D. to the
receptionists and guards at the front desk, they both walked towards the
elevator, passing by a tall man with long white hair, talking animatedly on
his cell phone. Shunsui didn't see his face but he wondered who the mysterious
man was after the elevator doors closed.
"You know him?" Nanao asked.
"No. Never seen him before." The tall man trailed off into thought.
"Hmm…" Nanao broke the silence.
"What?" Shunsui looked over to her.
"Just pondering on why he might be here." Nanao answered.
The elevator doors opened and both stepped out. They passed by a couple of
their friends like Izuru Kira from the French Department, Kisuke Urahara from
the German Department, and lots of others. See, Seireitei was an international
business that dealt with everything, everywhere. Every department had a
specialist or Chief Officer and was divided by languages. For example, Kira
was the Chief Officer in the French Department while Urahara was Chief Officer
in the German Department. The Chief Officer oversees everything happening in
their respective department.
Within each Department, were sub-departments, such as Fashion, Building
Design, Cosmetics, Medicine and Electronics, just to name a few, and people
where divided depending on what language they knew, then by what
sub-department they specialized in. (2)
Nanao was Chief Officer in the English Department, so she oversaw all the
operations in the English Department. All in all, there were over one hundred
people in each of the twenty-five departments. Shunsui's job, well, was to do
whatever Yamamoto told him to do. He oversees most of the departments' Chief
Officer operations and reports all activity to President Yamamoto. Shunsui
didn't know what Yamamoto's job was, but there was one thing he did know: the
old man was doing one hell of a job. Seireitei was one of the most successful
businesses around the world and it didn't look like they were going down
anytime soon.
Shunsui was too caught up in thinking about the company that he didn't even
notice when he and Nanao had arrived at the door to Yamamoto's office. That is
until she knocked on the door, bringing all his thoughts to a sudden halt.
Both heard a very gruff 'come in' and Nanao nodded at Shunsui, signaling that
she was going to going to her Department and get to work. Shunsui nodded back
and opened the door, entering the huge office belonging to Seireitei's
president.
"Shunsui. How nice of you to come and see me." Shunsui rolled his eyes as he
tried to hold back a small laugh at the man who was inadvertently mentioning
that he was avoiding him.
"Yeah. Now what's this I've heard from Nanao?" he got right to the point.
"Yes. Since you failed to answer my phone call this morning, I had to call Ms.
Ise to inform you that I've hired another personal assistant for you." Shunsui
masked his look of annoyance with a look of indifference as Yamamoto got up
from his chair and continued.
"Now, I know that you strongly disagree about having one but, personally, I
think that you need one; even being President is hard without having an
assistant. So when you take over the company, you'll have someone by your side
ready to help you with anything." President Yamamoto explained as he was
walking around the office.
"But-." Shunsui tried to interject.
"No buts, Shunsui. I want you to try; if it gets to a point where you feel
like you're going to kill another human being," Yamamoto paused and looked
away, trying to hide his laughter after remembering the last time that
happened. He didn't know what was funnier at the time: Shunsui's rage or the
look on the previous assistant face when Shunsui's rage was directed at him.
He picked the former.
"Then you don't have to worry about me telling you that you need one."
Yamamoto spoke again, now. "You can choose one whenever you feel you need
one."
Shunsui was about to tell Yamamoto that he didn't need one right now, but
Yamamoto saw that coming, and stopped Shunsui in his tracks.
"As of right now, I'm afraid you have no authority in your choice."
If Shunsui thought he was scared of Nanao's glare, it was nothing compared to
Yamamoto's glare. It felt like he was trying to take your soul away, like his
eyes were saying, 'All we want is your soul. Now give it to me'. (3) All
Shunsui could do was gulp and look away before nodding his head 'yes'.
"Good. I told him to be here by ten o'clock. So he should-." The president was
interrupted again as a loud knock came from the door. Yamamoto and Shunsui
looked at each other. Smiling, Yamamoto called out for the person outside the
door to come in.
"Ah, Ms. Unohana, How may we help you today?" Shunsui didn't know a lot about
Yamamoto's Personal Assistant, Retsu Unohana, but he knew that she had been
working at Seireitei for a very long time. He remembered her saying something
about previously being a Nurse at the Karakura Hospital in Karakura Town
before moving out to Rukongai City to come and work for Yamamoto. He also knew
that she was divorced with two children, a son and a daughter.
"Hello President Yamamoto and Vice-President Kyoraku. I trust that you
gentlemen are fine on this beautiful Monday morning." Unohana greeted.
"Yes, we're fine. What about you, Ms. Unohana?" Shunsui didn't want her to
think that he didn't like her, so he took the opportunity to chat with her.
"I am very well, thank you, Mr. Kyoraku." She smiled at him before turning to
Yamamoto.
"President Yamamoto, I have the new assistant that you hired for Mr. Kyoraku
outside. Mr. Ukitake, I think his name was?"
"Ah, Yes. Very well, then. Tell him to come in." President Yamamoto ordered.
A few minutes later Retsu came back, and with her was the same man Shunsui had
seen in the lobby a few minutes ago: That same man, almost as tall as him,
same long white hair and something new added to the picture. A brilliant smile
and vibrant green eyes, staring right at him. (4)
Turn the lights on…
1. I don't know how to spell it but it's like a hair tie, if ya ain't know.
2. Is That Confusing? I just confused myself writing this. Does everyone understand? Please tell me of you don't or if you do, so that I may clear it up. Think about Presidential Succession in the U.S. The Chief Officers are like the Speaker of the House, the third most important, Shunsui is Vice President, the second most important and Yamamoto is President. Obama important. Hahaha! For the Sub-Department, you can think about the order after the Speaker of the House, not in order of importance but say like someone ran the Fashion sub-department in the French Department and someone else ran the Electronics sub-department in the French Department, both are the same rank and they have people in their department who work under them but the all work under the Chief Officers. "Don't think about it too much or else you'll go bald." – Youichi Hiruma from ES21. Please do continue.
3. Class of 3000 song reference. I forgot the episode name.
4. I don't know if this is true, but I think Jushiro's eyes are green in the manga. Look at the color page from Chapter 335. I love that picture. If they aren't green in the manga, then I might let them be in here.
Review if you want to or if you can! I know I have some supporters, old and new, and the reviews will give me the motivation to finish this story. Thanks! - Kihana