One more hour and they were free. There was nothing he loved more than holidays. Tomorrow was Tanabata and they had Friday off since even Yama-jii knew how pointless it was to make everyone come in the day after a holiday. It sucked that they'd be toting Nanao's family along, but at least there wasn't any work and they didn't have to get up early.

Nanao had woken him up again today. And while he was grateful she wasn't leaving him with her family he missed sleeping in. Not that she didn't let him sleep in the office, but napping on the couch wasn't nearly as nice as staying in his warm big bed with a lovely Nanao-chan.

Thinking of his cute Fukutaicho seemed to summon her back to the office from the kido class she'd disappeared off to an hour ago. She was humming under her breath, which was a sure sign her students were making good progress.

"Good class?"

"They're doing well enough," she said with a curt little nod.

"High praise, Nanao-chan."

"I think they preferred me letting them off an hour early for their hard work as opposed to your overzealous and overinflated compliments. We each have our own methods."

"Does that mean we can leave early too?"

"No, Taicho," she sighed. "Fifteen people does not a whole division make."

"We could release the rest of the division early?" he asked hopefully.

"And render the reward for the hard workers null and void? I don't think so." He gave a dramatic groan. "It's one hour, Taicho. I'm sure you'll live and then you can go to your usual pre-Tanabata revelries."

"Will my Nanao-chan be joining us this year?"

"Of course not." He was about to argue but a hell butterfly distracted them both as it flew in the window and landed on Shunsui's nose. "Well?"

"Yama-jii wants me."

"Again? I thought you said you explained. Do you think it's for punishment?"

"All Taichos meeting, Nanao-chan. Not about us. You worry too much."

"Because an all Taichos meeting out of the blue at the end of the day before a holiday is nothing to worry about?"

"Exactly." He stood up and adjusted his hat before having a stretch.

"Would you like me to stay until the meeting is over?" The meetings did have the tendency to stretch on and with this short of notice it might take the Taichos a while to assemble depending on where they all were. Usually she'd wait in the office for him so he could tell her what he could from the meetings. But that was unnecessary now.

"Of course not, Nanao-chan," he cooed. "I can just tell you at home. Get the bed warm for me, will you?"

Nanao's eyes widened and moved desperately towards the door. She'd remembered to close it though and none of the secretaries had a reason to be listening.

"You worry too much," he repeated. Then he kissed her temple before she could react and shunpoed out the window.

It was no surprise that Jyuushiro beat him there. Jyuushiro always beat him to meetings no matter how fast he was fleeing Nanao unless he was sick. His friend called out a greeting and he answered striding across to him. Most of the Taichos were there milling around, but Kurotsuchi and Kenpachi were missing. Again nothing unusual. It'd take a while before they arrived.

"What do you think it's about?"

"Could be the next great terrible plot against the Gotei 13 or it could be a meeting about some boring scientific finding. Who knows?"

"I hope it doesn't ruin Tanabata."

"It better not. I don't forgive things that ruin Nanao-chan's birthday."

"How's that going?"

"It's fine. I can't wait for her family to leave, but it's fine. We had dinner with my family last night." Jyuushiro glanced at him questioningly. "Some nobles including my brother may have seen me kissing her in a restaurant. My family knows it's fake, but my mother didn't want to seem rude for never meeting her family."

"I think the bigger question is why were you kissing her in a restaurant?"

"It wouldn't look real if we didn't kiss occasionally."

"I would think you could avoid kissing in public spaces when in the company of her family easily enough."

"Hachiro was looking at her."

"So?"

"He was looking at her gross."

"What?"

Shunsui shrugged and found himself oddly embarrassed although he wasn't sure why. "Rangiku-chan and the women dressed Nanao-chan up. She looked fantastic and her skeevy brother-in-law took note. He kept eyeing her up and down and you could tell what he was thinking about. It was pissing me off so I just reminded him that she was mine. It really was necessary."

Jyuushiro eyed him skeptically. "You're just lucky Nanao-san didn't blast you through a wall for your efforts."

Shunsui smirked. "Nanao-chan isn't as cold as she'd like everyone to think she is."

"Oh, don't tell me you slept with her."

"Every single night."

"Shunsui."

"We haven't had sex. I wouldn't do that to her. I know she doesn't want a casual partner. But it's been nice having her around and relaxed, at least when her mother can't get to her. My family is rightly obsessed with her, but that's always been true. Although if one more person I know tries to foist some lonely man they know off on her I might seriously punch someone on her behalf."

Jyuushiro was clearly amused by that declaration. "Who are they trying to set her up with?"

"Takumi for one," Shunsui spat. Jyuushiro rolled his eyes. "He's a prick."

"He was perfectly nice the one time I met him."

"It's a farce."

"Are you sure you're not just holding on to childhood grudges?"

Shunsui glared. "He's smarmy. Nanao-chan is a million times better than him. Her terrible mother would probably be pleased as punch though. All the more reason to shut it down."

"You know it might be nice for Nanao-san if her mother likes her future husband, horrible as she may be. It will certainly be less of a strain on Nanao-san."

"She'll like anyone with money and status and that isn't hard to come by. It doesn't need to be Takumi."

"So who would you want it to be?"

Shunsui shrugged. He didn't like the way his friend was looking at him. "If you're trying to get to a point you better do it fast." The other Taichos were very nearly assembled and milling about.

"No point," Jyuushiro said holding up his hands. "It just nice that you and Nanao-san are getting on so well. I had my concerns when this first started since you hadn't really lived with a woman long term since you were a child."

"Nanao-chan isn't the same as having some woman move in. It's barely even a change other than she'll occasionally share a drink with me and I get to touch her without a fan to the knuckles. She saves all the nagging for the office which is fair enough."

Jyuushiro laughed and their conversation was cut off as Kenpachi finally arrived and everyone headed into the meeting. Taking their positions, Shunsui hoped again this wouldn't take long. His hopes were squashed as Soi Fon got up to report. It wasn't that the woman wasn't concise and direct, it just meant if the 2nd was involved it was somewhat serious and likely to go on for a while as they debated the proper course of action.

An hour later they'd been fully briefed on what they thought was a powerful hollow taking out squadrons in the far reaches of the Rukongai that none of their trackers seemed to be able to trace, and it was decided that the Taichos would patrol in pairs the next few days in the hopes of putting the thing down. Shunsui was fine with that as long as they could get out of here now.

"Shunsui and Jyuushiro will start the patrols tomorrow," the Soutaicho announced. Well that sure as hell wouldn't do. "Hitsugaya Taicho and Kuchiki Taicho can take the next day."

"Um, Yama-jii," Shunsui started knowing this was going to end in a fight. After their last conversation he didn't think the old man would take it well that he wanted out of duty to spend Nanao's birthday with her.

"I have a conflict," Kuchiki Taicho interrupted. "I'm on duty Friday." While the next two days were holidays Taichos and Fukutaichos always rotated holidays on-duty so the Gotei 13 wasn't completely defenseless.

"Right," the old man started.

"We could switch with Kyouraku Taicho and Ukitake Taicho if that is acceptable to Hitsugaya Taicho." The white haired Taicho nodded his consent and Yama-jii agreed moving on with the rest of the assignments and releasing them.

"Well that was lucky," Jyuushiro said as they cleared out.

"Yes," Shunsui said pleased as they caught up to Kuchiki. "Thanks for taking Tanabata and missing both days off, Kuchiki-san. I owe you a drink."

The noble gave him a cool look. "It's unnecessary. I assumed Ise Fukutaicho would be upset if you missed her birthday." Shunsui gave a start. Why in the hell would that even cross Kuchiki's mind? "Have a good evening." The man didn't wait for pleasantries and shunpoed off.

"Why the hell does he know Nanao-chan's birthday?"

"It's not as if it's a difficult date to remember," Jyuushiro said with a shrug. "And it's well known you two go to the Tanabata festival together every year."

"Oi, Shinji-san, do you know when my Fukutaicho's birthday is?"

The blond Taicho looked confused as they walked over to a group of Taichos still lingering. "Why the hell would I know that? She pissed at you? You think you forgot her birthday?"

"That's not fair," Jyuushiro said calmingly. "Hirako-san hasn't been back that long. Retsu-san, you know Ise-san's birthday right?"

"Of course, she does," Shunsui cut them off. "They're friendly and in the SWA together and Retsu-san knows everything about her patients. Hitsugaya-kun, do you know Nanao-chan's birthday?"

"Sometime in the summer?" the young man offered doubtfully. "I believe I remember Matsumoto trying to initiate some sort of beach trip for Ise Fukutaicho's birthday once?"

"See?"

"It's one thing for Hitsugaya Taicho not to know," Kensei said, "But you should probably learn your own Fukutaicho's birthday. Women are funny about those things."

"He only says that because Mashiro-chan once beat the ever loving crap out of him when he forgot hers," Shinji filled in chuckling.

"I know Nanao-chan's birthday."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Nothing," Shunsui grumbled. And there really was no problem. There was no reason Kuchiki wasn't allowed to know her birthday. Perhaps Rukia had said something to him in passing. He should be grateful the man had remembered and made his fight with Yama-jii go away. It still irked him though.

"So where are we starting drinking?" Shinji asked. Retsu and Hitsugaya begged off, but Kensei and Rose offered suggestions.

"I don't know," Shunsui said. "I might just head home." Shocked faces greeted that statement and he backtracked a little, although surprisingly he found that it was true. He did want to go home, and a night at the bars just didn't sound that appealing. "Nanao-chan forced me to go to the office early and I'm tired."

"Since when have you ever said no to a drink? And especially the night before a holiday?" Shinji asked. "Something happen to him while we were gone?" The last question was aimed at Jyuushiro who was smirking.

"More like someone," Jyuushiro answered. Shunsui was going to punch him.

"I didn't know you were seeing anyone."

"I'm not. Jyuushiro just thinks it's funny when my Fukutaicho gets pissed and drags me home from bars."

"But Lisa would do that too when you had work? You telling me your new Fukutaicho is scarier than Lisa?"

"Lisa-chan could be talked into having a drink or indulging. Nanao-chan does not accept excuses."

"It's not like we have work tomorrow. What could she have to complain about?" Rose asked.

"It's fine. It's got nothing to do with Nanao-chan. I'm just tired. Pick a bar."

"You sure he's not sick?" Shinji asked addressing Jyuushiro again.

Jyuushiro shrugged. "We are getting old. He had to settle down sometime."

"Pick a bar," Shunsui groused. So he didn't want to go out one night. It wasn't a big deal. Nanao would be worried about the outcome of the meeting and he wanted to alleviate her concern. There was no crime in that. He sought out her reiatsu and found her at home. He brushed against her and felt her anxiety to which he answered with a soothing pulse of his own reiatsu. Shunsui felt her calm with that reassurance and pulled his reiatsu back under his control. In the short time it'd taken him to contact her the others had made a decision about the bar and they all headed out.

Two hours later Shunsui found himself nursing his second cup of sake and barely keeping up with the conversation. He just wasn't in the mood tonight it seemed. He wondered what Nanao was up to and if her family was driving her crazy. Reaching out for her reiatsu he found only a muffled trace of it. Interesting. She must be fooling around with kido to have put up wards that strong.

An elbow to his ribs jolted him out of his concentration. "What?"

"Shinji-san was asking you if there was a better bar to meet women at," Jyuushiro filled in smiling over his cup.

"Oh, uh."

"Seriously man, what's wrong with you? First you don't want to come out and now you barely drink and space out. I haven't seen you this distracted, well, ever."

"I told you I was tired. There's a bar down the street that's more popular with the ladies. We could move down there."

"Pull it together man, we've got beautiful women to attract and we can't do it if you're off your game."

The group started moving and Shunsui wondered what sort of kido Nanao was working on. She only put up wards when she was working with something high level. She hadn't mentioned any new projects to him recently. They filed into the next bar and Shunsui lost his train of thought in the noise.

Shinji immediately secured them a table and started trying to get women to join them. Shunsui thought Kensei's brooding mystique and Jyuushiro's flashing smile were having more to do with the table's success than Shinji's loud flirtations though. A gaggle of giggling women flooded the table as drinks were poured.

"I'm not funding this," Shunsui declared.

"Come on, you've got more money than you know what to do with!"

"Not a chance." The last time he hadn't made it clear 165 years ago he'd woken up the next day with a bill so large he could have paid the salary for half his troops. Given that had been a hell of a night. A lot of it was blurry, but Shunsui was pretty sure he'd gotten lucky a few times and not all with the same girl. A blonde pressed up against him now and batted her lashes up at him. "First round, that's it." Shinji gave a cheer and doubled his order.

The woman pressed closer and Shunsui let her. She and her friends were from the 5th apparently and quite impressed by the Taichos. Picking up women hadn't been a challenge for a very long time. The woman giggled again and tried to draw him into the conversation and he gave her a fake smile and sipped his drink. Shinji was doing enough talking for all of them luckily enough. He zoned out as the conversation flowed around him.

The woman's hand fell on his knee and he sighed at the predictability of it all. In a few minutes she'd work up the courage to trail it higher to the inside of his thigh. He wondered if Nanao had ever done that to a man to try to seduce him. Somehow he really doubted it. If Nanao wanted to flirt she'd probably blush profusely against her will and bring up an archaic kido spell or something. The mental image made him smile.

"Do you like jazz as well?" the girl at his side asked.

"Hmm?" Shunsui tuned back in and realized Shinji had started up a conversation about his favorite music and the girl had misunderstood his smile. "Oh it's fine." He searched for Nanao's reiatsu again and found it still warded. What could possibly hold her attention for that long?

"Shunsui, you in there?"

"What?"

"You could just go home if you want to you know," Jyuushiro said.

The girl made a protesting noise at his side and slipped her hand halfway up his thigh. "Why would he want to do that?"

"I believe he's tired."

Shunsui rolled his eyes at his friend. "I'm fine. I'm going to leave after this drink."

"So soon?" the blonde pouted. "Can I convince you to stay?" Her other hand came up to touch his waist and she smiled.

"You might have better luck with Jyuushiro," he offered lifting her hands away from him gently. "He can go all night long." His friend made a face and he struggled not to laugh. Jyuushiro did not enjoy the type of women who frequented bars and felt you up under the table. It was why his friend had specifically positioned himself between Rose and Shunsui. Shunsui knocked back his drink and stood.

"Are you seriously leaving?" Shinji shouted over the din.

"There's a bed calling my name." And a woman probably doing something dangerous with kido in it.

"You've lost your edge, old friend."

"Getting old," Shunsui agreed with a shrug. He moved through the crowd and out into the warm night. Taking a deep breath of the fresh air he headed off for home with a spring in his step.

He entered the house cautiously, but it seemed like her family had already sequestered themselves in their rooms. Following Nanao's faint reiatsu trail he moved back to the bedroom.

Quietly he opened the door and was greeted to the delightful sight of Nanao laying on her stomach on the bed in a long shirt with her bare legs kicked up in the air behind her moving to the beat of a pop song filtering out of the phone next to her. Papers and books covered the majority of the bed and a glass cube sat in front of her with a red pulsing spell contained inside of it. Nanao absentmindedly shoved a wayward strand of hair falling out of her low ponytail out of her face and continued to scribble in the notebook in front of her.

"Is that entirely legal?"

The reaction was immediate and just as amusing as he thought it would be. Nanao shoved herself up to her knees looking like a startled deer. "I'm so sorry! I didn't think you'd be home till the morning." Nanao started scrabbling to scoop up her papers and books and in the process knocked the phone to the floor. Abandoning one pile she stretched out over the side of the bed snagging the phone and turning the music off. "The rules aren't very clear on whether or not you can use your office phones for personal use or not. But I certainly don't think it's illegal."

"I meant the kido, Nanao-chan."

"Oh." She set the phone down and started pulling the papers and books into piles again. "It's new so I don't see how they could have made it illegal yet."

"Stop cleaning up. It's fine." He reached out to touch the box containing the kido and was surprised when Nanao shunpo launched herself out of the bed pushing him back and pinning him against the wall.

"If I'd known we were going to do this I really would have come home earlier."

Nanao blushed and backed off. "You shouldn't touch it. It's not exactly a healing spell."

"Should you be working on things alone that you're concerned I couldn't handle?"

"I have it under control." He gave her a dubious look. If she had it under control why couldn't he touch it? She sighed. "It's more dangerous the more powerful you are and I don't exactly have an off switch figured out for it yet. I don't think taking the chance that it will come into contact with a Taicho is a good idea."

"But a Fukutaicho is fine?"

She shrugged picking up the box with the spell in it. "Fukutaichos are replaceable. I don't think the Soutaicho would be quite as understanding if I accidently snuffed out one of his favorite and most powerful Taichos."

"One of his favorites? I am his favorite." She shot him a withering look and he laughed before becoming serious. "You really shouldn't be working on something like this all by yourself. What if something went wrong?"

"If something goes wrong, I'd be dead and there's nothing you or anyone else could do to help except die with me."

"What's the spell do and why are you working on this again?"

"It latches on to a reiatsu source and drains in dry," she said calmly. "The more power it leeches the bigger and stronger it becomes draining everything it expands to come into contact with. Right now the only way to stop it is to cut off its power source. So death if it actually came into contact with someone."

"But we're not worried about it in a glass box because?"

Nanao flushed. "It's a new glass developed based on the properties of sekkiseki double boxed. I can feed reiatsu in to keep the spell up, but it cuts the spell off from the source and any other potential reiatsu sources. That way I can just let the spell die out when I'm not feeding it on purpose."

"I wasn't aware that existed."

"It's relatively new."

"Where'd you get it, Nanao-chan?" he asked amused. Who knew Nanao broke so many rules in her personal time?

"Urahara-san may have possibly sold it to me when I explained that I was looking for a containment field with safety gates for kido experiments."

"So not illegal again because no one knows it exists?"

"Precisely."

"Since when do you like pop music?"

Nanao groaned. "I knew you weren't going to let that go."

"I always pictured Nanao-chan listening to classical or something cultured."

"Rangiku-san dragged me to a concert once." She shrugged. "I liked it. It's not a crime."

"Yep, no crimes were committed here tonight."

Nanao glared. "I saved some dinner for you just in case. We ordered out. It's in the fridge if you want to reheat it. I can clean up while you eat."

"You don't need to stop. I didn't mean to disturb your work. Although I'd prefer if you're working on something like this you'd at least let me know in advance."

"Did you miss the part where your presence would only make it worse if I lost control of it?"

"And what do you think my reaction would be if I knew nothing, but something went wrong and you were in trouble?"

She thought about it for a second and then looked horrified. "You'd rush right in like an idiot."

"Which I might not do now that I know it'd only make it worse. Please let me know in the future if you're creating a crazy death spell."

"Fine, but I do have it under control. If I can just figure out how to work a kill switch into it it could be enormously helpful. I thought there might be something useful in these old battle accounts, but I'm having trouble deciphering some of the spells referenced."

"Can I see?" She passed a large tome over to him and pointed out a section for him to take a look. "It's an old binding spell. It was defunct before even I was in the academy. If I remember correctly it was too rigid and could be cracked with enough force."

"It's like having my own personal history book," Nanao said delighted as she pressed up against his side and pointed to another passage.

"Hey!"

"And this spell? From the battle it sounds like when they were combined it had some of the reiatsu dampening effects I'm looking for."

He indulged her simply because her enthusiasm was contagious. "I don't recognize it specifically. Looks like a water based spell though. A lot of those used to have sword movements with the pattern described here involved before they figured out the shorter double chant."

Nanao hummed and took the book back from him sitting cross-legged on the bed and scribbling in her notes.

"Nanao-chan?"

"Mmm?"

"Is that my shirt?"

"Sure, sure, do whatever you want." And she was gone. The woman could disappear into research when she wanted to. Her focus was impeccable which he was sure was part of the reason why she was so good at kido. He packed a lot of punch with his, but she could silently double cast something elegant and deadly in the time it took him to decide what spell to do.

"Even if that includes peeling that shirt off of you and licking my way down your body?"

"Sounds good," she answered distracted. She shoved the strand of hair back again and left a smudge of ink on her ear. He shook his head and huffed a laugh. He'd gotten her to agree to some truly outrageous suggestions over the years when she was deep in her books. "I'm going to get some of that food."

"Uh huh."

Shunsui spent the next hour or so eating, taking a shower, and otherwise getting ready for bed. When he came out of the bathroom Nanao was still scribbling away, the kido spell burning, and the pop music back albeit a bit more quietly. The tune was catchy whatever it was and her toes curled and uncurled unconsciously to the beat. He smiled and crawled into his side of the bed causing the bed to dip and one of her scrolls to roll.

"Oh," she reached out to catch it and finally looked up. "Sorry."

"It's fine."

"I can stop now."

"Don't mind me. I can read for a while."

"No, I should probably wrap it up anyway. I didn't mean to commandeer your room, it's just my mother wouldn't shut up when I started in the living room and I didn't think you'd be home tonight."

"And where would I be, Nanao-chan?"

"It's the night before Tanabata. You always go out along with seemingly everyone else in the Gotei 13." She marked her place and started stacking books off to the side of the bed.

"The bars close at four."

"I just figured you'd find a place to stay. Everyone tends to get romantic before Tanabata."

"You'd have me shack up with some random woman so you could complete your kido experiments? I don't know that that's good for our relationship."

She laughed. "I know we're cramping your style. You haven't been able to go out and have fun. You can if you want to. You can go back out. I'll just lie to my parents and say you had an early morning meeting if you're worried about what they'll think."

"I think you're just looking for an excuse to get the bed all to yourself," he teased. "I'm right where I want to be."

"Liar." She picked up the box containing the kido and cut off the spell feeding it. The light inside flickered and died.

"I'm not lying. If I'd stayed out I wouldn't have gotten to see cute Nanao-chan listening to silly music in one of my dress shirts while she worked on dangerous things that could kill me."

"I'm sorry about the shirt." She blushed a pretty pink that worked its way down her neck. "I spilled ink on my pajamas and didn't have an extra set here. I didn't think you would mind."

"I don't. It looks good on you."

"You really don't want to go out?"

"Now you're starting to hurt my feelings. Do you want me to leave?"

"No, I just." She stopped and worried her hands in her lap. "I'm just sorry about all of this."

"Stop saying sorry. We made a deal and I've been having fun for the most part." She gave him a disbelieving look. "Don't look at me that way. I have. It's not me your mother tortures and it's been fun having you around. I got to see Nanao-chan in a sexy dress and discovered she likes silly pop songs about falling in love."

"They're not all about falling in love."

"Prove it," he said reaching around her and trying to get to her phone.

"No!" She pressed her palm to his face and shoved him back trying to snag her phone to hide it.

"Come on, Nanao-chan. What other music do you have in there?" He tickled her side and she laughed and shoved the phone under her body. "That's just asking for trouble." He shot an arm around her waist and pulled her up to him snatching the phone out from underneath her. She twisted and shoved, but he backed off easily enough with his prize in his hand. Luckily the phone was still unlocked. Now to find the music. A few minutes of silence passed and Nanao started to laugh.

"You have no clue how to work that thing do you?"

"I'm getting there." The damn things had just been upgraded a few months ago and he hadn't put much effort into learning how to use them. He knew how to place and accept a call and he could handle texting if he needed to, but other than that he never touched the stupid contraption. He tapped something and his face filled the screen.

"That would be the camera," Nanao informed peering over his shoulder.

"Don't be smart. How do I get out of it?" He hit the screen and heard the camera shutter sound as it took a terrible picture of him. Nanao laughed and reached past him tapping out of the camera. "Delete that."

"Never. Give me the phone. You're hopeless." She lifted the phone from his hands and did something that got music playing again.

"Its catchy."

"I know it's stupid."

"I like it."

"You don't have to lie."

"I like that Nanao-chan likes it."

"You're not allowed to tell anyone. It'd ruin my reputation."

"Delete that photo and we have a deal." She moved her fingers again and he saw the photo briefly before she got rid of it. They lay there quietly for a few moments listening to a woman singing about sex with some thinly veiled metaphors in a bubbly voice.

"You have terrible taste in music."

She whacked him in the face with her pillow. "I'm going to sleep now." She shut the music off and reached for the lamp flicking it off before retrieving her pillow from his hands and turning on her side to put her back to him.

Shunsui pulled her to him and she huffed, but didn't push him away. He waited till she got comfortable and stopped fidgeting before crooning the chorus in her ear. She elbowed him in the gut and rolled away from him as he wheezed out a laugh.

A/N: And I managed to catch the flu basically the first day of vacation and be sick my entire week off. Now it's back to work. So far this is just not my year, sigh. Hope the fluff helps carry you all through the week!