Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

Chapter 10: Green Tea

Jushiro drained the last bit of tea from his teacup as he looked out the window of his office. He was about to get up to go into the main office and get some more when he felt Shunsui's reitsau rapidly approaching the Thirteenth Division office. A few seconds later, Shunsui flung his office door open and ran in.

"Fewf," exhaled Shunsui as he pressed his back against Jushiro's office door. "Still alive."

"What happened?" asked Jushiro, his eyebrows raising.

"Nanao nearly killed me!" exclaimed Shunsui.

"What did you do this time?"

"Well, I went into the kitchen and she was standing on her tip toes looking into the cupboard. She had a huge bowl of ice cream with pickles and popcorn on top sitting on the counter. When she asked me if I knew where that chocolate syrup that forms a shell when you put it on ice cream is, I told her that I had finished it off the night before. Then suddenly, the vein in her forehead bulges and she hurls the ice cream bowl at my head. Then she started yelling 'You monster! You finished my chocolate syrup and didn't replace it! You know that's all I want to eat right now! Get out before I kill you!' Then she started hurling the rest of the cupboard contents at me. She hit me pretty hard in the head with a can of peas." Shunsui tilted his hat back and began rubbing a large red bump that was throbbing above his right eyebrow. "I took off after that."

"Wow," replied Jushiro. "She must really like chocolate syrup." Shunsui groaned.

"Yep. And it's all due to those crazy pregnancy hormones of hers. It could be worse though. When she was pregnant with Yuki all she ever wanted to eat was watermelon and caviar, which of course you can't find in the Soul Society in the winter. I had to bribe practically everyone who went to the world of the living to bring me back some the whole time she was pregnant." Jushiro twirled his empty tea cup around in his hand. "Do you mind if I hide out in here for a while? If she decides to hunt me down, well, it's not like she can kill me with any witnesses around." Jushiro laughed.

"Sure." Shunsui began picking off the ice cream coated pieces of popcorn that clung to his kimono and hair. "Can I get you anything? Would you like some tea?" The over excited voice Jushiro had asked his second question in caused Shunsui to look at his friend with confused expression.

"Um, sure," he replied as he made his way towards the trashcan in the corner of the room to throw the gooey popcorn away. Shunsui stepped on the black pedal at the bottom of the stainless steel trashcan causing the lid to flip open. "Woah!" exclaimed Shunsui as he peered down into the trashcan. "Jushiro, what the hell man? What is all this?"

"What?" asked Jushiro confused. Shunsui pointed towards the open trashcan.

"Dude, there's like, fifty used tea packet things in there. Are you obsessed with tea now?"

"What? No—I just like tea," replied Jushiro nervously.

"Well, apparently you like it to the point where I'm concerned you might overdose." Jushiro laughed nervously as he stood and began making his way towards the door. "Where are you going?" Jushiro turned to face Shunsui, one hand poised over the doorknob.

"You said you wanted tea. I'm going to go get you some."

"You used to keep the tea in the cupboard behind your desk. Since when did you start keeping the tea in the front office?"

"Well," said Jushiro, nervously scratching the back of his, "I, um needed the extra space in here to store things." Shunsui gave him a skeptical look. He clearly wasn't buying it. He rubbed the stubble on the bottom of his chin for a moment, his eyebrows furrowing in thought until they suddenly relaxed as a light bulb went off in his head.

"Ah ha!," he exclaimed. He pointed an accusing index finger at him. "You've started keeping the tea in the front office so that you can see Miss Miya every time you go to get more!"

"What? No, that's not it!" Jushiro waved his hands back and forth and began blushing violently.

"Your red face says otherwise." Jushiro went to counter his friend's comment, but then gave up and slouched his shoulders in defeat. "Ha! I was right! Jushiro, you sly devil. It looks like I have rubbed off on you." Jushiro sighed.

"You make it sound as if that's a bad thing."

"Of course not. You know, I did the same thing when Nanao became my lieutenant. Except not with tea—I started storing sake in the cupboard behind her desk." Jushiro perked up.

"Wait a minute—is that why you spent the first three months after she started working in the office constantly drunk?"

"Yep."

"You told me you were just overcome with happiness that you had found a new lieutenant and that you just always felt like celebrating."

"I was overcome with happiness! Every time I bent down to get more sake out of the cupboard, I would get a perfect view of her butt. I had to stop keeping my sake bottles in there after a while though. She caught me staring at her backside on day and quickly pulled a large book off her desk and smacked me on the head with it. She started carrying that book with her everywhere after that." Jushiro ran his fingers over the smooth surface of his coffee mug. "So, how are things going? Have you asked her out yet?"

"What—no."

"And why not?"

"Well, because I don't think that she would ever think of me that way, that's why."

"What makes you say that?"

"I just don't think she would."

"Jushiro, you're just being stupid. I mean, come on now, what's not to like?" Jushiro sighed and looked away. "Wait—have you even talked to her yet?"

"Of course I have," replied Jushiro defensively.

"Oh really," said Shunsui as he gave his friend a skeptical look. "And what exactly did you say to her?"

"Well, the seventh time I went in there to get tea I said hi. The twelfth time I went in there she sneezed and I said bless you."

"Seriously? Are 'hi' and 'bless you' the closest you've gotten to asking her out?"

"No," replied Jushiro defensively. Shunsui continued to look at him skeptically. "Yes," he finally admitted as his shoulder slouched in defeat.

"That's pathetic," said Shunsui as he crossed his arms across his chest.

"But, it's not like I'm not trying. The last time I went in there I was dead set on asking her out but, right before I was about to I started coughing." Shunsui sighed.

"Well, even though your lungs are crappy, at least by drinking so much tea we know that you're kidneys are in tip top shape. It's a good thing that you have a bathroom in here. If you didn't, she'd see you constantly running to the one up front. She'd probably end up thinking that you have some form of urinary incontinence and trust me—no girl would ever commit to a guy that has that kind of trouble down south."

Miya dropped the pen that she had been holding on top of the form in front of her and began to shake her hand. She had been sitting in the office for the past seven hours filling out various forms and her hand had started cramping. At least Kiyone was out of the office at the moment. Any time Miya would put her pen down whenever the girl was in the room, she would glare at her as if she wanted to burn a hole in her empty hand. Miya started at the sound of Captain Ukitake's door opening down the hall. She looked up in time to see the white haired captain walk into the front office carrying a teacup in one hand. He smiled at her. She quickly picked up her pen and continued to writing trying to ignore the fact that as soon as she had seen him, her heart had involuntarily started beating a little faster in her chest.

Captain Ukitake walked over to the small counter on the far side of the room. In the corner of her eye, Miya saw the captain pour some hot water into his coffee mug. He opened the cupboard above the small counter and began rummaging around in it.

"You really like tea don't you?" she asked. Captain Ukitake jumped slightly and spun around, a glass jar in his hand.

"Um, yeah, I do," he replied as he nervously began rubbing his hand on the back of his head.

"I can tell," she replied.

"Y-you can?"

"Yeah." He gave her a confused look. "You only drink more tea than anyone I've ever known."

"Oh," he replied and then gave a small nervous laugh. He opened the container he had taken down from the cupboard and placed two large spoonfuls into his hot water filled mug. He began stirring it around with a little silver spoon that was sitting out on the counter. He set his mug on the counter and turned to face her. He began tugging on the sleeve of his white haori. "Um, Miss Miya do you—" He didn't get to finish his sentence because at that point, he started coughing.

"Um, are you okay?" she asked as he continued to cough."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Momentary coughing fit." He reached back onto the counter for his tea mug. He brought the mug to his lips and took a big gulp. His eyes instantly widened and he slammed the mug onto the counter. Another stream of coughs erupted from his chest.

"Captain! Captain are you alright?" her voice was panicked as she quickly rose from her chair.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he choked as he bent over and placed his hands on his knees to steady himself.

"Do I need to go get some help?"

"No, no, I'll be fine," he tried to assure her. "It's just--that's not tea."

"What?" she asked confused.

"What I just drank, it was most definitely not tea." She quickly made her way across the room and grabbed the jar that sat on the counter.

"Sir, this is bay leaf powder. Didn't you check the jar label?" Captain Ukitake shook his head. "No, I just used what I had in my hand at the moment." Miya cringed. Bay leaves were the most bitter tasting thing in the world. She couldn't believe that he had actually drunk some. He continued to cough and Miya quickly crossed the room and grabbed the glass of water that had been sitting on her desk.

"Here, drink some water." Jushiro took the glass in his shaking hand. Suppressing a cough, he gulped down the water. Slowly, his coughing subsided and he was finally able to straighten up again. "Feel better?" she asked, a concerned expression on her face.

"Yeah. Thanks for the water." After a few moments, her brows finally relaxed to their normal position.

"Good. You had me worried there for a moment."

"I did?" asked Ukitake. Her face instantly became neutral.

"I'm pretty sure Kiyone would kill me if I let anything happen to you while she was out of the office."

"Oh," he replied. He lifted the glass of water to his lips again and took another drink. All of a sudden, his cheeks turned bright red and he coughed into the glass.

"What's wrong now?" she asked as she saw him shakily place the glass on the counter behind him.

"Nothing. I'm fine," he said and then gave her a smile. She reached up and opened one of the cupboard doors and pulled down a plastic container.

"Here," she said as she popped off the plastic top. "It'll help get that horrible bay leaf taste out of our mouth." Ukitake peered into the container and pulled out one of the chocolate covered cookies from inside and took a bite. "Where did you get them?"

Miya peered down at the oddly shaped cookies in the plastic container. They looked like little cloud people with arms and legs.

"I got them from Rukia. Her brother donated them to the Shinigami Woman's Association bake sale, but no one bought them so she brought them over."

"They taste pretty good. Although, I can see why no one bought them—they're such a hideous shape."

"You think so? I actually think they're kind of cute looking." Ukitake placed the rest of the cookie in his pocket and handed the empty glass back to her.

"Thank you for the water Miss Miya."

"Of course Captain." Ukitake left and went back to his office. Miya sighed. She grabbed another cookie out of the plastic container before putting it back in the cupboard and ate it as she made her way back to her desk.

Jushiro flipped off his office light and made his way down the hallway. It had been a week since he had last tried talking to Miya. The last time he had tried talking to her he'd been so nervous that he started coughing and then had mistaken a jar of bay leaf powder for instant tea and had ended up drinking the most bitter, disgusting thing he had ever tasted. It had burned on the way down. Later as he had been drinking from her glass of water, he had blushed like a maniac when he had realized that by drinking from her glass, they had actually indirectly kissed. He knew it was a stupid thought, but that didn't stop him from turning ten shades of red right in front of her. She probably thought he was a complete weirdo now. He sighed and continued to make his way down the hallway.

As soon as he entered the front office he started when he realized that he wasn't the last person left in the building. "Oh, Miss Miya, you're still here? I thought you'd left a while ago."

"Yeah, she replied as she looked up at him briefly before continuing to fill out the form on her desk. "Kiyone said that these needed to get done today. I was stuck waiting in line to turn in some forms at the First Division this afternoon so I had to stay late to finish them."

"Oh, you don't have to stay to do that. If you give them to me, I'll stay and finish them up and you can go."

"No, that's okay. This is actually the very last form." With one more smooth stroke of her pen, Miya placed the finishing mark on the paper and then placed it on top of a very large stack. "There, all done," she said in a satisfied voice. She placed her pen and ink well back into her desk and then got up and pushed her chair in. He waited for her to step outside before he closed and locked the office door. They turned and slowly began making their way from the division office.

"So," said Jushiro trying to sound as casual as possible, "I bet you're glad to be headed home now after such a long day." Miya kept her eyes on the path in front of her.

"Actually," she said in an emotionless voice, "I'm not going home just yet. I'm going to take a walk."

"Oh," replied Jushiro. "Would you like some company?" he asked ignoring the tightness in his chest. Miya looked over at him and he could see a ghost of a smile cross her lips.

"Sure," she responded before she turned around and faced the path again.

The sun had already began to set causing the sky to glow pink and orange as they made their way from the Division Thirteen grounds.

"The trees look lovely this time of year, don't you think?" asked Jushiro after walking a few moments in silence.

"Um, well, to be honest, they kind of look dead," replied Miya as she scanned the brown and orange colored trees that lined the path. Jushiro mentally smacked himself in the head for his pathetic attempt at making small talk.

"Well, I mean, their color is pretty nice."

"Brown?"

"Uh, yeah, brown's nice," he replied. She looked up at him. Yes, brown was definitely nice—it was the color of her eyes. She gave him a skeptical look and he replied with a nervous smile. There was a momentary silence between them before she spoke.

"Well, in a way, I guess it is nice. I mean, if there wasn't any death in the fall, there wouldn't be any beauty in the spring." Jushiro thought about what she had said as they continued to walk along Seireitei streets. It was now twilight and the street lamps flickered on.

"So, do you like taking walks?" he asked. She looked at him and smiled. His breath caught in his throat.

"Probably not as much as you like tea." He tried hard to suppress a blush. "It's a recent hobby of mine. I lived with four other people in Rukongai. Our house was crazy, and loud, and…there was always someone there. I don't like going back to an quiet apartment."

"I understand," replied Jushiro. "You know, you could always hang out in the common building. That's where most of the squad spends their time when they aren't training."

"I tried that. It didn't turn out too well."

"What happened?" asked Jushiro.

"Let's just say that I don't exactly fit in with the rest of the squad." Jushiro didn't press the matter any further. Her not getting along with the squad was probably the reason why she would sneak into the common building at night to play the piano. He made a mental note to ask Kiyone if she knew anything about Miya having trouble with the rest of the squad the next time he saw her.

"So, the others you lived with in Rukongai, I'm guessing they're your family?"

"As close to one as I've got," she replied.

They continued talking as they walked along the lamp lit Seireitei streets. Although she had been tense at first, Miya had slowly began relax until she finally began talking unhindered. Miya told him about the years she had lived in Rukongai. She had told him about the family that she had pieced together there. She told him how she first discovered the power of her zanpakuto and how she had put together the bad of night thieves. He was amazed to say the least by how she had survived growing up in Rukongai and how she had learned to control her powers without very much guidance.

Jushiro had told her how he had grown up in a province to the west of the Seireitei. He told her of his years at the academy and how he had become a captain. She had listened intently, asking questions every now and again. When he had told her about the time that had been ambushed by ninjas in the garden, she had laughed. The sound of her laughter had been mesmerizing as it emanated out into the evening air.

Jushiro looked up at the sky and saw that it was dotted with bright shiny stars hanging high above the Seireitei.

"Wow," said Miya as she glanced down at her watch. "It's really late. I didn't even realize that we'd been walking for so long." Jushiro pulled back his sleeve and looked at his watch.

"Yeah, you're right." He saw her brows furrow as she glanced around.

"Um, where are we exactly?" Jushiro had been so enthralled in their conversation that he hadn't really paid attention to where they were walking and apparently neither had she. He glanced around and caught sight of the Second Division Detention center off to the right.

"We're at the Second Division."

"Oh," she replied. "It's kind of late and that's pretty far from the Thirteenth Division."

"We can shunpo back if you would like. It'd only take a few moments to get there from here."

"Um, that would be fine and all except for one teeny tiny detail." Jushiro looked at her questioningly. "I can't shunpo."

"You can't shunpo?'

"Nope. I never learned."

"But, when you fought Byakuya, you move so quickly."

"I did that with my zanpakuto. To you, it looked like I was moving quickly because you weren't under its influence. It actually took me a couple minutes to walk across the room, disarm him, and take that thing out of his hair."

"Oh, I see," replied Jushiro. "Um, well I could shunpo us both back."

"You could do that?"

"Yeah. If you like." She thought about it for a moment.

"Okay then." A thought occurred to him and he nervously began rubbing the back of his head. "Is something wrong?"

"Um, well," he said nervously, "In order to shunpo both of us I'll need to pick you up."

"Oh. Alright," she replied. Slowly, he bent down and he instantly felt his heart beat faster as she wrapped her right arm around his neck. He swung her legs up and caught them in his right arm. She wrapped her other arm around his neck to steady herself. He desperately tried to suppress the blush he could feel creeping up his cheeks. "Are you ready?" he asked as she met his brown eyes with her black ones. As soon as she nodded, he shunpoed back to the Thirteenth Division Barracks and to her door.

Jushiro gently released Miya's legs and placed her on the ground. Although she was now standing, she didn't release her arms from around his neck. He looked down at her gentle face and her black eyes darker than the nigh. After a few moments, he saw her cheeks turn pink before she abruptly let go of him.

"Um, thanks for the lift," she said as she began to twirl a strand of her hair around her index finger.

"Anytime," he replied. Once she was inside her apartment, Jushiro began to make his way home.

Jushiro couldn't help but feel light the whole way home.

Something was different.

Something had changed from the moment he had exited the office that afternoon to the moment he had dropped her off at her apartment.

He couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, but that didn't really matter to him for at that moment he knew only one thing to be certain: if he didn't make an honest effort to get close to her, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

A/N: So, Miya is finally starting to open up to Ukitake and Ukitake has finally decided to go for it. To be honest, I wasn't completely sure about this chapter. Hopefully it turned out okay and you liked it.

Oh, and in case you didn't recognize what the cookie that Miya gave Ukitake was, it's one of Byakuya's Seaweed Ambassador cookies.

Thanks for the reviews! I really appreciate all the comments.

Review Please :)