Author's Note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU.


See That He's Gentle

Shunsui Kyoraku was a little concerned that his beloved Nanao-chan was going to kill him. This time the situation wasn't entirely his fault. In fact, it wasn't his fault at all. The university had agreed to host the event without telling him until now. They would have just over a month to get things put together, and Shunsui knew that Nanao would end up doing most of the work. She was just so good at the organizational and administrative things. He honestly wasn't sure how he had managed before she had been hired as one of his office's work study students. Between the time she had been a first year undergraduate and now, Nanao had transformed the English department office into a well run, efficient machine.

And somewhere along the line, Shunsui had fallen in love with this bright, intelligent, challenging woman. And there was nothing he could really do about it. Yes, he flirted with her all the time, but Nanao never responded to that with anything other than exasperation, and he was known to flirt with all the girls. Besides, even if Nanao had felt the same way that he did, Shunsui wasn't really sure he would be comfortable pursuing a relationship with her right now. He was still her teacher. Well, technically. At this point, Shunsui considered Nanao an intellectual equal. He had no doubt that she would easily defend her dissertation and earn her doctorate. But until she had done that, he was technically her teacher, and he felt a little uncomfortable about trying to get into a relationship with her because of that.

Not that Nanao showed any inclination that she shared his feelings. Shunsui knew that she must have some fondness for him (otherwise he was pretty certain he'd be dead by now), but he doubted that her saw him as anything other than a friend and mentor and occasional nuisance. And he had better tell her about the conference sooner rather than later or she really was going to kill him.