Being kicked in the shins was not his favorite way to wake up. It also hadn't happened in quite some time. The woman next to him muttered something and then rolled away from him again. He sighed as he watched Nanao's frowning face. Her hand flung out towards him, and he caught it midair, before it could smack into his face, which instantly sent her writhing to get away from his hold. Shunsui quickly threw up a kido barrier and pulled her closer to him.
"Nanao, wake up," he said loudly. She tried to pull away from him again whimpering, and he reached out to shake her shoulder. "It's just a dream. Wake up now."
Her eyes flew open, and he was thankful that at least this time she didn't try to take a kido shot at him. "Taicho?" she asked sleepy and confused.
He grimaced at the word, but let it pass as he dropped the kido shield. "You were having a bad dream."
"Was I?" she asked, and he saw her eyes flicker away from his own. "Sorry I woke you."
Nanao always got embarrassed whenever she had a nightmare. It'd been a problem since childhood, and while he understood where most of it arose from, he was sure she was the most prolific dreamer he'd ever met. His theory was that her brain was so trained to make up stories in her head from all her reading, that it just crossed straight over into her unconscious mind. That, added to her tendency not to just share her fears and concern, forced her nighttime hours to be a sort of release. She'd just huffed at him when he'd told her that and changed the subject. Nanao hadn't had one in a very long time now though, and he'd hoped they were coming to an end.
"You know I don't mind," he said. "Although I do prefer kisses to kicks."
"I kicked you?" she asked glancing up at him again. "Are you ok?"
He let out a laugh and tugged her closer to his side. "You kick like a girl. I'm just fine," he said.
She growled at that statement and tried to wiggle away. "I'll show you a kick."
He laughed again and rolled on top of her to subdue her flailing arms and legs. "Now, what were you dreaming about?"
She looked up at him defiantly, and he felt a brief but fierce flash of loving possession that she often stirred in him. He'd felt it with other women once or twice, but it'd died off after a few weeks when he'd started to get bored. Nanao never failed to inspire the feeling, and he quite enjoyed it when she claimed him as hers as well. "I didn't even know I was dreaming. You know how they just sort of fade away when you wake up."
"Uh huh, but this one didn't," he stated calmly.
"I can't remember, Shunsui. Why is it such a big deal?" she pouted. She worked an arm free to trail her fingers down his chest, and he felt alarm bells go off in his head. The little minx was trying to distract him again, and this time it just wasn't going to work.
"It wouldn't have anything to do with our discussion earlier this evening?" he asked and saw her tense subtly. Her fingers stopped their tortuous path and he smirked dangerously. Hit the nail on the head.
"It wasn't," she said quickly.
"But I thought you didn't remember it, so how would you know?" he asked in mock confusion.
"Well, if you already know I'm lying why don't you just say so?" she huffed up at him while dropping her hand away from his skin completely.
He chuckled at that comment and lay back down, effectively letting her out from under him, although to his pleasure she just chose to bury herself further into his side. "So what was it?"
"Nothing really," she sighed in defeat. "I was just looking for you all over and couldn't find you, and then your mother was there, screaming about how it was my fault, and then my father grabbed me."
"I knew I shouldn't have said anything," he muttered, running a hand through her hair distractedly.
She jerked up at that and glared down at him. "If anything, you should have said something sooner, so we could figure something out."
"What's there to figure out?" he asked, staying where he was and meeting her glare calmly.
"Well, there has to be a way to remove the key if there was a way to infuse it with your blood in the first place, or we could just go and get the stupid thing and end it," she offered.
"I already said no," he commented lightly, but meaning it. "Nanao-chan, it isn't a big deal. Nobody knows about it, and I'm not in any danger. I'm a Taicho of the Gotei 13 for kami sake. If I have to, I'll just take out whoever tries to hurt me without bleeding. I'll just have to make sure he doesn't get a hit in. Nothing to worry about at all." He gave her his best cocky grin, which faded quickly as he realized she wasn't even looking at him.
"She said you were collared," Nanao said so quietly he almost missed it.
"Who did?" he asked, although he had a feeling he already knew.
"You're mother. She said being who you are was like having a collar you couldn't remove," she explained, looking so torn he just wanted to hug her. He also was going to have a word with his mother about using Nanao's history against her. His mother was very good at manipulating when she wanted to, and there were certain lines he just wasn't going to let her cross.
"She's just trying to force you to do what she wants you to do. She's more worried than ever, because she had such high hopes that when I actually settled on one girl we'd start popping out babies instantly. Instead she got my beautiful Nanao-chan who believes that a career and a life can be more important than having as many children as possible as soon as possible. She's not handling that very well as you can see," he explained with a soft laugh, sitting up as well. "I honestly don't feel collared, and more often than not, I forget about the whole stupid thing. Don't you think if I were worried about it, I'd have done something about it ages ago? Contrary to what my mother believes, if I'd wanted to get a woman pregnant, I've had plenty of willing participants and open opportunities. I'm the one who chose not to."
"Wonderful to know," Nanao said grimacing at him.
"I'm just saying," he continued with a confident shrug. "It's nothing you have to remotely worry about. My family has been completely safe for generations. It was way more of a risk for my father than it will ever be for me, so stop being so fussy."
"But you aren't just saying that because of me, are you?" she asked biting her lip. It was adorable and made him want to kiss it all better. He did realize that it was bugging her way more than it should though, so he tried to focus as she kept talking as opposed to interrupting her right there and changing the direction of the evening. "I don't always have to get my way you know. I'm not the only one who should be happy with the way this relationship is going. If you don't like something, you should tell me."
"Well, in that case, I don't like it when you go out on missions that have even the slightest chance of you getting hurt, and I think you should wear pink to declare that you're mine, and men should have to sign a contract saying they will only look at your eyes in your presence and never have a lewd thought about you before they are allowed to speak to you," he declared grandly.
"Shunsui, I'm being serious," she glared.
"So am I," he said smiling. "The only thing I don't like about our relationship is when you are in danger, or when any other men think they have a snowflake's chance in hell of convincing you to leave me."
"I'm rarely in danger," she snorted. "And no men ever try to hit on me, and haven't since you started declaring your love for me years and years and years ago."
"I saw some of your brother's friends looking," he countered.
"Yes, well that was before they knew you," she said with a laugh.
"Is that why you used to go visit Mamoru-kun without me?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "So you could flirt with other men who didn't know I'd hunt them down?"
"Oh yes," she said grinning at him. "My plan was to have two separate lives, but you ruined that when you came to visit. My other fiancé dumped me on the spot, said he couldn't marry a woman who was willing to sleep with a man who wears pink."
"Sucks for him," Shunsui said, running his fingers up her side to a ticklish spot he'd discovered a few months into their relationship.
She dropped back on the bed laughing and trying to squirm away from his tickling hands. "Stop, stop! I give up!"
"Weakling," he teased.
"Says the man who cried when he dropped a sake glass on his toe," she said rolling her eyes.
"That was because I spilled the sake not because my toe hurt. That was good sake," he defended.
"Alcoholic," she accused, lifting herself off the bed to give him an innocent kiss.
"Well, there's this stressful woman in my life that always drives me to drink," he said.
"Hey!" she shouted crossly.
"What? I meant my mother," he clarified, leaning down to nuzzle her neck. They lay there quietly for a few moments, and he contemplated falling asleep again just as they were at the foot of the now rumpled bed.
"You do have a talent for distracting me," she finally murmured, moving her hands through his hair.
"Whatever do you mean?" he asked, internally sighing at his inability to completely divert her from a goal. It might work for a few minutes, but Nanao always came back to the point.
"I'm still going to worry."
"I really wish you wouldn't," he said.
"I can't help it," she admitted. "I want you safe, and most of all I want you happy. I don't want to be the reason you give up any of your hopes or dreams. I don't want to add to you feeling trapped. I know what a terrible feeling that is."
"I don't feel caged, at least not since I was a kid, and most of all not by you. I'm a big tough boy," he said. "I'll be fine. I may give into most of your whims, but that's because making you happy makes me happy. At least as long as it doesn't involve too much paperwork that is. I don't need children right this instant. We'll get there when we get there, and until then my mother will just have to worry about some non-existent threat."
"You're still human," she argued. "I've seen you lose fights before."
"I don't think there are many people of Yama-jii's level that are going to start suddenly hunting me down. Besides, if that happens I have my adorable, talented, Nanao-chan to look after me," he said affectionately. "Now stop harping on about it, or you'll turn into my mother."
"Bite your tongue," she said. "Now I really am going to have nightmares forever."
"Come on, lovely," he said, sitting up and pulling her against him before depositing her back into her original place on the bed. He'd discovered with much happiness that she preferred the left side of the bed, which had worked out well since he'd always preferred the right. "Go to sleep. I'm sure you're going to get up at some ungodly hour tomorrow."
"You mean at the appropriate time to make it into the office when I should be?" she asked smirking.
"Yes, that time," he replied with an overdramatic shudder. "Which means you should get sleep when you have the opportunity."
"Now who's worrying when they shouldn't?" she asked.
"Hey, where as you only have hypothetical situations, I have quite a bit of historical evidence to back me up when I say you don't sleep or eat a healthy amount. I could even call in Retsu as a secondary witness," he said, lying down next to her.
"And whose fault is that?" she demanded.
"Hey, I do some of the paperwork now," he pouted.
"Yes," she admitted. "But now there is this obnoxious man who keeps me up all hours of the night."
"You tell me who he is, and I'll take care of him," he said with a laugh.
"You better not," she replied, curling up against him. He'd also discovered she was not a spreader. Nanao tended to curl up as small as she could in her sleep, and he quite enjoyed the fact that this generally either led to her wrapped around him or in a petite ball at his side. "I rather like some of the things he does to keep me awake."
"Do tell," he said, grinning at her veiled compliment.
"A lady never kisses and tells," she said sleepily.
He chuckled quietly at that and trailed a hand up her arm. "Liar," he accused. "Like Matsumoto hasn't dragged all the sordid details out of you."
"Only some of them," she murmured groggily next to him.
"Ooo," he cooed. "Which ones?"
"None of your business," she said, not bothering to open her eyes.
"None of my business? I was there for them," he argued.
"Well, then no need for me to tell you," she said with a yawn.
"I'm going to get her drunk and figure out what you told her," he threatened.
"You're going to try and get someone else to tell you stories about your own sex life?" she asked.
"It's like a game of telephone," he commented. "I like to see how I turn out in the gossip mill. You should hear some of the things I've heard about myself."
"Freak," she said, wrapping one of her legs around his.
"You better have told her good things," he threatened.
She hummed back in her throat. "I told her you were the equivalent of, what I imagine, going bankai for the first time feels like."
"Oh, that's a good one, Nanao-chan," he said pleased.
She laughed and wrapped an arm around his waist. "I thought that would sufficiently stroke your ego."
"You better have really told her that," he said.
"I'll put it on my to-do list."
"It's mean to get a man's hopes up and then crush them like that," he pouted.
"I'm not in the habit of telling people about our sex life," she said with a shrug that he felt more than saw.
"But I don't mind if it's compliments!" he whined. "I only tell Jyuu good things about you."
She sat up so fast he was worried she might have given herself whiplash. "You did not tell him anything!"
"Like I said, it was good things," he replied, making a confused face.
"I'm never going to be able to speak to him again," she cried out. "This is so mortifying."
"Nanao-chan," he said with a laugh. "I'm just joking. Calm down."
"You're an ass," she complained, hitting him on the chest. He just ignored the ineffectual punch and dragged her back down on top of him by the waist.
"Sleep," he ordered. He was pretty sure she'd been sidetracked enough that she'd sleep peacefully through the rest of the night. It was always when she let herself think too hard that she drove herself into a tizzy.
"You better not have told Ukitake-san anything," she grumbled. "That'd be humiliating. It'd be like telling my brother what I like in bed."
"You worry too much," he said calmly. It wasn't like he'd told Jyuushiro anything bad. It'd just been normal man talk, and his best friend had more discretion than anyone he'd ever met. The woman next to him snuggled closer and yawned again, and he was tempted to tell her how cute she was, but figured it'd just wake her up once more and possibly start another argument.
He really hadn't shared much with Jyuushiro. Not like some of the conquests he'd had in the past. Some of those had been stories too good to keep to himself, and he'd been well aware that the women that perpetrated them sure didn't mind sharing. One girl had told Jyuushiro at a party before he'd gotten the chance. His friend hadn't wanted to know anything intimate about Nanao though. They were both close enough on their own that it would be awkward. Besides that, Shunsui didn't particularly feel like sharing anything about his lovely fukutaicho.
The only reason he'd said anything at all to his old friend, was simply because he'd been a bit overwhelmed himself. He'd known that Nanao hadn't had much of a dating life over the years. He'd also known he was somewhat guilty of adding to the problem for her, but what he hadn't expected was her to be quite as innocent as she was.
He'd been honestly shocked the first time he'd gotten her alone. He was glad he'd had enough control to stop himself and figure out what the heck had been wrong with her in the first place, as she hadn't been inclined to say anything. She'd just been so jumpy and nervous and completely unlike her calm, confident, self-sufficient self that his first thought had been that her father had succeeded in doing more to her than he originally thought. The idea had pissed him off so much he'd been distracted from anything else, including the fact that he'd already succeeded in getting her naked from the waist up. When he'd demanded to know what was wrong she'd just flushed bright red and shut down, which hadn't done anything to alleviate his fears. He'd helped her shrug back into her top, but had stopped her when she'd tried to go about pretending it hadn't happened and fix something for breakfast.
"Nanao-chan," he'd said softly, stopping her hands as they reached for dishes. She hadn't put up a fight, but she hadn't turned to face him either. "What's going on? If you didn't want to, you only had to say."
She'd sighed, and he'd wanted to stop asking, if only because it obviously made her uncomfortable, but he'd known too that it wasn't a topic they were just going to be able to ignore. "It's not that I don't want to," she'd replied, still looking down at his counter.
"Then the problem is?" he'd prompted. She'd bit her lip in thought, and he'd gotten too antsy for his own good. "Did your father or one of his men do anything?"
She'd finally turned to look at him with confusion on her face. The confusion had quickly turned to understanding and then to horror. "Oh no!" she'd said, "No, nothing like that!"
He hadn't been able to deny the feeling of relief that had washed over him after that comment. "Then you'd rather wait?" he'd asked, voicing his secondary thoughts. "I mean you just admitted you loved me after all. I more than understand. You just had to say."
"No," she'd shaken her head. "It's not that either. I mean yes, it's fast, but then again we've been incredibly slow getting here anyway so it doesn't really feel that way, does it?"
He'd had to agree with her there, and had silently thanked kami that he wasn't going to have to wait another decade to get her into bed. "Then what?"
"I'm just not sure I'm doing anything right, and I hate feeling that way," she'd said finally, looking miserable.
"Nanao-chan, everything you do is right," he'd said with a laugh, reaching for her again. Pre-sex jitters he could deal with. She'd let him get an arm around her waist, but had quickly thrown up a hand keeping room between them.
"But that's not true, and we both know it," she'd said, looking even more worried if anything. "Once I've learned something I do it correctly, but before that everyone screws up, right? I mean it's not like I'm a total idiot. I've got the basics figured out, and Matsumoto always over shares, but it's a bit like reading about a kido spell and then actually trying to produce it. It doesn't always come out perfectly the first time."
He'd had to process all of that for a minute before he'd even been able to understand what kido spells had to do with anything. When he'd put it all together, he hadn't been able to stop the look of surprise that flitted across his features. Nanao had obviously caught it and backed away from him further.
"Wait," he'd said, tightening the hold he'd managed to keep on her waist. "Are you saying you've never had sex before?"
She'd looked wretched standing there in front of him and hadn't been able to look up at him. "I thought you knew that," she'd said finally.
"Of course I didn't know that," he'd said, surprised she would even think that. "You're gorgeous and have had your own apartment all this time. I haven't sat outside of it to see whom you bring home. I mean, what idiot wouldn't at least attempt to get you into bed? Kami, and had I known that, I certainly wouldn't have tackled you on my kitchen floor."
"Don't you think if I'd been sleeping around it would have gotten into the gossip mill?" she'd asked, equally as surprised as him.
"My Nanao-chan has always been discreet," he'd said with a shrug. "It's not like I thought you had a secret long term boyfriend, but at least a one night stand here or there?"
"I never felt comfortable with strangers," she'd said while fidgeting with the ends of her shirt, and he'd felt awful when it looked like she felt ashamed of the fact due to his questioning.
"Nanao," he'd said, tilting her chin up so she'd look at him again. "I was just surprised. It's nothing to be embarrassed about. It just means there are fewer men out there who I have to hunt down and kill. I just wish I'd known so I hadn't jumped you like an animal in heat."
"I wasn't exactly beating you off," she'd pointed out.
"Still," he'd continued. "We don't have to go quite that fast."
"See? And now you're going to treat me like a child," she'd said fiercely, pulling away from him completely.
"I should hope I don't do this with children," he'd joked, but quickly realized she wasn't in a 'let's laugh about it and forget it' kind of mood.
"So what am I supposed to do? Just go find someone who I'm halfway comfortable with and figure it out, and then come back?" she'd demanded irrationally. "I told Ukitake-san that this would be a problem."
"Wait, you were talking about this with Jyuu?" he'd asked even more confused. "And don't you dare, even think about going to someone else."
"I told him you like your women experienced," she'd said, looking even more dejected than before.
"I like my Nanao-chan exactly as she is," he'd answered reaching for her again. She hadn't fought him, but she hadn't exactly melted against him either. "I'm not babying you. You just don't deserve to be rushed through weeks of experience in five minutes."
"It was only going to last five minutes?" she'd asked, obviously before she could think about it, as she'd then proceeded to flush all over again the minute it was out of her mouth.
"Figure of speech," he'd said with a chuckle. "Look, all I'm saying is the actual sex part isn't all of the good stuff, although I guess it would help me to actually know what you have done."
She'd looked like she'd rather bolt than answer that question, and he'd gotten a better hold on her just in case. "Pretty much what we just got to on the floor is as far as I've gone. Other than that, I've had a very limited number of make out sessions in the back of bars that I didn't want to be in, and that may or may not have been years ago."
He'd suddenly felt terrible for everything, for planning to screw her mindless on the floor, for not thinking to ask in the first place, and for stealing some of her experiences when she was younger. He had no delusions that some of the problem had more than likely been due to him. He'd always wanted to keep her safe and innocent, he'd just never figured it would actually work. Shunsui had wanted to apologize, but looking at her face, he hadn't thought she'd take it the right way.
"So you have more restraint than a saint," he'd murmured, brushing a loose piece of hair behind her ears.
She'd snorted at that comment and said, "I don't know if I'd really call it restraint, when most of them touching me just made me feel uncomfortable and dirty. I didn't know them so how could I possibly trust them? It always ended up reminding me of the men my father kept company with. Besides, it's not like I never did anything by myself."
He'd felt like his brain was going to burn out after having this conversation with her. "Oh, Nanao-chan, I'm going to be fantasizing about that last comment for weeks," he'd said honestly. The pink had returned to her cheeks and he'd wondered briefly if flushing too much could be dangerous.
"Look, I don't need this coddling," she'd said, and he'd heard some of the fukutaicho creep back into her tone. "Let's just get through it, and then it won't be this big taboo, and I can sort out all the details later. I'm just saying if it's not great, you should give me another chance."
"You, my dear, have all the chances in the world," he'd said, finally starting to feel on even ground again. "And I refuse to just get through it. I'm going to make you enjoy every minute of it, and that includes all the slow build up beforehand."
"You're making this unnecessarily complicated," she'd said lightly. "I'm not some tender girl that can't handle it or thinks its some precious gift."
He'd just smiled down at her, happy to have the Nanao personality he knew so well firmly back in control of the woman in front of him. Not that that was going to dissuade him from taking it slow. "Come on, Nanao-chan, I have a lot of fun things to show you, and I'm certainly not going to do them in the kitchen."
He'd talked to Jyuushiro about it the next day, not because he'd wanted to share any intimate details, but simply to alleviate some of his guilt. He'd really felt terrible for the part he'd played in her loosing some of the life experiences everyone else got to enjoy. He'd felt even worse that he couldn't altogether hate himself for having done it though. Although he knew he in no way deserved it, and it was a hideous double standard, and he wouldn't have minded it if she'd had quite a few lovers, he was still mostly pleased to be the only one. He wouldn't have traded all her shy advances and cautious attempts at intimacy for anything in the world. So it'd all wrapped up to him feeling guilty about the whole situation and then feeling even guiltier that he was glad about it.
Jyuushiro had been helpful in pointing out that at the end of the day the decision had been hers, and to apologize about it would just embarrass her further. He'd also repeated several anecdotes in which Nanao had firmly disregarded what Shunsui said and did if she felt she should be doing otherwise. "You're giving yourself too much credit, old friend," Jyuushiro had finally said laughing. "Nanao does what Nanao wants to do."
It had comforted him quite a bit and he'd decided not to bring it up again, just let things proceed naturally as they would. He'd also been delighted, some weeks later, when he'd come home from a dinner with some of the other Taichos to find Nanao engrossed in a book on her old window seat. She'd been so into it she hadn't noticed his return, and when he'd asked what she was reading, she'd turned pale and tried to shove the book behind her back, which had only served to pique his interest.
Once he'd wrestled the thing away from her, and she had put up quite a fight, he'd discovered it was one of his old hentai mangas and had barely managed to stop a laugh from escaping him.
"Nanao-chan, is reading naughty things," he'd cooed, grinning down at her where he'd pinned her to the floor.
"I was curious," she'd huffed. "Always before when I had to learn something new there were books about it. This was the closest I could find."
"And did it help?" he'd teased, unable to help it. "Nanao-chan was very absorbed in it."
"It was educational," she'd said glaring up at him.
He'd continued to sit on her, to keep her still, and had flipped through the book quickly trying to remember which one it was. "Does Nanao-chan want to try that?" he'd asked, grinning and holding the book open to a rather intriguing page.
She'd shifted underneath him unhappily and scowled at him. "I wouldn't be totally opposed to it," she'd commented stiffly once it had become clear that he was waiting for an answer.
"Nothing better than practice," he'd offered, setting the book aside and refocusing on the woman below him.
"It does make perfect," she'd said, a small smile tugging at the edge of her lips.
The petite woman next to him sighed in her sleep and shifted even closer to him. He looked down and grinned at how far she'd come in the course of their relationship. She'd been mortified the first time she'd woken up wrapped around him like an octopus. She'd also tried to apologize for it about a hundred times until he'd convinced her that not only did he not mind, he rather liked it. Nanao made a humming noise in her sleep and he shifted down to kiss the crown of her head.
He really was going to have to have a word with his mother about pressuring the poor girl. Nanao put enough pressure on herself for the both of them. Besides, he truly was confident when he said it wasn't a big deal. He'd been doing fine for centuries, he couldn't imagine why someone would suddenly figure out the secret now. Not that he'd mind Nanao pregnant. In fact, he was rather planning on it some day in the not so distant future. He wanted a whole bundle of kids with her. Ones that would never feel about him the way he did about his father.
He sighed and cut that thought off. Thinking about his family was the only sure fire way to get him annoyed, well that and people saying things about Nanao they had no right to be saying. He settled back and tried to fall asleep, after all he had to be up at some hour in the early afternoon so he could help her in the office for a bit. He'd never be the best Taicho ever, but at least he was trying, and she didn't have nearly as many late nights anymore. Well, at least not doing paperwork that is.
A/N: So the reaction to the last chapter was about what I expected. Some people liked it, others not so much. Hopefully the story still continues to be good enough that you still want to read it :)
To Ukitakefan14, I actually didn't forget that his mother was excited when she thought Nanao was his daughter. While the actual blood binding travels through the men in the family, his mother was just happy he'd decided to start procreating. It'd have given her ample ammunition to harass him into having more children until he got a son, if he'd set the precedence by having a child in the first place. Besides that, she really does just want grandchildren regardless of the key thing, so even a girl was a step in the right direction.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed some of the fluff, and as always I can't wait to read reviews. I really do try to take all comments into consideration, and don't mind constructive criticism! Thanks for all the encouragement so far!