Requested by ravens rising- thank you
Ukitake x Shunsui
Yeah, the Lieutenant mentioned is the one before Kaien.
Dawn
The dawn came slowly, burning red and terrible on the horizon, like it had soaked up the blood on the battlefield. The fight was over, the enemy defeated, and Shunsui landed on the ground to find his friend. He had not reported in that morning, although the scanners could still pick up the lingering tendrils of his power.
Jyuushiro was sat in the dirt and dust, watching the sky. The battle had raged on through the night, and now Fourth Division shinigami were out searching for the wounded and for those unaccounted for. Shunsui was glad he had found his friend first.
He walked over to him, and smiled, a little sadly. Jyuushiro's chest was bare, the remnants of his uniform hanging from his shoulders, cut in two. There was a long, deep cut from the left to right of his chest, where he had just got out of the way of a goring from a hollow.
"It's a red dawn, Shunsui."
Kyouraku suddenly felt a terribly repressing burden rest on his shoulders, on his heart. He dropped to his knees in front of his friend, ignoring the pool of blood that seeped into the hem of his Captain's haori, the starch of its new whiteness now covered in the grime of war.
"You're injured, Jyuushiro. Come on, let's get you fixed up."
Jyuushiro turned to him, his eyes strangely empty. There had been many dead, last night.
"I'm not cut out for this, Shunsui."
The weight fell a little heavier on him, and Shunsui pressed a kiss to Jyuushiro's forehead.
"You have to do it, Jyuu. You have to. You know that."
He wished he didn't have to say that; wished more than anything that he could send his friend away, to a place of quiet where he did not have to fight. But the Gotei could not spare him- the Gotei could never spare anyone of such talent and strength, and the Gotei was not a place to suffer regret and fools. There was no peace in the world that they lived in, but oh, how he wished he could free the man he loved.
"Come on."
He got to his feet, and held out his hand to pull Jyuushiro up from the dirt and the blood. It was splattered across his lover's face, dried to that brown that it distinct only to what has once been red; it had matted into his hair, but Shunsui was not worried, because knew that it was not Jyuushiro's. He could see the decapitated body of the Lieutenant of the Thirteenth division on the ground nearby. He knew why Jyuushiro's eyes were so blank.
His fellow Captain stumbled, and fell against Shunsui's chest. He rested there, hands coming up to fist in Shunsui's own intact haori.
His lover watched the sunrise, and Jyuushiro weeped for the dead.