Nanao was happy with the progress in her relationship with Kyouraku Taicho. In the weeks since his absence, he had been present to the point of annoyance. He was in the office every day before noon and never complained when she gave him his to-do list. The idea for the list came from a joke — but Nanao-chan, if you put your words in writing, I will treasure them forever and read them every day. And so, she would make a detailed list of his weekly tasks every Monday morning. Much to her surprise, he never once complained and, for the most part, did his best to complete the list.
Their system had been working; he would complete at least two, sometimes three, tasks daily. His increased productivity afforded her more free time and, for the most part, meant that she could go home at a reasonable hour. So, she breathed a sigh of relief when she entered the office to see her laundry neatly folded in its plastic bag on the couch. One last task for the day meant she could finally dedicate time to the SWA calendar.
Halfway through the July social events, she felt a familiar tingling.
Looking up at the clock, she sighed; what could the man possibly want? The upper-level swordwork training only started half an hour ago — had he already lost focus? It was an unusually hot afternoon, and after spending the morning in meetings and painstakingly combing through absurd budget requests, she had very little desire to play Kyouraku Taicho's games. She shouldn't be surprised that his mind was wandering; last week, he turned the training session into a Celebration of Nature, which, of course, involved sake and naps.
Sighing, she stood up. It was best to deal with this in person.
However, to her surprise, he was focused when she arrived at the training grounds and actively demonstrated the best way to parry an unexpected attack from behind.
She had to hold back a smile. Based on his focus, it was more likely that he had unconsciously reached out to her and had not noticed their superficial contact or her presence on the training grounds. She should scold him and tell him off for initiating such an intimate form of contact at work. However, watching him in his element — feeling him in his element — stilled her desire to sever any ties.
He was awash with a calm discipline that she rarely felt from him. Watching him work with the division, it was clear why he had his position. He cared deeply for their division members; whether people noticed or not, he paid attention to the small details. He cultivated and cared for their division with meticulous attention, helping them grow and flourish under his care without ever stifling their creativity and individuality. She knew that better than most.
She felt her tension ease away as she sat down to watch the rest of the training session, allowing their superficial contact to continue. It wasn't the appropriate course of action, of course, but she could not bring herself to care. She was embarrassed to admit it, but she loved these rare moments when she got a window into his state of being while he was teaching.
She could feel how much genuine fun he was having. It wasn't easy to entice him to teach. Still, when he did, he always enjoyed it and returned to the office looking invigorated, the positive mood rippling throughout the division. He was so good at teaching — better than she was. She could teach upper-level kido class kido courses with the same efficiency and achieve the same outcomes; however, students in his classes seemed to enjoy training and have fun genuinely. So, she sat, lightly entangled with him, watching and feeling his joy, affection, and care.
It took ten minutes for him to notice her, an unusually long time. Suddenly, she felt his reiatsu spark in surprise — he'd finally noticed. She couldn't help but wave when he grinned and called her name brightly from across the training grounds.
Within moments, he was standing in front of her, grinning. "What is my sweet Nanao-chan doing here?"
She stood. "I just wanted to make sure you hadn't turned this into a Celebration of Nature session like you did last week." She said the first answer that came to mind — it wouldn't do to tell him the truth. She would never hear the end of it if she told him that watching him teach was calming.
She had to keep herself from shivering when he ran his reiatsu across hers, catching her in her lie.
"If you say so." He said, grinning mischievously.
"I do say so." She glared over her glasses — she would not be giving him the satisfaction of this victor, not when he was the one who started the whole thing.
"I think my sweet Nanao-chan is lying," he said before giving her another caress, this time applying more pressure.
"Taicho," she hissed. Not—" She had to stop herself before she said something incriminating, such as 'not here' or 'not now,' both of which implied a proper time and place for such a very unprofessional action.
He just laughed and retracted, reigned in his reiatsu back, and reached for her hand. "Say, Nanao-chan, come join me."
That was a new request. "What? No. I have plenty of my own work to do; you can't pawn this off on me."
"We can do a demonstration — they'll love it!" He said, tugging at her hand. She tugged back, but her hand remained firmly ensconced in his.
"Come on, Nanao-chan. We haven't had time to train together in months." He said earnestly.
It was true. Before the Winter War, they regularly trained together. Yet, at some point during the months leading up to the Winter War, their usual routine had fallen by the wayside in favor of other, more pressing, tasks.
She didn't have a real reason to say no. SWA social calendar could wait, and she was miraculously ahead on the week's paperwork.
"I suppose I can make time."
He turned to address the students. "Class, today you get a special treat! My dearest Nanao-chan is going to join us for a demonstration!"
There were mutterings throughout the class. While they had regularly trained together, very few people had been privy to their sparing sessions. Their training ground of choice was a spiraling and extensively warded room built under the Eighth, designed to contain volatile kido's effects. They didn't have to hold back in their training room and could use their full power. As a result, and much to the delight of the rumor mill, their training sessions were off-limits, and very few knew what actually took place in the room.
Sighing at what she knew was about to be yet another wave of gossip, she allowed him to guide her down into the training ground before pulling her hand free.
She heard the murmurs when he pulled both of his twin zampakto — in general, training sessions, he only ever used one sword. Students stepped back, and the murmurs turned into surprised yelps when he released his zampakto.
He grinned, his eyes issuing a threat, and gave a light tug at her reiatsu. "Come on, let's give them a show!"
She would not be the first to balk. Nanao adjusted her glasses, tangled their reiatsu, and pulled. She held back a grin when she saw Kyouraku's eyes widen in surprise before his grin grew wolfishly. She waited for Kyouraku to make the first move — he always caved first. She didn't have to wait long before he lept at her, using his extraordinary speed to catch her unawares. Unluckily for him, she had years of experience dodging him.
Without chanting, she put up a shield to repel his attacks and used her other hand to blast him with pure lightning. As expected, he used shunpo to avoid her attack, falling into her next trap — a web of kido meant to trap and immobilize opponents.
"Not fair, Nanao-chan!" He whined as he used kido to burn away the web.
"It's not meant to be fair, Taicho." She called back, repeating the words he always spoke to her in their training sessions — battle isn't meant to be fair, Nanao-chan. She knew he'd only be stuck momentarily. However, the short entanglement gave her just enough time to generate a dense blast of lightning.
He used a sword to parry, but the attack was designed to blow up when it came into contact with anything, including metal. At the loud explosion, she heard the students gasp and flee to the outskirts of the field. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw more curious division members lining the training grounds.
He said he wanted a show.
Before the smoke even cleared, Kyouraku emerged from the explosion site, sooty with the aftermath of her attack, his reiatsu sparking her from head to toe.
"I just washed my hair, Nanao-chan," he pouted before jumping into shunpo in her direction.
"Too bad!" she shouted back before dodging a sword strike.
Only her years of experience sparring with him prepared her to keep up with the speed of his attack. That was until he decided to use the full extent of his speed and managed to catch her arm, rending her uniform and drawing blood. She saw the brief moment of hesitation pass through his eyes at the sight of blood. She took the opportunity to blast him with her finest ball fire, burning hot enough that it lightly burned her own skin — an unfortunate but expected side effect of battling using kido primarily.
He lay on the ground panting.
"Already giving up, old man?" she taunted.
She could feel his glee when he deepened their reiatsu connection and had to suppress a shiver. When they sparred together, they did their best to keep their reiatsu to themselves so they could simulate actual battle conditions. However, more often than not, they would slip up and end up entangled. The feeling of letting go together was exhilarating. They could spar at full strength without fear of destroying buildings and suffocating anyone in their secluded and fortified training room. In the heat of the moment, their souls would become entangled, and every ebb and flow of power would be shared.
"Not yet, darling." He sat up, blood dripping from his forehead, and, after affectionately stroking his reiatsu across hers, came at her again, this time manipulating the wind around them. Successfully destabilizing her balance, he once again went for her arms. However, before she could reorient herself, he pressed a finger to her chest.
"Gotcha." He teased and released pure energy, sending her flying into the training ground's barrier wall.
Much to her embarrassment, she did not manage to put up a kido barrier to protect her back in time and hit the wall at full force. It took far too long to regain her bearings and pull away from the wall, her hair loose around her face, her head screaming, and her vision blurred. She moved to jump back into shunpo but found that she was stuck to the ground.
From a distance, she could make out a blur heading quickly in her direction. Fuck. She didn't have time to try to figure out what was wrong. She pulled at her reiatsu to form a barrier and attack but found it harder than usual to do so; it took far too much strength to get her body to cooperate. Luckily, by the time he had his sword up to her neck, she had her hand, lit white hot, at his neck.
"Draw!" He announced, his voice filled with laughter, and pulled back. "Well fought, Nanao-chan!"
She dropped her hand to her side and, distantly, through the ringing in her ears, heard the crowd erupt with cheers.
She pulled on all her strength to regain her composure. "Well fought, Taicho." However, based on the look he was giving her, it seemed she had taken too long to respond.
His grin faltered. "Nanao-chan?" He asked softly enough that others couldn't hear.
A sudden wave of nausea washed over her, and she felt hot and cold all over. She took a deep breath and steadied herself. "I'll be going back to the office now, sir."
Something in her tone must have given away her because his reiatsu sparked against hers, and his frown deepened. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she responded, knowing he would not react well if she showed her current state of discomfort. "I'll see you later, Taicho." She knew he would be hot on her heels after this particular conversation.
It seemed she had no control over her body because, before she could stop herself, she'd removed her glasses, set them aside, and, closing her eyes, began massaging her temples.
She heard footsteps approaching but kept her eyes closed.
"Is everything okay?"
Keeping her head very still, she continued her massage. "Fine — it's just a headache."
She did her best to ignore the concern radiating from him, focusing instead on relaxing her pounding head.
"Did you hit the wall too hard?"
She lightly shook her head but remained silent, telling him that addressing the root cause of her shakiness and headache would be like opening a can of worms she had no energy to address.
She opened her eyes to find him closing the window's shutters before kneeling in front of the couch. He grasped one of her hands and pulled it away from her temples.
"We should get you to the Fourth." His voice was soft and soothing. "You could have a concussion, sweetheart."
The walk to the Fourth sounded like a miserable endeavor. "I'm fine."
He sighed, and the next thing she was aware of was large and warm hands slipping through her hair to massage her throbbing head.
"Taicho." She did her best to reprimand him but knew there was no threat in her voice.
"Let me help," he said, and she couldn't help but sink into the couch, letting her head rest against his stomach.
She was sure she would regret the sigh left her mouth when she felt his reiatsu tentatively brush against hers. She knew she should refrain from such intimate contact at work — but right now, she couldn't be bothered to deny herself the relief.
"Let me help, sweetheart."
She accepted his caress and sank further into the couch when a wave of calm relaxation permeated her. All thought was lost when he started working on her neck's tense muscles. She'd always wondered what it would be like to be touched by his hands. Kyouraku Taicho was, after all, an objectively attractive man and, if rumors were to be believed, incredibly capable with his hands.
Rumors were, in fact, to be believed.
She fought to keep her eyes open, but his hands were, ultimately, too skilled to resist.
Nanao wasn't sure how long he'd been working at her shoulders and neck, but she was more relaxed than she'd been in weeks — not since That night. Distantly, she was aware of him asking a question about the tension she couldn't quite make sense of, not when his hands were melting away all the stress she'd let pile up this past month.
"I asked if you are always this tense?" He asked, his voice low in a way that sent shivers down her spine.
She leaned towards the voice and felt her head hit something solid and warm. "Hmmm? Me? Yeah." If she had any shred of dignity left, she would be embarrassed. But he was so gloriously skilled and warm, and she'd missed him.
She was happy to bathe in the silence as he continued to work on the knots in her shoulder.
"Sweetheart?" She hoped she'd formulated an intelligible response but lost hope when he chuckled and continued. "How's your head?"
"Still hurts."
She nearly gasped when his reiatsu brushed against hers with more pressure. Unable to deny herself his warmth and comfort, she allowed their reiatsus to tangle superficially. She could feel an analgesic kido spreading throughout her body; she knew that given her current state of exhaustion, the spell was potent enough to take away the pain.
Within moments, he faltered and was assessing her again, this time more clinically.
"Nanao-chan," he brushed back her hair. "Are you sure it's just a headache? You're not responding to the kido — maybe we should go to the Fourth?"
"Hmmm," was all she could answer without incriminating herself. "No, it's fine. I just overdid it at the First this morning."
"You shouldn't be this tired," he responded disapprovingly before she felt his nails lightly scratch her scalp. She hoped the secretary pool couldn't hear them because she was sure the noises that she was making were entirely inappropriate. His fingers glided to apply pressure at her temples and the sides of her head. She was sure she was going to melt. Surely, she would melt into the couch cushions. Their poor staff would find a puddle of her melted onto the couch.
"Is that better?" His voice was silken at her ear.
She only had the strength to nod against him. She would be mortified later, but that didn't matter. Right now, all that mattered was his warmth behind her and his glorious hands. This was beyond inappropriate, but she was too relaxed to care.
She briefly closed her eyes and opened them to find him leaning over her. "Hi," he whispered, running the back of his knuckles across her cheeks.
Trapped in his eyes and not knowing how to address the moment's intimacy, she smiled back.
"You should go home now, Nanao-chan."
Pulling back and standing up, she gave him the sternest glare she could muster, "You're just trying to get out of paperwork."
He chuckled and grinned. "Did it work?"
"Just for today, sir."
"Thank you, Nanao-chan! Don't go home too late," he said brightly before leaving the office.
Well. Today had not gone how she expected.