• Every afternoon, you and Shunsui would open the doors of your room for the soft breeze to dance in, and you proceed to lie down on top of him as you take a nap.
“Where is he…” you mumble, seeing as he's unusually late to the late noon nap. You sigh as you follow his spiritual energy around the long road of the serietei, your frown growing deeper as you walk farther.
“Shunsui?” You call out, standing in the middle of an empty grass field. You barely have time to register his presence behind you before his arm is around your waist, lifting and taking you away.
You squeal in surprise, hands immediately wrapping around the arm on your front. In a second, you find yourself standing around a field of Sakura trees, with your beloved quietly beside you.
Shunsui watched the shimmer in your eyes and awe on your pretty face, a soft smile making its way to his lips. “Nap?” He asks, and you giggle as you turn to look at him. It was indeed, a perfect place for napping. “But, isn't the sun a bit too bright?” You ask, tilting your head to the side as you look up at him. Shunsui takes his hat off with one hand, and pulls you to him with the other as he falls to the grass.
“I got you, petal.” He assures, placing his hat on your head and keeping his hand there, whilst the other stays curled around your middle.
• Shunsui is a very impassive man, but even to that, there's a limit.
It has been a long day for him, from meetings to trainings, and he wanted nothing more than to go home to you. However, just on his way back, Shunsui's heart almost drops to his feet at the sensation of fear within your spiritual energy.
One sonido step and he's behind the barracks where you are, surrounded by two lowly shinigamis who don't seem to withhold the ability to define boundaries nor personal space.
“Do we have a problem here, gentlemen?” Their legs wobble like TV static, their tongues too heavy in their throats. “T-taichou, we were just hanging out with her.” Their voices are simmered down, almost a whisper. “It looks to me like you're making my girl uncomfortable,” his face is stoic, completely void of expression.
“We would never—” “But you were,” you answer, taking heart in his presence. “I'm an officer who's just beneath a promotion to a possible lieutenant, I can—” “A dead man can do nothing,” Shunsui's statement makes you shiver down to your bones.
Instantly, the two men vanish from your sight, and the relief has you falling to your knees. Or rather, almost falling. But he's got you. He's got you and his hands immediately grab your arms to lift you up.
“It's okay, my love, they can't hurt you.” The tension parts from you as he hugs you to his broad build that you find comfort in; smelling like Sakura and home.
As soon as you fall asleep nestled in his arms that night, Shunsui gently untangles himself from you and quietly leaves the room. He makes sure those two low lives remember what happens to whoever dares touch you.
• There's nothing that Shunsui loves more than teasing you, and quite frankly, he's good at it.
After the battle with Aizen, the sight of Shunsui's wounds has tears swelling up in your eyes. Your hands tremble as they come up to touch him as he's lying down while getting treated.
“Whatchu crying for, petal?” You sob even harder, your vision almost blemishing wholly. “I never thought I might lose you,” you say between hiccups. Shunsui starts chuckling as his hand reaches up to cradle your face.
“Why are you even laughing?!” You yell as you smack his shoulder unconsciously. Shunsui groans and shuts his eyes, which has your hands flying to your mouth as you start muttering apologies.
“Oh no! Oh no, oh dear. Oh, crap. I'm sorry, I didn't even—” you pause, your sentence cut short by his hard laughing. “You know what Shunsui? Die!” You say as you turn around to leave. But he's grabbing your hand quickly, pulling you back and twisting it behind your back.
“You're going to leave me wounded and alone?” The pout on his face looks so enticingly slap-able, but you try your best to remain calm. “You seem to be fine, seeing as you're joking and locking my arm behind my back effortlessly.” You snare, which has him chuckling.
“Is that so? But I'm truly in pain.” His brows furrow, in an attempt to give you the glassiest puppy eyes possible. “Oh piss off!” You push at his side, and this time the noises of pain sound genuine.
“I'M SORRY!” You yell, while he lets go of your wrist to hold his aching side. “It's okay petal, stop apolog— oof that hurts,” He huffs. “You're going to be the death of me,” you say in defeat before rushing down the hallway to find Unohana.
• For such a big and authoritative man, Kyoraku Shunsui is a very clingy man.
“I have training,” You try to reason, hands miserably failing at pushing him off you. “But I'm your captain,” his words are mushy, half his face squished on your tummy. “You've canceled the training the past two days Shunsui,” you try to reason, but he doesn't seem to budge.
“Have you heard the saying, 'Third time's a charm'?” You can't help but giggle at the question. “I heard Rukia-Chan saying it the other day, it's a very common human saying.” Shunsui looks up at you as he hears you sigh, hoping he won you over.
“No… No. I'm not giving in to this. We can spend time together after I'm done.” You promise, but Shunsui turns a deaf ear to your words. He simply yawns and nestles his face more comfortably into the flesh of your tummy.
“Seriously. I'll tell Yama-taichou.” He simply chuckles at your threat. “That's if you can get out of my arms first,” the easiness of his response that displays security in himself makes you blush…and well, you give in.
• Shunsui's inner poet emerges to the surface from the shadows, whenever alcohol seeps into his system.
“Your eyes, your eyes smile my lovely petal, did you know that?” He asks in surprise, your face squishes between his large palms. “I think I was enamored by you before I saw you,” his voice is unsteady, drunk as it gets.
“How ij jat poshible,” your words are barely comprehensive, considering you looked like a duck. Shunsui smiles, this oddly attractive drunken smile, and he has this sleepy love-sick look in his grey eyes. “I was walking with Ukitake, and we were walking, walking, and walking,” his hands leave your face, instead making random gestures as he narrates the story.
“Then, the weirdest thing happened,” his eyebrows lift, and you're now intrigued more than ever, inching closer as if this will make him talk faster. “What's the thing?” You ask curiously.
“I heard you laugh,” he says before starting to laugh too. “Why did you have such a sweet laugh? I'm not a man who blushes, but I blushed!” He exclaims, like he's a lawyer demanding the judge to be righteous.
“Ukitake still teases me about it, and it's all your fault,” Shunsui shakes his head. “Shunsui?” You call, and he lifts his head to look at your face. “Stop that,” he says, hand covering his eyes. “Stop what?” You blink confused.
“Stop being beautiful, I can't be falling for you again,” you laugh, and it has his pupils zooming out in astonishment. “I love that laugh,” he points at you, a drunken smile on his lips. “And I love you,” the poor man lowers his hat down to his face wordlessly, as his other hand rests over his heart.
With the snow piling up outside, Byakuya was immersed in his seemingly endless duties. During storms, specifically, his headaches fog his brain and turns his thoughts to TV static.
“Bya-kun, would you like some soup? I was thinking since there's a storm and your headaches are usually—” your sentence is abruptly cut by him. “No, I don't feel like eating soup. I had some leftover lunch earlier, so I'm not hungry.”
“Oh, okay.” You say in a choked voice, hoping he didn't catch on. “If you need anything, tell me,” you add before you excuse yourself to the kitchen where you munch on some crackers and conclude it enough of a dinner.
◇◇◇
“I'm going to the store to get some groceries for tomorrow's dinner.” You tell him as you put on your shoes, having a feeling you're going to regret putting on a skirt in this weather. You've already been feeling drowsy because of your shrinking appetite this week, and the sands in the hourglass are running low until your period.
“What dinner?” This is it, you think. The last drop before the cup overflows from pent-up emotions. “Maybe if you talked to me once this week, you would've remembered.” You wish your voice were loud and assertive, rather than tittering at the edge of tears.
Byakuya doesn't even have time to respond before you walk out and shut the door. He slumps back on the couch, face in his hands, as he ponders over the past week.
Yes he was busy, overwhelmed, and exhausted, but he forgot he should've run to you instead of isolating. He felt like a fool, undeserving and unappreciative. But that doesn't mean he'll just sit idly by and excuse his behavior with a few words of remorse.
The first thing Byakuya does before following you is informing Rukia and Renji that the dinner has been postponed, and the second thing he does is run after you.
He finds you walking mindlessly in the middle of the snowy road, wiping at your eyes with the back of your hand; something that makes his heart drop to his feet. You hear footsteps behind you and turn around immediately with a gasp.
“Hey, hey, it's me, sweetheart.” You inevitably pout while trying to hold your tears back. “Why are you here, you should be resting,” you tell him, and his heart all but squeezes to a pulp.
Your eyes are red and swollen, face thin, and cheeks feverishly red, and yet, you're worried about him. “My blossom… I'm so sorry.” He sighs, head bowing in remorse, but eyes looking up to meet yours.
Byakuya is about to reach for your hand when you turn around and start sobbing uncontrollably, your control snapping and emotions floating like a bundle of balloons.
He immediately grabs your hand and reaches for your shoulder to turn you to him with the other. “Please don't cry, I don't like to see you cry.” This makes you sob even more, and Byakuya immediately regrets pushing you further.
“Sweetheart I'm so sorry I didn't mean to make you cry even more—” “So you still love me?” You hiccup as you wipe your tears and lift your face.
“I never stopped loving you, and I never will. Don't ever think that.” His hand cups your face, and you nestle into his hold as you sniff and try to calm down. “You're burning up too much. Let's get you home, and we'll talk when you're better, okay?”
Your head starts shaking in refusal, “No, I want to talk to you now,” your words start slurring, and Byakuya's face starts waving silly. “Byakuya, I think I—” and then you're almost a limp body in the snow. However, Byakuya immediately pulls you to him, wraps his coat around your body, and lifts you into his arms.
“Let's get you home, baby,” he whispers in your ear before dropping a kiss on your forehead.
“I'm okay.” You try arguing, in hopes of getting him to put you down. Your, obviously burning yet, trembling body coaxes tears out of him.
The after effect of disappointment in the redness of your eyes sets a weight on his heart as his lips curve downwards. “You're not okay, blossom. You're terribly sick. Let's get you to bed, yeah?” He drops a kiss into your hair, and the exhaustion makes you give up on arguing and slump against him; letting him hold you.
◇◇◇
Byakuya lays you down gently, taking off your sweater and putting you in a light t-shirt instead. Your pale hands grab the blanket hurriedly to cover yourself, but he takes your hands off it. “We need to bring your fever down. I'll get you some cold patches, okay? Stay here.” Without answering, you turn to your side, curling into a ball.
Byakuya stares as you tremble, lying down in a fetus position to try warming yourself up. The skirt is clinging to your thighs like a second skin, the little hairs on your nape and forehead sticking to your skin from intense sweating. Your pretty eyes are red and welled with tears, and lips swollen from sickness. And yet, he thinks how you look as gorgeous as ever. And the ravenette feels as guilty, as ever.
“I'm so sorry, blossom.” His hands ball into fists as he rushes out of the room and into the kitchen. He fills a small bowl with water and ice cubes, dipping the dark brown rug into it.
“Sweetheart, turn around.” He taps your shoulder, leaning forward to look at your face, only to find you asleep. Grabbing your shoulders gently, he flips you on your back, squeezing the rug of excess water and laying it on your neck.
He hears a small yelp as you shiver, grabbing at the sheets of the bed. Byakuya heads to the door, grabbing his keys and putting his jacket back on, while he waits for someone to pick up the phone.
“Yes?” The person from the other end of the line asks. “This is Byakuya Kuchiki, I'm calling to inform you that I'll be taking a few weeks off. Thank you.” The man doesn't even wait for an answer, immediately ending the call and heading to the pharmacy.
A few minutes later, you wake up to the sound of rattling keys. The patch had fallen off your neck, and you stand up to see what all the sound is about. “What are you doing getting out of bed like this?” The tall male is quickly by your side, his arms protectively gripping your fragile body.
“I'm fine.” You deadpan, not meeting his gray eyes that you love so much. “You're not fine, blossom. And I'm so sorry. I took a few weeks off.” He drops soft kisses on your cheek, “I bought you medicine and food.” His hand extends out to yours, and you hesitantly take it while staring up at him with a frown.
After laying you down again, he grabs you a cup of water and the bags he bought. “Here, some chicken porridge, and the medicine.” He puts them on a bed-table in front of you and opens up the food packaging. “Careful, it's a little hot.” He warns, blowing on the spoon as he lifts it to your pale lips.
His eyes soften as he looks at you, and he can't help but tuck the fallen strands behind your reddish ears while his thumb caresses your cheek gently. “You're so beautiful. You don't deserve what I did. I'm so--” “You can stop apologizing, love,” You put your hand over his, giving him a reassuring smile.
“Also, I'm full.” His eyes grow wide as he arches an eyebrow, “No. You have to finish all of this. So you can take your meds.” You shake your head slowly; scrunching up your nose.
“You will.” He states, dipping the spoon into the plate. “No.” You whine, but the man doesn't budge. Finally, you roll your eyes and part your lips, taking the food in while staring at him.
For some reason, it makes a small rush of chills rise on his skin. “Be glad you're sick, blossom.” At his raspy sentence, you start coughing lightly as you swallow.
“Here, your medicine.” He holds out the pill sheet and water cup. “Drink all the water, okay?” You nod, doing just like he told you.
His hand pats your head, ruffling your hair gently as he reaches for your hair tie. “Turn around, I'll tie your hair up, and then you can sleep.” Your heart tumbles, a warm smile etching on your lips as you twist around, your back to him.
“I'll prepare a nice bath for you when you wake up.”
He kisses your temple as he gathers the soft locks of hair. “Thank you, love.” A giddy smile falls on his lips as he taps your shoulder so you know he's done.
“Are you…are you going back to the barracks?” You sniff, trying stubbornly to get air into your stuffy nose. “No, I told you. I'm taking a few weeks off for you, blossom. So, front or back?” With a tired laughter, you lay on your side, “Back.” With a nod, he lies down behind you, pulls you to him and rests his chin above your head while his hands wrap above your chest and around your waist.
“I'm so sorry, _____.” Byakuya says once again, kissing your hair. “Mmm, it's okay. I love you. So much.” You put your soft hands over his as you assure him. “I love you. So much. My Blossom.” He whispers in your ear, and feels you shiver. It makes him chuckle, “Shh, get better soon first.” The ravenette teases as he presses another gentle kiss on the top of your head and pulls you closer.
