Chapter 5 - Nostalgia

Chapter 5 – Nostalgia

It was a beautiful day and Ukitake and Kyoraku were taking a pleasant stroll through Rukongai. Ukitake hadn't been feeling well last week, and now that he was much better, they were able to take their weekly relaxing walk through the various districts. The breeze was cool and the sun was warm and it couldn't have been a nicer day. Making small talk, they walked past the various green trees and past the children, running around and playing in the grass. Most of them waved happily at the two men, recognising them and some of them occasionally came up and hugged them before running off back to play with their friends.

After they had been walking a while, Kyoraku suddenly heard the faint sound of singing coming from somewhere nearby. They both decided to check it out, and followed the sound to find a small, black-haired girl sitting on the ground by herself. She immediately went silent and flushed slightly on sight of them and her eyes were greener than the grass she sat on. Cautiously, so as to not alarm her, the white-haired man walked over to her and bent down on one knee. He gave her a kind smile and she relaxed slightly at seeing the genuineness the man showed in just that simple gesture.

Ukitake opened his mouth to speak to the girl, but before he could do so, her stomach grumbled loudly. She turned her head away and blushed faintly again in embarrassment and his smile widened.

"Are you hungry?" he remembered seeing a small food stand a small walk back the way they came, and decided to shout the girl something to eat. "Why don't you come with us? There's a place just back that way where we can get you something to eat." he asked kindly, not wanting to leave the girl alone without at least filling her stomach.

The girl's bright green eyes darted between them for a few moments with hesitation, but after they both smiled happily at her, she nodded awkwardly, and Ukitake held out a hand to help her up. Gently, she took it and stood up before brushing any grass off her backside and followed the kind men to the food stall. They bought her some onigiri and kindly told her not to eat too fast or she'll feel sick. She smiled faintly and restrained herself from munching down the food in one gulp. It was the first meal she had eaten in two days.

As soon as she finished, she instantly felt better, and a small surge of reiatsu was felt by the two captains sitting with her. They glanced at the girl, then at each other after feeling it. It sent a minor tingling sensation through their bodies and they almost spoke through their eyes, both agreeing that maybe this girl might have some potential as a shinigami. She was still only very young, but they had been around long enough to know when someone may have some hidden power.

A few minutes after she finished eating they walked around with her, asking her various questions about herself and such other things to which she replied in a shy, quiet voice sounding very much unlike the powerful and much more confident one they had heard singing earlier. They found out her name, but Kyoraku had insisted on calling her 'Siren-chan' explaining that he thought of it because there was a part of history from the real world about beautiful women who sung like angels. She wasn't exactly a woman yet, a young girl more or less, but he still thought that it was appropriate. It seemed that she didn't like her name much either, so Ukitake began referring to her as Siren as well.

It began to get dark, and they bid her goodbye, but told her that they would back around the same time next week. By that time, she was much more open with them and most of the original shyness had completely worn off. She ran off in the opposite direction, and they both strolled back into the Seireitei, hoping that they would see the green-eyed girl again.

The next week, it seemed like she was waiting for them in the exact same spot as when they first met her. She grinned happily and ran to them, hugging them both. She told them about their nicknames that she had come up with since they had come up with one for her. Captain of the Thirteenth Division, Ukitake Jushiro was now just 'Shiro', and Captain of the Eighth Division Kyoraku Shunsui was now known as 'Shun'. She laughingly told them that together she could call them 'ShiroShun' or 'ShunShiro' and the two men chuckled at the girl's new nicknames for them. Again, they walked around and they also told her about them being captain-class shinigami.

They told her about the cool spells (Kido) and defeating the bad guys (hollows) with their special swords that were like their best friends (Zanpakuto) and she instantly starting jumping around, swinging around a stick, pretending to 'defeat the bad guys'. As the weeks progressed, during their visits they began to tell her about what it meant to be a shinigami and she seemed quite intent on becoming one. Soon enough, she was forming balls of reiryoku and showed them happily before tripping over and accidentally putting a small hole in the ground from the ball she had proudly formed in front of them after practising for several hours.

When she came of age, she entered the shinigami academy, passing the first time and was quickly praised as a genius. Her Kido was average and she was able to control the techniques well, but it was her swordsmanship, agility and speed that shocked everyone. She was able to take on someone twice her size and defeat them with natural strength, technical skill and an ability to analyse her opponent's movements. She graduated within two and a half years and it didn't take long for her to be snapped up by the Thirteenth Division, thanks to Ukitake requesting her, beating the Eight Division to the punch.

She eventually gained shikai and became an incredibly capable shinigami for someone who wasn't interested in a seated position. Even though she loved being a shinigami and loved working under her close friend and surrogate father, she just didn't feel quite right in the Thirteenth Division. After a while, her abilities were noticed by the Onmitsukido and she was asked to join them. She accepted and ended up being a part of the Second Division as well. She rose up the ranks quickly, mastering shunpo and hakuda and gaining a reputation as one of the most promising shinigami of her generation.

For a long time, she didn't bother accepting any roles to rise up the ranks, as something like that had never bothered her before, but after a mission gone wrong, the Seventh Seat was killed and it didn't take her long to be almost begged to replace them.

On that day, she met him.

Well, she met him, properly...

#

Siren, the newly appointed Seventh Seat of the Second Division was strolling down the hall way of the barracks when a good-looking man ran up to her all of a sudden.

"Hey, are you the new Seventh Seat?" he said in a strangely familiar voice, sounding slightly out of breath.

"Um, yeah..." she confirmed, slightly confused at the current happenings.

"I'm Shukumei Tenka. Just call me Tenka though, I was never one for formalities. I'm the Sixth Seat." the man named Tenka spoke as he bowed slightly to the girl in front of him.

"I'm Siren." he raised an eyebrow at this, wondering why she didn't give another name. Also, the name sounded familiar. "Just Siren." she replied to his unanswered question and bowed her head a little in respect.

"Wait, you're Siren, Siren?" It was her turn to raise an eyebrow at this question. "From the Onmitsukido's Keigun?"

She ran her hand through her longer, but still messy black hair and scratched the back of her head whilst nodding. "Yeah, that'd be me."

"Oh, really? Well, we've actually been working together for a while now. I was made your group leader two weeks ago."

"Ah, that makes sense. You seemed familiar. With our get-up that covers pretty much everything except our eyes, it makes it difficult to recognise someone without it on." she replied, finally piecing together how she knew him.

"That's true. Um...I'm just heading to the training hall. Did you...want to come with me?" he asked, feeling slightly awkward. He had a crush on the girl in his new group ever since he met her, and he couldn't help but want to get to know her better, especially now that he'd seen her without their usual uniform.

"Yeah, sure. I'll see how I go against the Sixth Seat and my group leader." she said with a smirk and they headed to the training hall.

When they got there, there was barely anyone around. Just a few people who looked like they were slacking off. Siren and Tenka strolled in and without warning Tenka threw his leg out to try and kick Siren, who nonchalantly blocked it and raised an eyebrow, even though there was a small smirk on her face. He huffed in amusement, impressed with her reaction, and then it began. The next few minutes were filled with infinite kicks, blocks, punches, strikes, dodges as they darted around the room, countering every attack that the other had. They were evenly matched. Siren was more agile and quick, but Tenka had more strength and experience than she did. After a while, they called it a draw.

Within several months, they had both become good friends and made a great team. Tenka had moved up to Fifth Seat and Siren, being the uninterested person she was, hadn't bothered accepting her promotion to Sixth Seat no matter how much Tenka annoyed her about accepting it since he thought she was probably going to be a Gundancho in the Onmitsukido and maybe a Gotei Thirteen taicho one day.

What they didn't know, is that both of them really liked each other, but were just too dense and insecure to realise it. They hung out outside of missions, trained together every other day and got along famously.

Soon enough, years had passed, and that day came...

#

"Tenka! Tenka!" Siren called out as she ran down the hallway, trying desperately to find the Fifth Seat, whom was supposed to be sent on a mission to eliminate a hollow along with some of the other group leaders in the Keigun. She eventually found him in his quarters, making something to eat. "Tenka, you can't go. I have a terrible feeling about all this." she said, catching her breath in the doorway.

"Siren...I've got a bad feeling too, but I want to do my duty as a member of the Onmitsukido." he shut the door and used two fingers to lift up the girl's chin, but shushed her before she could start to protest. "I'm sorry, I know you don't want me to go, and I don't want to go either...but I want to fulfil the responsibilities of my job, even at the cost of my life. If somehow you got sent after me and died because I didn't do my job, it would kill me."

He pulled the smaller girl into a firm embrace and pressed a light kiss to her hair before saying what he had been going over in his head all morning. "Siren...I care about you so much...I-I love you...and the only thing I'm going to regret doing is being forced to leave you behind." With those words, Siren's green eyes stung with tears and she began to sob quietly. "Please don't cry. I don't want you to regret me doing my duty since I know that I won't."

After a moment, she collected herself, scoffing internally and realising how unlike a member of the Second Division and Onmitsukido that little emotional display was. She was supposed to be ruthless and cold-blooded. Well, apparently not.

An hour later, her and Tenka were curled up on his bed, definitely not expecting that to happen today. He had wanted to make it special, if he ever got the chance, but this was his only chance. It was their last chance to be together and they took it, knowing that there was a good chance he wasn't coming back from this mission.

Half an hour later, Tenka left with a chaste kiss that didn't last long enough for Siren's liking and an apology for leaving her like this.

Three hour and a half hours after that, Siren had found out the news that everyone sent had been killed even though they did manage to get rid of the hollow and had been having an emotional break for the past twenty minutes or so out in the mountains of Rukongai, where she always went to be on her own. Allowing herself just that small amount of emotional release would be enough for her. True to her word, she didn't cry, but just sat there contemplating what may have happened between them.

It was then, that she decided to shut off that part of herself so she never had to endure losing someone that she had gotten close to as a friend and a lover...

#

"Oi, Siren...Siren...SIREN!" Renji yelled at he stared down at the woman who was fast asleep with her head resting on her arms that were crossed on her desk.

"I will KILL you, Renji." Siren growled low and dangerously, annoyed at being woken up. Why did it always seem to happen when she was having such a refreshing sleep?

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I've got some free time. Let's go spar for a while before you leave." he said, not fazed by her threat, even though he knew he was probably going to pay for it when they sparred, but that was kind of what he wanted.

"You want to spar with me...after you woke me up? Your funeral." she spoke apathetically as she sleepily pushed herself up off the seat and walked towards the door of her office. Renji followed after her and led the way to the outside training area that Renji quite oftenly used since his bankai was just too big to be used inside. He still didn't know what Siren's bankai was, and that's why he asked her to spar, so he could see how he went up against a vizard, who was also an elite captain-class fighter.

It had been a month since she had been released from the Fourth Division, and he still hadn't gotten a chance to see how talented the new captain, and his good friend was. He had watched her sparring against Hisagi in hakuda many times, but she didn't seem to like using her zanpakuto while sparring or training while other people were around.

Still half-asleep, Siren stood at the opposite end of the training area. She was still dead tired from being woken up so quickly after she'd fallen asleep, and she wanted this over as soon as possible. Casually, she glared at Renji while removing her reiatsu sealing bracelet, concealed it in her shihakusho and drew her zanpakuto. She balanced the hilt on her right hand so the blade was pointing to the sky.

"Bankai..." she said lazily, and sighed faintly.

Renji's eyes went wide as he saw her mouth moving to the familiar phrase and he instantly released Zabimaru into bankai as well, not knowing what to expect, but knowing that if Siren was using her bankai straight away, then he was probably in for a very short fight. He watched as storm clouds rapidly began to appear in the sky, and Siren's katana transformed into the huge scythe. The next moment, large rods, identical to Siren's scythe (minus the blade, of course) were literally struck into the ground by lightning in a large circle around their battlefield and electricity buzzed between them, as Siren stood there inattentively, having seen this all before. He couldn't hear her say the name of her bankai, but he did know that her shikai was Raikou Arashi, so it was probably something along those lines.

Siren's reiatsu felt like it was crushing him and it didn't seem like she was bothering about compressing it a little for the sake of having a little discretion. From how much she was releasing, the whole of Seireitei and probably some of the Rukongai would be able to feel it. It felt quite a lot like Ichigo's, but it felt more 'static' than his. It was like waves of electricity going through the air, and the rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning that appeared every now and then in the clouds.

Before she could attack him, he whipped Hihio Zabimaru towards her, and she used shunpo to move out of the way lazily, only getting far enough away to be just out of range of his move. Suddenly gaining a slight interest in fighting with Renji, not expecting him to be able to use his bankai so well for a fuku-taicho, she ran a hand through her hair and twirled the large scythe in her right hand until it was just a blur. The Sixth Division fuku-taicho felt the air change and the thunder rumbled heavier, and the lightning flashed more frequently as she released more and more power.

Within moments, people were crowding around them, but making sure to keep their distance since they were seeing the new captain's bankai for the first time. They were all able to notice the slightly hollow feel to her reiatsu and most of them had to stay on their knees because of the extreme force of her radiating power, unless they had already passed out like some of the unseated members of various divisions that had been caught unawares by the sparring session.

Renji swung his zanpakuto again, and she used the same thing she had before and only just moved out of his range using shunpo at the last moment. She stopped twirling her zanpakuto abruptly and flickered out of sight. For the next few moments, there was no sign of her until she appeared just in front of her red-haired opponent and only using one hand, swung the scythe towards him, close enough so that if she made contact, the staff section of the huge weapon would hit him, instead of the blade. He barely dodged the swing and literally bent over backwards to get out of the way.

Siren rolled her eyes at his stupidity, knowing that if he didn't move fast enough she might have accidentally lopped his head off, which was the whole point of being so close to him. Before he could make another move, she flickered back to her original position and decided to not bother using her zanpakuto unless she accidentally killed him. Her bankai wasn't suitable for training or sparring against other people. She suddenly felt a fluctuation in Hisagi's reiatsu nearby, and looked over to the rooftop of a building to see him standing there, a little shocked. Deciding to give him, and everyone else, a bit of a show, she breathed deeply and casually lifted up her left hand with it straightened out and pointing upwards.

Eyes widened, and they all wondered what she was going to do. When she swung her arm downwards like an axe, a huge bolt of lightning struck the ground just next to Renji's feet. Everyone jumped in fright, including Renji and Hisagi and she was glad that she had displayed her ability, as well as her unsuitability for being a training partner whilst using bankai, she decided to end the fun. Shrugging her shoulders at Renji's horrified look, knowing just how close he came to being struck by that lightning, she lifted her left hand back up and it looked like she was about to claw her face off.

Unfortunately, the two Lieutenants watching her knew exactly what she was doing and Renji just decided to stand there while she embarrassed him, knowing that if he didn't she might kill him. Even a defensive move might get him injured. Dark green energy flowed out of her, and when her hand was out of the way, Renji and Hisagi could finally see her mask.

It was shaped kind of like Ichigo's but the eye holes were much larger and were more curved, almost more feminine in a way. It had the typical hollow teeth for the mouth, and the bottom came to a point. On each side at the top, there were three small spikes varying in size from biggest on the outside and smallest on the inside. There was three lines on it from the top of each eye hole to each spike and there was three coming from the bottom of the eye holes and ran to the edges of the mask.

He could see her yellow eyes shining through the holes in stark contrast to the black sclera, but his attention was drawn away from them when again her right arm lifted and she pointed her scythe at Renji. A dark green ball of reiryoku began to form at the end of the weapon and everyone knew instantly that it was a Cero. Making sure to tone it down as much as possible, she waited until Renji had just started to use Hihio Zabimaru to curl around him like a shield before she let it off.

There was very little damage since she was really holding back, and the crimson-haired man unravelled his massive zanpakuto and prepared for a counter attack. But before he could realise it, let alone even sense that she had moved, the large blade of the scythe was just under his chin, being held by the masked woman who had appeared just beside him. She muttered something to the effect of 'Too slow' in her shaky voice and she used her free hand to remove her mask. After a moment, she sighed and moved her zanpakuto out of the way, and ran her gloved hand through her hair again before she sealed and sheathed the katana that was a huge scythe only moments ago.

The large lightning rods disintegrated and the storm clouds began to roll away to reveal the blue sky again they were concealing and Siren noted that by the looks of where the sun was in the sky, it was just about time for her to leave. She had planned a quick trip to the real world to visit some old friends. Quickly she said goodbye to Renji and Hisagi, who were both still a little shocked by what they had just seen and just both murmured their goodbyes and Renji sealed his zanpakuto in a bit of a daze.

Half an hour later, she was in the real world and making her way to the Urahara Shoten. She had asked the former Twelfth Division taicho / former President of the Research and Development Institute to gather everyone there so she could say hi and see how they were all doing. The former Second Division Captain / Former Onmitskido Leader would be there as well. When she got there after a few minutes, she could already hear the chorus of voices coming from inside including Orihime and Urahara's chipper tones, Ichigo and Rukia's angry ones, sounding like they were most likely arguing about something, and Ishida's cool and calm one telling Ichigo to shut it, and the normal lack of Sado's deep voice.

As she was just about to open the door, Urahara's voice stopped her and he got everyone's attention and spoke. "Everyone, may I present to you the new Ninth Division taicho!" he said loud enough for Siren to hear, and she just shook her head and rolled her eyes at his comment and opened the door.

"Siren-san!?" they all said in unison (Ichigo being the only one to not use the honorific). Yoruichi was the only one without a shocke expression aside from Urahara.

"Yo." she greeted simply, and walked in and sat down with them all in the small living space.

"You're the new Ninth Division captain?! I was notified about it, but Ukitake-taicho didn't tell me who it was." Rukia trailed off, guessing that the man wanted to surprise her when she found out off Siren herself.

For the next few minutes, they all asked her various questions about the job, what she had to do, still all shocked that their vizard friend was allowed to become a captain. Orihime asked her something about if Hisagi had gone to the pet shop and bought the present he wanted for Komamura, to which Siren just stared blankly , shaking her head at the red-head for a few moments before she remembered something.

"Hey, Ishida, I need a favour." she took off her haori and threw it at him. "Would ya be so kind and get rid of the sleeves for me?"

The bespectacled teenager fumbled and inspected the item of clothing for a few moments before bringing out a small sewing kit from who knows where, earning a smart ass comment from Ichigo, and it only took the next few minutes, which was full of catching up, laughing and joking around for him to fix it. He handed it back to her, and she thanked him as she stood up and put it on. The dark-haired Quincy seemed quite enthralled with the fabric that used to be her sleeves, and she told him he could keep it as thanks.

Mumbling something about 'high quality' and 'thread count' he sat the sleeves on his lap and looked up to see his handiwork and smiled faintly when Siren thanked him again. She bid her goodbyes to everyone after staying for some tea and more conversation. She left the shop, shutting the door behind her and walked in the direction of the place she had stayed in for several years when she first left Soul Society. When she got to the destination, she reached out and touched the orange barrier covering the place, she released a tiny amount of reiatsu (as much as she could with the bracelet on) and she began to slip right through it.

Inside the building, a pink-haired man looked towards their door with a confused expression to see a small girl with black hair walking down the stairs. She nodded at him with a happy smile on her face, and he knew that she looked very familiar, but couldn't put his finger on who it was. The six other people in the huge place realised that there was someone there and they all looked to see the familiar looking girl walking down the stairs.

"Siren?" a grey-haired man with the toned muscles spoke and took a few steps towards the girl who was now at the bottom of the stairs, trying to confirm his thoughts on who it was.

She nodded her head at him and replied. "Sure is. It's been a while guys."

They all recognised her as she came closer to them and they all said their hello's to the girl they hadn't laid eyes on in many years. Predictably enough, the man with the jaw-length straight blonde hair ran up to her and held his arms out to hug her, yelling her name and something about her being his 'first love' before a sandal came flying towards her out of nowhere and Siren caught it to smack him across the face with it. A small blonde girl with pigtails walked over and took the sandal from Siren as they 'tagged' each other with evil smirks and she took to smacking the blonde man across the face with the sandal from the other side.

"Dickhead Shinji! That's not how you greet the woman we haven't seen in so long!" the fiery blonde girl yelled as Shinji held a hand over his face and whimpered in pain.

"Shut it Hiyori!" he yelled back, but started whimpering again, realising that it was too early to start yelling without it seriously hurting.

The two of them argued for a few minutes meanwhile the man with the spiked afro and sunglasses named Love, and the man with the long wavy blonde hair, Rose, came over and greeted her, as well as the bespectacled black haired girl, Lisa, the girl with the bubbly personality and green hair, Mashiro and the rotund pink-haired man referred to as Hachi came over and talked to her but they were interrupted by a louder voice belonging to the grey-haired vizard that had recognised her first.

"So...Siren. What's with the haori?! You a captain or something?" he said sharply, but playfully, loud enough for the girl a few metres away to hear him, and she smirked faintly before replying.

"You're damn right I am, Kensei. Wanna know what division!?" she retorted, playing along with his game, and turned around to show the number written on her haori to them all. His eyes widened at the sight of his old division's number on the back of her haori, and he smiled happily, glad that she was the one to get the position.

Shinji and Hiyori immediately stopped arguing at the sound of the announcement and came over and they all bombarded Siren with questions, much like what had happened at the Urahara Shoten. After things slowed down, they all sat down and she told them exactly what had happened since she left. They already knew about there being a new captain, but they didn't know what division or who it was but Kensei realised as soon as he laid eyes on the haori that she was the new captain. She reminded him of himself more than ever now.

For the next half hour, she caught up with them all, glad to see that they were all doing okay. After a while, she bid them goodbye, laughingly saying that Soul Society is lost without her, and promising to come and see them all again soon. Kensei walked with her upstairs and everyone left them be, knowing that they had always been quite close friends, even though they all knew that Kensei had always had a little crush on her, even though he'd probably die before admitting it. Well, everyone except Siren knew about it.

"Oi. I'm glad that you're the new captain. I always said that if they ever allowed vizards in Soul Society, that you'd become one." he said, as the leaned against the door frame.

"Thanks. Yeah, I know. But I honestly didn't think that it would ever happen. Oh by the way, you remember Hisagi Shuhei?" she asked, accompanying him in leaning against the door frame.

"The kid?" the former Ninth Division taicho said, remembering the young boy he had saved from the clutches of a huge hollow all those years ago.

"Yep... He's my Lieutenant."

"Really? I knew that he was a Lieutenant from the Winter War. Should've known that he would have gone for the Ninth Division. Seems like he's pretty strong."

"He certainly is. Especially with me training him." she laughed, and he huffed in amusement at her confidence, even though it was undoubtedly true. "Alright, I better go. I was totally serious before, they've got nothing without me." she pushed off the door frame and stood up properly.

Kensei smiled again, noticing that she seemed pretty happy with the strange turn of events. They hugged each other and said their goodbyes, and Kensei reminded her to come back and visit soon. She waved over her shoulder and went through the orange barrier, then opened up the senkaimon and went through the Dangai for the second time that day.

#

The voice of the person sitting in the large white room with the immensely high-ceilings echoed as they spoke to the two people kneeling in front of them.

"Aizen-sama would be pleased with how much our strength has increased. We shall evaluate their strength very soon..."

#

The night was cold. They were standing there. Time seemed to still as they looked straight into each other's souls. He called her name softly, and his voice resonated through her body. He walked over to her, and pulled her into a warm and protecting embrace. She didn't return it. He pulled back, wondering why and then he felt cold steel run him through. He looked at her face to see her hollow mask covering it. Her sclera was black, and irises yellow. "W-Why?" he choked out, and she pulled the katana out of him, and watched on, void of emotion as he fell to the ground, covered in blood.

Siren woke violently and sat up, to see Hisagi standing over her with a worried expression. "Are you okay? I've been trying to wake you for like -"

His words were cut off when she gasped and threw her arms around him, her body shaking with fear as she almost fell off the couch. He knelt down and stroked her hair gently as her erratic breathing gradually slowed and evened out. After a few minutes, she had calmed down a little and he pulled back and brushed the hair off her face that was covered with a thin film of sweat.

"Hey... What happened?" he asked softly as he could, not wanting to upset her.

"I dreamt...I dreamt that I ki-killed you. Well, my hollow side did." she choked out with her gaze still inward, the images she had seen in her sleep rushing through her mind taunting her endlessly.

He hugged her again, and cooed to her softly, telling her that it was only a dream. She still seemed pretty shaken up, so he picked her up and brought her to his room as she continued to tremble faintly. He laid her down on his bed, and sat down next to her. For about twenty minutes, he calmed her down, stroking her cheek and hair, until she eventually closed her eyes and fell back to sleep. Hoping that she wouldn't beat him up for this tomorrow, thinking that he took advantage of her emotional weakness or something, he laid down next to her and placed a protective arm over her waist and pressed his nose to his hair, and eventually let himself be lulled to sleep by her scent of vanilla and sake.

They both woke the next morning to the sound of their Sixth Seat knocking at Hisagi's door. He got up and went to answer the door as Siren sat up on his bed, wondering why the hell she was there and contemplating how much she had to drink the previous night. After a moment Hisagi came back in with a pile of paper work in hand and an unhappy expression. They had just completed a huge pile yesterday, so he was hoping to not do so much work today. Especially after seeing his captain and good friend being more shaken up than he had ever seen before.

She usually never seemed phased by anything to do with that side of her, or she was just very good at hiding it. After being this way for so long, it wouldn't be surprising if she could cover it up so well. He looked at the girl's face, which was contorted slightly with confusion, but then her eyes widened dramatically and she looked over at him with shock and fear. Guessing that she had remembered what happened last night, he walked over to her and sat down next to her on the bed.

"How are you feeling?" he asked softly, watching observantly as she looked back down at the floor. She shrugged and mumbled an incoherent reply and he watched as the signs of acceptance and nonchalance appeared on her face, and gathered that she was alright.

She shrugged. "That's never happened before. In fact, I haven't been bothered by Utsuro for weeks now."

"I figured. You've been in too good a mood for that to happen." he said with a small smile.

"That's because I've been able to buy so much sake that I probably haven't been sober in like...a month." she admitted, laughing at Hisagi shaking his head. "Don't shake your head at me. You had some of it!" she demanded and poke his chest firmly with her finger.

After bickering playfully for a few more minutes, Siren got up and they both got ready for another long, monotonous day of work. Three hours after that, they had completed the huge stack of paper work and Siren was ready to crack open a bottle of sake, much to Hisagi's chagrin. He had no idea how she did any work, let alone stayed alive and rather healthy when she drank that much. He had the suspicion that it was all to keep her hollow side quiet.

He was on his way back from dropping off a report to the Sixth Division, when he heard a distinctively female voice yelling his name from behind him, and before he could turn around and look to find out who it was he felt impact. The woman jumped on his back and threw her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. The smell of sake hit his nostrils and he knew that Siren must have had a fair bit while he was gone.

"Ya wanna come back and have a drink with me, Shuhei?" she whispered in his ear, and he tensed up at hearing his first name come off her lips so god damn seductively. He could feel her soft curves pressing against his shoulders and her warm breath fanning over his neck and it took everything he had not to march back to his place right now and have her on every surface in there. Several times over.

She seemed to notice his awkwardness and started drawing small patterns with her fingernail lightly on his chest, just to make it a little worse. No one was around to see what was happening, but he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched. He somehow managed to speak her name, in a slightly urgent and forced voice, and she dropped down back onto her own feet.

"Come on, we're taking the rest of the day off and going to The House." she said over her shoulder as she walked back the way she came, and his eyes dropped to watch her hips sway from left to right as she walked further and further away from him. He broke out of his reverie as she turned around abruptly and hurried him, and he followed her without a word, knowing that she wouldn't listen anyway.

As they walked through the Seireitei and through Rukongai, Hisagi thought about how the random instances such as the one before had been happening with increasing frequency over the past month. He had actually caught her checking him out when he had just walked out of the shower, with nothing but a towel around his waist, not realising that she was there.

Okay, maybe he might have heard the door open, and just decided to see what she'd do if he just walked around half naked.

The fuku-taicho had also had his fair share of perving on her as well. Especially when they sparred and she had that outfit that didn't cover her pale shoulders and half of her back, and they usually ended up in some sort of compromising position which sent his mind reeling with mental images of it being even more compromising. He couldn't deny to himself any longer that he was definitely into her. It was getting harder and harder for him to cover it up, even more so when it was almost like she knew and was just having so much fun egging him on. Either that, or maybe...just maybe, she was attracted to him as well.

Lately, they had barely left each other's side, and they'd stayed at his place every other night, aside from when everyone would hang out when they could at their place in Rukongai which had been deemed 'The House'. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, he really enjoyed her company, but over the last month spending more time with her had made him become exponentially more attracted to her. And she certainly didn't make it much easier for him.

Occasionally, she would look at him for longer than usual with an unreadable expression, or when she would stroll around in just her little green kimono-like get-up with the black sash that just made her vibrant green orbs stand out like lights that he could swear that he could stare into all day, or when she'd lean her head on his shoulder tiredly as they went over pages and pages of paper work until late at night.

He was still in his own little world, even as they entered the house, and he sat down on the couch mechanically ignoring that Siren said that she was going for a shower and only just snapping out of it twenty minutes later when the girl he hadn't stopped thinking about all day came out with dripping wet hair, and a dark grey t-shirt that was probably two sizes too big for her.

It was big enough to cover everything, but when she walked over to one of the cupboards in the kitchen and reached up to grab something, the shirt lifted almost enough for her rear-end to be revealed and he actively had to stop his inner pervert from thinking about everything he would like to do to the woman, which didn't work too well, and the crotch area of his pants began to feel a little 'tighter' than a few moments ago.

Tearing his eyes off her, he went to 'his' room, for all intents and purposes and grabbed a clean pair of pants that he wore around the house. He zipped off into the shower without a word or a glance in her direction, knowing that if he heard her usual soft, calm voice that he would probably jump her, no matter if she asked him if he wanted water or something equally irrelevant to any sexual situation.

As Siren watched him nearly bolt past her into the bathroom, with her eyes widened slightly and an eyebrow raised in confusion, she thought about how odd he had been acting lately. She knew him incredibly well, even though they hadn't known each other for that long but she had noticed his behaviour was just becoming odd. He seemed a little awkward around her sometimes and occasionally he would just walk away from her on the pretence of doing something significant.

Sighing, she realised that her blonde hair, blue-eyed and large chested friend was probably right. He probably did like her. It's not like she hadn't noticed how he had totally been checking her out earlier when she had been walking away from him, or sometimes when they were sparring. Shockingly enough, he was rather good at being very subtle about the whole thing, but when you lived as long as they did, you usually learnt to read people pretty well, especially when you were as observant as she was.

Hisagi suddenly came out of the bathroom, just wearing a pair of pants that sat low on his hips and the 'V' shape that formed from his stomach muscles and hip bones. Restraining herself from drooling or gawking, she tore her eyes away and looked in the opposite direction, with a strained expression and tapping her fingernails on her leg.

Noticing and deciding to mess with her, the dark-haired man walked over to her and stood in front of her, and waited for her head to turn and look at him. It took her a moment, but when she did turn to look at him, a droplet of water dripped from his black hair, onto his shoulder and down the front of his chest and toned stomach and eventually into the waistband of his pants. Suddenly realising that he couldn't have possibly not noticed her eyes following the droplet all the way down his body, she closed her eyes tightly and heard his soft laughter, which quickly got louder when she sighed/groaned in irritation.

He sat down on the couch at the other end with his legs up so he was facing her, still laughing, and a vein popped in her forehead. Two could play this little game. She got on her hands and knees and crawled towards him while he was too busy laughing to notice. Gently flopping down to sit on his lap, his eyes snapped open and utter shock was written on his face as clearly as the number '69' on his cheek. He looked down to see that yes, she was actually sitting on his lap. Two small fingers were placed under his chin and lifted his head up to look into Siren's eyes, which had darkened dramatically.

"Something funny...Shuhei?" she whispered to him, using his first name for the second time that day, not breaking eye contact and biting her lip subconsciously as she heard his breathing quicken.

The tattooed man tried terribly hard to form some sort of words, but failed terribly as Siren brought her face a little closer to his. She knew that this plan had turned into the physical embodiment of the word 'backfire' the moment he looked in her eyes that had clouded over with lust, but at least he stopped laughing at her. Hisagi's mind went completely blank and he brought a hand up to gently cup her cheek and one resting on her hip, as if he was afraid that she would come to her senses and try to back away.

Faces only centimetres away from each other, Hisagi breathed her name in disbelief and happiness that he might actually get to be intimate with the woman that he was totally crushing on. He brushed his nose against hers playfully, smiling about the fact that she hadn't pulled away, or kicked his ass yet. He was rewarded with an adorable smirk, and they both closed their eyes as they moved to close the gap between their lips.

Siren suddenly pulled back and Hisagi's head fell forward in chasing after her, but opened his eyes to see her shocked and worried face looking off into space. He knew that look too well, and immediately they both scrambled to their feet and got dressed in their shihakusho within seconds. They ran out the front door, and began using shunpo instantly, Siren getting ahead as she still struggled to try and put on her haori whilst trying not to get too far ahead of her fuku-taicho.

Within a few moments, they were standing a hundred metres away, looking at three arrancar who were looking around at the Seireitei they were standing above...