Author's note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU.

The Book of Love

With a soft sigh of contentment, Nanao settled down to work. It was early enough in the day that no one else would be in the building yet, and she had her domain to herself. She set the stereo to the local classical station and got to work. Nanao Ise was the librarian for 8/13 Music, one of the premier music labels in the country. It wasn't exactly what she had been planning on doing with her degree, but the owners had snatched her up almost as soon as she had graduated with her master's of library science. The position had turned out to be quite lovely.

8/13's library was pretty unique. Nanao had expected a regular business library, which part of it was. However, the library also contained a very large selection of music, both recordings and sheet music and scores, as well as poetry, novels, movies, magazines, and reference books. Some of the material had been created by or contributed to by employees of 8/13, but there was also a wide range of other musician's work as well and a collection of the classics. The library was almost constantly in use by musicians in some stage of a project as well. Working here was an amazing job and it was perfectly suited to Nanao.

There was only one draw back to her position, and truthfully, Nanao wasn't entirely sure it was always a drawback. 8/13 was owned by Jyuushiro Ukitake and Shunsui Kyoraku. Mr. Ukitake was an incredibly polite and kind man, and Nanao was quite fond of him. Kyoraku was something else entirely. He was a brilliant musician, but he lacked any interest in actually working at most things, including running the business. He more than made up for it in the way he attracted clients and found new talent. But the one thing that irked Nanao the most about the man was his constant pursuit of her. The man flirted with her to no end.

The worst part about it was Nanao actually cared very much for Shunsui. She could even love him if she let herself. But Nanao knew from experience that she was not the kind of woman men chose to have a long term relationship with. They pursued her because she refused them, but once she gave in, they lost interested. And Nanao didn't think that she could face that when it came to Shunsui. So she did her best not to let his flirting effect her and thwapped him with a book when it did. He didn't seem to mind, and the whole routine was almost comforting now.

With the music playing, Nanao settled down to catalog the library's newest material. One of the nice things about the library being so small was the fact that she got to do just about every type of library work there was. Today, however, there was quite a pile to catalog. It was Valentine's Day and that often meant new music releases. She had both internal recording to add to the collection as well as some things that had just hit the market from other companies. Most of the things were labeled with enough information for her to catalog them without listening to them, but she had a growing pile of things she would have to listen to.

As she added yet another CD to that pile, her hand brushed against the little box wrapped in lavender foil, and Nanao fought a blush. She still didn't know how to give the box of chocolates to her boss. Nanao had even made the chocolate herself this year, not that she would tell him that. She would probably just slip the chocolate into his office mailbox once again. There was no tag or no with it, so he would never know who it was from.

Nanao continued to make her way through the pile of new material and was rather startled when a large paper cup was set down on her desk. Looking up, she found her boss hovering by her desk with a smile on his face.

"I thought you would be in early, Nanao-chan, so I brought you a large Chai latte."

It was rather thoughtful of him. Nanao took a careful sip of the tea to find it the perfect temperature.

"Is there something I can do for you, sir?"

He pouted at her. "Do I need a reason to come visit my Nanao-chan? She's all alone all day with her books and needs some company."

Nanao was hard pressed not to laugh at that. She was rarely alone. The library was incredibly well used, and one of the reasons she came in early was to get work done before her time was taken up assisting other in the use of the library. She took another sip of her tea.

"If there's nothing you need, Mr. Kyoraku, I have quite a bit of work to get done today."

He made a face at her, but surprisingly left her alone without much urging on her part. It was only a half hour later that Nanao noticed the little leather-bound book laying on her desk. It wasn't a part of the new materials that she had been processing. Nanao carefully picked it up and opened it. She blinked in surprise. It was a copy of Mansfield Park, her favorite of all Jane Austen's work. As she flipped through the pages, she was startled to find that this volume appeared to be hand illustrated by someone, though the pictures did seem newer than the book itself. She flipped to the back of the title page to find the publishing information and was further stunned to find that it was an early edition of the book. She was even more surprised to find a nameplate in the front of the book with name calligraphed on it.

It was beautiful gift, and who ever had chosen it clearly knew what she liked when it came to books. There was also no indication of who it could be from. Nanao carefully tucked the book away in her purse and got back to work. There would be time to puzzle over the mystery later. It was a very good morning. Nanao got through most of her cataloging before she started having patrons come in, and she only had to chase couples using the library for romantic rendezvous out once. Of course, chasing Gin and Rangiku out of the library was old hat at this point; those two had the tendency to forget where they were when they were with one another very easily. When lunch rolled around, Nanao feeling a little daring stopped by Shunsui's office to deliver his chocolates. The office was empty (which she had expected), and Nanao left the little box in the middle of his desk.

She went off to lunch in a good mood which was buoyed by the fact that the day's special at her favorite noodle shop was her favorite dish. Nanao returned to work feeling energized and ready to take on whatever came her way. It was a good thing too. When she got back, she found Ichigo Kurosaki, one of the new musicians who had recently made quite a splash, looking for help with a project for his next album. That ended up taking most of the afternoon. Nanao finally returned to her desk to finish cataloging the new materials. The items that she had to listen were still left though every thing else had been taken care of earlier. Most of them just turned out to be demo recordings.

Popping the last CD into her computer, Nanao sat back to listen. Her eyes widened when the piano and guitar intro began. She hadn't realized that they had recorded this. Nanao remembered that afternoon very well. She had been talked into playing the piano part and singing the lady's part of a duet that Shunsui had just penned, so he could demonstrate it for Mr. Ukitake. Shunsui had known that she had a background in piano, and he couldn't find any of the regular studio pianists at the time. Shunsui had played the guitar part and sang the male vocal line.

The song was a very sweet duet, and Nanao had felt rather privileged to be one of the first people to sing it. When the recording ended, she carefully cataloged it and processed it to be put of the shelves. She also made a note to get a copy of the demo tape for herself. It really was a lovely performance. With that done, Nanao turned to other tasks she had neglected lately. Humming along with the radio, which was now playing non-stop love songs, it was quite easy to loose herself in her work. When Nanao finally took in her surroundings again, she found that it was dark out, and it was long past the time she should have left.

With a soft sigh, Nanao set to work closing up the library for the day. She was collecting her things from the desk when a shadow from outside the pool of light the desk lamp shone moved. Nanao wasn't exactly scared; it was more like her body was humming with anticipation. She turned and waited. Shunsui stepped into the puddle of light, and Nanao could see her box of chocolates dangling from one of his hands. He advanced on her, his eyes intent and more serious than she had ever seen before. When Nanao was trapped between her desk and him, he raised a hand and gently cupped her cheek.

"I thought it was you, precious." He smiled. "Not many women give me chocolates without their name attached to them. I've had suspicions for the past few years now."

Her eyes widened. He must have seen it on her desk and remembered the box from then.

Shunsui leaned in closer so that their noses were brushing. "How long, Nanao-chan, have you been in love with me?"

She had never expected to call on it, especially not by him. Nanao didn't have response ready to change or avoid the subject, so the truth slipped out.

"Three years." She had only worked here for four.

His fingers slid into her hair, freeing it from its neat bun. "I can't promise you that I'll never be an idiot and forget things and make you mad, Nanao, but I can promise you that I'll love you no matter what. There is no one else who I want at my side besides you."

Shunsui kissed her then, and Nanao couldn't resist him or her own feeling anymore. She melted into the kiss, her arms twining around his neck. When he pulled away, Nanao felt the cool touch of metal on her right hand. She looked down to find a slim silver band encircling her ring finger bearing a single amethyst. Shunsui smiled and pulled her hand up so he could kiss her palm.

"Not a proposal yet. Just a promise."

When he escorted her out into the crisp, starry night, Nanao couldn't help but that for once Valentine's Day hadn't just been another day on the calendar. Maybe there was something to the day's supposed magic after all.