Title: Ripples of the Soul
Author: Paï
Word Count: 5,502
Pairings: Shunsui/Ukitake
Rating: PG-13
Dedication: hidden-gems on livejournal
Warnings: English is not my native language + unbeta'ed.
Disclaimer: I still don't own Bleach, since yaoi is still subtexty in it.

Notes: Woo! It's been a while since I wrote anything! Sorry for those who were expecting IchiUri, it'll come next!! In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy this one!!

"Jyuu-chan!"

Jyuushirou was sitting against a tree, his eyes closed, enjoying the warm weather and the quiet surroundings of the park next to the Academy, when his classmate and friend literally pounced on him and snuggled next to him, strong arms circling the slim waist.

"How are you today?"

Jyuushirou looked down at the cheerful man with a small smile. "I'm fine, Kyouraku, thank you. I'm not going to die anytime soon, you know."

A pout crept up Shunsui's lips. "Why do you still call me by name?" he whined childishly.

"I don't know. It comes more easily," Jyuushirou answered with a shrug that dislodged Shunsui's head from his shoulder. "Oops, sorry," he chuckled.

In answer, Shunsui cupped a hand to Jyuushirou's cheek and looked him in the eye, leaning forward until their noses were inches apart. "I won't accept your apology unless you call me 'Shunsui'."

"Hey there, lovebirds!" came the voice that spared Jyuushirou from answering.

Both young men turned to see a familiar grinning face appearing from behind the tree.

"Ah, Urahara-taichou…!" Jyuushirou stuttered as he hastily got up. "How are you today, sir?" he asked, bowing.

"Ukitake-kun! How many times do I have to tell you not to be so formal with me?" The Twelfth Division Captain padded Jyuushirou's shoulder friendly and chuckled softly at Shunsui's 'that's the story of my life' remark. "But I'm fine, thank you. And I can see that you are, too," he winked, looking from Jyuushirou to Shunsui, who was still sitting lazily against the tree and grinning back. "Anyway, shouldn't you two be preparing to go out for the training in the real world?"

"Ah! Yes, sorry taichou!" Jyuushirou replied hastily before bowing again and rushing away.

Shunsui got up and nodded to Urahara with a quick "taichou" before running after the other man. "Jyuu-chan! Wait for me!"

"Wait, Jyuushirou!" he exclaimed in a more serious tone as he caught up with him and grabbed his arm to stop him. "I thought you said you wouldn't go to the training."

Jyuushirou looked guiltily away from the seriously concerned glare and snatched his arm out of the man's grip. "Well, I decided to go anyway. If I don't go training I wouldn't be able to become a Shinigami."

"But that's not the point!" Shunsui grabbed Jyuushirou's shoulder and shook them slightly. "What if something happens? What if you don't feel well right in the middle of a fight?"

"Oh, come on! It's not as if I'd be alone down there, we're in teams, remember? And moreover, I must fight that illness. I won't let it take over my life." He punctuated his statement with a determined stare.

"But Jyuu-chan…"

"Kyouraku," Jyuushirou cut in and gently took the other's face in his hands. Upon seeing the still concerned but slightly disappointed gaze, he sighed and corrected, "Shunsui. I appreciate your concern, but I'll be fine, okay?" He leaned forward to press his lips against Shunsui's in a soft kiss but pulled away before the other man could take any advantage of it. "And anyway, I know you'll be watching over me."

"Of course I'll be!" Shunsui exclaimed. Before he could try to pull Jyuushirou into a tight embrace, the white-haired man had skilfully wiggled his way out of Shunsui's hands and was now running away to his quarters.

Shunsui let out a resigned breath and smiled as he made his way to his own room. All he had to wish for now was to be in the same team as his lover or to be assigned somewhere close to Jyuushirou's team.

---

"Team 1, you'll cover the East. Team 2, cover the North. Team 3, try to manage between South and West," the sempai announced. "Team 4, you'll come with me, we'll patrol between the teams and provide with any help needed. Any question?"

Shunsui couldn't help the frustrated growl that passed his lips. Jyuushirou had been assigned to Team 2, and he was in Team 4. Team 2 seemed to have quite efficient people, so his Team will probably have to help Team 1 and 3. And so he wouldn't have very much to do. But at least, if something went wrong with Team 2, Hanase-sempai will be the first informed, and thus Shunsui will know too.

"Okay, then. Scatter!"

At the order, everyone flash-stepped to their assigned locations, leaving only the dozen students from Team 4 with their sempai.

Soon after, they began sensing some Hollows approaching, drawn by the unusual amount of high spiritual pressure; indeed, during these trainings, they all had to unleash at most one fourth of their spiritual pressure, so that everyone combined would inevitably attract some Hollows. There was no going out and let Fate decide if they would meet hungry monsters or not; everything was planned in Shinigami training.

Far away, shouts and sounds of battle were beginning to be heard, quickly followed by reports to Hanase-sempai.

"Team 3… two Hollows… South… weak ones…" Shunsui managed to hear between the cracklings. His ears perked up when he heard the report from Team 2, but nothing remotely important seemed to happen; each team had encountered at least two or three Hollows at once, but nothing major. Still, the bad omen he had sensed this morning when Jyuushirou had told him he would come was still making itself known at the pit of his stomach. And he wasn't at all eager to discover if the feeling will come true this time again.

"Team 3… more Hollows… bigger…"

"Do you need help?" the sempai asked through the transmitter.

If a response had been given, no one heard it, for an ear-splitting cry echoed in the air. Everyone's head turned up to see a giant cockroach-like monster flying towards their group. Dozen zanpakutou were at once unsheathed, and the masked bug stopped in mid-air, hovering above the armed souls.

Another familiar cry escaped from the Hollow's mouth and the monster began to beat his wings frenetically, thus creating a powerful draught.

"Up there, everyone," Hanase-sempai ordered. But as everyone shot up in the air, the beast wings followed their movement. As they started struggling against the air, more instructions were shouted. "Flash-step behind him; once there, Namikawa-kun, cut his left wing, Kyouraku-kun, cut the right. Go!"

Shunsui shunpo'ed with his team behind the Hollow and launched himself right away to the right side of the monster, zanpakutou raised. Both Shinigami lowered their swords at the same time, every eyes on them, but instead of cutting right through the root of the wings, the metal was cut short by the surface with a loud 'clunk'. Shunsui's eyes widened, but he didn't waste another second there and flash-stepped back to his team, closely followed by Namikawa.

A piercing laugh broke in the air. The wings never stopping their deathly beating, the monster started turning around, bony mouth wide open in psychotic amusement.

Before Hanase-sempai could give more orders, a soft whooshing sound held everyone's attention. Seconds after, the beast's maniacal laugh was cut short and its eyes widened as dark blood started tainting its underside. In the blink of an eye, the monster evaporated in spiritual particles.

Once the few seconds of surprise were passed, fists flew in the air, joined by loud cheers and whoops.

"Enough! Who did that?"

Silence followed the angry cry from their elder schoolmate. Every eye searched the group until resting onto a blond man whose sword was silently re-forming itself.

The sempai narrowed her eyes warningly. "Kano-kun, care to explain?"

"Well, I thought it was a good idea to reach for him from his underside, since it was the part that didn't seem to be covered, you know."

"Oh really? Well, it was not a good idea at all, little guy. Did you never learn that 'one must not release one's zanpakutou unless fully necessary'? Spiritual energy is not to be wasted against that kind of Hollows. You don't know what might come after."

Kano-kun quickly looked away and sheathed his sword, fidgeting. "Yes, sorry sempai."

"Aw, come on, Hana-chan! You're hard with him, he didn't mean anything bad; he beat it after all."

"Kyouraku-kun, for the hundredth time, stop calling me that. And second, you're here to learn, not to parade, so I don't want to hear any more complaints, or next time you'll all go in training with the Twelfth Division, is that clear?"

Once more, her speech was followed by a heavy silence. Who would want to spend the training hours studying a dead corpse, after all?

"Good. Now that that's clear —"

"…Team 2…two huge…need more…"

Kyouraku looked expectantly at his sempai, eager to go fighting with his lover. When Hanase was about to answer, another call filtered through the cracklings.

"Team 1… nothing to do, we can… help…2…"

"Okay, Team 1, send five people to Team 2, I'll send some too. Team 3, do you need any help?"

"Team 3. Some help is…yeah… thanks."

"Right," the sempai addressed her students once more. "We'll split into three groups. Kano-kun, Sorata-kun, Tsuzuka-chan, go and help Team 2. Kyouraku-kun, Wataru-kun, Namikawa-kun, you go with Team 3. The rest, stay here in case some more Hollows appear. I'll go help Team 2 for a moment and I'll be right back. Let's go."

Everyone flash-stepped at once to their assigned destination, and Kyouraku let out a very soft grunt. Did Hanase-sempai have something against him today? He really didn't like the idea of Jyuushirou facing a big monster with a coughing fit threatening to weaken him anytime. He was with loads of other classmates of course, but still… the bad feeling kept persisting.

Shunsui was now facing two white-masked beasts. The team members were doing quite well already, but they sure could do with some help. He and his team-mates rushed to their sides waiting to be filled in with the current situation.

Kyouraku was evaluating the half-horse half-lizard Hollow's weaknesses when his spiritual energy started buzzing softly in his ears. He knew what that meant, having witnessed this phenomenon several times already. But it didn't stop there.

Shunsui used to like to compare reiatsu to the surface of an expanse of water — and more particularly Jyuushirou's. He now felt like a heavy stone had been dropped into the pond, rippling the usually smooth surface with dangerous waves; and all this in the matter of a millisecond.

His first impulse was to rush to Team 2 and take care of his lover, but he got orders and he knew better than to disobey them. So he rushed, unaware of the warning cries of his team mates, sword raised.

One leg fell and disappeared; an enormous heavy tail was rushing towards him; he sliced; he flash-stepped; his arm was scratched but no pain followed; jaws opened; a piercing cry reached his eardrums; he echoed it, jumped, and lowered his zanpakutou in the middle of white mask. And then he was standing in the empty air, alone.

He jumped back down onto the solid earth, oblivious to the acclamations of his friends, and suddenly pain assailed him. He looked down at his arm and was surprised to see that his Academy outfit was badly torn, leaving in the open a deep gashing wound. His team-mates seemed to have followed his gaze, since gasps could soon been heard.

"It's okay," he smiled, stepping forward to reassure them. But he found it impossible. His legs wouldn't budge, and the harder he tried the more pain he received. He suddenly fell forward, only having the time to raise his healthy arm to break the fall and protect his face.

Everyone rushed to his side at once even though Shunsui kept complaining.

"No," he said. "Go… Jyuushirou…"

He could see puzzled looks being exchanged, but he couldn't find it in him to open his mouth again. His eyes fell closed against his will and everything vanished. No more sounds, no more cries, no more pain; slight warmth enveloped him some minutes after and he wanted to sigh.

Not so far away, he could feel the spiritual energy he was longing for. The lake before him was peaceful, its sight alone was soothing, and he wanted to lay next to it forever, bathe in its quietness, drown into its never-ending tranquillity.

But why was it becoming smaller and smaller? Why now when he needed it more than anything? Why was this welcoming feeling rejecting him?

No more tranquillity. A rock had fallen inside the pond. Ripples marked its surface. A pond? No, not a pond anymore now. A puddle. He must protect it from becoming smaller again. It was already the size of his hand.

Shunsui tried to extend his arm. The puddle became droplets. He opened his hands and carefully collected the precious liquid. He closed his fingers protectively around it and held his hands next to his heart, next to the core of his soul, and closed his eyes. He must give it all his strength, his entire being knew he had to protect this little sample of energy, because it had become a part of him too some time ago.

"Kyouraku-kun, please stop this, you must keep your energy to yourself for now, you're still weak."

Shunsui slowly opened his eyes to the young lady's soothing voice he knew well. His surroundings surprised him for a minute. He looked down and realized he was lying down on a bed, and his arms were limp beside his body. He frowned slightly and looked left to the source of the voice.

His frown disappeared and he smiled feebly as realization dawned on him. "Unohana-chan," he greeted in a raucous voice.

The skilled student in healing practice amusedly shook her head. "How do you feel?"

"Numb. What happened?"

"The Hollow transferred some sort of poison inside your wounds that paralyzed your body. We took care of it, but it is normal if you still find it slightly difficult to move at the beginning. Luckily, there will not be any after effects."

"How long have I been here?"

"You were brought here about four hours ago, and you have been unconscious during all this time. However, one hour ago, you started sending some spiritual energy towards Ukitake-kun. I have been trying for half an hour to wake you up, because it is not recommended for someone in such a weak state as yours to be use your energy in anything other than healing yourself."

Shunsui suddenly remembered everything. He tried to push himself up in a sitting position but Unohana's gentle hand on his shoulder held him down.

"Where is he?" Shunsui asked.

Unohana's soothing smile never faltered as she started answering. "He is on the other side of the room." She paused for an instant as Shunsui's head turned as quickly as his muscles could bear. The hand on his shoulder tightened its hold, as if sensing Shunsui's craving to get out of this bed and stand next to his lover. "We put you close to each other," she continued, "for when you arrived I sensed that your spirit was constantly reaching for his, as feeble as it were, and we thought that his being able to sense you beside him would help him."

Shunsui could sense her all-knowing stare piercing the back of his head but he couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away from the man on the other corner of the room, as if afraid that Jyuushirou might disintegrate if he brought his attention to something else.

Eventually, he sighed. "How is he?"

"We don't exactly know. As you can sense, he is very weak, and that is probably due to his illness. From what I was told, he had been hit in the stomach by the tail of a Hollow, and he broke into a coughing fit. He tried to get one of his classmate to give him his pills, but apparently, he started coughing blood soon after. Their other team-mates tried to keep the Hollows away from them, but the two received a loose blow and were sent against a wall. Sakaguchi-kun was okay, but when he checked on Ukitake-kun, he found him unconscious."

Shunsui closed his eyes and rested his head back on the pillow. If he had been more insistent with Jyuushirou, nothing of that would have happened, and Jyuushirou would probably not be waiting between life and death.

Unohana's voice stopped his thoughts. "We tried everything we could. Now, all we have to do is to wait for him to fight his way back to consciousness and to help him in any way we can."

After a moment of silence, she brought Shunsui's bed next to Jyuushirou's and took her leave after Shunsui had thanked her for everything.

Not without difficulty, Shunsui managed to move his arm and took Jyuushirou's hand. He closed his eyes again and enveloped his lover with his own reiatsu, trying to help the man with anything he could.

Sleep quickly claimed him, and he fell asleep within minutes, the image of tiny droplets of water merging together forming in the back of his mind.

---

Shunsui woke up, surprised that it was already the middle of the night, his fingers tightly entwined with Jyuushirou's, his energy protectively surrounding the other's body, and he could at once tell that there still wasn't any response.

He was at least feeling better. He could now move into a sitting position without difficulties. He turned towards his unconscious lover and squeezed the cold hand in his.

"Jyuu-chan, can you hear me?"

Stupid question.

And yet, one small part of his mind was seriously expecting an answer.

He sighed and he brought his free hand up to move some of the soft white hair out of Jyuushirou's face. "I know you hear me, Jyuushirou," he whispered, as if somewhat afraid to break the man's peace. "If you do, please wake up soon. You don't know how it's like to see you like that, as if you were…"

Unable to finish his sentence, Shunsui closed his eyes and focused on the slow but still present breathing he could hear. When he opened his eyes again, he quickly moved away from Jyuushirou. He had received a powerful shock of spiritual energy, and now Jyuushirou's reiatsu was soaring. Shunsui watched with wide eyes as Jyuushirou gasped and arched his back. He tried to counter with his own reiatsu to keep the other man's from getting to far out of control, but three Fourth Division Shinigami burst into the room.

They put his bed on the opposite corner and surrounded Jyuushirou, starting at once their treatments. Shunsui frowned. From the very little he could see, his lover had gone paler, even with his reiatsu now in check.

"Is he okay?" he asked when he was sure he wouldn't make any of the healers lose their concentration.

The tallest of the group turned towards him. "Yes. All this was probably because he found the way to his energy again, we can't really know. But in any case, it might prove that he is fighting his way back into consciousness."

Sensing there was more from the way the Shinigami was frowning and looking away, Shunsui added, "But?"

The man looked at him for a moment, and eventually continued, "It might also be because he lost the last little bit of control he had over his spiritual energy. And we all know what that means."

Shunsui eyes widened impossibly and he gripped the white sheets he was sitting on.

The healer walked closer from him and put a hand on Shunsui's shaking shoulder. "I don't think it is that though. We already saw cases like that, and I'm pretty sure this is not one. He is fighting, don't worry. Even if it takes time, he'll wake up."

---

He couldn't sleep anymore. As soon as he closed his eyes, he pictured Jyuushirou's body imploding from the uncontrolled spiritual pressure, so after two tries he made sure to keep his eyes wide open. And he hadn't looked away from Jyuushirou since the healers were gone. He was waiting. Waiting for anything, a sign, a little twitch; anything. But there was nothing. Only the slight rise and fall of Jyuushirou's stomach confirmed the fact that he was still alive.

Shunsui had moved his bed back next to Jyuushirou's when the Shinigami healers had walked out of the room, and he was sitting holding the other man's hand in his lap, his thumbs tracing small circles over the cold but still soft skin.

"Jyuushirou…" he whispered for the umpteenth time.

Unable to resist, he brought the pale hand to his lips and kissed the palm, the wrist, the palm again; he resisted the urge to shut his eyes tightly and fought again the flow of tears that threatened to burst out. He suppressed a profound sigh and rested his cheek against the inside of the hand.

When the fingers tightened slightly, nails almost digging into his skin, he started closing his eyes in bliss from the familiarity of the touch; only to open them widely not a second after.

He took the hand away from his face and clasped it firmly as he got to his knees to have a better look at the other man.

"Jyuushirou?" he exclaimed with a small smile, his eyes gleaming in hope.

His free hand went to cup his lover's cheek, only barely touching the skin. He concentrated on Jyuushirou's reiatsu, but he couldn't find anything, so tightly was it guarded by the 4th Division Shinigami protection technique.

"Jyuushirou, you did it, didn't you? You're awake, I'm sure you are. I didn't imagine it."

No reaction. Jyuushirou was still only breathing, nothing else was moving, the hand in his was still lifeless; nothing.

"Did I?" he added in a whisper, unsure now about what he had really felt.

"Jyuu—" he started with a frown, but his jaw fell in the middle of the name as his hand was being crushed in a deadly hold. He looked down at the powerful hand in disbelief. Now he couldn't be imagining that — the pain, the joy, the hope, the warmth; all these sensations were too real to be a hallucination.

He clasped Jyuushirou's hand with both of his and brought it to his heart, his eyes darting back to the other's face. Shunsui could now see him struggling, eyes rolling under tightly closed lids, eyebrows twitching. Struggling against what, Shunsui didn't know, but that didn't stop him from sending his warmth to his lover, adding his spiritual energy to those already enveloping the white-haired man.

Shunsui was starting to grin. His vision was blurring; he knew it was because his tears had finally found a breach in his defences but he couldn't bring himself to care. If Jyuushirou really was waking up, nothing was important compared to that.

Brown eyes eventually opened, slow and unfocused. They lazily searched the room, passing Shunsui without seeming to see him.

"Jyuushirou."

When the whisper broke the silence, Jyuushirou's eyes snapped back to the utterer. They blinked at him for what seemed like hours for Shunsui, until they finally mirrored the tentative smile that was forming on Jyuushirou's lips.

"Shunsui," came the feeble whisper.

Shunsui laughed in relief. "Welcome back, Jyuu-chan!"

Jyuushirou now smiled in earnest. Very slowly, he brought his free hand to Shunsui's right cheek and collected the fallen tears with his thumb. Shunsui closed his eyes at the contact and leaned his head in Jyuushirou's hand, closing his eyes. He brought his left hand on top of Jyuushirou's and they stayed like this for a moment, not needing anything but the feeling of the other's presence.

"Thank you."

Shunsui opened his eyes and stared, frowning. "What are you talking about? It's I who should thank you for waking up. I did nothing."

Jyuushirou smiled playfully. "Of course I woke up. I'm the one who is always listening in the Survival courses." He joined Shunsui's laugh with a weak of his own. "Though this time," he went on, sobering up a little, "hadn't you been here, I don't know if I would have made it. You have been here all the time, haven't you?"

"Of course I have!"

"I know. I felt you. As usual, you were there exactly when I needed you the most." The still slightly hoarse voice paused and the smile on Jyuushirou's face faltered. "I had a…dream. In fact, I didn't know it was a dream at the time, everything seemed so real. I think it might have been something caused by the Hollow…although I don't know how."

"Do you remember it?" Shunsui asked, carefully helping Jyuushirou in a sitting position.

Jyuushirou's face hardened.

"Ah, Ukitake-kun, you're awake!"

Startled, the two young Shinigami-in-training turned their eyes to the door.

Shunsui at once straightened on his bed and bowed his head. "Koyama-taichou."

Jyuushirou echoed the greeting with a small smile, bowing his head too.

"Hello, Kyouraku-kun. How do you feel?"

"Much better, thank you very much." His head still bowed in respect, Shunsui missed the understanding smile from the Fourth Division Captain.

"Good. And you?" the Captain continued, turning to Jyuushirou.

"Fine, I guess…though a little tired."

"Yes, that's normal. I'm glad you're finally awake. I don't know what would have happened if you had remained unconscious longer."

"Thank you for everything, then, Koyama-taichou." Jyuushirou punctuated his thanks by a deep nod.

"Oh, it's not me you should thank, but Unohana-san. She did most of the work. She is a very talented woman; I wouldn't be surprised if she was to be the next Captain for the Fourth Division!"

"I'll make sure to thank her."

"Good! Now get some rest, you need it. Someone will probably come by later to check on you. Oh and, Kyouraku-kun, you can stay too, even though Ukitake-kun is now awake. Stay for as long as you wish, you might need some rest too."

With a warming smile and an acknowledging nod, the Captain left the room.

"I like him. He's very kind."

Shunsui looked at Jyuushirou, who was still looking at the closed door. "Yeah, he is. Do you think that Unohana-chan is really going to surpass him?"

"I think it might be possible, if he says so. She is very kind too."

"Yes, she is." Shunsui followed Jyuushirou's vacant gaze and stared thoughtfully at the door. "She kind of gives me the creeps sometimes, though…"

Jyuushirou let out a chuckle and looked at Shunsui. "…as if reading your mind," he added.

"Yes, exactly. She's very kind and very persuasive at the same time. It's creepy."

A long comfortable silence followed Jyuushirou's amused agreement.

"Shunsui, do you think we are going to be Captains too, one day?"

Shunsui looked at his lover with a pensive frown. "I don't think I want to," he finally answered.

"Oh, why?"

"Because," Shunsui began, leaning forward until his forehead rested against Jyuushirou's, "if we are, I would have to call you 'Ukitake'!" He faked a childish pout.

Jyuushirou let out a soft laugh. "Idiot," he whispered. When he smiled, Shunsui cocked his head and closed the distance between their lips.

As their lips touched, Shunsui repressed a contented sigh, thinking he had been that close from losing all this — the sweetness of Jyuushirou's lips, the softness of Jyuushirou's cheeks under his fingers, the warmth emanating from Jyuushirou's body and energy, the fondness he had learned to decrypt in Jyuushirou's eyes, the welcoming feeling of Jyuushirou's arms around his waist…

When they pulled away from each other, Shunsui pulled Jyuushirou in a tight embrace, startling the man a little. As Jyuushirou started to relax in his arms, returning the tight hold, Shunsui shut his eyes to fight the once again threatening flow of tears.

"I love you," he whispered, stroking the short white hair.

"Mmh. Love you too."

They revelled in the feeling of each other's arms for some minutes, until Jyuushirou's arms loosened their hold on Shunsui. Shunsui was about to panic when he heard the steady breathing against his ear. Cursing himself for his weakness, he carefully lowered the sleeping man on the bed.

"Rest now, gorgeous," he whispered against Jyuushirou's lips before placing a soft kiss on them.

---

"Are you feeling better now?"

"Of course I am, silly; otherwise they wouldn't have let me out."

One week had passed since Jyuushirou's awakening, and both men were now sitting on their favourite place: the park next to the Shinigami Academy, under their favourite tree, an old and lofty weeping willow.

"Jyuushirou?" Shunsui asked the man snuggled in his arms. "What was that 'dream' you talked to me about when you woke up?"

After the minutes of silence that followed, Shunsui started to believe that Jyuushirou had fallen asleep.

"I don't really know when it began." When the soft answer eventually came, he had to think for a second to remember what his question had been about. He silently encouraged his lover to go on. "I remember that we were out for training, and my guess is that I fell unconscious after my coughing fit, but it is not very clear, because there are no black moments."

Mechanically, Shunsui started stroking his hair.

"After my coughing fit, what I remember is that the Hollow starting laughing, and it hit me and sent me flying against a wall. And then you came; I don't know how but when I looked up you were there, standing between me and the Hollow. And you fought him. I tried to get up and help you but I couldn't, as if I were paralysed. All I could do was watching you getting hurt. It was awful. Everything went so fast, and the next thing I saw was you lying in front of me…blood everywhere…" Shunsui held him tighter when the word 'dead' came as a weak whisper.

"And that's when I managed to get up, the Hollow's maniacal laugh echoing in my head. I was so desperate, and yet I couldn't believe you had been beaten. All I could think of was revenge. And I fought. I really didn't have the advantage, but at least I didn't really got badly hurt. And then you were there. You were still lying dead on the floor, but you were also next me, ghost-like. Your reiatsu was all around, you were whispering words I didn't understand in my ear, and it was so encouraging, I felt like nothing could happen to me. And still, at one point, I was definitely going to lose. But something miraculous made the deathly blow heal."

"Ah, that's must be the healer's work," Shunsui remembered.

Jyuushirou smiled. "I'll have to go and thank them some more later, then. Because after that, I was protected. The Hollow didn't seem able to reach me, but I could still hit it. And finally I won. I was so exhausted that I fainted right there; and when I woke up I was on a bed in the Fourth Division, and you were there. You know the rest."

"It's really strange. Perhaps you should report what the Hollow did. Do you think there are Hollows with special powers?"

"I hope not. I hope it was only a nightmare."

"Well, in each case, that's all it was," Shunsui reassured him.

"Yeah."

When Jyuushirou looked up, Shunsui lent down and captured the thin lips in a deep kiss, confirming his words. All this was real, and they were both alive and well, and they intended for it to last the longest possible.

The men pulled away to look in front of them to what they considered as the future. The weeping willow was on the border of a very peaceful lake.

---OWARI?---

The lake in the park next to the Shinigami Academy was famous for its quietness. Until then, nothing had managed to disturb it for centuries, not even the wind, not even the rain. Some people said it was protected by some kind of God, others that it reflected the state of the entire Soul Society.

And thus, no one had ever dared to go inside it. No explorations had been done. No one knew that it could contain twice the population of the Soul Society. No one knew that every animal living inside this lake never approached the rocks in the centre. No one was able to detect that a small piece on the side of this rock had started to detach itself. No one would realise that this piece, even as small as it were, was going to fall in the decades, the centuries to come. No one could have told that when that piece of rock will eventually touch the ground, it will create a slight disturbance. No one could have predicted that this slight disturbance on a very small part of the ground will slowly reverberate upwards, and when it will finally reach the surface, it will affect its entirety.

---OWARI---