Three Roses

Story 2- -written by Mira-chan, co-written by Toast

Toast and Mira would like to reiterate they don't own Bleach, because if they did Prink-Fruitloop would still be alive, Creepy-Mad-Sciencetist-Clown would be long dead, Unohana/Ukitake/Shunsui's true power would be shown, Yammi would be dead within three seconds and EmoSpada would have died a LONG time ago. Thank you.

For okaasan-taichou on her birthday with luff.

Rukia was yawning over her paperwork in the thirteenth division in the early morning. Already regretting her decision to try and make Ukitake-taichou's life easier by doing a bulk of the paperwork before she left for the world of the living, she was surprised to hear some other person up at such an ungodly hour entering the office.

She was even more surprised when Ukitake entered the office, grinning madly.

"Ukitake-taichou?" Rukia exclaimed. "What are you doing here so early?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Rukia-fukutaichou," Ukitake replied, still uncharacteristically grinning.

There was silence as Rukia stared at her captain.

"Um… Ukitake-taichou? Are you feeling okay?"

Ukitake grin widened as he said, "Better than ever."

Rukia was, if anything, more unconvinced.

"Do you maybe want to go see Unohana-taichou?" she asked gently.

Rukia, already bewildered, stared as Ukitake started to laugh, chuckling deeply. It quickly turned into coughs, and Rukia, relieved that she knew how to handle this, hurried over with a handkerchief.

When Ukitake stopped coughing enough to start laughing again, Rukia knew this called for desperate measures.

Poking her head into Kyoraku-taichou and Ise-fukutaichou's office, Rukia was relieved to see Nanao sitting at her desk neatly filling out paperwork. Kyoraku-taichou was, of course, nowhere to be seen.

Nanao looked up. "Kuchiki-fukutaichou, is there anything I can do for you?"

"Hai," Rukia muttered. "Would you please wake up Kyoraku-taichou?"

Nanao looked startled. "Wake up—? Why?"

"Um, it's Ukitake-taichou. He's acting very . . . unusual. I believe Kyoraku-taichou is probably the only one who can help."

Rukia paused, suddenly looking embarrassed. "And, well, he probably won't kill you if you wake him up."

Nanao did not reply to this last statement, merely saying, "I will see what I can do." She stood and left Rukia to follow her in her wake.

Nanao banged on Kyoraku-taichou's apartment door, though she didn't expect it to have any effect. Rukia had gone back to thirteenth division to keep an eye on her captain and his unusual behavior while Nanao woke up Shunsui.

Far easier said than done, though Nanao had come prepared.

As expected, the banging produced nothing but noise. So Nanao picked the lock.

Shunsui was deeply asleep, snoring ever so gently. Nanao took a moment to consider her approach, then dumped a conveniently placed bucket of ice-cold water on is head.

Shunsui spluttered a little and stirred, but still slumbered on. Nanao drew her fan from her sleeve and whacked him on the head sharply.

"Wake up, you lazy drunk!" she barked.

Shunsui stirred. There was something calling him, something more important than his hangover, more important than uninterrupted sleep, more important than the sharp pains that reminded him of when his lovely Nanao-chan hit him with her fan—that was it!

Shunsui shot up, his bleary eyes searching the room.

"My lovely Nanao~-chan! Where are~ you?! Why do you need me?"

There was a loud 'thwack.' Shunsui rubbed the side of his face. "Ah, there you are! Why does my lovely Nanao-chan need me?" Shunsui paused as a gentle ticking caught his attention. " . . . at seven-thirty in the morning?! Wow Nanao-chan, I don't think I've ever been up this early before. . . ."

Nanao thwacked her captain on the head with her fan again. "Who are you calling 'your lovely Nanao-chan'?"

Several minutes later, Nanao dragged Shunsui into the thirteenth division, where Rukia was holding a handkerchief for Ukitake to cough into.

Rukia anxiously told Shunsui (with Nanao listening) what had happened while Shunsui held the handkerchief.

"Ah, I see," Shunsui said when she had finished. "Now, don't look so worried, Rukia-chan. Jushiro will be fine. Look, there are only a few drops of blood on the handkerchief. I'll go calm him down while you work on the paperwork."

As Shunsui stood up and walked Ukitake towards the door, he paused by Nanao.

"Hey, Nanao-chan," he said, shrugging out of his pink haori and gently placing it on her shoulders. "Don't worry your pretty little head. Jushiro will be fine."

Nanao unconsciously clutched the gaudy haori closer. "My p-pretty little h-head?!" she spluttered as Shunsui escorted Ukitake out of the office and slid the door closed.

Unohana had arrived at Yonbantai at her regular time, and found, to her surprise, someone had been there earlier. The mystery person had gained entry to her office, which was protected by kido spells at all times. Lying on her desk were three roses, a smoky-pink, a white, and a deep crimson. The three stems were free of thorns and so deeply intertwined that Unohana wasn't sure if they could ever be separated.

A short note was attached, and although the handwriting was familiar, Unohana couldn't identify it.

'Crimson, white, and pink,

Three roses, three colors that

Bind us together.'

'Hmm,' thought Unohana. Deciding that her schedule could spare a few minutes, she settled down to decipher who had sent the note.

Several hours later, a not-sobered Shunsui and a more solemn Ukitake dropped by Hachibantai so Ukitake could apologize for his earlier behavior despite Shunsui's assurances that, "Nanao-chan won't mind, don't be silly, Juu-chan."

Nanao was still wearing Shunsui's pink haori as she did paperwork, looking quite surprised to realize this when Shunsui pointed it out.

Ukitake managed to get his apology in between Nanao chasing Shunsui around the office with her fan, accusing him of being drunk, and Shunsui loudly protesting that it was only one small cup of sake.

Ukitake though he saw Nanao nod her head at him, but he wasn't sure. He departed his friends' division and went back to his own, where he apologized to Rukia as well.

Unohana returned to her desk several hours later, her schedule having allowed her one minute before Juuichibantai members were admitted to the General Relief Station for injuries acquired in an inter-division fight.

Five minutes after she had instructed her subordinates on how to deal with the injured shinigami, Unohana checked in with her fukutaichou before heading to Juubantai.

A harassed looking Hitsugaya Toshiro looked up from a stack of paperwork when Unohana-taichou entered his office. The paperwork was both his and Matsumoto's, his assistant captain having not bothered to stay in the division longer than ten minutes.

His bad day, which had already included a hyper Ukitake-taichou, was only bound to get worse with a slightly annoyed Unohana.

'Of course,' Hitsugaya reflected, 'Unohana showing only mild annoyance means that she's seriously pissed.' Hitsugaya wondered if it would be wiser to drop everything and run.

However, by that time, the Yonbantai-taichou had already approached his desk.

"Good morning, Hitsugaya-taichou," the woman said gently, "I have a question to ask you."

Hitsugaya gulped. "Yes?"

She set the note on his desk and asked quietly, "Did you write this?"
Hitsugaya glanced quickly at the paper and then sighed. He'd known that a hyper Ukitake could only mean bad luck, even if he did promise that he wouldn't give him sweets for a month.

"Yes," Hitsugaya sighed reluctantly. "Ukitake-taichou requested me to write it." Risking a glance up, Toshiro was pleased, but surprised, to find that all traces of annoyance had vanished from Unohana's features.

"I see," Unohana said softly. "Thank you, Hitsugaya-taichou. Would you please inquire of Matsumoto-fukutaichou when she returns why she was frolicking in a Seireitei bar with Kira-fukutaichou and Shuuhei-fukutaichou this early in the morning?"

With those final words, she departed, leaving a surprised Hitsugaya to find that all his body parts were still intact. Then his face darkened as he realized the last thing Unohana-taichou had said.

"MATSUMOTO!!!!!"

Unohana found Ukitake at his koi pond.

"Jushiro?" she inquired softly.

Ukitake looked up and smiled. "Did I get the right shade of pink?" he asked, standing from where he was feeding his fish.

Unohana looked surprised for a moment, then reflexively checked the inside of her haori. "Yes, it was perfect," she muttered softly.

Ukitake crossed to where Unohana was standing and took her hand in his. When Resu didn't pull away he said, "So, I imagine you liked your birthday gift then?"

Unohana smiled. "Yes, I did indeed."

Ukitake grinned. "I'm glad." He stared at his koi pond for a moment and then said, "Y'know, I don't think that koi was here last night."

A/N: Mainly written by Mira-chan, but Toast had to help her out of writers block at the end. XD If you couldn't guess ('cause nee-chan wasn't clear) Ukitake bribed Hitsu to write the haiku for him so okaasan-taichou wouldn't find out who it was so easily. XD He's a sly one, Uki-chan...

You don't like Unohana, dunno what you're doing still reading, 'cause you should have stopped at Toast's chapter. You don't like UkiUno, deal with it.

Mira would also like to say she's sorry for putting so much ShunNanao in there, but it's her favorite couple, and she has to put them in every fic she writes! UkiUno is a close second though, and I believe IchiRuki is third.

And while I'm ot pleased at having to type the whole damn thing OVER THE PHONE 'cause certain beta's I won't mention got their computers taken away, I still luff it, and I think it's better then mine. XD Or am I just getting all "support the younger sibling"-esque? *shrugs* I luffs you anyway, Mira-chan. XD

And Mira and I cheered at EmoSpada's demise, and feel like killing Kubo for Yammi's new.... thing.... Don't know what the hell we're talking about? Good, 'CAUSE WE'RE ON A BOAT! (Toast has been reading too much Soul Eater, excuse her)

Please wish Unohana-taichou a Happy Birthday with us! Toast will now go make a cake and work on her Isane cosplay!

Also, much thanks to the lovely Desert(dot)Moon for betaing this chapter too. XD We owe her something NICE.

Reviews are like crack! They're cheaper then crack too! So please, review so we both can fufill our addiction without spending the money we need cosplays! Every little review counts! (Avenue Q reference? lol)

-Love Toast and Mira-chan

P.S. The last line is in reference to Yachiru stealing Bya-bo's koi fish and putting them in Uki's pond. OMAKE'S WILL SOMEDAY RULE THE WORLD!!! *Toast is shot brutally*