Summary: Ten years ago, Ise Nanao made a glorious mistake that has come to haunt her. Will she take her life into her own hands and change it for the better or will she do irreparable harm to not only herself but also to one Kyouraku Shunsui? – Shunsui/Nanao

Rating: M (there will be adult material! If you don't like that, don't read this fic ;)

Disclaimer: Bleach is Tito Kube's, if it was mine, there'd be a LOT more Shunsui/Nanao interaction. I do not make any money with this. This is for fun and entertainment purposes only.

A/N: Alright, so I'm right in the middle of my final exams but I've been thinking about this story since the summer and since it seems I can't concentrate on my exams, I'm going to write this fic down. It should be around 4 or 5 chapters long.

It's a bit different from usual fics but I was so deprived of Nanao as of late in the manga (Seriously?! Where is Nanao? It's like "Find Nemo" but it's "Find Nanao" instead). Anyways, I hope you're going to enjoy the story. The next chapters should be longer than this one.

Enjoy…

Chapter 1: Change

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."

~Andy Warhol

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and Seireitei was bathed in a heated glow. And Nanao, as usual, was found sitting behind her desk doing paperwork.

Nanao didn't mind though. She liked doing paperwork, well, actually, it wasn't one of her preferred tasks but she liked to have everything in perfect order. She liked bringing order into chaos and considering the inaptitude of her 8th Division in this matter, she had ample opportunity to "enjoy" bringing order into the affairs of her Division as its fukutaicho.

So she did the paperwork, more than her fair share that was for sure but letting other, less organised Shinigami have a go at the paperwork just meant more work for her in the end, she had discovered long ago. For example, accounting. The 8th did have an obscure accounting office but after discovering that other officers, for example, thought that sake was an office expense, she never even let anyone else have a look at that. Considering her Division and its taicho, however, it certainly wasn't too far fetched, their taicho being known as a hard-partying Shinigami. Nanao sighed, their taicho. A more complicated man there never had been.

8th Division taicho, Kyouraku Shunsui, seemed foremost easy-going and lazy. "Seemed" being the right word, since, well, he was those things but there was so much more beneath the surface. An unbelievably sharp mind hid behind those deep and warm chocolate coloured eyes and a warrior's heart beat inside his chest.

Nanao sighed at the thought of her taicho's well-muscled chest. Her thoughts just shouldn't go there.

As if her thoughts had conjured him, her taicho came into the outer reception office with one of his flamboyant entries, probably flirting with every woman in his path. She couldn't see him yet but even from her office with the closed door she could hear him and the giggling of the secretaries and other female officers.

When he arrived at their shared office, he stopped and looked at her, and then blinked, clasping his hands in front of his chest melodramatically.

"Oh, what does my beautiful Nanao-chan do in the stuffy office on such a nice day? She should be outside, swimming in a skimpy bathing suit and enjoying herself!"

An irate tick started in her left eye.

"Taicho, do not call me 'Nanao-chan', Ise-fukutaicho will do perfectly well, and I am in here since you seem to somehow 'forget' to do your paperwork." Gods, how she hated that infernal nickname!

"Ach, paperwork, schmaperwork, come on let's enjoy the sun, Nanao-chan!", as if he had not heard her desire for him to not call her Nanao-chan. Typical.

"I am sorry, Kyouraku-taicho, but I have to respectfully decline." Nanao answered, placing her pen back on her current sheet of paperwork- what was it about again? Oh, yes, a Shinigami wanted a transfer into the 7th Squad, right, fill out this, sign there, cross that, easy, simple. But truth be told, it was more difficult than it should have been with the presence of her taicho standing over her ominously.

"Ach, Nanao-chan, you have to loosen up a bit, enjoy life…" and he waggled his eyebrows suggestively at that as if he was flirting but Nanao knew the truth, and didn't even hear the rest of his suggestions.

Nanao knew the truth of it. Had known it for forever it seemed; he might flirt and tease for all he was worth, make suggestive remarks all day long but in the end, he was a cheat. He didn't mean anything with his remarks.

He had practically raised her in his Division. He had tutored her when the pain after losing her hero icon, the previous fukutaicho, Yadoumaru Lisa, had become too harsh a lesson and had taken her under his wing. He had taught her, had mentored her and groomed her to be his fukutaicho since he hadn't been able to accept anybody else, it had seemed.

Nanao remembered when even the good-natured Kyouraku Shunsui had grumbled about incompetent fools to a teenaged Nanao. He had put her through her paces all the more to make her strong and capable enough to be his fukutaicho.

Nanao didn't doubt that he had affection for her, never that, but he saw her more as a daughter, or a niece than anything else really. One night about ten years ago and the subsequent events had taught her that. Had taught her like nothing else ever could.

She had grown up right in his view, had gone through puberty, the most awkward phase of a person's life right under his nose and she had hero-worshipped him ever since she joined the squad. She had joined the 8th Division when she was just a child with the firm believe that her taicho was the absolute best out of all the Division taicho and nothing had changed her attitude since then. Truly.

But over the course of time her hero worship had amplified when she had hit her teens and discovered her taicho was actually good looking. And true to his nature as soon as she had started to show womanly curves he had begun to tease her, flirt lightly, nearly softly with her and admittedly she had loved that kind of attention from her taicho.

The light teasing and flirting turned into a hard-core occupation of her taicho once she had grown into "a beautiful flower" as her taicho put it but Nanao could still see the good-natured light in his eyes that said clearly, even if his words didn't, that he still thought of her as the cute little girl who had had a bad case of hero-worship for both her taicho and the then fukutaicho.

All that changed, at least for her, one night just a decade ago … but she wouldn't think about that now, couldn't, it hurt too much.

With a jerk she brought herself back from her musings, to find her taicho still in front of her desk, a hopeful expression on his face.

"Maybe another time taicho, I am quite tired and I still have to finish some paperwork or we will get into trouble from the 1st Division, sir." Nanao said.

"Ah, my diligent Nanao-chan, then go home and go into the land of Morpheus to wake refreshed and ready to skinny dip with me." Kyouraku-taicho retorted with a devilish glint in his eyes and a debonair smile on his lips.

Nanao sighed at his reference to Morpheus, the human Greek god of sleep and dreams. Only few knew literature as well as her and he was one of them. It would be fascinating to talk about serious topics and books with him at some point since she was sure he must know them all.

But the skinny dipping comment morphed her face into an angry frown.

"I will surely not skinny dip with you, Kyouraku-taicho, you can do that with Ukitake-taicho."

Her taicho used his hurt puppy dog eyes, "But, but, but Nanao-chan, I don't want to see Ukitake naked!"

Nanao nearly growled, but signed one more form and then got up from her chair abruptly to look her taicho in the eyes.

"If you will excuse me now, sir, I am finished and I will take you up on your offer to let me leave early. Have a nice weekend, Koyuraku-taicho."

And with that Nanao stormed out of the Division Offices back to her flat, not looking back to see the puzzled expression in her taicho's eyes.

God, that stupid man. Stupid Nanao for being in love with such a stupid man.

O~o~o~O

Shunsui watched his little fukutaicho leave and smirked benevolently, at least he had gotten her out of the office earlier than she would have left else. His little perfectionist fukutaicho was doing most of the paperwork that was actually supposed to be for the whole office on her own but he had to admit no one was as good at doing it than she was.

He couldn't imagine a better fukutaicho for his Division anymore. She was perfect for the job. Diligent, brave, intensely intelligent and above all else, loyal to her very core.

But she had been behaving very strangely as of late. Easier to aggravate and tease and quicker to explode in a temper. It was all very peculiar, maybe she needed a few days off. Shunsui sighed and headed over to the couch in their vacated office and slowly sank into it. He would have allowed her some days off in a heartbeat, if not for the little matter that practically no paperwork got done while she was away and she would be even more stressed after coming back from a few days off. There just was no winning, he sighed.

But he had to admit she had turned out beautifully from the shy little girl that had joined his squad. It had actually been quite humbling to be an observer while she grew up, seeing her learn and discover new things. No doubt about it, she was one of his favourite people in all of Seireitei. And he trusted her implicitly.

But something had changed. It was small things, just a different glint to her eyes when she looked at him and if he wasn't so observant he would have never noticed it. It had started just a few years earlier, and he had absolutely no idea why.

In so many circumstances, his Nanao-chan was a bit of a mystery to him. She was a very private person and he couldn't fault her that, knowing Seireitei's predisposition for gossip, but Nanao-chan took her privacy to new levels.

He knew she was an avid reader and looked forward to a few nights spent discussing his or her favourites – he was sure she had an excellent taste in her reading material, but it just never seemed to be the right time to suggest a quiet night in, without any teasing.

Teasing had become second nature to him where Nanao-chan was concerned, it was just too much fun to rattle her a bit, but even that had become very different and awkward.

She looks at me accusingly and guiltily all at the same time. He sighed and closed his eyes, a puzzle, that's what Nanao was. He had always loved a good puzzle, and maybe it was time to solve this one. But first a nap.

A/N: So that was the first chapter. It feels like forever since I wrote anything, so let me know how I did, what you think of this storyline, any criticism etc