as years pass | kyoraku shunsui

ten - 'foolish'

The grunt with which Shunsui hauled himself out of bed was followed by a long stretch of his arms. His head ached and his body reeked of sex, but the latter part wasn't really a concern as he was on his way to the shower anyway. While he much would have preferred to spend the morning in bed, sleeping away his hangover and dealing with his problems in a less than healthy way, Shunsui knew that such a thing wasn't possible.

Fuck. Maybe I overdid it last night. Shunsui walked into his bathroom with his head reclined against his back. The only remnants of what he'd worn yesterday were the bottoms of his shihakuso, but those were lazily discarded before Shunsui began running the water for his shower. As the sound of water beating against the tub filled the room, Shunsui's mind began to wander.

He couldn't help the jealousy that surged through him whenever he pictured Shuriken and Urahara together, laughing, smiling, flirting. Although Urahara's induction as a captain had been five days ago now, the images from that night were still clear in his mind. Shunsui had never seen Shuriken so happy in the company of another man; at least, another man that she had a possibility of dating. Obviously Jushiro, Yamamoto, and Sasakibe could bring her great joy, but one of them was gay and the other two... Well, the easiest way to put it was that they were like family to her, right?

Every other man that Shuriken had ever introduced he and Jushiro to, Shunsui had been able to write off as some short-term shit-bag that she was foolish enough to give the time of day. Shunsui certainly didn't have any room to talk, as most of the women that he fancied had beauty that was only skin deep, but the point was that Shuriken had never looked at a man with such a light in her eyes.

It broke Shunsui's heart.

He knew that he was being selfish and that he should be happy because Shuriken was, but it was so hard for Shunsui to support something that left his stomach in such knots. All of this time, there had been a part of Shunsui that believed, without a shadow of a doubt, that he would never lose Shuriken. Now that he knew that wasn't the case, Shunsui wasn't sure what to do.

After all, it wasn't as though Shunsui was completely convinced that Shuriken even reciprocated the agonizingly large amount of love that he held for her. His feelings of jealousy brought an unusual feeling of self-hatred to Shunsui, as really, why wasn't he happy for her? Urahara was a good man, strong, handsome, and talented. He would be good to her, Shunsui was sure, but would he ever truly love Shuriken the way that Shunsui himself did?

I'm getting pathetic in my old age, moping around like this. What's wrong with me? Shunsui sighed heavily before stepping into his shower. The warm water provided him immense comfort, and for a moment, he merely stood there, eyes closed, as it washed over his body. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it today, anyway. He mused while rubbing both of his hands across his face.

He wasn't quite sure what he needed to do to feel better, but the rational voice in the back of his mind told him that no amount of booze, sex, or pretty women would fill the hole in his heart. That voice, Shunsui decided, would be better off shutting its mouth.

-

From the moment that Shunsui had stepped into the office, Lisa was tired of his behavior. Since the day after Urahara's captain's ceremony, Shunsui had been particularly useless during his time at work and really, she couldn't handle it anymore.

The pained sighs. The aggravated huffs. The distant stares out the window. It was enough to drive anyone mad.

"When are you going to get your head out of your ass and go talk to her?" Lisa's tone was rather condescending as she spoke to her captain, though her eyes never left the magazine that she had been perusing. It wasn't the most appropriate content for her to be viewing at work, based on its mature subject matter, but things would've been different if Lisa was actually a pervert. No, she was just curious.