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Shunsui could fall asleep anywhere. Although during the years of his captaincy he’d become more prone to sleep on his back in the shade during the afternoon, in the Academy he’d been infamous for the various different sleeping positions he’d been found in. Putting your head down on the desk was a serious offense, so he’d learned to fall asleep sitting up, and at a quick glance it was hard to tell he was asleep. It was a skill that was particularly useful during war, given a vaguely horizontal surface Shunsui could be asleep in seconds. His age was catching up with him, however, and he found that the longer he slept in awkward positions, the stiffer and sorer he was when he woke up. It was one of the many aspects Nanao mocked him about when he was being a nuisance, and it was one of the easiest ways to shut him up.
Jūshirō on the other hand, could sleep through anything. It was debated as to whether this was a result of chronic illness that caused general fatigue, or whether it was just a personality trait. During his career at the Academy, Jūshirō had slept through an emergency drill and had caused quite an uproar when three people had burst into his dorm room expecting the worst, only to find him fast asleep. This was also a skill that was useful during war. Many woke up from fitful nights of sleep, and went through all sorts of measures to wake themselves up. Very rarely did Jūshirō have a dissatisfactory night of sleep, unless there were extraordinary circumstances. It had taken hundreds of years for him to train his body to wake up at the necessary time, and it had taken years of being late to a lot of things for him to get it right.
The people around them didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at such an opposite similarity that the two possessed. Oddly enough, when asked Jūshirō would say that he envied Shunsui’s ability to fall asleep almost anywhere, because his near-constant state of pain or discomfort made it hard to fall asleep, even if he did sleep for most of the night once he did fall asleep.
Just the same, Shunsui envied Jūshirō’s ability to sleep through anything. Although he could fall asleep quickly, he woke at the smallest sound. In his everyday life, Shunsui spent much of his time paying attention to the small details around him; always watching and always listening. It was irony that this trait had come back to haunt him during his sleep. There were plenty of times when he was jolted awake in the middle of the night that frustration more than anything prevented him from getting back to sleep and staying that way.
Despite their differences, they both looked similar when they slept. Shunsui spent a lot of his time sleeping, but seeing Jūshirō with him was a rare sight, but a pleasing one nonetheless. Nanao have been privy to that sight on a few occasions, and usually it meant that they were up to something. A couple of days before Rukia Kuchiki’s scheduled execution, Nanao had gone to her captain’s office, but before she could storm in and begin to scold him, she spotted them. They were both on the floor in front of the desk, Ukitake was sitting against the desk and Shunsui laying down with his head on Ukitake’s thigh. All the frustration drained out of her as she watched them, and she rolled her eyes before sliding the door closed again and dealing with the problem herself.
Later, when she’d explained what had happened to Rangiku, she’d ironically explained how much younger they both looked when they slept. Her captain spent a lot of his time sleeping, but when she’d found him sleeping with Ukitake he’d looked different. It was enough to joke that they were soulmates when it was for the purpose of selling calendars of trading cards, but whenever Nanao was confronted with certain aspects of their relationship it made her wonder how much truth there was to those words. Her captain was certainly happier when Ukitake was around, and he’d looked like he was getting a better quality of sleep with Ukitake than he did while alone.
It made Nanao happy to know that they had each other, and that they complemented each other in such ways. Without Ukitake, Nanao feared that her captain would be a very different man, and she was quite fond of the man that she knew.