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Consciousness came slowly to Jūshirō. He didn’t need to open his eyes to determine that it was late in the morning, the sunlight on his closed eyelids told him all he needed to know. He pulled the covers higher to his chin, it wasn’t often that he got to sleep in, and he couldn’t think of any pressing matters that would mandate his getting out of bed right away. His mind was still foggy with sleep and he preferred to rest and let himself fully awaken in his own time. He’d almost fallen back asleep when he heard soft snoring. Jūshirō froze as he listened to the sound; it was impossible to tell whether the source of the snores was male or female, although, it was more likely to be the former. He wracked his brain trying to remember what had happened the night before, but most of the previous night was blank and he certainly didn’t remember meeting anyone he’d been interested in taking to bed.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, he knew he was just going to have to bite the bullet and open his eyes. There was no other way that he was going to find out who was in the bed with him. When he opened his eyes he immediately relaxed slightly, at least he was at Ugendō – the familiarity comforted him. Steeling himself, he slowly turned his head to the source of the snoring –
“Kyōraku?”
Shunsui did nothing when his name was called, not that Jūshirō had really expected him to react. It took more than that to wake him up.
Jūshirō pushed his palms into his eyes. Why couldn’t he remember anything from the night before? He wasn’t hungover – there was no pounding headache, nausea, or any other signs that would indicate a night of drinking. To his unending relief, he also wasn’t naked, although he was shirtless.
Amidst his musings he felt the bed move as Shunsui began to wake. Jūshirō briefly considered feigning sleep, but Shunsui would be able to see through that very easily, and it wouldn’t make the situation any less awkward.
“…Ukitake?” Shunsui questioned, his voice still heavy with sleep.
Jūshirō made a sound of acknowledgment but didn’t look at his friend.
“What…?”
“I don’t…. I don’t know. I don’t remember anything from last night.”
“Me neither, but I’ve got a pounding headache.”
Jūshirō looked over at Shunsui; the man looked paler than normal and his expression did indicate pain. It wasn’t strange for Shunsui to have a hangover – everyone knew the man liked to drink – but if they’d gone out drinking together than Jūshirō should have had a hangover too, especially considering the short-term memory loss.
“Ukitake?”
“Mmmm?”
“Are you naked?”
“No.”
“Oh,” Shunsui said softly, nodding his head. “Well I am.”
The sound Jūshirō made was somewhere between amusement and vexation. It annoyed him that Shunsui seemed to lax about the situation, but from a third-person perspective he could see the humour in the situation.
“Ukitake…you don’t think we…you know…” Shunsui let his sentence die off but the implication was clear.
Jūshirō grimaced, “I don’t think so? I mean, I think we would remember that at least.”
“Well, how do you feel?”
Jūshirō shot Shunsui a questioning glance, “What do you mean?”
Shunsui cleared his throat, his mannerism betraying the discomfort he was feeling. “You know…I mean – how do you feel?”
When the realization of what Shunsui was implying dawned on Jūshirō, he rose up onto one elbow and stared menacingly at his friend.
“Now wait a minute – why am I the one whose automatically…receiving?”
Shunsui opened his mouth to say something but closed it, apparently rethinking whatever he’d been about to say.
“No offense Ukitake,” Shunsui said after a moment, “but you’re not exactly the dominant one.”
Jūshirō tried valiantly not to blush. What Shunsui said made perfect sense to him, but he still didn’t want to admit it outright.
“Relax Ukitake,” Shunsui said, his easygoing manner having returned, “It’s not an insult. Besides, I’ve even heard some stories of men… ‘topping from the bottom’ I think the phrase was.”
Jūshirō groaned and flopped back down onto his back, flinging his arm over his eyes. The sound of Shunsui’s laughter did not help the situation at all, either.
“Come on Ukitake. We’ve woken up in worse situations than this. Seeing as we didn’t sleep together, there’s really no harm done.”
“Don’t say that,” Jūshirō murmured, “you might jinx it.”
The prospect of getting anymore sleep had gone out the window completely the minute Jūshirō had opened his eyes, so he slipped from the bed and into the bath to get ready for the day. When he came out of the bath and had dressed in his shihakushō, he was glad to see that Shunsui had also used the time to prepare for the day. It was still plainly obvious that the Eighth division captain was suffering from a hangover but that wasn’t anything new.
“I need something hot and greasy,” Shunsui said. “How about we go to that diner in the Second district? The one with the weird zodiac pictures on the wall.”
Jūshirō shrugged, “Sounds good to me. I’m not sure they’ll still be doing breakfast as this time but it’s worth a shot.”
They decided to walk rather than flash step; they were in no hurry and if they tried Shunsui was likely to vomit. As they passed by the divisions there were some strange looks from various officers, but no one said anything to them, so they continued on.
Until they got to the Tenth division.
“Hey! Captain Kyōraku! Captain Ukitake!”
Jūshirō looked over his shoulder to see Rangiku jogging up to them, and they both slowed to allow her to catch up.
“Vice captain Matsumoto,” Ukitake greeted with an inclination of his head.
“You two look pretty spry this morning,” Rangiku said. “I thought for sure you’d both be out until this afternoon. Especially you Captain Kyōraku – you drank more than anyone else!”
“You were with us last night?” Shunsui asked, surprised.
Rangiku laughed, “Oh yeah! There was a whole bunch of us at the bar. You two left kind of early though…but I guess that was the only option.”
Jūshirō frowned, “What does that mean?”
Rangiku looked surprised, “You don’t remember anything from last night? Nothing at all?”
Jūshirō shook his head, “Nothing. If you don’t mind telling us what you remember, we’d really like to know.”
Rangiku shrugged, “Okay. Why don’t you two come to the division head quarters? I’ll make tea!”
Jūshirō and Shunsui shared a look as they followed Rangiku. She didn’t seem to be hiding anything from them; whatever had led to them both in the same bed and with less clothing that is strictly appropriate must have occurred after they’d left the bar. After they’d settled and had cups of tea in front of them Rangiku began to speak again.
“It was just a normal night of drinking,” Rangiku said with a shrug. “Nothing really out of the ordinary happened – actually, Captain Ukitake you were pretty out of it after only two of three drinks. That was kind of weird.”
“It must be that new medication Captain Unohana started you on,” Shunsui murmured. “You’re not usually that much of a lightweight.”
Jūshirō shot his friend a dry look but nodded nonetheless. Unohana had mentioned that the medication would react poorly with alcohol, but he hadn’t suspected it would have been to such a degree.
“You said we left early?” Shunsui asked.
Rangiku laughed, “Yeah. You went to get a jug of water to help sober Captain Ukitake up but you spilled it all over him on your way back. Captain Ukitake was drenched so you two decided to leave.”
Jūshirō frowned, he hadn’t noticed any wet clothing at the estate. He’d have to search when he returned, he’d likely hung it somewhere obscure in his drunken state. Rangiku’s story solved a portion of the mystery, but it didn’t explain why Shunsui had decided to stay the night or how they’d ended up deciding to sleep in the same bed.
“Vice Captain Matsumoto, was anyone with us after we left the bar?” Jūshirō asked.
“Yes.”
Three heads turned to see the source of the voice, and both Jūshirō and Shunsui were surprised to see Tōshirō in the doorway.
“Captain Hitsugaya?” Jūshirō asked.
Tōshirō made a sound of acknowledgment, although he still looked vaguely annoyed.
“Oh that’s right!” Rangiku exclaimed. “Captain Hitsugaya left with you two to make sure you’d make it back safely.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Jūshirō said.
Tōshirō waved away the comment. “There was little to be done,” he said.
“What exactly did happen after we left?” Shunsui asked.
“We walked back to Ugendō. I kept trying to tell you that you didn’t need to follow us all the way but you kept insisting that you needed to make sure that,” Tōshirō cleared his throat, “your ‘Jyuu-chan’ made it home safe.”
Jūshirō glared at Shunsui at the mention of the nickname. Shunsui must have been incredibly drunk to use the name; it wasn’t something that they used very often in conversation.
“And that was it?” Jūshirō asked.
Tōshirō nodded, “After you two were inside Ugendō I left. There was no reason for me to hang around.”
The conversation from that point on drifted into lighter topics, and soon after Jūshirō and Shunsui said their goodbyes and continued on their way to the diner. When they’d ordered their food they got their first chance to speak about what they’d learned earlier.
“Well…it makes sense,” Shunsui said simply.
Jūshirō smirked, “Apart from the part where you climbed naked into bed with me.”
Shunsui laughed, “Yare, Ukitake. That’s not the first time we’ve woken up the same bed – and let’s be honest it’s one of the…tamer situations where this has happened. I sleep
naked at my own house, in my drunk mind it probably made sense.”
Jūshirō hated to admit it, but it did make sense. He gave Shunsui a level stare before continuing, “This is one of those stories that we keep between us, agreed?”
Shunsui grinned, “Agreed.”
They remained true to their word, and the story stayed between them. After they’d eaten Jūshirō left Shunsui to try and find his missing clothing – which he located hanging from one of the trees at the estate. The sigh had made him laugh, it wasn’t even worth it to try and understand the logic behind such a decision.
The second task had been to change the bed linens, because he knew exactly who (and what) had been in contact with them.