Beside

He knows people wonder about them. The little boy captain with the sweet round face and small hands, who is barely as tall as her shoulder. Ice cold and serious. The lieutenant with the hourglass shape and long blonde hair, wearing shiny jewelry and a pink scarf. Warm, with a bright and sunny smile. How did they get put together? What makes two people who are so different work so well together? The truth is, neither of them really care to take the time to think about it. The fact that they do work together excellently is enough.

Their tastes in music and food are as different as night and day. She is on the lazy side, sluggish with paperwork and sleepy at lunch time. He is up with the sun, turns everything in ahead of time, and usually skips lunch in favor of an afternoon tea. At the end of the day she heads to the bar with her friends, and he goes home to meditate. And yet the two of them have been together as a team almost from the moment he was appointed to captain.

It is partly that she had brought him to Seireitei in the first place, and he owes her a debt for that. It is partly that she knows she will never worry that he might come on to her, or make any kind of move upon her. And that isn't to do with his youth, that has to do with his honor. That's just the way he is. It is partly that he knows she is loyal to the division and popular with the soldiers, and that when she gives an order it will be followed without question in his absence. It's partly that, with her own warm and accepting personality, she's never been put out or offended by his cool, aloof one.

It is, in part, a lot of small things that added up to the sort of working and personal relationship that could last forever. Or, at least until one of them was killed. He thought about that once—if she were to fall in battle, who would he want to replace her? No answer came to him, even after days of consideration. He would just have to have faith in her, and hope that it would never happen lest he wind up with a couple of nutcases like the 13th Division's captain did when his lieutenant was killed.

She knows people wonder about them, too. They whisper when they think she can't hear about his underdeveloped powers and his incomplete bankai. Well, it's partly true. His bankai is still forming, and he can't hold it as long as the older captains. As far as his power, well... if she brushed up against him in close quarters, she'd come away with snowflakes on her sleeve about half the time. But he graduated on his own skill so obviously the Academy had thought he had it under control. She doesn't worry.

She knows the weight he carries on his shoulders, to be so young and so strong. To have been placed in such a prestigious position at his age. She sees him walk a little taller when the other captains pass by, and she falls a step behind him. In spite of his blank face she knows it stings when others lean down over him to talk, so she stands straight and keeps her chin up when addressing him. She's a little louder, a little friendlier, a little more boisterous, so that they may take him a little more seriously in contrast.

She's pretty sure he knows all of that, but he doesn't say a word. Together, the tall woman and the little kid lead Division 10 in training exercises and into battle. Together they report, together they finish paperwork. One blonde head leaning over a clipboard while lounging on the couch; one silver head leaning over the desk, seated upon a stack of books in his chair. Together, they walk back to the division's barracks to inspect at the end of the day.

The others speculate that they stick together because it's their duty, or because she isn't afraid of being molested by him, or because he is worried about being intimidated by having a man as his lieutenant. To the two in question though, whatever the others speculate is of no consequence. It's not about the differences, or the similarities.

It's about how she found him. It's about how she is always there with him, her eyes watchful and her hand inches from her sword's hilt. It was about how, even though she seemed to always be late getting to the office in the mornings, the lamps had already been lit and tea already started when he got there. It was the fact that she had sat with him at his oldest friend's bedside for nights and nights, and how during the King's Seal crisis her faith in his loyalty had never wavered. She'd taken responsibility for the division and lead the troops in their house arrest with calm and dignity, as he would have expected of his partner.

It's about how she's not afraid to walk beside him, rather than behind.