As a vice-captain, one of Kira Izuru's many duties each morning was to make sure his captain was up bright and early to face the day, attend meetings and training sessions and other general captainly duties. It should have been easy, right? It would have been simple with any other captain but Ichimaru, who was notoriously dead to the world when asleep – or dead to Kira, anyway.

When first made vice-captain of the third he had tapped timidly on the door, but when no answer came had knocked slightly louder. When silence still reigned he dithered and then tiptoed away, figuring that Ichimaru-taichou wouldn't want to be disturbed. The missed captains' meeting and consequential baleful glares and deliberate extra paperwork made sure that never happened again. After that he knocked and daringly entered, usually having to shake the reluctant lump in the bed to get him to stir at all. Once in his barely stifled irritation he had shaken too hard and, with no more than a muffled 'gerroff' as a warning, barely had time to dodge as Shinsou shot out through the covers.

Then Kira finally cracked.

"Raise your head, Wabisuke!" He hissed. Slashing at the covers once, twice, thrice, four times with his hooked zanpakutou, he watched smugly as his captain struggled to free himself from a blanket that was suddenly sixteen times heavier.

"Izuru," A muffled voice came, "I seem to be stuck."

---

I was looking through my old notebooks and found loads of one shots that I never typed up. :D

R&R, please.

~Featherz