It was not unlike the elements of nature to conspire among themselves and produce the finely woven tapestry spread across the library's facade, serving as a canvas to the intricate, elegant vines that had wound themselves through the limestone motif like string carried by needle-point. Climbing roses had risen past the lancet arch, blooming harmoniously below the pendulous racemes of wisteria; aesthetics were paramount to the 3rd, and it was not abnormal for a significant portion of the division to be allotted solely to the care of its flora come mid-Spring.

The season was no less chaotic than any before it, if not more so. The striking imagery staked the establishment itself; the ivy would curl into and exacerbate the slightest structural defect, as would the wisteria, too prone to outright rending any construction made from wood asunder. Maintenance was difficult, and she left the meticulous task of pruning to the more experienced Unseated of her division.

The weather was pleasant, blue skies scalloped by few clouds. The library enjoyed a modest level of activity, whereas the gardens bustled. Kurisuna did not envy those sequestered in information processing; all-in-all, it was a beautiful afternoon, and she had taken the time off herself to do some landscaping by the koi ponds, from which she could just as well access water. The soil had been upturned, and the plot of land was ready to be renovated with the colorful menagerie of plants she had gathered.

Retroactively, she found the prospect of finalizing the flower bed come sunset by her lonesome daunting.

SPOILER: Click to show

Timeline
Spring of 1355.

Free from afternoon duties, Chie's feet lead her toward the gardens. The pleasant spring air was enticing, and she was not quite ready to return home, and be under the loving, but watchful eyes of her parents. Her father was surely still at work, but she imagined her mother was already home, tending to her own garden and taking advantage of the day.

Moving out from the looming shade of a building, she stepped into the sunlight and breathed deeply, stretching her arms above her head. It was so nice to be outside, to stretch out her muscles, to taste the spring air. She loved her library work, but today was not a day to be cooped up indoors. After all, she had spent enough of her life in such a state.

Walking through the gardens, she smiled brightly as she took in her surroundings, thoroughly enjoying the warm, spring sun.

Kurisuna was fortunate, as she had relentlessly debated whether to concern herself with the heat or not, that she had taken the time to change into a lighter ensemble, after all. Though she couldn't soil her shihakushou like her muted-green hakama and blanched kimono, it would have rapidly fallen into disfavor; it was warm, too warm beneath the radiant sun, beneath which she had collected a panoply of blooms, all calling for well-drained soil and several hours of full exposure.

There were roses, whose bare roots she had submerged entirely into buckets of water for several hours in order to hydrate the plant. The lavenders wafted their fragrance, and had already rallied a flock of bees to their funnel-shaped blossoms. Those savvy enough might've recognized the other species, as well; she had added marigolds, chrysanthemums, and butterfly weeds to the palette.

A small frown knitting her brows, she watched a pair of off-duty Shinigami pass her by: a man and a woman, neither of the Third Division. Kurisuna was not unaccustomed to working the earth by her own, but projects as large as the one she'd undertaken tended to warrant a higher value than ''one'' in terms of manpower; she was immensely grateful, then, to spot the Tanaka's familiar face, and waved to the girl in one broad stroke of her arm. ''Good afternoon, Chie!''

Having been admiring the fresh, spring air, Chie's mood was bright and uplifted. Of course, there would were really no troubles for the young, naive woman, not at this time. She was merely strolling about, admiring the scenery, letting her thoughts while away when a familiar voice beckoned.

Turning, she caught sight of her Taicho, Saikokui Kurisuna, waving and calling to her in a friendly manner. Having really no relationship, other than professional on the briefest of terms, with the woman, Chie felt a small blush of pleasure creep upon her cheeks as she made her way over to Kurisuna. Smiling bashfully from ear to ear, Chie bowed a greeting. "Good afternoon, T-Taicho-sama!" She really was a shy creature.

She took a glance at the work spread about around Kurisuna, before making to kneel beside her superior. Standing, whilst one was sitting, after all, was quite rude, and awkward to say the least. Chie was thoughtful in this way, never wishing to make things uncomfortable for others, and always striving to be respectful to her elders and superiors. Her parents ingrained such strong morals into the girl, after all, and she would not dishonor them by behaving poorly.

"How are you today?" she spoke softly, brushing a stray lock of silver hair from her eyes as she rested comfortably near Kurisuna.

There were, Kiba reflected, hundreds of things to be said about a reduced rank - and three hundred years after the fact, he'd been able to soak in all of those things - and least among them was free time. The Fourth Dividion tenth seat was a man of many hobbies, though he was yet to name himself master of any of them, and his latest indulgence had been in amateur writing. The would-be author had a few hours ago hidden a new batch of recently completed 'stories', and followed the success up with a couple hours of light reading of his own, and after a brief recovery nap, the low-seated Shinigami went humming out the wrong exit of the Third Division - he'd yet to fully learn the building's layout - and blinked away his surprise at a face full of sunlight.

Still somewhat hazy from the nap, Kiba rubbed blearily at his right eye with the same hand as he began to meander through the admittedly lovely Division grounds, gaze flicking here or there, watching the occasional small group or single person manage a few plants here, do some trimming there, or simply enjoy the atmosphere with some outdoor reading. And then yet others, as he did, simply seemed to wander around, probably gossiping or doing some other pointless activity that was so well adored under the circumstances of the weather. Then, all too suddenly, there was Kurisuna, surrounded by a suite of flowers Kiba couldn't identify - and then the roses and lavenders, two Kiba certainly did know and appreciate, though he could see the damnable bees buzzing around the latter - apparently either planting or de-planting the rooted growths.

At gardening Kiba was no trained hand by any respect, but he had an appreciable talent for moving large quantities of things and also at pulling things out of the ground, and for all intents and purposes it seemed Kurisuna had only one assistant to her name at the time. There was no saying for certain how good those two alone were at their chosen task - could be they together could get more done in a moment than Kiba could dare consider - but Kiba would be remiss, he thought, if he didn't at least offer.

"Mornin', Kukuka-Taichoo~" Kiba chirped, approaching with his usual smile, taking a squat at the opposite side the flower bed from Kurisuna and her assistant, who Kiba provided a nod toward.

"Mornin', Miss." Kiba tacked on, sweeping his gaze over the flower bed and nodding in appreciation of what little he could perceive of the intended appearance, and indeed he could see plants were being planted, not uprooted, at least from what he could tell of how the dirt was somewhat built up around those already down rather than level, like he was fairly certain the long-since planted tended to be.

"What're we workin' on?" Despite having his guesses, Kiba asked as though he hadn't the first idea - it didn't do his reputation any favors, asking the obvious, but he found people secretly enjoyed telling rather than having their actions intuited. It left them, as Kiba thought anyway, more at ease, and more willing to share in total. After all, better asking 'what' than 'why', he'd long since learned - unless 'why' was an understandable follow-up question, which it likely wouldn't be in this situation. After all, if they weren't planted, the plants would die, right? Nobody wanted that, dead plants; those weren't nearly so fun to show off.

As she lightly rubbed her hands together so as to brush off the loam flecked across her palms without smearing the soil, the Taichou smiled appreciatively at Chie's approach. How she had gone so long without due assistance, Kurisuna loathed to know; for all her virtues, and all the communal support she offered members of her division and beyond, Kurisuna enjoyed manageable levels of popularity among the Gotei as a certified mother hen—this, she surmised, had also fostered a certain grade of notoriety, though she had laudably improved in toning down the constant fussing, and only ever clucked in disapproval when the guilty party deserved the verbal affront, as opposed to 'all the time.'

Of course, though she was not personally acquainted with Chie (she had met the girl but once, the ambience formal at best, disquieting at worst), Kurisuna was suitably informed as Malik's childhood friend, a man whose companionship she sought on a mutual, bi-monthly basis. Between the two of them were fostered three souls, and a wealth of topics to indulge the parent thematic; she was not entirely unprepared, then, to find that the coy child was stuttering affably in her presence. ''There's no need to address me by rank, Chie-chan. I'm off duty, see? You can get away with my given name.''

She turned her head for the flower bed, her smile sinking. ''I'm doing fine. How can I not be, during such a beautiful day?'' Kurisuna caught herself, then, and recuperated—her lips blossomed again, the Taichou reflecting that, yes, she could finish by the end of the day. ''What of you, dear? How are you enjoying your career? I can only hope the Third Division has done you justice.''

Looking to affix her gaze onto Chie, Kurisuna perceived yet another companionable figure in the distance, and tipping her head as to better peek over the girl's shoulder, confirmed the male's identity; given the striking lack of any explosion of movement (or collateral damage, she mused with an inner, faltering half-smile), Kurisuna had been reluctant to acknowledge Kiba as... well, Kiba.

Nonetheless, his presence was not at all unwelcome, and she greeted him as she had Chie. ''Hello, Kiba. I was about to do some landscaping when Chie-chan, here, joined me.'' Preemptively, she inquired herself, ''What brings you here? Are you looking for Sumie?''

Feeling a flush of pleasure at the camaraderie and warmth radiating from Kurisuna, Chie returned the smile ten-fold, her face lighting up with bashful happiness. The Taicho and she were not well aquainted, as Chie's duties did not intersect with the uppermost ranks of the division, and she was not the type to seek out an audience with others. After all, she was not outgoing, preferring the safety in solitude. She wasn't comfortable in social settings, having been cloistered in the safety in her parental home for the duration of her early youth. Health issues prevented her from running and playing with children of her age, so the social cues and skills learned from those interactions were things Chie still lacked.

She was properly educated in etiquette, however, which often furthered the divide between herself and her peers. Often, people mistook her shyness and propriety for haughty or uppity behavior, when in all reality, she was merely bashful and clueless.

"Perhaps, ma'am. But you are my elder, and due much respect," she smiled up at Kurisuna, recounting the lessons given to her by her parents. "As for the weather," she paused, taking an appreciative, deep breath of spring air, "I am enjoying it fully, as well as my career in the Third Division. It has become another home to me."

She took note of the sound of approaching footsteps, seeing an unknown man come forth to greet them. Upon his address to her, she bowed her head respectfully, casting her eyes downward as the smile melted off her face to a semi-nervous blush.

As the man spoke and Kurisuna replied, Chie had a thought pop into her head.

"If you will excuse me for a moment, I have a few things to attend to, and then, if you permit me, I would greatly enjoy landscaping with you upon my return, ma'am."

She stood quickly, her smile returning to her face without realizing it, as a nice idea had formed in her mind.

Bowing to both Kurisuna and Kiba, hoping he would not think she left on account of him, Chie said "Excuse me," and quickly departed, with a plan.

(Exit for the moment, due to a brief absence and not wishing to hold up the thread while I'm gone)

"When aren't I?" Kiba asked with a sort of grin; it wasn't necessarily a proper response, given that honestly, Kiba rarely sought out Sumie so much as simply stumbled upon her, but reputations were what they were. Still, it seemed to Kiba his attentions could be made more useful at his present location than they could hunting down - in order to annoy the hell out of for no better reason than they knew each other - Sumie.

"But maybe I can help out here instead. Flowers have like, a time limit on them, right? Before you gotta get them down? Tell me what to do, Kukuka-Taichoo, and I'll do what I can." It was worth noting, that particular finish - Kiba had long since learned his ability to accurately follow instruction the first time in a new hobby was shady at best, and so to say 'he would do as told' may in fact have been setting them both up for failure, but 'what he could do' was certainly everything he would make effort toward.

Of course, his insinuation of himself into the chore might have been somewhat rude - in fact it was possible that was the cause for the other girl's sudden departure, though Kiba granted the benefit of the doubt in believing she really did have her own task to accomplish - but Kiba was as known for rash and questionable decisions as much as anything else, so doubtless it wouldn't be too surprising that where he saw himself needed, he applied his presence liberally.

Still, despite the offer, his gaze trailed to a few of those lovely buds and locked on those damnable bloated yellow insects, buzzing and carrying on with nary a care in the world, as though they belonged where good, proper people went about their honest work. That Kurisuna could simply work around them was testament either to her exceedingly cool, calm demeanor, or a glaring indicator of her inability to process danger. Kiba thought, for only a moment, he might need to keep an eye on the woman, if for no other reason than her own safety.

Much as Kurisuna would've liked to see the girl cast away such formalities as ''ma'am'' and ''Taichou-sama,'' she could not claim to be disappointed; Malik and his spouse, it appeared, had sired their child bearing in mind the prescribed social etiquettes, a practice she had largely abandoned with her twins. She had proven too lenient, back then, at least with her rambunctious son, but the pair had sobered up rapidly upon their introduction to the Gotei; perhaps, if the couple was lucky, the reverse would embolden Chie to socialize off her own accord.

''Fair enough, Chie-chan. What matters is that you're enjoying yourself.'' Turning her head to fix Kiba apprehensively, Kurisuna mulled over the pros and cons of having a soul as dynamic as the male in question assist her, judging by his admissions of a ''time limit''; Kiba, far as she knew, scarcely meddled with plant life at all, though she could regretfully admit to not knowing the Shinigami nearly as well as she should, if only for how often she caught him roaming in Sumie's vicinity.

She concluded, in the end, that this was a due and proper opportunity to learn about her Lieutenant's childhood friend, and her canted brow descended. Perhaps the male had some innate talent for gardening, Kurisuna reassured herself—she would likely offend Kiba by declining his offer, when it was a part of her duty to cultivate the spirited upstarts of the Gotei. ''That's correct. The roses, especially,'' she gestured to the bare-root 'prickle plants,' as she'd been tempted to call them for Kiba's sake; their canes were pruned lowly for the upcoming season, though she didn't doubt he'd recognize them, ''can only stay in those buckets for so long.''

Humming ponderously as to which task she ought to assign Kiba first, Kurisuna was forced to belay her track of thought as Chie announced her temporary departure. ''Of course. I look forward to your return,'' the Taichou bid curtly as she waved the child off, before committing her attention to Kiba. ''What's your take on getting your hands dirty? Think you can take this butterfly weed,'' she flicked the bush's vivid orange blooms, grinning as if she'd just issued the male a challenge, ''and pop it into the center of this flower bed? You'll want to dig a hole slightly larger than its container, and gently extract the plant; you can tilt it sideways and tap the bottom of the pot.''

Kiba almost grinned with pride at being correct about something, but he held himself short for two reasons: first, it only made sense that plants needed to be in the ground, and second, as he recalled Kurisuna wasn't one to be fond of swollen pride. At the query regarding his willingness to get dirty, Kiba almost scoffed - this was put off, of course, because Kurisuna didn't really seem all that interested in a response, and instead apparently challenged the male to try and plant a particularly orange plant. At this, Kiba did scoff - he'd been watching other kids plant flowers and stuff since he himself was a kid, and if kids could do it, how hard could it really be?

Hopping to his feet, Kiba strode to where he estimated to be 'the middle' of the bed, granted taking care not to tread on any pre-existing plants, before taking a knee and simply digging his hands into the dirt, having a rough idea concerning the size of the current pot; pulling up dirt until he was a few inches beyond wrist-deep, Kiba nodded and moved to pick up the potted plant, carrying the honestly somewhat lovely thing to the new jagged hole in the ground. Taking a knee again, Kiba lowered the pot into the hole just to make sure he hadn't been too off, and was proud to note he only had to pack a handful of dirt back into the hole to be about where he wanted it.

And thus did Kiba tilt the pot, 'gently' gave it a healthy shake, and 'gently' allowed the plant, dirt and all, to fall into the hole with a whump. Nodding in satisfaction, Kiba reached into the dirt and straightened the plant up some before spreading more dirt around the only slightly lopsided flower, packing it down into a more-or-less level plot. "Not bad if I say so myself. Better'n most other weeds get." Kiba stated with a nod, smiling to Kurisuna with a perceived 'job well done'.

With a trickle of unease, Kurisuna recalled an appointment she had set up with one of Third's finest information brokers. She chuckled nervously, admonishing her tendencies to neglect important rendezvous in favor of her passion for gardening. ''I couldn't have done better myself, Kiba. Unfortunately, it occurred to me just now that I've a meeting to attend, and...'' She peered reluctantly at her muddled attire. ''Oh, dear, I must get changed. Thank you for your assistance! I bid you a good day!''

[Kurisuna exited, thread ended]

Kiba - 3 RP
Kurisuna - 2 RP [halved]