Be Still My Heart

Norma sat behind her desk, her reading glasses perched on the end of her nose. She had a mountain of paperwork to do, and get turned in. She had been sitting here for over an hour, reading over document after document. How had she managed to get so far behind? Under normal circumstances paperwork didn't bother Norma, but this much was just obscene.

Kaimu had made his way through the many streets in the Seireitei, arriving at the gates of the Ninth as he came to a stop. He looked up at the building, blinking for a moment; it'd...certainly be a long time since he'd been here...

The outside hadn't changed much, surprisingly...though deep down that made him happy. He had lots of memories here after all.

He headed inside, making his way through the halls and past the working shinigami; as he neared the captain's office there was a bright smile on his face, the documentation paper having been placed back into his yukata.

"Norma-taaaaan~" He called, sliding open the door to see the woman at her desk that was currently full of paperwork.

Norma looked up from her paperwork as she heard her door creek open, and someone call her name. She saw a familiar tuft of red hair poke from behind the door. At the realization that it was Kaimu, Norma threw her glasses and her pen down on her desk.

"Get in here!"

Norma's voice was a harsh whisper. What was wrong with him? Why would he sneak into Seireitei? Did he have a death wish? What on earth was his problem?!

"What are you doing here?! Are you nuts?! Did anyone see you?!"

Kaimu had to stifle a laugh at Norma's urgent words, her whisper harsh as he stepped inside; he was excited to tell her, but he'd honestly wanted to see how she'd react to him just showing up out of the blue like this first...

"Hnn, I'm pretty sure lots of others saw me, I waved hello to some on the way too..." He explained as if there was nothing wrong with the statement once he was near her desk. "Buuuuut~ I don't think that'll be a problem, Norma-tan~!"

Saying that, he pulled out the slip of paper and handed it to her; "I'm here to notify you of this; I'll need it back when you're done with it though, ahaha..."

Norma listed to what Kaimu was saying. Waving at people...telling them hello...what was wrong with him? Before she could even think about her reaction, Norma had slapped Kaimu really hard behind the head. The cheeky little shit thought it funny that he was ruining all her hard work at keeping Seireitei off his back.

Now he was handing her some paper, and asking for it back? What was going on? Norma opened the paper and as she began to read it, she had to sit down in one of the floral chairs that sat in front of her desk. Tears filled Norma's eyes. They spilled forth and rolled down her cheeks as a sob escaped her. Norma clutched her hand over her mouth, and looked up at Kaimu. Tears causing her to be unable to speak. All she could do is cry and shake her head.

A pained noise of surprise escaped Kaimu as Norma smacked his head; "Aaa...ouch...Norma-tan..." He muttered, his hands moving to the back of his head to rest over the place she'd hit.

"Mn?" His attention went from the pain back to her though as she read the paper, moving to seat herself. His smile became gentler then, losing its amusement as he approached her, crouching down next to the chair as he placed a hand on her arm.

"I was surprised too, Lakshmi was able to talk and the pardon was granted...Thank you both though, for your efforts..." He said, "They have me as Lakshmi's assistant, they want her to keep an eye on me so my loyalty can be proved...I can't hold a seated position until then, but I don't mind; I'm only here for all of you, after all."

This was the first time Norma was ever truly speechless. Never in all her years, had she truly not had something to say. When Kaimu crouched down next to her, Norma grabbed him and wrapped her arms around him. The elderly woman sobbed into his chest as she embraced him.

"My sweet boy. My sweet sweet boy."

Norma held Kaimu tight for a moment, wanting to cherish the moment. This was something she had wanted for Kaimu for so long.

"I've never been so happy in my life."

"I'm really happy I could deliver such good news." Kaimu replied, once the surprise of Norma's sudden hug had passed. His hand patted her back lightly as she continued crying; he was fine like this.

Oh, right...did she know about...?

"Ah, right; I don't know if you know yet, but I've been staying with Lak-tan for awhile now...we...we're actually in a relationship now." He informed, though he wasn't sure if Norma already knew this yet or not...she'd...definitely predicted it...aha...

Norma released Kaimu from her embrace, and pulled away from his. She dabbed her eyes with the back of her sleeve, trying to get herself together. This was all such good news. Things were looking up for Kaimu, finally. Norma was so happy.

"I'm so happy for you Kaimu. I don't even know where to begin to thank Lakshmi."

There had to be some way. Norma would figure something out. She would get Mia's help.

"I'm going to throw a party. We need to celebrate. If there was ever a time, this is it."

"Party? Mia wanted to celebrate too, she might enjoy the help." Kaimu replied, if it was just a small celebration that'd be fine; it would be nice to spend time with and celebrate with everyone...he'd been worried about them going through the trouble of throwing a party, but since everyone seemed to want to...then that was fine! He'd definitely have fun and enjoy himself!

"Perfect! I was just thinking of asking her for her help. We can make lots of food, and hang decorations."

Norma was so happy and excited. She couldn't wait to talk to Mia so they could plan a party. They would have lots of fun doing this. She still wanted to do something nice for Lakshmi though, as a way to show her thanks. She was truly indebted to the woman.

"So did Lakshmi have a hard time getting Maki to pardon you?"

"Aah, as far as I know Lakshmi was able to get it granted quite easily since she had all the documentation in check...perhaps since it was a new head captain it was easier..." Kaimu mused, thinking back on how Lakshmi had just came home with the documents and that had been that...

"She came home and just handed them to me, though she was hiding her own excitement on it." He added with a small chuckle.

"I'm so happy to hear that. Setsuna was a friend of mine, but she did not make this easy. Every chance I got I tried, and was shot down every time."

It had been so frustrating. It had almost caused Norma to end her friendship with Setsuna. The only thing that stopped her, was that Norma knew Setsuna wasn't doing it personally, but it was her duty.

"Well...I'm pardoned now, so there's no having to ever worry about going through all that trouble again, I'm here to stay~"

Originally, he hadn't wanted to come back, he had wanted to keep himself at distance from the Seireitei, and had fully intended to be done with them. That was before he'd found family though, now he had not only Norma, but Mia, and Lakshmi as well...and in the future there would be an addition to that list...

That...was still difficult for his head to wrap around though.

"I have too much here now, friends, family...aha..It makes me happy."

"Wonderful! Oh I'm just thrilled. I'm just so excited."

Norma couldn't focus on anything other than all of Kaimu's good news and how it made him feel. It just made her so excited. It was all so surreal. She never thought she'd live to see this day. She was so happy she got to though. It was that last thing she truly needed to see accomplished in her life. Everything from here on out was just an added bonus.

"It is strange seeing you here in my office. It's been a very long time since you've been in here."

"It is strange...before I came inside I had to stand outside and look at the building from the gates for a bit...Things haven't changed really on the outside, but inside there's a lot of new faces...it's good to see everyone keeping up with their work."

There were a lot of memories here, seeing all the little differences had been expected...but he'd had to stop and take everything in.

"Things don't change much here. Giving the squad a facelift isn't in the budget, or so they tell me."

Norma chuckled a bit. Things didn't really change too much cosmetically unless there was a lot of damage done, and Seireitei hadn't been attacked in ages. There was a lot of new faces though. Every year new recruits joined from the academy. Most didn't last long, but the ones who did showed to be true blue.

"Of course they do their work! I run a tight ship."

Kaimu gave a laugh, "I know you do, Norma-tan."

Norma definitely kept her subordinates working, he knew that from experience. If you came to this division you needed to be hardworking and dedicated. Slackers were a no when it came to this job.

"Damn skippy! I'll beat them into submission if I have to."

The worst part about Norma's statement was she was entirely serious. She was not above corporal punishment. She'd make sure things got done one way or another.

"So what's planned next Kaimu?"

Norma's words had Kaimu laughing further, amused, but light laughter escaped him. He had no doubts she would, if you slacked off here you were definitely in for a bad time.

What next though...?

"Hmm, well; I'll be at the Fourth for awhile, as Lak-tan's assistant. It's stated I can't hold a seated position until my loyalty is earned, but...I don't really have a need to make the extra money, considering Lak-tan and I are well off...so promotions aren't really that important to me...

I just plan to live on here now that I'm able to talk to you all without worrying about putting you all in danger. I can see you, Mia, and...well I live with Lak-tan, ahaha...but...I can see you all whenever now!"

"You don't know how much I love to hear that. I'm so proud of you Kaimu."

Norma smiled at the Kaimu. She got up from her chair and walked to the closet next to her desk. Out of it she pulled a pair of pants and a white long sleeve shirt.

"I had a lot of free time the other day, so I finished sewing this here. Stitched it by hand. I should have sent some recruits to get my sewing machine."

Kaimu continued smiling as Norma spoke, it growing a little at her words before she stood from her chair. He stood as well, considering he'd been crouched this entire time, and watched as she brought out...pants and a shirt?

Those were...

Ah, that's right...she'd wanted to make him a suit...He supposed since he was pardoned now...if there were any events he needed to be taken to it could prove useful...it'd probably feel odd at first, considering he was used to traditional dress rather suits and such, but Norma's work would not go to waste.

"Eh? That sounds like a lot of work, stitching it by hand." Her sewing machine would have been really helpful to her the other day...hopefully her recruits would bring it to her so she wouldn't have to do that.

"It's not so bad. It was a really slow day anyway. Besides, there haven't always been sewing machines."

Norma laughed lightly. This was how they sewed things for ages. She remembered the days before thread. It was almost tea time, and Norma never missed tea.

"Do you want some tea? It's just about tea time."

Well, if it hadn't been too bad on her, then there wasn't anything to worry about. He gave a nod, agreeing with her.

When she brought up tea, his smile returned; "Sure, that would be nice."

It would be good for him to enjoy some tea with Norma, he hadn't in awhile due to his staying at Lakshmi's. He...did feel the need to get home, but he knew Lakshmi wanted him to spend time with everyone right now...he had been pardoned after all.

Norma nodded and walked over to her tea set up. She poured some water into her kettle and set it to boil. She grabbed her box of tea and opened it. When Norma reached inside she found that there was no tea.

"Well shit. I forgot to pick up more tea at the market this morning. I guess this is a rain check on tea, Kaimu."