“Shiro? Are you blushing again?” Ichigo asks incredulously.

Shiro groans and flops down into his seat, burying his face in his hands. “Shaddup!” Ishida Uryuu’s voice continues to run through his mind, filled with honest amusement and interest. To know that someone beyond his brothers has seen and appreciated his attempts to drive off his hangers-on…

Oh, he thinks he might come to like Ishida.

Ichigo’s finger prods his side. “Absolutely not. C’mon, spill. This is the second time today I’ve caught you blushing. Do you have another crush? Do I know them? Should I know them? C’mon, you can’t just not tell me!”

“I can an’ I will!” Shiro huffs and glowers at Ichigo while swatting his hand aside. “Anyway! Hat’n’Clogs’s too busy t’come help righ’ now. So we’ll hafta make due until he shows up.”

Zangetsu’s thoughtful noise is both acknowledgment and teasing rolled into one, and his bland smile promises hours of torment when they aren’t in the middle of a critical planning meeting. “Well, since Urahara-san was busy speaking with your newest crush, I suppose we’ll give him a pass.”

Shiro kind of hates his brothers sometimes.

(Nosy bastards.)

Ichigo laughs and sets a couple sheets of paper in front of Shiro. “Here, this is what Zan and I agreed on while you were mooning after one of my knights.”

“I weren’t moonin’!” Shiro snaps, scooping up the pages and scanning them. “Aw, hell yea! Yer sendin’ those assholes scatterin’!” He recognizes most of the insignias on the list; they’re all young, skilled knights that Ichigo had once considered some of the best. They’re also the ringleaders of Ishida’s torment. “I like it.”

“Good,” Zangetsu says with a nod. “Sending them away should hopefully contain any potential damage. We’ll still need to keep an eye out for potential retaliation, however.” He taps a finger against the map laid out in the center of the table. “Since we’re on the topic, we should discuss what other allies we should call in.”

“We’ll know if the Laguel clans will join as soon as Yoruichi returns.” Ichigo considers the map with a frown, spinning his calligraphy brush between his fingers. “They probably will, since she’s so close to us and so’s her heir. Uhm… have we sent messages to all the minor lords yet?”

“Yes. We’ve heard back from over half, promising supplies or troops as their location allows,” Zangetsu answers. “The rest will take longer to respond due to distance.”

“We talked t’the Quincy enclaves yet?” Shiro sets his chin in his hand and drums the fingers of his free hand against the table. He dislikes trying to play nice with the handful of Quincy enclaves scattered through their land, but they do have unique skills that could be useful in the war ahead.

Ichigo frowns and reaches for the stack of papers at Zangetsu’s elbow. He shuffles through them quickly, skimming each as he goes. “No,” he eventually decides, checking with their elder brother for confirmation. “I guess we should… ugh.”

“Not it,” Shiro declares immediately.

“We would never ask that of you anyway,” Zangetsu tells him dryly, pulling a clean sheet of paper towards him and grabbing his brush. “Messengers, yes. Writing the letters, no.”

“I can damn well be diplomatic iffen I want,” Shiro grumbles without heat. Just because he can doesn’t mean he wants to, and his brothers thankfully know that.

Silence settles over the table as Zangetsu drafts the letters and Ichigo starts to make a full list of everything currently promised and everyone who has yet to respond. Shiro grabs the stack of reports about the front and spreads them out to read, trying to bring order to all the information.

This war has been brewing for years, growing out of ever-increasing border-skirmishes between them and Hueco Mundo. He’s not surprised that it’s finally coming to a head; Lord Aizen is patient, but there’s only so much intel to be gathered with minor skirmishes.

Shiro’s been gathering some intel of his own, of course, both from the skirmishes and from Yoruichi’s network of spies. He hopes it’s enough, but they won’t know until they actually meet Aizen’s full army on the battlefield.

He loses himself in reports, jotting down notes and building an image of the soon-to-be front that they can translate to the strategy table later.

“Oh my, how diligent!”

Ichigo curses at the sudden interruption and Zangetsu gives Urahara a flat, unimpressed stare that does nothing to quell the man’s cheerfulness.

Shiro just twitches and straightens. “Damnit, Hat’n’Clogs!” He glowers down at the ink blotches covering his current page of notes, then sets his brush aside with a grumble. “Took yer damn time.”

“Maa, maa, we both know exactly why, right?” Urahara says with a smirk. He pulls out the chair across from Shiro and sits down, casting a thoughtful look over the map and papers spread out. “So, what’ve we got, boys?”

Zangetsu’s unimpressed stare lightens only slightly, and he nods towards the papers that Ichigo has— “Promises of aid—” then towards Shiro’s stack— “reports from the front—” and finally his own collection— “requests for aid from the handful of Quincy enclaves.”

Urahara makes a face at the last item. “I wouldn’t bank on much from them,” he warns, “maybe from the Ishida, since their lord and the current heir are both part of our army already, but the rest are… less likely.”

“Wait… is’at…” He’s forgotten the names of all the Quincy enclaves. Forgotten that Ishida was among those names. Does that make Ishida Uryuu the heir?

Urahara’s smirk makes Shiro groan in disbelief and slump across the table and his reports.

The heir. He is crushing on the heir of a Quincy enclave.

(The heir of a Quincy enclave is crushing on him?!)

“Oh, don’t be so down,” Urahara says with saccharine sweetness. “It’s hardly a doomed romance! Why, you’re half-Quincy yourself, after all!”

“I am gunna murder ya,” Shiro snarls.

“You’re crushing on Ishida Uryuu?!” Ichigo yelps in sudden understanding. “Is that why—”

“Nah, I’m jes vindictive like that,” Shiro tries to defend.

Ichigo snorts and jabs him in the side. “Usually you leave punishment of the knights up to me. I was wondering what motivated this!”

“I hate all a’ya.”

They all laugh at him. Because of course they do, the traitors.

“Well then, if that’s the case, I believe I have a solution to the problem of keeping an eye on Ishida Uryuu during combat,” Zangetsu says smugly. “Shiro-kun, how about you take him up with you on Getsuga?”

“Only if Getsuga likes ‘im!” Shiro quickly rebuts. “I ain’t gunna deal with a grumpy wyvern durin’ combat.”

“If Getsuga doesn’t like him, I doubt your crush will last anyway,” Ichigo tells him.

Shiro doesn’t have to consider that, just nods in agreement. Getsuga has had fine taste in people all her life. If she dislikes Ishida Uryuu then he’ll suck it up and make the effort to get over his sudden crush. Despite how otherwise perfect Ishida seems.

(Despite Urahara liking Ishida enough to let the man in his personal lab at any time.)

(Who is he kidding. He hopes Getsuga likes Ishida…)