[It's good to hear that soft laugh again, and she smiles a little wider, a little warmer.]

When you stay it like that, you make me want to stall just to watch the ensuing fall-out. Just like old times, ne?

[Like before Aizen, before the war, before their companions were taken from them, changed - she hadn't been affected quite so directly then, at least - but she had seen Shunsui's grief, and it had mirrored her own, decades later, with Kaien's loss. It's foolish to think they can really go back to the way things used to be, but she can dream a little.]