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Ryan was about to speak again when he felt the wind pick up, almost blowing his haori out of his hand as he put it back on. The snow on the ground was beginning to swirl, and he felt another flake land on his nose - they were in for a blizzard. "We'd better get inside and get the stove and the fire going." With that, he used a quick shunpo to get to the car, which he had left unlocked - he took a large plastic case (Envy had called it a "cooler") that contained ice...and packed in that ice was a nice steak. Taking it out, he shut the cooler and returned it to the trunk before entering the house, immediately stocking the stove and lighting it before beginning to stock the fire. The speed he was working at...it reminded him of winter days when he would be out doing work, and then find himself making a mad dash for the house with his uncle and with the hired man when the wind began to pick up and snow began to fall. "It's times like these," his uncle would say, "when I think of extending that little tunnel and putting it under the barn, too, so we don't have to run like this. Then I think of how frozen the ground is and how long it would take, and I put it off until the summer...then I forget about it until winter rolls around again."

Times like these indeed, Ryan thought as he took more water from the pail and began to clean the metal rack for cooking meat. I'll probably be going back out there for more water sometime, too. But then...times like these. Times like these where he would sit on the couch, playing chess...and where Mary would huddle close to him for warmth even as they played against one another. Only this time the image in his mind wasn't of him and Mary...it was of him and Envy.

Ryan finished cleaning the rack, setting it above the fire. "Let that sit until the fire gets nice and hot," he muttered to himself, filling a clean pot with more water (the pail was getting low...) and placing it on top of the stove to boil. "Potatoes over there...and then this."

Ryan opened his second suitcase, which had been considerably heavier - and he was lucky that it hadn't been checked, because the airport security would have found an object in there that would have baffled even major scientists, if indeed they could see it. It was a small metal box, lined with standard outlets. "Self-contained electricity generator - has its own reiatsu supply that can apparently generate electricity indefinitely," he said to Envy. "There's a whole bunch of them to power the Sereitei's electrical devices, and I managed to borrow a compact one. This should rectify our lack of electricity for now." Ryan then took out the second, larger object, which took up most of the suitcase. It was a stereo, with a turntable on top as well as a CD tray and radio. Plugging it in (the speakers were inside the unit, which was a marvel to Ryan), Ryan took a record from inside the suitcase. "I never did it much, but I had to learn how," he mused. "For some strange reason, the girls always wanted to dance with me...though I always would have liked to dance to one of these songs."

Ryan set the record down on the turntable, placing the needle on the outer edge and turning the volume up, before offering his hand to Envy. "Shall we dance?" he asked, as the opening notes to the Paul Revere and the Raiders song "Louie Louie" began to play.

Ryan smiled again, laughing a bit. "There's no real learning...all you have to do is follow my lead." Ryan had only really learned swing dancing, but it wasn't like he didn't like it - it was really quite simple. Taking Envy's hand, he simply looked her in the eyes. "Just copy what my feet are doing...and I'll do the rest."

Ryan simply smiled. "There's no need to worry about that. As long as you just follow my lead...you won't be doing that."

Ryan simply began to step in time to the music, as he had been taught, and then...they danced. Well, not so much "they" as Ryan led Envy through a dance he was making up on the spot. One and two, spin, turn, one, two... Ryan seemed to have each move planned out ten seconds in advance, and, well...it was one of the best dances of his life, really. That was, at least, what he thought when it was over - and the fire was crackling nicely. "Excuse me for a moment..."

Ryan walked over to the fire, nodded, and then put the steak on the rack. "Now we let that cook until the bottom is well done, then turn it over. Still plenty of time..."

Ryan had moved back to his suitcase. There was another zippered pocket on the front, and Ryan opened it, pulling out a folded white garment. Holding it up, it unfolded on its own, revealing the insignia of the Fourth Division on the back. He threw this to Envy lightly, a small smile still on his normally expressionless face.

"...Captain."

Ryan gave nothing other than a shrug. "You were selected shortly before I brought you here - all that was needed was for you to attain bankai, which you did."

Ryan now put the water on to boil so that he could cook the potatoes. "It's probably a surprise, but I was surprised when I got promoted to Captain as well. It's an honor to be named a Captain, and it's probably what every single shinigami wants...at least, if they're not already a Captain."

Ryan's gaze turned to the fire. "Those of us who are Captains...our goals differ greatly. This is where you stop looking at basic advancement and start to think about your purpose. What you wish to do...what you fight for...things like that." Ryan barely noticed the new song - Scott McKenzie was singing about San Francisco now. "And then...you have more time, as well. Because you've attained so much, you spend less time training and have more time to yourself and to think about your life. What you've gained, what you've done..."

Ryan strode over to the fireplace, not looking at the fire but at the mantelpiece. On top of it was a photograph - not the normal one of the family, but a special one, one taken on a simple, ordinary day. It had been...1945? 1946? Ryan was standing with his back to a full crop of wheat, but that wheat...it had been all his. He'd had good harvests through the war years, but of course most of that went off in the Army supply trucks. This one was one of the few that Ryan stood alone with Mary in. They were standing there, Mary's arm around Ryan...relaxed. They were both smiling, one of the few times Ryan had smiled after D-Day. "...and what you've lost." Ryan just continued to gaze at the picture. "One of the last times I ever smiled like that. Probably the first time I was so relaxed...because things looked happy. That harvest brought in more money than I could have imagined...it got me my trip to Europe in addition to everything else we were able to get, not like we needed much anyway."

Ryan looked at the picture of Mary. For a moment, he considered tossing it into the fire - let it burn, and let it go.

Don't, Ryan. There's more happy memories in there than just Mary. Your memories will last forever, even if you burn that picture...but you can always look at that picture and think of what Envy just said, can't you?

...

Ryan put the picture back, but kept looking at it. "Sixty years is a long time, Ember...but then again, my uncle always told me that good things come to those who wait, even though sometimes you end up waiting a while. And they did...we waited, and eventually the war came. It wasn't prosperous, but we were better off than before, and the government made sure we could keep our production up. Eventually, the losses ended, the Allies surged back...and then..."

"I'm very sorry for your loss..."

Ryan blinked back tears. He couldn't remember having cried, ever...he'd always put up with things as they came, and always politely. Now, though, the weight of everything was coming back. In four short years, he'd gone from seeing a promising future to losing his uncle, his father, his life...and then Mary. He'd spent sixty years with nothing. Now, though...

"Something better...well, there really can't be anything worse than nothing, can there? I wait sixty years and become a shinigami...a Captain, eventually. Perhaps now..."

That feeling again, stronger than before. Ryan looked over at Envy, which only made the feeling that much stronger. I know this feeling, but...I can't...

Ask her, silly.

"Envy...what do you call a feeling that you get when you look at a certain person, or just are next to them. It's...it's really indescribable, aside from the fact that it's some sort of incredible warmth, like you'd get from a nice mug of hot cocoa, and no matter what's going on you can't help but smile just because that certain someone is there? Because..."

This was hard. Probably the hardest part. Time to set my past and my fear aside. It's been sixty years. Maybe Envy's right, maybe something even better has come to me. No...returned. It was never gone. It's like a target...it was always there, I just have to open my damned eyes.

"...That's how I feel now, Envy. It makes me think of Mary. Mary Higgins, not Mary Sarin. When I stood next to her in this picture...every morning when I would come downstairs and see her, making breakfast for me...even when I looked up at her as I was dying. I felt like that last night when you slept next to me...probably longer than that, too."

Ryan sighed. "I probably sounded like some sort of idiot, didn't I...never mind that. Can you just tell me what it is?"

s**t!

Ryan had begun to smile when Envy touched his hand, but that went directly away when he saw Envy's pant leg on fire. Stepping away from the fire so that he wouldn't make the same mistake, Ryan's eyes scanned the room. The bucket's too far away...and there's no blanket. Only one thing left. Ryan drew his zanpakuto, pointing it at Envy's leg. "Focus, Maikokorozashi."

The blade extended as he wished it to, streaking past Envy's leg before curling around it tightly, smothering the flames. Ryan took care to hold the sword steady and not jerk back on it, which would pull Envy to the ground, and once the flames were smothered, Ryan gave the handle a light downward flick and the white band of particles dispersed. Replacing the sword, Ryan took two short steps and knelt down, checking Envy's leg. "Hopefully you're not burned that badly...oh, gods." Ryan barely tugged on the leg and it came apart in his hands - the denim had almost completely burned away. He reached forward again, touching Envy's leg to make sure it wasn't burned, but as he did so his arm twitched out of nervousness, not heat. "It's...not burned, at least, nothing major. Your pants, though..." Ryan stood up, nodding towards the pant leg that he'd dropped. "Probably useless. That doesn't matter, though..."

Ryan smiled as he looked into Envy's eyes. "What matters is that you're fine, Envy. You're fine, and..."

Ryan heard the steak bubbling, and turned around, picking up a pair of tongs that sat on the mantel and flipping the steak over. "Steak's half-done, too." He checked the potatoes, which weren't even boiling yet, then went back over to Envy. For a moment he looked at her bare leg, then laughed softly. "God damn...I was raised in such a repressed manner. I'm sorry, just...girls wore long dresses in my time, and seeing a bare leg was not something for public. Maybe you saw that in the bigger cities, but not out here - it was all dresses here. I've never even touched a girl's leg before now..."