It was exactly two days later when Hisana decided to put her plan into motion. She had been having a hard time procuring enough food to keep her sister from wailing like a broken siren. Some of the neighborhood toughs were scoping the dark alley she had been staying in, and if that wasn't enough, she'd gone and caught some sort of cough. With a tangle of emotions, she bundled Rukia in everything she had left, and starting walking toward the edge of town.
In the distance, she could see the house of the kind man and woman who seemed like they would take care of Rukia. She stopped, the wind blowing her yukata around her ankles, and she clutched Rukia to her chest. In one last act of sisterly love, she kissed the infant on the head before lowing her to the ground. "Good bye, Rukia. I..." she let out a strangled sob, "I hope you'll grow up strong and maybe..." She sniffed indelicately and backed up a step, "maybe you'll even forgive me someday." Without pausing to look behind her, Hisana ran off, leaving her sister to the unknown.
10 Years Later
Byakuya dipped the steel nib pen in ink, and finished the form with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. When he was the third seat, his father had taught him how to fill out all the various forms. When his grandfather retired and his father had been installed as captain, he had been promoted to fukutaicho. Inexplicably, his mother had died just a week afterward. Ever since then, he had seen a marked decline in his enthusiasm for paperwork.
Reaching for another paper from the admittedly small pile on his desk, he felt a stormy reiatsu approach. Applying pen to paper in a vain attempt to finish at least one more before he grudgingly gave in to Kaien's whims, he waited for his friend to approach.
"Hey!" The tall man with dark indigo spikes and shockingly bright turquoise eyes slammed the screen open.
"Manners cost nothing, Shiba-dono." Byakuya lay his pen down and held as tightly to the Kuchiki mask as he could. He would let it go in a minute, but why ruin a perfectly good tradition?
The man smiled and thumped down on the cushion, his form messy and his elbows on the desk, "I got manners. I just leave 'em with Ukitake-taicho." He sat forward more, leaning his chin on his clasped hands, "Anything good happen lately?"
"I achieved Bankai." Byakuya strove to maintain the straight face and smooth voice.
Kaien's brows rose, "Tell me!"
"Last night with your sister."
Kaien's rich laughter flooded the space, and Byakuya snickered right along with him, "Shit, man. She'd snap you like a twig!" He laughed again, "Come get a drink with me."
"I have to -"
"- come get a drink?" Kaien slid his eyes to the captain's adjoining door, "You haven't celebrated becoming fukutaicho yet. Can't have the badge without the puke stain to go with it."
Byakuya rolled his eyes; sometimes it was a complete mystery why he was friends with the brash older man. "I never puke." He wiped the ink from the pen, and set it across the stack, "Besides, after mother..."
He had not felt his father's spiritual pressure until the man spoke, "It's all right, son." Sōjun's red-rimmed eyes looked bleak, but the small smile seemed genuine. "Mother would not have wanted you to become a hermit. Go drinking. Have one for me while you're at it." He turned to Kaien, "Your sister is well?"
"She's got the clan reigns firmly in hand," Kaien's eyes betrayed the pity he felt for Sōjun.
"Good. You are free for the rest of today, Byakuya. Bring him home safe, Shiba-dono."
"Of course, Kuchiki-taicho."
Sōjun's head shook, "Have fun, boys."
Byakuya squared the papers on his desk, while Kaien rolled his eyes extravagantly. Having judged his friend's patience nearing the end, he stood, and shook out his long hair before pulling a thong from his sleeve and tying it back into a low ponytail.
"Lead on," Byakuya gestured at the doorway, and Kaien mumbled under his breath before heading out.
~.~
Hisana had had many ups and downs in the past decade. When she had left Inuzari, and started traveling to the higher districts, she did not know what it would take to pass from one district to another. People always tried to move up; that was a basic fact of life. With her sister haunting her memories, she did everything she could to make something of her life.
She spent only as much time as she strictly had to in each district. First, she had to find out what to do to get around the checkpoints, and move up a district. Each guardian was different. Some would turn a blind eye for a monetary bribe, others she really had to work at. In one case, she had been a dog robber for a year. It was not the worst job she had ever done to get by, and markedly better than the three months she'd spent harvesting apples.
At a few months shy of her twenty-first birthday, she felt like she'd finally gotten close enough to the first district. The fifth was well-tended farmland for the most part and the people were decent enough. Helpful when she'd needed them to be, keeping their distance when she did not need company. She'd been working in a pub as a waitress for a month, and surprisingly she was enjoying it. It was clean, and the owner gave her a warm, dry place to sleep. She had even met more people with higher spirit energy. Soul Reapers, their secretaries, and menials came out this far for a cozy drink.
Being a dog from Inzuri as she was, she had feared the men and women in black. She'd been talked to by more than one, usually more than one in each district she crossed into. She'd found out early on that she had just enough reiatsu to get hungry occasionally, but not enough to train. She'd been upset at the man who told her that little chestnut. In addition, she had learned that is probably what kept her so short and 'cute'. She had rolled her eyes when the woman testing her strength told her that.
Soul Reapers were something of a by-word in the Rukongai. People rarely had middle of the road feelings about them. It was a real love/hate relationship. The closer you got to the Seireitei, the more people loved them, and here in the fifth, she decided that she could at least smile for them. After all, she saw all kinds in the pub; from the higher-ups, like the captains that had come in just a day after she started working to the unseated rank and file who were as common as field mice. She even had one as a regular customer.
This particular night, the place was simply packed. She didn't even know why. It wasn't the end of harvest, or some new entertainment in town, it just was. With a shared smile of long-suffering patience with one of the other barmaids, she stepped back into the press and checked her tables. After settling her customers, she chanced a look around.
The shinigami she'd been serving the most often was Shiba Kaien. He had been coming in for the last few weeks to her delight. She'd mused that it was so odd, how she felt about him. He was good looking and had a powerful spirit pressure, but it almost felt like she was betraying something by allowing herself to smile at the man. Her lips curled upward when she spied him slipping into a seat with a companion she hadn't seen before. With a light heart, Hisana waded though the crowd to his tableside.
"Shiba-dono! It's good to have you here again, and you're even luckier than ever to get a table." He smiled at her, and Hisana cocked her head and gave the other man a grin, "Who's your companion?"
Hisana felt overwhelmed at the man's presence when she'd caught his eye. It was as if someone had soaked a cloak in water and tossed it on her. She felt heavy, as if gravity had too hard a pull that day. Kaien answered, "This is Kuchiki Byakuya, a fellow vice captain. We're celebrating!"
"Oh?" She could barely pull her gaze from the other young man. He seemed almost familiar to her. Like a dream that had faded, or a memory from a past life. Not only that, but he was surely the prettiest man she had ever seen! His eyes were a hazy shade of violet and tilted just enough to be breathtaking. Byakuya's long dark hair was tied back, but she could see that it shone even in the dim light of the tavern. He had a profile that would make any artist weep. He was, in short, making her dizzy.
In a vain attempt to clear her mind, she shook her head, having missed whatever Kaien had said. "I'm sorry, Shiba-dono, it's been a busy night, my mind seems to be wandering. Did you order?"
Both men smiled and she blushed brightly, "Yeah, bring us two ales, Hisana-san."
"My pleasure," she backed up one step, taking another hasty look at the man who'd been named Byakuya before turning fully and going to get their order. She felt the icy hand of fate squeezing her chest. It was going to be a long night.
AN// and so begins the love affair between Hisana and Byakuya. I did not write every heated glance and covert kiss. There's not going to be much romance, I'm sorry. That's not exactly what I wanted this story for. Enjoy, and thanks go to my friend who requested to remain nameless. Please feel free to leave a comment or review. :)
