Title: Skeletons of Lives to Come
Fandom/Community: Bleach / 15minutefic
Characters: Byakuya, Rukia, Renji, Ichigo
Pairing: ByakuyaxRukia
Rating: G
Word Prompt: Curt
Word Count: 1,039
Summary: She may not have understood him, but she was willing to learn to try.

Author Notes: I went crazy with this one. I just kept writing. I actually like writing ByakuyaxRukia. o.O;


"Can't you guys ever act like normal people?!"

As the saying went, she was sure that somebody up there – though she wasn't quite sure where up there was, as technically they were in a "heaven" place – hated her right now.

Her throat felt raw and she swallowed harshly, trying to remove the feeling that she had a wad of cotton stuck in the back of her throat. Her head was pounding; she could have imagined a small little chappy bunny sitting on her head and hammering away with a large mallet repeatedly. It was the first time that they had seen each other in months and already the two boys were ready to fight, at each other's throats as usual.

Ichigo pointed his sword at Renji, screaming something about ripping a throat out.

Renji answered back, just as loud, about something with tearing somebody's balls off.

Kuchiki Rukia sighed and let her head fall against the kotatsu that she sat behind, rubbing a temple and enjoying the cool feeling of the hard wood beneath her fevering head.

If the two of them didn't kill each other, she would.

Somebody from the house, ignoring the ruckus the two shinigami were making in the garden, leaned down and offered her some soothing herbal tea; and she graciously accepted. Despite the warm air, the way the boiling-hot liquid warmed her palms made her feel far better than if she would have had something ice cold pressed against her.

Rukia took a small sip, but after screaming at the boys, the hot did nothing to soothe her burning throat.

This wasn't how she had wanted to explain her wedding to two of her best friends.

It had come as a shock to almost everybody in the Seireitei when the two of them had announced that they were going to wed. They were so different. . . But it had seemed to be the best thing, the Clan elders had thought, that they had almost killed her for something so insignificant – especially in the grand scheme of things. She had already been accepted into the family. Why not make it more formal and just have their now-unattached Honorable Son and their adoptive now-Honorable Daughter tie the knot?

The idea of marrying Kuchiki Byakuya had come as a shock in many forms for her. She had never expected the people in her adoptive family to grow fond of her – she was just Rukongai trash of course – enough to consider her part of the family, let alone want her to be a far more integral part than just an adopted daughter.

And then of course, she'd never expected Byakuya to accept.

He had met her in this vary garden to tell her, very briskly, that the elders wished he ask for her hand in marriage; and that they weren't going to force her, as they had obviously no position to require if of her. He was asking her, informally, what she would say.

She had stared at him, not knowing what to say.

Her sister had loved this man, she realized. And she knew from what Byakuya had told her that very day when he had taken a sword to the chest for her, that he had loved Hisana.

She was not Hisana.

She had never even known she had a sister, let alone know how she had come to love a man as cold as Kuchiki Byakuya.

But if there was one thing that Rukia knew, it was that her nii-sama had saved her, nearly died in the process. He missed Hisana. He needed that closure. Rukia had never felt love like that.

But, if only for all that her sister had done for her, she wondered if she could try for that man.

A shout caused her to turn, and she blinked, watching Ichigo point and yell at some spot in the distance. Renji yelled at Ichigo and slapped him over the head. The boys continued to argue and fight, though far more affectionate and friendly, almost as though it were some cutesy thing they had to do every time they saw each other. She'd once heard Matsumoto declare it as "sexual tension."

Then the woman had asked when they were planning on coming out of the closet, and had gotten ice shoved down her blouse.

It was only when the boys froze and turned, simultaneous to look at her.

She stared, watching; and her future husband walked out from underneath a tree and marched past the boys, his mouth moving – silent to her – but obviously saying something that caused the boys to halt for a moment as they waited for him to leave them be.

When Byakuya was halfway towards her, the boys started sniggering.

"Awwh, such a pretty bride Rukia-chan will make!" Renji called out, a hand cupped around his mouth to make sure she heard. Ichigo was practically falling over, holding on to Renji's shoulder to keep him upright. "But you have to tell us! Who's the lucky guy? We'll be sure to go right over there and tell him all he should expect out of the relationship!"

Rukia glowered, closing her eyes and clenching a fist in front of her face.

"Idiots!" she cried, completely ignoring the fact that Byakuya was standing directly next to her and when she leapt to her feet, she nearly knocked into him. "I'm marrying nii-sama!"

The smiles slipped from their face as fast as if they'd been plunged into icy water.

From beside her, Byakuya held out his arm. Rukia turned and seized it rather roughly, but Byakuya merely turned and began to lead her away, back inside. He was quiet as Rukia fumed beside him.

He led her down a long hallway, before they finally reached the confines of a small sitting room, where more tea and a few wedding attendants had gathered to go over things for the seven-hundredth time this evening. She grimaced, spotting a few women with kimono samples.

"I, of course, will be having Renji for my best man," Byakuya said suddenly, turning to her, arm still linked with hers. "I suggest you pick the kimono color for your bridesmaids so that it does not clash with Ichigo's hair."