Characters: Byakuya, Hisana
Summary: Sometimes, he just listens to her breathe. And sometimes, after she's gone, he still waits for the sound, and wishes for some way to reach her.
Pairings: Byakuya x Hisana
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for Soul Society arc
Timeline: Pre-manga
Author's Note: After IshiHime and GinRan, this is easily my favorite Bleach pairing to write about. Obviously, this contributes to the number of oneshots concerning Byakuya x Hisana and the two aforementioned pairings.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Byakuya wakens from his dreams with jolts and disquieted cacophonies of breath. The darkness greets him, dark walls, dark ceiling, dark wall hangings, darkness outside the window that doubles as a sliding door.
Once he's calmed down and his heartbeat ceases to pound like the sea against a cliff in his ears, he can hear her breathing.
Hisana is silent in bed, in repose and in sex. She never says a word, never so much as utters a sound. Through pleasure and pain and the terror of her dreams, she bears it all in deceptive equanimity, breathing never losing steadiness, always staying quiet and, for all appearances, untroubled.
Byakuya sometimes wishes it weren't so. He wishes he could see her lose control just once, breathe hard and fast and stare with eyes wide open into the night. He wishes she would treat her nightmares the way all do, with disturbances and panic. He wishes he could make her react. He wishes he could make her laugh into the night. He wishes he had some way, any way, to reach her.
But he doesn't, and Hisana remains, as ever, unresponsive. Pale and fragile, hard as diamond and soft as a feather. Leaking tears in silence, bleeding away her smiles into anonymous darkness where she knows her husband will never see them.
And when Byakuya himself is afflicted with nightmares and inconsistency with his breath, he doesn't care that Hisana is all too calm.
Her calm breathing beside him is a comfort.
Byakuya reaches out, and touches her hair gently, feeling fine, silken strands beneath his fingers. He sinks back down onto his back, drawing sheets around him.
When he is troubled, Byakuya listens to Hisana breathe. He listens to the quiet song of her breathing, until consciousness flees from him and he can sleep again.
Her breathing is all the reassurance he needs, that when he sleeps, he will be able to rest in peace.
And sometimes, years later, Byakuya still wakes from nightmares expecting to hear Hisana's calm breathing.
He doesn't, but still waits for the sound, and still wishes he had some way to reach her.