Fireworks

By: Missysillivan

Summary: Because she never failed to disappoint him some of the time. Based on the scene from episode 24.

So I don't know what the inspiration for this story really was. I've always been a sucker for brother/sister relationships (I'm from a large family with many children) and after going through and watching random Bleach episodes, the wheels began to spin at the scene where Kukaka scolds Ganju for bringing up their brother and the scene were she is drinking the sake alone while speaking to said dead brother. Haha, I don't know what goes on in my mind sometimes. Anyway, the ending scene is taking from the episode, so don't get confused. This is only my second story for Bleach (I write more Naruto stories then anything), so please no flames. Reviews are much appreciated.

"You ungrateful girl! We've let you build these bombs-"

"They aren't bombs!"

"-without complaint-"

"Yeah, 'cause that's the truth!"

"-and yet you still have to destroy everything-"

"It was my arm!"

"-without a care if it belonged to someone or affected someone else."

"My arm! Not yours!"

Familiar teal eyes blinked back a tear before looking away, eyes training on the ground. "Kukaku. Leave."

The dark haired girl froze before shaking her head. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm telling you to get out of my house. Now."

"But...Kaa-san..."

"Now Kukaku!"

Pained eyes traveled from her mother's form to the disrupted room they stood in. Charred wood still smoked while the furniture was covered in ash and soot. The explosion had done little damage, but the mess left from it was enough to make the small boom look big. She blinked back any sign of emotion from her eyes and turned on heel, never sparring a glance to the woman trembling in the center of the blackened space.

"Fine."

She didn't stop until she was outside the confined space of her home - not even when her young brother tried to ask her what was wrong. "Nothing, Ganju." She had snapped. "Go play with your dolls." She had commanded. She mentally sighed - she'll have to apologize to him later. He didn't deserve her harsh treatment.

After a moment, she released an angry sigh and began her stomp towards the local bar, surely a drink will help. Just give her mother some space and in a few hours all will be good as new. Yes. That sounds like a good plan.

The place was an old run down shack with several impure men seated around the door, eyes watching for fresh meat, like a hawk stalking its prey. She shrugged off the lecherous glances shot her way; it wasn't like she hadn't gotten those looks before. If it wasn't because of that stump of a right arm, then it was because of the revealing clothes that her family loved to yell at her for wearing. Couldn't they just understand that it was more comfortable to wear what she did then those stuffy kimonos? And really, with so little cloth hanging off her there is less of a risk of her clothing catching on fire when she worked on the fireworks - not bombs!

It was several drinks later that she felt him heading towards the bar she sat in. She had wondered when he would get there. He was often the one their mother sent out when she decided to run off. Common occurrence. Too common.

He sat beside her without a word and ordered himself sake. He never looked at her. He never spoke to her. He acted as though he didn't know she was sitting less than a foot away.

This was how it would always be. She would anger their parents. She would run away. He would come. He would ignore her. And she would finally break, telling him everything that would happen. And then he would tell her to get over it and to go home because baby Ganju missed his sister. And she would go because he told her to. Not because she wanted to. No, that would take away the rebellion from her little temper-tantrums. But she would listen to him, because he would listen to her.

And because if she didn't he could easily over power her and drag her back to the family home kicking and screaming - and that was just too much work in her book. So simple way it was.

His third sip her fist tightened in her lap.

His sixth her front teeth bit into her bottom lip.

His eighth her eyes were squeezed shut.

His tenth she broke.

"It's all her fault!"

He blinked and glanced to the now standing woman. "Oh? And how is that? Did she want the room redecorated?"

"I liked Tou-san's decimate remark better."

"Funny. I'm not Tou-san."

She sat down. "She won't let me do what I want."

"You're still healing."

"No I'm not. My arm has healed."

"I wasn't talking physically."

Teal eyes met teal eyes. She couldn't suppress the need to scream at him that she was fine. She had been fine. And that she wanted nothing more than to just be left alone to work with her fireworks.

"You shouldn't have done that, you know."

"Done what?"

"Set off the bomb in the living room."

"She wouldn't let me leave the house."

"That didn't mean you should have done that. What would have happened if someone were in there with you? What if it had been Ganju?"

Her eyes snapped to meet his once more. "Then I wouldn't have set it off."

"Anything could have happened. Someone could have been seriously hurt."

"But no one was."

"That's not the point, Kukaku!"

"Then what is it, Kaien?"

They held each other's gaze. One disappointed. The other angered. Realizing he wasn't going to back down, she looked away and shifted in her seat, sake cup in hand.

"It was a stupid thing to do, Kukaku."

She could only nod as she stared into her reflection in the liquid contained in her cup.

"You were lucky that it was only the living room that was damaged. You could have been seriously hurt again."

Another nod.

"Finish your drink. I'll walk you home."

It was only then that she remembered he should have been with his division doing his "Death God Duties" as she had come to know them. "You left work. I'm touched."

"I was on a break." Voice tense and yet so tired.

She scoffed. "As if you get those." There was a sinking feeling in her stomach that wasn't going away. He was disappointed in her. That much was for sure, and she could tell that just by the look in his eyes. And she didn't like that. "I'm sorry." She whispered.

He only glanced at her and sighed. "Come on, imouto."

She stood and followed her older brother out of the run down bar and back towards their home. She had kept her eyes trained on the ground, too afraid of the disappointment that was surely still present in her brother's eyes. A punch to the side of the head brought her back to reality.

"What the hell was that for?" She screamed holding the offended area.

He got an evil look in his eyes as he pressed a stern finger to her chest. "If you ever do something so stupid again, I will make sure you learn what real hell is!"

She batted away his hand and propped her only hand on her hip. "Is that so, Kaien-chan? I would like to see you try."

And then it was a sudden free for all as he chased her back towards the structure on the horizon.

Everything was back to normal.

The sun was just setting as she sat herself on the large platform. Her younger brother's words ringing in her head. His name. Such taboo. She truly wasn't sure with her decision to help them either. The Ryoka. But what's done is done. She would do this, because that's what her nii-san would have wanted.

She set the two cups down and poured sake into each. "Sorry, Aniki."

She sighed, never liking the feeling of talking to her brother, but only seeing open air before her. "I decided to help that Death God and his friends..." Her heart clenched painfully. Taboo. Taboo. Taboo. "...like the Death Gods that killed you."

She raised her drink to her face, taking in the scent of the alcohol she knew wouldn't be able to warm her frozen veins. "If you were alive and you saw me not helping them, I know you'd yell at me..."

Because that's what he did. He would scold her and then yell at her and then hit her, egging her on into what would become a free for all and end in a fight that spent all of their energy. But they would be laughing because they loved each other and their baby brother and they would always be there for each other, even if disappointed or angered by each other's actions.

"...you, who loved the Death Gods..." She narrowed her eyes, the feeling of needing to cry washing over her.

"...and who died as one..."

Please let me know what you think!

Missysillivan