Don't own Bleach, nor do I claim rights to the song Scarborough Fair. More info on this thing at the end of the chapter, because I know I hate scrolling through a wall of mass text to get to the story I actually wanted to read sometime today. ;)

(I'm messing with you.)


"This will hurt her."

Captain Ukitake Juushiro shifts anxiously, his shihakusho and captain's haori whispering against the tatami floor in response. After a few moment's silence, he asks again. "Byakuya. Are you sure?"

In response, Captain Kuchiki Byakuya raises and elegant eyebrow.

Ukitake sighs. "Of course. Silly question. You Kuchikis are always deadly accurate…" He allows a slightly nervous laugh to slip out, but just as quickly, grows serious.

"This will help her in the end? How do you know this will not just do even more damage? And, I hadn't the least clue you approved of the boy."

Focusing on his cup of tea, Byakuya raises it to his lips and takes a sip. Placing it back down on its raised mat, he finally speaks.

"If she is the woman that I know her to be, then she will react accordingly."

Ukitake laughs at his fellow captain's tone – the tone of, "And I'm always right."

"Alright, Byakuya. I'll trust you."

Ukitake flips open his plain white fan, waving cool air towards his face, as the bamboo fountain right outside clacks in rhythmic time.


Are you going there? To where he lives? If so, do this for me. But, first, I must explain.

(Prologue)

Rukia hurries, socked feet nearly mute against the bamboo wood floors. She's been summoned by Byakuya, and she will not make him wait any longer than he must.

Her summons was urgent, as detailed by her brother's messenger. Byakuya had simply sent him with the message that he requested her audience as soon as possible, and she was determined to wrap her mind around his sudden interest in her. Or, better put, more interest than usual.

She shoulders her small frame past other black clad members of her squad, weaving in and out from between people. Ignoring the looks of curiosity and annoyance, she yanks her sandals on one hop at a time, breaks into a sprint, and hurries on her toes through the main streets of Seirieiti, edging her way through narrow alleys and jumping over the random obstacles littering the back streets. Running the whole way, she cuts her usual arrival time almost in half. (This is recorded in her mind with pride, a smirk as outer evidence.) Slowing slightly with breath heaving, her legs give out into a trot at the spreading appearance of well kept gardens and organized groups of neatly dressed soul reapers – subtle signatures of her brother's captainhood.

She stops for a moment and doubles over, sucking in breath that rattles into heavy breathing. She tries to ignore the constant voiced concerns from members of the sixth squad surrounding her – frankly, she doesn't mind it, but she can do without being called 'princess'. They're the only squad of the Thirteen Court Guardians that call her that - by her brother's bidding, no doubt.

So she tells them that she's fine, feigning kindness, and fighting down irritation. They're slowing her down, and she will feel the blunt of any wasted time. Pulling her sandals back off, she jumps off of the threshold and onto her brother's neatly polished barrack floors. The process of noiseless sprinting continues as the hallways around her grow less populated and quieter. Aware of her brother's growing spiritual pressure, she slows, smoothing down her shihakusho, and tucks stray strands of hair back into place. With 'lady-like' steps, she approaches Byakuya's door, and takes a deep breath as she folds down to the floor. Quietly pushing it aside and head low, she meekly greets him with, "Byakuya, brother."

"Ah! Kuchiki-san!"

Eyes widening, she throws her head up to meet her captain's smiling face, contrasted strictly with her emotionless brother.

"Captain… Ukitake? What…?" Suddenly remembering protocol, and her brother's harsh judgment, she throws herself back down. "Brother. Captain Ukitake. I received a summons from one of the sixth squad's messenger men, and I have arrived to-"

A hand smacks down firmly onto the top of her small head. "Kuchiki-san. Stop with that stuffy protocol, and come in. Goodness, you're so strict."

She looks upward at the thirteenth guard captain, mouth slightly agape. "Stuffy… proto- wait, what? I'm just doi-"Not sure of what to say, she feels odd.

"Rukia, listen to your superior."

Her eyes grow wide at the sound of her brother's voice. "Uh… yes, Byakuya, brother." Her brother, ignoring protocol? Warning bells begin to quietly toll in her mind.

Rukia can hear her captain 'tch'ing in the corner, stifling a laugh. "So. Miss Kuchiki-san, we'll go right on ahead and skip the subtleties and jump into your assignment." Coughing slightly, he folds open a small fan and begins to wave cool air in his direction with a sigh.

"Assignment? I have an assignment?" She flinches at the sight of her brother's eyes rolling upward (as this was his way of visibly showing exasperation, even though she was one of the few that actually knew). Her captain smiles at her with a bit of sympathy – he understands the weight of her brother's disapproval dragging down Rukia's shoulders. He nods. "Yes, Rukia. And a very important one, at that."

Her eyebrows rise slightly. This meeting was going incredibly fast for an "important assignment". Also, importance required protocol – it was drilled into her head. But the strangest thing of all, she hadn't had an important assignment since-

She bites down on her bottom lip slightly. Her brother and captain notice. Ukitake sighs heavily.

"Look, Rukia, this may –"

"You are to train a young man, a fellow member of your squad, on the ways of the human world. He is to scout ahead of a fellow party of Soul Reapers hand selected from the Thirteen Court Guard squads focused on monitoring the recent spike in Hollow activity and to meter out the spiritual pressures of the particularly abnormal humans in Karakura Town. He will be working in a fake human body for the latter half of his assignment, and you must teach him what he must do to efficiently blend in for the three weeks he's there, as well as to make him aware of your mistakes to prevent him from making them again."

Out of the corner of her eye, she watches Captain Ukitake fumble with and nearly drop his fan. As for herself, she's not even sure if her heart's still beating.

She understood, now. They were trying to speed up the process, trying to tiptoe around something they knew would hurt her. They were assigning something to her that they knew would break her heart into two once again, and her hatred flamed suddenly and violently. How could they do so with such ease, nonchalantly tossing her emotions and choices aside? Why would they do something so harsh, so soon? How had her day gone from peaceful to excruciating in twenty seconds flat?

"Byakuya! A little compassionate tact, perhaps-"

"For what reason, may I ask? Did you not say yourself that we were to skip the subtleties, and to jump right in?" He stared back at his fellow captain, face unreadable as usual.

Ukitake glares. ("There was no need to be that cruel," he'll later tell Byakuya.)

The room grows quiet. Rukia continues to sit, showing no emotion, with stony determination. (Her hands are trembling, however.) The tension grows thick, and the sound of singing birds and the clacking of bamboo fountains float, muffled, but gently in the most contradictory of ways. They stay like this for a few moments.

Because, honestly, anything remotely related to that Winter in Karakura is a touchy subject for all of them.

Finally, Ukitake throws down his fan. "Enough! This is ridiculous!" He sighs. "Well. Yes. That's what you've been summoned and assigned to do, Kuchiki-san." His face softens. "We… well, we weren't sure… eh. You're the only who's had so much hands-on experience with the current-day humans, Rukia. We know that this… ah, what I'm trying to say-"

He's interrupted by Byakuya's irritated glare.

"Why?"

They both look at her.

"Why, me?" Her voice has grown soft. She fights to keep the tremble out. Her question is not directed towards the assignment at hand, but at every reason for her sudden pain.

"You have your orders, Rukia. The young man that you are to train, Kazunomiya Hisao, is to leave in a week. You are to begin your tutoring with him later today."

At this moment in time, she can barely hear what her brother is telling her – all she can really hear is the rushing in her mind. The rushing of memories, memories of the life that once was hers and memories of –

"Rukia."

She focuses on her brother.

"You are dismissed."

Bowing low, her face touching the ground, she pushes herself up onto her feet and backpedals. Closing the rice-paper and wood door, she runs, until far enough away that her captain and brother-in-law can't hear her heaving her insides out onto one of the horrid, well manicured lawns.


Alright, i'm going to go right ahead and tell you that i'm pretty nervous about publishing this thing. But! It will be a short multi-chapter, probably five or six. It'll be based off of the old Celtic song Scarborough Fair, which is about a woman telling a friend about a man she loves in town... essentially. Don't want to give the whole plot away if you don't already knowwww. The different verses will come in starting next chapter, and everything will tie together by the end!

Oh, and by the way, I totally pulled that dude's name out of my behind. Hisao means 'life story', and Kazunomiya was the name of an old Japanese princess from more than a century ago. I just so happened to look over and steal it from a book I have. :D

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