Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

Paring: Stark X Rukia Kuchiki.

Full Summary: What is happening to them? Maybe their marriage is failing? Or maybe they just fought? Rumors and more rumors.

Silence

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Silence is golden.

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They are the oddest pair that you can see at the party. They smile, laugh and talk with other people around them but never once with each other. At first no one really cared about that. Maybe they have nothing to say to each other. However, when at the next function and the same thing happened again, people started to get suspicious.

What is happening to them?

Maybe their marriage is failing?

Or maybe they just fought?

However, the pair looks oblivious about the rumors that start going around about them. They still go around, chatting and socializing with all the guests. When someone asks them how their marriage is going, they smile and nod their heads saying that they are happy with each other.

No one believes that. After all, Rukia Kuchiki is an artist. A famous artist no less. Rumors stick with her like her second skin.

"Hey Rukia! Are you alright? You look pale today" A red haired man asked. Heads turn when they heard that. Whispers rose. Even this man realizes that the black haired woman looks pale today, yet her husband says nothing at all. Doesn't he realize that his wife is unwell?

Ah, maybe she is having an affair with this man and her husband knows about it. Well, pity to her husband. Nevertheless, people can't help but to wonder why she married him in the first place. He is not a good looking man, just pleasant looking with grey eyes and unkempt black hair. For his attitude, he is the laziest man that you'll ever come across. With his 'I-don't-care' attitude, women will find themselves losing their patience every time they deal with him. How can this woman stand him, they wonder. Maybe she stays for his money. Well, her husband, after all, is one of the richest men in Japan. Money is a good excuse.

Rukia just smiled and nodded her head in answer. No one noticed the glance she threw at her husband who sat across the room, idly chatting with one of the guest. Instantly her lips will curved upwords to form a smile when her husband's eyes meet hers before she turned back and started talking with other woman. Sometimes, her husband will raise his head, his grey eyes searching for his wife's petite figure and when his eyes land on her violet eyes, they will nod their heads at each other, no words exchanged between them.

During dinner time, they will sit beside each other, eat their food quietly and still no word is exchanged between them. But when they rise from their seat, you can see that they are holding each other's hand. Before they leave the function that night, how shocked they were when Stark, the director for Karakura Hospital bent down and kissed his wife in front of all the guests. Slowly he released his wife from his embrace and gave her a wolfish grin. The only reaction that she gave him was a slow smile before she wiped it with a scowl, "I told you I don't have a fever."

"I'm just checking"

She tried with all her might to suppress her smile but she failed miserably. "Let's go back home. Akira and Fuu are waiting for you to tell them their bedtime stories"

He held out his hand and with a grin that imitated her husband's, she took his hand.

They don't need words to express what they think and how they feel because they understand each other more than words can tell.