The Things One Does For Love
byakuxhisa4eva
This, Byakuya decided, was the epitome of happiness. The sky was nice and clear, the temperature not too hot nor too cold, and the sakura trees he favoured so much were in full bloom, their delicate pink petals drifting wayward to the ground, some landing in his wife's shining raven hair.
Ah, Hisana. His eyes turned to gaze at her tenderly, his lips tilting upwards when she turned to him and smiled. Rukia had been left in the care of Ukitake-taicho, and here, out in the Seireitei shopping district, where they were away from the hustle and bustle and stiffness of the Kuchiki mansion, was where they felt most comfortable, happiest.
He watched his wife with a tiny curve of his lips and an air of amusement as her large eyes sparkled and shone at the sight of even more sparkly pins and brooches and necklaces and jewellery, and she ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the colourful bolts of silk and intricately woven kimonos on display.
He had, as a true noble husband should, offered to purchase several of the items that had caught her eye, but despite his insisting, she had refused to relieve him of even the smallest fraction of the Kuchiki fortune – not even the small pouch of coins stashed in the folds of his robes. She claimed she did not want to be a burden.
Byakuya repressed a snort at the thought, but refrained from voicing his thoughts as they entered a high-end kimono shop, where Hisana's day to day and ceremonial kimonos had all been purchased. The store had three floors: casual kimono on the first, formal on the second, and ultra-special-custom-made, don't-even-think-about-it-unless-you're-nobility on the third floor.
His sharp gray eyes eyed Hisana as she ran her fingers over the pale pink silk cherry blossom pattern woven on a ivory kimono, eyes sparkling.
"Hisana," he started, "would you like me too...?"
"Hmm?" Hisana turned from the kimono to face her stony-faced husband, a small smile on her features. "Oh no no, it's quite alright Byakuya-sama, I'm just looking. I wouldn't want you to spend so much."
"But surely you would like a new kimono? You have not purchased one in several months. It will be no trouble at all." It was true. Even among the Four Great Noble families, the Kuchiki were immensely well-off in monetary needs. They could have easily purchased the entire shopping district in a snap – his scarf alone was worth ten houses – and Byakuya refused to have Hisana run around with the notion that there was anything 'too expensive' for a Kuchiki.
Hisana resisted the urge roll her eyes. Several months? One kimono of the finest silk in this shop – which was the best in Seireitei – was worth more than a house. She couldn't help but wonder where in the world he had even gotten his scarf... "It's fine Byakuya-sama. I have no need for a new one. I already have several like this one." Indeed, stashed away in her 'formal wear' closet, were at least half a dozen cherry blossom patterned kimonos.
"But..."
"No buts, Byakuya-sama. It's fine." Her eyes shone a with a determined stare, and Byakuya immediately dropped the subject. For now.
"Surely there is something you want, Hisana." Byakuya probed, "You refused to allow me purchase a present for your birthday, even though you gave me a present."
Hisana flushed, looking bashfully at her feet. "You would think I was childish to want such a thing, Byakuya-sama."
"I'll be the judge of that Hisana," Byakuya replied, "What is it?"
Hisana opened her mouth, paused, then closed it, shaking her head resolutely. "No, it's fine. It's nothing."
Her husband looked curiously at her, noticing the slightly forlorn look in her eyes. He hated to see his beloved wife with that sort of look – not if he could do anything about it. "Hisana..."
Hisana looked away determinedly, avoiding his hypnotic gaze, before turning back and smiling brightly, somewhat forcedly. "Look at the time, Byakuya-sama! Perhaps we should head back to the manor, it's almost time for dinner." Hisana laughed nervously, and reached for his arm to tug him towards their awaiting carriage.
Byakuya looked doubtfully at her, but allowed himself to be pulled along silently. Just as he was about to hoist himself into the silk-framed carriage after his wife, his sharp eyes caught Hisana's large eyes looking longing at behind him. He turned to see what she was looking at, following her line of gaze, to what was perhaps the largest stuffed animal in existence. It filled nearly the entire window of the rather small shop, which at least four feet tall, with very little space for anything else.
He twitched. This was what Hisana wanted so much that she was willing to change her spending habits to easily? He glared at the window.
The three-and-a-half foot tall Chappy the Rabbit plushie stared innocently back at him.
Byakuya entered the overly pink shop ten minutes later, after having sent Hisana up to the manor with the promise he'd be on time for dinner at her questioning gaze, immediately feeling out of place and missing his simply, but varied, coloured world. He had half a mind to instantly turn on his heel and head out the door, but Hisana's forlorn face flashed in his mind and effectively propelled him forward.
The shopkeeper was small and stout and his hair was greying with age, with small, watery eyes that were magnified several times through immensely think glasses, giving him the appearance of an over-sized insect. Upon sight of the Kuchiki noble, the pile of boxed he was holding was immediately discarded where he stood, falling to the floor with a loud thump.
"Kuchiki-sama!" Byakuya narrowed his eyes, as if telepathically trying to communicate the fact that it should never be know the Kuchiki Byakuya had ever set foot in this ridiculous pink monstrosity of a shop.
"How much is that...rabbit...in the window?" Byakuya demanded, wanting to get this done and over with.
Beads of swear began to form on the shopkeeper's shiny forehead under Byakuya's intense grey-eyes stare. "I...I...I'm afraid someone had already put the one-of-a-kind Giant Chappy on hold," he stuttered out.
Byakuya narrowed his eyes. "How much?"
"Excuse me?" The shorter man twitched under Byakuya's intense stare.
"How much did they pay for it?" Byakuya clarified, annoyed at having to explain himself. The servants at the Kuchiki always understood every word he said no matter how quietly he said it.
"F- fif- fifteen thousand..." The Kuchiki head's glare was accompanied by a rapid rise in reiatsu now, and the shopkeeper wondered if perhaps he should have taken his wife's advice and taken out that life insurance...
"Then I will pay double for it."
The old man squeaked. "What?!"
"Is there something wrong with your hearing?" Byakuya was very quickly becoming the most irritated he had been in a long time, right after his battle with the elders over his marriage; his hand twitched on Senbonzakura's hilt.
"Of course, of course, Kuchiki-sama!" The owner scuttled to the cashier. "I'll ring it up right away!"
The heavy pressure of angry-Byakuya-reiatsu noticeably lifted now, but the frightened owner remained in his terrified state, less the noble have a sudden change of heart.
"Would you like the voice feature installed, Kuchiki-sama?"
Byakuya wondered it this whole thing was a big mistake.
"Oh, Byakuya-sama! Thank you!" Hisana turned and wrapped her slender arms around Byakuya's torso, squeezing him as tightly as her condition would allow, a huge smile on her face.
Byakuya smirked – barely though – and circled his arms around his petite wife affectionately. "It was nothing, Hisana. There is nothing I want more than your happiness."
Hisana pulled back, and her eyes sparkled with elation. He felt a twinge of annoyance – she had never been this happy with him before...He ignored the foreign feeling, and smiled down at the woman in his arms, receiving a kiss on both cheeks.
She turned to her baby sister, who stood beside her with a large, innocent expression on her face, eyes sparkling as she stared up at the towering stuffed animal. "Rukia, isn't it cute?!"
Rukia nodded furiously, her hair bobbing up and down, and she laughed and hugged the pink rabbit.
"Thank you again, Byakuya-sama." she smiled again.
"It was nothing." Byakuya repeated, ignoring the unusual sense of a flaming dragon clawing in his stomach.
"Hisana, is that...necessary?" Byakuya looked sceptically at the strips of silk trailing from his open palm.
"Byakuya-sama," his wife said disapprovingly, "Of course! You wouldn't want Chappy-chan to fall and get dirty, would you? Not after all the trouble you went to buy her for me? Now, hand me those straps."
The nobleman sighed, before giving his wife the strips. He eyed her with raised eyebrows as she looped the silk through a hole in the seat decoration on their carriage then drew it across the large rabbit's torso, securing it firmly with a sturdy X shape across it's chest.
Once seated, they were off to their usual spot by the lake, ready for a peaceful day.
"Hisana, the rabbit does not have a digestive system. It cannot eat."
"Nonsense, Byakuya-sama. Chappy loves carrots, don't you Chappy?"
"Hisana, the rabbit cannot swim. It will drown in the lake."
"Then I will jump in and save it."
"You cannot swim either."
"But you can!"
"Hisana, the rabbit is an inanimate object. It will not get sick."
"You never know, Byakuya-sama."
Byakuya sighed. He knew he would regret buying that horrid thing.
Byakuya hid the large bouquet of roses behind his back, a small smile gracing his face as he approached his wife from behind. Rukia had, once again, been left in the care of the Thirteenth Division officers for the day, who adored her and doted on her like the children they never had.
His smile faltered slightly when he noticed she with was that detestable rabbit again, but he did not let it affect his mood on this special day.
"Hisana, do you remember what day it is today?"
His wife turned her large eyes onto him, bright with curiosity and confusion. "Umm..."
"Hisana..."
She hugged the large plushie to her chest, putting a finger to her cheek in confusion; it looked so adorably cute in Byakuya's eyes, and he felt his heart swell with emotion. "Oh, I know!" She smiled widely, "It's our wedding anniver--"
"I LOVE YOU!"
A loud, high-pitched, incredibly childish voice drowned out Byakuya's announcement. Both husband and wife stared dumbfounded at the plush animal her Hisana's hands, mouths open in shock.
Hisana was the first to recover. "Oh, Chappy, I love you too." She squeezed the bunny tightly in her embrace, where it squeaked "I love you, I love you," over and over again, it's beady black eyes sparkling.
She looked up from her stuffie to her husband, who's aura was growing darker and eviler by the second.
Hisana blinked. "As I was saying, it's our wedding anniversary; those are beautiful roses, Byakuya-sama. Ummm...are you alright?"
His grip on the delicate floral arrangment tighted as he glared at the plush bunny – the ultimate Kuchiki glare – the Kuchiki Byakuya Glare of Death.
He knew he would regret having the voice feature installed.
Later on that day, a certain Kuchiki Byakuya was seen strolling through his halls of his sprawling mansion, a rather disturbingly satisfied smirk plastered on his usually emotionless face.
That night, smoke lingered in the midnight sky, remnants from the burning of a much loved animal.
Byakuya sat at his desk in the office, his pen poised above his paper, but his mind blank. He heaved, sighing, and set the expensive pen down beside him, his inner self in turmoil.
The guilt clawing in his chest was eating him away from the inside, and he knew he shouldn't have been so rash and started that fire, but jealousy was a new emotion to him – one no one expect him to experience, for he had always had everything he had ever wanted – and he did not know how to deal with it.
He didn't know how to deal with guilt that well either, and though Hisana had smiled and said it was fine and she was just over reacting, her face had been so trusting and she had believed in him so much that he had internally squirmed in awkwardness and his heart had cried to confess his doings.
He had been trying to make up for it...not that Hisana knew that.
"Hisana, I have purchased you a gift."
A large diamond pendant, cut to perfection on a delicate silver chain, sat on a bed of crimson silk, sparkled brightly in the candlelight.
It was a piece of jewellery worth the equivalent of his ginpaku kazanohana no usuginu – his scarf worth ten houses.
Rukia had, in true little girl fashion, oohed and aahed at it's intense 'sparkly and prettiness'.
Hisana gasped, "It's beautiful, Byakuya-sama...but..." Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "What's the occasion?"
"I simply wanted to do something nice for you, Hisana, my love."
Maybe his tone had been a little too innocent.
"Hisana, I have gotten you an honorary membership in the Shinigami Women's Association. You now control the entire flow and design of all Soul Candy manufactured in the Seireitei."
"Hisana, I have bought you another rabbit, exactly the same as you had before. As well as a younger one, which is quite adorable."
She had taken one look at the pair of bunnies, which look so similar to their predecessors, and stared at him with a rather confused expression on their face. "Byakuya-sama...there really is no need to make up for the disappearance of Chappy. It was not your fault."
Byakuya winced.
"I am already very grateful for the first one, and while I appreciate the thought," Hisana continued, "I would feel like I was replacing Chappy if I were to be so accepting of a new one."
She reached over and hugged him, letting the light scent of her perfume tingle his nose. "But thank-you, Byakuya-sama. I could never ask for a kinder, more thoughtful husband."
Now he felt twice as bad.
He sighed again, this time heavier than before. He was going to have to resort to his final decision – one a person such as him had never done in his life, a decision so absurd that other souls would expect the sky to fall and the apocalyse to come before Kuchiki Byakuya did such a thing.
He wondered where in the world a innocent girl such as Rukia could develop such...disturbing behaviour...
"Pstt...Pssssstttttt – Nii-sama!"
Byakuya raised his eyebrow, as he turned to see his little sister-in-law cling to his hakama, waving her chubby hand to motion him to lean down towards her. "What is it, Rukia?"
"Hisana-nee-sama not happy." She set her lips in a firm line in an attempt to look serious, but on such a little girl, it only made her look more and more adorable.
Byakuya's lips twitched, almost giving away to a smile, but he held it back and knelt down towards the huffing girl. "I know, Rukia, and I am doing all I can to make her happy."
"Nii-sama do something bad?" Her eyes blinked at him innocently.
"I'm afraid so, Rukia." Byakuya sighed, and patted his little sister on the head, and smiled slightly. "Byakuya-nii-sama had done something very bad."
Rukia puffed her cheeks out and stared at him, then broke into a wide, toothy smile. "I know. Nii-sama burned Chappy-chan!"
His eyes widened, and he quickly brought his voice down to a whisper. "Rukia, how did you know?"
"Me saw nii-sama burn Chappy-chan."
Byakuya twitched. He was sure nobody had seen him – but then again, Rukia, being so young, had a reiatsu that was barely detectable anyone could have over looked her.
"But me have an idea to make nee-sama happy." She smiled, widely, but Byakuya swore he saw a spark of mischievous light behind her purple eyes. "Or me will tell nee-sama."
The noble head sighed. "Alright, what do you want?"
"Oh, Byakuya-sama!"
Hisana sighed, covering her mouth with her hand – though Byakuya suspected it was more to surpress her laughter – but her eyes sparkled with happiness and humour. She ran – glided, more like, with the grace of true nobility – towards her disgruntled husband, and threw her arms around him, laughing all the while. "Oh Byakuya-sama..."
Byakuya smiled slightly at the sight of happy wife, and wrapped his arms around her, shuddering at the sight of them.
Hisana smiled to herself and snuggled into his chest, rubbing her cheek against the furry material.
From the partially open shoji screen behind them, Rukia grinned – a huge, evil, devil look-alike of a smirk – as she flashed the camera, forever preserving the memory of Kuchiki Byakuya.
In a furry, pink, adult-sized Chappy the Rabbit suit.
Oh, and Rukia got a complete renovation for her room, which was now purple and silver, and covered from ceiling to floor with everything Chappy the Rabbit themed that existed under the non-existence sun of Soul Society.
The things Byakuya did for love.
END
A/N: Awwww...isn't it adorable? Working on the next chapter of 'Poisoned' I got so depressed and in such a dismal mood that I had to write SOMETHING humourous, so out came this happy, cute ByakuHisa oneshot! With a chibi-Rukia that was never abandoned. Of course, that means that she never meet Renji in Rukon, but let's just assume for the sake of the story the still become awesome friends when they meet at the Shinigami academy.
Thanks to Juud for coming up with the idea of Byakuya dressed up in a Chappy suit for make up for it! I think it was mentioned in an MSN conversation a couple months ago maybe?
This idea originally came from this comic my friend and I were drawing in science class (when we SHOULD have been paying attention to the teacher). To think it all started out with the idea that maybe, just maybe, Rukia inherited her Chappy-the-Rabbit obssession from Hisana...and Byakuya learned first hand the power of Chappy the Rabbit items to get women to adore them. Also, Rukia was never abandoned in this, simply because I can't imagine someone like Hisana, who was so guilt-struck over having abandoned Rukia, being so carefree and happy unless Rukia was still with her.
Besides, who doesn't love a chibi, blackmailing Rukia? Doesn't it make you squeal and go 'awwwwwww'?
EDIT: I realize that in the pre-edited version of this (for those who have seen it), may have hinted at anti-Hisana feelings, and I had debated about Hisana's behaviour for quite a bit in the original before I posted it. After I got some feedback, and knew for sure that some people may have seen it in a way similar to that, and I apologize for any misunderstandings I caused. For those of you who know me, you know I would turn over in my grave before I bashed Hisana. :) For those of you who are reading this fic for the first time, completely ignore this note. XD