A/N: So this did not end the way that I wanted it to. In fact, I didn't know where I was going to begin with because I kind of just let the story take me. And that is why I can't have nice things…
Disclaimer: Not mine. Never was, never will be.
Despite apparent evidence to the contrary, Captain Hitsugaya Toshiro was not a child. In human years he would actually be around middle-age, perhaps with a slight paunch from years of good living, adult children just leaving home and counting down the years to retirement. In Soul Society however, he had only just begun his career in the Gotei Thirteen and looked no older than a prepubescent boy. Recent speculation put forward the idea that it was the sheer power of his zanpakuto spirit, Hyourinmaru that had stunted his growth and whitened his hair, forcing him to remain child-like until his body could handle it. Secretly, Toshiro believed that he just did not get enough sleep with all the work his wayward lieutenant was constantly forcing him to do. But while his body had not aged much in the last fifty-odd years since he was born, his mind certainly had and therefore the young captain knew very well what sometimes went on between the men and women of his division behind closed doors.
In stark contrast to her captain, Lieutenant Matsumoto Rangiku was a beautiful woman who looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties and knew very well all about life and the pleasures to be had in it. She took full advantage of both her attractiveness and the lax uniform regulations to highlight her generously-proportioned figure in ways that made many a man weak in the knees at the sight of her. She was an outrageous flirt and an incorrigible gossiper, and spent much of her free time frequenting tea houses, bars and stores in what she officially labelled "reconnaissance" and her captain described as "slacking off". Still, she was very loyal and capable when need be and so Toshiro could not truly begrudge her tendency to skip out on paperwork. In fact he owed her a great debt since she was the one who had discovered him in the Rukongai and set him on the path to captaincy in the Gotei Thirteen. And this was a debt that he took very seriously.
Though his lieutenant could sometimes be a pain, Toshiro actually considered her more of an older sister. She was nothing like Hinamori Momo, his "real" older sister who was soft, gentle and sweet, though she had that annoying habit of calling him "Shiro-chan". Instead Matsumoto, loud, wild and carefree, who could not resist teasing him, even in public, who tried to get him to bathe with her and tricked him into doing her share of the work was responsible for expanding his view of the world. Two days after he became captain of their division, after the mysterious disappearance of Shiba Isshin, for example, she had set him down and, under the guise of helping his transition, explained all about the intimate relations between the people he was now in charge of.
It was, illuminating, to say the least. He did not remember a lot of it, too busy feeling equal parts horrified, disgusted, a little intrigued and ashamed of himself for not knowing beforehand. It did not help that Matsumoto offered to give him a few tips when he got a little older (which earned her a scowl) and that he now realised that her knowledge came from personal experience. (Only later would he learn about the gang-rape that had stolen her innocence and reiryoku for the traitor Aizen Sosuke's experiments and that was a nightmarish time where he spent months trying to talk himself out of charging into the Maggot's Nest and slaughtering the animal.) But it had prepared him for many of the situations that he sometimes literally walked into. In time, her constant sexual harassment had even rendered him somewhat immune to anyone else's attempt at using it against him, helped, again, by his child-like body.
Still, none of it had prepared him for this.
The gates of the Sixth Division had been drawn open to admit him some ten minutes before but the young captain had yet to move, unable to find the strength to march on through them to confront the man he had come to see. He was not afraid of the division's captain, Kuchiki Byakuya, even if the man happened to be one of the wealthiest in the Seireitei, scion of an ancient noble house, a powerful captain with decades more experience than he and had secretly been his idol for years. Nor was he particularly concerned about invoking the nobleman's ire, as technically it was Toshiro who had been wronged and so had every right to charge into the division and demand some form of satisfaction. No, it was simply that his image of the man had been irrevocably shattered by something as natural and normal as sex.
Toshiro took great pride in not taking in an interest in the personal lives of his fellow captains. Actually, he did not care for the personal lives of many of his subordinates either, including Matsumoto, unless it affected their work and thus became his problem. But he had known that Byakuya had been married before, though briefly, as his wife had died only a few years after their marriage. The man had made no attempts to remarry since, though he was sometimes spotted in the company of some lovely young noblewoman (information courtesy Matsumoto), but dedicated his time to taking care of his younger sister, Rukia, who supposedly had an uncanny resemblance to his late wife.
Speculation about that situation had been rife for decades, but Toshiro had not cared for it had nothing to do with him and he did not even know that Kuchiki Rukia had even existed until her dramatic rescue by the orange-haired, half-human son of his former captain.
But that was the extent of Toshiro's knowledge of the man beyond what was necessary. As a captain, Byakuya was efficient, lethal and merciless, even if his enemy was his own younger sister. He got his reports in on time, his division was the most disciplined and there was nary a scandal to be heard involving any of those around him. In fact, Toshiro considered him someone to look up to, a perfect example of what he could become (minus the wealth and heritage, of course) with discipline and dedication. So he had to wonder how in Soul Society the man had managed to get himself involved with Matsumoto Rangiku, a woman who was practically his exact opposite, and carelessly gotten her pregnant outside of wedlock.
Toshiro had not immediately realised that something was wrong with his lieutenant. There had been almost no change in her behaviour from what it had been before. Her sudden lack of appetite had been surprising, but not unwelcome for she had a penchant for strange food combinations and the less he saw of them, the better. The vomiting, dizziness and lethargy were also normal, especially considering her drinking habits. But then there was the bill from the Fourth Division for some rather uncommon tests that had gotten mixed up in his paperwork. Her best friend, Ise Nanao, who was also now lieutenant to the captain commander and vice-president of the Shinigami Women's Association spent a whole afternoon interrogating him about Matsumoto's strange disappearances. And Abarai Renji, Byakuya's own lieutenant had made a surprising visit for tea during which time he was obviously asking searching questions and dropping hints about something being up between his captain and Matsumoto that seemed as incredible to him as they did to everyone else.
It was at that point that Toshiro had enough. No sooner than had Lieutenant Abarai left than Toshiro had gone off in search of Matsumoto. He found her in her apartment in the barracks, fast asleep in her futon, clutching a photograph in her hands while tear tracks dried on her cheeks. She did not wake when he came in, even if he had not increased his control of his reiatsu to conceal his presence from her and so he walked right in to where she lay.
The room was inordinately clean, not a stray sake bottle in sight, but there lingered a sense of wrongness that disturbed him. Matsumoto was many things but neat was not one of them and because she was not, that was how he noticed the tea cups. There were two of them set up on the table, with tea still in them but abandoned as if one of the parties had been forced to leave in a hurry. Of course Matsumoto had not made any move to clean up, (the tears were even more alarming now) and so Toshiro was forced to pack them up and take them to her small kitchen. And that was when he noticed the pill bottles on the counter.
He raced back to her bedroom to confront her about what he had just read to find that she had rolled over in her sleep and let go of the photograph. He knew what it would show him even before he picked it up. It was an ultrasound image of her unborn child.
For a time he stood just staring at the photograph, as much trying to discern what he was seeing as processing what all this new information meant. Then Matsumoto murmured in her sleep, "I… I'm so sorry… Gin…"
Toshiro clenched his jaw at the mention of the traitor. He knew that Ichimaru Gin had supposedly done what he did on Matsumoto's honour, and that she had grown up with and loved the man, but it did not stop the young captain from hating him. Nor did it make any sense in this situation because for what reason would she have to be sorry? Certainly he had seen and understood that losing someone could be difficult, but Ichimaru and Matsumoto had not really been very close for a number of years before the betrayal. She was perfectly entitled to move on with her life, and while she perhaps should have waited until marriage to get herself pregnant it was not unheard of. If anything, she had more serious concerns from a few reprimands to a dishonourable discharge, the latter of which Toshiro would fight unless he was absolutely certain she would be in good hands. There was no way he was going to let the father off that easy, but who was the father?
Nothing in his recent memory provided an answer. While Matsumoto was a flirt and frequented some less than reputable establishments drinking with the others, he had heard nothing of her returning home with anyone. In fact, according to Momo, no man would dare approach Matsumoto during those times because Lieutenant Hisagi Shuuhei would scare them off. Could he be the child's father?
You did not have to look too hard to notice that the man was very much in love with Matsumoto. He would bend over backwards to get her anything she wanted and then some, even remembering to send her gifts on her birthday and showing up from time to time to check on her after Ichimaru's death. Not that Matsumoto seemed to care. She knew of his feelings but refused to acknowledge them, preferring instead to treat him like a friend who she sometimes used to get things that she wanted. This she had explained to Toshiro was sometimes a part of relationships, as there would always be that one person who, while they seemed to have all the qualities of a good person for you, simply did not engage your affections. When he had then asked why she took advantage of Hisagi's affections to get her way then, she had dismissed his question with a wave and said, "I'm not using him if he wants to do it."
No, it would not be Hisagi. Even if she had been drinking for she never drank with him alone and besides the Ninth Division's lieutenant had been off with Captain Mugurama Kensei and "co-lieutenant" Kuna Mashiro on assignment for some time. So who did that leave? It had to be someone who could get in and out of the Tenth without causing a stir of gossip, judging by the lack of active gossip that greeted Toshiro on his way to Matsumoto's room. There was Kira Izuru, Ichimaru Gin's former lieutenant who shared grief at losing a man he had once looked up to, though he had certainly been used by him. But no, Kira and Matsumoto tended to bicker like children when together and seemed more irritated by each other than anything else. There was no way the Captain Commander, Kyouraku Shunsui, whom she knew through Lieutenant Ise, could enter any division without causing a stir. Madarame Ikkaku and Ayasegawa Yumichika were out of the question, too caught up in fighting and each other to even take notice of her. Plus, Toshiro was pretty sure they hated each other.
He could eliminate Abarai Renji too for rumour had it (courtesy Matsumoto) that he was in love with Kuchiki Rukia. With Kurosaki now a permanent member of Soul Society, temporarily assigned to the Thirteenth Division of which Rukia was lieutenant despite him being vastly more powerful than her, Abarai would be more concerned with keeping the two from getting too close. At least, this was what Matsumoto believed. And then Toshiro remembered their very weird conversation over tea.
Abarai had shown up out of the blue while Toshiro was just going to have his daily nap. He had looked rather shell-shocked, like a new recruit after his first serious battle but had tried to cover it while fishing for answers about Matsumoto. Answers for questions that somehow involved his captain of all people…
Toshiro scanned the room again. Matsumoto was still sleeping, snoring softly now and looking rather peaceful, if a little pale. The tea was no different from anything offered at the canteen and the set was old, though certainly her best. She never cleaned her room but today she had cleaned it and made tea. She had not shown up for duty, though she had sent a message ahead that she was feeling unwell that morning. Toshiro guessed that she had spent the time, after she recovered, preparing for her visitor, who had no doubt concealed his reiatsu and appearance to see her. They had had tea. The pill bottles were clearly on display in the kitchen but his fellow captain may not have gone there, so it was left to Matsumoto to tell him herself. And he may not have taken it well for he had left in the middle of tea and she had gone to bed in tears. If this was what had happened, it was, for one thing, rather shocking.
It would be a scandal once word got out and quite likely the captain would be reprimanded as well though hardly anything to the extent of what would happen to Matsumoto. She would be shamed, accused of seducing the captain in hopes of acquiring his affections and money to fund some lavish lifestyle that Toshiro knew her not at all to be interested in. Byakuya would be no help either, for to recognise either her or the child would be to do irreparable damage to his reputation. Though of course Toshiro would see to it that she would not suffer, she and the child inevitably would and there was nothing he could do about it.
Toshiro had a flash of Momo impaled on his blade and Aizen's smirking face and felt the anger rising in him like heat. No one could ever convince him that Matsumoto seduced Byakuya; they did not inhabit the same circles or carried the same interests. If anything, the most interaction they may have had with each other was at the inter-division war games exercise some five months earlier when, for a time, the Tenth and the Sixth had teamed up against the Third and the Seventh. But even then Matsumoto had spent most of her time teasing Renji about Rukia in front of his captain. Had something happened anyway? Byakuya had ignored the two lieutenants at the time but perhaps later he had confronted Matsumoto and, and what?
He shook the thought from his head and took a deep breath. It did not matter how it had begun, all that mattered now was that Matsumoto was facing ruin and the man responsible would acknowledge his duty to her or forfeit his life. Toshiro did not know how he was going to kill him but he would, on Matsumoto's honour he would do it. And thus decided he left the room in a burst of shunpo on a collision course with the Sixth Division.
It was when he stood outside the gates that he paused to think. In the first place, apart from Matsumoto having been violated again, this was none of his business. She had clearly found out about the pregnancy some time ago and not shared the news with him though there was a rule about it somewhere for the safety of herself and the child. But that was beside the point, sooner or later she would have had to tell him and even then she did not have to reveal the father. That brought up another point. No one else, apart from himself, Matsumoto, Byakuya, a handful of people at the Fourth Division, and maybe Lieutenant Abarai knew about this. And no one else had to know either. There were ways to end a pregnancy prematurely (also something learned from Matsumoto), though some of them were dangerous and she had not taken that step. There were perhaps also ways to conceal it entirely. Perhaps he could send her on a "mission" of sorts for a year, no one would question his word and as long as she did not show up with a child there would never be an issue. Knowing this, why was he even here?
But he had made no move either to enter the division or leave, and so remained standing there staring through the open gates and debating with himself whether he could not just pretend he knew nothing until she was ready to tell him.
He dithered for so long though, too long, that the decision was taken out of his hands entirely. One moment he was staring at the path into the division and the next Kuchiki Byakuya stood in the middle of it, alone, the guards surreptitiously dismissed on his arrival, with a solemn expression that betrayed nothing. He had been expecting this meeting, Toshiro suspected, for the guards had drawn the gates open almost as soon as he stopped before them. He also clearly was not looking forward to it but had resigned himself to having it anyway and so, when Toshiro had not come immediately, had decided to come himself. Toshiro had to respect that, though he would have respected it more if Byakuya had decided to meet him in the Tenth Division rather than wait for the younger captain to come to him.
His suspicions were confirmed a moment later when Byakuya said, "She told you."
Toshiro only looked at him, still struggling to control his temper. Byakuya sighed and said, "This is none of your concern."
"She is my lieutenant!" Toshiro snapped.
Byakuya betrayed no emotion and said, "And in accordance with the law she has infor—"
"—she didn't tell me anything!" said Toshiro, snarling now. He drew the photograph from his pocket and held it up for the older captain. The man's eyes went wide, and Toshiro continued, "I found this in her room when I went looking for her! She was holding it when she fell asleep, crying, after you left! What did you do to her? What did you tell her? Do you have any idea what she has been through, you, you asshole!"
Byakuya's surprise at seeing the photograph disappeared to be replaced by one of absolute fury. His face reddened slightly at the cheeks and his eyes narrowed their colour a stone cold grey that reminded Toshiro once again that while he may have a powerful zanpakuto the man before him was not to be trifled with. But a moment later he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and said, "Let us have some tea. I think that we need to talk." He turned and left immediately, not looking back to see if Toshiro would follow. He need not have anyway. Toshiro had no intention of leaving until he had answers and a promise that the man would do his duty to Matsumoto and their child.
Byakuya led them directly to his office at the division. As they went they passed Lieutenant Abarai in the training grounds with a group of new recruits. He noticed them and froze, staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed at Toshiro, perhaps convinced that the Tenth Division's captain had come to complain about his visit. Toshiro made no attempt to reassure him.
In the office, Byakuya invited Toshiro to sit with him and called for tea. While they waited for it, he asked, "May I see it?"
He was looking at the photograph Toshiro still held. For a moment, Toshiro considered not letting him have it, he did not have to hand it over and it was not his to give in the first place. Then he gave it to him.
Byakuya practically tore it from his grasp and then held it up to the light filtering through the window behind him to see it better. A moment later what looked like but could not have been a smile lit up his face. He mouthed the words written along the top, "Baby Matsumoto, fifteen weeks" and then to Toshiro asked, "You said that she was sleeping, does she know you have this?"
Toshiro, stunned, shook his head. Byakuya looked at the photograph again, and then quickly covered it with his sleeve as an unseated shinigami came in with the tea. Neither captain spoke as the tea was set up, but once he was gone, Byakuya said, "What happened today… it is not what you think. I am not unhappy about the child."
Toshiro suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and said, "She did not look as if she was happy."
"That is because she isn't," said Byakuya. "Not with the child, though it is… unexpected, she has made no attempt to be rid of it so I am led to believe that she is… content to keep it. The person she does not want to keep is me."
At this Toshiro glared and said, "I don't like how that sounds. It sounds dangerously close to you attempting to absolve responsibility in this."
"That is incorrect," said Byakuya. "I told her today that I would provide for her and the child, that I had already made arrangements to see to its care but she misinterpreted this to mean that I intend to take the child from her. I would do no such thing, but that child is the future Twenty-Ninth Head of the Kuchiki and will be treated as such. She said that I was unfit for such a thing as I very nearly murdered my sister and she would die before she let me do the same to the child. When I pointed out the unfairness of this statement, especially given the circumstances, she said that I was to leave and never see her or the child again."
Toshiro found this difficult to believe, as well as crazy for Matsumoto had always been a fair person, and made to say so when he felt a familiar approaching reiatsu barrelling towards them as quick as shunpo in her condition could manage. Byakuya paused too as they then heard footsteps and Lieutenant Abarai's frantic protests of "But Captain is in there with Captain Hitsugaya. Maybe you should wait out here until—"
"No!" said Matsumoto and a moment later the door was shoved open and the two entered. Toshiro swung around to look at his lieutenant but she ignored him entirely, practically screeching at Byakuya, "Give it back to me!"
Stubbornly, and perhaps suicidal, Byakuya took up his cup and asked, "Give what back to you?"
She shoved Lieutenant Abarai from her side and charged into the room. As she came into the light, Toshiro noticed now that she seemed to have gained some weight in her hips and her walk had changed. It seemed that there was something different about her reiatsu too, tremulous, unsettled, and after a moment he realised what it was: the baby's was separating from hers. And it was going to be powerful.
When she stood with them she put her hand out to Byakuya and said, "The photo, I want it back."
He took a sip of his tea and asked, "I am not even allowed this? Have I wronged you so greatly?"
"Give me back that photo!" she snapped.
"No," he said, and this time he looked up at her. "I will not be cut out of my child's life. I left today because I thought you needed some time to calm down. Until you are rational again, I will hold this photo."
She gave a cry of rage through clenched teeth and made to lunge at him, but he met her halfway, grasping her arms and holding them against her chest. Thwarted, she screamed instead, "I don't want you around. You're the wrong man!"
There was an immediate silence. Lieutenant Abarai, still standing by the door where she had pushed him, had lost control of his jaw again and his eyes were opened wide. Toshiro, who had had to dive out of the way when she moved against Byakuya, felt his jaw drop too, and then a prickly sensation in his spine that he had to clench his fists to suppress. He wanted to be anywhere but in that office at that moment, to pretend that he had not heard what she had said and understood what it meant. And Byakuya looked surprised too, but only mildly, and then his expression grew sad and he said, "That changes nothing. I will not be kept away from my child. Think about what you're demanding. I am a captain from a noble house with the resources to provide quite comfortably for you and the child for the rest of your lives. I may not be able to shield you from everything but at the very least you would not be unhappy. You are a lieutenant with a notorious reputation as a flirt and drunk who spends most of her time avoiding work. Do you think your captain or the Captain Commander could stop your dishonourable discharge? And even if he could, how would you manage? The barracks are no place for a child."
She scowled at him now and took a step back. He let her go at once and said, "I am not Ichimaru Gin, I know that. But you did not have a problem with it before."
Both Toshiro and Renji went red-faced but Matsumoto merely shrugged and said, "I don't need you to protect me, to take care of me. This was a mistake. In fact, it was conduct unbecoming of officers of the Gotei Thirteen. I know the rules and regulations too, Kuchiki Byakuya. You would be better off pretending that we don't exist. It's not just you who is going to be dragged through the mud. Rukia-chan is going to suffer plenty and she had nothing to do with this. Your clan is going to be disgraced. Just leave this alone; I can take care of the both of us just fine."
"So I'm supposed to believe now that you are doing this to protect me? Do not insult me, Rangiku, I neither need nor require your protection and my clan is hardly going to be disgraced. Have you forgotten where my wife came from? My sister? They will hardly fall apart because the mother of my child is not of some noble clan. You are a lieutenant of the Gotei Thirteen, a position that is hard-won and not to be taken lightly, that is more than enough," said Byakuya.
"And that's going to make it okay? You will swoop in and rescue me like Ichigo-kun did for your sister?" said Matsumoto. "Even for Rukia-chan that is not enough."
"Do you really think that I would take just any woman to my bed?" asked Byakuya now, his eyes narrowed once more in fury. Toshiro desperately wished he could cover his ears with his hands and sing loudly but he did not because that was childish and he was not a child.
"Sake does wonders to people's inhibitions," said Matsumoto.
"Please, I was not drunk," snapped Byakuya, for a moment sounding just like his sister. "And neither were you. You play a good game and you have played it well for a very long time, but I'm not so easily distracted by a little cleavage and a flirty smile. I have watched you. You can talk to anyone at any level. You carry yourself with more dignity than most women I have ever met and you are not ashamed of anything that you have ever done good or bad. You know exactly who you are, what you want and how to get it from whomever you meet. I would never have responded to anything you did if I did not have an interest in seeing where it would lead. Granted, neither of us expected it to go this far, we certainly did not try to stop it when it did."
She scowled now and then extended her hand and said, "I want that photograph."
"No," said Byakuya. "And you know asking your captain to help won't move me because this is no more his concern than ensuring that you are alright. He came here to avenge your honour. It was he who brought the photograph. You had not even told him and you could have been hurt."
"My child is not a Kuchiki," said Matsumoto, still reaching for the photograph.
"But it is, you see, and as the head of the Kuchiki and its father I cannot let you cut me out of its life. You are stuck with me, Rangiku, whether you like it or not. And I have no evidence that you don't," said Byakuya.
From the doorway just then someone said, "What?"
The four occupants of the room all turned to find Lieutenant Kuchiki Rukia standing there with Kurosaki Ichigo behind her, mouths gaping open and as wide-eyed as Lieutenant Abarai's had been. And the orange-haired boy's face was a brilliant crimson.
"Rukia," said Byakuya, making to go to her. "What are you doing here?"
"You're pregnant, Rangiku-san? By Nii-sama?" asked Rukia, completely ignoring her brother's question. It had to be the shock.
Ichigo recovered much faster and said, "There is nothing more about this that I need to know. I think we should come back later, Rukia." He put a hand on her shoulder, presumably to lead her away but she shook it off and walked into the room. He sighed in defeat and followed her in.
Matsumoto gave her a weak smile and said, "Yes."
If anything, Rukia's eyes grew bigger and she sputtered, "B-but how? When? How long?"
Ichigo spoke up again, protesting, "Again, nothing more that we need to know."
They both ignored him, as Matsumoto replied, "It is almost four months."
Though he did not want to, Toshiro did some quick calculations in his head and realised that she must have become pregnant about one month after the war games ended. But as far as he knew, at the time of the child's conception they were also supposed to be in different places. This he knew because there had been a captain's meeting during that time and Byakuya was excused to deal with some matter involving his family and Matsumoto had gone off with some of their seated officers on the trail of a vicious hollow somewhere in West Rukongai.
Rukia voiced his thoughts then, "But I was with Nii-sama the whole ti…" She trailed off with a bright red blush.
Ichigo behind her rolled his eyes and, while blushing as well, said, "Idiot, I told you that there was nothing you needed to know."
Byakuya, who looked completely unfazed, said, "We had a chance meeting on the way back."
Mercifully he said no more but Matsumoto spoke up then, adding, "We had been speaking since the inter-division games. It was a mistake, we were drinking."
"I already told you that neither of us was drunk," said Byakuya.
"How do you know I wasn't?" demanded Matsumoto, rounding on him. He gave her a level look and after a moment she averted her gaze and said, "Give me back my photograph and forget about us."
"No," said Byakuya. "I regret nothing."
Ichigo whistled and said with undisguised admiration, "I wouldn't either—ow!" That was because Rukia had just punched him in the stomach.
Matsumoto said, "Then we are at an impasse."
Byakuya took a deep breath and said, "You are being unnecessarily difficult. I am not your captain but at four months it is too dangerous for you to be anywhere on patrol. I would recommend to Captain Hitsugaya that you be temporarily relieved of your duties and I'm sure he would have done so immediately if Captain Unohana's letter had actually gotten to him." At this Toshiro looked at his lieutenant in alarm and she coloured slightly. Byakuya continued, "I understand that Kuchiki Manor is simply too far away from the Tenth Division for you to commute comfortably so I request that in the later stages you move there. Your every need will be provided for and you would be able to come and go as you please… Since I am, as you put it, the 'wrong man', I will not ask you to marry me. In time you may return to your barracks at the Tenth with the child, but I would ask that you do not. I would hope that in the time that you are with us at the manor that you decide not to leave."
She started shaking her head before she replied, "I can't do this. I… we should not have to begin with."
"I think it's a little late to be saying that, don't you think?" asked Byakuya.
She glared at him, then took a deep breath, straightening her spine and said, "Keep the picture." Then she turned and headed for the door. The others cleared a path to let her go, but Toshiro made to follow her. He was stopped by Byakuya.
"Don't. Ordering her to accept my offer will not help matters," he said.
Toshiro turned to look at him and said, "You're just going to let her go? After all that stuff about wanting to take care of her and the child? Matsumoto is stubborn; she's not just going to come around when she cools off."
"I know," said Byakuya, sinking down into his seat, looking suddenly rather tired. Toshiro noticed now the bags under his eyes. "But we are at an impasse."