A/N: Here you are, Taisa! ^_^
The only thing I can say to potential readers of this is that if you don't like fluffy and cute, stop before the last paragraph, because it will break your brain. Other than that, enjoy!
Cold. Distant. Stoic. Emotionless.
One or more of these words (sometimes even all four) was used almost daily to describe him. Oh, they wouldn't do so in his presence—he was, after all, a captain, and the head of a powerful noble family at that—but Byakuya Kuchiki was no fool. He knew what others said and thought of him, in hushed whispers and passed notes during class at the Academy. He knew he was one of the truly iconic members of the Seireitei. Who in Rukongai or the Academy would recognize the name Sajin Komamura readily? Know that his body took the form of an anthropomorphic fox? Before Aizen's betrayal, who could name which squad Gin Ichimaru led?
But mention the name of that imperious, noble captain, and the descriptions that came to mind were almost instantaneous. Elegant but deadly. Graceful power. His zanpaktou…Senbonzakura…an evanescent image of beauty as myriad shimmering cherry blossom-blades shred and destroy.
Byakuya Kuchiki was fully aware of the respect mixed with fear that his subordinates and other fellow Soul Reapers felt towards him, their perceptions of his personality and psyche. And for over half a century, he was entirely content with the icy, stoic exterior he displayed to those who interacted with him. If he were to uphold and enforce the Soul Society's laws, he couldn't allow himself to be ruled, indeed even swayed by fickle emotions. The Soul Society's laws were supreme—he had to obey them; he had to enforce them. There was no room for him to pass moral judgments on those laws. That was the task of the Central 46.
Ichigo Kurosaki had changed everything. That substitute Soul Reaper, that ryoka had shown him that he was wrong. That it was okay to go against laws that were unjust and fight to change them, rather than blindly obeying the Soul Society's judgment. That Ichigo…that brave, stupid free spirit had fought, had charged blindly into the Soul Society with his three friends (and two new ones after arrival) and Yoruichi, no plan or strategy whatsoever and only his sense of justice and spiritual pressure to guide him. And he'd won. Against all odds, against thirteen captains, thirteen lieutenants, and untold masses of seated and unseated officers…four humans—a substitute Soul Reaper, a Quincy, a girl with odd healing and barrier powers, and a young man with a superpowered arm—and two members of Soul Society had triumphed, succeeded in rescuing Rukia from her imminent execution. And Byakuya would always be grateful to Ichigo, indebted even, for saving his sister, and for saving him from letting—watching—her die without doing a thing. He knew that Hisana would have never forgiven him.
The sixth-division captain often found himself wondering these days, wondering what would have happened if he'd finished Ichigo off back then, that first encounter in the human world. If he'd chosen not to honor Rukia's wishes in not allowing that boy—who shared such a strong resemblance to the fallen Kaien Shiba—to die in front of her, at the least… Rukia would have died, at the hands of a traitor, no less. In one stroke, he would have broken both of the conflicting vows he had made. Allowing a traitor to go through with a fraudulent execution would have broken his vow to always uphold the law and never break another rule again…and if Rukia had died, his second vow—the one he'd made to Hisana, all those many years ago in honor of her dying wish—would have been broken as well. He tried not to allow himself to dwell on those thoughts. Rukia was alive; there was no point playing the point playing the 'what-if' game now. It was counterproductive, and he knew that as captain, he had to move forward instead of allowing himself to get fixated in the past.
He supposes that he's been thinking about these things a lot lately because today is Rukia's birthday. And perhaps it is that foolish sentimentality that he had once thought was dangerous to preserving peace and justice, but he can't help but think that if it hadn't been for Ichigo, he wouldn't have had a birthday to celebrate today. For almost half a century, he hadn't done much to show his beloved sister that she really was important to him. He would protect her with his very life, no matter what laws he had to break to do so from now on, that was for sure, and there was no doubt that he would without hesitation annihilate any fool who dared harm her in the future…but it felt to him that perhaps this time, he could show her how much she meant to him in a more direct way than in decades past.
That afternoon, he walks down to the thirteenth division barracks and knocks on the door, asking for Rukia, his present to her held in his arms. Sentaro and Kione go to answer the door, squabbling as usual as they both inform their captain that they will get the door. When they do so, the squabbling instantly, miraculously stops as the both of them simply gawk, momentarily deprived of the faculty of speech. Byakuya calmly repeats his request to see Rukia, unfazed by the odd looks shot his way by the two third-seats. One of them regains himself enough to nod and tell the sixth-division captain to follow, and the other quickly follows suit, the duo snickering and periodically breaking out in guffaws. They pass by Ukitake on the way, who hides the chortle rising in his throat behind a cough.
Rukia greets him pleasantly, although he gives him a quizzical expression.
"Good afternoon, Rukia. Happy birthday."
His sister seems almost surprised that he remembered, and thanks him for the birthday wish. The confusion does not leave her face just yet.
"Ah, I got you a present. It wasn't too hard to find, but I had some trouble bringing it back from the human world at first."
And into Rukia's waiting arms, he deposits a squirming, white, baby bunny rabbit.