Three Years to Become Cinderella
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
A/N: A fic written for the 30romances community on Livejournal - Prompt 31 - Library; Bookshop
To be embarrassingly honest, Rukia never knew that the Kuchiki estate had even housed a library until she stumbled across it one day in a desperate attempt to appease her boredom.
She had immediately been entranced with the thick carpeting that sank under her footsteps, the worn scrolls and old leather books neatly arranged on the dusty bookshelves, and the expansive windows that threw w the whole room into sunlight on a good day and cancelled the need for additional lighting.
Rukia devoured the literature in the library, reading nearly everything that was placed on the engraved wooden shelves. She felt that the library was her secret base, in a way. She let go of all attachments onto life, choosing instead to fall inside the magical world created by the words painted on paper.
She never knew that there was another frequent visitor to the library.
The first time she encounters him in the library the first words she blurts out are "What are you doing here?"
He raises an elegant (and damningly aristocratic) eyebrow and holds up the book he's reading -- or was reading, at any rate.
The bookwas A History of Seireitei -- dry, and extremely boring. Rukia is amazed that somebody in the world actually reads that book (it might not be necessary to state that Rukia had tried reading said book and horrifically failed).
However, Byakuya is still staring at her and she hastily fishes around for an intelligent answer to his silent question.
"I just well...I never pegged you for the reading type. I thought you preferred fighting and combat more..." It is only when Byakuya blinks twice up at her does she realize how ridiculous her words sound.
"I like to read," he says blandly, and switches his attention back to his book.
Rukia knows a dismissal when she hears one.
The second time she sees him in the library, it is two months later, because apparently, both of them are extraordinarily good at coming to the library when the other isn't there, and vice versa.
This time he's reading 50 Ways to Learn More About Your Zanpakuto and she sighs.
"Don't you ever read any fiction?" she asks exasperatedly.
He snorts, not exactly the most well-mannered response in the world, but Rukia seethes at how elegant he can make a lowly snort sound.
"Fiction is for petty fools," he scoffs.
Rukia glares at him, and sets out to prove him wrong.
The next time, she waits for him to come to the library. She clutches a gilded gold copy of the fairy tale Cinderella in her arms, and she's going to force him to read it and acknowledge the true power of fiction.
He never comes and Rukia bets he knew she was going to be waiting for him and didn't come on purpose.
She never found out why he didn't come, by the way.
Over the months and years, their little conversations in the library when ever they meet each other focus mainly on a teasing banter filled with differing opinion -- which generation of Chappy plushies were better, fiction vs. nonfiction (yes, they were still going at it), and summer vs. winter, to name a few.
Rukia found herself enjoying their back-and-forth jibes, seizing any opportunity to learn more about her mysterious nii-sama. She finds it amazing, however, that the cool, refined, powerful Kuchiki Byakuya actually conceded that he preferred chocolate milk to green tea.
She doesn't know why, but she suddenly remembers that tomorrow will be exactly three years to the first day when she stumbled across him in the library.
The next day, she sits at their usual table in the back, the one near a window so that it's usually drenched in sunlight.
On the table in front of her is a worn, ancient copy of Cinderella, the book having taken the burden of Rukia's indecision for the better part of al of these years.
"Read it," she says, pushing the book over to him.
He picks it up and scowls. "Cinderella? This is a fairy tale, Rukia..."
"I know. But still, please read it."
He mutters to himself before he pushes the book back to her. "I read it before already, back when I was younger."
"I thought you didn't read fiction..."
"I never said that -- I just said it had no meaning."
"But you implied it..."
"There is no meaning to fiction," he repeats. "It doesn't exist."
"There is meaning!" she insists, placing the book in front of him again. After three years, it's time to throw away all other thoughts and face the truth.
It's time.
He stands up, stubbornly not looking at the docile, yellowed pages of the book. "What's so special about a girl who becomes a princess, a handsome Prince Charming, a fairy godmother, and some stupid mice?"
She stands up as well, looking fiercely into his eyes. "But that's the whole point!"
Something seems to click and the fire in his eyes dims as he abruptly turns and walks toward Rukia.
She feels a sense of dread, but she stamps it down, continuing to stare defiantly at him.
"So that's the whole point?" he asks. His eyes are glittering, but not in a bad way, and his face is still as impassive as ever.
He tilts her chin up with one long finger, backing her up until she can feel the solid wall pressing against her back through the velvet of the window curtains.
"Explain it to me, Rukia." his voice has dropped several notches, and it gives Rukia slight goosebumps, hearing him like this.
At last, she snaps, furiously shoving his arm away, her hair swinging wildly around her face.
"You--don't you get it? If I'm Cinderella, then you're my Prince Charming--you've rescued me so many times, and turned me into a princess. I'm so different from the person I once was, all because of you!"
She pauses to catch her breath, only looking up when he speaks. "Is that a bad thing?"
"Well--no, I suppose not. The only reason I wanted you to read Cinderella was to see the parallelism between the story and, well, my life--it's gone far beyond a debate between fiction and nonfiction!"
She becomes acutely aware at this moment that she shouldn't be speaking to her elder and her nii-sama in this fashion, and even though she knows she's probably going to get it later, she doesn't care.
"I was hoping that you'd realize--"
Her next words are suddenly cut of as Byakuya leans down, places his hands on her face, and soundly kisses her on the lips, all within the time span of three seconds.
He kisses her with three years worth of mixed emotions, indecisiveness, and bittersweet thoughts.
She can feel it all radiating from his body, just like she can feel the strands of his hair between her fingers as she tangles her hand in his hair, and the slight bump of their noses as she kisses him back.
She kisses him back, letting all of her bottled-up frustration and confusion out, all three years' worth of it.
At last, they pull apart, but neither one of them makes a move to disentangle them self from the other.
It is Byakuya who finally speaks, his words rumbling deep in his throat, punctuated by a soft kiss on Rukia's nose. "I'm Prince Charming, huh?"
Rukia says nothing, choosing instead to simply smile and bury her face in the warm crook of Byakuya's neck.
Of course you are.
For the true Cinderella and Prince Charming, all it took was one night at a ball to realize true love.
But, for Rukia and Byakuya, it took three years.
-fin-
A/N: I actually liked this one :) So please review and tell me what you think! (Flames will be used to make hot cocoa.)