Disclaimer: I am not a bleach expert, but I do own the profile book.
Chapter 3: Lunch Surprise!
That next day Sakaki was excited. She had made a lunch especially for her captain, regardless of his objections. She went to the store and bought the best of ingredients in order to fit it to his liking. She wrapped up the boxes that contained both their lunches in a beautifully decorative clothe. She was so curious to see whether or not he liked the lunch she made.
Currently, she was skipping along to the training area, on that always early time of five o' clock. She was too giddy to be tired on this day. Surprisingly, she was there before Byakuya was. She must have left a tad too early. She shrugged and waited on the stump of an old cut down tree. He was coming soon, so she sat there patiently.
Early morning soon turned into midmorning around seven or so. Byakuya had still not showed himself. Why wasn't he there yet? Sakaki was confused. The rest of the day trailed out to the afternoon, and still no captain. She was worried now. What was going on?
Finally, someone did come onto the scene, but it wasn't captain Kuchiki. It was Renji. What was he doing there? He approached Sakaki with a smile.
"I'm gonna train you today. Okay Sakaki," he announced, brightly.
"But where's captain Kuchiki?" Sakaki asked devastated.
"Oh. He's sick today. Hey! Did you bring lunch for two? I'm starved!" He exclaimed peering at her larger than normal bundle of food.
She gawked, "Well not…"
"Thanks shorty! I really needed something to eat!" Renji was already starting to dig through the bundle.
Sakaki was horrified as Renji gobbled up the meal she made just for Byakuya. Why her? All she wanted was to make him a nice meal in return for him buying her one. She was just shocked that all her hard work was wasted!
"You gonna eat the other one?" Renji asked, already starting to take her lunch out of the clothe.
"Nooo! Mine!" She exclaimed and fished the small box from his hands. She had to keep this one and give it to her captain! "Uh…Renji…I don't really wanna train today. I've got errands to do." She mumbled, wanting to go to her captain now.
"But the training!?" Renji complained.
"I dont have time to train right now!" Sakaki announced as she ran off with her homemade lunch.
Renji ran after her. She was quite fast for someone so short. He ran along side her.
"Where are you going? You can't just skip out on training!" H exclaimed.
"I sure can!" Sakaki growled, "Now leave me alone!"
"Why? We can count this as training right now," Renji smiled mischievously.
"No! Captain Kuchiki is supposed to train me!" Sakaki argued. She made a quick turn in order to lose him, but he followed behind without problems. He was just as quick as she. That was probably because he was an assistant captain though. He was more powerful than many of the soul reapers in the Sereitei.
Sakaki had to use more evasive maneuvers in order to lose Renji. She jumped around in all directions in order to rid of this nuisance. She wanted to deliver the lunch to Byakuya even though he was ill.
"Fine! Whatever!" Renji yelled at her. He ran off to go home.
With a sigh of relief she ran all the way to the estate in which her captain lived. It was large, but beautiful. She had never been in this place before and was starting to get confused. Which way should she go? She was unsure. She approached one of the workers there and asked.
"Um, could you direct me to where captain Kuchiki is? I want to see him?" she asked hopefully.
The worker was an older woman, who was looking her over with caution. She didn't seem too sure about Sakaki.
"Please?!" She asked making a puppy-dog face that she had taken a long time to master for maximum cuteness. She was desperate to make sure Byakuya was all right.
"All right. All right child," the woman sighed. "Just don't do that face ever again!"
"Thank you ma'am." Sakaki followed her to Byakuya's room. She waited as the maid went past the sliding doors to alert the man of his visitor.
"Sir, you have a visitor," she announced.
After a few small coughs Byakuya asked, "Who?"
"Oh." The woman announced awkwardly, "I didn't really ask for a name, but she's a small one and…"
"Oh. I know who it is. You may send her in Kei," Byakuya's slightly sickness wracked voice rasped to the older woman.
Kei came back for Sakaki. She slid the door further to let her inside.
"He'll be seeing you now miss," she announced, leaving the room.
Sakaki entered her captain's room in a timid manner. She wasn't sure how to act in this situation. After all this was her crush's bedroom. A place she could soon be more acquainted with if she could ever win him over! Her timidity soon flustered when she saw him lying there on the floor, barely unkempt, but still as beautiful as before.
He was looking at her as if she were something strange. He seemed out of it. His face was immensely pale and there was a rag atop his head. He coughed a little as she approached.
"Um…Captain, I brought you lunch, but I don't think that now was the best time to bring it," she sighed moping.
Byakuya frowned in disapproval.
"Didn't I say I didn't want you to make me a lunch?" he asked, grouchily.
"I know, but I couldn't let that go. I needed to return the favor. It's part of my honor," She sighed and handed him the white bundle.
He rolled his eyes but discovered he couldn't argue further with this woman, because she wasn't going to give up about paying him back over a stupid lunch! He opened up the pack to find a neatly designed lunch made with rice and some other delicious homemade goodies. It was quite pretty.
"I'm sorry it's so small," Sakaki sighed. "Renji ate the one that was supposed to be for you."
Byakuya paused for a minute then said, "Wait. This is your lunch? Why aren't you eating it then?"
"Because I said I'd bring you a lunch and I meant it!" Sakaki said determined.
Tensely he rolled his eyes. He would have probably put up a much better fight about this if he weren't so sick. Instead, he decided to keep her homemade lunch (mainly because it actually did look very delicious) and have her eat a lunch there, Kuchiki style.
He called for Kei, who was waiting right outside the door to escourt Sakaki when she was to leave, to come back inside.
"Yes, sir?" she asked, curious.
"I want you to tell the cooks to make this young woman a fine meal," he announced slyly.
Both women seemed kind of surprised by this sudden act of kindness from the head of the Kuckiki family. Sakaki was gawking and now felt totally unworthy.
The ill man frowned again at their slow pace.
"Get going! Before it's the end of the lunch hour!" he exclaimed suddenly annoyed.
"Oh! Um right! Sorry sir!" Kei announced. She grabbed onto Sakaki's arm and drug her out to the dining room, where she forced the young woman to sit.
"I'm telling our chef to make you a meal. Just sit here patiently while he makes it," she said and wandered away leaving the poor girl alone.
Sakaki sat there, alone, bored and shy. How could she eat any of what the chef of the Kuchiki house was making? It was bound to be too elegant for her unworthy tastes. She never should have come over! She should have just sucked it up and let Renji eat her lunch!
Pouting, she slunk in her spot and lay her head on the table. She knew it was bad etiquette to do so but at the current moment she didn't care. She was upset that she would have to eat this meal alone. Especially since it was in the Kuchiki home.
She groaned a bit as her boredom got the best of her. If she wasn't currently feeling like a lowly being of unworthiness she might have been a bit more excited to be in Byakuya's own home, but she felt like shit.
"Gah!" she growled poutily on the table. I had only ten minutes since she had first sat at the table, but she was uber bored. She sighed once more and shut her eyes. She started to fall asleep.
When she was only about half asleep she heard the noise of someone clearing his or her throat in an annoyed way. Quickly, she rose from the table gawking and drooling some.
"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to fall asleep!" she exclaimed, worried.
"It's fine, but will you please take your elbows off the table! This plate is hot!" Exclaimed a voice more masculine than Kei's could ever be.
Sakaki peered up at the man and totally had a seizure! Byakuya, despite his illness, was standing there, serving her dinner in his own home! She fell over, freaking out.
"Here," he grumbled then coughed. He set her dish calmly on the table in front of her and sat across from her where the meal she made was. He picked up his chopsticks and started to eat it. She was still laying there her heart beating off the charts! He scared her!
"Aren't you going to eat?" he asked in between bites.
She sighed, but sat up t o look at the exquisite food. She was right...lobster! She pouted as she peered at Byakuya who was downing her ex-lunch. Things should be the other way around! He should be eating the lobster and she should be eating the crappie lunch!
"Eat it," Byakuya demanded coldly.
She sighed again, but did as she was told and ate the delectable tail of the lobster. God was it delicious! She hadn't ever had such a good meal in her life! She was so dumbstruck by the food that this man was surrounded by his entire life. She envied him on that matter. She grew up in the Rukongai where life was hard and food was hard to come by a lot of the time. Luxury food was like manna from heaven!
"So?" Byakuya asked curiously, "How is it?"
Sakaki was speechless it was so good. All she could do was give him a thumbs up showing her love of the food.
Suddenly as if all the planets aligned perfectly something that seemed impossible happened. A small smirk spread across Byakuya's face and he chuckled!
Sakaki was so stunned that she fainted. She got him to smile. It was just a small one, but it was still a smile. She was completely elated. She finally got to see his smile. Now her new objective was to get him to do it more often than on certain occasions.
It wasn't much longer before she was awoken with a splash of water to the face. When her eyes opened her face glowed a ravishing shade of red. She was extremely embarrassed. How could she have let herself faint like that?!
"Are you okay?" Byakuya asked, right by her side.
"Uh yeah!" Sakaki said quickly and stood up. She had to get out of there!
"Are you sure?" Byakuya asked. He was very close to her.
"Yep! Goodbye captain! I gotta go!" She flailed running off. She went and ran all the way home.
Her heart was beating a mile a minute and her cheeks were beet red. She leaned fretfully against her room door, breathlessly. She could barely believe it. He smiled…he smiled. She mozied from he spot and plopped onto her bed. Her day had been shocking and she was more surprised than she had ever been in her life. Now, she liked her captain even more. His smirk made her smile.
Of course now the question was, could she make him do more than just a smirk?
(Yay! End of chapter 3! ^_^ I hope you enjoyed it…. He smiled. LOL! I'll try to update this as quickly as I can. Until then Sayonara!)