Disclaimer: Kubo is god, Kubo is king, Tite Kubo owns everything. I'm just playing with them for awhile. I also do not own any of the quotes I use at the start of each chapter. They were all found on the internet, and if they have an author I say who it is.

Author's Notes: My apologies for this coming out so much slower than "No Warm Memories" to those of you who are reading all my stories, but I'm finding this story much more difficult to write. Trying to keep the story how I want it and still keeping them in character, even with the addition of personal masks, has been interesting. I constantly get to points and then find myself trying to figure out how to move beyond them. Thanks so much to those who are giving constructive feedback, it has been a tremendous help. Oh, and to those who pointed out that Byakuya randomly having sex because he was "in the mood" was OOC, well, this chapter explains it a little more, as will the one-shot "There's Nobody Wiser," which will be out eventually. At least this part is a good length for me. Enjoy.

Behind This Mask

By Lady Callista

Chapter 6: A Day

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"There are worse things than a broken heart...like the love you can't explore."

--Joey Potter on "Dawson's Creek"

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"I know his message said this afternoon, but I have plans then and was hoping that he'd be free if I came by early." Rukia said as she and her brother's 5th seat approached the Rokubantai office.

"I believe he's free for the next hour or so, Kuchiki-sama, but I'll have to check the log to be sure." Tanaka replied.

They'd run into each other on the way to the office, though Tanaka had been surprised that she knew who he was. And was even more surprised when she started casually chatting with him after he answered her question. She was so much nicer than her brother.

Tanaka was just reaching for the door to the office when it was pushed open and the most beautiful woman in Seireitei stepped out.

"Ma…Matsumoto-fukutaicho." He stuttered, his face turning red.

Rangiku sent him a smile designed to turn him even redder. "Good morning to you, and to you as well, Rukia-san."

"Rangiku-san." Rukia nodded, looking at the woman curiously. Her normally flowing hair was in disarray, and her belt was tied in a slightly rough knot instead of her normal bow. "Rough session?"

Rangiku's eyes grew huge, and she blushed for the first time Rukia thought she had ever seen. "What?" She managed to choke out.

Rukia cocked her head curiously as Tanaka nodded to both women and excused himself to go into the office. "Aren't you training with Renji?"

"Oh, ah…yeah." Rangiku blew out a deep breath. "He was busy this morning though, so…uh…I trained with By…with Kuchiki-taicho."

"Nii-sama?" Rukia gasped. Her brother rarely sparred with anyone. Although it did explain why Rangiku was so disheveled. To face a taicho's bankai, especially her brother's bankai, was bound to exhaust a person. Yet despite the obvious exhaustion that Rukia could see, Rangiku seemed to be almost glowing with joy. "It looks, from your face, like it went well."

Rangiku smirked, and her eyes began to twinkle in a way that confused Rukia even more. "Very well. Although I am late for an appointment, so please excuse me."

"Of cour…" Rukia trailed off as Rangiku flashed away, then mumbled to herself. "That was odd." She entered the office shaking her head.

"You may go in." Tanaka looked up from the desk as she entered.

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As Byakuya shut the door to his office behind Matsumoto, he couldn't help but leave his hand on it for a moment, staring at nothing as his mind reeled in shock from his behavior.

He'd just had sex, twice, with a woman that he'd known for more years than he could remember and almost never talked to unless it was business. A woman he'd been dreaming about for days. A woman he could still taste on his lips and feel on his body. Wondering what the hell was wrong with him, Byakuya rose to refill his teapot.

A moment later a knock on the door caused him to take a final hurried glance around the office, and seeing nothing out of place he called out, "Enter."

"Good morning, nii-sama." Rukia bowed slightly as she entered.

"Good morning." Kuchiki replied as he poured the water into the pot and added a second cup to the serving tray before carrying it over to his desk.

"The time you asked to see me this afternoon is during a Juusanbantai training, so I was hoping you would have time for me now." Rukia replied, wondering why something seemed different about him this morning. He was more, relaxed, somehow.

"I have time." Kuchiki gestured for her to sit. "Have you spoken with your taicho recently?"

Rukia shook her head as she sat across from him. "No, he hasn't been feeling well. But he did say he wanted to speak to me before training today."

Kuchiki nodded. "I was hoping to speak to you after him, but this shall do." Collecting his thoughts, and forcing Matsumoto out of them, he poured tea for both of them and absently took a sip.

"About what, nii-sama?" Rukia asked, lifting her cup as well and inhaling the wonderful scent of the expensive green…wait. She inhaled again, carefully. "This isn't your normal tea." For the forty years she'd known him, and probably for much longer, he'd always drunk one specific tea.

Kuchiki raised an eyebrow. "You have meetings with two taicho today, and you're more worried about tea than why they want to talk to you."

Actually she was worried about the topic of the meetings, but at the moment had one very specific worry about the tea. She'd smelled it only once before, and briefly, but… She took a small sip, and the slightly-off taste of green tea confirmed her fears.

"You just always drink the same thing." Rukia offered weakly as her mind whirled. She recalled a night less than a week ago, and Rangiku teasing that she could land anyone, including Byakuya. She remembered Rangiku telling them about the tea that Nanao had confiscated from Kyoraku-taicho. She recalled Rangiku's flushed face and disheveled appearance a few minutes ago. To think that she would stoop to…

"Abarai-fukutaicho brought it in a few days ago." Kuchiki unknowingly interrupted his sister's murderous thoughts. Abarai's name immediately brought to mind an image of him fighting with Matsumoto, and Kuchiki knew it was only his many years of suppressing his emotions that kept color from rising to his cheeks. "Said a friend had given it to him, and he'd tried it but didn't care for it."

Rukia's eyes widened, and she began to plan a whole different type of retribution.

"How would you like to join the Rokubantai?"

Rukia rejected the idea of telling her brother about the tea the instant the thought crossed her mind. Not only did she not want to get anyone in trouble, but she thought that it might be good for him. Although she would definitely need to talk to Rangiku about it, as she likely didn't even know that…

Kuchiki cleared his throat as his sister stared off into space.

Rukia blinked abruptly and focused on him, realizing she'd been lost in her thoughts. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

Kuchiki merely lifted an eyebrow and repeated himself. "How would you like to become part of the Rokubantai?"

"What?" All thoughts of anything else fled her mind. "Why me? Why now?"

Kuchiki sighed. "Because as we attempt to replace the three traitors, as well as fill the seats of those killed in the war, we are running out of those strong enough to fill them. I no longer have the luxury of protecting you by keeping you from becoming a seat. But I can choose where you go. Unless you object, you are now my fukutaicho."

"WHAT?"

The last time a scream had echoed that loudly through Seireitei, it had been from a different fukutaicho, and she'd just found her taicho dead.

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Rangiku hummed to herself as she prepared for bed. All things considered, her day had turned out rather well.

She'd made Haineko manifest, had wild, crazy sex with one of the hottest men she knew, and then arrived at the Juubantai offices to find that all the paperwork, hers included, was complete.

Hitsugaya had apparently been unable to sleep the previous night, and had decided to just work all night. Although he brushed off the reason for his insomnia, Rangiku suspected it was connected to Kurosaki Karin. And she wished him the best of luck with that.

He seemed to have a better chance of having a real relationship than she did though, she reflected as her mind turned to the one dark point of her day.

She'd been out drinking with a bunch of the Shinigami, celebrating both Renji's promotion to Sanbantai taicho, and Rukia's promotion to fukutaicho of Byakuya's unit.

Everything had been going well until she'd been cornered by a semi-drunk Rukia, who wanted to know where she'd gotten the audacity to give the Netsui tea to Renji. Even after she'd fully explained that the tea wasn't a love spell so much as an aphrodisiac, Rukia did not seem to be amused by it. Even Rangiku's counter-argument, that if Renji had stopped drinking it and was still with her then what did it matter, hadn't been entirely well received. She hadn't understood why Rukia was so upset until the girl had revealed something shocking.

Rangiku flopped unto her bed, sighing deeply as she remembered.

"When Renji decided he didn't want the tea, he brought it to nii-sama's office. I found him drinking it this morning, after your training session." Rukia hissed.

Rangiku's eyes grew wide at the tone of Rukia's voice, and at the insinuation that she knew what had gone on in the office. "I didn't know." She said honestly, choosing to glance around and make sure no one was close enough to overhear them rather than face the accusation in Rukia's eyes.

"Is it just a game for you? A challenge?" Rukia asked, choosing not to comment on Rangiku's statement. She was fairly certain Rangiku was telling the truth, but wanted to know how she would act now that she knew the actual truth.

Rangiku met her friend's eyes then, letting the smiling mask drop from her face for a moment, "I don't know him well enough to say if we could work or not. But relationships and sex are not a game to me. Contrary to what many think and say about me, well, your brother was only the second who's ever touched me in that way. Only the second I've ever wanted to."

Rukia's eyes had grown huge then, and she had knocked back another shot of sake before leaning in close and whispering, "Tell him about the tea. I do know him well, and he's probably spent the entire day wondering what the hell is wrong with him."

Rangiku stuttered, offended, but Rukia continued speaking before she could interrupt.

"I don't mean because it was you, but because it happened at all. Do you really think that is normal behavior for him?" Rukia downed another shot of sake as she tried to get the image out of her mind. She'd been hounded by it the entire day, which was why she'd cornered Rangiku and begun a conversation that she really didn't want to have.

"I didn't think much at all at the time." Rangiku giggled as her mask came back up, neglecting to say that she had questioned it at the time, even asked him about it.

Rukia sighed as she sensed the conversation was over. "I don't know which of you I should wish good luck. Likely both, as you'll drive each other crazy."

"Tell him about the tea." Rangiku mumbled to herself as she tossed restlessly on her bed. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to speak to him normally without picturing him naked, let alone bring up something like that. But she knew what Rukia meant. If she didn't tell him, and they continued to have sex, which seemed unlikely as he had said it was just a moment, but if he kept drinking the tea and wanted more moments, and then he found out that not only had she known about the tea but had given it to Renji….grrr!

She'd been telling Rukia the truth that it wasn't a love potion or crap like that. It was simply an aphrodisiac, which although it would increase his passion had no affect on where that passion turned. It would make him aroused, but would not force him to have sex. And it wasn't like she'd deliberately given it to him, nor had she purposely put herself in his path knowing he was drinking it. Still, now that she knew….

Thoughts cascading endlessly through her mind, Rangiku eventually fell into an uneasy sleep.

It was, like the previous day, just before sunrise when she awoke. And although the dream had started out with Byakuya as the star, by the time she managed to rip herself from sleep it had been Gin who held her. Who laughed cruelly as he left her.

With a sigh Rangiku rose and showered, then decided she might as well go for a walk. It was something she'd always done when she wanted to think. To think, walk. To not think, drink. It was a motto she'd lived by for many years.

Although this time she had a specific place she wanted to walk to. Walking over to her closet, she reached up to the back of the one high shelf in it and pulled out a carefully folded garment. Sliding it into a bag and hanging it on her belt to prevent anyone from seeing it, she slid quietly out of the barracks and headed towards Rukongai.

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"Tadaima." Rangiku whispered to the empty, run-down shack, knowing that she would receive no response. She glanced to the far corner, memories of young bodies twined together making her uncertain as to whether she should smile or cry.

With a shake of her head, and after taking a moment to pull herself together, Rangiku passed through the house and into the small yard behind it, plucking an apple from the sole tree still alive, then sitting at the base of the tree as she began to munch on it, knees pulled up to her chest.

"I don't really know what I'm doing here." She whispered after a moment, glancing at her bag. "And I don't know why I saved that when they were cleaning out your rooms. I guess I just wanted to have something of yours. Something other than this run-down place, or the ache in my heart, to remind me of you." Rangiku pulled a white haori out of the bag, her fingers tracing over the Sanbantai insignia over and over as she set it gently on her lap.

"But, honestly, I don't think I want to be reminded of you anymore. I shouldn't keep dwelling on the past, or on the 'what might have been.'" She smiled briefly then, remembering Momo's brief stop at the party the night before. And the looks that had passed between her and Izuru. "I seem to be the last one in Seireitei still mourning any of you, and I think I need to get over it."

Rangiku rose, tossing the apple core aside and setting the haori gently at the base of the tree. She turned, about to leave, when she realized what would happen if children found it and started playing with it. Anyone would know instantly what it was. If news got to Seireitei, and they realized it was a real one…

"Gone from sight and gone from mind. None shall seek, and none shall find. Bakudo Number 26 - Kyakko." She whispered, extending her hand towards the haori, and a moment later it vanished from sight. It was still there, of course, but unless someone tripped over it or realized there was a kido there and broke it, it would not be found.

"I almost wish I could erase my memories of you that easily. But there were good ones too, and I'm not sure I'd want to lose those, even if I lost the heartbreak in the bargain. Haineko said that I'm not sure how to stand without you. She's right, but it's something I'm going to try. I'm going to try and leave you in the past, and move on." She stared at the empty spot for a moment, then whispered the one word she'd never said to him in her life. "Goodbye."

With a slightly lighter heart, she returned to Seireitei. And had been there less than a minute before she rounded a corner and bumped into a hard male chest.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention to…" Rangiku trailed off as she realized she stared up into familiar stormy-gray eyes. "Bya…Kuchiki-taicho."

Byakuya, less irritated by the collision now that he saw who he had bumped into, met her eyes. "Good morning, Matsumoto-fukutaicho. I would have thought you'd be sleeping late, as you used to, now that you are no longer training with Abarai."

"Actually, I'm training with my taicho in a little while, but was just out for a walk." Rangiku replied, holding his eyes as a slight blushed fanned out over her cheeks. She wasn't quite sure how to interact with someone that she'd had what was basically a one-night-stand with.

"I often start my mornings that way. It is a very refreshing beginning before I face the tedium and monotony of the day." Byakuya replied, fighting the urge to reach out and brush his fingers over her cheek. He had hoped he'd gotten her out of his system the day before, and had considered the fact that he did not dream about her encouraging. But the fact that he wished to touch her the instant he saw her, the fact that he flashed back briefly to the glorious memory of her writhing under him, told him that for reasons he couldn't imagine he still thought about her far too much.

Rangiku inhaled sharply for an instant as something hot flashed through his eyes, and remembered his sister's advice. Not only was it the perfect excuse to talk to him, but Rangiku believed Rukia was right about his reaction if he found out from anyone else.

"Actually, Kuchiki-taicho, I have something I would like to speak to you about. Were you planning on walking more, and if so may I accompany you, or would you like to have breakfast with me?" Rangiku chose her words carefully, knowing that respect and manners were the best way to get him to agree. She was certain he found her and many of her friends uncouth and common, and for the most part he was right. But just because she hadn't been raised with a silver spoon in her mouth - or up her ass, a little voice in her head whispered naughtily - didn't mean she didn't know proper manners. She just never cared enough to use them.

Byakuya raised an eyebrow at her proposal. He had never thought of her as the overly emotional, or subtle, type, so he didn't think this was an off-hand way to get him to spend time with her. And he was indeed curious as to what she wanted to speak of. Yet he didn't want to let that show. "I was planning on walking a bit more, and I suppose it would be most convenient since you need to speak to me if you walked with me."

Rangiku blinked, trying to read something, anything, into his voice or facial movements. Yet his voice was the aristocratic, slightly bored voice he always used. And, as always, his face was completely blank. Except for a slight warmth in his eyes that she must have imagined.

She fell into step beside him, trying to decide how to begin. How did you tell a man you barely spoke to that he'd slept with you partly due to an aphrodisiac tea that you gave to his ex-fukutaicho so that the fukutaicho would have the drive to approach the man's sister and confess his love to her?

Rangiku let out a deep sigh. She'd been right about one thing in her decision to go after Byakuya. At least her life wouldn't be boring.

TBC…

AN2: Again, sorry it's been so long. This story should be updated about once a week now, assuming my personal life doesn't explode again. So, what do you think? I always love that somehow my readers anticipate me. Many of you commented that you thought Bya in chap 5 was OOC with the sex thing, and you were right. I even had a reason! Hopefully he's better here. And I'll apologize to those of you who don't like them for throwing in the Ran/Gin thing again, but in my opinion he was a huge factor on her life, and I don't see her forgetting about him just like that. Please review!

Glossary:

Netsui - literally "Ardor," great passion or excitement, often related to love/lust

"Tadaima." - There's not really an exact translation, but this is a phrase spoken whenever one returns home. Think of the cliché "Honey, I'm home," from old sitcoms. Tadaima, however, is very traditional, and is always said when returning home.

"Bakudo - Kyakko," Bakudo means "way of binding," and is one of the two main classes of spells that Shinigami use. Kyakko is "curving light," and is a spell used to hide an object or person from sight. The spell itself is cannon, but the incantation was made up by me, as it is never given in the series. Because it is a 26, and Rangiku is not that good with Bakudo, I figured she would need the incantation.