"Good morning." Rukia groaned slight and looked up at her own face and similar eyes gazing down at her full of lyrical laughter. "Head ache?" She questioned, offering her a cup of coffee.
"I hate this stuff." Rukia muttered, taking the cup from Hisana who had settled back on her feet to let Rukia sit up.
"If you don't mind may I have breakfast with your brother this morning?" Rukia looked up in surprise at the question- just when she was getting used to the idea that her sister was uncouth and had no care for the natural order of noble life- she appears with this sweet little request- a marked consideration to Rukia's own feelings.
"Yes you may my head hurts too much…" She shifted her weight around and HIsana's hand found the back of her head so that her cheek came to rest on the large soft breast. Rukia was stif with discomfort mometarily but she felt fingers rub at the back of her neck and the coffee was beneath her nose again. This woman, apart from her danger that was threaded in her clothes and swept behind her in the air, she was also warm and rather gentle.
"Drink it, I made it just for you." Rukia looked up at the eyes that were the same likeness as hers yet so different with its certainty and clarity, she pushed the cup into Rukia's hands. The coffee smelled of vanilla and milk. "you'll feel better when you do." She smiled encouragingly Rukia took the coffee while hisana rubbed her back.
Mother, it was all Rukia could think of as HIsana cradled her slightly, humming some nameless tune. Of all the descriptions of Hisana she had ever considered, mother was the last of them. Perhaps some elegantly gentle lady yes, someone who vaguely cared and made things easier for people, but never had she considered a woman who would hold someone else and comfort their slightest ailment. What kind of woman, Rukia wondered, did she appear to her brother?
She was quickly beginning to realize Hisana had many faces, each shared to some other poor unsuspecting being but it concerned Rukia- did Byakuya know his wife was a bit of a mother? Did that attract him, did it arouse him? Did he love her for that? Beauty in Byakuya's eyes Rukia thought would be rawness of a glacier or war aftermath- the beauty of peace, the poetry of departed; furry blankets and warm arms- did her brother like that?
"Are you feeling better?" Hisana asked, pushing her down back into the futon and pressing back her hair. Rukia stared up at her, this was too bizarre, wasn't she the one who had everyone trembling before her yesterday? Now she was mother…? "Don't eat anything for the next eight hours and drink only tea and soup, nothing heavy though," she warned- she even gave Rukia the finger; the one mothers had for children, the wagging index, "else it'll come right back up." She dusted her lap and stood, Rukia's eyes widened.
"Wait, that's my kimono!" HIsana looked down at her and smiled.
"Well you really don't expect me to my own clothes do you? Do you wear the house clothes?" Rukia shook her head.
"I didn't think so." The house clothes was a collection of fine kimono that had once been worn by the women of the Kuchiki family. Once these women passed on, their expensive elaborately custom made pieces; because of their quality was kept in a special house at the East wing. Essentially it was a catalogue of old clothes of fashions extending far back into time for the present ladies of the House to choose. Not that they ever did- what woman wore the robes of others save the unimaginative ones ie. Rukia. Since this woman never felt comfortable in the house, wearing the available catalogue never occurred to her and hence HIsana was stuck wearing muted greens and deep blues.
"Wait I think I have something you'll like in that wardrobe over there." Rukia gestured at the tall dark wardrobe on the left wall. "At the bottom in the blue case." The woman did her bidding, bringing out a heavy blue trunk which she lugged unto the wooden floor and swung it open to reveal silk red boxes. She knelt down and fished one of them out.
"Rukia this is-" She was half breathless as she pulled back the white gazue and the silk spilled unto her lap.
"Nii-sama was deeply insulted when I refused to wear them." Hisana studied them, he was just feeling her out- wanting to know the difference between Rukia and her sister- style was one of them. The fashion was muted with full sleaves and excessive brocade- so unlike the alterd kimono versions she would wear but none the less acceptable.
"But you're sure-"
"Yes I am." Rukia pulled her eyes away from her sister. It was so obvious how easily she would carry those clothes and seem a decended goddess. "I don't like them anyway."
"Good morning, nii-sama." Byakuya looked up from his report and felt his senses flee him. The maids who had just served him had stopped suddenly, stared for a moment and fell on their faces and she moved past smoothly. She had to be one of the few women he knew who could actually command genuine respect by doing little.
"Good morning Rukia." He forced himself to keep his face straight and not break into his usual wide smile- besides he wasn't sure his face could take smiling. Hisana noted- she missed the morning smiles, she missed his eyes settling around her like a warm blanket- fifty four years had changed that much about him? She took the place closest to him. Usually Rukia would take the far end, as timid as an intruder.
Never mind he had changed, she had not. Hisana took up the tea pot and holding her sleaves out of the way, poured him tea delicately. He stared at the side of her fair face, smooth slim neck, neat pout lips, the effort so slight, it took his breath and then she stole him a glance, right under those dark eyelashes, the eyes glinted with mischief and that ember lit his body aflame.
"Did you sleep well, nii-sama?" She asked casually as she returned the pot to its previous place. Up close nothing had changed about his face- it was without line or blemish, there were no lies or pain hidden in them. Instead she saw something that set her heart off a little- there was a light noble frost on his features, something he had set on himself to protect himself from behind altered too much, not just by her death but by waiting. How thick was the ice she wondered? How had would she have to fight to dig him out? Already she could see her work was cut out for her.
"Quite," He answered. Quite from, he lay in an inferno of love that warmed his blankets too hot and dressed his skin in sweat. What he had thought dead lay insistently against his thigh and his every movement begged him to rectify it. He had managed to catch an hour of uneasy slumber before the servant came to tell him to awake. All he could have thought of then and even now was her face, so pure catching the moonlight, taking his breath.
"I am happy to hear that."
"Did you sleep well Rukia?" HIsana smiled delicately, a maid stared- Rukia never smiled around her brother.
"Quite." She dished his food for him and set it before him, her smallest finger touching his knuckle. His hands were warm, she stole a glance at his face, there was no reaction from her touch. She was going to have to reach in deeply.
"I am surprised though, you do not seem to be suffering from drinking excessively." Hisana tilted her head lsighlty, he could see the curve of her neck in the kimono and the white of her chest, the delicate rise of her breasts.
"I suppose that walk with you did me well or perhaps it was the cup of tea we had after. Eitehr way, I do feel excellent." Yes, that was so much like Hisana. No need to fake when found out; just run right into it and use the past to justify the present- the perfect liar. A mind like that one had to cherish.
"It is nice to see you wearing the colletion," Byakuya remarked, eyeing her kimono, everyone was looking at it, "though if you don't mind me pointing it out Rukia, you are a bit out of season." Hisana didn't even glance at the bright red sleaves with its gold embossing.
"I don't see the need to look like my surroundings, nii-sama I am not a soldier of war." She pulled at the front of the kimono so he could no longer see down, "A lady must always stand out." Byakuya's lips pulled upward slightly. HIsana noticed and was saddened- it was all she could get out of him, a slight smile and she could not help but feel abandoned. Their laughter was gone, his smiles, his appearance- was this really a staranger? The man she loved, was he under there? Or was he lost forever, stamped out by the nobles… did he still love her?
The silence settled and she poured him more tea.
"there is no need to be traditional, Rukia, this is a modern house." Hisana looked up at him and much to his horror, he could see hurt in them. She cast them down and she pursed her lips. She was closing before his eyes.
"Hai, nii-sama." She didn't know what kind of man this was, but he wasn't the one she married. The one she married loved to be waited upon, he adored her- perhaps it was her weakness, her fragile need that he loved?
"Excuse me nii-sama." She said softly, her throat so stuck she couldn't swallow and without waiting for his response, she bowed stiffly, face close to the floor to hide her watering eyes before getting up and drifting smoothly out of the room.
"Ukitake Taicho," Rukia addressed haltingly, perhaps she was wrong- but who else would venture?
"Yes Rukia?" She glanced at the drunken Taicho lounging on a table looking outside.
"Taicho…" She stared at the white man, who else would do it? "Did you bring my sister back?" Ukitake stared at her in surprise and for a moment Rukia wondered if she had made a terrible mistake.
"Well it makes sense dosen't it?" Shunsui reasoned from his space- that lazy pink cat.
"I suppose, but her sister over her lover?"
"Blood is thicker than water." Rukia hated when the two of them spoke in riddles.
"Oh I'm sorry," Ukitake suddenly remembered she wasn't on their telepathic age old line, "yes we both did."
"No he did," Shunsui objected immideately, "I just tagged along." He yawned and streached largely. Rukia bit her lip, worried about the nect question.
"Do you think nii-sama really loves my sister?" The both men stared at the small woman.
"Why would you ask that?" Ukitake asked, trying to soften his evident surprise. Rukia rolled her shoulders.
"Nii-sama.. he changed over the years hasn't he?"
"Oh you're worried his taste in women has changed?" Rukia bit her bottom lip.
"Dunno if someone would wait half a century for someone to return it has to be real love no?" Shunsui ventured.
"But she's not the same woman." Rukia said quietly.
"Oh what changed?" Ukitake asked. A long silence ensued, she didn't know this woman and she didn't know exactly what was going on… but could she help if she cared?
"Everything…" Rukia answered, "she's nothing like the passive woman who he married, she's not sick any more…" How else could she say it? The servants told her stories and either they were lying of she had changed. Ukitake sighed.
"Don't worry yourself Rukia," Ukitake said kindly, "there had to be something about Hisana that drew your brother to her."
"Why are you concerned anyway?" Shunsui drawled, "if you don't mind me asking." Rukia stared at the Taicho with wide eyes.
"I just want nii-sama to be happy." She begged them not to tell Byakuya anything about her visit or questions and after the pair had reassured her- Ukitake kindly and Shnsui with a shrug, she left for her duty.
"We warned him." Ukitake sighed.
"They all did." Shunsui shrugged, "that was cruel, giving her false hope."
"I didn't," Ukitake answered, "it's a fact, there is something about Hisana that drew him, it wasn't sickness it has to be more that that."
"More?" Ukitake sighed a little and got up from his table.
"Perhaps."
AN- I am freaking starving! And im home alone ^.^ YAY! AND im done this stupid chapter… ne who… im gonna cook now :D stick around for more of da story!
