AN- yesh so… huh don't like Hisana do we readers dearest… well that's too damn bad I ain't changing her. Don't like it, don't read and don't review me to tell me what she's supposed to be. However if I am incorrect in the bleach plot line itself or if my grammar or descriptions are not internationally acceptable, pray do tell. Else, shut it, close this window- and for the ones who like my story- do read on ^.^ . Thank you for reading!
Ichigo paused and looked about himself, he could didn't think he could ever get over the immaculate splendor of the Kuchiki manor. He looked left and right, there were trees blooming purple and unnecessary.
"Like if all those white walls weren't bad enough." He muttered to himself, wiping his brow. He had been hopelessly searching the grounds for a little black head which he had not seen all morning. He though he had figured out the motive of the new breed of Arrancar but first he needed to find someone to reject his idea and talk some sense into him and where as Byakuya would have done the job fine, he needed someone he couldn't take seriously- hence he was searching for Rukia.
Ichigo stopped and listened, the thought he had heard- and then he was sure he had as it came again, deep wrenching sobs that ripped the sweet air of the balmy morning. Ichigo opened the door- one that looked none too different from the others and stopped, his breath leaving in a rush.
He saw the white legs first, immaculate against the deep brown of the vanished floors, shining silver with the morning light. Then he was taken by the violence of the orange kimono- those colors would have never been seen in this season; then the deep blue obi with its silver chrysanthemums, pale arms, slim neck and then the so very dark hair, shiny and sleek.
"Who are you?" Ichigo found himself saying. She looked up at him, eyes so similar yet obviously different. She bit at her already red lips and dabbed gently at her reddened eyes.
"Rukia."
"You're not Rukia." Ichigo answered immediately, but reaching for his zanpactu was the last thing on his mind.
"Why aren't you attacking?" She asked from where she sat. "Why aren't any of you attacking?" Ichigo blinked.
"What?"
"Since I have been here, no one has attacked me."
"Why should we? Byakuya hasn't attacked you."
"What?"
"Byakuya, he knows you're here, he hasn't come and searched you out yet so I guess that makes you a guest." She looked down at her hand, flat on the pale green of the futon, at her clear nails.
"That makes sense." She muttered. Ichigo stared longer at her, the side profile, the dark feathery eyelashes, neat nose, red lips, full cheeks
"Why were you crying?" Ichigo asked suddenly. She looked up at him and her eyes sprang full again.
"Nothing," She answered, looking down at her feet, curled over each other in their white socks. Ichigo continued to stare in sheer fascination.
"Who are you?" She shook her head.
"No one." Her voice cracked little and sniffling a little, she gathered her self in the violent silk she gracefully moved past him and out into the golden morning light. He watched her settle on the stairs. He didn't know what to say, obviously she was on the verge of tears. He did the only thing he knew to do, he sat down beside her and looked out at the beautiful gardens and clear sky with its mist of clouds.
"So who are you?" Ichigo ventured of a long silence punctuated by the awakening of fowls of the air and listening to the religiously scraping servants as they tried to get the dead leaves off the wet stones.
"Hisana." She answered, Ichigo's brow arched a little at the single title.
"Kuchiki His-"
"NO," She answered forcefully and bit her lip at her short tone, "just Hisana." She breathed. Ichigo felt like laughing a little- Byakuya really did it this time, it hadn't even been twenty four hours and already the love of his life hated him.
"What did he do?" Ichigo ventured. She stared at the servant patiently raking leaves, pretending not to notice either of them. She stared at him for so long, Ichigo thought she didn't hear.
"He changed." She answered suddenly, taking a deep shuddering breath. "He's not my Byakuya any more." The words sounded almost tearful but she continued to stare at the servant raking leaves, dry eyed.
"Who was your Byakuya?" Ichigo wondered aloud- he didn't know what that man was like as a youth, in love, the idea was as impossible to him as he having a wife.
"He was…" She looked up at the sky, "He was real." Ichigo stared at her- she was exactly what he thought Byakuya's wife would be, beautiful, calm, refined, graceful; they were a perfect match.
"Real?" She shook her head and leaned back on the steps, resting her head on the top step while she was seated on the third. Her fingers laced over her torso, she looked the part of a living dead.
"Byakuya-sama," She coughed slightly as her throat rasped, "Byakuya-sama used to be…" She frowned a little, she had a hard time putting her finger on it.
"He wasn't so impervious?" She looked at him from the corner of her eye. The very gesture took his breath.
"Well…" She sighed and closed her eyes; perhaps she could find the answers there. "This Byakuya has a heart of diamond, as cold and as hard and as deceptive." This woman was very interesting.
"Deceptive?"
"Yes," She shook her head a little, she seemed more to be having a bad dream, "diamonds are beautiful and they sparkle, they promise the world but when left alone with them, they give no warmth, they nourish nothing and they have no light." She sobbed a little and sat up quickly, determined to hide her tears from Ichigo.
"That's what Byakuya has become." Ichigo said the words she couldn't say. She nodded as her face hid in her sleeves. He looked at her and felt a love for this small woman often reserved for his sisters. He reached out an arm and put it around her shoulder, pressing her head to his chest. She cried a little more. Her tears were used sparingly, as though making them was hard on her little body and so, using them was to be held to quota. She sniffled a little more and dabbed her eyes again, sitting up, she did not move her hands as they were folded on his leg.
"The Byakuya-sama I knew was," She laughed a little, "much messier."
"Messier?"
"His hair was always tousled and his robes were never straight and he used his face a lot." Ichigo found this hard to believe.
"His face?" She nodded.
"His face was always so alive, always twisting and grimacing, smiling and laughing and his eyes were so bright they burned you." She sighed a little and leaned against Ichigo, who ever this woman was, she was as infinitely cut as a jewel, no wonder Byakuya waited all these years for her.
"Nothing's really changed about him I guess," He ventured.
"What do you mean?" She looked up at his face- so trusting, so free of malice.
"I mean well…" He scratched the back of his head, how should he say it? "Byakuya used to have a high temper and Senbonzakura has it but all the other things you said Byakuya used to be Senbonzakura doesn't have it and if it's a reflection of his soul then I guess somewhere deep down he's still that way." She was still staring at him.
"Why do you call Byakuya-sama by his first name?" Ichigo blushed a little and shrugged.
"Dunno, guess it has something to do with there being no proof that I should show him respect." She frowned a little.
"You've fought Byakuya-sama and won?" Ichigo laughed.
"Well I didn't win but I didn't loose either." Hisana stared a little longer at him; she moved back a little seeming to suddenly notice their proximity and looked him over for the briefest of moments.
"Oh." She stood up and began to go up stairs.
"Hisana." She looked back at him angrily.
"That's Rukia." She snapped, looking around, the servants had gone off somewhere.
"Err, yeah, Rukia."
"What?" He took her hand, two steps above him and she only towered slightly over him, she was very short.
"Look," he took her hand, something about her made him thin she was about to fly away in a moment, "Byakuya is the man you married, nothing's really changed."
"How do you know?"
"Well," he frowned a little, "sometimes, he just is not his usual stoic self, he just does something that makes us all stare a little, somewhere in there Hi-Rukia, he has a heart." She stared at him, those eyes could swallow people whole.
"You're trying to say that all I need to do is reach a little further?" Ichigo considered her words.
"I guess." She looked away, seemed to be weighing the idea.
"Kurosaki Ichigo."
AN- sorry, hard to keep on this story line… im on meds and it has me a little funny… kinda on automatic… I haven't had a provincial thought in a while… im using words and I have no idea what they mean :P… ne who… enjoy.
