Summer Snowflake

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Bleach, which is a shame.

Note: Hey guys! I know that it's been a very long time since my last update. It's just that life sometimes decides to throw curveballs our way and I wasn't able to bounce back from mine as quick as I thought I would. So after a few months of concentrating on work and depriving myself from writing, I'm finally back and hopefully will start updating regularly. I'm aiming for a chapter every two to three weeks if that's acceptable. I hope you guys can forgive for making you wait so long and thank you to those that stuck with this story and kept their eyes peeled for this chapter.

I really can't thank everyone enough for their continued support and interest in this story.

Since I'm taking this story step by step, I thought I'd suggest "Step by Step" by Orange Range as well as "Sadness and Sorrow" from the Naruto soundtrack today.

Chapter 10
The Morning Dew's Promise

It was a scream that woke him.

Byakuya shot up in his futon, his eyes narrowing quickly, instinctively. His body rose from the bed as he perceived his surroundings. The sky beyond the window was dark and strangely malicious. A thump sounded from beyond his bedroom and his vision flew to the empty futon next to his.

"Hisana," Byakuya's voice trailed.

The Kuchiki clan head could only think of where his wife had disappeared to at this hour until the memories of her death reclaimed his attention momentarily. He shook his head wilfully, sternly. No, that had been a dream. He was sure of it. It was just a very bad dream and the neatly folded robe on the futon had only further cemented his belief. There was another thump and Byakuya broke free from the binds his thoughts were weaving. Picking Senbonzakura up from his resting place, Byakuya edged his way towards the door and into the hallway.

It was sluggish, the way a sagacity of foreboding poured into his head. As the feeling consumed him, his footsteps grew listless and heavy, as if his body was telling him that it was a much better idea to return to bed and forget he'd ever heard anything. Nearing the end of the hallway, the captain's superior sense of hearing detected the muted sound of rapid footsteps.

When he reached his destination at the end of the hallway and his eyes met the darkness of the living room, his feet cemented themselves to the floor, refusing to move even an inconsequential millimetre more. Thunder roared and rain drops patted on his home's rooftop. Had it been raining? Byakuya couldn't recall as some force had rendered his senses incapable of complying with his wishes.

The cool sound of metal against sheath reverberated in the living room as Byakuya finally drew Senbonzakura. Numbness settled in his fingertips and his palms grew sweaty in anticipation when he forced his legs forward once more in between the flashes of lightning. With the quick strikes of light, Byakuya's eyes caught the outline of a feminine body a few inches from the windowsill. He could do nothing to still the quick beat of his heart as he charted a course towards the window.

One hand fell from Senbonzakura's hilt as Byakuya knelt down to reach towards where he had seen the body. His hand drew closer and he anticipated what he was sure would be the feel of cold, clammy skin against his warm fingertips. Lightning struck once more and his eyes caught the sight of the dull, lifeless eyes of his wife.

Byakuya's pupils dilated instantly as he dropped his zanpakuto and fell backwards onto the floor. Unable to find his voice, he gasped for breath as he shifted himself onto his knees. He reached out for the body of his wife, his fingers shaking. The sensation was foreign to Byakuya, not because he had never shook before, but because it was fear, and not anger, that shook him.

He felt the silk of the sleeping yukata that clothed the lifeless body brush against his fingertips. Finding the woman's still warm shoulders, Byakuya drew the body to his chest. As the moonlight hit the face of the woman he cradled in his arms, Byakuya's heart dropped yet again when his eyes met auburn eyes instead of blue.

"Miyako."

The name fell from his lips before he could register that it was his housekeeper he was holding in his arms. It was not Hisana, that much was certainly clear, and yet Byakuya felt none of the relief that he expected to feel – relief that he direly sought for. Glazed over half opened eyes stared at him as he pulled Miyako's body closer. The light scarlet tint that her cheeks always carried was quickly fading and a thick line of crimson liquid dripped from the corner of the woman's already pale lips.

"Byakuya?"

Byakuya blinked and only a second later did he look around himself to see if someone else had been in the room. When he found no one, he looked back down at the body in his arms, throat tightening, as he desperately pressed his fingertips against Miyako's neck and wrists, hoping and praying for any signs of life. He found no pulse, no small rise and dip in her chest, no hope. Her body slipped from his arms –

A gasp.

Byakuya's eyes snapped open and darted side to side. He sat up slowly, his right arm pushing him up from his futon as he massaged his aching temples. His brows furrowed as he questioned if he had been the one who gasped. The gasp was what woke him from his nightmare.

"A nightmare," Byakuya's words slowly fell from his lips as he struggled to remember the events of his dream which were quickly fading away.

His heart beat slowed as any memory of his dream disintegrated and he took in a deep breath of air. The cold air that accompanied the early morning dew brushed against his skin as the shoji screen of his room allowed some of the dawn to filter into his bedroom. Finding no reason, nor desire, to return to his slumber, Byakuya rose from his bed and set on a path towards the wash room. Miyako wouldn't have been awake yet, but he could draw his own bath once in a while. He was far from an invalid after all.

As Byakuya took step after step, he recalled his itinerary for the day. There was a captain's meeting later in the afternoon and he was sure that his fukutaicho would have more paperwork for him to approve of. He would have to see Juushiro today as well. The regular reports of Miyako's progress had become, to put it simply, irregular. And as much as he wanted to ignore that his housekeeper was being trained to master skills which did not suit her, he needed to be ascertained that she was at least learning properly as to not taint his name in any way.

It was only when he arrived at the wrong door that Byakuya realized his feet had taken him down a different path. Byakuya stared at the shoji screen that separated him from his housekeeper's quarters. Byakuya sighed at himself with irritation. Checking on Miyako had become an unwelcomed habit of his ever since she was attacked, whether it was late in the night, if he arrived home late or early in the morning if he needed to depart before everyone else woke up.

He always told himself that he didn't want to be bothered with having to place more security around his home. It was a foot in the door to his privacy. A foot he didn't want to have there. That was it. He told himself that it was his privacy that was important. It wasn't a matter of ensuring himself that she was okay. That nothing had happened without his knowledge again. That she was safe. Byakuya slid the screen open quietly.

Satisfied with seeing Miyako in bed, Byakuya shut the door and again deviated from the course he had previously set to the washroom and went to the garden instead. It was, after all, looking even more pleasant since his housekeeper had taken interest in his mother's personal favorite past time.

Miyako's eyes opened slowly at the sound of the shoji screen sliding shut. Her eyes fluttered to the door, swearing that Byakuya had been there just a few moments ago. She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, concentrating on the different frequencies of energy and the minute discrepancies which set each of them apart. Her eyes opened again. She could feel Rukia and she could feel Byakuya which meant that neither of them had left the home yet.

"Well done, Miyako."

Miyako smiled and thanked her zanpakuto spirit sincerely. It hadn't been long since she had finally gotten the hang of sensing reiatsu and distinguishing one reiatsu owner from another. Juushiro had been quite proud of her after she had learnt the skill, actually. She was far from mastering it, but she was progressing at a much quicker pace than her friend and sensei had expected.

Deciding that she would put her beddings away after taking care of her usual morning routine, Miyako left her bedroom and made her way to the living room to open the windows and air the house out. She had stepped one foot into the living room when she saw Byakuya sitting on one of the stone benches in the garden, still in his sleeping yukata. His hair was still unbound by the ornamental hair pieces he normally wore; telling Miyako that Byakuya had not been awake for long.

The man looked so calm and serene, a stark difference to the stern and unforgiving mask he always wore. Smiling just a little at such a welcome and rare sight, Miyako forwent the opening of windows for the meantime and stepped back into the kitchen to put the kettle on. Thankfully, her plants had recently finishing drying which allowed her to replenish the quickly diminishing supply of tea in the household.

The clink of clay on stone and a soft morning greeting from his housekeeper disrupted Byakuya's meditation. He opened his eyes as the fragrance of the special tea that he grown to favor a long time ago met his nostrils. Tray pressed to her chest as always, Miyako gestured to the tea pot and cup that she had previously set down next to him.

"Will you have some, Byakuya-sama?"

Byakuya nodded and allowed the woman to pour him his tea. As she bent over to pour the tea, her hair poured over her shoulders and curtained her face. Byakuya much preferred that Miyako kept her hair in the loose braid that she had once fashioned but the way in which his housekeeper fixed her hair was none of his concern.

Miyako filled the cup three quarters of the way just as Byakuya's preferences dictated and prepared to return to her daily chores when Byakuya stopped her.

"Sit down, Miyako-san."

"Pardon?"

"Sit down."

"Hai."

Miyako sat on the bench adjacent to Byakuya's and pulled the shawl that she had on her shoulders tighter around her body.

"Did you use the seeds that my mother left you for this garden?" Byakuya asked after a sip of his beverage.

"Hai, Byakuya-sama," Miyako responded. "I think she would have liked it that way; for her son to have a piece of her just outside his window."

"I see," was Byakuya's own response to Miyako's opinion.

The housekeeper shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Had Byakuya taken offense? Had he thought that she was insisting she knew his mother better than he did? She spoke again, "It's just that since you refused to stay at the main grounds, I thought perhaps if the Lady had still been alive, she would have cultivated the garden here herself."

"There's no need for you to make excuses, Miyako-san," Byakuya said. "We both know that you knew my mother well enough to call her your own. Let facts be facts."

And the fact was that as a male born into the Kuchiki clan, he had been groomed for sixth division captaincy and the position of clan head since he was strong enough to carry a wakizashi. Most of his time was spent with this grandfather as his father was busy with the Gotei Thirteen. He saw little of his mother and more of the training grounds and his study room. That was one of Byakuya's deepest regrets after the passing of his mother and father; that he hadn't known them better.

"Hai," Miyako said obediently and clasped her hands together to keep them from fidgeting.

"You did a beautiful job," Byakuya said, sparing the woman sitting with him one of his rare compliments. "She would have been proud to see this."

Miyako smiled in thanks, "Arigatou, Byakuya-sama."

When Byakuya said nothing else, Miyako stood up and picked up her tray, "It's almost eight, Byakuya-sama. Forgive me for my negligence but I haven't drawn your bath yet so I'm afraid I'll have to excuse myself."

Byakuya nodded curtly, letting any sentimentality and nostalgia that he had sunken into before Miyako's arrival subside. Once Miyako had disappeared into the manor, Byakuya drained the rest of his cup and left the garden to prepare his uniform. He paused at the doorway to the gardens when he smelled grilled fish.

A tray sat at the dining room table. Miyako must have prepared his breakfast before she brought him his morning tea. For the last time that day, Byakuya deviated from the course he originally charted.

Room tidied? Yes.

Rukia's uniform prepared? Yes.

Laundry gathered? Yes.

Bath redrawn for the next user? Yes.

Miyako continued to tick items off of her mental checklist as she emerged from her room from the second time that morning. This time around, however, she was out of her sleeping yukata and into one of her favorite but plain kimonos. She braided her hair loosely today instead of leaving it loose like she had earlier planned. Why she changed her mind, she wasn't quite sure. She didn't particularly enjoy braiding her hair. It made her feel like there was more work to be done than she remembered.

Her employer had already left the house by the time Miyako had finished her chores. She was on her way to the dining room to clear Byakuya's breakfast tray however the idea of having to throw out what she was certain would be a completely untouched meal spurred her to prepare Rukia's breakfast instead.

"It's not just the waste of food that bothers you, am I correct?"

"I know it's been a month, Zanpakuto-san, but it really is difficult to get used to a body-less voice popping in and out of mind as they please."

"On the contrary, I don't pop in and out. I'm quite constant, you see. As you have already been informed, I do, in fact, live in your inner world. You just have a habit of ignoring me when I talk to you eighty percent of the time."

Miyako huffed in annoyance, something she had only started doing after the appearance of her zanpakuto spirit. He really did get quite infantile at some times. It was like having a busy body chattering away into her ear, telling her things she didn't want to know or hear.

"And, as you should also know, I know what you're thinking," his voice popped again, "To set the record straight, I'm not infantile. You're the one with denial issues."

Huffing one more time, Miyako warmed Rukia's breakfast and readied her tea. Miyako could feel Rukia's reiatsu better and realized that she must have been finished with her bath. Picking up the tray, Miyako walked out of the kitchen to meet her charge halfway.

"Ohayou, Miyako-san!" Rukia greeted cheerfully, a towel still hanging around her shoulders.

She sat down clumsily at the table, running her hands through her damp hair as Miyako set the breakfast she prepared in front of Rukia. Almost instantaneously, Rukia began to eat, running just a little bit late for her morning rounds.

"I'm going to have to take to the rooftops just to make it to the thirteenth division on time," Rukia half chewed, half muttered much to the delight of the women that had taken a seat next to her with her own cup of chilled tea. "And I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that you like your tea cold."

"We all have our own little personal quirks, Rukia-sama," Miyako laughed, "Mine just happens to be cold tea."

"So then why do you always drink your tea hot around other people?" Rukia questioned as she stuffed another piece of egg into her mouth.

"I suppose it's because I feel much more comfortable about being myself around you," Miyako nudged Rukia lightly. It always warmed her heart to see Rukia eating so heartily. "Think of it as an equivalent to you inhaling your food when it's only my eyes that can see you."

Rukia choked a little on her breakfast and downed her entire cup of tea. She punched at her chest a little as she said, "I see your point. Were you in the middle of your own breakfast when I came out, Miyako-san?"

"Iie, Rukia-sama, why do you ask?"

"Because if you weren't then either I'm seeing things or nii-sama actually consumed something this morning other than his tea," Rukia pointed out as she gestured to the tray that Miyako had all but forgotten about with her chopsticks.

Stunned, Miyako looked over to the tray that she had set for Byakuya earlier that morning. Although most of the food had remained intact, there was a portion of the grilled fix missing along with half of the miso soup and a perhaps a few mouthfuls of rice. She was so stunned that she didn't notice Rukia rushing out of the manor until she called out a farewell and slipped out of the doorway.

Miyako stood up from her seat and walked slowly to the other side of the dining table, still staring at Byakuya's breakfast. If it hadn't been for the fact that it was Rukia who pointed out the deficit in the food on the plates, Miyako would have thought she was seeing things. She sat at Byakuya's seat and covered her mouth with a hand slowly. Her eyes moistened and a single joyful tear snuck its way out of the corner of her eye and down her cheek. Byakuya had finally started eating breakfast again.

It wasn't much, but it was certainly a start.

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I have to admit it was difficult kick starting writing for this story again after having neglected it for so long. I'll do my best to get my flow back to where it used to be!

Jia ne!