So to all of you who had hoped for Byakuya's entrance. I hope he's in character, he's one of the most difficult characters I've ever tried to write. Not exactly the overprotective big brother type, but I sort of see Byakuya as a sadist little bastard. After all, he doesn't kill people in one fell swoop of a sword, he kills them with millions of tiny little blades... Anyway, Enjoy! I don't own Bleach.
Hitsugaya Toshiro had never set foot on noble grounds before.
He wasn't a noble and thus such things had never really been part of his daily planning. What was he going to do there anyway? If he wanted something to be taken to Kuchiki, he would send someone to do it, not do it himself.
So with the firm command – and a no nonsense tone since he's been avoiding it for a whole week – Rukia told him to don his best and formal yukata. Considering the fact that he didn't really have anything more formal in his closet than his shinigami uniform and haori he had informed her that he would be wearing it. The poor woman nearly killed him for that statement, baby in her arms as she went. She had made him go and buy a new set of formal clothes to wear to this meeting.
He would never admit that he was rather nervous about meeting Kuchiki Byakuya as the father of Kuchiki Rukia's daughter.
They had no plausible explanation for the existence of the child and Kuchiki Byakuya was a man who tended to prefer plausible reason. The only good thing he could see in this whole debacle was that Matsumoto had to be present as Kuchiki's wife and that she would at least be on his side during this meeting.
The servant that answered the door told them that he would lead them to the outside teahouse in the back of the garden. Hitsugaya couldn't help but think that it was the perfect place to murder someone violently for doing something he didn't even do. It was far away, secluded and most probably he would be dead before he even completed stepping into the room.
Was this meeting absolutely necessary? Could he not just leave?
The teahouse was a comfortable size, a single circular room with a small open fire and a table at which they could sit and have cookies with the tea. Kuchiki and Matsumoto were already seated when they arrived. They bowed as they entered, he was the head of a noble clan, and sat down with their legs folded beneath them.
Kuchiki's eyes immediately dropped to the child sleeping soundly in Rukia's arms.
Hitsugaya stiffened, but forced him-self to relax, it wasn't like Kuchiki would kill the child. Rukia smiled. "This is Kai, Nii-sama." She said brightly before carefully holding the child out to Kuchiki.
"Cute!" Matsumoto squealed brightly as she took the child before Kuchiki could. The black haired man looked like he didn't know whether to glare at her of soften his eyes. "Just look at her, I bet she's going to be a really looker when she grows up. You're going to be beating boys away with a stick, taichou."
"More like skewer them with my zanpakuto." He grumbled under his breath, the idea of any boy coming near his kid just annoyed him. He cleared his throat. "Thank you for this invitation, Kuchiki taichou."
The man inclined his head, but remained silent as the two women started to talk about how to hold babies and how to change nappies and how to feed and how to this and how to do that and more and more how, they remained silent. A willing servant served tea; tea was drunk by willing receivers and still no words between them.
Eventually Matsumoto dragged Rukia away to show her the new room she had been working on, just for the baby girl. He almost begged to go with them, but decided to remain where he was and face his fate.
"Hitsu…"
"I don't know how it happened." He interrupted.
Kuchiki raised his brows. "Hitsugaya taichou," he said calmly as if he was not interrupted. He raised his cup to his lips and took a sip before setting the cup down again, "You are aware that your child will not be accepted by the Kuchiki clan."
Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes, his hands tightening around his cup of tea. "I don't give a fuck about whether or not she will be accepted by this clan, Kuchiki." He whispered coldly. "I warn you now, if your clan so much as think of harming her or Rukia, I will lay waste to this clan. Kuchiki blood will flow through the streets of this compound and their screams will fill the air and I will make sure you stand to watch this happen."
He was surprised when the man's mouth quirk in a smirk behind his cup, as if he was hiding it from Hitsugaya, he wasn't sure if he was just imagining it, but that smirk was rather sadistic.
"I can respect a man willing to defend my sister and her child, Hitsugaya taichou."
He wished the people around him would start reacting the way he expected them to.