Happiness- I have been waiting to write this scene for FOREVER. A song comes in later in this scene (and may I say, it took forever to find the perfect one)- when you see it come up, just press play at this link: .com/watch?v=eN-szogkzFU

the voice is a little off but I luv it anyway- it's just so pure and happy :D

Chapter Eleven

After a few moments during which Kimiko was almost afraid to speak, she gathered enough courage to address the Captain. "Um, sir…" He blinked, and slowly turned his sad eyes to her.

"Yes?' he asked, without any trace of superiority. Behind his eyes a war was going on- Kimiko's sudden appearance was a definite shock, especially during the time each year when the sense of emptiness he felt from the lack of Hisana's love was at is highest, the time of year she died. Now, the ghost of Hisana seemed to be in the garden, as much as he recognized the reiatsu of the girl as Kimiko's. He turned his eyes down rapidly even as he turned, afraid of meeting Kimiko's wide, innocent ones. Why was she here, of all places? Quickly, he composed himself and lifted his head.

"Kimiko."

"You…know my name?" Kimiko was confused. With the pain apparent in Byakuya Kuchki's eyes, she could not loathe him, at least not at that moment; it would be too cruel. She was bewildered by his strange reaction to her, but decided it was just a reaction to her interrupting his mourning and left it at that.

"Yes." he stated, in a tone that prohibited questions.

"Package for you, sir… Hitomi was supposed to deliver it, but she was late for something and asked if I could help. Sorry…"

"It's fine." he replied shortly.

Curious despite herself, and lacking a guide, Kimiko could not just leave. So, instead of standing there in silence, she decided to ask a few questions. She twiddled her thumbs as she asked quietly, "What is this place?'

Byakuya's breath caught in his throat, the unexpected question startling him. "It-It's where… I met my wife." he stuttered.

"Really? How did you meet her?" she asked, her inquisitiveness overtaking her.

Feelings rose up in Byakuya one after another as he stared at the girl that looked so much like Hisana, the girl who stood there with expectant, bright eyes. His stone heart weakened under her happy gaze; he had not seen that face, the smiling face of Hisana- no, it was Kimiko- in so long. Even now, after years training himself to become impassive and insensitive in order to push away the pain of losing her, it still stirred up the same feelings as before. Unable to resist, he began to explain.

"It was fifty or sixty years ago, at this time of year. She came into my life with the plum blossoms… and left with them too, I guess. It was a sunny day, and I was training ouside," he paused and chuckled sadly, savoring the memory. "She fell out of a tree. I remember it was really hot, and all of a sudden she was just there, sitting in front of me with leaves in her hair. I didn't know what to think. Then she just gave me this big grin and asked me my name. I demanded to know what she was doing in the tree, but she just smiled and told me it was a secret. We got to talking, though; turns out she was visiting a friend who was a maid here, and had somehow gotten up in that tree. To this day, I still don't know what she was doing up there. It's just another thing about her I didn't know."

He suddenly looked so sad, and Kimiko was struck with a sudden urge to reach out and comfort him, which she resisted. He looked so lonely up on that bridge, and for the first time Kimiko wondered if his unforgiving demeanor wasn't just a device to push the world away to avoid more pain. Strangely, she began to feel sorry for him- not just sorry in the amount that was normal, but a kind of sympathy that reached down inside her and struck a chord in her heart. She was bewildered by the sudden feeling that grew inside her, unconsciously resisting it.

Byakuya continued. "She sang to me, too. It was beautiful; I will never forget that song. It was the first time I heard her sing, though definitely not the last. It was probably when I first… began to fall in love with her." He stopped speaking with a sense of finality, and for a moment everything was silent.

Then, with a feeling of rightness, Kimiko began to speak. She relaxed, letting her instincts take over. They guided her to say the kidou thatstarted the music, a single violin, and then for her to begin to sing a song that she felt she had heard before, though she could not remember where. The melody was pure, and her words firm. As she sang, she did not even know what she was singing, though the words came into her mouth involuntarily, smooth as water. She let each one out happily, losing awareness of her surroundings and eventually closing her eyes.

lalala uta wo utaou

kao age kokoro no mama utaou

akirame ja ikenai

dekinai koto nande nai yuuki no uta

dare ni mo makenai

yume ga aru

arukidasou mune hatte

watashi dake no michi ga aru

shinjiru no saho n ta sa

dakai yama ga ja noshite mo

ganbatte nori koe yo

watashi ni nara dekiru sa kiseki oko so

She opened her eyes to find herself staring into Byakuya's. They were wide with a mixture of hope and shock, a combination that Kimiko found irrationally terrifying; the spell that the song had woven was instantly broken. She backed up a few steps, and stumbled out the gate without a backward glance, where she ran immediately into the guard who had taken her to the garden before. He had come back to retrieve her; Byakuya watched her go with pain stabbing through his heart.

The song she had just sung was the one Hisana had sung to him in the same garden, so many years ago.