Renji found himself alone in Kuchiki-taicho's office, with a mini version of said taicho perched opposite him on the chabudai. There were a few key problems with this. Firstly, Kuchiki-taicho's office was more often than not, a self-imposed out-of-bounds area. That meant that he did not like going in, or staying in there. It gave him the creeps. Correction, Kuchiki-taicho gave him the creeps, and thus by extension, his office was intimidating.

And what had the others gone and done? They had disappeared off somewhere, muttering something about figuring out who had done it and why the little midget was still a little midget and not yet back to his old intimidating self. By what they were muttering, Renji could gather that the 'it' they were talking about was not the child-ification of one Kuchiki Byakuya, and was something different altogether. He was unbearably curious, but he had never been able to get anything out of Yoruichi-san before, and him not being that close to the other three meant that it would be even more difficult.

Renji was rather confused as to what had happened, seeing as none of them had deemed it important enough to inform him. He had no idea why Kuchiki-taicho was currently sitting in front of him in oversized clothing (severely oversized clothing), and looking as if he wanted to suck his thumb like any other little kid, but either did not dare to or had been forbidden to. In any case, Kuchiki Byakuya was not supposed to be small enough to sit on the floor and be half obscured by the chabudai, only the upper portion of his torso and his head visible. Renji wanted to know why, but no one had told him. And dear god, he really was going nuts. He was beginning to think that the rumors were actually true. (How could Kuchiki-taicho have engaged in a fight with Kurotsuchi-taicho? Nah, Renji. You must be going insane.)

In any case, here he was, watching little taicho happily splosh ink on paper in various shapes, strokes and pictures. It was amusing, really, but he was bored. Really bored. He was not an art person, and he certainly would not and could not appreciate splotches of ink. No way. Sitting back, he sighed, before wincing slightly when he noticed that there were now five new ink stains on the floor. Oh dear. When he came back, Kuchiki-taicho was going to be so… Oh. This was Kuchiki-taicho. Right. All these changes and stuff were rather confusing. He understood, but somehow, it had not really sunk in yet. Nope, not sunk in.

He vaguely wondered when it would sink in, when a small inky hand tugged at his thankfully black shihakusho. "Yes?" He flashed a big grin, still wondering what to address his taicho who was no longer a taicho by. Kuchiki-san made him seem disrespectful, and Kuchiki-sama was just plain not for little kids. Kuchiki-kun was definitely out. It was just queer. Just queer. Now, that left using taicho's first name, and that was a territory in which Renji was rather unsure in. He could count on one hand when he had referred to taicho by his first name. (Yeah, zero is countable on one hand.)

"Wanna play?"

A happy grin met Renji's. Byakuya decided there and then, or rather, he had decided earlier on, that he liked the funny red-haired man. Abarai-san seemed like a nice person, and since Yoruichi-san had said that he was a nice person as well, then he had to be a nice person. Or at least, he really seemed like a nice person, not like all of those queer people who tried to pretend to be nice to him at all those big parties that were not really parties because no one had fun at those.

"P-Play?" Renji blinked, surprised for the third time that day. Or rather, that hour. But still surprised, in any case. A gleefully happy affirmative nod brought yet another confused look to his face.

"B-But, what can we play?"

Now, don't get him wrong, he did not mind playing with the little kid, but he was unsure as to how. How was he supposed to treat the kid? Like a normal one? Or like some untouchable porcelain statue? (Everything logical pointed to treating him like an untouchable porcelain statue, but that did not particularly appeal to him. That and he was known to not follow the rules too well anyway.)

"Hm…"

A finger went to his lower lip as Byakuya thought about that. Usually Okaa-san came up with the play ideas, and sometimes Yoruichi-san when she was around. He did not normally think about those, because they were never as fun as when Okaa-san thought about them. But now that there was no one else except Abarai-san, then he was going to have to think up of the ideas. It did not look like Abarai-san was very good at thinking up ideas because he looked surprised, and Otou-sama said that people only looked surprised when they were not smart enough to notice things.

Speaking of noticing things, a happy grin came to his face. Renji looked nervously over. He had just proven earlier that Kuchiki-taicho, even when younger than usual, was still dastardly at heart. As such, he was not too willing to take part in the little devil's plans. Not at all. But did he have a choice? Nope. He had never really had a choice. Trying not to show his disappointment and regret at showing up early for work, he visibly relaxed when the little kid piped up happily.

"Scissors, Paper, Stone! Let's play Scissors, Paper, Stone, Abarai-san!"

Renji was too soft to decline, even though Scissors, Paper, Stone was a very childish game. He found himself seated across from the little one at the chabudai, right hand raised at his ear level as they played the simple, simple children's game. Seeing as he was a lieutenant, he was supposed to be relatively passable in strategy. He was supposed to be good. He was supposed to be better than the little kid in front of him. And there was no reason why he would be worse. No way. Yup. With that thought in mind, he chanted along with the bubbly happy kid.

"Scissors, Paper, Stone!"

No way. He stared in shock at the clenched fist opposite him, and then back at his own scissors. Mock-scowling, he raised a fist again, joining in the chant. He was going to win. Abarai Renji, lieutenant of the Sixth Division, was not going to lose in a game of Scissors, Paper, Stone. Nope.

"Scissors, Paper, Stone!"

Half an hour later found Renji completely and utterly flabbergasted. "Best of… How many are we at, Renji-san?" A little giggle before the all too happy Kuchiki Byakuya continued. "How many have you won?" Scowling (for real, this time), Renji refused to answer. It was below his dignity, below his manly ego for him to reveal how he had just been completely and utterly trashed by the mini-taicho. And here he had hoped to actually beat the man/kid in something. The gods were cruel. Really, really cruel.

The door opened slowly, but neither of them noticed, too caught up in playing Scissors Paper Stone to notice. (Renji was pre-occupied with attempting to win, and Byakuya was pre-occupied with trying to beat his record of thirty-five consecutive wins.) It was only when the door creaked when they looked up.

Upon hindsight, Renji figured that they looked hilarious like that, the little taicho sitting perched upon the chabudai, a look of complete surprise on his face, eyes glowing with happiness from winning the twentieth consecutive game. He, on the other hand, had been sitting back facing the doorway, and was looking utterly depressed from losing the twentieth consecutive game. Bleary-eyed, he turned to face the doorway.

And nearly got trampled when the little kid dashed at what seemed to be record speed off the chabudai and launched himself towards the person at the doorway, happily exclaiming, " 'Kaa-san!" Now, Renji had not even been alive when Kuchiki-taicho's okaa-san had been alive, that much he was pretty sure of, from what he had heard. As such, naturally, he would have no idea what Kuchiki-taicho's okaa-san had looked like. But there was one thing he was absolutely sure of, though.

Rukia was not his okaa-san. No freaking way in hell.

The above mentioned unseated member of the Thirteenth Division was stunned. It had been shocking to come across Renji sitting across a little boy in Nii-sama's office, playing what appeared to be Scissors, Paper, Stone. However, when said little boy had looked up at her with what was unmistakably Nii-sama's eyes, and then happily jumped at her proclaiming that she was his 'Kaa-san', she had been completely shocked, and almost dropped him.

Never mind the likeness to Nii-sama. That was not important. Rukia was absolutely sure that she did not have a kid. And since she did not have a kid, and had never adopted one, it would make perfect sense to then say that she was not anyone's 'Kaa-san'. And definitely not this kid's. "Ano," she began, trying to figure out what to say, (she had never been a really sociable person anyway) looking back at the kid who wiggled about uncomfortably, before dropping to the ground with a depressed look.

"You're not Okaa-san." Byakuya drooped visibly. And he had been so happy when someone with black hair had walked through the door too. Someone who… unfortunately, did not look at all like Okaa-san. Okaa-san was taller, quite a bit taller. And Okaa-san's hair was long, not short. Mumbling an apology, he ducked back towards Renji-san, who was a nice person, and who he knew. He dearly wanted to hide away somewhere and wait for Okaa-san to come back, because no matter what they all said, she was going to come back for him in the end anyway.

Rukia was absolutely sure that there was a story in here waiting to be told. And she was equally sure that Renji had absolutely no idea what was going on, which meant that she was just going to have to wait around until someone who knew what was going on appeared. (She was rather eager to find out, but yet apprehensive at the same time. Because if Renji was in the office, then Nii-sama would logically be in the office, but as it was rather apparent, he was not.)

But that was not why she had ventured all the way from the Thirteenth Division to the Sixth for. She had come to ask Renji if he had seen Ukitake-taicho, because according to Sentarou and Kiyone, or whatever she could get out of them through all the arguing and tearing out of hair in exasperation, said taicho had left early yesterday morning with a kid on his shoulders, and had returned without said kid but instead with both Kyouraku-taicho and Ise-fukutaicho. And currently, he was nowhere to be found. And that was bad. Not good at all.

"Renji?" She interrupted them, as the two had just gone back to a particularly interestingly one-sided match/game/tournament of Scissors, Paper, Stone, the little kid looking a little unhappier than he had before she had entered the room, but was gradually regaining the happy sparkle in his eyes. Said lieutenant turned around, looking slightly annoyed, but still not annoyed to the point that he was annoyed at her. "Hm? Oi, don't cheat, kiddo. I'm sure that was a Paper just now, not a Stone. Which means I just won that round, and you lost. Hah."

Byakuya wrinkled his nose and stuck out his tongue at Renji, before sitting back down on the chabudai, glaring at the lieutenant, but not saying anything. When Renji attempted to follow up on what he saw as a potentially lucky streak, Byakuya now gleefully pointed at Rukia, who was waiting for a response, albeit rather exasperatedly.

"Oh, Rukia, you were saying?" A wide grin now from Renji's direction, as he looked much happier than before. Rukia mentally rolled her eyes. Gee, it was so easy to make him happy? But in any case, she was curious to know whether Renji knew anything about where Ukitake-taicho had gone, and hopefully, anything about the kid situation. He had been out drinking with the others, so there was a possibility that he might know something. And there was no better way than to ask.

"Have you seen Ukitake-taicho? He hasn't been in his office or private rooms since this morning, when the two checked in."

"Yeah, he was here about an hour ago, but he left together with some others." Renji shrugged. "Dunno where they went though. Didn't seem to deem it important enough to tell me anything about that."

"What others?"

Rukia was genuinely confused. Although it was rather like Ukitake-taicho to be up at early hours, and then go around Thirteenth Squad barracks making a huge din and getting everyone else up as well, before preparing them for training which he was 'too ill to lead them in so they were just going to have to do as they saw fit from his instructions', it was not like him to wake early, and then leave the entire Squad still asleep. Nope, not at all. (And everyone thought he was such a wonderfully nice guy. Yeah right. He was nice, but not at five in the morning.)

"Well… There was Kyouraku-taicho, and Ise-fukutaicho… And… And…"

Renji scratched at his head. All this strategizing and cracking his brain to try and beat the kid had kind of wiped everything else out of his head for the time being, and he was having a hard time trying to remember. There had been someone else, he knew that there had been someone else laughing at him when he had fallen over, but for the life of him, he just could not remember who. (Very much like he could not quite remember what he had had the day before for lunch.)

"And Yoruichi-san!" Byakuya piped up happily. "Yoruichi-san was here just now, and they said something about going to see Unohana-san to pick up the results and to talk to her about something. It might be about the bad man who came into the room last night. I was scared but I'm not scared anymore, because Kyouraku-san says I'm safe." A big grin met hers as he hopped off the chabudai, remembering his manners.

"Kuchiki Byakuya desu. Dozo yoroshiku."

Renji frowned indignantly at the kid, because he was rather insulted that he had not gotten a nice polite greeting. Said kid merely turned and scrunched up his nose in distaste, sticking out his tongue once more before turning back to Rukia with a huge grin on his face, "My apologies about just now." He did a little shuffle thing which Renji half recognized as similar to that of Rikichi's, voice lowering to a mumble, "Thought you were Okaa-san," before bowing awkwardly, the grin still on his face (just a little smaller) as he looked back at Rukia.

Hoo boy. What a way to spring a surprise. Renji waited (and watched) with bated breath at the various expressions of shock in various degrees appeared and crossed Rukia's face. He tried to hold back a snigger. He tried to. It did not work. Taking in her look of absolute shock, the one with her eyes widening larger than usual, and with her mouth wide and gaping, he snickered. Loudly. Guffaws shook his body as for the second time that day, he toppled backwards, this time crashing into the chabudai, and pushing it backwards, still chuckling.

Byakuya, on the other hand, was confused. So far, everyone seemed to not know him, or seemed to be very shocked when he introduced himself. He wondered why. He knew that he was not very famous, yes, the Kuchiki name was famous, but then, Otou-sama was more famous because he was the leader of the Kuchiki clan, and Okaa-san was famous because Otou-sama was famous… but… Yoruichi-san had said that… But if they were not around, then who was in charge? It could not be him, right? He was too small. (He did want to be viewed as a big boy, but he knew he was not.) Pondering the question, he looked up at the lady, waiting for her to introduce herself. Maybe she was someone who knew what was going on.

"N-N-Nii-sama?!" Rukia choked out, stunned. Yeah, sure, the kid did have his eyes, or if she remembered correctly, that was. There had not been many times when she had looked at him after all. He had this rather intimidating air of I-am-holier-than-thou about him. Or rather, he had had such an air. He no longer had such an air, which was rather surprising. But other than that, and the nose and the chin and the general shape of the face, (Oh and the hair), he could easily be anyone else.

Byakuya looked around him for some bigger guy, but did not see one. And it did not look like Renji-san was the lady's Nii-san, so he did not really understand who the lady was referring to as 'Nii-sama'. "Who's your Nii-sama?" He piped up happily, bouncing up and down on the floor. "Is Renji-san your Nii-sama? Because there's no one else in the room…" He beamed up at her, impatiently awaiting an answer. It was funny that the lady looked shocked, but he wanted answers because no one ever told him anything, and he just wanted to know anyway. Renji-san really did not look like her Nii-sama. His hair was very, very red and hers was not.

Rukia was stunned. Completely and utterly shocked. Just… goodness. No way. Holy… There was no way the kid was him. There was no way. It couldn't be. How… She did not understand what was going on. (Well, no one had told her, but still, whoever said seeing was believing was probably a nutter. She was seeing, but she sure as crap was not believing. No freaking way.)

And as such, she did the only thing that her rather stunned brain could command her to do, which was to return his greeting and introduction with one of her own. On hindsight, that was a horrible, horrible idea, because it would only serve to confuse her and the little one (who was supposedly Nii-sama) even more. But she did it anyway, because the events happening were happening in real time, and there was no time in real time for hindsight.

"Kuchiki Rukia desu."

This time, it was his turn to stand there stunned, backing away from the doorway and tripping over the chabudai.

And again, I apologize for the delay in chapters. This one was particularly difficult to get through, but I hope it's a good one. Hopefully, the action (and the real plot) will start soon, so do bear with me in the meantime.

Cheers,
Tani