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Finally, a Byakuya POV. Actually, I'm happy that Byakuya's just in the this one, period. You haven't been making very extensive appearances lately, Byakuya. I've missed you.
The next day, at around noon, the door to Byakuya's office slammed open. Without even looking up, Byakuya knew who it was. Only one person was bold enough to bust into his office in such an obnoxious manner, without knocking and with a complete lack of manners or common courtesy.
"Kuchiki-taichou", said Renji, having to use both arms to carry a large stack of paperwork. "Here." He gingerly set it down on Byakuya's desk, careful that it wouldn't fall over. He straightened up, looking proud. "It took a while, but I got it done. They're all organized."
"Yes, very good", said Byakuya, resuming what he'd been doing before the interruption.
"But wait, taichou."
With a sigh of annoyance, Byakuya turned his attention back to his fukutaichou. Renji's voice was like Ichigo Kurosaki's---it penetrated his ears despite his efforts to ignore it, and once there, it grated on him until he was forced to acknowledge the source of the irritation.
Renji saw that he had Byakuya's attention again and elaborated. "Well, to be precise, I was wondering---aren't you going to doublecheck the paperwork I did?"
"The reason for giving work to another is so that you do not have to do it yourself. Two people working together get something done faster than one person working alone." Although, it did take him until noon. "Most of the time, anyway."
"But I mean...aren't you even going to look at it?"
"As my fukutaichou, I trust that you're competent enough to at least do paperwork correctly."
"So...all that, and you were never even going to review it..." Renji's voice was distant. He had the look of someone who realized that he'd slaved over something pointless. Which, effectively, he had.
"You surprise me continually", said Byakuya, "From your expression, you actually did every piece of paperwork." This was...shocking, to say the least. Even before Renji and Rukia had been married, Renji had done everything possible to get out of paperwork.
He'd faked illness. He'd had real illness. He'd gone on random trips to the world of the living, 'on business'. He'd bribed others into doing it for him. He'd threatened them with Zabimaru if they didn't take the bribe. He'd faked injuries. He'd real injured himself while trying to fake injure himself. 'Competent enough to at least do paperwork correctly'? Yeah, right. Byakuya had learned a while ago not to bother asking Renji to help him with Sixth Company's internal affairs. In fact, no one in this company was reliable for such things.
It was just his luck that he'd been made taichou of a company of deadbeats. He must have had bad karma or something.
Byakuya divided the one large stack into five smaller ones. It seemed to be a big deal, so he'd at least look through the paperwork a little---even though these were completely unimportant pieces of paper. They were just copies of paperwork that had been done by himself ten years ago. The originals were safely tucked away, of course. It was just, these blank copies had been cluttering up space around Sixth Company headquarters and Renji had been irritating him. Of course, if Renji had looked at the dates he could have saved himself a lot of trouble, but...
He saw something interesting on the back of the first piece of paper he picked up.
"Abarai, what is this?" He held it so that Renji could see the badly drawn rabbit on the back.
"Gah! Um---I guess Rukia got bored."
"So Rukia was here last night." Of course, Byakuya had already suspected that, but clearly the subject was making Renji squirm...
Still, if Rukia had been here, she must surely have noticed the dates. And yet she'd let Renji struggle on? That girl had quite an evil streak.
"Yeah, she was here. What of it?" Renji's voice sounded as though his windpipe was being constricted. He shifted nervously. These were things Byakuya picked up on.
He was curious now as to why his fukutaichou would have such a reaction. Had something happened?
"I was merely curious. Shortly after I returned to my bedroom, I heard her leave the house. She did not return until sunrise." He didn't mention that due to Rukia's absence, he had tried to make his own breakfast. The result? Well...it was scarier than any Hollow. Even Rukia, when she returned, didn't want to go within ten feet of it. And after gallantly disposing of it, she had asked him to please never try to cook again. Or even think about trying to cook.
"Oh. Yeah. She was here. For a while. Anyway, Kuchiki-taichou, I have important things to take care of, and so do you. We shouldn't be wasting time with meaningless conversation."
Yet another strange thing for one of the most skilled time-wasters around to say.
"Of course. But there is one more thing that has been weighing on my mind since I came in this morning. Abarai, since you were here throughout the night I am hoping that you can help me to resolve this troubling matter."
"What is it?" asked Renji curiously.
"When I go home at the end of the day", said Byakuya, "I always lock up my office. Yet when I came in this morning, the door was unlocked. Do you know why that is?"
"Wh...what's with the accusatory tone, Kuchiki-taichou?"
Accusatory? Byakuya didn't think he'd sounded that way at all.
"You really think I would pick the lock to your door and come in your office when you're not here?"
Byakuya didn't respond, but merely sat there patiently, watching his fukutaichou. It seemed to make said fukutaichou nervous.
"All right, it was Rukia", said Renji, "I told her not to, but you know how strong-willed she is. She said you wouldn't care as much if it was her. Is that all, Kuchiki-taichou?"
"Yes. You may go."
As much as I like Renji, it's just too easy to mindf*** him.