Disclaimer: still don't own Bleach and its characters

A/N: I hope you all enjoy this chapter…it's mostly a filler i guess, it turned out pretty long, but I thought it would be funny if you met some of Shunsui's family, so enjoy them…

CHAPTER 25

Kimiko sat on the porch outside her and Jyuushiro's room, looking out over the eerily calm lake in their backyard.

Jyuushiro shifted restlessly in his disturbed sleep, the sheets of the futon rustling.

He had been coughing on and off since she had brought him home the previous night and as he coughed lightly now, she glanced over her shoulder to check that there was no sign of blood, increasing the presence of her cinnamon-scented reiatsu around him, hoping to comfort him.

There was a slight rustling as a lick of wind moved through the leaves of a tree, drawing her eyes back to the garden.

'The calm before the storm,' Kiyoshi spoke.

"Hmmm," Kimiko murmured in agreement.

Jyuushiro came awake with a soft moan, his head pounding and his chest constricting painfully.

He fought the urge to cough as he cracked open an eyelid and saw that Kimiko's spot at his side was empty.

Taking in a long, slow breath through his nose, Jyuushiro scented Kimiko's presence and turned his head painfully until he spotted her back.

With great effort, Jyuushiro laboriously pulled himself up into a sitting position and shuffled over to her on his hands and knees, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind and resting his forehead in the hollow between her shoulder blades.

She hugged his arms and leant back into him ever so slightly.

"How are you feeling?"

He whimpered in reply.

"Is that from the hangover or the coughing?"

"Both," he groaned.

Kimiko smiled faintly to herself, remembering some of the funny things he had gone on about on their way home last night.

She felt his body tense behind her as he was consumed by a violent, hacking cough.

He moved back slightly, his hand to his mouth, in an effort to avoid getting blood on her clothes.

She turned to face him using her sleeve to wipe the flecks of blood off his palm.

Jyuushiro's eyes fluttered slightly as Kimiko ran a gentle hand over his forehead and through his loose hair.

He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the sensation.

When he opened them again, Kimiko was absentmindedly playing with the ends of his hair, while she looked out over the garden, concern and sadness in her eyes.

"What's wrong koishii?" Jyuushiro frowned.

"I'm worried about Rin," she sighed. "I remember her telling me about a childhood friend she had had and loved almost her entire life. Though she always only called him Byakko, I worked out when I met Kuchiki that he was who she meant. When she decided to return to Soul Society with me, I thought she'd be okay, she had come a long way in recovering from her wounds. But it seems to me that the way she left things…unfinished, is causing her pain now…Kuchiki is causing her pain now and the problem is that she was expecting him to have been happily married with a few kids by now; she was ready for that, and for the anger or hurt he may still feel about her breaking her promise to him."

Kimiko sighed and shook her head. "But he isn't married anymore. He's widowed. He has no children. He isn't happy. She doesn't know what to do anymore and I can't think of what to say to help her."

Jyuushiro took her hand lightly in his, hoping to offer some sort of comfort.

"For things to have ended up the way they did, it can't all fall back on her," Kimiko frowned. "Kuchiki has to have done something to cause a rift in the relationship they had…and I don't mean simply falling in love with the woman he married…what was her name again?"

"Hisana."

Kimiko nodded. "Something had to have happened before he met Hisana, otherwise he wouldn't have had the opportunity to fall for her."

"Kimi, my love," Jyuushiro wrapped his arms around her again. "You shouldn't concern yourself with it too much. I know you want her to be happy, but if you get involved, things could easily get worse."

She nodded again. "I know, but I can't help it. Besides, don't things usually get worse before they get better?"

Jyuushiro sighed and rolled his eyes, then abruptly broke off into a fit again, the coughs wracking his body.

"Aki?" Kimiko lay a hand on his back as blood flew from his mouth, hating that there was nothing else she could do when a fit such as this grabbed hold of him.

"Back to bed with you," she helped him back to the futon once his body had stopped seizing and only trembled in slight aftershocks.

She tucked the covers around him tightly and kissed his forehead.

"Rest well anata*," she whispered and made to leave, but his hand grabbed hers in a vice grip before she could even stand.

"Where are you going koishii?"

She smiled. "No where, it seems," she said as he pulled her down to lay under the covers with him.

*

'Why are we doing this?'

The aching of her tired and injured body, the strangely sweet feeling of release as blood gushed from a wound, the suffocating tightness in her chest as she realized she had no will to fight anymore.

One of her comrades knocked her out of the way when the Hollow was almost on her.

"Sixth Seat Shikamaru? Wake up," the thirteenth seat ordered before returning to the battle.

Reiko shook herself.

She returned to her feet and raised her released zanpakutou.

This needed to end quickly.

'What are we doing?'

"Hekireki*," she commanded, releasing the true form of her Shikai and sending it lashing out at the nearest Hollow again.

'Why do we fight?'

Raiden's doubt constricted her chest again and brought her own doubts to the surface and she failed to protect herself from the backlash of Raiden's attack yet again.

She gasped in pain as the fire seared her arm, leaving yet another new mark among the old patterning.

The scorching sting distracted her enough that she didn't notice another Hollow come at her until it had sent her hurtling through the air.

She lashed out once more and the next backlash of Raiden made her vision go black before she'd hit the ground.

'Why do we bother…'

Reiko came awake with a pained gasp, numerous parts of her body aching, and took deep breaths to calm herself.

Once her breathing had calmed, though the aches didn't ebb, she sat up and rubbed at her tired face.

Some of what she had said to Byakuya the night before came back to her and she felt her heart squeeze at the pain she had seen in him.

"It can't return to how it was," she reminded herself.

Though she had no intention of talking to him, she rose from bed and dressed before heading slowly and painfully towards the Sixth, needing to at least see how he was going to deal with it all.

*

After a long search, Nanao managed to find Shunsui sleeping in a very uncomfortable looking position against a wall in the maze that was the Seireitei, though he was conveniently only a few blocks from his house.

She frowned, standing over him.

He had been so good since they'd started dating, she hadn't had to drag him home once…and now she found him like this.

On the plus side, he hadn't landed in another woman's bed as he so often had in the past.

"Shunsui?" Nanao crouched beside him and tipped back his hat.

He flinched as the sunlight hit his sleeping eyes.

"Shunsui?" she spoke louder and shook his shoulder.

"Hnnn, Nanao-chan," he sighed.

Her eyes narrowed and she pulled out her fan, smacking him on the head.

"Itai," Shunsui came awake, rubbing his pounding head.

"Get up," Nanao ordered.

"But Nanao-chan," Shunsui pouted. "There are elephants storming around in my head."

Nanao rolled her eyes. "That's called a hangover, Taicho."

He pouted again. "I liked it better when you called me Shunsui."

Suddenly, his eyes widened and he swore a blue streak. Jumping to his feet and ignoring how he wobbled slightly when vertical again, Shunsui started to head in the direction of his home.

"Taicho?" Nanao frowned and followed him. "Taicho, what's wrong?"

"This is not good," he was muttering repeatedly under his breath.

"Taicho? What is it?" Nanao was getting worried now.

"Hanamiya,"

"Who?"

Shunsui shook his head and sped up his pace.

When they rounded the corner that led to the gates of the home he shared with Kimiko and Jyuushiro, they spotted two women.

One was clearly a servant, the other quite obviously a noblewoman.

The silky raven-haired noble turned her head as they approached and black eyes locked onto them and glared dangerously.

"Kyouraku Shunsui," she spat and marched up to meet him, finger pointed threateningly at his chest. "You have a lot of explaining to do. How dare you lie to us?"

"Hanamiya-hime," the servant girl piped up, nervousness in her tone. "Think of the –"

"Hush," Hanamiya shushed her.

Shunsui frowned. "What are you doing here, Nee-chan?"

"Nee-chan?" Nanao blinked in surprise…this beautiful woman was Shunsui's sister?

He had never mentioned a sister.

"Who are you?" Hanamiya demanded, scanning Nanao from head to toe and back up again.

"Nee-chan," Shunsui warned.

"Right," Hanamiya went back to glaring at her brother. "You, little brother, had better explain why we recently heard a rumor stating that Inari Kimiko miraculously reappeared after more than a century, and is now apparently married to Ukitake Jyuushiro?"

Shunsui's face paled. "Ahhh, well, see…" he cleared his throat nervously and rubbed at the back of his head, avoiding eye contact.

"You might want to tell me before Ryu-nii-san arrives,"

Shunsui paled even more. "He's coming here now?"

"I'm right here, little brother,"

Nanao spun to see a man that looked amazingly like a slightly shorter, slightly slimmer, black-haired, black-eyed, clean shaven version of Shunsui.

"Shimatta," Shunsui muttered.

"Shunsui," Kimiko arrived in the gateway suddenly, glaring. "Keep the noise down, Jyuu's sick. He needs to rest peacefully."

"You!" Shunsui's brother approached her with purpose. "Explain the rumors," he demanded.

"Ryuronin-sama," Kimiko bowed her head in respect, though, as always, there was something mocking about the way she did so. "I assume this visit means you heard I am actually married to Jyuushiro."

"So it's the truth?" Hanamiya frowned. "Did you…divorce…our brother?" she used the word 'divorce' as if it were a dirty word.

"What's 'divorce'?" Kimiko wondered.

"It's this new thing they do in the Living World where you become no longer married to your spouse," Hanamiya told her. "It's horrible."

Kimiko frowned and shook her head. "I can think of a few couples that something like that would benefit. But I didn't 'divorce' Shun-chan."

"So why are you pregnant?" Hanamiya questioned.

Four people looked at her in surprise.

"You can tell?" Kimiko gaped.

Hanamiya frowned. "I am a Healer like my mother, Kimiko-san, or did you forget? I see these things. It is also obvious from the growth of your breasts and the glow of your skin."

Kimiko glanced down at her breasts with a frown.

It was at this point that an extremely pale Jyuushiro joined them.

"Jyuu-chan?" Shunsui questioned worriedly, concerned by his friend's pallor.

"You should not be walking around Jyuushiro-kun," Hanamiya also frowned. "You are clearly not well."

"I came to see what was going on," Jyuushiro told them, his voice hoarse. "I could feel your reiatsus spiking all over the place."

Kimiko placed a supporting arm under his elbow, concern evident in her gaze.

"If this is about Kimi and Shunsui not being married, the blame falls on me, if you'll all recall," Jyuushiro told them. "I'm the one that first told your family that they were married, when in reality it was Kimi and I who were the ones hiding our marriage."

"You and Kimiko?" Ryuronin frowned. "I didn't actually believe that part."

"We were never married to begin with," Shunsui nodded.

Slowly circumstances were explained.

While Hanamiya calmed down and accepted things with grace, always believing her little brother was too much of a spoiled womanizer to have settled down at such a young age; Ryuronin only got angrier, as was evident when his face turned red and he shouted at Kimiko, his irrational thoughts using her as his first outlet.

"…You whore!"

There was a moment of yawning silence as everyone stared at him, appalled.

Jyuushiro was the first to move, his fist connecting loudly and very solidly with the nobleman's jaw.

"Don't you dare ever call my wife a whore again," he glared dangerously, the gaunt, ashen features of his face like a frightening mask.

"Brilliant shot Jyuu-chan, saved me the trouble," Shunsui glared down at his brother.

"I'm ashamed of you Nii-san," Hanamiya frowned down at him. "That is no way to speak to a respectable woman. How would you feel if someone said that to one of your sisters?"

Kimiko caught Jyuushiro as he wobbled and started to lead him back inside.

"Come on love, back to bed with you, you've overexerted yourself."

Shunsui, Hanamiya and the nearly forgotten Nanao, trailed in behind them, leaving Ryuronin to pick himself up, with the aid of his sister's maid.

"So who is she?" Hanamiya asked Shunsui, nodding in Nanao's direction.

"Ise Nanao, fukutaicho of my division," Shunsui spoke carefully.

"So you're sleeping with her then?" Hanamiya watched Nanao with a critical eye.

"No!" Shunsui looked offended. "I don't sleep with all my fukutaichos."

"Shunsui, you sleep with almost every woman you come across," Hanamiya said dryly, then a look of horror dawned on her face. "Oh Kami, don't tell me she's your daughter?"

Shunsui shuddered at the very idea. "Why in Kami's name would you assume such a thing?"

"She looks just like that perverted ex of yours…what was her name?" Hanamiya frowned thoughtfully. "Your old fukutaicho?"

"Lisa?" Nanao supplied, her face shadowed.

"Nanao-chan?" Shunsui questioned warily.

"That's the one," Hanamiya nodded. "Are you her daughter then? Is that why she and Shunsui broke up? Because she had an affair or something?"

"Nanao-chan is not Lisa-chan's daughter, nor did Lisa and I break up for such a reason," Shunsui informed his sister. "Because Lisa-chan and I were never together."

"Oh, you were together all right," Hanamiya muttered. "You forget Chouko-chan and I walked in on the two of you when you were very much together."

Shunsui paled and swallowed audibly as he glanced down at Nanao.

"Taicho?" Nanao questioned in a deceptively friendly voice. "Why did you and Lisa-san break up?"

"You missed the bit where I said we were never together,"

"Sounds like you were together to me,"

"That was just sex," Shunsui blurted. "It isn't like I've never had it before."

"I know perfectly well that you've had sex on a very regular basis," Nanao snapped. "But I also know that sex tends to just be one-night-stand's with women you never see again."

"Nanao-chan, don't make it sound like that," Shunsui frowned. "You make me sound like a manwhore."

"You pretty much are, Shunsui," Hanamiya interrupted.

"I am not," Shunsui tried to defend himself. "I've had girlfriends in the past. I just…"

"Never loved them?" Hanamiya guessed. "That makes it worse Shunsui."

"It's time to leave him alone," Kimiko rejoined them and put a supportive hand on Shunsui's forearm. "Just because he enjoys the company of women and hasn't been able to make a solid love connection with one before, doesn't mean he hasn't wanted to," she frowned. "Hanamiya-hime, you've obviously forgotten what your brother used to be like."

Hanamiya frowned and took pause, thinking back to a time when Shunsui hadn't been on the verge of being an alcoholic, or slept with every woman who fluttered their eyelashes at him, and feeling ashamed that she wasn't the one defending her little brother's honor.

"And Nan-chan," Kimiko looked disappointed and Nanao felt guilty instantly.

A disappointed Kimiko was a shame inspiring person.

"You know him better than most. Has he ever pressured you for anything? He has told you he loves you and has been trying to prove his worth to you these past weeks. Has he strayed or even looked at another woman in a sexual way since he confessed to you?"

Last she turned to Shunsui.

"And Shun-chan…I don't feel so good," she paled and swayed.

Shunsui caught her, frowning worriedly.

"Kimi?"

"It's okay little brother," Hanamiya was already examining Kimiko. "I'd say it's just a little light-headedness. That's quite common in the early months of pregnancy. Has she been having any morning sickness or frequent dizziness?"

"Not that I know of," Shunsui shook his head, frowning. "You'd have to ask her or Jyuu. She's okay, right? Unohana Taicho said there may be issues, Kimi shouldn't be able to have children at all."

"So that part was the truth?" Hanamiya frowned. "I remember you telling us she couldn't get pregnant and that was why you weren't having children."

Shunsui picked Kimiko up carefully and cradled her in his arms.

"Unohana Taicho insisted that the scarring was too severe and according to Jyuu-chan, she's worried because it hasn't diminished."

"A miracle pregnancy?" Hanamiya laughed at the irony. "Kimiko-chan always did love to prove people wrong."

At this point, Kimiko shifted in Shunsui's arms.

"Shun-chan, I'm okay now, you can put me down."

"But I like you where you are," he grinned devilishly and earned himself a, thankfully light, punch in the gut.

"Itai woman," he muttered as he put her down. "How you won Jyuu-chan over with that violent nature of yours, I have no idea."

Kimiko's eye twitched and Shunsui took a quick step back, holding up his hands in surrender, realizing she wasn't in much of a joking mood.

Hanamiya started laughing all of a sudden.

"Ahhh," she sighed. "Little brother, you're so funny. I just realized why you don't have a wife,"

"Because I didn't want one?" Shunsui frowned.

"No, you're terrible with women," Hanamiya chuckled. "You know exactly what to say to seduce them, but when it comes to actually dealing with them, you treat them as if you're suffering your first crush."

Shunsui frowned. "I dealt with Kimi fine when I thought I was in love with her."

"But Kimiko dressing and acting like a woman comes as regularly as an eclipse of the sun, no offence,"

"None taken," Kimiko was trying not to laugh at Hanamiya's observations.

"And besides," Hanamiya continued. "We just found out that, despite what you all said, Kimiko-chan is not married to you…is she?"

There was silence.

They heard Jyuushiro coughing and what sounded like a really bad attack had Kimiko leaving the room immediately, Shunsui following closely to check on him as well.

"So my little brother claims to love you?" Hanamiya looked at Nanao.

Nanao nodded hesitantly.

"You must be pretty special then," Hanamiya smiled kindly, causing her to look even more ethereally beautiful. "I'll be leaving now then, before Ryuronin-nii decides to come in and stir up more trouble. Good luck with my baby brother," she swept out of the room.

"Good riddance," Shunsui muttered as he reentered at the same time she left.

"How's Ukitake Taicho?"

"He'll be fine, it just sounded worse than it was."

Shunsui watched her hesitantly, expecting her to bring up the subject of him and Lisa again.

She didn't.

"You never told me you had a sister,"

Shunsui nodded. "Four of them. Ryu-kun, the asshole, is the oldest of us. Then comes Hanamiya, Kaori, Mei, and Chouko. I'm the baby of the family. Apparently I was too spoiled."

"What did Kimiko Taicho mean when she said your sister had forgotten what you used to be like?"

Shunsui smiled. "I never used to spend most of my life drinking, and I wasn't always a womanizer, though I was always pretty terrible at controlling myself, as most teenaged boys are, while I was at the Academy," he blushed. "When I was a fukutaicho I used to do my share of the paperwork, and I only drank when celebrating or if the occasion truly called for it…but I had seen far less war then."

A shadow passed over his eyes that Nanao had never seen before.

"Then Jyuu and I became taichos and Kimi almost died on us…after that things got worse, we never realized just how many things were expected of taichos, or just how hard it could be to fulfill our duties sometimes…killing, even in war, is never easy Nanao-chan…"

Shunsui trailed off, a sad smile touching his lips that Nanao didn't like to see.

"Shunsui," she still couldn't help but blush most times she said his name, but he perked up every time. "When's our next date?"

"It's your turn to decide," he grinned his familiar lazy mouth quirk.

*

Reiko took a deep breath as she stood at the edge of a rooftop, inhaling the fresh air.

She hadn't gotten any work done today, and wasn't likely to for a while.

The guilt that had seized her entire body just from looking at Byakuya's colder than ever before disposition felt as if it would consume her as she remembered every word she had spoken the night before.

Tears slowly ran down her cheeks.

"What happened to us?" she wondered as she covered her face with her hands.

'Why does he keep managing to make us feel like this?' Raiden's voice echoed in her mind.

*

"Taicho?" Hisagi peered around the open door to see his taicho was still drawing up the rosters for the coming week.

She had arrived after lunch today, simply stating that she was sorry but her husband had been ill this morning.

Hisagi came into the room and stopped beside Kimiko's desk.

"Taicho, I think it's time for you to head home," he told her. "You worked late last night, and if Ukitake Taicho isn't feeling well…"

He trailed off as she shook her head.

"It's fine, I just want to finish up this and then I'm leaving," she didn't look up as she spoke. "You said that the training went well this morning, didn't you?"

"Hai," Hisagi nodded. "I ran the session. I'm not as good or as strong as you, but I think it went okay."

"You think it went okay?" Kimiko looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "Hisagi-kun, we really need to work on your self confidence. How are you ever going to win over that woman you like if you aren't even confident in what you're good at."

Hisagi flushed.

Kimiko smiled and went back to the rosters.

"Taicho, why don't you let me finish the rosters?" Hisagi offered. "You go home and get a good night's rest so you don't keep missing our early training sessions."

Kimiko chuckled. "If that's your subtle way of telling me I look tired…" she smiled at him as he blushed some more.

She chuckled.

Five minutes later, Kimiko was done

"Well, there's that done," she sighed and stretched

There was a tentative knock at the door and Hinamori walked in when Kimiko called for her to enter.

"Hinamori-chan?" Kimiko frowned.

"Inari Taicho," Hinamori spoke hesitantly. "I was hoping for some advice."

"Sure, what can I do for you?" she frowned, confused as to why Momo would come to her.

"Shikamaru Taicho and Kuchiki Taicho clearly have a past, but she's been acting strange since their rumored argument last night," Momo began. "She didn't come into the office today, but when I sought her out, she was cold and abrupt, not who I've gotten used to."

"We can't have that now can we?" Kimiko frowned.

"I went to speak to Kuchiki Taicho," Momo continued. "But Abarai-kun said he has been horrible to deal with all day. Worse than normal, like an iceberg."

"Cold?" Kimiko raised an eyebrow teasingly.

"Frozen, Inari Taicho…it's like he's frozen," Hinamori frowned. "Abarai-kun says he barely responds to anyone, even his usual superior nature has disappeared."

Kimiko frowned again.

"Thanks for telling me, Hinamori-chan," she stood and moved past the two fukutaichos. "I'll go and deal with the problem now."

With just a few flashsteps, Kimiko arrived at the Sixth Division and marched into the Taicho office unannounced.

Byakuya glanced up, no emotion evident on his face, as Kimiko stalked up to him, took a firm hold of the front of his kimono and pulled him along with her Shunpo.

She stopped in the middle of a deserted, rundown area on the edge of the Seireitei that still had not been fixed up and dropped him.

"Draw your katana Kuchiki," Kimiko ordered as she moved away slightly and drew her own zanpakutou from it's sheath.

When she turned back to face him, she took her stance, already in battle mode, which told Byakuya she was absolutely serious.

Her body seemed tense and rigid, her weight entirely balanced on the balls of her feet, her left leg back in a left-back stance, and her hardened features betrayed no emotion.

The slant of her eyes looked sharper, more alert, but the gleam of hatred and what Byakuya recognized as an intent to kill made that multicoloured gaze a chilling sight.

She was deathly serious.

Byakuya barely managed to get his katana drawn in time to block her first strike.

She had moved so fast.

For a brief instant Byakuya thought that perhaps Inari Kimiko was even faster than Yoruichi, but he scoffed at the idea of that.

Then she was behind him in a movement he hadn't seen at all and panic began to settle in the pit of his stomach as a flashback to his fight with Kurosaki Ichigo came to his mind.

Kimiko was moving faster than that.

"Chire Senbonzakura," Byakuya released his zanpakutou and Kimiko backed up, moving to avoid the tiny, petal-like blades.

"Hado 31: Shakkaho,"

The blades scattered as the red ball of energy flew through them, rapidly gaining speed and strength until it blew up, looking like an angry red firework when it reached the sky.

While Byakuya was distracted by the tiny momentary shift in the spiritual pressure around her before she cast the kidou as well as by the sheer destructive force that had been behind that shot of kidou, Kimiko moved again, slicing with her still sealed zanpakutou.

Blood spurted from a shallow cut on his cheek, and Byakuya realized she really meant to kill him.

"Why?" he asked as he blocked another slash.

"I warned you," Kimiko told him, her voice icy. "I told you if you hurt Rin-chan again, I'd come after you."

Another cut appeared on his other cheek.

"How have I hurt her?" Byakuya demanded. "She's the one that broke my heart."

Blood flew from a cut on his left arm, this one deeper than the others.

Kimiko paused for a moment.

"That fire you spoke of Rin having," she started. "You hold some of it too, or hadn't you realized? When you lost that fire last night, Rin could tell. I've heard that since that argument you've been colder than usual,"

Kimiko's gaze fell on him. "Only an idiot wouldn't see that she still loves you, and that your pain is her pain."

"That doesn't make sense," Byakuya glared. "If she loved me in any way she wouldn't have ended years of friendship for any reason."

Kimiko moved in another flash and a cut formed on the right side of Byakuya's neck.

"Baka," she spat at him. "It's because she loves you that she couldn't stand the halfway relationship. What is it that you did that led her to distance herself enough to give you time to fall in love with another woman? Because that's where all this started."

"I don't know,"

Kimiko moved again and this time Byakuya managed to block the blow, though the force behind it made his arm sing so much it was still trembling when she pulled back.

"Then you need to think about it, I told you last night that some things need time, and you need to learn patience and think everything through," Kimiko's glare could have frozen fire. "You need to find the moment that caused Rin's fire to dim; because from where I'm standing, it's your fault it was gone when I met her."

That said, Kimiko wiped the blood off her blade and made to sheathe it.

She glanced back over at Byakuya, meeting his gaze, and he saw that her eyes no longer held the intention to kill.

"Kuchiki Byakuya, we all have our own form of Rin's fire, but those of us who know her all gain a little of hers. When she saw that that little bit of fire you held from her was gone, how do you think she reacted?"

Kimiko slid her katana back into its resting place at her hip and turned to leave.

"Inari Taicho," Byakuya stopped her and she turned back.

"What was Rin to you, that you gave her back her fire?"

"She was a lot of things. A subordinate, a student, a friend, a sister," Kimiko smiled sadly. "She was also a complete stranger. I didn't know her life story, heck, even now I don't know most of it, but that doesn't change the fact that there are times she needs to be protected."

Kimiko met his gaze when she added. "I can see myself in her, Kuchiki, and I could have turned out two ways. Without my resolve, I could have been a terrible person."

With that, she turned and left, leaving Byakuya frowning.

"That was quite a show, Byakuya-bo,"

Byakuya spun to see Shihoin Yoruichi sitting nearby.

"How long have you been there?" he demanded.

"The entire time," Yoruichi chuckled. "Did you think I wouldn't notice when my sensei flashed past me with my student?"

"Your sensei?"

"Hai, Inari Taicho taught me how to expand my energy enough to be the Goddess of Flash."

"She seemed faster than you for a moment there,"

"That's because she is," Yoruichi grinned. "I've never held a hope of surpassing her when it comes to speed, though not many people know that, Inari Taicho is very good at hiding just how powerful she is, after all."

Byakuya looked surprised as much as he was confused.

"I may be the Goddess of Flash," Yoruichi told him. "But she is the Samurai hime, and in all her hundreds of years, there has only been one time when she was almost defeated. Where I use shunpo to move quickly, she is naturally fast, which means when she uses her natural speed combined with flashsteps, very few have a hope of catching her. Perhaps if I were the same age as her and had lived for as many years I may have been able to beat her, but that's something I'll never know."

"The Samurai hime?"

"A girl of legend…she is fast, strong, powerful, and holds an unbreakable resolve to protect others. It is a resolve that she would kill for without any hesitation…" Yoruichi told him. "I grew up with tales of her deeds."

"So you're saying Inari Taicho is like the legendary Samurai hime?"

"Iie, she is the Samurai hime," Yoruichi shook her head. "When she summoned her zanpakutou, she was the same size as the katana from the end of the hilt to the tip of the blade. When she first killed, she hadn't even learnt to release it yet, but she was never a murderer. And Byakuya-bo, if she had wanted you dead, you would be."

Those final words gave Byakuya a chill.

*

Kimiko entered their bedroom as silently as possible, hearing her husband snoring lightly.

She knelt beside him briefly to make sure he was okay and was pleased to see that his colour seemed to be back to normal while his breathing wasn't the shallow sound that it usually was when his lungs were troubling him.

She smiled and moved away, slowly disrobing.

As she pulled on her sleeping yukata, her fingers brushed her breast and what Hanamiya had said that morning came back to her.

She cupped her breasts curiously, pushing them up with a frown.

She had never been big in that department, and she still wasn't.

"Koishii," Kimiko was startled by Jyuushiro's voice and spun to see him leaning up on his elbows.

"What were you doing?" he looked amused.

She went and knelt back down beside him on the futon.

"Hanamiya realized I was pregnant," she told him. "She said my breasts were bigger…they don't look bigger," she looked down at herself again.

Jyuushiro chuckled and reached over to run his fingertips lightly over the exposed curve of one breast.

"Speaking as someone who knows that particular area of your body better than you do…" he grinned in a devilish fashion. "They are beginning to get larger."

"Huh?" she frowned at him and then smirked. "Seems you like this subject a little too much."

Jyuushiro's cheeks flushed. "You know how I am when I've recovered from an attack. There's only two things I crave."

"Food," Kimiko nodded.

"And you," Jyuushiro smirked. "And you always take precedence," he pulled her down to kiss him.

"You know your body is going to change now," Jyuushiro muttered when they broke apart for air, dazed.

"Mmmmm," she murmured in reply. "How are you feeling right now?"

He just raised and eyebrow, earning himself a slap on the shoulder.

"I meant your chest,"

"I know, it's much better, and good enough,"

Kimiko's eyes twinkled as she leant towards him seductively. "You know, you did look pretty sexy swinging that punch this morning."

He grinned and made to kiss her but she darted back at the last second and flopped onto her back with a light chuckle at the annoyance on his face.

"I'd rather you slept tonight and were all the way better in the morning," she told him.

He frowned at her for a moment before laying back and staring up at the ceiling.

Ten minutes later he couldn't stand it any longer and rolled on top of her.

"Bugger that," he told her and kissed her into submission.

A/N: so…tell me what you thought…2-3 reviews…I insist…next chapter sees a fight… :D

*Anata = dear (what a wife calls a husband)

*Hekireki = thunder, thunderclap (Note: this isn't Raiden's release command…)

*Itai = painful