Hisana was pleased to note that by the time she walked back through, Byakuya was fully dressed (at least, that's what she told herself). Although there did seem to be some kind of weird, silent stand-off between him and her managers, with Isane watching anxiously.

She cleared her throat hesitantly, "I… errr… Ahem." She tried to quash the increasingly familiar swooping sensation in the pit of her stomach as he seemed to be buoyed by her sudden reappearance.

Her colleagues cottoned on quick and soon found themselves having to urgently attend to matters elsewhere, leaving her alone with the source of her ongoing anguish.

Byakuya reached out a hand to her and she thrust the paltry pile of notes into it, apologising profusely, her head bent and refusing to look him in the eye. He probably would have found the whole thing quite entertaining if he'd had the faintest clue what she was gibbering on about.

"What's this?" he asked, staring down at the money in his hand, nonplussed.

Hisana spluttered, "Well, it… it's the money. I mean it's not the full amount, but… I don't… I don't get paid until… I thought we'd agreed on next week, but obviously not. I'm ever so sorry, really, I am, but it's just… It's… It's all I can give you at the moment." She fell silent, eyes glued to the ground.

When there was no response, she risked a tentative glance upwards.

He was looking impassively at her.

She swallowed and licked her lips. Her mouth had gone dry and her throat constricted. She clasped her hands tightly together. He was angry with her, she just knew it. Well, she could be angry with him, too. It's not like it would kill him to wait a few more days. He was hardly going to go bankrupt without it. And, for another thing, he-.

"I don't want it."

What?

"Look, Kuchiki-sama, I know it's not the full amount, but I really can't give you the rest until next Thursday," the words spilled out of Hisana's mouth in a jumble.

"I don't want that, either."

Hisana stalled. "I… But… That's why you're here, isn't it? The money?"

He blinked at her before answering. "No." Inspecting her visage, he started to frown. "Are you feeling alright?"

"What? Yes, I'm fine." She swatted his hand away when he tried to press the notes back into hers. "Well, why are you here? If not for the money?" She puffed and flicked an errant lock of hair from her face.

Byakuya was confused. Had she forgotten about what happened between them? Or had he dreamt it? "Why do you think I'm here?"

"Err…" Every worst case scenario flashed through Hisana's mind. "Because we broke something?" She paled. "Oh Kami, we broke something irreplaceable didn't we?" The annoying stray curl fell back over her eye.

"No. Well, probably, but that's not why I'm here." He reached over and tucked it behind her ear again, concerned. "Are you sure you're alright?"

Hisana nodded mutely.

He sighed and returned to perusing though various silk ties, highly conscious that they were being watched. "I came to see you," he uttered quietly.

"Oh." A few seconds later the penny dropped. Ohh. She wrung her hands nervously.

"I tried to call earlier in the week, but there was no answer," he explained.

"Oh." Something akin to hope seemed to blossom within her chest. "I didn't think you wanted to see me again," Hisana admitted softly.

"Why on earth would you think that?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, it's just… Sunday you were… unavailable. I thought that meant… you know…"

Byakuya paused for a moment. "I can see how that could be misconstrued." He peered at her doubtful mien before confessing reluctantly, "I was not fit for present company." He saw she remained unconvinced. "I was hungover. Very hungover," he added with a pained expression.

A quiet high pitched squeaking noise started emanating from somewhere, and it took Byakuya a few seconds before he realised it was coming from Hisana, who was now donning a peculiarly scrunched up face whilst holding her tightly balled fists to her cheeks.

Initially, he was alarmed, especially when her shoulders started to shake. Crying females were always tricky and troublesome and he really didn't know what to do with them. He tried to catch the eye of one of her colleagues, but each of them was making a remarkable show of diligently working on things such as filing their nails, or scrubbing at an invisible stain on the counter, or polishing the leaves of a bird's nest fern hanging in a Kokedama, and all of them most definitely not eavesdropping.

And then it occurred to him that maybe she wasn't crying at all but laughing, and that didn't make him feel much better. Was she laughing at him? Was she winding him up?

On the plus side, she didn't really seem to know what she was doing either as she covered her entire face with her hands in crippling embarrassment.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. This wasn't how it was supposed to go at all. She was supposed to be all business, all professional and detached. And then he comes along and starts being all nice and unsure and it was making her all mushy and really she could be doing without all of this emotional turmoil because it was going to make her cry again and she wasn't very attractive when she cried and it wouldn't normally be a problem but he was here and suddenly being attractive was very important to her and she was going to be all snotty and hiccuppy and he was going to think she was disgusting and-.

"Hisana?"

She peeked at him through her fingers.

"Did you hit your head this morning?"

She started squeaking again.

Concern aside, Byakuya had to admit that he was impressed. He didn't think he'd ever met someone who could actually use the whistle register before, but Hisana could apparently do so with ease. If only there was a way to get her to stop before all the dogs in Tokyo stormed the place.

"I brought you something." That seemed to work. Women always did like gifts.

No.

She just had hiccups.

She was staring dolefully up at him.

She had such pretty eyes. He just wished that they weren't quite so wet.

Byakuya made to brush her cheek with the back of his knuckles before remembering himself and those spying on them. Gently he guided towards the front of the shop, behind a rack of beautiful silks in every colour imaginable, and away from prying eyes.

He swept her hair from her face again. "You seem to be in a spot of bother, Hisana."

She almost choked the bubble of laughter that erupted. Ohh, he had no idea. She bit down so hard on her lip she could have sworn that she tasted blood. His touch lingered far too long for simply a friendly gesture; too long, too hot, too tender. Unwittingly, she found herself leaning into it.

"When do you finish?" The low murmur of his voice caused her eyes to flutter open in surprise. "I have a table booked for eight; I was just wondering if that gives you enough time."

Hisana seemed hesitant to answer. Dazed, even. Byakuya wondered whether she really had hit her head.

"Unless of course, you already have plans for this evening. Or you don't want to come." He said a silent prayer that neither of these things were the case, and when she started to shake her head, he felt himself deflate and he drew his hand away. "I see. Well, I'll just-."

She suddenly clasped onto his hand as she fervently tried to explain between sporadic hiccups, "No. No, no, no, no. No, I mean that I don't have any… -hic- … Are..? Are you asking me out on… –hic- … like… a date?"

If one looked closely enough, they would see the slightest upturn of the corners of his mouth. With a wry smile and all the quiet, if good-humoured, patience that a long-suffering parent might use on a tiresome child he clarified, "No, I am asking you out on an actual date, and am awaiting your response."

"Oh." As his words sunk in, a light blush bloomed upon Hisana's cheeks. "O-okay." She nodded coyly whilst staring fixedly at her feet, hands locked together.

Byakuya couldn't help but think that for all of her silliness, she really was quite endearing. Which was just as well because he was putting an awful lot of effort into this. Seats at Sukiyabashi Jiro were notoriously difficult to come by and he'd had to weigh in on several connections and pull a number of strings to do so for this evening.

Now he was thought about it, there really was thrill in the chase. Normally, he spent this part of a relationship trying to fling off annoying limpets. This was somewhat refreshing. Scratch that. It was terrifying. No wonder he needed half a bottle of whisky last Saturday.

"This is for you, by the way." He picked up a box, no larger than six by twelve inches, which had been placed carefully on the mink velvet chaise lounge.

"Hmm? But… What for?" she asked, flummoxed.

"Bribery." Her eyes widened at his words. The box would have fallen from her tentative grip had Byakuya not caught it in time. "Careful; it's fragile. You know, you had me worried for a second. I thought I might have to use it."

"Well, what is it?"

Byakuya was pulling a scarf about his neck and reaching for his coat. "Open it and see."

It was typical that just as Hisana seemed to find her voice again, he was heading for the door. "Wait-." She trailed after him.

"I'll see you later."

Did he have to have such long strides? "Wait, Byaku-."

"Seven o' clock."

His hand was on the door when he stopped short. She almost careened straight into his back.

"Hisana?" He tilted his head to the side, but refrained from facing her. "Try not to concuss yourself again."

"Oh… right." By the time she'd fully comprehended what he just said he'd gone. She began mumbling to herself as she retreated to the back of the shop, a mocking imitation of her visitor. "Try not to concuss yourself. What a git."

As she reached the till counter, she saw three pairs of eyes looking at her with varying levels of pain and bewilderment. "What?" She brushed past them haughtily. "I thought I handled that rather well."