Reason – Hello there everyone, I have a present for you guess what it is, guess what it is… ITS CHAPTER THREE, muwhahahaha. Okay right so here it I a wanted it to be done two days ago, before I started the exams, but then I didn't and then I got a crummy laptop today so I worked on it all day so I could have it for all of you.

I would like to thank everyone who reviewed. Thank you thank you very much. I've never received such positive feed back on a story and it means a lot to me.

Disclaimer – I Do not own Bleach.

Beauty and the Beast

Chapter 3 - Far From Home

Nearly a week now and Rukia was losing her patience. She knew it would take him a while but she wanted him home. That bastard, she would smack him good the next time she saw him.

She hadn't really left home in the week she had spent alone. She went outside to look after the chickens and the cow and had gone once to see Ukitake. She liked going out usually but she wanted to be right there when Byakuya got back.

So she had taken to reading all day. She had learned how when she was younger, he brother had made her. She had been convinced then that he was doing because if he ever regained his title, he didn't want her to be a complete embarrassment to him. Her opinion had only changed slightly since then. He wanted her educated and to be less of an embarrassment.

She was curled up now in a slightly awkward position at the kitchen table reading a book of fables she had found lying around the tiny little cottage. She flipped through the pages taking in all the words, so focused that when some one knocked on the door it made her jump and fall from her chair.

She got up and hobbled to the front door feeling minor pain in her backside. She opened the promptly and upon doing so she wished she had checked first. Aizen stood on the other side, smiling at her, a bouquet of flowers in hand. Not far off his creepy sidekick Gin stood watching.

"Hello Aizen, what a pleasant surprise," she said with a sheepish smile.

"Good day Ms. Rukia, I came to see how you were doing. No one has seen much of you or your brother. Some of us have started to worry," he said in a very serious concerned tone as he held the flowers out to her, "I brought these for you."

"Why thank you," Rukia said taking the plants and trying to sound grateful. They were pretty but they had an Aizen air about them, like he had infected them.

There was a bit of an awkward silence. Aizen waited for her to say more and she tried hard to think of a way to get him to leave. In the end it was Aizen who chose to end it.

"I must confess, I have another reason for coming to visit, a bit of a delicate matter that I would prefer to discuss inside," he said and Rukia's stomach sank a little. She could see where this was going and she didn't like it one bit.

"I don't know if I should. My brother is away and what would someone think if they saw you coming into my home now?" she said playing at being bashful, it was really the only card she had.

All it did was make Aizen frown. He knew her and knew that this would not usually bother her. Behind him, Gin smirked.

"Well if that is a problem I suppose the words could be spoken out here," Aizen said clearly a little irritated, "I wanted to speak to you about marriage."

Rukia's stomach knotted itself, he face wanted to contort to show her disgust but she was able to stop herself. "Marriage? Why would you want to talk to me about anything like that?"

This only proved to try his patience further. "I know you are more intelligent than that. You are aware of the hints I have been dropping and I decided it was time for me to make a formal proposal."

She looked away and tried to fake a blush but she was sure it wasn't work as well as she wanted it to. "I d-don't know what to say," she said turning away as she feigned flattery.

"That's simple, say yes. Its not as if there are many other options in this small little town of ours," Aizen said. He had a cocky tone in his voice, like she would see his point and run into his arms.

All she wanted to do was gag. His last statement made her mad, like she wasn't good enough for anyone else; there were plenty of other men her age she could marry. Or was he calling her weird and saying he would be the only one to lower himself to marry a freak, she knew a few people thought of her that way. Her mind ran through a few possibilities and none of them made her very happy, she wanted him gone all the more.

"I'm sorry Aizen, I really should talk to my brother," she said turning back to him not really caring what sort of facial expression she had now. Without another word and before he had time to say anything the door was closed and Rukia was walking back to the kitchen.

Gin could hardly contain himself. He started to snicker and probably would have broken into full laughter if it weren't for the murderous look Aizen gave him. "It's not my fault she shot you down again," Gin replied to the look.

"Shut up and lets go," Aizen snapped walking away. He was not in a good mood.

It was an hour or so later when Rukia awoke at the kitchen table. She had tried to go back to reading after the little disturbance she however ended up mulling over a number of things and drifting to sleep. It was a knock on the door that woke her. She didn't want to get up thinking it was Aizen again, coming back to pressure her further.

She forced herself to get up anyways and walk to the front door. This time she checked to see who it was before she opened up. He peeped through the front window to the little man she had never seen before standing on her step. She opened the door up after looking, being a little cautious, it was a stranger after all.

"Hello, may I help you?" Rukia inquired as she stuck her head out of the doorway and looked at the man.

"Good day miss, would Sir Kuchiki be home?" the man said with a slight bow to her before getting directly down to what he wanted.

"I'm sorry but he isn't, he has been away for a little under a week," Rukia replied. She was intrigued, and a little worried. Had her brother not side that 'Sir' was being used as flattery to try and get him to do what they wanted. Did someone else want him to do something for them. "I can tell him anything you wish when he returns home," she added on in hopes of finding out what it was.

"My lord has already sent a letter to Sir Kuchiki, I simply was sent as a follow up to the request to try and further persuade him to adhere to my lord's request," The man said, "If Sir Kuchiki returns home soon, please encourage him to consider our offer."

There was no further conversation, as Rukia's mind was buzzing trying to figure something out. The man turned and walked away and she slowly closed the door as she processed what was said. The man had come from the ones who sent the letter. It sounded as if they had not heard from her brother, like he had not shown up. She bit her lip thinking about. If he hadn't seen them then where had he gone? It took little more than two days to get to the city Byakuya was traveling to, a week after he had gone, he should be on his way home now. He was a man of his word; he would not have lied to her and traveled somewhere else. So where was he, what had happened to him?

The more she thought about it the more it worried her. She realized this was so unlike her brother and it was and it was scaring her a little. She had no way to reach him, to speak to him and make sure everything was all right. She didn't even have Sebon to go look for him. She felt sick to her stomach.

She paced back and forth for a little while, trying to come up with something, anything that could ease her ill feelings. While Rukia strained her brain she could think of only one thing and that was to actually go out and look for him. Sure she didn't have the horse and it would mean leaving the animals alone for a few days but the worry would not subside. He should be home by now! She would simply walk and try and find signs of her brother, as for the animals she was sure she could get Ukitake or one of his lackeys to look after Shirayuki and the chickens.

It was under two hours before she had everything she thought she would need together. Food and cloths and all things like that. Then she set off a short detour stopping to make her request to Ukitake. The farmer asked her not to go, it was never safe for a woman to travel alone. He suggested she find someone to go with her, but with him sick and his hands needed to look after things, there was no one else Rukia would be will to go with. Beyond that she refused to listen to any of his other reasoning and after he forced extra food upon her, she left.

It didn't take long for her to realize her idea wasn't the best one. She tired out quickly, after walking for an hour or so and she hadn't reached the fork in the road. She however was a stubborn girl. Going back meant she had to walk an hour to get back to her house when if she kept going she would be an hour closer to where her brother was. Well... it made sense to her. So she kept walking.

She hadn't made it much farther by the time dusk set in. She wished she knew how long it was going to take her. Byakuya had told her how long it was on foot once but she hadn't remembered, probably because she wasn't really paying attention to him in the first place. She wished she had now, it was something she would really like to know and there were probably some other things that would come in useful now.

She moved to the side of the road now, deciding not to go any further in the dark, she at least had that much common sense. She thought it would be a good time to rest as much as she could and satisfy her stomach. Rukia sat on the ground at the side of the road, removing a little bit of bread from the bag she had been carrying with her and a bit of salted meat. She ate and as she ate she started to notice that she was getting cold and then it hit her that she had brought nothing to start a fire with and she had no idea how to do it on her own, she usually had some flint. She smacked herself on the forehead and lay on the ground using her bag as a rather lumpy pillow. Okay so maybe her common sense wasn't that great.

She lay there for a while struggling to sleep, the cold wasn't letting her. On top of that there was all the noise around. The wind was making the tree eerie and she shook with the leaves. Animals calling to one another or scratching and neighing. She went stiff when she heard the neigh, a horse, and not just any horse either. She knew that sound, she had pissed off Senbon enough to know that was an unhappy sound too.

Rukia bolted up right and looked around for any sight of her brother or his horse. When she didn't see anything she got up to her feet and heard the horse whinny once more and followed the sound. It was coming from a small bush on the other side of the road and that's where she went. She stumbled blindly not being able to see too well and nearly fell into a number of different trees before she actually found the stallion. Senbon was caught, his reigns wrapped up in a tree branch, a large tree branch. He was trying hard to pull himself free and had started to break the branch.

"Senbon, easy boy, easy," Rukia said softly as she approached him. She did so slowly and with as little stumbling as possible, she didn't want to frighten the already spooked horse.

Fortunately he calmed down when he heard her voice, though he huffed in a frustrated way. She moved to the tree he had become stuck and reach up to the branch (with some effort, she was rather short after all) and unwrapped the reigns from it. Senbon shook his head once he was free and whinnied gratefully, rather happy to be free.

"Okay boy, everything is okay, come on, come this way," she said quietly after patting him on the nose and pulling him back towards the road. He seemed to be happy to follow her and after a bit of frustrated walking they got back to where Rukia had made her little "camp" and then she wrapped her arms around the horse.

"What are you doing here boy? Where is Byakuya?" She asked the horse, hugging it and speaking to it only to comfort her a little. Finding Senbon there meant there was something wrong with her brother. Though he would never admit it he loved his horse, he wouldn't just leave it, he wouldn't let it just get away from him. "What happened?"

Rukia held onto him until she started to tire out. She rubbed his nose once more before she lay back on the ground and curled up to try and keep warm. She had become rather tired by now and even though she was cold she drifted off to sleep.

Rukia awoke early the next morning, chilled to the bone she couldn't sleep any longer. Senbon stood just a little ways away from her, asleep on his feet. She didn't bother him, she got out some more food and ate, watching the horse sleep and worrying. When she was done she went to the horse and gently woke him up. Senbon was not happy about being woken up and looked at her with large annoyed eyes and a whinny.

"I know, I know, but you want to find Byakuya too don't you? You have a better idea of where he is than I do," she said and stroked his nose and back before slinging her bag over her shoulder and climbing up on his back.

Senbon was pretty good with her. Once Byakuya had started to teach her to ride when she was younger, the stallion had really not been happy with the situation. He had gradually gotten better with her and now would let her ride without any major protests.

So she rode him now, she didn't have to worry about her legs getting sore and she knew she would be going much faster now that she was by foot the previous day. Things went okay, though Rukia stopped every now and then to let Senbon rest and gave him some water from the canteen that she brought along, though that was difficult to do and she ended up spill most of it.

It was later in the day when they arrived at the fork in the road, one way branching off to a bridge after some distance and the other way going through a massive forest. Massive was even a bit of an understatement. Byakuya had shown her a map once, and it was large, very large. She stopped there and looked for a moment from each side of the fork, not being able to decide which way to go until Senbon pulled towards the forest.

"You want to go that way?" Rukia asked the steed. She was curious of why he wanted to go that way, and then she had an idea. "That's the way you went with Byakuya isn't it?"

They stopped again once more when they reached the edge of the forest. It looked so dark, something tugged at her stomach, and it was giving her such a foreboding feeling she didn't want to go inside. However Senbon pulled forward not letting her stop and think about turning back for too long before he went on. The feeling only got worse as they went further. There was something wrong here and she was afraid to find out what it was. They trudged on however, Senbon seemed rather determined for a horse, and he had some place he was going. Then he stopped, all of a sudden in the middle of the road and tossed his head.

"This is where he went?" Rukia asked looking around the feeling not leaving.

She dismounted and looked around some more, pacing up and down the road a little trying to find something, anything that would help her look. She saw nothing, nothing at all, sure there were bent twigs and such but she didn't notice them. So she went back to the horse and tugged on his reigns. Senbon refused and shook his head pulling back and refusing to let her make him move.

"Come on you stubborn horse, I want to look further down and I don't want to leave you here," She said as she tugged on the reigns some more. It was a tug-a-war between Rukia and the stallion and there really was no competition in it. Rukia finally let go and turned her back on the horse, "Fine then you stay here."

She started to walk further down the road; after she walked a bit she heard something move behind her. She turned her head and noticed the horse had moved closer to her. He didn't want to be left. After Byakuya leaving Senbon seemed afraid of having her leave as well, in fear she would not come back. Rukia smiled and kept on walking knowing the horse would keep up pace behind her.

Little more than fifteen minutes later they came across something else. It was a pathway, it was grown over really but it was unmistakably a path, or had been once upon a time. It seemed like the best thing to do even if this place was starting to scare her. This lead somewhere and if Byakuya had been just be wandering it seemed likely that he would eventually end up the house or what ever this path came out to. She stood there building up her courage for a moment before started down the path.

It was darker, plants seemed to be everywhere and it seemed impossible to walk in some places, both Rukia and Senbon were rather annoyed with this it. And then, there it was, as it had appeared out of nowhere, a huge castle. She had never seen anything anywhere remotely like it, it was beautiful. There were towers and the walks on the walls and gargoyles on all the corners. It was something from a fairytale and all Rukia could do was gape at it. She was defiantly far from home and out of her comfort zone now.

Author's Note - So there we go, I actually wanted it to go further, like to have Rukia and Ichigo meet
but thats gonna have to wait until next chapter.

Next Chapter - Beauty meets Beast