What can I say, I love you all. Never have I recieved such positive feedback on a story of mine. I apologize for the time it took me. Exams and then I tired to lock myself in my room to write it one day... I found out my room is the most distracting room in the house. Then I got violently Ill, well still am but I decided I had to finish this.

Anyways, I'd like to thank all my 21 reviewers. TWENTY-ONE for one chapter, I'm like giddy.

Disclaimer- I don't own Bleach

Beauty and the Beast

Chapter 5 - Out and About

Rukia awoke the next morning feeling kind of groggy. She hadn't meant to fall asleep but that was what had happened. She sat up and looked around her room then pinched herself just to double check and make sure she wasn't dreaming. She wanted it all to be a dream but there was no such luck.

She got up and walked to the window in her room. She leaned on her windowsill and looked outside through the pane of glass. It was splattered with water, it was raining lightly outside. She looked past it though, to the large garden her room looked out to. She could see flowers mainly; she assumed most of them were vegetables.

She turned back to investigate the rest of her room. She looked at the cloths, all of them rather fancy none of them that she really liked all that much, so she decided she would just stay in her own dress even though she had be wearing it for two days, part of that time was spent sleeping on the ground. There was a vanity too, she looked at that, and a hairbrush and some make up things like that. There was a tray of food on the floor too, what she suspected was the food Inoue had said she was going to bring up to her. It was soup and it was stone cold. Rukia took one sip but after that she could do no more though her hungry stomach urged her to.

Rukia then thought it was about time she left her room, there was nothing else to do there after all. She went to the door and opened it up, looking from side to side. She took one step and she was attacked, at least that's what she thought it was at first. Something sort of brown in colour came at her a landed on her chest. She jumped back but that really did nothing. She looked down and realized it was simply a stuffed animal clinging to her. Before she had time to wonder how exactly the stuffed animal was clinging to her, she realized it was nuzzling her, nuzzling her chest to be exact.

She grabbed a hold of it and whipped it across the hall where it smacked into the wall and made a squeaking noise as it slid down. "Pervert," she muttered and then started to wonder how a stuffed animal could be a pervert.

"Ow," a small voice came from it and it stood up then looked at her with tears in its fake eyes. "I thought that you would understand, everyone here is so mean but you're from the outside," he said in a sad pathetic little voice and sniffled.

"What are you?" she asked looking at the now walking talking stuffed animal, rather confused.

"I'm a lion! And my name is Kon!" the little thing proclaimed, seeming almost pissed off, but then he calmed, "I was also told to be your guide."

That hadn't been what she meant by 'what are you?' but at the moment she was honestly too hungry to care that much at the moment. "Guide? Can you take me to the kitchen?" She asked squatting down so she was closer to eye level with the animated stuffed animal.

"Of course I can!" Kon proclaimed loudly and pointed off dramatically into the distance before he started to walk.

Rukia shook her head a little and laughed a little as she followed it. She paid more attention to her surroundings this time. She had been depressed the day before so she didn't take in much other than the portrait of the Lord's family.

It drew her eyes again as they walked by. They all looked so happy. They were smiling and she could only assume that Ichigo had been too. Why would he want to destroy the picture? Byakuya had a great number of things he kept around to remind himself of Hisana. Why didn't he keep the picture as is to do the same thing? Oh well, he was a little odd after all he did have a talking teddy bear.

As they drew closer to the kitchen the smell of food hit Rukia and she nearly started to drool, it smelt so good. It also got louder. There were voices there, unlike the rest of the castle. There was conversation and that seemed to change the atmosphere of the area, things seemed much more comfortable and like a home.

Inside the kitchen there were cabinets everywhere, various ones opened and exposing dishes and various cooking ingredients. Rukia could count at least two stoves and ovens and there was a large basin that was probably used to clean the dishes. There was also a large table near the cabinets with dishes and there were a few people sitting there.

Inoue was there, the girl Rukia had met the night before and the giant that Ichigo had referred to as Chad. Sitting with them was another young man with short black hair and a pair of glasses. Just sitting there and talking he seemed to generate and dignified sort of air. There was a young woman sitting a little ways down the table, she had black hair as well, pulled up into a bun and seemed to be a little shy. Across the table from her was an empty plate, someone had been sitting there before and had left. Then, running around the kitchen there were two other people. A woman with black hair. She was loud and commanding, barking orders to the younger man, also with black hair and a fair bit less attractive than everyone else in the room. Rukia noticed something else rather interesting with the woman too, she was missing one of her arms.

"Ms. Kuchiki!" Inoue shouted waving and snapping Rukia out her surveying mode.

"Orihime!" Kon shouted suddenly and ran forward, jumping and latching onto Inoue's chest, much the same way he had done to Rukia's.

Both the males sitting with the young girl gave the stuffed animal a rather flat look before the one Rukia didn't know grabbed a hold of the lion's tail and pulled him away and flinging him into a cupboard. "Annoying little..." He muttered before turning back to his food.

"Thank you Ishida," She said smiling before going over to Rukia and grabbing a hold of her and dragging her over to the others she had been with. "This is Kuchiki Rukia, she is the girl who is staying with us," she gave a quick introduction, mainly for Ishida's benefit as Chad had already met her and then she began to introduce her to the others to Rukia. "This is Sado Yastora, Lord Kurosaki calls him Chad though," she gestured to the giant, "and Ishida Uryruu," she pointed to the one who helped remove Kon from her. "Sado is, well he does a lot of the random chores around here and Ishida is the tailor for all of us."

Rukia nodded at each of them in turn and smiled at them as best she could. Then out of nowhere there was a rather loud explosion, but only Rukia jumped. She looked around frantically for a moment but saw only a pot on one of the stoves smoking. The woman missing an arm began to yell and smack the man who had been running around the kitchen.

"Look at what you did you moron!" She barked and smacked him up side the head causing him to stagger.

"But your the one who made that and put it-" the other started but was silenced by another blow.

"Don't try and blame me, Its not my fault your stupid!"

"They are Kuukaku and Ganju, they siblings" Ishida said never once looking fazed, "if you ever hear anything explode its most likely them."

"And down there is Hinamori Momo, she is one of the maids here. And tha- oh, Hitsugaya left already," Inoue said, going on with introduction and pointed down the table to the girl with her hair in the bun and the empty plate. Hinamori was just getting up as well so when Rukia looked at her, she gave a small bow and a quiet 'Hello,' before she scurried out of the kitchen.

"You must be hungry, I'll get you something to eat," Inoue said suddenly and ushered Rukia into a chair before going off to search in the cupboard.

"Um, Inoue," Ishida looking up and look rather worried suddenly, "maybe you should let the cooks make her food. She might not be use to your, er... unique tastes, we don't want to make her sick."

Chad nodded in an agreement and Inoue frowned for a moment before going over to the too cooks who were still yelling at each other quite a bit. Ganju was made to get Rukia's food after a few rather painful looking blows from his sister. Rukia was happy to see it wasn't from the pot that had exploded. A moment later a bowl of oatmeal was in front of Rukia.

It smelled good. Rukia devoured it leaving everyone else there to gape at her. She looked around a bit of a blush in her cheeks; they were all staring at her.

"You have one hell of a stomach," Kuukaku said with a smile, "I think I'll like you."

"Um, thanks," Rukia said feeling a little uncomfortable. She felt it was time to leave the kitchen, hopefully to spare her from more of this awkward feeling. "I'd kind of like to see the rest of the castle... I lost my guide though," she said realizing she hadn't seen Kon since Ishida had thrown him into the cupboard.

They all seemed to understand who she meant by her guide. Ishida looked towards the cupboard he had thrown the stuffed animal into. Chad however bent down and reached under the table. There was squeaking sound and when the giant sat up again the missing lion was in his hand. Kon was flailing desperately trying to free himself.

Ishida reached across the table and grab Kon by the neck, "How many times do I have to tell you, you're not aloud under the table when someone is wearing a skirt!" Kon just whimpered and tried to get loose. Ishida stood up, still holding onto his captive tightly. "He needs to be taught a lesson, you two can show Ms. Kuchiki around. If she would like I could make her some cloths while I'm at it."

Inoue and Chad got to their feet as well and nodded like they were all in agreement with this idea. Rukia got up, it only made sense for her to, and after all she was the one who was going to be shown around. She thought about cloths too, that seemed to make sense as well, her dress was starting to smell and none of the ones in her room really caught her eye so she agreed to have new ones made.

"Alright, I'll need to take some measurements," Ishida said handing Kon to Chad for a moment. Out of nowhere he then produced a measuring tape and began to go to work.

It wasn't the most comfortable thing Rukia had ever experienced, it was very awkward really. She blushed a little when he measured her bust and there was snickering coming from else where in the kitchen. Kuukaku was laughing and Kon was muttering something along the lines of 'when I do it I get in trouble' all of which made Ishida blush a bit as well.

When he was done, he took Kon back and looked at Kuukaku with a sort of annoyed expression, "I'm doing my job!" he said in his defence.

"Sure you were," the cook said sarcastically as she turned to care for something she was cooking.

Ishida turned with a huff and he made his way out of the kitchen saying something like 'I'll see you later,' as he went.

"We should probably go too, if we want to show you everything." Inoue said.

They started to leave Rukia following behind the other two. She paused for a moment however and looked back at Kuukaku and Ganju with a smile. "Thank you for breakfast." With that she turned away and followed after Chad and Inoue.

"These are the gardens."

Rukia really didn't need Inoue to tell her that. With the numerous flowers it was pretty easy to tell that they were gardens. The plants were beautiful though, all sorts of plants that she had never seen before and of course others she had. All the colours were so lovely and the water coming off the petal just made it all the more awe-inspiring.

It had stopped raining now and Chad and Inoue thought they might as well show her the grounds around the castle now that they would get soaked doing so. They had seen much of the inside and Rukia had met another one of the maids, one who, in Rukia's opinion, needed more cloths, named Masumoto Rangiku. She seemed nice.

"It looks beautiful," Rukia said as she stepped towards a red flower for a closer inspection.

"Thank you," a voice Rukia had not yet heard spoke. There was a man in the garden, he seemed to be have been inspecting some of the flowers himself. He wore a long pink robe over his shoulders and had a bottle of something in his one hand.

"This is Kyouraku Shunsui, he is our gardener," Inoue introduced him.

"Your plants are lovely," Rukia said looking around once more.

"Its a lot of hard work but its worth it," he replied with a smile, taking a sip out of his bottle and moving closer to the group.

"Its worth in because you don't have to do any of the work," said the voice of a rather disgruntled sounding woman who stood up amongst to rows of plants. Her face and the pair of glasses she was wearing were covered in dirt.

"Oh Nanao-chan, don't say things like that. I do work." Kyouraku said pouting a little.

"That's his assistant, Ise Nanao. She does everything for him," Chad said quietly as the two gardeners began to bicker about how she had to do weeding in the mud and he hadn't lifted a finger and really needed to do his job.

It began to be a little odd for the three of them to stand there. Inoue said a goodbye but it wasn't heard between the pleading of Kyouraku and the grumbling of his assistant and the three left.

They walked around the grounds and Rukia realized how many plants the gardeners actually had to look after. Other then the large flower garden where they had met them, there were a few smaller ones as well as a medium sized one that had vegetables growing in it. They eventually came to a wooden building that was very open, small windows in the side of it but only half a door, over which you could see inside. It was a stable. Next to it there was a small pen with a little tiny wooden house and hopping around inside the pen were -

"Bunnies!" Rukia exclaimed when she saw them and ran over to see the little animals nibble and greens and hop about. Rabbits had been her favourite animals since she was little. Ukitake raised a few and they were her favourite things to see when she visited him.

"Aren't they cute? We have rabbits, chickens and horses," Orihime said as she went to the pen as well, leaning over the side and holding a hand out to one of the little critters.

Here is where Rukia met the next member of the castle's staff. Hearing all the noise a young man exited the stable and walked towards them, wiping his hands on a cloth and then tossing it over his shoulder. He had skill seeing how it landed on the door of the table. He had white hair that seemed to defy gravity and was also on the short side.

"Some of them bite," he said, leaning on the pen.

Rukia didn't pay all that much attention, the rabbits had her interest, but Orihime looked up and smiled. "Hello Hitsugaya, how are you today?"

He shrugged and a moment later vaulted the fence that held the rabbits from running wild. He picked up one of the animals and held it out to Rukia. "This one doesn't bite, if you want to hold it you can. Kuchiki Rukia right? Momo was telling me about you."

Rukia took the rabbit carefully and cradled it in her arms and pet its head. "Does it have a name?" she inquired.

"Nope," Hitsugaya replied and he turned back to look after some of the other bunnies.

"Then I'll name her," Rukia said cheerfully and holding the bunny up so that it was eye level, "I'll call you Chappy."

"Its a boy, but you do what you want," the boy said with out looking up. He picked up another rabbit and looked at it closely for a moment before setting it back down and repeating it until he had check all the rabbits.

"How did you talk to Hinamori about her when she didn't meet her until this morning and you had already left to do work?" Chad sad suddenly almost scaring Rukia because he had been quiet for so long.

"I see Momo more than in the morning and at night," He looked up at Chad with a flat look but suddenly blushed a little and looked back at the animals, "I mean at breakfast and supper, I see her more than then."

"This is Hitsugaya Toushiro by the way, he takes care of all the animals," Inoue said, but Rukia was still paying more attention to the rabbits more than the people.

They stayed there for a while. Rukia eventually set down Chappy and they watched Hitsugaya feed them. She liked this place best out of all the places in the castle. It was out side the musty building, away from the Lord and it had these cute little animals. Chappy was by far her favourite and she paid more attention to it than the others.

When they were about ready to leave, they notice the distinctive sound of horse hooves. Hitsugaya looked annoyed when he heard it and vaulted back out of the rabbit pen and stood there with arms crossed. Rukia was glad she wasn't the only one that was clueless because Chad and Inoue seemed to exchange clueless looks.

A horse approached, it was curious, not the horse, but the one riding it. It was a young man with red hair tied back in a high ponytail. He had black tattoos on his face and his arms and probably elsewhere but fortunately he was wearing cloths so Rukia couldn't tell. There was also a feathery lump behind him on the horse that was indistinguishable at the angle the group was looking at him.

"That would be our resident hunter Abarai Renji, who is late getting home," Hitsugaya said, sounding rather unimpressed.

"Hey," Renji grinned as he hopped off his horse and grabbed the feathery things, which turned out to be a couple of geese. "Zabimaru is sweating and stuff, your gonna have to look after him kid."

"We agreed that for me to look after your horse you would have to get back here before I finish with the others and clean up. I'm not getting dirty again!" Hitsugaya snapped.

"Its your job!" Renji snapped back, "I'm busy all day getting food and doing my job and you won't do yours?"

"Your horse, you bought it and I'm not in charge of it," the argument continued, "A two geese, lot of food, that may just feed the little girl in the guard. Great job."

"It's not my fault Yachiru and everyone else eats like animals!"

They were glaring at each other and looked like they were about ready to attack when Inoue stepped forward. "Hey Abarai, have you met Ms. Kuchiki yet?"

Renji looked over at Rukia looked her up and down and smiled. "So Ichigo finally got himself a girl?"

They all looked rather cross at him. He gave them a sheepish smile and he took a step back from everyone. Rukia could understand why she was upset, they way he said it, it sounding as if she was with that monster. She had a hard time grasping why it would piss off the others. Chad and Inoue were the first to calm down; the other two both had a temper.

"Supper will be ready soon," Chad said.

"Oh and we have to see Ishida about your dresses," Inoue added.

Rukia nodded and smiled at the others, "Thank you for letting play with your rabbits Hitsugaya. See you later Renji."

The rest of the evening was interesting. They dropped by Ishida's workshop to pick up three dresses he had managed to make in the time. He promised her more would come in the next few days. They were lovely dresses and the young man clearly had skill in his trade.

They also got to see Kon's punishment. The little stuffed lion was there in a lovely looking dress, the kind a princess would where. He also had hair, long curly blonde locks. Ishida explained to Rukia that he would serve his time by wearing that for a few days before it would be removed. That would keep him behaved for about a week or so.

After that she went back to her room and cleaned up a little and got changed into one of the new dresses and headed for dinner. It was in a room other than the kitchen. A large dinning room. It was needed as all the staff ate together and they would not fit in the kitchen.

The guard was there, the only people Rukia hadn't met and one of the reasons they couldn't fit in the kitchen. Their leader was a big man, larger even than Chad the giant. He went by Zaraki Kenpachi and the first question he asked Rukia when she met him was 'Are you strong?'. There were two other men in the guard, Madarame Ikkaku and Ayasegawa Yumichika. Madarame was bald, and that was the main thing Rukia got from him. Ayasegawa on the other hand, he made a comment about knowing dress was made by Ishida and went on to say he made such lovely cloths that made him and everyone else look so pretty. There was one more person; she was introduced as the only child in the castle next to Hitsugaya (to which the animal keeper loudly protested to). Her name was Yachiru and she was a very hyper little girl.

All the staff together was amusing, loud but it was one of the most entertaining things Rukia had ever seen. Every time a small argument broke out, usually between Renji and Madarame, Zaraki would demand a fight. Yachiru ended up latched onto Madarame's head at least three times. The maid Matsumoto kept making comments about how Hitsugaya was whispering to Hinamori and how it was such a romantic thing for the kid to do. Kyouraku made passes at Ise every chance he got, and every now and then he would hit on one of the other girls only to get smacked by one of the males (or Matsumoto herself in her case).

They stayed up rather late talking. It was madness and Rukia thought it was great. She was home sick yes and didn't to be there but this took her mind off things and she felt she was able to relax. When she finally went up to bed she was exhausted and passed out almost right away.


Author's Note - So Kuukaku won as the cook simply cause when I read that I couldn't stop laughing and the image wouldn't leave my brain, but I could leave everyone's favourite drunk Captian out and I thought gardener suited him will. Urahara and Company are in the fic but they show up later on Thanks to everyone that suggested an idea. Next chapter has some more Ichigo Rukia interaction... I don't know what I'm going to call it but I have an idea about how I'm gonna start it. All the pieces of the plot are falling into place. I have another question though I didn't say Kuukaku and Ganju's name for a reason, I wasn't sure if I wanted them to be related to Kaien and if they were Rukia would have reacted to the last name. I menton Kaien in the first chapter so... should they be related? I can swing the plot either way, one way Ukitake has a bigger role. anyways, thats all till next chapter.