"You dare disobey orders now Renji?" Byakuya spoke, ice dripping from his tongue and condensing Renji's blood in his veins.

"Tai…taichou –" Renji stuttered, "I can explain…"

"Do I look to you like someone who wishes to hear your explanation?" Byakuya's eyes turned stone-like and face even more stoic. Renji felt that Byakuya had received a gigai with more abilities in presenting scrutinizing expressions than his own soul.

He dared look at his Taichou. He knew he had messed up. Owning up to his mistake was the best thing he could do if not the only thing.

And so he uttered the same. To his towering, seething in rage taichou.

"Get in." Byakuya's cold words echoed through the entrance of the house. Renji winced.

Once inside, Byakuya said, "There is the cleaning utensils, here are the ingredients. Cook for yourself to eat." And with that, he took a covered bowl and moved to the table to sit down. Uncovering the bowl, Renji saw.

Miso soup.

"Taichou! You cooked! It was a joke?" Renji sat down laughing on the floor. " You scared me back there taichou, good joke."

Byakuya lifted his head but didn't turn to him. Then with a ghost of a smirk lurking on his lips, he said, "Who said anything about cooking for me? I only meant it for you."

When Renji still didn't move, he spoke, "I cooked for myself. You cook for yourself. You clean to eat." And with that, he ate his dinner in silence while Renji was left devastated.

'Taichou made food for himself and not for me? But doesn't he know I do not know how to cook?' Sulking, Renji got up and began to clean.

There was laundry in the basket, there was sweeping of the floors, and then moping. And then, if Renji had any energy left in his gigai body, he'd have to cook. And then, he had to eat. Then clean the utensils. Would he get any sleep?

No time to waste, Renji got to work. But not without giving stinky-eye to his taichou (behind his back of course) and began to clean.

Laundry went into the washing machine (Ichigo had taught him the way to use it and left a simple step-by-step instruction manual. Bless Ichigo's heart for that!), and with the strictly measured detergent liquid and plugging, the machine worked by itself. Eyeing the broom, Renji felt irked.

'How could taichou do this to me? He could've at least cooked for me…' but Renji didn't have time for thoughts, his gigai body began to make weird sounds in the abdomen region.

Unknown to Renji, someone's soft and sensitive ears had picked the sounds up. But he continued to eat in his way, a smile hinting on his lips.

While Renji continued to work, Byakuya had finished his meal and was preparing to head to bed.

"Good work done, Renji. We'll pick up from the place we found the hint last, tomorrow. Good night." Byakuya spoke with such a calm tone that for a moment Renji had forgotten about the entire day's incident, however, the man's receding footsteps brought it all back.

"Good night taichou," Renji whispered and continued to broom.

A door opened and then closed.

'Byakuya is in his room now,' Renji pondered.

'He even cooks his own meals,' he thought, 'how is a royal able to do that?'

'I wonder,' Renji thought, 'does he even sleep?' Because Renji didn't hear the bed creak or the mattress stress under his pressure. He only heard a window open and a slight whoosh.

'Ah! Whatever! Let him do what he wants! I am hungry and I have to finish this.' With furious force Renji had managed to clean the house and then put the clothes to dry on the wire-stand. Then he went to the kitchen to cook…

But as Renji opened the refrigerator, he was surprised to say the least.

Cooked rice and miso soup lay on a tray covered.

Somewhere in two people's heart that night, when they went to sleep, was this thought:

'Why did he do that? Was it really for me?'