Back with the so requested Isshin's reaction! It's a long chapter... i hope you'll have fun with it!
-pmw928, thank you for your review!
-Ru-tamai i update fast becuase writing is like a drogue for me... yes i know, is strange, but it's really an addiction.
-danee, yes something was Occ about Nii-sama on the beginning. I'm glad is solved. :)
-sleeplygirl, yep... Byakuya knows something the Rukia and Ichigo doesn't know yet... that they'll eventually fall in love.
-IchigoMoonCutter, Haha, rigth! next step to a trouble filled relation, handling a loonatic father/ father-in-law.
-falconrukichi, yers i really want Ichigo and Byakuya to get along, of course in the limit of which Byakuya could get along with someone. And yes, this will be a lot cheerful than "A frozen ocean of rain"
-Pancakes, glad you found no "puking rainbows". I try to avoid rainbows... i really do! they're just... boring.
-lone ruler , yep, you are right, i should have used past tense. (sometimes (often) i do mistakes even thought i know well the theory and the grammar rules)
-purplepam Isn't it Byakuya the best? (i'm so glad that he survived in the manga)
-Phantom clare, merci beaucoup :)
-LyssaIsThatLyssa, wow... it makes me happy to know that you find this really well written.
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4. Operation Telling the Family: Success
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Question 3: How did your family react on your sudden engagement?
Rukia: Isshin was pretty excited I remember he cried a lot. Of course that happened was after we got over that little misunderstanding with the balloons…We almost started a fight because of that.
Ichigo:I remember we ate curry that evening…
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Isshin was standing at a table in front of Urahara with an intense and thoughtfully expression. He was nervously hitting the table with his left fingers, while rubbing his chin with the right ones:
"One again!" he suddenly said to Urahara. "Read it to me once again!"
Calmly, Urahara leaned his gaze on what seemed to be a flash telegram from Seireitei and started to read aloud:
"I'm coming home tonight. STOP. I will not be alone. STOP. Ask Yuzu to cook that curry Rukia likes. STOP. And also put an extra futon in my room. STOP. Do not ask why. STOP. I will explain when I get home. STOP. Please, behave yourself when I arrive. STOP"
When Urahara finished reading, Isshin frowned with a serious glare:
"And you are sure that everything is alright in Seireitei… no hollows, no enemies."
"Only nice weather and peaceful times, as far as I know." Urahara replied.
"And Rukia also hasn't been assigned here with a mission, you say…" Isshin said.
"Not from my knowledge…"Urahara answered.
Isshin looked once again intensely at Urahara…and then he suddenly got up from the table with an ecstatic expression and hugged Urahara:
"Oh! Thank you! Thank you so much! Masaki, I thought this day would never come!"
Then as suddenly as he hugged him, he also pushed him away, heading to the door:
"Sorry, I must leave now! There's so much to do home! Oh, that curry! I hope Yuzu is home!"
And he disappeared from Urahara's shop, leaving ex captain of the 12th Division with a perplex expression on his face.
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Half an hour later, at the Kurosaki residence, Isshin was convoking an urgent family meeting.
"Are you sure, dad?" Yuzu asked.
"Positive!" the father shouted. "Urahara read me the telegram twice!"
Karin frowned doubtfully:
"I'm sure you're misunderstanding his words…" she stated, "Ichi-nii wouldn't say something like that through a telegram."
Isshin turned to his daughter with a cocked eyebrow:
"Are you implying that you don't trust your father's words?"
"Yes" Karin replied confidently.
Instantly, Isshin slapped his head on the table and started to cry loudly. Ignoring his mumbling among which only the words: "Masaki", "daughter" and "ungrateful" could he understood, Yuzu approached her sister with a worried expression:
"I also find it a little strange…"
"I told you, he's delusional! He only understands what he wants to understand!" Karin replied.
"Still… that doesn't mean Rukia isn't coming… I think I'll better start cooking…"
Hearing Yuzu's words, Isshin suddenly got up:
"Finally, someone who believes me!" he shouted and then, coming to his senses he pointed his index finger at Karin: "We have no much time left! We must split the tasks! You, Karin, will immediately go to the amusement park and buy helium balloons…As much as you can carry! Pay attention to get that type with the 'Congratulations For Your Baby' message on them!"
Far from being enthusiastic about it, Karin got up from the table and headed to the entrance door in order to put her shoes on.
"You know that Ichi-nii will kill you if you're wrong about this."
"IF I am wrong about this!" Isshin pointed with a smirk. "Now hurry!"
Then he turned to Yuzu, but as she was already gathering the ingredients for her curry, he knew that his instructions were futile.
"But what about you, dad?" Yuzu suddenly asked. "What's your task?"
On that question, Isshin grinned, self pleased with the plan he made in his mind:
"I, my daughter, will go and clear my bank account in order to buy a luxurious, king size bed for Ichigo's room!
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"Are you sure about this?" Rukia asked.
"About what?" Ichigo asked while he was waiting on the hallway in front of the Kuchiki Elders's Council room.
"About what you wrote in the telegram…" Rukia answered.
Meanwhile behind the closed doors of the council, some intense arguing could be heard along with some menacing voices rising up from time to time.
"What … you preferred something else instead of curry?" Ichigo asked.
"No!" she replied annoyed. "I was not referring to the curry part … but to the "adding an extra futon to your room" one. You know I can sleep in Yuzu and Karin's room…"
Behind the closed doors the arguing was slowly turning into a fight.
"Well Rukia…" Ichigo said. "Unlike you, I'm not going to kick people out of my room in the middle of the night just because I don't have a closet that fits them in or an extra futon. Apparently, I have them both so it's up to you choosing whatever you like… Moreover, it would be stupid for you, as my fiancé, to sleep in my sister's room."
Rukia's eyes widened and she suddenly blushed, as she heard herself called by Ichigo, "Fiancé".
"If we are really going to do this, I believe we should also act in concordance with the roles we're playing… If you will sleep in my sister's room, everyone will know that is something fishy about this marriage" Ichigo added, without noticing the blush on Rukia's cheeks. His eyes were turned to the closed door of the Council room where apparently, the fight became pretty serious and everyone was shouting.
"Are they really ok in there?" he asked.
Rukia gasped.
"I don't know, but I really hope that Nii-sama will end this soon since—", but she didn't finished her sentence because someone violently opened the door and exited the Council's room, while shouting: "Outrageous!" The man was immediately followed by others, as angry as the first one. From that Ichigo and Rukia concluded that the Elder's meeting had ended.
"This is beyond imagination!" the first Elder snapped. "If only Ginrei was alive! If only your father would have been alive, Byakuya!" he shouted and for a second he turned his eyes to the room he left behind.
"Don't you think you're taking it all too serious, Katsuya?" another elder replied.
"Of course, I'm taking it serious! A Kuchiki marrying a human! A HUMAN!" he yelled exasperated and then he turned to the other elder. Instantly his face transfigured with repulsion. "Goroza Ryoin! I should have imagined! Of course you'll agree with this marriage since you daughter is living in the human world!"
"My Haruna living in the human world has nothing to do with this!" Goroza Ryoin replied with boredom. "You're just obsessed with marrying Byakuya with his sister!"
"Excuse me, if I am preoccupied with the future of this clan… or more precisely with the lack of future, since we have NO PUREBLOOD HEIR!" Katsuya yelled.
"If we need so much a pureblood heir, why don't we get this Haruna Ryoing back in Seireitei… She used to be engaged with Byakuya when they were young, right?" another elder made himself heard among the crowed.
"But for that we must find Haruna first! And she must be available!" another one replied while laughing. "I heard she married like four times… in less than 50 years!"
On that last comment Goroza Ryoing suddenly turned to the crowd:
"What did you say about my daughter?!" he growled with his face turned red from anger.
But Katsuya left behind the other elders and their usual quarrels, approaching furiously Rukia and Ichigo:
"You!" he hissed starring at Rukia. "You are a disappointment! I had big expectations from you…but I guess that not in a century … or a millennium of living among the nobles, your filthy Rukongai origins could not be erased!"
"I won't allow you to speak in that way to my fiancé!"Ichigo intervened sternly as he got up from the bench he was sitting along with Rukia.
"And YOU!" Katsuya growled looking at Ichigo's orange hair with disgust. "Central 46 should have executed you before you were born! A human becoming a shinigami! OUTRAGEOUS!" he yelled and left the couple behind heading himself to the exit.
Ichigo then turned to Rukia with a worried expression:
"Are you aright? I'm sorry for what that man said…"
But Rukia didn't seem alright…and it wasn't because of Katsuya's words. Ichigo had called her his "fiancé" for the second time that day and each time he seemed pretty serious… maybe a little too serious for a marriage planned only for appearances.
"Finally!" Ichigo stated looking at the threshold of the Council's room, where Byakuya appeared. Ichigo, followed by Rukia approached him.
"So, how did that go?" Ichigo asked.
Byakuya looked at the multitude of elders who were slowly leaving the building.
"Both sides declared their position, but unfortunately not everybody can be pleased," he replied.
Ichigo frowned confused. For him Byakuya's words were as vague as an old Greek poem. 'Nobles!' he stated with resignation and turned to Rukia waiting for the translation of her brother's words.
"Does that mean that Nii-sama and I don't have to…get married anymore?" Rukia asked.
"Indeed," Byakuya replied.
And that was all that Ichigo needed to know.
"Now we can go back to Karakura, right?" he asked.
"The sooner the better…" Byakuya answered.
"Let's go then, Rukia! Yuzu's curry must be already waiting for us!"
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Isshin was standing outside of his house encountering the truck from the furniture company. Isshin's eyes were sparkling with enthusiasm while he was giving "precise" indications to the workers who were unloading a huge bed. His enthusiasm vanished though, when, on the first floor of the house, from Ichigo's room window, Karin asked:
"And how do you expect to get that in here?"
Both Isshin and the worker looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
"We could try trough the window?" the worker proposed.
Karin rolled her eyes.
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The rest of the day passed to Ichigo and Rukia in an alert rhythm. Even though they thought they could immediately head to Karakura, Rukia had to remain at the home and compose her wedding trousseau from the Kuchiki treasury, while Ichigo had to follow Byakuya all around Seireitei in order to meet people and sign papers of which purpose he didn't even understand.
It was already dark when they arrived in Karakura. They were both were walking side by side on the main street that led to the Kurosaki residence, when Rukia suddenly stopped.
"What?" Ichigo asked.
Rukia looked at him intensively, but speechless.
"Rukia, we're already late…and you know my father…" he said losing his patience.
She bit her lips.
"Is my dress looking nice?" she asked.
His eyes widened troubled.
"What?"
"Don't 'what' me!" she snapped nervously. "This is important… I must look my best and something is telling me this dress is too…simple!"
Ichigo looked at her pink summer dress, long till her knees. It was a normal dress that he knew since high school. He frowned, confused because he didn't quite understand the concept of "too simple". No matter what she'd wear, for him she will be the same Rukia. Clothes were just… not important.
"Well… you look nice" he tried not sure if those words were the right ones and surprisingly her eyes instantly started to sparkle with enthusiasm.
"You mean like… really nice?" she asked joyfully.
"Extremely," he lied. "Now, can we hurry, please?"
She approached him with quick steps and smiled relieved.
"I'm glad, Ichigo…because at least I want to make a good impression".
Ichigo cocked his eyebrows.
"In front of who? My dad?! …Come on' Rukia!...It's just… my dad… you know him!"
She replied him an intense glare:
"Ichigo… this time is different…you and I, we are…" but here she stopped and took a deep breath. "Well, we're already here…"
Ichigo turned his gaze and noticed that they were already in front of his house. He also noticed that there was no light on inside or outside the house. He approached the door and rang it once. No answer…Ichigo rang again.
"Maybe you shouldn't be that insistent…" she said with a low, unsure voice as if she wasn't actually looking forward to the moment when someone will actually answer the door. Ichigo turned to her surprised:
"Rukia, don't tell me you're actually nervous about this…"
Her cheeks slightly blushed.
"Well, aren't you also?" she replied with a slight reproach in her voice.
He smiled without saying a word, took her small hand and held it.
"You're with me… there's nothing to worry about…"
Her eyes widened and she starred at him for a couple of seconds. Her cheeks turned hot and she didn't know if it was due to Ichigo's comforting voice or the fact that he was holding her hand.
"It's my family we're talking about here!" He added cheerfully, not noticing her spacing out moment. "I know how to handle them!"
And after he said that he rang the door once more. Since again, no reply came, he approached a window and tried to look inside: it all seemed peaceful and quiet. "Don't tell me these guys were out for the week-end and they didn't read the telegram…" Ichigo said while he turned to Rukia.
"It appears that we are home alone…" he added and leaned over the welcome rug under which the extra key was hidden. He opened the door and they both entered in the dark quiet house.
Ichigo turned on the lights on the hall way, while both of them put away their shoes.
"Are you hungry?" Ichigo asked.
"No , not really…" Rukia replied. "A little thirsty maybe…"
"Ok, I'll go get you a glass of water…" he said while heading to the kitchen and Rukia followed him.
They both entered the kitchen calmly and relaxed. Ichigo was turning on the lights and Rukia was preparing to tell him that she would water from the fridge, when they both had a heart attack:
"SURPRIZE!"
Ichigo startled scared, while Rukia backed off a two steps. It took them a couple of seconds to process the scene they were witnessing: In front of them, the three Kurosaki's were popping confetti in a kitchen filled with balloons.
"CONTRATULATIONS! You both made this poor man the happiest grandfather in the world!" Isshin shouted.
And then Rukia and Ichigo noticed the message wrote on the balloons: 'Best Mommy In The World', 'Congratulations For Your Baby', 'Is It A Boy?' and their faces turned violet. Overcoming her shock, Rukia instantly came to her senses and turned to Ichigo:
"What did you actually write in that telegram?!" she yelled as she kicked him to the floor.
Ichigo, though immediately got up and turned to his father angrily:
"Yeah! Tell me old men, what did you not understand from that telegram?!" he shouted.
Isshin's eyes widened.
"I knew it!" Karin suddenly snapped crossing her arms. "So, there's no baby."
"She's not pregnant?" Isshin asked with deathly glare, as if his life was hanging on a positive answer.
"No, I'm not!" Rukia immediately replied, half angry, half embarrassed.
"I told you!" Karin snapped toward Yuzu.
"How could you even think of that?" Ichigo shouted to his father. "Rukia and I haven't seen each other in months!"
"And we never dat—" She wanted to add but Ichigo immediately stepped on her foot making her to swallow her words. He knew how difficult would be to explain his family why is he's marrying Rukia if she will tell them that he actually never "dated" her. Rukia turned to him with a furious glare, but when she understood the mistake she was about to make, she remained silent.
"Dad, you're delusional…"Karin concluded and then turned to Ichigo and Rukia: "Guys, I'm sorry for this… I tried to stop him from doing it, since I also found it strange that Ichi-nii would announce us trough a telegram that he will become a father…"
"What?!" Ichigo shouted. "I never said that! I only asked Yuzu to cook curry and…"
"And put an extra futon in your room for Rukia!" Isshin snapped almost crying.
"So it's the extra futon!" Rukia intervened adopting the classical Kurosaki snapping style. "I told you this morning that it would be a bad idea! BAD IDEA!"
"It's not the futon!" Ichigo riposted annoyed and then turned again to his father. "You, are crazy! I don't even understand how you arrived at the conclusion that Rukia is…aaah!" he growled, scratching his head nervously. "I didn't even spell the word baby in the telegram!"
"It was a logical presumption!" Isshin replied in defense. "Why else would you suddenly bring Rukia home to diner and ask her to sleep in your room, when she hasn't even been assigned with a mission here?!"
Ichigo turned to his sisters exasperated, asking them if their father was really meaning the words he was saying.
"Don't mind him; I strongly believe he's alienated…" Karin said.
"So, there's no baby?" Yuzu asked with a slight disappointment in her voice.
"NO!" Both Ichigo and Rukia replied at the same time.
Isshin started to cry on their categorical answer while Yuzu gasped thinking of how she really wanted to become an aunt.
"You're embarrassing the Kurosaki name…" Karin said while looking at Isshin, crying with his face on the table. On those words, Isshin raise his head and faced her morosely:
"Ichigo is the one who is embarrassing the Kurosaki name… by not being able to make Rukia his girl friend after all these years!"
Rukia froze.
"Look at her! She is perfect!" he insisted. "But no! Ichigo has to be dumb! DUMB!"
Ichigo and Rukia exchanged some worried looks.
"Ichigo… I'm denying you as my son, until you are coming back to this house and tell me that you proposed to Rukia!" Isshin added upset.
Ichigo and Rukia's eyes widened and suddenly both of them lost any eagerness to speak.
"I refuse to believe that my son can be that stupid and that blind! Rukia, please do something about him!"
"Dad… I think that's enough…"Karin intervened soberly.
But in that moment Ichigo took a step forward and after he looked at Rukia he said:
"Actually…"
Everyone turned to him curiously since for the first time that night his voice was calm and somehow nervous.
"Actually…" he repeated tensely, "Rukia and I…"
Isshin's eyes widened as if he was one step away from winning the lottery.
"Rukia and I…are getting married!" Ichigo finally said it, trying to add a cheerful smile at the end of the sentence.
A moment of silence passed in which everyone tried to process the news and then Isshin flew on Ichigo's and Rukia's throats suffocating them with his hug.
"That's my son! That's my daughter! I knew it! I knew you were gonna say that! You gave me the creeps one moment ago, but I forgive you now! Oh, my children!" Isshin cried with crocodile tears, while the couple was trying to break away from his hug.
Yuzu smiled cheerfully while watching them.
"I guess we didn't buy the confetti for nothing…" she said.
"I'm curious about the look on their faces when they see the bed…" Karin added.
Yuzu chuckled and took the curry from the baker starting to serve it on plates.
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"I'd say the Riviera…Is the best restaurant in town… you can easily get 100 people in there." Isshin said.
"I believe that more than 100 guests will be only from Nii-sama's side… We need a bigger place." Rukia replied.
"A tent?" Isshin proposed.
"Nii-sama would never agree." she replied.
It appeared that after everyone got over Isshin's misunderstanding about Ichigo's and Rukia's engagement, the father and his, now official, third daughter started to get along pretty well. For more than an hour they were discussing the organization of the wedding reception. Both of them had a serious and concentrated mien, while Ichigo was bored, thinking of the moment he will go to his room, lay on his bed… and sleep. Karin was somehow sharing her brother's opinion, since the wedding dresses and the reception's menu weren't actually fascinating her. Yuzu, though, was quite the opposite of her sister. She liked listening to Rukia and her father and sometimes would even intervening in to their discussion.
For a couple of minutes though, her attention was concentrated on the beautiful ring her future sister-in-law was wearing:
"Is that the engagement ring?" she asked.
"Y-Yes…" Rukia answered.
Yuzu smiled.
"And how did Onii-chan proposed to you?" she asked.
"He… he leaned on his knee…"Rukia said with a tangled smile.
On that answer, Karin woke up from her apathy.
"Did Ichi-nii do that? I can't picture him in that posture… and did he say some cheesy lines?" she asked.
Rukia started to laugh, prepared to tell them how all actually happened but then she met Ichigo's unease air and her laugh suddenly ceased.
"Yes, he did…" she lied while her eyes were fixed on Ichigo's.
"He said that I saved him, even though he's the one I owe my life… He said that meeting me was the best thing that happened to him and that he is happy when he's around me. Then he added that he is a hopeless and selfish person who wishes to be happy all the time and who he can't be like that unless he has me around him all the time. He told me that he is not perfect… that sometimes he can be stupid and have a hot temper, but he also added that he will spend the rest of his life trying to make me as happy as I made him…"
Everyone at the table was starring at Rukia with a dreamy expression, all mesmerized by her story…everyone except Ichigo. He was suddenly taken over by a feeling of guilt. He listened to Rukia's words and felt like in the depth of her heart she wished to hear them all directly from his mouth. Now he really wished he would have spoken them the other night, instead that stupid line:
"So… am I supposed to lean on one knee?"
"I still can't believe that you and Ichi-nii are getting married!" Karin said cutting that dreamy atmosphere. "I mean I know you were both close, but you never let us believe that you were something more than best friends… except, of course, from dad, but he was more imagining things than actually seeing them…I wonder for how long have you actually been…together."
Rukia turned to Karin with the same tangled smile and simply answered:
"Since… always…"
Ichigo's eyes widened.
"But we couldn't have let the others know, until Nii-sama would have approved…" Rukia added.
"So that's why you went to Seireitei this week-end!" Isshin concluded looking at Ichigo.
But Ichigo only smiled.
"I think it's late … Ichigo must be tired…" Rukia said trying to change the topic, so Ichigo won't be have to invent more lies than she already did.
"We all are! We can also plan the wedding tomorrow. Now we should all go to bed!" Karin said.
Isshin's eyes suddenly sparkled.
"Speaking of bed!" he said.
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Ichigo, Rukia and Isshin were starring at the monstrously big bed put in Ichigo's room.
"What happened to the old one?" Ichigo asked displeased.
"Trash!" Isshin replied cheerfully.
"What happened to the closet?" Rukia asked worried.
"I put it in my room since I had no place for the bed…Oh, this is wonderful! I'll let the two of you try it now! Good night, my lovey-dovey children!" he said and closed the door behind him.
A couple of seconds later after they remained alone, Rukia asked:
"What did he mean by "trying the bed"?
"Sleep… I hope…" Ichigo asked unsure.
"You mean… together?" she asked tensely.
"I don't think we have a choice…The closet is…gone."
Rukia took a deep breath and made the decision to remain calm.
"I'll go take a shower" she said.
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"Now what?" Rukia asked as she stood next to the bed.
"Now, we sleep, Rukia!" Ichigo answered categorically.
"How? she asked.
He frowned confused.
"Well... we put ourselves in bed and..." he tried.
"Ok! I'll take this side of the bed!" she cut in with a bossy air, taking the side from the window." You take the other one!" then with her hand she crossed an invisible line on the the middle of the bed. "And you will not cross this line! If you do, then you'll sleep on the floor and i'll take the bed for myself!"
Ichigo starred at Rukia with a straight face as she was doing the "military instruction with him". She took a deep breath, pleased of the solution she found and put herself in bed.
"Good night, Ichigo!"
Ichigo remained alone in the middle of the room with a stupid look upon his face. He never really thought how things would be when he will get married, but he certainly didn't imagine his fiance crossing limit lines on their bed... Actually he never imagined himself marrying Rukia...
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Ichigo put himself in bed and only when he felt the soft pillow under his head he understood how tired he was. How he loved the moment when he was almost asleep… his body was numbed…his eyelids were heavy and all around him was calm and quiet…
"Ichigo, do you know this is actually the first time we slept together?"
And that was for his peaceful sleep, he concluded. He opened his eyes.
"Yes, Rukia… it's the first time" he said sternly.
Another couple of minutes passed in silence and he guessed that she decided to sleep also. He slowly closed his eyes, prepared to lean into the world of dreams.
"Ichigo… are we really getting married?"
He gasped. The world of dreams apparently must still wait.
"Yes, Rukia…we are really getting married."
"And what this 'getting married' actually means?" she insisted.
On those words he suddenly turned to her for a second, since they were both sleeping on their half of the bed with their gaze turned in different directions.
"Rukia…I honestly don't know…and I don't think we will know until we will actually get married. Now, can we please sleep? Because tomorrow we have to pick that damn restaurant and I'm sure that dad and Byakuya's pretensions will give us a hard time!"
Rukia didn't say anything more. Ichigo guessed that she must have been pouted because of his last words, but he honestly didn't care. He just wanted to sleep.
Unfortunately, after that episode he couldn't close his eyes anymore. Of course Rukia had immediately fall asleep, but his eyes were wide opened. He must have starred at the shadows on the ceiling for more than an hour… and then, at a certain point he turned his gaze to Rukia, who was now sleeping with her face turned to his side of the bed, almost crossing the line she traced.
She looked like a child when she was asleep, he thought. She looked beautiful…
And then a strange impulse took over his body causing his arm to move in her direction for a second. Then, he remembered that it was dark and that no one knew… not even her. He slowly approached her… and put his arm around her.
He didn't know why he did that but after he did it, he instantly fall asleep, leaning into one of the most restful sleeps.
I wonder haw many of you noticed Nene-cha ( Miss Haruna Ryoin) ...I don't really plan to add her here, but If it comes to a fanfiction, my option is that (apart from Rukia) there won't be person to mach Byakuya better then her. So think about it...
Anyway... let me know what you think! Good opinions, bad opinions, spit it out!
Remember the more you review, the faster i update!
PS: Daca mai sunteti romani care treceti pe aici , faceti-va simtita prezenta! Cius!