Complications

Byakuxhisa4eva

I. Of Older Brothers and Photo Books

Spoiler: This chapter contains spoilers for Episode 62 (manga chapter 79), so unless you don't mind spoilers, or already know about Hisana, read on! Or just skip the end part.

Ichigo was silent.

The soft running of the tea being poured from the pot was the only noise in the large, immaculate parlor of the Kuchiki mansion. In the center of the table was a small, polished oak table, at which either side sat two unmoving figures.

The white-haori clad shinigami captain nodded at the bowing maid, dismissing her. As she lowered her head and backed out of the room, Byakuya returned his attention toward the unusually silent orange-haired substitute shinigami captain.

Said substitute inwardly gulped at the elder Kuchiki's cold, unwavering gaze. Shifting in his seat, Ichigo adverted the steely gray eyes glaring in his direction, looking everywhere but at the person across from him.

'Why am I here again?' Ichigo thought, momentarily forgetting the obviously horrid reason as to why he was in this self-proclaimed death trap in the first place.

'Oh yeah...I have to ask Byakuya for Rukia's hand in marriage before I can actually propose, don't I? Though I think that Byakuya's trying to glare a hole through my head hoping to kill me before I can even get a ring chosen...and I think it just might work...maybe if I try to mention the fact more subtly...'

"..."

"..."

"What do you want, Kurosaki?"

So much for that idea...

"Well, you see, Rukia and I were in the Soul Society and we thought it might be nice to pay you a visit, since we haven't seen you in a while and we wanted to know how you were doing, but you see, Rukia said she couldn't make it, so I decided to drop by since I was in the neighborhood and---"

He was babbling nonsense, wasn't he?

"Get to the point, Kurosaki."

"Wha--?" Ichigo was surprised at Byakuya's bluntness.

Byakuya sent him a glare over the rim of this teacup.

"Kurosaki, do not take me for a fool. We all know that neither you nor Rukia had any intention of paying me a visit, seeing as you just came into contact with me two days ago. Furthermore, you, Kurosaki, do not like me--"

That could be a problem, couldn't it?

"What gives you that idea Byakuya? Who says I didn't like you? Sure I've kicked your ass a couple of times, but that doesn't mean I--"

Today really wasn't his day.

Another well-placed glare silenced the carrot-top shinigami.

"As I was saying," Byakuya continued, "Kurosaki, you do not like me, and I believe it safe to say that I do not like you either."

'Well duh.' Ichigo thought, 'The day Byakuya doesn't hate me is the day Kenpachi stops loving to fight. Or when Kyoraku stops drinking sake. Or when Rukia doesn't like Chappy. Or when Ichimaru stops smiling--'

"As a matter of fact, I despise you, and you know that full well. If it weren't for Rukia, you wouldn't be sitting where you are right now."

Ichigo smartly decided not to re-voice the thought that he had beaten the Kuchiki noble once before in battle and would do it again with the greatest pleasure.

Byakuya, at this point, was calmly sipping his tea while seemingly pretending to ignore the orange-headed shinigami across from him. Ichigo, however, was in a state of mental hysterics. Or as close to it as someone like Ichigo could get.

'Ok, calm down. You can do this...you're just asking permission to marry Rukia, or at least propose to her. No biggie, right? I mean it's not like he can do anything to me, right? RIGHT?'

Damn wrong.

Byakuya may not have been able to beat Ichigo in battle, but he could make Ichigo's life hell in plenty of other ways. Plenty of other very painful ways.

Ichigo didn't want to think about it.

"Well, Kurosaki?" Byakuya questioned, snapping Ichigo out of his reverie.

"Well..."

Byakuya glared. Again.

"Well, you see..."

"If you have nothing of importance to say, Kurosaki, you may leave."

"IwantedtoaskforRukia'shandinmarriage." Ichigo blurted out, throwing all caution into the non-existent wind.

The elegant noble raised a dark eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"I wanted to ask for Rukia's hand in marriage." Ichigo repeated, slowly this time, careful not to look into the piercing gaze (glare) of Kuchiki Byakuya, fearing for his life.

Meanwhile at a meeting of the Shinigami Women's Association...

"Alright," said Eight Division lieutenant, Ise Nanao, "The votes are in! The winners for the yearly 'Captain we most desire to release a photo book for' are in! In third place...Captain Ukitake Jyuushiro!"

Polite clapping came from all members of the SWA, with the exception of Kiyone, who was cheering wildly.

When then clatter died down, Nanao cleared her throat.

"In second place...Captain Kurosaki Ichigo!!"

Rukia clapped enthusiastically. Yachiru's shouts of 'Yay Strawberry!' were heard over the much louder clapping. Ichigo was rather popular with the ladies since he replaced Aizen as captain of the Fifth.

"And in first place..."

The noise ceased immediately. All ears strained to hear the name of this years' most popular and good-looking captain.

" ...CAPTAIN KUCHIKI BYAKUYA!"

Ribbons and confetti exploded around a large wall scroll of Byakuya that seemingly appeared out of nowhere, showering everyone in the room with bits of paper. Almost everyone in the room was cheering and clapping in honor of their new photo-book victim. Ahem, winner.

No one could deny that Byakuya was popular. He was strong, the head of the highest ranking of noble families, and very handsome to boot. This was the 51st consecutive year Byakuya had topped the polls.

Nanao sighed. Along with everyone else in the room. Except Rukia, who looked confused.

"Ise-fukutaicho, what's wrong?" Rukia asked.

Nanao looked at the youngest Kuchiki through the rim of her glasses. "I'm sorry, Kuchiki-san. I forgot this is your first year as a member of the Association. Let me explain."

"As we said before, this is the 51st year your brother has topped this poll, correct?"

Rukia nodded.

"Well, it's also the 50th consecutive year that the Women's Association failed to release a photo-book of the desired captain, and had to go with the second and third place captains, due to Kuchiki-taicho's unwillingness to participate in what he called 'pointless rituals."

Rukia looked questioningly at Nanao. "Fifty-first year in a row? Then how did you manage to get it the first year?"

Matsumoto cut in at this point. She looked slightly sad for some reason.

"The only reason we managed to get the photo-book in Kuchiki taicho's first year as 'the taicho we most desire to release a photo-book for' was because Hisana had persuaded him to help the Association, since she and I were good friends and agreed to help me out."

"Nee-sama?"

"Yes," the busty fukutaicho sniffed, "Your sister, Hisana."

"Kuchiki-taicho had done it rather reluctantly, and Hisana had to sneak a few photos from when she saw him around the manor, but in the end we managed to finish the photo-book, which ended up selling the most copies in the history of photo-books in the Soul Society."

Matsumoto's look momentarily brightened slightly at this comment, but then retreated back to a saddened expression.

"But when Hisana passed away the next year, Kuchiki-taicho refused to participate anymore. The only reason he did it in the first place was to make Hisana happy, since he knew she was dying. He wanted to make her as happy as possible before she passed away."

Matsumoto bursted into watery tears at this statement.

Nanao put her arms around her crying friend and looked up at Rukia. "Hisana-san's death affected all of us. She was a very kind person, and despite her station, she treated everyone equally and never looked down on us, unlike the other noble women. We were all there at her funeral."

Rukia noticed that everyone's eyes looked rather watery now.

"Kuchiki-taicho was devastated. He never got over her death. And even today he won't help us with the photo-book because it brings up to many memories of Hisana."

"For every year after that, Kuchiki-taicho ignored us. We've tried a lot of things to get him to participate...but it never worked. That guy is too smart for his own good!"

Everyone laughed, spirits brightened.

"Seriously though!" Matsumoto defended, "There was this one time we sent Nanao (because she's the smartest and least likely to get kicked out) to go to the Kuchiki manor to get some pictures of Kuchiki-taicho, and he just 'happened' to have Kyoraku-taicho there with him, who, by the way, had several bottles of sake with him."

Nanao groaned at the memory.

"Before Nanao could say anything to Kuchiki-taicho, Kyoraku-taicho had jumped on her and was squashing her against his chest and by the time she got out, Kuchiki-taicho had already left the room and locked all exits, including windows, leaving Nanao inside with a drunk Kyoraku!"

The stern Eighth Division vice captains' face was elevating to a deep shade of red that could put Renji's hair to shame.

"Anyway," said Nanao, adjusting her glasses, clearly trying to get away from the previous topic, "We still have to find a way to get Kuchiki-taicho to cooperate with us!"

The room quieted as everyone tried to think of a plan.

"Umm..." Rukia suddenly said hesitantly, "I can try to get nii-sama to help us with the photo-book! I'm not sure how yet, and I'll probably need a lot of help, but I think I can get it done."

"You sure Rukia-chan?" Matsumoto asked.

"Yup, totally!" Rukia said confidently, "But we'll need a plan!"

"Then let's go!" Yachiru, who had been strangely silent for the entire meeting, suddenly shouted. "To the drawing board!"

So off them they went to make a plan.

Note: This chapter did have some angst, but that won't appear often in the story. From now on, there'll be more humor. I hope. And thank you to nostalgic-maiden for editing this chapter for me!

A/N: Well, I know you're all ready to send me to Hueco Mundo for such a late update...I know, I know. But I have good news! I already have the next chapter finished, so you can expect the next chapter to be up in the next few days! Also, anyone with ideas for what they might like Ichigo to do to get Byakuya's approval can state it in a review or send a PM and I'll see what I can do to add it in. I'll comment more next chapter.