Happiness and Pain
"Security Report"
By Nessie
Ichigo used to believe that the worst possible thing that could happen to him was he would fail. At everything.
Now, sitting across a perfectly-varnished table, drinking from a teacup that was sure to be antique (if Soul Society considered things antiques), he decided there was something just a little bit worse. And waiting for Kuchiki Byakuya to tell him why he had been summoned to the uncomfortably grand Kuchiki house was precisely it.
Eventually, Byakuya set down his teacup with flawless movement and met his eyes. "Kurosaki," he said, "why was I informed by the security department this morning that you were discovered in an empty training room with my sister?"
Ichigo's stomach stretched out, knotted, and flipped over. "Uh...what?"
"An empty training room," the noble repeated, his voice infallibly steady, "with my sister. In an intimate position."
His mind screamed RETREAT but his guts would allow no such thing. Going with the next idea he had, Ichigo played dumb. "Like...what?"
Byakuya appeared to lose some of his chronic perfection when a hair fell out of place over his shoulder. "The report I was given described the action as 'tongue lashing'."
Ichigo wanted to die. And, gauging from Byakuya's face, Rukia's brother wanted the very same for him.