AN: Major apology! The story is, I had to lose the internet for a week, so I was going to update on the Saturday (as I said in my last chapter). Then I tripped over my power cable and ripped the pin out of my laptop, so it only ran on battery and effectively died. I had to wait until I came home from university to fix it and so it got fixed today when the part arrived and my dad fixed it (go dad!). So that's why this is horrifically late and I'm sorry!!! Forgive my clumsiness!

Okay… There's no risk of 'burnout' writing, as I wrote 99 of this when I was deeply in love with it. About all but two chapters were written over the Christmas break and tinkered with ever since. So the love did indeed burn brightly when this was done.

I think Byakuya didn't take her death very well at all.

Uh, I want to get this out ASAP and I'll update again soon. Thank you to everyone who reviewed – it was nice to get my laptop up and running again to find all your wonderful reviews which cheered me up no end. So thank you! And now lets get on – chapter twenty-seven, theme six – go go go!!!

6. The Space Between Dream and Reality

When she thought back on all she had gone through with Byakuya, it occurred to her how much she had mentally filled in when she had been too scared to ask what he was really like. Especially when she first knew him. Back then it was an endless stream of her dreams that flowed around a few rocks of reality.

Her mind had formed a tall, regal, handsome looking man (which had been pretty spot on), but had begun creating all kinds of others elements of this person, such as being cool to the touch, a deathly still sleeper and lover of the world at night (which were terribly incorrect).

She asked herself why she made up things she didn't know about him, instead of leaving the area blank, or asking him. Mostly, she told herself she had been too afraid to ask him herself, while leaving an area she thought about blank only made her feel bad that she hadn't asked.

Which was completely irrational, she added.

Hisana sighed, sitting in her room. It was night and she couldn't sleep. Going outside sounded like a good idea, but she was too lazy. Instead, she lay staring at the ceiling where the meagre light of the crescent moon filtered through a window.

She had set herself up for a series of shocks as she had got to know Byakuya. His hands weren't cold at all. He walked at night not because it was night, but because there were little to no people about and he couldn't sleep. And as for what he looked like asleep… she had no idea. The thought of finding out made her both begin to go red and try and suppress giddy laughs (because she knew there was a good chance she would find out in the future).

In between these two states – of truth and imagining – lay a valley of confusion. Hisana had to keep herself in check, lest she slip and one day actually believe what she had come up with to be truth. Then, she made a fool out of herself.

"I asked the maid for some tea, but wanted to prepare it myself. I'm sick of feeling like a spare hand around here. So, ta da! Here you go!" she said brightly, handing him the cup off the tray.

Byakuya had been working as usual and gave her a slightly bemused smile.

"Thank you, Hisana."

He took a sip, before hastily putting the cup down.

"There wouldn't be any sugar on that tray?" he asked levelly and Hisana's mouth dropped open.

She panicked and grabbed the sugar and a spoon, thrusting it toward him.

"Here, I'm so sorry!" Her face was reddening suspiciously.

"It's all right; you didn't know."

She cursed the fact that in her mind, she thought she did

From that moment on, she had vowed to learn about the man she was falling in love with, instead of trying to predict who he was. Because Byakuya could be terribly unpredictable.

Dreams were nice, she had decided, but reality had a substance to it that was unrivalled, good and bad. And she wouldn't allow herself to slip in the space between dream and reality again. To do so was to eschew who Byakuya really was and then who was she in love with?

"I am finally going crazy," she declared.

"Well, will you go crazy on the veranda with me for a while?" a voice outside asked.

Hisana responded with a shriek.

"I suppose not," Byakuya lamented.

But also, she added while pulling her wits together and joining Byakuya outside, reality just gave you more pleasant surprises that dreams could only wish for.