A Glitch in Perfection
By et3rn4l d4rkn3ss
Chapter Four: A Delicious Breath of Rain
Byakuya never told Rukia when her sister died. In fact, he had never said anything about Hisana at all. Rukia only knew of her from the rumours of the servants. But for the fifty or so years she did happen to live with him, she noticed the pattern of blank, unfocused eyes around the time of spring, and that he would disappear for three days around late April. She suspected that time being the time Hisana passed away. Rukia craved to know more about her sister, but had never gathered up enough courage to ask him herself, so she resorted to randomly picking up information here and here, and trying to piece the story together on her own.
She knew that they were almost identical—that was probably the reason why her brother scarcely looked at her—although her sister was said to be frail, eyes filled with sadness, and heart broken into pieces Byakuya couldn't fix. And that was about all she knew. The other, more significant details had probably been forbidden to talk about. As she soaked in the wooden bathtub, the questions floated around in her mind. What was her sister like? Was she good at making jokes? Did she like cantaloupes? Was she a shinigami too? How were they separated? What did she actually die from?
It was spring time again, and April was coming to an end in a little more than one week. Byakuya's temples throbbed as he sat at his desk in front of his pile of paperwork that never seemed to diminish. It was a couple hours past midnight, four hours after Renji had gone to sleep on the couch. Byakuya rose, and a sudden wave of exhaust hit him. He had been doing paperwork the whole time… excluding the past twenty minutes where the only thing going through his head was "It's that time of the year again…" Every year, he went through the same dilemma of whether or not he should bring Rukia along with him. Avoidance was such an easily accessible element, and it always managed to persuade him not to include Rukia in his annual visits. It excused him from talking about what hurt the most, and prolonged the time before the day he would eventually have to expose Rukia to the true story. It also freed him from any kind of communication, period.
As he walked pass the bathing room, he noticed the lights were still on. What is Rukia doing now at this hour…? He questioned, as if it were an action so predictable from her.
"Argh! This is pissing me off!!" he heard a female voice shout from inside. Rukia, hair dripping we, wrapped in nothing but a thin white Chappy-patterned towel, slammed the door open and stormed out. Byakuya turned around.
"Gah! Nii-sama…" Rukia buried her face in her hands, embarrassed, and turned the other way.
"What is, Rukia?"
"Huh?" Rukia stole a peek at her brother from a small gap between her fingers.
"What is… making you angry?" he took a step towards her. He felt the sudden need to reach over and brush the strands of wet hair from her face. Maybe it was just a trick Erebus played on his barely awake state of mind.
"Nothing… Excuse my language." she muttered without making any eye contact, and pushed her way past him in the rather-narrow corridor.
She smelled the way the apple orchids in the Kuchiki garden smelled after a fresh rain shower.
Byakuya had no trouble falling asleep. His heart felt so tired it wanted to slow its pace to a complete stop. The scar Hisana left him still throbbed like the feeling of new stitches, and it pained him to have the feeling revisit him with such strong force once a year. Twelve months wasn't enough time to get over something like that before it came back to haunt a person once again, leaving him once again, at square one. He lied on his back before his exhaustion devoured him, and stared at the ceiling. How come things never got better? No matter how much time has passed, the pain never seemed to ease. Sometimes when Rukia was around, somehow, she could temporarily dismiss some of the pain, but nothing could completely obliterate it. During the lonely nights like that one, he wished there was someone would hold him tightly and say "I'm here."
He found his thoughts jump from Hisana to Rukia.
It was 5AM, still too early for dawn, yet the two noble Kuchiki siblings were already up and dragging themselves around the house. Or at least, Rukia was doing all the dragging, and her brother, gracefully transporting himself.
"Rukia," Byakuya raised his head, his gaze upon the figure across the table. "This coming Sunday… would you like to accompany me somewhere?"
She was forced to look at him as she tilted her head backwards to drink her juice. His overall expression was so composed, but she didn't miss the slight tension in his eyes—like he was nervous. Her heart jumped.
Is me asking me out on a DATE!?
She almost chocked on her juice when the thought popped up in her mind. However, the silly thought was immediately eliminated by common sense.
She put her cup down and gazed into his eyes, studying his face. He broke eye contact with her to look at the flower pot sitting in the center of the table.
"I will come. But, what kind of… outing is it, may I ask?"
"You'll see," and with that, the elder Kuchiki rose from the seat and left.
Rukia let out a sigh. What a man of mystery…
A/N: 1. Sorry for not updating! School is… well. School. But it's summer now, and I'll update more! : ) 12 REVIEWS, 1211 HITS, 5 FAVES, 11 ALERTS! O.M.G.! Everything practically doubled since my last chapter! OMG I LOVE YOU, EVERYONE! Keep reading!
Let's save the world: Don't take a plastic bag when you go to the grocery store if you seriously don't need one. (Like if you have ONE or TWO items…)