Part II
Renji fell, panting from exertion, down by the river-bank and wondered if he would survive drinking the river water to cool his parched throat.
"Don't even think about it," Rukia warned him, catching his speculative gaze as she climbed off his back.
"Humph!" he scoffed. "I wasn't."
"Liar, and you remember what happened the last time you tried to drink the water, dummy," she said.
He'd been up all night with a stomachache and Rukia had had to nurse him for the following two days.
"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled.
"If you get sick, I'm not gonna coddle you again," she scolded him. "But since you're here anyway and we've made our take for the day..."
Renji caught her look and knew exactly what it meant. Bath-time was what it meant. Renji lowered his head and planted his rear end down on the ground. When he'd been about her size, he'd been easy to bully and shove into doing what she wanted, but now he was a big, relatively healthy Hollow and he wasn't gonna take no bath. So there.
"Come on," she said, coming back with a wash-bucket, a bar of soap and a scrub-brush that still had most of it's bristles on it. "Into the water."
"It's cold," he said flatly, ears going back even as he shrunk down, wary by now of what else she'd think of to do with that brush.
Rukia was certainly not above using it as a cattle prod.
"Tough, you're all sweaty and covered in dirt and mud. Come on. Into the water you get, and we'll get you all nice and clean."
"I don't wanna," he mumbled.
"I didn't ask you if you wanna," Rukia said implacably.
Renji, having just gotten out of a fight with four older men who would have been twice his size if he'd still had his human form, was not in the mood to be bossed around by a pint-sized midget, no matter that she was his best friend and the star around which his universe revolved. He straightened on his haunches and bared his teeth in a menacing scowl.
X X X X X X X
Byakuya Kuchiki tracked the Hollow and its burden quite easily through the streets, as it had made no effort whatsoever to hide its distinctive spiritual presence. The Lieutenant of Thirteenth Squadron flashed along quickly with his wife carried safely in his arms, pausing only at intervals to ascertain a direction at a street turning. In moments they were outside of the main urban area and down on a peaceful riverbank with a culdesac of water nearby. He could smell the faint, lingering scent of woodsmoke and there was a string tied between two trees that had small yukata's about the right size for a small girl flapping in the wind and a make-shift lean-to out of branches for crude shelter off to the left of the water.
Curiouser, and curiouser.
"...on get in, and we'll get you all nice and clean," Byakuya heard the voice of a young girl piping in a stern, bossy tone.
She sounded like his wife cajoling a servant into doing an unpleasant task. Hisana gasped again in horror as the Hollow bared its teeth at Rukia. Hisana started forward to intervene and protect her little sister as she had not been able to do for many years even as Byakuya reached for his zanpaktou, prepared to strike at the creature and prevent the immanent attack on Hisana's sister. Hollows didn't threaten, they consumed.
He was already moving to kill it, when...
Bam! The girl took the business end of her scrub-brush on a stick and bopped the Hollow firmly on the nose with it. The Hollow whimpered in pain and buried its offended nose on the ground between his paws, whimpering and whining in pain. Rukia pointed firmly towards the nearby riverbank.
"March, mister!" she commanded firmly.
Byakuya Kuchiki had never actually stared at anything in open mouthed shock before, it was common and inelegant, but there was a first time for everything. He did stare in disbelief as the Hollow, tail tucked low and close to his body... slunk off to the dreaded watering hole like a whipped pup! The girl followed after the furry creature with scrub-brush and soap and then proceeded to wash the beast. The poor bedraggled thing whined and howled in protest most piteously, but the girl was deaf to its pleas. The Hollow was firmly lathered with soap and made to rinse and then be washed again. After a third rinsing, Rukia ordered the beast out of the river, and Byakuya Kuchiki could have sworn he saw the Hollow give a large, open-mouthed canine grin as it shook all the water out of its fur vigorously... all over Rukia, who had managed to stay relatively dry throughout the bathing process.
"Renji!" Rukia yelled, irritatedly at the Hollow.
The Hollow gave a remarkably human-like laugh and thwacked her with its bony tail.
"You just make sure you stay outta the dirt, or I'm gonna give you a real scrubbing!" she warned it.
At that moment the Hollow seemed to pick up the scent of strangers for it moved in a sudden lunging blur, surging in front of Rukia, looking for all the world like a massively enormous guard-dog as it lowered its muzzle, brought its bulk hunched up protectively and growled at the two of them. The array of teeth it showed them and the eyes that burned like embers were impressive... but so was the way that Rukia put her hand on its shoulder and pushed him down. The creature... obeyed! It backed down when she made a shushing noise, though not without a further growl and a look that could only be defined as suspicious. Rukia stuck close to the Hollow's side and looked over at the two of them.
Hisana broke the impasse.
"Hello there," she said, making a friendly, soothing motion towards Rukia while keeping a wary eye on her overly large, furry protector.
"You are... your name is Rukia, right?" Hisana said, barely keeping the hope and excitement from her voice.
Rukia eyed Hisana suspiciously.
"What's it to you?" she demanded.
The Hollow muzzled right over her shoulder, one large fore-paw wrapped protectively around her from the side. Byakuya couldn't believe his eyes, but it looked like the Hollow was not only restraining itself from eating the soul but was actually loyal to Rukia.
"I know this is going to seem strange to you, but I've been looking for you for a long time," Hisana said.
"Who are you?" Rukia demanded suspiciously.
There was a long silence as Byakuya felt his wife brace herself for the difficult confrontation she knew was going to ensue.
"My name is Hisana, Rukia," she said, her voice a little unsteady. "And I am your sister."
Byakuya stood beside her and held her to his side to steady her in the interminable moment that Rukia stood there, staring at her heretofore unknown older sister in shock and disbelief.
"Impossible," Rukia said flatly. "I don't have any family. Renji is my only family."
The Hollow stared hard at them both, eased himself closer to Rukia, and snorted sharply.
"I-" Hisana, sobbed softly.
Byakuya took her hand in his, encouraging her to get through the hard truth.
"I'm sorry," Hisana sobbed. "Please forgive me..."
The Hollow growled as Rukia instinctively backed away when Hisana reached forward to touch her.
"I'm sorry," Hisana whispered again. "We... came to soul society together when you were just a tiny baby. Both of us had enough spiritual power to feel hunger in a place where there was almost no food to be had."
The suspicion on Rukia's face hardened.
"I tried to take care of you, but I was young myself and it was so hard. I-" Hisana swallowed around her tears and forced herself to continue. "I got scared. I was always fainting and you cried so much... I didn't know what to do. I got scared. I know it's no excuse, nothing can ever excuse it. I'm so sorry Rukia. Please."
"You left her," the Hollow growled over Hisana's sobs.
It bared its teeth and snarled at Byakuya's wife.
"You... you abandoned her there when she was too small to take care of herself cuz you were too scared!"
The Hollow roared and Byakuya crouched into fighting stance, zanpaktou drawn. Hisana stepped between him and his prey.
"No, he's right," Hisana murmured. "I wasn't strong enough and that is my sin. I can never make right what I did, not really. I looked for you, Rukia, but when I went back, you were already gone. I've been searching for you ever since."
"Yeah, it sure looks that way," the Hollow sneered.
He looked very obviously at Hisana and her husband with his coal bright eyes and the implication was immediately apparent. He was taking in their fine clothes, the kenseiken in Byakuya's hair, the scent of their fine soaps.
"I'll bet you-"
"Renji, stop!" Rukia hissed.
"But she-!" he protested.
"It doesn't matter," Rukia replied to whatever unspoken conversation was going on between the two of them.
Rukia turned slightly to the side and buried her face in the ruff of blood red fur around the Hollow's neck. The Hollow tucked her head under his chin and rumbled soothingly in his chest. Hisana took a deep breath.
"I met and fell in love with Byakuya-sama while I was searching for you," she said steadily. "But I never stopped looking, I swear to you that. And, now that I've found you, I want you to come with me. Rukia. Let me take you away from this place. Come with me to live in Seireitei. Let's be sisters again. Please, I want to try and make it right, I just want another chance, that's all. Please..."
Rukia looked over at them both with a frown.
"This is the only world I know," she said, clinging tighter to the Hollow.
"I want to take you to a better place," Hisana cajoled. "You can leave all of this behind. You'll have a soft, warm bed to sleep in every night, nice clothes, wonderful food. Doesn't that sound nice?"
Some of the stubbornness faded a little from her face as she listened to what her sister had to tell her, however, she didn't move a muscle from within the hollow's embrace. Her fists actually tightened a little in his fur. Byakuya Kuchiki was inwardly flabbergasted. Who in their right mind would actually want to stay in that place? He looked around him, wondering if he might have missed something in his first surveying sweep of their little campsite; some hidden cache of food and blankets, a bedroll tucked away out of sight, maybe a nice little hut disguised to look like something else, but found that he was not mistaken. Their make-shift little camp didn't even have a cook-pot over the fire, the garments hung on the line were so worn and threadbare that his cook wouldn't have used them for cleaning the floors with, their shelter was flimsy, they didn't even posses a sleep-roll, and their blanket (singular, he noted) was something sewn together of many other patched rags into something serviceable. What in the world was wrong with this girl? She was being offered a place and a lifestyle that was incalculably greater and better than what she had or would likely even dream of having in the world she knew then, and yet she clung to that flea-bitten mongrel like she was afraid of it. Clearly someone needed to speak sense to her.
"Young girl," he said clearly to her.
She looked up at him with those wide, indigo eyes and Byakuya suddenly felt a small pang as he looked down at her small cheeks and childlike form, he inadvertently had a vision of his and Hisana's own future children. It did have the unintended effect of softening him a little towards her. Until now, the elusive Rukia who had taken up so much of his wife's time and attention had been a cause for concern and some small, jealous irritation on his part; Hisana spent so much time away from his home, from his arms, looking for her. Her attention always seemed to be partly someplace else, worried over this missing girl. Perhaps once the girl was safely ensconced in the Kuchiki manor, he might at last turn his wifes attention away from her missing family and start concentrating it on creating a family of her own, with him.
He cleared his throat and tried again.
"Rukia. You do not seem an unobservant, nor unintelligent girl. Look around you. It is summertime now and likely quite warm enough with food readily available, but think about when the winter comes. You have but one blanket that I can see. Your shelter is inadequate to withstand the harsher elements. Food is not nearly so plentiful, nor easy to purchase for people will be hording it for themselves. You will scarcely be able to feed yourself, and that beast looks like he eats a lot. Hollows are not known for their self-restraint, girl. You play with fire if you think otherwise."
"We'll get by same as we always have," Rukia replied with proud stubbornness. "We got a place we sleep in the winter with a real roof an' all, Renji can ice-fish as long as I'm there ta chip a hole for him, an' his fur is nice an' warm so I don' need no other blanket. I got all I need right here." She tightened her arms around her Hollow and her expression turned distinctly mulish.
The Hollow looked down at her, shock and perplexity clearly written on his furry face.
"Are you nuts?" he demanded of her. "You ain't stayin'!"
"Sez who?" she shot back.
"Sez me!" the Hollow replied. "The ol' geezer's right, you can't stay here come winter. Ya gotta go with 'em Rukia, it's what's best for you."
"Who died an' made you head o' th' gang?" she retorted.
"Tch!" the Hollow snorted at her. "Ya got a fam'ly here waitin' for ya, what're ya doin' hangin' around me for? Go eat the good food an' get nice clothes ya stupid girl!"
Byakuya refrained from stating that the Hollow was speaking sense, no matter how atrocious his grammar.
"What about you, Renji?" Rukia asked next.
"Whaddaya mean, dummy?" he replied.
"Who's gonna take care of you if I don't? No-one else'll come near you-"
"That's cuz I'm big and tough and scary!" he said, puffing his chest out proudly, and baring his teeth fiercely. "Tch! Who needs you!" the boy-Hollow said scornfully.
"You need me," Rukia said stubbornly. "Who's gonna cook your food, and make camp, and light fires for you? Who's gonna scale your fish and skin your catches? Who gonna make sure you bathe and scrub down that thick fur of yours? How're you gonna get money an' pay fer things without me?"
"I'll manage," the hollow said, though Byakuya caught the note of uncertainty in his voice. "I'm tough, I always land on my feet. You go on an' get the hell outta this hell-hole."
"Watch your language," Rukia scolded.
"I'll say what I want," he bickered. "An' don't change the subject. Now git!"
The Hollow tried to extricate himself from her grasp, even though he was displaying all the tell-tale signs of a pup in absolute misery. His ears were flat to his head and his tail was curled in close to his body. His remarkably human-like eyes (it seemed they only glowed when he was excited, the rest of the time they became a very normal puppy-brown with just a hint of cinnamon around the edges) even looked like they were starting to well up with tears. Rukia clung on even tighter.
"No! I ain't goin' no-where without you. You promised!" she howled. "You promised we were gonna be together always! You said you'd always take care of me. You did!"
"Well now there's someone who can take better care of you, stupid girl," the Hollow snapped, trying to forcibly shake her off. "Now stop bein' so dumb and just go with them."
"You can't make me!" she yelled, showing all the classic signs of a girl working herself up into a temper.
Byakuya was very much afraid he might have to wade in there and separate the two of them forcibly.
"The hell I can't," the Hollow replied. "You just watch me."
"I'd like to see you try!" Rukia threw herself up onto his back again and dug her hands and legs in, by all appearances quite ready and willing to cling to him like a tick.
"Get off me, ya little monkey!" he snapped as he wriggled around, trying to dislodge her, clearly without hurting her in the process. "Now I'm doin' this fer yer own good so be grateful dammit!"
"I won't go!" she yelled. "I don't know those people, they could be lying."
"You know anyone in this district that's got fancy clothes like those two do, ya stupid girl? This is yer ticket outta here."
"I don't care about tickets or whatever, you should listen ta me!"
"Your opinion is rejected," the Hollow said. "You just get on over there an' thank 'em fer givin' you a chance atta better life!"
"You thank 'em!" she snapped at him as they continued to fight. "An' leave me out of it."
Byakuya and Hisana watched in perplexed amazement as the two of them wrestled around in the dirt, bickering like a couple of school children.
"It looks like they do this often," Hisana remarked to him, sotto voce.
"She's quite good at this," Byakuya replied. "It looks like she will not require lessons in equestrianism."
The Hollow at last managed and plunging twist that got her most of the way off his back. The girl cleverly pulled a fake and yelled
"Owowowow! Ow! It hurts!"
The Hollow froze immediately and looked up and back at her, face half-panicked despite the fur.
"Where's it hurt?" he asked, his voice laced with concern.
Rukia grinned triumphantly and twisted back into place, grabbing a handful of mane in one hand, and an ear in the other. She twisted the ear, bringing a Hollow the size of a grizzly bear cowering to his knees at her feet.
"Hey! That's cheating," the Hollow whined trying unsuccessfully to escape her painful grip.
"Now who's the dumb one?" she replied haughtily. "You're gonna listen ta me now, cuz i gotcher ear!"
"Brat!" he growled fully prepared to put up a fight again, ear or no.
Rukia reached up under his chin at a spot hidden in the ruff on his neck that looked nearly impossible to reach otherwise and proceeded to scratch vigorously. The fight drained out of him like water from a sieve. The Hollow-dog went cross-eyed with happiness, his tongue lolled out one side of his mouth and his tail wagged vigorously. His expression looked so comically silly that Hisana giggled.
"Who's going to scratch your itchy spot if I don't," Rukia said in a tone that indicated she'd just won the argument.
"Wow," Hisana murmured to her husband, still giggling.
Byakuya nodded agreement on two counts; first, they could clearly tell who the real power in the relationship was, and second, that she hadn't even reached puberty yet and she already knew her way around the "man" in her life.
"Why can't we stay together?" she persisted.
"Stupid girl," he murmured, halfheartedly even as he sighed in contentment. "You gotta go with them. You heard her, you'll get a warm place to sleep and as much as you want to eat. Plus, that woman sez she's yer sister, ya always wanted a sister, right?"
His mouth was saying the words but his body-language was saying another thing entirely. He was all curled up around her, leaning into her scratches, tail thumping loudly on the ground. His muzzle was buried in her lap, chest rumbling a sound that resembled a purr. His paws were wrapped around her as if to keep her in place and never let her go.
"I guess," she said dubiously.
The hollow-dog resolutely sat up and looked her in the face.
"Yer gonna have a good life, Rukia," he said seriously as he tried to push himself away and nose her toward where he family and new life were waiting for her. "I want you to go."
"You don't really want me to leave... do you?" Rukia asked hopefully.
The hollow-dog was clearly trying to put on a brave front, but he looked so pathetically miserable. His eyes were sad and pitiably pleading, his tail was tucked in close, his ears down and his shoulders hunched and shaking. His resonant hollow-voice sounded more like a little boy on the verge of tears than a monster. There was just a slight tone of puppy whine at the edge of his voice as he lied
"I sure am jealous, ya made it big! Just think of all that good food yer gonna eat and those pretty clothes. You like pretty clothes Rukia. And a warm bed too..."
The Hollow's voice cracked and he tried to cover it by snorting out a pretend-sneeze.
Byakuya began to reassess the Hollow before him and see it not as the beast that he spent a great deal of his time destroying, but as being closer to the human that the Hollow sprang from. In terms of human years, the creature sounded like it was a child still.
"I got a warm bed," Rukia argued, sounding like she was going to start crying. "And don't you dare try ta lie ta me, Renji. Yer a terrible liar and I know you too well fer that. Lookit you, yer all bunched up and yer tail ain't waggin'. Yer the dumb one if ya think I can't see that."
"I ain't the dumb one, you are," the Hollow-child bickered back, exactly like a child. "Especially if yer thinkin' about stayin' out here in this dump when you could go inside the seireitei and have everything you could possibly want. Dumbass."
"I said watch yer language," Rukia tweaked him primly on the ear and he gave a half-hearted little snap that didn't have any real teeth behind it. "And you're the dumb one."
"Nuh-uh, you are," the hollow argued.
"No you," Rukia argued back.
"This could go on for days, do something," Byakuya muttered to his wife.
He was not prepared to stand there and listen to two children bicker and fight like... well, two children bickering.
"Yer dumb times infinity," Renji siad, clearly thininkg he'd won.
"Well yer dumb times infinity plus one!" Rukia promptly topped him with.
Renji clearly had enough of the argument for he suddenly moved to his feet, shouldered Rukia off balance so she leaned forward, windmilling her arms in an attempt to steady herself, and then caught her by the worn sash at her waist that held her ragged little yukata closed.
"Hey!" she protested.
Renji pulled himself up to his full height and then picked her up off the ground completely, holding her by her waist in the same way that a mama cat would pick up a kitten. Rukia dangled from his mouth like a toy and he trotted primly over to where Hisana and her husband stood, even as Rukia struggled to escape.
"Renji! Hey! Put me down you stupid mutt! What're ya doin'? Hey! I said put me-"
The hollow-dog complied with her request, giving her a small swinging toss to land her in the dust at Hisana and Byakuya's feet. Despite the humor of the situation as Rukia patted her offended rear and glared back at her protector, there was a heartrendingly sad look on the hollow-dog's face as he resolutely turned his back and prepared to leave behind someone he very obviously shared a close bond with, for her own sake.
Hollows were not capable of self-sacrifice. It flew in the face of everything that Byakuya had learned about them, and yet, there it was. The hollow-dog was whining piteously, possibly the closest thing he could get to crying, as he forced himself to walk away.
"Wait, little one," Hisana said to the Hollow's back, stepping forward by instinct.
Byakuya closed his eyes and dreaded what he knew was bound to happen next.
"Whatcha want?" the beast demanded in a surly tone.
If things went the way Byakuya had a sinking feeling they were going to go, he would have to have a discussion with the beast about its manner of address.
"It looks like you've been taking care of my Rukia all this time that I've been looking for her," Hisana said inching warily closer to the dog who had paused with its back still turned, supressing miserable noises in an attempt to mainting its dignity. "I worried about her every day and night, but I can see by looking at you I needen't have. It takes a lot off my mind to know that she's had someone who cares about her looking out for her all this time."
"I din't do it fer you, woman," the Hollow growled. "I did it fer Rukia. Ain't got nuthin' ta do wit' you. Now if ya don' mind, now that ya found 'er and kin take 'er in an' raise 'er proper, I got things ta do."
Despite his size and shape, Byakuya Kuchiki could clearly hear the voice of a little boy under that Hollow-resonance. The Hollow's voice was a childs high piping that had been purposefully lowered, clearly trying to sound deeper and more mature. The tone was of studied nonchalance, but any adult could hear the deep sorrow being covered up by bravado in it.
"What kind of things?" Hisana questioned gently, advancing just a tiny bit.
"Hollow things," the boy muttered resentfully, pawing in a circle in the dirt with his fore-paw like any little boy being gently interrogated.
"Like what?" Hisana pursued, her tone still gentle and kind, but implacable.
"Y'know..." the Hollow-boy mumbled. "Hollow stuff... like uh, catching fish and uh, little bunnies an' stuff! Big, scary hollow stuff."
Byakua Kuchiki very nearly snorted for the first time in his life. The pup considered chasing rabbits and catching fish to be "big, scary Hollow stuff." The only creatures that Hollows ever chased after and caught all ran on two legs.
"Oh my, how very fearsome," Hisana agreed, trying to force herself to sound suitably impressed.
"That's right," the Hollow said, straightening a little bit and puffing out his chest proudly.
Hisana was working her magic. Soon enough the beast would be rolling over for belly rubs.
"An' I got thugs ta beat up too! I can take on three at once," the Hollow said proudly, bragging in that way that all little boys did. "I already did once today an' maybe I'll just go do it again. Cuz I'm tough an' scary an' I don' need nobody!"
That last was clearly said for effect for little Rukia made a face at him.
"You do too need somebody!" Rukia interjected.
She turned to Hisana, clearly expecting her to agree with Rukia's side of the story.
"Renji can't make a fire, he doesn't have any hands!" Rukia said, clearly quite prepared to make a good counter argument. "He can't cut down trees or gather wood easy either, an' no matter how fierce he is, an' how well he can hunt down prey, he can't cook it! Without me he'll never bathe or buy and use that special shampoo we get from the laundry-granny that kills fleas. An' then he'll get all infested an' start scratchin'."
Rukia turned to the Hollow, hands on her hips, and brought her nose to his.
"You remember that infestation you got that one winter when you wanted to go hunt down that wolf, don't you? You remember how bad it itched."
In reply, the hollow made a soft groan and sunk its head between its paws, wriggling a little, apparently in visceral memory.
"My goodness," Hisana said, exchanging a covert wink with her little sister.
The two females had joined forces to bring down larger prey. Some things were universal. Still if this was something that would work toward healing the rift in their relationship, then Byakuya was cautiously for it. Besides that, Hisana had clearly already decided upon what would happen, and if Byakuya played his cards right this could be advantageous for him in a number of ways.
"We wouldn't want that, it sounds terrible," Hisana continued, gamely playing along with her younger sister.
:And so it begins,: Byakuya thought in resignation.
"I don't see how we have any other choice," Hisana said with a fake helpless shrug. "I guess he'll just have to come with us. We can't just leave him out here; and having Byakuya-sama do his job would be a poor way to repay this boy's kindness and care toward a member of my family."
That last had been meant for her husband, he was sure of it. Rukia's face lit up at the news that her little hollow-friend would be coming with her. The Hollow however looked flatly at the woman, clearly disbelieving that his wife would do any such thing. A hard life in runkongai with very little in the way of kindness from anyone besides the person he had attached himself to had hardened him against the thought that any good fortune could possibly befall him. In all probabilty, Rukia was the only peice of unalloyed good thing in his world and even then, the Hollow dog seemed stoicly resigned to the idea that she would be moving on without him as well. Byakuya could almost see the creature thinking "well, I knew this had to happen sooner or later because it was just too good to be true."
"I don't know iffen ya noticed chikadee, but I'm not really something that'll go unnoticed paradin' through that gate o' yours," the Hollow pointed out with surprising logic. "I'm pretty sure that that Seireitei o' yers is fer killin' critters like me. I don' think they'd up an' invite me in jus' cuz ya asked 'em to."
"Hmmm," Hisana said, tilting her head to the side and tapping her chin. "I don't see any Hollows here, do you Byakuya-sama?"
His wife was going to get him fired.
:Still...:
Kuchiki looked down at the dog-shaped Hollow consideringly. It was not outside of the realm of possibility that they might pull it off. The Hollow was entirely covered in fur, even what should have been the bone-mask was obscured by a thin layer of top-fuzz that puffed out over its eyes and muzzle, the edges of it were entirely covered by that red ruff of fur around its neck. It was certainly larger than most dogs that he had encountered, but the nobility was well-known for breeding enormous mastiff and rachet-hounds for hunting... Byakuya could simply say, if anyone were to ask, that he had come across a prime breeding specimen and added him to his kennels.
"I see a very large mastiff," Byakuya Kuchiki said with stiff resignation.
A mastiff would be best. They were known for their size. In addition, it would be entirely expected that the beast would follow Rukia wherever she went, well trained and obedient, because mastiffs were guard-dogs, protectors of their masters and mistresses.
Rukia gave a joyous cry at her new brother-in-law's pronouncement and threw her arms around the Hollow's neck.
It was clearly essential to first lay a few ground rules.
"Even in a noble house, an animal is expected to earn it's keep," the Head of Clan Kuchiki said as he looked down his patrician nose at his newest "acquisition."
"If the beast is to be fed and given a place to sleep then it will be expected to obey the comands of the master and mistress and to guard and protect its assigned person's life until the last drop of its own," the Kuchiki said.
He said all of this ostensibly to Rukia, setting the pattern for her lovable new pet's future behavior if this silly charade was really going to continue, but the words were meant for the hollow-dog.
"A guard-dog is expected to act like a guard dog, and should not display any un-guard-dog-like tendencies where anyone can see and remark upon them."
Rukia and the hollow exchanged a long look, holding a mysterious and silent conversation. The dog sighed after a long moment, sounding resigned, and Rukia smiled smugly, pleased at having won. She clamored onto the beasts back again and the new happy little family started on its way back to their home.
Finis
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