All right. This is the last chapter. Please enjoy it.

Byakuya was sitting on the veranda, doing some paperwork for Sixth Company, when Rukia burst on to the scene.

"I've found you!" she cried triumphantly. He looked towards her, but didn't say anything.

"What are you doing out here, nii-sama?"

"This is my house. I have every right to be outside."

"Yes, but..." Seeing him doing work outside...it was just unnatural.

She had the coat wrapped around her shoulders. It obscured her feet, and she kept tripping over it.

"I'm busy now", he said as she came and sat down next to him.

Rukia didn't respond. She just sat there, knees drawn up to her chest, looking at the ground. She peeked a glance at him. He wasn't wearing a shihakusho. This was an event rarely witnessed, and she couldn't help but take it in...because who knew when she would see it again?

"...is something interesting to you?" he inquired, a tone of annoyance to his voice.

Rukia flinched and averted her eyes. "Nothing at all, nii-sama."

The two sat there in silence for a few minutes. As usual, it looked like Rukia would have to be the one to take the initiative if there was going to be any communication between them.

"...nii-sama..." she said, "You know...I've just realized...I never congratulated you for making Captain of Sixth Company...so...um...I have something for you..."

She pulled something out from under the coat and slid it across the porch towards him.

He picked it up.

"...what is it?"

"It's called origami, nii-sama!"

"I understand that, but what is it?"

"...it's...a flower. A...a...a bellflower, to be exact..." Rukia's face felt like it was on fire. Why was it so hot all of a sudden?

"...I see...thank you."

Rukia looked at him full in the face. Had he...just said what she thought he'd said? To her?

Silence passed between the two.

"Nii-sama..." said Rukia finally, "I want to join the Gotei 13."

"You have to change your hair back."

"I...I was going to! I just haven't gotten around to it yet!"

Another awkward silence passed between them.

"...nii-sama...um..."

"Is that all?"

"Huh?"

"You said last night that you had something important to say, and I had better listen to you...did you not? I nearly tripped over you this morning when I left my bedroom. But clearly...you like to waste my time."

"Nii-sama!" Rukia grabbed his arm suddenly, and he looked at her in...what? Some degree of surprise? "Nii-sama, I...I know I've been rude. Please forgive me."

She had really done it now. She'd dared to touch Byakuya...to so impudently grab his arm! He put his hand on hers, to pry her fingers off of him, but then her grip changed from his arm to his hand, and she held his hand tightly in both of hers. She was on her knees, his coat slipping off her shoulders.

"Nii-sama, please listen to me!"

He didn't look at her or say anything...but then, he didn't try to get away from her, either.

"I...I know that nii-sama doesn't say much, or share his feelings, but..." She wasn't sure how to express what she wanted to say. "Nii-sama, I...how I feel, I want you to know, I..."

He turned his gaze on her, and suddenly the words stopped dead on her tongue.

"Er...um..."

He wore the same expression he always did, but it seemed to her that he didn't look quite as forbidding as he normally did. She felt heat creeping over her face again, and let go of his hand.

"So...um...y-you're a busy man, nii-sama...being a captain and all...um, you have a lot of paperwork to do, so...I've bothered you enough already."

She peeked a glance at her. He still seemed to have a veiled curiosity. She couldn't explain why he seemed so different. She couldn't say he wasn't an arrogant prick...but she couldn't say that's all he was, either.

The two of them sat there on the veranda next to each other. Rukia was wearing Byakuya's coat and Byakuya was still holding Rukia's flower.



She felt strange. It seemed to her that, just for a minute, the wall between them had vanished. She couldn't explain it. But...ever since she'd been adopted, she'd been trying to get her feelings to reach him...all the while not realizing that she was the one who couldn't be reached. She'd been so busy worrying about her feelings, she'd never even really considered his. She knew it seemed ridiculous, but the fact that he even had feelings it ignore seemed astonishing. Byakuya Kuchiki could feel pain and love and sadness as keenly as she could. It was merely that those emotions couldn't reach her past the walls she had erected around her own heart. But...for a moment...a brief moment...there had been no walls.

She suddenly became very self-conscious.

Then she got to her feet (nearly tripping over the coat and falling on Byakuya in the process). She walked towards the door, and Byakuya went back to his paperwork. But then she stopped in the doorway and turned back, coming to stand directly behind him. He stopped writing and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. His face was unreadable...but not hostile.

She slipped out of the coat and draped it over his shoulders. Her fingers brushed against his hair. Then she went back inside. Again, she stopped in the doorway. This time, she said, over her shoulder, "Thank you, nii-sama. Thank you for everything."

Finally, Byakuya spoke.

"Rukia...you're a strange girl...very difficult to understand."

They had been so close, but they were worlds apart. There had been that tiny moment--it was almost hard to believe it had happened--when she'd suddenly felt a connection with him. A bond.

It had made her heart flutter. And if it was possible to feel those things again...it was something worth trying for.

She smiled as she went inside. Her brother wasn't so far away, after all.

Thank you to those who reviewed, to those who marked this story as one of their favorites, to those who put this story on their alert list, to those who did the same for me, as the author...

...and thank you to everyone who read this story all the way to its conclusion.

Please stay tuned for more Bleach fics in the future, and I'll try to read your stories as well!