Upon reaching the 1st, Byakuya let go of Renji's wrist. "Follow me, Abari." Both men walked down the hall till the reached the doors to the Sou-taichou's office. Opening the door, they saw Yamamoto sitting behind the desk, working on paperwork.
Looking up, the Sou-taichou noticed Byakuya and Renji standing there. "I see you were able to get the recommendations."
"Hai, Sou-taichou," Byakuya replied with a smile.
"Now, Renji, are you aware as to why you are here?" asked Yamamoto to a visibly stunned Renji.
"Actually, no I don't, sir."
"Well, Kuchiki-taichou believes that you are ready to take the position of Taichou. Do you feel like you are ready?"
Renji's mouth dropped. He couldn't believe that Byakuya recommended him. "Um, yes I do, but I don't want to leave my Taichou hanging."
Byakuya chuckled. "Don't worry about that, Abarai. That is already taken care of."
Renji thought about it for a moment. "Well, if Kuchiki-taichou believes that I am ready, then so do I."
Yamamoto stood up from his desk, walking around, heading for the door. "Well, then, let's get the testing started," he said, opening the doors. He motions for Byakuya and Renji to follow him. He leads them down a long hallway till they reached the training grounds of the 1st. "Okay, Abarai, you will proceed inside where Ukitake, Kyouraku, and I will administer your test."
"Um, Kuchiki-taichou is not coming?"
"No. Since he is the one that made the recommendation, he can't participate in the testing." Opening the doors to the training grounds, he turned back to Abarai. "After you, Abarai-Fukutaichou."
Renji looks back at Byakuya and then turned his attention back to the open doors. Taking a deep breath, Renji headed into the grounds, with Yamamoto behind him, closing the doors.
Byakuya sat down on the bench. Now, all he could do was wait and hope that the idiot pineapple passes the exam. He hopes, for Rukia's sake, too, that Renji doesn't embarrass himself in there. The last thing anyone needs is for Renji to go babbling like a buffoon and talking about the 'good old days in Rukongai again'. 'He does that every time he gets nervous. Even the first time I met him'.
An hour had passed by and Renji was still inside the grounds. Byakuya stood up and walked around a bit to stretch his legs. 'Hopefully he's not messing it up' he quietly thought to himself, as he walked to the courtyard of the First Division. Since Renji had been inside, he had had time to think more clearly about everything that had been happening. The way the Elders were handling things was completely out of line. He already knew who he wanted to marry, but he had to get through these three weeks. But with Renji taking the exam, at least he would still be able to see Rukia everyday, that is if Renji passes the exam. For the Elders, what he needed was a good plan.
Thinking back to Rukia, he knew for sure he was in love with her. True, he had never treated her right when she come into the family. Part of believed that it was because she looked like Hisana but another part was scared of getting close to someone again. He had avoided her at all cost and in turn, had hurt her.
He had never forgiven himself for that and doubted he ever would. Thanks to one, Ichigo Kurosaki, he had been given that second chance. After the battle that they had, he reminded Byakuya that family is more important than following the laws.
His heart had stopped when he had seen Gin raise Shinso to his sister. Without a second thought, he flashed stepped in, taking her in his arms and taking the hit himself. It was at that moment that he realized that she was the most important thing in his life. After that, they worked a building a sibling relationship that they truly never had. He just never thought he would actually have fallen in love with her. During the Bount invasion, is when things had started changing in between them. They started flirting with each other harmlessly and each found a reason to be in the others presence. This was still new to both of them and he was afraid if he had admitted how he felt to her, she would reject him so he kept it inside. What he didn't know was that Rukia was feeling the same way about him.
He truly became aware of his feeling towards her when he was sent to Hueco Mundo to help Ichigo and his friends out. When he finally found Rukia, his heart stopped. Seeing her motionless on the ground made him wanna run to her, but he couldn't since he had to deal with an espada. He tried to finish the fight quickly but it took a turn when Zommari had used Rukia against him. He did not want hurt her, so when Zommari had her put her sword to her neck, he did the one thing he could think of. He binded her and shielded her from the fight. Turning his attention to Zommari, he finished the fight, but not before calling her his pride. What he didn't know was even though she was was binded, she heard him and was happy.
After that, they became even closer. They had gotten to the point to where, if they were not working, they were always in each others company. He loved spending time with her and now could say that he was truly in love with her. Now all he had to do was conquer his fears and let his woman know how he felt about her.
Byakuya snapped out of his thoughts when he heard people heading his way. Looking up, he saw Ukitake, Kyouraku, and Renji walking towards him. He swiftly stood up and brushed his shihakusho off. "So, how did you do, Renji?"
Renji looked between Ukitake and Shunsui. "You think we should tell him?" he asked.
"Um, Renji, you might want to tell me before I Senbonzakura you," Byakuya said.
Renji looked back his captain. He couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, okay. By the way, thanks for the recommendation. You are now looking at the new taichou of the 9th."
"I always knew you could do it, Renji," Shunsui said as he clasped Renji's shoulder. "This calls for a celebration. You two wanna come?" he asked as he looked at his long-time friends.
"I guess I could tag along and make sure you don't get into trouble," Ukitake said after thinking.
Shunsui turned to look at Byakuya. "What about you, Byakuya? You look like you need to unwind a bit."
Thinking about it, Byakuya knew that Shunsui was right. He was so wound up with what the Elders were up to and unwinding wasn't really a bad idea. Knowing that Rukia would be at the division setting up her office, he came to a decision. "I believe I will join you."
Renji and Shunsui laughed as the four men headed for the nearest sake bar.
Rukia had just set the last box down as she looked around the empty office that Byakuya had given her. She still couldn't believe that he had done this, but was happy that he did. She didn't want to be apart from him. He would had given her the Fukutaichou office, but he had mentioned to her that he wanted her close by so he had given her the office that right was right next to his.
She started grabbing her supplies from the boxes and started setting up her new office. Her thoughts kept wandering, though. She didn't know why, but lately it seemed that Byakuya was acting a bit strange to her. At first, she had thought it was the illness, but he still acted like that even after Unohana had the disease under control. It was almost as he was a blushing teenager around her. 'I wonder if he..Nah..who am I kidding. There's no way that Byakuya feels like, or is there?' she kept thinking to herself. As she was setting up her pictures on her desk, one in particular caught her eye. 'I wonder why I never noticed this before.' It was a picture of them at the beach during the SWA trip. Inoue had snapped the picture of them and given it to Rukia a few weeks after the trip. Looking at it closely, she saw that Byakuya wasn't looking at the camera, but was looking at her.
Sitting down in her chair, she looked around. Still in disbelief that Byakuya had done this, she now knew why he had. Now, all she had to do was get the courage to tell him how she felt. But she was scared.
Shunsui, Ukitake, Renji and Byakuya walked into the bar, quickly finding a place to sit. A waitress comes up to them to take their order.
"Let's see, sake sound good to all of you?" Shunsui asked looking around at the others.
"That is acceptable, but make sure you bring three bottles," Byakuya mentioned. He dint even noticed the looks from the others. After the waitress left, he finally looked at the others. "Two bottles are for you three, but like Shunsui mentioned before, I need to unwind, and prefer to have the bottle to myself."
Renji looked at his former captain. As long as he has known Byakuya, he has never known him to be a drinker. Something had to be on his mind if he ordered a whole bottle to himself. He was going to ask, but the waitress came back, so he let it be at the moment.
After the waitress placed the bottles and glasses on the table, Byakuya took his and started pouring his. After a few minutes, Byakuya had put away at least 8 shots of sake.
Renji and Shunsui looked at each other and then back at Byakuya. "Damn, Byakuya. You sure okay?" asked Shunsui. "With the times that you have come out, I've never seen you drink this much."
Byakuya just looks at them and shrugs. "Like you said, I needed to unwinddd..." he said with a slight slur to his voice. He downed two more shots and with that, Byakuya knew he was completely smashed!
"Oi!" Byakuya yelled, hanging over Renji. "Where is Rukia?" Byakuya looked around the bar with glazed over eyes.
"Damn it, Ukitake. I forgot that he can't hold his sake." Shunsui said, looking concerned for the captain. Byakuya stood up and got on the table and started to sing a horrible rendition of a song that he had hear once when he went to the World of the Living, called The Master Ninja Theme Song.
Everyone looked at Byakuya wide-eyed and afraid. He had lost it. So THIS is what was going on underneath that cold exterior...
About five minutes of trying to convince Byakuya that he wasn't a ninja, they gave up. The man truly thought that he was a ninja.
"YOU ALL ARE MY BEST FRIENDS AND I LOVE YOU ALL!" Byakuya said, a little too loudly. Causing half of the bar to glue their eyes to the spectacle around them.
"Renji, we better get him home before he tries to multiply himself, or spit fire." Shunsui said.
"But!" Byakuya cried, attaching himself to Shunsui. "I don't wanna go home! I need to meet with my Rukes!"
"How come he thinks that we're all fictional ninja characters, but he still remembers Rukia?" Renji asked to no one in particular.
"You don't know, Renji?" Byakuya yelled at Renji. "Rukes is my love, my life, my sweet sweet angel! I must go to her! I must confess my undying love!" Expectantly, no one looked surprised by this outburst. In fact, Renji was expecting it to happen sometime tonight. Alcohol and hidden feelings don't always mix well.
"Okay then, how about we take you to the division?" Ukitake asked, trying to reason with the drunken captain.
"Of course! Take me to my angel!" Byakuya yelled before beginning to sing the opening them song from Sailor Moon and trying to fly off like he had some sort of supernatural powers. (cough cough)
Ukitake just shook his head as he took Byakuya by his arm and the three men lead one drunken Byakuya out of the bar.
Rukia was drifting off when she heard noises outside her office door. Getting up from her desk, she rushed to her door, sliding it open to see Ukitake and Renji helping a very drunk Byakuya. Shaking her head, she walked up to them. "What the hell? Renji, you idiot!" she started smarting off, hitting him upside the head.
"Hey, don't hit me! He's the one that ordered a whole bottle to himself!" he said as they waited for Rukia to open the door to his office. They ushered Byakuya in and sat him on the couch. Renji watched as Rukia said bye to Ukitake, telling him that she would be back later on. He was going to say something, but Rukia turned around, he shut his mouth.
"Now, pineapple, why in the hell would you let Nii-sama drink that much?"
Renji stepped backwards until Rukia had him cornered against the wall. "Ummm...I...I.."
"I needed it. Shunsui said I needed to unwind," came the voice of Byakuya from the couch. "Also, I kinda didn't give them the option to stop me either."
Rukia quickly turned her glance towards Byakuya, which in turn made the noble flinch. "WHY IN THE HELL WOULD YOU NEED TO DRINK THAT MUCH, NII-SAMA?"
"Um, I think I better leave," Renji said, as he quickly hurried out of the office, leaving the two alone. Once he was far enough, Renji stopped and turned around. "You better tell her soon, Byakuya, or you're gonna lose her."
Rukia stood there with her hands on her hips, waiting on Byakuya to answer. "I know you said you needed it, but why would you drink so much?"
Byakuya had started sobering up a bit, but not much. "I've... he started saying. "..Just got a lot of stuff going through my head."
Rukia softened her eyes and sat down next to Byakuya, taking his hand in hers. "I know, but you have to remember, I'm here for you if you ever wanna talk about it. It's happening to both of us." Rukia got up from the couch and went to the window, opening it to let the cool breeze come in. "I can only imagine what you are like when you're drunk."
"From what Renji told me, it was not a pretty sight. He said that I started singing some weird song thinking I was a ninja, and to top that off, I had declared my love for you..." he had said before he caught what he had said.
Rukia's breath caught in her throat when she heard that from Byakuya. Turning around slowly, she caught the gaze of his smokey gray eyes. Rukia, for once in her life, was speechless and a bit confused. True, she had wanted him to admit that he loved her, but Byakuya himself just said he had done it when he was drunk. In her mind, the reason that she was confused is because of his attitude lately and the look in the picture all said to her that he was in love with her. But to know that he could only say it when he was drunk, she wasn't for sure.
Without saying anything, Rukia quickly left the office, leaving a totally confused but now sober Byakuya. "Shit, I can't believe I did that," he said to no one in particular. Standing up, he swayed a bit, but regained his balance. "I guess it's time she knows the truth." With that, Byakuya took off out of the office. He knew that she would head back to her quarters at the 13th. Even though she was the 6th fukutaichou, she still had her quarters at her old division due to the Elders screw-up. Using his expert shunpo, he decided to cut her off at her door.
Rukia walks along the path that leads her back to the 13th. She really couldn't understand why she was so confused. True she had been wanting Byakuya to admit to her how he felt, but to know that he had to be drunk really pissed her off. It really confused her as well. Now, she wasn't for sure if he loved her or not. 'Maybe after a good night's sleep, I can approach this with a clear head, and maybe get a clear answer from him'.
Reaching the end of the path, Rukia lifted her head and completely stopped in her tracks. Sitting by her door was none other than Byakuya. Taking a deep breath, she walked up to her door. "What are you doing here, Byakuya?" Anyone could hear the slight venom in her voice.
Catching her hand on the doorknob, he slowly turned her around to where they were facing each other. "Please, look at me, Rukia." She looked up and was completely memorized by his eyes. "I think I need to explain myself."
"There's no need to." she had started to say but cut herself off. "There is nothing to explain. You were drunk."
"Yes, true I was drunk, but..." Byakuya had started saying. He was having trouble coming up with the right words. Deciding that they needed a change of scenery, he formulated a little plan.
"Rukia...I am sorry about this." Byakuya said looking down at her for only a moment to catch the surprised look on her face before he grabbed her waist and threw her over his shoulder, his right hand holding onto her back to keep her steady on his shoulder.
"BYAKUYA! What are you doing?" She screamed as she kicked her legs at his chest trying to get down.
"Hush, Rukia." He commanded. To his surprise, she stopped resisting all together. But he could feel her pouting behind him.
Chuckling himself, he started off down the path. He didn't really care if anyone saw them like this. Getting an idea, he changed his direction, heading to the place where it all started for them – Sogyoku Hill. He just hoped that everything went according to plan. First, he would iron things out with Rukia and then the Elders were next.
Reaching the top of the hill, he sat her back down to her feet and took her hand. He led them to the edge of the cliff to where he sat down. He looked at her confused face and grabbed her arm and gently set her on top of his lap. Rukia's eyes went wider than she thought was ever possible. But she said nothing. She looked at the view from there instead. Noting how absolutely beautiful it was. She could see the setting sun and the numerous houses all around the Sereitei. She felt like she was on top of the world.
Looking at Rukia, he couldn't help but be completely amazed by her beauty. Now was the time to do something for himself. "Rukia."
"What is it?" she said turning to look at him.
"About what I said back in the office..." he started.
"Like I said, don't worry about it."
"Actually, I will." taking another deep breath, he took her hands in his and had her look up at him. "Rukia, what I said wasn't because of a drunken stupor. I spoke them cause they were the truth..."