The next chapter is up!

Anyways, it's still not funny so I'm changing the categorization. It is now Hurt/comfort, although there should be some funny things somewhere... Yeah.

This is all mostly introduction and Byakuya and Renji thinking about each other and Kaili- we'll start getting into the more 'plotty' stuff next chapter.

Unfortunately for me and fortunately for everybody else, I don't own Bleach.

Byakuya silently picked up the stack of papers that Kaili had left on his desk before she had skipped out for her lunch break. Her writing was neater than Renji's, her language precise and clear. Her signature at the bottom of the page reflected everything about her. It was bubbly, and shiny, yet neat and determined. It was hard to imagine that a little girl had done the work in front of him, and yet she was very obviously a little girl, and the work was done by her.

Over the past week he had learned everything about her, as he did for the rest of his division. She liked sweet foods, and her favourite was ice cream. She hated sour foods, but could stand spicy food. She lived alone, but since she was in the barracks living quarters she wasn't too worried. Her last name was unknown to her, but she didn't mind.

"It lets me be me," she had informed Renji brightly when he had asked. "I don't have to be held back by anything that my family has done before me." Byakuya added another wish to his already tall stack. He didn't want a last name any more.

"Hey Kaili!" Rangiku's voice sounded from somewhere below him and slightly to the left. He flinched. There was one spot in the barracks where anything that you said could be heard clearly from the office. Obviously Rangiku was standing right there. Wonderful.

"Hello Rangiku, Isane, Kiyone," Kaili replied cheerfully.

"How was your first week at the office?" Kiyone asked politely.

"Best workplace ever." Kaili said with firm conviction. Byakuya stopped writing, still staring at the form in front of him. Wait, what? The girls with Kaili seemed to think so too.

"What do you mean? Hasn't Captain Kuchiki frozen you out yet?" Kiyone protested.

"Yeah, he's a cold bastard. There's no way that it can be comfortable working near him." Rangiku agreed.

"Poor Renji," Isane murmured. Byakuya winced. Ouch.

"He's not actually that bad."

"Not that bad?"

"Girl, he doesn't care about anybody. He's always striding around like he's better than everybody, and snubbing people. He's the coldest man ever, and that's coming from somebody who works for Toshiro!"

Byakuya sighed. This was nothing new. He knew exactly what his reputation was around the Seireitei, and he knew why it had to stay that way. He just didn't like it.

"He cares." Kaili spoke with conviction odd for somebody so young. "He cares about everybody in this division, I know it."

"How do you know that?"

"He calls everybody by name. When Aileen's cat died on Wednesday and she was late, he knew but he didn't say anything. He even switched the work that she was supposed to do with somebody else's and took on the extra himself so that she got off early."

"Where did you figure this all out?"

"I'm third seat." Byakuya could almost hear Kaili's shrug.

"Poor you," Rangiku muttered.

"I already told you, it's not that bad. Captain Kuchiki's actually nice, he just shows it in a different way than most people. And Renji's funny and kind too."

"They both expect everybody to be perfect!" Isane protested.

"Renji's an awesome friend and all, but he does," Rangiku agreed. "And I can't imagine Captain Kuchiki being anybody's friend." Join the club, Byakuya thought, a scowl passing quickly over his handsome features.

"Neither of them expects anything that can't be given," Kaili corrected. "They both want the people in the division to keep working to better themselves, but they've never asked anybody to be perfect, and they don't expect it." There was a mutter of disagreement from the other girls, but their voices were fading now- they were walking away. Byakuya stared at the pen in his hand, not really seeing it. How had she done it? She had figured out in a week what everybody else still hadn't realized, and they had known him for years. Another thought flashed across Byakuya's mind. Had Yamamoto planned this?

Renji sat at a table with Momo, Shuhei and Izuru. The four of them were sharing lunch before each had to get back to their respective duties. Normally Yumichika and Ikkaku would be there too, but both were busy- fighting most likely. Renji watched his friends silently. Before Aizen's betrayal he had considered all three as lucky. Each had had a kind, respectful captain. They had loved their commanding officers, sharing stories about the funny things that Gin had done, or the kindness that Aizen had shown Momo just before, or the trick that Tosen had taught Shuhei that helped speed up the editorial process quite a bit- and how Tosen could edit a paper while being blind Renji still didn't know.

But now, all three of their captains were gone, betrayed the soul society, and dead. And he was left with a loyal, duty bound captain. He had always complained about Byakuya before, about the work that he piled onto his assistant captain; about the icy looks he treated him with when he was late, and about the constant insults of his handwriting. But now he found that he had nothing to complain about. His captain was there. He had fought for the Seireitei, and had been injured for the Seireitei. He hadn't left them, and Aizen's betrayal had left Renji wondering. What would he have done if it had been his captain who had left?

Lunch was a silent affair- Momo, Shuhei and Izuru didn't speak much anymore, although Izuru had always been quite shy. The four of them parted ways, and Renji strolled back to his office, lost in thought. He couldn't imagine the sixth division without Captain Kuchiki. The man kept everything going in a way that he was certain nobody else could have done. Nobody else could have memorized every officer's name, for example. And nobody else would have even bothered to tailor the amount of work done by each person to fit that person's needs, taking all of the extra himself. Not a single soul in the whole of the Seireitei would have managed to push every single person in the division to keep on working at getting stronger when everybody considered themselves 'strong enough already'. No, if Byakuya Kuchiki had left, division six would have crumbled.

They needed their captain more than any other division did. So why did they all hate him more than any other person in any other division hated theirs?

The answer was simple. Byakuya had never made himself likable. Renji swallowed hard as he entered the barracks. He was certain that it was a mask. There was no way that anybody as indifferent as Byakuya seemed to be could ever care enough to hold the division up like he did. Which led one to wonder, what is the mask for? And what purpose does it serve?

Hope you liked =)

Please review and tell me what could use improving, changing, reworking, etc.

- Stormy =)