It's chapter eight and it still hasn't crashed and burned! This might actually work out!

Anyways, I'm starting to run out of good ideas for the titles of the chapters so they're just getting lamer and lamer... sorry.

I don't own Bleach. Never will. I do however, own a really kickass bleach T-shirt. But other than that, I don't own Bleach.

"Ngh…" Byakuya groaned softly, waking up. Something tickled his face, and he pushed it away, only to have more come back. Slowly he opened eyes, and was confronted with a field of blurry green strands. He blinked and the image by his face came into focus. Grass. Why was he asleep on the ground? Memories of the past day scurried back into his mind, and he groaned again. So it hadn't been a dream. Dammit.

Carefully, he pushed his aching body into a sitting position, a blanket falling off of his shoulders as he did so. Blanket? Where… Renji. Right. It had been sweet of him, Byakuya thought, tugging the blanket back around his arms, shivering a bit. The sun was just barely peaking over the horizon and it was chilly out.

Nobody else was awake, and Byakuya took a moment to enjoy the peace of the morning, before he stood up, keeping the blanket draped around his shoulders. His footsteps were silent as he walked barefoot over the emerald grass- his shoes had been left on the pile of 'annoying things that I don't need at the moment'.

He knelt beside Alicia, one of the seriously injured he'd managed to save. She was lying in the same position that he had left her, meaning that she hadn't woken yet. Bad. He held up a hand and watched as blue energy slowly coated it. He held that hand over her body, and watched as the blue glow covered her. She shifted a bit and groaned softly. Better. The energy soaked into her skin and her eyelids flickered open. Good.

"C-captain?" she tried, her voice barely a whisper. Byakuya held back a grin of triumph. Best.

When Alicia opened her eyes, she found them meet a cool, gray gaze. She gulped. "C-captain?" She knew that she should probably do something. Standing would be good. Yes, standing would be very good. And… something else. A bow maybe? She tried to sit up, only to be held back by a surprisingly gentle hand. "What-" It was hard to speak, and the rest of the sentence wouldn't come. This was awful. He'd probably think that she was an idiot now, and kick her out of the squad. To her immense shock, her captain smiled slightly. It was just the tiniest lift of the lips, but he was smiling! She hadn't even thought it possible before then. Impossibly, he looked even better than usual, with his hair hanging loosely in his face, and his scarf somewhere else, and a tiny smile playing with the corners of his mouth. Alicia had never had a crush on the captain like many of the other women in the division, but she felt as though it were quite possibly that she was falling in love with him now. Of course, she didn't stand a chance with him. Nobody did.

"Go back to sleep now Alicia," he murmured. "You'll find out what happened later." His voice was comforting, and Alicia wondered distantly how he knew her name. She was just a lowly unseated officer, after all. She was relatively certain that she had never spoken to Captain Kuchiki, and had only seen him closely once; when she was just a new recruit.

Her eyelids felt heavy, and the last thing that she saw before she fell asleep was those enchanting gray eyes. Then everything was black.

Byakuya leaned away from the young woman, a frown replacing the smile. The other person who his healing kido had worked on the day before was a young man. He didn't look good now though. Byakuya scowled at the grass beneath his feet as he walked over to the man. His name was Marco, and he was tenth seat. He'd had a little sister who had died in battle a few weeks before. Byakuya crouched beside him, but when he placed a hand on the man's shoulder, his arm was grabbed by the man.

"Don't bother," Marco hissed, sitting up a bit until his face was very close to Byakuya's. Byakuya gently pushed him back down. "I'm going to die anyways. I want to die. She's dead." His grip was surprisingly strong for a dying man. "I promised I'd protect her." He laughed softly. "Some big brother I am, huh?" Byakuya remained silent, watching him. "I didn't protect her. I let her die."

"There was nothing you could do," Byakuya told him, his voice gentle. Almost… caring. "You weren't there. You didn't know that she'd been sent out until after. There was nothing that you could've done to save her."

"I should've saved her. I'm her big brother. I should've…" his voice trailed off, and he continued in a whisper. "You've saved your little sister every time that she's gotten into trouble. Every single time you've been there for her. But me… once she needed me. Just once. And I wasn't there. I deserve to die."

"You're wrong. She wouldn't want you to die. She would've wanted you to live and see all the things that she couldn't."

"I deserve to die," his grip was loosening now, and Byakuya lifted his free hand and covered the hand attached to his sleeve. "Captain," he murmured, seeming to come to his surroundings now. "Tenth seat… make Toga? Please…"

"I will." Byakuya told the other man. He knew when somebody had completely given up on life, and knew that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't force Marco to live. Marco smiled, seemingly seeing something else again.

"Suki," he murmured. "I'm sorry…" His body went limp, and Byakuya gently removed the other man's hand from his sleeve and stood up, turning away. He had lost another one.

Renji woke up when somebody shook him gently. "Abarai. Time to get up."

"Huh," he murmured, slipping back asleep.

"Wake up."

"Wha- Captain? How…" he paused, memories flitting at the edge of his tired mind. "Oh." He muttered as it hit him.

"Indeed. Are you going to get up now?"

"… Yes Captain." Renji sat up slowly, and the world spun at the edges of his vision. He could really use a few more hours of sleep. He stumbled to his feet, and nearly fell before a slender hand caught his arm, keeping him on his feet. Blushing a bit, Renji pulled away from his captain. Yes, more sleep would be nice. But he could tell from the stern expression on Byakuya's face that that was probably not going to happen. The smaller man began to walk away, and Renji followed him, walking quickly to keep up. How was it that he had to struggle to keep up with his captain when Byakuya was smaller than him? It completely defied all known laws!

Renji glanced up at the sky, noting with a suppressed groan that the sun wasn't even fully up yet. Byakuya turned around, walking backwards and watching Renji.

"Come on," he said impatiently. "Hurry up."

"Yes Captain," Renji muttered sourly. "I could really hate you right now," he added, in a much quieter tone. To his immense shock, Byakuya heard him.

"Couldn't you just?" he asked with something that, on him, was equivalent to a mischievous grin on anybody else. "You should've thought of that before you accepted the position." Renji blushed again, but Byakuya wasn't looking at him anymore, and didn't seem to notice. "But since you did accept the position," Byakuya continued, the grin fading. "You'll have to deal with it." Renji stared at him, mouth slightly open. "If it makes you feel any better I'm going to wake everybody else up too." He looked at Renji a second time, and his face was fully serious again. Renji gulped. The captain's sudden mood changes were beginning to scare him a bit. "And you are going to go looking for all of the other Captains, or, if you can't find them, Vice Captains and give them these," Byakuya handed him a stack of twelve small sheets of paper.

"Understood Captain," Renji said, rubbing his neck. Somehow, the quick pace of the conversation was making his neck ache.

"Good." Byakuya stopped, and suddenly Renji found himself subject to a sharp, scrutinizing stare. "Don't take any longer than is absolutely necessary. And don't, under any circumstances, do anything stupid."

"Worried Captain?" Renji asked, teasing gently.

"No. You can take care of yourself." Byakuya began walking away, and Renji barely heard him murmur under his breath, "Of course I am. Idiot." But the way he said it was almost endearing. Renji looked down at the stack of papers in his hand, and then looked back at his captain again. Who is he really? Renji wondered. And does he actually care about me?

Byakuya tied his hair back up and stared at the remainders of his squad, still peacefully asleep. But not for long, he thought, walking over to where Kaili was still asleep. Soon they would be confronted with the bitter truth. It hadn't been a dream. None of it had been a dream. "I'm sorry," he murmured, kneeling down beside Kaili. "I'm sorry that I can't make it all go back to the way it should be."

... Crap ending. But I can't think of anything else so... We'll go with it.

Reviews are welcome, and greatly apprecitated! =3

-Stormy