This is a bit longer than usual, but meh...

I saw Wicked yesterday, and it was awesome! If you ever get the chance to see it... do. It's amazing. I'm not too into musicals, but Wicked is a masterpiece...

Anyways, I've never owned bleach. My parents are very anti-chemical people. I don't own the Bleach anime/manga either. Well... I have some of the books, but I don't own it own it.

On with the story...

Yamamoto stared at the Captain standing beside his makeshift cot on the floor, eyes lowered towards the ground. Had Byakuya always been this annoying to deal with, or was he not feeling alright? Perhaps he should have listened to Isane when she'd said that 'Captain Kuchiki is rather antisocial at the moment'.

"So you're not certain what you did differently?" Yamamoto asked. Byakuya didn't even bother to look at him.

"I don't know what the other squads did. How can I know what I did differently if I have nothing to compare to?" he replied, sounding slightly more disrespectful than he normally did. Yamamoto held back a groan. Isane had been right; it was impossible talking to Captain Kuchiki just then.

"Alright, that will be all," Yamamoto said, before something caught his gaze. "Are you injured Kuchiki?" he asked, his gaze drawn to the way that Byakuya was rubbing his wrist.

"No."

"You can go then. Thank you." Yamamoto watched Byakuya leave, feeling as though he had missed something important. Something that he as Head Captain, should have seen. But pain and medication was making him drowsy, and just as he thought he might have reached it, he felt it slide away again. Yamamoto leaned back against the pillow behind his back. He'd try to think of it later. After he'd had a nap.

Byakuya strode out of Yamamoto's tent in a foul mood. If it weren't for his status as a Kuchiki, he would have been scowling. Then again, if it weren't for his status as a Kuchiki, he probably would have been in a better mood. And he definitely wouldn't have been quite so annoyed to be cornered by Unohana by one of the tents.

"Captain Unohana," he greeted her icily, with a small nod. She smiled calmly at him, but there was that false quality to her smile that would've sent even Kenpachi running. Byakuya however had long since become accustomed to that look, and it didn't frighten him.

"Come with me," she told him, and although her voice sounded perfectly cheerful, there was something in it that gave small children (and sometimes older children, and teenagers, and adults) nightmares. There was no disobeying that voice, but Byakuya tried anyways. The last thing that he wanted was Unohana watching him in that way that she had that made one think that she knew all of their secrets. And in Byakuya's case, she probably did.

"Not at the moment," he told her, not bothering to be polite. He felt awful, and just wanted to be away from everybody. "Later." He began to walk away, but she grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"Now." She told him. "Either you come willingly, or I knock you out and drag you back," she said, pulling a needle from her sash. Byakuya relented. He didn't have the energy to argue with her.

Unohana led him into one of the main medical tents, which was thankfully empty. "This is my new office," she told him with a smile as sharp as the blade of her zanpaku-to and about twice as dangerous. "Sit." She dropped onto a mat on the ground, and pointed to one across from her. Byakuya sat. Unohana struck without warning, grabbing Byakuya's left arm and pushing the sleeve all the way up. He let her, finding it pointless to resist. All that she found were some old scars up by the inside of his elbow. She dropped that arm and repeated the process with the right. Nothing.

"Good." She said. "I was hoping it was just habit." Byakuya stared at her, his right hand cradling his left wrist again.

"What was habit?" he asked. Unohana rolled her eyes.

"You really don't know you're doing it, do you?" she asked, exasperated. "For a genius, you really can be quite stupid sometimes."

Byakuya frowned at her. "There's no need to insult my intelligence," he protested.

"That." she told him, pointing. Byakuya glanced down at his hands, and then carefully clasped them together.

"I've always wondered though…" Unohana started, watching him warily, as though he were potentially dangerous, which, he supposed he was. "Why the wrist?"

"Sorry?"

"… Never mind. You still have no clue, do you?"

"Can I go now?"

"If you must." Unohana sighed and placed a hand on Byakuya's shoulder as he started to leave. "You know, you don't have to be alone all the time." Byakuya didn't even bother to answer. He just left.

The cool night air felt good on his face, and he walked quickly through the encampment, struggling to keep from breaking down in the middle of the street. He took midnight walks often when he felt as though he might lose control, although there were considerably less people around at those times. He'd just walk until he felt as though he could handle being around other people. And then he'd go to bed.

With a plan, Byakuya's steps took on more purpose. Nobody bothered him as he strode through the tents. After all, he was Captain Kuchiki. Nobody wanted to disturb him and face his wrath.

Yamamoto had finally figured out what he'd been missing. Byakuya hadn't been wearing his Captain's haori, or his scarf, or the kenseikan. But most importantly the haori. What was the man thinking? He knew how important it was to wear the damn things! He wouldn't have one if he wasn't supposed to wear it!

He'd have to speak to him about it after he'd finally gotten around to that nap he was looking forwards to.

Renji carried Kaili's sleeping form through the encampment's 'streets', heading for the tent that he was supposed to be sharing with her and the captain. Truth be told, Renji was a bit apprehensive about having to share a tent with his captain. What if he talked in his sleep? Or had a nightmare? Or did something embarrassing? What then? It wasn't even a particularly big tent, no; they'd probably be pretty close together. The only compromise would be to put Kaili in the middle but…

"I wanna edge." Kaili whined sleepily. She was only partly awake, and was adamant about sleeping by the wall of the tent. "I wanna edge!" she repeated obstinately. Renji was indecisive, but a calm voice from behind him solved his dilemma.

"Let her."

"C-captain!" Renji exclaimed, startled. He hadn't heard the older man enter. He lay Kaili down by the wall, like she insisted, and turned to face his captain, stumbling a bit as he did so. The tent wasn't tall enough to allow anybody except maybe Kaili to stand, and so both crouched, watching each other warily. Kaili murmured something contentedly, and pulled the thin blankets up around her chin. Renji glanced over at her, relieved for the excuse to look away from Byakuya's face. He was certain that if he had to keep looking at Byakuya, he was going to do something drastic, and potentially dangerous. Like kiss him. That would most likely end up in fatality, and it wouldn't be Byakuya's corpse bleeding out on the floor of the tent.

Sleeping arrangements after that were made easily. Kaili had grabbed onto Renji's sleeve, and wouldn't let go, which forced Renji to take the middle, and Byakuya slid past him to the edge of the tent. Byakuya didn't sleep however. He just sat and stared at the walls of the tent, silent.

Renji lay down, being careful not to disturb Kaili, and fell asleep almost instantly. It had been a long day, and this time all that he wanted to do was sleep all night, and well into the morning, although he knew that that most likely wouldn't happen. Still, he would salvage as much sleep as he could.

He woke up a few hours later to silence. Kaili had let go of his sleeve, and was curled up against the wall, a small smile on her little face. Renji had to grin just looking at her. Slowly he eased himself up into a sitting position and rested his chin on his knees. He looked down at Byakuya, who was lying on his side hair hanging in his face. Almost as though he were aware of Renji's scrutiny, Byakuya rolled onto his back, frowning. He was trembling, Renji realized. He watched as the man clenched his fists, and turned his head away from whatever was haunting him. Turning his attention back towards the silhouette of a spider on the wall of the tent, Renji waited. He knew what came next. It was something that he himself had done plenty, trying to shake off nightmares. Whether or not Byakuya screamed made little difference. He'd wake himself up one way or another.

Sure enough, there was a sharp intake of breath from beside him, and Byakuya sat up quickly, panting.

Byakuya jerked himself upright, and out of his dream in the same motion. He sat still for a moment, breathing hard, and trying to figure out where he was exactly. Slowly his surroundings came to him, and he relaxed, only to stiffen again when he heard a voice beside him.

"Bad dream?" Renji wasn't looking at him. Byakuya didn't answer. He didn't have to. "You're very quiet," he heard a smirk in Renji's voice, even though all that he could see of him was a dark silhouette in the shadows. "Most people scream. Or cry. Or whimper. Or something." Byakuya shook his head slowly.

"Screaming is… not permitted," he murmured. Renji's rough voice was helping chase away the demons from his dreams, and he began to think that maybe, just maybe, he might be able to fall back to sleep.

"What do you mean, not permitted?" Renji asked. Maybe he knew that he was calming him, or maybe he was just attempting to distract him. Or, quite possibly, he didn't care at all, and was just talking because he wanted to. Somehow Byakuya couldn't see Renji as that type of person.

"Kuchikis must be strong. We can't scream, or cry, or laugh." He leaned forwards, and rested his forehead on his knees.

"So essentially you're not allowed to show any emotion." Byakuya nodded. "That's bullshit."

"Maybe," Byakuya agreed. Renji turned to look at him for the first time since he'd woken up.

"You're actually agreeing with me?"

"Just because I live it doesn't mean I have to like it." Came the stoic reply.

"If you don't like it, why do you follow those rules? They're stupid."

"I made a promise," Byakuya's voice was soft. "I can't break it now."

"You have already," Renji pointed out. Byakuya winced.

"I didn't break it exactly… I just found a loophole."

"It's a stupid promise to keep if it's killing you from the inside," Renji told him.

"I have to keep it."

"You don't want to."

"I have to."

"You're just as stubborn as Kaili."

"Yes."

Renji laughed softly, and then lay back down. Byakuya remained sitting up, and slowly lifted his forehead off of his knees to examine the silhouette of the spider that Renji had been looking at earlier.

"If you want to talk to me, you can," Renji murmured sleepily. Byakuya was silent for a moment, thinking about it.

"I'll remember that," he said finally. But Renji had already fallen back to sleep. "Thank you," Byakuya added quietly. He remained awake for a long time after that, thinking.

Comments or concerns? Review. Lonely or bored? Review. I'll answer, I promise. I've been having the most entertaining conversation with one of my reviewers on my other story involving Aizen's bitch curl, beating Noitra to death with spoons, going to Hawaii and using Kenpachi as a Bankai because Byakuya, Hitsugaya and Rukia all wanted to kill us. So... Yeah. Maybe you're not crazy and would like to do something useful with your time. Review anyways. It takes like... a minute.

-Stormy

I swear, I'm not insane! I'm just... not sane