Sixth Story – Life Series Prt. I – Brother to Boyfriend
Rating – PG
Summary – Byakuya just wanted to talk about Kurosaki's relationship with Rukia. He didn't expect what he got though...
Author's Note – There are over 9,000 stories in the Bleach archive here ff(dot)net.At least a quarter of them are IchiRuki. So if you want originality, you're looking in the completely wrong place. Sorry people. I got a review on my last chapter saying I need to be more original. Well it isn't gonna happen here, sorry.
Life Series – I
Kuchiki Byakuya was a man of few expressions. Literally. Even the ones that knew him best (and not many people could claim they did) couldn't honestly say they had ever seen Byakuya give anyone a real expression.
But that didn't mean he was completely without emotion. Oh no, underneath the surface, Kuchiki Byakuya could be a very emotional man. When Hisana had died, for instance, he'd felt the grief and pain of losing her. When Rukia had been sentenced to death, he had (no matter what he said to the contrary) felt torn and confused.
And when it came to a certain orange-haired Shinigami...Byakuya felt hate. Lots and lots of hate.
Where did that boy get off, going around with Byakuya's little sister in public, hugging her, kissing her, generally just being all over her? Who did he think he was, exactly?
And when it came to the matter of the boy's manners...they weren't even mediocre. He was inconsiderate and rude, and always had to be first in line no matter what. What Rukia saw in Kurosaki, Byakuya was sure he'd never understand, even if he lived another million years.
But then again, Byakuya wasn't sure he wanted to understand.
Knock-Knock
Byakuya looked up from the paper he was reading. It was well past midnight. The streets outside of the sixth division were empty, and most people were home sleeping, or else they were on guard duty. But Byakuya knew exactly who was at his door.
"Enter," Kurosaki Ichigo walked in, looking thoroughly annoyed. He was, Byakuya noted, still wearing his pajamas. His usually unruly orange hair looked worse than ever. It didn't help that he was running his hand through it every few seconds, obviously aggravated.
"What do you want?" Byakuya bristled. One of the many reasons he didn't like this boy; he was rude. What kind of person said 'what do you want' to a higher-up, a noble?
"Sit down, Kurosaki," he obliged, though it looked like he was using everything he had him not to say something.
"This better be good," the orange-haired Shinigami muttered, folding his arms and leaning back in the chair, scowling, "Rukia and I were-"
"I'd rather not know what you and my sister were doing," it took Kurosaki a second to work out what the captain had meant.
"What...no! It was nothing like that, I mean...we were sleeping, that's all!" he was obviously flustered by Byakuya's implements, "We were sleeping, and then your message came, and I didn't want to wake up Rukia so I tried to get out of bed without moving her, but the way we fell asleep, it was hard, and I almost woke her up...it was nothing like that!" suddenly he scowled, "Wait, this is none of your business anyway! What the hell do you want already?"
It took everything within Byakuya's power not to slice and dice the boy here, in private, away from prying eyes. But the blood stains would take forever to get out of the carpet. So instead he said, "I want to talk to you, Kurosaki. And it'd be all for the better if this conversation didn't get back to my sister. Understand?"
Kurosaki nodded. "Yeah. Whatever. What is this about already? And make it quick. I might be able to salvage some sleeping before the sun rises"
Insolent, rude, the words all raced through Byakuya's head like a mantra, but he tried to block them out. He knew a civilized conversation with Kurosaki Ichigo was next to impossible. So instead he went on and said, "I want to talk to you about the relationship you have with my sister"
Kurosaki blinked. "So...let me get this straight. You called me out of bed after midnight, just to tell me you don't approve of me and Rukia? You could have done that. In broad daylight. With Rukia standing right there. Can I go now?"
He began to stand up, but Byakuya said, in a cold, commanding voice, "Sit down Kurosaki"
It was a surprise that he actually listened. "That's not what I wanted to say – yet. What I want to talk about, Kurosaki, is your relationship in general with Rukia. For example, where do you plan on going with my sister?"
Now Kurosaki looked terrified. "W-What? What do you mean, where am I going with your sister? Not far – I mean, we're not like, leaving Soul Society or anything-"
"That's not what I meant," once again Kurosaki managed to display the fact that he certainly wasn't smart enough for Byakuya's little sister, "I meant do you have any plans for a future with my sister? Or are you just going to lead her on then leave her?"
"Leave her?" Kurosaki repeated, "Why in the world would I ever leave Rukia? I would never do anything like that, what makes you think I would?"
And now he was blowing everything out of proportion. "I don't recall saying I thought you'd ever leave her. I just asked if you have any plans to leave her. Do you see the difference?"
Kurosaki bristled. "Yeah. I see the difference. And no, sorry to disappoint you, but I don't plan on leaving her any time soon. Or ever"
Byakuya should have expected an answer like that. So he started trying to put his next question into words. It was a complicated one, and if it came out wrong Kurosaki would blow it way out of the water, Byakuya was sure. After a minute of silence he finally said, "I see. Kurosaki, what makes you think you're good enough for my sister?"
The question seemed to have thrown Kurosaki way off base. He blinked his amber eyes rapidly, trying to process the question. "What? I don't really think that's up to you to decide, you know, I mean, Rukia is obviously satisfied-"
"And again, I'm pretty sure that's a part of your relationship with her Idon't want to know about," Byakuya muttered, "And I'm fairly certain itis up to me to decide, even if it's not completely. She's still my little sister-"
"You had her put on death row," Ichigo reminded the older man, "That's not exactly saying 'I love you'. And neither is going after her boyfriend-"
"Kurosaki just shut up and listen," and again, amazingly enough, he listened. Maybe it was because he sensed this was something Byakuya needed to put out. "Now, as I was saying. You're not good enough for my sister. I never thought you were. And I'll never understand what she sees in you. But it's obviously deep, if she's stayed with you for as long as she has. But unless you can prove to me that you're good enough for her-"
"And exactly how can I prove it to you?" Kurosaki cut in. And once again Byakuya had to struggle not to really hurt the boy. How could he just interrupt someone like that? "Isn't it enough that I saved her when even you wouldn't, and even after that. I haven't left her side once, which is probably more than you can say. Hey, does that make me better than you?"
"You insolent little-" Byakuya cut himself off, taking a deep breath. "You have done all those things, and while I'll admit they're impressive, they're not enough"
"What more can I do?" Kurosaki blew up, "Run around all of Soul Society on my hands while writing the next great novel?"
Byakuya closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and counted to ten. When he opened his eyes again, Kurosaki was still there, unfortunately. What in the world had Byakuya been thinknig, trying to have a conversation with this boy? "Kurosaki, tell me this. Do you have any plans to marry my sister?"
Kurosaki's reaction was rather amusing, Byakuya supposed. His eyes widened to the size of amber plates, his mouth dropped, and he practically flew out of his seat. "What?! Why?! What...what've you heard?"
And now it was Byakuya's turn to be horrified. "What do you mean what've I heard? I haven't heard anything, it was a question – why, what's going on Kurosaki?"
The boy took several deep breaths, blinked a few times, swallowed once or twice, and then sat down. "N-Nothing's going on"
He was a terrible, terrible liar. He blinked too much and his eyes dodged this way and that, looking anywhere but at where Byakuya was sitting. "Kurosaki I swear, if you don't tell the whole truth right now, I'll-"
"All right, all right," Kurosaki held up his hands in self-defense, "I figured it would get back to you eventually – everyone in Squad Four is talking about it, they found out when Rukia went in..." Byakuya's eyes narrowed, speeding Kurosaki's speech up, "Well, Rukia wanted to be the one to tell you, but, she's uh...don't kill me, but – Rukia's pregnant"
Byakuya felt as if the floor had given out beneath him. And suddenly he wished he hadn't called Kurosaki down to his office. Rukia waspregnant. By the boy sitting in front of her. If it hadn't been for the fact he didn't want the baby to grow up without a father, Byakuya was fairly certain he would have killed Kurosaki Ichigo at that moment.
When the orange-haired boy got no reaction out of Byakuya, he went on, speaking slowly and deliberately now, "I...I asked Rukia to marry me right after we found out. Rukia's been really stressed about it, I keep telling her it's not good for the baby to worry the way she is, but you know her...please don't kill me"
The last words came out as a plea. Byakuya was struggling within himself. He'd started out just wanting to talk about Kurosaki's relationship with Rukia. But now he felt like he had been thrown into the twilight zone. He was still stuck back on pregnant. He hadn't even gotten to the marriage part yet. "Er...you're not gonna kill me, are you?" Kurosaki asked after about five minutes of silence, "I mean, I'm kind of a fan of living. And if you're going to kill me, can I at least have some time to write a will?"
"What in the world could you possibly have to leave anyone?" Byakuya muttered, barely restraining his anger now, "How far along is she?"
He suddenly felt an undying need to know everything, and was beginning to wonder if it would just be better to be emotionless all together. "About...about two months," now that he was fairly certain he wasn't going to be murdered, Kurosaki seemed okay with talking, "We found out about...about three weeks ago. She was kind of scared about telling you, that's why we put it off, ya know? I mean, not reallykind of...she wants your approval, Byakuya. More than anything. I myself don't exactly care, but Rukia...it'd mean the world to her if you approved. But if you don't, it won't change anything. We'll still get married. You just won't be there"
The two stared at each other long and hard. And Byakuya was completely torn. Finally he said, in a twisted sounding voice, "You can go now"
Kurosaki stood up. "Just...think about it, Kuchiki-sama. Please"
And he left, leaving Byakuya with nothing but his thoughts for company, and the insane wish that he had just left well alone be alone. But at the same time, he realized something strange. Kurosaki had just called him 'Kuchiki-sama'.
Well, well.
Ichigo was fairly certain that wasn't a conversation he wasn't going to forget anytime soon. It was probably the longest one he'd held with Kuchiki Byakuya. It was also the strangest one he had ever (though "The Talk" with his dad when he was twelve definitely ranked number two).
Ichigo took the long way back to the house he and Rukia shared (she'd moved out of Byakuya's soon after she and Ichigo had started dating). When he got to his room, he was relieved to find Rukia still asleep. He sat down carefully on the edge of the bed and began undressing. A second later though, a tired moan reached his ears, and Kuchiki Rukia said, in an exhausted voice, "Ichigo?"
The Shinigami in question looked around at the girl. She was sitting up in bed, rubbing sleep from her brilliant violet eyes. Ichigo smiled as he finished taking his socks and shoes off and crawled up under the covers next to her. "Hey"
"Where'd you go?" she muttered, leaning against his chest, eyes closed. Ichigo made a face. How was he supposed to tell her about the conversation he'd just had?
"Ah, well...your brother sent for me," it took a second for the words to process in Rukia's head. When they did, she sat straight up, all traces of sleep gone from her eyes, which were now wide.
"Hewhat? What did he want?"
"He wanted to talk about you and me, actually," Ichigo said, leaning back on his pillows, "And ah...I kind of told him about...you know...about us...and about you...about you being pregnant"
"You what?!" Ichigo winced. He should have known this was going to take some – okay, a lot of – explaining. He wasn't even sure where to begin though.
"Well, he said something about marriage, and I flipped because I thought he'd heard something and-"
"Ichigo how could you do this?!" Rukia cut him off, her violet eyes blazing, "You knowI wanted to tell him, and I was going to-"
"When, Rukia?" Ichigo sat up, angry now. If he had been tired and thinking more reasonably, he might not have been trying to start a fight. But he had been pulled out of bed at midnight for absolutely no reason at all. Reasonable wasn't on his list of things to be. "When we had the wedding, when the baby was born? When were you going to tell him, Rukia?"
"When it was the right time!" she shouted back, "I don't know what it's going to take to get this through to you, Ichigo, but Nii-samadoesn't like you, I'm surprised he didn't try to kill you tonight! I was going to tell him when it was the right time, when I could come up with a way to stop him from-"
But Ichigo'd had enough. He reached up a large hand and covered Rukia's mouth. She stopped talking at once and her eyes widened in surprise. "Enough," he said firmly, "All right? You've been stressed about this for the last three weeks, it's not good for you or the baby if you worry so much. So just calm down for a minute, got it? He didn't try to kill me – though he might once he's had time to think about it – and even if he did, so what? I could still kick his sorry ass. So just stop worrying"
Ichigo pulled his hand away, and after a minute Rukia closed her eyes and leaned against him again. Satisfied, he wrapped his arms around her small body, and they both laid down. "So how do you feel?" Ichigo said after a minute. The silent moments were nice – because the alternative was usually fighting – but now Ichigo wanted information.
"Mmm," Rukia muttered under her breath, shifting so she was closer to Ichigo, "not bad, I guess. Exhausted though. I dunno why I'm so tired..."
"If you're tired, sleep then, idiot," that, of course, earned him a kick in the shin. They were quiet for a minute, then Rukia said,
"Nii-sama will be out for blood tomorrow, won't he?"
"Oh hell yes"
"Better sleep then"
"Well yeah"
After a minute, Rukia rolled over so she was facing Ichigo. Amber eyes met violet, and then she kissed him. The kiss deepened after only a few seconds, but then Ichigo pulled away. "We probably shouldn't...I mean, the baby..."
"I'm not far enough along to hurt the baby, Ichigo," she whispered, "Just shut up and kiss me, all right?"
"What happened to 'we should sleep'?"
"We'll sleep. After"
Well, Ichigo couldn't very well argue with that logic. Tonight he'll make love to Rukia...
...and tomorrow he'll face her brother and hope he doesn't die.
Author's Note – I'm trying to decide whether or not make this a multi-part story. Review telling me whether or not I should. I'd kind of like to continue, I have ideas, but I won't bother if no one's interested. So let me know if you're interested! Okies? Review! - Sam
