Impertinent little brat

Chapter 3: Rukia's game plan

Rukia shivered internally under the steely gaze of the grave Soutaichou, and not for the first time since making her request did she wonder at her own sanity for bothering the head of the Gotei thirteen with such a thing. But, she reminded herself, this was important. For her sake, for the Kuchiki clan's sake, and most of all for her brother's sake – although she doubted that the boy he now was would understand her reasoning. No doubt he'd scorn her if he found out about it, but she saw no other way.

"Why should I not send him back to his family, Kuchiki?" the elderly shinigami spoke after a long silence, and she felt some of the tension in her chest settle.

At least he hadn't refused her request… yet.

"I believe it could be dangerous for my brother to return in such a form, Yamamoto-taichou," she began slowly, still not looking up at the old man while she tried to choose her words carefully. She couldn't reveal too much of the Kuchiki household, such a thing could be considered treason to the clan, yet she couldn't reveal too little for fear that the captain would overlook the danger which she dreaded. "There are many within the Kuchiki family who would not see a child fit to rule their clan."

"Are you speaking of a coup, Kuchiki?"

"They would not refer to it at such."

"They never do," the old man muttered, somehow managing to sound both bitter and amused at the same time. Yamamoto was silent for another few second, and when Rukia glanced up she caught him looking towards the still open doors to the room with a thoughtful expression. He was watching the fight. She had almost forgotten about that.

"Who the hell do you think you are, brat?" Renji's frustrated roar cut through the silence in the room suddenly, and she winced.

"I know who I am, baboon, what you should consider is…"

"Do you believe that his safety would be compromised?"

Rukia blinked, her focus instantly returning to the captain when he spoke. She opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated. Byakuya's safety. Physically he would be fine she ha little doubt, but those conniving, scheming relatives of his (and they were many) would without doubt try to steal his spot as head of the clan. It was up to her to see to that that did not happen, so steeling herself she looked into Yamamoto-taichou's eyes.

"Yes," she lied, and hoped that the man would not detect her lie.

The captain showed no sign of believing her nor did he show any of disbelieving her, and the silence stretched between them.

"Very well," the man finally nodded his head once. "Let the boy stay with his fukutaichou until further notice."

"With Renji, but..?" Rukia began, startled, before she could stop herself, but the old man interrupted her abruptly.

"Do not speak out of line, Kuchiki." And when she bowed her head quickly he continued. "It would seem that they have some issues that need to be addressed, and Abarai-fukutaichou would surely be able to protect his captain if the need arose, would he not?" At this Rukia could only nod her head. "I don't know much about the Kuchiki-household, Kuchiki, but I trust that you have had enough time to learn about how they run their clan. I will opt to trust your judgement in this question."

"Thank you, Yamamoto-taichou," she replied, honest relief in her voice. Still she did feel bad about lying to him, even if it was a minor lie.

"Don't thank me yet. Although I agree to your request on this matter, I also wish for you to overlook how things run within the Kuchiki-clan. Tell them that Kuchiki-taichou has gone for a mission, and keep your eyes and ears open for any sign of that danger which you spoke of."

"Yamamoto-taichou… do you want me to spy on them…?"

"If that threat that you spoke of is as real as you believe there ought to be good reason for doing so, Kuchiki. Unless you now believe it to be less threatening than you first thought?"

Rukia's breath caught in her throat. So he did have his doubts… and he had caught her in a trap. She didn't want to spy, but if she refused to spy on her brother's family the old man would judge her request as invalid.

"I understand, Yamamoto-taichou. I will do as you say."

Byakuya had never much cared for hospitals. He didn't like the smell of them, and he didn't like the gentle consideration from the people who worked there. At his home he was used to overly polite people and grovelling, but then at least he knew it was all a farce. This gentleness had to be false too, his instincts told him, but still there seemed to be no falseness to these people. It was ludicrous of course; people were not this good by nature. People were false and scheming, and saw to nothing but their own fortune. It was in their nature.

Still it was difficult to hold on to that notion when he looked into the eyes of Unohana-taichou.

"Are you feeling well, Byakuya-san?" she asked him softly, still gazing into his eyes, and he nodded silently before remembering himself. It was impolite not to respond to a captain of the Gotei thirteen. Yes, his grandfather had taught him well.

"Yes, Unohana-taichou," he quickly responded instead, careful to keep his voice polite yet cool, as he had been taught.

"That is good." The woman smiled gently at him, and stroked his hair in an almost motherly fashion. At least that was how it seemed to him, as he could recall only his mother doing such a thing to him. Ever.

It felt oddly comforting, though Byakuya wasn't sure why he needed comforting.

"The test results should be back soon. Would you like some tea while we wait?" Unohana-taichou asked, standing up from her seat and moving towards a desk on the other side of the room. On it stood a teapot and cups, as if it had been placed there beforehand.

"Yes, thank you, Unohana-taichou," he responded, also standing from his seat on the examining table and walking over to the desk.

"Please have a seat, Byakuya-san," the female captain said, motioning towards an empty chair.

"He said what?" Renji exclaimed when she told him of Yamamoto-taichou's decision. Next to her Ichigo was practically keeling over in glee, and she shot him an angry glare before trying to calm her friend.

"Shhhh…!" she urged the redhead hurriedly, looking around for any sign that they had been overheard. "Keep your voice down, Renji."

"Yeah, idiot. We're in a hospital, remember?" Ichigo added. Damn, he was still smirking.

"How am I supposed to keep it down when yer telling me that that little monster is going to live in my house 'until further notice'?" Renji snapped, though she noted that he had in fact lowered his voice significantly now.

"He's not a monster, Renji," she snapped back, glaring at her friend. "He's my brother, and, if you've forgotten, also your captain. It's our duty to see to his safety, especially now that he won't be able to do so himself."

"That's easy for ya to say, ya don't have to live with him," Renji replied. Now he just sounded childish but she knew telling him that would not ease things along any.

"It's not easy for me to say," she argued in a soft tone of voice. "It's just the way things are now."

Renji's face softened and he sighed a bit dramatically. "Fine. I guess we don't have a choice, but how the heck am I supposed to explain him to people?" Renji asked exasperated.

"I don't know, Renji," Rukia groaned. "Tell people he's your cousin or something."

"Everyone knows that I don't have any family, Rukia."

"Tell them he's your boy-toy," Ichigo suggested, grinning and obviously finding the whole situation much too funny for Rukia's liking.

"My…" Renji's face darkened into an angry scowl. "Shut up, Ichigo."

"Make me, baboon-face," Ichigo shot back, grinning.

"Damn right I'll make ya, carrot-top!" Renji growled, putting a hand on Zabimaru's handle, only to receive a hardy kick in the shin from Rukia. She then turned and did the same to Ichigo, effectively interrupting the fight.

"Shut up the both of you," she hissed. Honestly, sometimes these two were behaving like a couple of buffoons. No wonder her brother regarded them with disdain. Her brother. Right, she though, he always did seem to know how to get these two to do as he wished. More or less. Perhaps if she tried to do things his way she could handle them too. Straightening her back she shot them the best imitation of Byakuya's chilling glare that she could muster and said; "We don't have time for you two arguing. Renji, you look after Nii-sama, and Ichigo, I need you to check into this business from within Seireitei and Rukongai. If there's anyone who knows anything about what happened to Nii-sama we will find out and we'll fix it. But don't let anyone know about Nii-sama's condition."

Her two friends blinked at her, and she scowled back and had to strain herself from smacking them both on the head to make them snap out of whatever kind of stupor they were currently in. Then the two men exchanged a sheepish look and backed away from each other.

"Hey, Rukia," Ichigo finally said, scratching his head. "Way to go with the commander roll."

"Yeah," Renji nodded. "For a while there ya sounded a bit like the cap'n."

Feeling a wave of pride at that, she quickly pushed the sensation away. She couldn't risk loosing their focus now she reminded herself. She nodded her head briskly.

"So everyone clear on this then?" she demanded to know.

"Yep. I'll go check on what I can find out," Ichigo nodded.

"And I'll… babysit the cap'n." Renji added with a crestfallen look on his face that made Ichigo grin. Sensing the fight that would no doubt erupt if she let Ichigo say what he was thinking she quickly said; "Good. Now get going."

They both nodded their heads solemnly, and moved towards the closed door to the small infirmary room where she had ushered them into earlier. Before he opened the door though, Ichigo stopped with his hand on the handle and turned to look at her.

"Hey, by the way, Rukia. What are you going to do?"

Rukia hesitated, and looked at her friends thoughtfully before answering: "I'll look into things from within the Kuchiki clan." She finally admitted.

"Ya think they got something to do with it?" Renji queried and an angry scowl set on his face. Renji may huff and puff about Byakuya at every twist and turn, Rukia thought, but if there was one thing that he was it was loyal. He'd protect his captain with his life if he had to, and he'd never be able to understand the undercurrent of schemes that built the Kuchiki-clan.

"I don't know," she sighed. She hoped that they didn't. "But if they do I'll find out."

"Why would I wish to stay with you?" the brat asked, his arms firmly crossed over his narrow chest as he looked Renji over with an infuriatingly condescending look.

Renji had to bite his tongue not to snap at the brat, and after a second, letting the pain give him focus on what needed to be done rather than what he wanted to do, he responded as calmly as he could; "Because it was a request from Yamamoto-taichou. He thought ya might want to look into how real shinigami work and live."

"So why would I wish to stay with you then?" Byakuya challenged, arching an eyebrow.

Ok, Renji thought gritting his teeth; don't let him get to you. Keep your cool. You can shove his head down the toilet later.

"Because I'm a fukutaichou of the Gotei thirteen," he said, biting his tongue once more to keep from strangling the brat. If this continued much further he'd have no tongue by the end of the week.

"I still have my doubts about that." Byakuya commented.

"And " Renji added furiously. "Because I'm the sixth division's second in command, so the commander-general decided it'd be best for you to stay with me."

He hadn't said that it was his grandfather's division, seeing as he didn't want to lie to the annoying little wraith.

The boy tilted his head to the side, looking at him in the same condescending manner as before, and Renji glared back. For a moment he was certain that the brat would scoff at his proposal, which wasn't really a proposal but an order, and refuse to go with him, but then the brat completely changed his course of action and said in a drawl:

"Let us depart then, baboon," and pushed past him and began walking off, as if he knew exactly where he was going despite the fact that he obviously had no clue of the direction to Renji's apartment.

With a growl Renji turned to go after him, before he got himself lost in the labyrinth of walkways, roads and alleyways that was Seireitei.

"Abarai-fukutaichou."

Renji stopped and turned back towards the fourth division's captain. "Yes, Unohana-taicou?"

"May I have a word with you?"

Again this wasn't a request so much as an order, seeing as it was coming from a captain, but Renji nodded his head and said: "Of course, Unohana-taichou."

The woman watched the departing figure of his brat captain for a moment before speaking again, in a slightly lower tone of voice: "Do be patient with him, Abarai-fukutaichou. He will need someone to keep him up when the world he knows crumbles at his feet."

Renji blinked in surprise. That was not what he had been expecting.

"The tests I did showed no signs that whatever was done to him have in any way compromised his spirit or reiatsu. It's as if his body just grew younger overnight, bringing all memories of the years passed with it."

She paused, and gave Renji an unusually stern look that made him gulp.

"He will need to know the facts."

Then, with one last departing smile she turned and went back inside the Fourth division's headquarters, leaving Renji to stare at the closed door in horror.

Oh right, the captains hadn't wanted to tell the brat about what had happened to him until they had determined that his state wouldn't have an effect on his mental stability if her learned the truth. So now Unohana-taichou had decided it was safe to tell him, and of course the weight of actually doing the explaining fell on Renji. How come he felt like he was the victim in this whole thing?

How the hell did you tell someone that he had missed out on the past hundred years of his life? Heaving another sigh Renji turned and trudged after the brat, deciding to go by the rule "first thing first." And the first thing right now was to steer the hell-raiser towards his apartment before they both found themselves in the middle of Rukongai.

TBC