DISCLAIMER:

The fanfic writer ellithea is just a fangirl, not the authentic owner of BLEACH.

She is Demoted

by:

ellithea

9th ACT: Haru- chan and Bya- kun: Finally

-90 years ago-

I'ts warm. She is not scared anymore.
She slowly opened her eyes, she saw a beautiful lady beaming at her.

"You are awake"

"Who are you…Ma'am?" the girl replied weakly

"You are too formal, well I'm Shihouin Harusame" she smiled kindly, "You are?"

"Kajiimoto Hisana"

Harusame looked at her,she amiled at her and touched her hand
"I see, how about it Hisana, would you like to be a shinigami?" she asked

"Me?"the girl said with eyes wide open, she can't believe what she is hearing.

"Yes you have some potential"

"I can't I have something to…to…do…" she answered with a bowed head.

"That is…" she inquired

"I need to find someone" was Hisana's quick reply

Her eyes full of understanding the 2nd division vice captain continued,
"Well, to tell you the truth if you became a shinigami, you might be able to find this person quickly" she paused "Shinigami have connections and skills that is useful, think about it"

They remained quiet for a couple of minutes, but there was a knock,
"Haru?" a familiar voice said.

Harusame failed to hide a smile and turned her head towards the door, "Byakuya, your here"

Byakuya opened the shouji door and entered his fiancée's bed room,
"I heard you picked up a kitten"

"This is Kajiimoto Hisana, Hisana this is Kuchiki Byakuya "

Hisana clutched the sheets tighter, "Nice too meet you sir"

Harusame saw Hisana's cheek turned into a light shade of pink; she shrugged it off, because this is just a normal occurrence, for girls who had set their eyes upon Byakuya.

But she failed to notice the hint of interest that is visible on Byakuya's gray eyes.

-Present time-

Saying that Harusame is shocked would be an understatement.

Never in her considerably long life that she had been embarrassed shocked and humiliated.
"Harusame, I rendered Byakuya unconscious, he hasn't done anything to you...yet…" Yoruichi assured, her eyes hiding a glint of amusement.

Harusame gulped and look at her sister, "Me? Did you knock me down too?" her voice sounded as if seeking a nod.

Yoruichi hesitated for a moment,
"No, Byakuya's kiss did it."

Byakuya flinched in his hiding place, picturing the said event, he, kissing his gorgeous chilhood playmate/ fiancée and making her pass out.

Good kisser aren't we Master…
Senbonzakura teased with a giggle.

Harusame's eye twitch and her heart jumping out, "What??"

"Yes maybe he is so good you passed out" Yoruichi blurted.

"Shut it!!!" replied Harusame while blushing fervently.

Yoruichi just smiled and stared at her beautiful sister. "Actually when he saw you cry, he stopped, as if restraining himself…" she said.

Harusame was somewhat happy, the thought that Byakuya refused to hurt her in any kind, she felt her heart aching to be with him.
"He did that?" all she can mutter under her happiness.

The shapeshifter picked a pebble and threw it in the water, "After I erased your memories, I stripped both of you" she recalled, grinning at the memory.

Byakuya's cheek became slightly colored
"She undressed me," he muttered under his breath.

Haven't you seen her naked before…Call it quits…
Sen commented, recalling the first time when Yoruichi transformed in front of Byakuya, his face at that time was priceless. That day Yoruichi earned the title 'Were- cat'.

"Then, I threatened the guards into not telling about this to anyone or I'll castrate them" Yoruichi continued.
Harusame is listening carefully, her face full of different emotions.

After staring at her sister the 9th division captain said:
"Byakuya…does he know?"

Yoruich smiled "Would you want me to tell him?" she said in a sincere tone.

Harusame stood up and picked her silver Zanpakutou
"Use your judgment" then walked away. She needs to run again after all. So nothing happened between them, Byakuya hadn't done anything to her, he is free into not marrying her, after all Byakuya is only marrying her to atone.
'It is for the best' she thought while squeezing back tears.

Yoruichi can't bear to see Harusame commit the same mistakes.

She deserves something more.
"Harusame…" her voice somewhat pleading her to stop.

"Arigatou, Yoruichi" said Harusame her voice quivering.

"Do you still love him?"

Harusame stopped dead in her tracks and turned around, tears running down her flushed cheeks, a faint smile in her lips
"Still? I can't remember falling out of love in the first place"

Byakuya fought the urge to pull Harusame towards him and wipe away those tears. He wanted to shout the words that he is denying ever since Harusame came back.

"Why did you leave him?" a caress like words came out of Yoruichi's mouth and an understanding light shining in her eyes.
She knew, of course she knew.
These too loved each other very much, enough that they let each other go for the other's happiness.

Harusame closed her opened them to look at her sister.
"For his happiness, that is how much I loved him" Harusame said then vanished on a whirl of shunpo.

Yoruichi stood up, folding her arms in front of her chest "Baka no musume (silly girl)" she then darted her look on the cherry tree behind her,
"Wouldn't you agree, Byakuya-bo?"

Byakuya emerged behind the sakura's trunk, his white sleeping yukata complimenting the moonlight that is hitting his body
"She is same as me," he said walking toward Yoruichi, his hold on Senbonzakura getting tighter.

Yoruichi looked at Byakuya, he isn't wearing his Kenseikan, showing that he jumped out of bed to eavesdrop.

"You let her go for her dream, that is how much you loved her," said Yoruichi, her face serious.

Byakuya's face remained stoic,
"That is none of your business" he said then looked at the river's glistening waters.

"Am I wrong?" asked Yoruichi a grin visible in her face.

Byakuya stared at his former tag playmate and sighed,
"I hate to admit, you are right"

"I presume you heard everything…"
She trailed off "…that she had said"

"Yes"

"Do you regret it?" she curtly asked

Byakuya thought for a moment, no he is happy he heard everything, now it is her turn to know too,
"…No…" he replied then turned away.

Yoruichi sensed Byakuya's plan but asked anyway, "What would you do now?"

"Something that should have been done 80 years ago"

"Byakuya, don't hurt her this time" her tone with warning

"Presuming she doesn't hurt me first" said Byakuya then vanished from where his girl had left.

The 23rd Shihouin princess looked at the sky from above the fragments of Sokuyouku cross, her haori, billowing in the wind.

"Harusame" said Byakuya as he land beside her.

She just stared at Seiretei from below; Byakuya took a seat next to her their shoulders touching.
"You are not supposed to mean this much to me, but you do…" she murmured

"I know, I' am not supposed to fall in love but I did…" he admitted

Harusame was surprised when he actually said an indirect 'I love you'. She leaned on Byakuya's shoulder and closed her eyes,
"We are so annoyingly similar"

"That is right, even before when we are kids"

"Byakuya" she began, it's now or never, she must confess, everything, "80 years ago, when I told you I'll go to fulfill my dream that was half lie"

He has the right to know, "I left for someone else's dream"

Byakuya stared on the scenery below and closed his eyes, "You love her too, don't you?" he said in a whisper.

"Yes…and I know you loved Hisana too" she answered, her name bringing back happy and sad memories.

"Yes I loved her," admitted Byakuya. Yes he loved her, and that was in the past.

A sting of jealousy hit her heart but she cast it away,
"Why did you let me go?"

"I thought you don't want to be stopped" a caress like tone escaping with those word, Byakuya placed an arm on her waist pulling her close, "I want you to be happy"

Harusame's tears run down her cheeks her shoulders shaking.

"Funny, we are thinking of the same thing" her voice quivering

"I think that is how much we love each other, so much, that it is willing to grant even each other's freedom," he said

"Byakuya, I'm sorry…I messed up again…I think still love my best friend after all…" she sobbed.
Byakuya pulled her into an embrace; she clutched his robes and cried, all her frustrations and most off all she cried in relief.

The things she carried for the past decades had been lifted.

"Nakunai (Don't cry)" he said in a caress like tone.
"Even if it is 8 decades too late" he said pulling away. He retrieved a silver ring with a cherry blossom-cut diamond on the center,

"Shihouin Harusame, will you marry me?" slipping it in her candle like fingers.

Harusame eyes widen, she placed her fingers over her mouth, it is too sudden, and she doesn't know what to say.
"I--..…I--" she weakly said

Byakuya placed a palm behind her head and another behind her waist, and then crushed his lips on hers. Harusame's brain failed to register what is happening but her soul knew very well. This is bound to happen.
She can't deny it no longer; they can't deny it no longer. Her heart dictated her next moved. She answered the kiss with the same intensity and passion.

Byakuya ended the kiss, her thumb tracing her lips,

"Now tell me Harusame," he said as he pressed his forehead against hers.

Harusame smiled, this is where she belonged.
"Bastard"

"I'll take that as a yes" whispered Byakuya as he kissed his future wife, along with a promise to never let her go again.

The 80-year delay was damn too much.

(A/N: OH YEAH!!!!!)