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Chapter 8: Smile

Miya had spent the rest of the week and the following week sitting behind one of the large wooden desks in the front room of the Division Thirteen office. Kiyone had taught her how to fill out several of the different division forms. She really didn't mind doing paperwork. What she did mind, however, was having to be in the same room as Kiyone for most of the day. By her second day in the office, Miya had already decided that Kiyone was probably bipolar. There was no other explanation for her behavior—she was mean and harsh to her until anyone else entered the office. Whenever anyone else was around, she turned into a perfect little angel. It was ridiculous.

By the end of the first week, Miya had found herself slipping into a routine. She would get up early, go to the office, go to lunch, head back to the office, and then instead of going back to the apartment which she had yet to consider her home after she left the office, she would go for a walk. She would only head back to the Thirteenth Division near sunset to get dinner in the mess hall.

Since their initial meeting, Rukia and Matsumoto had come by the office several times to take her out to lunch in the Seireitei. She found it easy to get along with both of them and really enjoyed their company. They were already well on their way to becoming great friends.

Although she was getting along well with Rukia and Matsumoto, getting along with the Squad Thirteen members was another story.

After she had completed her first day of work in the office, she had gone to the Division Thirteen common building. That was a big mistake. As soon as she entered the common room the loud chatter of the shinigami had instantly quieted down. She could practically feel their eyes boring into her back as she walked past them. Through the corner of her eyes she could see the dirty looks they gave her and she could hear the rude comments that they would gruffly whisper to one another. Bitch, whore—apparently they all had it in their minds that she had traded sexual favors in order to have been allowed to stay in the Seireitei without going to prison.

Miya let out a long sigh. She knew that it was useless to try to confront them and change their minds. After all, she couldn't really blame them for not accepting her with open arms. Although she was staying with the Thirteenth Division, she wasn't really one of them. She wasn't even a shinigami. Most of the people in the squad had worked their whole lives in order to get where they were. And then here she comes—a thief from the Regonki that somehow manages to bypass years of training and preparation and all of a sudden starts working in one of the Gotei 13 Court Guard Squads. They had a right to resent her.

After that, she avoided the Division Thirteen common building as much as possible during the day. But at night, that was another story.

A few days after she had started living in the Seireitei, Miya had had trouble sleeping and decided to head over to the common building hoping that not very many people would be there considering how it was two in the morning. She had made the short walk to the common building only to find that it was locked. Still nowhere near tired and not really wanting to go back to an empty apartment, Miya had walked around the building searching for a door that might have been left unlocked by accident.

Although she wasn't able to find an unlocked door, she did find that one of the kitchen windows on the first floor had a broken lock. She lifted the window up and hopped onto the kitchen floor. She closed the window behind her and knowing that she wouldn't get caught since no one in the Seireitei could sense her reitsau, she formed a small kido ball to illuminate her way as she explored the empty building.

The Division Thirteen common building was rather large. Once she made her way out of the kitchen, Miya found herself in the large mess hall. The mess hall was located on the west side of the building and was filled with row after row of tables where the whole squad would sit down for their meals. Through the mess hall and located on the eastern side of the building was the common room.

The common room was nearly twice the size of the mess hall and was square in shape. The roof was high and in the middle of the roof was a round glass atrium through which Miya could see the black night sky above. One side of the common room was covered with bookshelves from roof to floor and was filled with books. Miya had walked over to inspect them hoping to find something interesting to read only to discover that they were mostly old academy reference books. The south wall of the common room was made of large windows and there were couches and chairs arranged all around the room as well as various game tables. Miya recognized one of the tables as being a pool table. Kazuma had tried to teach her how to play pool on several occasions back in Rukongai, but she had never really been any good at it.

After searching the common room, Miya had searched each of the two remaining upper floors. The second floor was filled mostly with more lounge couches and game tables like the bottom floor. The third floor was used mostly for storage. There were several rooms on the third floor, and it was in one of those that Miya had found the thing that kept her going back to the common building each night while the rest of the Seireitei was sleeping.

In the far back corner on the third floor of the common building, was a storage room that was filled with old holiday decoration boxes, old faded uniforms, and miscellaneous training equipment. In the far back corner of the same storage room, hiding under a faded black sheet saturated in dust and facing a window that didn't look like it had been washed in decades, sat an old forgotten upright piano.

Miya couldn't believe her luck when she had found it. Pianos were definitely a rarity in the Soul Society and finding people who knew how to play them was even rarer. With all of the war and constant training for war, people seldom ever took the time to learn how to play an instrument that few people actually had. Besides this one, Miya only knew of one other piano in the Soul Society.

Soon after she and her mother had moved to Rukongai, her mother had taken a job in a restaurant in one of the better districts. Miya would travel to the restaurant with her mother every day and help fold napkins and wash dirty dishes in the kitchen while her mother would wait tables. The restaurant owner had a large piano in her apartment above the restaurant and in exchange for closing every night and coming in early on Sundays, the owner had allowed Miya and her mother to stay after the restaurant closed and use her piano. So, every night for years, after her mother had finished wiping down the dirty tables and after Miya had put away all of the clean dishes, she and her mother would head upstairs and sit down at the piano. Miya's mother was an amazing pianist and after a few years of practice, Miya had become just as good.

The piano that Miya found in the storage room was very old and severely out of tune to her disappointment. But, after an hour of fiddling with the strings under the hood, Miya had managed to get the piano to sound as it should.

Although she knew that no one would be able to sense her reitsau in the locked common building, Miya was worried that someone might hear her playing. She knew she would be in trouble if someone found her in there at such late an hour. Trouble was the last thing she needed more of in her life right now. So, for the first few nights that she had played the piano in the storage room, Miya had used the power of her zanpakuto to prevent anyone from sneaking up on her unexpectedly. Miya's zanpakuto had the ability to slow down time, and if she so desired, to stop time completely.

However, using her zanpakuto for extended periods of time always made her tired and she would find herself having a hard time staying awake in the office the next day. After the first few nights of interrupted playing, she had finally stopped using her zanpakuto to pause time and merely played in the early hours of the morning. To be cautious, she would never stay in the empty building for more than an hour and would always sneak back out through the kitchen window before the kitchen staff arrived to prepare breakfast.

After leaving the common building, Miya would head back to her apartment to get ready to head in the division office. She hadn't seen much of Captain Ukitake since her first day in the office. The Captain of the Thirteenth Division spent most of his time out of the office and whenever he did come into the office, he would spend his time in his office down the hallway.

In her first two weeks, Miya had only spoken to him a few times. Once had been in passing as she was headed to the office and he was headed out. He had asked her how she was and she had answered "fine" without so much as glancing at him. The second time had been in the office. He had once again asked how she was doing and she had once again and answered "fine" and continued doing her work.

After that first day in the office, she had decided that it was better not to look at him directly. When she had looked him in the eye, it had felt too personal. It was as if, by merely looking at her, he could see past her confident controlled exterior and straight into her. She had felt so exposed and vulnerable under his gaze. It made her nervous.

Even though she had settled into a routine, she still was trying to adjust to her new life. But, it was hard to get used to this new life while she was still trying to hold on to her old one. Things had changed so fast, it had given her whiplash. She hadn't even been able to say goodbye to anyone.

She felt like a goldfish who had been swimming happily in a jar. Then suddenly, the jar had been dropped on the floor. Her world had disappeared around her and she was left grasping for something that was no longer there.

Jushiro sighed. It was four in the morning and he still hadn't been able to fall asleep. Refusing to lie on his back and stare at the roof for any longer, Jushiro sat up in bed and swung his feet over the side and stood up. At this point it wasn't even worth trying to fall asleep anymore. It was Friday morning and he had to be in the office in a couple of hours anyways. He sighed again.

He walked slowly through the darkness and pulled back the heavy white curtains that covered one of his bedroom windows. His house sat on the side of the hill and overlooked most of the Seireitei. In the silver light of the moon, he could see the tops of the buildings and then the Seireitei wall behind them. Past the tall white Seireitei wall, in the distance he could make out the pale lights of Rukongai.

From where he stood it seemed so tiny and far away fading into the distance. He could only imagine how Miya must be feeling. So close and yet at the same time, so far away from everyone and everything she had known her whole life.

Miya. Nearly two weeks had passed since she had joined his squad and he still knew barley anything about her. He had tried talking to her on several occasions, but every time he tried to start a conversation, she had merely looked away and given him a flat one word answer that clearly meant "leave me alone." He hadn't known what to say after that. But, although he had answered that she was fine and always wore a neutral expression, he could still read her. She was upset. And she was lonely.

At that moment, he saw a light appear in a window on the third floor of the common building in the distance. That was odd. No one was supposed to be there at this hour. He scanned the building but found no reitsau. Jushiro quickly threw on his clothes and stuck in zanpakuto in his obi before he headed out of his home and towards the common building. Once he arrived at the back door, he once again scanned the building. Again, he found nothing.

He hid his reitsau completely before he slid the small silver building key that he had in his pocket into the door and quietly opened it. In the pale light of the moon that fell in though the mess hall windows showed nothing to be out of place. Slowly, he made his way through the empty mess hall and towards the common room. Nothing seemed out of place in the common room as well as far as he could tell. He made his way over to the large staircase on the far side of the room and slowly, he began to make his way up towards the third floor.

It was when he stepped off of the steps and onto the third floor that he heard it. There was noise coming from one of the back storage rooms. Poising his had above the handle of his zanpakuto and careful not to make any noise as he walked, Jushiro began to make his way slowly towards the source of the sound. When he reached the halfway point from the top of the stairs to the storage room, he realized that it wasn't just noise that he was hearing. It was music. An elegant melody bounced off the walls and drifted through the hallway towards him. His hand relaxed and fell from the handle of his zanpakuto. The song itself was the most beautiful he had ever heard. The music swirled around him and became louder and louder as he reached the open storage room door. Cautiously, he peeked his head in through the open door. His breath caught in his throat at the sight before him.

There, sitting on a low bench behind a dusty old piano, was Miya. In the silver light of the moon that fell in through a tall window, he could see her slender fingers dance gracefully across the black and white keys as they sent the melody that was both painfully beautiful and breathtakingly sad out into the darkness around her.

He couldn't move. He doubted that he could of if he had even wanted to. He stood there, unable to tare his eyes from her as her music filled the darkness. Her hands began to move faster and faster causing the song to sound more urgent and frantic. The notes became louder and louder and he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as the music came to the peak of its crescendo in one loud crash. Her hands stilled for a second before they started moving again, this time sending out slow soft notes that sounded like a whisper of the melody before it. After a while, the whispered melody began to quiet down and her hands began to slow until they finally ceased moving causing the music to come to an end. The last note she had played echoed into the night. She gently placed her hands in her lap.

Jushiro still couldn't tear his eyes form her. It was not until he saw a glistening tear roll across her cheek and fall onto her lap that he was finally able to snap out of his stupor. He shifted his weight onto his back leg intending to turn and leave as quietly as he had arrived. The shift in weight however caused the floor boards underneath him to creak loudly. He heard her let out a sharp gasp and as she began to turn her head in his direction, that's when he had shunpoed like his life depended on it. Within a matter of seconds, he was standing on the front porch of his house panting like he had just ran a marathon.

What had caused him to freak out and take off all of a sudden? After all, he was the captain and she wasn't supposed to be in there in the first place. But, there had been something in her song and the way that she played. It had seemed so personal. It felt as if he had been reading her diary without her knowing. The song had been so heartbreakingly sad—it was as if all the emotions that she had been trying to hide were released in the melody that she had sent into the empty night.

Unable to get the her song out of his head, he sat out on his front poach until it was time for him to head to the office. He wanted to do something for her, anything, that could possibly cheer her up and make her feel better. But what? There must be something he could do right? He began to slowly make his way towards the division office thinking as he went. When he reached the office door, a smile crossed his lips as the very answer he had been hoping for finally came to him. He quickly turned around and shunpoed towards the First Division.

Jushiro tugged on the sleeve of his captain's haori as he made his way up the stairs of the Division Thirteen barracks. He had been meaning to go into the main office earlier that day to visit Miya, but every time he had began to do so, he had felt a coughing fit come on. The tightness in his chest and his light headedness seemed to disappear, however, as soon as he had decided to put off going to see her until later.

Before he had known it, he had waited so long that she had already left the office and gone home. Since what he had for her couldn't wait all weekend, he had no other choice but to go visit her at home.

He made his way down the narrow third floor hallway and stopped in front of the last door on the left. He stood in front of the door with his hand poised inches away from the dark brown wood. He debated briefly whether or not he should go through with his plan. He felt his chest tighten. Oh no, don't let me start coughing up blood right now, he thought frantically as he began to get light headed for the twentieth time that day. Before he could change his mind and leave, he gave the door a quick knock.

The sound of the knock bounced off the walls and echoed down the hallway. He held his breath and waited for a moment. Well, too bad, she's not home. He turned and began walking down the hallway. Can't say I didn't try. Time to head home.

At that moment, he heard the sound of a dead bolt unfastening followed by the squeak of a door opening.

"Hello?" he heard a voice call out into the hallway and turned around just in time to see Miya's head peek out from behind her door frame.

"Oh, hello," said Jushiro as he turned around. His eyes met hers for a brief second before she looked down at the ground. He backtracked the seven steps that he had taken back to her door and stood in front of her. There was an awkward silence between them as he looked at her and she stared at the floor in front of her feet. He fought the urge to tug on his haori sleeve. She finally broke the silence.

"Um, is there something that you wanted Captain Ukitake?" she asked, her eyes still cast on the ground.

"Y-yes." He paused for a moment before continuing. "It's just that, well, I haven't been in the office much during the past two weeks and, well, I just wanted to commend you for all the hard work you've been doing."

"It's my duty to help out, sir," she replied in an emotionless voice.

"Yes, I know. You're doing an excellent job." He smiled at her.

"You didn't have to come all the way here to tell me that," she said, her eyes still cast down on the ground. "Is that all sir?" she asked after he hadn't continued.

"N-No, that's not all." She began to twirl her thumbs as she waited for him to continue. "I also realized that I hadn't properly thanked you yet." At hearing this, her head shot up and she met his eyes briefly before staring at a spot on the wall over his left shoulder. For the brief second she had looked at him, he had seen confusion in her eyes.

"For what?" she asked, her face neutral.

"For saving me from that hollow in the woods. I was wondering, why? Why did you save me? At the time I was your enemy but still, you saved me." She looked at him.

"You were hardly my enemy. You were merely my adversary. I didn't want you to get hurt." She looked away again. "Anyway, there is no need to thank me."

"Yes, yes there is. I know you've been having a hard time adjusting to your new life here with us and, well, I wanted to do something for you. Um, here—" he reached into the front of his robes and pulled out a small slip of paper and handed it to her. She took it in her hand and began to look over it. "It's a pass," he explained, "It'll get you through the walls tomorrow. You have a whole day to go home and get your things and see your friends. Just make sure you're back before sunset. I know it's not much, but, um….." he trailed off not knowing how to finish.

She looked at the slip of paper for a moment more before she looked up at him and met his brown eyes with her black ones. Ever so slowly, he saw the corners of her mouth pull up into a brilliant smile. His breath caught in his throat. For the first time in a long time, his mind had gone completely blank. He couldn't form a coherent thought in his head. She was by far the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"Thank you," she whispered. In the next moment, before he even knew what was happening, he felt her arms wrapped around his neck and her body was pressed against his. His senses were suddenly overwhelmed. She smelled like cherry blossoms and rain. For a moment, he was too stunned to move. "Thank you," he heard her whisper again against his chest. And then, before he knew it, she had let go and was once again standing in her doorway. He stood there, frozen until the connection between his brain and his mouth was reestablished.

"Um, I guess I'll see you later then," he said. She nodded.

"Okay." With that, he turned and slowly began to walk away. He heard the door click behind him as he walked back down the hallway. He made his way down the two flights of steps and out of the barracks.

She'd smiled at him. He hadn't expected that. What was more unexpected was when she had hugged him. That had made the three hours he had spent arguing with Yamamoto to let her go all worth it.

Even now, he could still smell cherry blossoms. A smile slowly crossed his lips.

He turned his head back and looked up at her window on the corner of the third floor. He saw her face peeking out from behind the dark green curtains before she quickly tugged them closed again.

Yes, it had totally been worth it.

A/N: Yeah, another chapter done! I know I've been updating on random days, so from now on I'm going to post a new chapter ever Wednesday. Until next week!

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