Disclaimer: I don not own Bleach.

Chapter 11: Dinner

For the next several weeks, Miya and Jushiro continued to walk through the Seireitei together every evening. Although Miya had tried to keep her neutral façade around him at first, she had ended up failing miserably. She had never been one to open up to people, but with Jushiro, she found it hard to keep him out. He was different than anyone she had ever met before. There was something about the way he looked at her, the gentleness of his smile, and the sound of his voice that made her feel at ease. Being with him was as natural and as easy as breathing.

They would spend hours talking as they walked through the empty Seireitei streets. They talked about everything from the ridiculous to the serious. He had told her about the war eighty years ago and she had told him things that she had never told anyone, not even Kazuma. She was confused by how he never seemed to tire of hearing her talk, of how he actually wanted to know about her.

But the thing that confuse d he the most was the fact that every night, when Jushiro would walk her back to the Thirteenth Division, she found it harder and harder to say goodbye to him.

Miya stacked a pile of books that she had tracked down in the library and quickly made her way to the stairs. Ichigo had declined an invitation to eat with dinner at Rukia's brothers' house and Rukia had asked her to go with her so that she wouldn't have to go alone. After a while of begging, Miya had finally agreed to go with her. She hadn't met her brother before and wondered what he would be like.

Miya glanced down at her watch and seeing that if she didn't hurry, she would be late, she began to run down the steps. She turned the corner on the bottom floor so quickly that she ended up crashing right into someone and knocked them over. She heard a loud thud as the person she had ran into fell down backwards onto the ground. She landed right on top of him.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized as she took in the sight of the scattered books around her. "I was coming down so quickly I didn't see you stand—" her voice was cut short when she looked up to see steel gray eyes staring at her. Byakuya Kuchiki's eyes remained widened for a moment before they narrowed at her. "Oh, it's you," she said. She quickly pushed herself up into a seated position.

It was only when she saw his eyes widen again that she looked down and realized that she was straddling his waist. She began blushing violently and quickly swung her left leg off him and stood up. Captain Kuchiki got up after her and began brushing the dirt off of his white haori.

Embarrassed beyond belief, Miya nervously stared at her feet and began twirling a strand of her black hair around her index finger. "Um, sorry," she muttered again. "I—"

"Would you watch where you're going? You're far too old to be running around like a child." The angry tone Captain Kuchiki had used caused Miya's head to snap up. He glared at her with cold grey eyes.

"Well, you're too young to act like an old man!" she exclaimed. Captain Kuchiki's mouth opened as if her were about to say something but nothing came out. Instead, Miya was surprised to see the corners of his lips turn up into a small smile. It threw her off for a moment—she had thought that his lips were permanently fixed in a straight line. He bent down and collected her books that had fallen to the floor and looked at the title of the book on the top of the stack before handing it over to her.

"Thank you," she replied as she took the stack of books from his hands.

"Do try to be more careful next time," he said. With that, Captain Kuchiki turned and Miya watched him as he disappeared behind the library door.

Miya reached up and pulled down hard on the bottom of the purple flower print kimono she was wearing.

"Rukia, this kimono you loaned me is way too short and way too tight!"

"Don't be silly Miya, it looks great on you."

"Are you kidding me? I can barley breathe in this get up! And look," she said as she stuck her right leg out, "since when do kimonos have slits this high? I haven't shown this much skin since birth!" Rukia laughed.

"Seriously Miya, you look fine." Miya frowned and tried to ignore the way the golden colored sandals that Matsumoto had loaned her bit into the back of her heels.

"Explain to me again why I couldn't just wear my black uniform?"

"It's a formal dinner Miya. My brother is very traditional. He'd blow a gasket and take it as a sign of disrespect if we didn't dress up."

"Your brother sounds pretty uptight." Rukia sighed.

"He's really not that bad once you get to know him. And come on, don't you enjoy getting dressed up every once in a while?" Rukia swished her arms against the fabric of her baby blue kimono.

"That's easy for you to say, you don't look like a geisha." Rukia rolled her eyes and the girls continued to walk towards Rukia's brothers' house. When Rukia pointed her brothers' house out off in the distance, Miya's jaw dropped. Even from far away, his house looked larger than the Division 13 Barracks, common building, and office all put together. Miya and Rukia walked down the white stone path that lead up to the main door. The house was very traditionally Japanese looking with its clean sharp lines and red clay tiled roof. The grass was bright green and not a dead leaf covered it. Miya's sandals clinked loudly on the stone path as they approached the largest door she had ever seen that was guarded by two massive white marble dragons.

Rukia lifted up the large dragon shaped bronze knocker and knocked on the door. A few moments later, the door swung open revealing a short man with black hair and a huge mustache wearing a black servants uniform.

"Good evening ladies," said the man. "The master is running a little late for dinner, but he would like me to show you the study where you can wait for him."

Rukia and Miya followed the servant down the long wide hallway. The house was even more impressive on the inside. The floor was made out of polished dark red cherry wood and hanging on the tall white walls were dozens of enormous Japanese paintings. Most of the paintings depicted nature scenes but there were a few that contained scenes of battle.

The servant stopped outside a large set of double doors and motioned for them to enter.

"You go ahead Miya. I've got to run to the bathroom," Said Rukia. Miya nodded and headed into the room while Rukia took off down the hall.

Miya's breath caught in her throat on stepping into the room. Had the servant really said that this room was the study? It was more like a full blown library. The roof of the room was three stories tall and every single inch of the walls was covered with books. A massive stair case on the right side of the room lead up to the higher levels and there were several ladders on wheels that could be rolled along the bookcases to help you reach the books that were higher up. The south side of the room was covered in large windows that reached from the floor to the roof. In front of the windows was a large rectangular object that was covered with a white sheet.

Miya walked over to the nearest wall of books and let her fingers run over the bindings as she read the titles. She reached the end of the row and turned to go and sit down but instead she ran smack into a wall that hadn't been there a moment before. She let out an "umpth" and then staggered back a few feet. As it turned out, it wasn't a wall that she had run into.

"You?" she asked surprised, "What are you doing here?" Byakuya Kuchiki stared at her

with his steal grey eyes.

"What am I doing here?—What are you doing here?"

"I asked you first," replied Miya as her brows furrowed in frustration.

"Well, in that case, I'm here because I live here."

"What?" asked Miya with a surprised look on her face. "Wait a minute—if you live here, than that would make you Rukia's—"

"Brother!" exclaimed Rukia as she walked towards them. She stopped a few feet away from where Captain Kuchiki stood and gave him a low bow. "I hope you haven't been waiting long."

"Not at all," he replied. With that, he turned and began to head towards the door. Miya and Rukia followed several feet behind him.

"Rukia, why didn't you tell me that Captain Kuchiki was your brother?" Miya whispered to Rukia.

"I'm sorry, I thought you knew."

"No, you never told me. Besides, I thought your last name was Kurosaki."

"It is. Kuchiki's my maiden name."

Miya and Rukia followed Captain Kuchiki into a large long rectangular shaped room with long windows covering one wall and a long black table in the center. Captain Kuchiki sat down at the head of the table. Rukia sat down in a seat to his right with her back facing the window while Miya sat to his left directly across from Rukia.

Within a few moments, dinner was brought in. As they ate they talked. Well, to be more precise, Rukia talked. As soon as they received their plates she had began chatting away about everything and anything. Miya and Captain Kuchiki would speak every now and then but for the most part, it was Rukia who was doing all the talking. Rukia continued to talk until she was interrupted by a noise from outside.

"Rukiaaaaaaaaaaa!" Rukia san towards the window and Miya looked just in time to see a yellow and white blur closely followed by a black and white blur. "Rukia save me!"

"Ichigo, you idiot!" yelled Rukia. The vein in her forehead popped out and she balled her hand into a tight little fist. "What's the deal? Can't you see I'm having dinner with my brother?"

"I knooooooooow!" yelled Ichigo as he ran past the window again in another blur. "But if you don't help, Kenpachi's really going to kill me this time! He wants another fight even though I've beat him five times already. He told me this time he's going to make me bleed as much as Renji. The man's crazy!"

"Who you calling crazy yellow head? You run like a girl! Quit being a pansy and come and fight me!"

"Rukiaaaaaaaaaaa!" Rukia groaned and then turned to look at Byakuya.

"Brother?" she asked. Captain Kuchiki nodded solemnly and the next thing Miya knew, Rukia was gone. Miya watched as a blur of blue and black chased after Ichigo and Captain Zaraki over the hill and towards the Seireitei. Miya couldn't help but smile.

Whenever she looked back at her now lone companion, her smile instantly deflated. Captain Kuchiki lifted his chopsticks up to his frowning lips and continued eating. The atmosphere was as tense now that Rukia was gone. The silence began to become deafening. Miya could hear the loud ticking of the wall clock, the sound of his jaw muscles relaxing and contracting as he chewed, and the sound of the trees whispering outside the window. After a few minutes of silence, she felt as if it was going to drive her insane. As much as she dreaded talking to Captain Kuchiki, Miya treasured her sanity more.

"So," she said trying to sound as casual as possible, "you've got a really nice house." He didn't reply but merely glanced at her sideways and continued eating. Miya glared at him and then started picking at a lump of rice in her bowel. "You're yard's pretty nice, it's the largest one I've ever seen."

Silence.

Her composure snapped.

"Well aren't you going to say something?" she demanded.

"I find making small talk frivolous."

"That's usually what having dinner with someone is all about, making small talk."

"Well then, tell me what you would have me say so that that part of the dinner will be over." Miya's jaw tightened.

"Well if you enjoy silence so much, why did you invite me over if you knew it would only force you into speaking?"

"I didn't invite you over," he replied curtly. "Rukia asked me if she could bring a friend. She never said that friend was you."

"Look," she said as she placed the napkin that had been folded in her lap onto the table, "You obviously don't want me here so I'm just going to do us both a favor and leave." She stood up and began walking towards the door. Suddenly, she heard the sound of wood being dragged against the floor.

"Wait—" Miya turned around and saw Captain Kuchiki standing and looking at her with the most remorseful face she had ever seen. His brows furrowed and his head dropped. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "If I have appeared to be indifferent to your presence here, I apologize. Please come back and sit down." He motioned to her now abandoned chair. Miya turned to face the door but didn't walk any closer to it. She looked back at Captain Kuchiki. "I don't want you to leave," he said in a voice barely above a whisper and Miya couldn't tell for sure if he had meant for her to hear it or not. Whether it was the pleading look in his eyes or just the shock of seeing any emotion on his normally stoic face, Miya signed in defeat and slowly went back to her chair and sat down. Byakuya sat down as well.

"Thank you. Rukia would never forgive me if I managed to upset her friend," he said. Miya didn't respond but merely stared out the dining room window. "You must forgive me, I-I have difficulty talking with those whom I am not well acquainted."

"Yeah, well so do I," she replied as she turned to look at him. "But we'll never get any better unless we try." Byakuya contemplated what she had said before nodding solemnly.

"Dessert madam," said a servant as he approached her carrying small plate. Miya sat back in her chair and watched as he removed her dinner bowel and replaced it with a small white desert plate. Her face instantly lit up at seeing what was on the plate.

"Oh, wow!" said Miya as she picked the cloud person shaped chocolate cookie off her plate. "I love these. They're so cute." She took a large bite out of the cookie and turned just in time to see the most bewildered look she had ever seen on the stoic Byakuya Kuchiki's face.

A/N: This chapter and the next were originally one chapter. It ended up being too long so I decided to separate them. I'll be posting the next chapter tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you enjoy the next!

Oh yeah—words cannot describe the look Byakuya gives Miya when he realized that she loves the cookies that he, but no one else in the Seireitei likes. I've posted a link on my profile. If you watch the short Shinigami Cup episode, the face Byakuya makes at the end is the one that he gives Miya. It's priceless!

Thank you for all the reviews!

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