Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

Chapter 13: Melody

Jushiro looked down at the blank piece of paper in front of him. He had been staring at the same piece of paper for the past hour and sill hadn't managed to write anything down yet. His brows suddenly furrowed in determination and he grabbed the pen off his desk and began scribbling with purpose across the blank page. The Bi-Monthly Department Report we due tomorrow morning and since he had put off doing it until now, he was in trouble.

He leaned back in his chair and re-read the few lines that he had just written down. He frowned. He scribbled out one of the sections and re-wrote it only to scribble it out again after rewriting it. Angry at how it was going, he finally gave up trying to amend the botched document and instead he crinkled the sheet and tossed it towards the trash can in the corner of the room. The wad of paper bounced off of the rim of the trashcan and joined the many other wadded up failures that littered the floor. Jushiro sighed.

It was no use.

He couldn't concentrate.

Jushiro had dogged into his office early that morning without even so much as uttering a hello or good morning to Miya and had remained in there all day long. Based on the familiarity and possessiveness Kazuma had displayed towards Miya the night before, Jushiro had concluded that he and Miya were more than just friends. Having never been the type of man to entertain other men's girlfriends, Jushiro had immediately backed off, determined to stay out of their way.

Originally, he had determined that the only way that he would be able to stop thinking about her would be if he avoided her completely.

That plan, however, had backfired.

By deciding not to think about her, he had only ended up thinking about her that much more. In fact—she was all he could think about.

He had given up trying to avoid her several times already that day and gotten as far as the door before he had been able to find the will to turn back around and go and sit back down at his desk. Each time he had forced himself to go and sit back down after getting up to go and see her had been more difficult than the last and he knew that soon his will power would crumble and he wouldn't be able to stop himself.

It was odd really, how much he had become attached to her and how much he had come to miss her although she was just in the other room. He missed her deep black eyes, the way her lips would twitch whenever she tried to suppress a smile, and the sound of her voice which had the strange power to both calm him and make him nervous at the same time.

No, he thought, I'd be impossible for me to stay away from her now even if I wanted to.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," said Jushiro, his voice gruff from not having used it all day. The door swung open revealing Miya. She walked in and closed the door behind her before walking up to his desk. "Miss Miya," said Jushiro trying to keep the "I'm so glad to see you" and the "I've missed you all morning" tone out of his voice. "What can I do for you?"

"I just wanted to bring you this," she said as she placed a steaming cup at the end of his desk. "It's jasmine tea. I know you like green tea the best, but we're all out so I brought you this from home."

"Oh, thank you. That was very thoughtful of you." Jushiro reached over and grabbed the hot cup of tea by the handle and placed it in front of him. He peered down into the pale pink liquid.

"Captain?" asked Miya in an unsure tone.

"Yes?"

"Are you alright?" The tone of her voice caused him to look up from the cup of tea. Although her face didn't show it, he could clearly see the concern that he had heard in her voice in her eyes.

"I'm fine," he replied. Miya gave him a speculative look. "Really."

"It's just that, well—you've seemed really quiet today and haven't even left your office once." Crap, he thought. She had noticed that he was acting different.

"No, everything's fine," he lied. "I've just been…" he wracked his mind for a legitimate excuse for his odd behavior—he wasn't about to tell her the real one. "I've just been really busy working on the Bi-Monthly Division report." When Miya looked down and saw nothing on his desk besides a blank piece of paper and a pen, she quirked a skeptical eyebrow at him.

"I haven't been having the best of luck writing it," he said and pointed towards the corner of the room. Miya turned and surveyed the large mountain of wadded paper lying next to the trashcan.

"Oh, I see," she replied as she turned back around to face him. "In that case, I'll leave you to your work." She gave him a small nod and then turned to leave the room. Jushiro was about to call out to her when she suddenly pun back around. "Oh, before I forget—I wanted to apologize for Kazuma. He was unnecessarily rude yesterday and I just wanted to say sorry."

"He wasn't rude," Jushiro lied.

"Yes he was," contradicted Miya. "My brother's usually a really nice guy, but he can get really temperamental sometimes."

"It's no big deal. Really—don't worry about it." Miya slowly turned and left the room.

It was only after the door had clicked closed behind her that he had processed what she had said.

Wait a minute, he thought, Did she just say that Kazuma is her brother?!?

Jushiro groaned and hit the end of his palm against his forehead.

I am such an idiot.

For some reason, not seeing Jushiro all day long had made Miya anxious. She really couldn't explain why.

Miya had gone to visit Jushiro in his office in an attempt to get down to the bottom of his sudden change in behavior. And, although he had told her that he had just been really busy, she hadn't bought his story. No, something was bothering him that much was clear. But, since he didn't want to speak about it, there really wasn't very much she could do to help.

Miya went back into the front office and sat down behind her desk.

"Don't get too comfortable," said Kiyone as she dropped a large stack of papers on the top of her desk. "I need you to take these to the Fifth Division."

"All of these?" asked Miya as she surveyed the considerably large stack.

"No, just part of them," replied Kiyone sarcastically. She rolled her eyes. "Yes all of them. And hurry up—I have an even larger stack that I need you to take to the Twelfth Division when you get back."

Miya watched Kiyone disappear into the back room. She groaned before placing her forehead on top of her desk. She heard the front door open and close followed by the sound of steps approaching her desk.

"Can I help you?" she asked without lifting her head up to see who it was.

"Possibly," replied a voice that Miya immediately recognized. Miya lifted her head up to see Byakuya Kuchiki standing in front of her desk.

"Good afternoon, Captain," said Miya as she tried hard to keep the annoyance and dislike out of her voice.

"Good afternoon," he replied in a calm tone. "These are for you," he said as he placed a stack of papers on the corner of her desk.

"Great," she groaned, "Just what I need—more papers." Miya saw Byakuya's frown deepen for a brief second. She stood up and picked up the large stack of papers Kiyone had given her.

"Let me help you with those." Miya glanced back at Byakuya for a second, stunned by his offer.

"No, that's okay, I can manage," she said as she struggled to open the office door with one hand. After a few seconds she finally managed to pull the door open but in the process, she nearly lost balance of the stack in her hand. Byakuya was at her side in a flash and helped steady the stack so that it wouldn't fall.

"Are you sure you don't want any help?" he asked in an even voice. Miya contemplated his question. Although she hated ever admitting that she needed help, she really doubted that she would be able to make it all the way to the Fifth Division without dropping the stack.

"I have to take them all the way to the Fifth," she said finally, hoping that the distance might dissuade his desire to help her.

"I don't mind," he replied as he looked into her dark brown eyes with his slate grey ones. "That's right next to my Division anyways."

"Um, okay then." Miya reluctantly handed the stack over to Byakuya. Byakuya followed her as she stepped out of the warm office and into the cool afternoon air. They walked in silence as they headed away from the Twelfth Division and towards the Fifth. After a few moments, Byakuya finally broke the silence.

"I've been giving some thought to what you said to me at dinner the other night."

"Oh, really?" replied Miya shocked.

"Yes. I've decided that you are right. I won't ever be able to converse easily with those who I don't know well until I try. So, I figure, if I am to try to get better at talking to people, I might as well practice with you." Miya gave him a skeptical look.

"Are you saying you wanna be my friend Captain Kuchiki?" she asked.

"For starters," he replied. "Since we're going to be working in such close proximity to one another and you are friends with my sister Rukia, we should at least try to be civil to one another."

"Humm, I suppose I could be civil," she said with mock seriousness. "So, Captain Kuchiki wants to be my friend. What kind of friend? Are you hoping that we'll braid each other's hair and paint each other's fingernails?" Byakuya's face instantly became serious.

"There will be absolutely no fingernail painting." Miya tried to suppress a smile as her hand went to the handle of her zanpakuto.

"No fingernail painting, got it." They walked in silence for a few moments.

Suddenly a strong breeze tore by causing the bottom of Miya's uniform top and the end of Byakuya's pale green scarf to snap violently. Miya brought her arms up and hugged across her chest for warmth.

"Cold?" asked Byakuya as he gave her a sideways glance.

"A little," she admitted as she began to rub the back of her arms. She could feel the skin on the back of her arms begin to prick up from the cold.

"We could shunpo the rest of the way," he suggested.

"That's a no-go," replied Miya. Byakuya turned and gave her a questioning look. "I can't shunpo."

"You can't shunpo?"

"Not at all. I'm a Rukongai rat, not a shinigami. I never learned how to."

"Well," said Byakuya after a moment of silence, "since you don't know how to shunpo, I suppose that I could teach you, if you like." Miya gave him a confused look.

"Wait a minute—did I hear you correctly? Did you just offer to teach me how to shunpo?" Byakuya nodded. "Why?" she asked thoroughly confused.

"Well," Byakuya said as he thought his answer over, "Because it would be the friendly thing to do. And, didn't we just resolve that we would try to be friends?"

"Oh," replied Miya, still confused by his sudden change in attitude towards her.

"So…?" Miya didn't know how to respond.

"Umm, I'll think about it," she finally responded. Byakuya gave her a solemn nod and then looked blankly out at the path in front of them. Suddenly, Miya felt reitsau quickly approaching. She spun around and saw Renji.

"Captain," he said to Byakuya with a respectful bow, "The Head Captain needs you."

"I'll take those," said Miya as she reached for the stack of forms Byakuya had carried for her.

"I can quickly shunpo them over to the Fifth. That way you don't have to walk the rest of the way in the cold."

"That's okay," replied Miya. "I'm pretty fond of walking. As for the cold, well, I'll survive." Byakuya hesitated for a moment before reluctantly handing the stack back over to her. "Thanks for the help. I guess I'll see you later." Byakuya gave her a small not. Miya turned and continued walking towards the Fifth Division.

"What is it that the Head Captain requires me for?" she heard Byakuya ask Renji as she walked away.

"Oh, he just needs you to—Wait a minute—Captain, what is that?" asked Renji in a shocked voice.

"What's what?" replied Byakuya in an uninterested tone.

"That—" replied Renji. Miya turned back around in time to see the disbelief in Renji's face as he pointed to Byakuya's bangs. Byakuya reached up and ran his hand along his forehead only to find that his normally freely flowing bangs where pulled together in a tight braid.

Miya tried very hard to suppress the smile but failed miserably as the corners of her mouth involuntarily turned up.

At that moment, Byakuya looked over at her with his slate grey eyes. Anticipating the glare that she knew was coming, Miya mentally prepared to return his glare with an equally menacing one of her own. But, to her utter shock, there was no glare.

Instead of a glare, Miya was stunned senseless when the most sincere smile she had ever seen crossed his lips.

Jushiro couldn't sleep. He had been awaken an hour earlier by a spike of reitsau that had come from somewhere within the Seireitei. Although it had only lasted for a second, it had managed to thoroughly wake him up and he couldn't get back to sleep.

Jushiro groaned, got out of bed, and walked over to look out his window. Seeing a light on in the third floor of the common building, he had quickly shunpoed over there without even really thinking.

As Jushiro stepped onto the third floor, the sound of music once again assaulted him. He slowly made his way to the back room. There sat Miya playing the old dusty piano just like the last time he had seen her there. He pressed his back against the wall right outside the door and listened as song after song spilled out of the room and into the empty building.

He wasn't sure how long he had been standing there when he suddenly felt his throat tighten. He muffled a small string of coughs with the back of the sleeve of his captain's haori and prayed that she hadn't heard him. He waited anxiously for her to stop playing having realized that someone uninvited was there listening. But instead of stopping, Miya continued playing as if nothing had happened and after a few moments, he was able to relax again and enjoy the music.

"You can come in." The sudden sound of Miya's voice startled Jushiro causing him to jump nearly three feet up in the air. He hoped that he had just hallucinated her voice, but knowing that that wasn't so, he slowly peaked his head into the doorframe. Miya sat facing the piano with her body turned towards him.

"How did you know I was here?" he finally managed to ask after the embarrassment of having been caught subsided.

"I heard you cough during the last crescendo." Drat, he thought.

"And here I thought I was doing a good job of hiding the sound."

"Even if you could have muffled the noise, I still would have known you were out there."

"How? I was hiding my reitsau," he asked. His brows furrowed.

"Are you aware that your reitsau spikes when you cough?"

"No, I wasn't."

"Well, it does. Even when you hide your reitsau, a little bit spills through any time you cough. So, you were basically sending out reitsau Norse Code."

"Oh, I see." He felt his cheeks warm slightly from embarrassment. "Good to know." How had he not noticed that before?

"So, what brings you here at such a late, or, I guess technically early hour?" she asked.

"I had trouble sleeping," he replied.

"Bad dreams?"

"No, I've just got a lot on my mind."

"Me too," she replied. Silence descended on the room for a moment.

"So, you play the piano," Jushiro said after a moment. She nervously looked down.

"I hope you don't mind that I've been using the piano. I mean—it was just sitting her and no one else was using it."

"Not at all. I don't think anyone but you has so much as touched it since the Head Captain put it here for storage a while back." Miya's hands began nervously knotting the bottom of her uniform top. "You play the piano very well."

"You think so?" she asked as she lifted her head up to look at him.

"Of course. I wish I could learn how to play. I doubt that I'd have the proper coordination to do so though." Her brows furrowed slightly.

"Of course you could learn how to play," she replied.

"I seriously doubt that," he replied. A smile crossed her lips.

"Come her," she said she motioned for him to come over with her right hand. "Come here, I'll show you."

"Show me what?"

"How to play something silly." He nervously reached up and rubbed the back of his head.

"Um, I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I've never ever tried playing any musical instrument whatsoever." Recognizing his apprehension and embarrassed nervousness, Miya chuckled.

"Come on," she said. Jushiro nervously began making his way towards her and the piano. He paused a few feet away from the piano. "It'll be hard to learn how to play from all the way over there," she said. She patted the empty spot on the bench next to her motioning for him to sit down. He took a deep breath and then walked around the back of the bench and slowly sat down next to her.

The bench was small and in order for them both to fit, the whole right side of his body was pressed up against her left. He was painfully aware of every inch of his body that was pressed up against hers. Being so close, he could once again smell the scent of cherry blossoms and rain that seemed to permanently cling in her hair and on her skin. For a moment he was feared that he would possibly go mad from having his senses so fully saturated with her.

"Now," she said as she placed her delicate white hands on the piano keys, "Since this is your first time to play the piano, I'll go easy on you. Play this—" she said as she pointed to a white key near the bottom of the piano, "—and this." She pointed to another white key several notes above the first.

"Like this?" he asked as he placed his hand on the keys and pressed down. A splintering sour sound filled the room.

"Not quite," she replied. Jushiro felt his heart begin to speed up when she placed her hand on top of his and rearranged where he had placed his fingers. "Like that." He pressed down again and this time a smooth low base cord came out.

"Right," he said with a nod.

"Now, slowly count to four in your head and then pressed the keys down. Keep counting and keep pressing the keys every time you get to the number four. Leave the rest up to me."

Jushiro desperately tried to keep his hand from shaking as he pressed the notes that he had been shown. After a few moments, Miya added a melody to his harmony. The song was beautiful.

Jushiro looked up from the piano and at Miya. It took every ounce of his dwindling focus to remember to count and play. She looked enchantingly beautiful as her hands glided over the row of black and white keys in front of her. Her hands danced around each other as they made their way from the middle of the piano, to the top, and then back down. Her full pink lips were pulled up into a small smile while her coal black eyes studied the keys in front of her. A strand of her jet black hair fell on her face and for the briefest second, her right hand left the piano keys and swept the strand back behind her ear.

He knew that he would remember this moment for the rest of his life. He would always remember how breathtakingly beautiful she looked as she played into the dark night.

He watched her brows slightly furrow as she concentrated and played until the melody began to soften and eventually fade out. A few moments after she quit playing, he stopped as well.

"That song very beautiful. What's it called?" he asked.

"Honestly, I've don't know what it's called. It was one of my mother's favorites and she taught it to me when I was really young. She never did tell me what it was called, but she did tell me the story behind it." She turned and looked at him. "Do you like stories Captain?"

"Yes, I do. Would you tell it to me?" She smiled at him and his heart skipped a beat.

"You see," she began, "a very long long time ago, a man was taking a walk at night along a river bank. Suddenly, he heard this breathtakingly beautiful melody coming from a house nearby. Like gravity, the song called to the man and he was drawn closer and closer to the house. When he was close enough to be able to see through the window of the house, the man saw this beautiful young girl sitting down at an old piano. Upon seeing her, the man fell madly in love with her. Once the girl had finished playing, she disappeared into the house. Unable to summon the courage to speak to her then, the man quickly left. But, as he walked home that night, the man resolved to go to her home the next day and ask for her hand in marriage.

"So, the next day, the man went back to her house. When he arrived at the house and knocked, a little old man opened the door. When the man confessed he was in love with the old man's daughter and asked for permission to marry her, the old man gave him a confused look. 'My dear sir,' he said, 'I believe you are mistaken. I have no daughter. I used to, but she died a long time ago.' The man at the door was surprised by the old man's statement. Unwilling to give up on his love, the man at the door told the old man how he had heard and seen the girl playing the piano the night before. 'I'm sorry sir, but now I know that you are mistaken. No one has played that piano in over fifty years.'

"Seeing that the man at the door would not be so easily turned away, the old man lead him inside and showed him to the room where he had seen the girl playing the night before. The man walked up to the piano and saw the thick layer of dust lying over the ivory keys. It indeed hadn't been touched in quite some time. The man was confused to say the least. How had it been that merely the night before he had seen someone playing a piano that clearly hadn't been touched in forever? It was only then that the man noticed the small picture sitting in a frame on a low table near the piano. The man walked over and picked the frame up and couldn't believe what he saw. There in the picture, was the girl from the night before. Printed on the bottom of the picture was the date. It had been taken fifty years ago. The man left the house heartbroken. It's said that he went mad after that, every night for the rest of his life, he would walk up and down the streets of the city, hoping vainly to hear the song of his beloved so that he could find her once again. But, sadly, he never heard that song again." A moment of silence filled the room before Jushiro broke it.

"That's a sad story," said Jushiro as he looked down and ran his hand over the white keys. "Is it true?"

"Did some poor human fall in love with a shinigami only to never see her again? Humm, I don't know. I suppose it could be. But, whether it is or not, it's the moral of the story that matters."

"The moral? And just what might that be?"

"Well, I guess it's—if you love someone, you should say it right then, out loud. Otherwise, the moment just passes you by and you can never get it back. You'll forever regret missing out on something that could have been so perfect and spend the rest of your life chasing a dream that's already gone." At hearing this, Jushiro turned back to look at her.

Their eyes met in an intense gaze.

She was right. If he waited forever, he'd lose his chance.

The air around them had suddenly felt as if it had been statically charged. She cleared her throat suddenly and looked away.

"You did pretty well for your first time," she said to try and ease the tension.

"Well, in all fairness, you did help me a little." She gave him a mischievous half smile. "Well, okay, maybe a lot." The other half of her mouth turned up.

"Want to play another one?" she asked with an excited smile. Jushiro couldn't find his voice. He merely nodded yes. "Okay," she replied happily. "This time play this." Jushiro once again managed to strike the wrong notes on his first try. Miya once again reached over to reposition his hand on the piano but this time, a mere fraction of a second before her hand would have been on top of his, he quickly flipped his hand over so that when she placed her hand on his, they were palm to palm. Jushiro heard Miya's breath catch in her throat from the shock of his unexpected action. He waited for her to pull away, for her to brush the gesture off, but she didn't. She kept her hand in his and after a moment, Jushiro laced his fingers though hers. He slowly rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb.

He looked up at her face and met her black eyes with his brown ones. He immediately noticed a softness in her eyes that hadn't been there a moment before. He brought his free hand up and ever so gently cupped the left side of her face. He saw her black eyes widen for a moment before they flickered to his lips and then back to his eyes. His heart began pounding in his ears as he slowly began to close the distance between them. When their lips were merely inches away, he saw her eyes close.

He closed his eyes as well and continued to close the distance between their lips.

"Captain!" The sudden sound caused Jushiro to jump so hard he nearly knocked Miya off of the piano bench. Jushiro's eyes snapped open and he looked in the direction the voice had come from. There in the doorway with the most bewildered look he had ever seen stood Kiyone.

"Kiyone?" he asked in disbelief. "What are you doing here?" She quickly composed herself and stood at attention.

"Captain, I've been looking for you for the past half hour. There is an urgent matter that required your immediate attention. The rest of the captains have been summoned and are waiting for you to join them at the first division."

"Right," he said as he processed her words. An urgent matter that required a captain's meeting in the middle of the night? This couldn't possibly be good, in fact—things were probably very, very bad. He looked back towards Miya. Her face was turned away from him now. "I'm sorry Miss Miya, but I have to leave." She didn't turn back to face him, she merely gave a small nod. He opened his mouth to say something else to her but he was cut off by Kiyone before he had the chance.

"Captain—I'm afraid you're needed immediately. The matter can't wait another second." Reluctantly, Jushiro nodded to Kiyone and quickly stood up. He quickly made his way towards where she stood near the door and before he left the room to follow her, he turned around to look at Miya once again. But, to his surprise, she was no longer sitting on the piano bench. He quickly scanned the room with his eyes but found nothing.

She was gone.

A/N: I'm sorry it took me so long to update. Work's been crazy. This chapter was originally going to be two chapters but it just didn't have the same effect when read separate. I hope you liked this chapter—some Jushiro, a little bit of Byakuya, and Kiyone being a total cock block!

I'm a really big music fan and I've placed a link on my profile of one of the songs that I picture Miya playing. The song that Miya and Jushiro play as a together is actually a part of Moonlight Sonata. There's a part in Moonlight Sonata where the base hand plays just one cord over and over again (hence why Jushiro can play it!). There's also a link on my profile for Moonlight Sonata as well.

Thanks for the reviews—they really keep me motivated to continue writing!

Review Please :)