Disclaimer: I don not own Bleach.

Chapter 14: Meeting

The call for a captain's meeting couldn't have come at a worse time.

Jushiro had been so close to kissing Miya that he could feel her warm breath against his lips when Kiyone had come barging in.

Seriously? He thought. I just can't catch a break.

For some reason, it seemed as if the whole universe was trying to keep him from getting close to her.

If that's the case, then this is one instance where the universe is just going to have to change its mind.

Things were definitely bad Jushiro concluded as he walked through the First Division meeting hall doors. The atmosphere in the room was tenser than he had felt in a long time. He surveyed the room and was relieved to find that he wasn't the last one to arrive. Ichigo also had yet to appear.

Jushiro quickly took his place in line next to Zaraki.

"Do you know what's going on?" he asked Zaraki in a low voice.

"Humph, the hell if I know. I got here just seconds before you did."

"It must be bad," said Hisagi. Jushiro and Zaraki both turned to look at him.

"Oh yeah? And how would you know that?" asked Zaraki with a skeptical look.

"Come on, don't tell me you honestly didn't felt that reitsau spike earlier."

"I didn't feel anything. Then again, I've never been good at sensing reitsau," replied Zaraki.

"You seriously didn't feel anything? It was so strong. I wouldn't be surprised if shinigami out in Rukongai felt it."

"I felt it," said Jushiro. "It actually woke me up. I couldn't sleep after that. It didn't seem too strong to me."

"Yeah, well, I was awake when it happened. Although it only lasted for a second, it somehow managed to knock the wind out of me."

"Really? It was that strong?" he asked. Hisagi nodded. The sudden sound of Yamamoto's voice caused Jushiro to turn. At the front of the room standing in front of the head captain's desk stood Byakuya.

"If you settle down and go stand in line, you'll find out soon enough," said the Head Captain in an authoritative voice. Byakuya turned reluctantly and went and stood at his spot in line.

"What the hell guys?" All the captains turned to see Ichigo enter the room. The orange haired captain shrugged his right arm into his white captain's haori and began tucking his black shinigami uniform into place as he walked to his spot. His eyes were squinty, his hair was a wire mess, and a small trail of drool trickled down one of the corners of his mouth. It was apparent that he had woken up only moments before. "Some of us actually like to get some sleep at night."

"Yeah," agreed Zaraki, "And some of us like to do more…interesting things." From the corner of his eyes Jushiro saw Soi Fon blush a bright scarlet.

"Seriously, what's going on?" asked Ichigo as he took his place near the front of the room between Amagai and Komamura.

"If you would settle down and wait patiently like I just told Captain Kuchiki, you'll find out soon enough." The head captain waited until the meeting hall doors closed before answering the question. "I apologize for the lateness of the hour, but a matter has come to my attention that must be addressed immediately." Ichigo groaned.

"If squirrel-like hollows have been eating the plants in your garden again and you need us to go out and kill them, I swear I'm—" The head captain gave Ichigo a vicious glare out of the corner of his eyes causing the orange haired captain to shut up.

"As I was saying," continued Yamamoto, "There is an urgent matter at hand. I don't know how many of you were awake when it happened, but several hours ago there was a sudden spike of reitsau from somewhere in the Seireitei."

"I was awake taking care of the baby when it happened. The spike was so strong it woke Nanao and the girls up. It took them forever to go back asleep. Did you happen to find what caused it?" asked Shunsui.

"Amagai was on patrol when it happened," said the head captain as he nodded towards the Third Division captain.

"The essence of the reitsau was different than anything I have ever felt before. Although it presumably came from a shinigami, it felt more hollow-like than anything else. Although it only lasted for a second, I was able to determine that the source of the reitsau came from somewhere on the Third Division Grounds. I sent the part of my squad that was out on patrol to search around and see if they could find anything. They searched the division grounds but found no trace of the foreign reitsau."

"Well, if they didn't find anything, why did you call us in?" asked Toshiro in an annoyed tone.

"Now hold on just a minute—I said that they didn't find any reitsau traces. I didn't say that they found nothing important at all," said Amagai. His brows furrowed. "Two of the squad members came across a pile of black clothes laying on the ground. At first, they thought that it wasn't anything important, but, after further examination, it was determined that the black clothes were actually the uniform belonging to Maro, one of my unranked squad members. Maro was on patrol tonight and since his uniform was found, no one has been able to locate him. The last time anyone actually saw him was about half an hour before the reitsau spike. There's no way he could have left the Seireitei unnoticed and unless he all of a sudden learned how to conceal his reitsau and has gone into hiding for some reason, there is no trace of him anywhere."

"Wait a minute, are you saying that Maro's missing and that might somehow be linked to the foreign reitsau spike from earlier?" asked Toshiro.

"Now, we don't want to jump to any conclusions since we're not exactly sure what's happened to him," said the head captain. "I just wanted to make you all aware of the situation and the possibility that the two events are related. Just in case they are, we should go ahead and take some preventative measures. I would like for you all to have your squad members patrol in groups of two for now. We will be enforcing a 12:00am curfew for all unranked shinigami until further notice. We must all remain vigilant until we get down to the bottom of things."

"Will you be cancelling the Winter Gala tomorrow night in light of these events?" asked Kurotsuchi hopefully. It was a well known fact that the Twelfth Division captain hated parties. Every year he looked for any possible excuse to get out of going to the Annual Serete Winter Gala.

"As seeing how we're not exactly sure what's going on, I don't think we need to cancel the event," replied the head captain. "Plus, I've already paid the musicians." Kurotsuchi frowned. "Just make sure to remain on guard. I expect to see you all at the Gala tomorrow night," said the head captain as he gave Kurotsuchi a sideways glance. "Meeting adjourned." The head captain banged the end of his cane on the floor signaling the end of the meeting. The shinigami captains broke formation and began to walk towards the exit.

"Humph," said Ichigo as he walked towards the door, "So the whole point of this 'emergency' meeting was to tell us that there might be a naked shinigami running around out there somewhere. I really don't think that merited me having to come all the way over here in the middle of the night. I'm getting out of here."

"Nice shoes," said Zaraki as Ichigo stormed by. Ichigo stopped dead in his tracks and looked down and saw a fuzzy pair of Chappy the Rabbit slippers on his feet. His eyes widened in confusion before they narrowed.

"Rukia," he growled through clenched teeth. "So that's why she was laughing on the way over here." Zaraki laughed as Ichigo stormed off.

"Zaraki!" Jushiro turned and saw a very angry Soi Fon quickly tapping her foot near the door.

"Hi honey," said Zaraki with a wave. Her eyes narrowed at him menacingly and her foot began to tap the ground harder. "I better go looks like the wife is ready to get back to…umm…sleep." Zaraki joined his wife at the door and the two of them took off down the hallway. Shunsui walked over and was about to say something but was cut off by an unexpected voice.

"Ukitake," Jushiro spun around and saw Byakuya approaching. If he didn't know any better, he would have sworn that the stoic captain seemed a bit…anxious.

"What is it Byakuya?" he asked.

"Are all the members of your squad accounted for?" Thrown off by his question, Jushiro stood there blinking for a few moments before answering.

"Yeah, I guess so." Byakuya's brows furrowed.

"No, no guessing—Are all the members of your squad accounted for or not?" Jushiro was surprised to hear that Byakuya's normally calm and composed voice was tinged with anger.

"I believe so."

"You believe so? Why don't you know so?"

"Well, I—"

"What kind of captain doesn't know whether or not all of his squad is safe and accounted for?"

"Look," he said, his voice suddenly hard, "I'm guessing that they're all okay because none of them were on patrol tonight. And furthermore, unlike the rest of the squads, I have always had my squad run patrol in groups of two.

"But still—"

"Byakuya," said Jushiro in an anger laced voice, "I don't tell you how to run your squad so you shouldn't try to tell me how to run mine."

"Yeah, little Byakuya" Shunsui chimed in, "Oh, and my squad's safe too. Thank you for asking. Now that you're done making sure our squads are fine, why don't you go and check on your own. I know for a fact that your squad was on patrol tonight."

Byakuya glanced at Shunsui from the corner of his eyes before glaring at Jushiro again. He saw Byakuya's jaw tense before he turned and strode out of the meeting hall.

"What the hell was that about?" he asked himself out loud as he watched Byakuya disappear around the corner. He turned and saw his friend thoughtfully rubbing the stubble on his chin. "I swear, that guy gets weirder and weirder every day."

"Indeed."

"Okay, spill," said Shunsui as Jushiro took a spoonful of orange mush out of the bunny shaped bowl in front of him.

"About what?" he asked giving his friend a confused look.

"You know about what," said Shunsui with a sly smile. His friend placed the empty baby bottle in his hand down on the table before cradling his small son against his right shoulder. He gently began patting his son's tiny back. "You've had this dreamy look in your eyes all morning and you've been really distracted."

"Distracted? I haven't been distracted," he replied.

"You just fed my daughter's ear mushy carrots." Jushiro's eyes widened when he turned his head and saw Hana pulling an orange mush covered hand away from her ear. She brought her small hand in front of her face and stared at it confusingly.

"Oh Hana, I'm sorry!" Jushiro quickly placed the baby spoon back into the bunny shaped bowl and reached for the napkin lying next to it. He wiped her small hand clean before wiping the remaining mushy carrots off of her ear.

The little girl's eyebrows suddenly furrowed as she reached into her bowl and pulled out a handful of peas. She threw the handful of peas at him and they bounced off his chest before landing on the table. At seeing the dejected look on his face, the little girl laughed and began clapping her hands together.

"Hana," warned Shunsui in a fatherly tone, "It's not nice to throw food at people." The little girl pouted before reaching for her sippy cup. "So," continued Shunsui turning his attention to his friend again, "Spill."

Jushiro sighed.

"Miya and I almost kissed."

"Jushiro, you dog! You haven't even asked her out and you're already going for gold! I'm so proud to call you my friend." Shunsui's baby made a small burp and he left the room briefly to go and lay him down. "So, you said that you almost kissed," said Shunsui when he returned to the room. "What on earth stopped you?"

"Kiyone. She came running in and dragged me off to that captain's meeting."

"Tough break." His friend made his way around the table and took Hana out of her high chair and set her on the floor. She took off running. "So what are you going to do next? I mean, she clearly likes you since she didn't try to stop you or hit you with anything. Although, being hit by a girl when you try to pull a move isn't always a bad sign. Nanao hit me with a book anytime I tried to pull a move on her for the first hundred years or so." Jushiro laughed.

"She still smacks you with that book," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but now that's just her way of saying she loves me," he replied with a smile. Shunsui began stacking the dirty dinner plates. "Hey—I know what you should do next. You should ask Miya to be your date to the Winter Gala tomorrow night."

"No, I can't do that."

"And why not?" asked Shunsui.

"Because it's tomorrow night. It'll seem like an afterthought if I ask her on such short notice."

"Jushiro, you're seriously putting way too much forethought into things. You need to relax and forget about doing what sounds right and start doing what feels right."

At that moment, Nanao walked into the kitchen. She had a rag in one hand and was wiping at a dark stain over her left shoulder from where the baby had spit up earlier.

"Nanao-chan!" exclaimed Shunsui. He left the dirty dished on the table and danced over to where she was. He lifted her up in his arms and began twirling her around.

"Put me down!" she exclaimed as she half-heartedly beat on his biceps. Shunsui put her back down on her feet and hugged her to his chest.

"Nanao-chan," he said after a few moments. "You still smell like baby puke." In a flash, Nanao had produced a fan out of thin air and smacked Shunsui in the face. He let out an "ouch" and then brought a hand up to rub his injured nose. "See, I told you she loves me."

Miya slowly made her way along the dirt path that cut through the northern part of the Seireitei. The path was surrounded on either side by empty fields that according to Rukia had to be used as the training grounds when the academy first started up. After several years though, proper training grounds were built and the fields were abandoned. The fields were neglected and overgrown now with grass that reached her hips. Every time the wind would pick up, the grass would sway in it creating the effect of seeing waves in an ocean of green.

Past the fields Miya could see the southern part of the Northern Woods. She had never really noticed how big the Seireitei was until she had started living there. Maybe the domed spiritual barrier that surrounded the Seireitei had the same effect as looking through the glass of a snow globe—everything seemed smaller than it actually was.

Miya kicked a rock off of the path and into the tall grass. She was glad that it was Saturday and that she wouldn't have to see Jushiro today. After what had happened early that morning, she really needed time to think.

The moment Jushiro looked into her eyes after lacing his fingers through hers, everything became clear to her: the reason why her heart would involuntarily stutter every time she saw him, the reason why she couldn't stop herself from smiling when she was with him, the reason why she hadn't wanted to let go of him the night he carried her home, and above all—the reason why seeing him made her nervous and not seeing him made her even more so.

She liked him, far more than she knew she should.

She had been kissed several times before, but none of them had been special. Although she realized how foolish the idea was now, when she was younger she had seen kissing as a rite of passage, as that last step that needed to be taken in order to completely transform from a child into an adult. So, when the opportunity had arisen for the first time, she had let herself be kissed. It was at a New Years' party and it had been with a boy whom she had met earlier that evening. The kiss had been brief and the only memorable thing about it was the fact that the boys lips were so chapped it had felt like kissing sandpaper. She had been disappointed to say the least. Contrary to her friend's stories, there was no butterflies, no fireworks, nothing. She had merely felt nervous before kissing him and afterwards, she hadn't felt anything at all.

The second time had been better. The boy's lips hadn't been chapped but he had kissed her in the middle of a crowded street and she had felt so self conscious that she couldn't relax into it. The result had been a very stiff and uncomfortable kiss although the boy hadn't seemed to mind.

Soon after that, her mother had died. She was left orphaned and alone on the streets of Rukongai. Every day turned into a struggle to live, to survive. There had been little time for kissing or anything else.

Although she had been kissed before, she knew that kissing Jushiro would be different. For the first time in her life, Miya actually wanted to be kissed and not just by anyone—by him.

And that scared her.

By kissing him, Miya was afraid that the feelings that she had slowly been building up inside of her from the first moment they had met, the feelings that she had just come to understand, would morph into something more. She was scared that kissing him would seal her fate, would tip the scale, would send her over the edge into a place where she would have no control.

She was scared that by kissing him, she would fall in love with him.

Falling in love was the last thing she could afford to do.

Love made you weak, it made you vulnerable, and in the end, love would only hurt you.

Miya's mother never got over the pain of losing her father. Although he had treated her horribly, she still couldn't bring herself to stop loving him. Over the years Miya had watched as her mother had tried to fill the hole her father had left in her heart with all kinds of men, many of whom were shinigami. They had each claimed to love her and at first, it had appeared as if they did. But, as soon as they became bored, they left her broken, lonely, and even more depressed then before. Each time it happened her mother would slip further and further away from her into a place where Miya, try as she may, couldn't reach her.

Slowly, her mother quit going to work.

Then she quit leaving the house.

She quit leaving her room.

She quit getting out of bed.

She quit talking and then she quit eating.

And then one day, she quit living altogether.

"Don't ever fall in love Miya," her mother had said to her during one of her lucid periods two weeks before she died. "Love is a disease—it gives you a fever and then it leaves you cold. In the end, it will only destroy you."

She refused to ever be as vulnerable as her mother had been—she refused to ever give anyone enough of herself so that they could hurt her.

The feel of a large fat raindrop hitting the top of her nose caused Miya to snap back into the present. She wiped the drop of moisture off her nose and looked up at the sky. She had been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed the dark grey clouds roll in above her.

Another drop of rain hit her on the forehead. The speed at which the drops fell began to get faster and faster. Miya quickly glanced around looking for shelter from the rain. Spotting a lone tree standing in the middle of the field, she started running towards it.

Once she was under its protective cover, she beat the drops that had hit her on the shoulder off and then shook the drops of moisture from her hair. The speed of the rain increased again and realizing that she wouldn't be able to leave any time soon, she leaned against the trunk of the tree and watched as the rain fell.

"You do realize that you're standing under a tree, in the center of a field, in the middle of a storm, don't you?" The unexpected voice startled her and she quickly looked in the direction the voice had come from.

"Captain Kuchiki?" Byakuya stood several feet away from her under the protection of the large tree. "What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same question. Trees are like weather vanes during a storm—they attract lightning."

Darn, she thought, I forgot about that.

"Well lucky for me there's no lightning." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, there was a bright flash off in the distance that hyper illuminated everything for a fraction of a second. It was shortly followed by a loud roar of thunder.

"Hiding from the storm under here is probably the most idiotic thing you could have done." Miya's jaw clenched in anger.

"Well, it's not like you're any smarter—you're standing under here too!" Byakuya's eyebrows rose in surprise. He clearly hadn't expected her to answer that way.

"Yes, but I'm only doing it so that I can get you to move out from under here," he said as the wind caused the ends of his pale green scarf to snap violently.

"Why do you care whether or not I get struck by lightning?"

"Well, if I have the option, I'd rather not be friends with someone whose hair sticks up like Zaraki's. One bolt of lightning hitting would be all it'd take for your hair to forever stand on end." A confused expression formed on her face.

Wait a minute, she thought, What did he just say?

Miya saw the right corner of Byakuya's mouth twitch.

"Captain Kuchiki—did—did you just try to make a joke?" The confusion on her face must have been more apparent than she though because at that moment she saw the corner of his mouth twitch again.

"What do you mean try? I most definitely succeeded."

"Uh, no you didn't. But you do get an A for effort," she said as the corners of her mouth involuntarily pulled up.

There was another flash of lightning followed by another boom of thunder off in the distance.

"I wasn't joking about lightning being attracted to trees. We should really get out of here."

She looked out into the field as the rain continued to fall harder. Even if she used her zanpakuto to stop the rain, it wouldn't stop her from getting wet. The rain drops would merely be suspended as they fell through the air and she'd just end up walking right through them.

"I can't," she said, "It's still raining."

"If getting wet is what you're worried about, I could shunpo you home. I'd rather you not catch pneumonia." A frustrated growl escaped her lips as she remembered the last time she had been shunpoed by someone. The memory caused the turbulent thoughts she had been thinking to resurface.

"What is it with you shinigami and the need to shunpo everywhere you go? What's wrong with walking? I like walking. Normally people walk. Why—"

Byakuya disappeared in the blink of an eye. Miya's mouth hung slightly open with the weight of what she was going to say still hanging in her mouth.

She blinked stupidly for a moment…

How rude was that? Just because I'm opposed to shunpo, it didn't mean that I wanted to be left alone.

Byakuya suddenly reappeared causing Miya to jump slightly. In his right hand he held a large pale green umbrella that matched the color of his scarf.

"Okay," he said in a calm voice, "We'll walk."

"Oh, I thought you left me for a minute there."

"Of course not, what kind of friend would I be if I did?" Miya gave him a skeptical look. She really couldn't get what was going on with Byakuya. His attitude towards her had changed so much since the first time she had met him. Although she hadn't believed him when he told her, now it appeared as if he really did want to try to be her friend. "Come on, time to get away from the tree," he said after a moment of silence passed between them. He snapped the umbrella open.

"Humph. I don't think you're worried about lightning hitting me at all. I think you're really just concerned about the tree. Is it yours or something? Is this Kuchiki's tree?" she asked as she went to go stand under the umbrella. They walked out from under the protection of the tree and into the open field. The rain thumped loudly as it hit the top of the umbrella.

"Actually, yes, it is. This tree is on Kuchiki land and so in effect, it is my tree."

"Really?" she asked, suddenly embarrassed that she had unknowingly been trespassing on his land.

"No, not really." Confused by his statement, Miya turned her head just in time to see the corner of his mouth twitch again.

"Damn it Kuchiki! Was that another lame attempt at a joke?"

"No," he replied as he turned to look at her with a smile, "It was another success."

A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you so very much for all the reviews! They really keep me motivated to keep writing and not just give up. I read this chapter over several times and hopefully I caught all of the mistakes.

The more I write, the more I realize how Texan I am. Just this week I learned that Miranda'll, gunna, fixn'a, would'a, ya'll, and ain't aren't real words. You can imagine how devastated I was :)

I'm trying really hard to keep southern slang and syntax out of my writing. A while back someone mentioned how Jushiro called Miya "Miss Miya." It was unconsciously done, but I'm glad you liked it. It's a thing a lot of us do in the region where I live. For some reason, no matter how young or old a woman may be, we put "Miss" in front of their name as a sign of respect.

Anyhow, I hope you liked this chapter. I hadn't originally planned on writing this chapter but after thinking about my story and where it's going, I realized that it was necessary to the plot. I promise that things will really start to take off from here.

Some of you have speculated about a possible three sided object appearing in my story. At this point, I'm not going to confirm or deny anything. But, I will say this, triangles are my favorite shape :)

Until next time!

Review Please :)