DISCLAIMER: I don't own Bleach or any of the characters associated with it. They belong to their respective owners. This storyline, however, does belong to me.

thelovablechelsea: Walk around the estate and hidden love equals tons of possibilities. :3...

Juud: Best chapter ever? Oh my. o.o I hope this one doesn't let you down.

Zammy: Aww, thanks. :3 And welcome back! I missed ya. :D

Conterra-san: Yeah, I would be fine with old geezers calling me a wench if I had a hot guy defending me too. But she is indeed offended. :(

kuchiki hitsugaya: Fear not, I don't intend on stopping any time soon.

animequeen100: No, he doesn't know about Rukia yet. But he will soon.

The House of Kuchiki

CHAPTER TWELVE

Hisana walked down the stone path with Byakuya in silence. She had made several attempts to open her mouth to speak, all of which ended up in a miserable failure.

It hurt to know that she wasn't accepted by his clan. As mean as they were, in the end... they were still from the same family, weren't they? Hisana couldn't help but frown.

"I apologize, Hisana-san." Finally, Byakuya broke the silence as he continued walking straight, his gaze never leaving the path ahead of him. "The members of my house were rude to you."

"Hm...? Oh... no... don't worry about it, Kuchiki-sama..." Hisana forced a smile, hoping it was convincing.

Hisana frowned again and looked down at the floor again. He got hurt thinking of me... "How's ... your injury?"

"It's nothing major, Hisana-san. Just a product of carelessness." Byakuya looked down at her from the corner of his eye.

"... it looked pretty major, Kuchiki-sama..." Hisana still hadn't looked up. "Those elders don't like me at all, do they?"

"Don't take it too personally, Hisana-san. They can barely tolerate me, and I'm the head of their clan."

"How do you propose I get them to stop hating me?" Hisana looked up at Byakuya sadly. "The last thing I want is to be hated by your family."

"They don't hate you, Hisana-san." Byakuya sighed. "They just... feel that you're looking to abuse the power the Kuchiki name has. And then there's that whole 'dishonorable' nonsense... and 'improper' is another word they enjoy using."

"I'm sorry I don't meet their standards, Kuchiki-sama." Hisana frowned and looked down at her feet again. "And I'm sorry you were injured during your mission."

Byakuya frowned. "The injury wasn't your fault, first of all... Second of all, their standards and opinions don't matter."

The path suddenly opened up into a large circle that was surrounded by flowering bushes. Hisana looked up. The stone-clearing forked off into two different directions, she noticed, and looked around at the all the flowers with wide eyes.

Byakuya smiled softly at her expression and walked over to the bush that seemed to have the best developed flowers. Leaning down to get a closer look, he inspected the flowers slowly, glancing over briefly to see Hisana walking over to him.

Hisana watched him look at the flowers with a smile, stepping closer as he gently went to pick a flower off the bush.

Before she could stop herself, she had leaned forward and pressed her lips against his cheek before quickly pulling back. Blushing bright red, she put her hands up to her cheeks to cover the obvious change in her facial color.

Byakuya looked at Hisana from the corner of his eye. "And what was that for?" Standing up straight, he turned to face her with the same soft smile.

"W-well..." Hisana stammered, still in shock at her action herself. Why did she do that...?

"Well... you ... stuck up for me... and stuff... and I would've done it before, but Kanaye-or-whatever-his-name-is was there and besides you're far too tall and even if I tried to reach on my tip-toes I couldn't and well... you were leaning down so I figured it would be a good time to do it but then I didn't really want to because I didn't know how you'd react and then my body kinda went off on its own and well... if you don't want me to ever do it again, I'll understand and you can just tell me and I'm so sor--"

Byakuya put his pointer finger gently against her lips and shook his head, slowly putting the flower in her hair as he had done in the academy courtyard a week earlier.

"So... how about those seven I owe you, Hisana-san?"

When Hisana finally recovered to a normal color, she followed Byakuya, who began heading down the path to the right. "You go first then, Kuchiki-sama."

"Alright... let's see. It's a request. I would like it if you would start calling me something that's a little more familiar."

"Um... as in... first name...?" Hisana blushed a bit. Could I ever get used to that? "How about... Byakuya-sama? Is that good?"

Byakuya shook his head with a smile. "It's a start, I suppose..."

"Okay... A request..." Hisana scrunched her brow in thought. "Could I... lean against your arm while we walk, Kuchi-- I mean... Byakuya-sama?"

Byakuya thought about it for a moment and then nodded slowly. Hisana smiled and wrapped an arms around his, leaning her head against his arm. "Do I have to go first this time, Ku-- Byakuya-sama?"

Byakuya nodded again. "Those were the rules you came up with."

"Hm... alright then... Mine's a confession. I'm terrified of spiders."

"Terrified of spiders, huh?" Byakuya forced down a chuckle by clearing his throat. "As a child, I used to be scared of the dark."

"USED to be? That doesn't count!" Hisana frowned, choosing to ignore his obvious amusement with her fear. "That should count as cheating..."

"You never said it has to be something in the present, Hisana-san." Byakuya smirked. "Now, let's see here..." They came up to a large tree. "Would you like to sit, Hisana-san?" Hisana contemplated it for a moment before nodding.

As the two of them sat down next to each other under the tree, Hisana smiled at Byakuya. "It's still your turn, Byakuya-sama."

"Ah, that's right. I was hoping you would have forgotten if I changed the subject... let's see..." Byakuya looked up at the sky and then back at Hisana. "I haven't slept in over a week."

"Well..." She scooted closer to him and leaned her head against his shoulder. "I haven't slept in... six days."

"Your turn, Hisana-san." Byakuya felt his eyelids begin to grow heavy as the sun was beginning to set.

"I enjoy watching sunsets almost as much as our late night walks." Hisana rubbed her eyes sleepily.

"Hm..." Byakuya slowly rested his head against hers with a smile. "I enjoy late night walks almost as much as spending time with you."

Hisana smiled and slowly let her eyes drift shut with a yawn. "Your turn... Byakuya-sama..."

Byakuya let out a yawn disguised as a deep sigh. "Secretly... I'm glad the academy isn't in session tomorrow..." He gave in and let his eyelids slowly slide shut.

Hisana nodded slowly. "Secretly... I think... I'm falling...in..." She yawned again, the last word muffled by her yawn, and fell asleep.

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And so it begins. :D New chapter up tomorrow with the last two remaining confession-things and more Byakuya/Hisana goodness. :3 R&R please and thank ya.