Similar

"We are a lot alike you know, Byakuya-kun."

Steely eyes moved to stare disbelievingly at a round smiling face. She couldn't possible be serious. There was no way he, Kuchiki Byakuya, Captain of the 6th division and head of the noble Kuchiki clan could be compared to a 16 year old human with large smile and an even larger imagination.

No, the girl was obviously confused, but feeling a need to be polite (he wouldn't admit he was slightly curious), he decided to humor the girl and asked, "How so?"

Perhaps not the best course of action he could have taken, given who the girl was and the amount of chaos she could cause, but he had asked, and now she would surely tell him.

"Well, our eyes are the same color!" Orihime replied, making an odd pointing motion towards her face and grinning as if she was proud of the fact she had noticed it.

Byakuya frowned as leaned forward slightly to scrutinize her wide eyes before leaning away again.

To him, they seemed quite unlike his eyes except that they were, in fact, gray. But even then they were quite different shades with hers a light hazel while his own were dark coal. And besides the color, his eyes were piercing while hers were wide and innocent.

Truthfully he could point out more differences between them than similarities, but since she hadn't specified the depth of the observation, he had to admit she was indeed correct that they both did have eyes that were the same basic color.

"We have gray eyes," Byakuya drawled, mostly to appease the anxious girl who seemed to have been waiting for his reply.

"Mm!" she quickly agreed and leaned forward excitedly. "But that's not all!"

Byakuya blinked slowly.

There was more?

Apparently the girl had noticed his surprise because she began nodding enthusiastically and lifted her fist into the air.

"We both have flower power!"

There was an odd almost challenging glint in her eyes as she said it, as if she had been talking about some secret powerful ability the two of them shared. Byakuya half expected flowers to sprout from the girls ears, but of course that was just silly and he shouldn't be thinking odd things like that.

So, feeling decidedly unsure of what exactly could be meant by 'flower power' Byakuya eyed the girls raised fist and asked, "Flower power?"

"Definitely! You have Senbonzakura's cherry blossoms and I have my Shun Shun Rikka, therefore we have FLOWER POWER!"

Ears ringing, Byakuya thought his brain was surely crumbling, or perhaps that was just his pride withering into dust. Just the idea of his abilities being described in such a way…well, no outsider could know of this and hope to live.

It was one thing to discuss such things with Orihime; she could be entertaining, he had to admit, but she didn't care about things like pride or dignity. She had the distinct ability to break down any man from a warrior to nothing more than a diminutive toy soldier. She could emasculate the noblest or hardiest of men into something as delicate as a glass doll. And the genius of it was she didn't even realize.

"Ah" was all the noble could offer to such a statement, but it seemed enough for the girl because she giggled.

"It's true isn't it? But that's not even the most important thing!"

Byakuya's eyes widened fractionally.

Oh no…

When Orihime reached her hand out towards him Byakuya tensed out of reflex.

"Most importantly, we both wear our memories in our hair," she said, softly this time as her fingers came to rest on the long beads that lay snugly against his scalp.

Byakuya stared down at the girl and saw understanding in her eyes. The beads were a symbol of his clan, the memories of those who led before him, and this girl understood.

A rare smile graced his features as he mimicked her motions and reached out to touch one of the flower pins sitting delicately in her hair.

"Indeed we do."

Shinigami and human.

Noble and orphan.

Man and woman.

Opposites and yet…similarities could be found by those who looked. And even someone as ancient as he could learn.

"I'm glad we are alike," she confessed, a hint of shyness to her voice even as she smiled.

Byakuya allowed his hand to drift down to gently cup her cheek.

"So am I."

A/N: oh I loooove Byakuya, he's probably my favorite bleach character so writing him is just awesome for me. Setting him up with our favorite Hime-chan is just asking for trouble but I think it's just so cute/sigh I shouldn't get so excited about these things... Well I hope you liked it. IchiHime should be next, I NEED to write a IchiHime, I've just been lazy about it and Byakuya demanded my attention.

Also, for those who really like this pairing, I'm in the process of writing a multi-chapter story with this pairing. Sadly I won't post till it's mostly complete, which could take awhile. But because of the rarity of this pairing I thought I'd give you a heads up anyways.

Till next time,

--Miss Soupy