A/N: You won't believe how busy I've been recently! (hence taking so long to update) Hopefully Chapter 1 makes up for that- Enjoy!
Warnings- I have absolutely no clue about medicine etc. so the treatment/ injuries are made up- if you think they're totally wrong then just send me a message :), oh and possible oocness
Disclaimer- Bleach is not mine, and sadly neither is Tanaka- I borrowed the idea of him from Kuroshitsuji
Chapter 1
The Kuchiki household rose with the sun, and Byakuya was no exception. Once awake, he would stretch and then walk over to his bathroom. From there he would first brush his teeth, wash is face in cold water and then follow with a quick, invigorating shower. Walking back into the room he would dress himself in the robes that he had picked out the night before, and then painstakingly put in the kenseikan.
Once satisfied with his appearance he would slowly make his way down to the morning room in the conservatory, nodding at anybody who he met along the way. In the room he would sit himself down in the high back chair closest to the window overlooking the extensive gardens, indeed he could not see the end of them, and then begin to read the newspaper that had been laid out for him.
His routine may as well have been written in stone, for he had done exactly as above for 15 years, ever since he had become master of the Kuchiki household.
However, that was about to change. Tanaka cleared his throat. Byakuya's eyes twitched almost imperceptibly at the small noise and the distraction from a rather engaging report. Tanaka never stayed after he had brought breakfast and it was fast becoming annoying. His butler cleared his throat again with more conviction.
Folding the newspaper and placing it on the table Byakuya turned to face the aging man. "Is everything alright Tanaka?"
The butler straightened his back and looked him in the eye. "There has been a sudden...development that will need your attention Kuchiki-sama." He looked almost nervous then.
Raising his eyebrow a fraction Byakuya motioned for the man to continue. "It may be best if you see for yourself, if that suits you?" Nodding his assent the raven-haired man rose to join the other man who then started to lead him down to the guest wing.
They walked in silence that was neither comfortable nor stifling, just silence. Living in a large house had taught Byakuya the strength of silence, and he had turned it into an art form. When he was silent you could lose Byakuya in an empty room.
As they walked through into the wing faint noises could be heard. As they got closer Byakuya realised that it was someone speaking and soon identified them as his family doctor and her assistant. He frowned, but only barely. Doctors, in his opinion, never meant good news.
Stopping outside the door from where the conversation was emanating from, the young master turned to the butler who appeared to be trying extremely hard to not fidget. Byakuya watched emotionlessly as he knocked gently on the door. A "Come in." was heard.
Tanaka offered the other man a small smile before his gloved hand gripped the handle to allow them to enter.
The room itself was a moderate affair in pale creams and wood furnishings and, if it was ever to be used, it would be for inconsequential visitors or anybody that Byakuya did not feel the need to impress. However the man currently lying on the bed certainly did not fit those requirements, in fact the raven-haired man had never seen him before in his life and if he had he would have never put him in this room, he clashed with the decor.
From his position from the doorway the first thing he had noticed was a shock of blue hair strewn across the pillow in deep waves. It may not have been a natural colour, Byakuya mused, but you couldn't get that sort of vibrancy out of a bottle. Not for any price.
Still looking at the man's hair, he began to notice that it was matted in some places and in others it had gone a strange purple colour. Hmmm. Letting his eyes wander across the man's body, Byakuya couldn't help but show how surprised and shocked he was, despite his normal rigid composure.
Byakuya closed the distance between himself and the bed and stared down at the stranger. How on earth he got here I don't know but he looks as though he's been to hell and back. And he did. What once was a sculpted, muscled physique was now deep black bruises, rugged cuts and layers upon layers of gauze and bandages. The bed sheets surrounding the other man were sprinkled with blood, and on a quick inspection of the room revealed other, blood-soaked sheets. The worst however had been left to his face.
Framed by damp blue locks the stranger's face was ashen and taut, falling into a pained grimace although undoubtedly drugged into oblivion. Then, making the other cuts pale in comparison, was a jagged scar on the man's left side jam line, making it look as though he had teeth on the outside. Had the man been awake he would have made a fearsome sight but as it was he just looked small and helpless.
Turning to the other occupant's in the room once he had finished ignoring them, he once again raised an eyebrow in question.
His butler finally caved and started to scratch his head. "Well, this morning I was doing my usual rounds when I spotted a... lump outside the front door from a window. I decided to investigate and I found, well, I found him." Tanaka loosely gestured at the injured man. "I saw he was in a bad way so I took it upon myself to call Doctor Unohana here," Byakuya nodded in her direction in greeting, "as I didn't want to disrupt you. I waited to tell you at breakfast and the rest you know."
Tilting his head to the side in thought the young master asked, "What do you know about him?"
"Nothing I'm afraid." The butler sighed.
"No I.D?"
"Nothing, sir."
Must be nervous to call me sir. Allowing the older man a glimpse of a gentle smile he said, "You did well Tanaka." He then turned to the ladies in the room and addressed a rather burning question to his doctor, "Just how extensive are his injuries?"
Dr. Unohana sighed. "Quite bad but nothing life threatening at the moment. He has a broken right arm; he had dislocated his shoulder, bruised ribs, twisted ankles and severe lacerations. I checked and I believe he does not have concussion. I must say he's quite a sturdy young man but I've kept him sedated for as long as I could without taking him to hospital."
Her eyes hardened as she looked at Byakuya. "You are going to have to wake him up every three hours for the next two days once he wakes up to check his pain levels, and his bandages will need to be changed twice a day as well as the gauze. If you're going to move him though you best do it now before the drugs wear off. I'll leave some painkillers that he can take every two hours, and plenty of bandages etc. but if it gets too much for him just contact me. Really though I think he just needs a good rest."
Byakuya nodded as he made a mental list. "I'll get a maid straight onto it."
The doctor shook her head sharply. "No. I want you to do it." She began to pack up her things.
He just gave her an incredulous look. "Why?"
As she and her assistant reached the door, she gave him an enigmatic smile and said, "It'll do you good."
Trying hard not to gape he turned to his back to Tanaka. "Well then you best move him to the adjacent bedroom in my suite." He sighed as his butler didn't even have the decency not to look shocked.
"You mean you are going to do it?"
This time Byakuya let himself fully frown. "Of course! You just don't ignore Dr. Unohana. Believe me, I learnt that the hard way."
It was just after they had moved him when the injured man first regained consciousness. Byakuya was sitting next to the bed reading the newspaper from the morning, and was alerted by soft moans and whimpers coming from the other man.
Folding his newspaper he rose and carried a small tray over to the bed, only to nearly drop it once he had got there. Despite the pain and haziness the man below him must be feeling, the man's eyes had remained strikingly beautiful, deep cyan pools surrounded by long dark eyelashes. It took all of his restraint not to reach out and instead placed down the tray away from his trembling hands.
"Hello?" He only received a low moan in response. Taking the drugs on the tray, he let them dissolve into the water in the cup that he also had with him. Satisfied with it he lifted the cup near to the other man's mouth and gently put the straw on his cracked lips.
In a tone reserved for orders he said, "Drink."
The man drank. He tried to stop several times but Byakuya made him finish the lot- it would help with the pain and stop dehydration. As soon as this was finished however the teal-haired man fell straight back to sleep, or rather fell unconscious again.
Byakuya then set his alarm to ring every three hours and did exactly as he did the first time, minus the shock and it was actually him waking the other up.
With evening bordering on night, the young master decided to change dressings on the man's wounds before he tried to get some sleep. However, while he had been content to wake the man up on his own he knew that he would need help with this. Knowing he had no choice he turned to Nel.
The voluptuous maid had come to his house a few years ago and had proven to be a green-haired monster that played the cute act. Despite this she was excellent at her job and could even cover as a bodyguard if needed. Though he was reluctant to admit, the woman's constant nagging had finally gotten to him and they became friends, in a way, and so he had begun to rely on her when he needed to.
Flipping the control panel within the room open, he quickly sent out a message to the maid requesting her presence in his suite- to help with the injured man. He has added the last part just in case some of the older maids got any ideas and that was something to be avoided at all costs.
While he waited for Nel he unrolled the bandages and put them in neat rows on the dresser within the stranger's room. Once satisfied that they were straight he began to pace the bedroom as he had nothing else to do.
"Heh and here I thought you never got bored Bya-kun!" With a start Byakuya turned with wide eyes to the only person on Earth who would dare to call him by that ridiculous pet name.
"And here I thought that you had given up on sneaking around doorways." He retorted once he had gotten over the shock.
Nel pouted as she replied,
"It was only that one time! Are you never going to let it go?"
Byakuya sent an icy glare to the woman who stared back unflinchingly. "I was in the shower."
"Not my fault you didn't hear me knock."
"So that gave you the right to just walk in?"
"It wasn't like I was gonna jump you or anything... Besides we both know" Just before she could finish the sentence the sleeping man gave a grunt, stopping short the well rehearsed argument. Nel sighed. "What did you want anyway?"
Byakuya mirrored her sigh and pointed to the perfectly straight bandages and stacks of gauze. "I need you to help me change his dressings."
Knowing better than to demand the magic word, the maid merely nodded and grabbed some of the bandages, ignoring the look of dismay on the raven-haired man's face at the mess. "Best get to work then."
They soon set to removing the old wrappings carefully from the man's body once they had gotten him into a sitting position, Byakuya focusing on the front with Nel at the back. They worked with relative peace as they unwound the bandages that were caked with old blood the closer they got to the skin.
After a few minutes though Nel let out a soft, anguished gasp as her face went as white as the new bandages. Sensing her rising distress Byakuya laid a soft arm on her shoulder as he waited for her to speak.
Softly, without looking at him, she said, "You need to see this."
Troubled by his maid's reaction but nonetheless curious, he got up from his position and walked round to the other side of the bed next to Nel. With a shaking finger she pointed to the man's lower back but she didn't have to, Byakuya had already seen it.
There, on the right hand side of the man's lower back was a large gothic-styled 6.
"Is that...?" He trailed off not knowing how to finish the question.
"Yeah." Nel replied softly.
Byakuya frowned. "If it is why is he here? In the state that he is?"
The green-haired woman shook her head. "I don't know but whatever it is it won't be good." She turned to him with beseeching eyes. "He's got to go the minute he's healed, he could be dangerous."
Byakuya only lifted an eyebrow at her, a movement that he seemed to be doing a lot of recently. Knowing the reason behind it Nel grimaced and then turned her attention back to the injured man.
"I suppose we best finish this off then." She lifted up a piece of gauze. Byakuya shot her a kind smile and went back to his previous position. As they finished the job they worked again in silence, but this time it was a heavy, sad silence.
At last they were finished and Byakuya laid the man back down gently and then the two left the room. He then turned to Nel.
"Can I get you anything? A drink perhaps?" He said gently but Nel just shook her head.
"I only need sleep. I'll be fine in the morning." She sent him a weak smile.
Byakuya frowned. "I was going to ask you to help me again in the morning, but I can always get somebody else if you would prefer that."
The woman's smile turned bright at the kind gesture. "That's sweet of you but I'd rather it be me than anybody else, you know?" He nodded to show that in fact he did know. "I suppose I'll see you in the morning then Bya-kun." With that she skipped out of the door with a laugh before Byakuya could even get angry.
Chuckling softly to himself he made to get some sleep himself, only to be woken two hours later by the alarm. This is going to be a long few days.
Two days in and Byakuya was beginning to crack. He had never once been denied the luxury of sleep before in his life and its effects were beginning to show as his stoic mask crumbled. He was at a loss at what to with himself when he wasn't tending to the man, his routine was in pieces.
At least everyone makes sure I eat three meals a day. Not knowing what else to do he picked a book at random from the library and then made his way back to his suite. For some reason he had taken to reading while sitting next to the bed with the injured man and found a sort of peace there. It certainly made waking him a lot easier being close at hand anyway.
Sighing to himself as he walked through the corridors, Byakuya entered his suite once he had reached it and walked straight into the stranger's room. The book fell to the floor with a soft thud, cushioned by the carpet, as Byakuya's wide, grey eyes were met with an empty bed.
Snapping his mouth shut, he quickly scanned the room and soon found the injured man. He was there, but he was hanging halfway out of the window, desperately pushing himself out.
It was the third floor.
A/N: Review please! It makes me happy :)