39:The First and The Fallen

"For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow."

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Damn it.

It wasn't what Aizen was saying aloud when the news reached him of Uliquorra's defeat. It wasn't that he cared about those below him, not past them being useful tools. It was more that his already depleted army was growing shorter, that a soldier had been taken from it's ranks, than any feelings of friendship that passed through the thoughts of the former fifth squad captain.

"How many do we have left?" Aizen was a direct man, his plans required a certain number of people and if he didn't have those he would have to retreat and lick his wounds until he could gain further numbers. If the creatures still under his command didn't decide to defect at such a decision.

"Six sir." The reporting arrancar hadn't been one of the numbered ones. There weren't any numbered ones left…which is part of what made his plan so dangerous. If he didn't succeed it would be ages before he could mount a new assault. Failure just wasn't a possibility in the prideful traitors mind.

"We'll need to go ahead and separate the worlds so they can't send anyone over. If we must deal with the remaining stragglers then we must. All of them are still under the spell of my zanpaktou anyway." Aizen replied. "We will wait until the girl and Byakuya were suppose to be back in soul society. That will be one less issue. That Kuchiki brat has gotten strong if he could finish all three of the arrancar we send against him. I'd rather he be on the other side before we close off travel."

"Yes sir. I will let the others know." The reporting hollow vanished and left the brunette man to plan his coming assuault…eyes scanning over a map of Karakura Town.

ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo

Byakuya eyed the frustratingly innocent sprig of mistletoe that had been haphazardly tied to the luggage rack at the roof of the train. It's evergreen leaves waving gently at the small turns and weaves the tracks were taking. The waxy white berries seemed somehow to fit the pureness of the young woman standing beneath them and yet, her knowing they were there said something of her intentions not quite being chaste.

It was ritual after all…and he didn't want to insult her. He held his grip as he leaned forward and went to kiss her cheek. The turn of her head hadn't been anticipated and their lips barely brushed before he'd withdrawn again, looking out the window and not saying a word after that slight miscalculation.

He just succeeded in leaving Kagome to stare at him slack jawed at the action, her face a mixture of emotions before she finally managed to get her jaw to close again. Words had apparently failed her, and he had to admit he was glad for it in at least this one instance.

She was blushing horribly and then worse when some boys down the train whistled at the two of them, looking down at her feet instead.

"Why…why did Byakuya just kiss me?" She wanted to jump up and do a dance but she was afraid she'd fall over instead. "I mean…I guess he was trying to get my cheek but…maybe they have mistletoe in the soul society and he was just following tradition?"

She touched her lips, it had gone too fast. Her first kiss and he'd stolen it from her. It was both elating and at the same time she felt a little cheated that it wasn't something more of the legend written of in books. "Why can't I ever have a good romantic moment? All the stories I live out seem to be tragedy's for me."

She glanced back up but Byakuya was back to his usual self, allowing her to know nothing as to what he was thinking. "Well…he could at least say something…that…that…overdressed kiss stealing jerk."

It was the best insult her brain could manage in it's still edgy state, albeit quite a lame one. She thought about chewing him out but instead sighed to herself. "That wouldn't do me any good at all."

She wrung her hands nervously as she saw the tied on mistletoe slide down the train to over his head instead. He hadn't paused his watch of passing buildings long enough to notice and she found her situation reversed.

"He kissed me so it should be okay right?" Kagome thought vaguely. Waiting for a stop so she wouldn't clumsily fall over when trying to stand up. She wasn't used to standing up on the train and knew she didn't have the balance of the soul reaper standing near her. "Besides, its all in the spirit of things."

She convinced herself with excuses about as poor as her mental tirade and waited tensely for the next pause.

Though she got herself so nervous that she did loose balance when the train stopped, and likely would have had a nasty fall if Byakuya hadn't reached an arm out to catch her. "Kagome. Are you okay?"

"I guess this is more like it." Kagome thought vaguely as she considered the various scenes between leading ladies and men on the silver screen. Looking into his slate eyes searchingly before leaning forward and closing her own as she pressed her lips against his.

Byakuya froze a moment when she did it, but when she didn't move his body relaxed and he pulled her just a little closer as he returned the short embrace, still holding an arm around her when the train jolted to a start again and interrupted their bittersweet kiss.

It wasn't long, though longer than when all he'd done was brush her lips. He hadn't released her yet, he only needed one hand on the harnesses of the tram to keep them both standing, the other arm was still settled around her back. There was a moment of electricity that had passed between them then, a tantalizing dance of sensation that his heart wasn't so quick to relinquish.

Kagome hadn't moved either, grasping at the front of his suit when the train had started to move, settling her head against his shoulder with the shift of the floor beneath them. She smelled like cherry blossoms, it was something he hadn't ever really thought too hard on before but he didn't want to pull away from her now.

Both of them had several long moments in that tender stance before Kagome moved back carefully to sit down, blushing madly as she did. "I'm sorry…thank you for catching me. I just…the mistletoe moved and I thought…"

"Kagome." He interrupted her series of explanations, offering a rare smile. "It's okay. It is a nice custom."

He wanted to tell her that he cared for her then but didn't know how and instead left it at that, glancing back out the window. They would be back at the stop where they would walk to her family's shrine soon, she'd decided to stay with him but he was beginning to wonder if it wasn't his own weakness and selfishness that was allowing her to.

She meanwhile continued to blush and was fighting the urge to hold a hand over her wrist to get a pulse. She was certain her heart was working overtime after that experience. She felt exhilarated by the fact that she'd even gotten him to smile over it. "I won't get my hopes up too much…but just maybe he likes me too."

Some kids made a few comments about his 'barrettes' as they left the train and Kagome stifled a giggle. Smiling wistfully to herself as she remembered thinking the same thing the first time she'd spotted the kensaiken in his hair. "But I like them. They're graceful, they do well as a mark of his station after all. I guess it doesn't matter what he feels about me. I care about him and I want to be close to him."

"Are you well?" Byakuya spoke first, he was used to her chattering away more than she had today. At first he'd figured it had been concern over her friends but now that the lunch was over and she was still silent he was starting to consider other options.

"Yeah." Kagome rubbed a hand through her hair sheepishly, feeling like he'd caught her thinking about him. "I'm just thinking about a lot of stuff. Remembering things. It hasn't been all that long sense I found you in that ally. Only about four months…but I feel like I know you so well."

"Oh?" Byakuya seemed a little amused at her comments. "I don't hear that very often."

"Surprise surprise." Kagome teased.

"I am sorry we came along and interrupted your life as we did Kagome. I know that you wanted to be able to go to school normally and it seems like once you found me everything changed." Byakuya apologized, he had done it before but he felt the need to say it then.

"You are right." Kagome sobered a little from her joke and shook her head more seriously. "Everything has changed. But that's okay. I already know from experience that life isn't just all easy and I don't regret it at all. I wouldn't have changed anything I've done. I'm glad that we met and that we've become such good friends."

Byakuya was silent at that, it had been ages sense someone had truly considered him a friend. He didn't count Yourichi. With Kagome it went beyond power or position, she just was his friend for him and he knew it. "Thank you Kagome."

"Now I just need to learn how to fly so I don't have to run up these steps anymore." She joked again as they reached the stairs to the shrine and she started up them. "How do you move so fast anyway."

"I've explained shunpou to you before." Byakuya answered. "Unless you weren't paying attention in class."

"Yeah, I know…but I can't just condense energy and jump from place to place. That would be more convenient for sure." Kagome shook her head. "Do you always think I'm goofing off."

"If the shoe fits." He commented lightly, ignoring the small glare she sent him. "Besides, if you can't control your energy enough to cast a lighting spell without blasting an arrancar across a field then you probably shouldn't attempt Shunpou."

"Hmm, I guess I have to give you that." Kagome agreed, she didn't want to just blow herself up. "Do you know why my spells keep going awry?"

"I would imagine it has to do with your energy as a priestess being different from that of soul reapers. Priestess's were suppose to have nearly limitless spiritual power according to the stories about them, likely in those times they were trained specifically and separately from the soldiers of the four courts." Byakuya explained as they climbed. "Training is something that takes most soldiers centuries to learn and most of them never end up making a ranking level."

Kagome nodded slowly, taking it all in as he said it. She remembered most of her lessons about that and it did make sense. "I guess it's just hard to think of myself as such a powerful being like other folks say. I barely managed to get rid of that attacker the other day and only did cause I messed up."

"You can have all the potential of skill in the world. If you don't practice or never learn that skill then you will not be good at it." Byakuya replied honestly as they finished the long climb up. "You never received the formal training that would have started at a very young age traditionally. You cannot blame yourself for that."

"I will just have to try harder." She smiled as she opened the door to the house. Blinking in shock as a plate, food and all, came flying out at Byakuya, the quick noble deflected the missile but also seemed surprised.

End Chapter

Usually I'm good at the mushy stuff but I had a hard time with this chapter. I feel like I got them out of character for some reason. Blah. Grumble. I hate when I do that. Pesky writing. As always: please read and review.

-Aura

P.S. Batman!

To my reviewers:

Evil RULZ - you got what you wished for…but well, I'd planned that anyway