I know I didn't upload a chapter last week, had a lot of things to take care of with school so, yeah. But here it is. Hope you guys like it!

Castle of Glass

Chapter 16: 'Cause I'm Only a Crack

"I don't understand why we're here! I wanna go home! Rijuu!" A short, blonde-haired, fidgety woman whined to the man who walked around the bodies that lay sprawled about in the open field.

The salt-and-peppered haired man shot a glare to the small woman and barked, "You know exactly why we're here, Yoshiro! Now stop whining and help me pick this body up! We have to get at least one of them back home before they disappear." The heftily built man pulled one of the soul reaper's bodies onto his shoulder from the field Renji had previously investigated and turned to leave the area.

"Looks to me like you don't need my help." Yoshiro whined, crossing her arms over her chest, and earning another glare from her companion.

"Shut up, you lazy ass! Just get your shit and come on!" With that, the small woman grabbed the bag she had brought with her and the two made their exit, being sure to leave no trace of their presence.

Emerald orbs peered curiously over each and every artifact that lay about the rooms she passed while traversing the Kuchiki estate. Her hands found themselves attempting to touch whatever wasn't nailed or glued down to examine and analyze them. Everything seemed so new and exciting that V couldn't stop herself from viewing even the most trivial of items.

"That's just some old testimonies from m ancestors, nothing fancy." Byakuya said, noticing V looking through a few rolled up scrolls.

The raven-haired noble had decided to stop following her around and started to make some tea for the both of them.

"Two sugar and let the tea sit in the water for 5 minutes only right?" He smiled, these things are very natural to him.

"Uhm...yeah,yes, please. Thank you." V was starting to get used this man knowing certain things about she believes she never told him.

"Here you go." HE handed her a warm cup with the tea bag still bobbing in it. "The sugar is there if you need any more."

"Who's that?" V pointed to an oil painting on the wall of Byakuya and Hisana sitting together, hands intertwined and sakura blossoms on the frame. "She looks an awful lot like that one girl, Rukia, I think her name was." V took a sip of her tea and had to add another spoonful of sugar.

Byakuya looked at the painting for a long moment, sighing into himself and trying to find the words to say something the woman in the painting.

"That is...Hisana...my late wife..." He buried those last few words into the sip he took from his tea.

"Did you say she was your wife? What...? What does that even mean...I thought...?" V was understandably confused,

"It's a long story, really. It's meant for another time..." His nonchalance was met with opposition.

"I think now is a pretty good time to talk about it! You just told not an hour ago I was your wife and now you tell me some other lady was your wife, too?! I think we have the time to talk about this now, don't you?!" The fiery-red color of V's hair matched the fiery-red attitude she was throwing Byakuya's way at this moment.

"Please calm down-"

"Don't tell me to calm down! How could you get married to someone else?!"

"I was forced to marry her."

"What?"

"I was forced..." Byakuya repeated himself. "I was forced to marry her."

"What do you mean?" V calmed down enough to hear what Byakuya had to say.

"We were planning to have children, you and I. And even though the elders of my clan didn't approve of what we had together, they were still more than happy that they were getting an heir to the Kuchiki clan. But after you left, there wasn't a guarantee an heir was going to be born. So, they lined women up almost daily for me to sort through and court for possible marriage and, Kami-willing, have a child that would become the heir to the clan. I despised seeing the women basically being thrown to the slaughter like that and decided that if I was going to marry anyone, it would be someone I chose on my terms. The elders were okay with this condition until they discovered I had chosen a commoner and one from Inuzuri no , I was being forced to marry and I chose someone I knew I could love regardless of their social standing in this world. That happened to be Hisana.

Unfortunately, she was so sickly from the very beginning of our marriage and we lost 3 children because of this. And when she herself became ill and passed away, the elders finally stopped pressuring me to find someone and produce an heir. I think they believed if I were to go out and find someone I truly cared for that one day may give me a child for furthering the Kuchiki clan, then so be it. They refuse to interfere anymore, and I haven't found anyone to spend my life with either. But now...I have you..." Byakuya smiled lightly, ghosts of Hisana's memory flashing before him.

"I'm...sorry..." V sat down next to Byakuya and placed her hand over his. "I just jumped to conclusions and I..."

"It's alright..." Byakuya assured her, turning his hand to intertwine their fingers. "I should've told you about her sooner." Byakuya turned to look V in the eye, who appaered to have a bit of guilt written in them. "Besides," He said, cupping her face, "It shouldn't matter now." Byakuya leaned in and pressed his lips against V's, who face was already bright red from how close the older man had gotten.

When he pulled away, Byakuya nearly chuckled when he saw how red V's face had become. "Do I embarrass you that much?"

V quickly shook her head in disagreement. "No! I just...I don't know what to say...I like...kissing you..." Byakuya smiled when he heard these words.

"Well then let me do it again."

"So?" A tall, lanky man with stringy black hair and dark brown eyes greeted Yoshiro and Rijuu at the entrance to a warehouse-like building with busted windows and deteriorating walls and floors.

"So what?" Rijuu asked as he walked straight past the man and readjusted the body he held on his shoulder.

"How'd it go? Did you get attacked or followed or anything?" The tall man followed Yoshiro and Rijuu down a flight of stairs.

"Kairi, why the hell are you worried so much? It's not like we're so incompetent, we can't even take care of a simple task like retrieving a dead body! Yeesh!" Yoshiro scoffed at the man who grimaced at her words.

The stairs led to a door that Rijuu opened up and inside was a large lab-like room with tile floor and white walls and ceiling. In the middle of the room stood 3 other people, 1 woman and 2 men, all standing a a round table with a large computer screen situated in the middle of it projecting the field where the body was recovered.

"Where do you want him, boss?" Rijuu asked the man who stood with his hands placed on the edges of the table, holding him up against it.

"On the table there, in the straps. I want him lined up with the head piece." The large, white haired, scruffy man pointed to the slab in the corner of the room adjacent to a large computer monitor.

Rijuu hoisted the body into the slab and tied each limb up into the straps, adjusting the headpiece to fit him properly.

"Good. Now let's get started."

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