"You worried me half to sickness and I already have enough to worry about without you adding onto it!" She snapped at me. "I come to collect your papers for Elder Brother and find you lying around sleeping like the lazy little monkey you are but you don't move when I call your name and when I move to kick you awake as you so richly deserve I'm stopped by some barrier sheild! What's going on Renji?"

That sharp look in her eye told me she'd have it out of me one way or another and that if I didn't tell her and be right quick about it she was going to resort to violence. Fortunately I had a way out of it, at least for today.

"Careful now, Princess," I said, grinning up at her. "You wouldn't want to ruin your fancy clothes now would you? And all that make-up you're wearing probably took hours."

It was funny to see such a tiny woman who looked like a porcelain doll give me a look that could have felled pigeons in midair.

"Don't think you're getting out of this Renji," she replied, pointing an admonishing finger at me like any virago setting her poor hen-pecked husband up for a good scold. The image just made me smile harder.

"Yes ma'am," I said easily. The sounds of what passed for a party under the standards of the nobility trickled over to us on the breeze, the dull buzzing hum of polite chatter underpined by the pleasant drone of background instruments.

"Brother couldn't come himself, so he sent me to get those," Rukia said after a long pause, holding her hand out for the folder I had tucked underneath me.

"Figures," I muttered, handing them over and trying not to feel like a truant kid or something.

"Here ya go. Can I leave now? I've been cooling my heels here all afternoon and I have other things I could be doing right now."

"Why don't you come to the party?" Rukia asked, and looked just as surprised as I felt as soon as the words left her mouth.

I picked up the nuances real quick though, she hadn't actually meant to invite me, she'd just done it by reflex, and now she was worried that her inviting an unexpected guest would cause her brother to scold her. Naturally I didn't want her upset so I quickly reassured her.

"Nah, this little soiree of yours is just a little too high-class fer me. Gimme a bottomless sake jug and a nip down to the Twentieth District watering hole anyday o' the week. Fer one, the music's a sight better than this, this'll put you to sleep."

"You still go outside the walls?" Rukia asked, looking up at me in surprise.

"Sure I do," I said. I wasn't surprised that she didn't though, it was nothing against Rukia but the rarified sphere's she moved in now were higher above our shared roots than the moon was above the world.

Maybe that's what I'd do right now. I'd been stopped from my little party the other night and I didn't have much in the way of duties right then except to investigate that one matter I was looking into. Kill two birds with one stone maybe.

:Now that I think on it, I'm due to visit Amber Onee-san's pretty soon too, we just got paid recently and they're probably running short on funds by now. If there's a rumor in the whole Rukon District that that woman hasn't heard of, it's not worth knowing.:

Amber, the Madam of all the Onee-san's at the Barai House, was one of the most powerful shadow-rulers of the South Sector. She quietly ruled her streets with a steel fist in an elegant silk glove. She had a small army of loyal men she'd raised and trained in-house to act as guardians and an even larger army of kids that would spy and steal and raise hell for her. All the kids at Barai House had their loyalties towards Amber, even me to an extent, though not so much now as then. If Amber snapped her fingers in Hangdog, things were done... quietly, and likely without any witnesses. No-one would be better informed than she would about the recent incursions by an unknown specter on her turf and I mentally slapped my forehead for not thinking of going to her first!

:Problem is that visiting my Onee-san can be a double edged sword,: I thought to myself in wry amusement.

I might get some of the information that I was looking for, but she would know that I and my superiors were interested, and she'd make us pay for everything else we got. Plus... she still ruffled my hair and called me "her Little Orangey!" I'd die before I ever let anyone, even Rukia, find out just how I had gotten my name. Back when I'd been a baby my hair had been lighter in color before it settled into its current crimson. In fact, it had actually been closer in color to The Brat's hair color, and the onee-san's had nicknamed me "little orangey. Years later, when my hair was at last no longer orange, the name became "Renji."

"You look like you just got an idea," Rukia said with a note of curiosity in her voice.

"New lead," I said evasively.

It was hard for me to look at her right then. She was everything to me, everything I'd ever wanted, and she belonged to someone else. She looked even more beautiful than she usually did to me and there was nothing I could do. The pain of loosing her was hard and fresh but at the same time I desperately didn't want there to develop a distance between us again. I couldn't stand not having her in my life again but at the same time it was still hard for me to be around her. So I did the only thing I could do, I smiled that overly-bright lying smile I did when I wanted to mislead someone into thinking everything was okay, put a brotherly-type hand on her head and very condescendingly I said

"Little Princesses should run along back to their castles before their dragons come looking for them."

It worked exactly as I knew it would, she bristled at my condescending tone and glared at me. One thing I could say about being best friends for so long,i knew how to ruffle her feathers faster than anyone else. Rukia's buttons had always been easy to push and she'd always responded so beautifully too. It ha always been a little fun to rile her up, see how close I could get to exploding without going over the line. As ever, she responded just as I knew she would; Rukia snatched the papers out of my grasp, and, nose in the air with every shred of noble dignity pulled about her, she said

"Unlike some people who laze about napping under trees all day, I have important matters to attend to."

"Don't let me keep you, go riiight ahead," I said waving her off like she was a pest.

She glared at me harder while I added

"Although, I gotta say, it's pretty rude of you both to drag me here through the servants gate like I might steal your best cutlery, then set me down in some back-end corner and not even offer ta feed me. Nobility is as nobility does after all."

She made a little hmph-ing noise if disbelief and indignation.

"That's alright, I'll just go eat of my crusts in woeful solitude. Don't mind me. Really."

I gave her my best patheticly pleading look. She looked flatly back at me and said

"Don't give me that face, mister. I'm immune. I grew up around you remember, you're far from starving anymore."

Maybe it was just my wishful thinking but there seemed to be a very soft, nostalgic look that flickered over her expression for a moment there. If she started bringing up everything we'd always meant to each other it'd only end up giving me unrealistic hope so I decided that it was time to head things off before she could wax nostalgic. I smiled that bright lying-Lieutenant smile again and poked her in her midriff, teasing

"And you're in danger of popping out of your kimono Princess."

"Wh-" she gasped, stuttering in indignation, with her face puffing into an offended expression.

"My advice to you is to go easy on the cream-puffs, or you're gonna puff."

I was only saying all of these things one, to provoke her to distraction she she wouldn't be able to read me like she usually could. And two, I knew I could get away with it, so I couldn't resist the temptation. It was so cute when she got all mad at me, she was really pretty when she was angry, so lively and cute, and it was so easy to get her that way. Despite all that noble Kuchiki training, my girl still had a short fuse.

"Are you accusing me of getting fat?" she exploded at me.

Her cheeks were showing pink even through the rice powder.

"I would never," I protested innoscence, laying a hand against my chest in false injury.

"At least you have some sense of self-preservation left," she growled. "Though how much when you're going out of your way to be as obnoxious as possible in as short a time as possible is anyone's guess. Probably better you're not coming to the party anyway, you'd be sure to offend someone and Brother and I would be months afterward trying to repair the damage. Go slither back under your rock."

"Ouch," I muttered.

If she couldn't beat me senseless she was not above vivisecting me with the rough side of her tongue. I smiled over at her to cover up how much the jab had actually hit. Hers was about the only opinion that really mattered to me, and even though the chakra I'd just unsealed had dealt with that sort of thing it was early times yet. Seeing her momentary expression of contrition as she realized she might have been a little too harsh was enough for me, besides, i had brought it on myself after all so I smiled at her again and patted her shoulder, rising to leave.

"You uh, have fun at the party if that's even at all possible," I said to her, letting my tone say exactly what I thought on the matter which was that it wasn't at all likely. "I've got something to look in to."

"Is it that thing in Rukongai?" Rukia asked next, tugging at my sleeve to keep me there for a minute.

I blinked at her, a little surprised she knew about it seeing as I hadn't really mentioned it much and she looked at me and said

"My brother is your Captain dummy, and on occasion we do talk to each other. It came up last night over dinner."

"Oh," was all I said, a little surprised that they'd be discussing me of all things. Then again, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised, unless you counted Rukia's dead sister Hisana, I was one of the only things those two really had in common.

Um... Brother's going to be busy for the next while, you know how it is when the Kuchiki Clan has an in-gathering, people everywhere and you're always tripping over somebody. I wish they'd assign me out for these things, this place is big enough to be a museum and it still feels packed to the rafters with everybody and their servants crammed in here. I'll tell you what, since Brother will be busy tonight, no-one'll really notice if I'm gone for a few hours. I'll meet up with you later when things are settled down and you can tell me about what you found."

I smiled a little at the offer as she added

"I'll even sneak out some of the good taiyaki they're serving here. I know you think mostly with your stomach, and even your iron constitution might have problems if you tried to eat the stuff they serve down there."

"Sound's great!" I said, surprised and happy, even as I suppressed the automatic flip-flop my stomach did at the prospect of some time alone with her.

"Well then, you'd better get going before someone see's you, mistakes you for a servant, and dragoon's you into service," Rukia teased.

I tapped her lightly on the nose for it and said

"Since I'm dismissed I guess I'll go find some new grey hairs to put on yer brother's head. Later, Short-stuff."

I grinned back at her as I headed out of the courtyard in the direction that the servant had shown me earlier that morning.

"Don't call me short stuff!" she called after me.

I could just feel her making faces at my back and it made me smile as I glanced back at her on my way out. We shared a lingering, wordless speaking-look that was weighted with our shared history that only Rukia and I had ever managed to do. I might not have everything, but at least this much was mine. I loved her and maybe there was no changing that, but if it would burden her or hurt her to know about it then I'd make sure she'd never know. Still, at least my bond with her was still there, it was frayed and worn but it was ours and that was what mattered.

Rukia smiled at me as she waved and left to go back to the party thrown by her new family and I exchanged another smile with her and went back to my own duties, looking forward to the time later on when I could (hopefully) see her again. I was on my way out of the massive, sprawling Kuchiki labyrinth (seriously, I'd bet he keeps a minotaur somewhere in the middle of this place!) when I was stopped on the way.

"Lieutenant," a familiar voice carried softly over to me as I was on my way out, freezing me in my tracks.

I turned and walked in the direction of the source, not needing to be told by now that I was being summoned. Byakuya Kuchiki never shouted, he never even raised his voice, but he was the type of guy that never needed to either. He had a presence that demanded attention even though he was the quiet sort, and when he wanted to get someone's attention he didn't shout and yet his voice somehow managed to carry. I sorta wished I knew how he managed the trick.

"Sir? I questioned, a bit confused because I thought he'd been so busy with the party and all that he'd sent Rukia to collect his papers for him.

"You seem to be in a hurry," he noted.

He was also one of those types that was so adept at the subtle arts that he didn't usually make a habit of coming out and saying what was up, he'd bring up a subject and let me yammer on about it until he tired of listening to me talk. It was very frustrating. I'd gotten to the point where I sometimes said as little as possible just to get a rise out of him. He still always came out of the verbal fencing matches the winner of course, but he had a hundred or so years on me and noble training as well. I didn't feel like hanging aroud yapping with my boss all day so I got right to the point.

"I'm thinkin' about goin' out and lookin' into that matter in the Rukon District I told you about," I said frankly. "I still have a lot of useful contacts out there and I think I'll be able to find out even more useful information."

I looked over at him to gauge his reaction, as usual, his face gave nothing away so, since in his case it was better to be certain, I tried a tentative

"That alright with you, Captain?"

"You maintain contacts with the outside?" he questioned.

I couldn't tell what he was thinking (as usual), his tone didn't sound overtly disapproving and wasn't sure if the Captain was capable of feeling surprised (which is sorta what he sounded like right then), so I said

"Yeah, I give a chunk o' my paycheck to Barai House." I shrugged, not willing to make a big deal out of it and added

"That's why I'm Renji Abarai, because I came from Barai House, making me another Barai brat."

He cocked his head slightly to one side, his manner suggesting possible curiosity, so I expanded on it.

"They were the ones who took me in an' gave me a name when I was a baby. The Madam of the house has an open door policy when it comes ta babies. No kid gets a long time to spend there cuz there's always a new mouth to feed, and so they turn you out at seven, but the kiddies they take in at least have a chance, which is more'n what they'd get if they were left in a midden or a ditch as a baby..."

I trailed off and snapped my mouth shut as his look became more remote and realized that I might have inadvertently brought up a touchy subject. His former wife Hisana (from what Rukia had told me) had abandoned her baby sister as an infant in Hangdog, and it was the woman's continuing search for Rukia that had caused her to get sick and eventually die of it. He probably had some issue about that but I wasn't sure what it was, and I didn't want to risk stepping on a land-mine, so I kept my big trap shut this time.

"It is natural then, even proper, for you to feel a continuing obligation to an organization that has aided not only you, but continues to aid many others," he said stiffly after a long awkward silence.

"Yeah I guess," I said, scratching the back of my head. "I help out because they do what good they can for people who don't have anyone to help them in a place where a lotta thugs would kill ya sooner than look atcha. I can't do much on my own ta help the helpless, but Madame runs a tight ship and she has ways of getting things done. I guess I'm happy ta help her out seeing as she took me in and fed me and changed my diapers when she could make a lot bigger profit at the bath-house by ignoring the kiddies like everyone else."

"I believe Hisana once mentioned Barai House," Kuchiki said in an idle, ruminating tone. "It was one of the places she checked regularly, hoping for word of her sister. She seemed to like the woman who ran it well enough as I recall."

I frowned at that and looked incredulously at the Kuchiki. She had liked Amber? What the heck kinda woman had Kuchiki married?! Amber was sharper than the edge of Zabimaru, weilding wit, charm and elegance the way surgeons weilded scalpels. Amber was one reason that I had never been taken in by Captain Retsu Unohana's nurturing-motherly act, I already knew better than that. Madam Amber might play at being the doting business woman, but make no mistake about it, she was the proverbial sword in the smile. If Kuchiki's Hisana had gotten on well with a personality like Amber's, it made me wonder about what kind of woman she had been... and what my Captain had been thinking to marry such a creature. Girls could be scary.

Kuchiki saw my look and for an instant he looked like he had been tempted to ask me what was up with it before I managed to school it back into a (for me) bland expression, instead he cleared his throat and said

"Since your investigation may have an impact on the affairs of the Seireitei, I give you my permission to look fully into the matter. I will naturally expect a report of your findings on my desk in the morning."

"Yessir, thank-you," I replied at having been given official sanction to pursue my pet project.

"Not at all," Kuchiki said.

His expression was as bland as cream and yet there was the tiniest, barely detectable aura of humor to him as he added

"Such diligence is unusual for you Abarai, and should be encouraged."

I often wondered if he didn't keep me around as his Second just to provide him with amusement from time to time, but then again, that would imply a sense of humor and to my knowledge Kuchiki didn't have one.

"I note that you delivered the papers to my sister this morning," he resumed in a more normal tone. "She seems... improved for your conversation with her."

I looked back at him, unsure about where he was going with this. If he hadn't wanted me talking with her then he shouldn't have sent her to get those papers he'd ordered me here to deliver. We were old friends and there was nothing improper (anymore) about a man with my rank engaging in conversation with a noblewoman, especially if they were old friends.

"Relax Lieutenant," Byakuya Kuchiki said mildly. "I am not chiding you about your engaging my younger sister in conversation. I am merely noting that your long association seems to have given you a certain knack for discovering her troubles."

He hesitated.

"And easing them."

There were a number of things I might have said to that, but I was slowly coming to learn the wisdom in the proverb "better to remain silent and appear foolish than to open your mouth and remove all doubt" so this time I didn't say anything. I looked over at him, trying to guage his feelings on the matter from his expression. For as long as we had been Captain and Lieutenant (for even longer!), Rukia had been a bit of a bone of contention between the two of us. So naturally, the subject was a touchy one and by mutual consent was avoided if at all possible. Part of me sort of wanted to ask what his feelings on the matter involving the Mortal boy and Rukia was, but I wasn't quite that stupid.

"Ah... Yessir," I said, going for formality in the absence of info.

There was something else that had been bothering me, and I wasn't sure when the boss would be feeling positively loquacious (for him anyway) again so I decided to go out on a limb and ask.

"Um, Sir... Can I ask ya sumthin'?"

He nodded his permission.

"When you picked me as yer candidate fer Lieutenant, ya didn't jus' draw my name from a hat..."

He nodded slowly, uncertain where I was going with this but encouraging me to continue.

"The guy who recommended me to ya, he wouldn't have been Aizen, would he?"

I had the rare privilege of seeing Byakuya Kuchiki being taken aback.

"Why yes," he said in vague surprise. "I was surprised by the recommendation at the time from Captain Aizen..." there seemed another touch of humor about him as he said

"Surprised for the same reasons that everyone else was."

I understood the hint that he was driving at; ya don't get much more of an Odd Couple Felix-and-Oscar pair than me an' Captain Blueblood Kuchiki.

"I was just curious," I said quietly.

Kuchiki raised a brow slightly at me, actually seeming to invite comment for once, and I hesitated for a moment before admitting

"Somethin's bin buggin' me about it. You wouldn't know this, though Rukia would seein' as she was there when he said it, but before Aizen managed to pry her away from me and reach inside her body to take the Hougyoku from her, he told me something. He said that out of the three of us, er, me and Kira an' Momo I mean, that I was the most difficult. He told me that I was so stubborn and difficult and that he didn't have a use for me. Y'see, he'd had his eye on us right from the start, you mighta heard about that mission that went south during my academy days...?"

Kuchiki nodded affirmation. He knew of the training mission that Hisagi-sempai and two other upper-classmen had taken a bunch of us first-year advanced students on way back when I was in the academy, and how something had mysteriously went wrong and the scene became a killing ground full of Hollows unexpectedly, leaving us Academy students to survive as best we could until help arrived. Our savior then had been Captain Sosuke Aizen of Fifth Squad and his then-Lieutenant (later captain of third) Gin Ichimaru.

"Aizen and his former Vice-Captain were the ones who rescued us, but looking back I sorta wonder if maybe they didn't set up all those Hollows in the first place" I muttered partly to myself. "So anyway, me, Momo and Kira all went directly inta Fifth t'gether, right outta the Academy, Aizen encouraged us to. We all graduated with high enough marks that we got put directly into Seats. Momo he kept under him, Kira he sold upriver to serve Ichimaru, and me, well, he said himself that there wasn't much he could do with me. He called me stubborn and unmanageable, and said he shipped me off to Eleventh as soon as he could."

I trailed off.

"Then it appears he found a use for you after all," Kuchiki finished for me.

"Yeah, he'd have already know about me an' Rukia from back in the academy, it wouldn't have taken a genius ta figure out I'd be harboring a little bit of a grudge on ya. Momo or Kira might even have mentioned it to him by accident, we three are pretty tight and it's common knowledge between us. So by the time I'm ready to become a senior officer, Aizen recommends me for Sixth probably figuring he can sow a little more chaos and dissension in th' ranks. That's one more set with a good distraction..."

I paused, now even more full realizing how well we'd been set up.

"And he made sure of it too!" I realized out loud. "Right after Rukia was put in the Tower, he approached me privately to tell me he personally thought that the situation surrounding her rushed orders for execution stank. He made sure I was gonna fight you, that way, even if you did have second thoughts about turning yer sister over ta be executed you'd have a ready justification to keep your pride in line cuz i'd already be tryin' ta get her free."

There was a long, scowling pause while we both stopped to absorb the implications of that assessment. Not only had I been manipulated, but the Captain had as well.

"it is irritating to be forced to admit," Kuchiki said into the silence. "To being... what is that colorful colloquialism you use? Being played like a puppet?"

"Like a violin, sir," I corrected. "You don't play puppets, ya manipulate 'em."

"A most vexing situation," he agreed.

"It all sort of makes sense now, or at least a little more sense anyway."

"What does?" Kuchiki questioned curiously.

"When Aizen pulled his stunt, he didn't just split the Seireitei along Divisional lines; those have been there for centuries and yet we all manage fine around them, just look at Eighth and Thirteenth. He manipulated peoples personal loyalties to each other, which is... not ta sound sentimental here or nuthin', but that's the Seireitei's real strength."

Kuchiki looked at me with a mildly interested look on his face that didn't quite hide the razor sharp intellect in his eyes and said

"Go on."

I swallowed a bit, suddenly worried about soundin' like a fool again. Ancestors knew that I had managed that trick often enough but I was tired of being treated like an idiot all the time, I wanted my words and observations to carry weight for a change! So, I guessed it was time to put it out there and see if maybe I had something.

"Um well... okay..." I stammered, trying to think of a good starting point. "If Aizen had just split up the Seireitei around divisional lines, the center would still have held and he'd have been stopped before he could become a real threat because there are always deeper ties of loyalty from one Reaper to another that transcend divisional boundaries. Like I'm best friends with Kira and Momo even though we're in other divisions, we've been thick as gang-mates since the Academy."

Kuchiki nodded slowly, looking out across the miniature garden, signaling that he was listening even if he didn't appear to be so. Encouraged, I continued

"He knew the squads he didn't have to do much about would be First, Second, Fourth, and Twelfth because all of them except for First are specialists and pretty much stay within their own interests. Second would be too busy with chasing the intruders around to bother with what would have ordinarily been their focus, his supposed murder. Fourth Squad had Unohana in charge of it and she's a sharp cookie, so he probably faked his death partly as a way to keep her distracted by examining his body."

"She was one of the ones who figured him out in the end," Kuchiki agreed coolly.

"Eleventh also would have been easy to contain, Give Cap'n Zaraki a good fight and he'll get to it an' stay outta th' way," I continued, trying to clearly enunciate the conclusions I'd reached for myself.

I wasn't sharp like Hitsugaya or Kuchiki (or Unohana for that matter) or idiot-savvy like Captain Kyoraku, I didn't have Ol' Man Yama's strength or Captain Fuzzy's unwavering solidity, but I did have one thing going for me... I knew people. I liked ta think that I was the kinda guy who'd accept a person's strengths and weaknesses and be able to figure them out pretty well, to be able to know how they'd interact with others. I guess that was my real strength.

"Captain Yama has all the power, but let's put it out there... he's old. That's not sayin' he's weak, but old people, especially old men, get set in their ways. They spend so much of their time lookin' back that they forget to look forward. Aizen probably figured that Yama would be spendin' so much time tryin' to figure out a traditional way to deal with everything he had goin' on that he wouldn't be much of a concern in figuring him out. Third Squad was right out..."

I tried hard to suppress the sharp jab of guilt I felt for Kira's condition. Sure, Momo was outta sorts but she was made of stern stuff in the end, she'd be able to pick herself up and keep goin' on with a little help from her friends. She was essentially still herself, take away Aizen's brainwashing her to think of him as the be-all and end-all of all things and she'd still be Momo. Kira though... poor Kira. Ichimaru had been manipulating him, twisting him in very subtle ways for years. I'd seen it happening right before my eyes and been helpless ta stop it. I hadn't known what to do, and now, even though Kira looked like he was pickin' up and carryin' on fine on his own he wasn't. He was a mess inside but he didn't want anyone to see it.

"K-Kira... Kira was firmly under Ichimaru's thumb," I swallowed. "So there was no worries from that corner. Fourth's Unohana and Kotetsu are smart, don't get me wrong, but again, they're specialists. They pretty much stick to their specialty. Seventh could be manipulated well enough through Tousen, because him and Captain Fu- er, um, Captain Komamura was such fast friends, Hisagi-sempai would follow his captain. Eighth and Thirteenth Squad Captains were thick as Gang-mates, so if Captain Juushiro Ukitake was so distracted by concern for Rukia, Captain Kyoraku would follow his lead and help him out."

"Which would have left, Sixth, Tenth and possibly Twelfth as potential threats," Kuchiki finished.

"Not Twelfth. That old miser never looks beyond his clipboard unless its at something he can experiment on," I replied.

Kuchiki made a soft, distainful noise of agreement with my assesment so I wrapped up.

"It's sorta common knowledge that Ichimaru and Matsumoto go way back, so maybe Aizen thought he could manipulate Hitsugaya through his Lieutenant. Unfortunately for him, Ran loves the little squir- er um, her Squad's Captain, and she's more loyal to her friends and the Seireitei than she is to just Ichimaru. Lucky for her and lucky for us all I guess..."

I didn't tell him about what Ran had said to me the other night, something were better left off between friends. Besdies that was not the kind of information he cared about or that I cared to tell him. As far as I was concerned what happened between friends stayed there.

"Which I guess left Sixth," I said.

We looked at each other for a long moment. Anyone would have to acknowledge that we were an odd pair to work as Captain ans Lieutenant. Even without Rukia as a bone of contention between us, it was, frankly, strange that we would run a squad together. You didn't get any nobler than Kuchiki, they were the last of the Four Great Noble Houses with all of their honors and their good name still intact. You didn't get much of a humbler background than me; a kid raised in the second lowest district of Rukongai who had literally fought his way up the ranks on ability alone. Kuchiki didn't like socializing and I was happiest around people. He liked spicy food and I liked sweet. We'd fought over principles on more than one occasion; he felt that his honor and pride was worth sacrifice and I always felt that pride and honor meant nothing if the people you loved weren't kept safe. No matter which way you looked at it we were complete opposites, and the only thing we really had in common was the one thing we were destined to fight over. Strangely though, even with all of those differences, we worked. Setting aside the issue of Rukia, as a man and a Captain, Kuchiki had my respect and admiration. True, most of the time it was grudging because he was persnikety as hell about the letter of the law rather than the spirit of it, but deep down where it counted I knew I'd do my best for him. I'd disagree with him if I thought he was wrong, but maybe that's just what I was there for. I'd back him up in the unlikely event he should ever actually need me to. And all the while I'd keep trying to reach his level, even if I didn't have a reason for it anymore, I wasn't going to give up trying to surpass him. For a bare instant I thought I saw something flicker in his expression, like he somehow knew what I was thinking, knew and understood it.

"Carry on Lieutenant," he said resuming the distant pose of the Kuchiki once again... but, maybe I was mistaken, but, it semed like there was the lightest softening of his icy demeanor.

"Yessir," I replied, preparing to flash off back to my quarters in preparation for my investigation. "Tell Rukia I'll bring her back a present, if that's alright."

Kuchiki nodded his permission and added

"Good hunting."

You know, this chapter gave me labor pains. I was like one of those pregnant women who can't just squirt it out but have to suffer in agony for days. It wasn't originally part of the story but after rereading a bit I decided that it had to be in there and this was the perfect place to put it. They needed a last lingering moment to say thier [artings and reaffirm thier bonds before-- oh well, now that would be telling. ^_^ So, yeah, sorry it's taken me nearly three weeks to post this up, I just now got it right. I actually had to write it out instead of pasting from what I had already written and as I did I kept rethinking it and changing things and adding things in and taking them out... I was never satisfied with it. Even now, but I've decided that enough is enough. I'm posting it up, satisfied or not. Don't worry, all the rest of the chapters after this will be posted regularly because they've already been written. Sorry about the wait, please review kindly... eh heh heh heh... I got my PS3! I got my Final Fantasy 13! (rest of the crowd says: aha! Now we see the real reason she didn't post!) If I get sucked into the final fantasy void again, just send me and e-mail and remind my lazy ass to post again. Sorry again about the wait!

~Nightheart

P.S. I'm only going up to thirteen with the numbering thing, for the thirteen squads y'know, the rest are just going to be regular titles.