A/N: I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Years. I'll be at home giving my mattress a midnight kiss. Cheers

Song "I found" by Amber Run

Good vibes ~ Ashes

This Darkness is Home

xXx

"And I found love where it wasn't supposed to be,

right in front of me.

Talk some sense to me."

xXx

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!"

The swirling ball of red energy began to form in the palm of Ichigo's hand, only to combust and send him flying backwards into a tree.

He hit the bark with a thud and began to cough violently. Once he could breath normally again, Ichigo leaned against the tree and pinched the bridge of his nose.

'I was doing so well too. My heads just not into it today...'

He sighed, thinking back to the advice Byakuya gave him.

'A lack of control is what's causing your kido to backfire. Until you can learn to tame your reiatsu, try thinking back to a memory that calms you.'

Ichigo stood, walked to the center of the field, and took a calming breath as he thought back on nights he'd spent drinking tea with Byakuya under the stars.

He recited the incantation as he let the memory quiet the aching of his scattered nerves, and the kido resounded in perfect execution, leveling a path of trees in its wake.

Ichigo smiled at the destruction, but his face soon melted into a broad, encompassing frown.

'I like what we have. It's simple, but when I think of something more complicated, my head starts throbbing.'

With his returned headache, Ichigo sat back against the tree and pressed palms into his eye sockets.

'But I feel even worse when I think about him with someone else...' Ichigo groaned, resting his head back against the tree. 'Someone else, I say that like I think about him being with me. It be a lie if I said I never have, but...would I want that? It could ruin everything...and...I just don't want to lose him.'

'Would he even want that? I mean, he said so himself...we're just friends. He doesn't want me like that...'

Under the withering foliage, Ichigo allowed the strong breeze of an approaching winter to cool his sweat drenched body, but it did little for his convoluted thoughts.

He let his mind drift back to a few nights prior, the night that stuck with him like a bad dream.

xXx

Ichigo began undressing in his guest room when he heard Zangetsu say, "Man, you can be really pathetic sometimes, King."

"Shut it. I'm not in the mood, Zangetsu."

"Yeah, well tough shit."

At the sound of a heavy flopping, Ichigo turned to see Zangetsu lounging with his feet perched on the glass coffee table."What are you doing here? I didn't say you could manifest."

"A better question is, what the hell are you doing here?"

Ichigo shot the sword spirit a scowl before he continued to strip down to his hakama. "I already told you, I'm not in the mood."

"Well I'm not in the mood to be living in a constant rain storm, but here we are, King."

"This is none of your business."

Zangetsu sat with his arms crossed, shaking his head lightly. "Ha," he mocked, "not my business? Hello? I'm your zanpakuto, literally apart of your fucking soul. You're my business." He held Ichigo's glare relentlessly, as if daring him to say otherwise. When Ichigo broke away, turning, Zangetsu said, "Can't you just admit what you already know? You love Moonbeam."

"Shut it," Ichigo said, turning away even more.

Zangetsu clapped slowly. "Great response, King. So what, you're saying you don't love him?"

"I do, but not like that."

"Oh really?" Zangetsu smirked lewdly, "Because that dream you had about him last week begs to differ."

Ichigo flushed, sputtering like an old car engine.

"Even if I did, that doesn't mean I want to date him," Ichigo reasoned.

"What, you love him, but you don't want to be with him? Is that it?"

"I'm a complicated guy," Ichigo said, walking towards the bed

"More like stupid," Zangetsu muttered.

Ichigo said nothing, promoting Zangetsu to stand in challenge. "It's not like you to be a coward. That's not the man Byakuya fell in love with."

Ichigo turned abruptly, posture stiff and eyes hard like marble. "He doesn't love me!"

"Oh, so is that what bothering you? Why didn't you just say so?" Zangetsu asked, a grin pulling at his ashen skin. "It's not smart to make assumptions. How do you know that anyway?"

Ichigo tutted, a permanent scowl marring his face. "You heard him," he muttered.

Zangetsu pinched at his nose and shook his head in exasperation. "Yeah, and so did you. He's never had any real friends, just mentors, and the one person he did love didn't even love him back! The guys a special type of emotional retard." When Ichigo's eyes cut away, Zangetsu gave him an inquisitive glare, "But you already realized that, didn't you? You're not nearly as dense as you pretend to be. You know there's something there, just like you knew that busty chick had a crush on you, but when you don't want to deal with something, you play dumb." He scoffed. "Pathetic."

Ichigo's face looked like shards of blood, the way it tensed and brightened. He shunpo towards the sword spirit, reappearing an inch from his face. "Go back to your inner world, Zangetsu, before I make you."

"Ha, don't make me laugh, King. You never have the upper hand when you're doubting yourself." Before Ichigo could form a response, Zangetsu rolled his eyes. "Come on, not now," he said seemingly to himself. "I don't want to, he's pissing me off."

"Who are you talking to?" Ichigo asked. "Is it the old man?"

Zangetsu put a tongue in his cheek and said, "Nice guess, but try again...Ugh, fine, I'll leave, but you owe me something good when I get back, Sweet Cheeks."

"Wait," Ichigo demanded. "Who the hell are you talking to?"

The sword spirit stepped back and smiled wildly at his master. "None of your business

."

xXx

Shivering winds drew Ichigo back to reality, making him stand and knocked some dirt from his uniform.

'I don't have time to think about this. I need to go see Jushiro.'

As part of his negotiations with Ishgar, Ichigo decided they should host a festival for both the Quincy and the Shinigami. The hope was to build a sense of camaraderie and mutual understanding, as it was much easier to dehumanize a group of people you've never spent time with.

In a desire to lead by example, Ichigo planned on having various captains and seated officers speak at the event. Jushiro, being the revered lynchpin that he was, seemed like an obvious candidate.

Seeing as the festival was less than a week away, Ichigo had plenty to preoccupy his mind.

He had plenty to distract him...

Right before he flashed away and decidedly pushed thoughts of him and Byakuya to the back of his mind, Ichigo thought, 'It's better like this. What does a guy like me know about being in love anyway?'

xXx

Byakuya's eyes opened upon his inner world with an apprehensive eagerness. Only after he took in the thriving landscape as a whole did he allow himself to appraise each piece of life as a singular entity.

A helix of pink drifted over the gardens by passage of wind, blessing everything with their sweet aroma. Their delicate yet fierce forms waltz through the cotton candy blue sky, leading Byakuya's gaze through his soul like the beaconing hand of a tour guide.

The petals first cut through translucent falls of water, swooping down into the streams before emerging to ruffle the growth of a rose bush. They navigated through a throng of flourishing trees and continued their whimsical dance to where he sat. On the cushion of sunlit grass, they rounded him like a crown of flowers.

A solidarity petal caressed Byakuya's cheek as if welcoming him home with a gentle kiss, and it was soon replaced by a wayward tear.

"You have not been here since before the war, Master."

Byakuya looked ahead to see Senbonzakura standing before him in full regalia, prompting him to quickly settled his dripping eyes.

"I felt as though, if I came, I may have never wanted to leave."

The sword spirit nodded before he spanned the distance between them. He sat in a seiza in front of his master and bowed respectively.

"And now?" he asking, straightening his posture. "What has prompted this visit?"

"I suppose I was hoping to look upon my soul for answers."

"And have you found what you are looking for?"

Byakuya skimmed the area, and he felt overwhelmed by the sight of it all. So much so, he could not call upon his other senses.

"It was foolish to think it be that simple," Byakuya said with a sigh.

"Perhaps I can offer you guidance," proposed Senbonzakura.

"Yes," Byakuya agreed, his brow perking. "I am sure you know both the issue and the solution."

"And I'm sure you know it does not work that way," the spirit said.

Byakuya could hear the wry inflection of Senbonzakura's soft baritone, making him sure his spirit was smiling under the coverage of his barrings.

"Yes, I do."

"What is it that you seek, Master?"

"I am not quite sure," Byakuya admitted. "I have felt ill at ease of late, as if something within me will not obey." He paused, his eyes hardening on a nearby sakura tree. "My face does not know how to behave around Ichigo. It simply reacts to his presence in ways it does not with others. I feel as if I have lost control of our relationship."

"Is that not to be expected?" Senbonzakura asked, "With how close you two have grown?"

"Yes," Byakuya said with a slight nod of the head. "However, I question if this is a good thing. Ever since we returned from Quincy territory, he has been distant. Perhaps I have deterred him with my openness."

"Now master, despite your logic, you often let your insecurities override your judgment. Have you considered that Kurosaki-sama is dealing with his own internal conflict?"

Byakuya closed his eyes, considering his spirit's words. "I have, but perhaps it was arrogant to assume it was about me."

"Perhaps it is about you, perhaps not," Senbonzakura said, "but trust that he desires nothing but your fullest, realest self."

"And how would you know that?"

"I can not answer that."

Byakuya's brows narrowed, and he considered pushing for a response, but he learned long ago that when he was the one seeking wisdom, Senbonzakura would not budge to any amount of obstinance.

"I am not sure what questions I am supposed to ask you."

"It is more important which questions you ask yourself. Did you give any thought to the question Uchi-san presented you with when he left? Why you chose to keep a certain distance between you and Kurosaki-sama?"

"I did not," Byakuya said with a tiny, irritable huff. "He is the one I am closest to, so it seems senseless."

"Maybe it is in your closeness that the issue lives," he reasoned, "Maybe you fear a change that could draw rifts if you let it come to be. So you keep a safe distance, however small, to protect what you two have created."

"Ichigo said something similar to this. That, when I marry, our relationship will alter."

"And you do not see his reasoning behind this?" The spirit asked.

"No," Byakuya said definitively. "It is correct that I keep a certain barrier between us, but that is only natural for me. He is the only true friend I have ever had, and I do not see reason for that to change."

"You are not completely correct, Master." When Byakuya lifted a brow in question, he explained, "You have had one other true friend. I know the pain of that time has clouded your memory, but surely, you must remember."

Byakuya went silent for a moment before he lifted his gaze and said, "Hisana."

"Yes," Senbonzakura said with a nod, "she understood you in ways no others did. I believe that is what made her rejection so difficult for you. You saw it as something unlovable in yourself."

"What is it that you are implying?"

"Nothing," Senbonzakura assured. "I am making an observation."

"I can agree that her and Ichigo have this in common, but I do not understand what I am to infer of it."

"It is not just in their similarities that you will find your answers, but in your similar feelings towards them. Of course," he explained, "only once you can see past your own insecurities."

Byakuya looked towards the ground as if the answers would bloom in front of him, ready to be plucked, but nothing would come. He once again felt like a child grasping for knowledge about a world beyond him. After all this time, he thought he knew his own heart better than this.

"Do you agree that you feel a degree of fear when it comes to Kurosaki-sama?"

Hesitantly, Byakuya nodded.

"And what do you fear?" Senbonzakura asked. "Him passing like your late wife?"

"No," Byakuya said, "I've come to learn the inevitability of death. Ichigo will one day die, as we all will. However, he is strong, and I doubt that day will come to pass soon."

"Then do you fear his leaving? Was this not the reason you resisted your budding relationship in the beginning, because you assumed he'd one day leave."

Byakuya clasped his hands to disencourage any unsightly mannerism as he thought about the question. "He will leave for his own division one day. I know this, and yet..."

"It bothers you," Senbonzakura determined. When Byakuya nodded, he asked, "But if you two are simply close friends, why would his changing divisions alter the relationship you have built?"

"It will not," Byakuya said. "I suppose I just dislike the idea of him not being by my side, however selfish that may be."

"You are closer than you realize, Master."

Byakuya sighed and asked, "Will I find clues within my inner world?"

"Yes, you will find them everywhere." Waving an arm out, Senbonzakura said, "Tell me, what differences do you see?"

"Everything seems richer than before," Byakuya observed, tilting his head curiously. "However, I thought that may have been because I have seen nothing for so long."

"You're right, everything is thriving more than ever. It has not been this bright since before the death of your Otōsama."

Byakuya's eyes widened marginally as he gazed around the gardens once more. "I see."

"More so, consider your presence here. You seem more eager to know about Kurosaki-sama than you have been to know about anyone else in a long time." His voice took on a frown. "I can tell this distance between you both is troubling for you."

Byakuya slowly inclined his head, letting the words and their cryptic meaning find a place inside him.

"You have given me much to think about."

"Good," Senbonzakura said. "Now it is time for you to leave. The truest reflections of ourselves can be found within the ones we care about if we know what to look for. I can sense Kurosaki-sama now. Perhaps it is time you look a little deeper."

xXx

Byakuya opened his eyes to the return of darkness and the felling of Ichigo's staunch reiryoku moving towards him.

"There you are. It took me so long to find you, I almost thought you didn't want to be found."

The noble heard the shifting of a shihakusho and the popping of joints as Ichigo landed gracelessly beside him.

"And yet that did nothing to deter you in your searching."

"I've been practicing my kido and making preparations all day, so I thought I could blow off some steam by bothering you."

Byakuya said nothing. Instead he focused on the rhythm of Ichigo's breathing and the scent of petrichor rolling off his skin.

"Did you not want to be found?" Ichigo asked, a slight frown sullying his voice.

Byakuya gave a sharp shake of the head. "No, that is not it. I was simply visiting my inner world, and I suppose I got a bit lost." He paused, considering. "This was Hisana's favorite place to stare gaze at, so I come here sometimes. Although, not since I lost my vision."

"What did she mean to you?" Ichigo asked offhandedly. "I mean, obviously you loved her, but I can't help but wonder what kind've person could make Byakuya Kuchiki fall in love with them."

There was something unsettled in the way Ichigo voiced his question, but there was also a genuine curiosity that made Byakuya inclined to honesty. For anyone else, he would have idled his tongue, but for Ichigo, who was like the sun, Byakuya was the moon. There was no escaping the gravity that tethered them. Byakuya would always orbit him.

"It is hard to find the words to describe her. She saw me for who I was, befriended the darkness in me. It takes a special kind of person to look past the Kuchiki name, a person with love and compassion in their heart. That was the kind of person Hisana was."

Byakuya paused, wishing he could look to Ichigo for some visible reaction, but he was left with only a silence to gauge.

"Hisana use to say that she knew I loved her, because I looked at her with the same wonderment that one might look upon the heavens." After a moment, he continued, "She said I reminded her of the moon."

"I don't think she befriended the darkness in you,"Ichigo mused somewhat abruptly, "I think she saw past it. Do you know why Zangetsu calls you moonbeam?"

"I assumed for the same reason you have never once addressed me formally: A lack of manners."

Ichigo scoffed lightheartedly and said, "Because your name means 'white night', something so bright it lights up the dark. It makes sense that they both compared you to the moon. You're shrouded in this darkness, and from far away, you seem cold, hard, perfect."

Ichigo's voice softened as he continued, and Byakuya could feel the way he stirred in his spot, disrupting some of the distance between them.

Byakuya's sun, it pulled on him, and he, too, drew closer. "But if you look closely, you're not perfect at all. You have all these craters that show how strong you are, and even if it seems like you hide in the darkness, it bends and blurs around you, because you're too bright... "

The noble's breath was also caught in the clutches of Ichigo's field of attraction, as he felt it forcibly pulled from him.

"I am nothing compared to the sun."

Ichigo scoffed. "Is that suppose to be me?"

Byakuya nodded.

"The sun's overrated."

"It gives everything life, and all life grows towards it. Everything rotates around it."

"Yeah, but it's so bright it's blinding, and no one can get near. You'll never hear of a man walking on the sun. And in the end," he muttered, "it's just covering up a black core."

Byakuya closed his eyes briefly, and thought that, even while speaking figuratively, Ichigo was still so straightforward when one took the time to listen. "Technically the core of the sun is opaque, but I see what you mean." Dryly, Byakuya remarked, "It does have quite the torch to carry."

After a moment of dull silence, Ichigo asked, "Did you actually just make a fucking pun?"

"Perhaps."

"You made a science pun while still managing to correct me," Ichigo pointed out through a bubbling, bout of chuckles, "I've never met someone who could be such an ass and really amazing at the same time. Good job, Byakuya."

The noble chuckled too, Ichigo's blitheness making the swelling in his chest exuberant. So much so, he thought it might overcome him if not tamed, these wild things that howled inside of him, things born of Ichigo.

The silence that followed their laughter felt similar to the eerie quiet that trails on the heels of a bad storm. Finally, Ichigo asked, "Why are we talking in metaphors, Byakuya?"

"Perhaps because we do not yet know what we want to say."

Another silence ensued, and Ichigo's next question felt a lot like the acrobatics of avoidance, as if he was bending backwards only to maneuver around the awkwardness of his uncertainty.

"Jushiro said I should ask you about courting Hisana." Quickly, he added, "You don't have to tell me if it's too personal."

Again there was veracity in his curiousness, and Byakuya knew that if he was simply avoiding something, Ichigo could've easily made up an excuse to leave. He wondered what conflict was waging its war inside of Ichigo. He wondered if Ichigo knew things he himself did not.

"As I said," Byakuya began, "she healed many of the children that would go on to attend the preliminary school, but that was not the whole truth. Years ago, I was both being promoted to taichou and beginning the process of ascension to head of my clan. It was a troubling time for me. I had and always have thought that I was a lesser man than both my Otōsama and Ojisama. My Otōsama had this infectious beauty, a friendliness that drew everyone near. My Ojisama held himself with such an effortless nobility while never seeming cold. They were both men of duty and sacrifice and they held themselves with such a grace. I took after them both, but I lacked their resilience and decisiveness. I wanted both love and honor, but I was unwilling to sacrifice one for the other. Because of that, there was a conflict in me, one that could be sensed, and when I did make sacrifices, it was with such a heavy heart that It weighed down the ones around me. I wanted too much. I could never accept my destiny nor reject it."

"You know I am not one to speak heavily on myself, so I only tell you this for context, as it has to do with how I met Hisana."

"Context or not," Ichigo said lowly, "I like knowing more about you. I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't interested. So go ahead and finish your story."

"I did not have peers," Byakuya continued , "and the other children in my clan looked at me with jealousy or fear. My volatile disposition certainly did not help me in gaining the friendship of others, so after years of feeling ostracized by my Kuchiki blood, my destiny felt like, at times, a burden. I desired to know what it felt like to be looked at as if I was just another person, which lead me to a tea house within the West district. It was far enough away so people would not recognize me without my barrings. However, when I arrived, I noticed that many of the patrons were staring at me, whispering to each other. I figured they had recognized me, and I went to take my leave, but not before a waitress came to greet me."

"It was Hisana?"

Byakuya nodded. "Yes. She was kind, intelligent, and despite her timid nature, she had this liveness about her. I assumed that she did not recognize me and somehow managed to overlook the gawking of the others, but that was not the case. I soon realized that, in my fraught state, I had forgotten to take out my hair pieces, symbols of a high noble, and that she approached me in such a way not out of ignorance, but out of character. I enjoyed our interactions so much that I began to go back on what few days I had free. I would speak to her about the burdens of nobility, about my dreams and my past. She would do the same. I would often stay until she closed up for the evening, wishing the night would not end." A hint of a pained smile surfaced on the noble as he declared, "She was my friend."

"But it became more," Ichigo prompted.

"It did not take me long to understand my feelings, but it was the circumstances of our existences that kept me quiet for over a year. However, after my Ojiisama passed away, the elders wanted me to consider taking a wife. I was at an impasse, and for once, I had to choose a side of that tight rope I had been straddling. So I asked her to do me the honor of allowing me to court her."

"And she accepted?"

"No, however, that was the day she told me about Rukia. She spoke it with tears in her eyes, as if it was her biggest regret. I knew without her telling me that she was stuck in her past, one her heart could not surmount. She had given me so much, and I became determined, if not obliged, to give her back a future, even if it was not one with me."

Byakuya felt Ichigo slid a bit closer, and he could tell that the young man sat on the edge of every pause in his story by the way his body neared in anticipation.

"What made her change her mind?"

"Another year past, and as you know, I never did find Rukia, but we built the school together. We were great partners and even better friends. After some time, the elders became more insistent that I choose a wife, so I asked her again. Only this time, I did not ask her to love me, but to save me. If I were to marry, we could not continue as we were. I did not want that isolation again, and neither did she. We cherished the bond that we had, though it meant something different for both of us. So I made a vow that, if she were to marry me, I would do everything within my power to make her happy. I will always remember how she smiled at me and said 'there are much worse things in this life than being loved by a person like you.'"

Byakuya's words hung in the air, stretching out the silence that surrounded them. Then he added, "Truthfully, she was kinder than need be. She went into our marriage with an open heart and attempted to love me as I did her. She even went as far as to ofter me affection and agreeing to make a child with me, but in the end, she could not find it in herself to feel as I did."

"Woe…" Ichigo marveled. "You did all that for someone who didn't even love you."

"I am sure that sounds like the actions of a pathetically sentimental man, and perhaps they were, but-"

"No!" Ichigo interrupted, his voice full of fiery dissent. "That's not what I meant. You know, they say people accept the love they think they deserve, but it sounds like Hisana did really love you, just in a friend way. I think that's pretty damn amazing, Byakuya, that you loved her selflessly and without expectation. More people should love like that."

Something about those words felt like validation, a validation Byakuya wasn't even willing to give himself. "Thank you," he whispered.

"Thank you for sharing that with me. I know talking about yourself isn't easy for you."

"Why did you want to know?"

"Well, I…" Ichigo paused in uncertainty. "Actually, lately I've been wondering how do you even know if you're in love with a person. I've never been in love before, so I can't be sure."

Byakuya blinked a few times, as he felt mildly surprised by the words. Had that been what was causing Ichigo to be distant? Perhaps he had been arrogant to assume Ichigo's change in disposition had been by some fault of his own.

Automatically, his mind attempted to put a face to the person who could steal all of Ichigo's thoughts, who could make the sun orbit around them. Of course, there was the obvious answer; Rukia. It made sense. Perfect sense, actually. Their inevitable joining felt like a linear truth, a connect the dot type romance, the laws of nature simply waiting to be enacted. When a person spoke of love between Ichigo and Rukia, they might as well have said that the sun will rise and the moon will follow. People would be more surprised to hear they felt nothing romantic for each other, if they believed it at all.

So why did thoughts of them together feel like a reality Byakuya's mind would not swallow? Even if he was force fed the idea, he was sure his brain would regurgitate it in a sickly denial.

He couldn't be sure.

Byakuya cleared his throat and said, "I only speak from my personal experience, but I think love is a sort've mild obsession. Like with friends and family, you want to make them happy, but you find that your happiness becomes dependent on theirs. You find yourself wanting to share parts of yourself with them that you don't share with anyone else, and you desire for them to feel the same. You want to build a home with them, to grow for them, because when you look at them, you see the best parts of yourself reflected in their eyes..."

Nothing could've prepared Byakuya for the realization that crept upon him. It bloomed in his chest, and with that one instant of recognition, it shot through him with a vengeance. With it came a dread that stuck to him like a thick moss, imprisoning him in the horror of its unruly reality, blocking out all light. By the time he comprehended the danger in this thriving bastille, there was no deliverance to be found. There was no escaping this fact, a fact he should've realized long ago. He was helplessly in love with Ichigo Kurosaki.

Sitting with him there, speaking on the idiosyncrasies of love, it was as if he was making a list of all the feelings Ichigo gave to him.

The pieces of their relationship shifted, creating a whole new picture, and like a dominion effect, one after another, moments between them were seen with a new clarity. Did Ichigo see this in him? Is that why, like Hisana, Ichigo didn't want him to marry, because he knew Byakuya's affection would be inappropriate when he took a wife? Is that why he brought up love, to make it clear his heart was already claimed?

These realizations, they weren't like seeing the light, but like being banished to the darkness all over again. This simple truth, he was frighteningly afloat in it, petrified by this new perspective. Nothing would be the same again.

This fear, it was a fever unlike any other.

"What the hell is going on?!"

Byakuya whipped his head towards Ichigo, reaching out for the man he couldn't see. "Ichigo, what is wrong?"

"I-I don't know," the man yelled, pushing away from Byakuya's touch. It sounded as if he was exhaling glass, the way his breaths came out jagged and pained. "I need to go. I'll-I'll talk to you later."

As Ichigo stumbled to find his footing, Byakuya reached out once again. "Let me accompany you. You are not well," he urged.

"No!" Ichigo jutted away as if Byakuya was a rose with thorns for fingers, beautifully untouchable, and it stung Byakuya with a familiar loneliness. "I'm sorry, I just need to be by myself right now."

And then Ichigo was gone, and there Byakuya was, alone in the dark.

xXx

siwon611: Well we all know Ichigo's a determined guy. So hopefully he'll have something up his sleeve to keep Byakuya out of a marriage. ;) Thanks for the review, love. I'm excited to take this journey with you!

Haikha: Thanks for pointing that out. I'll be sure to change it. It means a lot that you say that. I'm really trying to flesh these characters out and explore their insecurities. I typically try to keep mental notes of people who follow my stories frequently, and I believe you use to comment on a lot of my stories. If so, it's good to have you back, and if not, thank you for reading my humble fiction.

spencerxx: You're enthusiasm made me laugh.(In a good way) lol. I am very flattered. I'm not sure if you have an account, but if you do, you could follow the story and make it easier on yourself. It will send you emails when I update. Thank you for your review and taking the time to deal with these stubborn characters.

Guest: Thank you, love! I hope you enjoyed this chapter also.

Tifanny91: You're right. It's a delicate situation. Not to mention complex. Between the Quincy/Shinigami situation, their stubbornness, and individual insecurities, it won't be an easy development to accept. As you see in this chapter, Byakuya doesn't even consider the possibility that its him Ichigo's in love with. Hugs right back at you, love. Have a safe new years. I hope it's a great year for you.