Any leftover feeling from the night before vanished after a morning spent running the most rigorous drills he could think of. Within fifteen minutes Byakuya had his squad members panting hard, testing their endurance and quick-thinking in ways he had never done before. He outwardly justified this by claiming the reward would be plentiful, though on the inside he knew the extra work meant he'd have to force too much attention on ensuring the idiots under his command didn't accidently shank themselves with their Zanpaku-to as they ran, dodged, attacked, crawled, and collapsed into piles of hungover failure to think of—

Wait a minute, collapse into piles of hungover failure? Raising a hand, Byakuya cried out, "Halt!" All activity instantly ceased. The members of Squad Six cautiously followed their captain as he approached one of their comrades, some unfortunate soul whose night of partying had rendered him incapable of little more than curling up on the ground and moaning about his nausea.

Upon finding this subordinate neither vomiting nor dying, Byakuya gave him a sharp kick to the ribs. "Get up," he murmured, though the volume of his voice was truly what drove the man to heave himself up as fast as the dizziness would allow.

Byakuya offered him a harsh glare. "The next time I find you incapacitated for non-immediate reasons," he began, his voice never once rising above its usual level, "you will promptly find yourself running additional laps and courses after every squad exercise, as well as taking charge of cleaning the barracks and laundering the uniforms." His eyes narrowed. "Any pleading for assistance or, shall we say, 'cheating,' will have your work also cover that of Squad Thirteen. Do I make myself clear?"

Any bit of cheek the squad member may have had evaporated. Despite the dizziness making the world spin, he nodded his head and called out, "Yessir!"

Narrowing his eyes some more, Byakuya turned his head to face the rest of his squad. "Four laps. No shunpo."

Trying their very hardest not to groan in protest, the entirety of Squad Six headed off to begin their laps. All of them had very quickly learned to dread "laps," for despite this implying perhaps a jog around the squad barracks, in Squad Six, "laps" had just one connotation: running the entire perimeter of the Seireitei. This command was typically only given when Captain Kuchiki was especially displeased with one of them, or with his brother-in-law, or with his lieutenant, or with whatever else had wronged him in the last twenty-four hours. To some relief, laps were generally a once-a-month type of thing, however. At the very least, Captain Kuchiki often joined them on their laps, if only to fire venomous forms of motivation at stragglers and to reinforce the no-shunporule.

But aside from reinforcing his league of fools, as he thought of them on occasions such as this, Byakuya had a very different reason for joining them on their laps today, rather than leaving it to Renji. Focusing on the task at hand was a proper distraction from returning to any sort of thought he may accidently have about the night before. Naturally he had brushed off most of the lingering concerns as ludicrous, for who gets that stirred up over a dream, but when it came to memories of Hisana, Byakuya was always a bit of a wreck the following day. She had been his everything, and though he'd never admit it, she was still his everything. To have her shouting at him for things he had done was not going to leave him unmarked, even if it was all an illusion. Even Renji had noticed something prior to the start of the day's training.

"Captain Kuchiki?" he had started. "You seem a bit, uh, off today—"

"I haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about, Renji. Have the men meet at the training field."

"If you insist, Captain, but really—"

"Have the men meet at the training field, Abarai. Must I repeat myself one more time?"

"No, no, I heard ya…."

Get a grip on yourself or they'll revolt.

The dramatic flair ended any bit of reason Senbonzakura may have contributed to the situation. Narrowing his eyes once more as he ran along the rooftops above his squad, Byakuya answered in kind. I have more important things to do than listen to your rubbish.

Certainly you do, Byakuya, said Senbonzakura, a slight tone of mockery accenting his words. But we both know running doesn't get us anywhere.

Byakuya didn't bother to respond, for he knew he wouldn't get another answer.

After a few hours and the passage of three laps, Squad Six had definitely lost its steam. Sweat was streaming, mouths were panting, and feet were no longer leaving the ground, rather shuffling along in some half-hearted attempt at movement. Many of the squad members had removed their shirts, and all long hair had been pulled back in an effort to savor any bit of cool air that may cross over their hot and sweaty necks. Even Byakuya had to admit the exercise was taking its toll, as his breathing rate had been steadily increasing and the presence of his shihakusho growing far more inconvenient. But this was never to stop him, a great and powerful captain and Kuchiki. He had fought in the direst of straits, no matter the state of his opponent or the weather. He could take on four laps around the Seireitei in a shihakusho and haori.

Under the beating sun.

Enduring the humidity all the while.

Yeah, this was definitely something Kuchiki Byakuya could do…at least as far as his squad was concerned.

However, fortunately for him, an excuse to pause had just arrived. They were passing Squad Thirteen headquarters again, and a quick (albeit extremely thorough) glance about the place had Byakuya calling to a suddenly irritated Renji to carry on in his stead. A small series of shunpo had Byakuya across the grounds and outside the captain's office in but a few seconds. His arrival did not go unnoticed, if only because he had landed right beside his sister, the other Captain Kuchiki.

Smiling up at her brother from where she sat on the engawa, short legs dangling off the edge, Rukia said, "What a pleasant surprise, Byakuya. Care to join us for a moment?"

"Us?" he asked, sitting beside Rukia.

Rukia pointed to the "us" now rounding the corner of the building, showing herself to be Rukia's youngest child, Shinigami Apprentice Kurosaki Hisana. She resembled her mother and namesake to a T, much to Byakuya's eternal amusement. It took her but seconds to realize they had a guest, and with a squeal of delight she came charging toward her uncle.

"Oji-sama!" Hisana said, bowing low before launching herself at him for a hug. "Did you bring me anything?"

Remaining as steady as he could, Byakuya shifted his niece between him and her mother. "I'm afraid I have nothing but my company for you today, Hisana-chan," he said.

"But maybe you will get Oji-sama's pardon for rudely asking him about a gift?" Rukia said, raising an eyebrow at her daughter.

Hisana blushed and stood up again, bowing once more before her uncle. "Sorry!" she squeaked.

Byakuya kept his face quite still. "For?" he said, resisting the urge to wink at Rukia.

"For being an idiot!"

"Well, perhaps not an idiot—"

Hisana was already crawling back up to the engawa, her attention span certainly inherited from her father.

"May I ask what brings you to the neighborhood, Nii-sama?" Rukia asked, grabbing Hisana by the obi and heaving her up.

Byakuya closed his eyes in irritation. "Some foolish underling of mine arrived for drills completely hungover and didn't even attempt to hide it. Within an hour he managed to earn the entire squad four laps."

Knowing exactly the Squad Six connotation of "laps," Rukia winced. "I am by no means questioning your abilities as a captain, Nii-sama, but…don't you think that was a little harsh?"

"Am I known to be soft?" Byakuya said, wrapping his arm around Hisana as she leaned into him.

Finding it best not to answer that question, Rukia crossed her legs and quickly changed the topic. "Have you heard anything from the Captain-Commander lately?"

"Not recently," Byakuya said. "Has he issued anything important for once?"

Half-chuckling, half-cringing at the memory of the last thing Captain-Commander Kyoraku had sent out ("Pool Party for all Captains and Lieutenants, 10 PM, Ladies' Swimsuit Contest at 11:30, B.Y.O.B!"), Rukia nodded. "Yes, this is actually important. The latest group of cadets has just graduated from the Academy, and their squad assignments have been sent out to the captains." A look of mild irritation crossed her face. "I just hope this group is far better than last year's..."

"Hooligans?"

"The worst kind."

"Might I suggest laps?"

Rukia's attempts to hide her smile were in vain. "While…admirable, I have found other ways to get them back in line. I think I had one of them shivering and wearing a heavy cloak and gloves for a week after I was done with him…."

Nodding at the room for creative thought, Byakuya observed the slowly moving clouds up over head, Hisana now taking advantage of the lull in conversation and telling a story about a ladybug she'd found yesterday. He most certainly hoped this year's recruits weren't a bunch of baboons, though at this point he was one hundred percent confident he was well adept at taming them, unfortunate as that fact was. Regardless, Byakuya could not deny he was even a little eager to see new faces, unpromising as they usually were at first. Years as a captain taught him that even the dumbest of subordinates could possess some talent worth distilling; as with Renji, even the dumbest of subordinates could do a fantastic job of hiding immense talent.

Byakuya was broken from his reverie by Hisana poking him hard in the diaphragm. "I'm talking!" she shouted. "Kindly listen as I have so kindly listened to you!"

"Hisana!" Rukia growled. "Apologize right now or so help me…!"

And so the bowing spiel played out again.

Sighing in exasperation, Rukia looked apologetically up at her brother. "I am so sorry. Someone has been spending a lot of time with her older sister, aka god at this point, and, well, need I say more." Rukia rolled her eyes.

Casually attempting not to cough as he caught his breath, Byakuya said, "It is—hack—no matter. Children—hack—learn from even the most unexpected of sources, thus why we should be—hack—careful with what—hack—and—hack—whom they—hack—are subjected to." And he let out an enormous cough.

Rukia bit her tongue, not trusting herself to defend her parenting right away. "Yes…but I can't very well separate Hisana from Ichika."

"I never suggested you should, merely that a bit of caution should be exercised in child-rearing."

Rukia felt herself frowning in growing irritation. "But not enough to blind my children from reality…."

"Of course not." Byakuya watched Hisana run toward a group of squad members walking past, clearly some of her favorites. "However, call that simply a childless military man impressing his views upon any who will listen. It's no secret I haven't the experience to give you parenting tips."

Any annoyance at her brother was promptly swept away as Rukia felt a pang of guilt and pity. "Nii-sama…."

A subtle change in the set of his eyes, miniscule and easy to miss, silenced Rukia.

Byakuya quietly went on. "I can't pretend it isn't a regret I don't carry, never raising children with her, but alas, that is merely the way it was meant to be."

"But that can't be enough to get rid of any regret you must feel."

"I have come to accept regret as an essential part of anyone's existence."

As she usually was at any point during her conversations with Byakuya, Rukia was left silent for a resounding moment. However, a bit of contemplation and a dash of daring had her proposing a question: "Did she ever say she wanted children?"

Byakuya slowly nodded. "Yes. She was not adamant, but she did express some interest in motherhood. Though, she was most certainly fearful of the prospect of it all. All reasoning behind that came after her death, of course, but nevertheless…."

Rukia smiled gently at her brother and said, "No matter what she may have done, I still very much respect her. I am sure that she would have been a fantastic mother, and you a wonderful father."

Employing his very best mask of apathy, Byakuya looked out at his niece, whom he adored, and coughed once more as his diaphragm finally settled.

If only they knew….

A/N: The good news: I'm writing again (blame the new Within Temptation single)! The bad news: I have no idea how long it'll last! BUT I do have 10 chapters already lined up, so we'll just have to see what happens next. :D To gently misquote the great Peter Steele, I hope it's not too disappointing!