87Okey so to be forwarded my grammar and what have you is far from perfect and yes I do know this and I'm sorry so please bear with me . As well I am sorry it took so long to update I can to a sort of writers block and just stared at the two pages I had for a long while but I do promise up dates will come quick now that I have figured out where I want this to go . As well I tried to correct all of my 1st 3rd person points of view and didn't get them all so I do apologies for that . So in the future I am going to correct those as well .
And with this I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it
It had been a long day for Rukia. With all the work she had gotten done and continued to get done being vice captain she still felt like she was missing something in her life. She should be content she had everything that she had ever wanted. A wonderful home, a loving brother, a career finally, loving friends but somehow she felt like she was missing something and that something was burning a hole in her chest.
She walked around the out skirts of the sereti she wasn't ready to go home to another long lonely night she could only handle so many of those anymore and you could only work for so many nights straight before people started to notice and get worried.
She smiled softly as she continued to walk. Up ahead was a large pond that had giant koi that she would watch for hours she had each one memorized and every one of them had a name and a personality. She would look over the bridge railing and look into the clear water for hours when she wanted to get away .It didn't make her feel much better but it did calm her down and help her feel less lonely. She didn't want to admit it but that is what that hole in her chest was . . . . Loneliness it had been so long since she had , had a true companion . As the years slipped away from her the more she longed for a male companion an actual boyfriend but that was something she would never be able to have. She would be married but that would be the only man she would ever know and it was ironic considering how many men she was surrounded by. What she wouldn't give to be Matsumoto some days and feel what she had felt.
It was all futile thoughts of things she would never have. She needed something to take her mind off her little piece of sadness. Looking up at the thing railing of the bridged she thought she could do the one thing she was good at but needed practice with, hand to hand combat. There was a little known art that she had found so many years ago called Wushu the practitioner would move in a straight line instead of in a square or circular manner like most martial arts were taught. The thin railing was perfect for balance. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and leapt gracefully onto the rail. Keeping her eyes closed and her breathing even she took her body through the movements using only her feet as her guide. The motions were a form of meditation for her it was like music something to quiet her mind .Only this time she needed the silence and not the noise. As she moved through the motions she did not know if she wanted to laugh or cry at her own pathetic feelings.
He didn't get much out of his friend about Little Miss Rukia for the exception of that if he really wanted to believe she had any talent at all he would have to find out for himself because to talk about Rukia apparently didn't do her talent justice.
Whatever Shuuhei thought to himself as he took a stroll along the quiet grassy out skirts of the Seireitei. It had been a long day for him he had gotten a letter from the captain commander that said he was to lead a mission to the human world because there had been sightings of some unusual hollow's that were said to move extremely fast ,in the letter it described them as a superior form of spider . That thought alone made him shiver uber fast soul sucking spiders, yeah now there was something he wanted to go against in his first go round as a captain in the real world. Then of corse there was Mayuri's long and mostly odd list of things that he wanted picked up including but not limited to a set of metric unit hex wrenches , a weed whacker, two pair of g strings one lady's one men's and grape flavored popsicles the one's with the dancing gummy creature on them .
He ran his hands through his hair, and shook his head why that odd man needed that combination of things was so far beyond him and he knew that if he asked why he would become the test subject for what those articles were meant for. The g- strings he thought he could handle but the weed whacker whatever that was just sounded scary and the specifications for grape popsicles made him nervous . . . beside who liked grape flavored popsicles any way?
But that was really trivial compared to the bigger picture the big picture was that this was his first mission as a real Taichou , it was his job to do it himself or pick out people to go with him to execute it flawlessly. That initially was why he thought of Kuchiki Rukia she was a get in , get out , get gone type of person not one to waste time with the stupid little things or get distracted unless she had the time . In some sense she was a small female archetype of her brother. However watching her this afternoon made him question that from what he saw she looked scattered and clumsy . He snorted mentally at least she wasn't going to be a distraction like Matsumoto would be if he got to be alone with that woman for any given amount of time nothing productive would happen, he had to smirk well nothing productive to the soul society would get done.
The sky was now turning a brilliant fiery orange as the sun started to set into the horizon he loved this time of day work was winding down and life was starting up. These days it didn't seem like he got much time to himself so he had to make what little use he had of his days count. For some reason tonight he didn't feel like going out to join his friends just yet. The warm early summer evening was nice and it was nice to get a break between the entropic din that was his life. Some time away from the excuse me Taichou I need this or , Taichou can we do this or Hisagi you must play your guitar for us or drink another round with us or take care of Kira because he can't handle his alcohol. Folding his hands behind his back much like he would in parade rest he continued forward there was a pond up ahead that he liked to go to for a quiet place and look down into the pond and watch the large koi swim.
The first thing that always caught his eye when he got closer to the pond was the way the light refracted the suns from the water it always seemed to cause the pool to shimmer to some degree. Seeing the familiar glitter made him smile but something else caught his eye there was something small moving in extremely intricate patterns on the thin railing. This made him curious because it had to be one of the Shinigami because he could see the gleam of a zanpakuto in the setting sun. The figure was small and moving with precision and a lot of balance that was hard to manage on such a thin railing . Studying the movements more closely it didn't look like this person was doing normal hand to hand drills it looked like an art he had seen many years ago called WuShu. Were as it wasn't standard practice in drills almost no one knew what it was or how to do it. Hell he himself was not very good at it he was flexible but nowhere near enough to move the way it required it took a different form of precision that he did not have so he chose not to peruse it but this littler person who was doing it was amazing. To manage this mostly linear form in a completely leaner state having to compensate for the weight of their zanpakuto showed defiant skill.
He continued and shook his head the figure was tiny and there was no denying it was fully fledged Shinigami but he didn't know that any of the younger ones would know how to do that not to mention with that precision. Looking closely now he saw that is was a small black haired girl .As he got close to the bridge the woman as he now found out stopped with her back to him.
The woman turned gracefully and looked down at me with a smirk.
"Hello." She said as she leapt from the rail to the grass in front of me.
It was Kuchiki , Little Miss Rukia , the same one he had saved from a very painful collision with the floor earlier that day.
"Hello" the word came out formally because all he could do was stair at her in disbelief.
he watched her put her hands on her hips and start to look a little unsure . " Is everything all right Taichou?" She looked around then back at me " I wasn't doing anything wrong was I?"
As he looked at her he still couldn't speak it was still sinking in that she could move like that.
" Oh " she looked like she was starting to get nervous . " Was this about earlier , about falling off the chair." Her face was fully enflamed and he watched her chew nervously on her lower lip looking at me in anticipation.
He held out a little longer watching her fidget it was entirely to amusing to watch her face turn that red. Trying to stifle back a laugh he shook his "No lieutenant Kuchiki I was just observing your practice." He cleared his throat and sobered his face "You are quiet talented."
He watched her blush and smile softly.
"Thank you Taichou."
Looking down at her he had never really noticed that her eyes were actually violet for years he had heard his friend talk about them but he never really took the time to look at them or at her for that matter. The more he studied her the more it took him off guard she was not the knobby kneed little girl that he had dismissed so easily in academy somewhere along the line all of her sharp edges seemed to soften and leave her looking more like woman despite her height. What was he thinking this was Kuchiki Rukia it wasn't like she was a goddess like Matusmoto .Shaking his head he tried to clear his thoughts . He was here on a mission now that he saw what she was capable of he could think of no one else that would be better suited for the mission than she was.
"Lieutenant Kuchiki"
She just arched an amused eyebrow "Yes"
He reached into his Yukata sleeve and pulled out the orders that he was going to give her earlier. He watched her tilt her head to the side curiously as he handed her the paper work. After seeing what she was capable of he knew this would not be a mistake in asking her to join him. He watched silently as she read over the paper work and watched her face contort a bit .
"He wants grape popsicles and a weed whacker?"
There was a hit of disbelief and slight confusion in her voice as she read that part more to herself then to him. He continued to watch her read the note her mouth silently whispering the words quickly to herself as if he weren't even there .
"You have got to be kidding me!" She blurted out of nowhere . "Spiders." She said in disbelief. " They honestly expect me to go after." He watched her shiver involuntarily.
"They expect US." He knew he broke her out of her train of thought as she slowly lifted her head her cheeks were as red as Renji's hair. He couldn't help but laugh again her reaction to this letter was priceless " They expect us to go after the spiders."
Her face still stayed red but took on more of a confused state "Why the popsicles and weed whacker?"
Shuuhei snorted in amusement "You forgot the two thongs." He watched her eyes get huge and her face turn even brighter red. He was now taking a sick sort of enjoyment out of watching the woman blush because she just did it too easily.
"He could have ordered that off the internet you know." She said under her breath, but he heard her all to clearly " What did you say Lieutenant Kuchiki."
"Nothing." She said quickly folding the paper back to its original shape "Nothing, but it does sound like an interesting mission." She smiled weakly.
He nodded his head "Indeed it does and i was asked to pick out someone capable of getting the job done with me ."
She arched her eyebrow " So in conjunction with spiders you thought of me. . . . That's flattering."
She looked highly un amused and this took him completely off guard " No . no , no ,no" he was no back pedaling as he watched her continue to look un amused an expression her brother often took when he was about to say no to something. " No. They wanted me to find someone who could help execute the mission in a timely manner and, I thought of you seeing as you were trained by Kuchiki himself."
This time her expression turned completely flat and he knew he had just dug himself deeper into a hole. "So do you want me or my brother?"
Shuuhei mentally palmed his forehead this was turning into a disaster of epic proportion just to ask a subordinate to go on a mission. Taking a deep breath he ran his hands through his hair trying to find some way out of this one.
"No Lieutenant Kuchiki what I saw you just doing made the decision clear as to who I should pick." He made his voice sound as authoritative as he could so she would take him seriously. However even using that tone of voice she looked like she was going to say no. "Look." The words came out honestly no pretences behind it. "What I saw you do up there really impressed me I'm not going to lie I can't do that and I doubt that many or anyone can do it like that. You have a reputation of getting in , getting out, and getting gone and the quicker I can do that with spiders the better because I don't like them much more then you seem to."
He watched her pause for more than a moment then nod her head "I will accompany you on this mission Taichou."
He let out a silent sigh of relief that she was actually going to take this job then paused as he watched a thought pass through her eyes that didn't see to make her happy.
"But you are going to have to ask my Nii-sama if it is okay if I go." If he didn't know better he could swear there was a sad hint to her voice.
Shuuhei Nodded his head "The sooner the better I was told that we were to report to our mission in the morning."
She blinked "That awesome they gave you time to prepare." She muttered sarcastically and shook her head "In that case would you care to have dinner with Nii-sama and I since you will have to ask him any way."
He nodded but really didn't want to . It wasn't that he was on bad terms with Kuchiki it's just whenever it came to his little sister you ran the risk of his annoyance. She started to walk and he started to follow her.
"But if I may ask why do I have to ask your Nii-sama if you can go on a mandated mission."
She looked back at him with a blank unreadable expression. " Because the clan is trying to marry me off."
He looked down at her with amusement " And what are you a flight risk are they afraid you will purposely end your chastity." He laughed the nobles where all to ridiculous for their own good.
Stopping she turn back to him "Yes." She said simply
His jaw just dropped .
"Yeah I know." She laughed a little and gestured him forward
The rest of the walk to the Kuchiki manor was a silent one as he watched the woman beside him get more and more solom with each step. Upon entering the gate of the manor two guards bowed deeply to both of them. Her calmness was starting to un nerve him he was watching her do a one hundred and eighty degree turn in her behavior. He followed her through the front gardens and saw her brother standing in the center of front door.
"Your late." His words were simple and cool.
"My deepest apologies Nii-sama." She bowed deeply to him
Shuuhei cleared his throat. " It is my fault Kuchiki Taichou that Rukia has been held up."
The older Taichou arched his eyebrow and looked down at the younger man.
"I was informed earlier today of a mission that the captain commander wish's for me to take in the human world." Shuuhei looked over to Rukia who now stared meekly at the ground. "and I thought your sister would be the best candidate to company me since she is more familiar with it than I am."
The elder Kuchiki nodded his head. " I think you have made a wise decision choosing Rukia ."
Both Rukia and Shuuhei blinked not expecting those words to come out of the elder Kuchiki's mouth
Byakuya looked down at Rukia "But that still does not excuse you from being late Rukia we have gusts waiting."
Watching this hole interaction was bizarre to Shuuhei ,he had never seen a brother and sister act so formally to each other it was almost painful to watch. It was even harder to believe that the woman standing next to him was the care free woman he saw dancing I her office. As painful as it was to watch he continued to watch the two interact.
" I was not aware we were having guests tonight ." Her voice was even smaller now that her head was directed at the ground.
Byakuya nodded cooly "The elders have said that it would be good to invite the Iwazakie clan to dine with us this evening ."
Shuuhei watched Rukia's head fling up but she didn't say a word.
Byakuya looked down to Shuuhei "Taichou since it is late I will invite you to have dinner with us."
There was no way on earth Shuuhei could say no without looking rude and something in his stomach was telling him not to leave Rukia alone at this moment.
"It will be my honor Taichou Kuchiki."
With that Byakuya turned his back to the both of them and walked into the manor leaving them behind.
"Shit." She whispered under her breath
This act of human emotion startled Shuuhei after all of the robotic conversation.
"What?" He looked down at her with some concern.
"You are about to meet one of the men my family wish's to marry me off to."
Rukia did not look happy about this at all as a matter of fact she looked down right angry
"How bad could this guy be?" he whispered down to her and, as he walked into the dining room he saw exactly how bad this guy was.
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