Bya/Hisa Sprog fic

[fay_e]

This is total Id fic, set in an AU in which Byakuya and Hisana do succeed in having a son. Apart from that, everything else happens the same.

Which is why the kid gets the opportunity to meet Rukia after her adoption.

The Kuchiki estates were vast, sparse and yet held an understated opulence. Rukia had not expected anything less. She had not, however, expected her reception into the Kuchiki house to require such a large number of servants, which made her wonder where they had all disappeared to once they had shown her to her room.

She dared a peek outside. The house was quiet again, in a way that suggested that there was no one else around. From what she could see, the gardens too were large. Yet there was something about the greenery that calmed her and made her feel less alone.

Mind made up, she padded out of her room and to the veranda she had spied in passing. There were sandals there, but in sizes too large for her. After some thought, Rukia shucked off her socks. There was no point in soiling newly washed clothes. She padded on the path with her bare feet.

The gardens were quiet. Rukia admired the riot of flowers, which were a welcome relief from the conformity of the house. She stopped to breathe in the smell of chrysanthemums, closing her eyes to let the scent wash over her.

"Who are you?"

Rukia couldn't help her guilty look as she jumped back. She had not expected to be discovered. She was also surprised to see she had been startled by a mere child. The voice that had interrupted her was young, but she had not expected it to belong to someone so small.

"Who are you?" the child asked again, his voice loud and carrying despite his small size. His clothes were as fine as the ones she was now wearing, but were rumpled in a manner that suggested its owner played in them regardless.

"I - My name is - " It seemed too strange to use the surname of the man who owned the house, when she had yet to feel she belonged. "My name is Rukia."

"Just Rukia?" the child asked. "Did you lose your surname together with your shoes?"

Rukia found herself flushing, as if she were a child caught breaking the rules. It should have been the other way around. "I - I don't see why you should care!"

"If you haven't lost it, why are you so red?"

"I don't speak to little kids who won't tell me their name," huffed Rukia.

The child hopped onto the nearest stone to bring himself to ear level. "Don't you know?" he asked. "I am Kuchiki Hikaru!"

Even in the Academy, Rukia had heard of Kuchiki Hikaru, the heir of the Kuchikis and the light of the Kuchiki family. Rumours stated he was the only one who could face down Kuchiki Byakuya and come out unscatched. But most regarded him as some sort of myth because he was rarely seen, and Kuchiki Byakuya did not seem the sort to have a child. Yet here Rukia was faced with the evidence that Kuchiki Hikaru was very real, and seemed happy enough for a child his age.

Hikaru was watching her with a level of intent that only a young unfettered child could muster. "I thought a stranger who looked like my mother would know better," he said.

"Your mother?"

He jumped off the stone, somehow grabbing her hand in the process. "Come! I will show you."

Rukia followed, feeling a little dizzy. She had not heard anything about a Lady Kuchiki when she was back at Academy, although considering that Kuchiki Byakuya had a child a wife would naturally have to be involved. Hearing that she looked like this mysterious woman made Rukia even more fearful at the prospect of their meeting. Would she be happy that she and Rukia shared a face? Or would she be surprised, horrified even?

He led her to a different set of stairs from the one that she had descended from. Rukia felt embarrassed as Hikaru cheerfully shed his sandals, while she had no place to wipe her bare feet. But Hikaru pulled her along with the sheer force of his enthusiasm, and she found herself leaving bits of earth on the clean floors. If Rukia was a bit more aware of herself, she might have been more bothered about leaving such a mess for other people to clean. As it was, she was too fixated on the idea of meeting the Lady of the house.

Hikaru brought her to a set of doors that looked just like every door in the house. Yet despite his age he opened it with a cautiousness that suggested the simple room held more significance than other rooms. Rukia started when Hikaru suddenly turned to her.

"Be very quiet," he said, a finger held to his lips with an earnestness that was a little too mature on someone so young. His expression frightened Rukia a little, such that even the sound of her bare feet on the wooden floor sounded too loud. She kept as close to Hikaru as possible, and dared a look around when they was no reaction to her entry.

The room appeared empty save for a well-used cushion on the floor. Hikaru ran to a set of doors, his footfalls softened by the socks he wore. Without much preamble, he started tugging the doors open.

"Wait!" Rukia whispered, and nearly clapped her hands over her mouth at the harshness of the sound. "Wait," she repeated even more softly. "Should you not introduce me first?"

Hikaru gave her an odd look, as if the very idea was preposterous. "Should she not be able to see you before being introduced?" With that, he threw the doors open.

Deciding quickly that her first greeting to Lady Kuchiki should not be a squeak of surprise, Rukia hurriedly swallowed the sound and bowed to hide her embarrassed expression. "My apologies! I am - I mean, my name is - " Whatever she meant to say died away when she looked up and saw that instead of looking at a room, she was looking at a shrine instead.

Hikaru ignored her. Instead he went right up to the shrine, even going so far as to pat the frame that housed the single painting that was the focus of the shrine. "Honoured Mother," he said. "This is Rukia. She seems to have forgotten her surname, so please excuse her impolite introduction."

"My manners are fine!" Rukia couldn't stop herself from retorting. She bit back some of the questions that sprang to mind: Your mother is dead? When did she pass away? Why did no one tell me? How can it be that we look so alike?

None of these questions seemed to have occured to Hikaru. Introductions done, he trotted over to the cushion and promptly sat on it. "You can sit here too," he said, with the air of one bestowing an honour. "Honoured Mother looks the best from this angle."

"It - it's fine, I am quite comfortable here." Rukia sank down slowly to a seated position on the bare floor. She should leave but the revelation was too startling for her to just simply ignore it.

"If you must," said Hikaru, sounding bored. "Why are you here?"

You brought me here seemed an extremely silly answer, so Rukia tried to decide how to tell the young child about her adoption. "I was invited here by your father."

"You lie."

The pronouncement caught Rukia by surprise. "Excuse me?"

"My father is the perfect host. He would not leave a guest wandering the grounds by herself in such a state. Therefore, this cannot be true."

Anger took over the uncertainty that Rukia felt earlier. "What do you know?" she demanded. "You are only a child. You know nothing about me, or why I am here, because not even your father has told you. How dare you make such assumptions about me!"

Hikaru did not get angry, but merely stared at her through his bangs. "Tell me then."

The suddeness of Hikaru's demand stunned Rukia. He mistook that for unwillingness to talk, because he followed his demand with, "Do not think I will not understand. My father says I am very bright!"

Rukia very much doubted Hikaru's ability to understand. But Hikaru had spoken the most that Rukia had heard in days. She did not wish to alienate him. "I come from Inuzuri," she began.

"That is why you have no surname!" Hikaru cried out, strangely delighted. "I had thought my tutors made this up, but it must be true. Tell me, do you really have no family?"

Again, Rukia hesitated. Not too long ago she would have protested that she had a family, thank you very much, but lately what she used to rely on had fallen through. "No," she replied.

Hikaru nodded. "My tutors told me this of the souls in Rukongai as well. It appears that their claims are not as silly as I thought they were. Although they could not know as much as you - you are from Rukongai." He wiped the excited expression from his face, and went still in a manner that strongly reminded Rukia of the older Kuchiki. In his sternest tones Hikaru ordered, "Tell me about Rukongai."

"What about it?" Rukia ventured.

"Everything."

"That would take a very long time. Don't you have something in mind that you want to know about?"

"It matters not how you start, since you will tell me everything eventually."

Rukia racked her brains for something that was suitable to tell a young child in front of his mother's shrine. "It is a large place," she began. "Larger than Seireitei. And there are all sorts of people there. Every day there are new souls, fresh from their soul burial, that enter Rukongai. There are all sorts of people in Rukongai." Rukia paused to gauge Hikaru's expression - his early attempt at nonchalence had fallen away, and what remained was a child listening with rapt attention. Rukia tried to make things more exciting for him. "There are shops, and performers, and always people in the streets, even if there isn't anything happening. It gets very crowded. That is why people with spirit power try to become shinigami. Things are... less chaotic in Seireitei."

"Yes, my mother did the same!" Hikaru shared. "She came to Seireitei to be a shinigami."

"She must have been a very talented woman," said Rukia, looking at the potrait again. A face disconcertingly like her own smiled at her.

"She was," Hikaru declared. "That is why my father married her."

"I see." Seeing that Hikaru was beginning to share more about himself, Rukia dared a question. "How long ago was that?"

"Does it matter?" Hikaru shrugged. "You should tell me more about where my mother came from. Do they really have bandits in Rukongai?"

While Rukia struggled for an answer, a shadow fell across the doorway. Rukia froze, not wishing to confirm if the reiatsu did indeed belong to the owner of the house. It was very cold and frigid.

Hikaru shared no such concerns. "Honoured Father," he said, all poise and politeness again. "This is Rukia, she claims to be your guest."

Byakuya took his time in observing the scene before him. "Your archery instructor is waiting," he told Hikaru instead of answering him.

"I left my uniform in my room," Hikaru replied, and pattered over to his father.

Rukia did not see what signal Hikaru gave, but she did hear Byakuya state, "You are getting too old to be carried." Only one set of footsteps begun to leave however, and despite herself Rukia turned to follow Byakuya movements. Byakuya did indeed have an armful of happy child, and Hikaru gave Rukia a smug look over Byakuya's shoulder. Noticing Rukia's gaze, Byakuya paused in the corridor.

"You are expected at dinner," he informed her. Casting a look that went all the way down to Rukia's earth-caked toes, he added, "Please make yourself presentable. You may ask the servants to assist you."

Rukia barely managed not to squirm. After Byakuya and Hikaru had left, she cast a look back at the shrine. She wanted to close the doors and straighten the pillow that Hikaru knocked askew in his exuberance, but the gentle smiling face of Lady Kuchiki gave her pause.

Instead, Rukia found herself fleeing the shrine, like the coward she was.