Black-and-Red Conflict

~~~Thirteen~~~
Compassion

“Rukia, is everything alright?”
The small woman sat bent over a paper filled with small script, which she could not possibly be really reading for it was turned the wrong way round. She did not realize her name had been called out, either.
“Rukia?”

Ukitake said it a little louder and eventually moved his hand in front of her eyes, making her jerk up her head.
“I assume it would be easier to read this if you didn't attempt it upside-down.”
The smile on Ukitake's face was as gentle and friendly as ever and she allowed herself to relax and lower her head again.
“I'm sorry, Taichou.”
His smile widened.
“Don't worry about it. Do you want to tell me what's on your mind?”
Though of course he could guess at least part of it.

It must not exactly be easy for her to have her brother and her best friend behave in a way that was pure mystery for about everybody who knew them. Ukitake still could not seriously wrap his mind around that idea of Shunsui's that they had talked about some days ago and their silent agreement on trying to intervene if something bad should happen had not been all too successful either.

A huge surge of the 6th squad's captain's Reiatsu had been alarming enough for them to hurry to the respective administrative building, but they had only found Renji there, agitated, nervous, determined, but not a trace of Kuchiki Byakuya. The man had vanished for more than two days and Jyuushiro's feeling about the whole thing had gotten worse and worse. Having seen the noble return to Seireitei just the last morning, calm and composed, did not really ease those worries. It seemed strange for the captain to have gained back his resolve just like that. And when Ukitake had seen Abarai later, apparently trying to hide his emotions but still clearly enough confused, shaken and angry, it was obvious that something bad had happened between them. Again.

To witness the positively hateful stares Renji had cast Byakuya while they and several other captains and lieutenants stood to see teams of all squads leave to the Living World had been more than unsettling, to say the least.

But what could one do with those two? Talk to them? Hardly. Maybe Abarai could be convinced to that, but Kuchiki Byakuya... He would just close himself off even more if he felt his privacy invaded. He had always been touchy about that issue, but after his wife's death he had taken it to a whole new level. When Ukitake as the noble's former sensei had after Hisana's death attempted to talk to the widower, it had already been almost impossible to simply get in contact with Byakuya. He had obviously buried himself in an immense load of work for distraction, and as the older Shinigami had finally caught up to him in some random hallway, the noble had been cold and defensive in an almost aggressive way.

It wasn't a moment Ukitake liked to remember. He had been more careful after that. There obviously was nobody who could get past Kuchiki-Taichou's shell and Ukitake would rather not think about what Renji might have had received as punishment for trying to do just that. It seemed as if things were getting worse and if Shunsui should really have been right with his assumption that they actually liked each other, Ukitake doubted they'd ever get anywhere in that direction.

Rukia all the while looked up to him, her dark eyes troubled, obviously considering if she should tell him of her worries or not. It was hard not to trust Ukitake-Taichou. He was kind, gentle, compassionate, almost like a protective father, watching out not only for the Shinigami in his squad, but somehow worrying about everybody else as well. Finally she took a deep breath and spoke.

“There's this stupid Kuchiki-clan meeting tomorrow evening, which I hate so much that nii-sama allowed me to invite someone on my own so I would have better company. I asked Renji, but... I don't know... he's strange. Something's troubling him and bad. He's not himself anymore, but doesn't wanna tell me what's wrong. I just know it has to do with my brother somehow.. but he's acting weird, too. When I told him Renji did not want to come he said he would go and talk to him, invite him. Nii-sama personally inviting Renji to a clan-meeting? After they are obviously like fire and water right now? I just don't get it. They're both out of their mind, and I know something's really wrong but of course neither of those... bullheads tells me anything.”

Rukia let out an exhausted breath, hunching her shoulders and making herself even smaller. Ukitake placed one hand lightly on her back and smiled before his expression turned serious once more. 'Bullheads' was a description that he would not immediately have applied to Byakuya, but at the moment, it seemed to fit both of the men very well indeed. But then, Kuchiki-Taichou saying he would personally invite Abarai-kun, that was a new and interesting piece of information. Could it be he'd just said it to make his sister feel better? But to just pretend seemed quite impossible for the Kuchiki-clan's head.

“And the worst is, now Renji's really coming. He told me today”
Rukia rested her forehead on her arms, unable to see the surprise on Ukitake's face.
“He's coming... ? Byakuya got him to attend? But,... oh.” The 13th squad's captain sat back. This was getting stranger by the minute.

“But since you wanted Renji to come, isn't this good for you?” he continued.
“Yeah, of course I wanted him to come, but this is... I mean, what did nii-sama tell him? Did he order him to come? I mean, I want to know what's wrong with them but... actually now I'm not so sure so I wanna be around when they meet again.”

Yes, Ukitake thought that was quite understandable. He definitely didn't envy Rukia for the possibility of sitting through a dinner with the both of them. In fact, with her brother and best friend behaving as if they were slowly going insane, Ukitake imagined there must be many more enjoyable things than being in her place right now. Just that unfortunately there wasn't much he could do for her despite listening to her troubles. And obviously not even that was possible, since right then a loud voice from the entrance to the common room made them both look up.

“Oi, here you are! No wonder the Shinigami Woman Association voted you the captain with closest contact to his subordinates. Now I can't even have private time with you in your office anymore.”

Shunsui appeared with his usual dramatic entrance, fluttering coat and all, but Ukitake was standing and holding a hand out in front of him to stop the man before he could get the chance to show his affection to his partner all too enthusiastically. Even though it was no secret what kind of relationship the two captains shared, Jyuushiro still preferred not to make out in front of everybody else. He wasn't sure Rukia wanted to see anything like that right now or ever and there were some other members of the squad present as well. Kotsubaki and Kotetsu for example, as usually fighting about who would prepare the tea for their captain.

But of course Shunsui could not be stopped from at least pulling the other into a short but firm hug, his hand resting on Jyuushiro's neck a little longer than needed, his lips pulled into a smug grin. Then his eyes fell on the young woman who had stood up as well and bowed to him respectfully.

“Rukia-chan! That serious look doesn't suit your cute face at all. How are you? Know anything new about the two brawlers?”
That last question earned him a sharp poke in the side from Ukitake as well as a rather dark look from the person addressed. Shunsui just continued to grin though, pushing the rim of his hat higher and then jabbing his arms into the wide sleeves of his kimono.

“You must excuse Kyouraku-Taichou, he was just joking, wasn't he?”
Ukitake managed a surprisingly hard glare and Shunsui moved his head from the man towards Rukia and back jerkily, eyes wide, acting shocked.

“Oh no, Ukitake-Taichou, that is no laughing matter I believe. I would not joke about something like that. I am genuinely concerned.”
With that the man in the flamboyant coat leaned forward and down to Rukia, patted her head and smiled again, his face now showing compassion and honesty.
Ukitake eyed his partner wearily, not sure if there wasn't still some other comment following, but then the man straightened again and turned.

“So, do you think we should start intervening?”
Ukitake looked shocked at that question and his gaze shifted to Rukia as if motioning that Kyouraku should not start talking about this in front of her.

“Oh come on,” Shunsui said without heeding the other's concern at all, “Maybe it would make it easier for her, if she knew about our assumption.”
“What are you doing?” Ukitake inquired, shaking his head while Rukia's gaze shifted between the two of them and she did not look happy about what she heard at all. Her captain cleared his throat and went on talking, holding his hand out towards Kyouraku so the dark-haired captain could not say anything more to ride them even deeper into this mess.

“Your assumption in any case. Rukia, we...,” he was not sure what exactly to say, but he thought that, at the moment, his stuttering was at least better than Shunsui being a little too direct. He sighed and gathered himself.

“We have been worrying about those two as well, as you can see. Kyouraku-Taichou does have his own idea about their problem, which,” he glared once again and raised his voice as Shunsui took a breath as if he wanted to interrupt the white-haired man, “which should not concern you at the moment. Just that... I want you to know that we are also well aware that something, whatever it is, is going on.”
He finally calmed down a bit, hoping that he had successfully avoided telling her anything more about Shunsui's guess.

“It must be hard for you, but you are not the only one worrying about you brother and Renji-kun. We are aware that something is wrong, too and will try to watch out as far as we are able to. Try not to worry too much, yes?”
He smiled his fatherly smile at her as she watched him rather suspiciously, not sure if she really should be happy about this turn of events. To have Ukitake to talk to was a good thing, but to have Kyouraku grinning at her in a manner very much “crazy-conspiracy-like” was everything else than reassuring.

“So, wanna know what I think?” Shunsui looked at her from under his hat, grinning as if he was about to tell her what she was going to get for Christmas next year.

“No she doesn't! You are coming with me. Excuse us Rukia. And I'm sorry to leave you hanging like this but I really need to have a word with Kyouraku-Taichou...”
With surprisingly much force Ukitake had taken hold of Shunsui's arms, turning the other around and shoving him towards the exit. There was some protest from the taller man but it was turned down by rather agitated muttering from Rukia's captain before they vanished through the door. Only a few seconds after that, Kotsubaki and Kotetsu raced out as well as they noticed their captain's leave, arguing about who would take the tea pot while they ran.

Rukia stared after the group with a blank expression, trying very hard not to think about anything that had happened to her in the last week. She should take a trip to the Living World she decided. Stay at Ichigo's place for some time, maybe. Enjoy his comfortably normal family. Normal considered the fact that they at least would behave like they were supposed to.

She nodded to herself. Yes, the best idea she'd had in a while. She might not be able to skip the dinner, she did not dare that much, but if she packed some things she might be able to still leave tomorrow night immediately after the whole thing. Forget about all the crazy people for some days.

She sighed and sat back down to still read the rest of that script on demon arts before she would call it a day.

After another half hour she actually turned the scroll the right way round.


~~~