I rewatched the first two seasons of Bleach and The Hell Verse movie while on break, and this ship ate at me until I wrote it. Some things will not line up with canon (seeings as I haven't actively watched/caught up on Bleach since I was like 14), but I am willing to fix any huge, grievous errors if they are spotted.

Byakuya does not know what makes him stop in this particular backyard on his last night of patrolling several human cities. The boy, fast asleep in his room, cannot sense him. He cannot see him. He cannot hear the apologies that Byakuya has accumulated but cannot speak for the position he holds and his pride. If his sister were in his shoes, Rukia would say them. She would scream them out across the night, but her grief is too deep, her actions too limited, and her emotions too raw.

Kuchiki Byakuya is not pleased with the way things were handled with the substitute shinigami. He is dissatisfied with the way that someone so worthy as Kurosaki Ichigo, who has sacrificed so much for people he barely knows and a world he doesn't belong to, is discarded once he is no longer of use. The only thing that Soul Society have done right is to station a somewhat competent shinigami in Karakura Town to watch over this family. Isshin is highly capable of protecting himself and his own, but it is the only reprieve, the only gratitude, they show this family.

There is nothing he can do to rectify Ichigo's loss of his powers. There is little he can do to make his sister smile. Though the bag of Chappy the Bunny gummies hidden in his robes will cheer her up for a scant few minutes. He stands in the small backyard, a different quiet than his garden at Kuchiki Manor, but still peaceful. Besides Abarai Renji, Kurosaki Ichigo was the only person who could make his sister smile so easily, who knew what to do to make her happy (maybe even better than Renji). Byakuya wishes he could ask him if only to help ease her suffering. He turns away from the house, secure with the knowledge that all is well. A voice stops him before he can disappear.

"Byakuya-sama?"

He follows the sound of the voice to the young girl standing in the open door of the back porch, the light from the kitchen spilling out around her. Byakuya knows of Ichigo's family. Knows that of his twin sisters only one can see spirits, can talk to them, and can sense reiatsu. This is not the sister with these abilities. He is intrigued. That is the only reason why he pauses to answer her (and he will argue it for years to come).

"Kurosaki Yuzu."

The girl doesn't startle. Instead, she offers him a small smile and a polite bow.

"I was just making some tea. Would you care to join me, Byakuya-sama?"

There is no reason for him to stay, and yet there is no reason for him to be here in the first place. If Isshin has noticed his hidden reiatsu, and there is really no doubt that he hasn't, he makes no move to interrupt. Byakuya nods and follows her into the softly lit kitchen. It is a small, but tidy home. Byakuya watches as the quiet girl prepares the tea. She is not unnerved by Byakuya's presence. She pours him the first cup and waits for him to take a sip before taking some of her own. It is surprisingly good.

"How do you know of me?"

Her brows furrow, like this isn't the question she was prepared for, but she answers.

"Rukia-chan, she spoke very highly of her brother. Though I supposed she still does."

Something dark passes across her features, and Byakuya notices just how tired the girl looks. He can see that she carries exhaustion around her eyes, the same as her brother does. He knows without much doubt that this is not the first sleepless night she has had. He sets his cup down gently.

"How long have you been able to interact with spirits and sense reiatsu?"

She cradles her cup in her hands before looking up to him.

"After I was rescued from hell."

He nods. Trauma of that magnitude has different effects on everyone. Trauma of that magnitude has different effects on Kurosakis.

"You have not told anyone."

She smiles into her cup. It is a small, sad thing for a girl that Rukia has likened to the sun. She had loved to tell him of her adventures in the human world and the substitute shinigami's family before...

"My family has had enough to worry about."

He catches her eyes dart upward to the right, where her brother's room is.

"With Rukia-chan and Renji-kun gone, there was no one I could tell."

Byakuya feels a surge of frustration. It is dishonorable, what has been done to Kurosaki and in turn what has happened to his family. But Byakuya has his own honor to keep, regardless of his opinion on the matter. He does not elaborate or explain why the two no longer set foot in Karakura Town, but that is not what she needs.

They sit quietly for some time with nothing but silence and warm tea between them.

"It's because I died."

He finds that his teacup is nearly empty when she finally speaks. The fine tea leaves that gather at the bottom of the porcelain remind him of a fan. Byakuya has no reason to lie to her just as she had no reason to welcome him and offer him tea.

"Yes."

Her eyebrows furrow together. She looks much more than her 14 years. She is still but a child; a child that has faced such pain and fear for herself and her family.

"How did I even survive?"

No one could explain how she was revived after her soul chain was broken, but no one could find her anything but perfectly healthy, even Unohana-taichou and Inoue Orihime with their exceptional talents.

"I do not know."

Instead of looking troubled or fearful, she looks lost and resigned. It reminds him so much of Rukia before her execution that it turns his stomach. His mouth is moving before he truly considers his words.

"I have lived a very long life Yuzu-san, long enough to tell you that second chances are rare and are not to be wasted or second guessed."

She smiles at him, and he understands why Rukia always described her as she would the sun. Her smile is bright and carefree. It warms something in him.

"I haven't thought of it that way."

He simply nods his head as she gathers their empty cups. She bows her head respectively as she stands.

"Thank you, Byakuya-sama, for answering my questions and for your advice."

He stands and offers her a polite bow as well. If it shocks her, she doesn't show it. He is glad that she doesn't listen to everything Rukia or her brother tells her. A person should be able to form their own opinion of others without outside influences. He is also glad that she is much more respectful and polite than her brother.

"Thank you for the tea, Kuzu-san."

She offers him another smile as she heads to put their dishes in the sink.

"Please, feel free to visit again."

When he lets himself out into the backyard again he waits until the lights turn off before he shifts his eyes to the right. Isshin is leaning against the house with his arms crossed.

"Kuchiki."

"Kurosaki."

Isshin watches him carefully for a moment before he relaxes his stance and runs a hand through the hair at the back of his head.

"Thank you. She hasn't been herself lately."

Byakuya scoffs.

"What a person needs and what they want are two very different things. I simply told her what she needed to hear."

Isshin snorts, but doesn't contest him. He cannot find fault with the man that has helped his daughter when her father could not.

"I wouldn't mind if you stopped by every once and awhile, ya know. It's kinda nice to see your ugly mug actually doing grunt work."

He refuses to roll his eyes. He is not the same man Isshin once knew how to get a rise out of.

"Heh."

When he finally leaves the human world, he feels lighter than he has in a very long time.

It continues, their midnight tea. It is the same night every month. Sometimes they talk. Sometimes they do not. Isshin sometimes appears and speaks to him. Kurosaki Ichigo sleeps through each meeting undisturbed.

No one in Soul Society questions his trips to the human world, but Rukia tells him that he looks calmer when he returns. He has taken to spending more time with her; something Yuzu had encouraged him to do. She smiles more readily and those smiles take longer to disappear. They have started to draw together at least once every few weeks. It is soothing.

So is the tea that Yuzu brews.

He misses their meeting for the first time in three years in the fall. He spends the day in the family shrine as he does every year, speaking to Hisana and telling her what she has missed. He does not think Yuzu would fault him for it. She has spoken to him of how her family visits her mother's grave on her birthday. When he leaves the shrine, it is the first time in centuries that he doesn't feel weighed down by his grief. He actually finds that there is little grief left. He misses Hisana, he knows that he always will, but it no longer aches inside of his chest.

The month passes in a blur. There is a battle, short but vicious and unsparing of life. He is barely recovered from his wounds, his left arm and leg still smart, when he returns to the human world. It's when he touches down on the cool grass of the Kurosaki's backyard that he remembers exactly how much time does not slow for humans. He can feel a new reiatsu, small but strong, buffering against him insistently as soon as he lands. Isshin silently appears next to him, his skills as sharp as the day he left Seireitei.

"She doesn't want to talk."

Byakuya frowns.

"Then she will listen."

He doesn't have to knock. She can sense the small amount of reiatsu that he lets out. It is a small test, one that she passes, and one that weighs heavily on him. He is somewhat proud that she can sense it, that she has enough power to be able to identify it as his. A small part of him is angry, angry that she too has no say in this. But he pushes those emotions aside because they will not help her, not here, not now.

She opens the door with a smile. He notices how it doesn't exactly reach her eyes. He sits in his usual spot at the table and is given his cup of tea. They drink in silence. Byakuya knows that silence will not break her as it would her brother, or even, as he has come to learn, her twin sister.

"This is not the full extent of my reiatsu."

She startles, just slightly, but he sees the ripples of motion in her tea. She has yet to truly meet his gaze since she let him in. It is highly unusual of her.

"You would be unable to move if I were to release even a quarter of it."

She blinks and sets her mug gently on the table. He watches her quietly as he does the same.

"How long have you noticed your own spiritual pressure?"

There is no hesitation in her answer, just resignation. He finds that he does not like that tone in her voice.

"Just after your last visit."

Just like that, it seems as if her strings are cut. She lets out a harsh breath and finally, finally looks him in the eye. Her brown eyes are troubled. He does not like that either.

"I didn't want… my father knows more than what he lets on. We are very much alike that way."

She smiles into her tea. It's a bitter thing.

"I can tell that he doesn't want to talk about it. And after Ichigo… I don't want to burden him with this. I won't."

He will not spare her feelings. It may cost her or others their lives.

"Then you will let people die for your foolish wants."

She doesn't knock over her cup of tea only because he moves it from her reach.

"No! I don't want that."

He sets it further from her animated hands and continues the conversation. Her face is flushed either in embarrassment or anger. The Kurosaki's all seem to have a temper, it's just that it is very hard to pull it from Isshin or Yuzu easily, if at all.

"Hollows are attracted by reiatsu. If you do not seek help to control your spiritual pressure or learn how to conceal it, then you put many others besides your family and yourself at risk."

She blinks up at him, face draining of color as she stills.

"I, I didn't know that."

He lifts one shoulder.

"So I have informed you. You are no longer ignorant. What you chose to do with this information is up to you."

He watches as she processes their conversations, much more quickly than he had when he was told, when Rukia when she was told.

"How do I learn how to control it?"

He settles his hands on the table in front of him. He is equal parts relieved and frustrated that she did not ask him to teach her.

"There is a man, Kisuke Urahara. Your brother would have mentioned him before. He will help you if you ask."

He moves to stand but stills. He does not want this life for her. But it is her life, and she is free to do as she chooses. He just wants to make sure that she understands, that she is given the option, unlike her brother.

"He will ask you to make a decision. Whatever you decide will be up to you, Yuzu-san."

He squeezes her shoulder gently on the way out. She does not tell him goodbye as she has for months and months. He does not find rest easily that night or the nights that follow.

When he returns the next month, the lights in the kitchen are out, but he finds Yuzu sitting in the grass in the backyard staring up at the sky. Byakuya silently sits next to her. She studies him carefully. He doesn't need to look at her to see that she looks better since their last encounter.

"There was a hollow. It was taken care of, but not before it took out a substation in town."

Byakuya had gathered as much with his own senses and the report the Karakura Town Shinigami had given him. She had not participated in the battle, and Byakuya feels somewhat relieved that she has not stepped into her brother's shoes, not that she could not have handled the hollow, but that she had a choice to make where her brother did not. It was a messy battle, and it is why the stars are so easily visible in the small city still.

"Urahara-Sensei has been teaching me to control and mask my reiatsu. He also told me that you tried to kill my brother."

Her voice is still calm. It is said as a statement and not as an accusation. They have always been honest with each other, an unspoken agreement since that first night.

"I did."

She nods and goes back to staring at the stars.

"He would have made you break a promise you made to yourself."

"Yes."

She pulls her eyes away from the constellations to meet his. They are that warm brown again now. They are more knowing as well. It seems that Kisuke Urahara has been teaching her more than just control.

"I'm sorry."

He narrows his eyes, knows his brow is furrowed, but cannot contain his confusion.

"You did not commit the transgression. Your apology is not needed."

She smiles at him as if he has said something silly. He refuses to concede any more ground to her this evening. He frowns at her. She shakes her head gently, sensing that he will not ask what she means, and speaks.

"Yes, but it is still given."

She points to the kenseikan in his hair.

"Family is ours to love and protect, and where both my brother and father are concerned, to apologize for."

It is very hard not to return her fond smile. It would also not do to hold her accountable to apologize on her brother's behalf let alone her father's. She'd lose her voice long before she would be anywhere near finished.

"Heh."

She bumps her shoulder with his gently and goes back to gazing at the stars. He ignores her offense against his person. He finds that most things are easy to ignore when in Yuzu's company.

Only once in three years, does she miss their meeting.

She has sat up, sick as a dog, to apologize to him for not being able to have tea with him. She was shaking with fever at the time, and Byakuya scolded her before carrying her up to bed. He also chastised Isshin for not doing the same earlier. Byakuya was not swayed by the once Shinigami's chattering teeth or sweating brow. He'd have to be faster with his wadded Kleenex missiles for that.

She has fallen asleep on her textbooks while studying for finals because she had tried to wait up for his arrival. He had simply closed her books and pressed a hand to her shoulder gently until she roused herself enough to move to the sofa to continue her sleep. She apologized profusely at their next meeting and treated him to his favorite tea, though he knows he has never made mention of it.

She is too smart, too observant, and so unlike her brother. When he told Ichigo as much, the young shinigami had tried to take his head off. He spent the better part of a month rebuilding his office after Ichigo exited through the back wall. He would not admit it, but he was grateful that Ichigo had his powers back, if only for the excuse to finally get rid of the atrocious wallpaper the former Captain of the 6th Division had put up.

She has never not met him. He is surprised that he is not angry. He should be at the blatant discourtesy. Instead, he finds himself worried. Isshin is the one who greets him. Not with tea but with sake. He is barefooted and sprawled across a lawn chair in his backyard.

"She cried herself to sleep."

The only outward emotion Byakuya shows is the shifting of his eyes to where her room is above them. He looks back to Isshin and raises a brow.

"Her first boyfriend broke up with her."

Byakuya narrows his eyes. He does not like this boy who lacks decorum and decency. The next words are said with force, with venom.

"It is her birthday."

Isshin frowns as he tosses back his cup.

"She won't let us mess with him. Made us promise we wouldn't, but Karin got in a good hit at football practice. She said it was worth the red card. She all but kicked Ichigo through a Senkaimon, and made Rukia promise to not send him home until he cooled off. So I don't expect to see him oh, until a few months from now."

Byakuya doesn't smile, but it is a near thing. Her family may not be able to do anything, but he has made no such promises. She probably did not tell him about this boy for fear of gaining yet another person to worry over her. She should know by now that Byakuya does not worry over people. He lets them make their choices, be they triumphs or mistakes. He does not fret over them... But will protect them and punish those that do them harm.

Byakuya sips the sake and enjoys the rich flavor of it on his tongue before he decides his course of action.

He takes out the two small packages that he had tucked away into his robes for safekeeping. One of the carefully wrapped gifts contains two hair clips that Byakuya found on trip to the human world. They look like footballs, but hold a lightning kido of his making on the inside that takes only a touch of the fingers and the right will to use. The other contains a necklace with a charm that he had commissioned Kisuke Urahara to forge, one that would help blanket reiatsu. He remembered how exhausting it was holding his own reiatsu back continuously until he completed his training, and that took years. He lays them both on the table next to a still grumbling under his breath Isshin and rises.

"Please, share my apologies with Karin-san and Yuzu-san. It seems that I have a meeting elsewhere."

Isshin grins and silently toasts him with his raised glass.

The next morning Karakura Town is ablaze with news of a local junior high school student found bound to the streetlight outside his house. It takes them hours to get him down because they can't figure out how he'd been stuck up there in the first place.

Yuzu does not chastise him for his actions at the next midnight tea, though she does grin at him and lifts one eyebrow in an unasked question, a trait that she has undoubtedly picked up from him. He merely sips his tea. She laughs, bright and carefree. He feels himself smiling back at her. It isn't the first time that she's pulled that emotion freely from him.

It isn't the last.

Their monthly meetings continue. Sometimes Karin joins them, usually to ask fairly detailed questions about Soul Society, once about how to spot weakness in an opponent (and that conversation resulted in a two month long prank war between Karin, Abarai Renji, and Kurosaki Ichigo that abruptly ended when ink was put into Byakuya's tea. Yuzu nearly electrocuted her own sister due to her reiatsu reacting the his reiatsu in Karin's clips, definitely electrocuted her older brother, and fried the eyebrows right off of his Lieutenant. It was the first time Byakuya has genuinely laughed in front of another person other than his sister in a very long time.)

Ichigo joins them when he isn't busy with the weight of two worlds on his shoulders. It is usually to try and annoy Byakuya into admitting that he's the better Shinigami. It usually ends with Yuzu flashing her brother a sharp smile and a polite reminder about etiquette and guests. Byakuya has never seen Ichigo look as scared as he does in those moments, and Byakuya had almost taken his life, twice.

Byakuya enjoys their meetings, their quiet talks, and, above even the tea she serves him, her company. But he knows, as he always has since their very first meeting, that it would come to an end.

It's one night so very similar to the countless others that he finds himself calling forth the Senkaimon after their visit. He smiles at nothing as the doors appear in front of him.

It stops him cold in his tracks. He closes his eyes and takes a silent breath. Yuzu is no longer the little girl he felt honor bound to look after. She has the power and will to protect herself now. He has seen her demonstrate it only a little, but what he has seen is more than enough proof of her abilities. If she was unable to protect herself, her brother is a Shinigami again, one of the best though Byakuya is still unable to admit it. Her father too, is still a formidable Shinigami.

She isn't a lost little girl needing his guidance. She is a young woman nearly ready to start her own life. Byakuya is not a part of that life. He will not be. He has stolen enough of it as it stands now. For the first time in a very long time, his heart aches.

He returns not to his home, but to the family shrine.

"It seems as if I have failed you once again, Hisana."

The bells of the shrine strike gently in the soft breeze. He swears that he hears Hisana's soft laughter in the sound.

He had not intended to skip their next meeting. He is many things but a coward will never be one of them. But the miscreants and wrong doers in Soul Society have always had extremely poor timing. It isn't until four months later that he is able to make their meeting again. She doesn't seem the least bit offended at the missed meetings. Ichigo had probably told her about the Quincy's attack.

She pours him a cup of tea, and uncharacteristically, does not pour one for herself. He raises an eyebrow. She ignores it.

"I am very glad to see that you are okay. Ichigo told me about how they stole your Bankai."

He nods, but does not feel like reliving past wounds not with a new wound about to be made by his own hand.

"Kisuke Urahara has made it known that your training is coming to a close."

She smiles at him, letting the conversation float away easily as water over rock.

"He's taught me everything he can. He keeps telling me I've mastered my abilities, but there is always room from improvement. Someone taught me that."

Her smiles turns brighter as she looks at him, only to fall into something soft. She lays a gentle hand on the fabric of the new robe covering his arm. Her eyes linger on his hair, now longer and unbound.

"I like this new look. It makes you seem…lighter."

He huffs which makes her smile. He does feel lighter. She has had a very big part to do with it. Whether she knows it or not.

"I thought it time for change."

She shifts in her seat and his eyes catch sight of something silver, something he hasn't seen in nearly three years. He touches the chain at her neck. The charm is tucked safely into her shirt, no longer a robe or pajamas for his visits, where he cannot see. Her fingers brush against his as she too touches the chain. Her nails are painted a soft pink he notices. It reminds him of the color of the petals of Senbonzakura.

"I don't really need it anymore, but…"

She trails off and focuses her eyes on the window facing the backyard. There is a small garden growing there now. It has Yuzu written all over it. He tries to imagine it in the years to come, overflowing with vegetables and fruits and delicate flowers that hide their strength in plain sight.

"It is hard to let go of things that become routine."

He hums under his breath as she turns to him, a smile on her face.

"I don't think I've ever said thank you for it."

He shrugs, "gratitude is not necessary."

She rolls her eyes at him but takes his wrist and gently pulls until he follows her and stands. Her arms are around him before he truly registers her movements.

It was not so long ago that she barely came up to his hip. Now she fits neatly under his chin as he holds her against him. When she pulls away, she studies his eyes. Another thing that has changed are those warm brown eyes. They have become more knowing over the years, especially where Byakuya is concerned.

"You're not coming back."

It is not a question. She needs no answer. He gives her one anyway.

"There is no longer a reason for me to."

She studies him quietly for sometime, and he cannot bring himself to speak. She smiles softly and leans forward to brush her lips against his cheek.

"Then I believe this is goodbye, Byakuya."

For some reason, the use of his given name does not bother him coming from this Kurosaki's lips.

"Goodbye, Yuzu."

He studies her for one heartbeat when he pulls away, commits the gentle comfort of her reiatsu to his memory, before he flash steps to the park where he usually activates his family's private Senkaimon.

Isshin is waiting for him there. The once Captain looks resigned and understanding. It sets Byakuya's teeth on edge. He knows that Isshin will not let this go easily, that he will not let him go easily.

"No reason, huh?"

He will not be coming back. Yuzu has a life to live. The human world is safe, and Soul Society is at peace. He has no reason to come back unless he is ordered to.

"She will live a long and happy life. That is what I want for her."

Isshin huffs and spits at his feet. He may as well open his mouth and call him a liar if only to cease from being so vulgar.

"It is what I cannot give to her if I stay, if I keep coming back."

He nods sharply and crosses his arms.

"What if she wants you to be a part of that life?"

There is no hesitancy in his thoughts or in his voice.

"Not yet."

Isshin rolls his eyes.

"You damn Kuchiki's. Always with the stoicism and your damn noble honor."

Byakuya doesn't react to his taunt. Isshin sighs because he knows that he has lost. He has played his last card, and it failed. When he speaks, it is in a quiet voice.

"I want what is best for my daughter."

Byakuya steels his spine and his resolve. He looks Isshin in the eye and calls forth the Senkaimon.

"Then you know that this is best."

He walks into the white light of Seireitei with his feet light of step but his heart heavy.