Plan

The sun danced through the outside halls of the Kuchiki Manor, beaming into the windows and reflecting on the spotless floor. The doors to the young heir's bedroom welcomed the sounds of nature as they sprang from the freshly groomed garden resting just beyond the deck. Two pink lips parted with an almost inaudible "smack", accompanying heavy lids as they made their way up shining purple orbs and back down, repeating the process several times before resting in their natural space, halfway up the boy's eyes.

Byakuya stretched, lazily, arching his back as he lay on his side, enjoying the vibrant colors of the flowers. Immediately, he frowned at the clamoring and distressed calls amplifying as they travelled the hall to his quarters.

This was June. This was the beginning of the preparations for the Summertime Ball.

Throwing the covers off himself, he stood and stumbled down the tiny hall to his private toilet, sitting to pee and finding the cold of porcelain on his ass uncomforting in this early hour of his day. It was actually ten o'clock.

The boy huffed, stretching his pretty face with his hands and running them through his onyx locks. He stood again, quickly rinsing his hands in the sink after closing the toilet and tying the red yukuta he was wearing. He made his way out of his room and down the lengthy hall, slamming open the double doors to the large passageway through the main branch of the Kuchiki clan's quarters. He passed the servants on their ladders and stools as they ornamented their way through the compound, pausing to bow and apologize for his bad mood and their rambunctious activities as he stomped past.

He was on the search for Junko, his maidservant, and didn't pause for pleasantries with any of the family or help he encountered, bamboozled by such a humble appearance by the heir. He walked through the kitchen, his personal garden, his grandfather's, the memorial one of his parents, the training, and the large reserve for the servant's quarters. Frowning and flash-stepping back to his private deck, he muttered to himself the question of what good a staff of three hundred was if they were all preoccupied.

He stepped back into the room, walking into the enormous closet that contained all his apparel, and pulling a couple random garments from the drawers and racks. He strutted back out, undressing without closing the doors to the outside and pulling on a green, silver frog adorned kimono with a black sash. The boy didn't bother with his hair, deciding to put it on his right shoulder and saunter out onto the deck. After a moment, he found his way back into the closet and added a fundoshi to his attire.

Stepping into his room, a knock sounded on the door. He sighed, knowing it was Junko rushing to find, dress and bathe him at the request of his relatives. Opening the door roughly, he spun and avoided looking at her.

"Child, you need to bathe." Before she had even begun to get up, the boy had undone his obi. He got naked and waited for her to fetch a clean yukuta from the closet, turning his back to her as she slipped the baby blue silk over his arms.

She walked him to the main branch's bath and heated the water from his grandfather's cleansing that morning. Quietly, she pulled a basin and a short stool from the closet and undressed him. Indignantly, he sat on the stool and let her scrub and rinse him before following her to the square tub and sliding in. Pouting as she looked on, he pulled the towel from atop his noggin and sunk into the water, blowing the air out of his lungs and letting his knees emerge. Shortly after he started to contemplate how he should spend the rest of this day, a bony hand pulled him from the water.

"Let me brush your hair." Junko placed the towel back on his head and reached for the comb, moving her stool behind the side of the bath he was leaning against. She pulled the onyx strands out of the tub and ran the teeth of the jade comb smoothly through. "What are you going to do today?"

"Mmmm. I don't know." He sighed, letting the sensation of a slight pull on his scalp take hold of his senses and relax him.

"You could visit Ukitake-sama." She began to smooth his hair over with her hand after each tug of the comb.

"I could." He closed his eyes.

"Or your grandfather." She heard footsteps coming down the hall.

"No." He pulled his arms out of the tub and rested his head in her lap atop a towel.

"Maybe you could train with Yoruichi-dono."

"I don't want to train." He squeezed her knee as someone knocked on the door. "I'm tired of it."

"Maybe have tea with your cousins."

"I did that last Saturday." Gently, she lifted him and strode to the door. He watched her slide open it and look down upon a bright-eyed, petite girl kneeling. She bowed to him, avoiding eye-contact and spoke to Junko in hushed tones. He splashed the water, cupping it and throwing it over his hair and rubbing his eyes, disinterested in their muted conversation.

Maybe he would visit Ukitake. He was quite unoccupied for a captain, always lounging or enjoying his favorite leisurely activities. More importantly, he was much more of an intellect than his god-forsaken cousins.

Junko looked back at him and closed the door as the girl bowed again. She waltzed back to the tub and placed the towel in a pile with his barely dirtied yukuta. Grabbing two clean towels, she turned back to him.

"I think I'll visit with Ukitake-san." He said, pushing himself from the tub.

The thirteenth division was the most traditional compound of the court guard squads, complete with gardens, fountains, fields, ponds and tatami rooms, only. The stone walls were rather thin, fooling the Kuchiki heir as he leapt onto one and found less footing than expected. He heard a couple of the squad members chuckling as he tumbled over and landed in a bush inside the captain's official garden. Rolling out of the flora, his eyes were met with a set of welcoming brown ones and a gentle wave of the hand. Ukitake was smiling at him, sitting cross-legged beside his koi pond with a nearly devoured head of lettuce in hand and the captain of the eighth squad lying behind him, face covered with his fancy, rice patty hat.

"Byakuya-kun!" The ancient man hollered, emphatically waving the boy over to him. With a smile he flash stepped to his side at the watering hole and sat down on the paved stones. "How are you, Kuchiki-san?"

"Fine." He pulled a twig from his green kimono as his friend leaned over to pull a couple leaves from his hair. He opted to go without a ponytail today.

Shunsui snorted, readjusting the hat upon his face so he could see the two.

"What brings you to the thirteenth squad today?"

"Chambermaid need to get rid of you?" Junko had become well acquainted with the captain after escorting the young heir to many festivals and Soulreaper related events. He had no mercy when it came to seducing the lady, her class, hips, and docility were more than he could handle. "Maybe I should visit her while you're out."

"Leave that poor, exhausted woman alone. She has plenty upon her plate already." He gestured to the boy after pushing the man back from standing. Byakuya frowned. "What did you come here for? Surely, love advice for a handsome, young nobleman such as you."

"Juushiro is not the man to talk to for that. Oh, no." The other captain chuckled again, throwing a teasing look at his friend.

"I suppose you are," Byakuya stuck his nose in the air indignantly. "Tell me, wise-man, how do you know when you're in love?"

"I guess it depends on the person you're in love with." He shrugged.

"What do you mean?" Ukitake questioned. "Love is love, no matter who it's between, you either feel that spark or you don't."

"Maybe you love people differently." He sat up. "You may want to protect a woman with your life or spend every waking moment with her."

"What if you want her to protect you?" The boy questioned.

Shunsui turned to him, looking sternly in his eye.

"You don't want those types of women. Unless you have some leverage over her."

"Shunsui!" Ukitake, deflected him with an aged hand. "It doesn't matter what your significant other's physical or characteristic aspects are, you'll both protect each other in your own way if you're truly meant to be."

"That woman," Captain Kyoraku warned. "Is a danger."

He pulled his hat over his eyes and leaned back unto the stoned pavement. The other man rolled his eyes and tossed the head of lettuce into the water.

"Whoever this person is, if it's right you'll know." He touched the boy's shoulder. "Do they have feelings for you too?"

The heir swallowed, unable to recall any conclusion he had ever concocted.

"I don't know." He never deduced how Kaien thought about him. Wait, when did he get roped into confessing his fancies?

"Are there any signs?" Ukitake pressed, leaning forward out of interest.

"You know, you've always been a gossip, old man." Shunsui, peaked out from under weaved straw to see the other's indignant look.

"I don't really feel like talking about it anymore." Byakuya turned to the pond.

"Don't worry; your soul mate will come along one day." The pale captain comforted.

The boy frowned, unhappy with the fact that the day wasn't today or had been a long time ago. His ancestors had been married by now.

"And I'm sure there's tons of pus—"

"—candidates—"

"—candidates waiting in line just for you." Shunsui's counterpart didn't even look up during his censor.

"Yes, speaking of, how was the festival?" The heir put his head between his knees and only after four seconds realized that was an ineffective way of his hiding his embarrassment. He held his noble chin up and ignored the red blaze upon his cheeks.

"It was good. Nothing too lavish." The corners of Ukitake's mouth turned downward.

"Nothing too exciting?" The blush deepened and Byakuya closed his eyes out of guilt.

"Nothing out of the ordinary. Just rowdy commoners."

Shunsui raised a brow.

The trio sat in silence as the old men watched the red hue slowly dissipate.

"CAPTAIN." Some unearthly creature shouted.

A most unholy screech reverberated throughout a building across the pond, accompanying an enormous crash.

Ukitake turned toward his office as the boy looked on in anticipation, contrasting perfectly with the rolling over of Shunsui's body. Buyakuya glanced at his companions questioningly.

"Wait for it…" The Squad Eight Captain sighed.

"Captain, THIS woman...!" Bursting forth from the door to the illustrious Captain Ukitake's office was a tall man with a surprisingly sexy mullet and a bifocal-ed woman attached to his back, biting off his ear.

"Captain Kyoraku, Kaien…!" Half way around the watering hole, he fell unto his back, slamming her to the ground and taking advantage of his temporary release.

She snarled, throwing her legs around his waist during his scurrying and holding him in the vice of her thighs. Her arms wrapped around his neck and he grunted.

"My circulation! Captain, Lisa…," Kaien reached behind him and struck off the woman's glasses. "She attacked me!"

"Only after you knocked those papers off the roof!" She stuck her fingers into his mouth and choked him. "Do you know how long it took me to write those?"

His rebuttal was a horrid, moist gurgle.

"Penmanship, Penmanship!" Hewing the back of his neck, she released his waist. She grumbled something under her breath and strode away from the man, sitting attentively with hands in lap. "I refuse to rewrite all 56 reports."

"But Lisa," Shunsui remonstrated.

"No, no, no." She put her hands on her hips and leaned forward on her knees.

"The rookies—"

"Will simply need to do a little paperwork." She snapped.

Ukitake whipped his head to the left, eyes glaring straight through Kaien. Narrowing big brown ones, he pursed his lips.

"Oh, no, no, no! I didn't do anything. She dropped the papers after she got scared. That was in no way my fault."

"You jumped onto the roof for no apparent reason!" Lisa shouted.

"I was going to greet you, like a good coworker would." Kaien sat opposite his captain, behind the young nobleman, whose blush was returning.

"You don't even know—"

"Why, I nev—"

This was the beginning of a forty second shouting battle between the two lieutenants, ending when the aged captain's twitching eyebrow had reached its peak.

"KAIEN," The pale captain interrupted. "How was the festival?"

The teal-eyed man's frown disappeared, as did the teen's face. He recounted the evening's events at ease and the boy's expense. Byakuya tried to drown out all the juicy details of the man's tale, the ones that made the boy cringe, the eighth captain's lips curve upwards, and the thirteenth captain blush and glower.

Juushiro's gaze wandered back to the boy, stoic and lifeless as could be. Byakuya looked into the water and avoided both he and Kaien's eyes.

"You had fun, didn't you, Byakuya?" He jerked his head toward the teal orbs, immediately losing his irate face in their gaze.

He grumbled under his breath, still focusing on Kaien. The lieutenant grinned as if proving the boy's discomfort false and looked at his Captain. With a raised eyebrow, Lisa turned to Shunsui and met his glimmering brown eyes. He had a smirk and a raised brow, too.

"Oh, where are my manners?" Ukitake touched his cheek daintily. "We've been sitting here talking and I haven't offered any tea."

Opening his mouth in protest, Kaien looked indignantly towards his captain. Juushiro, held up a hand to silence him.

"Now, Shiba-kun, I am an old man. My body isn't a—"

With an exaggerated huff, he got up.

"Come on, Kuchiki-san." The heir followed with his eyes as the man stood and started around the pond. He lifted his head and kept his arms folded over his knees. Kaien stopped and urged him with a wave as Lisa looked in the opposite direction.

Byakuya frowned and hesitantly got to his feet, deceitfully trudging up to him and then rushing past with a burst of aristocratic arrogance. The other followed, practically skipping and waltzed through the open doors of the office and into the hall. He shut the door behind him and smirked.

"I'm sorry," Kaien started. "I just enjoyed myself so much that night, I had to tell Ukitake."

Strutting ahead down the hall, the boy paid him no mind. The man bowed lower and tried to peer over the other's shoulder.

"Oh, come on. It was funny."

Still no response. Byakuya turned a corner.

"You had fun, didn't you?" He scoffed and walked in a more devious manner.

"Right?"

He kept instigating, finding satisfaction in the dance he was leading.

"Byakuya." He flash-stepped in front of the boy, knocking him back by the solidity of his chest and then folding his arms, "Did you have fun?"

His voice dropped into a very serious tone, catching the younger man's ears as it reverberated in the hallway.

"I had fun." He said with his nose upturned and his hands on his hips. He watched the turquoise orbs dart between the hands on his hips and shoot back up to his gaze. Kaien started away again.

"By the way, the tea is in this direction." He said brushing past the other.

Byakuya studied him with an unimpressed look upon his face and followed soon after, lost to thought by the sway of his bulky shoulders.

"Oh, you're going to the ball, young man." Ukitake shook a finger in his face.

"My grandfather wouldn't allow it." The heir said, disappointedly.

"We could sneak you in." The Shiba lit up.

"I live on the grounds." And then deflated.

"You've never snuck into the ball before?" The white-haired man tossed his locks over a shoulder and held a piece of paper closer to the light.

"I never wanted to go." Blindly, he leaned back into the couch and found himself in the musky crevice of the lieutenant's arm. Feeling the gesture much too symbolic, he moved forward again and put his face in his hands to hide the red creeping unto his cheeks. Was it the fact that he thought it an obvious gesture or the act of trying to hide it was futile?

"Well, find a fancy kimono and put it on." The man said casually, sipping his tea.

"The servants, the squad members, the suitors' advocates, his relatives, his grandfather." Peering over his glasses he mentioned potential revealers of identity.

"Can you grow facial hair?" Kaien was reclined completely on the couch, his feet propped upon the table and anticipation marked on his face.

"What?"

"You could grow a beard and then shave it off the night of the ball. No one would ever recognize you." Juushiro pursed his lips and chagrinned at his subordinate.

"The only way no one would see you as you," He took his glasses off and leaned forward. "Is if you cross-dressed."

Grimacing at Kaien's snicker, Byakuya opened his mouth in protest.

"Oh, it's not that bad." Ukitake turned red. "Putting on a skirt is nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, it's n—"

"Captain, I have heard some stories from Lisa that she heard from a drunken, carnal bird by the name of Shunsui, but I never," He chuckled and looked the man up and down. "Well, you know."

The pale captain cleared his throat and placed his glasses upon the desk, waiting for the flush to retreat back from his neck and ears.

"You simply need an escort." A smile found its way to the corners of his mouth as Byakuya's own slowly went agape. Kaien was too busy admiring how shiny the boy's hair was in the moonlight to note the plan.

"Why couldn't he just talk to my grandfather?" Byakuya fussed, putting his feet on the deck.

"You know they only allow adults to the ball." The lieutenant shifted to scratch his nose.
"It's an adults' event."

"Is it really?" The heir turned to him, interest peaked.

"No. Just dancing, mild alcohol, and socializing." He turned back to the sky and watched the tanned clouds sail across the orange sea.

In silence, they waited for the maidservant to come ask the boy to take a bath and patiently let the darkness overcome the garden.

"Do you think it's too early for lightening bugs?" Kaien asked in his softest voice, which to the boy's ears was still very gravelly.

"It's the second day of June," Byakuya pulled his hair from his neck and laid his head back onto the grass. He heard Kaien sigh. "Junko will go along with it."

The man raised an eyebrow and turned toward the boy. Smirking, he sat up at the sound of a door sliding open. He saw the shimmer of blonde in the last of the sun's rays as she closed the door behind her and wandered into the closet, surely to pull a yukuta from the multitude of drawers and racks.

A moment later she emerged from the closet to see a head sticking up over the deck, grimacing at her. She flared her nostrils in disgust and walked to the edge of the room.

"Kuchiki-sama," She began. "Get up and take your clothes off."

She screamed as another head with a wide-set jaw popped up from below the wooden ledge. Composing herself, she patted her chest and swallowed, remembering to bow and greet the other properly. "Shiba-sama, good evening."

Byakuya half-heartedly waved the woman over to him, resting his head on the grass once again. Obediently she came and stood over him on the deck. She craned her neck to show she was responsive but plastered an indifferent look on her face.

"I'm going to the Summertime Ball." Junko released the tension in her neck and regarded the boy with an unimpressed look. She inferred that he was going to place some dastardly burden upon her and she had no way to refuse him, her sole purpose as a member of the clan was to provide his wishes and protect him.

"We need your help." Kaien said in a much more polite tone. He pushed the boy's head to the side.

"How is he going to get in?" She looked thoughtful. "Everyone there will know you."

"Cross-dressing." He waited for her to respond. She laughed at him and looked at Kaien for confirmation.

"Really?" She coughed between quiet laughter. "I will help in any way I can."

She stood and walked back into the bedroom. "Just to see this."

The lieutenant propped himself up and followed her, dragging the heir behind him.

"What do you need me to do?" She continued into the boy's personal bath and poured a basin of scalding water into the tub.

"Just the make-up and costuming." He folded his arm and leaned against one of the pillars in the bathroom. "Ukitake and I will handle the theatrics."

Byakuya raised an eyebrow at the word "make-up".

"He shouldn't show up by himself, who will be his escort? Ukitake-Taicho?" Emptying the container of cherry blossom scent into the water, she used her foot to reach for another basin.

"Yes," Kaien choked on his words as the young man pulled the frog-adorned kimono from his shoulders. "Either he takes Byakuya or asks Miyako before we have the chance to discuss the matter."

Byakuya shivered with the eyes on his pale skin, the deepness of the Shiba's voice escalating.

"This should work out." She turned and held her hands out for his clothing. "You need me to tell the other servants and security that he's tucked away, safe in bed."

"Exactly. I gotta go." The man gave an unsure grin and flash-stepped out of the washroom.

Immediately, the room fell silent.

"Why ar—"

"Hush." Byakuya turned to her. "Mind the business that is yours and do as you are told."

Slowly, she closed her mouth and let her anger slide back to where it came from. Patiently, she held unto his clothes and let the boy undress. He tossed his underwear toward the door as he usually did and leaned over the water. He smiled and put his toes in, soon sitting in the burning liquid.

Junko sighed and tossed the clothes to barricade the door. Coming back to the tub and sitting at the head, she waited for him to lean back so she could run the jade comb between the strands.

"How did your day with Ukitake-Taicho go?" He groaned and submersed himself completely.

I have about 62% of the next chapter done and most of the plot summary planned out. This story is going so much smoother than the others but soon, Winter Break will be here and you guys KNOW how I feel about WINTER BREAK.