Chapter 18: The Gardener

When Miya walked into the Thirteenth Division office later that morning she immediately noticed two things that were different. The first was the fact that the mornings' paperwork that was usually piled high on her desk appeared to be evenly distributed between her desk and Kiyone's. The second and most disturbing difference was that instead of her usual scowl, Kiyone had a large overly friendly smile plastered on her face.

"Good morning, Miya!" said Kiyone, a little too enthusiastically. "Isn't today just a lovely day?"

"Um, sure I guess. Sorry I'm late," replied Miya, hesitantly.

"Oh don't worry about it," said Kiyone, "The Captain has been in a meeting all morning and I won't say anything when he comes in. Your secret's safe with me," she said with a wink before practically floating to her desk with a hot cup of tea in her hand. Miya watched in stunned silence as she began humming cheerfully while working through some of the papers on her desk.

"What's gotten into you today?" asked Miya, unable to reign in her curiosity.

"What do you mean?" replied Kiyone with an innocent expression on her face.

"Well," said Miya, "I've never seen you in such a good mood before and quite frankly it's kind of creeping me out a little." Kiyone thought about her observation for a moment before giving an agreeing nod.

"Well," said Kiyone before taking a sip of her tea, "I suppose I'm in such a good mood because I had such a wonderful time at the party last night." Kiyone's smile grew even wider. "Didn't you also have a great time at the party?" she asked happily.

"It was okay," she replied. Actually, when she thought about it, besides the Kazuma fiasco and that weird moment she had had with Byakuya after their dance, she had actually had a nice time.

"Please," said Kiyone, drawing out each syllable, "I saw you dancing with Captain Kuchiki. It looked like you were having more than just an okay time." Miya was about to speak when the sound of the door opening stopped her.

"Good morning Captain!" exclaimed Kiyone as Jushiro walked through the door.

"Good morning," he replied, not noticing the sudden change in her demeanor. But then again, how could he? After all, she was always nice to him.

"How did your meeting go?" she asked. There was a pause before he answered.

"It went just fine," he replied distractedly as he turned to face Miya. Their eyes locked. "Hello Miss Miya. How are you feeling?" he asked, his expression slightly worried.

"I feel great," she replied with a smile before tapping the side of her head. "Good as new."

"I'm glad to hear that," he replied, the worry draining from his face. "Are you just getting in?" he asked when he saw that she was still wearing her coat and scarf.

"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry I'm late. I kind of slept in a little." Actually, she had slept in a lot. "I'll get to work right away," she said and quickly yanked off her red scarf and went to go sit down behind her desk.

"Oh, no, don't do that," said Jushiro. Miya looked up confused. "You're not going to be working on paperwork anymore. From now on, you're going to be training with the rest of the squad.

"What!" shouted Kiyone as she shot up nearly knocking her chair over. "Captain, how can that be? How can Miya train with the squad? She's not even a real member of our squad or a real shinigami for that matter!"

"She's right," replied Miya, turning away from Kiyone's surprised face to look at Jushiro. "I'm not a shinigami."

"Well that doesn't matter," replied Jushiro, "I already spoke with the head captain and he said that he'd allow it," Jushiro nodded towards the door behind him. "Come on, lets go."

"Right now?" asked Miya.

"There's no time like the present."

"But I've already missed half a day," she protested.

"You've only missed morning shunpo and kido training. It doesn't matter though; you won't be training with the squad for either of those anyways."

"Why not?"

"Well, you're pretty much at a beginning level for each of those. The squad members are all in late intermediate to advanced levels. Until you catch up, I'll be working with you one on one." At that moment there was a loud crash and Miya turned to see that Kiyone's tea cup had fallen out of her hand and onto the floor. It now lay shattered in a hundred little pieces.

"Is everything alright?" Jushiro asked as he took in Kiyone's bewildered expression. She didn't answer. "Kiyone?" At hearing his voice again, Kiyone closed her eyes and shook the confused expression off her face.

"Um, yeah," she replied.

"Okay then," replied Jushiro a bit skeptically. He opened the front door. "After you," he said to Miya. She grabbed her scarf off her desk and caught sight of Kiyone glaring at her from the corner of her eyes as she headed out the front door.

"You might want to clean that up," she heard him say to Kiyone before he stepped outside. Although she couldn't be sure, Miya had a good feeling that Kiyone's ridiculously good mood had just been killed.

"Are you sure about this?" Miya asked as they made their way towards the training grounds, "I only know one useful kido spell and it took me forever to learn it—and running not-so-very-fast is as closest I've ever gotten to doing shunpo. Teaching me might be more trouble than it's worth." Jushiro smiled.

"It won't be. Besides, since you haven't done a lot of kido, you probably don't have any bad habits I have to correct. You're basically a blank slate."

"A blank slate," Miya repeated to herself. She liked the idea of getting a clean start. During the time that she had spent in the Seireitei, she had seen several of the squads practicing kido and had been impressed by how delicate and destructive power it was. Not every shinigami excelled at kido as doing so required both discipline and talent. She was amazed by how the higher ranked shinigami were able to make something so complicated look so effortless. Admittedly, she had wanted to give it a try herself and was starting to get excited at the opportunity to do so now. "Well, if you're sure, then okay, let's do it."

"Okay," he replied.

"So which are we going to start with? Shunpo or kido?"

"Well, because of my duties to the Division, I'm not going to have enough time to teach you both."

"Oh?" Miya asked. Jushiro nodded.

"I'm going to see if I can possibly get Kiyone to help you with your shunpo. She's actually really good at it." Miya cringed at the idea of the small lieutenant teaching her how to do anything.

"Actually, don't worry about it," said Miya, "I know someone who'll be able to teach me."

"Oh, really?" asked Jushiro as he turned to look at her, "Who?"

A few hours later, Miya once again made her way up the white stone pathway and to the large dragon guarded door. A sudden spike in reitsau followed by a loud crash caused her to pause, her hand poised over the bronze door knocker.

She knew that reitsau and incidentally, it belonged to the person she had come looking for.

She walked off the poach and around the side of the massive house and began heading towards the back garden where she had determined the source of the reitsau was. The house was ridiculously large and it took her several minutes of walking to make it to the back.

Miya pulled open the heavy iron garden gate and stepped into the back garden.

Before she had a chance to look around, she had to duck to avoid being hit in the head with a large clay pot. The pot collided against the gate with a loud bang and shattered into a thousand pieces. Cautiously, Mia slowly stood up and walked further into the garden until she was able to see Byakuya Kuchiki.

Byakuya stood with his back towards her in the middle of what use to be a beautiful garden. You really couldn't call it that anymore. The tall dark green hedges that had lined the outer perimeter looked as if they had been blown up leaving only small brown stumps green leaf bits where they use to be. The small bridge that had arched over the koi pond had been snapped in two and Miya could see the small orange and white fish swimming in circles around the parts that lay in the water. The large clay pots that had been scattered throughout the yard and held ancient bonsai trees had almost all been destroyed and there were huge patches of grass that were missing. Broken branches, pieces of pots, rock bits, and shredded leaves littered the ground. It looked as if Mother Nature had gotten sick and thrown up everywhere.

With another flick of his wrist, Byakuya hurled a shimmering pink cloud towards the last standing bonsai tree blowing up the clay pot and sending bonsai bits flying all over the yard. Miya ducked behind the remnants of what use to be a massive cherry tree to avoid being hit with the top of the bonsai tree as it flew by.

"You know," she said as she cautiously stuck her head out from behind the mangled tree trunk, "If you wanted to destroy your yard, all you had to do was set fire to the place." Byakuya froze instantly at hearing the sound of her voice. After a moment he dropped his hand and waited for the glowing pink flower petals to reform into the blade of his zanpakuto before he turned around.

"How long have you been standing there?" he asked, his eyes focused on the ground in front of his feet and a deep frown marring his face.

"Long enough to see you defeat a poor helpless bonsai tree," she said unable to suppress a smile as she stepped out from behind her temporary shield and began walking towards him. "So what exactly are you doing?" she asked when she stopped a few feet away from him.

"Gardening," replied the Sixth Division Captain.

"Gardening?" Miya asked, skeptical. Byakuya nodded. "Well, I guess if you were going for that whole war zone look, you've definitely succeeded." Miya surveyed the wreckage and wondered how long it was going to take to clean the mess up. With a yard this size, it would probably take a couple of days. "You know, I never really took you for the gardening type."

"I find it therapeutic," he replied stiffly. Mia studied Byakuya's face as he gazed out over the destructed garden and it occurred to her that there was something different about him today. The detached look in his eyes, the flatness of his voice, and the tense way that he stood—it was all off.

"Um, is everything alright?" Miya asked cautiously.

"Everything is fine," he deadpanned.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be sure?" His voice had come out clipped and Miya knew that something was definitely wrong.

"You tell me," she replied. He remained silent. "I don't know, but you seem different today."

"No I do not," he said in such cold and emotionless tone, it reminded her of the first time she had met him. She stepped in front of him and he quickly turned his head away refusing to look at her.

"Yes you do," she replied firm in her belief that something was wrong and she wasn't imagining it. "What's wrong? Maybe I can help?"

"Look, I sad that nothing's wrong. If the whole purpose of you coming out here is to tell me how I do or don't fit along with some pre-conceived notion you have of me, than I have better things to do," he snapped before he pushed passed her and began walking away.

"Wait a minute—where are you going?" she asked surprised by his sudden and abrupt change in demeanor.

"Home!" he shouted angrily over his shoulder.

"You idiot!" she yelled at him causing him to stop dead in his tracks. He spun around and met her eyes for the first time since she had gotten there, a surprised look on his face. Miya marched to where he was and stopped a few feet in front of him. "You idiot! You are home! If my being here is so unpleasant, then I'll leave," Miya said angrily before turning to head towards the gate. "Have fun with your extreme gardening!" she shouted sarcastically over her shoulder as she stormed away. I hope he gets poison ivy in really unfortunate places, she thought to herself as she left.

"Wait," she heard him call out after a few moments. She pretended not to have heard him and continued walking until he suddenly appeared in front of her blocking her path. Stopping abruptly, she dug her heels into the ground to avoid falling over. "Wait," he repeated.

"For what?" she asked as she glared up at him," For you to learn some manners? No thank you." She made her way around him and to the gate.

"Please wait." Weather it was the remorseful look that had been in his eyes the moment before or the slightly hopeless tone of his voice, Miya found herself unable to push the gate open and leave as dramatically as she had planned to. Instead she lowered her hand from the gate handle before slowly turning around. "You're right," he said as he looked at her with sad gray eyes. "I'm afraid I'm not myself today." The look in his eyes suddenly made Miya feel guilty for pushing the issue.

"I wasn't trying to pry. I only wanted to help."

"I know," replied Byakuya, with a sigh.

"If you didn't want to talk to me about it, all you had to do was say so."

"I should have. Instead I ended up acting like an ass, and for that I apologize." The look he had in his eyes told her that there was something else that he wanted to say, that there was something he wanted to tell her but for some reason he couldn't. Instead, he continued looking straight into her eyes and she realized for the first time how deep and clear his eyes were—it made her heart thump. She quickly looked away.

"Well," she said trying to break the seriousness of the mood, "Since you just called yourself an ass, I suppose I can forgive you."

"I did not just call myself an ass." Miya turned to look at Byakuya.

"What? Yes you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure you did."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I didn't. Why would I ever refer to myself as a donkey?" Miya looked at him confused until she saw the corner of his mouth twitch. It was followed by a smile that cracked his overly serious expression.

"Kuchiki! Seriously? You're the worst ever at telling jokes!"

"No, I'm actually quite a brilliant joke teller. You just don't have a very good sense of humor." Miya laughed.

"Whatever. If you ever go through a midlife crisis, please don't quite your job and try becoming a standup comedian. You'd get booed off the stage faster than you can say shunpo." Byakuya smiled again.

"I'll keep that in mind," he replied. Glad that the tension from earlier was gone, Miya looked around the garden. It really did look like a disaster zone. "Would you like to come in for some tea Miss Tanaka?"

"Okay," she replied. Byakuya held open the gate so that Miya could walk through and they slowly made their way around to the front of the house.

"I didn't get to ask you earlier—But to what do I owe the pleasure of your company today?"

"Well, I actually had something I wanted to ask you," she replied. "Does your offer to teach me how to shunpo still stand?" Byakuya nodded. "Well, I'd like to take you up on it."

"Okay. But I have to ask—why do you want to learn how to shunpo all of a sudden?"

"Let's just say that given recent events, I think that knowing how to shunpo could be pretty useful." She saw Byakuya nod from the corner of her eye. "When can we start?"

"Tomorrow morning, bright and early."

"Great. Thanks." They walked up onto the front porch and Byakuya pulled open the front door for her.

"You know," he said as she began to step inside, "I don't think anyone has ever called me an idiot before." She flashed him a smile.

"Maybe not to your face."

A/N: First of all I want to give a shout out to Reikat, Nataliexo, invisible-gurl, Valinor's Twilight, Cold Fyre, TsukiyomiMoon, and Mahogony Rose who all reviewed my last chapter. Thanks guys! I'd also like to give a shout out to iliketoread'alot3 who is kind of my unofficial Beta.

To answer your question, I'm about halfway through with this story. I had originally planned on making it a nice little twelve chapter story, but as any writer can tell you, stories tend to take a life of their own and write themselves and you kind of just have to sit back and let it take you where it takes you. Trust me, I didn't set out to write an epic, but it's really starting to look that way.

I love how Byakuya tells the world's worse jokes. I've put up a link in my profile to a Shinigami Cup episode where Byakuya tells Renji a joke if you want to see his bad joke telling in action.

I hope you all had a great Christmas! Until next time!

Review Please : )