Author's Note:

So, I got this request from Tumbler user chie7231:

I was wondering if you could write a Drabble where Hisana is alive and has a baby with Byakuya? With Renji and Rukia in the story?

My first reaction, of course, why would I ever need to write this, when you could just go read Crimson Bttrfly's A Thin Red Line again, but maybe my valiant asker just read it and needs more? One of the major tenets of fanfiction is, just because it's already been done (and better) doesn't mean you can't write your own. Also, I've always wanted to write Renji and Hisana in the same story and this seemed like a fun opportunity.

These sorts of requests are actually much harder for me than it would appear, because I'm not the sort of person that can just write a story in a vacuum. If Hisana is alive, what AU is this? What's different? When does it take place? What is everyone's relationship to one another? It's too much!

So, I sat back and said, what is the tiniest possible AU I can make? In A Thin Red Line, Hisana makes sure that Rukia and Renji never have to be separated, so everyone's relationships get all mangled, but what if she never found out that Renji existed? What if Rukia and Byakuya, stubborn and emotionally constipated as they just never mentioned him until he shows up 40 years later? In other words, what if this timeline is exactly like the regular one, except Rukia has a much cooler older sis and Byakuya is, like, 3% more chill, and maybe tried to help Rukia not get executed, instead of ::waves hand vaguely at canon::

Anyway, I got charmed by this idea, and inspiration isn't something I've had a lot of lately, so I just decided to go for it. It's not so much a drabble as a series of drabbles- I have 5 of them in various drafty states, I may or may not write more, depending on inspiration and if anyone cares about this, so if you like this and want more, lemme know! I'm just gonna leave this one with a ? number of chapters, which is not usually my way, but it's not really a story, it's just some stream of consciousness scenes.

Takes place shortly after the end of the Soul Society Arc. Warning: I have been reading a lot of Jane Austen lately, and also, my mind has been completely poisoned by this prophetic unohanadaydreams take on what Byakuya's kid would be like (you can find the link on the AO3 version, ff dot net hates URLs). The title comes from Pride and Prejudice.

It was going to be really hard to defeat Kuchiki Byakuya in combat, Renji realized. Not because the man was absolute perfection in battle- insanely fast, ridiculously strong, utterly unflappable. No, what was going to make it really, really difficult was the fact that the man's wife was incredibly nice and very, very beautiful, and also Renji was terrified of her.

"Good morning, Lieutenant Abarai!" Hisana trilled cheerfully as she barged into the Squad 6 captains' offices. "Oh, Byakuya isn't here?"

"He's at a captains' meeting, ma'am," Renji explained. "My Lady." He couldn't remember which was correct.

"No matter, I'll find it myself! Here, hold this!"

Byakuya hated people touching his things, especially his desk, and Renji should probably have stopped her, but he had two armfuls of the 18-month old heir to the Kuchiki Clan and if his reflexes hadn't been so good, he would also have had a small wooden top up his nose.

"Settle down, Future Lieutenant Kuchiki," Renji murmured, extracting the top from Touma's slightly sticky hand, and settling the boy on his lap. He pushed the half-done paperwork on his desk to one side and set the top a-spin. Out of all the skills he had spent 40 years honing, he did not expect throwing tops with Momo's bratty brother on school vacations to be one that he would find useful as a vice-captain. He had found there to be very little about being a vice-captain that had aligned with his expectations.

Young Touma squealed with delight, and his mother briefly looked up from the mess she was making of Byakuya's desk (she had moved one pile of mission reports 3 cm to the right, and Renji expected to hear about it all afternoon.) "He likes you," she observed simply.

"He likes anyone who'll spin his top for him," Renji corrected.

"That is categorically untrue," Hisana informed him, and started in on the drawers.

Regardless of Touma's feelings for Renji, the kid was yet another reason Renji felt like he might hesitate before punching Captain Kuchiki's ticket. Touma was a sweet kid, if perpetually sticky, and more importantly, he was Rukia's nephew, her own blood. The little guy mostly took after his pop, but Renji kept finding things- the way his hair curled at the back of his neck, the bossy look he got on his face when he wanted something- that reminded him of Rukia in her youth. Not that he was all that familiar with Rukia-of-late. She was practically a stranger, to be honest.

"Aha!" Hisana announced, waving a folded piece of correspondence. "Invitation to Aunt Etsu's 475th birthday party. I knew she sent him one!" She tucked it in her sleeve smugly. "Sometimes, I think people send letters to him at the office just so that he'll forget to bring them home." She narrowed her eyes at Renji. "You don't happen to open his mail for him, do you?"

"I don't touch his mail, ma'am."

Hisana's face fell.

Renji had watched his captain read his mail, though. "If I put another letter tray on his desk," he offered hesitantly, "and label it 'Home', I bet he'd stick stuff like that in it as he's opening it, and I'm sure he'd bring it home at the end of the day. He loves empty trays."

Hisana jabbed a finger at him. "I like you." She marched over and retrieved her son, who was not very happy to be retrieved.

Ignoring the tearful child getting snot and tears all over a kimono that was worth more than everything Renji owned, Hisana took a moment to regard the Lieutenant of the Sixth. Her gaze was penetrating, stripping him down to his bones. "You've met my sister before, yes? Rukia? You helped Byakuya stay her execution?"

That was one way to put it, Renji supposed. "Yes, ma'am," he replied.

Hisana nodded definitively. "You should come to dinner," she declared.

"Dinner?" Renji echoed, his voice hollow.

"At the Manor," she clarified. "It will be at six."

"Ma'am, I can't," Renji excused reflexively. Of course, he wanted to see Rukia again, that was part of the whole plane, but Kuchiki Manor was not a place where Renji belonged, not yet, anyway. Byakuya didn't want Renji in his house. Rukia probably didn't want him in her house, either. Renji had this under control. He was working up to it. He was currently in the process of writing Rukia a letter. He had been working on it for a week. It currently consisted of a single sentence, which he was considering re-writing.

"We're having grilled unagi," Hisana added, before disappearing in a swish of silk.

"I must regretfully decline?" Renji called after her.

Byakuya stared at his desk. "My wife has been here."

"I am sorry, sir. I couldn't stop her."

"No, she is not your responsibility," Byakuya sighed. He settled himself behind his desk, then looked up. "Did she have Touma with her?"

"Yes, he was very cheerful, right up until he had to leave."

Captain Kuchiki considered this, and nodded. "He loves the Sixth already. A fortuitous sign."

Sure, why not? Renji saw no reason to argue. "Er, sir?"

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

Renji winced. There was no easy way to put this. "Your wife invited me over to dinner. I tried to turn her down, sir, politely, of course, but she… ignored me."

"You cannot decline," Byakuya stated simply. "When my wife invites you to dinner, you remain invited until she decides otherwise."

"Oh."

There was a long silence. Byakuya contemplated his new mail tray, which he did not recognize, but approved of, in principle.

Renji swallowed. "Sir, I am sorry to have to ask but… does Lady Hisana know about me and Rukia?"

Byakuya had been trying to get his pile of mission reports back to its exact previous position. He looked up, horrified. "What is there to know about you and Rukia?"

Renji waved his hands frantically. "Nothing! Nothing, sir! Just us growing up in Rukongai together, remember I told you about that? When you asked me to commit treason with you by destroying the Soukyoku and keeping her from getting executed?"

"Ah, yes, I do remember." Captain Kuchiki paused for a moment to consider whether or not this information had reached his wife's ear. "I have no idea."

Renji changed his mind. He could probably find it in himself to kill this man after all.