Six Moments
Spoilers for Bleach Filler Arc in the 235+ Episode Range
I.
It was years after the demise of the master's wife that anything again disturbed the quiet inner sanctum of Kuchiki Byakuya's soul. Senbonzakura raised his eyes in quiet curiosity as, for the first time in decades, his spirit world turned white with snow. It was an eerie premonition of things to come.
II.
The second time his world changed, his skies graying over in gentle lavender, was the day a new presence entered the Kuchiki Noble House. Silently, he apprised the tiny doll-like woman his master adopted into the family ranks under the heading of "sibling". The sister.
The day the one called Rukia stepped into the Kuchiki house he felt the difference. She bore the same gentle features as the one the master had taken to wife, but her spirit was strong and unwavering. Moreover, she was bladed. His master was a complex man and the matter was dealt with expediently but with quiet inner turmoil. Senbonzakura's skies changed colors and it snowed again. The flakes were full and fast, fluttering around him like a heartbeat, quivering with nerves.
The girl, the woman, had on her person the blade but it was silent though he felt the pulse of its presence and when he called to it, it stubbornly ignored his beckon.
III.
In the dead hours of the first winter, it snowed heavily over Soul Society. Senbonzakura was resting contentedly at his master's side when he felt the disturbance, the blade spirit separate from its mistress. Quickly, he attended to it- followed the curiously cold trail that led to the back garden, over the koi pond bridge and beneath the snow laden trees.
It was a woman.
In moonlight, the female glowed, free floating and silent, her back to him as she stood. Was she waiting for him?
The sister had grown much in strength with her training. She wore herself down to nothing, sleeping so heavily in the evenings that he felt only the barest touches of her consciousness when he checked on her as was his custom each evening.
His pride, the pride of his master, demanded that she show proper respect. Silently, she turned and he met her icy stare, the face so appropriate for her being. He could feel her presence, cold and unwelcoming and her eyes were empty pools as she stared at him.
"You have lingered under the Kuchiki House for more than a year and ignored the summons of your master." His voice, in the emptiness of the garden, felt loud to his ears.
"Excuse my rudeness." She was softly spoken, her blue eyes averted and quietly lowered. "I could not come to you before now."
It was her first duty to attend to her shinigami. Was the girl too weak that the blade could not leave her or did the blade fear leaving her?
"Present your name."
The wind whipped and the snow danced around her in spirals. She was angelic. "I am Sode no Shirayuki."
IV.
Sode no Shirayuki – the icy angel spirit of the sister's sword -- wandered the Kuchiki House and gardens in moonlight alone. Approaching dawn one morning, he was roused early by the master. The eerie halls of the Kuchiki House were darkened as the master approached the front door, only to pause at a corridor window.
Senbonzakura started in surprise when the master's lips parted in equal astonishment. They stared at the angelic interloper as she wandered the gardens, the dew beneath her feet freezing at her touch leaving icy, frozen tips of grass.
"Sode no Shirayuki," he whispered to his master, identifying the wandering spirit. He could no more explain why his master could see the spirit anymore than he could draw conversation from the icy maiden. Their meetings were brief with stilted silences.
As if summoned by name, she raised her eyes and stopped her walk, peering across the long garden park. Senbonzakura felt her eyes, the coolness of her washed over him as it always did when she neared close to him, but even yards away he felt her. With none of the inner fragility of her mistress, Sode no Shirayuki bowed respectfully and lowered her eyes.
Byakuya's hand tightened around the sheathe and only then did Senbonzakura realize that the master was holding him. Was it because of the contact that the master could see her? Or was it because he, Senbonzakura, was so finely-tuned to looking for her presence that both of them had felt her wandering outside alone?
Without acknowledgement, the master left her, and Senbonzakura with him, but he felt her. Perhaps they both did.
…like icy fingers down his spine.
V.
When the sister fell in battle, the white angel sat vigil at her bedside. With her lashes fanned against her face in deep slumber, Senbonzakura was reminded again of the departed wife.
Mirrors.
Twins.
Opposites sides of a coin, one weak, one strong.
If, during his brief visit, the master noticed her, Sode no Shirayuki, minding her mistress, he showed no signs of it. It was in that forbidden room, the one he neared with only the greatest caution, with his master's footsteps echoing away from him, did Senbonzakura first feel warmth from the angel. The white spray of hair down her back was silken against his gloved hand and the curve of her cheek radiated heat against the fabric of his palm.
Her eyes, when they lifted up to his face, to trace the lines of his inscrutable mask, were hazy with worry for her mistress. Sode no Shirayuki, an angel of ice, was attentive to her duty.
"Are you wavering, Sode no Shirakyuki?"
Her expression changed, flickering briefly with displeasure, but he did not withdraw his hand, curving his fingers down, instead, to trace her delicate jaw line.
"No," she answered gently, evenly in her tone.
An absent flinch, a soft moan and a flutter of eyelashes harkened the mistress' return to consciousness and in a blink, he left them.
He left her.
VI.
Inferior.
The woman was a tea-light candle to his torch-flame, but they both burned.
Summoned to his office in the evening hours, the girl meekly bowed her head and kept her gaze to the floor. Senbonzakura watched her evenly as he felt Sode no Shirayuki around her like an icy cape of spirit pressure. She almost glittered with it.
"Sode no Shirayuki," he called clearly, audible only to her his other half and his master.
She rose like a fog from the depths of the Manor and both men watched her formation. The girl's eyes slanted down and backward as she no doubt felt her, but was as of yet not strong enough to see her material form.
"Senbonzakura," she murmured gently in return as she kneeled in proper form behind her mistress, curled down onto her knees, folded perfectly.
The pressure in his chest was uncomfortable. Its presence, quiet and insidious, had been growing steadily. It was no longer possible for him to discern its origin, whether his own or that of his mater but he recognized the feeling with displeasure.
He knew with confidence his desire to touch the face of the icy maiden, to curl around her, to feel her envelope him was not something he bore alone. His master, for all his curt indifference to the sister, shared the same desire.
For mind.
For body.
For possession.
Byakuya, master of the household, assiduously outlined the sister's duties for an upcoming ceremony and the girl paid close attention. With swift agreement, the sister gathered herself and left as quickly as she'd come and the ghost of her sword followed along.
Both males watched their departure with lament with a single thought in clarity.
The master had picked the wrong sister.
AN: Because I love Sode no Shirayuki and I love the Bleach filler right now. I even love Senbonzakura, (guy has amazing hair!!!).