Title: Asking For Too Much
Fandom: Bleach
Characters/Pairing: Yoruichi-centric, one-sided Byakuya/Yoruichi
Rating: PG
Word Count: 449
Summary: During the fight with the Reigai, Byakuya risked his life for Yoruichi, but his intentions are not like what she's been hoping for.
A/N: Written for prompt #1: maybe you were never the one,
Table 21,
5_prompts.
When Byakuya had thrown himself right in front of her to protect her from the blast, Yoruichi had figured that he'd changed for the better, that he finally saw what it was that she was hoping for. Because that wound wasn't a joke and he had taken it like the man that he was. The man who had grown up and gone a long way from the skinny boy she once knew.
In the heat of battle she had rushed to his side, worried that the hit had taken the strength out of him. She'd been ready to help him up, but then he had gotten back up on his feet before she could even reach him. A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips; he was never one to accept assistance from others all that easily. He preferred standing on his own two legs, independent, and that was one of the things that she found so endearing about him.
When Hisana passed away, she knew that he had fallen from his heights and majesty, but although he had been alone, he somehow made it back to the top. It happened so quickly, almost like a passing breeze, that she didn't notice. But he had changed. There no longer existed hope in his eyes. All she could see was a mask of defiance.
But she knew him, and he couldn't run from her even if he did try.
She'd placed a hand on his shoulder, ever so gently, ready to skim over his body to examine for injuries, but he had brushed her off without even a second's hesitation. Like she was nothing but an annoying house-fly.
And when she finally came to know the reason as to why he had risked his own life, she received nothing but an excuse.
"So now we know just how you Reigai work," Byakuya had said bluntly, eyes burning holes in Ukitake's doppelganger. "A simple, yet infallible, tactic."
What the strategic man Byakuya was. Yoruichi had to applaud him for that. At least he wasn't like that maniac Zaraki, who could do nothing but slash and slice the air and fight on his own accord without much care for his own wellbeing.
She had bitten her bottom lip and forced a triumphant smirk to trick their enemies, but deep down, she couldn't deny that irritating stab of disappointment that shot through her right then and there.
To ask for something other than a cold stare and a sarcastic, brutally witty remark from Kuchiki Byakuya, Yoruichi guessed, would be too much.