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A Beneficial Arrangement	By : vbruce Category: Bleach > General Views: 3827 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. That honor goes to it's original author and creator. Making no money from writing this.

Chapter List
- 11
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- 13
Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed. I sincerely appreciate it.
***
An hour after sunrise saw Inari and various Pack members still at the Kuchiki compound, making certain everyone had gotten out safely and helping clear some of the rubble and debris from the fires. Renji had come and gone with a status report on what had happened at the palace. He said that he’d take over the 6^th for the day considering Byakuya would have other concerns. Everyone at the palace was fine, no casualties as there had been several strong fighters present and Captain Unohana had been on hand to heal anyone who had been injured.
Hanataro was trying to heal her shoulder and generally fussing over her. She smiled at him a little, completely used to his worry. He was the unofficial healer for the Pack by now and had seen all of them in various stages of injury from paper cuts to near eviceration. No one outside of Pack grounds would have ever guessed that the bashful little healer more often than not had Pack members jump to obey his orders almost as much as they did Inari’s.
“This is very deep, Inari,” Hanataro said, sounding worried.
“Hana, you’ve treated far worse on me,” she said with a shrug and instantly regretted it.
“Still, you should have come to the 4^th immediately or called for me instead of digging around in rubble and putting out fires,” the little healer admonished.
She sighed. “There was no other choice in the matter. I can see you’ve been around your Captain too long.”
“I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Hanataro said.
Kali came sprinting up to her before skidding to a halt directly in front of Inari. “Sorry, Hana-chan, this is critical.”
“So important that it can’t hold until I finish healing her?” Hanataro said, sounding more than slightly annoyed.
“Yeah, I don’t think this’ll wait,” Kali said, pulling her leader up by the good arm and heading away from most of the group.
“What is it?” Inari said, a frown creasing the space between her eyebrows.
“Sorry, Alpha, but it’s important. You told me to check the interior rooms to make sure everyone was out safe. The family shrine is completely toast. Everything is scattered, burned and mangled all to hell and your pretty boy was headed in that direction as I was coming out to find you.”
“Oh, my gods!” Inari shot past her fifth seat and made her way through the maze of corridors to the Kuchiki family shrine. It was utterly destroyed. The fire had burned through one entire wall and had left scorch marks on the others. The rich wood cabinet that had once held the photographs and paintings of the family members who had passed on was nothing more than ash and splintered bits of wood. The frames for the pictures were twisted by the intense heat and the glass in them broken, they were scattered all over the floor from where the cabinet had evidently crashed during the fire. Byakuya was sitting back on his heels in the middle of the floor, looking like the shock had hit him so hard he’d just dropped there.
Inari came around beside him and sank down to the floor as well. “Bya?” she asked, reaching out to take his hand, she noticed that his hands were almost black with ash and bleeding from several small cuts. She frowned a little and laced her fingers through his carefully. He didn’t move, didn’t act like he knew she was there at all. She squeezed his hand a little, shifting to get a bit more comfortable while still holding onto him, knowing he’d never accept pity from her or anyone else. But that didn’t stop her heart from breaking for him.
He felt . . . empty. Like everything in him had been burned out with the fire and left just the shell of him behind. But then a few moments later it was as though Hisana’s death was new again and those wounds open and bleeding. Everything he felt or didn’t feel swung between those two extremes. He’d come into the shrine planning to assess the damage but he hadn’t expected it to be completely decimated. He’d been nearly frantic, searching through the ash, glass and metal, trying to find Hisana’s picture. When he couldn’t he’d just collapsed where he stood as the pain of loss had slammed back into him all over again. Not having that one small piece of her to hold on to might break him completely where nothing else could. He hadn’t even realized anyone else was there until Inari had taken his hand. She hadn’t chattered or tried to pull him out of the odd trancelike state he seemed to be in, she just sat there with him, holding on to his hand. There was more comfort in her silence than in a million words of condolence.
He finally managed to pound the grief back down to a tolerable level before speaking. “I can’t . . .” the words stuck and refused to come out.
“Can’t what?” Inari asked, looking at his profile.
He gestured to the broken piles of pictures scattered all over the floor. “I can’t find her.”
She squeezed his fingers gently. “It’s okay. She’s here and we’ll find her, Bya,” she said, letting go to cautiously look over the various pictures, kneeling down to carefully shift some around so she could look under them.
As he sat watching her, Byakuya thought it was decidedly odd to have his future wife looking through fire debris for a picture of his former wife. He had made the decision to at very least enter into the year and a day contract with Inari the minute he’d realized it was her coming to help him when everyone else had been rushing to the palace. Renji had been correct in saying she was truly the mother wolf. He could see that very strong protective and comforting streak ran true in the Kurosaki family. He’d seen it in Ichigo a long time ago and now in his aunt. That willingness to move Heaven, Earth and he was certain, various portions of Hell if need be, for the people they considered friends and family.
Inari sorted through the various piles of bent frames, finally spotting an eye that looked like Rukia’s under several others. She cautiously picked it out from beneath the pile and carefully brushed the soot away from the broken glass and smiling slightly as huge blue/violet eyes and what very much looked like her future niece’s face emerged from under the black.
“Rukia looks like her,” she said thoughtfully. She sat down on the floor and handed the picture to Byakuya.
He took the picture and nodded. “Yes. She does.”
“Only the frame and glass are damaged. The picture itself is still intact. That’s what’s important.” Inari patted his arm. “Come on. We’re both exhausted and the rest of this can wait until after we get some rest.”
Byakuya glanced around the ruins of the shrine, knowing the rest of the house wasn’t in much better condition. Certainly not in any shape to sleep comfortably in. His own rooms wouldn’t be habitable for some time as the vast majority of them had been burned away.
“I think it would be best if you just bunked with me, Bya,” Inari said.
He nodded. “That would make the most sense all things considered.”
“It’ll have to be my rooms at the Pack barracks since the entire west wing of the palace is gone. Isshin is letting the rest of your family stay in the various guest rooms of the palace so that’s all taken care of.”
Byakuya forced back an exhausted sigh. “At the moment anywhere with a bath and a bed is most welcomed,” he said, stifling a yawn that threatened.
“A man after my own inclinations.”
- 11
- 12
- 13
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A Beneficial Arrangement