Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Seireitei Monogatari ❯ A Cold Hard Rain ( Chapter 53 )

Title: A Cold, Hard Rain

Pairings/Characters: Kira Izuru/Kuchiki Byakuya

Rating: K+

Warning: Implied Yaoi. Goes everywhere and nowhere; I only hope it makes sense.

Words: 624

Description: Being strong was all a matter of perspective.

Dedication: To my beta, because she helps me come up with these crack pairings.

 

 

He had the same eyes. Those same bright eyes that were begging to be saved, though pride never let those words be spoken.

 

Perhaps that was what had attracted Byakuya to Izuru in the first place.

 

He never had much contact with the third division vice-captain before. To say that Ichimaru had kept his subordinate close and within arms reach would have been an understatement. No one quite knew the extent of their relationship, and a part of Byakuya was afraid to ask because the urge to kill might have been more than he could suppress. Even so, he was aware that Ichimaru had owned a part of Izuru, and perhaps he still did. Not that it stopped Byakuya from trying to get it back.

 

He had a fragile smile, Byakuya noticed. Izuru's smile was hesitant, half-afraid of being taken away. As if by the simple lifting of his lips, some horrible catastrophe would fall upon him. Maybe it was regret, or maybe it was guilt. Byakuya couldn't decide either way. Still, he had the same smile in many ways.

 

Izuru was strong though, much more so than people gave him credit for. A strength that enabled him to stand even after being betrayed and abandoned. It was the kind of courage that kept him going, encouraging his teammates, and taking over the duties of a division that had been too long neglected. It was the kind of strength Byakuya envied since he knew that he couldn't find it for himself. Izuru was much more courageous than people gave him credit for.

 

It was a determination that Byakuya couldn't ignore.

 

And while he hadn't adopted the same behavior as the others, coddling what everyone else believed to be a weakness, Byakuya thought that there was something he could do for Izuru. More than the gifts of food and clothing and care that seemed so unimportant. Perhaps he simply had a soft spot for the broken ones, the eyes that were begging to be saved. The eyes that had been struck by a cold rain for longer than they cared to remember.

 

He didn't want to compare Izuru to Hisana, and while they were similar, they were in no way the same. He knew without a doubt that Izuru was far stronger than she ever could have been. And Byakuya never wanted his lover to think he was merely a substitute for her, for the woman who had broken his heart all those years ago. After all, while he had saved Hisana, she had only the greatest respect for him in return. To ask for love would have been too much.

 

A part of Byakuya feared he faced that from Izuru as well. That perhaps Ichimaru had taken the ability from him, that he would be left in the same position as before, holding a bleeding heart in his hands as he watched another pair of sad eyes walk away. In that regards, Izuru was much, much stronger than him for even daring to try again.

 

He wondered often, as he sat awake in the windowsill, watching the moonlight fall onto his paramour's sleeping face, if perhaps it hadn't been the other way around all along. While Byakuya had believed he was the one to save his lover, maybe he had it backwards. In spite of everything, he could sit and watch Izuru breathe, face peaceful in sleep as the nightmares grew less and less with every night. And instead of feeling fear grip his heart, the awful pain that signaled he was getting in over his head and would only be faced with another loveless path, he felt reassured.

 

Maybe even stronger himself.

 

Perhaps he had been the one to be saved, after all.

 

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