It's Simply That I've Always Loved You

Chapter 11

For the majority of his lifetime, Byakuya's immune system has been flawless.

Falling sick as pack alpha is simply not an option that he has, not when he has the pack to care for, his sister to look after, and Renji's rut to anticipate. It should have been not too far into winter but it had been somewhat delayed; Unohana explained that Renji had been under pretty incredible stress ever since they had discovered Aizen was secreting away his own pack in previously untouched territory and that his body was likely staving off his rut so that he could be available to fight and protect the pack at any given moment.

She promised she could intervene medically and force it if necessary, but Renji seemed content to let it wait and Byakuya was not going to step into his private matters and try to assert his will. He spent years making sure his heats could not occur, so it seemed hypocritical of him to think critically at all about anyone else's choices, so he did not.

Rukia and Orihime were well on their way to being a happily mated pair and after Kurosaki Isshin finally went on his way and left his son alone, Ichigo's buoyant personality bounced back into place. Truth be told, while the young omega would be more boisterous than Byakuya wanted to deal with, he was always happy to have more strong-willed omegas in his pack. It made him feel more secure in his position because Ichigo looked up to him.

All in all, the pack was fine, but Byakuya's duty is still to take care of them, and so when he drags himself out of bed when the sky is still dark and littered with stars to empty the contents of his stomach or risk ruining his bedroom flooring, it surprises him.

Not immediately, no, his exhausted mind struggling to piece together just what is happening until he drags his head away from the porcelain basin and takes stock of the situation. Had he caught a stomach bug or a flu of some sort? It's possible. He knows this and yet he still finds himself annoyed when the illness persists, trying to fight it back of his own free will.

"Something is wrong with you." Yoruichi pins him into a corner when she gets the first chance, fingers spread across the wall on either side of him. Even being on the disadvantageous side when it comes to size difference, she manages to keep him where she wants him with nothing more than a determined gaze, never once daring to assert her alpha status over him. She wouldn't dare. "I can smell it on you. Are you sick, Byakuya-bo?"

The question has him rolling his eyes, resting a hand on her shoulder. "I'm fine, Yoruichi. It's certainly rare for me to get sick at all, but it was bound to happen. I'm sure it's the stress."

"Just because stress can weaken your immune system doesn't mean you should write it off as something so simple," Yoruichi warns him, and something in her scent catches his attention, a lack of harmony in the scent he knows better than any other.

She's worried about him. It's all over her face and wrapped up in her natural scent, too.

The gentle concern relaxes the tension in his muscles somewhat and he sighs, both hands on her shoulders, giving them a gentle squeeze. "I'm fine. If it gets any worse or does not go away soon, I'll see Unohana about it personally. You can escort me there if you don't believe me."

Yoruichi eyes him uncertainly before she drops her head. "I'm sorry. I'm not your alpha and maybe it's wrong of me to push so hard, but I am worried about you."

"I can smell it on you. It's the only reason I'm not biting your head off for trying to impose on me." His tone is light and gentle, because he'd never bite her head off one way or another. Most alphas he finds himself wary of from the beginning, including some of those still present in his pack, but Yoruichi has never been anything but an angel to him.

"Well, someone has to worry about you in light of recent... Everything, and you don't have a mate." Yoruichi narrows her eyes up at him and he raises his hands, palms out. But she backs away, giving him his personal space back. "With Aizen up in the mountains and the new pack members and Shinji's cryptic bullshit, you're under a lot more stress than usual and you don't have someone to take care of you when you need to be taken care of."