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Renji wipes a bead of sweat off his brow and throws himself back into the Shunpo elliptical, pushing harder than the last set. It can't be helped — it's a force of habit. Every time he steps into the 11th Division barracks, it's like he's one of them again, unrelenting to the point where his body breaks, brutal to the point where it could be fun.
Renji shakes his head, slowing down the pace. It's neither productive nor useful to tear at his limbs like his former squad members, especially when he only comes down here to clear his mind — and put some distance between himself and the new recruits back at his own squad when they become too much.
"Figured you'd be here."
Renji stops completely, the sudden halt hitting him with vertigo. There aren't a lot of people who know he comes down here to cool off but Hisagi happens to be one of them. Renji turns to face him, his vision slowly clearing up. Hisagi's never liked coming down here, so his presence is a bit of a surprise. He doesn't seem perturbed though, so it's probably safe for Renji to assume that nothing serious is happening outside. "What's going on?"
"What, you don't think I'd come down here to hang out with my buddy?" Hisagi raises his eyebrows, leaning against the set.
Renji eyes the papers in his hand. He's not here on official duty, then. His actual official duty.
"You hate it here." Renji walks up to Hisagi, and the two of them begin retreating from the gym. It's not like Renji had planned an entire set today anyway - he's got to be back at his own office in ten minutes. "So, what do you want? An interview?"
Hisagi chuckles. "With you?"
Renji rolls his eyes. "Why is that such a surprise? I have fans too, you know." He juts a thumb towards himself. "Release an interview or something with me and your paper might finally start receiving those funds you've been yanking the committee's chains about."
They step out into the sunlight, leaving the long row of barracks behind them. Renji should head back, so he walks uphill towards the route that leads to the Sixth Division. To his surprise, Hisagi walks with him, hands at his side like the non-stop officer he is.
"Funnily enough, I am here to ask something similar of you,” Hisagi starts.
Renji narrows his eyebrows. "I was kidding about the interview-"
"Forget the interview," Hisagi interrupts, a dangerous, gleaming look in his eyes. It was one of those ambitious looks of his that never landed anyone in any good — especially Hisagi himself. "What I'd like is for you to write your own feature.”
Renji's eyes widen. "Feature?"
That, he wasn't expecting. When was the last time he wrote something other than mission reports and recommendation letters anyway? The formats were so deeply etched in his brain, they were all he could think about the minute he saw paper and a bottle of ink.
"We're thinking of taking a more diplomatic angle in our papers from here on," Hisagi explained. "Most officers haven't stayed long enough in the Living World to understand how things work there."
"Most officers don't care to." Renji himself had been pretty apathetic to it for the most part, until the last few years.
"Exactly." Hisagi grins. "I think it would be great fodder for us to report on the goings-on in the mortal world. How they live, how they survive...Most importantly, what we can learn from them." Hisagi and Renji stop, just outside the gardens where Byakuya and Renji's offices sit beside each other. "As someone who's visited the mortal world often and interacted with them, I think you'd be a good choice, Renji."
Renji's gotta admit, there was a time where a senior like Hisagi recommending him for anything would have shot up a thrill. But they were equals now - in rank, that is. Though it made it difficult to refuse Hisagi's offer, it definitely didn't make it impossible.
"Why not Rukia?" Renji suggests. "She's there right now, anyway and she's got loads more experience than me."
"Well, you know how it is," Hisagi says. "Our paper wants a writer whose reputation is a bit more...casual. Not that Lieutenant Kuchiki’s is not," he interjects calmly, like he reads something in Renji’s expression. "But you understand how it looks, right? Nobles usually don’t bother with such things, and if they do, they have their own image to think about." Hisagi keeps his tone neutral, which is a good thing because Renji’s been having complicated feelings about Rukia all week and the last thing he needs is another thing to set him off. Hisagi nudges him, smiling slightly. “Besides, people like you. I think they’ll listen to a voice they trust.”
Renji sighs. Either way, the proposition was unrealistic from the start. "I'm no writer, Hisagi," he scoffs. "Haven't been since Shin'ō."
“Don’t pull that, I know you wrote for the Academy newsletter.”
“Puff pieces,” Renji protests loudly, but honestly he himself has forgotten about that. It was so long ago. Truth be told, Renji's fingers ache at the thought of writing again. The last time he's ever had the opportunity to do something outside being an officer was at Shin'o and he'd gone and discarded that, too. It was just work, these days. Recruitment and training in the mornings, replying to letters after lunch and meetings on every alternate evening. "I appreciate the offer, Hisagi, but I'm gonna have to pass." He glanced down the trail, at Byakuya's cabin. "Even if I wanted to, the Captain would definitely refuse."
Hisagi snorts. "You think I'd approach you without talking to your Captain first? What do you take me for?"
"You don't want me to answer that, buddy."
Hisagi ignores him. "He's given his permission. All I need is yours."
Renji tries not to gasp in surprise. Byakuya giving him permission for something this trivial — well, trivial in his eyes anyway — was unexpected. Who would take care of the letters? The captain loathes to admit it, but he's never liked writing back to the various associations and committees and whatnot. The task always falls to Renji, whose shorthand has never been as neat as Byakuya's but serves effectively nonetheless.
"Don't get too excited," Hisagi says, though he's grinning too. "He's only given you a day.”
"More than enough for me."
"Great, so here are the guidelines…" Hisagi hands him the papers and explains a bunch of jargon he's supposed to remember. Include this, exclude that, tread on this delicately, no mentions of so-and-so and whatnot.
"Quit your yapping, Hisagi, or you're gonna drain the life out of this story!"
Hisagi shakes his head. "Better make this one good, Renji." He begins walking back, out of the trail and into the winding street. "The revenue of this paper rests on your shoulders."
+
In Karakura, it's raining.
Or rather, he should say it's pelting, because the storm gathering overhead is so much stronger than minor rainfall. Trust him to receive an assignment this important during weather like this.
Once he's officially within boundaries, it doesn't take him long to track down Ichigo and Rukia — both their reiatsu come from Urahara's store — so he closes in on their location and flash-steps his way across town.
Inside his chest, his heart hammers a lot more loud and painful than the rain. How long has it been since he's seen Rukia, anyway? Last they met was at some Kuchiki formal dinner that he'd been invited to, not by Byakuya but by one of the nobles who'd seen him work diligently as a lieutenant and decided to reward him with a dinner invitation.
Renji didn't care about the invitation itself; all those people and their hang-ups were the least of his concern, and a reward to ‘hang out’ with the upper class just seemed condescending anyway, even if it was well-meaning on the man’s behalf.
Seeing Rukia in a casual setting, however...that was worth the compromise.
It had been awkward, to say the least. Byakuya stood between them, hanging like a dark cloud over any possibility of a conversation. Rukia had looked at him, both impatiently and expectantly, like she was expecting him to jump past that obstacle and talk normally to her anyway. Of course he hadn't. The most he had done was ask her if her squad was up-to-date on their Hollow simulation programs and all that had earned him was a brisk reply and a scowl.
Heck, didn't she know how hard it was? How much he wanted to reach out to her, for them to hang out like it was the old times again - unrestrained and adventurous? How he's torn between wanting Rukia and being her brother's lieutenant? His whole life is dominated by the wanting-being seesaw and all he can do is sway helplessly sometimes — he’s doing his damned best. He’s been instrumental in the missions they’ve led so far, he knows that, but he still has a-ways to go to earn the respectability of his rank before he can even think of introducing Byakuya to the idea that he’s serious about the man’s sister.
He stops, just overhead the shop. Little puddles form in the lawn, and they splash, every time the thin raindrops strike them. Rukia, Inoue and Yoruichi are sitting by the veranda, drinking tea and talking. Yoruichi heads inside and shuts the door behind her. Above them, Ichigo sits on the roof, his head in his hands.
Renji drops down, letting his reiatsu send gentle shockwaves that alert its residents of his presence. Predictably, Ichigo is the last to sense him.
"One of these days you're gonna get straight-up murdered because you can't sense reiatsu in time," Renji remarks, though he'd be remiss if he didn't say the kid had gotten a lot better. "What's got you angstin'?"
"Renji?" Ichigo asks, puzzled. Down below, both Rukia and Inoue look up. Inoue shoots him a friendly wave, but Rukia just raises her eyebrows.
"What are you doing here, Renji?" Rukia calls out. Her voice isn't as tight here, as it was back at the dinner. It's almost like being in the Living World away from prowling eyes and responsibilities — it's the closest thing to Rukia he can get. His Rukia. The one who eased up around him. The one who was herself, with no bounds.
"Yeah, yeah I know you're all ecstatic to see me," Renji shoots them all a lazy smile to conceal the surge of feelings on the inside. "But I'm here on official duty."
"Official duty?" Inoue asks, with a tinge of concern. "Is there any trouble, Abarai-kun?"
"Nah." Renji drops down to sit beside Ichigo. The rain isn't that bothersome, once he's used to it. That's probably why Ichigo's sitting here, than down there with the girls. "Seireitei Communication wants a favor from me, I said I'd be happy to oblige."
"Seireitei Communication?" Ichigo repeats.
"It's the news publication back at Soul Society, birdbrain," Renji explains, tugging his hand at his ponytail. "They've asked me to write a feature for them."
He tries his best to mask the pride in his voice. His words are mainly aimed at Rukia, who he's sure will be impressed by this information, but he forces an air of indifference, like it’s some sort of chore he’s decided to take off their shoulders.
"Wow! That sounds cool!" Inoue calls out, sounding genuinely awestruck. Renji notices Ichigo smiling absent-mindedly at her and coughs loudly, nudging him in the chest with his elbow.
"What?"
"What?" he shoots back, with a grin, to a disgruntled Ichigo.
"You? A feature?" Rukia stands up, but she doesn't climb over to the roof, squinting up at them. "Are they running short of writers?"
"I write!" Renji crosses his arms. "I don't know why it's such a surprise that they'd pick me. I was one of Hisagi's first choices."
"And yet, you used the word ‘choices’." Ichigo mutters. Renji's about to smack him straight when Rukia interrupts them again.
"I've seen your reports to my brother," Rukia says, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "They weren't all that remarkable."
A vein pops in his forehead somewhere. Inoue gasps, biting down on her fist before looking up to see Renji's reaction. Renji meets Rukia's eyes. There's a challenge sparked in them.
"That's because your brother wants all his reports to be twelve sentences short, six words each — eight maximum," Renji argues. "Not a lot of room for flowery language there."
The more pressing observation, however, was that Rukia read his reports. There was no way Byakuya would've just shown it to her, so she would've had to sneak around to see them, wouldn't she?
Ichigo whistles. "That's rough."
"It's what it takes to be a competent lieutenant." Renji corrects, a superior smile on his face.
"Or an ass-kisser." Rukia mutters. Renji's ears burn and he's about to say some scalding things himself but Inoue shrieks, looking absolutely mortified, dragging Rukia by the sleeve inside the shop. The door slams shut behind them.
"What's their deal?" Renji asks, frowning. He knows Inoue and Rukia are kind of close but it still surprises him on occasion that she's managed to make a meaningful relationship outside of him and Ichigo. It would make him happy, if not a little suspicious.
"Dunno," Ichigo remarks, staring up at the sky like Rukia and Inoue’s conversations don't bother him. "They've been talking and giggling for an hour now."
"That's never a good sign." Renji says with an ominous sigh.
Ichigo rolls his eyes. "Boy, you're paranoid."
"I have every reason to be," Renji defends. "In all my years of experience, I know it can never be a good thing when women get together and giggle." They're plotting, he's sure of it. And if Renji's in town, he's definitely going to be a target. Too bad Ichigo is too thick-headed to listen.
"Whatever," Ichigo says, like that's that. "What's your article about, anyway?"
Rukia and Inoue come back outside, and if Renji isn't mistaken, Rukia looks nearly apologetic. Weird.
"What us shinigami can learn from the mortal world," Renji explains, glancing away from her with a whole lot of hesitation. "Hisagi says it'll build better diplomatic relations for officers who come down here every once in a while, but have no clue what humans are like. It's supposed to be an observation of this world, written by someone who experiences life the same way they do."
"That doesn't sound half bad." Ichigo states.
"It sounds awesome!" Inoue squeals. "Abarai-kun, you could write so much! You could write about science-fiction and ice cream — I know shinigami would love ice cream because Rangiku-san certainly did — and...I don't know. What do you think, Kurosaki-kun?"
"Could write about how you Soul Society shinigami could learn a few manners every time you decide to drop in here without warning." Ichigo suggests, earning him a smack from both Rukia and Renji. “Ow!”
"Anyway, I'll definitely need some specifics that people will like reading about," Renji says, eyeing Ichigo. "I could use an apprentice."
"Get over yourself," Ichigo barks. "It's finals week, I'm not gonna spend it playing tour guide to you."
"Asshole."
"You're talking."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Take a hint, pineapple-head —"
"I know!" Inoue exclaims, bull-dozing over their impending argument. "You can take Kuchiki-san with you!"
"Inoue!” Rukia hisses.
"Yeah!" she soldiers on. "You said you wanted to write it from the perspective of shinigami who have never seen the mortal world before. You and Kuchiki-san both fit into that description!"
Ichigo smirks at Renji's flushed face. "Yeah, Rukia can be your apprentice."
Inoue winks, quite terribly, with both her eyes, but the damage is done. They're all quiet now, pondering over her words.
"Well," Renji stutters. "I—”
"You could always object if you have a problem, Renji." Rukia says, dryly.
"Of course not, idiot. Did I say that?"
They stare at each other for a second, and Renji can’t figure out what her game is. Is she still mad at him or not?
Inoue tugs at Ichigo's sleeve and whispers, "Can you come inside with me for a second, Kurosaki-kun?"
"Huh?" Ichigo's own face flushes, but then he looks at Inoue gesturing aggressively back and forth between Rukia and Renji with her eyes and he understands. Time to give them some privacy, then.
He clambers off the roof and finally follows Orihime inside. It's much colder inside the shop, but all the lights being on give them the illusion of warmth anyway. Yoruichi is spread out on the carpet, and she releases a content murmur when Orihime gives her a few affectionate scratches behind the ear. Ichigo shakes his head. Did she have to act like a cat when she wasn't in a cat's body? When she straightens back up, her eyes are glowing with the glee of a plan well-executed. "Operation Rukia and Renji underway!"
"Did you plan that, Inoue?" Ichigo asks.
"Well, not intentionally. I just saw the opportunity and took it," Orihime explains, closing her palm around her fist with determination. Ichigo raises his eyebrows. "Well, Rukia was talking about all the things they used to do as teenagers and how they don't have the time to do that anymore so I thought it would be nice for them to have a day away from everyone else!"
"That's thoughtful of you, Inoue."
Orihime smiles, her cheeks turning slightly pink. "I just want them to be happy! They're so cute together."
"And insanely oblivious." Ichigo points out, shaking his head. He'd known from the moment he fought Renji in Soul Society that there’s so much the two of them skirt around, leaving unaddressed, but knowing how thick-headed they are, it would probably take 400 years for them to get it together. "They just don't know what's in front of them."
“Pot-kettle?” Yoruichi suggests sleepily.
Ichigo and Orihime blink, then raise their brows in confusion at each other.
“Nevermind, I’m staying out of it,” Yoruichi decides.
+
While Inoue usually seemed rather eccentric to Renji, her suggestions were all excellent ideas for story inspiration.
(“I’ve always wondered what it’s like to be an alien and look at human beings with a fresh perspective,” she’d explained, citing a Natsume Soseki novel as a reference, but that had gone over Renji’s head and he wasn’t going to bother with that. The important thing is that she’d written down a neat, numbered list using Renji’s back as a willing support and that was helpful).
They’d been, so far, to a great many locations. They rode the bus. They visited a grocery store, where they shoplifted a strawberry milk for Rukia, since Ichigo had been adamant about not wasting his hard-earned savings on their adventures. (Seriously, since when had Ichigo become such an adult? Renji wondered). Rukia drank the milk with a straw rather elegantly, and he took some time off note-taking to watch her, so there was that. They also visited a strip mall, where Rukia had talked him out of buying a ‘fedora,’ an ATM, where she told him how people used ‘cards’ to withdraw cash rather than waiting in lines and making small talk with grandmas like he did back home. Inoue had also done them a bonus favor and thrown in a few iconic haunts — ha — that kids her age went to with their lovers, since that was definitely one way people spent time anywhere, both here and in Soul Society.
“How does she know all these spots anyway?” he’d asked, chuckling at different pairs of teenagers walking past them, holding hands.
“Inoue is one of the popular kids,” Rukia pointed out. “Like you.”
Renji snorted. “I had two friends. Three if you count Hisagi.”
That’s more than I did, she didn’t say, but he’d read it in her eyes and the air suddenly became stale and uncomfortable when he remembered those years at the Academy, the guilt he still felt at abandoning her.
“Don’t pull that face, let’s go into the arcade.” She dragged him by his sleeve, and that’s how they ended up here, in front of a ‘claw machine’ where Rukia has strongly insinuated she wants the bunny, and Renji has been trying his best to get it.
“Hey,” Rukia says, and her tone is a touch softer than it had been all day, but Renji is frankly very focused on the machine. “I’m sorry I’ve been weird. Thanks for taking me out with you today on your mission.”
Renji snorts, even though he’s smiling a little. “I’d hardly call it that. Whatever I write’s gonna be shit anyway; what was Hisagi thinking?”
“Don’t sell yourself short, idiot,” Rukia scolds, sifting through his notes. “There’s lots of usable stuff here.”
Renji snorts again.
“Lots.” She watches Renji struggle again, for the fifth time, and wonders if there’s a cheat code somehow, some toothpick hack they can use to get that stupid bunny. “Here, let me try.”
Renji budges over and his muscles gleam under the neon lights of the arcade, light bouncing off his gigai in a way that makes him look ridiculously attractive when he smiles. She clears her throat and focuses on the lever. “Can I ask you something?”
“You can ask,” he says, and she clicks her teeth because he used to use that stupid line all the time back in Rukongai to deflect from a serious conversation, and back then it would drive her up the wall, but now she just plows on, a woman on a mission.
“Back at my brother’s dinner,” she says carefully, watching his mouth turn flat at the mention of Byakuya out of the corner of her eye, “you didn’t talk to me at all.”
Renji sighs. “You know it’s not like that. Your brother was there.”
“But you joined his squad,” Rukia points out, because it’s been eating at her, and because it feels important that Renji doesn’t talk much about the ‘why’ behind his position as a lieutenant at the Sixth. They’d never had the time — he’d sprung his promotion on her days before she was bound to be executed, so you’d have to excuse her for not asking questions, but they’ve been in the clear for a while now. He knew he'd be spending a lot of time with her brother. He signed up for it anyway. This is an itch to scratch. “You could have joined other squads. Captain Komamura offered. Captain Hitsugaya would sell Matsumoto for you in a heartbeat.”
“He wouldn’t.”
“You’re right, but on his worst days you know he’s thinking it.”
The joke doesn’t work on him the way she expected it to. Renji goes unnaturally quiet, and this feels like they’re on the brink of something suddenly very real when all she wanted to do (all Inoue suggested) was that they have a bit of fun. She can’t explain it, but somehow this is all connected — Renji and Byakuya, Renji and the Sixth, Renji at the Academy right before they said goodbye, Renji and her.
“Rukia,” Renji sighs. “Can we just talk about something else?”
“Okay.” Rukia bites her lip. With anything else, she would have prodded — she would have poked and pushed and bullied — but this feels serious, so she drops it. “You know I care about you, right? You can talk to me.”
“I know.”
“And I wouldn’t judge!”
“I know, Ru,” Renji says softly, and Rukia’s cheeks burn something fierce. “Thank you. Can I have a go now, or do you want to suck some more?”
“Fuck you, this game is rigged.”
He laughs, and then she laughs, and then they’re elbowing each other again, just like she wanted it. By the time it gets dark, they’ve wasted enough tries on the bunny and settle for a red octopus instead, which Rukia graciously hands over to Renji as a consolation prize. In the end, the Living World isn’t all that different from the Spirit World, two sides of the same coin, but sometimes it’s possible to breathe easy here and step away from themselves for a bit.
“D’you think you’d ever move here?” Renji asks. “Like. Run away?”
“Is this a cry for help?” Rukia asks, covering her mouth with her palm to keep from laughing.
“C’mon. You know your brother would drag me back solely for the paperwork.”
“Ichigo would hide you,” Rukia conspires. She’s seen the inside of that closet, after all.
“Ichigo would sell me out for a paperclip,” Renji grins. “It’s finals week.” It’s a bad impression of Ichigo, he knows, but it prompts Rukia to mimic him and getting Rukia to act like a dumbass with him never fails to make him feel like a million bucks.
“It’d be fun for a few days to just disappear,” Rukia says finally, but when her eyes catch his, they’re wistful. “But I think I’d definitely miss a lot of things I know I wouldn’t trade anything in the world for if I was gone for too long.”
“Yeah.” Renji swallows. “Me too.”
+
In the weeks after, nothing really happens, but something happened that evening and Rukia wants nothing more than to shove it to the far back of her mind and absolutely not think about it, no matter how many times she replays the way Inoue said “Sounds like you two had a fun date!” in her head.
Her. On a date with Renji. Please. Nothing shorter than a war would get the man out of his office, she thinks, even though she knows, okay? She knows, and argh! Damn Inoue. Rukia makes a mental note to tease Ichigo extra hard the next time they meet so Inoue can taste some of what she’s feeling. Call her cruel, but she needs her best girl to suffer with her — their love for each other notwithstanding.
“Rukia,” Byakuya calls out, and Rukia’s head snaps up. Right! She straightens and regards her brother with respect.
“Yes, brother?”
“I was just closing the doors to my office.” Byakuya gestures towards the doors. “Was there something you needed from there?”
“Ah, I was just thinking of borrowing some ink from Renji,” Rukia lies. “Is he in?”
“No. He is on an errand.” Byakuya frowns. “This is a long way to walk to borrow some ink.”
“Needed an excuse to stretch my legs!” Rukia declares, before correcting herself. “Well, either way, please don’t trouble yourself to tell Renji I had stopped by. I’ll tell him myself when I see him.”
“Very well.” Byakuya nods and sets down the path towards the courtyard. Rukia watches him leave, and then, when he’s finally out of sight, she slides out the little card she’d slipped between the shoji crevices shortly before Byakuya had caught her. She’d done this before, after all, sneaking into his office to find Renji’s reports and have herself a good laugh. For all her brother’s vigilance as a Captain, he’s no match for a good old Rukongai lock-pick.
When she slides in, his office is empty as she expected, but on his desk sits the object she’d been looking for. The very thing she’d been too proud — too afraid — to buy publicly, in front of other people. Now, she regards the Seireitei Communication copy with a satisfied sigh, picking it up and sifting through the pages to find Renji’s article.
…Ultimately, time passes by rather quickly in the real world. Faster so, when you’re with the people you’d want to spend more of it with. You would think that this means humans are agitated, annoyed, and always in a rush. It does. But the flipside is that every now and then, residents of the Living World understand the impermanence of it all, and it's that occasional epiphany which allows them to slow down. To take it all in and live in the moment. There's beauty in that, should you kick back to enjoy it.
Rukia sets the paper down.
Then, she starts to look for a pillow she can throw herself on and scream into.