Chapter Text
Getting the girl out of the tanks turned out to be difficult. Her (its?) limbs lacked all strength. If it was due to the recent switch-on or a faulty nervous system, Renji couldn’t tell. It worried him nevertheless.
He also had an inkling that he was worried over a person, not an object, not a project. That worried him as well.
Which was not to say he had time to waste for active worrying. When he was finally able to hold the girl properly, she was freezing to touch.
“Let’s get you warm,” Renji whispered, ripping the last pair of electrodes off her body.
He could feel but not see her nodding against his chest. The flashlight app of his phone had lasted longer than the predicted 16 seconds, but not by much. The battery had died long before the girl was out of the tub. The lab was underground and therefore windowless – and dark as a coal mine, save the pale photoluminescence of an emergency exit sign.
The sign didn’t offer much light, but Renji didn’t need much light to know the steps to the surgical table nearby. He had placed the girl on it enough times to know the moves by heart. Still, he bumped his toe on the pedestal and ended up swearing out loud.
When he swore, he felt the girl stiffening in his arms.
“Not your fault, sorry, not your fault,” he found himself repeating while placing her on the table. “I have a Bunsen burner somewhere in here. Wait a sec, I’ll find it.”
The girl squeezed his hand. He took her hand in his and kissed it (it tasted like antifreeze), and then placed it on where he thought her chest was.
“Just a sec, Rukia, I’ll be back. I promise. I’ll just… go get us some light.”
Renji wasn’t sure if he heard or imagined the quiet ‘kay he got for an answer, but it doubled his efforts to find the burner.
After three years in the lab it would’ve been a trivial task if he was finding his way by sight instead of touch. As it was, he found the Bunsen burner and a box of matches next to it with some but not too much difficulty. Skip th some fumbling with the collar, burned fingers and internal swearing (Renji didn’t want to spook the girl again), and the thing was lit.
The orange of the safety flame was so bright it was hurting Renji’s eyes. The girl looked at the flame. She was lying still on the surgical table, lips parted, and wearing nothing but simple blue panties and a matching bralette, both soaked with the antifreeze solution and glistening in the light of the restless flame.
The lack of proper clothes made sense. Any and all clothing would’ve just gotten soaked, on top of being in the way of the electrodes. Even the underwear had been an afterthought, a cheap chain store purchase to stop Byakuya from having to feel weird in the presence of his naked, newly undead sister.
But now, when the girl was breathing and speaking and shivering with cold, Renji couldn’t believe the lack of foresight he was demonstrating. He should’ve had towels and clothes and fluffy blankets with cute duckling prints ready for her.
You never had this kind of issue with octopuses.
On the way back to the girl, Renji took a detour to grab his hoodie. It was sweaty, sported a sizable mayonnaise stain and was about a million sizes too big for the girl. The grim reaper print wasn’t much of a substitute for the ducklings either, but the hoodie was dry and warm and didn’t stink of antifreeze. As an afterthought Renji picked up the laboratory mascot of sorts, Chappy the Bunny.
The girl was quiet, but Renji could feel her eyes on him. Every movement he made, those eyes followed. He wasn't sure if it was because of the light, or because he was the only living thing the girl had ever seen.
“Hey,” he whispered, sitting on the surgical table next to the girl. “Let’s put you in some clothes, ok? Get you warm and comfortable?”
The girl nodded again. Her skin was as cold as before, but she had a good pulse and no longer felt like a rag doll; strength was coming back to her.
Or perhaps just to her. Considering that she hadn’t existed a couple minutes back, as a person.
Considering this, and the fact that she had woken up in a pitch-black lab probably feeling like she was drowning, she seemed to be doing a stellar job.
Yeah, yeah. He probably should have made sure there was light and clothing and smiling faces and a fucking birthday cake and a tape of soothing whale song. But he was an octopus guy, so shoot him dead for making some mistakes. One simply did not play whale songs to soothe octopuses.
Renji shook his head in an attempt to reign in his thoughts.
“Sorry about this, Rukia, it’s gonna be fine. It is fine, actually, more than fine. Just too bad I fucked up your waking. There’s all kinds of pretty things out there, a lot better than a stinky old sweater and--” Renji stopped himself in time from saying ‘surgical table’. No point in traumatizing the girl further.
“There’s ducklings. You’ll like them, I’m sure, they’re fluffy and cute. And rabbits, like your Chappy in there, just, like, real. Ponies, you’re so tiny you’ll be able to ride a pony. Cows… well, I wouldn’t say they are cute, but they exist. Puppies and kittens,” Renji blabbered on, feeling like he was listing animals he hadn’t had to dissect (save for cows) when he felt Rukia shiver violently. He looked down immediately.
She was yawning.
It was ok.
She tilted her head to meet his gaze and spoke. Her voice was weak but clear. Beautiful. “Please keep talking.”
Renji let out a small laugh, born out of pure relief. “Maybe I’ll change the subject though. There’s flowers, like roses. They smell nice but are spikey underneath and all flashy, I don’t think you are a roses kind of girl. I mean, I don’t really know you so I’m just guessing, feel free to prove me wrong. Then there are different flowers that actually look like flowers. Like sunflowers, they’re big and yellow and they like to face towards the sun. Dahlias of different sizes and colors, and violets--"
Byakuya came in early. Turned out he had equipped the laboratory with an alarm to go off in case of a power failure.
When he marched in, Rukia was already asleep. Renji was getting extremely aware of tingling in his legs but didn’t want to disturb the girl, whom he no longer thought of as ‘the girl’. She was Rukia to him, a real girl with a name and a personality, albeit one he didn’t know well yet.
Or rather, she was a young woman. All her parts, tampered with to introduce octopus genes or not, had come from women who had died young. That probably made her a young woman too, if her mental capabilities matched. Renji felt more than a bit stupid for listing animals, flowers and finally butterflies for her, but mostly he felt happy to listen to her deep, even breathing.
Did it feel like this to become a father?
If it did, what was Byakuya’s role in it?
Not a mother, that was for sure, and certainly not a big brother curious to see the baby sister for the first time.
Renji took a deep breath and prepared himself for whatever was about to come.
When Byakuya realized he had missed the Big Shock, he didn’t settle for being angry. He was livid. Later, when Renji described Rukia how she came to be, he said that he had been scared of Byakuya becoming the clawing and spitting specimen.
That made Rukia laugh. At the time, though, Byakuya’s anger wasn’t a laughing matter. It ended with Renji sacked and Rukia’s sleeping form carried out to the Kuchiki Estate, where she woke up in a room of her own. This awakening she later described as scary, with bright lights, unfamiliar faces and strange sounds everywhere. The mayo-stained sweater and the plush rabbit she had been carried out with had been a major source of comfort.