Story Title: Caution; Wet Floor.
Summary: When wandering through life, always remember to watch your step. Four things Renji really should've seen coming and one thing he did. Renji-centric. Hinted IchigoRukia.
Character/s: Renji, Ichigo, Rukia, Orihime, Ishida, Byakuya, Grimmjow, others.
1.
When Renji first fought Ichigo he saw power, strength and this ridiculous need to save anyone he cared about. He saw a broken, bleeding boy lying on the ground watching Rukia walk away with this desperate look in his eyes like he needed to save her, more then anything.
Renji saw Rukia looking back over her shoulder, saw her crying for him to live as long as he can, saw her sitting in a jail cell waiting for death. He saw everything Rukia and Ichigo felt for each other but didn't really take notice.
Of course Ichigo would come and save Rukia; Renji would've seen that from the beginning, if he'd really wanted to.
2.
After they'd just found out about Orihime and Renji has stopped Ichigo from saying things he couldn't take back. The vice-captain stood tall and determined and requested to go to Hueco Mundo and get back Orihime, and the Captain Commander refused.
Renji and Rukia were going to go anyway, even when Byakuya and Kenpachi came to get them, even when they were in Soul Society and were faced with trying to find a way to go back to the human world.
Ichigo didn't wait for them to get back, and when he thinks about it, Renji realises that he should've expected that. That doesn't stop him from punching the substitute shinigami in the face.
3.
When Renji gains conciousness after attempting to fight Yammy, he slowly realises that there's an arm around his waist, his arm is slung over the same person's shoulder and that the person is dragging him along. It takes him an even longer time to realise that said person just happens to be his captain. Renji was expecting to wake up amongst a large amount of rubble.
The first thing that comes out of his mouth is "Rukia" and the second is "where's Ichigo" neither of which he gets any sort of reply to.
Renji looks ahead of him to see a group of people being healed by vice-captain Isane and Orihime. Orihime is in the middle of healing Chad and Ishida is opening and closing his fist whilst staring at it like it's the most amazing thing he's ever seen. When Byakuya gets close enough he just drops Renji onto his ass; Renji ignores the pain.
"Oi, Ishida," the redhead says to gain the Quincy's attention. Ishida looks away from his hand and at Renji in a motion so sudden that the vice-captain can tell he wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings. "Where's Ichigo?" Renji can now see Rukia sitting next to Orihime looking rather depressed, he thinks that's probably not the best sign. Orihime's glum expression isn't really helping his unease either.
"He went back to Kakura Town, to stop Aizen," Ishida tells him. Renji relaxes and huffs out a breath of air in relief.
"With all your faces, I was a little concerned he'd gotten himself killed," the vice-captain says, more to himself then to Ishida. The Quincy looks away from him and back at his hand, his hand clenches into a fist and he clenches his teeth. Renji is suddenly tense again, because he's worried that Ishida may have just lied to him.
"Abarai," calls a familiar monotonous voice; Renji turns around to look at Byakuya.
"Captain?"
"Stop wasting time conversing and get yourself healed so we can follow Kurosaki to Kakura town," he states and Renji relaxes a little again, because he has a feeling his captain wouldn't lie to him.
"Yes captain."
4.
The thing about going to Hueco Mundo is that Renji figured it would just involve killing off Arrancar, grabbing Orihime and then watching while Ichigo killed off even more Arrancar. Not that Renji wouldn't be able to keep fighting, he's just found that Ichigo has this strange habit of wanting to take on the world by himself. Renji doesn't expect Orihime to start healing an injured Espada, but he sits down next to her anyway and watched her heal Grimmjow.
"Kurosaki-kun told him he should stay alive," she tells the redhead, "he said 'stay alive so you can fight me some other day' and then the other Espada came." If he wasn't in Hueco Mundo, he may have laughed at her attempt to impersonate Ichigo. When he looks at the Espada, his eyes are open and he's staring at them.
"Stop, woman," Grimmjow barks out, like an order, and Orihime complies, because he's not in any sort of life threatening condition anyway. The Espada sits up and then moves his hand quickly to grab Renji's sleeve in a way that is probably supposed to be threatening, especially if his expression is anything to go off.
"Don't worry," he says to the girl next to him, because even though he can't see her face he can just imagine her concerned expression.
Grimmjow growls, "where's Ichigo Kurosaki?"
Renji doesn't reply, he just glares at the Espada; Grimmjow glares back and with a growl of frustration he tightens his grip and moves a little closer so he can be more menacing to the redhead. All of a sudden Grimmjow's wrist is in Byakuya's grasp and the captain is squatting down so he's low enough to stare at Grimmjow in his menacing way. Renji figures it's what you'd call a glare, but it doesn't look that different from his normal face, which just shows how controlled the sixth division's emotions are. Maybe he's just emotionally challenged.
"I should teach you not to touch what doesn't belong to you Espada," the noble says whilst still 'glaring' at Grimmjow. The Arrancar smirks in a cocky way that suggests he wouldn't mind starting a fight.
Renji is actually a little more focused on Orihime and her slightly panicked complaint about not starting a fight because then she'll have to heal the Espada again and then it'll take them even longer to get back to the real world so they can either help Kurosaki of he needs it or just celebrate their victory. Renji agrees that they should probably get back to the real world eventually, though he thinks they'd be better off just leaving the Espada to bleed to death in a ditch somewhere. He doesn't really know if Hueco Mundo has ditches.
"Captain," he starts, "we should hurry up so we can go help the others."
Byakuya lets go of Grimmjow's wrist and stands up. Grimmjow glares at Renji like he ruined his fun.
"Espada," the captain begins, "touch something that doesn't belong to you again and I will make time to kill you." The sixth division's captain starts walking away at that point. Renji looks back at Grimmjow to see a look on his face that is similar to Ichigo's that time he'd slapped Renji on the back and the redhead had told him not to touch him. Renji just stares at him dumbly while Grimmjow leans forward and pokes Renji's shoulder.
Ichigo had done the exact same thing.
5.
It ends how Renji always thought it would, with Ichigo laying flat on the ground bruised and bloody while the fourth division and Orihime run around the fake Kakura town healing people. Rukia is with her captain, Renji thinks, and Orihime is trying to heal everyone as quickly as possible because Ichigo refused treatment until he knew everyone else was okay. Ichigo just lays there, staring up at the sky; Renji stands over him and smiles.
"Hey, Ichigo, do you think you won this time?" Renji asks. Ichigo smiles a little, attempts to move, grimaces and then goes back to laying still.
"Renji, can you..." Ichigo turns his head to look off far in the distance, to where Rukia sits by her captain while captain Unohana heals him. "Can you take care of Rukia, take care of everyone."
"Oi, don't palm your responsibilities off on me," Renji tells him as he takes a seat next to him. "You talk like your going to roll over and die."
"I don't mind," Ichigo tells him, honestly, "as long as everyone else is safe." He's staring back up at the sky again, like maybe he doesn't want to see Kakura town in shambles, even if it's not the real one.
"Oi, don't fall asleep," Renji tells him whilst shoving him a little with his foot. "Someone has to watch Grimmjow," the redhead complains, "it's your fault he's still around, so you have to make sure he stops trying to start a fight with captain Kuchiki."
"I'm sure you can find some way to manage that, Renji."
"I'll just let captain Kuchiki kill him," Renji admits, Ichigo laughs a little without grimacing. "I mean, for some reason he keeps poking me, I can't figure out why."
"I wonder," Ichigo murmurs as he closes his eyes.
"If you're unconscious I'm going to call someone over to help you," the vice-captain tells him. Ichigo makes a noise just so Renji knows he can still hear him. Renji's not concerned, Orihime and Rukia are already rushing over here anyway.
"Ichigo," Rukia calls out as she gets closer. Renji stands up to take a few steps away from him. Orihime rushes over to them without saying anything.
"Don't worry," she tells them as she starts fixing Ichigo. Renji isn't concerned, he already knows how this is all going to end.