A Calculated Risk

He hated these functions. Stuffed into his formal dress uniform, forced to rub elbows with a lot of higher ups that (aside of his fellow Reapers) would probably spit on him sooner than look at him, and on top of that being fed tiny little portions of food and weak, fizzy booze. Still, his Captain had ordered him to attend, so attend he did. Despite his slightly outre appearance, Renji had been garnering admiring looks for the whole time he'd been staking out the food bar. However, he knew better than to mess with these girls, they had powerful noble fathers who would probably come after him with a sword and a marriage contract if they caught him showing their daughters a good time.

"Well," said a familiar voice right next to his elbow. "Don't you clean up."

Renji turned over to look at the voice he recognized as belonging to his fellow lieutenant, Nanao Ise from Eighth Squad and was momentarily taken aback, so much so that he actually did a double take. He was accustomed to thinking of her in terms of her formidable, uptight demeanor, her rigid self control, and her ever-present aura of extreme professionalism (and the fact that she was always having to brutally rebuff the unwelcome advances of her superior officer). But right then, she looked so different he hardly recognized her. The glasses she always wore were nowhere in sight, making her face seem rounder and softer instead of hard and angular, her hair was down from its tightly confining clip, but was instead half up in a loose bun with curled tendrils framing her face and shoulders. Her body was not hidden by her uniform, but was instead enhanced by an indigo-hemetite sheath of a dress. Renji hadn't really noticed it before but Nanao had a nice little figure going on; nice legs, shapely hips, great rack, no wonder her captain was always chasing after her.

"Right back atcha," he said, turning fully and complimenting her by visibly taking a moment to take it all in and appreciate the view. "You look good."

And she did, sexy and elegant both, a real classy girl. It made Renji wonder if there was a real woman under that scary demeanor. He had heard that it was always the uptight ones that were really wild in the sack, and right then, she looked good enough to eat. Renji might have thought about making a try for her himself, but for two factors; one, her Captain probably wouldn't be so understanding of his having a tryst with the very woman that Kyoraku was forever trying to land for himself (Captain Kuchiki wouldn't thank his lieutenant for starting an inter-division war just to satisfy his libido and curiosity) and the woman herself was quite well known for her violent rejection of offers. Renji didn't want to offend her, though among Reapers, rules of sexual conduct were lax as long as a veneer of professionalism was maintained. He wouldn't mind seeing what she was like with her hair down, but there was no way she'd ever go for it. He was Renji Abarai, brash, stupid, and utterly Rukongai, and she was Nanao Ise, intelligent, refined and proper in the extreme. No way in the world would she ever even look twice at him.

"Are all those medals yours?" she asked next, pointing to all of the honors for valor in the field he'd won over the years.

"People keep asking that, but yeah... all me ba-by," Renji smirked, drawing back his shoulders to display his pips proudly.

Nanao crooked a finger at him.

"You have something in your hair, allow me," she told him.

Gamely, Renji bent down so she could fix whatever it was she had spotted. It was so like her to be a bastion of order even in so relaxed a setting as a party. She motioned that he should come closer so he bent his head until he was right at her level. He was shocked when, under the pretense of fixing his collar she murmured something softly in his ear.

"Would you like to get out of here?" she asked him.

For a veteran of as many trysts and light of loves as Renji had been into and out of over the years (hey, being in love didn't preclude enjoying the pleasures of the flesh, and Renji liked his women) there was absolutely no mistaking the tone of invitation in her voice. He stared at her in dumb-founded shock. Uptight Lt Ise was asking him if... no surely not.

"I'm sorry?" he said in confusion.

He had to have misunderstood. But to his further surprise, Ise's cheeks pinkened a little in embarrassment (which just made her look deliciously cute) as she said

"I know you're not with anyone else, so I was wondering if you'd like to... um, keep me company. Somewhere a little more private. Like my quarters."

Renji's eyes widened and he said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Are you trying to get me killed?"

They both knew what he meant.

"Come now Lieutenant Abarai," Nanao said with this smile that was all womanly sexiness (which suddenly made him conscious of the fact that her lips, far from being thin and disapproving, looked made for kissing). "You never struck me as the sort to shy away from a confrontation when the stakes are right."

He looked over at his fellow Lieutenant with some justifiable suspicion. To the best of his knowledge she'd always dismissed him the way a woman of her obvious intelligence would dismiss him... as being too stupid to bother with. So what was up now that she wanted to suddenly hit the sheets with him?

"Uh-huuuhhhh," he said, not bothering to hide his skepticism.

Ise looked back at him and her cheeks flushed further. She cleared her throat and assumed a little more of her normal businesslike demeanor as she motioned Renji off to a more private corner where they wouldn't be overheard.

"You're a little more perceptive than I gave you credit for Abarai," she replied with a tone that was more brisk than the one she'd used a moment ago. "So I'm going to level with you."

"I'm listening," Renji said ignoring the assumption she'd made about his intelligence.

"Picture this with me. I'm a normal, not unattractive woman in her prime."

Renji nodded with another long once over to be sure. Yep, not unattractive alright, and she got better on closer veiwing.

"I have a good job, good prospects. I should be receiving offers. Offers which I would have the freedom to accept or to reject at my discretion. But instead, I am forced to toil, endlessly, day in and day out with an insolently lazy Captain who foists all the work off on me and actually makes me chase him down so I can get my job done! Not only that, he is forever making passes at me that I'm forced to reject in the most emphatic manner possible so that he and everyone else around me can take a hint, but apparently hope springs eternal for him."

"And he has an eternity in which to hope," Renji said, his face clearing as she finally got where she was going with her tirade.

"I see you understand. Lieutenant. I'm over seventy and there hasn't been a man in my bed for... longer than I care to think about."

Renji's tattooed brow furrowed in obvious puzzlement and he came right out and said

"But you an' everyone else have gotta know there's someone throwing himself at you everyday ta try an' change that."

"And that's also my point. He's been so obvious and so determined in his pursuit of me that no one else will even look twice at me. I feel stifled. It's gotten to the point where I can barely breathe anymore!"

Renj turned sympathetic at hearing of her plight. It would have been one thing if Nanao Ise had thought her Captain's antics were kind of cute, but she obviously didn't, and so... they weren't cute, they were sexual harassment and that sort of thing could build up to be very stressful over time. She hid it very well behind her strong front of formidable professionalism but Renji looked a little closer at her and saw signs of weariness and care that he hadn't ever noticed before. Those glasses hid circles under her eyes and if her back wasn't one enormous knot of tension his name wasn't Renji.

"Every single other person I could think of would, and has, backed the hell off and ran away as fast as they could if I so much as looked twice at them because there he is, glaring at them over his shoulder," she continued, sounding a little bit desperate despite her clear efforts to keep up her usual facade. "I only want a little space, a little independence. A life of my own!"

"So how do I fit into all of this? I mean, not that I'm not flattered you'd consider me an' all, but I think both of us here know ya ain't the type ta leg-shackle yerself to a neanderthal, no matter how sexy I am."

Ise shot a droll look at Renji's preening grin, but didn't deny the sexy part, he noted.

"I've tried being subtle and I've tried being obvious, nothing has worked!" Ise replied. "I just simply don't see anything for it but to force the issue. If I'm to have any hope at all of gaining even a modicum of independence from him I need to be able to draw boundaries and have him respect them... and my Captain, for all of his other virtues, is no great respecter of boundaries."

"I gotcha so far, but where do I come in?"

"You're the only lieutenant I know of who has stood toe to toe with a Captain and come out of it still breathing," she held up a hand to forestall his protest that Renji hadn't come out of his confrontation with Sixth Squad Captain with anything more than his life and body intact.

"Whether or not you were defeated has little to do with this situation, the point that interests me is that you tried at all. You're not afraid to take up a fight and hold the line. I can't fight him and defeat him, and when I stand up to him, he just thinks it's cute. Head Captain won't transfer me to another squad over the protests of his favorite son. Frankly, Renji, you're all I can come up with."

"I'd love to help you out Ise, I mean..." he looked her up and down again. "I mean, I'd really love to help you out. But, um, you should know that my heart lies elsewhere."

It was perhaps the worst kept secret in the Seireitei, thanks to Rangiku who had gotten it out of Kira in a drinking session once and then promptly blabbed it to everyone else. Now everyone knew of his feelings for Rukia except, it seemed, the recipient of them.

"That's perfectly alright," she assured him quickly. "In fact it might be better that way. We can go our separate ways in the end and I'll have my independence and you'll have..."

"Some nice memories, it looks like," Renji supplied with a slight leer.

He might be in love, but he wasn't a man who took well, rather make that at all, to celibacy. Renji kept his light of loves discrete but in among his hunting ground in Fourth were a certain number of nurses who might quietly sing his praises.

"Besides, yer right about my not backing down from a fight. I don't see a problem with takin' on yer Captain if he wants ta have a go. I'd like the practice. Captain Kuchiki's always sayin' I need help of refining my technique with my Bankai, and Zaraki always says ya don't get any better by picking fights with opponents weaker than you... well, not that Kuchiki's weaker than me, but I'm used ta fighting against him, I'd like ta change it up a bit. So, I'd be more than happy to ah, help out yer little celibacy problem. I'm not sayin' I'm gods gift to women but I've never had any complaints about my ability to keep a woman happy."

Ise's cheeks pinkened at his unusually straightforward manner of speech with regards to that. He looked sort of proud of himself and it only made her more conscious of the way he filled out a uniform, and that brought back to memory the results of some of the discrete inquiries she'd made around his known hunting grounds in Fourth, and their assurances of his delightful treatment of a woman sharing his bed. If he was proud of it, rumors were that his pride was justifiable. After all, Nanao Ise hadn't only picked him for his fighting abilities. She too, found him attractive in a rough, animalistic sort of way. If she was going to break decades of celibacy, she really had it in mind to do it right.

"So when should we schedule our first assignation?" she asked, turing all-business again, despite the blush. She even pulled out a small note pad and pencil from heaven only knew where to schedule and appointment for heaven sake.

Renji gave her one of his long, famous, flat looks and took the paper and pen from her, shaking his head and looking bemused.

"First things first. You've obviously been out of action for a long time. Ya don't just schedule great sex like ya make an appointment with yer hairdresser... nine times out of ten it just happens."

Renji scrawled a quick note and signaled a waiting servant nearby. When the servant came over he handed the note over and told him to give it to his captain. Nanao did the same but before the servant could leave to deliver the note that said she'd had enough of the party for one evening and was more interested in going home to bed (it wasn't entirely a lie either) Renji stopped him and slipped him a ten-note.

"Wait an hour, and then deliver it," he instructed the servant, with a wink. The servant smiled back and wandered off with his tray, note safely in his pocket.

Renji turned on his voluntary new prey and scooped her up easily. Nanao made a small squeak of surprise, a flutter of nerves in the pit of her stomach making her wonder if she might not have been a little hasty in her designs. Renji smiled and bent over to kiss her soundly, his mouth making love to hers with untamed animal passion. Any qualms were quickly forgotten in the rush of heat that his expert kiss woke up from its decades-old sleep within her body. His tongue caressed her mouth with lusty delight as the feel of one of his hands pressing up through the slit in her dress to stroke her thigh made her shiver and moan softly into his mouth. It had been so long since she'd felt these sensations... so long.

Renji blurred out into flash-step bouncing lightly over the rooftops into the night and ascending with barely a whisper of noise in front of the lieutenants apartment in Eighth Squadron.

I know it's not Chasing Shadows but this weird little gem just suddenly came to me one day while I was musing about who would make a really odd match for Renji to be with. The premise for it came to me and it sort of wrote itself from there. Just as a warning, it has lemons in it because well, frankly I don't think it would work without it. It took me over a month to work my way past my embarrasment about posting it but I didn't have anything for Chasing Shadows and I haven't posted anything in a while. So please let me know what you think.

On another note, since this is my little corner, I'm going to take the opportunity to shamelessly plug something else I'm going to be posting in another (less frequently trafficked fandom). If anyone has seen the anime Legend of Twelve Kingdoms (if you haven't it's really well done so you should go watch it!) it picks up where the anime left us all sort of hanging.