Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Three years after Ichigo and his classmates graduated from highschool, Renji finally gathered enough courage to confess to Rukia his strong feelings for her. For a full ten minutes, Rukia was not able to respond anything intelligble that Renji began panicking. Fat beads of sweat trickled down his face and his eyes started to burn in anxiety and fear of rejection. Finally, Rukia took his hand in hers and gently tiptoed to plant a small kiss on his cheek. As soon as she did so, her face turned a tomato red and she ran off.
Renji did not know what to make of this. So for the next two days, he sulked and moped in his room. Matsumoto, Hisagi and sometimes Ikkaku and Yumichika would come by his quarters at the squad six barracks to try to get him to forget his heartbreak by joining them for sake—lots and lots of sake. But he was so torn that he didn't have the energy to go out of his room.
On the third day, his door slid open, and there she was, frowning at him. Renji felt his heart shatter to even smaller pieces, but then she spoke, "Why haven't you gone to Nii sama yet?"
"Huh?"
"Weren't you going to ask him to marry me?"
Renji blinked.
"You said you loved me. Did you just love and not want to get married?" Rukia crossed her arms over her chest. She continued to frown at him, but the fierce blush on her face made her only look more cute than threatening.
"I do—but wait, I don't understand. You want to marry me?"
"Of course, I do!"
Renji's mouth fell agape and though she was yelling at him, he could feel his heart leaping, dancing, threatening to break out of his chest. "Why?" He stood up from his seat by the window and walked towards her.
"Because..." Rukia felt her toughness crumble at the sight of him, so tall, so rugged. Her face burned even hotter, "Damn it, do I have to spell it out?!"
Renji held back a laugh, anticipating with so much eagerness what she has to say.
"Because, idiot, aylufyuthu." she said, so very quickly and then turned away.
Renji almost didn't catch it, if not for his many daydreams of her telling him those very same words. Normally, he would have teased her even more but he was overflowing in joy that without thought, he just wrapped her in his big arms, holding her in a tight embrace. He pulled back and almost kissed her but stopped himself.
He's not ready for the next step, not yet. That is a bigger obstacle than telling her how he felt. Beads of sweat trickled down his face—bigger than before—his next hurdle is right there, behind her, standing on his doorway. Renji swallowed the big lump that suddenly nestled in his throat, "Captain..."