Haircut
A Bleach fanfiction
by Nelarun
Bleach © Kubo Tite

Renji froze, horror dawning on his face. The other Fukutaichou and senior seated officers stared at him with expressions ranging from horror to amusement and everything in between. "Uh…" The figure before him straightened slowly from her stance, her hair leaving her eyes in shadow. "Uh..." he tried to speak again, ending up emitting a kind of squeaking sound, "uh..."

Sniggers sounded and he was too afraid to glare at them, too afraid to take his eyes off the... creature currently standing before him, her reiatsu snapping and coiling around her in what would have been – had the creature been smiling – a vision from the gods themselves, but what was actually the most terrifying thing Renji had ever come across. He was going to die today and no one was going to help him. Gods he was going to die! Renji quickly sheathed his blade and held up both hands. "Rukia, I'm sorry! I had-" he finished with an 'eep' as she slowly looked at him, still bathed in the reiatsu.

"Renji."

"I'll make it up to you!" he swore as she took a single step towards him and Renji threw the last of his pride away as he prostrated himself before her. It came down to a matter of what he wished to listen to more: his pride or his self preservation? Against Rukia he would always listen to the voice of self preservation.

"You-"

"I beg your forgiveness!" Renji pleaded.

"- are-"

"Mercy!"

"- dead!"

Renji would forever be mocked for the exceedingly girl like squeals he offered up as Rukia destroyed him.

~(^.^)~

Kuchiki Byakuya watched as his sister walked into the Sixth Division office, offering him a perfect bow, dragging his comatose fukutaichou behind her. This was, unfortunately, a common enough occurrence to not warrant Byakuya's attention, however today was different. Today Rukia had a barely hidden murderous glint to her eyes and a hood over her head. The over protective brother syndrome (or OPB as the SWA had taken to calling it) flared up and he stood. "Rukia,"

"Oniisama." Rukia dropped Renji to the floor and kicked his comatose form (though Byakuya and Rukia would later claim that Rukia had tripped and was it her fault that Renji had decided to take a nap on the office floor?)

"Did he do something worthy of this attention?" Byakuya asked and Rukia nodded once. Anger started coiling inside Byakuya, just needing an excuse or even a hint of an excuse to release the anger fully on the man lying down. (If it came to that, Byakuya would claim that Renji had fallen asleep at his desk and was it his fault that Renji had smudged all the just inked documents and drooled all over the rest?) Still, he was a Taichou and therefore had to gather all the facts before he acted... unfortunately. "May I enquire as to what he did?"

Rukia silently removed the hood she had donned for the trek through the Seireitei. Byakuya – envisioning bloody wounds, bruises on her perfect skin – took a moment to realise that Rukia was mostly unharmed, wasn't covered in blood or the perfect whiteness of her skin marred by bruises. No what he saw was so much worse. Her hair had been cut. His imouto's hair had been cut with his fuktuaichou's blade. Byakuya silently stepped outside and saw his third and fourth seated officers in their office, writing up their report for their latest patrol. "Taichou!" Both men hurried to their feet and bowed to him.

"Arrest Abarai-fukutaichou. Keep him in the cells until I return." Returning to his office, he silently lifted Rukia's hood and escorted her from the Division. He would fix this, or Abarai would pay dearly for this crime.

~(^.^)~

Renji woke up to see the bars of a cell and groaned. He was in gaol, yes, but he was still alive and that was the main thing. He sat up and almost yelped, one hand coming up instinctively as though to ward off the person sitting on the other side of the bars, legs tucked under her in a perfect seiza position. She wore a homongi rather than her uniform and her hair was cut short, about chin length rather than brushing her shoulders as normal. She had a cup of tea in her hands and a small smile on her face. "Renji, be thankful that Nii-sama has the most wonderful hairdresser who was able to fix my hair." Rukia set the tea cup down and stood gracefully before she opened the cell door. "Nii-sama asked me to remind you that you have to finish the last of the paper work before you leave for the evening."

"Hai... Thank you for sparing my life." Renji couldn't believe it. He was being let go? Alive with all limbs attached? It was too good to be true. He edged past Rukia, cringing slightly as the door closed with a sharp 'clack' behind him and the seals moved back into place. There had to be a trap somewhere.

"It is Nii-sama you must thank, Renji," Rukia spoke in that too polite voice. "I was quite happy to make you suffer."

"Ah... Rukia?" Renji's hands ghosted down his side, prodding at the sensitive skin with wonder as he attempted to work out why his side was sore. He didn't think he had been sleeping in an odd position. The third and fourth seats were generally nicer than that.

"Yes Renji?" Renji shuddered as he realised that he was more afraid of Rukia's nice voice, her sweet, kind and gentle voice always left him in a cold sweat and looking for the nearest exit. Unfortunately for him, this time the nearest exit would require him to pass Rukia. He wasn't even sure that he wanted to know the answer to his question, however he had gained her attention, there was no going back now.

"Why are my ribs bruised?"

Rukia froze for a long moment before she kept on walking. "I tripped."

A/N: As a side note about the spelling: I am Australian. I hope you enjoyed. ^_^.