He had come to his captain's office in order to do work. And work he did. In fact…
"I'm workin my fuckin ass off!" Renji thought to himself. He had been sorting out paperwork since about five in the morning, and now the sun was at its topmost position in the sky. His captain had left him alone for about a half hour now.
"Bastard. Leaves me all alone and goes off to lunch…just cuz he's the captain…
Just then, Renji heard gentle footsteps outside of the office. He bent over his work so that it looked as though he hadn't just been cursing the person walking calmly in.
Byakuya moved towards Renji and dropped something on his desk. A bento.
"You must be hungry." The nobleman said.
Silence.
No way. I'm fine. I mean, I've only been sitting here for over six hours without eating anything. Renji thought sarcastically.
Byakuya shoved the bento towards Renji's face. As the taller tattooed man flinched at having something shoved so close to his face, the black-haired man looked at the ground instead of the redhead to address him.
"Eat this."
…what?
Renji stared blankly at his captain. Was he serious? Was this a trick? The redhead looked at the man before him. And reached for the bento and thanked him. As he began to eat, he realized that he had never seen his captain eat anything. Did he eat anything? He had to. Byakuya had taken a long time out of the office. He must've eaten then. Yes, and then he had picked something up for Renji. That was all. But he didn't have to bring Renji anything. He could've just sat down to his work and ignored Renji's stomach completely, but instead he brought him food. Was Renji over thinking this?
As he bit into an onigiri, he noticed that instead of finishing his paperwork, his captain was watching him. He was watching him in such a manner that it would be impossible to notice…unless you were watching him back. And Renji wasn't watching his taichou. No.
Never. Why the hell would he want to watch another man?
He chewed the rice ball with minimal interest. How could he be interested in it? What he was interested in was the look on his captain's face. He looked hungry. Renji swallowed hard. He felt uncomfortable under his captain's gaze.
Renji could feel his face flare with color and immediately turned around. He knew his captain was still watching him. Something was wrong. Whenever people stared at Renji, he couldn't care less. He was used to people looking at him. He had red hair that was actually red, not orange. He had tattoos on most of his body, and quite a bit of muscle. Of course he was used to people staring. But knowing that his captain was looking at him with that look of insatiable hunger on his face…he felt so…so uneasy and…hot. God, why did the room feel so hot?
Ignoring his discomfort, he turned around. He extended the bento towards Byakuya.
"Want some?"
"…?"
"Food, I mean." Renji felt it was necessary to clarify for his own sake. He really didn't mean for it to sound the way it had sounded to his ears.
Byakuya looked at him and then at his work.
"No, thank you."
"Don't you guys think that Kuchiki-taichou and Renji-kun would look just soooo cute together?"
Ise Nanao spit out the green tea in her mouth all over the table. Chair-woman Kusajishi Yachiru scribbled absentmindedly on the desk before her. Nanao's head turned in what almost seemed to be slow motion in the direction of the busty blonde who had spoken.
"Matsumoto-san, what makes you say that?" the dark-haired woman pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and stole a glance at the young pink-headed girl who appeared as nonchalant as she had been at the beginning of the Woman's Society meeting. She lowered her voice so that Yachiru couldn't hear her—hopefully. "Especially now." She gestured towards the girl.
Matsumoto's well-rounded chest heaved as she sighed emphatically. "Really, Nana-chan." Matsumoto waved her right hand back in forth in almost a motion of disapproval. "Right now is the perfect time to bring it up." She spread her arms out at all of the women gathered in the room. "I'm sure you've all thought that at some point, right?"
All of the women glanced at each other somewhat uncomfortably except for a woman with short black hair and two long braids.
"Matsumoto-fuku-taichou! Don't speak of such things in front of Yoruichi-sama!"
Yoruichi, who was usually in the World of Living had actually come up for a pleasant visit with all of the women in the room. An awkward silence fell, and everyone tried to laugh it off.
"Yeah, Rangiku, you can't be serious, ya know?!" Kiyone Kotetsu said loudly. Isane smiled uncertainly beside her noisy sister.
Yoruichi smiled and patted Soi Fon's head. "Actually, Soi Fon, I kind of agree with Matsumoto."
Matsumoto stood up quickly, her breasts almost flying out of her shihakusho. "Exactly! You know what—" she cupped her hands over Yachiru's ears "—we should do?! We women who support the two of them as a couple should all meet at my home tomorrow so that we can figure out what to do!" she let go of Yachiru, who began to whine.
"There's nothing to play, huh? Well then, this meeting is closed!!!"
******************************************************************************************"So, what exactly are we going to do?"
Almost all of the women present the day before were seated comfortably on the floor in a circle. Notably absent were Soi Fon, Yachiru, and Isane. Isane didn't want to come because she was afraid of captain Kuchiki. The last time she had seen him, she thought he was going to kill her because she was taking pictures of him with Nemu. Surprisingly, Nemu was there with Yoruichi, Matsumoto, Kiyone, Nanao, and an assortment of random women.
Matsumoto looked at all of them, all of the excitement gone from her face.
"I have no idea." She pouted.
Silence. All of them women seemed to be counting on her to get started in whatever crazy procedure they were going to go through to get Renji with Byakuya.
"Alright then, Yoruichi, why do you think that Byakuya-taichou and Renji-kun would be good together?" Rangiku pointed her finger at said were-cat triumphantly. She smirked playfully at the dark woman.
Yoruichi played along swimmingly. She moved her left hand up to her face with her fingers slightly curled and flinched as soon as the boobs attached to a woman known as Rangiku pointed at her. "Why?!" she asked in her most dramatic voice. All of the females in the room laughed at the pair's odd comedy team. "Because---" here she paused before making herself sound like a booming man "I think that he needs somebody, anybody to keep him warm at night." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. Now most of the women were cracking up, sans Nemu. "Because---" insert forties film star's high pitched voice, like Snow White's "Then, perhaps, Byakuya-sama wouldn't be so cold to me anymore!"
When everyone had stopped laughing, Rangiku regained her composure and looked at Nemu, who had sat quietly as everyone else had enjoyed themselves.
"What about you, Nemu?"
The entire room became silent. Everyone held their breath and leaned in to hear Nemu's silent voice.
"I—" Nemu covered her face with her hand like a geisha. Pink was visible on her cheeks. "I…like boys…" and that was all that she could say.
"…"
"
So, I will help you."
"Hurry up, you pig! I didn't make you to be this slow!!!!" Mayuri Kurotsuchi raved at his assistant captain. "What the hell is taking you so long to finish up?! Give me the vial!!"
"Taichou—the concoction, it's not quite ready yet." Nemu Kurotsuchi removed her goggles so as to look more directly at her captain. As always, her face remained almost completely blank. It was a good thing, too. If her captain knew what was in store for the vial—well, not so much that, but more like why she had wanted the solution created in the first place—there would most certainly be blood. At least her own.
"Well then, hurry up!" Kurotsuchi's palm calm down with full force on the girl's left cheek. An almost palpable sound came from it. "I want to document the results, you idiot!!! So be done with it already, or I'll chop off your arms!!"
"Yes, Taichou." Was all the girl could say.
**************************************************************************** "Taichou, I'm so freaking hot! Can't we open the doors…?" Renji already knew that his pleas were falling on deaf ears. Byakuya was completely enraptured in his work at the moment. Nonetheless, a drop of sweat collected on his narrow chin and dropped onto his desk. He was still wearing his haori and scarf, along with his carefully and dutifully arranged kenseikan.
Renji 'hmph'-ed and turned back to his desk. He couldn't concentrate with all of this damned heat! It had been pretty warm just the other day, but today it was just so hot. It was completely unbearable, even though Renji had taken off the upper half of his shihakusho and now only had on his hakama. He bent over his desk and attempted to think. All of this damned paper work! He wished he was in the World of Living right then instead of Soul Society. Then he could go to the beach with Rukia.
It had been about three years since all of the craziness with Rukia's execution and the whole Aizen mess, and Rukia had been going back and forth from the World of Living to Soul Society. Every time she came back, it was Ichigo this and Ichigo that. It pissed Renji off so badly. What he wouldn't give just to shove that little shit on his ass.
"—enji. Renji."
Renji had been so preoccupied with his thoughts of beating Kurosaki Ichigo to a pulp that he had almost forgotten where he was.
"What is it, taichou?"
The noble looked at Renji for a moment and then sighed. This intrigued Renji, seeing as Byakuya rarely displayed emotion, though distaste seemed to be his favorite.
"You shouldn't be daydreaming. Work is more important than your pointless thoughts." Sweat dripped down the noble's brow. He ignored it, as though showing that he acknowledged its existence would somehow be showing defeat.
Renji's eyebrows twitched. "Point…less…?" The heat having tampered with his already short temper was not good. Renji stood up quickly, knocking down his chair. "I'm going to take a break." He stormed out, still clad in only his hakama. Byakuya did nothing to stop him.
"Huh, it doesn't look like anything special to me." Matsumoto said as she handled the small tube. She held it up to the light to examine it at a new angle. "Actually, it's the same color as green tea."
"Which is what I was going for. We can slip this into Kuchiki-taichou's green tea, and he'll be none the wiser." Nemu said in her adorably innocent voice.
Rangiku passed the concoction to Nanao. "So, Mayuri-taichou let you make this?"
"Yes."
Kiyone tapped her chin. "So he thinks you're doing it just for the sake of science?"
"Yes."
"And he thinks it's just you?"
"Yes."
"So he knows that the target is Byakuya?" interjected Yoruichi.
Nemu bowed her head in agreement.
Yoruichi smiled dazzlingly. "How fun." She purred in amusement. "If it all goes according to plan, they should fall disastrously and irrevocably in love. How fun."
"Let's all hope those two fall in love." Rangiku said darkly.
"Yes." All of the women said.
"So all I have to do is give Byakushi this tea?" Yachiru asked.
"That's right!" Yoruichi said. "Give him the tea like you do every day and I'll give you some botan ame!!"
"Yay! Botan ame!!"
"Oh! But, you have to promise not to leave until he finishes all of the tea. That cup is very important, Yachiru-chan."
"Ok, Kitty!!" with that, Yachiru bounded off in the direction of Sixth Division.
Matsumoto looked nervously at the dark woman. "Was it really wise to leave the task to Yachiru-chan?"
Yoruichi nodded. She knew that if any of the women gave Byakuya a drink, he would be automatically suspicious.
"Byakushi-chan, I brought you tea~!" the pink haired girl squealed.
"Thank you, Kusajishi-fuku-taichou." Byakuya gingerly took the cup full of cold tea from the child's small hands. He drank it slowly as Renji sat with his back to the daily ritual.
As soon as he drank the last drop of green tea, it felt as if all of the energy in his body had been sucked out of him. And at the same time, he felt a sudden high and a sudden lust for—something. The image flashed briefly in his mind, but it was so quickly that whatever it was didn't register in his mind. He easily dismissed it.
"Did ya like it?"
"…it was refreshing. Thank you."
The assistant captain took the cup and skipped out the door, humming an anime theme she had heard in the World of Living.
"I gave him the tea!!! I think he liked it, Nemu-chan!!"
Nemu and Rangiku turned at the same time while Yoruichi handed a rice candy to Yachiru, who more that gladly took it. "Really?!" Yoruichi and Rangiku demanded at the same time.
Yachiru smiled widely. "Uh-huh!" she cocked her head to the side. "Huh, gotta go! Ken-chan's calling me. Bye!" With that, she shunpoed off to eleventh division's quarters, candy in hand.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!" Matsumoto cried. "Step one, complete!" She squeezed Nemu in a full-frontal hug. Nemu let the ecstatic woman embrace her without so much as batting an eyelid.
Yoruichi tossed her hair over her shoulder. "By this time tomorrow, our little Byakuya-chan should know it was us, but won't have any proof. That being said—." She twisted around to face Kiyone, who had only recently arrived. "Tell everyone involved to ignore Byakuya and Renji's accusations. Tell them to become good liars. Now go!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Matsumoto smiled at Yoruichi and Nemu. "Well, we have almost a day until we see how it all plays out. But for now, I've got to go. Hitsugaya-taichou is so strict!"
Nemu and Yoruichi stood by each other and watched Rangiku flash-step away towards her
Company.
Nemu walked away silently and left Yoruichi to scheme to herself.
It was almost nine in the afternoon when he returned home. He was soaked in his own sweat, but remained as apathetic as always. He waited until he had reached his loving bedroom before he could carry about comfortably. It was so hard to be a noble. Every now and then, even the stoic Kuchiki wanted a little break.
Byakuya removed the kenseikan from his hair and quickly stripped himself of clothing. He walked into his bathroom naked without regard to pride. The tub had already been filled, but Byakuya drained it and drew fresh, cool water. As soon as the bath was full, Byakuya climbed in. He didn't bother showering first today, seeing as there never really was a point to it. He didn't share his tub with anyone.
The man put his head underwater so that he was completely submerged for a good two minutes. He came back up and calmly took in air. He slid his hands underneath his dripping black locks and slicked them back so they weren't in his way.
As he washed his body, Byakuya suddenly felt devoid of energy once again. Odd.
When he was clean and cooled down, he groped for a towel at the side of his bath. He found several about thirty or so centimeters away from himself. Grabbing one, he stood up and felt the water run down his body. He wrapped a towel around his waist—very un-aristocratic—and dried himself with another.
He walked calmly back to his chambers and flopped down on his bed, not bothering to dress for bed. This was a side of Byakuya that no one knew about. The only person who might have so much as an idea about his habits was—no one. Just him. He pulled the sheets up over his well-toned body and closed his eyes.
That damned, no good assistant of his had stormed out halfway through the day. No matter. Byakuya knew that Renji would come back the next day. And the next day, Byakuya would make sure Renji knew how much he appreciated doing all of those stacks of paperwork by himself.
Sunlight poured through curtains that had been neglected to be drawn. It hit the beautiful person's face in a warm cascading waterfall of pink, orange, and yellow. The warmth was already uncomfortably warm, too warm. Porcelain chest heaved in a sigh left over from slumber. Sheets were pushed aside carelessly. Pale, half-lidded grey eyes hid from light through a thick veil of lashes.
Byakuya pushed himself into a sitting position and looked down. What met his eyes was definitely the last thing he expected to see. He lifted his hands to eye-level to examine them. They were no longer bony and thin like a man's. They had perfect fingers and were velvet smooth with long, flawless nails.
His soft pink lips open up and let out a small gasp. His hands flew to his chest. His eyes, evidently, did not deceive him. Soft, ample breasts met his fingertips where one would have once felt solid muscle. He threw the covers back completely.
Well-rounded creamy thighs and long legs greeted his gaze. The black-haired woman suddenly felt faint.
"What…the hell…?" Byakuya was so shocked that he had used profanity. His voice was soft and high, and sounded a little unintentionally flirtatious. Sexy. Great, his voice was sexy. And so was the rest of 'her'. Byakuya had become a beautiful woman who was unintentionally seductive.
Composing himself like the noble that he was, he grabbed his robe and walked into the hall to find one of his maids. First things first: find some clothes that would fit.
****************************************************************************Renji had been up all night, trying to figure something out to say to his taichou so that his head would stay on. However, he hadn't been able to come up with anything, and before he knew it, the sun had been up for a few hours. So here he went, going to the office, bumping into poor, unsuspecting members of sixth division who tried to apologize to no avail.
He was almost completely out of breath, but he finally reached the door to the office. He calmed his breathing and opened the doors.
A beautiful girl sat at Byakuya's desk wearing his haori, scarf and kenseikan. Her pale grey eyes moved to the spot where Renji stood and glared.
"You're late, Abarai." the woman said. Though she was obviously mad, it didn't register in Renji's mind. His mouth hung open and he felt himself stare. His eyes greedily took in every feature this fine beauty had to offer. His body felt the attraction before he did. He grew hot and felt his face flush slightly.
He opened his mouth.
"How do you know my name?" Renji's voice came out lower than it usually should have been. He cleared his voice. "And why are you dressed like Kuchiki-taichou?" he suppressed his urge to tell the girl she didn't need so much clothing.
The woman's mouth parted and words came out, but they couldn't reach Renji's ears. All he noticed was the way the pink lips moved. It was so…sensual. Yeah, the images coming to his mind weren't helping at all.
"Did you hear a word I said, or were you too busy looking at me?"
Renji snapped out of his fantasies to look at the dark-haired girl.
"…uh…"
The girl glared. "How can you not recognize me? My attendants did." She mumbled. For some reason, this fact disturbed Byakuya. How long had Renji been his fuku-taichou?
"Tai…chou…?" Renji whispered in disbelief. No way. His captain was a man. This was a freaking sexy woman. Except…her eyes. Oh, God, it had to be Byakuya. Who else had those grey eyes?
"Now that you've gotten your wits about you, I should expect you to work the way you usually do. Now…" Byakuya motioned with his petite hand at Renji's seat. Renji sat. He turned around and started in on his work.
This was a dream. It had to be a dream. Byakuya, a totally sexy-hot bitch with nice curves…? No way, no way in hell. Renji was just so tired that his mind was playing tricks on him. That was all. Right?
****************************************************************************Captain Hitsugaya Toushirou was in a foul mood. His assistant captain had been almost completely out of it all week, and today was especially giddy. He turned around from gazing out the window and caught her texting Ise-fuku-taichou twice, and the two had only been in the Tenth Division office for an hour. Why couldn't he have a normal, hardworking assistant? Why, instead, had he ended up with this abnormally energetic woman who insisted on giving him whiplash by crashing her chest into him?
"Matsumoto." Hitsugaya said. The woman looked up from her paperwork, the clean end of her brush in her mouth.
"Taichou?"
"I have something to give to Kuchiki-taichou. Please, take this down to Sixth Division and have him sign it. I need Abarai-fuku-taichou to sign this too, so make sure he's also there."
Rangiku jumped up so fast she smacked her knee into the bottom of her desk. She snatched the parcel Hitsugaya had been holding and ran out of the room.
"HAAAYUULLLLL YEEEEES, BETCHES!" she shouted as she ran towards Sixth Division. (Note: Matsumoto-chan is saying 'hell yes, bitches', but so that it sounds like 'hail yes, betches'. Just so you know.)
Hitsugaya's eyebrow twitched slightly, but he kept his face as impassive as possible.
Why couldn't he just have a normal assistant?
************************************************************************** "Nana-tan, I'm going into Sixth Division's office oh my gosh I can't wait to see what happened--!"
Ise could barely understand Matsumoto's rant on her cell phone, but what she could make out was this: Matsumoto was going to Sixth Division's office.
"Rangiku, shut up!" Matsumoto was so shocked that Ise had used her first name and told her to be quiet so roughly that she stopped running and shut up. "Rangiku, we need to notify Kurotsuchi-fuku-taichou immediately!"
Rangiku nodded on the other line, serious. "Alright. I'll get Nemu now." She heard Nanao hang up and followed suit. She situated herself towards Twelfth Division's quarters and shunpoed off to find assistant captain Kurotsuchi Nemu.
"Kuchiki-taichou…" Rangiku knocked on the door. Her call was answered by silence until a muffled 'come in' was replied by Renji.
"Stupid pineapple head." She said as she opened the door. Her eyes were closed and she walked over to Renji's desk. "I wasn't asking for you, I was asking for Kuchiki—."
"Are you in need of something, Tenth Division Matsumoto-fuku-taichou?" a cool female voice inquired.
Rangiku mentally took a double take. She had expected Byakuya to be a woman, but she hadn't expected him to look like…this.
"…uh…this is from Hitsugaya-taichou. H-he wanted you and Renji to sign it," she said uncertainly. She couldn't keep her eyes off of the noble, and neither could Renji, she saw.
As she headed out, she watched Renji with an air of slight satisfaction. At least he was physically attracted to Byakuya now, but that wasn't the object of the experiment. The two of them were supposed to fall in love. Not just one of them wanting to screw the other.
But right now, she needed to gather the results from Nemu.
He had confronted Unohana-taichou and Yamamoto-soutaichou along with Kurotsuchi-taichou: if he had spoken to him alone, one-on-one, there was no way he could win.
Yamamoto-soutaichou said he would leave it in Unohana's hands, until she said that she had no idea what to do, what tests to run, etcetera, etcetera.
"If Kurotsuchi-taichou were to aid me in my research, I am certain that the results we need could be found quickly," she smiled.
Kurotsuchi mumbled to himself but said nothing aloud.
And so, Byakuya had been missing work in exchange for blood analysis and measurements of reiatsu and every other thing that could have possibly changed. Kurotsuchi was just proposing everything he possibly could to put Byakuya in pain, and so far Unohana had went along with him without question, naïvely. She too, was aware that the psychopathic male was at fault for what had happened, but she also knew that Kurotsuchi had done it for his perverse research. And she didn't want him to have to go to extremes to get his results.
"Well, Kuchiki-taichou, you are 100% female—" Byakuya's eyes widened "—including your reproductive organs. You have a uterus, mammary glands…" she glanced at Byakuya, who looked as though he were in some small amount of pain.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
Byakuya growled something.
"Excuse me?" Unohana queried while she left.
"I…need to speak with Kurotsuchi-taichou. Now." His jaw was set and his eyes ablaze. Oh, he wanted to talk alright…with Senbonzakura. He recalled this feeling of anger against Yoruichi when he was younger. Only, he hadn't quite wanted to kill her as he did Kurotsuchi.
As soon as Kurotsuchi came into the room, Byakuya walked up to him and grabbed his collar. He pinned Kurotsuchi to the wall using all of his now meager weight and pointed Senbonzakura at Mayuri's throat.
Mayuri tilted his head to the side, causing Senbonzakura to draw a faint line on his neck.
"Why so upset, Kuchiki-taichou?" he asked innocently. His tone made Byakuya forget his place as a noble as he slammed Kurotsuchi's head against the wall. Byakuya's brow was beaded with sweat and his breath came out in ragged gasps as he attempted not to inflict too much damage. Assaulting a captain was a serious crime in Seireitei, but this man—!
Kurotsuchi's mouth split into a frightening grin. He laughed so loudly that for a moment Byakuya was startled enough to let go of his captive's collar. In that moment the noble felt himself be knocked into the wall adjacent where Kurotsuchi's own head had been only seconds previously. A forearm was jabbed into Byakuya's neck and he felt everything go black for a second. The arm pushed harder and Byakuya's hands instinctively flew to it in an attempt to free himself, but to no avail.
"So, why are you upset? Hm?" Kurotsuchi pushed harder. Byakuya coughed and struggled for breath. "Scream." Kurotsuchi breathed to himself as he took Senbonzakura from Byakuya.
Byakuya was distraught. If he still had his old body, he could easily free himself, but this body was far too weak. The strength difference was almost too much to bear. He distantly felt something being pried from his grasp and let go of it. He was blacking out.
Kurotsuchi like what he was seeing. He like watching people suffer, and the most amusing part was yet to come. He took Senbonzakura and pressed its tip to Byakuya's side. And pushed.
Byakuya screamed out in pain, long and loud. He coughed and slumped forward. The pain and lack of oxygen had been too much. He blacked out.
"Ah, so now you awaken."
Grey eyes fluttered open. Bright. It was very bright. Something was next to him—his right? Yes, to his right. Pain greeted him sharply and immediately, but he suppressed the urge to cry out. His throat pained him and he made to touch it only to find he couldn't.
He tried to move his head upwards but felt something cold and hard against his neck. What…?
"I have gone through the liberty to restrain you so as to prevent an encore of our little…encounter earlier."
Byakuya's eyes narrowed as Kurotsuchi moved closer towards him.
"I'm quite pleased with the way things turned out! You turned out to be perfect! I was afraid that you'd still retain male qualities, but no!" Here the madman pressed his index finger to the center of Byakuya's forehead. "Even your brain is wired so that it matches to that of a female'! Such fantastic results!!!"
"But when will they wear off?"
The corners of Kurotsuchi's demented smile turned downward.
"With the success of your change… anywhere from one to two years. Assuming you ever return to your previous state."
"Anywhere from one to two years?!" Byakuya shouted. He couldn't believe this. He had gone to Yamamoto-soutaichou, Unohana-taichou, and Kurotsuchi-taichou. There hadn't been a doubt in his mind that the mad-man had been the one behind it; there was no way that he would just spontaneously become a woman.
And now he had his answer.
This was not how anyone in his situation would have wanted things to go, but…here it was.
When Renji saw his captain the next day, he could see something was wrong right away. He hadn't seen much of the noble for the past month, but he was (almost—no still not really) used to seeing a beautiful woman with the same cold interior as Byakuya.
"Taichou? Are you doing well?" he asked as politely as he could.
Byakuya looked up into Renji's eyes, and Renji realized how tired he was. It was obvious how little sleep the noble was getting because there were light circles beginning to form under his eyes.
"I…" Renji noticed how between this word spoken and the next, there appeared to be an inner struggle as whether or not to slump forward and pass out, "I'm fine."
The redhead stood up and walked over to his captain. "You need sleep." He said seriously.
"Mmm…" was all that escaped Byakuya's slightly parted lips.
He knew that this wasn't the time or place or person, but Renji couldn't help but be turned on by what he was seeing. Byakuya's eyes were half-lidded and his neck was completely exposed, his lips parted. Not. The. Time.
Renji summoned all of his self-control and wrapped his arms around his captain and picked him up bridal-style. Byakuya let out a half-whimper of disagreement, but actually did nothing to get away.
"You must really need sleep if you're not glaring at me." Renji chuckled.
Byakuya fell asleep to the soft yet secure sway of Renji's steps.
He woke up on a strange futon. He sat up hastily, comforter rustling quietly. He ran his fingers through his bangs and felt with a start that he was still wearing his kenseikan.
However was I able to sleep in such a wretched manner? He thought.
To his right, he heard a minute sigh and the shifting of fabric.
It occurred to Byakuya at the moment that he was in the body of a woman. And, being in such a position, various things may or may not have taken place in the night past.
He pulled the comforter up over his chest, which to his relief he found completely clothed. His attention shifted to the figure next to him.
Renji.
The noble felt his face grow hot. He felt his heart thump uncontrollably in his chest and couldn't believe that his assistant could sleep so peacefully like this. He took his kenseikan out and ran his fingers through his hair to smooth it out.
He glanced down again at the sleeping man next to him again. His heart beat like a drum. He reached his hand down and placed it over Renji's.
Lub-dub. Lub-dub.
A steady soothing pulse compared to his erratic one.
Something overcame Byakuya that he would later never admit to. He placed his ear over Renji's heart and closed his eyes. The man? woman? could not pull away. He breathed in the Renji's scent and felt his cheeks grow warm. He lay with his head on Renji's chest, his own heart beat slowing and soon matching pace.
It felt so right, so natural.
Fatigue and comfort soon got the best of him and he drifted off into a calm slumber.