"Damn it Rukia, give up on him already!" Renji exploded, sick of watching her waste away after Ichigo. "He doesn't like you! And he's a moron for not liking you, but he doesn't! Ichigo. Is. In. Love. With. Inoue-san!" He knew he was being harsh, but he loved Rukia, and he had been in love with her for decades, and he felt a twinge in his heart every time someone hurt her.

Rukia recoiled in shock and anger. "You, you, you asshole!" she snarled, slapping Renji hard across the face. Renji winced, but didn't back down.

"You can slap me as much as you like," he told her firmly. "But no amount of pain you cause me will be as bad as watching your heart get broken."

Tears began to fall from Rukia's eyes. "I-I'm not getting my heart broken!" she screamed at him. "I'm fine! The only person hurting me is you!" She slapped Renji again and ran away. When she was out of earshot, Renji gingerly touched his cheek and went back to the Gobantai Barracks, a tear sliding down his cheek.

Kuchiki Byakuya walked through the doors, frowning in concern; Rukia hadn't returned from bringing paperwork to the Gobantai. He suspected she'd gotten distracted talking to Abarai Renji and Hinamori Momo. He started when he heard sobbing. "Rukia-san?" he called uncertainly.

"N-Nii-sama!" came a yelp as the sobbing was muffled. Rukia appeared in front of him, her eyes red and puffy.

Byakuya sighed. "Rukia-san, what's wrong?" he asked gently.

Rukia sniffed. "Abarai accused me of liking Ichigo," she answered, with a slightly indignant edge.

Byakuya noted the formality. "Do you?" he countered, looking Rukia in the eye. Silence. Byakuya sighed again. "So, what's wrong with Abarai-taicho knowing that? You and him are very close, and Abarai-taicho is trustworthy." More silence. Byakuya raised his eyebrows. "Unless -"

"Don't even bother," Rukia groaned, putting her head in her hands. "I know what you're going to say. I have no feelings for Abarai."

"What happened, then?" Byakuya challenged.

"He told me I should give up. And he called Ichigo a moron."

"Which you do regularly, to the boy's face no less!" Byakuya reminded her, exasperated. "Honestly, Rukia, if you feel nothing for Abarai-taicho, then I can't see what the problem is."

"The problem is that Renji has feelings for me!" Rukia burst out, then covered her mouth.

Byakuya's eyes flew wide open in surprise. He'd known, of course, that Renji liked, even loved Rukia. It was ridiculously obvious to the watchful, observant noble. He simply hadn't expected her to know. Moreover, he hadn't expected it to bother her so much, should she find out. He'd honestly suspected she might return the feeling.

Rukia took a deep breath and continued. "I love Renji. Just…, not in that way."

Byakuya nodded, but something was still bugging him. "Okay…, but let me ask you this: does it hurt you this much when Kurosaki is in pain?"

Rukia frowned. "I don't understand."

"If Abarai-taicho's pain is more painful to you than Kurosaki, perhaps Abarai-taicho has more of your heart than Kurosaki."

"But, like I said, I have no feelings for Renji," Rukia pointed out.

"Are you sure?" Byakuya questioned.

Rukia opened her mouth, but no words came out. Because, truthfully, she wasn't sure.

Renji sat in his room. "Abarai-kun, come out already," called an annoyed Hinamori Momo.

"No!" Renji shouted once more through his sobbing. He really didn't understand why Rukia's anger had upset him so much. He'd expected it, after all. And it had been a week since their mostly one-sided fight.

"Abarai-kun, it's been days. Ukitake-soutaicho would be furious if he found out!"

"I don't care!" Renji wailed. "Leave me alone!"

"For God's sake Abarai, at least tell me what's wrong!"

"I don't want to!" Renji whined.

"Oh, now you're just being a baby! If you don't come out her this instant, I'm busting out Tobiume and breaking this door down!"

Renji sobbed harder.

A few minutes later, he heard Izuru outside, too. "Honestly, Renji, what the hell's wrong with you? Momo says you haven't been out of this room in a week. Zabimaru's going to get rusty!"

"No he's not!" Renji argued, childishly.

Shuhei's voce joined the rest. "Renji, come on. You're acting like a little kid."

"I am not!" Renji screamed in frustration. "Leave me alone!"

"Aaargh! Snap, Tobiume!"

Shit. Momo hadn't been joking. Where had she gotten such a temper?

A blazing ball burned a hole through his door, setting the rest of it on fire. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Renji yelled as they walked through the opening, disregarding the flames. He tried and failed to hide his face.

At the sight of his pathetic expression, each of theirs changed. Momo's was compassionate. Izuru's was concerned. In contrast, Shuhei's was merely uncomfortable.

"Oh, Abarai-kun!" Momo wailed, sheathing her sword and flinging herself at him. "What's wrong?"

"Go away," Renji grumbled, his face heating up at the thought of Izuru and Shuhei seeing him like this. Momo, he didn't really mind. She was a girl, and she'd seen him like that before. Too many times for his pride to handle.

"Abarai-kun, just tell us what's going on," Izuru pleaded. Shuhei was slowly edging out of the room, an unspoken promise in his eyes; Later, Renji and Shuhei would never speak of this moment again.

Renji burst into tears again. "Leave me alone!" he sobbed, shoving at them. He ran out the door, into Momo's room, closed the door and locked it.

Someone banged on the door. "ABARAI-KUN! Get out of my room!" Momo begged.

"Let us in!" Izuru added.

"No!" Renji yelled, crying hysterically.

"Oh, just leave him there," Momo whispered irritably. "Let him rot for all I care." She turned with a scowl and stormed off.

"H-hey! Wait!" Izuru protested, running after her. He grasped her arm and pulled her towards him. "Aren't you the least bit worried?"

Momo sighed. "Yes, but he's obviously not gonna open the door, so how do we get in? I'm definitely not breaking down my door."

Izuru frowned. "Well, he has to come out at some point. How much food do you have? Enough to last a week, two weeks?"

"A month," Momo corrected. "And we don't even have a week. It's already been a week, remember?"

"Oh yeah." Izuru thought hard. "So, what can we do?"

"I don't know," Momo answered. "You think someone else could get him to come out?"

One heartbeat later, both of their faces lit up, and in perfect sync they exclaimed, "Kuchiki-kun!"

Rukia glared at the door as the doorbell rung. She peered through the peephole. On the other side of the door were Kira Izuru and Hinamori Momo. She opened the door a crack and growled, "What do you two want?"

"Abarai-kun's refused to come out of his room," Momo explained. The door opened gradually, inch by inch, as she described the situation. "So I got Kira-kun and Hisagi-kun. And when they failed, we broke down the door. I'm not really sure what happened to Hisagi-kun after that, but Abarai-kun was crying, and he ran out of the room into mine. Now he's refusing to come out of that room, and I'm now breaking down my own door."

By the time Momo was done, the door was wide open, and they could see that Rukia had been crying too. "Oh, Kuchiki-kun!" Momo gasped. "What happened?"

"Kuchiki-kun and Abarai-kun got in a fight," Izuru cried.

"Over what?" Momo demanded.

"Maybe Abarai-kun said you-know-what, and Kuchiki-kun didn't agree!" Izuru suggested.

"Or the other way around," Momo pointed out. Then they laughed. "No way," she decided. "They obviously would agree, whoever said it first. Maybe it was over that Kurosaki fellow. I know Matsumoto-kun and Shiro-chan think Kuchiki-kun has a crush on him."

"I hope it wasn't over you," Izuru commented.

"Why would they fight over me?" Momo demanded, wide-eyed.

"Well, everyone thinks Abarai-kun has a crush on you, and that you have a crush on him," Izuru told her. Then his tone turned inquisitive. "Do you?"

"Of course not!" Momo insisted. "I mean, he's a good guy, and he's not bad looking, other than all those tattoos, but I could never think of him that way."

Both of them refused to say the things they really wanted to say, afraid of how the other would react.

I think of you that way.

What about me?

At this point, they realized that Rukia was no longer with them. "Well, it, uh, it looks like she, um, went to Abarai-…kun," Izuru stammered, embarrassed by what he had wanted to say, just seconds earlier.

"Yeah, it, um, it sure does," Momo stuttered, choking on her words, embarrassed by what she'd wanted to say.

Rukia pounded the door with her fist. "RENJI! OPEN THE GOD DAMN DOOR!" she roared, pissed at herself.

If Abarai-taicho's pain is more painful to you…

Byakuya's words of wisdom rang in her ears. Oh, Nii-sama, you were right once again. Renji has more of my heart than Ichigo ever will.

"Just leave me alone, Rukia," came a sob from inside the door. Rukia's lips trembled. Just hearing him cry made her want to.

"Renji, please… I'm so, so sorry," she called desperately. "Please, open the door."

"Go away!" Renji snapped at her.

"No! I am not going away until you open this god damn DOOR!" Rukia shouted, stomping her foot.

To her astonishment, the door flung open…, and then closed immediately.

"THERE! I opened it. Happy?!"

"No! I will not be happy until you let me in!"

"Damn it Rukia, I did! Decades ago! And you've done nothing but hurt me ever since! So now, I'm kicking you out. Out. FOREVER."

Rukia started crying. "I'm sorry, Renji! I didn't…. I never…. Just…. Gaaah!" Deciding to vent her frustration on an inanimate object, she focused all of her anger on the door and kicked it. Hard.

So hard it made a hole in the door.

Slight guilty at breaking Momo's door but mostly delighted, she somehow miraculously slipped through the hole , marched up to Renji, grabbed the front of his shirt and kissed him.