Hello all you sparkling individuals! (Sorry for the hyperactive greeting but I have just hit a sugar and caffeine high because I had chocolate and coffee at the same time!) This is a three-part Rentatsu story with a short omake at the end of each part. This is not my Falling for you chapter story that I have been promising you guys and I'm super, super sorry! I'm seriously stuck and hope with some help from my partner Honeybadger that I will be unstuck and done soon! In the meantime, you can read this to keep you busy. I will post them very shortly after each other and maybe by next week I will have another chapter added to my The View story. Alright, so this story starts out a little bit serious and then gets more lighthearted and fun so stick with it please. Sorry for the long ramble, enjoy!

Lots Love

SugarFox

Title: The Fire Demon Meets the Red Pineapple

Author: MeteorLeopard (SugarFox)

Tatsuki wiped a weary hand across her face before taking a long swig from her water bottle, feeling it wake up her senses. She was glad that training was done for the day, and she packed up her stuff before leaving the gym. She had beaten all the guys in her class at today's session, as usual, and she knew a couple of them were extremely sour about it. Hello, this was a modern world, and girls can do anything guys can do! She knew she had to watch her back. They would come and challenge her at the most annoying times as they always did. Like when she was annoyed, tired or in a hurry. She contemplated letting them win, just so they would stop challenging her, but her pride crushed that stupid idea in a split-second. She would just have to keep whipping their sorry asses until they got the picture. She was better than they were. That's it. Period. They wouldn't like it, and it would take a while to sink in, but Tatsuki was going to have great fun beating into their system. What better way to practice than in real life situations?

She stalked past the Kurosaki clinic and made her way to her house, wondering how long it was going to be until they attacked again. She would give them about another two minutes. She heard some footsteps behind her and she paused. Right on cue. You know, it really wasn't a surprise attack when she knew they were coming. There were four of them, they stalked forward, gaining on her but she didn't run. Arisawa Tatsuki does not run and hide. She clenched her fists before she spoke. "You really are thick headed aren't you, will you never learn? You cannot beat me, and it is the coward's way to attack four on one. I suppose it doesn't matter if I'm going to beat you all anyway." Her tone was quiet and menacing, the one guy looked clearly outraged while his friends just looked scared.

They had heard about this girl, the fighting machine. Some had nicknamed her the fire demon, because if you got her bad side you would rather be in the flames of hell than feel her wrath. Tatsuki thought it was rather ironic since her friends normally described her as a friendly and nice person. "Well, are you coming or not?" The enraged leader lumbered towards her like an aggravated rhinoceros. She grinned her scary, almost manic like grin from under her glinting eyes. Game on!

Renji was just sitting on top of the Kurosaki clinic supposedly just because he felt like it, but that was a lie. Ichigo had to go to Soul Society and he had asked Renji to keep an eye on his sisters while he was gone. Although they were at each other's throats all time, Ichigo was still a very good friend to him so he obliged after a vicious verbal battle. That was just the way they worked things out between the two of them. Yelling, cursing and threatening. Renji knew he could always rely on Ichigo and vice versa, thus his current predicament watching Yuzu while she stitched up some poor sucker who fell off his bicycle. Luckily for him, Karin had gone to play soccer so Hitsugaya taicho was watching her. He personally thought Ichigo was a little paranoid but he wasn't going to tell him that or he would probably have to feel his hollowfication, and it wasn't fun.

He looked around and spotted a girl walking along the sidewalk slowly, her head raised as if she was expecting something. He recognized her; she was one of Ichigo's friends. She was very pretty, he decided muttering to himself. Suddenly she stopped, he was about to ask if she was all right when he remembered that she wouldn't be able to see him anyway. Oh, the annoyance of being invisible!

His thoughts started to drift again before he noticed there was a bunch of brutes making their way towards the girl while she just stood there. He wanted to yell at her to run, but it would be pointless. He could do the hokey pokey dance and no one would notice! Why wasn't she running away when they were clearly going to attack her? His heart leapt in his chest as they all stopped, and he was weighing up the pros and cons of intervening when the biggest guy charged towards her. The girl raised her head and Renji saw her grin, the same kind of manic grin he got when someone was about to get their asses whipped.

She easily dodged him, tripped him and sent him crashing to the ground. The other three were reluctant to attack after their leader's easy defeat and backed away. Renji jumped off the roof to get a closer look and had to stifle a laugh. The small petite girl had put her foot on the back of the leader's head pushing it into the ground yelling at him to back the hell off or she wouldn't go so easy on him next time. She was a little preoccupied with him so she didn't notice that one of the others had pulled something out of his pocket before charging at her. The object glinted in the setting sunlight as he brought it down towards her. She realized he was coming and narrowly dodged the blade but not before it had left a huge gash on her left arm. Renji saw red, and was trying to restrain himself from unsheathing Zabimaru and showing these fools what a real blade looked like, but he wasn't fast enough.

Tatsuki was seeing red, literally and figuratively. The blood from her wound was seeping into her white shirt and her she was fuming. "Alright, now you asked for it!" She yelled at the guy who suddenly decided it was better to keep attacking than retreat. She easily dodged the next strike; she stepped easily to the side and brought her elbow down on his neck knocking him unconscious and stealing his weapon. The other two backed away as another one of their friends fell before they both charged. Tatsuki saw them coming and swung round dealing a swift punch to the one's nose, hearing it crack before kicking the second one in the stomach and winding him. She stood with her fists clenched over the blade looking at the fallen guys, wondering if they were going to get up again.

She was starting to feel slightly queasy from the blood loss, the wound was very deep, and she sighed to herself. The leader of the bunch rose up and Tatsuki gave him an evil look, which was super scary paired with the glinting knife. He paused and then fled, leaving his cronies to stumble after him. Tatsuki lifted her hand to her wound and saw the blood stain her fingers. Dammit! How was she going to explain this one to her parents? She dropped the knife in exasperation. They were already asking questions about the numerous bruises she always had and couldn't explain where she got them. She suddenly felt someone behind her, was that idiot back again? She reacted without thinking and spun around dealing the stranger a roundhouse kick to the jaw. He stumbled to the ground from the pure force of her attack before rubbing his jaw and getting up again.

"Wow, you pack quite a punch. Though I am very surprised you can even see me." He shook his head, his red hair waving back and forth. That was when Tatsuki realized that he was dressed in Shinigami robes. She was so relieved when Ichigo had finally come clean with her about that. It really did take a good threat to get him to spill though.

"Sorry about the kick, but you really shouldn't sneak up on a recently injured and attacked girl. I thought you were those idiots coming back for another dose." She told him with a slight smugness after sending them running screaming. He just grinned at her before lifting his hand out towards her.

"Well you sorted them out that's for sure. Abarai Renji." He introduced himself and Tatsuki grasped his outstretched hand.

"Arisawa Tatsuki. You are a Shinigami aren't you? You wear the same robes as Ichigo." Renji just nodded.

"If you know about Ichigo then it explains how you can see me." He mused while staring at her. She really was very cute. Tatsuki wasn't really sure what to say next and her attention was suddenly drawn to her wound. "We should probably get that fixed. It's pretty bad." He told her and before he could say another thing, she started to see stars and everything faded to black.

Renji watched Tatsuki pass out and grabbed her before she could hit the ground. He still couldn't believe she had dealt with all four of those thugs by herself. He was glad that she was all right after the fight even though she was wounded. He didn't know why but when she was injured he started to feel sick. He gathered her small figure up in his arms and made his way to the Kurosaki clinic, glad that Yuzu could see him, or else a random floating body might just set her over the edge.

He marched into the clinic and found Yuzu cleaning up. She looked up when she heard him and Renji laid Tatsuki down on a vacant bed. "Abarai-san! What happened?" Yuzu examined the injured girl and quickly went about fixing her wound with some stitches. Renji watched her work before he told her how she was attacked. Understanding dawning on the younger girl's face. "Again? But Tatsuki-san promised me it wasn't going to happen anymore." Yuzu said softly shaking her head.

"Again? You mean that this isn't the first time?" Renji felt sick again at the thought of her being hurt again. Was this normal? He just met her, he shouldn't get this protective feeling over complete strangers.

"She came in here a couple of weeks ago and was bruised up pretty bad. There are some guys from her training group who keep picking fights with her so they can beat her. She is the best and they hate her for it." Yuzu told him in a small voice.

"Well from what I saw they were pretty sour, she beat them pretty bad. Why doesn't she just tell someone?"

"I begged her to tell someone but she refused, telling me that it wasn't going to happen anymore. Then she stopped coming here so I assumed that it was over, but by the look of some of these bruises she has been attacked again in the last couple of days." Renji was silent at the end of the quiet explanation but he was furious on the inside, ready to hunt those low life scumbags down and pound them to hollow kibble.

"Abarai-san, can you please help her? I know Ichi-nee has told you to watch me but since I started training I can look after myself. Can you please walk Tatsuki-san home every day until Ichi-nee gets back? That way we can decide how to deal with this when she has recovered." Renji nodded at the small honey blonde girl and then his attention was drawn to Tatsuki. He noticed Tatsuki start to open her eyes, groggily examining her strange surroundings, and they widened when she saw him.

Tatsuki smelt the sharp odour of disinfectant, her arm throbbing viciously while she opened her eyes groggily. What happened? She was fine, and then she passed out. Great, isn't that just wonderful. She wondered where she was, sitting up get a better look. She spotted Renji and Yuzu hovering over her and realized that Renji must have brought her to the clinic to fix her arm. She saw it was stitched up and Yuzu was getting ready to bandage it. "Tatsuki- san, are you all right?" The young girl asked her worriedly. Tatsuki grinned and Renji noticed smiling in the background. "I'm fine, thank you Yuzu-chan. It's nothing, just a scratch."

Yuzu's face got very serious and she snapped at Tatsuki, which was unusual. "A scratch doesn't need twelve stitches! I thought you said this stopped!" Tatsuki's grin was sheepish.

"It did. Today." Yuzu wasn't convinced. "Well I have to get home, so thanks Yuzu-chan." She was about to hop out of the bed and stand when she felt woozy again and Yuzu steadied her.

"You aren't going anywhere." Yuzu told her determinedly. "Yuzu-chan, I'm fine and you know I have to get home." Yuzu exchanged a gaze with Tatsuki's pleading eyes and nodded. "Fine then, but Abarai-san will walk you home. Abarai." Yuzu gestured at him and he nodded. Tatsuki was very surprised, and was going to protest but Yuzu's mind was made up, so there really was no point.

Renji helped her up and they slowly made their way to her home. Tatsuki refused to fall or look weak in front of him but for some reason she felt very safe when he was around. That wasn't normal right? The last thing she wanted was to look like a complete ditz in front of him, because he was rather good looking. You know, in a badass tattooed kind of way. Fine, so he was very hot.

He walked her all the way home making random chitchat about nothing in particular. They exchanged a good laugh over the brutes that practically ran screaming and they teased one another about who was scarier. She had sheepishly told him about the fire demon nickname and they had a good laugh at her expense. When they got to the front door, she turned towards him and smiled. "Thanks for all the help, and sorry about that." She gestured towards the huge blue mark forming on the left side of his face. Renji just nodded and grinned back. "It was nothing, and I have had way worse."

"Was that you questioning the power behind my attacks? I should give you another one!" She laughed at him when he pretended to shield his face.

"See ya around." Tatsuki just nodded at his farewell and grinned before closing the door behind his retreating figure. She sighed in relief letting all her carefully hidden feelings flow out. What was wrong with her? She was flirting with him! Dammit Tatsuki! Get a hold of yourself! Renji is just like any other guy, think Ichigo. Um yuk, Renji was way hotter than Ichigo, she day dreamed on. Dammit, there her hormones went haywire again.

Omake:

Tatsuki stalked across the room and decked an idiot across the face. The poor sucker was the one who had stabbed her in the attack scene. "You stupid idiot! Was it necessary to stab so hard? Now Inoue doesn't come in until the next chapter and I'm a bleeding mess! I should smash your sad little face in!"

"Oi Tatsuki, give the guy a break! He is just doing his job." Renji walked into the room and tuned her to calm down. Tatsuki scowled at him not very pleased but let the poor sucker go anyway.

"Fine then. So Renji, I thought you were going to teach me the Hokey Pokey dance." She asked him with a teasing grin. Renji just shook his head and mentally cursed the stupid scriptwriters. Badass Shinigami do not do the Hokey Pokey. Ever. Period. "Ask Ikkaku to teach you."

Then Ichigo walked in with Zangetsu already drawn. "Renji, what is this I hear about you being scared of my hollowfication?" He was ready to tease Renji about it but didn't get that far.

"Baka, I am not. The script just says I am! Besides the scariest thing about your stupid hollow thing is the voice. You ever heard of throat lozenges?" Renji told him with a wave of his hand and a bored tone. Tatsuki giggled and Ichigo shot an evil look to where she was attempting to clean the blood out of her shirt.

"What? This is my favourite shirt."

Renji and Ichigo just shook their heads in unison. Some people's children.

First chapter all done! Hope you liked it! It was my first time writing an omake so if you have any suggestions or advice on better ways to do it please drop me a line. I welcome any comments or suggestion too! So let me know and pretty please review! I really love getting them and will reply as soon as I get a minute! Part 2 is going up soon so keep an eye out for it. It's titled, The Tripping Damsel's Options. Any guesses as to what is going to happen? I can see your eyebrow twitching… Have a go and drop me line! It will be fun to read all your ideas. Anyways… Got to love and leave you guys and do my homework, so sad.

Toodles!

SugarFox