A Bleach Fanfic
Inspired By: Only Exception by Paramore (meaning: IT'S NOT MINE XD)
Pairing: Byakuya x Renji; slightly implied Ikky x Yumi and Shuuhei x OC
A/N: Not mine. Kubo-sensei's. But the story is from my head :)
Summary: Renji has always looked at girls: Matsumoto, Inoue, and, for a long time, Rukia. But now, he has an exception.
Only Exception
This has been a problem now: a really big problem.
Renji has always thought of himself as a true man: he wanted to save Rukia and if it meant having Kurosaki Ichigo as a comrade, then he would do it; he valued that friendship with the strawberry head and helped him rescue another one of his friends, Inoue Orihime; and after all that… When it came to an end at Aizen's downfall, things were going back to normal – at least, he thought it would be.
During the war, when he was incapacitated because of crushed internal organs, it was his Captain that saved him from being further crushed at the feet of Yammy Riyalgo, together with Eleventh Division's Captain, Kenpachi Zaraki. Since then, Renji couldn't help but wanting to know how it felt like – fighting along side of him. Zaraki-taichou had done it. Ichigo had done it, slightly. But he, the own Vice-captain hadn't.
Of course he had fought Byakuya before – and he would never let anyone catch him saying only the Captain's first name – but he had always wanted to know how it felt to have the usually stone-cold, stoic man, to consider him on the same level… As, how Ichigo says it, friends.
And since he realized that, he couldn't stop thinking of his Captain.
Renji stared out the division dojo: his feet dangled at the side of the porch and he watched some of the new recruits practice outside in the sun instead of inside the stuffy dojo.
"Yo, Renji!" a cheerful voice greeted him. And he immediately recognized violet, cat-like hair.
"Ah, good morning Yoruichi-san," Renji greeted, forcing a smile out. He stared at Yoruichi – and he instantly thought how lucky Urahara Kisuke was with her: power, domination, wit and, he gulped when he thought of it, sexy.
Yoruichi chuckled, "Stop staring, Renji," she ordered with a cat-like smirk, "I know my breasts are big, but they ain't that big…"
"I wasn't!" but Yoruichi just laughed.
"I was just teasing you," she said with a smirk again.
Renji gave a small chuckle and looked back at his recruits, "So, Yoruichi-san, what brings you here?"
"I was wondering if you're going for Kuchiki," she said frankly. Renji felt his cheeks burn when Yoruichi added, "I know that you usually look, and sometimes I wonder if there's really something you're looking at. I mean, I've seen you steal glances at Inoue and Matsumoto as well..."
Renji sighed but said in a low voice, "Actually... I really don't know what you're talking about. He's my Captain and I don't want to break what we have now,"
Yoruichi stared at him incredelously, "I... was talking about Kuchiki Rukia," but then she griinned, "But... If that's how you swing-"
"What? Yoruichi-san, I don't-"
"I know you don't," Yoruichi overrode, "However, you must bear this in mind: you may have an exception."
Renji didn't understand it.
The rest of the day he spent most of his time thinking of what Yoruichi had said to him.
Exception? What did she mean by 'exception'? Renji thought as he made his way to the Thirteenth Division to see Rukia, I mean, sure, I can clearly say Taichou is good looking and good built for a guy but... Really! What did Yoruichi-san mean?
It took him a while to realize that he had walked three meters past the door to Ukitake-taichou's office where he knew Rukia would be.
"Ne, Renji-kun, are you all right?"
Renji knew that voice as well: It was Kyouraku Shunsui, Captain of the Eighth.
"Ah, yes, yes, Kyouraku-taichou,"
But Shunsui raised an eyebrow at him. "You've walked too far if you're here to see Kuchiki,"
For the first time, Renji felt his heart race at the name Kuchiki. "A-ah, I've noticed," he said with a gulp.
Shunsui stared at him for a brief moment before shrugging and turning around, "Well, if you're heading to Jyoushiro's, better come with me..."
The Eighth's Captain was well inside the room before the confuzzled Renji came to follow.
Inside, he was surprised to find that Momo and Rangiku were working on something on the table. He flushed when he found himself staring at Matsumoto Rangiku's breasts. He tore his gaze away only to find that Jyoushiro was watching him.
"So nice to be so young, isn't it, Abarai-kun?" he asked Renji with his kind smile.
"O-oh, yes it is," replied the crimson-haired boy with a grin. Renji turned back to the girls, "What are you three working on?"
"We're drafting the new buildings for Unohana-taichou," replied Momo enthusiastically, "She wants put up a hotel and a hospital in Rukongai for the Shinigami who train in the mountains,"
"I was given the main concept and was supposed to draw, but Unohana-taichou insisted I tell Momo and let her draw," Rukia added, leaning over the sheet Momo was drawing on.
Renji chuckled. "I think I know why," he muttered.
But then, he thought it best to leave when Rukia sent a death glare to his direction.
He didn't move too far back towards his division since the Eleventh was the nearest to the Thirteenth. Renji shunpo-ed to the dojo and found the grumpy third seat and the fifth seat out on the porch having a jug of sake and tea that smelled strongly of jasmine respectively. They looked up at him when he came and immediately, the bald third seat hissed at him.
"If ya came here thinkin' you could say that Yumi and I are a couple again, I'm gonna beat you up worse than I beat 'ya the last time!" he warned the red head.
"Chill, Madarame," Renji said, sitting on the floor right beside Yumichika, "I ain't here to say anything about you and your boyfriend," Ikkaku twitched though Yumichika remained calm, drinking his tea, "But I wanna ask for a 'lil advice..."
At this, Yumichika and Ikkaku exchanged glances and the former set down his tea.
"And what kind of advice are we talking about?" Yumichika asked.
"Ano..." began Renji, his cheeks slowly trying to match the shade of his hair sub-consciously, "Yoruichi-san talked to me this morning... And I really didn't understand what she meant... I mean, exception? ... I mean, I just thought... Since you have experience..." he began mumbling and Ikkaku and Yumichika exchanced worried glances this time.
"Renji," started Yumichika, setting a hand on Renji's lap, "Are you in love?"
The question left Renji dumbstruck. In love? With the Captain?
"What are you talking about?" the fukutaichou demanded, "I'm not in love with Kuchiki-taichou!"
Yumichika blinked twice. "I... never said anything about Kuchiki-taichou," he said. Then, a knowing grin, "But, now that you've mentioned-"
"What? I never said anything!"
"You don't have to, idiot. Your face says it all," Ikkaku pointed out after a swig from his jug of sake, referring to Renji's beet red cheeks.
And Renji had to admit: his cheeks were already the same color as his hair.
Renji could not believe it: it only took a trip to the eleventh for him to realize what Yoruichi had said - and it took him the whole day to figure out as well. Crafty she was, she could have pointed it out as a friendly suggestion. But maybe, Renji realized, she was trying to teach him a lesson for it. And he did... Somehow. Or more so, he found out who he truly was. He was interested in girls, yes. Previously Matsumoto Rangiku, who became his drinking buddy for a short while; Inoue Orihime, although her horrible, horrible cooking made him change his mind about making a move - and besides, Strawberry-head had his eyes on her; and, for a long time since they were childhood friends, Rukia, who was adopted by his Captain.
Just that word in his head made him flush again. His Captain.
Renji continued on shunpo with his head down until he collided with something solid which went straight towards his neck.
"Kwoak!"
"Shuuhei! Oh, honestly! When I told you to 'go stop him', I never told you to hurt him in the process! Now look - he said something odd..."
"Didn't sound odd to me. I mean, I hit him on his neck. Whatever sound he might've made will definitely sound like a frog croak,"
Honestly, these two, Renji remembered thinking miserably. Then, Arato Arisa, the new vice-captain of the thirteenth, and Hisagi Shuuhei, vice of the ninth came into view.
"Sorry about that, Renji," apologized the girl, her amber eyes looking down at him as she held out a hand which Renji took without hesitation. "It's just that I've been from the Sixth where I was to meet you for that last bit of paperwork when I found that Shuuhei had it. And when I went to Kuchiki-taichou, he mentioned he hadn't seen you all day and he'd actually want to know if there's something the matter..."
"A-ah," Renji sweatdropped and flushed a tint of pink in the process, "You can tell him that I'm-"
"I ain't telling him anything," Arisa said exasperatedly, "I'm not going back to the Sixth! I need to give my own taichou his next set of medicine..."
Oh, how he dreaded her replying that.
All day.
That's how long Kuchiki Byakuya wondered about his fukutaichou. Usually, he wouldn't bother if it was any other seated member of his squad, but concern would be very different when it came to his vice captain - strangely enough, it was always so. The Sixth Division Captain now wondered whether he did something wrong: did he do something to anger or offend Renji? Did he forget, like he often does, that there was something that he truly loved about his vice captain and he treated him like he treated all the others who have caught glimpses of his true self from behind the mask of coldness he usually wears. Or maybe, just maybe, Renji had finally seen his concern and seen them for what it really, and actually were - his efforts to show the young shinigami that he was interested in him, in a way beyond the relationship of the usual captain and vice captain. If the latter was so, then Byakuya would have to admit it and find out whether feelings would be reciprocated. After all, he has only seen Abarai Renji look at women, even his own adopted sister was part of them. And Byakuya would like to be an exception.
In a way, he knew that somewhere deep in his soul, love never lasts. Hisana had taught him that when she had died. But he found other ways to make it along, and kept a straight face through and through. And, being born into the Kuchiki Clan, he had always lived that way: keeping a comfortable distance because all through that time he'd been telling himself that he was content with loneliness - because none of it was ever worth the risk.
But Renji-
"Taichou!"
A knock on the door and entering even though Byakuya had not said anything was the signature move Renji had somehow perfected. Byakuya did not narrow his eyes, the usual thing he does to Renji's rash behavior but he looked up, quite surprised.
"... Renji?" the Clan leader began in a whisper.
He thought he just saw it but then Renji's face turned as red as his hair, "Ano... Taichou... I mean... I was just... Maybe... An exception... Yoruichi-san..."
Byakuya blinked twice, then smiled a true smile: whatever his vice-captain was rambling about, Renji should stop but Byakuya had held his tongue just to see how far he, himself, could take it.
Nope. He just really couldn't take it.
Byakuya stood from his desk and, in almost just one step, a flash step, pulled Renji down by back of his neck and pressed his lips gently unto his.
It took a while for Renji to register just what had happened but after a few moments, he kissed his captain back and was about to pull him by the waist when Byakuya pulled away.
"You know, you should stop rambling in front of me."
Renji fidgeted, "Sorry, taichou..."
But he was surprised to find a smirk prowling on his Captain's face.
"Renji... Close the door."
"Ne, Yoruichi-san, don't you think they'll get heard in their own barracks at this rate?" asked the new vice-captain of the thirteenth.
Yoruichi put up one leg on the tree both of them were perched on, watching the shadows the lights were making in the Office of the Captain at the Sixth Squad, "Nah," she dismissed, a feline grin on her face, "Let them - that's their problem... It's not like we told them to go do it right there and then..."
Arisa just laughed.
"You did good, by the way..." added Yoruichi, her eyes meeting the amber ones of Arisa-fukutaichou, "What did you tell Byakuya-bo?"
"Told him something like 'Renji isn't going to go to another person since he's obviously crushing on his captain'," replied the black-haired girl, "And you wouldn't know how long it took for him to realize that he was Renji's Captain..."
This time, Yoruichi laughed, "You're an excellent matchmaker now!"
Arisa looked at the office they were observing and shrugged, with a grin on her face, "I learned from the best."
A/N: I hope ByaRen fans enjoyed this... I've kept this for quite a while now...