Title: Finding the Truth

Fandom: Bleach

Rating: M. Yaoi, lemon, kinky sex

Description: Shuuhei has loved Renji for a very long time, but Renji has always wanted Rukia, despite occasionally being with Shuuhei. What happens when Renji finally figures it out?

Disclaimer: Bleach is created and owned by Tite Kubo, I merely pay homage to characters and a story I love.

A/N: This will probably be about 3 or 4 chapters. It starts during the end of Manga number -17. "Prelude for the Straying Stars" when Renji, Kira, and Momo are students at the academy.

Friends who Love Each Other

Renji ripped off the sleeve of his academy uniform. "This is probably going to hurt," he said, pressing it into the gaping wounds on the side of Shuuhei's face to stem the bleeding. The older student hissed slightly.

"Shouldn't you be paying attention to the fight?" Shuuhei asked. Even though Captain Aizen and Lieutenant Ichimaru had come, the air was still swarming with hollows.

"Are you kidding? Captains and lieutenants are hardly even like people like you and me. Did you feel their spiritual pressure? They can definitely handle it," Renji assured.

However, he did look over at Kira and Momo to make sure that they were alright. Kira had freaked out a little when it looked like they were all going to die, though Renji supposed that had been fairly reasonable. He would have never imagined that Momo would have such a cool head and be so brave though. It had been almost stupid charging in like that, but it was definitely a quality that Renji admired.

Renji turned back to the man he was caring for. "Hisagi, I have no idea how close to those two you were, but I'm a person who has lost people very close to me in the past. If you ever need someone to talk to or just to hang out with, I'll be there." He knew was being bold since he didn't know the man at all, but it's not like he usually cared about that stuff anyways and he figured that almost being killed together was probably an extenuating circumstance. "Oh, my name is Renji Abarai," he remembered to introduce himself.

"I'm Shuuhei," Shuuhei said, wincing again as Renji removed the hastily made bandage and ripped off his other sleeve to compress the still seeping wound. "Do you see the tattoo on my face?"

"Well, I'm not blind," Renji said.

"I grew up in district 69, so it's not like seeing death is all that uncommon to me either," Shuuhei explained.

"Really? I'm from Hanging Dog myself," Renji grinned at him. He looked over and saw several shinigami with packs over their backs running towards them. "Looks like Squad 4 is here, you should be in good hands now."

"Hey, Renji?" Shuuhei said.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"You know," Renji said looking at Shuuhei's slightly flushed face, a dead giveaway to the fact that he had been drinking. "When I made that offer all those years ago, I didn't know that you were going to hold me to it forever."

Shuuhei stepped forward and Renji wrapped his arms around him, embracing him with a passionate kiss. "Mmm, you taste good," Renji said.

"Like sake," Shuuhei admitted.

"Good enough for me," Renji grinned, pulled Shuuhei inside.

The second that the door was closed Shuuhei launched himself at Renji, pressing himself into him forcefully, almost tripping Renji in the process. Renji was used to it though; he always liked Shuuhei's forceful neediness. He moaned as he felt Shuuhei's tongue in his mouth, and his expert hands already starting to remove his clothing. Renji walked backward slightly, towards the bedroom.

"I figured," Shuuhei said, panting, "that I hadn't really congratulated you on your promotion yet."

"Oh no, I very distinctly remember a very entertaining night after I passed my lieutenant's test," Renji corrected him.

"But now you're actually official," Shuuhei offered, sucking at Renji's neck and finally getting his hakama off.

"Well, it is true that I haven't really broken the place in," Renji said. He gasped as he felt Shuuhei's hand massage at his hard arousal.

Shuuhei stopped a moment to look around. "Oh yeah, I haven't seen it yet. Pretty nice," he looked again. "Hey, how come you have nicer furniture than I do? When did you get money all of a sudden?"

"Lieutenant Shirogane was nice enough to leave most of his stuff behind. He said that he didn't really have room for it anyways," Renji really didn't want to be talking about his rugs or whatever the hell it was that Shuuhei was talking about so he practically ripped off the rest of Shuuhei's clothes, getting the vocal reaction from Shuuhei that he was looking for.

"Renji!" Shuuhei called out.

That was when Renji decided that if Shuuhei came here all sexy and sultry then stopped to chat about decorations, he was obviously not being distracted enough, so he picked Shuuhei up in his arms and marched into the bedroom, tossing him onto the bed.

"Oh, yeah, I got this bed too," Renji said with a grin, licking at Shuuhei's nipple.

"Ahhh…don't talk and do that if you want me to respond," Shuuhei said. Renji stopped for a minute while Shuuhei looked at the bed he had been thrown into. "Wow, what is this?"

"It's called a four post bed," Renji said.

"Well, at least it looks sturdy," Shuuhei smiled.

"It'll have to be, you're rough on beds."

"I'm rough on beds? I think you actually bit out part of my futon pad once. I had to keep it turned over until I could afford a new one," Shuuhei complained.

"Oops. How about I make it up to you?" said Renji.

"Now," demanded Shuuhei.

In response, Renji slid his body against Shuuhei's, their hard cocks grinding together to the pleasure of each of them.

"Renji?" asked Shuuhei, as they lay in bed next to each other. They wouldn't say that they were cuddling, because that sounded a little intimate for the two of them to do after "letting off a little steam" as they might say to their friends if they ever asked.

"Yeah?" Renji responded.

"What if you don't love her?"

"What?" Renji was surprised.

"I mean, what if after all of these years, you see Rukia and you don't love her anymore, or you never loved her, or she doesn't love you, or…"

"Shuuhei…" Renji said in a slightly hurt voice.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm just being selfish," Shuuhei admitted. "I'm going to miss our times together." More than you'll ever know Renji, he thought to himself. I don't want this to be our last night together.

"Yeah, I will too," Renji said, snuggling a little closer to Shuuhei. "It's not like you don't have lots of hot ass walking by you all the time just waiting to distract you from any loneliness you might feel though," he joked.

"Haha, yeah," Shuuhei said hollowly.