I want to preface this by saying the original inspiration for this Hollow-fic is from another fanfiction written by Afrai. I tried to email her (and contact her through livejournal) to get her permission to post this unauthorized follow-up (I swear, the idea grabbed hold of me and just wouldn't let go!) but she never got back to me about it, so I'm going to assume that silence means assent. If the author of the original work wishes to contact me with regards to this, I check my email and pm's regularly. Before you read this fic (if you haven't already) please read the original work (its so precious I could just die!) so as to understand what is going on in this one. You can look up her author page easily by typing her name in the search bar or opening a new page with this link in it

http:/www.( )/s/3019658/1/( )Street_Rats_And_Other_Monsters

Take out the parentheses in order for the link to work. You should all definitely go check it out. Well, I hope you all enjoy!

They made a pretty good team, the two of them. Renji's hollow form, which had been the only form of him she had known since their first meeting, was the approximate shape of a dog, a very large dog who had only gotten larger over the last two years, until he was about the size of a small pony. This suited Rukia fine for she was not large herself and might have been prey to some of the other, stronger criminal elements that inhabited that district. Even the brothel-procurers that had real knives stayed the hell away from "the Hollow". He was quick and strong, and known for his innate aggressive fighting abilities. All of their worldly possessions could be loaded up onto his back in a makeshift saddle-roll, including Rukia if she was of a mind for it (and could convince Renji that she was not making fun of him by playing horsie). Renji did have one weakness though... no hands. He couldn't do things like cook his food, or wash and comb his fur, or reach out and grasp things. That was where Rukia came in. Where Renji supplied the ability to hunt (or just out and out take the food he wanted by force) Rukia had the ability to build a fire and cook the food so they could eat it. She did all of the things involving hands, from setting up their traveling camp to fetching water to making sure Renji had his bath and his fur was combed, and he in turn provided warmth, protection, mobility and strength. They were a symbiosis, working together like tooth and claw to bring down larger prey. Even if they bickered, both of them were innately aware of the co-dependence of thier relationship. It was a two-person family based on necessity, but there was indeed a great deal of natural affection and deep loyalty between them as well.

So they migrated from place to place within the district, sometimes making friends with the other kids, but more often traveling just the two of them. Renji's dog-Hollow-form was eminently suited to hunting down live prey in the forests and guarding their little camp. From time to time, if they were of a mind to live in civilization for a while, they could make enough to eat a meal by putting on a street-performing act where Renji pretended to be a well-trained dog that did tricks at Rukia's command... of course that one had been her brainchild and Renji didn't like it, but he couldn't argue with its success either. Naturally, he tried anyway.

"C'mon Renji! Don't be such a baby!" Rukia snapped, tugging harder on the little improvised collar she'd made for him to add realism to their act.

"I don't wanna," he grumbled back. "Can't we just go back out into the woods and hunt?"

"I said no more bunnies didn't I?" Rukia replied. "Besides, if you spend any more time out of doors, you're gonna turn feral. You've already forgot nearly once."

Renji hunched his shoulders at the reminder of one chill spring morning when he'd awoken, groggy and disoriented, to thinking of Rukia as food. What had upset him the most about the incident, besides his flickering humanity, was that Rukia, the main center of his world, had eyed him warily for the rest of the day, like he might suddenly decide to turn on her or something. Renji would gnaw off his own leg before he'd hurt her. He'd had to work pretty hard at looking his most scappily-likeable for the rest of the week; lots of tail wagging, lots of belly-rubbing, lots of go-chase-the-ball. It had been ignominious, and he'd resented having to act like a puppy, but eventually it had gotten him back in her good graces. She had still, however, insisted on relocating back into civilization. He never told her, or allowed himself to let on, but the change in scenery didn't help. He still longed for her. He'd go off on his own and let himself starve and die of hunger before he'd ever let her get hurt though. He wanted the best for her, only the best. Right now, with his superior size and strength, and the fact that when he chose to doff the (figurative) mask of a loveable but overly large pup, Renji was a force to be reckoned with. People avoided Rukia, they avoided doing anything that might rouse the anger of her guard-dog, because they feared him. Renji was large and strong and certainly a match for any who crossed his path, so he was able to protect her. Right then, he was what was best for her, but he knew deep down that it wouldn't always be so.

"I'm fine," he grumbled sullenly. "Can't we just steal it from a merchant instead? I'll even let you ride on my back for a smash an' grab."

That was another in their bag of tricks; Rukia fitted an impromptu saddle on his back and held on while Renji raced at his top speed to a merchants booth, knocked over the vendor and Rukia filled a sack with everything she could carry and then they raced off so fast that the merchant couldn't catch them.

"You know we can't afford to do that right now," Rukia rebutted firmly. "We just got into this sector and if we go running that play all the time those merchants are going to set a watch for you."

They'd had one or two close calls of that nature, one of which had actually resulted in a group of merchants managing to catch Renji... and Rukia'd had to rescue him.

"Fine," he grumbled. "But do I really have ta play Scrappy the Wonder-Pup all day?" he whined. "It's embarrassing!"

"It makes good money," she replied. "And for a few hours work we get enough kan for three meals with no danger. It's a great plan."

"Says you," he muttered. "You don't have to put up with everyone and their granny patting you on the head or pinching your cheeks and telling you 'what a good boy you are, who's the clever puppy!' all day long," Renji mimicked in a falsetto.

"Oh suck it up and stop complaining," Rukia said. "Now come and put your collar on like a good boy."

Renji bared his teeth at her mockingly, yawned, and stayed curled up right where he was thank-you very much. He hadn't cared for the condescension in her tone and told her so.

"Just because I look like a dog, and you make me act like one sometimes, doesn't mean I am one."

"Well a stray dog's better than a stray monster," Rukia retorted.

Renji pulled himself up to his most intimidating height (which, at over chest-high on a man, did have some weight to it) and put on his most feral and scary-looking expression, the one that sent merchants and bystanders scurrying away in fear for their lives.

"I'm a monster!" he snarled at her, upping the intimidation factor. "A big, scary Hollow-monster. And don't you forget it."

Rukia looked him up and down, singularly unimpressed with his display.

"Are you done yet?"

Renji showed his teeth and growled, his eyes lighting like two live coals in his sockets. That one had never failed to make even the bravest band of criminals back down and find someplace safer to be.

"Seriously, you can stop now," Rukia said flatly. "We're wasting daylight and I heard a rumor that some really, really rich woman from inside the Seireitei has been traveling around in our district. If we're lucky, we'll catch her eye and she'll leave us a big donation for our performance."

"Big money means big trouble," Renji argued, even as he submitted to being put in his collar and harness for the day.

Big money out in that district got you noticed by all the wrong sorts of people. Powerful criminal people.

"Well then we'll just go to another district," Rukia said logically. "One where people don't know us very well, like we always do."

Rukia checked the last buckle on the final strap of his harness to make sure it was neither too loose nor too tight and then pulled herself up onto his back, grabbing onto the holding loops just off his shoulder-blades.

"Sheesh, it's lucky you have me Renji, otherwise you'd have no-one to do all the thinking for you," she informed him in a superior tone.

"Shut it, or I'll dump you off my back," he grumbled. "Stupid girl."

Rukia decided not to pursue anything further since he'd woke up with such a chip on his shoulder about coming down to the city, and he already wasn't happy about his "Scrappy The Wonder-Pup" act that Rukia was making him put on. Renji liked to fight. He liked to fight and he liked to win, and he liked to be stronger and scarier than anyone else around him. Sometimes Rukia had a hard time reigning him in and getting him to see sense. She worried that one day she would loose him permanently to the Hollow within. When she looked at him, she didn't see the huge, fierce predator with sharp, cruel fangs and massive claws and a mane around his neck the exact color of freshly spilt blood... she just saw her Renji, the friend who stood by her and protected her. He was a warm fur blanket on a cold night, he was an intimidating growl when strange men looked her way speculatively, he was a fast getaway when a threat appeared, a faithful presence by her side and at her back, keeping all the wolves of the world at bay.

"Do I hafta balance a ball on my nose?" Renji whined pleadingly, even adding in a high-pitched puppy-whine that sometimes worked on her.

"While you walk on your hind-legs," Rukia confirmed firmly.

"Aww..." he mumbled, his tail lowering.

Rukia smiled to herself in amusement. He was her Renji, faithful and true.

"Hey, Rukia," Renji said quietly as he carried her out of the little camp on the outskirts of town down by the river they had made the day before.

"What?" she asked.

"What was with that dream you were havin' last night?"

She felt her figurative hackles start to rise at his question. He was coming dangerously close to skirting the privacy line, that place of silent conversations that were never spoken out loud between the two of them by mutual consent.

"Just a dream I sometimes have," she said flatly.

"You woke up three times last night," he informed her. "An' you kept tossing and turning."

Renji wisely didn't mention the tears, he knew well enough by then that any implication of weakness would mean he'd be getting his tender ears pulled.

"It's nothing," Rukia insisted, even as she leaned forward and lay her torso along his back, burying her face in the soft mane of blood-red fur along his neck and inhaling the soothing scent of fur and Renji, which to her had come to mean safety, shelter and comfort.

She sometimes dreamed of that same feeling, of being held close, sheltered and protected by someone dear to her, only to have that feeling of safety suddenly ripped away from her. On the cold winter nights and chill mornings when Renji left their safe little nest early to go fetch breakfast, when Rukia lost the warmth and comfort of his furry body, it brought to mind those dreams. It reminded her of safety lost and she was pierced by a feeling of such abandonment, like everything that was supposed to be in her world suddenly disappeared and didn't come back. It was in times like those that Rukia gasped hold of him tight around his neck like she was doing now, and clung closely to him, promising herself that, no matter what else happened, she wouldn't ever let him go.

"Renji, we'll always be together, right?" she asked him, squeezing his mane tightly to her face.

"Haaah?" he asked her, uncomprehending of her sudden mood-shift.

"No matter what happens, we'll always be together, just like we are now, right? You won't go anywhere, right?"

"Tch! Stupid Girl," he said scornfully, as he often did. "Who's gonna take care o' you if I don't? Yer too scrawney an' short ta be left on yer own."

"Well you're too dumb and handless," she retorted. "Just who do you think is running this circus?"

Renji's jaw widened in a canine grin and he said

"I can't think of anyone else that'd come near me, crazy midget, so I guess we're stuck together. Geeze, someone get this little monkey off my back."

She could hear the laughter in his voice belying the bluster and was reassured. She might often be a literal version of a burden, but to Renji, she'd never be figurative one.

"Tonight's bath night for you, don't forget," she dictated peremptorily.

Renji's tail lowered again and he made a small puppy whine.

"Can't we hold off on it?" he begged.

Renji hated bath night.

"Nope, you want to look clean and groomed to attract customers," Rukia replied firmly.

They bickered half-heartedly, as was their habit, on their way to the spot that Rukia had staked out the day before. It was a prime spot in a busy marketplace, located in an empty square at the end of two rows right near two vendors who had been well-established for years. The usual busking act had moved on to another location when Renji had plonked his enormous furry behind right down and settled in. It was rather like the old joke "where does and two-hundred pound predator sit?... Anywhere he wants to."

Rukia climbed off his back and Renji sat down beside her. She took out her busking basket for people to deposit coins in and shook her tambourine to attract attention.

"Hear ye, hear ye! Come one, come all!" she called out and Renji restrained himself from rolling his eyes as she launched into her pompous little spleil about how well trained and clever her "doggy" was.

For their opening act, they picked people out from the crowd and Renji spelled out their names by pointing to the correct characters she scratched in the dirt. People would assume that Rukia was covertly signaling him somehow of course, but they applauded and threw coins (or, more usually, pins) nonetheless. Then as the marketplace got busier, they moved on to the real money-makers, Rukia had an entire routine where she had him perform tricks to a script. Sit up, paw, dance in a ring on hind-legs, bounce a ball at the end of his nose, even jump though a hoop. He hated every minute of it because Rukia had created a script that made him sound like a dumb mutt. He understood the need for the pretense but that didn't mean he didn't resent it. The crowd loved it though, they laughed at all the little jokes she told (usually at his expense) and gasped in suspense when she lit the hoop on fire and he daringly jumped through it. Those who could afford it clapped and threw what coin they had to spare in the hat. They continued the routine for an hour or so, before Rukia called a halt for a break (and to collect their earnings).

That was when trouble started.

"Hey!" a rough, deep voice yelled at them from off to one side.

They recognized the tone, if nothing else about it. That was the sound that merchants made when young children were stealing their merchandise and they were going to chase after them and administer bloody punishment. They looked over to see one rough, thugish-looking man with a rusty, battered sword and three other men, equally thuggish, standing behind him wielding clubs.

"You can't do that here!" the lead thug yelled at them. "If you wanna perform in this market, you gotta pay for that spot. This is my turf."

"I don't see your name on it," Rukia rebutted, sneering back at him fearlessly.

Renji sized up the opponents as he rose to his feet behind her and started bristling with menace. Two of the three thugs behind the lead, gratifyingly, eyed him warily, clearly having second thoughts about the wisdom of challenging such a large and fierce-looking predator.

"Hand over the money an' we'll call it even," the lead-thug demanded.

"No-way, this is my money. I earned it, if you want money you can just work for it!" Rukia yelled back.

People, sensing an imminent fight, began to back up into a ring and some of them started making bets.

"It looks like your little pup there ain't the only one who needs to wear a muzzle little missy," The thug informed her. "I'm givin' you one last chance to hand it over like a good little girl before me an' my boys take a stick ta you. Yer little doggy ain't gonna save you."

On cue, Renji started to growl and bare his teeth.

Rukia pulled the lower lid of her eye down, stuck her tongue out at the thug and deliberately made a rude noise, followed by an even ruder gesture in his direction. The thug promptly turned red with rage at having his authority challenged and beckoned to his goons.

"Take 'em down!"

They charged in. Renji lunged in front of Rukia to intercept and the fight was on.

X X X X X X X X

"You didn't have to come today, Byakuya-sama," the soft, sweet tone of his wife said, even as she gripped the crook of his arm and smiled beatifically up at him.

"Nonsense," he assured her. "It would be foolish to allow my wife to travel in such a dangerous place alone."

"Forgetting that your wife is from said dangerous place," she reminded him, even as she curled closer to his side, avoiding the noise and bustle of the busy marketplace in the afternoon. "Do you think we'll find her today?"

"I am certain we shall try," was her husband's stoic reply.

She smiled up at him in adoration.

"Byakuya-sama is indulgent of this Hisana," she informed him.

He allowed a small, private smile meant only for her.

"Always," he said softly.

Their moment was interrupted by shouts and bellows off to one side of the marketplace. The familiar sound of a fight; yells, grunts and the sound of flesh impacting flesh or wood, reached their ears as they both instinctively looked over. There was always someone fighting someone over something in outer Rukongai, and the sound of a fist fight was more common than the squabble of women and children haggling over cabbage.

"Another fight. Do these people never stop fighting in this district?" Byakuya Kuchiki noted dryly to his wife.

"To fight is to live out here," she replied philosophically. "The only ones who do not fight are those who are protected by those who do."

"No-wonder Eleventh Squadron is peopled entirely by those from Rukongai," her husband muttered.

The infamous Eleventh Squadron was well known for the quality of its muscle (and not its brain) in the Seireitei, with their kenpachi being the strongest of all the fighters, and every Reaper under him taking its cue for their leader. 'Fight' was the motto of Eleveth, as opposed to 'Noble Reason,' in Sixth.

They were about to turn and continue on their way when a loud roar caught their attention. Instinctively her husband moved to pull his wife protectively to the other side of him away from the danger. He knew that noise. It was the resonant, rage-filled roar of a Hollow.

"Byakuya-sama?" Hisana questioned him, picking up immediately on his change in demeanor.

"Stay close to me," he commanded her.

Another bellow rose up through the noise of the crowd and the press of bystanders, cheering on the fight as was their wont. Byakuya Kuchiki, Soul Reaper and Lieutenant of Thirteenth, edged cautiously closer to the site of the disturbance, wary of bringing his beloved wife within range of danger, but equally torn between doing his duty. He had come across scenes like this on more than one occasion; a Hollow edges in close to society, then goes on a rampage, destroying all in its path and eating any souls it can find. Some of the stronger thugs in the outer districts foolishly thought to make a sport of Hollow-baiting... said sport usually didn't last long. He would dispatch this one in the interests of keeping his wife and everyone else around them safe.

The scene that greeted him when he made it within range of the fight was not quite what he expected, however. For a moment he stared in shock. The Hollow in question was not a massive, bone-masked monster that he was usually faced with, but was instead... furry. It was even sort of cute, if one ignored the way he crunched down on one offending thugs arm, snapping it like a man would split a chicken bone.

X X X X X X X

Renji launched himself at the lead thug, knocking him over and sitting on his chest for long enough to look down, open his jaws wide so that the thug could get a good, long, hard look at all of Renji's very large, sharp teeth... and then he roared his loudest and most terrifying roar directly into the thugs gratifyingly terrified face. It rumbled out from deep in his chest, echoing in his throat and howled past his teeth to force the thug who had foolishly pointed a weapon at his Rukia to scream in abject, instinctive terror.

Roar over and done with (and point made) Renji bounced once on the man's chest, cracking a rib with his weight, and moved onto the next hapless soul. One of the men had not paused to watch as Renji terrified his leader, but had instead made directly for Rukia, club swinging. Renji launched himself like an attack dog at the man's wrist, wrenched the arm back, causing the man's body to swing around in a short jerking motion. Renji tugged again and brought him stumbling to his knees and a third wrench in the other direction pulled the man's arm from his socket, a violent snap crushed the bone of his forearm. The man let out a satisfying scream of pain and didn't get up from his position curled round his broken arm. Renji had already discounted his defeated foe, however and had shifted his attention to his next target. Rukia had edged backward against a nearby booth with their days earnings clasped tight against her chest, and the two remaining thugs were circling in on her, regardless of what happened to their companions. Renji growled low in his throat, crouched low to the ground and sprang at the back of the nearest, aggressively knocking him down from behind. He debated the momentary satisfaction he might get from ripping his throat out then and there as a warning to anyone else who might decide to try and mess with him, but decided that Rukia would scold him if she had to wash all that blood from his fur again. Instead he pulled back one of his paws and slammed it into the back of his head, sending the man's face into the packed earth of the street.

The last thug actually managed to reach Rukia and scooped her up, holding her in a pin-lock in front of him with a knife to her throat. Renji felt the rage rise up within him and a strange haze of red stole over his vision. He snarled as the little voice inside him whispered kill, kill, kill... The pain-filled whimper Rukia let out when the man twisted her arm too hard nearly made him loose it, only the fear of Rukia repudiating him made him control the beast within. He crouched down to spring, snarling his most menacing growl.

He heard a woman's voice in the crowd gasp Rukia's name, but ignored it as he debated whether he should attack right away or not.

Rukia locked eyes with him and surreptitiously gave him a signal. He understood and snorted once to signal his acquiescence to her command. Renji shifted his weight and stance, waiting for the right moment.

"Now!" she shouted.

She brought her foot down hard on her captors instep, Renji sprung forward at the exact same moment, knocking the thug over and gripping the bottom edge of the mans yukata jerking it upwards and over, bringing it up to both blind and entangle the man in his own clothes. He lowered his body down and Rukia grabbed one of the hand loops on his harness, and, in a motion made fluid from a great deal of practice, pulled herself up onto his back and gripped with her knees. Renji took that as the signal it was, pivoted on his hind legs and sprang forward to gallop at his top speed back the way they had come. The lead-thug had got his wits about him and managed to pull himself to his feet with his sword out. Rukia gave a signaling tug, and, nothing loath, Renji added insult to injury by barreling past him and knocking the thug into a nearby mud-puddle.

He delighted in Rukia's laughter as he charged off with her on his back, her small hands gripped tight in his mane. The sun and wind were fresh and wonderful and he felt powerful and strong and protective as he made good thier escape. Renji loved moments like these, they reminded him that though there were a great many disadvantages to his current form, he wouldn't be able to do this if he were still Human. He wouldn't be able to protect Rukia the way he should if he were weak.

He ignored the voices of the people calling out after them, one of them, unaccountably was a woman. He heard the patter of running feet, trying to chase him, but Renji was not only strong but fast, and had made it a point to be able to make a fast getaway when they needed one. He turned in the direction of the river and poured on more speed. The ground felt solid and delightful under him as his feet pounded in a rhythm, carrying them farther away to safety.

X X X X X X X X

Byakuya Kuchiki watched in mystification as the scene unfolded. He had been prepared to defend innocent bystanders against a rampaging Hollow only to discover that the Hollow seemed to be confining its attacks only to people who offended it. Hisana suddenly gripped his arm excitedly, and surged forward.

"That's her!" she gasped. "That's Rukia! Byakuya-sama, we've found her!"

Kuchiki caught his wife quickly around the waist before she could rush into the middle of the fray to snatch at the person she had searched so long and intently for. She would do it too, his wife was very determined, but the object of her quest was currently apparently the bone of contention between two stray dogs. One thug had her arm twisted up behind her and a long knife at her throat, and the dog that smelled of Hollow was crouched low, every muscle tense, apparently perfectly ready to spring at the both of them. It appeared to be an impasse, and Byakuya hesitated for a long moment as he judged the best angle to attack from in order to safely wipe out both threats. The Hollow was the more dangerous of the two and would be slain immediately, but the knife-wielder was closer... However, that one could at least be bribed. A Hollow listened to only one voice, the voice of its Hunger. It must be destroyed immediately.

Then there occurred something that he had never in all of his days thought he would see. The girl, Rukia, gave a signal and distracted the thug by stepping down hard on his foot and the Hollow used that moment of inattention to disable the attacker, ground him and then... she climbed up on the Hollow's back as easily as a trick-rider mounting a horse! The two of them raced off, the Hollow knocking aside anyone in its path as it went galumphing heavily down the street.

It took the Soul Reaper a long, staring moment as he was forced to adjust his world-view to accommodate the strange situation. For all of his training he had been told that Hollows were nothing more than mindless souls who had reversed themselves to a bestial state where the only sensation they had was hunger and the only thought they had was of assuaging that hunger by feasting upon any soul they could get their teeth on. That Hollow should have eaten them both. Any other Hollow that Byakuya had encountered would have eaten them both. But...

:It's impossible,: Byakuya thought to himself even as he raced after his wife, already chasing after the girl and her Hollow.

It had looked like the two of them were working together!

Hisana called after them and started off in pursuit while the three thugs that the Hollow had taken care of sprawled out behind them and called out curses at their backs. Byakuya sighed and went in pursuit of his wife. Two flash-steps and he was at her side. She was panting for breath, the Hollow and Rukia were already out of sight. There were tears in her eyes.

"Byakuya-sama," she cried. "I've lost her! I've lost her again..."

He dried her tears with the edge of his scarf and hastened to reassure her. He was a Soul Reaper, hunting Hollows was what he did. The beast and its burden would not remain lost to them for long. He scooped his wife up and blurred into the wind.

End Part I.

I just love writing them, they're so fun and cute! Tell me what you think.