Title: When the Flower Withers

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Renji x Byakuya, mentions of Ichigo x Rukia

Dislaimer: BLEACH is not mine... or it would've turned into yaoi series already...

Warning: Angst, character death, un-beta-ed, sap

A/N: An old story I made in which I just found in my computer... it was made like, two or three years ago. I decided to post it since I practically has no activity in for awhile... This features my absolute favorite pairing RenBya XDD. I planned to make this a super sad story but I guess I really am a sucker when it comes to angst, can't stand too much of it... so instead I made this fic the way it is... enjoy!

Byakuya felt his limbs went numb as he heard the humongous explosion from where his vice-captain, along with his sister and few other joint members of Gotei 13, was stationed. Quickly, he stabbed the arrancar before him, not bothering to unleash Senbonzakura as he tried to focus on the battle at hand, and concentrate to find at least the remains of Renji's and Rukia's reiatsu.

He finished the long-drawn battle surprisingly quick, his team made it to clear the area, even though it was still with casualties. After he made sure his team would be able to hold itself up without him, he—despite the weak protest from Izuru that Kuchiki-taichou should rest—quickly dashed out to area 65, the place where the explosion was heard earlier.

This was war, casualties were to be expected.

But Byakuya couldn't sit well with the idea of his sister or his lover being hurt. No, not in the war like this. Not because of Aizen and his twisted ideals.

It wasn't long for the noble to reach the area, panting lightly from his low reiatsu that was being pushed further more for his earlier shunpo.

What he saw drew a deep frown.

The area was mostly burnt and he could distinguish remnants of burnt flesh and severed body parts—either arrancar or shinigami, he couldn't tell—scattered around, leaving distasteful aura, light smoke and horrible smell that invaded his nose. And yet he paid no heed to this, his sister and his lover was much more important.

It was soon that he found them, not too far from what seemed like the center of explosion—considering the ground's darker color. He was about to sigh in relief when he found his adopted sister; in one piece and only seemed to suffer from her slightly burnt arm.

He was about to call her when he saw what she was holding.

"Renji?"

Her sister, upon hearing his voice, slowly looked up and faced him, her face was dirty with dirt and blood, they molded with the tears that still dripping down her big blue eyes.

"Bya--... Nii-sama..." she rasped, as she struggled not to choke on her own tears.

Cradled in her lap was the form of Byakuya's fukutaichou, his uniform was torn on most parts, giving Byakuya a nice view of his scalded limbs, the redhead's left arm was bent in weird angle and he swore he could see bones poking out from the purple skin, his burnt torso, and the red, crimson-colored blood that gushed out from a terrible wound on his stomach, staining himself and Rukia. Its color matched the redhead's hair, which was free from its ponytail, the fiery red strands were cut messily —probably from enemy's sword—and they stick to his shoulders, face, and back because they were damp with sweat, dirt, and blood.

Byakuya didn't bother to hide a faint shocked gasp.

He slowly, deliberately, walked over to the two of them, and knelt down, all the while eyeing Renji with knitted brows, as if to comprehend that this was only a sick joke.

"It's my fault!!!" Rukia suddenly cried, fresh tears rolled down her face. "He protected me... from that, I—Hisagi-san already called help... but Renji, I—he doesn't—" she tried to talk between hiccups and sobs.

"...'oisy..." a hoarse, vague voice was heard and Byakuya noticed Renji's head shifted a bit, previously closed eyelids slowly slid open to reveal a glazed, dull, and surprisingly dark auburn eyes. They seemed unfocused and Renji were trying as hard just to keep them open.

"...'m fine," he panted out, and Rukia wanted to point out that he was not, not with body like that. She didn't say anything though, instead, she placed her small hand tenderly on Renji's cheeks. "Don't... don't speak Renji, Hisagi-san... is on the way with help..." she said slowly to reassure Renji, or herself, it didn't matter.

"..ch..." Renji truned his head to side slowly, as if to point out it was no use.

It was then when the auburn eyes blinked at the previously unacknowledged second presence.

"..'uya?...'s tha' you?" he whispered, brows furrowing.

Byakuya's gloved hand reached out to wrap around Renji's own and brought it close to his lips, closing his eyes as the cold hand made contact with his skin. "Yes, Renji."

"..you survived..." Renji tried to smile but what came out only a pained flinch.

"Enough Renji, don't speak," Byakuya's voice sounded slightly frantic. He didn't believe it was him; the stoic Kuchiki Byakuya of the Kuchiki Noble House who uttered those words when his own voice reached his ear.

Renji tried to curl his fingers around Byakuya, and it only served to smear blood on Byakuya's pristine white skin and glove. And yet Byakuya paid no heed to it, his mind was clouded with possibilities that he might lose his fukutaichou, his subordinate, his friend, his lover.

"... sorry 'uya... I screwed up—but I—" Renji's vocalization was cut off with fierce coughs, blood poured out from his mouth, trickling down his chin, dirtying his jaw.

"Renji," Byakuya's breath hitched. He tried to do something, anything, and yet he already drained up his reiatsu and he was exhausted both physically and spiritually. But even though he had enough reiatsu, he knew that with his minor experience in medical skill, he would not be much of a help.

But despite all of that thought, he reached out and placed a hand on Renji's chest; channeling his already low reiatsu to heal the redhead.

Auburn gaze stared up at his bluish gray; they seemed full of hope as its holder still has many to say. Renji looked like he still wanted to tell Byakuya many things, that he still wanted to be by his side, still wanted to be his fukutaichou, or at least... to say a simple 'thank you'; for everything Byakuya had given to him, and also perhaps tell Rukia she better do good with Ichigo and lead a happy life, and so many others and yet his body, his brain, his vocal cord, his time didn't allow it anymore...

In the end, he said nothing, only gazing at Byakuya's dark eyes with his usually expressive auburn ones; they slowly blanked, along with the rest of his vision.

But Byakuya caught the message clearly; 'Don't you dare coming back into that damn shell of yours after I'm gone.'

And another one;

"I'm sorry, Byakuya."

Byakuya felt his vision blurred and for the first time in so many years—he lost count, but he knew the last was when Hisana died—Kuchiki Byakuya felt like crying.

"Don't be, Renji."

Renji's face was calm—and yet Byakuya still caught the obvious glint of regret, and the redhead actually smiled when he closed his eyes again, slowly; those eyes that were never going to open again. Soon the rest of his body followed and his grip on Byakuya's hand loosened before his entire body went limp.

"But I don't want to give up yet."

Rukia's scream tore the orange sky.

Blood lost.

That was what Unohana told Kuchiki-taichou after Renji's body had been thrust to the fourth's care before it was given proper burial. The cause of Renji's death. It had taken Renji away from him.

This was war, casualties were to be expected.

But still, Kuchiki Byakuya had cried, though it hadn't looked nor sounded like Rukia who screamed Renji's name repeatedly, or Hinamori who fainted when she heard the news, or even Ichigo who had thrown tantrum and had been given sedatives to calm himself. His was silent tears that slowly made their way down his proud gray eyes; and he hadn't let anyone seen him when he cried. Despite that, the pain had been the same, if not more. He had lost his loved one... again.

Contrary to his expectations, Rukia was the one who took it the hardest. Byakuya understood somewhat, Renji was Rukia's family, the one she always hold onto ever since their childhood. Losing him felt like an extremely hard slap on the face; especially when Renji died because he protected her. She kept blaming herself for causing Renji's death. She never visited Renji's grave, she didn't have enough courage to do so yet.

He then confronted his sister, told her that it would do no good to herself or Renji to keep going on like this.

This was war, casualties were to be expected.

Rukia had asked him then, a bit surprised by her Nii-sama's calm words, if Renji would fade away just like that because this was war and Renji was one of the casualties.

"I don't accept this easier than you do, Rukia. But I'm sure Renji wouldn't want you... us, to keep on like this, he's just that kind of person," Byakuya had said.

"And the only thing that would fade from myself is sadness when I'm thinking about him. He deserves more than being remembered as bitter memories." He had said when he rose to his feet and made his way to the door. For once, he let a small sad smile formed on his lips.

"Renji will live, Rukia." Byakuya gazed down at his adopted sister and brought his hand to his chest, right where his heart was. "Right here, he'll live as long as you let him..."

With that, he had left Rukia, whose eyes widened.

Rukia soon told herself that grieving was alright, but not forever.

He found out a week after Renji's burial ceremony via Ikkaku and Yumichika from a letter they had said Renji gave to them in case he was gone. With the letter, the redhead had given him a necklace, Renji's necklace, simple design with a beautiful obsidian stone as the pendant. Byakuya had had glimpses of Renji wearing it a few times. Renji had said in a letter that it was something his foster parents gave him before they were slaughtered, leaving his little self to wander around the street and became the 'street dog' he was infamous of.

Renji said in his messy writing that it gave him power to survive, to know he was loved, to know that if he tried, he would find his own happiness—in which he finally found in Byakuya, in Rukia, in his friends. He gave it to the noble so it would hopefully give the same effect.

"I'll always be there by your side. You just wouldn't know it." was the last sentence from the letter, as Byakuya folded it neatly after reading for what seemed like the tenth time that day.

The noble slipped the letter into the folds of his kimono and stared at the tomb engraved with Renji's name in it. "You're still stupid... don't you have anything else to do other than taking care of me even in death?"

Silence was the answer, yet Byakuya didn't expect any. The black-haired men then placed the lilies he had brought on Renji's tomb, and allowed a smile to grace his flawless face. Before he made his decision to leave, he gazed down where a black necklace was dangling from his neck; its beautiful obsidian stone seemed to shine beneath stinging rays of summer.

"Thank you," he whispered softly to the grave before he straightened and walked away from the cemetery.

The soft summer breeze seemed to whisper back to him.

It was ten years after the Winter War.

Byakuya straightened his gigai's suit jacket and fixed his sense on his environment.

A disturbance had occurred rather frequently in Karakura-chou and Byakuya had offered himself to go with his division's new recruits to handle the mission. He didn't know why, usually he never handled the new recruits; Renji had been the one responsible for that. Since the redhead had passed away the task had been thrust into the fourth seat's hand.

It wasn't like he was.... enthralled by the newly recruits. Far from that, actually. He just felt a sudden impulse to visit the living realm. He didn't know what the cause was; he never liked living world anyway. Too many bustling activities, too many people, too many... memories.

Renji often brought him here, just to 'try that thing Rukia showed me' or 'changing the environment for Byakuya's own good'.

He looked to his right and spotted the park Renji once brought him to when the sakura was blooming.

"It's pretty, right? Told ya it's better than the ones in your garden!"

"I didn't see any different Renji, they are sakura and all of them are beautiful."

"Che, you're no fun..."

It was vivid in his mind, the way Renji had picked a falling sakura and plucked it behind the noble's ear. The redhead had grinned from ear-to-ear then, brushing black locks from Byakuya's pale face.

"Pretty!"

Renji had gotten a kick in his shin and three days away from the noble's bed afterwards.

"Kuchiki-taichou?"

Byakuya's eyes narrowed when the hesitant and tentative voice of one of the new shinigami woke him rather crudely—no matter how soft the voice was—from his memories.

"Umh, which way should we go?"

Byakuya nodded as an acknowledgment for the question, and fastened his previously slow pace. It was a silent order for the new shinigami to follow, in which he obediently did.

"Hey, Byakuya!"

Byakuya stopped, only a few steps from where the new shinigami had asked him the way. Said new shinigami almost stumbled into his new captain and with fear and nervousness reflected in his eyes, the young man raised his gaze into those of his captain's; wondering what could possibly be wrong for his captain to stop abruptly at that.

Byakuya's gaze narrowed. What was that? He felt like he heard... that voice. That same, playful tone Renji always used when the redhead addressed him with his given name.

That couldn't be... Renji was dead. Dead.

The noble clamped the urge to massage his head and let out a small sigh instead. It was ten years already. And he was the one who told Rukia to snap back to life. Pathetic. He scratched the thought immediately and started to rivet his thoughts to his nephew instead. Perhaps he would pay time to visit Ichigo, Rukia, and their three years old son.

He then continued his pace as if nothing happened, thus confusing his new subordinate further... luckily said subordinate didn't have the guts to ask why anyway.

A few steps opposite the noble, a redhead was busy running down the street. All the while trying to get his uniform in place and at the same time tie his flame-stroked mane into a high-ponytail.

"I'll always be there by your side. You just wouldn't know it."

*Fin*

A/N: That's it... pretty satisfied with how it turned up, especially the ending… I'm sorry for possible OOC-ness and typos (english is not my first language and this is not beta-ed), should I do a sequel?

... but for now; how was it? R&R please! Thanks for reading this far! XDDD