Story #2 in the series of stories I've had sitting on my computer for ages. A little RenTastu, not much, for your enjoyment today. This story was originally written (started/completed?) on 21 Feb. 2013.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of the characters; those belong to Kubo-san. The story belongs to me, however, so I would appreciate you not stealing it.

Reviews make me happy, but only drop one if you want to. Flames and criticisms are good for my improvement, and I can toast marshmallows on them besides. Enjoy!

Thanks, Renji

"Class, we have a new exchange student arriving today." Tatsuki barely paid attention to this announcement, it meant so little to her now. She assumed it would be another one of Ichigo's soul-whatever friends come to carry out a mission and then disappear without a trace. Nobody else ever remembered them after they disappeared.

"Tch."

I guess that means Rukia's a shinigami, too... Tatsuki thought, frowning. I knew it, she seemed a little too bubbly to be such a good friend of Ichigo's. She looked over at the short, purple-eyed girl in question and considered her.

"... Abarai-san, if you would sit beside Hirino for class..." Beside Hirino? That was right behind Tatsuki's desk. She had picked this spot specifically because no one had chosen the one behind it, and now she would have to deal with someone's eyes on the back of her neck. She looked up as the new student walked by.

Yeah, definitely shinigami material. Relatively tall and strong-looking... Oh! She had seen this one before, running around town with his freaking red hair. What was it with shinigami and naturally-occurring obnoxious hair? But perhaps she could have some fun with this one.

One side of her mouth quirked up in a smile. She quickly zoned in to Ochi-sensei's words, as it appeared she was done with her new student talk. The rest of the lesson passed uneventfully, and Tatsuki dutifully took notes along with the rest of the class.

After class was over, signaling lunch, Tatsuki packed her stuff away and grabbed her lunch bag. She walked casually over to where Sado, Orihime, that Ishida kid, Ichigo, and Rukia were talking and eating lunch with the new student. His name... um, um, Ren-something. Renri? No, no... Renji? Maybe... Worth a shot, at least. And better than Renri...

"Yo, Ichigo, 'Hime." Tatsuki nodded at the others and watched their conversation fall silent, vaguely amused. This Renji guy was wearing the same hippie clothes he had been wearing last time he came and everyone forgot him.

Oh, this was going to be good. It was just a matter of picking the right moment. Orihime started a lighthearted conversation about schoolwork, which eventually turned into a story about science partners. Finally, Tatsuki saw her opening. A brief lull in the conversation allowed her to catch Renji's gaze out of the corner of her eye.

"So, Renji..." The others looked at her now, and Tatsuki laughed internally, knowing full-well what she was headed into. She had learned enough about Shinigami from Urahara to not sound like a complete fool, and she really was thoroughly enjoying this.

"What's your Zanpakutou look like?" The ensuing chaos was so comical, Tatsuki wished she had brought a camera. Rukia spewed juice out of her mouth, and Orihime choked on her bean and leek paste veggie chicken sandwich. Sado blinked abruptly and looked at her sharply, which was all she could hope for from him. Ishida sighed and continued eating like he already knew, and Renji kept looking between her and Ichigo. Ichigo fixed her with a cold stare and developed an irritated tick in one eyebrow. Tatsuki, on the other hand, was laughing so hard she was almost doubled over.

"Your... face..." Tatsuki gasped out, still cackling and pointing at Ichigo.

Orihime was one of the first to recover. "Tatsuki-chan! You knew all along didn't you!"

As Tatsuki slowly returned to her amused and rather smug expression from before, she answered, directing her words towards her irritated, orange friend.

"It's what you get for telling me it was none of my business when Orihime disappeared and sneaking out in the middle of the night."

"You followed me?!" Ichigo looked at her aghast.

"Baka, of course I did. All the way into the basement."

"Jerk."

Rukia, having finally recovered, started laughing and couldn't stop. Renji still looked slightly confused, and he looked over at Tatsuki, bewildered.

"Do I know you?" He asked, trailing off slightly.

"No. Arisawa Tatsuki, childhood friend of Kurosaki Ichigo, karate champion, and best friend to Inoue Orihime." She held out her hand, and when he didn't offer his, she grabbed it and shook.

He shook the slightly bemused look off his face and smiled disarmingly. "Abarai Renji, fukutaicho of the sixth squad, childhood friend of Kuchiki Rukia, and... high on the list of people who keep this guy in line." He jerked his thumb back at Ichigo, who fumed silently.

"You've been plotting this all day, haven't you?" He hissed.

Tatsuki dropped Renji's hand and turned towards Ichigo abruptly. The atmosphere dropped several degrees and Renji shivered, looking sideways at this slightly ominous girl.

"Yes, and I would suggest you stopped acting irritated and started acting apologetic towards the girl who helped you through the stuff with your mom and was rewarded by having a rather important, occasionally life-threatening secret kept from her, Ichigo."

Ichigo winced and had the decency to look uncomfortable. The wince was because of the mom thing, which Tatsuki had brought up on purpose. Renji decided that this girl was definitely someone to look out for. She sounded like she could be pretty deadly if she wanted to. Ishida and Chad started packing up, saying they had to go work on a group project together. Orihime fidgeted nervously, not sure whether to stay or go.

Renji looked over at her out of the corner of his eye again and leaned against a wall behind him. She was fuming mad, he could tell it even though she was restraining herself. Her hands formed into fists and her weight was shifted over the balls of her feet. She was itching for a fight.

Before she had seemed casual and nice, but strong in her own way. Now he could practically feel her frustration radiating out at him. Actually, he could feel it. The tiny shred of a reiatsu she had blazed bright, saying what she couldn't say.

How could you.

It communicated her anger and sadness, her feeling of abandonment and loneliness, and a sense of betrayal. She was in the immediate vicinity, which was what allowed him to read so much from her reiatsu, but with his limited reiatsu pick-up, Ichigo could probably only sense the more obvious things.

"A-" Renji cut himself off quickly. He wasn't part of this. He quickly faded into the background again and tried to be unnoticeable.

Tatsuki glanced over at him and blushed angrily. She knew he had read her like a book. She raised her fist and was about to shout at him when she remembered that he might be the cause of her embarrassment, but Ichigo was the cause of her anger. Well, most of her anger.

She turned back towards him but when she caught his eye, the steam went out of her. She knew that now was not the time, and for once, he did look genuinely apologetic.

"Tch." Tatsuki let her fists drop. She turned on her heel and walked back to the classroom.

She didn't say anything to Ichigo for the rest of the day. He didn't say anything either.

Tatsuki sighed. Today had been no fun. Getting mad at Ichigo was never fun, but she had a freaking valid reason. And he hadn't said anything.

The stars winked in and out of existence in the sky above her, and she lay on the roof with her hands behind her head.

Be rational, Tatsuki. She thought. If he had said 'I'm sorry' she would have punched him, and she couldn't really see him saying anything else. But she still wished he had.

"Hey."

A voice interrupted her thoughts. A recognizable voice, coming from behind her. A voice that belonged to a person to which she had only been introduced today, who was now looking at her in her nightclothes—decent ones mind you, Tatsuki would never settle for less than a pair of flannel pants and a long-sleeved tee during winter—but still, in her nightclothes lying on a blanket on her roof and staring at the stars.

"Renji!"

"Yeah." He sat down next to her on the blanket and looked out at the moon. She noticed he was wearing his shinigami robes, and he had a Zanpakutou hanging at his hip.

"Why're you here?" She asked. She knew it would be more decent if she sat up right now, but she couldn't quite bring herself to move. Renji sighed.

"Well, officially, I'm on patrol." He said. "There's been an unusual increase in the number of higher-level Hollows around here, even for Karakura town."

"What do you mean, even for Karakura Town?" Tatsuki momentarily abandoned her curiosity over what he was doing unofficially in pursuit of this question.

"Well, Karakura town is currently what we call the patch of spirit-enriched land in this world. It has the highest concentration of individual human souls with reiatsu per spirit mile. So, naturally, more and more Hollows congregate here, and other bad things try to mess with it, too." He spoke openly to her about the matter, for which she was grateful.

"Other bad things?" Renji waved her question aside, thinking that perhaps now wasn't the best time to tell her about Aizen and all that.

"I'll tell you some other time." Tatsuki looked at him and silently thanked him for talking to her, telling her things. She had felt so ignorant of everything that was going on...

"So, what are you doing here unofficially?" She asked, remembering her first question.

"Oh, ah..." He continued to stare out at the moon, but his tone took on a sheepish quality and he started rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"I just kind of wanted to say sorry for reading your emotions like that." He looked down at her, and noticing her unreadable face, he continued out of nervousness. "I mean, I didn't really mean to it was just that you were right there, and your reiatsu was pretty obvious. And, um, you know, they just kind of say what your feeling if the person is close to you. N-n-n-not like close, close, but like, um close to you physically. NOT like that, I mean..."

Tatsuki was silently laughing at him. He was so ridiculous. She sat up and crooked a knee up, on which she rested her arm, on which she rested her chin.

"Oh Renji."

"Hm?!" He looked over at her again, halting in his slightly frantic search for the right words. Noticing her soft, half-smiling expression he relaxed, and he smiled, too, looking back at the moon.

"Thanks, Renji." He looked over at her again, and she smiled that soft, tired smile into the moonlight again. She glowed slightly in the silver light, and her expression was content and soft.

Still looking out into the stars, she elaborated. "Thanks for coming and telling me that. And just..." she shrugged; searching for the right words, she looked at her hands. "Talking, I guess. Yeah, thanks for talking, Renji. Talking when no one else would tell me what was going on, treating it like normal..."

Her face took on a sad look for a brief moment, but it was gone in a second and she was back to soft and tired. Renji looked back out to the stars, and wondered at this sad, strong girl who had shared the stars with him and showed him a piece of herself.

"Thanks, Renji" She said, and she leaned over and kissed him, lightly, like a butterfly, on the cheek. He started slightly, and she stood up and walked to the other side of the roof, grabbing the edge, jumping off, and swinging herself into an open window. He heard the window slide shut, and he smiled at the thought of the girl who had left the blanket on the roof for him.

"Thanks, Tatsuki."