Author note: Hey everyone. First bleach ff so no flames please they will be used to roast hollows souls. hope you enjoy
warnings: OOC, M for reason. Angst and Sadness.
disclaimer: Don't own
apologies: sorry if i misspell things, ill try hard not to, just no bashing because I didn't get something quite right.
Every day was the same. And every day he prayed to whatever god was out there that it would change. But it never did. His meaningless existence plodded along through the months and years and moments of life. No real purpose…well that wasn't true. His purpose was to be the personal whipping boy to an awful waste of oxygen scum bag named Shurizo. But that was his lot in life he supposed, being a Rekongai stray kind of meant you were the lowest of the low here.
Laying on the cold concrete floor, he looked up at the only source of light in his small cage. The thin, metal slot wasn't wide enough to even stick his hand in, let alone low enough for him to look out, but it provided light and air. It also let the cold weather in. The heavy thudding of Shurizo's booted feet alerted the occupant of cage 1230 that his day was about to begin. Sighing softly he dragged himself into a sitting position, shivering fitfully as his body gave up on any semblance of warmth.
As he did every day around this time, the day dream started. One where he was awakened with an affectionate touch and a smile. instead of a kick to his side and cursing that he hadn't died in the night. A day dream where he was allowed to sleep in a warm bed in a real house, not shoved into a concrete cell without even a blanket to cover his too thin body with. A dream where he was given three meals a day and allowed to just sit in the sunshine and enjoy the day, instead of being starved to the point of collapse just because he wasn't fast enough at doing whatever chore was assigned to him. And a lovely dream where he was allowed to enter the soul reaper academy and become a ranking officer, living his own life as a Free man...not stuck in this wayside dump as a slave to a cruel man.
No...he was not stupid. He knew such a dream was never to be in his grasp. Not for a worthless stray dog like him. No matter how hard he wished for such a dream to become a reality...he knew he would die here, on the frozen earth beneath his shoeless feet. And be tossed into an alley to rot with the garbage.
He barely paid attention to the usual morning ritual. The yelled curses and cuffing blows to his head were nothing new. Once he was assigned the list of today's chores he simply picked up the shovel and went to the front of the shop, beginning to clear away the snow that had accumulated in front of the garishly decorated doors. When he was about halfway through, the time when his fingers and feet where nearly cherry red with the cold and too numb to feel the pain of impending frostbite any more, there was a commotion from inside the shop. As he turned to look, the heavy double doors burst open and a small, boyish figure stumbled through them, running into his back and knocking the both of them down into the snow.
Grunting, he got to his knees, shaking snow from his thin shirt and cursed quietly under his breath. The material was already soaked. Anger welled up inside him and he turned, about to confront whomever had been tossed from the shop when suddenly he stopped. The anger dissolved in his chest as quickly as it came, for huddling on the snow covered ground next do him was one of the new additions to Shurizo's slave empire. The kids name eluded him, Hana something or other. What mattered now was that the kid was terrified...and sporting a split lip and large bruise across his feminine face. Right behind the kid followed Nuruga, the cruelest man in Shurizo's passel of employees. Nuruga was the type of man that enjoyed bullying and tormenting the ones who couldn't protect them selves. As the burly troll faced man lumbered twored the trembling Hana..something or other he could feel the anger and hatred for the man swell up in his chest. Making his decision he stood, placing the meager protection of his own body in front of the boy.
"Well well. What do we have here. Trying to protect the little weasel are we Abarai? How sweet. If you don't move ill just have to give you his punishment. So Scram."
Abarai Renji simply squared his shoulders and held his head high, refusing to back down and leave the kid to the mercy of the monster in front of him. Baring his teeth in a feral display of defiance, the crimson haired man threw down the gauntlet to Nuruga. He wouldn't run from this no matter what. Locking his amber colored eyes with the beast of a man, Renji silently told the brute what his answer was. Seeing the cruel smile that split the pudgy, pockmarked face of his arch rival did cause a twinge of panic to enter his mind. But Renji shoved it away ruthlessly. Now was not the time to be afraid. He knew that if the kid was allowed to be given the punishment that Nuruga had in mind the smaller body would be unable to take it and the kid would die. Renji just couldn't stand by and let that happen.
The first punch slammed him into the frozen ground before he really knew it was coming. Though Renji had to hand it to the ugly goon, he packed quite a wallop. He heard the snap and whish of the whip before he saw it, and the agony that bloomed from his already abused back as the lash fell made him cry out. After that it became a blur of pain, Renji had no clue how long he lay on the ground, with Nuruga standing above him wielding the lash that was ripping the flesh of his back to shreds. Nor was he aware of the ribbons of blood that arced from him with each strike or how each time the lash fell his body would bow nearly in half, yet no sound escaped him. Not one cry after that first. He remained silent throughout the ordeal. And when it was over and he lay in the red dyed snow in front of the shop staring sightlessly into the grey sky; he was un aware of the gentle hands of the young boy Hanataro that began to bind and heal his wounds.
What neither of them knew was that there was another observer on the street that day, that had witnessed the cruel treatment of the slaves, and had felt the spiritual pressure that came flooding up inside of the crimson haired man when he stepped forward to offer himself in replacement for the smaller boy. Grey, silvery eyes as cold as the snow around him watched as the young child whom the fiery one had saved healed the awful wounds inflicted by the lash. Then turning, he walked the rest of the way to his sleek, black covered carriage and instructed the driver to take him home. But he would be back tomorrow. The two slaves had intrigued him.
Author end note: sooooooo please review let me know what you think. I'm open to suggestions!