Author: Auditory Eden
Rating: T
Warnings: None in particular, kissing, etc. Ah, and some drunkenness and minor swearing, that's all.
Notes: Tanabata means games, food, and fun! Renji loses a bet—and ends up having to escort Yachiru to the festival. I had so much fun with this.
The Light Through Yonder Window BreaksHe grinned slightly as her warm head moved on his shoulder. A drunken flush still spread over her cheeks, and her lips seemed flushed as well. Parted in a slight pout, they tempted him with the promise of a cherry-tartness. Kissing her was not like kissing other girls. Other girls wore makeup, or lipstick, or strange perfumes. Those females whom he had ever found likely to be non-superficial, attractive, had no interest in him at all. He could tell that she had some makeup on—it seemed like she had mascara smudged under her eyes—but her lips were untouched by coloring or moisturizers. That, he thought, was important. Her sleeping face twitched a little, and she opened her eyes. Two brown orbs stared up at him; lethargically assessing upon whose shoulder she had been dozing.
She smiled.
xXx
Abarai Renji of the Sixth Squad gave his friends a blank look of disbelief, his nearly full cup of sake halfway to his lips. Kira, Hisagi, and Matsumoto looked back. Kira's countenance seemed fairly ordinary, if a bit tinged with an alcohol blush. His sake cup was nearly empty, and he was running a finger around the rim in a pensive manner. Hisagi wasn't really attending, and his expression seemed to stare off into space. Matsumoto was grinning wickedly, the whole bottle of sake in her hand, her body spasming in occasional hiccups. He sighed.
"Guys….You know I don't gamble. And I really don't gamble about the taicho's love lives," he protested weakly, toying with his cup. Matsumoto's face quickly slid into a pout as she whined, "Mouuuuu, you're just no fun anymore, Renji-kun…"
A grin stole over Hisagi's face as he grabbed the bottle from Matsumoto and poured himself another cupful. "I think I can understand why you don't gamble about this kind of thing, given your own taicho's love life. But this isn't about Byakuya and Yoroichi. This is about Hitsugaya-taicho and that little Kurosaki midget, um, what's-her-name…."
"Karin," Kira intoned morosely. Renji shook his head and took a swig from his cup of sake.
"I don't want to die an early death for betting on Ichigo's sister's love life, either," he stated, and then added, "But there's no way in hell he'd ever go for her. He's so lost for Momo it's actually starting to lose its humor."
"Ne, ne, that's what I thought too!!" She stopped to repossess the sake, then continued, "But you've never seen my taicho around Karin-chan. I bet, less than a week."
Renji bowed to the inevitable, and with another hearty, glass-draining swig of sake, asked, "Less than a week on what?"
With an evil grin she responded, "In less than a week, seven days, they will either be caught kissing, or will form a public relationship."
Hisagi snorted. "Less than a week? Rangiku-san, you're giving the kid too much credit. I say, less than a month, and Karin-chan makes the first move." He thumped on his sake glass, and Matsumoto topped it off, before filling Kira's and Renji's for good measure.
Now Kira threw in a vote. "In the next two weeks, and Ichigo finds out about them, and tries to kill Hitsugaya-kun."
Renji sighed and said, "Whatever. He's in love with Momo. That's my bet. If he gets with Kurosaki-chan, it won't be for decades."
They all sat in silence, swilling sake, while they mulled this over. Hisagi broke the silence.
"What are we all betting with. Something has to happen to the people who loose, and those who win have to get something."
Kira shrugged and mournfully declared, "I'm broke." Hisagi checked his wallet, and added his identical sentiment. Matsumoto pulled a change purse from her bosom and counted out five yen.
"I have two-hundred yen," volunteered Renji, to looks of general dislike. He busied himself with his sake again, taking a gulp.
"Ne, why don't we make the person who loses have to do so-something?" hiccupped Matsumoto.
"It is going to be Tanabata soon," drawled Hisagi. His head was now on the table as he regarded his cup with a wary eye.
"A-a date!" exclaimed a now definitely tipsy Matsumoto. "The looser has to ask a person of the winners' choice for a date!"
"Who does each person get stuck with?" Renji questioned guardedly.
Kira flapped his hand at him. "Ah, we'll decide that once you've lost, Abarai-kun." Again, Hisagi spoke from the table, "Are we all settled then? Agreed?"
A general chorus of 'Aye's issued from the group.
"Aaaaalllll right then! Done!" Matsumoto slammed her hands down onto the table, took one last, long drink from the bottle, and threw her money, all five yen, down on the table before leaving, stumbling against the door frame and tripping out into the night. Renji sighed, pulled the difference out of his wallet, and then, bidding his friends goodnight, stumbled out into the cool night. At a distance, he was sure he could hear the Squad Ten taicho yelling, "Matsumoto!"
xXx
Several days later, a now sober Renji was supervising the training of new recruits for his squad when Matsumoto came bounding into the training area. Her face suggested that she'd sobered up not a bit in the last seventy-two hours, and her actions seemed to match.
"How drunk are you, Matsumoto-san?" he enquired. She pouted at him ("Moooouuuuu, you're so mean, Renji-kun!"), but then her face broke into a grin. "Ne, ne, you'll never guess what I just saw, Renji-kun!" Renji sighed and sheathed his zanpakutō. "Keep working on that drill," he barked to the recruits, and pulled Matsumoto aside.
"What?" he snapped.
She grinned in that awful way that he had long since learned boded no well. "Guess, Renji-kun, guess!!" He sighed one pained sigh.
"Oh, I don't know…for you to be this cheery…what, is Ichimaru back from the dark side?" Matsumoto's face grew as dark as a storm cloud.
"Don't ever joke about that, Abarai. Not Gin. It's not funny." Her expression returned to its normal joyous state. "Keep guessing!" she sang out.
Renji turned and began to walk away. "I have better things to be doing. Stuff I'm getting paid for. Loose the secrecy, and get back to me."
"Heeeeeey! You haven't guessed yet!" Her exclamation was met with nothing but his retreating back.
"Fine! Ichigo caught Taicho making out with Karin-chan in the Squad Ten barracks just this morning! And the only reason Shiro-chan isn't in ICU right now is because Karin kissed him first." Renji froze.
"Shit," he swore.
"That means YOU LOST THE BET, RENJI-KUN." Matsumoto finished. He looked around at her. "We've already chosen the girl. Have fun with Yachiru on Tanabata….If Zaraki-taicho doesn't disembowel you first!" she winked, and flounced out of the room. Every recruit made some sympathetic noise. One adventure some girl asked, "Would you like advice, Abarai-fuku taicho?" He waved them all off.
"Aren't you all supposed to be doing drills?" he growled.
With a smattering of titters, his underlings turned back to the task, but he was left wishing to take the girl up on her advice. There was no way he could ask Yachiru out and live! Everyone knew that. Even if she was a lot older than five now, and very pretty, no one touched her. Because of that insurmountable brick wall—Zaraki Kenpachi. He was screwed.
XXx
He was screwed, he was screwed, he was screwed. His thoughts ran this way for a long time. He had till Tanabata to ask her out. That was only in two days. And there she was now, these days skipping beside her taicho, instead of riding on his shoulders. A long braid of pink hair fell down her back, and once again, he found himself thinking that, even if they couldn't have chosen someone with more familial barriers around them, they could have chosen someone a lot worse looking. Yachiru plopped down outside the door to Fifth while Zaraki-taicho went on in. Renji decided, in a flash of inspiration, to seize his chance.
"Kusajishi-fuku-taicho! Yachiru-san!" He called out as he crossed the street.
"Mmm? Abarai-pineapple-fuku-taicho?" she responded. He grinned at her sheepishly. "Yeah, um, so, I lost this bet and now…"
"You have to ask me out, kiss me, some variety of same, Pineapple-kun?" He nodded.
"Yeah, I have to get you to go with me for Tanabata. I was kinda hoping you might agree to go just to get them off my back. Assuming Zaraki-taicho doesn't object, of course…"
She laughed. "Ken-chan? Why would he care?" she tossed her braid over her shoulder. "Sure, I'll go with you, Spikey. Pick me up at the Eleventh barracks on the night of the festival?"
Shocked, he stammered, "U-um, yeah. Six o clock?" The festival started at five, and the fun started at six.
"Sure, Spikey. See ya!" Laughing, she jumped up and vaulted over the roof of Squad Five. Renji let out a breath. Okay, so maybe he wasn't screwed. Zaraki exited the Squad Five building, glaring. Renji gulped and hurried away. Scratch that. He wasn't as screwed.
xXx
While he made his way to the Squad Eleven barracks on Tanabata, he replayed every encounter with Zaraki over the week. Of one thing Renji was now absolutely certain; no man on this earth could glare better than Zaraki Kenpachi. The man had shot him a poisonous look every time they passed each other. Yachiru had caught a few of them, and her rolled eyes said clearly that she thought that her adoptive father was being stupid and overprotective.
Renji reached the door to Squad Eleven and stood, staring at it with a deeply hopeless air. He couldn't see how, for the life of him, this would, nay, could, ever end well. He knocked, personally certain that he was sealing his own fate.
The door opened to show Yumichika, who glowered disapprovingly at Renji. "Yachiru-fuku-taicho will be out momentarily," he told Renji as pompously as he could manage, which was quite a lot.
"Yumi-chan, please don't try to scare off my date. It's not even his fault he had to ask me." Yachiru came down the hallway, and Renji had to remind himself to breathe.
Her hair, usually braided down her back, was twisted half up into a complex knot, with the lower section still hanging past her shoulders. Her yukata was a simple cream with a light, barely noticeable pale pink pinstripe. The whole fabric was patterned with sprays of stylized flowers in shades of dark red and purple. Her face looked clear of makeup, but he knew that she was wearing some. She was a girl after all.
"Uh…" he blinked for a moment, trying to reengage his brain. "Um, you look…beautiful."
"Beautiful!?" Yumichika exploded. "Is that all you can say to this woman! She is radiant! She is gorgeous! She rivals even my own beauty! Pah!"
"Don't mind Yumi," she giggled. Yachiru slid her arm around Renji's and rotated him until he faced the door. Gently, she pulled him forward. "Shall we?"
"Uh, sure…"
xXx
At the festival, people gawked. Abarai Renji and Yachiru? How had that happened?
Matsumoto was deeply drunk. She barely noticed all the whispers around her as Renji and Yachiru passed the bar, all appearances suggesting that they were having the time of their lives.
Until, at least Kira plopped down opposite her and Hisagi pulled up a chair.
"Ne, ne, Kira-kun! What're you doin' here?" She hiccupped, and cuddled her sake bottle.
Hisagi intoned a response. "Take a look across the street."
Matsumoto took a moment to establish the logistics of movement with the room doing the conga around her, then turned her head.
"Well, I think that backfired nicely."
The despondent trio watched as the pair wrote their wishes on scraps of paper and hung them on a nearby tree, as tradition dictated.
"What'd you wish for?"
"Can't tell ya, Spikey, it might not come true!"
xXx
Renji found himself staring, once again, at the radiant, gorgeous, beautiful girl currently throwing rings for a prize.
"Ah, damn it!" She threw her third ring and it glanced off the block she was aiming for.
"Here, let me try." He pushed a few more yen across the counter and took his three rings. "What d'you want?" She giggled and pointed to a white stuffed bear. Internally he sighed a little, but smiled at her anyway.
The first ring landed perfectly. The second, did not, catching on a lower valued one. Renji glanced at the bear. He'd need the last one to be spot on to win it…
The third ring fell neatly over the first. Yachiru gasped and hugged Renji hard as the person running the stall handed him the bear.
"Here ya go," he said, handing her the stuffed toy a little shyly.
"Thanks, Renji-kun!" She took his hand as they continued up the street.
He squeezed it gently before checking the time. "Hey, it's nearly time for the fireworks. D'you want to find a place to watch?"She nodded her acquiescence, and they made for one of the roofs.
Eventually, they chose a bit of Squad Five barrack roof to sit on, and settled back. They could see the silhouettes of other people on neighboring rooftops, and reatsu signatures identified them. For example, Rukia and Ichigo were making out quietly on a roof to the right. Renji chuckled a bit. His captain was vehemently opposed to their relationship, but his…lover? Shihuoin Yoroichi, had managed to persuade him not to kill the redhead.
He stiffened suddenly as Yachiru lay her head on his chest and twined her arms around him. "Um…Yachiru…?"
"What, Spikey, you never held a girl before?" She grinned up at him, and then the first firework went off. An explosion of red and blue sparks filled the night sky.
"Fireworks…they sure are pretty…" Yachiru mused quietly.
"Yeah…" Renji looked down at her face, then placed his arm around her shoulders.
"The noise of them used to scare me though," she commented. "I never used to go to the festival. Not even Ken-chan-taicho could get me to go…"
"What happened next?"
She laughed serenely. "Well, then I grew up!" They watched the sky as fountain after fountain of brilliantly colored sparks lit up the stars. "I like the festival now…Even more this year." She grinned at him.
"It's more fun going with you than with Ken-chan, but I guess that makes sense…"
"He's protective?"
"Understatement." Yachiru giggled. "It's always, 'whadaya think you're doin', damn brat!' and so on…"
Her eyes glowed with the reflections of the fireworks, he observed, watching her face. "It's getting late. They should have the finale soon," he told her. She rolled her eyes and cuddled her stuffed bear. "Spoilsport."
"We can stay out for a bit after they end. I never said when I'd get you back," he pointed out, and she laughed again. Just the sound made him feel a little drunk. A bright purple shower fizzled out of existence, and there was a moment of supreme blackness. The night lay over everything and everyone like a velvet blanket, before the finale began.
Shapes of all colors filled the sky, a new one taking the place of every firework that dissolved into the night. Renji couldn't even hear Yachiru's excited laughter over the din. Shifting shapes, flowers, clouds, fountains, appeared and disappeared, all ephemeral.
When the last glittering spray of color had finally vanished, Yachiru sighed and settled back. "That was absolutely amazing," she proclaimed in a sleepy voice. "Ten times better than last year."
"I'm pretty sure it's the same show," Renji pointed out. She gave him a vixen-like grin and said, "Maybe it's better `cause of who I saw it with."
"Maybe so," he agreed, although he couldn't really give an opinion on the fireworks, having spent most of the show gazing at the woman in his arms.
They watched each other for a moment, then Renji leaned forwards just a little bit. Yachiru knew exactly where it was going, but Renji, it seemed, did not.
He figured it out when she kissed him, though.
It couldn't be said that he'd never kissed a girl before. His first kiss had been with Rukia back in Rukongai, and hadn't really meant anything. He could still remember that time at the stupid Christmas party back at the academy when he'd gotten stuck under mistletoe with no less than three girls, and he'd done some kissing since then, though most of it was involved in a short string of one-night stands he'd had a few years after academy.
But this was new. For one thing, Yachiru had kissed him, not the other way around. He wasn't used to girls making the first move. For another, he's never kissed anyone that was likely to get him killed merely by talking to him. He and Ichigo had more in common than he'd thought.
Also, kissing this girl was like getting drunk and getting high at the same time, while still retaining most motor functions, and hopefully without the hangover.
She somehow managed to get her hands into his ponytail and pull it out while they kissed. He could feel her thin little fingers tugging at his hair, but decided that it was a small price to pay in exchange for kissing her. His hands found their places at her back and the base of her skull.
The kiss was hard, fast, but not frantic. Almost certainly, had Zaraki-taicho found them in that position, Renji would have been magically transformed into a small grease spot somewhere in the Seretei.
When oxygen became something of a dire deprivation, they broke apart.
"Oh, wow…" Yachiru breathed. "I didn't know…that kissing would be like that."
Renji jerked back a little. "You've never kissed someone before?"
"Nope. Or did you think Ken-chan just lets me date guys?" she asked him a little derisively.
"Uh, no."
The festival below was still going strong, and Renji could tell that Ichigo and Rukia were back to going at it, or possibly they had never stopped. "D'you want to go and join the party?" he asked Yachiru.
"Sure!" she chirped. "But you might wanna put your hair back up, Spikey!" She held the hair tie out to him, and he quickly corralled his mane of red spikes.
"Let's go."
xXx
An hour or two later, the pair sat in one of the nicer bars, taking shots of sake in between topics of conversation. They had been joined by Toshiro and Karin, and later, Ichigo and Rukia, looking flushed and disheveled.
While they talked and laughed, the time grew later and later, finally becoming just really early. Yachiru slumped against Renji's arm, and he mused that it was unlikely that she'd ever gotten this drunk before. He was uncomfortably aware of Zaraki sitting in a booth across the way, glaring back at the party every once in a while.
After Rukia and Ichigo excused themselves, Renji decided it might be a god idea to get Yachiru away from the alcohol. They bid Toshiro and Karin (who were fervently debating something ridiculous), goodnight. Renji's was more or less coherent, but Yachiru's Matsumoto-like, "Byyyyyyyyeeeeeeee!" only served to underline the need to get her out of the bar.
They stumbled along until Renji just slung Yachiru over his back. She giggled insanely, but clung on. He piggybacked her along until he suddenly found that, while he was in front of his own barracks, he couldn't remember how the hell to get back to Eleven, and Yachiru, both inebriated and famous for her sense of direction, or more correctly, lack thereof, wasn't likely to be much help. He sighed and entered the Squad Six barracks, stumbling into his own room (and being immensely thankful that as second-in-command he had no roommate), and flopped down on the bed, then deposited the now sleeping Yachiru next to himself. He dragged himself up into a sprawled sitting position and pulled her limp form over to him, just managing to drape a blanket over their forms before he fell asleep himself.
xXx
Renji woke to the pleasant but unusual sensation given by sleeping with another person in one's arms. He looked down at the head of hair resting comfortably on his shoulder, quickly identifying the girl in his arms as being Yachiru. She was glowing in the early morning light that spilled through the window, and he gazed out of the window opposite his bed, watching a bird perched on the tree that grew by it. He felt her nestle deeper into his embrace, and he tightened his arms around her, still gazing out of the window, waiting for her to wake.
xXx
Parting Comments: So, here's my first ever Renji/Yachiru submission. Does anyone know if they have a couple name? I'm thinking, like, Yanji or something…I continue to brainstorm….
Anyway, feedback appreciated. Corrections on/about my portrayal of the Tanabata festival are more than welcome as long as they are correct. I took most of the ideas I have here from the myriad of Tanabata themed Kyoraku/Nanao fics, and a bit from some research.
Oh, just a note, supposedly the whole, seventh day of the seventh month thing goes by the lunar calendar, not solar, meaning that Tanabata's date changes every year, and is often in late August, not early July.
Hugs and Kisses
Eden