Interplay

The most convenient way to get Byakuya Kuchiki stark naked and into his bed was to drink him under the table, and while that was a difficult task for most others for Renji Abarai it was akin to a walk in the park. Even though they had already been lovers for nearly two months the times they had done it with each other sober could still be counted on a single hand.

Byakuya never lingered long after the act; he would rise sometime before sunrise without fail and leave the room to Renji without a sound. His vice captain used to wake up at that point, bewildered and maybe hurt, but now he was used to it. Now he slept like a rock all the way to eight o'clock, and then report for work on the dot, moving and grinning and laughing as though he didn't have a skull-splitting hangover. Theirs was a strange understanding, cemented by the girl who brought them together and her decision to be with somebody that they didn't necessarily approve of but had to respect, for more reasons than one would sooner admit to.

Everyone in the ranks saw this new development plain as day but no one questioned it. Theirs wasn't the first odd relationship to be born from mutuality and it certainly wouldn't be the last.