Useless Notes: So it's another RenjiRukia fic from crazyarsonist. You have a problem with that? :)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
xxxxxxxxxx
Scribbles
I. Rukia
"Ru-ki-a," she spelled out on the sand, her tiny hand holding her pen: a fallen twig.
"'S a pretty name," her companion casually remarks, gazing thoughtfully at the written characters on the ground beneath their shadows.
"It sure is!" she beams with pride as she stands up, wiping the dust from her skirt. "And you better not forget it," she then thwacks his head with her twig.
"OW!" he yells, rubbing the sore spot on his head. "Whassa matter with you? I said it was pretty, didn't I?"
She sticks out her tongue and closes an eye, silently teasing the boy.
"Aw drop it," he sighs in resignation.
As soon as she stands up, she stares straight at the boy; the boy whose friends she had saved earlier while they were trying to steal a few jars of water.
"Your hair's kinda funny…" she observes, looking up at his fiery red hair. "'S really different from all the others."
"Hmph," he grumbles and crosses his arms, his face immediately turning as red as his hair.
The look she gave him was a very intense one and the way her big eyes were looking up at him was already starting to make him feel nervous. Nobody had looked up at him as closely as this before.
"But I think red's a pretty color!" she concludes.
Upon hearing her comment, the boy allows himself to smile.
"Hey wait a minute…" she put a finger to her chin and looked up at the boy again. "I just met you today and I still don't know your name."
"Yeah, and?"
"No fair," she pouted. "I gave you mine, you give me yours."
His lips parted into a wide grin, showing his already razor-sharp teeth. He grabs the twig from her hand and squats onto the ground, much like what the girl did moments ago.
"Ren-ji," she reads.
"Yeah," he stood up and gave her back the twig. "And you better not forget it either."
"Sure!" she smiles. "Let's always be friends from now on, okay Renji?"
"Whatever you say," he smiles back at her. "Now get your butt off the ground and let's get home. The others'll be waiting."
He goes on ahead of her until he realizes that she hasn't moved from her spot yet.
"Rukia?" he asks, turning around to face her.
"I- I've never had anyone to stay with before," she says quietly, her big eyes now solemnly focused on the ground. "Ever since I got here, I've always been on my own and everybody else-"
"Oi."
She snaps out of her thoughts and stares straight ahead at Renji, who was scratching his head nervously and looking towards the orange sun.
"I said you could come home with me, didn't I?"
"Home," she repeated slowly. "I've never had one before…"
"Well now you have one with us," he turned to look straight at her. ""S long as I'm around, you'll never have to be alone, you hear me Rukia? Never."
"Never," she repeats, a smile slowly appearing on her face.
"Yeah. Now let's get going or else there won't be any food left for us to eat."
"Hai!" she nodded her head and ran towards Renji. He gave her a look of muted surprise as she grabbed his hand and locked it with hers.
"Arigatou, Renji," she squeezed his hand gently.
"Ah shaddup. There's nothing to thank me for," he replies gruffly, but grips her hand tightly all the same.
II. I wish to enroll into the Academy, because…
It happened right after their friends had died, leaving just the two of them to fend for themselves in the harsh, cruel reality of the world they lived in right now. They had promised to themselves, to each other and to their friends that they'd enroll into the Shinigami Academy, become Death Gods and live in the Court of Pure Souls to live a better life while saving a few people on the side. They'd endure anything and everything- the exams, the discriminating students and the strict teachers at the school; anything to escape this wretched piece of land they called home.
They'd run away from their life at Rukongai, but they'd never forget. That was the deal both of them were more than willing to accept.
However, never had it occurred to them that the first step to achieve that would be this hard.
"'I wish to enroll into the Academy, because…' blank."
"Because I wanna become a Death God and kick myself some Hollow butt?"
"Renji, be serious," Rukia gave her friend a reprimanding look, but couldn't stop the smile from crossing her features.
"I am being serious. So what if I wanna hurry up and be a Death God and get outta here already?"
"I know that, but we have to fix our answers so the Academy'll accept us."
"Tch," he snorted as he looked down at his paper again. "Dunno why they still had ta give out these stupid application forms when they could've had try-outs instead."
She only shook her head and turned to focus on her application form again.
"'I wish to enroll into the Academy, because…'" she read out loud.
"So that I can get stronger to protect others…" Renji quietly completes the sentence. "So that nobody'll have to die the same way they did…"
Rukia suddenly looks up from her work to look at Renji. She knows who 'they' are.
Over at his corner, Renji laughs sadly and rubs his head roughly as if to wipe the unpleasant memory away.
"Crap…" he says to himself. "I can't get too emotional now… Not at a time like this."
She feels him wince inwardly at the painful memories of their friends from so long ago. How long has it been since then? They were nothing but mere kids when they died and now, here they were; the only original members of their makeshift group to have made it through alive.
She continues to look at Renji sadly, but he doesn't seem to mind, because he's already writing down his answer on the form.
Slowly, quietly, Rukia does the same.
III. Hisagi Shuuhei
"He's great isn't he?" she said, staring up at the list of names on the board.
"He's okay," is all he says in return.
"He can fight, study and look good at the same time! How come you're not like that, Renji?"
"Please," he scoffs. "I can knock him offa his own two feet in two minutes if I wanted to."
Rukia's expression darkened and she punched Renji's shoulder for his comment.
"OW! What was that for- OI!" his arms immediately rose up to cover his face, successfully blocking the wooden sword aimed for his head.
"Nice reflexes," the wielder praised and withdrew his sword.
Renji could only nod mutely in reply, his eyes wide with shock; nobody had been able to sneak up on him like that until now.
"Here," a wooden sword was tossed to him. "Let's spar."
"What-"
But there was no more time for words. His opponent instantly lunged forward and thrust his sword towards Renji's chest. Unfortunately for the attacker, Renji read his move and used his weapon to block his opponent's, causing him to step back.
A large crowd had already gathered around them, but the two didn't seem to notice. Renji was concentrating hard on the fight, while his adversary was having too much fun to care.
But the time had come to end the fight. Renji's enemy pulled off a couple of swift, powerful thrusts, and before Renji realized what had happened, his sword had flown off from his hand.
Everything else that happened after went by so fast, that Renji had already found himself lying on the ground within a matter of seconds.
"Your attacking style is too reckless. You rely more on your instinct rather than your skill, but you are still dangerous," the man's shadow said, staring down at Renji. "You're strong, but you lack the smarts to back it up. But still, an impressive fight. You've at least provided me with decent exercise."
Renji grunted loudly as he sat up and started rubbing his head, hoping it would dull the pain.
"And before you start spouting off nonsense about knocking someone down in two minutes, I suggest you do that first before telling the whole world about it," the man threw Renji a confident smirk before leaving.
"Renji, are you okay?" Rukia ran toward him with a concerned look on her face.
He only groaned in reply.
"You dumbass," she sighed, shaking her head. "Come on, let's get you fixed up."
She hoisted her large friend onto her shoulders and half-led, half-dragged him to the infirmary. He moaned loudly with every step, instantly irritating Rukia.
"Shut up Renji," she scolded. "You got yourself into this mess anyway. You and your big mouth… What am I going to do with you?"
"So that was him," he muttered, as if she hadn't said anything. "Hisagi Shuuhei."
"Yeah. It was," she replies.
"Hmph. I guess he is pretty okay after all…" he says more to himself than to her, a small hint of respect lining his words.
She felt a smirk making its way to Renji's face although she couldn't see it.
"Yeah, he's okay," she nods in agreement.
Renji lets out a tired breath of air and stays quiet afterwards, allowing her to drag him roughly towards the infirmary.
It was the first and last time both friends would ever agree on the same man.
IV. Renji heart Rukia
He sees it hastily written on the blackboard minutes after their last class ended. There's no one else in the room but him and he's standing there, just staring at the writing on the board.
His first reaction is: what the hell.
The second time he looks: what the FUCKING hell.
On the third time however, he calms down and he can feel his cheeks starting to heat up.
Oh shit.
This isn't good. No one else has to see it, especially Rukia. Except him of course. And whoever wrote it on the board.
He picks up an eraser and rubs it over the writing, wiping out all evidence of such a message.
As soon as he puts down the eraser, Rukia suddenly appears at the doorway, yelling at him to hurry up so they can head on home already. He shouts back an equally rude remark at her and gets punched for it.
But as he walks out of the room with her, the writing is still clearly etched on his mind ('Renji heart Rukia'). He starts thinking of all the possibilities and funnily enough, this is where it all starts.
V. Dear Rukia,
He growls out in frustration as he tears out what used to be his 56th draft of unsent love letters to Rukia, rolls it up into a ball and chucks it away in irritation.
It's only then he realizes that he's sitting on his chair, in his classroom and that everyone present- Rukia and sensei included- is looking straight at him with looks that the embarrassed Renji couldn't even begin to explain.
VI. Abarai Renji
As soon as he sees his name on the promotions list, he can't think of anyone else to share the news with other than her, so he runs around the entire school with nothing but joy and fulfillment in his heart as he went off in search of his friend.
Eventually, he finds himself in a corridor in another building and it's where he picks up that faint, familiar trace of reiatsu.
"Sorry!" he says to the student he's accidentally bumped into. He opens the door at the end of the hallway and suddenly barges in without knocking.
"How do you like me now, Rukia? You'll never guess-"
He stops as abruptly as his entrance and stares straight ahead.
It's Rukia alright, but the men surrounding her… They're-
"Oh. It seems we've been interrupted," an old man chuckles. "We'll be taking our leave now, Ms. Rukia. We'll be waiting for a favorable response."
Nobles.
The word lights up in Renji's mind and before he knows it, they're on their way out, on their way toward him.
Their reiatsu is so strong, that Renji lowers his gaze to the floor even though they hadn't passed by him yet.
Eventually, they do and Renji lifts his head, only to see Rukia awkwardly looking down at the floor.
He slowly approaches her and even if he doesn't want to, he asks her what that was all about.
And sadly, ironically, this is where it all starts.
VII. I'm sorry
Nothing much was said anymore between the two friends since their last meeting. Both had tried to focus on other things; Renji on his studies and Rukia on hers. Unfortunately, it didn't work.
Renji's guilt was always eating him up inside, while Rukia's heart was painfully torn between two choices.
Finally, she decided to leave the Academy and chose to live with her newfound brother. He arrived to pick her up and he didn't seem to mind the rude whispers and stares Rukia was receiving as they exited her building. Apparently, not everyone was pleased with her decision of moving out of the school prematurely.
She wasn't expecting Renji to be there on the day of her departure, but her eyes were still scanning the grounds as she walked beside her brother.
Renji was nowhere to be found.
xxxxxxxxx
He was in his room, staring at the piece of paper his friend left behind.
(I'm sorry)
His free hand curled into a tight fist and he slammed it against the wall, creating a large dent.
The pain that came afterward seemed to have very little effect on Renji and he swore to himself that if nothing, he'd get better, train harder and strive some more, if only to bring her back to his side again.
VIII. Name of Prisoner
He had written her name so many times before and there were even some times when he wished he could write her name freely without having to hide it.
So why couldn't he do it now, with her back turned to him and with steel bars separating them both?
IX. Thank you
His eyes slowly opened and he was instantly greeted with the morning sun painfully stinging his eyes.
How long had he been asleep? Was Rukia okay? What happened to Ichigo? What became of Aizen-taichou?
He did not know.
He was lying down on a comfortable bed in a very familiar-looking room (he must have been in one of the Fourth Division's quarters, he figured), so that meant that Rukia was okay, Ichigo was okay and most likely everybody else was okay.
Well, at least that answered most of his questions. Renji wished he could say the same about himself though.
Because while he was sure by now that everybody he knew was okay, he was absolutely certain that he was most definitely not okay; in fact, he was far from it. His whole body ached painfully and the numerous wounds, gashes and cuts he had received from the earlier skirmish were threatening to open up again. The pain he felt was beyond anything he'd ever felt before; so excruciating that he could hardly move.
But there was something tightly wedged in his left fist, so curiosity got the better of him and he used up more than half of the remaining strength he had left just to take a look at it.
It was a piece of paper and as soon as he reads it, his lips curve into a wide grin. It was a short letter, much like the last one he'd received at the Academy, with only two words gracing the crumpled sheet and no name written after.
But it didn't matter.
He didn't have to know who the sender was, but somehow, a warm, tingling sensation invaded his insides and as he leaned back into his pillows and breathed in the fresh air, he felt that it was all worth it.
X. Renji heart Rukia
It's been years since he saw that mischievous scrawl on the blackboard back at the Academy, but he realizes with a little smirk on his face that he never was able to find out who the responsible person was.
It doesn't matter, he thinks to himself, as he lazily scrawls it onto a stray piece of paper he found at the office.
xxxxxxxxxx
A/N: I'm really sorry to all those who are starting to get sick of me writing all of these dramatic RenjiRukia stories. The problem with writing for Bleach is that every time (and I mean every time) I get a really good idea for a story, it always has to be about Renji and his relationship with Rukia.
Not that I'm complaining though. It's just because I don't think this pair doesn't get much love in the series, since the main pairing of the show is IchigoRukia. That and the fact that I just absolutely love RenjiRukia to death. Heh.
Thanks for reading and tell me if you want an IchigoRukia piece from me. I'll be glad to write it.