Short Story

The smell of rain-soaked dirt and asphalt permeated the air as Ichigo followed the service road behind a row of houses. Moisture still hung thick in the warm summer air, making his skin stick uncomfortably. The soft cry of jubilant frogs came from down in the ditch on the other side of him. They hopped and splashed in the puddles left in the wet dirt of the drainage ditch. It hadn't rained enough to get flowing water, just enough to leave puddles large enough to eventually stagnate and spawn mosquitoes. Wonderful.

Really, he should have been enjoying his Summer. The brief reprieve between preparation and training and the battle that lay ahead. How long ago had he looked forward to Summer simply for the lightened school workload? Now he was happy just to escape having to fight off hollows, training blows and his own internal demon, even just for a few minutes.

Really, he should savor it, but all it did was leave his throat dry and his mind strained.

Ichigo continued to walk through the alley until he approached a bridge that ran across the deep ditch. On either side were large concrete slabs, that sloped down along the side of the ditch and covered the bottom, to support the bridge. He looked up from watching his feet track through the slightly muddy dirt to see a familiar man with bright red, tied-back hair laying on the concrete slant.

He remembered then, the other announcing he was going out for a break at Urahara's shop. It must have been an hour since he'd left. Lazy. Ichigo smirked a little, despite himself.

"Abarai. Hey, what are you doing?" Ichigo asked as he closed in on the other, looking down at him expectantly, though he got no reponse. "Renji!"

Renji opened his eyes then, looking rather displeased that Ichigo had ruined his quiet nap. "Shut up, you're gonna ruin my mood."

"You lazy sonofabitch." Ichigo sighed, even as he sat down next to Renji on the cool, graffiti-marked concrete.

"Mm." Renji hummed in response, his arms resting behind his head as pillows.

Ichigo watched the other a moment, before looking out across the ditch at the back wall of another house. "You're calm."

"You aren't." Renji replied in almost the same tone. "Never seen a kid as torn up as you."

"Tch. Kid." Ichigo took offense to the word, but didn't elaborate or reject it as passionately as he would have a few months earlier.

Silently, Renji sat up, cracking the vertebrae in his spine as he stretched. "S'what you are. Still just a kid. You have a lot of grown-up shit to deal with, but that doesn't change a damn thing."

"Watch what you're saying, I might mistake it for sympathy." Ichigo joked sarcastically.

The look Renji gave him in return made his cocky smile fade a little, replacing his cynical attitude with a gentle, warm flutter in his chest.

"So what if it is?" Renji asked. "I'm not an asshole, you know."

Ichigo tried to hold back his smile and well-prepared comeback.

"I'm not a HUGE asshole." Renji corrected himself with a roll of his eyes, though ended with a smirk on his lips. "But really…" Renji slid closer to Ichigo, his fingers reaching to the unbuttoned collar of Ichigo's shirt, tugging him closer.

And Ichigo doesn't back away, because really, this is the only solid thing he has anymore. This is the only thing he's looked forward to in times like this.

Renji's lips touch his, not tentatively but not demanding either. Pure and reassuring, even when nothing seems to be "sure" any more. The only thing worth savoring any more.

Ichigo wraps his arms around Renji and pulls him down and over him as he lays back against the concrete slant. Even though the heat is maddening and the rain has yet again began to sprinkle. He wants this, needs this, moment of carelessness and irresponsibility, even just for a few minutes.

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