Disclaimer: they're not mine, just borrowed from Bleach by Kubo Tite
this is my first try at Bleach Fanfic (and yes, it has to be fluffy for my OTP) and although this is not the first bleach fic i "wrote" (others are still in drafts), i knew i wouldn't be able to sleep until i finish writing this...
i'm still fairly new to this fandom... i won't pretend to know everything; since i have just decided to give the anime another try (i have seen until Hueco Mundo, then skipped to FullBring), and i haven't read the whole manga either (skipping to the latest chapter doesn't help)... but i hope i didn't do anything wrong in this fic...
the title of this fic has something to do with the game my friends used to play... i don't really remember the rules now so i had to make it up, but the main purpose were just about the same - everybody had to drink...
It was just another drinking session that Rukia had been unfortunate to attend and participate in. At the insistence of Rangiku; she pointed out that since she's now a lieutenant herself, joining her and Renji, along with Kira, Shuuhei and Momo, shouldn't be a problem with her brother, Captain Kuchiki. Though this was not the first time she joined them - again with the help of Rangiku's persistent pleas - knowing that she couldn't say no to drinking more than 2 cups of sake, she knew tonight's session will not end very well.
And, oh how she hated being right.
Dragging a dead weight of a man almost twice her size was not her idea of a "night of fun" as Rangiku had proclaimed earlier. And having to do this while slightly under the influence of the alcohol was not helping either.
She looked at the empty streets of the Seireitei and was thankful that there were no wandering soul reapers in this part of the Sixth Division. Just imagining how her brother would react to hearing gossips of her bringing a drunken Renji to his quarters was enough for her to think that her brother would easily request to have her step down from her current position and forget about being a soul reaper...forever.
Despite the dangers of her actions, she knew she couldn't just leave Renji passed out in the middle of the streets. Not when she was part of the reason he's currently in that state.
But it shouldn't really be her fault. If Renji was not leaning so heavy of her now aching shoulders, she would've already given him a painful blow to his head. It was just a stupid game. It shouldn't have ended like this. But thinking about it now, could they really have prevented this?
It was a game they were all supposed to play involving a deck of cards (which later she found out that Rangiku had acquired from the World of the Living) and bottles of sake. An innumerable bottles of sake. The rules were simple. Everybody had to drink and the game will go on until somebody dropped drunk.
The game started with a card that was picked from the deck and was placed in the middle of the table, where there were all gathered around. Each of them were supposed to pick a card from the deck and if the card had a lower value of the number on the card on the table, they were forced to drink a cup of sake. If the card they picked had a higher value than the card on the table, they skip to the next person on their make shift circle. In case they got a card with the same value as the card on the table, they have an option to either drink or pass. However, since the deck included cards with people drawn on them, whoever picks that card will have to drink the same number cups as the number of the last card drawn.
It started fairly simple. She managed to get a card with a higher value than the one on the table so she didn't have to drink the first cup. Momo was not as lucky as her as she picked a King of Diamond and had to drink 3 cups (with the next 5 cups later, since Kira had argued that it wouldn't be wise to have her drink all 8 cups in one go). Kira who was next to her picked a card with lower value and drank his first cup. Shuuhei also picked a card with lower value and had to drink a cup. Rangiku got a card with the same value but didn't hesitate in downing a cup. Renji had to drink a cup as well for the card he picked.
The game went on for a few more rounds and Rukia had been lucky enough to drink only 6 times. Momo had been a bit tipsy and red but she was still holding her own with 10 cups. The rest of them had been drinking way too many cups that Rukia didn't even bother counting. By the time they emptied their 4th bottle, Rangiku had been shouting at Shuuhei while Kira merely slumped at the floor, looking around as if following a flock of birds flying around him, with Momo laughing hysterically at Renji's antics, who was trying to explain something to Rukia that she couldn't even understand.
Then Rangiku snapped to attention and asked who's next to pick a card. When Rukia picked a Queen of Spades, her brows furrowed and glanced at the last card picked. She shrugged her shoulders and declared that there seems to a flaw to this game. What happens when the last card picked was a person card and she picked a person card too? She nonchalantly threw the card on the table revealing the card to the rest of them.
"Aha! Aren't you the lucky one, Rukia? You get to drink 13 cups! Ah, I wish I could've just said it was my turn." Rangiku exclaimed. falling down dramatically to lean her head on Shuuhei's shoulder.
Renji opened his mouth to retaliate but seeing the way Rukia's face mirrored his, he knew it wouldn't be fair to speak for her. Rukia saw Renji in the corner of her eyes and for a minute she could've sworn he practically wanted to rip the card in two.
"WHAT? That's ridiculous! There's no way I'm drinking 13 cups! And how can a King card value a 13 when there's clearly no numbers on this card" Rukia all but shouted, picking up the card from the table before Renji could take it, pushing it to Rangiku's eye level. Or somewhat close to it since she slightly veered to the left when she suddenly felt dizzy upon her outburst.
"Ah, but King is a 13, just as how a Knight is an 11 and a Queen is a 12. You see Rukia, when counting the cards, Ace is the number 1, then the cards 2-10 before the Knight, Queen and lastly the King. So by picking a Queen of Spades card after Renji got the King of Hearts, you, my lady, are to drink 13 cups of sake." explained Rangiku.
Despite feeling that she's been cheated on, and knowing that this game would sooner be over before she got to even half of the number of cups she needed to drink, she would have still drunk the 13 cups. But oh no, Renji just had to step in. He insisted that Rukia couldn't drink that much and insisted that the game be over. Rangiku, along with Shuuhei, argued that they all agreed to the rules and since nobody had passed out yet, the game should still go on. Kira looked at them with half lidded eyes, bouncing to whoever was speaking, too drunk to even bother mediating, while Momo giggled to whatever it was that she thought was funny. Rukia tried to stop Renji but when she again tried to raise herself to kneel and reach for him, she lost her balance and had to grasp his arms to steady herself. Renji looked at her and knew that she's just a short breath away of being drunk.
"Fine." Renji said. His voice was so soft, he wondered if they even heard it. "I'll drink the 13 cups for Rukia."
All sets of eyes stared at Renji, not believing what they just heard. When nobody spoke, Renji exhaled loudly before leaning back, carefully leading Rukia to her seat, and sitting cross legged on the floor. He looked away from Rukia, knowing that she's now close to punching him in the face for saying something stupid.
"You never said anything about drinking on behalf of somebody else right." Renji waited for Rangiku. When she nodded, Renji reached out for the bottle and immediately poured its content to the cup. But before he was able to raise the cup to his lips, Rukia grabbed his wrist spilling some of the sake on her hands. "I can handle my alcohol just fine, so just sit there and thank me later." He grinned and Rukia thought she would've punched him afterwards, just to wipe that stupid smirk he's throwing at her everytime he'd loudly put the empty cup on the table, if not for the fact that he dropped, face first on the table, after downing the 10th cup.
Rangiku and Shuuhei decided that they're still too sober to go home and stayed to drink some more, while Kira delegated himself to bringing Momo safely back to her quarters. Rukia had half a mind to just call Rikichi from the Sixth Division to bring Renji home but remembered that she didn't know where she'd find him. She couldn't just knock at random quarters at the Sixth and hope that one of them is Rikichi's.
And so, she was stuck with her current predicament.
She managed to safely arrive at Renji's place without coming across any soul reapers. As she opened the door and stepped inside, she almost fell over. That's when she knew she was at her limit. Although this is not the first time she'd drunk sake, she had never taken that much alcohol before. Having to walk all the way to the Sixth Division with the drunken man on her shoulders just made the alcohol absorption much faster for her small frame.
She took a few more steps inside and sighed when she saw Renji's futon lying haphazardly across his room. She could scold him later about not keeping his room clean, but for now, setting him down was her top priority. With her remaining strength, she heaved Renji up to better drag him to the futon, before taking another step to it. She kicked at the edges of the futon to make it at least decent enough to lay on. She slowly leaned forward to her knees, trying her best at being steady, but her feet failed her and her balance left her, leaving them to stumble forward to a tangle of limbs on top the futon. With her quick reflexes, she instinctively switched to their sides before they both fell over, causing Renji to lay on his side with her caged within his arms. She tried to free herself, but that only triggered Renji to hold unto her much closer. She faintly heard Renji mumble something but with her ears pressed so heavy on his left arm, she couldn't understand what was said. She tilted her chin up to ask him about it only to see that Renji still had his eyes closed. Feeling the exhaustion finally dawning on her consciousness and her body failing to respond to her commands, she instead wiggled within Renji's embrace, leaning her head to his chest, her hands pressing next to where her head was cradled on. She felt comfortable enough that she knew she could fall asleep just like that. It's not like they haven't done this before.
"Rukia..." This time, the words were so clear that Rukia could clearly hear her name escape his lips. She stiffened thinking that Renji was awake and was about to push herself away from his body when he mumbled something else. "...too cold..."
Rukia's brows furrowed in confusion. She faintly remembered closing the door when they came in and there were no windows open within the room. If anything, it was warm where they were, with him holding her too tight, with alcohol still flowing through their veins.
Then she remembered the days when they had to cuddle this close during winter nights in the abandoned streets of Rukongai. When they had to hold onto each other stealing warmth from each other to survive the freezing cold. She faintly remember waking up in the middle of night, with Renji's arms around her, his breath puffing with cold air, while she oddly didn't feel cold at all. At first she thought nothing of it, but now, after years of knowing Sode no Shirayuki, she knew it wasn't just because of the season. She felt a pang of guilt at the thought.
"Sorry..." Rukia muttered, coiling deeper to Renji's embrace. Her hand clutched at Renji's kimono as if it would provide her the forgiveness she asked.
"It's okay." Renji slurred. "I still love you..."
For a moment, the time stilled for Rukia. She didn't know how to react. Perhaps she had known for a long time about Renji's feelings for her but hearing the words slip so carelessly from his mouth made her skin tingle. She could feel her heart beat faster and she wondered if Renji could feel it though the layers of his and her kimono. For some reason, her eyes watered and she had to hold on tighter to Renji's kimono, trying to reel in her emotions.
"Yes, I know." She whispered to his chest, pulling herself much closer to his body. As in reply, Renji held squeezed her shoulders before relaxing.
Renji felt, rather saw, the sun rays pushing its way through his closed windows and groaned as he felt the thrumming of an early hangover headache. He tried to raise his hands to cover his eyes only to be impended by a heavy weight on his left arm. He felt around where his hands can reach and heard a rustle of clothes. His other arm seemed free of any weight but as soon as he moved it, his eyes immediately snapped open to see a patch of black hair blocking his view. He cursed himself inwardly trying to remember what was the last thing he did before reaching his room. To his horror, he didn't even remember ever getting to his room at all. He made another effort to move his right hand, trying to fight the urge to run his fingers on the soft skin he was holding, to slap himself to wake up.
"Crap! What did I do now?" He whispered. Or he thought he did.
The head nestled on top of his chest stirred and he closed his eyes again trying to pretend that he was still asleep.
"Good morning to you too." Rukia stated, pushing herself up. Renji heard more rustling of clothes, feeling the weight lifted from his arms and immediately missed the warm body pressed against it just a moment ago. He squinted his left eye open to see Rukia looking at him, sitting on her legs, as if waiting for him to acknowledge her. Renji groaned and grudgingly lifted himself from the floor, earning him another excruciating stab on his right temple. He placed his hand to his head as if trying to will away the pain, only to realize that his hands were made for fighting and not for healing. He wished he knew some kido spell to take care of his annoying headache right now.
He felt Rukia move to his left and he saw her placing both her hands on top of her thighs. He wanted to pretend she wasn't there, to pretend he's not scared half of his wits that his Captain will barge into his room any minute now demanding to know why Rukia didn't come home last night, and pretend that he didn't wake up with Rukia cuddled next to him. But his body betrayed him. He can still remember the feel of her skin against his hands while held her, the weight of her body on his arms while she nestled her head to his chest.
"Look..." He started. He might as well, get this over with. He knows that he doesn't have all day to play the sit-and-stare with her. "Whatever I did... I'm sorry!" He switched to his right to properly face her and bowed in front of her.
"Well, you better be!" Rukia answered. She saw Renji twitched and felt herself smile knowing that she caused such reaction. "I don't care if you are drunk or out crazy for all the drinking that you've been doing..." Renji bowed even lower, pressing his forehead deeper into the tatami, without his bandanna, he knew there'd be marks on it later. "Letting me drag your passed out, stupid self around Sixth Division is not a proper way of treating a lady."
That was it? His eyebrows twitched He wanted to laugh for feeling so stupid. Of course that was it. There's no way he would have taken advantage of Rukia while they were both drunk. There's no way that "something" happened and he forgot about it. He'd never forgive himself otherwise.
Renji raised his head from the tatami covered floor, wearing a grin on his face that confused Rukia. Whatever made him think was funny was slowly getting on Rukia's nerves. She was angry, wasn't she? Wasn't he just apologizing earlier? What's with the stupid grin on that idiot's face?
"Lady? You think you are a lady?" Renji erupted to a series hearty laughter that made Rukia face contort in embarrassment. "You may be a Kukichi, but your short of being a lady. With the way you talk and act, yep, definitely not a lady." He raised his chin and puffed his chest for emphasis.
"Why you little..." Rukia moved to stomp her right feet in front of her, arms pulled back, ready to deliver a bone crushing punch to his face. When his face turned somber and looked down to the floor between them, she stopped.
"But...really, I'm sorry." His voice was low but the honesty and concern in his voice was evident. "You shouldn't have brought me home and just left me there. I'm sure somebody else would've taken me here."
Rukia bowed her head, looking at Renji through the bit of hair falling out of his tie. Instead of sitting back down, she dropped her hands to her side and stood up.
"It's okay..." She stopped herself before she accidentally recited the exact same words he'd unknowingly said last night. "You know I wouldn't leave you there. Who knows what Rangiku and Shuuhei would have done if I did?" The glint on her eyes overlayed the sincerity of her statement but Renji caught it.
"Now tell me where I can get your tea and pot to boil some water. This headache is so damned annoying."