I've had many requests by all ove my readers to double space between paragraphs for easier reading. Concerned, I took a look at my previous stories and realized that I do, indeed, need to space a little more. SO! Here is my latest Bleach story, or the first chapter thereof, anyways.
Almost Too Much
Silence. That was the final word, the last drifting thought of a drifting mind that he could remember. It was as if it had been spoken without a sound to be heard, a quiet breath of noiseless entreaty in his head. That had been after he had fought the Arrancar and lost, lying in a pool of blood as scarlet as his own hair, but maybe a little darker. The last thing he had seen, only a moment before he could no longer hold his heavy eyes open, was the edge of a shinigamis's robe and a ragged black cloak. Then had come the silence, and then nothing.
Renji lay on his side, body numb and far away, but there. Alive. His first intelligible thought upon waking, even before the thought came to try and open his eyes. There was a moment of near panic when only black could be seen, but the darkness faded to light and then into true vision and he let the gasping breath that had caught in his chest go. The lack of sensation in his body was fading, but tired limbs felt too heavy to move. In places he throbbed. It wasn't painful as yet, but there was promise in that pulsating ache that rested in his bones and body. Letting his mind swim through the foggy there-ness that must have been caused by some sort of sedative, Renji let his eyes drift across the bedspread he lay on and to the far side of the room.
Sitting curled up in a chair, a trickle of drool trailing from his slack mouth, was Ichigo. The carrot-topped teen was fast asleep and completely oblivious that his charge was now awake. Even more annoying was the fact that Ichigo's snoring was probably what had awoken Renji from his fading drug haze. The rasping sound had been quiet enough that Renji hadn't really noticed it at first, but it had now grown to horrible proportions. Groaning deeply, Renji attempted to shift his body. At first, his stiff muscles offered up a strong resistance, but finally allowed Renji to lift up on one elbow and put himself within reach of the bedside table. The first thing his groping hand touched was a ratty comic book with dog-eared corners, which he grabbed and chucked awkwardly at the snoring idiot.
The other redhead bolted awake, sitting up so quickly that he slipped from his seat and connected soundly with the floor. Letting out a gasping chuckle, Renji let himself collapse back onto the bed as Ichigo groaned and cursed from his prone position. A moment later, the injured man watched as first Ichigo's carroty hair, then brown eyes appeared at the foot of the bed. The other shinigami wore a vexed expression, and Renji flinched internally.
"Renji." Ichigo's tone was curiously flat. Renji answered him with a tired puff of air. He knew the explosion was coming, and that it'd only take the idiot few moments to get booted up. When Ichigo sucked in a deep breath, Renji winced and turned his head away, waiting for it. Surprisingly, the silence held. Opening his eyes a crack, Renji glanced over to see that Ichigo's head had disappeared from over the edge of the bed. A curious bump and a shuffle later, and Ichigo rose with an armful of clothes that looked very familiar. Contemplating for a moment as to why Ichigo had his clothes, Renji rolled over enough so that he could prop his protesting body in a more or less sitting position against the head board.
"Here." Again, Ichigo's voice was flat, even though the carrot top had the most put-upon look on his face as he shoved the clothes at Renji and turned around. Not knowing what else to do, Renji sighed and slowly fumbled the shirt over his head and over his chest. Not bothering to go through the trouble of tugging it the rest of the way down, Renji scooted the blanket from his naked lower half and drew his knees up with a half smothered hiss. Looking at them closely, he could see that his legs were patterned with fresh scars and half-healed gashes. Moving was possible, but neither easy nor comfortable for the redhead. Taking in a deep breath and holding it, Renji pulled his pants on over his bruised feet and slowly straightened his legs out to get the pants most of the way on. A tender lifting of his hips and some fitful yanking later, and Renji was 'dressed'. Just from that small amount of activity, the scarlet haired shinigami was panting tiredly and not at all willing to move. So, rather than attempting to stand, Renji just lay there on the bed and moaned his displeasure. He could almost feel Ichigo's glare from where he lay, for all that he cared.
"Renji." That flat voice again. Renji grunted, but made no other acknowledgement that he had heard Ichigo. "You need to get up." That elicited a response if anything did.
"Only if yer' helping' me, Strawberry." Renji gritted out and opened his eyes to glare at the other, who was now standing over him with a stubborn posture. The glare he was receiving from the carrot top almost doubled in intensity. Fierce red grappled with furious brown as the two stubborn shinigami held gazes. After nearly two minutes, Renji relented and turned his head to the side, still without making a move to get up. If he was going anywhere, he wasn't doing it on his lonesome.
Ichigo merely stared blankly at Renji for another minute before coming to the same conclusion that Renji had. Without tact, Ichigo grabbed each of Renji's wrists and yanked the man upright, ignoring the pained shout the motion caused. Throwing an arm around the shinigami's waist and practically dragging him from the room and down the hall way, Ichigo forced Renji to go with him. For Renji, each step was an agony to his half-healed wounds, and he could swear through the pain that some of the wounds were split and bleeding again. This Ichigo was a monster. Cursing and planting his heels as best he could, Renji managed to pull free of Ichigo and stumble to his knees on the floor. Scrambling to his knees and then to his feet with the help of the wall, Renji backed further down the hallway, succeeding in distancing himself from the crazed Ichigo.
Ichigo's absent eyes followed him without fault, taking in the redhead's wide-eyed stare and pained trembling blankly. Renji knew that there was something going on in the boy's head, and he somehow felt that it had very little and very much to do with himself. When Ichigo took a single step forward, Renji took another faltering step back. Now he was almost certain he could feel blood trickling down his leg from the back of his thigh.
"Ichi-Ichigo?" The carrot top only took another step forward, ignoring Renji's hesitant questioning. When Renji saw that Ichigo's expression didn't change, he slowly fumbled his way along the wall towards where the other had been taking him. If anything, there might be a way to escape the redhead at the other end of the hallway.
That was how they moved, one walking forwards and the other backing away, until Renji's hand met open air and he stumbled. Going down hard on one knee and catching himself with the flat of his hands, Renji was aware of a tearing along his back and a hot gush of what could only be blood soaking into his shirt. Before he had time to rise on his own, a heavy hand gripped the back of his shirt and pulled him up from the floor. Looking up, Renji's eyes met Ichigo's and for the first time that morning he noticed a hint of darkness bleeding into the whites. The hollow.
"What, shinigami? Are you afraid of me?" The hand gripping Renji by the shirt tightened for a moment. When Renji didn't answer, the other sighed and rolled his piebald gaze. "Guess that answers that question." 'Ichigo' opened his mouth again in order to voice something, but another voice beat him to it.
"Shirosaki-dono!" The loud, eerily cheerful call split the heavy atmosphere cleanly in two. 'Ichigo's' immediate reaction was to tighten his grip on Renji's shirt in startlement and glance up, but he very quickly dropped the redhead altogether. Renji landed with a pained thump on the floor, barely biting back a yelp.
"Shirosaki-dono! Please hurry with Renji-kun!" That spitefully cheery voice Renji recognized as belonging to none other than Urahara Kisuke. A raucous snort to his side made Renji glare up from where he lay on the floor. 'Ichigo' was frowning sullenly down at him, just like the real Ichigo. Going by that expression, if it could be judged the same way that the normal Ichigo's expressions could be judged, the other was deciding on whether or not to make Renji crawl or just carry him himself. Several times, Ichigo's hollow half glared towards the other part of the house that Urahara's voice had originated from before turning back to Renji. With a snarl of his lip, Shirosaki hoisted Renji into his arms and carried the exhausted fukutaichou down the hallway and into the kitchen where Kisuke sat at the table with an idle hand on the brim of his hat.
The exiled captain frowned at the blood soaking the back of Renji's shirt and jeans, but said nothing as Shirosaki deposited the redhead in one of the other chairs and took one for himself. After everyone had settled, Kisuke tipped his hat forward and let his gaze rest on Renji.
"Ah, Abarai-san. Thank you for joining us." Urahara was not phased by the venomous glare that Renji sent him, and instead opted to continue his rambling. "Shirosaki-dono has been quite a bit of help this past week, seeing as to how Ichigo has given him no choice in the matter." This time, it was the hollow's turn to glare at the jovial shopkeeper.
"Keh. 'S what you say." Shirosaki turned his head to the side and fisted a hand in Ichigo's orange locks with an obvious display of frustration. Renji glanced at the hollow from the corner of his eye while trying to keep his injured thigh from touching the hard wood of the chair. Kisuke seemed to notice Renji's discomfort and pulled a small bottle that rattled from his pocket and dropped two small purple pills onto the table. The two objects looked innocent enough, but Renji knew that Urahara's medicines tended to have odd tastes and even odder side effects. However, they were better than Tessai's brews, for even Urahara ran when his assistant cooked up a cure for an ailment. At least with Urahara's medicine's, Renji knew the taste was bound to be five times better than those.
"Shirosaki-dono? Could you please get Abarai-san a glass of water?" Urahara's voice was just a touch of warning mixed with his typical tone. The hollow sighed at the 'request' and rose to his feet to grab a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap. He set it down in front of Renji with a small thump and slouched back into his own chair to watch the redhead throw the pills back and chase them with the whole glass of water. It was almost amusing for Shirosaki to watch Renji gag at the flavor of the medicine, but he knew the horrors of the shopkeeper's remedies firsthand. It had been those same purple pills that Urahara had given him when he had awoken in Ichigo's body after it's collapse. The flavor had been something similar to eating a rotten grapefruit and following it with a chaser of spoilt milk. However, the two small pills had done wonders to how he had felt, along with speeding the healing of his injuries to almost double the time it would have taken Ichigo's body to heal naturally. The effects in Renji were almost immediate as the redhead perked up and wiped his mouth with a sleeve.
"Bleh! Is there anything from the bottom of the fridge that you didn't use when you made those!" Renji blurted as he cast a disgusted look at Urahara Kisuke. The blond merely smiled one of his secretive smiles and waved his fan a few times. Knowing that was the only answer he was going to get from the exiled captain, Renji wiped at his mouth again and stuck his tongue out childishly at the other. To his side, Shirosaki sniggered. Turning to look at the hollow in possession of Ichigo's body, Renji gave Shirosaki a terse once-over and arched a tattooed eyebrow. In response, the hollow cracked his lips in a wide grin and chortled. Evidently, there was something funny in the situation that Renji was missing, for Urahara was laughing as well.
Casting an eye from one to the other, Renji tried to surmise what was so hilarious about the circumstances. No answer was forthcoming, which only caused the redhead to become more confused.
"Well, ya see…" Shirosaki finally began, laughter adding a shrill pitch to his voice, "When King saved yer sorry ass, he had ta fight off all them hollows on your tail. Wore the stupid punk out, but he'd rather listen to Zangetsu than me, so I ended up takin' over and bringin' ya back here. 'Course, King's got an iron grip on me, so'f I do anything wrong, he'll have me stuck out in th' rain again."
The redhead simply stared at the hollow for a moment.
"Rain?" Renji asked, completely puzzled as to what that had to do with anything. To his surprise, Shirosaki let out a gusty sigh and buried his face in the arms he had crossed over the table.