1. Echo
HIS steps seemed to take hours before landing. One's eyes followed to the steps so close his eyelashes would have gotten stepped on. Then suddenly – just when he thought he might have gotten sick - everything started working in the normal way. The steps landed normally and continued to the hallway.
A deep sigh ran from 6th company assistant-captains lips. That had been just too near. Whatever might HE do if HE found out? Kill him? No, HE wouldn't be so nice as to just kill him. HE would make him lose the last bits of honor he has. HE would make him beg death.
Who is HE? Byakuya Kuchiki.
Who is Byakuya Kuchiki? 6th company captain. A noble. A man of many mysteries.
6th company assistant-captain Renji Abarai stepped away from the shadows behind the staircase. He had used a little time to kill the look on his face he knew he had had. He just hated the way he always blushed when there was nothing but HIM to look at. Some people might take it too seriously.
Is it serious or not?
He hated Byakuya Kuchiki, didn't he? Hadn't he hated him long before becoming his subordinate? Didn't he want to surpass him? Yes, yes, yes is the answer to all of those questions. But why the hell is his heart pounding so deep because of him these days? When had the echo of his heartbeat changed? And why is it, that he knew that he still hated the captain, but yet used his time to look for him and follow his steps?
Questions, questions, but no answers anywhere.
Renji hadn't felt too good for some time. His stomach had those strange tickling feelings... what is it called? Butterflies? And now, when he had just gotten out of the Central Relief Station with a meaningless diagnosis of mental problem, neurotic gastritis. What hell is THAT then? He blushed again when he remembered the anwer:
"Neurotic gastritis comes when you can't meet your own, new feelings, but keep on saying to yourself that you don't have them. Especially common it is in the case you have fallen inlove." Oh, how much he would have enjoyed of seeing her entrails just then.
For a few seconds he just stood there. Then he made his decision and went after the captain. He wanted to find out why the captain had came to the 4th company in such silence. There would have been many people around him if someone would have kicked his butt so bad he had to come... What did he even do in that room? He arrived to the Station half an hour after Renji had come himself, went to the same room he had just got out from, and then came back after ten minutes. TEN MINUTES. Just about never you can just go there and get out so soon. None of the 4th company's Soul Reapers would you let you out that easilly. Especially not that one!
So the 6th company assistant-captain's steps soon followed the captain's – not suprising anyone anymore. The echo of their steps fused, causing some confusion on young Soul Reapers they walked past. What either of them knew, was that their heartbeats fused as well, and so the two men became linked physically and mentally. They drew each other towards each other. That is why Renji suddenly realized he was far from the rooms he was allowed into without the captain's permission. And that he couldn't stop walking.
He opened the last door and saw the captain's back in front of him. Renji knew that he had been detected and lowered his head. The captain turned and Renji started the proper greetings and asked for forgiveness on intruding to his rooms – just hear him weeping.
Renji rised his head and saw how Byakuya Kuchiki was crying. CRYING. He was pale and he cried. Renji went from stoppy to eager – now he had to know what was wrong with him!
- Captain, what's wrong? He asked as calmly as he could. The answer he got was not even half as calm.
- Renji, please...! You must- you must-! and he kept on saying that, again and again. Renji started feeling awful as he started shaking by his words. He didn't understand what Byakuya wanted from him, and that crying...
Suddenly he realizes, that the captain was actually way too wonderful to cry. That face wasn't made so beautiful just to be seen with tears. No. Then Renji started feeling it again – the thing he called butterflies and the 4th company fifth seat called the neurotic gastritis – and as it went worse his eyes filled with tears. When that happened, he understood.
- Captain Kuchiki...you have neurotic gastritis as well, he stated, and didn't even wait until the captain answered.
He took the smallest and easiest steps ever, and helped the captain sit down. He left his hand on the captain's shoulder, and as he slowly pulled his face closer to his own, he didn't deter. He looked into those eyes and felt the butterflies fly away when the tears ceased.
- I'm sorry...he started, but Renji didn't allow him to finish the sentence, what ever it would have been.
- Don't talk you idiot...
And so the 6th company Assistant Captain Renji Abarai led the Captain of 6th company lay down.
And so the 6th company Captain Byakuya Kuchiki led his Assistant Captain to taste his lips.
Renji liked how the lips tasted.
The echo of their heartbeats fused yet again.