This fic hints at RukiaxRenji so beware
Bleach belongs to the fabulous Tite Kubo.
It was just after the funeral of their last friend when it happened. Rukia and Renji had found each other long ago and their little family had held together for much longer than anyone in Rukongai had predicted that it would. During that faithful summer when Rukia first joined Renji's small group of friends, a family had been created out of each individual's fear of being alone and out of a desperate need for something to live for.
They had lived peacefully for a long time, staying alive by stealing food and winning small tavern bets, scraping together what money they could to buy clothes and blankets for when the days grew colder. It was only when this money finally ran out that their family fell apart.
The winter was particularly harsh that year and the first of the five friends to die had been Haru, a very frail boy with fine blond hair. One night as they slept, a snow storm had rolled in and covered the little family in a blanket of ice. When they woke up the next morning, Haru had already died from hypothermia. Just a week later Itsuki lost his life, since that snowy night he had been coughing repeatedly, Renji suspected that he had contracted pneumonia.
The three remaining friends had huddled together for warmth on the harshest night of the year, Rukia and Renji pooled their spiritual pressure around their last friend, Kaito, to try and keep him warm, but soon his heart had given out as well. The morning after, when the storm had settled and the sun had risen in the sky, Rukia and Renji took the body of Kaito to the hill where they had already fashioned graves for Haru and Itsuki, and buried his frozen frame underneath the soil where they had played and sang and danced together so many times over the long fifty years that they had been united.
As soon as the third wooden stake had been placed into the freshly turned over soil, Rukia knelt down in front of the three boys and silently wept for the loss of her friends and the demise of her small family. Renji was different though, although he had known the three boys for much longer than Rukia had, he couldn't seem to shed a tear. The cold weather had made his skin numb but now that numbness had spread deeper inside of him, his whole life had been shattered and all he had left was Rukia, his best friend.
"Rukia," Renji said very softly, later on in the day. He moved over to the spot where she had fallen asleep crying and gently shook her awake. He was finally ready to let his emotions out.
"What is it Renji?" Rukia asked, her voice saturated with sadness and sleep.
Without saying a word Renji knelt beside Rukia and positioned himself so that they were face to face, he was looking into her big brown eyes, just as she was staring into his eyes similarly. His arms snaked around her back and he held her in a tight embrace, tears leaking from his eyes as he finally accepted that his lifelong friends were gone.
In time both Renji and Rukia had exhausted their sobs until both of the sat there breathing deeply; Rukia was the first to break their hold. She looked into his red puffy eyes and an overwhelming need for comfort settled into the pit of her stomach, without thinking what she was doing she leaned into him and furiously pressed her lips to his.
Renji responded immediately and deepened the kiss, moving his lips against hers with a mixture of grief and lust churning around in his mind. This was probably a really bad idea, Renji thought, but he couldn't stop the erratic emotions that overcame him in that moment.
Rukia lead Renji into the relative concealment of their make-shift tent which was propped up against the rock face opposite the three graves, all the while keeping her lips locked onto his. Renji's hands found the obi that held Rukia's shabby kimono together and she did her best to remove his clothes too, her shaky fingers making a mess of the task.
In a whirlpool of emotions, the two best friends made love and lay there for a long while afterwards, unsure of what had just happened, but happy that they each had somebody in the world to be there for them.
A few weeks later.
Renji and Rukia had all but forgotten the events that had occurred a few weeks ago, they had both accepted that their emotions had run away with them and it was best just to forget that 'it' had ever happened. They had succeeded in doing this until one day, when Rukia and Renji were out scavenging for food, Rukia had suddenly felt incredibly sickly and had to go and lean over a bush by the side of the road to empty the contents of her stomach.
"Hey, are you ok?" Renji asked, concerned that Rukia had fallen ill.
"I'm fine Renji, really," She replied, returning to her spot next to Renji, who had stopped walking on the dirt road to allow her to relieve herself.
"You just threw up Rukia, that's not really fine is it?" He then proceeded to check her for a fever and when he couldn't find anything wrong, he reluctantly allowed her to continue walking along the path to gather food.
They both soon tired of this exercise as the spring had melted away the harsh winter and made the days that followed incredibly warm, so they returned to their make-shift home to prepare a meal with the sustenance that they had scavenged. Rukia indulged in seconds because it turned out that, despite being ill earlier on in the day, she was incredibly hungry.
In the middle of the night, when Rukia and Renji had both fallen into a deep sleep due to the activities of the day, Rukia started to felt sickly all of a sudden and had to go and vomit outside of the tent as to not disturb Renji. She hadn't told him this, but for the past few days this had been happening constantly, yet she hadn't grown any thinner and her appetite had not waned.
In the morning Renji woke up to find Rukia's futon empty, he could smell smoke so he went outside to find that Rukia had already built the fire for the day and was concocting tea made from the leaves that they collected while foraging .
"You're up early," Renji said jokingly, but when Rukia didn't reply he became worried.
"Come on Rukia, I didn't mean it, whatever I've done to upset you I'm sorry!"
"Renji, we need to talk," Rukia suddenly said, turning the full force of her gaze on Renji, whose concern only grew when he saw how serious she was acting.
"O-okay," He managed to stutter.
"Do you remember that night a few weeks ago, after Kaito died?" She asked, totally unashamed. Renji, however, blushed intensely when he remembered the passion filled night in the tent which they both hadn't spoken about since then. All he could do was nod.
"I'm pregnant, Renji."
"What? Are you sure?" He asked, suddenly fearful because they could barely keep themselves alive, let alone a baby.
"Twins," She replied, "I went to the doctors last night because I wasn't sure, I had to trade our stash of fruit preserves just so he would see me." She looked sadly at her hands, which she rested upon her slightly swollen stomach.
All Renji could think about is how they were going to survive, abortion was not an option. In the next few months both Rukia and Renji tried to come up with an idea as to how they were going to support these children, but they came up blank every time.
A few months later.
"Rukia?" Renji said, walking towards where she sat next to the fire, her abdomen greatly distended.
"Yes Renji?" She said, smiling up at him, her hands forever resting on the bump that was their unborn children.
"I'm going to become a soul reaper," he stated. When she didn't reply he continued, "I know this guy in the world of the living who we can ask to take care of the children. If I become a soul reaper we can protect them but I can also get you through the Senkaimon to his house."
"Can we trust this guy?" Rukia said, because she too had soon realised that giving up the children was the only thing that they could do in order to keep them alive.
"Of course," Renji replied simply.
"Then we'll do it, and once they're born I'll become a soul reaper too," As she said this, she smiled at Renji. They both knew that it was going to be hard to part with the babies, but they'd always wanted to become soul reapers, ever since that day when the soul reaper man had given Rukia food after she fainted from hunger in front of him. They protected people and after their friends had died, their desire to do this had only grown.
Renji set off for the soul reaper academy in the afternoon of that day, promising to see Rukia soon. The plan was that when Rukia went into labour she was to sneak into the dorm of the soul reaper academy that Renji was staying , the guy that he knew in the world of the living would be able to open the Senkaimon so they could slip through into the precipice world without being noticed.
A mere two months later, Rukia suddenly went into labour and had to rush to Renji's dorm before the twins were born right there in the Rukon district, which would ensure their death due to lack of warmth and sustenance. Renji had to carry Rukia through the precipice world as she was in too much pain to run herself, luckily the cleaner did not appear in the time that it took them to arrive in the world of the living, so they made it there safely.
Rukia was almost unconscious by the time they made it to the house that Renji was talking about; she was barely able to introduce herself before it was time to give birth to the twins. A large black man with black braided hair helped her to deliver the babies, she later found out that his name was Tessai and he worked in the shop with a man named Kisuke Urahara, the guy that Renji had been talking about all along.
When the twins had been born, it turned out that they were fraternal twins, one a male and one a female.
"What have you named them?" Kisuke asked the next day, when Rukia had rested and Renji had finished explaining the situation to Urahara.
"We thought that the boy could be called Jinta," Rukia said.
"And the girl could be called Ururu," Renji finished.
Kisuke let the two gush over their newly born children before he finally asked, "When are you leaving?"
"Today," Renji swallowed, "So as not to make it any harder when we have to give them up."
They did indeed leave that very same day, Tessai offered them lunch but they both refused and soon returned to the soul society through the Senkaimon Kisuke opened for them. Renji got into a lot of trouble for missing a whole day classes when he finally returned to the soul reaper academy, but nobody suspected that he had left the soul society completely.
As for Rukia, she joined the soul reaper academy in the next week and poured herself into her studies, trying hard not to think of Ururu and Jinta, hoping that one day she would see them again.
Present day.
"We should be leaving," Rukia said, gesturing to herself and Renji.
"Yeh," Renji echoed, "Captain has asked for us to patrol around Karakura town to check for any hollows."
"See you!" They all said before Renji and Rukia left.
The two walked in silence for a long time, they'd long since united with the children, but nobody spoke a word to the twins, in case their long kept secret discovered. After a long while Rukia said,
"He looks like you," She smiled fondly up at Renji who smiled down at her with the same amount of companionship.
"Yeh," He said, "She looks like you too."
Ok, I know that the Senkaimon thing wasn't really plausible, and the time between when Jinta and Ururu were born and the present day was kind of a jump…but I've always wondered where those kids came from! And don't you agree that they do in fact look like Renji and Rukia? Review please x