Abarai Renji was sleeping...again.
Byakuya scowled at his fukutaicho. This was really becoming Not Okay. No matter how attractive Renji's sleeping face was, the Kuchiki should not be seeing it during working hours.
Outside of working hours, however, he'd be much more receptive to the idea.
Byakuya shook his head viciously. Those are not appropriate thoughts to be having about my fukutaicho! To distract himself, he sent a blade of reiatsu arrowing towards Renji's chair, smashing the back legs and dropping Renji in a heap.
"Augh!" Renji flailed to his feet, looking around wildly. "Ta - taicho!" he gasped. "Gomenasai!"
"Work, Abarai," Byakuya said, infusing his cold voice with a hint of steel. "I assume you are familiar with the concept?"
Renji ducked his head, looking guilty. "Hai, taicho," he mumbled.
"Good. Then get to it."
"Erm...taicho...my chair?" the shinigami asked hesitantly.
"Since you seem incapable of working with it, I have removed it. You may stand."
Renji gaped for a moment, then closed his mouth with a click and nodded. "Hai, taicho," he said again, morosely.
"Are you serious?" Renji gaped at his taicho. "We get to go to the human world?" He grinned widely. "Can we stop and annoy the berry while we're there?"
"After our work," Byakuya replied. "There are reports of a Menos Grande in the area. We are supposed to deal with it." He leveled a look at his rambunctious fukutaicho. "Quietly."
"Of course, of course," Renji waved a hand impatiently as he hopped around the office, trying to buckle on his zanpakuto and redo his hair at the same time. With a hiss of impatience, Byakuya swept across the room in a flurry of black and white robes and grabbed the redhead's belt from his hand, fastening it quickly and expertly.
"Honestly, Abarai, do you ever stop to actually think about what you're doing?" Byakuya looked up and then froze, suddenly realizing that he was practically pressed along Renji's entire front. His hands stilled on the belt, and for a moment his mind was completely devoid of any thoughts as to what to do about the situation. Then Renji grinned, teeth flashing white against his tanned face and black tattoos, and Byakuya was released from his paralysis.
"Usually only when I'm about to start a fight, Kuchiki-taicho." Byakuya blinked, then realized that Renji was answering his previous question. His hands loosened on the belt and the noble stepped back, regaining his composure without his second ever being aware that he had lost it in the first place.
This is unacceptable, Byakuya fumed as he led the way out of the 6th Division's headquarters. I cannot keep losing my composure around my fukutaicho! This has never been a problem before! But, Byakuya realized, that was not entirely true. Renji had always given him reason to pause, ever since the young redhead had first crashed into the room at the academy while Byakuya was meeting Rukia for the first time. It was only more recently—since Renji had visited him in the hospital after Aizen's betrayal—that Renji had begun affecting him more and more strongly. But why?
Wrapped up in his confusing thoughts, Byakuya did not notice the concerned frown on his fukutaicho's face as they walked.
—
"Wonder how long it'll take the berry to show up," Renji mused, propping Zabimaru on one shoulder as he and Byakuya surveyed the Real World from a rooftop. "This is his town, right?"
"Yes," Byakuya said shortly. "Even though Aizen has been defeated, the creatures he created are still around, and are drawn here because of the high concentration of reiatsu. I have no doubt that the Menos Grande is here for the same purpose."
"Well then, let's get started!" Renji grinned, sheathing his sword in preparation for shunpo. "Can't let it eat the berry!"
"Hn," Byakuya agreed, and turned his head, seeking…There. To the west. "Let's go." He engaged shunpo, knowing without looking that Renji was following.
They arrived in less than a minute, and Byakuya gestured for Renji to step back as he unsheathed Senbonzakura. "I would like to handle this myself, Renji."
"'Kay," Renji replied, not at all averse to watching his taicho do what he did best, and Byakuya stepped forward to engage the Menos Grande.
"Oi!" Ichigo popped up next to the red-haired shinigami, zanpakuto at the ready. "What are you doing here, Pineapple-head?"
"Oh, hey Ichigo," Renji said vaguely, eyes fixed on the battle in front of him. "Don't talk to me, I'm tryin' to watch Kuchiki-taicho fight."
"Er…okay," Ichigo said uncertainly, and turned to watch the fight as well.
"Scatter, Senbonzakura," both men clearly heard several minutes later, even though the battle was a ways away and Byakuya never raised his voice.
"It's a wrap," Renji sighed mournfully. He loved watching his taicho fight. He loved fighting him even more, but watching came in a close second. "Once taicho gets tired of playing with them and releases his senkai, that's it. See, look—sweep left, then right," he mirrored the sword's movements with his hand, "Then slash straight forward and—game over." He sighed as the Menos burst into shards of light. "Man," he groaned, "I wish Kuchiki-taicho didn't always finish his battles so quickly."
"Damn!" Ichigo gasped, having stood slack-jawed throughout the entire fight. "No wonder Byakuya's so feared! He's incredible!"
Renji grinned proudly. "That's right, you've always been on the receiving end of his techniques, haven't you? I love watching him play." He hopped off the roof and began floating towards his taicho.
"Hang on, hang on," Ichigo said, catching Renji's shoulder and turning him around. "Two questions. How'd you know his sword was gonna move like that?"
Renji gave him a patient look. "I told you, I love watching him play. I know his sword almost as well as my own."
"And that leads to my other question," Ichigo said. He leaned close in and said quietly, "Why do you call his fights 'playing'?"
Renji gave him a blank look. "What else should I call it?"
Turning away from the other shinigami with a wave, the redhead joined his captain, who for some reason looked angry. Well, he looked normal to the unpracticed eye, but Renji was certainly not unpracticed. "Hey, what's wrong, taicho?" he asked in concern.
"Nothing," Byakuya snapped, staring off after Ichigo with what could almost be called a glare. He turned with a swish of robes and led the way back to Seireitei, a baffled fukutaicho in his wake.
—
Byakuya stalked towards the 6th Division headquarters, people hurrying out of his path as he went. Every comment Renji had made over the last several hours about Ichigo ran through his head like a never-ending reel.
"Can we stop and annoy the berry while we're there?"
"Wonder how long it'll take the berry to show up?"
"Can't let it eat the berry!"
Of course, of course, it all made sense now. Byakuya was unsure of why he was so mad; just that the sight of Ichigo and Renji sharing a long kiss before Renji joined him had made him very angry indeed. "In the future," he said sharply, "Please confine all activities with your lover to times when there might not be enemies rapidly approaching."
Renji nearly fell flat on his face. "What?" he spluttered. "Me…and the berry? No way! Where—"
"I saw you two kissing just now," Byakuya said shortly, not wanting to elaborate any more on the subject.
"We didn't kiss!" Renji replied, faintly outraged. "He was just asking me a question!"
Byakuya blinked, more relieved than he would like to admit. "Oh."
Erm...*sweatdrop* I am a terrible person. I've had this chapter written up for almost two weeks, and I didn't post it!!! I had this crazy idea that I could get my older sister to beta for me, but she's crazy busy and I'm in Uganda, so it doesn't really work all that well...So I'm posting it unbetaed! As they shall be from now on!!! Please let me know if you find any discrepancies in the canon (what little there is of it), because I haven't read all of the series yet!!!
Lara