Whoo hoo! My very first review! Thank you very much Fallowell! Okay, as far as updates go, I'll try to do one a day. If I have a lot of work, then less, if I have a day off, then more. This is going to be a fairly large story. So lets get it underway, shall we?

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the bleach characters.

Chapter 2

Rules of the house

Byakuya looked at the young man for a moment as his eyes comprehended what he'd just said. He'd meant it as a joke, but his reaction was interesting.

"Your...pet?" He asked, honestly thinking about the idea. Byakuya chuckled and walked back over to his drink, taking another sip.

"It's a joke. You would make an awful pet. Now, if you were a dog, maybe." He said while taking another swig, amusing himself. Then he felt taken aback when the young man on his living room floor gave him the most frightening smile he'd ever seen. It stretched his entire face, showing his unusually sharp white teeth.

"So you're saying...if I could be your dog...I would get free food, a place to stay, and a master all to myself?" He asked, his voice low and sultry. Byakuya felt he should spit out his drink at the notion this young man was making. It had been entirely a joke! Why was he taking it seriously? He set the drink down and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm not actually considering this, you know, it was only a joke! Now if you don't mind, I think I will be retiring to bed, as should you." He said swiftly.

The red head followed him up the stairs to the bedrooms when Byakuya smelled something pretty terrible. He turned around and was reminded of the sorry state the young man was in. He reeked! Now his sheets would smell this way as well if the guy didn't take a bath before bed.

"No, wait. You need to take a bath or shower or something before getting into any of the beds here. There's a bathroom right down this hall, that should suffice." He said quickly. The young man gave him a strange look and held up his lame hand.

"But...I can't." He wined quietly. Byakuya huffed a breath, stomping over to the linen closet and yanking out a towel. He then shoved the towel at the young man, his eyes daggers.

"Well that's just too bad. Get clean or get out." He demanded. Honestly, he was already too much trouble. Then the red head looked at his wrist again, then back at Byakuya. The CEO ground his teeth together. This would not be fun.

000

"Ahhhh, this feels so good! Go ahead, ask me where my super special itchy spot is!" The young man sighed, resulting in a rather harsh yank to his crimson locks. Byakuya could not believe his absolute bad luck. He was now actually bathing this child of a man. His fingers cruelly scrubbed shampoo into his hair, uncaring whether or not it hurt. The man didn't seem to mind very much.

"Hey, how come you're wearing sunglasses? We're both guys." The young man asked, picking up a small cluster of bubbles and blowing them away, smiling as they landed sparatically through the bath. Byakuya scrubbed even harder.

"Because I don't know anything about you and I have absolutely no desire to see you're naked parts, so if you could just shut up and get clean already, that would be great!" He shouted. It was extremely out of character for him to raise his voice, but this person really seemed to tick him off in the worst of ways.

"My name is Renji Abarai. I'm twenty-two years old. That's pretty much it." He said simply with a smile. Byakuya stopped scrubbing for a moment.

"That's it? You seem like such a chatty person, and that's all there is to know about yourself? Don't you have a job or something?" He asked, starting low circles under his ears. He felt Renji stiffen slightly at the question.

"Umm...yea, something like that. My job isn't really important though." He said, gathering up more bubbles, but this time trapping them in a finger cage. Byakuya thought about that. Someone not caring of their job? It was so different from himself that he wasn't really sure what to make of it.

"Do you not like it or something?" He asked. Renji chuckled and blew the bubbles away, freeing them from capture.

"Oh, I love it, but I don't really like talking about it is all." He said with a laugh. That made Byakuya nervous. Either the job was embarrassing or illegal. He took a small bucket and filled it with water, dumping it on the crimson head. Renji coughed and rubbed his eyes. The water was getting a little cold. He'd been in it a while.

"I think I'm clean now, Master, shall we go to bed?" He asked with a toothy grin. Byakuya felt the hairs on his neck rise.

"My name is Byakuya, please do not call me anything other than that. Never call me Master, that sounds so strange. Besides, you aren't my pet, Renji." He said with determination, standing up and grabbing the towel. He turned his head as the young man stood up and stepped out of the bath. He was truly horrified when Renji proceeded to shake his head and entire body free of water, effectively drenching himself and the entire bathroom.

"Whoo! I've always wanted to do that!" He exclaimed. Byakuya decided it was best to keep his anger to himself. He felt like it only egged him on or something. He thrust the towel at him and stomped out of the room. He entered his own bedroom, slamming the door behind him for good measure and sitting hard on his bed. Why had these emotions suddenly surfaced? Where was the cool and collected Byakuya Kuchiki that was the CEO of a major company? What had happened to his uncanny ability to stay calm even under the worst of situations? He had never met a man so absolutely uncouth and sloppy. He had never been so unable to hold in his anger around another person.

Maybe it was just the fact that it happened to occur in his own house. He should be free to be emotional in his own house. If fact, it was silly to think that he should have to be anyone other than himself here.

A light knock at the door broke him from his thoughts.

"What?" He grumbled, grabbing a pillow in an attempt to have something to throw. The door slowly creaked open and Renji popped his still damp head into the room. It was now braided and dripping down his back.

"Hey...umm...I was wondering if you wouldn't mind me sleeping in here tonight." He asked softly. Byakuya pinched the bridge of his nose again, inhaling deeply.

"Out of the question. What on earth would give you the idea that I wouldn't mind that?" He growled. This was getting ridiculous. Renji opened the door wider, his demeanor completely changed.

"I've never slept alone before! That room is so big and dark and lonely!" He cried. Byakuya threw the pillow at him.

"Go." He demanded. Renji looked at him with pleading eyes. Byakuya felt his stomach drop. Had this man no shame?

"Please?" He tried. Finally, Byakuya exhaled. There was just something about his please that struck him. He shook his head and stood up, going over to his dresser.

"Fine. You can sleep in here." He sighed.

Almost instantly, he regretted it as Renji practically lept into Byakuya's bed, tearing up the comforter and burrowing under the blankets. Byakuya growled.

"Wrong." He stated before pulling a few of his extra blankets out of the dresser and walked over to the thrown pillow, snatching it up. He threw the contents into the corner of the room and pointed at the little pile.

"Pets don't sleep on their master's beds. They sleep on the floor." He grumbled. Renji sighed sadly, but grinned at his mention of pet and master. The game had apparently continued. He sadly left the comfy mattress and moved over to the floor, arranging the blankets and pillows into a small makeshift nest. He then started patting around in circles.

"What are you doing?" Byakuya asked in a bored tone, walking back over to his own bed, scoffing at the mess Renji had made of it.

"Just checking for snakes." He grinned in an amused way. Byakuya rolled his eyes and pulled off his shirt. He looked over to Renji who was still wearing his jeans and sighed. Sleeping on the floor would be really uncomfortable that way. He shook the thoughts out of his head. If he was uncomfortable, he would likely just go back to the other room.

Putting that thought away, he grabbed his own night pants and wandered into his master bathroom. He closed the door and locked it, getting undressed and brushing his teeth. Upon his return, he found Renji curled up in the corner, buried in the nest of blankets and snoring softly, his jeans crumbled up and tossed to the side of him. Byakuya could only assume, and hope, that he was sleeping in boxers now.

It wasn't surprising at how quickly he had fallen asleep. After being beaten so bad he had passed out, he was sure to be tired, even if he had slept for hours. Byakuya quietly padded over to his bed and slid into it, throwing the covers over his head. His alarm clock was already set for seven as he closed his eyes, drifting into a deep sleep.

000

The next morning, Byakuya woke before his alarm went off, as was the norm. He turned his head and looked to the corner of the room, seeing the young man still sleeping soundly in his nest of blankets. Not quite the norm. He got up and turned the alarm off before it started beeping loudly and tiptoed out of the room, not wanting to have his morning ruined by loud shouts of "Good Morning!" or "What's for breakfast?!" so he decided to start making some before he was bombarded with this man's undoubtedly annoying mood. He assumed it would be terribly lighthearted and painfully cheery.

He padded around his kitchen, cracking eggs into a pan and popping bread into the toaster. He was just throwing the sausages into the pan with the eggs when Renji rolled into the room, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

"Good morning!" He said mid-yawn. Oddly it wasn't nearly as obnoxious as Byakuya had originally thought. He had tied his black hair to the back of his head as he nodded to Renji, his own morning greeting. He then started to make coffee as the sausages were cooking when Renji started sniffing the air with a delighted smile.

"Hey, can you cut the sausages into little octopuses? I really like them that way." He asked while practically drooling over the crackling food in the pan. Byakuya looked at him with a dumbfounded stare and shook his head.

"No, they're already in there normal." He grumbled, getting the coffee ready. Renji sighed, defeated, but still pleasantly enjoyed the smell of breakfast.

"So where do you work, Master?" He asked, getting a harsh glare from Byakuya. It was a loosing battle, but still one he refused to give up on.

"I'm not your master, and I run my own company." He said, gathering up the food and placing them on dishes. Renji excitedly sat in a chair at the table and Byakuya found his weapon.

"And just what are you doing?" He asked, arranging the food on plates. Renji gave him a questioning look.

"Is all of that for you?" He asked, slightly disheartened that his master could be so cruel. Byakuya shook his head, smiling, though not caring for how sad he'd almost made the young man.

"No, but since when did dogs eat at the table? If you insist that you're my pet, you have to eat on the floor." He said, placing Renji's plate (which had significantly more food than his own) on the floor, for good measure. Renji didn't protest. He stood happily and walked over to his place on the floor, once again, flopping to the ground and snatching up the plate of food. He was able to ignore the non-tentacled weenies in favor of filling his totally empty stomach.

Byakuya was amazed.

"You have no pride, do you?" He asked. Renji looked at him with a mouth full of food before swallowing and giving him a questioning look.

"Are dogs supposed to?" He asked. Byakuya actually wondered. He poured coffee into his cup and offered some to Renji who politely declined, asking instead for apple juice. Having none, Byakuya had him settle for orange juice instead.

"This is amazing! You're actually a pretty good cook. Better than any woman I've even known." He said, happily munching away at the sausages, though still sad they were normal and boring. Byakuya was going to take that as a compliment instead of the insult he felt it may have been.

"I've lived on my own for a while, so yea, I can cook pretty well." He grumbled into his coffee, his own plate untouched. This man was already getting on his nerves. Yet somehow, he felt at peace, this morning. More so than in his normal routine where he would get up alone, eat alone, and leave for work alone. He supposed it was a nice little detour from the normalities in his life, but he would still be satisfied to have it go back to the way they were. Once this man left his house, things would go back.

"Well, Renji, I hope you are able to find a place to stay after you leave today. I suppose it will be difficult to go to work with that wrist as it is." He said, looking at the morning newspaper. Renji stopped eating for a moment.

"Yea, actually impossible. I was wondering if I could maybe stay here until it gets better." He questioned lightly. It had been weighing on his mind for some time, and the opportunity to ask would never get better than that moment. Byakuya slammed his cup to the table.

"Out of the question. You are not staying here as a freeloader! I refuse to allow it!" He said, trying his damnedest not to shout. Renji crossed his legs and pleaded.

"I promise I'll be a good pet! I'll even clean and do laundry and cook if you want!" He begged. Byakuya picked his cup up off the table and started sipping it again.

"And how are you going to do all those things with a sprained wrist?" He asked. Renji huffed and finished his breakfast.

"I'll manage. Just leave it all to me! I promise I won't be a burden to you!" He said with gusto. Byakuya gave up.

"Fine, but only until it heals. And if you must sleep in my room, you will continue to do so on the floor and eat on the floor. If you wish to be a dog, you'll be treated like one." He decided. Renji smiled triumphantly and moved to place his dishes into the sink, determined to do them when his kind master had left for the day and finish before he got back.

"Okay! I'll be the best pet ever!" He promised. Byakuya got up and walked over to the sink, placing his own dishes inside, dumping practically his entire breakfast into the garbage, which Renji felt goose bumps towards. He would have devoured that. Such a waste. But he said nothing.

"Here are the rules then. No getting on the furniture, especially my bed. No drinking, smoking, drugs or anything illegal in this house. Not friends, no stealing, no digging up holes in the flower garden." He said sternly. Renji slapped his hand to his forehead in a mock salute.

"No accidents on the floor or getting into the trash, got it!" he said with a smile. Byakuya sighed and grabbed his coat and keys, getting ready to leave.

"The number for my office is in the drawer next to the refrigerator. If you burn anything down, let me know please." He said before leaving and shutting the door behind him.

Okay, here's chapter two! I may go ahead and write chapter three today as well, I haven't decided. Depends on if I get reviews. We shall see! Please R and R tell me what you think my lovelies!