The Bikini Incident

To Renji's great surprise Rukia sat down. Sitting while wrapped in a thick blanket can be pretty tough but she just folded in half and plopped onto the floor. Renji, who for all the world thought they were going to have a little fun, was shocked. He sat down next to her and without asking and without protest on her part, he picked her up and pulled her into his lap. Her tiny form fit right inside his crossed legs.

"What are we doing?" He asked. He wanted her, more than he had wanted anyone in a long time, but he also wanted her in a different way. He wanted her to stay in his life for longer than a few hours. So he would follow her lead, she would be stuck here for a while anyway if the snow kept up.

"I am watching the snow and you are keeping me warm." She said without taking her eyes off of the falling crystals.

"You really like snow, don't you?" Renji said immediately reminded of Toushiro.

"Don't you?" She asked with a hint of disbelief at the possibility of a negative thought about snow.

"Well sure I do…"

"Good" A pause and then she continued.

"Snow makes me happy and it makes me feel like I'm close to remembering something, something important that I forgot I ever forgot…You ever get that feeling?"

To say that Renji was shocked was an understatement. Toushiro had said nearly the exact same thing, word for word, for years. Renji would place heavy bets on Toushiro being awake and staring out the window just like Rukia.

"Whoa." He couldn't help himself. "Have you ever met Toushiro?"

"Don't think so. Why?"

"He does this with snow too." Renji's heart was starting to sink. What if those two hit it off? Then he remembered it was Toushiro he was talking about and let it go.

"Oh. Hey, does that hot tub work?", she said pointing to the corner of the deck. She didn't care that someone else felt like this? Renji had also felt like he had forgotten something important a time or two, all of the guys here had. But he never really put much stock into it. In fact, Renji remembered that both Ikkaku and Toushiro's friends Matsumoto and Hinamori felt the same way sometimes, but it was brought on by things other than snow. How odd.

"Yeah it works, you wanna go in?"

"Absolutely, but I have nothing to wear."

"That's fine with me-" He was cut off by a playful but nonetheless sharp jab in the ribs. "I bet Hinamori's clothes would fit you."

"Who?"

"Toushiro's girl…well sorta, she's always here anyway."

"Um, if it's ok…" Renji smiled at her without her seeing and picked her up again.

"You know I can walk, right?" She said with playful irritation.

"What's your point?" I just like holding you Renji thought.

"No point." Rukia was enjoying his company.

Down the hall and the last door on the right was Toushiro's room. Renji knocked and a fairly cold, "Come in" floated out. Toushiro was, just as Renji predicted, sitting on the floor with his face pressed up against the window.

"I figured you'd be up Tou."

"It's snowing." He said before realizing what he had been called. "How many times have I asked you to not call me that?"

"Don't know." And it didn't matter either.

"What do you want?"

"I was wondering if I could borrow one of Hinamori's swimsuits and some pjs?"

"Taking up cross dressing Abarai?"

Rukia laughed, Renji growled and Toushiro turned around at the sound of Rukia.

"Hello."

"Hi." She figured calling him Tou was a bad idea.

"Um, Tou this is Rukia, Rukia this is…"

"Hitsugaya Toushiro and don't call me Tou dammnit!" He said without a lot of heat behind the phrase. He never had quite the same energy when he was distracted by snow. Or by Hinamori.

"Um, nice to meet you Histugaya-san" Rukia said, sensing a very Ni-sama-esk desire to say and probably do things properly.

They left without saying another word. Renji had quietly grabbed a few lumps of clothing from a drawer and mumbled a thank you quickly. He followed Rukia's already retreating figure back down the hall and into his room. Renji held up, piece by piece, a pair of yellow striped PJ pants and a white stretchy tank top that looked like it would fit very tightly. He also held up a pair of blue and white striped underwear, bikini style that he immediately assured her were clean. He then proceeded to hold up what Rukia assumed was a bathing suit, but she imagined it would be hard to get into or out of without getting stuck. It was black, with lots of strings running around.

"What is that?" She didn't really expect a simple answer.

"Um, a bikini top?" Renji was confused.

"No, baka, how do I get in to it?"

"Oh, uh, here". He said while he awkwardly showed her what it was supposed to look like.

"I'm gonna get stuck in this thing…" She mumbled as she took it and lumbered towards the bathroom.

It wasn't a whole minute later before Rukia hollered for help. She needed help unzipping the dress, it wasn't even an emergency bathing suit call. She caught Renji quite literally with his pants down. He was mid right-leg into his swimming trunks. He toyed with the idea for a split second, of going in to help her without them pulled up. But he decided, since he really liked her, that that wasn't the best way to attempt to keep her around. Rukia was oblivious to this decision and blushed slightly when he unzipped her. More from forgetting that she needed his help than from actually being shy about exposing some skin. Ichigo had thoroughly removed any shyness she had ever had with all of his lewd comments.

Renji shut the door with a suppressed sigh. He had seen more of that perfect ivory skin. Get a hold of yourself man, she will be in a bikini in a minute, do not pant, do not pant… he was mentally psyching himself up for the bikini when another shout followed a few muffled cuss words. This time she was successfully in the bikini bottoms but the top was on upside down and halfway inside out. Admittedly, it was a confusing garment and how Hinamori had ever figured it out was a wonder. But Renji knew how it was supposed to look and gave hurried instructions while he tried to look at the floor or her face. Nothing was actually exposed exactly, but it was very close to showing some pink on those soft ivory…STOP IT! He hollered at himself internally. He had to look interested without shouting the fact, a quick glance down told him to rearrange himself and take a few deep calming breaths.

Rukia was too pissed off at the confusing swimsuit to notice. There were a lot of things that she seemed to have unnecessary trouble with. The incident with the juice box, years in the past, still haunted Rukia's dreams. Ichigo, would never let that one go, she was sure of it.

Finally, after a good solid 5 minutes of cuss words, confusion and restarts, she was in a highly embarrassing bikini. The top was two small pieces of black cloth covering her breasts and several strings that hooked in the back in a criss cross pattern. It really didn't cover much and she was sure that Ni-sama would have had a few choice words for the type of girl who usually wore this type of thing. Rukia wondered what Hinamori was like. In truth, the bathing suit was bought by Matsumoto, who was constantly trying to force Hinamori to get Toushiro's attention. So far, it hadn't really worked.

Rukia left the bathroom to find that Renji was already outside waiting in the hot tub. Eyes eagerly searching for her without ever actually finding her. She imagined that it was harder to see into the room than it was to see out of it. She giggled and considered flashing him for the fun of it, just to see if she would be caught. The idea of getting stuck, breasts out, in this bikini top stopped her. If she was going to expose herself, it would be on purpose. Not the fault of her incompetence.

When the door slid open to allow a very cold and very beautiful Rukia onto the deck, Renji's heart stopped. He gasped, a quick little inhale, and forced himself to try to appear normal. Like I've ever been that he snorted internally. Rukia's embarrassment at the garment disappeared when she saw the lust in Renji's eyes gleam in the light. For once, attention undisturbed by the falling snow, Rukia advanced towards the hot tub, smiling, eyes only for Renji. As she was about to pick one foot up and put it into the tub, she slid one arm behind her and flicked loose one of the clasps holding the monstrosity on. Renji noticed. His smile turned wicked and he slid towards her in the water.

"You know, I usually don't do this so fast" Rukia said quietly.

"Do what?" Renji said, breath coming fast and eyeing her sideways.

"This" she said as she literally tore the bikini off, straps flailing as she tossed it into a pile of snow on the deck. The air was brutally cold so she quickly collapsed into the water and onto Renji's lap. One quick tug was all he needed to remove his trunks and in a turn of events, he both had her bottoms off and was now on top of her, floating in the warm water. They began to kiss, slowly and as it escalated in speed and desire, Rukia pulled Renji closer by arching her back and wrapping her feet around his back.

Renji responded with a hand that traveled under the water to caress her in between the legs. She moved his hand and began to slide her body over his, up and down slowly. He gave her one final glance, to make sure that this was what she wanted. Almost as if to say, 'get on with it', she moaned softly into his ear, he took a deep breath, positioned himself, and plunged into the woman who he had fallen in love with in a single night.