A/n: I own nothing. Inspired by a convo with Sesshomarufreak and Kitty by Dreadful virtue who— if you're reading this—should really finish weakling. Setting: Pre-manga and Yammy final fight..

A/n 2: edited for something DV brought to my attention. Thanks :)

If Kenpachi wanted to give him a hard time about taking the first shot that was fine, he could take on the Espada on alone if he wished. It would be his luck that the savage actually won. Said savage walked back saying that Byakuya could have the finishing blow. He was offended but, only slightly though he knew that to Kenpachi it was a massive insult. He figured that this would be time for an experiment.

He remembered a day more than ten years ago now. A random happenstance had him catch the demon standing before the body of a man who'd actually given him a serious battle. Byakuya had honestly thought he might lose for second. While the rest of the battle wound down around them he saw the demon kneel respectfully before his victim and whisper 'arigato'. Then he rubbed the man's eyes closed and wiped his own eyes before returning to the fight.

Byakuya never would have made such a lowblow in front of anyone but, there was no one else in earshot. He replied to the insult with a standard classist rebuke but, what he meant was 'just admit that you don't actually like killing'.

X

Of course the enemy had broken up their would be fight. Yeah he was being a dick but, he just wanted Byakuya to fucking admit that he liked to fight, that when it came right down to it he wasn't so much better than a 'savage' like himself. He saw the look in Byakuya's eyes when he claimed that it was too much for the man to handle and almost laughed. So there was some fire under all the ice. They faced off to fight again but, wouldn't you know that damned Espada wouldn't let him have his goddamn match, seriously the bitch was worse than Gin. They fought on and then when he'd thought they were finally done and could get back to the main show the bastard grew again. What the fuck.

He would admit under heavy torture to a second's worry at the thought of having to fight that enemy with someone underfoot. Byakuya took off the white bladelets he had ready to attack Kenpachi now brought to bear against their opponent. He took advantage of the distraction to start slicing and dicing. Surprised to see that his unwilling comrade was actually not getting in his way but keeping his distance using superior range to slice from afar and snipe with kido. As it turned out the Espada focused on him because he was slower so he wound up the decoy while Byakuya darted around at a safe distance.

"Always keepin' yer hands clean aren'tcha" he roared playfully as he darted in for another attack.

"Compared to you a cesspool is the height of purity," Byakuya shot back. High falutin' asshole. A foot caught him and flew back through a rock pile. He thrashed his way free, still dazed to catch a flash of tail and everything went black.

Slowly opening his eyes he found himself laying on his back aching all over. A grunt caught his attention and he turned his head to see Byakuya straining as his sword held back their enemy's massive foot while a quickly failing kido barrier kept the rest of the creature at bay. He rolled out of the way and Byakuya flashed out as soon as he was clear, getting clipped in the process as the slammed into the ground where Kenpachi had been a second before. He winced as he heard the snap of bones but, was already back in the fray, slashing away as the barrier broke.

He was surprised to see hear the crack of kido whipping around. Whaddya know the little noble had some fight, he'd barely missed a step.

xx

Byakuya sniped around Kenpachi's distraction adrenaline masking his broken foot nicely for the moment. He saw the Espada suddenly focus on him and dodged at the last minute. Sensing with surprise Kenpachi moving away he quickly gave chase drawing abreast of the demon with ease.

"It's unlike you to run from a fight," he said.

"It's called regrouping moron! You got a plan?"

"I didn't think you knew what a plan was," he replied ignoring the childish insult.

"I always fight alone, don't need to plan with myself. Yer fuckin up my day,"

"Because you always kill the people on your side,"

"Accidently! Now do you have a plan or not!"

"He has trouble tracking our flash steps,"

"No shit,"

"Can you dodge him,"

"Obviously. Ah I'm bait,"

"I won't hit you,"

"I know," the demon replied and Byakuya almost missed a step. "Let's do this princess," now that sounded like Kenpachi. They wheeled around and split up, Zaraki attacking while also making himself a target. Byakuya shot kido at him as the Espada closed to attack. Zaraki dodged away and the kido blasted the Espada instead. This worked for a while but, the Espada had so many limbs that Zaraki still took wounds and a bit of shrapnel damage was unavoidable. He saw the savage tiring and began closing on the Espada himself abandoning the plan. To his surprise Zaraki picked up on what he was doing and got his slashes in while Byakuya made himself too tempting a target to ignore. So they continued on well enough outside of minor wounds until he got clipped by a foot and fell. The pain in his slashed leg he could ignore but, as struggled to his feet he saw the Espada launch a cero and there wasn't a thing he do about it. Reiatsu flared and his last moments disappeared in a blaze of light. As his vision returned he saw Kenpachi standing between him and the cero, slowly driven back as his monstrous spiritual pressure warred with the red blast of energy. Byakuya quickly flash stepped away.

"Senbonzakura kageyoshi!" he called. The bladelets crashed into the esapda as he leaped clear of the explosion. Seeing the Espada laying on the ground as the dust settled he approached calmly. He was relieved—even if he would never admit it—to see Zaraki walking up to their opponent too some hundred-feet to his right. The savage had actually been surprisingly useful and he saw no reason to provoke the man again even if they had been at full health. At any rate the man was effective enough, what concern was it of his that the captain didn't like to kill? It was probably better for everyone that way. He calmly thrust his sword into the 'neck' of the Espada and watched it dissolve.

X

Kenpachi walked stiffly up to watch in surprise as Byakuya spared him the trouble of executing their opponent.

"Well that was relaxing," he called affecting an air of nonchalance. Just because the guy'd earned some respect didn't mean he'd stop needling him.

"Indeed," Kenpachi was speechless for a second before he started laughing. That was not the response he'd been expecting. He was further surprised to see a faint quirk of the lips in Byakuya acknowledging that he got the joke. "Get that stick out of your ass and you might be fun."

"I sincerely hope that I never meet your definition of 'fun',"

Kenpachi shook his head. Well you couldn't expect miracles. "Come on tightass," 'princess' and 'bitch' just didn't quite feel like proper insults anymore. Byakuya looked disturbed as he walked alongside him. He wondered if his comrade was trying half as hard as he was not to limp. "What's your problem?" he asked.

"Well it's just that coming from you that's practically a term of endearment," he replied. Kenpachi missed a step and glared at the other man's back. How could you look that fucking smug without changing expression?