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CHAPTER 4

"Abarai. We cannot follow our prey with that bag of purchases."

Renji gauged the level of patience in his captain's face. The carved, pale ivory features were impassive as always, but there was no tension, no sign of irritation…yet. He risked it.

"Tai…Bya..." He bit hid lip as his captain's eyebrow arched quizzically at the slip of his name. "Kuchiki." Renji corrected himself again, noting how his captain's given name threatened to roll off his tongue. "Rangiku-san gave me instructions regarding this matter."

They consulted the map, following it to the main train station. Byakuya steeled himself against the onslaught of pressing flesh within. They walked through the large doors – to Byakuya's relief the off-hours train station did not immerse them in another commuter-hell experience.

Renji hoisted the duffel bag with all his purchases into a metal cubicle, shut its door, and removed a key bearing a stamped number.

"This number on the key's the same as on the locker," he told Byakuya. He stowed the key into his wallet carefully.

"What if you lose the key?"

"I dunno…a kido blast oughta take care of one of these doors…"

"Abarai."

Renji looked at his captain's face just to catch a ghost of an upturned corner of the mouth.

"Let's have lunch early so we can come up with a new strategy." And Kuchiki Byakuya turned on his heel and proceeded out of the station, leaving his fukutaichou to follow.

Stalls serving street food surrounded the station and Renji was happy to locate his favorite food ever: tayaki. Byakuya quietly observed Renji's anticipatory vibrations of excitement, watching the vendor fill fish-shaped molds with batter and filling. "You want any?" Renji turned to his captain.

Infected by his fukutaichou's enthusiasm, Byakuya inclined his head slightly.

They straddled a backless bench to share a tray as the last of the orange leaves falling whirled in a gusts of chill wind.

"These have sweet bean paste. The ones over here are savory – ground pork. That's what the hot sauce is for." Renji waited for Byakuya to make first selection. Byakuya tried a pork-filled fish shape, dipped it in a hot sauce which he knew would hide a multitude of sins, and bit the head off.

Renji waited some more. Byakuya's eyes were closed in consideration until he came upon a verdict.

"Most satisfactory, Abarai." Renji's sigh of relief was not lost on his captain as he reached for his sweet tayaki. He bit off its head, eyes dimmed in pleasure.

"Ah, they're best when made fresh…" Renji bit off more and the still-hot filling escaped the fish that contained it. Byakuya watched with barely concealed fascination as the sticky sweet oozed down Renji's thumb, threatening his wrist and the cuff of his red leather jacket.

"Oh. Oh no. Not the jacket!" Renji cursed, his left hand ripping the cuff snaps open, undoing the buttons of his shirt and pushing all fabric and leather toward his elbow.

"I should have brought napkins," Renji said with a note of apology as the sweet bean filling reached his tattoo. With a decisive, single-minded gesture he licked his forearm.

Byakuya wanted to say something, anything, but his eyes were glued to the pink, pointed tongue of Abarai Renji, to the swift action with which he lapped the sweet filling off the sensitive skin of his wrist, the way he sucked his thumb clean.

Renji would have made a flippant remark had it not been for the fact that his taichou's eyes were quickly downcast and a faint blush colored his cheeks.

Unacceptable, Byakuya thought, focusing on his breath going in and out, his center slowly regained. My thoughts shall not wander in that direction.

Renji saw the conflict in Byakuya's face and his heart thrilled to it.

"Will you try one of the sweet ones? It's delicious," he said in a low purr, not even knowing where that voice came from. Deadpan, Byakuya accepted a sweet tayaki and ate it, not spilling a drop. He was bewildered to detect a sense of disappointment in his fukutaichou's eyes.

"What is it, Abarai."
Renji startled. "Ah…no…I will just have to learn to eat as neatly as you do."

Kuchiki sighed. "And I will have to learn to enjoy everything as much as you do. It seemed like you had a lot more fun with yours."

Their eyes met, Renji's reddish warmth meeting the gray eyes of Kuchiki Byakuya, eyes that were no longer opaque and cold.

I want to see warmth in his eyes again, Renji thought, the guilt of raising his steel against his captain slowly becoming lighter, more bearable.

Byakuya luxuriated in the darkened, simmering gaze of the man opposite him.

So warm. So alive.

And as soon as he realized the train of his thoughts his eyes turned cold, opaque slate once again.

These feelings…must stop.

It happened so fast. One moment, they sat eating lunch and there was something pleasant, something new, in the air between them. Without warning Byakuya straightened in alarm, his lunch forgotten. Gray eyes unfocused as he raised himself off the bench and turned in the direction of the train station door.

XXXXXXX

"Abarai. The reiatsu."

Backpacks and skateboards in hand, they launched for the door, Byakuya feeling his way through the thin crowd, across the expanse of the hall, down the amazing moving staircase and toward one of the trains. He walked swiftly from one train car to another all the way down the platform, then turned around and backtracked.

"In here."

Their eyes met, the necessity of their action immediate. No chance of retreat.

Byakuya mounted the steps leading to a small folding door of the train car. Renji followed.

The train car looked different from the commuter hell they were subjected to earlier, partitioned into sections with several seats each.

"Let's walk through and find out," Byakuya said quietly. They made their way past several free compartments; in the fourth one they felt a strong reiatsu signature.

Renji lifted his eyebrows in question. Byakuya nodded.

"Maybe we could sit here," Byakuya said in his cool, velvety voice as Renji opened the door. Four men sat in comfortable seats. Two strong-looking ones were dressed in suits and sat by the door. An old man sat by the window, his eyes on a checkered board. His chess partner was tall and somewhat younger; his long, blond hair spilled over the shoulders of a casual sweater and as he focused on the game, his reiatsu increased.

The two men in suits rose to face them, their watchful eyes on their attire, drawn by Renji's tattoos.

"This section is reserved," the taller one said.

"I see. Pardon my intrusion." Byakuya's voice was smooth, calm. His eyes glanced over to the chessboard.

"Interesting position," he said, the corners of his mouth curved up into a rare smile.

The blond man turned his head to meet his eyes.

"You play?"

"Yes. But don't let me disturb you. We'll seat ourselves over there." Byakuya inclined his head in the direction of the empty seats they just passed – the unreserved section.

The blond man nodded to him amicably. "Would you feel like a game later?"

"Perhaps," Byakuya replied. The two suits kept standing until Byakuya closed the door again.

Renji found seats in the open section which lacked the privacy of doors, but gave them a good view of the reserved compartment's closed doors.

"Good," his captain replied absently. "This way, they won't get off the train without us."

"Kuchiki. We don't have a ticket…and this train feels expensive."

"We'll be fine, Abarai." His eyes were pensive as the train began to move. "All we have to do is find that man's identity."

Renji looked out the window at the tidy platforms. People stood on painted lines waiting to board their trains, other arrivals spilled out and headed off with a natural sense of purpose. There were so many of them. Among so many people, there was only one with a strong reiatsu and he could be felt miles away. And yet, sheer coincidence allowed them to find him.

Renji pulled the Gabriel show poster out of his backpack and unfolded it. He passed it to Byakuya,.

"Kuchiki, was that the Gabriel man they talked about at the stadium, you think?"

"I believe so."

"We had no strategy and yet here we are," Renji grinned.
Byakuya raised his eyebrow. "Perhaps you had no strategy. Do not feel obliged to include me." Renji saw the corner of his mouth tug.

"C'mon, Byakuya, this is all a sheer coincidence. We are just plain lucky."

"Abarai-fukutaichou." Byakuya's eyes became opaque, cold grey again and Renji realized that he called his captain by his given name…again.

"Sorry. Kuchiki." He bent his head a little. "It's so odd, I still want to call you taichou by force of habit."

"I know, Renji." Byakuya said absently, his voice somewhat softer than before.

The train swayed smoothly over the tracks. Renji leaned his head against the neck pillow. Byakuya watched his eyes close, forehead smooth underneath its tattoos, red hair pulled into a neat braid and tucked under his leather jacket. He watched Renji's brow furrow in his sleep occasionally, the strong red lips lush and slightly parted. So alive. Byakuya felt the wild reiatsu of Gabriel pulse nearby, yet when he focused, he could detect a thrumming of Renji's reiatsu as well. Not very strong, but there. He allowed himself a frown. Did Renji's gigai no longer shield him? Or did he dream of something unpleasant, which would make his reiatsu flare and give them away?

Unwilling to risk exposure, Byakuya put his hand on Renji's shoulder.

"Abarai. Wake up, Abarai."

"Hmm." Renji's eyes barely cracked open, surprised to see his captain lean over him, compensating for the mild movement of the train.

"Dampen your reaitsu, Abarai."

Renji felt a warmth rise in his belly at the touch. A strand of Byakuya's hair escaped his hair tie and fell forward, almost tickling Renji's cheek. Byakuya saw Renji, still half asleep, lean toward the errant strand of his raven hair and he felt Renji's reiatsu increase, a tendril reaching toward him.

He slapped his fukutaicho's cheek.

Renji's hand flew to his face. Now wide awake, his eyes were wide, incredulous.

"Abarai. Remain alert. Your reiatsu is leaking while you sleep."

He considered the hurt in Renji's eyes.

"I…apologize. Rousing you in this manner was expedient."

The train pulled into the station. Abarai and Byakuya followed the four strange men up the escalator, hidden in a crowd of strangers. The wild reiatsu was dormant; they had to rely on visual contact. At the end, Renji walked to a ticket counter and paid their train fare.

"Oh, pardon me," Byakuya said as he ran into one of Gabriel's guards in a moment of feigned clumsiness. All four stopped to face him; Byakuya stooped to pick up his back-pack off the polished granite floor and raised his eyes to Gabriel's with surprise.

"I think we have met."

Gabriel considered Byakuya from underneath his pale eyelashes. Suddenly the air became thick with tense, wild reiatsu and Byakuya tightened his defenses as he felt a tendril of power probe in his direction.

"What is your name, if you think we met?" the blonde asked.

"Kuchiki Byakuya is my name. I am a calligrapher." Byakuya inclined his head in artistic affectation and dropped his eyes in an effort at modesty.

"A fellow artist, I see. Perhaps you saw one of my shows? I am Gabriel. I am a magician." The blonde man smiled an ageless, otherwordly smile and added, "I'll be performing here in Nagoya for a few days. Maybe you'd care to come."

Only the steel Kuchiki control kept Byakuya from starting in surprise. Nagoya? They expected to be somewhere in Karakura.

He inclined his head inclined. "I'd be pleased. Where do you perform?"

"It's all in here," said the older man who played chess on the train, and handed Byakuya a flyer. They bowed to one another and the party of four turned around and left just as Renji arrived.

"Kuchiki." Renji was breathless, his countenance pale. "Guess where we are?"

Byakuya allowed a sigh to escape. "Nagoya. I just found out."

"Well, cap'n, I am supposed to be your guide an'all but I don't know a thing about Nagoya. I didn't know a train could take us to another city…sorry about that."

"Let's just follow them, Renji."

"This is most fortunate," Byakuya said later, pleased. "The man is a magician, and we will see a magic show tonight."

Renji nodded. "Oi, Kuchiki," he said after they walked for a few minutes, loosely following the blonde man and his escort. "I spent a lot of money on those train tickets. We don't have much left."

Byakuya studied his fukutaichou's expression. The face was set, the normally confident amber eyes belied…fear? And then, bit by bit, understanding dawned as tidbits of details of Renji's Rukongai existence floated to the forefront of Byakuya's memory. His fukutaichou, a man braver than most who backed down from no one, not even from his widely respected captain's feared bankai, knew fear. Their depleted cash fund brought back so much of his Rukongai past. Suddenly, proud Renji's willingness to run errands for the Shinigami Women's Associantion for a ten percent profit made sense. Not breaking eye contact, Byakuya nodded. "Let's find a hotel. Then we'll discuss our options."

He noted Renji's raised eyebrows and allowed himself a small sigh.

"Abarai. Trust me."

Renji nodded, his eyes suddenly downcast, mind and heart in turmoil.

You invited me into your world, taichou. Let's just hope I won't have to invite you into mine.

"The tickets are all sold out." Renji's said as he returned to their plush hotel room.

Byakuya's eyes widened in surprise, the mask of calm on his face otherwise unperturbed. "Impossible. There must be somebody willing to sell to a higher bidder."

Renji scowled. "Yeah. There are these guys called 'scalpers' outside of the arena, and their tickets cost more than this room for one night."