Chapter Four
"Kuchiki-taichou, Ichigo-san... you may come in..." Hanatarou's timid voice called both shinigami and Ichigo actually felt glad that the healer finally put an end to the somewhat thick atmosphere that had settled between both Ichigo and Byakuya.
The seventh seat moved away to make room for Ichigo and Byakuya, and then followed them shyly deeper into the room.
At the rustlings of clothes, easy steps and signature reiatsu, Unohana turned and regarded both shinigami with a reassuring smile.
"He's fine," she said, nodding into the direction of the bed, where an unconscious Renji was placed. Beside the bedpost was the fourth division's fukutaichou, Kotetsu Isane. She seemed busy scribbling something on a file with Renji's name in it.
"I'll leave you two with him now, he's stabilized but if anything happens you should called one of our members..." Unohana bowed slightly and with graceful steps she walked out from the room, followed by her fukutaichou and Hanatarou, who smiled at Ichigo and gave the ryoka boy a wave.
Ichigo waved back once with a smile of his own.
"Kurosaki."
"Ugh," Ichigo tensed and turned to face the nobleman.
"It's better if he's entrusted into Soul Society's care now," Byakuya was indeed giving an option, but his tone didn't leave any room for Ichigo to protest. Ichigo came to a conclusion with that; the noble didn't trust him enough.
Ichigo was officially annoyed, and yet he couldn't come up with an argument. He was no healer after all.
"Yeah... yeah, actually I've been thinking about that... so, um, you're right..." the carrot-top approached the bed again, bracing himself with both hands on the soft mattress. His hazel eyes shifted from the unconscious Renji to Byakuya.
Byakuya's eyes were fixed on Renji, his expression neutral and impassive, the only expression he allowed to show. But Ichigo could easily tell the difference in the noble's eyes. The usually cold, ice-inducing gray eyes were now veiled with underlying emotions Ichigo never thought existed inside the noble. A mixture of concern, care, and something deeper was reflected in those beautiful orbs. The human could easily conclude that if he was not around, Byakuya would definitely initiate small physical contacts with Renji already, either holding Renji's hand or stroking his hair.
Ichigo unconsciously snorted.
It was not like he didn't like the Byakuya he just witnessed, in fact, he was actually glad the noble was still capable of feeling human emotions. The fact that iRenji/i was the one who caused such contrast was what Ichigo didn't like.
"What is it?"
"Huh? Oh—no, no... nothing," Ichigo averted his eyes to Renji again.
The thick, uncomfortable silence hung shortly after. It was broken when Ichigo finally mustered enough courage to bring back the untouched topic since he went to Soul Society today.
"Sooo... you're engaged... how did it end like that? I mean... you're noble and all..." he tried to make the question sounded light and carefree, since he had heard that Byakuya was sensitive about topics like this.
The noble closed his eyes briefly before he directed his gray eyes to meet warm brown.
"Me being a noble doesn't have any connection in this, Kurosaki."
"Yeah, I can see that... I mean... yanno, all that shitty family rules and stuffs... you're breaking it... again, aren't you?" Ichigo said slowly and immediately wondered did he go too far already.
"I am fully aware that I am doing a thing that my family would certainly disapprove. And with their still-existed ill feelings towards Hisana, I am afraid that if they figure it out, they would do something horrible to him, to make sure the same thing with Hisana won't happen again," Byakuya said, voice even, and yet his eyes was directed to Renji, veiled with concern.
Ichigo scratched his chin thoughtfully as his brows furrowed in displeasure at hearing the bits of information. "That's... rather cruel."
"Everything for the clan." Byakuya said and Ichigo could sense the obviously mocking tone it held.
The younger of the two snorted again, this time letting Byakuya heard it so the captain knew he was on the same side as him.
"Renji sure is a guy with helluva guts, isn't he?" Ichigo chuckled lightly at his own statement, unaware of a ghost of smile tugging up on the noble's lips upon hearing those words.
"Indeed."
A brief silence rose after that, but it wasn't uncomfortable.
"Another question, didn't anyone notice those rings? I mean... they're pretty obvious..." Ichigo pointed to the glinting silver band.
"Until now, no one makes a problem out of it... but since Renji didn't wear his so often so he doesn't attract public attention, I think that problem was taken care of," Byakuya was now talking with more ease, as Ichigo noted.
"Kuchiki-taichou..." a new, formal-sounded voice from outside the door called. "Your presence was requested by Unohana-taichou in the tenth Division headquarters, she is waiting for you now..."
"I'll be right there..." Byakuya straightened himself and shot Renji a last concerned look before he spun around and walked outside.
"You're not gonna kiss him?" Ichigo teased with a wide grin.
Byakuya shot Ichigo the last threatening look that clearly said 'shut-up' before he resumed his walk, softly closing the door behind him.
Well, it was not like he wouldn't do that if Ichigo wasn't around...
When Byakuya was out of sight, Ichigo had to grin widely. Today was a record, since he made the tight-ass icy noble Byakuya showed more than one expression during a short conversation.
"Luckily he didn't kiss you for real..." Ichigo smiled down, knowing that the redhead couldn't possibly hear him.
The ryoka boy dragged a nearby chair and plopped himself down once the chair was set up beside the bed, his eyes never left the figure of his redheaded companion.
"You know, Renji?" Ichigo sighed as he crossed his arms on the soft cover and placed his chin atop of it, his hazel eyes roaming over Renji's sleeping feature.
Ichigo whispered gently, like he did to his sisters if they needed their brother's consolation.
"I'm glad you finally settled your annoying ass down with somebody, and I can clearly see that he reciprocates to your feelings too... you know it pissed me off that you kept it a secret from me, remind me to kick your ass when you got your memories back..." Ichigo sighed. "... but it's kinda hard for me to let you go, yanno... I wonder why..."
Renji didn't answer, nor did he react.
"If Byakuya ever heard this, he'll slash me for sure... and since when did I sound this cheesy?"
Ichigo studied the face he had came to like a lot, his hand stopped working on the red strands and switched job, tracing the skin texture, contours and the feature of Renji's face. Ichigo's fingertips made its way from Renji's forehead, following the fine lines of his tattoos, down into a surprisingly soft cheek; they traced the shape of Renji's strong jaw before it traveled further, passing Renji's chin and paused on the soft, velvety lips.
Ichigo has this weird urge to try whether they felt this soft if his lips were the one tracing them, instead of his fingers.
A soft moan dissolved Ichigo from his (dirty) thoughts.
"R-Renji?" Ichigo tried his best not to sound faltered and he would blame it to the heat if someone asked why did his cheeks grow so pink. Not that it would work, since actually it wasn't that hot today.
Renji's brows furrowed a bit and the redhead shifted on his bed, murmuring muffled words.
"Byakuya... nnh, not there..."
"Huh!?" Ichigo's face exploded red from Renji's soft murmurs and the sudden-struck of his own version of mental images the redhead was possibly having.
Renji tossed his head to the right, squeezing his eyes.
"He's dreaming... he's dreaming..." Ichigo murmured and didn't realize he let that one out loud. The human shinigami averted his gaze from the bed so he didn't need to see what kind of expression Renji was putting on and started pressing his palm to his chest in an attempt to reduce his rapidly beating heart.
"Mmh... Ichigo..."
Ichigo's heartbeat, if possible, got faster when his name dissolved in a throaty voice from those soft-looking lips. It was now his turn to squeeze his eyes shut and prevented a hitched voice from emerging into existence.
"What the hell!? Did he have some threesome dream going on in that wicked mind!?" Ichigo fisted his hands and drew a long, hopefully calming breath.
He felt a tug at his robes.
When Ichigo looked back down to the bed, a pair of glazed, tired auburn eyes stared back at him.
"Ichigo..." another tug, this time Ichigo fully registered that Renji was back into consciousness.
"You're awake!" Ichigo tried to sound happy without giving ways to his earlier uneasiness. "... so his earlier 'Ichigo' wasn't a part of the dream..." the carrot top felt a nagging feeling that he refused to label as disappointment sipped into his skin.
The college boy shook his head.
"Yeah, and my head feels like shit..." Renji closed his eyes again before he opened them and refocusing on his surrounding. "Where the hell am I?"
"You don't remember?"
"What do you mean I don't remember? I can't remember a single thing for my own goodness!" Renji pouted before he pushed himself up into a sitting position.
Ichigo smiled and was about to retort back when the door was opened and the figure of the caring Fourth Division captain entered both males' field of view with a gentle smile on those pale lips. Unohana Retsu saw the freshly awaken Sixth Division fukutaichou and she sighed a sigh of relief before that elegant smile was back again on her face.
"You're awake, Abarai-fukutaichou..."
Renji frowned and Ichigo blinked. "Unohana-taichou?"
Unohana smiled wider as she stepped further into the room, her smile was pure and her aura was oddly calming, Renji thought. It seemed familiar enough to him.
"Don't worry Abarai-fukutaichou, I'm not your enemy," she said reassuringly. "In fact, I've found a way to get back your memories," the woman stared at Renji with her motherly gaze as she placed a warm, small hand on Renji's shoulder, showing no ill intent towards the tense redhead.
"Really!?" Ichigo got up from his seat with a huge smile and a hopeful expression.
"Of course, but this method was purely my hypothesis and it has possibilities of failing. I've discussed this with Kuchiki-taichou just now and he agreed to this method... now the only thing I need is your agreement."
"What method?" Renji asked, tilting his head to side as his tattooed brows knitted together into a frown.
"To put it short, Abarai-fukutaichou... your brain seemed to dig up your lost memories on its own, that's why you keep seeing flashes of scenes and stuffs from your past. And I see that it serves you well when you're unconscious... I believe that is the only time you ever remember something, aside from your meeting with Kuchiki-taichou."
Renji pondered awhile and counted with his fingers. "I... guess so?"
"That is why I came up with a solution that it'll be best to release all strain from your body and maximize your capability of recovering to your brain..."
"Err... you mean?"
Ichigo instantly didn't like the heavy sigh Unohana let out before she met Renji's gaze with warm violet eyes.
"In other words, we'll put you into comma, Abarai-fukutaichou..."
Ichigo's eyes widened.
"What!?"
-Tsuzuku-
A/N: Okay, a sorta-like-cliffhanger! Sorry, but if I continued it I don't know where to stop. So I guess it'll be better like this.
This chapter was hard... I mean, the idea of ByakuIchi conversation was sitting in my mind for a long time, and I wanna put it in and still make the charas IC. But when I actually wrote it, I can't make Byakuya or Ichigo stay in their characterization (since I make them said things too sappy for my liking). It ended up like that and it doesn't end up very well for me .
And Renji! Boy... I tried not to alter him from his original character too far but... I can't help myself, a cute helpless-puppy!Renji is too cute to ignore...:thwacks head: I'm very sorry about that (and I just realized I made Unohana smiled a little bit too much...) XP
Anyway, thanks a bunch to everyone who spared their time to read this! It made me extremely HAPPY!! (And those who comments of course, hehe, comments are love!).
