Rukia, age 116.
As one of the newest members of the Thirteenth Division, Rukia didn't have the authority to push through her own transfer to the Eleventh, but she sweet talked a 20th seat into doing it for her. While waiting for the transfer to go through, she stayed busy and learned her way around by doing her job for the Thirteenth: delivering files and papers to different shinigami all over Soul Society.
"Excuse me," Rukia called through a door in the Sixth Division. "If someone could please open the door, my arms are very full." The door opened to reveal Renji, who looked mildly surprised but accepted the stack of papers that Rukia tilted into his arms. "Thanks!" she said with a bright smile, before muttering in addition, "For telling me where you got placed, asshole."
Behind Renji, a shinigami called out, "Who is it, Abarai-kun?"
Rukia stepped around Renji neatly. "Good day!" she said to the unknown shinigami, bowing politely. "My name is Abarai Rukia of the Thirteenth Division. I'm here to deliver Captain Kuchiki's blank requisition forms and receipts of recently filled requests."
"You're from Abarai too?" The shinigami was a tall, thin man with dirty blond hair, seated at a desk. A few other desk bound shinigami in the room looked up from their work to see what was going on.
"Yes, Renji-kun and I are old friends."
"You're an old pain in the ass," Renji muttered quietly, then winced when he saw an edge overtake Rukia's smile.
"Renji-kun, there's no need to take all of them from me, let me take at least half." Rukia stepped on his foot as she took the papers, and as if that wasn't enough, ground her heel in for a second before stepping back. Renji glared at her.
"Why don't you help Abarai-kun find Captain Kuchiki's office, Abarai-kun?" the man asked with a bit of humor in his voice.
"Of course, 15th Seat Moriyama," Renji answered stiffly. He bowed, then put a hand on Rukia's back and practically shoved her out the door. "Lovely meeting you all!" she called out before Renji slammed the door shut.
"It's 'Captain Kuchiki' now, huh?" Renji snapped, setting off at a brisk pace that Rukia hurried to keep up with. "What happened to 'nii-chan'?"
"Not in front of his minions. What's wrong with you?"
"I got into a fight," Renji bit out.
"Seriously? It's been, what," three days before the Fifth Division recruits got reassigned, minus the full two weeks that Rukia had been working already, "a week and a half since you started? You can't pretend to be obedient for that long?"
"Someone insulted Kenpachi-sama." His expression turned dark, which Rukia understood. Renji hadn't wanted to travel with Kenpachi and didn't see why the two of them couldn't make their own way to the Shinigami Academy, but he'd always been deeply appreciative of the things the older man and Yachiru had taught them. Lacking any formal training, Kenpachi had still been able to show them how to throw their reiatsu into their attacks, and Yachiru had somehow managed to learn shunpo on her own and bullied Rukia and Renji into learning it by chasing after her.
"You beat the- good morning!" She bowed and smiled politely to a passing shinigami, the continued once he was out of hearing range, "-shit out of them, didn't you?"
"Of course I did," he replied, affronted. "The problem was that I attacked first, and the guy was a 20th Seat. Lieutenant Shirogane sat me down afterwards and lectured me for an hour, then stuck me at a desk as a probation sentence. I've got a week left before I get to do any training with the division again."
"That's awful," she said, honestly sympathetic. Rukia was frustrated by the lack of decent fighting in her own squad - how would she ever get stronger if she wasn't constantly pushing herself against stronger opponents? - but there were organized spars three times a week and she got to run around Soul Society for her job.
"Yeah. Bright side, apparently I'm considered strong enough to go hollow hunting once my probation's over. It usually takes recruits years to get that far."
"And now I hate you again," Rukia proclaimed.
"That's right, what're you doing in Thirteenth? Didn't you want to go back to fearing for your life under Kenpachi-sama?"
"That's right, do you believe this shit?" Rukia was angry enough to forget about being classy in front of strangers, as a pair of gossiping officer walked by as she spoke. "I delivered some stuff to Ken-sama yesterday, and he says I should fill it out for him. And when I tell him I don't know how to fill out those forms, he asks, then why did he bother having me stuck in the Thirteenth Division anyway?"
Renji blinked. "Seriously?" He hadn't thought the man would wish desk work on his worst enemies, but apparently he was willing to abandon Rukia to it.
"I know. He says he thinks he can get away with half-assing the paperwork for maybe a year, so he wants me to learn how to do it before then. He says he can't trust the dumbshits who're already in the division to take care of it for him." Rukia sounded torn somewhere between anger and pride.
"He should have Yachiru fill it all out," Renji snickered, but Rukia lit up like he was a genius.
"That's actually a great idea!" Rukia exclaimed. "It'll take longer for them to process her crayon messes than it will whatever Ken-sama writes, since they'll have to figure out what she wrote first. You actually are capable of intelligent thought, Renji."
"If you haven't seen it before, it's because I didn't think my audience was smart enough to appreciate it," Renji shot back.
Her retort was cut off as they stepped into the office that preceded the captain and lieutenant's shared office. The third seat who acted as secretary waved them through without looking up, and Renji let Rukia open the next door.
"Good morning, Captain Kuchiki, Lieutenant Shirogane," Rukia chirped as she walked in. "I have your requested requisition forms and the receipts of filled requests for the last two weeks."
"Put them here, please," Shirogane said, gesturing to a corner of his desk. "You know, I've never understood why you need to fill out a requisition form in order to get more requisition forms. Abarai-kun, have you been settling in all right?"
"Yes, sir," Renji replied, setting the papers down. He and Rukia were both startled when Kuchiki was sitting at his desk one moment and suddenly standing in front of her the next. Shirogane looked a bit confused. "Good morning, Captain Kuchiki," said Renji steadily.
Kuchiki nodded to him and looked back to Rukia. "Is the Thirteenth Division treating you well?" he asked her lowly.
Renji watched Kuchiki's expression soften just a bit as they spoke, and internally shook his head. Why the hell some upper class, uptight shinigami captain wanted to adopt a backwater runt like Rukia so much was beyond him.
Author's Notes: The district they're from isn't actually called Abarai in the canon, I think, so please ignore the discrepency if it bothers you. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
