A/N If only editing didn't take so long. Here's the next chapter of Truth Be Told...
I disclaim I do not own Bleach.
Rukia turned to Renji whose sights were off at a distance. She strained her eyes trying to read the withdrawn look behind his rustic orbs.
"Just passed those woods," she began, her gaze soft and considering. Renji's attention had turned to hers. "There's a river. A long river that curls and loops around the trees."
She drew with her index in the air a visual of the river's path. "It runs for a while till it stops at a tall slope just where the woods cut off. Beyond that hill," she paused, her eyes darted to his for a minute before it flew back to the woods near the pond. "Is the Kuchiki manor."
Renji's heart hammered against his chest, he hoped Rukia was too occupied with her own thoughts to notice his nerves rising.
He was approximately 2.5 miles from the Kuchiki manor, that's what the seller of this compound told him when he bought it.
At the time, he and Rukia were estranged and those hills, the one she mentioned—he had been to them.
Stood right on them—ran down them. Ran as far as he could until he'd reach a point on the slopes where the ground sunk low enough to reveal the tip of the Kuchiki manor.
That was as far as he could reach since his legs and wavering courage would not allow him any further. He had always gotten to that point of the hill, pivoted on his heels and ran back to the woods. Those woods were thick and the river that meandered around the tall trees was the only thing not tainted by the eerie shadows. There had been times that he'd stop by the river just to dip a foot in it to relieve his aching muscles from running up the hill.
"Small world." Rukia laughed, her eyes shutting peacefully. "Without the wall of trees we're almost neighbors." That was it, that was what Rukia couldn't see. Renji's eyes went back to the thick forest. She had missed the metaphor that lied behind the trees. Those trees, thick walls of darkness, did more than just cut him off from her, it separated their worlds. Beyond the wall of forests was a world of aristocracy where the privileged squandered about without a worry in the world while on the other side of the forest, the others—less privileged and plagued with misfortune, yearned to rise, to succeed, to chase a dream they felt obligated to reach.
How many times had he ran into the woods, followed that river to the hills only to reach a point on the hill where reality hit him so hard it forced him running back to the woods. He could make it as far as the peak of the hill where all he could do was bark at the manor at the distant. Her name had always caught at his throat when he had reached that point. It was the thought of obstructing her new life that had always held him from letting her name leave his lips.
"Renji." The frailness in her voice roped him back to the present. He turned to her, her face was featureless now staring at her twiddling fingers. He thought she looked so vulnerable then it made his heart slow back to its normal pace.
"What is it?"
"You're an idiot," she said simply, her tone light and teasing. "You live this close and yet you barely ever visit."
If only she knew how many times he tried. He wouldn't admit it now to her how many times he'd run to the hills only to stop and run back to the woods. He would rather let her believe him to be an insensitive idiot than to let her know that he was an even bigger sensitive coward.
"You're the idiot," he shot back, matching her teasing tone. "You live this close and yet you barely ever visit."
The sky had ripened to a lighter blue as the day passed its early morning phase. The two swung on the moving couch for a while talking about trivial matters. Rukia brought up the banquet, she had so many questions. Renji shared some of his past experiences, leaving out the embarrassing parts, of course. He told her of the time he was ordered to fill in for entertainment, and how he had to improvise since he had no actual talent.
Rukia waited eagerly for the punchline of the joke. She knew of Renji's lack of talent, excluding the recent one he obtained from the world of the living where he could now differentiate between colors. She inwardly laughed at the image of Renji jumping up on stage and busting out a last minute, half-assed performance.
"So." Rukia urged him on when he stalled on the punchline.
Renji groaned and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Did he really want to tell her this story? Rukia was known to store and archive all his embarrassing stories only to threatened to use them when she needed to blackmail him into something.
This story was known by others, though. He had publicly humiliated him, his captain, and his squad. The only ones who didn't know of this story were the people who were excluded from the banquet.
There were three rules administrated by the head captain for the annual banquets: rule number one was to adhere to the all-white dress code, rule number two was to RSVP to the event 24 hours prior the celebration, and the last and final rule—one he would soon break was to never discuss the event with any outside party.
"I got up and recited a 75 line poem." His face reddened and he could not make eye contact with Rukia.
Rukia stifled a laugh. "Please, oh please Renji." She inched closer to him on the couch and shook him aggressively. "Recite it now."
"Absolutely not," he snapped, reddening some more. "I don't—I don't even remember."
"Oh yes, you do!" She accused, her eyes opening up wide knowingly.
"I don't."
"Renji!" She urged, shaking him till his arm muscles tensed up. "Please." Rukia lips formed a pout; she never pouted, ever.
Renji shuddered at the words he said that night, words he hadn't known were corny until Yachiru came up to him and mocked him on his style or lacked thereof.
Red were the lips of the maiden who…His shudder returned when a slice of the poem leaked into his memory. Not one meter, not one verse, nothing in the poem was redeemable. It was so bad, his own captain, one who'd often appreciated great artistry had avoided eye contact with him that entire night.
"I can't tell you Rukia, I could get in trouble. Whatever happens at a banquet must never be leaked." Though that detail was true, it was not necessarily the reason for his tight lips. Even if that hadn't been a rule, he would never confess his poem to Rukia. Ever.
Rukia slouched down with disappointment only relenting because she did not want to break protocol and risk her chance of attending the banquet this year.
"Aright." Rukia rose from her seat and ironed away the bunched-up wrinkles of the fabric with her hands. Her time passed here with Renji was much deserved, but she still had things to prepare. The banquet was the day after tomorrow.
"You're leaving?" The undercurrent disappointment in Renji's tone appeased Rukia a bit, she smiled inwardly at the power she held over him for that fleeting minute. Catching the vulnerability in his tone, he replaced it with a mock. "Leaving to get a new dress, right?"
Rukia felt the power she had over him dissolve. "No. I'm going to go back to the world of the living with Rangiku and Momo and help them find their dresses."
"Boy, you guys are abusing the portals. Aren't frequent earth visits only for emergency uses only?" Renji observed.
"Well yes, I'm glad you said that, Renji."
Renji shrunk at her mischievous grin. "Why?"
"Rangiku sort of lied to her captain. Well—truth disguised as a tiny white lie."
"Otherwise; a blatant lie," Renji clarified his brows arching.
Rukia's eyes darted left then right as if she were hiding dangerous secrets. "She-told-him-that-Urahara-had-a-mission for-you-a-secret-mission-that-needed-you-to-go-there-at-once." She blurted out so fast it took Renji a few seconds to register it fully.
"And so how does that excuse all of you for coming?" Rather than explode for involving him in their little plans, Renji was actually curious as to how they planned it all out. He'd pop their heads in after he was told the entire plan.
Thinking that he was on board with the plan, Rukia continued, "so Rangiku told the captain that Urahara said you needed to bring with you three of the strongest soul-reapers you know."
Renji choked on a laugh. In what world would he be dense enough to bring an alcoholic bimbo, emotionally scarred fangirl, and a soul reaper the size of his toe as his back up for his mission? The implications were almost as comical as his poem at the banquet. Surely the captain of squad ten did not eat up that lie willingly, and if he did he surely was fed this lie with some delusional pills.
"The captain is suspicious," Rukia said.
Renji's eyes widened matter-of-factly. "I would hope he was more than suspicious, Rukia."
"And why is bringing us as back up an idea warranting suspicion? So it would have been easier to accept if you brought the guys?"
Renji's right hand went to his face as it drew down his features with exasperation. Rukia missed the point like an astronaut missing the moon and landing on the sun. The implication was not meant to devalue their own strength, Renji was well aware that the three women were competent fighters, and in the event of an actual battle, he had faith that the three would uphold, give their all and defeat the enemy, no sweat.
What Rukia failed to realize and what he realized the moment she relayed the plans was that any mission submitted by Urahara was a tedious mission often relating to science and experimentation. Any mission science-related or paperwork related was not a typical mission for Rangiku. Assuming that Captain Hitsugaya realized this as Renji had, there was no way the captain of squad ten would fall for that.
"How about the fact that if captain Hitsugaya contacts Urahara to verify, and Urahara unknowingly—"
"Oh, Kisuke's in on it." Great. Renji felt a headache coming on.
A/N: Note the symbolic properties behind the river and the woods separating Renji and Rukia. If you're familiar with Renji's "barking at the moon," speech he delivered to Ichigo after his defeat you'll catch how him running through the hills and never going pass them to meet Rukia is just a visual representation of he never fights for what he wants only to complain about never getting it.
Leave a review, did you interpret the river as something else?
