Chapter Nine-

By the time Renji got to Karakura, he was exhausted. His flight from Osaka was only one hour, but he had to take two trains, neither of them Shinkansen, to get to Karakura. All in all, it took four and a half hours and he was sick of staring out the window at fields of rice plants and the occasional sweet potato. It was colder than he expected too, though that was mostly because he had never been to Kyushu before and had sort of assumed that it was going to be all palm trees and watermelon like in the commercials for that weird thin udon.

Rukia had told him Karakura wasn't very big and while Renji didn't exactly know what he was expecting, he had to admit he was surprised once he got off the train. There weren't many big buildings or chain stores as far as he could tell, but there were a couple shops inside the train station and several buses lined up across the street. There were more people in the street than he expected and he saw at least three different high school uniforms which probably meant that there was more than one school. He got on the bus Rukia told him to and read through the directions she had given him one more time. A mother and her two small children got on after him and the kids gaped at him (specifically his hair) until their mother made them look away. Renji smirked and turned up the volume of the rock music on his mp3 player just to be annoying. After two stops, he got off and walked a block north to find himself in front of the apartment building that he was pretty sure was Rukia's. The man at reception raised his eyebrows at his appearance when he entered the building, but didn't say anything. There wasn't an elevator so Renji took the stairs and it was only then that he began to feel nervous.

Rukia was his friend, his best friend, and he hadn't seen her in almost three years. Sure he'd talked to her on the phone a lot since then, but it wasn't the same. She had this whole new life-she had a two year old kid that he'd never even met!-and Renji wasn't sure how he was going to fit into it.

There was also the whole teenager situation that he wasn't so sure what to think of. He'd surely be around too and Renji honestly had no idea what to say to him. This in itself wasn't a particularly new development as Renji had always been awkward around Rukia's boyfriends, but that had been because they were assholes, not four years younger than her.

He adjusted his duffel bag over his shoulder when he finally got to the fourth floor. Rukia's room was only a few doors down from the stairwell, and he hesitated for a second.

"This is ridiculous, Abarai," he thought and knocked twice.

"Coming!" came Rukia's voice from behind the door almost immediately.

Renji swallowed as the door knob turned and he came face to face with Rukia.

"Renji!" she cried, barreling forward to hug him tightly around the middle, "It's so good to see you!"

She seemed smaller than he remembered, though he wasn't sure if it was because his memory was faulty, or she had actually lost weight. Probably a bit of both. She was wearing a sort of sundress with polka dots on it and flats. Her nails were unpainted, her hair was much shorter, and there wasn't a speck of makeup on her face. Renji doubted many of her old so-called friends would even recognize her like this.

"Oof," Renji exclaimed, hugging her back. "I would assure you the feeling is mutual, but unfortunately you have crushed my lungs. I have to go die now."

She glared up at him, but her look quickly melted into a smile.

"Come in, come in," she said stepping back and beckoning him into the apartment. "I didn't start dinner yet because I didn't know how late you were going to be, so it might be a while."

"It's cool," Renji said, putting his shoes on the shoe rack and looking around.

It was nicer than he expected. Sure it was only about half the size of his apartment in Osaka, but is was clean and there was a large bag of rice on the counter next to the stove that showed she at least wasn't having problems buying food. The kitchen and the main room sort of blended together with two doors to his left, a small bathroom and the bedroom, but there were colorful drawings stuck to the fridge with magnets and a few picture frames on the walls. There was no one else in the apartment and Renji opened his mouth to ask about it, but Rukia beat him to it.

"Oh, Kito's in the bedroom. I'll go get him." she said cheerfully and then frowned, looking him over. "You brought a sleeping bag, right, I told you I didn't have a couc-"

"Yeah, it's in the bag," he replied. "It's one of those that can be wrapped up really small. Er…you don't have to wake him up, I'll see him later."

Rukia rolled her eyes. "No, I made him a fort out of the blankets and pillows. He's been in there for hours playing with his stuffed animals. It'll do him good to get out."

She turned and went into the bedroom, and Renji heard her talking softly with words he couldn't quite decipher. After a minute of what he presumed was spent convincing her son to leave the fort, Rukia exited her bedroom, a toddler in her arms.

Renji had seen pictures of Kito before; Rukia had sent a couple every once and a while, but none recently. His hair was longer and thicker, and he was a lot bigger than he was in the latest photograph.

"Kito," she said softly, adjusting him on her hip. "This is Renji, nee? I told you about him remember? He's a very good friend. Can you say hi?"

"Hey, Kito," Renji said, crouching a bit to see him at eyelevel. "You probably don't remember this, but I talked to you on the phone once. Well, I did the talking, you just kind of giggled."

The boy looked up at him with wide eyes, Rukia's eyes, and then lifted his tiny arm and pointed at him.

"Red," he said decisively and made a grab for his hair.

Rukia snorted with laughter. "Now that's not very nice," she said, but her reprimand didn't sound very convincing. "No pulling hair, remember? He always used to do that to Ichigo," she said, turning to him, "drove him nearly insane."

"Mmm," Renji said, not really wanting to talk about her new boyfriend. "Well, it's good he knows his colors at least, huh?"

"True," Rukia said happily, stroking her son's bangs out of his eyes. "Now, c'mon Kito. Say 'Renji.' Re-n-ji."

"I say Lenji!"

"You do, huh?" Renji said, laughing despite himself. "Eh, that's probably close enough."

"He'll get it eventually," Rukia promised. "And then he won't stop saying it for weeks."

She smiled at him, a soft sort of smile that seemed odd on her face, probably, Renji realized, because she had never smiled like that before.

"You're probably hungry," she said, setting Kito down onto the floor. "I'll start dinner."

Before Renji could offer to help, she leant down and whispered, "Howabout you show Renji your stuffed bunny rabbit, huh?" in Kito's ear

"Bunny rabbit!" Kito repeated enthusiastically and rushed back into the bedroom.

"You bought him a stuffed rabbit?" Renji asked. "Why am I not surprised…"

"It was cute!" Rukia protested. "And half off!"

Renji rolled his eyes, but inwardly was grateful. At least in this she was still the same. Before he could make a sarcastic comment, Kito reappeared holding a worn looking stuffed rabbit complete with button eyes and unnecessary patches.

"Runny Babbit!" he exclaimed, thrusting his small fist into the air.

"Bunny. Rabbit." Rukia corrected, measuring out rice and getting a pot from a cabinet to fill with water.

"Either way, it's…er….a great bunny," Renji finished lamely, acutely aware that he had no idea how to talk to kids.

Kito giggled and presented his stuffed animal to him proudly. Renji reached out to take it, but at the last second Kito snatched it away, hugging the toy to his small chest possessively.

"No!" he said, crossly with his eyebrows furrowed. "Mine!"

"Kito," Rukia said in a tone of voice that kind of made Renji want to hide, "Share."

Kito scowled, but eventually relented and handed his rabbit over to Renji.

"Thank you, Kito," Rukia said, all sweetness again, but Kito's scowl lingered.

"Cool rabbit, kid," Renji said, handing the rabbit back and tentatively ruffled the boy's hair, "Got any other toys you can show me?"

Kito brightened at this.

"Lenji!" he declared, "I show you tnuck!"

"'Tnuck?'" Renji repeated, looking at Rukia in askance.

"He means 'truck.'" Rukia explained as she cut up onions and peppers. "It's just one of those works I can't get him to pronounce right. Ichigo said it's normal though, and should probably go away as he gets older."

Renji raised an eyebrow. "'Ichigo said' huh?"

"He has two little sisters," Rukia explained, not reading into his tone. "He practically raised them himself too, after his mom-"

She cut herself off and quickly changed the subject, but Renji was very aware of what she had been about to say next.

Strangely enough, it made him feel better about the situation. Like Rukia, he had never known his parents. He had even lived with Rukia and Hisana for a while, but had mostly grown up in foster care. While his experience in the system was hardly reflective of all the pop culture horror stories, Renji still felt like he had mostly raised himself. It was something that made him sad sometimes, but also something he was very proud of. And while it didn't really seem to make any logical sense, Renji felt like he could trust people more if they'd had similar hardships in their lives.

"Don't you have to go to your night job?" Renji asked after a while, glancing at the clock.

"Oh, I didn't tell you?" Rukia said, sounding surprised. "I got a raise at the café, enough so that I could quit. It's been great; now I actually get enough sleep every night."

Renji has been worried about her night job even before it caused her to collapse, so this was a relief. Renji smiled and then asked if there was anything he could do to help and she quickly put him to work cutting up some fish.

He had dinner with just Rukia and Kito in that tiny apartment, a welcome relief after his long trip. Rukia told him stories about Kito's escapades at daycare and he told her about two of his mates from school, Ikkaku and Yumichika, who were always good for laughs. Ichigo's name came up every now and then, but Renji ignored the temptation to grill Rukia about him. He would just have to meet this Kurosaki Ichigo for himself.


Rukia was nervous as she left for the morning, carrying Kito in one arm as she locked the door. Renji was still asleep and she wouldn't see him until around five-thirty, but he had assured her that he had a lot of homework to do anyway.

Even after she dropped Kito off the anxiety wouldn't go away, and she spent most of the day glancing at the clock edgily.

"Are you alright, Kuchiki-san?" Hinamori asked worriedly, after Rukia nearly dropped a tray of dishes for the third time. "You seem…distracted."

"I'm fine," Rukia assured her and tried to focus on seeming less troubled.

It wasn't that she didn't want Renji around, quite the opposite really. He was her best friend, one of the only true friends she'd had in her life and it was great to see him after almost three years.

It was just that…well, Rukia really, really, wanted him to be on board with the whole Ichigo thing. She could tell he wasn't too certain about the situation, and several times the night before she had wanted to say something, anything, to get across to him how much Ichigo meant to her, but she was too much of a coward. Renji had always been uneasy around her boyfriends and she knew it was a little strange, but she really wanted him to like Ichigo, or at least understand that Ichigo was good for her and Kito. He would be meeting Ichigo later that afternoon and the possibility that it wouldn't end well made her stomach turn. Ichigo seemed to be aware of this possibility as well, though it was probably because of some guy thing, rather than the fact that he knew Renji's history with her previous boyfriends.

So it was with more than a bit of trepidation that she signed out from work, picked up Kito, and made her way home.

In the end, she needn't have worried at all, as Ichigo chose to wear a Chouseishin (1) t-shirt, a TV show Renji was apparently obsessed with and they spent the first hour or so of their acquaintance arguing over who had the best battle suits (what the fuck?) and bitching about the cancellation of the series.

"You two are the biggest nerds I have ever met," Rukia told them flatly, as she refilled their cups of tea.

"She doesn't understand its awesomeness," Renji said mournfully, while Ichigo shook his head in woe, "C'mon, there's time travel, aliens, tons of fight scenes, hot chicks in skin tigh-"

"Renji!"

"Okay, fine….uh, where was I?"

"Hot chicks?" Ichigo said innocently and Renji glared at him.

"And…plot twists!" he continued, "Lots of plot twists! What more could you want in a show?"

"Besides bunnies," Ichigo cut in before she could answer, "You don't have to tell us. Believe me, we know."

"Hey!" Rukia protested, "That's not the only thing I think about, you know."

They just blinked back at her, expressions carefully blank.

"Don't look at me like that!"

"Second year of primary school," Renji retorted, "You nearly failed maths because you wouldn't stop drawing bunnies in the margins of your homework."

"Kito's bib," Ichigo added helpfully.

"Middle school: you visited the pet store everyday to look at the rabbits walking home from school."

"The lady at the daycare center asked you why Kito knew the word rabbit, but not any other animal words just two weeks ago."

"Last year of high school," Renji continued, clearly on a roll, "you got in a fight with Byakuya was because he wouldn't let you have a pet bunny."

"And not to mention that horrendous wallpaper you were looking at a couple months ago."

Renji turned to look at him in shock, "Dude…wallpaper?" he questioned, looking physically ill. "Seriously?"

"Yup," Ichigo answered, nodding gravely. "It was awful. I only just managed to convince her out of it."

"It wasn't that bad." Rukia scowled. "The walls here are falling apart and I mean, it would have looked nice with the…curtains?"

"You don't have any curtains." Renji snorted and Rukia threw her hands up in defeat.

"Fine, fine, you win," she said, rolling her eyes. "But at least I'm not the ones who spent forty-five minutes discussing the aerodynamics of giant robot…thingies."

"They're actually called "Ultra Star Gods'" Ichigo said solemnly, before he and Renji cracked up.

Rukia closed her eyes and unsuccessfully suppressed a giggle, and then Kito started laughing, and by the end of it all Renji had nearly fallen out of his chair twice and Rukia was holding onto the table for dear life.

"Ultra Star what?" she choked. "Who the hell came up with that name?"

"I have no…" Ichigo paused to gasp for breath, "…idea, I swear!"

"Well, Chouseishin was produced by Toho, with some help from Konami," Renji said, rubbing tears out of his eyes, "Don't ask me why I know that."

"Nerd," Rukia giggles, punching him lightly on the shoulder, "It must be your fellow physics students who've corrupted you, because you've completely lost any badass…ness you ever had."

"Hey," he protested, "I'm still pretty badass. I'm just more of the…studying…type."

"I think I'm going to have to agree with her on this point," Ichigo said, apparently having regained the ability to speak, "But if it makes you feel better, you still look pretty badass. Well, more like a yakuza, but-"

"I hate you both." Renji muttered. "But not you kid." he amended, reaching out to pat Kito's head. "You I can live with. The rest of these idiots…pshh! They probably do stupid stuff like make you eat your vegetables and brush your teeth, am I right?"

"Vegetables is yucky!" Kito replied seriously.

"Are yucky," she and Ichigo said at the same time, and Ichigo looked vaguely embarrassed.

She winked at him and he rolled his eyes back at her, an exchange that was not missed by Renji.

"Rukia, I hungry!" Kito whined. "Want dinner."

"Is it really that time?" Ichigo exclaimed, fishing out his cell phone. "Well, I better get going. I'll leave you two to catch up mor-"

"Not so fast," Rukia interrupted, grabbing his sleeve as he stood up, "You have to eat dinner with us."

For nearly the first time since he entered the room he looked awkward, bringing his left hand up to hold the back of his neck.

"Err, well I wouldn't want to intrude on-"

"You're staying."

"-and well, I have a bit of homework to fini-"

"You're staying."

"I have a test tomorrow on which my entire life depends?"

"You. Are. Staying."

"Give it up, dude," Renji said, leaning back to prop his feet on the table surface. "Surrender now or the full wrath of Kuchiki Rukia will be brought down upon you."

"You only have two chairs?" Ichigo tried.

"Then we can share," Rukia said sweetly.

"Meaning you can elbow me whenever you want."

"Now why would you ever accuse me of such a thing?" Rukia gasped in horror (really) and Renji snorted. "Now sit."

"I guess I'll just have to stay," Ichigo said in mock-resignation, but he was smiling just a little bit and Rukia really wanted to kiss him just then.

She didn't, of course, and started planning a dinner in to which all of them chipped in, even Kito, and it was more fun than she'd had in a while.

The next two days she spent working, but then Sunday came around, her day off, and she gave Renji the not-so-grand tour of Karakura, which took under an hour. She, Renji, Ichigo, and Kito went out that night to eat dinner at a restaurant, something she hadn't done in ages. He and Ichigo seemed to be getting along great, and Kito loved him as well, following him wherever he went around the small apartment, repeating his name over and over again as she'd predicted. She wished he could have stayed for New Year's itself, but he had to get back to Osaka for some really important lab that he had to complete in order to not fail out of university or something.

On that last morning, she went with him to the train station to see him off, having called in sick to work. She really needed the money, but this was important and she was going to go in right after his train left.

"It was really great seeing you," Rukia said, smiling at him, "Come and stay anytime. Though, hopefully I'll have a couch the next time you're here."

"I'm glad to see you're doing okay," Renji replied. "I was worried at first. I know you said you were alright, but I feel better after seeing you."

"Yeah, I…" she sighed, rubbing the back of her head. "This is as…as good as it's been. I'm…I'm really happy here. I mean, money's a little tight, but…" She swallowed. "I always said that if Byakuya found me I would run, but I don't want to now. It's been really great here and I want to stay."

"It's this Ichigo guy too, isn't it?" Renji asked, sounding amused.

Rukia rolled her eyes, "Alright, yes, it's him too, but I wasn't going to mention it because I know it makes you uncomfortable."

"He's not that bad," Renji muttered, looking embarrassed, shifting his duffel bag to his other shoulder. "A lot different than I thought. Looks a lot older too, which is one of those things that probably shouldn't matter, but does anyway."

Rukia stared at him, "Renji…are you trying to give me your blessing?"

"No!" Renji nearly shouted out. "Ughh, don't say it like that, it's so wishy-washy. I…I just approve of him, alright. I think he's good for you. And Kito."

"Yeah," Rukia said, butterflies dancing in her stomach. The good kind of butterflies. "He is good for me. I know it's weird, but I really like him."

It was really cheesy and she felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment as she said it, but it was important to her that Renji understood this.

"He has good taste in TV shows," Renji said, still sounding a little abashed. "It's really hard for me not to approve of someone who likes Chouseishin."

Rukia gave a little laugh, still finding it funny that the tough boy she had known all those years ago could blab on about a rather geeky TV show for hours on end.

"And I guess he has good taste in girls too," he said after a pause, amusement back.

"Thank you," Rukia said, suppressing a smirk. "It's nice to see you admitting my superior charm."

Renji rolled his eyes and hugged her tightly. Rukia held on a bit longer than she usually would, only letting go when the train rolled into the station.

"Take care of yourself," Renji told her. "If you ever need anything, just call, okay?"

"Okay," she promised. "I will. Good luck with your studies, make sure you get better scores than all those over privileged jerks you go to school with."

"They're not all that bad," Renji protested, but smiled. "Say goodbye to Kito for me and I'll call you soon!"

He stepped onto the train and she waved until it pulled out of the station and became a mere speck on the horizon.

She went to work after that, feeling a little down, though nothing compared to what Hinamori must be feeling as the girl had apparently slipped and hit her forehead very hard on the sidewalk, leaving a nasty looking bruise. Her mood improved after one of the other workers lent her some cover-up and she had no problem making jokes about it. The girl definitely had a clumsy streak and was probably used to it by now, but Rukia was rather envious of her in a odd sort of way. She had never been the type of person able to make jokes easily, much less jokes about herself like Hinamori did. Sometimes she wished she had her easygoing manner, but then again Hinamori always had a hard time saying no to the guys that hit on her at work. Rukia had never had such problems.

She met Ichigo later that day to look for a heater for her apartment. It was definitely colder in Osaka, but her apartment was getting chilly and despite her pleas the landlord refused to turn up the heat. They went to this rundown looking secondhand shop filled with aisles and aisles of old appliances and spent nearly an hour rooting through them until they found a suitable one. It took the both of them to carry it up the stairs to her apartment and by the time they finally got it in the room, Rukia felt like she hardly needed it anymore.

"Thank God, that's finally over with," she said, collapsing into one of the chairs. "If there was one more floor, I think I would've thrown myself out the window."

"They really should get an elevator in this building," Ichigo complained, panting heavily.

"Hey," she said and she kicked him in the shins.

"What was that for?"

She stood and smiled at him, wiping sweat of her forehead. "Thanks for helping."

Ichigo looked rather embarrassed at this, but he looped an arm around her waist when she stretched up to kiss him and Rukia knew that all of it was worth having this.

(1) A post-apocalyptic TV show involving giant robots produced by Toho Company, Ltd. That's pretty much all you need to know.

A/N: FINALLY!!!! Ugh, this chapter was just awful. I could not figure out a way to have Ichigo and Renji meet that wasn't horribly awkward and I just can't write awkwardness. At least not that brand of awkwardness. The idea I ended up doing was resonance and d's, so kudos to her!

Otherwise, I was kind of being lazy waiting for inspiration to hit for this chapter, instead of just sitting down and forcing myself to write this. Which I ended up doing because otherwise it would have never gotten done.

We're nearing the final stretch for VRaSB (weird, I know!) There'll probably be only about three or four more chapters, depending on how long the next part is going to take. Hopefully, I'll make it before you guys all die of old age…^_^;

Anyway, thank you so much for your continued support in the face of my supreme laziness…I mean, Writer's Block and please review!