Hey everyone! See, this chapter is up much, much faster than the last one was. : D I can't believe I actually wrote nine chapters of a story. This is like, such a big deal for me.

This is a super important chapter. I think you'll understand why as you read it. I hope I made Renji's character development apparent and believable up till this point because otherwise you might be like, "what." This chapter is also not edited yet, so please bear with the hideous mistakes I am prone to accidentally make.

Thank you for your reviews in the last chapter. Please give me your thoughts on this as well. It was so hard to not have any Noriko in this chapter, and she managed to sneak her way in anyway. I love her so much! I sincerely hope you do too.

Enjoy reading!

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No Strings Attached
Chapter 9 - Rukia

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"So then," grinned Rukia, swallowing down another mouthful of ramen. Renji watched in a bizarre fascination. "I had to attack it from behind, you know? They always said at the academy that cross species have a weak skull but strong eyes - but that thing had eyes all around its head."

"Really," responded Renji weakly.

Nodding, Rukia continued, "Yeah, but Ichigo was all like, no, that's some shit strategy. And I was like, like you know anything, dumbass." Rukia handled her chopsticks with such efficient grace that Renji actually felt envious - though that was stupid because Rukia was a noble, and she must've had to suffer through many, many horrible hours of stuffy teachers to get to that level of skill.

The thought made him smile, imagining Rukia trying to hide her disgruntled features.

"So at the end, you wouldn't believe who saved our asses. Cause Ichigo started saying something about about ratios between reiatsu levels and and size, and the next thing I knew the Hollow was exploding into pieces and Ishida was punching Ichigo across the face for causing a racket that even his two year old could hear."

"Ohh, Yumi-chan." Renji smiled outright at that, "I still dunno how he's the father to something so freakin' adorable."

Rukia nodded sagely. "I know. His wife's gorgeous though. Watching them interact sometimes makes me want to gag."

For a second, Renji wondered what Rukia was talking about. Even though he would never, ever, say this out loud, Ishida and his wife were perhaps the sweetest couple he had ever seen. The kind that made Renji look away and hide a grin behind his hand. The kind of relationship he hoped he would have sometime in the future.

And then he realized that "makes me want to gag" was Rukia for, "makes me squeal and aw inside from their insane cuteness."

Because really, at the end of the day, despite all of her boyish attitude and rough words, Rukia was a gentle person, who had a soft and gooey center.

"But yeah. That's why I need a new uniform now. Because I have dead Hollow all over it. Not because I actually did something cool."

Renji smirked. "I can't remember the last time that you did something cool."

"Oh yeah." Rukia grinned cockily, gesturing at her chopsticks. "Watch this. Ukitake-taichou taught it to me a few months ago when we were having tea."

"Why d'you need chopsticks when drinkin' tea?" Renji wanted to know.

Rukia glared. "Just shut up and watch." She touched the tip of the long wooden sticks with her finger, and a little blue spark traveled out of her finger and into the stick. A moment later, the chopstick was cleanly cut in half along the long side, two identical pieces lying next to each other.

Smiling in a satisfied way, Rukia said, "See."

Renji folded his arms. "That wasn't that cool."

"Yeah, let's see you do it then, smartass."

"Fine," snapped back Renji, as he picked up Rukia's other chopstick. He had a bad feeling in the back of his head, but he ignored it. It couldn't be that hard. He just had to let out one spark of reiatsu. Even he could manage that.

Renji took a deep breath and focused on the feeling of energy running through his body. He imagined letting out the tiniest drop of it and saw in his mind's eye that spark traveling down the chopstick.

And the next thing he knew there were wood chips flying into his face, nearly jabbing him in the eye.

"Shit."

Seeing Rukia's smug smile just made it worse. She could really make a guy feel like the world's biggest fool sometimes.

"So anyway," said Rukia, idly swiping away the remains of the broken chopsticks and Renji's pride, "what's been going on here? And I just dare you to say nothing, Renji, because I've been gone for months."

Renji felt that familiar twinge. Rukia had been gone for a long time and he'd have to be lying if he said he hadn't missed her insanely. It was just that her ties in Karakura were strengthening more than her ties back in Soul Society, and the fact that shinigami on duty didn't have to report back to their captains personally just gave Rukia less reason to come back.

Still - Renji knew that their friendship was something that Rukia treasured greatly, and it wasn't something that could be broken so easily. He didn't fear her ever leaving him - because bonds with Rukia were something that one kept for life - but rather, he was afraid of how he would live his life without her there as a constant goal, a constant presence.

So Renji settled with a small grin and said, "Kira got a tattoo, did ya know?"

Rukia nearly choked on her water. "What?" Renji had never heard her sound so scandalized.

"Seriously!" he laughed. "I was just walkin' down the street that day when I saw him rubbin' his arm. I thought somethin' was wrong and you know how flustered he gets. The design's cool though. It's like, a spirally thing coiling around a bird."

"Yeah," nodded Rukia. "Cool."

Renji glared at her blatant sarcasm. "Just cause you can't handle the thought of needles pokin' into you skin doesn't mean that everyone who gets one is a total retard!"

"No, just you are," she smirked.

"Well, anyway," said Renji, steering the subject away from Rukia's specialty (which generally involved her verbally abusing him and him exploding and acting like an idiot which led her to smile condescendingly). "Other stuff happened too."

"Yeah?"

"Hmm... lets see. Iba and the guys got themselves banned from that bar in the 4th District."

"I meant new news Renji."

"You mean they got banned from there before?"

"You idiot." Rukia rolled her eyes, but there was a small smile pulling on her lips that made Renji grin in turn.

"Yeah, yeah. What else, what else... there've been problems with bandits again, Hitsugaya started losin' hair - I know, I know - Kuchiki-taichou is readin' modern novels and I... kinda met a girl."

Rukia looked exaggeratedly shocked. "You met a girl? That must've been a moment to remember."

"See this face Rukia? It's me not laughin'."

"I'd rather not look," replied Rukia with a grin. "You know, I still have to protect my eyes from hideous sights-"

"Oh, har har-"

"So," interrupted Rukia, "when did you meet her?"

Seeing Rukia's eyes filled with nothing but genuine happiness made the knot that had formed in Renji's stomach loosen. It wasn't as though he expected her to react any differently, but it made him feel better to actually see her. Renji didn't think he could ever explain what he and Rukia had even if he was the most brilliant poet in existence.

So Renji just replied, "Oh, hmm, I think around... two months ago? Three? Somethin' like that."

"Nice." Rukia ordered another bowl of ramen. "Is she pretty?"

Renji smiled a little bit. "You've got no idea."

"I will soon!" Rukia said this with such enthusiasm that Renji felt a little bit of heaviness return to his stomach. Or rather, the elation he had had when seeing Rukia after so long was finally starting to dissipate, and reality about Noriko was catching up with him. "We're going on a scouting mission."

Rukia was halfway off her stool when Renji grabbed her wrist.

"That might be a problem," he said slowly. "I kinda - we kind of broke up."

"What?" Rukia gaped. "You got together with someone and broke up in the span of time I was gone? When did this happen?"

Renji felt awkward. "A couple of hours before you found me."

Rukia looked like she had no idea about what the hell going on. Renji could relate - he had felt that way everyday for the last few months.

"Well, okay," said Rukia finally, giving him a considering look. She shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. "There goes my plans for the evening. Following people around have become my specialty ever since Yuzu got a boyfriend and Ichigo's been stalking them. And I was forced to tag along because Yuzu begged me to keep Ichigo from making a fool out of himself."

"Clearly you failed." Renji grinned and Rukia punched his arm.

"Obviously. You try keeping that idiot away from Yuzu and Karin. I think I had a bird sit on my head at one point and take a-"

"Argh!" Renji covered Rukia's mouth with his hand. "Don't say that kinda stuff when we're eatin'!"

"Wimp." Rukia grinned. "Come on. Do you still have the gaming console over at your place? I got the latest version of Halo."

"No way." Renji was out of his seat and taking Rukia's arm before he could even think oh my God. "I can't believe you didn't tell this to me the moment you came. Don't ya know by now that Halo means more to me than you do?"

"You fool," shrieked Rukia, but she was laughing and it sounded beautiful. "You forgot to pay the bill!"

"It's cool, the guy knows me," answered Renji - as if that explained all of life's problems - as they finally came to his home. "Do you know how long I've been waiting for this game? Shit, half the time I dunno if I should strangle Ichigo for showing that game to me or-"

It wasn't until he had his door halfway open that he realized that this was where he and Noriko were living for the last few months and Rukia was about to come in.

Shit.

"Don't just stand there like an idiot." Rukia brushed past him and headed into the cupboard where Renji usually the television. It wasn't like Soul Society had any channels or anything that would give him a reason to keep it outside, so he only took it out when Rukia game over with the latest version of Halo or GTA or-

Renji was completely getting off topic.

Seeing that Rukia didn't have any reaction out of the ordinary inside, Renji ventured inside. Rukia was doing all sorts of technical stuff involving wires and reiatsu that Urahara-san had taught her.

And he was nearly shocked into an early retirement when he saw that his apartment was completely devoid of any trace of Noriko.

Renji walked around in some sort of daze. Everything was almost freakishly clean, and all the rooms were back to looking completely Renji.

Renji was already a neat person by nature, and it wasn't exactly as though Noriko was messy. She was just... lazy sometimes and had stuff lying around. She'd eventually clean it later - Renji thought it was her guilty conscience catching up to her - but always there was something there. Some girly novel, a hair accessory, random pieces of clothing.

"It adds a little bit of me here," Noriko had said, when Renji asked why she spent so much time fixing her hair instead of things that actually mattered like cleanliness. With a smile she added, "Besides, don't you want me to look gorgeous? I'm doing this for you, you know."

"Really?" Renji felt kind of flattered.

"Well, no, I just enjoy looking fabulous everyday." Noriko giggled at Renji's glare. She kissed him on the cheek, laughing even harder when Renji stubbornly turned his head away. "But having you does give me extra incentive. I feel the need to be extra beautiful when I'm walking next to you."

"I swear you're insane," Renji said flatly, but he had to stifle the grin that was threatening to come on his face as she brushed the bangs away from her face in a way that only Noriko could make look sexy.

His throat dried and he started to blink an awful lot when Renji walked into the washroom and saw that all of Noriko's shampoos were gone.

"Renji," said Rukia from behind him, "come on. Everything's set up and I don't want to waste another when I could be owning you."

Rukia's bright grin was enough to help Renji push away the heavy feeling in the bottom of his stomach. He smirked and said, "You wish."

Renji took to the new game with extreme enthusiasm, going out of his way to completely pulverize the computerized opponents. He would have aimed for Rukia first, but her guy had disappeared the moment the game started. Renji suspected her of playing the game beforehand.

One of the reasons that Renji loved the game - other than the fact that, you know, it was just that awesome - was because it really helped him get out any pent up frustrations. Rukia honestly couldn't have come in a better time.

"Renji," said Rukia after some time.

"Hmm?" Renji was concentrating on trying to locate the blue crystal that would give his weapon never ending bullets.

"Your hands are shaking." Rukia was giving him a curious look and Renji felt that her wide, purple eyes were seeing every single part of him - the good, the bad, the ugly. "Something is wrong with you."

Renji swallowed, avoiding her sharp gaze.

"Is it the girl?"

Renji snapped his head around to look at Rukia so fast that he felt a crick form in his muscles. She wasn't looking at him either - rather, she was idly tracing the hilt of her sword, mouth set in a straight line.

"Rukia..."

"It is, isn't it?" Rukia was flexing her fingers, and Renji didn't know whether or not she was controlling her anger or if she was getting ready for the fight. "Renji, I'm going to ask you a couple of questions, and you're going to give me straightforward answers, okay?"

Renji sighed, setting down his controller. "'Kay."

"What's her name?"

"Noriko," answered Renji promptly.

"Is she shinigami?"

Renji nodded, "Yeah."

"What division is she in?"

"3rd."

Rukia started her next sentence carefully. "Did she do anything that would require me to confront her? Physically?"

"What?" Renji was horrified. "Rukia, what the hell's wrong with you? 'Course not!"

"I thought that might be the answer." Rukia shook her head in a fond, exasperated manner before turning to face him properly. Her eyes were oddly serious. "Listen, Renji, I don't know what happened. I kind of don't want to know because I'm afraid that I'll find out you did something Incredibly Stupid and I'll end up punching you. But at the end of the day Renji, I've still got your back."

"Rukia..." Renji had hardly ever felt this touched before.

"And since you are the girlier one out of the two of us," Rukia smirked, "if you want to talk about you feelings or whatever, I'll try not to fall asleep."

Renji rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the offer."

"I thought you'd say that too." Rukia smiled. "Now. Do you want to see all the cool things I can do with Sode no Shiroyuki now?"

Renji snorted. "Whatever. It still ain't gonna be enough to beat me."

"Asshole," said Rukia, narrowing her eyes. "I'll show you."

An hour later, it turned out that Renji was right.

Rukia glared at him as she wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Holy shit," she breathed. "What the hell have you been doing while I was gone? Finding a way to channel nii-sama's strength?"

"Heh, guess trainin' the newbies helped in somethin'." Renji grinned, from his position on top of the grass of the 6th Division's training area. "They suck at everythin' but those bastards never run out of energy."

Rukia smiled wearily, collapsing on the ground and stretching her arm behind her head.

Renji was justifiably amazed by how strong Rukia was. It seemed like forever since they last sparred. Frankly speaking, the fight was the best he had had for months now, with his normal sparring partners buried with work. Rukia's strength was getting to be something fierce, and Renji felt a little bit of warmth in his heart when he realized she would most likely be focusing on achieving bankai soon.

He seriously couldn't wait to see it happen. It would probably even more amazing to see than Kuchiki-taichou's Senbonzakura.

"I'm leaving again tomorrow." Rukia's voice was quiet, but it effectively broke the silence.

Renji looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "I figured."

"Renji-"

"Good luck, y'know?" Renji didn't want Rukia to say whatever she was going to. Not because it would be incredibly weird - though it would be - but because he didn't think he could bear to hear her sound apologetic. "An' I'll be the one to come and see ya next time, okay? Someone's gotta knock around Ichigo every once in a while."

"Hah, don't worry, I do enough of that."

"I'll come and help anyway. It's been a while since we got together to beat someone up, eh?"

Rukia smiled. "Totally."

"I think I'll crack in another four months," Renji teased. "I'll start missin' your freaky bo-ha-ha-ha laugh around every corner,"

"Oh, shut up." Rukia still grinned however. "It's been so long since you've been to Karakura, Renji. Everything's still so..."

"Good?" Renji supplied.

"Good," she agreed. There was a faint hint of wistfulness in the voice that was so Rukia. It made Renji think, that's what I want for her.

They separated a little after that. Rukia said that she had to, "go and visit nii-sama," and the blinding happiness that was radiating from every part of her made it hard for Renji not to be enthusiastic for her as well.

It was slightly difficult for him to sleep that night. Although Noriko had been gone for the few weeks beforehand, Renji knew she wasn't supposed to be there. Now he knew she was out there, somewhere in the 3rd Division's part of Seireitei, and it was so damn hard to not have someone there.

Seeing Rukia though somewhat unsettled his decision about Noriko.

Renji knew all the reasons why he did it. He could list them all in his head: he wanted more than what she was willing to give, there were things that they both never had the courage to say, there was always a lingering, when is she going to leave me?, etc. etc.

No matter how much happiness he felt whenever she was there, there was something that was so wrong about the whole thing. So many doubts, questions, and what ifs.

But then came Rukia.

Seeing Rukia made him wonder if he really did the right thing. Seeing her so happy when she knew there were hundreds of problems that her and Ichigo would have to face. Seeing Rukia just enjoying the moments she had with him (even as friends, though they were obviously so much more), made Renji wonder if he was doing the smart thing - the right thing - by letting Noriko go.

It was all too confusing. He didn't know if he was doing the wrong thing by cutting himself off from Noriko, or if Rukia was doing the wrong thing by not taking her situation more seriously. Because all the issues that he and Noriko had were their own. With Rukia and Ichigo, there were bigger things in the way than just themselves - even though they themselves were currently the problem that was delaying their process of getting together. But he loved Rukia, he wanted to see her happy, so Renji tried to not think about her dilemmas and just enjoy seeing her elated face until he was forced to do otherwise.

Rukia was strong.

He had doubts about himself though.

Renji was there to see Rukia off the next day, and so was Kuchiki-taichou. His captain just gave him a nod, as though he wasn't at all surprised to see Renji running into the field with bed hair hastily shoved into a tie at the crack of dawn.

Rukia touched Renji's hand. "I'll see you soon."

"Sooner than you might think," he smirked. "Kuchiki-taichou's gonna be sendin' me there in the next three weeks to make sure you haven't gotten into any trouble. He thinks it's a fluke that nothin's happened yet and something insanely bad will happen soon."

Kuchiki-taichou snorted in that dignified way that only he could. "Renji has been speaking more and more nonsense as the days go on."

"I noticed that too." Rukia smirked.

Renji couldn't believe he was being ganged up on by those two.

"Take care, Rukia." Kuchiki-taichou briefly touched her hair but that small moment was enough for Renji to see the love in Kuchiki-taichou's face.

"You too, nii-sama." Rukia bowed deeply, before smiling up at them both. "I'll miss you. Not so much Renji, though."

"Nice," said Renji sarcastically. Kuchiki-taichou looked slightly amused as he left and Rukia's gaze lingered after him for a moment. Renji thought it was pretty cool of him to let them have a chance to talk before Rukia left.

"So," she said, turning her gaze back to Renji. "Make sure you come, okay? Yumi-chan wants to play with your hair. She thinks it's really pretty."

Despite the mocking tone in her voice, Renji couldn't help but grin.

"Definitely," he said. "I love havin' my hair abused by Yumi-chan's little demon hands."

"Who wouldn't love that?"

"Just make sure-" he paused, voice catching in his throat as Rukia looked at him curiously. "Just make sure that you're happy there, okay? Do everythin' that you can to make sure that you'll be happy for a long, long time."

"Renji," said Rukia, and her wide eyes looked at him so intensely that Renji had to focus on keeping eye contact. Even though this was something that they were both aware that the other knew of, it was the first time either of them said it out loud. Rukia wouldn't beat around the bush with this at all.

Please get what I'm trying to say, thought Renji. Because this is something that can help both of us out.

"Don't you understand that it's better to be happy for even just a second than miserable for your entire life trying to find something that'll last forever?"

"I know," he replied, and at that moment, he really believed he did. "But don't let your chance of forever get away 'cause you're settlin' for right now."

Rukia's eyes widened, and Renji put his hand on her shoulder and said with a smile, "I'll be seein' ya then. Get someone to teach you somethin' more, alright? I'd just love to beat that too."

"As if." Rukia snorted, but her eyes were shining. "Good luck," she said. "And remember that I'll come back here in a second if some beating up is required, okay?"

"Got it," he promised. "Now go." And be happy.

Rukia smiled as she stepped into the darkness that would, inevitably, lead her to the place that she most wanted to be. You too.

Renji hoped he could do the same.