Title: Surprising Tenderness
Characters: Renji x Byakuya
Word Count: 316
Rating: G
Summary: Renji proves even he can be gentle.
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Byakuya scowls at the bandage around his forearm that has yet again slipped down. It was the third time within the hour the bandages loosed themselves, uncovering the healing wound he had received from a particularly nasty hollow.
"You want me to help you with that, Captain?" Renji asks from across the office, then adds, "I'm used to getting hurt, so I've gotten pretty good at patching people up."
"It would be appreciated," Byakuya tells his vice captain.
Renji crosses the room and gingerly takes the wounded arm into his hands. The gentleness and care the vice captain uses to rewrap the wound surprises Byakuya. So much so that the sixth division captain entertains the thought that the tattooed man may be coming down with something.
When Renji finishes the rehead asks, "Does that feel any better, Captain?"
"It does," Byakuya answers, while he tenderly flexes his forearm to test the tightened bandages around it. "You wouldn't happen to know anything else to help, would you?" the raven haired man asks his subordinate.
"Well I guess there's another thing I've been told that's supposed to help wounds feel better."
"Then go ahead and do it," Byakuya instructs.
To the older man's surprise, Renji leans in towards him then proceeds to kiss him. The kiss is shockingly chaste and tender considering it was coming from a man who was best known his brashness and rowdiness. When the redhead pulls back, breaking the kiss, his cheeks are tinted pink, which Byakuya thinks to be a suiting shade for the younger man.
For a while there's only silence between the two men. It's Renji who finally breaks it by asking, "You feel any better, Captain?"
"I do believe I do," Byakuya answers to his vice captain's relief. The relief is short lived though, as the older man continues, "But aren't you supposed to kiss the wound, not the person?"