Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or anyone or anything from Bleach. Nor do I own the city of Nagasaki. It's as simple as that. Everything else, however, is mine. :D

Chapter 12: Daddy's Girl

"Hmmmm…"

Feeling slightly irritated, Renji put down his book. "What?"

Renji was lying on his futon and had been holding a book up so that he could look at it and study. Sachi was leaning over him from her desk chair, apparently very interested in his forehead.

"I'm looking at your tattoos," Sachi replied giving him a smile. Renji scowled at her. "And your eyebrows-!"

Sachi was interrupted as Renji quickly jumped to his feet. If there was anything that Renji was touchy about it was his tattooed eyebrows. "Yea, yea they look funny," he growled stomping over towards the door to Sachi's room.

"I wasn't going to say that," Sachi said, a bit defensively.

Renji paused in the doorway, surprised. He turned around and gave Sachi a searching look. "What were you going to say then?"

"I was going to say that I think they look cool," Sachi pouted.

Renji's stomach did a funny little flip. She thought his eyebrows were cool? It was all Renji could do not to 'whoop' with joy. It didn't stop the big grin that broke across his face, however. He knew there was a reason why he was in love with her. "Thanks," he said, scratching the back of his head both sheepish and elated.

Suddenly the corners of Sachi's smile quirked mischievously. She narrowed her eyes playfully and said, "But now that you mention it…"

"Oh, shut up," Renji half-heartedly growled, throwing the book he had been studying good-naturedly at her. Sachi caught it with ease. "I'm gonna go take bath." Renji swaggered out the room, his eyebrows new found status as 'cool' adding a spring to his step.

"Thanks! I needed this book!" Sachi called after him.

…

Sachi sat at the kitchen table working her way through a box of cookies as she studied. It was a quiet Saturday afternoon. Her parents had taken her brother to a kendo tournament out of town and wouldn't be back until tomorrow. She and Renji had free run of the house until then, and Renji had already taken advantage of it by taking a long bath instead of sneaking a shower during the middle of the night.

At the sound of footsteps entering the kitchen Sachi looked up. Renji had finished his bath. Something in Sachi's brain shorted out as she stared at him. His hair, still damp, hung loose around his shoulders. And he was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts sitting what Sachi thought was fair to call 'scandalously' low on his hips.

Sachi could feel heat flooding her face as her eyes traveled over Renji's bare torso. It wasn't the first time she had seen him without a shirt on. It was kind of impossible not to catch glimpses seeing as for all intents and purposes they were living in the same room. But she had never gotten a good, long look at him.

Sachi had already known that Renji was muscular, but it was more than that. He was…ripped. His muscles rippled attractively beneath his skin as he shifted under her gaze. The black lines of his tattoos only added to the effect as they crossed his abs, chest, and arms. The only cohesive thought that Sachi could form was that Renji was Hot. With a capital 'H'.

Renji frowned as Sachi stared at him, her mouth slightly agape. "You ok?" he asked uncertainly.

Sachi jumped at the sound of his voice, as if startled, and quickly looked back down at her book blushing furiously. "I-I'm fine!" she replied, her voice an embarrassed squeak. She had been caught staring at him, she screamed, horrified, in her head. Why had she been staring at him in the first place? Yea he was Hot, but…but… Sachi was so flustered that she couldn't think straight.

Renji's sudden understanding brought a devilish smirk to his face as it stoked his ego. Renji sauntered over to Sachi and flirtatiously leaned close to her as he reached around her towards the cookie box. Sachi let out a little squeak of surprise and hunched up further in her chair, her face such a brilliant shade of red it was practically glowing.

Renji easily snatched the last cookie from the box and moved away, immensely satisfied with himself. As Renji took a bite of his prize Sachi realized what had happened. "Hey! That was the last one!" she shouted, rounding on him.

Renji simply shrugged as he dug through the fridge. He turned around with the jug of milk in his hand and the half-eaten cookie dangling from his mouth. Sachi, whose face had begun to cool in her indignant anger, lit up like a light again.

Renji smirked. "Do you want it back?" he asked, waving the cookie towards her.

"No! Jerk!" Sachi shouted at him, throwing the book in his general direction. She was too embarrassed again to actually look at him when she threw so Renji easily ducked.

"Your loss," Renji shrugged again, popping the rest of the cookie in his mouth.

"Don't drink straight out of the jug! And put a shirt on!" Sachi shouted, miserable with embarrassment as she attempted to stare a hole in the table in front of her.

Renji couldn't stop himself from chuckling as he put the milk jug, which he had sneaked a swig from, back in the fridge. He did as he was bid, however, walking over to the washer/dryer and pulling out a clean shirt. This was another advantage to Sachi's parents being out of town, Renji thought as he pulled his 'red pineapple' shirt over his head. He could do his laundry here rather than having to drag it down the street to a laundromat.

Renji pulled his hair back into its customary ponytail as he headed into the family room to give Sachi, who was still staring determinedly at the table with a bright blush across her cheeks, some space to cool off. This was Renji's first real opportunity to have a good look around Sachi's family's apartment and he planned on taking advantage of it. He spent some time poking around the TV and a bookshelf before coming to a small table nearly overflowing with picture frames.

Renji leaned down to get a better look at all the pictures. Some were of Sachi's little brother, some of her stepfather and her mother, and even a few of just Sachi. Renji was about to move away when one in the back caught his eye. He picked it up, balancing it carefully in his hand as he examined it.

As always, Renji was startled by Sachi's mother's resemblance to Rukia. In this picture she was younger and had a big smile on her face. In her arms was a young girl with bright orange hair that Renji immediately recognized as a young Sachi. A fond smile crept onto Renji's face. She was a cute kid, waving to the camera like that with an enormous smile on her face.

Renji frowned as he realized something. There was an arm around Sachi's mother's shoulder, but there was no one else in the picture. Renji turned the frame over, confused. As he puzzled over it Renji realized that the frame was narrower than a lot of the others on the table. Suddenly insatiably curious Renji opened the back of the frame and pulled the picture out. It had clearly been folded over so that the other person in the picture was hidden. Renji smoothed the photograph out and was stunned by what he saw.

There was Ichigo, older than when Renji had last seen him, his arm around his daughter and wife. In many ways Ichigo didn't look any different. His hair was that vibrant orange color that Sachi had inherited and he easily towered over his wife, clearly just as tall if not taller. But his face…Renji had never seen Ichigo smile like that. His face was split into a wide grin, radiating joy in a way that he wouldn't have been sure was even possible for Ichigo if he hadn't seen it with is own eyes. It made Renji glad though, to know that Ichigo could be happy like that even after shouldering the enormous burdens that he had carried when Renji had known him.

"What're you looking at?"

Renji jumped as though he had been caught doing something bad. He turned to face Sachi, wondering whether it would have been wiser to attempt to hide the picture he had been looking at. Sachi caught a glimpse of the photo and suddenly seemed to shut down, her expression turning stony. Renji was immediately alarmed.

"I-I was just looking around and saw this picture. I…uh…I never thought your dad could look this happy!" Renji then forced laugh, which quickly turned awkward.

"He doesn't look like that," Sachi answered, her voice completely emotionless as she turned away. "Put the picture back."

"Huh?" Renji was confused.

"I said he doesn't look like that!" Sachi shouted her voice rising. She tried to walk away, but Renji wrapped his hand around her wrist. She whipped around, glaring at him with uncharacteristic anger in her eyes. "Let me go."

"No." Renji met Sachi's eye steadily, determination bolstering him against her searing glare. Where Ichigo was and why Sachi seemed to be so reluctant to talk about him had been bothering Renji during his entire stay in the real world. Now that he had a chance to get Sachi to tell him Renji wasn't about to let it go. "What happened Sachi?" he asked her quietly.

"Let me go!" Sachi snarled at him.

"Not until you tell me what happened!" Renji's temper was starting to rise in response to Sachi's.

"No!" she shouted, struggling against his unyielding grasp. "I don't want to talk about it!"

"Sachi!" Something about the urgency in Renji's tone made her pause. "Ichigo Kurosaki is not just a good man and hero- he was my friend!" Sachi turned to glance at Renji out of the corner of her eye. There was something strangely desperate in his expression. "And I want to know what he could have possibly done to make you hate him so much!"

Sachi looked away again as she considered Renji's plea. She didn't want to talk about it. She had never told anyone why she disliked her father so much. Just thinking about it opened too many wounds. And yet…she trusted Renji. She knew he was her friend, that he would never judge her because of her feelings. And he had known her father. Maybe he would be able to understand why she felt the way she did.

Sachi went limp as the fight went out of her. "Ok," she said, her voice sounding defeated. She went over to the couch and sat down. Renji carefully refolded the photo, put it back in its frame, and put it back into its original position on the table with the other pictures. He then sat in the chair across from Sachi and leaned back, waiting for Sachi to begin.

Sachi took a long moment to gather her thoughts. When she began to speak her voice was full of sadness. "When I was little I loved my dad more than anything. He did everything with me. My mom was always really busy at work- she was a reporter- so my dad would leave the family clinic in the afternoon and pick me up from school. He'd take me to my karate lessons and afterwards we'd always go to the park or get ice cream. Dad would play with me, read me bedtime stories, all that stuff. And he was always smiling and laughing. I was always happiest when I was with my dad." A rueful smile crossed Sachi's face. "I was such a daddy's girl."

"And then everything…changed." Renji noticed Sachi's hands clench. "It was the day of my ninth birthday. There was supposed to be a surprise party, so dad took me to the park while mom set it up. And while we were there… There was an explosion. Later they said it was a gas explosion, but I don't really remember because I got knocked out. But I do remember dad got this really scared look on his face and then he started screaming my name…" A furrow formed between Sachi's eyebrows as she tried to remember.

"Anyways, after that dad was different. He didn't laugh or smile anymore. He just frowned all the time. In fact he barely even looked at me. He still picked me up from school and stuff, but no matter how much I pestered him he essentially ignored me. He did the same to my mom and she started to get really angry about it. She accused him of all kinds of things, but he never said anything to defend himself. Finally my mom divorced him." Sachi drew her knees up onto the couch and wrapped her arms around them looking positively miserable.

"He never, not even once, tried to stop her from divorcing him. Or tried to stop her from taking me…" The last sentence was nearly inaudible, but Renji heard it.

And he finally understood. Sachi, who had loved Ichigo more than anything, felt that she had been betrayed by him: that he had abandoned her by not trying to keep her mother from taking her. Renji was suddenly seized by the urge to go to Karakura and give Ichigo a good punch in the face. He was angry that Ichigo would ever make Sachi look that sad. But, Renji wondered, what could have happened to make Ichigo shut down like that? That didn't sound like the Ichigo he had known.

Sachi chanced a glance over at Renji. He seemed to be lost in thought. She stared down at her knees. Sachi thought she would feel awful after telling Renji everything, but in reality she felt a little better. Like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She couldn't help but feel grateful to Renji for being the one she had confided in even if he'd essentially forced it out of her.

"Look…" Renji began suddenly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm sorry I made you tell me and everything-!"

"It's ok," Sachi interrupted him. Renji blinked at her, taken aback. Sachi looked away again a small smile on her face. "Actually I feel sort of…better, now that someone else knows…" The smile quickly fell from Sachi's face, being replaced by a deep melancholy.

Renji watched Sachi for a moment and then decided to throw caution to the wind. It made his heart ache to see her look so sad.

Sachi looked up in surprise when Renji sat down next to her. He held her gaze for a long moment and then slowly, carefully- giving her plenty of time to pull away if she wished- he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. Sachi was too surprised to do anything for a moment but then she reciprocated, wrapping her arms around him.

Happiness glowed warmly in Renji's chest as Sachi's arms wrapped around him. She wasn't just putting her arms around him: she was hugging him back. Renji silently swore to himself that he would do whatever her could to make sure that Sachi was never sad again.

Sachi was…warm. Renji's warmth seeped into her, making her stomach feel like it was full of butterflies and her heart beat quickly in her chest. Most of all, though, Sachi felt safe: like she somehow belonged in his arms. This thought was strange, but for once Sachi didn't question it. She needed Renji's comfort too much and so, instead, she buried her face in the junction of his neck and shoulder and held him tighter.

While they both would have been content to stay as they were indefinitely, Renji's soul pager began to beep and the Badge howled from the bedroom. They reluctantly pulled away from each other. Renji was irritated that a Hollow had appeared and Sachi was blushing furiously, embarrassed, that they had been hugging for so long.

"You ok?" Renji asked Sachi gently.

"I'm fine," Sachi replied, offering him a wan smile.

Renji didn't quite believe her, but they really didn't have any time to waste. Instead he stood and offered his hand to Sachi. She took it without hesitation, glad both for his help and that fact that he was always there for her. Sachi was beginning to wonder what she would do without him.

Author's Note:

So this chapter is kind of short, but hopefully enough happened to make up for it. Also I said it was going to be kinda angsty, but there was actually more fluff then I originally intended. I suppose that's ok though because everyone probably prefers reading fluff right? So you got some explanation about why Ichigo isn't around is this chapter. I know it wasn't really that much, but I swear everything will start to make more sense the farther along we get.

So a couple points…there've been a couple episodes of House Hunters International that have been in Japan and apparently there they put machines in their kitchens that will both wash and dry your clothes. Isn't that an awesome idea? I think it's better than how we do laundry in the US anyways. Also if Ichigo seems OOC because he was so happy I apologize. But I feel like having a kid would help heal the whole in his heart created by his mother's death and so he'd be happier than he is in canon.

Only three reviews this time… :(. But thank you to my wonderful repeat reviewers who review every time without fail: Red6, Luafua, and bored411! THANK YOU!

Four more chapters until the time skip! GAH I'm excited!

Thanks for reading!

imagination junkie