Revamped, redone, rewritten, reposted.

Caught in a bad romance ~

_XxX_

It was turning out to be a stereotypical day. Byakuya awoke as the first lights of dawn pierced the open window, painting his room in soft golden light. His tea had cooled to a perfect temperature by the time he entered his private study attached to his room. He hiked his dark blue robe higher over his white yukata to ward off the morning chill before seating himself before his desk. The entire left wall of the room opened up onto the gardens in the middle of the manor, letting in the crisp morning breeze.

The thick sunlight now accumulating was quickly warming up the ground, enough so that Byakuya shucked off his waraji. The relaxing sound of a water fountain graced his ears, and the smell of the violets just in bloom greeted his nose. With a happy, relaxed sigh, he took another gulp of his tea. It's heady aroma and taste was especially appreciated today, considering it was the first time in many days he had gotten to drink it.

Although he had not spent his nights in Renji's hospital room like Rukia had, Byakuya was always there before the sun could fully rise. He spent most of his day on the loveseat there, signing paperwork and deigning assignments to Rikichi. It would have been a pleasant scenic change from his office if it hadn't been for the circumstances. He left the redhead's room well after sunset, after Unohana had come to check on him and offer Byakuya the tea that he never accepted.

Byakuya scratched the back of his neck, trying to recall what work had to be accomplished in the day. Rikichi would be on his way over soon, on strict orders from himself, with his day's paperwork and his fukutaichou's as well. Byakuya intended to keep his eye on the redhead today, and every day until his eyesight returned and he was capable of fending for himself. He would have to rely on Unohana for that information, knowing full well that Renji would bluff his way through the situation.

Byakuya set the freshly emptied cup to the side of his desk and stood, rolling his neck to work the crick out. He meticulously fixed his clothing before leaving the room via the open garden doors. He had arranged the house so that his room and the private guest rooms opened up onto the gardens before him, which were mostly thrown open to air out in the morning breeze. Byakuya strode past his now open bedroom doors and followed the wooden walkway around the garden until he reached his fukutaichou's room.

He had ensured that his red haired fukutaichou received the nicest of the guest rooms, and had the obtrusive pieces of furniture removed for his ease. It must have been hard enough being in a foreign home in such a state without tripping over unnecessary furniture. The room opened up onto the gardens much as his did, and Byakuya figured it would do the fukutaichou some good after being cooped up in the Fourth barracks for so long.

Also, it was a confined yet open space in which the redhead could investigate without actually inspiring Byakuya's worry. The Kuchiki noble resisted the urge to sigh as he entered one of the many hallways that emptied into the gardens. He stopped at the first door on his left and frowned, debating whether to knock or not. Common courtesy dictated that he knocked, but he was master of the house, and he did not knock to enter his own house.

As a compromise, Byakuya knocked on the doorjamb before sliding the door open, not waiting for an answer.

He was greeted by a startlingly empty room. The large bed had very faint crumples in the covers, but nothing to suggest that it had actually been used. It was completely pristine, ignoring the grubby duffle that had been placed next to the foot of the bed. There were only faint, lingering traces of Renji's reiatsu in the room, nothing to suggest he had been in there for the last six hours.

A surge of something unknown to him slammed through his gut, making his breathing pick up. There was no reason for the injured shinigami to leave his room at that hour, and Byakuya could not stop his breathing from picking up. He quickly left the room and hailed down a passing servant.

"Where is Abarai-fukutaichou?" Byakuya asked.

Maybe he was just overacting and the redhead was in the bathroom, or bathing down the hall. He hoped to high heavens that it was one of the above. The servant immediately averted his eyes from the nobleman and bowed to the older man.

"Is he not in his room, Kuchiki-sama?" he asked.

Byakuya felt a frown crawl onto his face while his stomach did a little flip. It should have been a given that the tattooed man was not in his room, given that Byakuya had just exited that very room and asked.

"No, he is not. Find him," Byakuya ordered.

The servant bowed and muttered hastily before scurrying down the hall. It was unlikely that the redhead could have slipped out in the morning without anyone noticing, so that meant that he had disappeared somewhere in the night. Byakuya cursed silently, knowing now that he full well should have not left his fukutaichou in the care of another.

Byakuya all but stormed out the hall and back onto the garden causeway, his bare feet thumping on the polished wood as he none-too-subtly walked. He noted, with a vague detachment, that he was not five feet from the spot he had informed Rukia on the redhead's condition. He tried to segment the rising anger in his nerves, the odd churning of his stomach intensifying. It was not a familiar feeling to Byakuya, so he couldn't quite categorise it. All he knew was that it was making him irritable and moody, and he hated the feeling of it snaking through his muscles from his spine.

Byakuya pulled aside the servants in the area, three in total, and ordered them to alert the rest of the help to the redhead's situation. More specifically, to drop all tasks and find the wayward fukutaichou. Byakuya could only hope that he was still in the estate grounds, hopefully nowhere too far away. The servants scurried off to alert the other help, and to hopefully locate the man.

How hard could a blind, injured man be to find, especially one as loud and rowdy as his fukutaichou? Byakuya continued his way down the walkway, trying to think of a way to locate the redhead. He really couldn't have been stupid enough to leave the Kuchiki state with his body in that condition. At least, that's what Byakuya hoped.

Byakuya ended up doing an entire circuit of the garden before stopping outside the redhead's bedroom once again. The doors had been thrown open so he could see in from the garden's causeway, still revealing no fukutaichou to Byakuya's eyes. He had tried reaching out with his reiatsu, but he could not find any palpable traces of his fukutaichou's. and without any real trace of the man's reiatsu, Byakuya knew that calling up reiraku would be both pointless and unsuccessful.

"Byakuya-sama?"

Said nobleman looked up to find Rukia's favourite serf, an elderly woman by the name of Saki Atsuko, looking up at him. It also registered that he had assigned this woman to care for his fukutaichou. She met his eyes and smiled kindly, her eyes crinkling at the corners. She was one of the few who could meet his eyes and not cringe, mostly because she had been in his service for many centuries now.

"Saki, where is Abarai?" Byakuya asked.

The woman's face changed to a thoughtful frown, and Byakuya felt his throat tighten.

"I don't know, Byakuya-sama. I only just got in," she told him.

Byakuya felt his anger bubble tot eh surface, along with his throbbing gut. He had, in no unclear terms, ordered the older woman to care for Renji, and this was the result. He was going to chew them both out when he located the lost shinigami, one that they both would not forget any time soon. Maybe he would saddle all the paperwork for the week with the redhead once his eyes recovered? How dare he, a mere fukutaichou, make Kuchiki Byakuya worry so?

Byakuya froze and paled slightly, the realisation of it all hitting him like something akin to a kido blast. That emotion, the one that had been clawing its way through his being for the last many minutes, was worry. He was genuinely anxious from the disappearance of the redhead, and almost neurotic in the quest of finding the injured man. The only visible trace of his emotions was a slight furrowing of his brows as he dwelled on this new discovery.

Feeling his anger awakening anew, Byakuya let out a lash of sharp reiatsu, sharp enough for anyone with kido training to sense but not strong enough to cause pain to those without. Byakuya felt a pulse in response, clearly belonging to his fukutaichou. He vowed to teach the younger shinigami a painful lesson about taking his good graces and hospitality for granted.

Maybe another Byakurai would solve the problem, it had worked in the past.

"Taicho!"

The door to the hall on his right burst open, revealing the tattooed fukutaichou. He had his good hand gripping the door frame tightly, with Zabimaru wedged firmly between the two in his fist. His braced arm lay limp at his side, but his arched fingers had swirling reiatsu there for a quick kido spell.

Byakuya felt his eyes widen almost comically as he actually took in the appearance of his fukutaichou.

Renji's hair was down from its braid or customary ponytail, falling like liquid fire around his face and broad shoulders. He still had the white bandage around his eyes, creating a startling contrast between his bright hair and stark tattoos. His mouth was open slightly from talking, and hot puffs of breath were escaping from his plump lips.

His torso was bare of his kosode or yukata, revealing the long black tattoos that traced down his chest and back. The sharps bolts of ebony traced down his abdomen, highlighting the thick chords of lethal muscles there. He had several noticeable scars on his chest and stomach, mottling patches of skin and turning it a slightly lighter shade than the rest of his body.

He was clad only in a pair of black hakama from his shihakusho, and they were riding low on his hips. The side gaps in the side of his hakama, which were usually filled in by his white hakama-hino, were bare, revealing his powerful thighs and another bolt of black tattoos. To Byakuya's mind, Renji looked positively obscene with his rumpled appearance and scantily clad body. And because of that, Byakuya could not stop the faint blush that was spreading across his cheeks.

"Where have you been?" the noble asked with a surprisingly calm voice.

There must have been something in his tone, because the fukutaichou visibly relaxed at no evident threat. His hand removed itself from the doorjamb and he let it hang by his side, tapping his sheathed zanpakuto against the bare skin on his thigh. Renji reached up to scratch his nose almost guiltily, which caused his zanpakuto to block his face from view.

"Sleepin', Taicho," Renji replied.

He was back to nervously tapping Zabimaru against the bare skin of his thigh through his hakama. After feeling the sharp stab of reiatsu coming from the taicho, Renji had come barrelling out to the gardens. Because of his blinded state, he was delayed slightly by constantly running into objects, which had knocked the breath out of his lungs.

"You were not in your room," Byakuya said coldly.

He lifted his head to glare at the redhead down the line of his nose, ignoring the futility of glaring at a blind man. Renji could feel his stare as the redhead visibly tensed and bought his uninjured hand up to scratch the back of his neck, zanpakuto and all. A guilty toothy grin worked its way onto his face and he shrugged slightly.

"Aa… well… I kinds… fell asleep in Rukia's room…" Renji finished lamely.

He had only been in the smaller shinigami's room once, when he bought her home months ago, but he knew that smell anywhere. He had grown up with that scent when he slept, so he had followed it the previous evening when slept evaded him. It was much too quiet in the large mansion, and it only added to the cold creepiness of the silent house. Renji had roamed the hallways carefully until the scent had thickened and he reached Rukia's room. He had fallen asleep rather quickly, curled up on her bed with his hand fisted in the covers.

Byakuya scowled again, but it was quickly beginning to loose its motivation. He was beginning to find it actually hard to muster negative feelings for the redhead, and it was irritating him. Byakuya pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, feeling all the anger and irritation drain from his body. His servants were all gathering nearby, just waiting to see their master explode at the fukutaichou.

Renji was still grinning guiltily, and Byakuya sighed once again.

"You will be the death of me."