We don't own Bleach or characters. Just this fic, The Wolf Den, the psych ward, and the Journal. Tite Kubo and associates own everything else.

.Warnings: Deceptions, hospital rooms, dark thinky thoughts, arguments, snuggles.

Chapter 14: Our Duty

Brightness….why was everything so fucking BRIGHT! Ah darkness that was better.

"He's coming around," a calm female voice. Who was 'coming around'? What was going on? Had there been an attack? Renji opened his eyes. Arrgh gods why did it have to be so fucking bright?! Slowly his eyes adjusted to the harsh lighting and the hospital's emergency ward came into view. Kotetsu-fukutaichou towered over him with a soft smile; Unohana-taichou was standing next to her.

"What happened?" he asked.

"You arrived on the Kuchiki estate with Nanao-fukutaichou, both injured. We treated you for blood loss, a bad gash on your leg, a sprained knee and several minor lacerations," Kotetsu explained. His memory of the trip returned in slow patches.

"Is Nanao-fukutaichou ok?" he asked, his voice dry and rough.

"She's healing well, though her recovery will be a bit slower than yours, as she had a couple broken ribs," she explained handing him a glass of water. He drank it, his view of Nanao going up a few notches; she was tougher than she looked apparently. He never would have guessed her wounds had been so severe when they'd left Ori...shit.

"Orihime she's missing! I need to find her!" he cried, bolting upright and struggling to rise through the painkillers.

"It's okay," Kotetsu said as she and Unohana pressed him back to the bed. "We'll send someone. You just stay put," she said, though she was frowning with worry.

"No it was my fault I have..." what did he have to do? Damn painkillers making it so hard to think. Right he had to find Orihime...had to save Orihime, honor Ichigo's memory. He was about to say as much when Unohana's voice cut through the air, quiet and firm.

"You will cease your struggles or we'll unfortunately be forced to bind you," calm, firm, even and with more threat than Zaraki himself could have put in it. He lay back sheepishly, his heart still pounding. Exhausted from the healing kido, he found himself swiftly slipping back into a deep sleep. His last thoughts were of Byakuya, feeling a pang of loneliness as he realized that he must have imagined the concern in those beautiful dark eyes...just wishful thinking. Otherwise the captain would have been there, right?

Xxxx

Satisfied that both of her newest patients would recover, Unohana turned to Kotetsu.

"Send hell butterflies to the respective captains and to second division to form a search party, then join the planning committee," she instructed as she swept from the room to return to the meeting herself.

She walked into the meeting hall and what she, for sanity's sake, would assume was organized chaos ground to a jarring halt as silence fell.

"Where are we?" she asked.

Her slender blonde third seat Elko Takahashi spoke quickly, her girlish voice at odds with the efficiency she showed, "We've been making a priority list for base line appointments. The ones we want to get to before everyone else: Captains Ukitake and Kyoraku, Acting captains Kira, Hisagi and Hinamori vice-captains Omeada Marechiyo, Saskibe, Rangiku and Renji, seated officers..." she ran off another dozen names including the twin third seats of thirteenth division and twice that many rank and file.

The captains and acting captains were obvious, Saskibe had submitted himself, and though no one had said it Omeada was on the list on account of being Soi fon's subordinate.
"Rangiku and Renji were both requests by their captains, substance abuse in Rangiku's case. In Renji's and I quote 'Being particularly close to multiple victims of the Iwakaze incident together with other possible unknown issues causing an apparent loss of productivity.', " Elko finished with obvious distaste.

Fourth seat Ito took up the thread, "We have a building plan," she held up the blueprints. "and the crew says they'll be able to break ground in two days," she said excitedly. Unohana turned to look at her recently promoted fifth seat. Hanataro squeaked and scrambled for his notes. He really needed to work on that.

"I uh...we have a permanent training schedule finalized. We should be ready to start doing baselines within," he checked the notes. "T-ten days...i-it should be l-longer but..."

"But given recent events. Understood, continue," Unohana cut in.

"We'll have a fully trained c-complement in three months, and should be able to run a seminar for the captains within a week of that," he finished.

"Is there anything else?" she asked.

"I think there needs to be some sort of requested mandatory process for captains," Unohana nodded, feeling Isane's reiatsu as she entered the room.

"Do you have any suggestions?" she asked, a silent 'tread carefully' in her voice.

"Either a vice-captain or third seat and another captain, any five squad members of any rank, or any two other captains," she said. Unohana thought this over- it seem reasonable enough without much risk of disgruntled subordinates abusing it.

"Reasonable…any objections?" A chorus of negatives greeted her question. She nodded "That's what we'll do then. Is there anything else?" she asked again. Isane sighed in relief and another round of negatives answered her. "You may return to your regular duties then."

Xx

Byakuya called a halt to the squad's training, though he wanted to continue, wanted something to focus until orders went out concerning whatever unknown threat his vice had encountered. Following the war and the Iwakaze incident it would be idiotic to assume that a random attack on a milk-run Real World mission would just happen to be bad enough to fell two vice's, one of whom had dragon's luck field experience.

As the squad got water and separated out dejectedly on their way to an early lunch, they were fully aware they hadn't lived up to expectations though he'd said nothing to that effect. He returned to his office running through a few kido chants in his mind for comfort, it always gave him a sense of control to focus on the pure formulas. He needed his mind clear, something about this situation bothered him, set alarms ringing. Maybe it was just that the smallest thing lately always seemed to be a conspiracy and he was overreacting to an actual small thing.

The squad was clearly on edge; they'd been getting careless, reckless, and it was why he'd called an early end to the training. The last thing they needed was to pick up on his likely unfounded tension, something they definitely would if he slipped into old barracks vernacular aloud. Sitting at his desk, he closed his eyes a moment. He knew Renji was tough, anyone who survived the Eleventh had to be but he wasn't sure how many more body blows the mutt could take, everyone had their breaking point.

Course as they'd been he heard Zaraki's words echoing in his head again 'He ain't like ya. He's soft.' A thought struck him odd in its randomness. Odd in the fact that he hadn't noticed at the time—Had he really been so preoccupied?— Zaraki said 'like you' not 'like us' perhaps it was simply an instinctive avoidance of the implied similarity and kinship? Kami-sama knew he was loathe to acknowledge any.
Put together with the genuine if rough concern he'd had for Renji, the undeserved kindness he himself had been shown, and the pain he'd been in, if not openly shown, over Iwakaze's impromptu execution. Taken as a whole it painted a picture of the demon rather starkly different from the one he'd long held.

He was beginning to understand why Renji held his former captain in such high regard. He always just counted it in the 'crass, uneducated idiot' column, another thing he'd been wrong about. Uneducated perhaps but, there was a definite practical and, when one could induce it, tactical intelligence there. So much he didn't know about the man he shared an office and nowadays occasionally a house and a good seventy percent of his time with.

Like Rukia…he pushed the thought away with the ruthlessness of decades-long practice. Some things needed to be contemplated, sorted through and some that didn't, would serve no purpose. He did resolve to get to know at least some basic facts about Renji though, favorite food for one if the redhead was going to keep eating the manor's annual kitchen budget. Not to say he cared; he certainly had the money to burn, even with the psych wing tying up a large amount of the discretionary spending.

The dinging of a hell butterfly broke him from his thoughts and he looked at it, brushing off his annoyance. Duty called.

Renji-fukutaichou has awoken and is currently sleeping through the post healing processes. Full recovery expected. It was what he expected but, still he felt relief flood though him, relaxing tense muscles. Long habit kept him from sighing in relief but only just. The hell butterfly continued its recitation, Prepare a detail and relieve the second squad, supplementary patrols secondary to second squad search and rescue operation.

Search and rescue? Who was missing? The court guard was supposed to be a well-oiled machine, it wasn't but they were better than this, so why were they constantly playing catch up as of late? It grated on his sense of efficiency. He strode quickly to barracks main meeting hall where the squad had begun gathering for an advanced kido refresher. He gathered a detail to patrol the Rukongai for the second time in as many months. They needed a new plan of attack, he needed something that he could bring to Soutaichou that would let them get ahead of this new threat. Too many had already been hurt and what they were currently doing clearly wasn't working. The detail flash stepped to their respective districts, and as the last left he closed his eyes a moment. When he opened them he was focused. Current mission: patrol, protect Rukongai citizens. Secondary mission: none known. Down time tasks: Create a new action plan to bring to first squad. He flashed stepped away, easily catching up with detail he'd assigned to the seventies districts.

xx

Soi fon readied her squad for the search and rescue mission fuming. Everybody was so distracted lately that it was leading to mistakes, rowdier too. Second squad was meant to be law enforcement not goddamn bouncers. Fourth division was so caught up in their useless new 'project' that basic maintenance and upkeep were suffering too, how she hated litter. Why couldn't all the little bitches just get over it and do their job? It'd worked fine for centuries, weaklings.

When someone in her squad was distracted she simply sparred with them until they learned the simple equation: distraction equals pain. If damn paternalistic captains just actually got their squads in line they wouldn't be having these problems. She might not have any respect for that criminal Zaraki but at least he knew how to weed out the pussies. All the pussy if half the—very— subtle rumors about how that squad worked were true. Not that she was judging, she thought with a sigh, fingering the medallion tucked in its pouch through her shihakusho. It was a double-sided frame with a picture of Yoruichi on one side and a black cat on the other.

"Move Out!" she barked and they were flash stepping off. She smiled fiercely, still the fastest squad around. Someday she'd beat them into enough shape to take a run at the toughest too.

Within half an hour, not accounting for time distortion, they were at the appointed house and fanning out to look for evidence. Twelfth division had the place under surveillance on account of the girl's power and indicated that she'd been taken several blocks away before her reiatsu vanished no fading with distance, just vanished.

What she was wondering was why a vice captain had been there in the first place. There was no reason for it as far as she could tell, no reason for him to be in the living world at all... he'd been AWOL as far as she could tell. She would bring him to justice after her current mission was accomplished. It would send a message to his captain as well, money and privilege was not a pass to do whatever you wanted, not in her Seireitei anyway. She was still fuming over the slap on the wrist Soutaichou had given the hypocrite. She would have seen justice served or died trying- anything less was unacceptable. On the whole the Gotei 13 had simply grown too soft.

"Taichou!" she heard and flashed over to one of her sixth seats pointing west. Hound was tall, lean with a nervous disposition that she normally would never have tolerated but for his exceptional ability to sense Reiatsu hence the moniker 'hound'. She and her contingent followed Hound as he tracked the otherwise undetectable reiatsu. For an hour they followed the trail and Soi fon trying to jump ahead and backtracking when Hound made an unexpected turn made a mental note to make him do weighted runs...forever. Well at least until he got a little faster. Finally, final-fucking-ly they arrived outside a large, apparently abandoned warehouse.

"Here Taichou," Hound said.

She nodded and made a hand signal that meant: battle formation 8. They got to the tops of some nearby roofs and made their incursion with a window breach. Not quite as dramatic as she'd intended as half the windows were glassless, but oh well. They crashed into the building and much to her great shame, all but one of the five ass-wipes-that-called-themselves-shinigami that entered the main room with her froze.

"Fuck," someone gasped.

"Stay sharp!" she barked. No her voice did not quiver thank you. Soon enough it became apparent that they were alone and some of the other detail members entered from other rooms some looking distinctly ill. A few were actually weeping. They were actually crying, it was ridiculous.

"Look for evidence. You know your damn jobs you incompetent little whelps!" she yelled, angry at their complete lack of discipline, angry at herself for being stunned by the scene, and angry as hellfire at whoever had done this. She set about following her own order, examining the bodies; there had to be well over a hundred strewn around the room.

They were of both gender, in varying states of decay, appearing between the ages of thirteen and the mid-twenties with a few older. It was their degraded condition that struck her most though. Some were chained, and most were in various states of undress with seemingly with no regard for age or gender. She tried not to choke on the smell, heard the sound of retching far off but was too preoccupied to care. On second thought, yes she was most definitely judging and she was going to murder these sick...

"Good God," she heard someone breathing.

"Yes we get it, it's horrible and tragic. Shut up!" she said, her voice pitching higher than she'd intended and cracking at the end.

"No taichou...it's...They all have reiatsu." Hound said from her shoulder. She breathed, harsh and shallow, getting shallower. All of these humans...they all had spirit powers? Good gods.

"Taichou you're not..." she looked up to see the new speaker enter the room, she didn't remember his name. He had stopped talking to stare at the bodies littering the warehouse.

"What?" she asked, suddenly feeling completely drained.

"What the fuck...?"

"I asked you a question, whelp!" she barked.

"You're not going to believe what we found," he said shakily, looking to be on the verge of tears. She didn't even have the heart to reprimand him for his weakness.

"Show me," she demanded. She followed her subordinate into a side room and froze in the entrance, her mouth falling open. A dozen humans, all with reiatsu and all alive, if one used the term loosely, were laying on crates pushed into an approximation of beds, and hooked to a variety of monitors and other machines that looked like something Mayuri would have used...fifty years ago. Her squad carefully started unhooking some of victims.

"No! We need to get Fourth squad here, we might do more harm just unhooking them at random. Go back and alert them. Provide an escort of at least ten," she opened the Senkaimon but, provided no explanation as to why she didn't follow. She wasn't required to explain herself to subordinates.

Panting, she rushed through the streets of Karakura town pushing herself to the very limit until she reached the little shop and threw herself into the dimly lit buisness.

"S-soifon?" a voice called in surprise. "What happened?"

Soifon tried to answer, found she couldn't. "Yo-Yo-ruichi-s-sama ," she gasped, falling to her knees, shaking. She felt Yoruichi-sama's arms wrap around her as she trembled and began to cry.

Xxx

Byakuya sighed to himself as he followed his squad back. After hours of scouting and patrolling with no breaks, everyone was exhausted. His worn-out detail trudged toward the Sixth's barracks, but Byakuya paused before following. He glanced towards the manor, but then he hesitated and looked in the direction of the Fourth. He really ought to go check on his lieutenant, as was the duty of a captain.

Not because he needed to know how Renji was doing.

Not at all.

Unconsciously, his steps turned in the direction of the hospital ward holding his red-haired subordinate. As he entered, Unohana got his attention. "Evening, Kuchiki-taicho. I assume you're here for Renji. He's about ready to be released, though he's rather... boisterous due to the medicine. He's going to need someone to keep an eye on him so he doesn't do anything...foolish. At least until his medicine runs out."

Byakuya nodded, following her down the hallway. She let him into a room, where a disheveled Renji pointed at him. "You. I need to talk to you, mister." Stunned by the accusatory tone, Byakuya froze as Unohana closed the door, leaving them alone.

"Excuse me?"

Auburn eyes narrowed at him. "Why in the hell did you have blood on you? I've been worried sick! I didn't know why you had blood on you, or where it came from, or if you're ok! Why would you make me worry about you like that?"

Byakuya instinctively knew Renji was simply concerned for him, but he was not accustomed to being yelled at. "Watch your tone, Lieutenant Abarai. I do not appreciate the assumption that you can speak to me in that manner, or that I am obligated to answer to you for my actions."

He saw Renji flinch, and there was a disappointed hurt in his eyes, though his body language still screamed of rebelliousness. Byakuya sighed and moved closer to the bed. "I did not intend for you to worry. I merely injured myself while training. It's nothing to be concerned over."

The redhead looked back up to him with a small smile. "Thank you for telling me."
Byakuya felt a small twinge of guilt that he hadn't been entirely truthful.
He cleared his throat and spoke quietly. "Unohana says you may be released soon, but that you need a guardian of sorts to watch over you for a time."
He hesitated, then asked, "Do you wish to spend your recovery at the manor?"

The smile that lit up Renji's face was bright and warm. "Yes, sir."

...

When they got back to the manor, it was dinnertime, so they enjoyed a light meal, Renji saying that his medication was affecting his appetite. Afterwards, the redhead started to head for the guest room, but Byakuya stopped him, then led him to the room next to his. "You'll recover in here." He didn't mention the door that connected the rooms, leaving that for Renji to find himself. The younger man looked grateful and pleased by the gesture of getting the room adjacent to his own. He went in and laid on the bed, lightly snoring within moments.

So with everything settled Byakuya retreated to his room and fell asleep.

He held Rukia by the wrist -that seemed off somewhere in his mind. He never touched her, didn't so much as look at her, that was the whole problem. In the dream he was though, restraining her while she begged and pleaded to go to her friends whom danced like phantasms just out of reach, taunting.
The images twisted into the battle he and Renji had over Rukia. The walkway was dark and he attacked his subordinate ruthlessly, draining his blood and pinning the younger man to the stones with Sen's power, so much like chaining a dog. He was going to kill Renji for doing the right thing...

His eyes snapped open and he was breathing fast. Just another damn dream, he thought, and repeated it to himself. Not real, nothing to concern himself with. Yet in the ways that mattered, it had all been accurate enough, had it not? He drew a shaky breath, swallowing hard when he noticed Renji's Riatsu snapping around wildly in the next room. He intended to ignore it, allow his guest privacy to collect himself, but remembered the other night.

Though he'd have preferred to just be left alone, Renji had obviously meant well and he remembered the debt he felt he'd owed for those few minutes reprieve.
Rising, he crossed into Renji's room, seeing him twitching in his sleep, obviously in the throes of a nightmare. He made a whimpering sound in his sleep, heartbreaking in how unlike his usual boisterous self it sounded. He caught Renji's hand, kneeling next to the bed, uncertain of what to. Renji calmed some but still tossed with scowls and groans.

"Stand down, Fukutaicho," he ordered quietly out of habit, "Stand down."

The bigger Shinigami seemed to settle, the deep frown fading and the strong features relaxing. Byakuya knelt there next to the bed for some time, holding the warm hand and watching his guest sleep.

Renji woke and Byakuya quickly dropped his hand, standing.

"Wha...what's going on?"

"You were dreaming. It appeared...unpleasant," he replied.

"Oh...it was. Were...were you holding my hand?" he asked timidly, sounding embarrassed. Byakuya could second the feeling at being caught.

"My apologies, it appeared to calm you," he replied, feigning detachment.

Renji looked up, the confusion leaving his eyes and his gaze surprisingly piercing. "No, it...arigato," he said, sighing dejectedly. Byakuya contemplated the situation.

A blind man could see that his subordinate hadn't wanted the contact to stop. So why didn't he do so? Pride. He wasn't supposed to care, wasn't supposed to get attached, wasn't to supposed to slip. Then again, that was why they were here in the first place. If he'd shown Rukia more affection perhaps things wouldn't have ended the way they had. Maybe she would have talked; maybe he could have fixed it before it was too late.

He swallowed the lump in his throat and knelt to hold Renji's hand again. The younger man's eyes widened in shock, and it physically hurt that he was so stunned by a simple act of kindness. No that wasn't quite correct, stunned that he was showing compassion. That was what you wanted wasn't it? For no one to know how weak you are? Congratulations you succeeded a bitter, mocking thought.

"Why...why are you on the floor?" Renji's voice broke into his thoughts. He realized how his position kneeling by the bed must have looked to his subordinate. Damn it.

"You wanted your hand held, and this was the most comfortable way to do so."

"You could just get on the bed," Renji offered, seeming amused by something, "I mean, it is yours."

Oh, there was that. He hesitated but, there was no tactful way out and, honestly, he was a bit glad for that. Firmly ignoring a tiny, eager part of his mind, he climbed on the bed and, after a moment, found himself snuggled back against the bigger Shinigami's chest like they had lain before. The warm heartbeat against his back was centering, soothing. A gentle hand rubbed across his upper arm, a silent, subtle gesture of comfort that he'd never admit he desperately needed.

His thoughts wandered back to his dream and everything going on lately, and he only half-noticed the tender kiss placed on his temple.

"Eh you okay?" Renji asked.

"Fine, why?" he replied, feeling exhausted. Renji was far too perceptive, even when he was sure nothing showed he seemed to pick up on some crack in the façade. Keeping his guard up enough to counter it required a surprising amount of energy and didn't seem too effective besides. He should probably try to get some time alone but he couldn't quite bring himself to shake Renji off, knowing full well the redhead wouldn't return.

"You seem distracted," Renji said sadly. He wondered why his guest seemed so melancholy.

"It's called thinking, you should try it some time," he replied, letting his lips quirk to show that he meant no offense.

"I do think, assho-" Renji laughed then caught himself. He looked over to see Renji's eyes comically wide and raised an eyebrow. "I...uh..."

"Renji I don't think it's fair, if you deign to spend your off duty time with me, to expect you to act as though we're still on duty do you?" he saw his companion relax and they laid in silence for a while, his guest still rubbing his upper arm.

"What the hell?" Renji suddenly yelped. Byakuya looked over to see that his sleeve had slid up his forearm, revealing the fresh cuts from training with Senbonzakura layered over others in various state of healing down to the pink lines from his sparring match with Zaraki.

"As I said, a training accident," he said.

"Accident my ass! You know exactly what Senbonzakura does, down to the quarter inch. I've seen it. Hell how many times have you trained me?"

"That would be the point of practicing. I've been trying to reduce the buffer zone Senbonzakura requires," he explained, an edge of annoyance entering his tone. Nobles were so privileged that it was generally considered shameful for that skill to appear to require effort and yet he'd always had to work at it. He rather preferred not to discuss his own regimen.

"And this just occurred to you? It has nothing to do with Rukia?" Renji snapped, his voice cracking on her name. That cut a little too close to the truth and it also showed that something was seriously bothering Renji. While he always had a temper he'd never been so quick to overstep. Then again he'd basically given him permission to do so.

"It has more to do with the fiasco involving Zaraki-taichou. That match brought to my attention the need to address some of Senbonzakura's limitations. If you really feel the need to coddle someone, perhaps Iwakaze's victims would be better targets for your sympathy," he replied. He closed his eyes, dumb mistake. In his annoyance he'd said more than he'd intended, had let more guilt slip into that statement than he'd have cared to. Again he was getting far too careless lately.

"All his other victims have people looking out for them."

That stung more than it should have, that Renji thought so little of him. He exhaled slowly- anger wasn't going to do him any good here, never did,

"First, I'm not a victim, we've been over that. Second, Kira-fukutaichou is going to wind up either killing himself or a lot of other people if he doesn't get help. Hisagi-fukutaichou isn't doing much better, Ukitake-taichou had to see a subordinate hurt while unable to stop it, which is the worst thing a captain can go through and Kyoraku is going to hold all of them together until he falls apart because that's what he does. So worry about them if you're going to worry about someone, they've been through far worse," he finished.

Renji just stared, "Surely it's not… I mean we have the ward going they'll be able to get help soon,"

"Soon enough?" that was a low blow but he didn't care. He was sick of Renji insisting on giving him sympathy for things he'd caused. He deserved the pain, but the others were innocent they hadn't brought it on themselves.

In spite of the small fight, Byakuya stayed where he was, relieved by the thoughtful silence as Renji resumed gently stroking his arm and hair.

xxx

Yoruichi carefully bundled the now sleeping Soi fon into her own bed and watched her sleep, dead to the world.

"Now that's not something ya see every day," Yoruichi whirled, catching Urahara with a kick to the head. "Ow," he whimpered rubbing the spot.

"Oh it's just you," Youruichi said feigning surprise

"You knew that," he yelped.

"I wasn't sure. Now get out of here. She won't forgive us if she finds out you were here," or herself, she added mentally.

"It's my shop," he replied.

"You know full well she wasn't thinking about that."

"Hey I'm not complaining two beautiful, nubile young ladies in just happen to be here in my humble shop," he brandished a camera and she snatched it away playfully. She knew he wasn't being serious; he was worried, sad, and being perverted made a good cover. She sighed.

"You know she will claw your eyes out right? Get out," she laughed.

"Fine," he huffed.

She waited until he was gone and crawled into bed to hold her protégé. Soi fon would be mortified to know that anyone other than herself, but especially a man, had seen that. Yoruichi still felt guilty for not noticing his arrival. She'd just prayed that the past century hadn't changed too much, if she'd missed her guess she might make things immeasurably worse.

XxXx

Renji was on his lunch break, searching Seireitei for the comforting reiatsu of Kyouraku-taichou. He came across the captain returning from the Thirteenth barracks, there was something off about the reiatsu but Renji didn't know the captain well enough to recognize what.

"Taichou," he called.

"Eh?" the captain replied not breaking stride.

"Helping Ukitake-taichou out?" he asked, suddenly feeling extremely awkward.

"No, eating. He returned to duty this morning," the older captain sounded less than happy about this which confused Renji to no end.

"That's great . I'm glad he's recovering," he said. Kyouraku merely grunted in response. Renji reflected on how obviously not normal this was. For someone so cold Byakuya sure's hell had a read on his comrades.

"I was just wondering how Nanao was doing- I haven't been able to see her since I got released," he explained.

A pained expression crossed the captain's face and when he spoke his voice was rough, "She'll be getting released tomorrow."

Remembering Nanao's concern for her captain, Renji cleared his throat. "How are you doing, sir?"

Kyoroku-taicho paused, glancing at him from under his hat. "Why do you ask?"

Hearing the slight warning tone, he shrugged casually. "Just, a lot's been going on lately, y'know? Seems like everyone's having a hard time, and if Rukia's death taught me anything, it's that people need to stay in touch with each other, especially during stressful times. So I was just wonderin' if you need anything, or if you wanted to talk, I'd listen."

The older man gazed at him for a moment, then said quietly, "Walk with me, Lieutenant."
Renji followed uncertainly. He wasn't entirely sure where he stood, if the captain held any animosity for him backing Byakuya or not, but he felt he needed to do what he could. He owed him that much. For letting Nanao get hurt and for everything that'd happened with Iwakaze and Ryuu. He would need to apologize at some point but held his tongue for the moment, not wanting to tear open wounds that were likely only just healing.

He glanced up when the captain began speaking quietly. "Juushiro is...he has been avoiding me. He bears many grievous wounds, and is self-conscious, thinking I will not find him attractive anymore, won't love him anymore."

Renji thought for a moment; if Byakuya were scarred and broken, he'd still love the noble and think him beautiful. He still thought he was lovely, even with the marks from Senbonzakura.
He met the older man's eyes. "Do whatever it takes to prove to him that you do. Whatever you do, don't give up."

Shunsui felt the urge to smile for the first time in days, his eyes burning with gratitude at just having someone who he didn't need to maintain a front for. That Renji of all people would offer that despite all that had happened, his esteem for the man went up a few notches. The younger man had spoken beyond his years.

"Sound advice, Renji. I shall keep that in mind," he paused collected his thoughts, swallowed his pride, "I should apologize. Some of my actions of late have been...rash," He chuckled a bit at that understatement. "I was angry but, hold no grudge against you. How is your captain?" he still held a measure of resentment toward him but, if Renji needed to talk he'd listen. Ukitake and he had been holding the younger shinigami together for going on a thousand years he wasn't about to stop now.

Renji pretended not to notice the obvious emotions playing across Kyoroku-taicho's face, wanting to help preserve his dignity. "Its ok, we all worry about the ones we love. Ain't no shame in it affecting us." He hesitated before answering quietly. "He's as 'fine' as anyone else is."
He sensed surprise at the answer, but he didn't elaborate. He knew the whole Iwakaze thing had deeply bothered Byakuya, even if he wouldn't admit it. So he kept casually walking, while Kyoroku paused, then followed him.

Now that was a layered answer if ever there was one. Kyouraku did not remember Renji ever knowing the definition of subtlety but, perhaps he was picking up some skills from his idol. A pity he couldn't have picked a better idol. He was glad that the younger man hadn't noticed his sentimentalism this conversation was awkward enough. Speaking of awkward he was about to make it more so. Age had a way of making you see how petty some disputes were, highlighting the things that you should let go and where personal grudges should take a back seat to basic compassion.

"So hating himself in other words," he let the reply hang a moment before continuing. "I suppose that would be the downside of being an pretentious asshole. He always used to be so certain of his skill that when something went wrong, he assumed he could've done something...he got over that by time he'd made vice-captain learned to brush it off. You have to or you're not considered suitable for command. Wallowing in mistakes doesn't help anything," now if he could convince himself of that and then Juu. "At least he has you to talk to, that's something. He hasn't spoken to Ukitake since the execution and he was the only Byakuya ever deigned to bother with once he got rank."

Renji absorbed the answer, secretly relishing the fact he'd gotten more information about his superior. "I wish he'd talk to me more." he admitted before biting his lip.

Kyoroku gave him a sympathetic look, tilting his hat. "This is a confidential conversation, boy. I won't tell the scary Kuchiki that you talked about him."

Renji frowned at the slightly mocking tone, then sighed, scuffing his feet. "He's training too hard. He...he's gonna hurt himself." He left out mention of the blood; that was too much.

Kyouraku thought about this. On the one hand that was hardly an uncommon way to deal with stress in the Gotei Thirteen, on the other Renji'd been Eleventh and Zaraki himself had commended his toughness when he was recommended for the vice-captaincy. Surely he wouldn't be concerned unless it was seriously over the top. It was in general strange to hear anyone express concern for the noble as his general bearing had a way of fending such ideas off.

"That's something coming from a former Eleventh member," he said cautiously. "If you're that concerned why don't you ask train together?"

Renji stopped walking, head snapping up. Perfect! "That's brilliant! We could train together!" Realizing how enthusiastic he sounded, he looked at Kyoroku-taicho, only to see a raised eyebrow.

Oh shit.

Was he revealing too much of his own feelings?

Striving for casual, he shrugged. "That's a good idea. Thanks for the advice, and I'm glad you talked to me. I got some stuff to do, but I'll catch up some other time, ok?"

"Sure thing Renji," he said, the kid was out of sight almost before he finished. He waited until the Riatsu had faded away and started to laugh. On second thought he had no idea what subtlety was. Ah well Byakuya would beat it into him soon enough. He shook his head. He'd never understand what Renji saw in the entitled brat.