Chapter 21: Strays
Byakuya woke later to find Renji gone and a dark colored yukata and hooded cloak left behind, with a note for him to wear it if he ventured outside. He changed into the yukata and set the cloak aside while he was indoors, then picked up a broom he found and swept away the dust and debris. He spent several hours turning the dusty, cluttered shack into a somewhat more habitable looking place, only waiting for a bed to make it more comfortable.
Finding himself feeling bored, he slipped the cloak around his shoulders and pulled back his hair, fastening it with a red hair tie and slipping outside. It was already late afternoon and the sun would be setting soon. He glanced in the direction of the town and didn't see Renji returning, so he turned instead towards the nearby grassland area and picked up a pair of somewhat rusty shears he had found.
He cut armload after armload of the long, dry grass and carried it back to the house, where he spread it out in the corner, hoping Renji might procure some kind of material to stuff it into for their bed. There was no food, but he found a small creek that flowed water that appeared clean enough to use and gathered some in a small pot he had found in the shack. He drank deeply before returning to the house to wait for Renji.
The sun was just setting when the kido shield shimmered and Renji slipped inside, his arms full of an assortment of items. He spotted the fresh loaf of bread and the cup filled with butter and took the edge off of his hunger with that as Renji set down the other things and the two sorted them.
"You know, you didn't have to kill yourself cleaning like that. The house wasn't that bad…and I would have done it when…"
"Nonsense," Byakuya said, taking another bite of the bread, "I was bored…and besides, haven't you ever heard of the 'nesting' instinct?"
"Nesting?"
"Hai," Byakuya said, sipping from a cup of water, "Pregnant mothers often clean and prepare obsessively in the weeks before their child's birth."
"Really?"
Byakuya nodded.
"Though I wonder if it might be restlessness due to changes in the body. My body won't change much more, because our child will be born as a reiatsu cluster, and not in the usual way that females deliver."
"I'm still kinda freaked out," Renji admitted, "It's just strange to think that we're going to be parents. I mean, we haven't really had time to make any kind of plans at all."
Byakuya sighed.
"How can we make plans when I am wanted for treason? Renji, as much as I want to believe that I will be cleared and we will get to raise our child together…"
"Don't do that," Renji said, cutting him off, "Don't start sounding like you're not going to be here. Mari will wake soon and we will have the proof we need to get the charges against you dropped. Maybe, if we appeal to Soutaichou, you won't even have to go back to the Repentance Center at all."
"You know that won't happen," Byakuya said, shaking his head, "Even if all of the other charges are dropped I agreed to serve the sentence for seducing you."
"So why don't I have to serve any time? I'm an adult, and I was clear on what we were doing."
"I am taichou. The responsibility lies with me. You are my subordinate and I knew better," Byakuya said matter-of-factly, "I do not plan to oppose the sentence for my crime."
"Tell that to our kid when we have to visit you in jail," Renji said, unenthusiastically.
Byakuya sighed.
"I may also be sentenced to additional time for escaping," he added.
"Hey! You were being pursued by Aizen's hollows! What the hell were we supposed to do? Serve you up like tonight's main course?"
Byakuya smiled.
"I think we can find something better for a main course, Renji," he said, trying to change the subject.
"Oh no! Don't even start with me, Bya! There's no way I'm getting sidetracked…"
"I'm not try to distract you," the noble said, chewing delicately on a piece of the bread, "It's just a bother wasting time deliberating about something we really don't control. I can think of much better uses of our time."
"After we have some dinner," Renji said, smiling.
Byakuya tilted his head in askance.
"You mean, there's more than this?" he asked.
"Hai," Renji said, moving to the stove, "I did some work for the town physician. In return, he paid me a little bit and agreed to come and check on you periodically. So, there's some stew and there's dried fruit and meat to put away for later. Tetsuya and Arashi did some foraging and found a few things too. They're going to stay in town tonight, because they found some work, so we can get a little more money to keep us going. Oh, and you'll be glad to know I got a sheet and blanket for our bed. We just have to…"
He trailed off, noticing the carefully gathered grass piled neatly in the corner.
"Wow," he said smiling, "You are nesting, aren't you?"
"I had an entire day to myself and no reports to file, hollows to vanquish or pursuers to elude. It was a lovely day, despite your absence, although I much prefer having you with me."
Renji laughed and turned back to the stove. He lit a small fire and set the stew on a burner to warm. He set a pot of water on the second burner and then removed the sheet and blanket from his pack and helped Byakuya stuff the fitted sheet with the fresh, dried grass. They spread the blanket over the top and returned to the stove to serve the hot stew and tea.
"Tomorrow, you'll need to come to town so that Michi, the doctor, can have a look at you. After that, we can come back here for lunch and some relaxation time. Maybe we can go swimming in the river."
Byakuya nodded and settled against Renji, taking small bites of the stew and bread, and sipping contentedly at his tea.
"You're taking to Inuzuri a lot better than I thought you would," Renji commented, "Don't you miss your servants and the gardens and the gourmet cooking?"
Byakuya let out an annoyed breath and shook his head.
"I was imprisoned in Las Noches for so long, and before that, I had pretty much moved into my military quarters so that I could prepare for my battle with Aizen. I have almost forgotten what it was like to be at home."
Renji wiped his mouth on the back of one hand and leaned over to give the noble a kiss.
"We'll have you back in your pretty manor in no time, Bya," he said reassuringly.
"I do not miss it as much as you think, Renji. I like to think that my home is with the people I am close to, rather than being attached to a place."
Renji narrowed his eyes cutely.
"You sure that's not the hormones talking? I can't imagine you'd be happy here in some shack in the middle of Inuzuri."
The noble nuzzled more snugly against the redhead and set down his tea. Closing his eyes, he gave another contented sigh.
"That was good stew, Renji."
"The doctor's wife made it. Noa said that it was what she lived on when she was pregnant with their kids. I thought you'd like it. Noa is a good cook."
"My own staff could not have made it better. The tea is extraordinarily good too. You added something herbal."
"Another suggestion from Noa. It's all natural stuff. I don't know what all is in it, but Michi said it should…"
He stopped and smiled, realizing that Byakuya had drifted off, leaning up against him. Warmed by the stew and tea, he sighed happily and rested his face against the nobles, dozing comfortably in the warmth generated by the fire in the stove. He waited until it dwindled down to small embers, then lifted his sleeping lover and carried him off to bed.
XXXXXXXXXX
Byakuya woke in the middle of the night, feeling the familiar twinges of nausea. They seemed to have lessened noticeably in their severity, so he sat near the still warm stove, breathing slowly and drinking the last few sips of his cooled tea. The doctored tea soothed away the discomfort and he felt the calm, sleepy feeling taking over again. He was just turning back towards the bed when a frightened cry sounded somewhere nearby. Byakuya's eyes narrowed and he listened more deeply, keeping his breathing soft. Renji snored contentedly across the room, apparently not stirred by the sound, or by the sudden disturbance in the reiatsu around the cottage.
Tetsuya and Ichigo stayed in town…Arashi too, because we need early warning if shinigamis enter the town.
He glanced back at Renji, then slipped out past the protective barrier, and into the darkness. It was easy to follow the fearful cries now. They rose up out of the darkness ahead of him and blended ominously with the growls of several hollows. He worked his way toward the sounds quickly, but carefully. Somewhere behind him, he sensed Renji's reiatsu beginning to stir. He moved forward on graceful, catlike feet, ducking into some bushes as he approached the hollows and their quarry. The two attackers were large and not terribly high in level, but they were strong enough to have taken a small group of children by surprise. He sensed that several had escaped, but two young adults lay lifeless on the ground in a pool of blood and two very small children had been cornered near a group of rocks. The hollows snarled, making the little boy and girl cling to each other and scream.
Byakuya moved in quickly, knowing better than to call on his zanpakutou, but imagining it was safe enough to mask his reiatsu and to release a kido attack. The hollows turned as he closed in and he fired the kido blast at them, throwing them off their feet and sending them rolling away. The two children clung to each other and stared at him, wide eyed. Byakuya moved closer and motioned to the two.
"Come with me," he said quietly, "I will take you somewhere safe."
The two shivered softly, but didn't move. Byakuya moved closer and dropped to one knee in front of them.
"Do you have someone to take care of you? Someone who you live with?"
"That was Gabel and Kitia," the little girl sobbed, "They were the oldest in our group."
Byakuya nodded sympathetically and brushed a tumble of red hair out of her eyes and squeezed her hand.
"It will be all right now," he told them, turning them away from the remains of their friends and protectors.
He started back towards the cottage, but caught his breath in dismay as the children suddenly screamed and started to run.
"Look out!" they cried.
Byakuya flash stepped forward, but felt the heavy slash of claws across his back and something slammed into him, taking him off his feet. He hit the ground hard and rolled to his feet, backing away and keeping the children behind them. His back stung from the slashes and he felt blood on his skin. The children made small squeals of fear, but stayed behind him as he backed them toward the cottage. He felt weakness passing over him and started to sway. The hollows laughed and moved in closer as Byakuya raised his hands and fired a weak blast of kido. It wasn't enough to hurt the hollows, but it did buy them time.
But time is not going to help us if I pass out.
Byakuya took slow breaths and continued to move towards the cottage. He wasn't naïve enough to think that the hollows didn't know where he was going. So, he wasn't surprised when he reached the clearing just short of the place and the hollows charged. He raised his hands and tried to fire a kido spell, but stopped mid-spell as Renji flash stepped into view, firing off red fireball after red fireball. The children gasped at first, but then clasped each other and stared as the redhead continued to send fireballs after the hastily retreating hollows. He turned back to where Byakuya now knelt with the children and flash stepped to the noble's side.
"Are you all right?" he asked breathlessly, staring at the noble's torn cloak and yukata.
Byakuya said nothing, but shook his head and tried to stand. Renji helped Byakuya to his feet and led the noble and the two children through the darkness and up to the edge of town. They stopped as they reached a large, darkened building. Renji knocked on the door and slipped an arm around Byakuya to help the shaking noble stay on his feet. There was a pause and they felt a calm reiatsu pass over them. Then the door opened and Noa motioned for them to come inside. She shut the door behind them, gasping softly as she spotted the deep cuts in Byakuya's back.
"Come with me," she said and led Byakuya out of the room and into a bedroom that acted as a treatment room. She told him to bare himself to the waist, then disappeared out the door. The door opened again a few minutes later and Michi stepped in. He took a quick look at Byakuya's wounds and set about the healing. A few minutes into the healing, the door opened again and Renji stepped into the room.
"Are the children all right?" Byakuya asked quickly.
"Yeah," Renji said quietly, slipping a hand into his, "The kids are fine. They were just scared and pretty upset because the older ones that were taking care of them died. Their parents are dead and the group of kids they were in scattered. It's hard to say where they will go, but Noa says she will look for a group to take them in."
"Not necessary," Byakuya said, wincing at a small shock of pain.
He met Renji's eyes and smiled.
"When I stayed in Inuzuri on assignment, I learned much about the region. And while I was making myself familiar with it, I learned that if you are older and you encounter little ones in need, then you must care for them to the best of your ability."
"Wha…You want…them…to stay with…us?" Renji asked, shaking his head, "Hey, don't get me wrong. I love kids! But Byakuya, think! We are on the run…"
"And regardless of that, we have a duty to care for the ones who are less able to do so. Renji, you know it's the right thing to do."
"Look, I hear what you're saying. I really do. And if we were going to stay, sure, but Bya, we may have to leave on a moment's notice. We…"
"We will take things as they come," Byakuya said in a tone that told Renji that he might as well stop arguing, because he wasn't going to win.
He shook his head and started to go on, but the door opened and Noa peeked in.
"The children are asking to see your friend, Renji-san. How is the healing coming along?"
Michi nodded.
"Send them in. I'm about done," he said, helping Byakuya to set his yukata back in place.
The door closed briefly and opened again a moment later. Byakuya smiled as the children peeked into the room, then crept shyly towards them. They stopped several feet away, staring up at Renji with wide eyes. Renji smiled at them and dropped into a chair, watching them as they moved closer.
"Are you two all right?" Byakuya asked quietly.
The boy and girl nodded.
"Well," said Renji, "let's have your names, then."
The girl looked at her brother for a moment, then back at Renji.
"I am Emiko and my brother is Haru," she said, shivering softly.
She looked up at Byakuya.
"Thank you for saving us. I'm sorry the hollow hurt you."
She paused, as though waiting for something.
"I am Byakuya," the noble said, "and you are welcome, Emiko."
"The doctor and his wife say you two can stay here for tonight, and if you have no place to stay, then you may come to stay with Byakuya and me," said Renji.
Still looking shy and somewhat wary, the children simply nodded and allowed themselves to be herded off to bed. Renji watched them leave, then turned back to the noble, who was settling into bed.
"They're cute," he said, not able to conceal an amused smile, "but I have to ask, are we going to have three kids now, Bya?"
"I think I would like to have a large family," Byakuya replied, closing his eyes, "I hope that is all right with you, Renji."
"Of course it's all right," laughed the redhead, "but no more strays, okay? I'm already working my ass off trying to keep us fed and clothed. And you're not helping, getting all torn up like that and scaring the hell out of me!"
"I'm fine, Renji," Byakuya sighed, "and I will mend my torn clothing tomorrow."
Renji furrowed his brow.
"I didn't know you could sew."
"There are a lot of things you would be surprised to learn about me."
"I guess so!" the redhead laughed softly.