When Renji woke up to the incessant cacophony of the alarm clock, he felt a certain someone who could with deft feet, lightly tapping on the wood, speak the same words and leave. This time, he'd hurry – for last night was a good lesson – and follow his taichou. But…the footsteps never came.

'Was he getting used to the harmonious lull that this gigai-activated life gave him?' His thoughts were obvious, Yes, maybe he was. But when Renji sat up on his bed, and waited a full 20 minutes of nothing, he realised something was off!

Putting his suit on (just in case), Renji first dashed to the office quarters.

'Maybe,' Renji thought, trying to calm his beating heart, 'he's gone hunting without me.'

This was highly possible, for people knew how calm and patient Byakuya could be, but only his close associates knew the short-temper the man held. If Byakuya was found there, then it shouldn't come to Renji as a surprise, right?

But Renji's heart felt a little twinge of something he couldn't name.

'If…' he thought. That 'if' was a very decisive factor. But Byakuya was a man of principles. Renji's gut took a sharp twist of '8' when he realized Byakuya was not there. No one was.

Then, it dawned on him. He slapped his forehead right through to Sunday. For it was Sunday. No workday. Byakuya was asleep. Renji felt sure of that. He was, right? He must be.

With these thoughts in mind, Renji shunpoed as fast as his gigai could allow. Then the gigai did what it was capable of: Grumble.

Renji entered his room with a grumbling, roaring dinosaur. His gigai was indicating that he felt hunger.

"Food," Renji said aloud to no one in particular, not witnessing a silent, equally disheveled head that had been frantically searching for him. But Renji hadn't noticed him, and that was enough. Fixing his breath, Byakuya set a scowl on his face.

"Where were you? Did you forget the protocol? No leaving anywhere without informing the other. What part of that agreement did you expect to be broken?" Byakuya's steel voice cut through the tension like a knife through fish. Renji froze in spot.

Seeing no reaction from Renji, Byakuya felt infuriated.

"I asked," Byakuya raised his voice, "where were you? On a date?" Byakuya folded and then unfolded his arms from his chest and stepped close to Renji, enough that Renji could feel the towering presence and cower a little. But Renji only looked up.

'What was that?' he thought. Was he sensing something that…no, that was impossible. It was impossible. Obviously so.

Inhaling involuntarily a light musky smell on Byakuya, Renji said, "Taichou, I should be asking the question. You didn't…" Renji stopped short. What would he say? Taichou, you didn't come and do the ritual of knocking and then unlocking the door and giving your monotonous speech before slightly moving out? Didn't that sound ridiculous? Renji wasn't a child and if he said these things to Byakuya, he'd surely sound like one. So what should he say?

Finding nothing to continue, Renji turned sideways (the audacity) earning a raised eyebrow from Byakuya, and moved to the bath room. Renji was clearly unaware of the effect his sudden abrupt halt in speech had made on the other who looked puzzled and somewhat hurt or was it a sense of guilt?

"Renji," Byakuya said, in a deft motion grabbing hold of Renji's arm, "answer me."

To be perplexed was the last word that one could use to describe Renji then.

'Answer what?' he thought.

"Were you on a date?" Byakuya asked, this time, his voice a little calmer but the question was there, hanging between them. Why should Byakuya have this tone? Wasn't he the one…no…Renji wouldn't think of it. He'd buried it. He wouldn't think of it. Never.

"Taichou," Renji said, finally looking at Byakuya, a gaze Byakuya hadn't seen in years, "what makes you think I can go on a date in the middle of a mission? I thought you'd gone on the search without me, so I went there. You weren't there, so I came back."

Renji freed his arm or rather the grip had loosened. Slipping his arm out was easy. Not that Renji wanted to. But he needed to. Renji, without another word, left to the restroom to freshen up.

If Renji had looked behind, turned even half an inch, he'd have seen a face, a face made long ago for Renji, only for Renji…. A face his taichou had hid well for so many years. A face he'd buried under the rubbles of anger, frustration, duties and responsibilities. A face Byakuya had made only once, in the dim light of the Healing Quarters, when he'd seen Renji writhe in pain from the deathly wounds of the arrancars and had hallucinated. Yes, Renji had only hallucinated but for Byakuya it had been real. The embrace, the tears, the fear, the warm touch, the soft suckle, the gentle butterflies that had managed to rave up a storm in Byakuya's heart. But Renji didn't even turn, for Renji was busy tucking his own feeling under the belt and exhaling the smell he'd taken so involuntarily.

He took extra soap and created a formidable lather to scrub his face off, not of dirt but of feelings he'd hidden and locked away. That musky smell was beginning to bring back some images he'd not want to see, because they brought only pain. Pain when his taichou pretended nothing had happened, that his taichou became all too busy with marital proposals from different clans that he'd made a point to meet all and seen none of Renji even when he was in the hospital. Not that it mattered. Renji knew he had to kill his feelings. He'd managed to do it so well for so long, he would be able to do it again, wouldn't he? But Renji had to give it to Byakuya. One whiff, and Renji was almost disarmed, almost. But Byakuya, unshaken like a mountain.

Renji exhaled. Once, twice, thrice. Then he took the razor and began to graze it along the light stubble that had begun to form.

'A real body,' he thought half-heartedly.

Unknown to Renji, Byakuya was standing where he'd been left. Then, when he'd heard the water run, Byakuya had come back to his own reality and lightly slithered out of the room. Not without a scar on his heart though. Because he'd seen something on Renji's phone while it had been left in the room, unlocked:

Mone-chan (Neko kawai~) : Renji-kun, shall we have lunch sometime?(Sent 00:20 AM)

Renji (IkemenRenji) : Sure, Mone-chan! When should we? :D (Sent 00:25AM)

Mone-chan (Neko kawai~) : Today at 12?(Sent 00:30AM) Seen

By the time, Renji was washing himself up, Byakuya had begun to tidy up his room.

Mone-chan…yes, he knew Mone-chan. Heavy make-up, sugar-coated voice, but she was somewhat Rukia's height and honest about things. He hadn't realized that Renji could have been liked by those girls, they never were close to him. But then again, he was wrong. For he had Mone-chan's number and they were texting while, Bykuya himself, had only two numbers saved outside his 'Real Job' people: The chief's and Ichigo's.

Byakuya huffed. The sense of something happening that he didn't like made him feel uneasy. For of course, this was unusual. No one at the Barracks approached Renji, even if they did, it was always work related. And Rukia was the only one who came for him, but Rukia was a friend to him, so it was natural? No. No it wasn't. Rukia was a friend to Renji, as per Renji's thoughts. But Byakuya knew Rukia's thoughts. And she was no friend to Renji: She was waiting for Renji to turn his head and see her. And she'd said the same to Renji, hadn't she? That night was so clear to him. No, he mustn't think.

But the dust had been raved up by the text and Renji's unguarded expression when he'd come inside his room in huffed up breaths had brought out memories of a similarly heaving chest, grizzled with sweat and writhing under a certain someone, moaning a name the way it was preferred: All edges off, a primal call from one soul to the other.

Thud!

The book, that Byakuya had been holding, fell down from his loosened grip.

Byakuya inhaled.

How many times had he seen and re-seen those very images in his head? How many times had he heard Renji snoring in the middle of the day in his office and then watched with carnal desires as Renji had sprawled on the floor, carefree of his presence…his chest, exposed, his tattoos so visible, he'd longed to just glide through the marking….

Byakuya stopped himself.

He SHOULD NOT THINK OF RENJI THAT WAY!

He knew that.

He knew that and yet…he couldn't stop. No, he must!

"For Rukia's sake, I must…" Byakuya uttered and repeated to himself multiple times before hearing, "For Rukia's sake, what must you do, taichou?" Renji's voice echoed in the room.

Byakuya froze in his movements.

Had he heard?

What had he heard?

Fear gripped his heart. It clawed at his nerves.

"I want to marry him Oni-sama," Rukia's voice floated into the room.

Byakuya had been standing near the doorway of the Healing Quarters when Rukia had abruptly entered the room. If Rukia has noticed truly, she would have seen Byakuya's ever slight panting voice and a very disheveled Renji under the blanket. But she'd seen none of it. She'd gently touched Renji's face and cried softly.

"Whom?" Byakuya had asked stoically, to a standing Rukia.

"Renji," she had answered.

Byakuya had frozen in his spot. His eyes bulged ever so slightly.

"If he ever says that he likes me, I will marry him brother."

Byakuya had said nothing. But in his heart, he'd broken into pieces. Like the day Hisana had died and he'd broken. After centuries of battles and carelessly throwing himself into every sort of war, Renji had managed to take off the cage Byakuya had made for himself, when he'd gone to Rukia to save her and stood against him, against the morals that had bound Byakuya and chained Byakuya. Renji had cut them off of him with his sword and words. That was Renji. And then there was Rukia. Hisana's sister. Byakuya's sister-in-law. But for all sense, Rukia was a Kuchiki and thus his sister. And for once, she had asked for something. So, he was going to give it to her. Even if it meant chopping off the remaining pieces of his heart.

"Tell me, Taichou, what must we do for Rukia's sake?" Renji's voice was closer. It entered Byakuya's reverie.

"How dare you," Byakuya spoke, "question me?"

It was foolish but the sudden change, Byakuya hoped would put Renji off or out.

It did. Renji froze.

"Don't you knock?" Byakuya asked, with irritation lacing his voice as he attempted to busy himself with an already neat room.

"I did, taichou. You didn't answer," Renji said with uncertainty, of whether he'd actually knocked or not. He had, he assured himself.

"Have you cleaned the house?" Byakuya asked, reminding Renji of his tasks and last night. When no answer came, Byakuya turned around to see a Renji trying to form a question but was hesitant.

Sneering Byakuya said, "Do I need to tell you again?"

That seemed to do the trick. Whatever he wanted to ask was left in Renji's throat and he scampered to do the tasks.

With the retreating figure's back, Byakuya exhaled.

'You dare,' Byakuya told himself, 'you even dare to feel again?'