Before starting with this week's update, I'd like to thank all my reviewers and also my best friend Uchiha Yumi – she wrote me a couple of Renji/Tatsuki stories for Christmas! Isn't she kind?
Now why don't you have a look at her stories? They're short but really nice. You can easily find them through our Renji/Tatsuki C2 community – Moonbeams of Fire.
Now, enough rambling. Just one more thing…
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!
IV: WONDERS
Four months and two days ago"So, this is what they call a festival?" Yumichika said, looking around excitedly. "I like it! Why don't we get something like this back home?"
"Be quiet!" Hitsugaya muttered, rolling his eyes. "We're already attracting too much attention as we are."
"It's not my fault if I'm beautiful!" whined Yumichika, who was also known as The Man of The Weird Eyebrows, who was also know as the Vainest Shinigami Ever.
"It won't be easy," Matsumoto sighed as she shrugged her shoulders. "You know, with the sunlight reflecting on his head…"
"Hey!" Ikkaku shouted, glaring at her.
Hitsugaya rolled his eyes again – although it was bound to happen when his vice-captain was around, he seemed to be doing it much more often since he came to Earth. Why me… he sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Do you think we could join a club?" Matsumoto chirped, ignoring her bald-headed colleague as she waved at Orihime over the crowd that surrounded the Handcraft Club stall.
A smirk bloomed on her lips as she noticed Ishida glaring daggers – or should we say arrows? – at the boys that were there only to ogle at Orihime. 'Ah! The wonders of love!'
Hitsugaya shook his head. "Of course we can't. What's the point anyway?" he rolled his eyes again. "We're not here on vacation, have you forgotten?"
"Aww, come on, boss! View this as an opportunity!" she caught Renji's gaze and winked at him conspiratorially. "We should make the most of it!"
Renji raised an eyebrow at her, but she had shifter her attention back to the festival.
Renji sighed. Sure, it was pretty entertaining – more than regular lessons anyway – but he couldn't quite concentrate. Hell, there were more important things he had to think about: he was Shinigami on a mission, he had a busy life, for crying out loud! Going to school, finding out how many Vastrodes Aizen could throw at them, then getting more infos on those Vaizards, then again reporting back to the higher-ups, answering Byakuya's daily letters, assuring Byakuya that yes, Rukia was doing perfectly fine and training when he wasn't busy doing any of the above-listened activities didn't leave time for anything else.
"Look! That's Arisawa-san demonstrating for her Karate club!"
Correction.
Maybe there was room for something else.
After all, what sort of life it could be without a hobby?
Renji did have one.
It was called "Annoy-the-Hell-out-of-Arisawa-Tatsuki"
The red-haired Shinigami inconspicuously veered to the left, observing the whole scene. The members of the club would show the basic stances and punches to the other students who looked interested. On the back, Tatsuki was demonstrating an actual black-belt level fight with another girl.
Smirking, Renji pushed his way to the front, then took a deep breath and hollered, "Nice ballet, honey! You should try out for the cheerleaders' club."
Tatsuki didn't even glance at him, although she was the tiniest bit slower on parrying her opponent's punch.
"But then you'd look like a boy in disguise…"
Luckily, Tatsuki's control was perfect, or her next punch would have broken Kasumi-chan's ribs.
"Haven't you accepted yet the fact of being a girl? G-I-R-L… You know, someone pretty and polite." Kasumi-chan barely stopped a vicious kick. "Not that you fit the description in any way, but…"
"Sorry, Kasumi," Tatsuki muttered before grabbing her by the arm and sending her sprawling on the mat. As she helped her friend, she motioned for two boys to come near. "Could you fill in for a second, please?"
"Of course, Tatsuki-sempai!" the youngest nodded enthusiastically.
"I'll be back in a minute."
Tatsuki exchanged a few words with Kasumi, then went to take care of the disturbance.
'She looks like a cat…' Renji thought as she slowly walked up to him, but promptly drove that consideration away when she stopped about a feet away from him. 'If she got any closer, she'd have to raise her head to look at me…'
"Is that all you can do?"
Tatsuki's voice startled him out of his contemplations. "What?"
"Standing around, yelling and basically doing nothing. Is that all you can do?" she repeated, glancing at him and raising an eyebrow.
He scowled – something that happened quite often in her presence. "What are you implying, honey?"
Tatsuki smirked. "You figure it out, Abapin. You know, you shouldn't talk about things you don't understand…"
The red-head opened his mouth to reply, but she turned her back on him and glanced at the two fighting boys. Renji was positively fuming.
"Don't make me laugh." he shot back. "Compared to me, you're nothing."
Tatsuki turned back to him. "Really? Want to prove it?"
"A fight? With you?" he looked at her up and down. "That wouldn't be any fun, honey."
"For me or for you?" she shot back with a grin.
"Isn't it obvious?" he replied.
"I don't think so." her eyes sparkled. "Of course, if you are afraid…"
Was that bloodlust?
Renji didn't stop long enough to ask himself that question. "You should be the one who's afraid…" he growled as he started untying his shoes.
"We'll see…" she said as she walked to the centre of the mat and shifted into a fighting stance.
Renji kicked off his left shoe and moved to stand right in front of her.
A small crowd had gathered around the Karate Club Demonstration Area – everybody had gotten used to their fights, but this was the first time they actually came to blows.
'I wonder if she did this only to draw more attention to her stupid club…' Renji thought bitterly, then turned his gaze on his opponent. Tatsuki, however, hadn't spared a glance at their audience. Her eyes and her attention were solely focused on him. That knowledge sent a lazy shiver down his spine, but he didn't have time to ponder on that.
The fight had started.
"Do you think we should stop them?" Yumichika said, worriedly.
"And miss all the fun?" Ikkaku said. "No way!"
Tatsuki parried a punch, feinted to the right and punched back on the left – the blow was parried nonetheless. She would never admit it, but Abarai-san was a better fighter she had anticipated.
What she didn't know was that the Shinigami was thinking the very same thing about her.
He closed the distance between them, leaving only room enough to throw punches – having found himself at the receiving end of her monstrous kicks one time too many had forced him to turn to close-quartered combat. Really close-quartered.
As much as Tatsuki tried, she couldn't loose him. ?He seems to be reading my mind…' she thought as another attempt was promptly vanquished. '…almost.' She corrected as she finally landed a punch on his upper torso.
They kept on spinning and dancing around each other, blocking and throwing punches, attacking and retreating.
And, as they fought, Renji started noticing things he had never seen before.
'Does she always look like this when she fights?'
He had never noticed how determined she looked. He had never noticed the rapt expression on Tatsuki's face. He had never noticed that blazing fire burning in her eyes.
As he moved out of harm's way and placed a punch on her side, Renji though he could practically sense her excitement, her joy.
For she felt she only belonged somewhere when she was fighting against a worthy opponent. With all her strength. With all her might. With all her soul, until her fire burned away her darkest fear. The fear of being helpless.
The red-headed Shinigami saw her burning spirit – and something, somewhere deep inside of him, answered.
'She's just like me…'
He had planned to use part of his true strength to defeat her, but now all those treacherous thoughts flew from his mind, melting like snow to the fire of her.
It wouldn't be fair. It would be cheating.
His pride argued that she need a lesson.
'She's only I girl. I don't need to.'
He could defeat her – but he wouldn't crush her. Not anymore.
What if her fire had died?
As he was still arguing with himself, Tatsuki's knee connected rather painfully with his stomach, sending him sprawling on the mat.
Tatsuki had won.
However, this victory tasted a bit bitterly to her. She smiled at her mates' praises, but she couldn't help but sneaking glances at Renji.
By the other side of the mat, Hitsugaya was scolding the red-headed Shinigami – but Renji didn't hear a single word the Captain said.
He kept on glancing toward the short-haired, fire-spirited karateka.
'Of course.' He thought as he watched her out of the corner of her eye. 'I should have known that there was no need to go easy on her.'
Because even if he had defeated her, Tatsuki wouldn't be crushed.
She would have risen again and kept on fighting.
"Are you even listening to me, Abarai!" Hitsugaya screeched.
Matsumoto laughed softly. 'Ah! The wonders of love indeed!'
Liked it?
Hated it?
Leave a review and let me know!
But please, don't review only to point out that they're OOC and that Tatsuki couldn't have beat him in a fight.
I know that, in a real fight, she wouldn't stand a chance, but Renji a) was holding back. A lot. B) underestimated her c) got distracted by focusing on his own thoughts.
I tried to explain this between the lines of that passage, but in case I didn't succeed…