Author's Notes: Here's the bonus chapter for this weekend! Another short one, so I thought I ought to publish them on the same weekend. In this chapter, we will not only get closer to the reunion of our sweet boys (next chapter I promise lol), but we also get a flashback detailing the first time they met! I'm getting Byakuya and Renji tattooed in two weeks, I'm freaking cause out I love them more than life itself. Don't forget to subscribe, bookmark, and comment. I am elated to read reviews!
Chapter 6 content warnings: none
Disclaimer: Bleach and its characters are the intellectual property of Kubo Tite. I do not own Bleach or its characters.
About a month after that, Renji got a call while on break from work. He was out in the back of the shop, trying to get some fresh air before continuing an extensive, Japanese-style tattoo on a client. Renji noticed Rukia's name flash across his phone as it buzzed.
"Yeah?"
"I heard from him again." Rukia's voice rang through the speaker.
"Oh, the guy you hooked up with last week?" Renji groaned. "I told you to stay away from fuckboys like that."
"No," Rukia interjected, "Though he was really cute. I should call him…." She mused, trailing off again.
"Oh my god," The redhead rolled his eyes. "Who called then?"
"Kazuki-san. My sister's husband. Remember?"
"Oh." Renji resisted the urge to smoke another cigarette at the thought of having to listen to more rich people's drama.
"We've decided to meet up again, but I don't want to go to his house or mine since I don't really trust him yet. Also, last time, meeting up in public felt kind of weird given the serious context. So…" She paused, gauging her friend's reaction before continuing. "I volunteered your studio as the meeting place."
Renji let go of an exasperated sigh. "This is a place of business, not a Starbucks, ya know?"
"I know, I know, and I am so sorry. Can we meet after hours or something, please? I also really thought about showing him my art piece of Hisana that I've been working on." Rukia paused, still shaken at the thought of her long-lost sister.
"Well, if this technically counts as some type of art display," Renji took a drink from his open soda can. "I can allow it."
"Oh my god!" Rukia squealed out with delight, "I owe you big time."
"Do you think this prude will even meet you at a tattoo shop?"
"He seems determined to meet me. I don't think the location matters," Rukia grumbled, clearly annoyed again, "stop making assumptions about people. It's rude."
Renji finished his soda, preserving the cans for another one of his recycled art projects. "Trust me, tiny tot, I've met enough of the haughty types to understand. They're all the fuckin' same."
"Then I guess all us poor orphan kids are the same, too?" Rukia challenged.
Renji straightened up and prepared to head back inside to continue with work. "I mean, I wouldn't say you were wrong about that either."
"You are exhausting," Rukia sighed on the other line. "Could I have the place this upcoming Friday?"
"Sure, sure. I gotta get back to work." Renji added, "I can't promise I can give you guys privacy, though I'm sure you want it. We close at 9, but I'll try to finish up shop by 10."
"As long as you give us space, that's more than enough." the woman on the phone paused, "Really, thank you."
"Don't mention it. Talk to you later."
Renji hung up the phone in favor of returning to his work as a tattoo artist. He placed his empty can in a pile near the backdoor as he headed inside again. There was where many of his unfinished recycled artworks sat. He briefly remembered his time selling them on the street as a child and the young boy he had met that fateful day.
"You don't look like you belong here." The young Renji pointed out bluntly, as children often do.
"Hm?" The pale boy before him tried hiding his clean and pristine appearance behind a hooded jacket. Finally, he peeked up from it to meet the gaze of the young shop owner.
"Well, a customer is a customer, after all." Renji held out his hand. "Abarai Renji. Shop owner. Artist. Cool guy."
The boy in the hood hesitated, glancing around before gingerly taking the other's hand, shaking it once weakly, "Kuchiki…Kuchiki Byakuya."
"Uh," Renji scratched his head, "Why does that name sound familiar?"
Byakuya looked around again, panic written on his flawless face, "Oh, please don't tell anyone you saw me!"
"Kuchiki." It finally clicked in Renji's head, "Holy shit, you guys are like royalty around these parts, huh?"
"Please, keep your voice down." Byakuya cautioned, pulling his hood down further over his face to hide.
"I won't out ya, undercover cop." Renji teased, leaning closer to speak to the other boy in a low tone, "But seriously, what the hell are you doing in the Rukongai? They'll rob you blind and beat your clean skin blue."
"I wanted to know," Byakuya's grey scared eyes were like ones of a lost deer. "What it is like to live outside of the Kuchiki family. I live locked in a cage at the top of the hill, looking down on all others. It's so dreadfully boring and lonely."
Renji crossed his arms, kicking at the dirt as he thought it over, "I'd rather be bored and lonely any day, kid."
"I apologize. I probably seem rather insensitive." Byakuya turned to leave, still donned in the unseasonably warm jacket in the dead of June.
"Hey, hey! Don't go!" Renji reached out for the slender boy, grabbing the back of his hood and dragging it down.
Byakuya turned in a flustered stupor. His inky black hair was freed, swirling around his delicate, almost angelic face.
"You're the prettiest boy I've ever seen." Renji stood in awe, his sepia-toned eyes twinkling as he took in the sight before him. "More the reason you hide all that when you're around here. They do bad things to pretty boys."
Renji quickly helped his newfound friend back into his disguise. "Don't have any money on ya, do you?"
"Of course not." The flustered noble boy wrapped himself back up.
"What a shame. I was gonna offer you some of my wares." Renji reached on the small, broken table, showing Byakuya a snake sculpture he had made from old garbage. "May look worthless now, but when I'm a famous artist one day, you'll sell this for millions. I guarantee it."
Byakuya took the trinket into his fine-boned hands, turning it over and examining it with wide eyes, "This is really neat."
"Ain't it?" Renji grinned as he watched the prospective customer examine closer.
"How much?"
Renji fumbled. Nobody had ever offered to buy one of the make-believe art pieces. He quickly recovered his salesman poise, making up his prices on the spot. "Oh, depends on the piece, ya know. See anything in particular you like? I can tell you the prices individually."
Byakuya carefully placed the snake sculpture down as his eyes scanned the wares. He finally settled on a small monkey crafted from an old aluminum can.
"This one."
"Oh, I am famous for my monkey sculptures, you know?" Renji smiled. He was having a lot of fun pretending to be a salesman. "Three thousand yen."
Byakuya frowned a bit, setting the piece down. "I told you I don't have any money today, but I would gladly spend my allowance on this if I could."
Renji quickly picked up the monkey again, placing it back into the noble's hands, "Consider today as a free trial. You gotta bring back something to remember your fun time in the slums."
Byakuya turned the figurine over in his hands before carefully placing it away in his pocket, "I will return to pay for it."
"Glad to hear it. I have my first– I mean, another customer."
The dark-haired boy's eyes seemed to fill with a bit of sadness as he noticed the slip-up in words. "Renji, I can't wait to resell this once you're famous."
"Told ya so." The tanned redhead smiled again, though now his smile was laced with a bit of melancholy.
"Thank you. It was nice to meet you."
Then, Byakuya began on his way again.
"Byakuya," Renji called out once more, "be safe."
In the present day, the redhead snapped out of his nostalgia. He still had work to attend to, after all. Yet, even as he tried to shake the memory from his mind, the image of the elegant boy with wind-tousled obsidian hair remained branded in his mind. Renji had once thought that Byakuya was the most beautiful boy he had ever seen. Now he knew that Byakuya was simply just the most exquisite thing he had ever laid eyes on.
