Chapter: Blue As The Sky
Shalan's Blah: Uhm… I'm glad… I got some reviews… I guess I got some reviews… I wrote this the same night as chapter one so I have no idea if I have reviews or not… but uhm if there are some… THANK YOU! Hugs
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Renji walked into his barrack, a tray held in one hand. He shut the door behind himself and looked down at the futon. There she was, in the same place where he had left her. He squatted down; holding the tray over his head then gently placed the tray down next to her. He sat back on his haunches and waited for her to wake up. When she didn't for a while he stood up and walked over to his window, looking out over the Seireitei. After Aizen's defeat everything had returned to normal for the most part…
He heard a snuffle from behind him and he turned around. She was looking over at the food with curious eyes. She looked up at him and for a moment his rust met the purest sky blue eyes he had ever seen. She scuttled away from him as he leaned out. "What… I'm not going to hurt you…" he reached out to her. Her eyes went to Zabimaru at his hip and he pulled the blade out of its sheath. Her eyes opened wide and she flipped around, scrambling across the floor. "No!" He nearly shouted then took a deep breath. "No… please… calm down… I'm not going to hurt you…" he whispered softly. "See… Zabimaru isn't going to hurt you…" he slowly knelt down and placed the sword on the ground. She watched him as he pulled off the sheath and laid it next to the beautiful sword that now rested on the ground.
She reached out a hand to touch the blade and Renji watched as her fingers touched the cool hard metal of Zabimaru. He almost chuckled as he heard the spirit hiss slightly. "Do you speak?" He asked but her senses seemed enraptured by the cold harsh metal. Her fingers slid along the side of it. "Hello?"
"Celeste," was all she said to him. Her voice was soft, almost inaudible, but it had a beautiful tone to it. After muddling through this single word answer that didn't seem to answer any of his questions he came upon the question to her answer.
"Is that your name?" He blinked and she nodded slowly, her fingers sliding up to the tip of the blade. "Watch…" she let out a gasp as the tip of the sword cut two of her fingers. Crimson blood spilled from the wounds and Renji gently took her hand. She tried to draw away but he was insistent and he pulled her hand again and held his thumb against the cuts. She seemed amazed by his kindness as he gently spread the healing ointment across the cut and bandaged her fingers. "There…" she looked up into his eyes. He stared back for only a moment or two before looking away and looking at the ground.
"Do you have a name?" Again, her voice was quiet, soft like the breeze in the trees but as sweet as honey to his ears. For some reason, as he spoke his own name, he felt that a person like himself shouldn't even be in her presence.
"Renji… Abarai," he barely got out of his mouth. She made him feel like a school boy. She sat there looking at him in the same way that Rukia used to, the smile that could melt butter.
"Hmm…" she said nothing after that but instead motioned to the tray on the floor before her. He nodded, starting to understand what she meant. She made him read her body language to figure out what she wanted instead of saying it, it was a roundabout form of communication but Renji found it rather… entertaining. He had lived his life reading body language, the body language of battle, whether the opponent was ready to strike whether they were ready to parry a blow… yes body language was important to him. Her body language, however, was very different from the body language he was used to.
As he watched her eat he noticed several similarities between her manner of eating and Byakuya's. Which was odd for someone from the Rukongai. She held the bowl of udon in her left hand and lifted the noodles with her chopsticks in her right. When she would lift them out she let them sit for a second before pulling them into her mouth.
"Lieutenant Abarai?" A knock came from the door and he stood up. She seemed startled but he held a hand out to her and stood up.
"Yes," he opened the door and walked out. Before him stood a pretty red head with iridescent ice blue eyes. Her long sleeved uniform was covered by her captain's jacket, which was a little longer than most captains. "Kazumi…" he smiled.
"My heater broke again…" she put her fist to her head. "We're having a hard time fixing it because we're all a bunch of stupid heads…" she was perhaps the most violent and war-loving captain in the bunch and tended to be stronger than even Jushiro when angered but outside the battle field, he had come to find, she was pretty much a hopeless klutz. He sighed lightly.
"What the hell do you do Hasegawa? Beat it up for the hell of it?" He lifted a tattooed eyebrow. She chuckled and shook her head.
"I don't know… I think it's protesting because it thinks its being abused…" she laughed and he shrugged.
"I'll go get Ikakku and we'll be right over… I don't see why you can't just figure out the heater by yourself… aren't you a captain?" He eyed her and she smiled, pressing her hands together.
"Pleaaaase…" she smiled and he frowned, then looked over as Kazumi was suddenly distracted by the opening of his door. "Who's that?" She blinked and Renji shook his head and shut the door. "Renji…" she looked at him.
"No one… just a-a friend of a friend of a friend…" He grinned as the door attempted to open again.
"A pretty friend of a friend…" she folded her arms. Renji looked down. She was getting angry. She didn't seem like it but he knew she was getting mad at him for not telling her what was going on. He gulped, hoping he wouldn't regret telling the busty captain what was going on.
"Fine you can come in… but please don't ask her any questions…" Renji let her in, looking around sheepishly before disappearing into his barrack.
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"Lieutenant Abarai has been acting awfully strange… do you know why?" Byakuya sat across the long table from Kazumi Hasegawa, the ninth division captain that had taken over when Tosen had left. She shook her head and stuffed her mouth full of egg and Byakuya's eye narrowed. His lieutenant had been acting oddly for the past couple of weeks, taking his meals in his bedroom and always avoiding his captain. Byakuya had the feeling that he was avoiding him, for a particular reason.
"Did you ever think about looking in his barrack Kuchiki?" Toshiro asked, looking over at him and Byakuya sighed.
"I had hoped… that he would come clean about whatever he was doing in there…" Byakuya yawned lightly and stood up. It was wintertime in the Soul Society so everything was covered in snow. The captains now wore heavier jackets and the lower level shinigami wore heavier clothes period. Scarves, hats, gloves and cloaks could now be seen all over the Seireitei of all shapes and colors. Byakuya simply wore the heavier version of his hoari as he walked through the mounds of snow. He shuddered lightly as he reached the squad six barracks. It was freezing outside. But what he saw in the snow was something that made him laugh so hard he almost choked.
Renji Abarai, Ikakku Madarame, Shuhei Hisagi and Izuru Kira stood knee deep in the snow… in nothing but their boxers and yukatas and even those were soaked through with icy snow. A young woman wrapped in a heavy black and silver winter kimono(1) with a silver obi sash sat on the sidelines watching them with a smile on her face. Byakuya walked off, snorting into his scarf… the other captains had to see this.
When they returned Renji had managed to pin Shuhei to the ground, face rubbed into a pile of the snow. "What are you all doing?" Captain Zaraki asked and all of them froze (no pun intended) and turned to look at him. Their captains stood over them all with mixed expressions. Kazumi had her arms folded, trying hard not to smile. Kenpachi simply lifted an eyebrow so high it looked light it would disappear into his hairline. Byakuya was the most comical of them all for on his face, was what looked like a cross between a smile and a grimace. Izuru's captain had betrayed them and as of yet the position remained empty.
"Snow wrestling sir…" Ikakku straightened up and Renji bit back a laugh as Shuhei dusted himself free of the snow. It was then that they noticed there were two women in the vicinity and everything below their waist was basically exposed… wet boxers were unforgiving.
"Get cleaned up… Abarai I want to see you in my office… with your… friend of a friend…" Byakuya lifted an eyebrow. "Of a friend…"
"Damn…" Renji walked into his barracks as the others ran off. Celeste followed him.
"This is bad?" She asked. She had been speaking more openly with him for the past couple of weeks and it had been rather nice to have someone that wasn't a shinigami to talk to.
"Yes… he'll probably send you back to the Rukongai…" he told her as he made to take off his yukata. She flushed and turned her back to him. He pulled off his wet clothes and quickly hopped into a warm dry hakama and kimono(2). She turned to look at him as he tucked in the kimono into his pants.
"That bothers you?" Her sky blue eyes met his rust and he stared at her for a moment. She was right… why did it bother him to see her go? He tilted his head slightly. He had no idea. Maybe it was because he had gone through the trouble of bringing her into the Seireitei… or perhaps… it had something to do with the fact that she was one of the only ones he could talk to about his past. Over the past two weeks, he had come to learn that she had been out in the Rukongai her entire life, which was fairly short as she was still only in her 20's but for some reason it still made him sad. He knew what it had been like out there… and for her to be a woman and living out there… it was a wonder she was alive at all…
"I don't know…" he blinked and averted his eyes. He couldn't look her in the eye for too long, she would make him blush. That was the curse of being a redhead.
"You are a funny person Renji Abarai…" she told him and he pointed at himself.
"Me?" This time he did blush. Funny? Him? He had never considered himself funny. A good fighter perhaps. A loyal friend. But never funny…
"Yes, you make me laugh…" he blinked.
"Now why is that a good thing… I could be making you laugh because I'm just that stupid…" he sighed and she shook her head.
"No… you just have a funny way about you… you're so closed off… I think it's interesting…" she spoke again. He loved to hear her talk. Her voice was soft as butter and smooth as cream, flowing over his mind like a gentle stream.
"Interesting huh?" He shrugged as he strapped Zabimaru to his hip through his sash. "I don't know why you would think that…" he stayed in that position for a short time, simply thinking, his head turned to the side and his eyes on a spot on the floor. Then his sight quickly shifted to look at her out of the corner of his eye. She blinked, he sometimes did things suddenly without warning… and he had the tendency to weave when he stood. She had noticed this from watching his back every morning as he greeted his superior. It was a tiny movement, hardly noticeable to someone that didn't pay attention… he gently shifted his weight from one foot to the other, causing his body to weave slightly, like a snake. She thought it was rather funny and quite an odd habit. She assumed it had something to do with his sword's name.
Zabimaru. Snake tail. She believed that ones' personality could be defined by the things they carried with them. Renji always carried Zabimaru with him, therefore he had the personality of a snake. But something about him seemed different. A snake was only loyal to itself and fought only in defense, Renji however, fought because he was proud and to gain honor and power. These were only things known to man and the creatures related to man. Therefore… she had come to understand that his zanpakūto was something of a nue. Part monkey and part snake.
"You're staring again…" he straightened up and held out his hand to her. "C'mon we better go see what the old grouch wants… if you do have to go back…" he watched her take his hand. He never did finish his sentences…
Notes:
(1) - this type of kimono is the traditional style usually thought of when the word is used, a winder kimono is usually a heavy ankle length piece of clothing worn with an obi sash around the waist.
(2) - this is the other type of kimono that is the formal wear that goes with the shinigami shihakusho (which is the full uniform) it is usually long sleeved and is worn tucked beneath a hakama (their baggy skirt-like pants) the other is a lighter version worn in summer and spring called a yukata (which is not always female).
Shalan