It was the penultimate day for sixth-year students at the Academy. All the exams were finished, the last practical undertaken, the last words written, and just one more night stood in the way of the graduation ceremony. At last, Hisagi Shuuhei was getting out. He couldn't wait.

Due to his exam timetable, Shuuhei had managed to avoid all contact with any students from other years, including Renji. He allowed himself a small sigh of relief as he walked across the main courtyard in the afternoon sun, nodding to a few of his classmates on the way, and he mentally ran through the list of things he was going to do that night, the top one being sleep. As he approached the pathway to the senior dorms, he froze as he heard someone call out his name. He blinked, and closed his eyes. Not now, not when he'd got so far…

"Hey!" Renji called again, and Shuuhei couldn't help but turn around. If he ignored Renji in front of all his classmates, it would look even more suspicious than if he just took it in his stride. All he needed to do was get them away somewhere more private and then he could deal with it. It shouldn't be too hard.

Renji broke into a jog and caught up with Shuuhei, who was already looking round for avenues of escape. He had a look of concern on his face, and Shuuhei groaned inwardly. This was going wrong already.

"Is everything ok? I haven't seen or heard from you? I thought-."

"I'm fine," snapped Shuuhei, then inhaled sharply and let it out slowly. "I mean, I'm ok. I've just been busy. It's my last day tomorrow and I've been working myself into the ground with stuff. But I'm fine."

He got a pair of narrowed eyes looking back at him. "You look like hell," Renji offered.

Shuuhei glared back. "Thanks for the compliment."

"So, you free tonight?" Renji asked, casually, though Shuuhei could almost feel the tension radiating from the younger student, never mind the fidgeting the Renji always did when he was nervous. Shuuhei sighed inwardly and looked up.

"Actually, I'm kinda busy tonight. I'm going out with my classmates to celebrate end of year," he said, a final tone in his voice.

"So I can come by later, I don't mind," Renji said, giving a small shrug. "We have a late review class tomorrow, so we can lie in." He grinned.

"It'll be too late by then. I need some sleep before the ceremony tomorrow." Shuuhei said, shaking his head and hoping that he sounded more confident to Renji than he felt. In fact, he sounded like a monumental ass to himself, but it was for his own sake – and Renji's, he reminded himself. The kid didn't need someone like him around.

Renji's face fell, and Shuuhei almost gave in. Then he remembered that this was why he never got involved with anyone, because it invariably lead to unnecessary hassle - like this. He took a deep breath and carried on.

"Look, I'm sorry, but this is just how it is. You knew I was leaving soon, and you were fine with it. It's not like it was anything serious…"

In hindsight, if he had managed to get more sleep the preceding week, Shuuhei would never have said it, but the exhaustion, frustration, and anger that had been building up inside of him had reached it's limit, and the words were out of his mouth before he could even think.

He stared open-mouthed at Renji, whose face had changed to almost the same color as his bright-red hair. His eyes had narrowed to slits, and Shuuhei was under no mistake that, if looks could kill, he would've been dead before he hit the pavement.

"Fine," the words came out low and dangerous. Shuuhei could almost feel the anger radiating from Renji, who was still staring at him as though he could vaporize the sixth former on the spot. Shuuhei swallowed nervously, and tried to speak.

"Look Renji, I'm sorry, I didn't-." He didn't get to finish.

"Fine, I get it. It was all just a game for you, yeah? " Renji glared defiantly at Shuuhei, who was stunned into silence at the accusation. "So what - is this something you do regularly, huh? Well, whatever. See you around – or not." Renji turned and started striding away, ignoring the calls behind him.

Shuuhei watched, feeling helpless as Renji sprinted away from him, and it took him a while to realize that they had had an audience. Half of his classmates had witnessed their exchange and it was the final straw. Swearing loudly to himself, Shuuhei threw the bag he was carrying into the bushes surrounding the courtyard and took off towards the dorms, ignoring the calls from his friends behind him as the door to his room came in sight. He all but flew up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and as he got to his room, he swung the door open and let it swing shut behind him with a crash. Shuuhei made his way across the room and threw himself down onto his futon with a groan as he brought his hands up to his face. Everything had gone so completely wrong. How the hell had he managed to screw it up so badly? He had only been thinking of what would be best for them both, but now he had insulted Renji and made himself feel like the world's biggest bastard.

Way to go, Hisagi, he thought to himself, and he rolled over on his side and closed his eyes, wondering how he'd managed to get into the situation.

…

Izuru looked up in shock as the door to their room flew open and Renji burst in with a look of thunder on his face.

"Whoa!" Izuru said, as he shrank back from the waves of anger he could feel coming from his friend. "What did you get into this time?"

Renji turned round to him and scowled. "Why the hell is it always meant to be my fault? Why am I always the one to blame, huh? Why can't I be the other party once in a while?" He stood glaring at his friend.

Izuru blinked, open mouthed, and the pause helped Renji gain a thread of control. He sighed loudly as he reached up to untie his hair from his ponytail and let it fall down loose round his shoulders. He gave his head a shake, wild red hair flying everywhere, and sat down heavily on the bed next to his roommate.

"Sucks," was all Renji said as he set about taking his footwear off in the angriest manner Izuru had seen before, who was glad, not for the first time, that he was Renji's friend rather than an enemy.

He didn't really have to ask who the cause of the outburst was, but he was dying to find out what happened, but Izuru prided himself on being a good friend, so he pushed that question down into the back of his mind for a bit – there'd be time later for that.

"So," he started, warily. "I can guess that you won't be at the ceremony tomorrow then?"

The last day of term was a day off from lessons for all – when the sixth formers had their graduation ceremony, and the rest of the academy was required to turn up to watch. The reason for this was to instill pride and ambition in the younger students, but most of them saw it as a chance to skive off and do something else instead.

Renji narrowed his eyes. "Oh no, I'll be there," he said, sharply, as he stared at the wall in front of him.

Izuru sighed. "You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?" and he realized a little too late what he'd said.

"I am not going to do anything," Renji said, and with that, he stood up, crossed the room to his own futon, and lay down, his back to his friend, cutting off the conversation. He didn't see the look Izuru gave him, eyes rolling towards the ceiling and a small shake of the head.

"You joining us later then?" Izuru stood up and grabbed a bag close by, and turned to Renji who still hadn't moved. When he got no reply, he shrugged. "Ah well, your loss! See you later," and he left the room, letting the door to close loudly behind him.

Renji sighed then rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. In a fit of frustration, he grabbed one of his sandals and threw it at the wall, letting it rebound off and come to a rest not too far from him. It actually made him feel a little better, so he did it again, and again, until it bounced from the wall at an odd angle and smashed into one of Izuru's saké cups. Swearing loudly, he picked up the shattered pieces of the cup and mentally prepared an apology to his friend as he lay back down on the mattress and, to his surprise, fell asleep.

The sun was just a little too strong as the graduating class walked out onto the platform that had been set up in the rear yard of the academy. Below them, thousands of other students stood in rows to watch the ceremony. Shuuhei remembered all the years he had looked forward to this moment – now, he wasn't entirely sure.

He squinted out into the crowd, trying to shield his eyes and get a better look at the people below, but he couldn't see Renji anywhere. The kid wasn't hard to miss, after all, especially in the sun – but there was no flash of bright red hair anywhere, and Shuuhei sighed as he realized that he was disappointed. He was looking forward to this all being over now – he had decided that he was going to sleep from the moment he got back from this pompous ancient rite-of-passage to the day he started in his new role in the court guard squads. As he stood on the platform, under the blazing sun, he closed his eyes and let himself be distracted by his thoughts.

…

Renji had found a good vantage point. A tall tree to the west of the yard gave him a good view of the yard, and especially the stage, but the foliage gave him enough cover that his hair wouldn't give him away. The one thing Renji really was bad at was blending into a crowd. Usually, it was to his advantage, but today he didn't want to be seen.

He looked down onto the stage and watched the seniors file in, spotting Shuuhei almost immediately. Renji narrowed his eyes as he watched him glance around, as if looking for something, and he bit his bottom lip in thought as he watched Shuuhei give up, obviously disappointed that he had not found what he was looking for.

Renji sat up in the tree for the entire ceremony, using his position to scout out other people – seeing Izuru standing on his own with a group of people he didn't recognize. He felt a twinge of guilt at leaving his friend alone, but resolved to make up for it later. This was something he had to do.

As he watched the speeches, and the handing out of awards – of which Shuuhei received seven out of twelve in the year – Renji added another name to the list he kept in his head. The list of people he would work hard to grow stronger than and overcome.

…

As the ceremony ended, the now ex-students cheered and shouted and left the stage in a much less orderly fashion that in which they arrived. Fielding compliments and friendly insults with his classmates, Shuuhei brushed off all invitations to go out afterwards, and instead managed to extricate himself from the crowd and make his way back to his room unhindered.

As the door slid shut behind him, he sighed with relief as he lay down on the futon and closed his eyes. His time at the academy hadn't exactly ended the way he expected it to, and he wished he could rewind a couple of weeks and try again. He hated the way he had behaved, and hated what he had said – but it was done now, and there was no way to fix it. Yet.

Shuuhei rolled over onto his side and stared out the window at the bright blue sky. He hadn't meant for any of this to happen, hadn't meant to get involved with a younger student, and certainly hadn't meant to insult and hurt him. It was too late now, though, he couldn't erase what he had said or done, and the thought made him feel sick. He closed his eyes and sighed, and made a promise to himself.

Maybe he couldn't make up for it now, but he would do, eventually, some day.

...

EPILOGUE

Each year, when the new intakes came through, Shuuhei would make sure he wasn't on duty, even going out of his way to swap with someone to work a night shift to ensure he was free on that afternoon when the new recruits were brought in.

He'd sit on a nearby roof or tree and watch them file through, his eyes roaming the crowd for a shock of bright red hair in the sea of people below. When he didn't see it he would retire, alone, to drink by himself and remind himself that he should never forget about the promise he made to make things right.

Then, one year, he saw it. Renji wasn't hard to miss, amongst the dark colors of the rest of the crowd, and Shuuhei allowed himself a small smile. He had known his patience would pay off, and now he had the chance to make right what he had mistakenly destroyed years earlier.

As he watched the crowd, he saw Renji pass close by and stop, looking confused as he turned his head to each side, as if looking for something. Then he looked up, straight at Shuuhei, and their eyes locked.

Renji's eyebrows went up so high they almost ended up in his hair and Shuuhei laughed softly, then even more so at the look the redhead sent him. Shuuhei shook his head, still smiling, and Renji's scowl lessened, though he still looked wary.

Shuuhei nodded towards Renji then flash-stepped away, back to the ninth division headquarters to finish up on some paperwork that had been piling up, pleased that he had a second chance to make right what he had so foolishly almost ruined before.

…