She'll stick to rooftops and ledges now. Probably. Renji guessed based on Rangiku's shoeless status but admitted that it wasn't much to go on. At first he had panicked when he took leave of his Captain. What if she called the race now? What if she suppressed her reiatsu? What if she hid behind someone way more eager to fight him, maybe Captain Zaraki? What the hell is even going on here? The relief that flooded him when he located her reiatsu again was immense. So immense, in fact, that he was surprised at the warm sense of relief that spread from his belly, both up into his chest and…down. There was a loosening below his waist and he licked his lips. She had let him find her. The race was still on.

Renji shoved away the thoughts and sensations that didn't help. He had his orders. And dammit, now he owed her… well, something… for that "ambush." The series of events was jumbled in his head. Once he had realized she was trying to stash the cup in the Kuchiki house, looking for the dining room made the most sense. Where better to hide a fallen leaf than a forest floor, right? He certainly never anticipated her to still be in the room. Even more than that, he never expected her to grab his arms from behind him and knock him to the floor.

He had tried to propose a trade, the cup for her sandals but that suddenly turned into a tussle over the sandals. So he tried to relieve her of her scarf…from there things got knocked over while she pulled his hair tie free and when he'd managed to hook an arm around her to pin her down, she'd kissed him! What. The. HELL. In the moment of his stunned surprise she'd put a knee to his gut and easily escaped – sans sandals but in possession of the damned cup and now his hair tie. Oh he was going to make her pay, all right.

Renji narrowed his eyes as he moved toward the spot where he'd located her. It was disturbingly close to Squad 11. Whatever the hell she was planning this time, he wasn't letting his guard down. In fact, he wasn't going to go easy either. Her little stunt had raised the stakes more than she knew. Dammit, he liked his job, even if his boss was a little on the sociopathic side! That's what seemed to make for a good Captain, after all. Her lips were so soft. Renji narrowed his eyes and shook his head vigorously in a silent scream to get rid of the memory. She was going down. She was going to help him pay for the repairs AND she was going to buy him a whole jug, hell, a whole CRATE of sake.

He found her in an alley between Squad 11 and 10. He kept his distance wondering what she was planning this time. Certainly she could feel his reiatsu by now. One hand on his zanpakuto, he called out, "Hey, Rangiku! How long is this supposed to go?"

"Sokatsui!"

Renji threw himself hard to the side trying to dodge Rangiku's attack but was too late. He toppled into the wall surrounding Squad 11 barracks, collapsing a part of it. He dropped to his hands and knees, momentarily dazed. "Dammit, woman." Shortly he was going to have to get very rough.

"I want my shoes back!"

"I ain't got 'em!" This time Renji dodged the kido blast in time, though it took down even more of the wall behind him. He ground his teeth. He unsheathed his zanpakuto and flash stepped to the wall around the corner from where he felt Rangiku's reiatsu. At mid-range Renji only had Zabimaru against Haineko and her kido attacks, and Zabimaru was not a weapon for anything short of grievous bodily harm. At close range at least they could talk. He really didn't want to hurt her, but….

"Come on, Rangiku, this is stupid. Just give me back my hair tie and I'll tell you where your shoes are. You can keep the damn cup."

"Shit." Rangiku's voice was soft, breaths shallow. She felt desperate. "No way, you have to beat me. It's way past the point of just giving up."

"What the fuck, Rangiku?" howled Renji, long past exasperation. He pushed his head back against the wall and stared balefully at the stars. "You know what, you remind me of a cat. It was back when I was a kid in Inuzuri. All the kids wanted to play with it and pet but it seemed to hang out with us only for the scraps of food. It would run when we tried to touch it, but never run too far. One day it ran up a tree in an attempt to get away, only to find out that the tree didn't go on forever or connect to anything else. And of course, it was scared of heights so it started yowling all pitifully. So I climbed up after the damn thing to try to get it down again. It scratched the fuck out of me all the way down and wouldn't let me touch it again after that." Renji fell silent. He wasn't sure what it meant other than he was very, very annoyed.

Around the corner of the wall Rangiku bit her lip. She lived for teasing and having fun. Watching men get flustered around her was practically her raison d'etre. On quiet, slow days, in between naps she might sometimes admit to herself it was easier than seeking a real relationship. But she felt so alive and thrilled when men had to put forward the effort to get her attention. Occasionally, every so often, and once in a while things went a little too far. She couldn't find the finish line. She couldn't prove herself more than the man could handle. And she couldn't quite give in. The question, though, was when exactly had tonight's contest between friends turned into the sort of teasing she did with a man?

She heard Renji speak again, "Rangiku." Crap.

"Shut up and fight!" Rangiku wheeled around the corner swinging Haineko. She met Zabimaru with a loud clang. In that moment Rangiku knew she was going to lose. She wasn't half as good at swordplay as Renji and if they resorted to their zanpakuto's powers again his bankai would crush her.

Even with a wall at his back, Renji easily controlled the fight. He was quite aware that he didn't have to pull out all the stops to best Rangiku in sword fighting. She had numerous openings; she ignored potential strikes with a better chance of landing in favor of wide slashing cuts that he could easily block. Now what is she playing at? He kept alert for the gathering of reiatsu in case she tried another kido attack but none came.

Renji gritted his teeth. She just wouldn't stop slashing; her swings were wild, erratic even. In a training hall an instructor would have called this sparring match already. Should he disarm her? She might switch to kido then. He could try to disable her. He loathed the idea, though. All of his training screamed against such an overwhelming response for a fighter who wasn't his match. He pressed his attacks and Rangiku struggled to keep her footing. I guess sandals make a real difference out on the street.

It was then they heard the applauding and whistling. Renji brought Zabimaru down onto Rangiku's block and took the time to look while the swords stayed in place. A small crowd of shinigami from Squad 11 had gathered to watch. I should have figured.

Rangiku swore. She had allowed her frustration to get her into a fight she couldn't win; she had hesitated at accepting a way out and all it had done was open her up to humiliation.

Someone in the crowd shouted, "I got dibs to fight who ever wins!" That got everyone else in the group calling out their position in the order. Small skirmishes broke out over who should fight whom.

Ok this is just bullshit. Renji ducked under another wild swing and caught Rangiku's forearm at the point of furthest extension, yanking her off her feet. While she was still off balance he squatted and wrapped his arm around her knees and pressed them to his chest. In one move Renji hoisted Rangiku into the air and flash stepped to the roof top of Squad 10 barracks.

Rangiku squawked at the manhandling, more out of surprise than anything.

"Listen, demon cat," he called to her. "You can slice me up if you want, but then you'll fall from this height and you'll have no one to blame but yourself. I'm going to put away Zabimaru and then I'm going to take you home. I'm done. You got it?"

After a moment Rangiku gave up struggling and with a grunt said, "I got it."

"Great." Renji swatted her bottom with the flat of his sword and then sheathed it. She jolted, about to protest and then… smacked his ass with her hand. Renji chuckled, sighted the entrance to her quarters and Flash stepped to it.

From a second floor veranda in the Squad 11 barracks a lean man with nary a hair on his head watched his former student be a gentleman to an opponent he could have sliced to ribbons and skip beating her outright in favor of leaving the scene with her in a compromised position. He grunted. Kid's gone and learned a couple interesting new moves.