Hi! I'd forgotten how much I love writing, this fic in particular.

I hope you can forgive me for how long it has taken me to update this. I was kind of unmotivated for a long time but today everything amalgamated and I guess I just needed an expressive outlet.

As you will probably notice the initial writing style of Rukia has changed somewhat. I see her now as more mature, so please excuse the sudden shift in narrative style. I tried to remain as close to the original as possible, but a little change doesn't hurt, especially as it paves the way for more improvement, right?

And one more thing- I had fun writing Rukia in this chapter where she keep doubting then reaffirming Renji's authority, mauling it as if it were her own little plaything! (I chuckle at this) I think it's so endearing and really encompasses all that is their relationship.

For now, enjoy the chapter! Please let me know what you think in a review, if you like the new style or what you'd like to read or happen, I love reading them!

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

Songbird in the Lion's Den

Chapter 4: Walking Along the Hyacinth Road

"You didn't finish your mango sorbet! Rukia-san!"

If I keep running maybe he'll forget about it all! Oh gods why is this happening? I questioned, shaking a fist at the powers above. I made a face that the Marx brothers would have found pitiful and slowed down a notch. My morals were telling me to stop and face my demons (well, more accurately, the demon standing at the entrance of the Karakura Café behind me and now readying himself for chasing me down the road) but my body was just dying to escape imminent doom! One cannot be blamed for wanting to survive!

So I end up stopping, freely placing my life directly into the devil's hands. And we hadn't even begun to talk about that godforsaken money yet!

"Rukia, you seem to be in a rush. Was today not convenient for you? You should have said something."

Renji had caught up with me at the end of the road, and was now pausing for air. Yes, that's right, he was looking at the Number One junior Fun Runner after all! I took my track skills seriously! Well, back when I was eight anyway. Actually, had I even been running that fast? I avoided looking at the person before me in any way that I could, before attempting to respond.

"No, today was good." I wanted to talk about the money, but found no decent way to bring it up. So I tried my hand at hinting once again, not that he'd get it, the imbecile! Why was this creature senior president? He had zero intuition! "It was just I needed to get to the supermarket before it closed, I-er, have to make special dinner tonight... it being, the, um, Tuesday."

"... Tuesday? What's so special about Tuesday?"

"Why, it's payday, of course!"

If that didn't work I didn't know what would.

"Oh I see, well, here. This should help with passing the time." The scarlet charlatan in front of me handed me something, and I would have burst out laughing if it had not been for my strict military upbringing by none other than myself. Discipline is key! said my brain throughout my childhood years (Byakuya thought me strange).

By the time I'd taken the item from him it was a near pile of mush, and the scenario was so inherently ridiculous that even my army training childhood could not divert me from chuckling. I took the mango sorbet from Renji with a stifled smile on my face, but he could see through it. Clearly.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the senior president of Karakura High had just sprinted down the road in aid of transporting me my forgotten popsicle, I would have been somewhat ticked off at the fact that the cold and sticky sorbet juice had now coated my hand. However, I just smiled at the ground upon which we both stood for a while, watching the occasional drop of the ice lolly, and remembering the time that Inoue the Goddess had bought it for me, despite the fact that it had only been about ten minutes ago.

It felt kind of good.

Was this what it felt like to let your guard down?

Finally, he broke the silence. "The supermarket's on my way home, want me to come with you?"

I paused, and didn't answer him, but instead gave him a flick of the eyes which meant it was okay for him to 'follow' me to the supermarket. Sure, it was pretty cocky of me, being his inferior and he my superior, but I didn't think he minded, which was fine by me! In a way, I wondered what I'd done to have gained such respect from him. Or maybe he had no self-respect. My goodness. Or... no, I wasn't going to go down that road. Not now, not ever, not with him. Goodness, and I thought Ishida was bad.

After a good fifteen minutes, it hit me, as I was about to pick up a basket for my groceries at the convenience store, that I'd been walking about town with the president of Karakura High School. Eating an ice lolly. Sure, it wasn't as if he was president of the world or anything, but seeing as he governed the logistics of a place where the majority of people build their teenage years, I had to admit to myself, it was quite a feat.

Also admittedly, I wasn't feeling as highly strung as before. Renji wasn't getting in my way much, rather, he just disappeared for a while, which appealed very much to me as I liked to shop alone, and bumped into me in the bakery aisle a few moments after.

We looked at each other for a moment, and oh god, there was that smile again of his (why??) before we neared the checkout.

It was then that I realised my wallet was nowhere to be found. At first I just looked at the female cashier and smiled feebly whilst rummaging around my schoolbag for it, which transcended into me muttering into the contents of my backpack for a while or so, and ended up with a very embarassed teenager with the wrath of accumulating customers in the queue staring at her square in the eye. I thought it couldn't get worse but at that moment Renji approached from the adjacent till and, having worked out what was going on, pulled out his gigantic wad of cash (well, really it was just a few notes) and handed it to the checkout girl. I don't think he even looked at how much he gave her. He could have been short of the full amount for all I know, and I knew a lot.

I packed my bag and hurried out of there as fast as I could without making it look like I'd just shoplifted the joint. Renji was hot on my heels, and once again, I was in the lair of the devil. Something irked me about what had just happened. It seemed like that I was indebted to him now, literally. This wasn't supposed to happen! If anything he was supposed to be giving me money like he'd promised! Technically, he just did, but the wiring was all wrong!

"Thanks for that." I said, red in the face, but partly wondering where my purse was. Had I dropped it in the pond earlier?

"That's no problem. I didn't know you liked beef ribs."

Er, what? Oh, my groceries. Wait, what?

"Oh right, yeah, it's more for my brother. He likes beef rib. Reminds him of when my mother used to cook it"

The red head nodded, pursing his lips. "Hey, I nearly forgot, I said I'd pay you for use of your painting. I guess I could do that now, as I have money on me?"

I must have died and gone to Soul Society at that point at Renji's mention of the money. Finally, it was here! And I didn't even have to throw my dignity out of the window in order to obtain it. What a swell guy! No wonder he's the senior president of Karakura High! Forget all those previous times I doubted you, Abarai Renji, you are the perfect candidate!

He handed me several notes of cash which amounted to ten thousand yen, and the look on my face must have been pure ecstacy because he chuckled a bit, but I did not care one bit! I was calculating how many pots of instant noodles I could buy with this money; how many bread baguettes; maybe a hundred boxes of Pocky, a hundred jars of peanut butter? Hey, maybe even some crab paste to put in my sandwiches instead of the peanut butter? Oh, how I rejoiced.

I noticed after my brief spell of ultimate joy that he hadn't charged me for the groceries he'd just bought. I mean, what a hell kind of president was he? It did not happen more than five minutes ago, the doofus!

"Renji-san, you forgot to deduct the grocery bill just now. How much was it again, two thousand yen?"

The tall and wild-haired young man closed his eyelids for a second, smiling. "It's on me," he said, with an air of posterity, if you could even say that. "It also reminds me of a time long ago, much happier times when I was a kid."

Wow, I never knew beef had just nostalgic authority, but that was maybe because I never liked it that much. I half-smiled at him, before inhaling and motioning that I had ought to be leaving.

"Well, guess I'll see you when I see you!" I said hurriedly, not exactly up for sticking around to play staring games with one another. His physique freaked me out enough as it was, let alone any interaction with him, which made me infinitely more nervous, albeit I had gotten used to it a little more within the timespan of a week than with most people in a lifetime. Anyway I felt at that moment that if I were to look at him any longer my eyeballs would pop out. What this was due to I couldn't quite place my finger on. Maybe it was a mixture of his intimidating tattoos and his pensive facial expression.

Walking down the road, I felt the burdening string of attachment to Abarai Renji breaking into two, because one, I had got the money, which meant two, I'd never have to see him for any extended amount of time again! This filled me with innate happiness at the prospect of returning to my world of introversion from the scary external one of social obligation. It was where I was happiest, away from emotion, disappointment, and all those other winding concepts that happened leaving you empty as a human.

I'd been looking at my Chappy watch for close to five minutes before realising that I wasn't even after the time. Yet, it was then, at 4:03 amidst the Autumn afternoon, that the most surreal thing happened to me. As I looked up, I could see the orange sky and sun creep through the branches and leaves above down onto me, as if they were singing me a song. All around me was a soft pink light. It was a narrow road I walked down, flanked by tall evergreen trees, which only grew in the cold yet strangely survived around these districts.

I was entirely alone, or so I thought. A soft hum escaped my throat as my mind enjoyed its simple pleasures. These were the moments that life was worthing living for. It was times like these that made the walk home less lonely than it usually was.

As my consciousness continued to swim in the light ambience of the air around me, my eyes wandered to the side and noticed that somebody was there, walking along parallel to me on the other side of the road. It was Renji. Had he followed me here? It didn't seem so, because as I was looking he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, head down, jumper draped over his shoulders. Thus continued the surrealism, as I didn't buckle like I normally would have done in any other circumstance, but continued to watch him from where I was walking.

And for a moment, I felt completely incomplete-- a large empty void that appeared from out of nowhere. The sunlight through the trees was helping fill it a little, but the sight of the solitary man across from me was something I could not fathom nor escape from. He was being bathed in a warm light too, no doubt same as I, and it occurred to me for a moment that we might have been one and the same, two lonely souls on the path to nowhere.

He looked up, breaking me away from my thoughts. He didn't smile this time, only looked. Maybe even had an apologetic look on his face, what was with that though? I raised a hand in acknowledgement quickly, not wanting to give an over-friendly impression. He took it the right way, continuing on his own path.

And so it remained like that, the two of us, walking along the hyacinth road, for then, 'til the end of time, for lost lover's souls, and for the death of humanity. As Hemingway put it once, 'As you get older it is harder to have heroes,

But it is sort of necessary.'

TBC...