Impertinent little brat

Chapter 4: The first Truth

"You live here?"

Renji closed his eyes and took a deep breath, whilst once again reminding himself not to strangle the brat. Turning around he glared at said brat, who was standing on the threshold to his apartment, a look of raw and lazy contempt on his pale features.

Renji crossed his arms across his chest, and tried to keep his voice calm when he responded; "Yeah, I live here. Get in; I'll whip up something for us to eat."

The brat raised one eyebrow, then stepped into the apartment and closed the door behind him. All the while he peered around the living room with that same unimpressed look. Guess he's never been in a normal sized home before; Renji thought and recalled the enormous rooms of the equally huge Kuchiki compound.

As if he had read his mind Byakuya suddenly said: "It's small."

"Yeah well, not everyone can live in palaces and bathe in gold, ya know," Renji grunted back, and stomped off towards the kitchen.

Having that little wretch in his home was already getting on his nerves, and they had just gotten through the front door. It wasn't as if his home was a total dump after all, perhaps not as tidy as most women would've liked but it had charm, in a rugged manly way. Yep, ruggedly handsome like himself, he thought as he rummaged through the cabinets for something to cook.

"You're going to cook?" that voice reached his ears again, filled with doubt, and Renji set down the bowl of noodles he had found on the tabletop with a bit more force than needed.

"Yeah, ya got a problem with that?" he snapped, turning towards the boy who had followed him into the kitchen.

"No. It is fitting for a commoner to know their place in the company of someone of higher status," the boy answered, turned his back on him and walked out of the kitchen.

Renji bit his tongue, hard. I'm not gonna kill him, he repeated to himself. I'm not gonna kill him… but I'm gonna spice his food real good…

Twenty minutes later Renji wanted to smack himself in the head for his own stupidity. He couldn't believe he had forgotten that the cap'n liked his food spicy. Despite adding a fair share of Tabasco sauce, a hot red sauce he had picked up from Karakura, and wasabi into the brat's portion of noodles, the brat ate it without difficulty. Damn it. Damn him. Who the heck liked their food that spicy? Not fucking normal.

"Are you going to stare at me all night, baboon?" the brat asked without looking up from his meal, and Renji grunted a "no" before going back to his own food.

After the meal he decided to set up the sleeping arrangement while the kid drank a coup of tea, so he went into his bedroom and gathered a pile of sheets that he carried into the living room. When he was making a bed on the couch he could feel eyes on him and he turned his head, seeing the brat standing in the doorway to the kitchen, calmly observing him.

"I'm making a bed here on the sofa, ok?"

"Fine," the brat shrugged, and then walked past him into the bedroom. Before entering his bedroom he glanced over his shoulder at the redhead, and added with a smirk; "Sleep tight."

Then the bedroom door shut behind him, leaving Renji to gape at it, frozen in the action of stuffing a pillow into a pillowcase.

That. Little. Bastard. Renji stuffed the pillow into the case roughly and threw it down onto the couch, before stomping across the room to the shut door.

"Oh hell no, ya prissy little shit!" he hollered when he threw the door open with a bang and stepped inside. Byakuya turned around with a surprised look, and he walked over to him, pointing a finger in his face. "There's no way yer sleeping in my bed, and delegate me to the damn couch!"

A dark look flashed over the surprised boy's face then and he slapped the finger pointing in his face away.

"And you're deluding yourself if you believe that I will sleep on your lice infected sofa, baboon!" he snapped back angrily.

"Lice infected? I'll have ya know that's a perfectly good couch!"

"In that case you shouldn't mind sleeping on it."

"The hell I won't; this is my house, and that's my bed! Yer the one who's gonna sleep on the couch," Renji shouted, grabbing a hold of the brat's arm and dragging him towards the door.

"Let go of me!" the boy cried out, trying to tug his arm free but this only made Renji grip his arm tighter, and his resolve grow more adamant. "Let me go!"

"Sorry kid, yer not my superior and I don't follow yer orders," Renji snapped over his shoulder, dragging the protesting brat out of the bedroom with a tug. The tug may have been a bit too hard, Renji admitted to himself, when it caused the boy to trip and fall to the floor, the only thing keeping him from slamming into the floor being the hold Renji had on his arm.

The brat cried out in shock when his knees hit the floor, and Renji felt a cold feeling run through him. As if by its own violation his hand let go of the arm as if he had been burnt and he stood there, feeling… what? He couldn't tell… regret? Shame? He hadn't wanted to hurt the brat.

"Hey, ya alright?" he asked, his voice sounding oddly hollow to his own ears. "I didn't mean to hurt ya."

The boy remained on the floor for a moment, before he looked up at the redhead with flinty eyes. "I'm fine. It's not as if someone as lowly as you could actually harm me."

Ordinarily that would've made him angry, Renji thought, but now he just felt relieved. Despite all of Byakuya's bratty behaviour, he was still just a kid at the moment, and he sure as hell didn't want to harm him. Not really.

"Good," he muttered, and extended a hand for the kid so he could help him up.

Byakuya only gave the hand a dismissing glance before he rose to his feet by himself, and gave Renji a hard glare.

"The bed is mine." He stated, and Renji blinked. Before he had a chance to protest the brat had walked past him into the bedroom, and slammed the door shut behind him.

Renji stared dumbfounded at the door, then heaved a sigh and walked into the living room where he stared down at the couch.

"Guess it's just ya and me, ol' lumpy," he sighed and flopped down on it.

Rukia's feet felt heavy as she walked up the stairs that lead to the main house of the Kuchiki clan. On both sides of the stair there were lush gardens, impeccably groomed by the gardeners, but they were huddled in darkness now that evening had descended on Seireitei. It had been some time since she last went here, as she usually preferred to stay in her room in the thirteenth division's quarters, and even longer since she visited when Byakuya wasn't there to greet her. She didn't enjoy the Kuchiki house when he wasn't there, as the other family members that may be there always looked on her in disdain or open contempt. With Byakuya present, even if he wasn't in the same room, they never dared to show their true emotions regarding her openly.

"Welcome home, Kuchiki-sama," Huuori Nuituji, the head of the guards of the Kuchiki clan, greeted her when she reached the top of the stairs. Always polite and stoic he bowed to her and she nodded her head in greeting.

"Thank you, Nuituji-san."

"Kuchiki-dono is not home," the man informed her; he always called her brother dono. She wondered if he was trying to warn her, or if he was merely stating a fact.

"I know. Nii-sama is on a mission, I was asked to inform my clan. "

"I see."

"Are any of my relatives present?" she asked, inwardly cringing at having to refer to those people as her relatives. Of all of the Kuchiki the only one she really counted as her family was Byakuya.

To her disappointment Huuori nodded. "Akane Kuchiki-sama and Akihiko Kuchiki-sama are visiting."

Rukia felt a surge of dread flow through her, not only was there relatives present, but it was two of the worst ones at that. She felt the urge to run back to her room at the division, but stopped herself. She had vowed to do this, and she didn't go back on her word. She would face them with all of the dignity she could muster, even if it killed her.

Nodding slowly she walked past the guards and walked into the house.

"Kuchiki-sama," one of the servants exclaimed when she stepped inside. "Welcome. Let me show you to your room."

"I know the way, thank you." She responded softly.

"Of course, Kuchiki-sama. Is there anything that you would like me to get for you?" the servant asked, bowing.

She didn't have the time to answer, for in that moment a tall, slender woman all dressed in red rounded the corner and walked into the hallway.

"I thought I heard something," the woman said in a deep, sultry tone, a smile Rukia knew was one of spite, on her red painted lips. "Rukia Kuchiki, my cousin's wayward sister has come."

"Akane-sama," Rukia greeted, bowing to the woman. In the pit of her stomach she felt dread form like a lump of ice.

"Tell me, where have my cousin gone, Rukia?" Akane asked, and as usual she didn't use any honorific when she addressed Rukia. If wasn't out of some kind of closeness between them of course, she never used the honorific because not using them was a subtle way of telling Rukia that she didn't feel the need to use them on a commoner. Someone unwanted, someone who in her opinion should be thrown out of the clan and onto the street. "My brother and I were hoping to speak to him."

"Nii-sama is on a mission, Akane-sama," she responded.

"Is that so? When shall he be back?" She talked to her like she was a servant girl.

"I do not know, Akane-sama." Rukia said, careful to keep her voice low and respectful although she wanted to punch the woman in the face.

"That is unfortunate, we had hoped to make this a quick visit, but now I am afraid we shall have to remain until his return." The woman said and walked back the same way she had come.

As she watched Akane walk away Rukia wanted to scream in frustration. They refused to leave until they had spoken to her brother, and she was stuck in this house with them? This was going to be long stay, she thought as she headed towards her rooms.

He was standing in front of the counter, piles of hamburgers lying all over it. He reached for another one, groaning in bliss as he swallowed down the meat, and when he was done with that one took another, and another, and another, and still the piles were never ending. He munched and munched, enjoying every bite and the piles grew, and he knew that he had to be in some sort of heaven. A heaven filled with endless piles of…

Something poked him, and he looked down but found nothing there, so he continued to eat. Another poke.

Then another.

And Renji opened his eyes with a groan, feeling the delicious dream ebb away.

"The hell…?" he murmured, closing his eyes and trying to roll over but found that something was in the way.

"Get up."

"Wha…?"

"Get up."

Opening his eyes again, Renji turned his head and found the brat looking down at him, arms crossed and a stern look on his young face.

"What time is it?" he groaned, frowning and rubbing his eyes.

"Seven. I want breakfast."

"Seven?" He exclaimed and sat up on the lumpy sofa where he had slept. No wonder he hadn't been able to roll over on the narrow space. "I'm off duty today, why are ya waking me up this early?"

Byakuya's peeved expression didn't change, if anything it grew more adamant and Renji sighed and rolled of the sofa. Apparently Byakuya wouldn't let him sleep in regardless if he was an adult or a kid. Sneaky little bastard.

"Fine. Breakfast. I get it."

Once he had finished his breakfast Renji leaned back in his seat by the kitchen table and regarded the dark haired young man across from him. Byakuya was still eating in that slow, dignified manner that Renji could never hope to imitate. It was another one of those things that didn't seem to have changed about his captain. Up until that moment his mind had been filled with so many other thoughts, but now the words that Unohana-taichou had said to him the day prior was coming back to haunt him.

The truth.

Byakuya had to know, there was no way to keep the truth hidden from him after all, and perhaps the sooner he found out the better. But why the heck did he have to be the one to tell him? Wouldn't it be better if one of the captains, like Ukitake or Unohana, someone he actually respected, told him of what had happened?

What was he supposed to say? To do? How would the brat react and…?

"Haven't anyone ever told you that it's a grave impoliteness to stare at someone whilst they eat, baboon?" Byakuya's voice cut through his thoughts, and the boy gave him an even stare back.

Back to the name calling, eh? Renji scoffed and instantly recalled why he had reoccurring fantasies of stuffing the brat's head into the toilet. Biting his tongue discreetly he reminded himself that starting up a fight now was not part of the plan. He had something to tell the brat, and he had to consider the best way to break it to him.

"When is my grandfather to return?"

Renji frowned. How was he supposed to come up with a plan with the annoying wraith constantly interrupting his thoughts? His grandfather was dead now… something the hell-raiser obviously didn't know, how was he supposed to tell him about that? Something told him that he should try to break the news gently, and…

"If you are his second in command you ought to know."

Right. Another not so subtle gibe at his expense, but Renji ignored it again and tried to come up with a plan. How was he supposed to say this, Renji wondered and felt trapped. It had to be said, right?

"It's also impolite not to answer when someone asks you a question."

Renji sighed, and leaned forward in his seat.

"Byakuya we need to talk."

Damn, had he just said that? That was the kind of thing you told someone when you wanted to break up with them.

"Do not think that it's acceptable for someone like you to address me in such an informal manner, baboon."

Renji bit his tongue again, and drew a deep breath. He's just a kid, just a snotty kid, he reminded himself. Stick with the plan. Don't let him get to you.

"Look. Could we stop the name calling for a sec? This is important."

"If you addressed me according to my status, I wouldn't have to remind you that…"

"Hey, would ya just shut up?" Renji growled and shot to his feet. "I'm sick of hearing about your damned status. I've got something to say, dammit! So just shut yer trap and listen!"

"As if anything but foul grunts could come out of your mouth, baboon!" the boy snapped back and got to his feet as well, an angry flush on his cheeks. "If my grandfather knew…"

"Yer grandfather's dead, dammit!" he shouted back, and instantly regretted it.

Byakuya's eyes widened, and his face suddenly looked whiter than it already was, as if all blood had drained away from the skin. For a second he thought that the boy would collapse from blood loss, and he reached for him but when he did so Byakuya moved away from his hand. Still looking Renji in the eye he straightened his back stiffly, seemed to take a breath and then he left the kitchen without so much as a word. Renji was left feeling like the biggest ass this side of Seireitei. Damn, he cussed to himself and slumped down in his chair with a groan of dismay, that didn't go the way he had planned.

TBC