Impertinent little brat

Chapter 5: Flight

Fuck.

It was really the only one thought that stood out clearly in his mind whilst all of the other thoughts whirled around like a tornado in his skull. A one syllable word that in its profound profanity summed up the enormity of the situation that he had caused.

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Renji groaned and slammed his forehead against the surface of the kitchen table. It really didn't hurt enough to relieve him of his guilt, if anything it made him feel worse.

"Fuck…" he muttered, still with his forehead heavily supported against the table. What the hell was he supposed to do now? He should talk to the brat… no, not the brat, he should speak to Byakuya, he corrected himself. After how he had acted it felt wrong to continue to even think about the kid as a brat, or any other of those less than tender nicknames he had held in store for him. Byakuya's wide eyed, blank face when he had yelled at him, flashed in his mind. The silent shock, and the pale horror he had seen in those eyes at that moment made Renji wish for a sledgehammer so he could just bash his own, thick head in and be done with it. With a loud sigh he sat back up straight on his chair and leaned his head back, staring at the kitchen's white ceiling as if he was hoping that it somehow held some answers. Some damned guidance for what to do.

He had hurt him; Renji thought and felt the hot sting of shame in his gut. He hadn't meant to, but he had, and all just because he had lost his goddamned temper. He had to talk to him. Explain everything.

But how?

After what he had said, what could he possibly say that would make anything better? Byakuya's granddad would still be dead, Byakuya would still be a kid, and they would still not know how the heck to fix any of it. What was he supposed to say? "Hey, it's no big deal, the geezer died years ago…" and "Oh, yeah… didn't I tell you? You're actually a grown man, you're just a kid at the moment… we don't really know why but it may have something to do with the traitor Aizen wanting to kill you… " and while he was at it he might as well add "Oh, and by the way, your future- well past- wife is gonna die… isn't that something to look forward to?"

Fuck.

Renji hung his head, suddenly feeling extremely tired, as if the situation itself had drained him of all energy. Even so he knew that if he went to bed there was no way in hell he'd be able to sleep, especially since it was still morning. He had to talk to Byakuya, for both the kid's sake and his own.

Pushing himself up from the chair he slowly made his way out of the kitchen to the bedroom where he stopped. Taking a deep breath he steeled himself and knocked on the door.

There was no answer, not that he had been expecting one.

He cleared his throat and took another deep breath; "Byakuya… Uhm… Can ya open the door? I need to talk to ya."

There was a soft sound from the other side of the door, and he pricked his ears and leaned forward, but the sound didn't repeat itself.

"Hey, kid. I didn't mean what I say, I…" Renji trailed off and halted. He had meant what he had said, he corrected himself. He just hadn't meant to say it that way. "I'm not gonna lie to ya, ok? What I said 'bout yer granddad is true, but…"

But what?

Renji shook his head, and felt the need to bang it against something hard again. He wasn't making anything better like this, and he couldn't talk to the kid with a door separating them. He needed to see him; he needed to be able to look at him and… just talk to him.

"Hey, I'm gonna open the door alright? And then I'll explain stuff to ya."

Not hearing a response from the other side of the door he waited only for another moment before opening the door and peering inside. A cool breeze caressed his face as he opened the door, and Renji frowned. That couldn't be good.

"Byakuya?" he muttered, before opening the door wide and stepping into the room, and the moment he did he saw that which he had hoped that he wouldn't. An opened window, and an empty room.

"Crap…"

"What the hell, Renji?" Ichigo muttered as he was hauled out of the seedy bar in Rukongai where he been trying to dig up some information about what may have happened to Byakuya. Though to Renji it had looked more like he had been sampling some sake than doing some actual detective work. "What's up with you?" Ichigo frowned when Renji pulled him into a dusty alley and away from prying eyes. "What the heck are you doing here anyway? Weren't you supposed to babysit the brat from hell?"

"Shut up, Ichigo," Renji snapped back, looking around suspiciously to check so they weren't being overheard. "Don't call him that." After how he had acted he felt a sharp sting of shame mixed anger towards his friend for calling Byakuya that. Even if he himself had called him that and worse earlier.

"Heh," Ichigo smirked at him. "Sticking up for him now, Renji? You getting a soft spot for him of something?"

Renji's eyes darted back towards Ichigo's grinning face and he glared.

"Or a hard spot?" the other redhead added, his grin widening. Renji growled and fought the urge to just draw Zabimaru and attack his friend. The damn idiot thought he was being funny. Not for the first time since deciding to go get help from Ichigo did he hate the fact that he had little choice. If he went to Rukia she'd be upset, and if those damn Kuchiki-clan members caught a sniff of something juicy he had no doubt that they'd stop at no means to figure out what it was. And going to the captains… well he'd do that if he couldn't find the cap'n soon, but he'd rather not have to go through that. And he couldn't go to Yamamoto. How would he explain to the commander that he'd lost one of his captains?

Gritting his teeth, he reminded himself that he had more important things to do, other than murdering his not-so-funny friend.

"Hey, where is he anyway?" Ichigo asked, frowning and looking around. "You lost him or something?"

Renji opened his mouth to tell him to shut up again, but instead felt the words die on his tongue. The substitute-shinigami had hit the nail on the head with the same fierce accuracy that he used against hollows in battle.

A look of astonishment dawned on Ichigo's face, and he exclaimed; "You lost him?"

Renji flushed darkly, and looked away. "Yeah. Well he ran away."

Ichigo shook his head. "Man, you're a crappy babysitter. I'm never gonna hire you when I get kids."

Renji huffed with indignation and felt a burning need to defend himself. "He knows shunpo."

"And you don't?"

"I'm not as quick as him, and… and he ran off when I was knocking on the door tryin' to apologise. He got a head start, alright?"

Ichigo looked at him doubtfully, and then asked: "What the hell did you do to make him lock himself into a room? Break one of his nails?"

"No!" Renji exclaimed, affronted, and glared at his friend.

"Yeah? So what did you do?"

"What the heck does it matter?" he snapped. He really didn't want to tell his friend what he had done; it was so damn… awful that he felt guilt rising up in him at the mere memory. "We still need to find him and…"

"What did you do?" Ichigo asked again, obviously not going to drop the subject. As Renji struggled to find a good way to admit to the truth the other redhead's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Renji sighed, hanging his head. He had to tell the bastard; Ichigo wasn't gonna drop it. He was like a bloodhound when he had caught scent of a prey and he didn't have the time to tip toe his way around it. They had to find his cap'n before someone else did it. He may as well be blunt about it. Treat it as a bandage; rip it off quick and… whatever.

"I told him that his granddad was dead."

"So?"

Renji looked up sharply. "What do ya mean "so"? I just told him that his granddad was dead, and I didn't explain anything!"

"You didn't tell him about the rest?"

"I just told ya that, didn't I, moron?"

"Man…That's harsh."

"I know that! Look I wasn't trying to screw it all up, ya know. He just got me so damn mad that I lost my temper, and…" Renji threw out his arm in an angry gesture.

It was silent in the alley for a moment, where Renji was trying to calm himself down, and Ichigo was breaking down the situation, before Ichigo shook head roughly.

"Screw it," he muttered. "Let's go find him before he gets himself killed or something."

"Yeah…" Renji muttered.

"So… you go west, and I go east. Let's meet up at your place in a few hours. "

Renji nodded. " I don't think he'd go into Rukongai, so let's start by looking in Seireitei, alright? Ya know, if we don't find him quickly I gotta go to Yamamoto-taichou and tell him about it. Let's search for a couple of hours by ourselves, and if we haven't found him then I gotta go get backup. "

"Right." Ichigo nodded, and turned to go. "See you later."

Renji grunted in response, and turned to walk the other way when he heard Ichigo call back to him; "Hey, Renji."

"Yeah?" he asked, looking back over his shoulder.

Ichigo gave him a crooked smirk. "Rukia's gonna kill you."

Rukia felt like banging her head against something hard, or better yet, to bang Akane's pretty, painted face against something hard. She had been sitting across from the woman for the past two hours, and still the woman showed no sign of ceasing with her not so subtle taunts. For what felt like the thousandth time Rukia forced herself to relax, ignore and try to side step the insistent questions about her brother that the woman kept weaving into the mix of mockery.

Frowning Rukia took another sip of her tea. The woman really did seem much too interested in her brother's whereabouts. Could she know something? Or suspect something?

"…of course you'd know more about that seeing as that's from whence you once came."

"Rukongai is a large place, Akane-sama. I have no knowledge of who those thugs might have been. " Rukia responded, only half listening to Akane's complaint of how rough and uncultured the people of Rukongai had to be to dare not to bow down before her brother when he had visited one of the many areas of Rukongai.

"They're all the same are they not, Rukia?" Akane said, a pouty smirk on her lips. Clearly she was content to have slipped in that minor insult of how Rukia was indeed still a street rat in her eyes. Perhaps a street rat dressed in the finest silks available and with the heavy Kuchiki name attached to it, but still a street rat. "Rough, crude and lacking of manners. They are in many ways no more than animals."

"They're individuals just as you and me, Akane-sama," Rukia ground out, sending a glare towards the woman before putting down the teacup with a slightly shaking hand. It took all of her willpower not to slam it against the table.

Akane's pouty smile wavered, if only for a second, before it returned full force.

"Of course," she agreed, taking a sip of her own tea. "Just like you."

Dammit! Renji cussed, wanting to scream in frustration as he raced across the rooftops of Seireitei towards his apartment. He couldn't find him! And soon it would be getting dark. He'd searched for the entire day, turned every damned stone in Seireitei, but there was still no sign of Byakuya. Damn that brat! Where the hell had he gone? What if something happened to him? He may be his captain, strong and capable Byakuya Kuchiki, but now he was just a kid, and…

"Oi! Renji!"

Renji came to a halt, and whirled around towards the voice. There below him stood Ichigo, waving up at him from outside of… his apartment. Blushing he realised that he had been so caught up in his hunt for the br… Byakuya that he had actually ran past his own apartment.

"Oh, man…" he muttered, and jumped down to where his friend was standing. The second he touched ground next to Ichigo he looked around fervently, hoping to catch sight of the elusive dark-haired young man that was missing. "Have ya found him?"

"Nope," Ichigo said nonchalantly, and Renji sighed in disappointment. "But I know where he is."

Renji's head shot up. "What? Where? How do ya know?"

Without a word Ichigo held up a note in front of Renji's face, and the redhead snatched it out of his grip to read the note.

"Oh…" he muttered.

TBC