Suddenly Renji noticed the curious look his taichou was giving him, and it made him feel a little creeped out.

Unbeknown to him his taichou had suddenly noticed something very interesting about their thought when Renji had asked him if he'd said that aloud and he had replied with yes, it hadn't been that way and he knew it. It had sounded exactly the same as in Hueco Mundo, and it had certainly peeked his interest.

Now he only needed to know if his theory about this was right. So he decided to do a little test.

"Abarai , let's just finish our work first and then we'll talk later?"

The redhead nodded and sat down at his desk. That being the moment Byakuya's experiment started. He waited until his fukutaichou was concentrating on his work and then thought about Renji bringing him tea….. nothing happened. So then he tried to think about asking Renji for tea, and once again nothing happened.
So now he tried to 'send' his thought to Renji, that he would like some tea.
'Renji, could you please make us some tea? For some reason I find that I'm extremely thirsty?"

He saw Renji look up, and his heart stopped for a moment. "Sure taichou. I'll be back in a bit."

XXXXXXXX

When Renji came back with the tea, the first thing he noticed was the triumphant look in his taichou's eyes. Whatever he'd been thinking about earlier, had apparently been solved.

"Taichou?"

"Yes Renji. Please come sit here for a second. I think I've figured something out about this bond that's now between us."

The redhead did as he was told and sat down in front of his taichou: He had no idea what his taichou had found out, but he hoped that it did not involve his taichou finding out about his feelings for the man.

"So….. uhm… Taichou? What is it exactly that you discovered?"

A smile now appeared on his taichou's face, a very rare sigh, so rare that Renji was trying to engrave it in his brain so he would never forget the sight of it. To be completely honest; he was rather enjoying the sight. 'goddamnit…. He looks so good when he smiles.'

"Now Renji…. It appears that the bond allows us to hear some of each other's thoughts, thought it seems to be different what I can hear, and what you can hear. Also… I'd like to thank you for the compliment-

The fukutaichou's face lit up brightly. "uhm…. Ah…. Y-you're welcome… I guess…. But taichou… how did you discover something like that?"

"well… For a start, I never asked you out loud for tea, I tried to send a thought your way, but it seems like not all of them can be controlled. And I don't know how it is with you, but when you send a thought my way, it sounds like you whisper it in my ear…"

Renji would've turned even more red if that were possible at the images that were now flooding his mind. Images of his taichou leaning close and whispering some things in his ear.

He quickly looked at his taichou's face and saw it was still as serious as ever, so he thanked the spirit king that apparently his taichou could not see his thoughts as well as hear them.

He would've been royally screwed over.

"Well… Renji…. If you want you can go now. I bet you want to meet up with some of your friends. I'll be going to the library and the archives to do some research about our bond. So you know where to find me in case of emergency."

"Hai…. Thank you Taichou."

XXXXX

As Renji left, Byakuya finally let the full blown smile he'd been holding back cover his face. Renji had some very interesting images running through his mind. And somehow Byakuya found it that he didn't even dislike them.

He snickered softly. Of course he didn't mind the thoughts. He had them himself almost every night. Every night since after Rukia's near execution. After he'd seen Renji's relaxed, sleeping face. And not the tensed sleeping face he'd have when falling asleep on his desk during work. No. That relaxed face was definitely what made him fall in love with his idiot fukutaichou.

Te captain stretched and stood up. "Better go and do that research now…. I only have about two weeks until the elders will make Renji live in the main house to keep up appearances.

Thank god thought he had been able to convince the counsil that they should not be forced to marry until it was absolutely sure the bound could not be broken, or until maybe they were to wish for it themselves.

So until then they were only officially engaged….. even thought he had not told Renji about this yes… Although…. Thinking about it….. he couldn't wait with that any longer as well, because that public announcement of their engagement was planned for the day Renji would be forced to move in.

XXXXX

Renji dropped onto his bed, completely exhausted. Off all the people to run into on his way home, it just HAD TO BE Matsumoto on her way to a drinking party with Ikkaku, yumichika, shuuhei and Kira.

And now his head hurt like hell.

"Urch…. I really should've stopped after that second bottle… Oh god…. I hope I didn't tell them something embarrassing…. Like my feelings for taichoue, or the bond..…Nobody is supposed to know yet... And they'd definitely won't be able to keep their mouths shut.

He tried to recollect everything he'd said that evening and nothing embarrassing came up making a relieved sigh escape his lips before he fell asleep just like that.

XXXXXX

"-CHOU! ABARAI-FUKUTAICHOU! Get up!"

The redhead shot up as his door slammed open, revealing his taichou with quite the annoyed look on his face.

"I'm so sorry Taichou… I ran into Rangiku last night and couldn'd escape before she was a 100% sure I was completely wasted."

Byakuya hummed. He'd seen Matsumoto drag people along before and he had no problem imagining it happening to Renji. "It's okay Renji." He mentally chuckled as he looked at the redhead's shocked face.

"W-When did you start calling me by my first name? And I saw what you were thinking taichou… and I can guarantee you that it isn't as funny as it looks."

Now it was Byakuya's turn to feel shocked. "I didn't know you could read my thoughts except when I 'send' the to you?"

"yeah…. Uh… well…. I kinda have to focus real hard…."

"Maybe it's connected to your reiatsu reading skills." The captain stated dryly, making Renji pout.

"That was low Taichou…" his pout grew even bigger and he looked up at his tiachou with big puppy eyes. In which it was clearly visible that Renji actually found all of this quite amusing..

But it also showed to Renji that he was probably still drunk for a bit because he would never interact with his taichou like this on any normal, sober day.

Because if he would…. He'd probably give himself away as fast as Rangiku emptied a bottle of Sake."

XXXX

AN: I'm so sorry it took me this long…. But school is so busy, and now, even when I'm on my springbreak… school will be taking up so much of my time :C
I'll try my very best to have the next chapter as soon as possible thought…

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