Byakuya just couldn't ask Ikkaku. What's the point? He sighted. Maybe someday he would find out. But the heir of the Kuchiki clan was not much of a waiting shinigami. And he now, more than before, wanted to know Renji's scent. Of course he could be patient. He learned in all of these years of sorrow that people not always get what they want and that impatience and obstination only leads to more and more frustration. He had learned all that, and he could be patient, but not the boy inside. The curiosity for things, for life, for senses was pulsating again, sending renovated meanings to his days, and the boy inside didn't learn to wait. It was still the impatient kid desiring to surpass his own weakness, to fight for the things he thought worth it. But he couldn't ask Ikkaku, not Ikkaku! But ... how did he know Renji's scent? Renji show him? Why? Where they so close? Why didn't Renji show him is scent at the training ground that morning? They were talking about that so why not just lift the veil? Again that fine needle stuck deep and deeper into his heart. There was only one person he could ask...

****

" Nii-sama? Are you better from the flu?"

" I don't know what you mean."

" Renji told me you were having flu or something. Are you feeling ok? I mean... I should go back in a few days."

" I'm fine. Tell me Rukia, do you know a place in the real world that smells like Renji?"

A long silence.

" Hum...why do you want to know that? I mean, sorry nii-sama but Renji is always trying to hide it, did you pick it too? He's being lazy hide it nowadays. He just forgets to hide it during real, important bankai fights. Didn't know nii-sama has gone to the beach..."

" Beach? What do you mean? " What was she talking about? Byakuya tough that maybe she was just not so subtly changing the subject. Rukia on her hand was thinking she was talking too much. If he didn't know that why did he asked? That was all very strange and okward.

" Ha...hum...nii-sama? Do you really know Renji's scent? Cause it's like Renji's childhood trauma or something, to have a scent that does not exist in any point in soul society only to find out as an adult shinigami that he smells like some place in the real world in summer. He doesn't like to talk about it, so...I mean...what do you intend to do nii-sama?"

" Rukia...I want you to take me to that place. I'm going thru the gates in one hour."

Another long silence.

" You are going to need a gigai, and shorts... ", she said thoughtfully

Byakuya knew that tone. She was planning something and she was already having fun. Byakuya sighted. He was being vulnerable and let her know his vulnerability, but she was Hisana sister, she was his only, truly family. And he was not going to need a gigai and shorts. What in the name of the Kuchiki clan were shorts?

***

And that it was. The shorts and the pure smell of summer near the Atlantic sea. The smell of salt water in the hot wind, the sand, the rocks, the seaweeds...everything was there, each perfect note combining in a unique scent, Renji's scent. Byakuya noted every wilderness, every heartiness, and every little beat that was Renji. Now he could smell it, inhale it, let it travel inside the gigai and install in his mental archives. Now he would never forget. It was the most rough yet ethereal, refined scent Byakuya had ever smell. It was brute force like the sound of the waves beating on the sand and the tender caress of the water rushing back in to the sea along the same sand. It was hot like the sand beneath his feet but it could send shivers down his spine, like the droplets of cold cold water travelling in the same wind. Was animal, like the creatures living in the forgotten realms of rock's concavities and water that Rukia was pointing at in delight and heavenly like the enormous clear blue sky above. It had its secrets, is hidden creatures, mysteries, force and disquietudes. It suited Rengi alright. OK! Now he could rest is nose and go back to Soul Society to his normal day to day routine. He had no need to be obsess with his fukotaicho any longer. And he was really going to make a file in the Kuchiki archives about the scent of the shinigamis in Soul Society (Renji would not be mentioned) because he didn't like to lie, he never lied. The case was closed. Could Renji's skin smell like this too? And taste like... WHO CARES? REALLY BYA-KUN!

****