Elysium

Pairing: Byakuya/Renji, What seems like a Ichigo/Rukia, Kyoraku/Ukitake
Rating: NC-17/M
Authors: grownupneko / casisgummi

cassisgummi: =D I am having so much fun writing this 3 Uh...maybe because I know what's gonna happen and all but... w w We have epic plans for this fic. Yes. =D Please let us know what you think by reviewing! - is official review whore ^^; I love Kyoraku/Ukitake. IT'S SO CUTE!

Grownupneko: I'm having fun writing. I love Byakuya's role in this chapter and it's only going to get hotter from here! Please support us and drop us a comment or review!

Chapter 2

Kuchiki Byakuya's residence in Soul Society was, as one would expect, a refined but quite grand affair. Being the head of the Kuchiki clan, this was expected, but even as a fellow head of a noble family, Kyoraku Shunsui was pretty impressed. Especially by the peach tree in the courtyard. (Its blossoms matched his haori pattern). He would have expected a cherry tree, it being Byakuya and all, but the delicate scent was delightful even if it was a little strange it was flowering mid July. He was pretty aware he was standing in the middle of the pebble garden, distorting the immaculate lines some poor housekeeper had painstakingly raked.

He cleared his throat a little and looked across at Ukitake. The other was looking up at the peach blossoms with a calm expression on his face. His eyes fell shut as he caught a branch to smell the flowers before letting it spring back up.

"Jushiro-chan~ We can't get distracted just yet..." Kyoraku warned, glancing around him. He didn't really want to have to fight the Kuchiki elders to be allowed to look around Byakuya's room. He felt it would be better if they just slipped in and out.

"...it seems we are fortunate- no one is home." The white haired man spoke as he opened his eyes to look at the other man. "Shall we go?" Shunsui was already making his way toward the master room, which was usually to the North with these types of houses. After all, he'd learned a lot of the layouts of the old homes when he used to sneak in to see Ukitake.

"Ah...Yama-Jii sure gives us the bothersome tasks... I had things to do on such a nice day..." Kyoraku said wistfully, following Ukitake. He smirked a little as he watched Ukitake's behind through the fine silk of his kimono. "Aa... Could be worse..."

Ukitake glanced behind him, clearly used to the way his lover seemed to always be thinking with his groin. "Keep your mind on the task Shunsui," he said with a small smile. Kyoraku tucked his hands into his sleeves.

"I can't help it if Jushiro-chan is so distracting~ He never fails to enthrall me! " he protested. Ukitake's cheeks stained pink a little but he rolled his eyes, lowering his reiatsu even more than it had been as they both crept up onto the wooden outer hallway and slipped inside a sliding door. Jushiro took a moment to blink around in the gloom and Kyoraku did too. It was strange. There was an air of melancholy here. Something stuffy and suffocating and musty. Like a dead person's house that hadn't been aired. Kyoraku looked at the nearest door.

"This one will be Kuchiki-taichou's," Ukitake said firmly and Kyoraku had to agree with him. This aura of death and mourning, hanging heavy in the air like traces of Byakuya's reiatsu.

"No wonder Byakuya's a little cracked," Kyoraku joked, his voice barely above a whisper. Ukitake shook his head sadly.

They seemed to have guessed right.

The room was immaculate, as one would expect from Byakuya. It was furnished with antique, expensive looking pine furniture, the black lacquer with a very luxurious looking shine to it. Rows of books were at one bookshelf on the other side of the room, most looking as if unread. Did this guy just have stuff like this to...look smart? Shunsui's eyes scanned around the room as he thought to himself. How suffocating was it to live in a place like this? It was like a museum instead of a home. Shunsui himself had always hated it, and had done his best to skilfully dodge the commitment, responsibility and unbelievable amount of stress that came with being head of a family in his youth until he was ready.

As the centuries passed he had learnt to come to terms with it, and he had Jushiro to support him but this man had been forced it upon him from the day he was born with no escape... It made him feel a sort of sympathy for Byakuya he had not really felt before and a kind of understanding for why he may have just broken and disappeared.

"...Shunsui?" His lover's voice broke Kyoraku's thoughts and he blinked, realising he had been staring at the bookcase for a very long time.

"...Are you all right?" There was a questioning look on Ukitake's face.

"Yes, I was just thinking, you know, my beloved Jushirou-chan," he replied as he turned his eyes to the man next to him.

"What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking..." Kyoraku carried on as his eyes moved to the large bed in the corner. He liked it- he was surprised Byakuya didn't just sleep in a futon with how old fashioned everything was. "...That is, a very fine bed. I'm sure Kuchiki-taichou would find it totally amusing if we..." His more serious look slowly morphed into a perverted smirk as he trailed off meaningfully.

"Shunsui!"

Kyoraku folded his arms over his chest, keeping his face straight as if he was suggesting something totally acceptable. "What? Jushirou-chan, I don't think there's anything THAT perverted in what I was saying..." he said thoughtfully. Ukitake turned a little pink but waved his hand at him.

"We are investigating the disappearance of a fellow Captain, Shunsui. Let's not get sidetracked... We need to stay professional. Kuchiki-taichou's life may depend on clues from here!" Ukitake pointed out. Kyoraku conceded the point, but it was still fun to tease.

"I know, Jushiro-chan but still we don't have to be so-" He continued to scan the room, eyes lingering on the bed. He frowned when he saw the corner of something sticking out from underneath the mattress.

"Oh ho... What have we here?" He bent down, tugging the slim book with a dark blue cover out from under the bed. It appeared to be some sort of.. publication of sorts. He stared for a moment. Then a few moments more before he tugged on the string tying the book closed and flicked through it, and one of the brown haired man's eyebrows cocked in amusement at his unexpected find. Now Kyoraku, of course had seen pornography before. He'd even seen more hardcore and explicit stuff than this. However it didn't fit with the image of Kuchiki he had in his mind though. He tilted his head to the side, his expression quite clearly showing his growing amusement.

"What have you-" Ukitake stopped talking and Kyoraku guessed he'd seen what he had found. He heard his lover clear his throat awkwardly. "You should... put that back where you found it."

"This, Jushiro-chan, is Kadokuran's work, I believe..." Kyoraku carried on seeming to ignore the other's words as he flicked through the pages carefully "It's quite rare to find... I personally found it a little... too subtle if you get what I mean..." He opened it at a particularly explicit page involving a ton of red silk rope and two rather effeminate looking young men naked and entwined in the said rope. He held it up to Ukitake with a grin.

"I never would have thought Kuchiki-taichou was into this kind of thing... the man is really, full of surprises isn't he?"

Ukitake's eyes scanned the page and he shifted, looking even more uncomfortable as he realised what the other captain was implying. "Well...it is none of our concern..."

"Ah but it is!" Kyoraku replied "This, I believe sheds more light into this situation, don't you think?" The next page was of a dark red haired young man in mid ecstasy "It tells us something we did not know before! I think we should retain this as evidence!"

Ukitake snatched the book back, closing it and tying the string. "Whether or not Kuchiki-taichou has a penchant for red-heads in... bond..." He stared down at the front cover of the book.

"Abarai Renji... Where is he?" he asked, glancing up at Kyoraku. It took Kyoraku a few moments to catch up and then he glanced around the room.

"A lover's row could have caused this I suppose... Damn, we need Komamura-taichou's nose for sniffing out Abarai-kun's panties in here..." Kyoraku said, taking a few more steps towards the bed. There was nothing so tell-tale as a pair of Abarai's underpants lying around, but there were some coarse, long vivid red hairs underneath one of the pillows upon closer inspection.

"So Abarai was here," Ukitake said, his mouth in a grim line. "I don't like the way this is going..."

"Ah...this is becoming really quite bothersome indeed..." Kyoraku sighed, taking the book off his lovers hand as he looked at the red hair.

"So very bothersome..."

###

Abarai Renji's chest felt like it was going to explode any moment now. It hurt, so, so damn much. Would it ease the pain if he managed to rip his heart out of his chest? Right now it sounded like a decently sensible idea to him. Or maybe he could remove his head from the rest of his body so the ghosts of his memories wouldn't haunt him any longer. Would he even die properly if that happened? Or would he just get sent back to Soul Society to be strung back together?

"Goddamnit..." He clenched his hands into fists. It felt like Byakuya's ghost was torturing him. He thought he heard his voice everywhere, caught glimpses of him out of the corner of his eyes... Only for it to be nothing. No one. Or even worse, his own mind playing tricks on him.

"Abarai." Kuchiki Byakuya was sat at his desk, his fair face wearing a displeased frown as he looked over the report he had just been handed. "Can you explain to me why there are so many mistakes on this that I can hardly decode it?" Stormy grey eyes looked up as he put down the paper with a sigh, removing his glasses. Renji shifted uncomfortably- this was why he HATED submitting reports.

"Well... you see taichou..." He felt his mouth dry up a little. He didn't want to admit it-Didn't like having a weakness displayed so thoroughly in front of someone. He didn't want to appear stupid. Specially not in front of this man.

"Abarai. Write more neatly in future. I can't tell what most of these kanji are even meant to be and you've used far too many hiragana," Byakuya said, drawing his eyebrows together again as he attempted to read further. Renji fisted his hands in his hakama and swallowed, taking a deep shaking breath.

"Sorry, Kuchiki-taichou. Thing is, I... I don't know how to write."

It came out in a rush. Of course he couldn't. They didn't teach you that kind of thing anywhere else. When he had got into the Shinigami Academy he'd learned the basics, but the report writing that was required this far up was beyond him. He struggled with even the basics, lacked the knowledge of most of the characters and was forced to use a difficult calligraphy brush in order to write everything. He was surprised Byakuya had managed to read anything he'd submitted.

"I... Yes. Rukia could not very well either in the beginning. I remember now," Byakuya said, looking down blankly at the report. Renji could see no judgement there, just something akin to curiosity.

Renji frowned. As far as he could remember, Rukia could read and write fine...

"We can easily fix this trivial problem." Byakuya continued as he looked back up, catching Renji's eyes. It was slightly unnerving to be looked at straight in the eye by this man- it almost felt like Renji had been stripped bare and standing naked before Byakuya.

"F-fix?" Renji parroted, his nerves and embarrassment making it hard to process his Captain's words properly.

"If given some tutoring, I am sure your writing skills can become... somewhat legible." Byakuya replied casually, as if it was the most obvious thing to do. "I will arrange for some classes for yourself starting this evening after your duties are finished."

Renji stiffened some more at the idea of being humiliated in front of some teacher (Knowing his Captain, it was going to be some posh old man who was going to look him down his nose. Or something like that.) and had to bite his lip so he wouldn't turn down his Captains suggestion.

"...Is there something wrong, Abarai?" Byakuya asked, quirking his eyebrow up. Renji shook his head.

"A-ah n-no...Thank you Captain!" he said, almost a little too quickly before bowing sharply to try and hide his inner feelings. He had to become better. He had to become someone that Byakuya could be proud of...

Renji stared up at the starless night sky. It had been the start of something. Something that had left him more confused than ever. Something that had meant he couldn't look Rukia in the eye any more. Why had he not realised it sooner? Put a stop to it all before this happened? But the question was, would he have stopped it even if he could have?

He looked down at his hands, almost expecting to see traces of ink there from that night. His memories of it were vivid. Too vivid. He could still almost feel the smooth strokes of the brush and the warmth of of a steadying hand...

He stood outside the door of his 'teacher's' study. He already wanted to baulk. There was nothing to stop him, of course. He could just run away from this problem, the same as he'd been running his entire life from it. But yet... he could imagine Byakuya's disappointment. Or worse, Byakuya would think him stupid.

He steeled his courage and leaned in to talk into the shouji. "Sorry to intrude. I'm Abarai Renji, Vice Captain of the 6th Division. Kuchiki-taichou made an appointment with you?"

"Come in."

A voice from the other side said in reply, and Renji slid the door open with a slightly shaking hand. He noticed the tatami was a fine, faint green colour- not because he made it habit to admire people's flooring but because he didn't want to look up, though he knew he would have to eventually. He could already guess what the man would look like; probably a middle aged man with silver hair and a spotless kimono, who probably had a look of disdain on his face at having to teach Rukongai scum like him things he should have learnt centuries ago...

"It seems like your timekeeping is poor, whoever you have an appointment with." Byakuya's voice sounded more amused than angry, and the sound of it made Renji look up in shock.

"T-taichou?" He stared for a moment at Byakuya before he ducked his head in a quick bow, remembering his manners. He looked up again, still a little shocked and his expression probably resembling one of the koi that lived in the stone pond just outside in the gardens. There were still traces of amusement on Byakuya's face, a slight tilt to his lips and a softer look in his eyes. He'd clearly enjoyed surprising Renji. It softened the surprise and made Renji's features relax into a grin.

Byakuya's appearance was a little of a surprise as well- instead of his usual starched flawless black kimono, hakama and crisp white haori, he was wearing a dusky blue plain kimono made of fine brushed silk, his hair free of its usual Kenseikan ornaments and for some reason, there was an air of relaxation around him that Renji had never seen before. Kuchiki Byakuya seemed almost normal. It eased a little of Renji's nerves, and some of the strain in his shoulders relaxed as a hand went up to his own hair, pushing back stray strands out of habit.

"Okay, Taichou. You know I'm rubbish already. I guess it won't be so bad..." he said. Byakuya nodded and gestured to a writing desk where tools had already been left out. Renji swallowed and sat down a little nervously before it. The white page in front of him suddenly felt ominous, terrifying, like the bone-white of a Hollow mask. If only it was as it would probably have been less frightening. Renji knew how to fight, to defeat hollows. He didn't know how to tackle this, however.

"Start with something simple, Abarai. Like your name," Byakuya instructed. Renji nodded and picked up the brush, dipping it into the ink and nervously starting to write. Byakuya studied his movements carefully and it made Renji more and more hesitant. He ended up leaving a massive ink splot at one point.

"Your stroke order is... atrocious." Even though the comment itself was cold, with the tone they were spoken in it didn't seem like such a bad thing.

"Uh... sorry... I ...am kinna bad at remembering the order and stuff..." Renji mumbled.

"And when writing with a brush, you do not press so hard. You will spoil both the brush and paper. Lighter when you start, and move more fluidly."

Renji nodded, moving the weight holding the paper in place away to get a new piece and try again. He really wasn't sure he was getting any better at this as the second attempt seemed to be worse- what the fuck did "Moving fluidly" mean anyway?

He didn't even notice his Captain's reiatsu until he felt the faint warmth of the other's body much closer than he could ever recall as the older man took Renji's hand as the other hand moved the second paper away.

"Lighter. Like this." Byakuya's tone was strangely gentle as he guided Renji's hand, the brush hardly touching the paper at first, before sliding across effortlessly.

Renji felt his cheeks heat up as all the hairs on the back of his neck rose. He could feel Byakuya's breath ghosting against it and when Byakuya let go of his hand he was so distracted he didn't even realise he should still be moving it. He heard a chuckle.

"Abarai. You've ruined the third attempt too," Byakuya said lightly. Renji looked down to see a blot had appeared on what had otherwise been a pretty good attempt. "Let's try writing something else. Something more complicated so you can concentrate just on your brush work..."

Byakuya took the brush from him, his movements seeming to capture that 'fluidity' that the man had spoken of. The kanji appeared, beautiful black lines against the white. Renji stared at it for a few moments once Byakuya was done. 情...? Renji stared down at it for a few moments, trying to remember the reading. It wasn't one he used in his reports that was for sure.

"What's that one, taichou?" he asked, blinking down at the kanji. Byakuya drew back from him.

"It is what you seem to be abundant in, Abarai." Came the vague answer. Now how was the stroke order for this? To be honest Renji didn't have a clue... He started to write, simply guessing (and he knew already it was probably wrong) and it was sad to say, but the finished result looked nothing like his Captain's example.

"A..ah..." Renji put down the brush as he realised he had soaked through the other sheets of paper below the one he was writing on, pretty much making it impossible to write on. The ink had even seeped down to the fine pine table, and now there were black dots on it.

Shit shit shit shit

"Fuck..I mean... I'm sorry taichou!" Even Renji knew that Sumi ink was impossible to get out of any surface, and judging by how posh the rest of the room was, it was probably a very expensive table he had just ruined...oh god, how many months, hell, years worth of his wages was that?

"It seems we have... run out of paper..." Byakuya said, staring at the table. Renji waited for him to say something more, but Byakuya didn't. He instead remained silent, looking down at the spots of ink with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Hold out your hand," he ordered finally. Renji reluctantly did so, wondering if the Captain was going to chop it off for being such a terrible writer. He closed his eyes, waiting for something painful, but they shot open again when he felt something cool brush softly over his palm.

His eyes snapped open as he looked at his palm. In Byakuya's gentle calligraphy the kanji was being written. Each swipe was burnt into Renji's memory. Each brush stroke made something in his gut tingle. Byakuya finally moved the brush away.

"Do you need me to write it again or did you see the stroke order this time?" Byakuya asked. Renji swallowed, trying to clear his throat. He remembered every brush stroke but...

"I think one more time..." he said, aware he was lying. Byakuya seemed to know too, but he didn't say anything, merely starting the kanji again on the sensitive skin of Renji's wrist. It sent shivers down the redhead's spine, the way the slick wet hairs licked at his skin, making his breath catch as he inhaled slowly, suddenly very aware of his own heartbeat picking up pace rather rapidly. he hoped to all the gods in the world that the black haired man next to him didn't notice too somehow. If the noble had noticed, he didn't say anything as he pulled away.

"Some homework for you, Abarai. Learn that kanji before we meet for your next lesson."

Renji could only nod in reply.

###

It was dark, the darkness heavy, cloaking, almost suffocating. Was someone there? Byakuya wasn't too sure any more. How long had he been here? He didn't know if he even cared any more...but even through the haze, one person seemed burned into his mind and refused to be extinguished by the abyss.

Abarai...

"You are a creature of sin, aren't you?"

The voice spoke to him, as if speaking to the core of his soul.

"You have done so much wrong- disappointed all who had faith in you, betrayed them all."

"I-"

"Do not argue- you have no right to. You do not deserve to after all you have done."

"You refer to Aba-"

"DO NOT SPEAK HIS NAME HERE!"

Byakuya let his eyes close against the scream.

"Hisana... I'm sorry."