I'm back! Sorry for missing yesterday, but it couldn't be helped.

Sonic Boom was mildly traumitizing, but over all, pretty damn amazing! I nearly got trampled a couple of times, but that's what happens when you get stuck in a crowd of really tall, really drunk people. I got to see Metric live, which I've been wanting to do for years, and I saw Joy Formidable too, which was a plus. There were a whole bunch of other bands, and to describe the whole thing in one word, I'll just say WOW! The venue wasn't too great, but other than that...

Anyways, if I owned Bleach, there would be a whole bunch more hugs. I like hugs.

Renji bit his lip as he felt Byakuya's reiatsu falter and then drop rapidly. It was barely there, and fading fast. His mind was scrambling, and he was struggling to find some excuse that would get him out of the classroom as soon as possible. There was still nearly an hour left of the class, and he needed out now.

"Renji?" the teacher asked. "Are you alright? You look pale." There. The excuse he was looking for.

"I- I think I need to leave," he replied, trying to sound as weak as possible. She nodded.

"Go ahead."

Once Renji was out of the classroom, he sprinted for the nearest washroom, and ducked into one of the stalls. Quickly he slid a band off of his wrist, and scowled as he felt his body return to spirit form. It really was an ingenious invention by the Twelfth Division, although Renji didn't particularly like the moment when his body wasn't solid, but it wasn't quite in spirit form yet either.

Shoving the wristband into a pocket, Renji returned to the hotel as fast as he possibly could. He was fairly certain that his shunpo had gotten at least twice as fast in the five minutes it took him to get to the other side of St. Albert. Surely he hadn't been that fast when he'd been practicing back at the Seireitei.

With a sharp leap, Renji jumped through the window of their hotel room, and stumbled to a stop, panting softly. Byakuya was lying on the floor, blood coating his left side. He was still breathing, but each breath was short and shallow. His eyes flickered open when Renji carefully lifted him off of the ground, but it seemed to take too much energy to keep them open, and they slid shut again.

Renji gently set Byakuya on the bed, and carefully pulled the top of his robes off of him. Cautiously, he wiped the blood off of Byakuya's pale skin and gasped at the wound spreading over his left shoulder and back. It looked as though something with huge claws had been trying to take his arm off. Four deep gashes slashed across his shoulder- three continuing down his back, and another slicing into his arm. Quickly, Renji grabbed the standard medical kit that all Thirteen Court Guard Squad members had to carry with them when they went out on missions. He started to stitch the deepest of the cuts, and Byakuya gasped in pain, and leaned away from him. Renji pulled him back.

"If you keep doing that I'll call Unohana," he warned, and Byakuya stilled instantly. Renji grinned. Although Unohana scared everybody, Byakuya was the only person with a legitimate reason to be scared of her. She knew a lot about him, and wasn't averse to stooping to blackmail. Besides, from what Renji had heard, Byakuya and her had not been on the best terms when they were younger.

Trying as hard as he could not to cause Byakuya any more pain than was necessary, Renji stitched up all of the gashes, and then glanced at the time. He still had an hour before he had to go pick Kaili up from school, although since he couldn't drive they'd have to take a chance and risk switching between spirit form and solid form. But since Byakuya was in no condition to stand, let alone drive, that's what they'd have to do.

Kaili fidgeted in her seat, wanting more than anything to get up and run out of the classroom. But it was far harder to skip out of class in elementary school than it was in high school, and she knew that if she ran, she'd get caught. And she couldn't simply go to spirit form, because then everybody would witness her disappearing in front of them. So unless something completely unexpected came up, she wouldn't be able to get out of the classroom until the end of the day. At least Renji was with Byakuya. He'd be alright as long as Renji was there.

Although Kaili knew that in reality, people lost battles, were injured, and died, she still held onto the childish notion that it wouldn't happen to those that she cared about most. Even after helping in Fourth Division and watching as people died of their injuries, she still couldn't quite form the thought that death would touch the only family she had. It just wasn't possible in her mind. So Byakuya would be okay. Because he would.

Byakuya struggled up through a haze of pain, trying to force himself awake. It wasn't working out quite as well as he hoped. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't break through. Eventually he allowed his body to relax, and just floated on the waves of unconsciousness. Suddenly it occurred to him that this was just like giving up, and since Byakuya Kuchiki never ever gave up, he jerked himself awake.

Slowly he opened his eyes, wincing as bright light pierced his skull. Carefully, he tried to pull his protesting body into a sitting position, but a gentle hand pushed him back against the bed. Byakuya turned his head to look at Renji, and scowled at him.

"I got Unohana to come over," Renji told him. "She said that I did good enough that she didn't need to do anything, but if you did anything to hinder your healing, I could hand you over to her."

"You're a bastard." Byakuya retorted weakly, but he relaxed against the mattress again. What Unohana would do to him didn't bear thinking about.

"Aren't I?" Renji agreed. "Sleep now. I'm going to go get Kaili." Byakuya sighed, but didn't make any move to get up.

"So you can drive now?" he asked.

"You know I can't," Renji replied. "If you move, I'm giving you over to Unohana. If I understand correctly, there haven't been quite as many fights in the Eleventh Division lately due to that new 'Anger Management' thing that Yamamoto started, and she's got plenty of free time to torture you."

Byakuya snarled at him, but didn't make any plans to go anywhere. He knew that Renji was very serious.

You know what I want you to do... Seriously though. I check my email every morning before I go to school, and reading the reviews make me so happy XD It makes getting up early almost bearable.

-Stormy