WHEN THE SNOW FALLS
by Yih

Chapter Seventeen
A Dividing Wall

"I thought you were going to bring Rukia with you," Momo said, her bright black eyes shining in good nature.

Renji sat down opposite of Momo at the table and put his arms on the table, slumping forward. "Where's Izuru?"

Just as he mentioned Izuru's name, Renji saw him out of the corner of his eyes putting a big sake bottle in the middle of the table. "Right behind you," he said. "So where's Rukia?"

Renji groaned and buried his face in his arms. "I haven't asked her yet."

"You know you've had a crush on her for years," Momo remarked. "I'm surprised it's taken you this long to even think about asking her."

"I'm not surprised," Izuru said. "He might be impulsive a lot of the times, but he's being extra careful here."

"Why would he need to be careful?"

"How would you feel if you confessed your feelings to someone and got rejected?"

"Oh," she said and patted Renji on the shoulder. "I'm sure you don't have to worry about that. I'm sure Rukia likes you too."

Renji lifted his head up and glared at both of his friends. "You two are no help at all."

"How long have you liked her?" Izuru asked. "Before you went to the Shinigami Academy, right? And it's been years since then… I understand you wanting to be sure, but don't you think you should tell her how you feel?"

Renji shrugged.

"I think you should have told her before we graduated," Izuru continued. "Now you hardly ever see her and that just makes things harder."

"I agree with him," Momo said, looking meaningfully at Izuru.

They both looked at Renji and he swore it was a conspiracy. "Fine, fine, I'll ask her!"

"And by ask her, you mean you'll ask her out, right?" Momo added with a deceptively innocent voice.

Renji ignored Momo and poured himself a very full cup of sake, which he quickly downed. He then poured himself another and did the same. He was going for a third when Izuru took the sake bottle from him and poured all three of their cups with a generous helping.

Izuru held up his sake cup and Momo quickly followed his example. "To Renji," he said, "may it all go well."

Renji lifted his cup up as well. He'd drink to that.

-

Rukia was waiting impatiently outside a rundown restaurant in one of the worse districts of Rukongai for Renji. While the udon was awfully good here, it was not a place a Kuchiki would go to eat lunch – no matter if it was a casual meeting between friends. She didn't know what Renji was thinking, asking to meet her at a place like this. Rukia sighed, no matter how long she'd known him, Renji would always be Renji.

"Sorry I'm late!" Renji exclaimed, running at full speed to her. "Ikkaku had to give me a shitload of work before he'd let me take a lunch break."

Rukia had heard of the 3rd seat of Squad 11. Supposedly, he was extremely talented at zanjutsu and was a lot like his Taichou in relishing battle. All Rukia knew about Zaraki-taichou was that he was always looking for a good fight.

"How long were you waiting?"

"Not too long," Rukia responded.

"That's good."

They stood there, looking at each other, in awkward silence before she asked, "So why this urgent need to see me?"

Renji turned away, but not before Rukia saw that his face had turned a little pink. She was really curious now why he had insisted they had to meet today for lunch. While it wasn't necessary inconvenient for her, she had been planning on eating with Byakuya. It was slightly disappointing that she couldn't, but Renji didn't usually insist so strongly as he had this morning about anything.

"Well?"

Renji turned to face the restaurant, folding his arms across his chest. "Do you remember when we were growing up? How it was in Rukongai?"

"Of course."

"Do you remember how we used to run by this udon shop when we were trying to escape the grocer and how it would smell so good? I remember how much we used to want to eat here and when we finally had some money, we would eat here weekly and it was as good as we thought it would be."

Rukia nodded, not sure where he was going with this.

"We haven't eaten here since we entered the Shinigami Academy… I wonder if it's still as good."

"It smells just as good as it used to," Rukia remarked. "Did you just have a sudden urge to eat here? Is that why you insisted I have lunch with you?"

Renji didn't answer; instead he took her hand and dragged her into the shop. He found them seats near the back corner and he pushed her onto a stool. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "One beef udon and a shrimp tempura udon for her!"

"You still remember," Rukia said, smiling back at his grinning face. "I can't remember the last time I had udon…"

It had been a long while, she thought, because at the Kuchiki mansion the meals were formal, even breakfast, and when she was at Squad 13 she always had something cold and convenient. Rukia thanked the server when he brought them their udon and elbowed Renji to do the same.

"Thanks," he muttered, rubbing his side and glaring at her.

Rukia picked up her chopsticks, tapping them against the side of the bowl to align them before she dipped them into the udon. "I wonder if it'll be as good as I remember," she said aloud.

"It is," Renji mumbled with a full mouth.

He gave her a thumb's up and continued wolfing down his food in his typical manner. It had been so long since Rukia had seen him eat like that – she had forgotten how comical it could be. It was also appalling, but she had seen him eat like that too many to let it bother her Kuchiki sense of propriety.

Rukia dug into her udon, careful to eat politely, yet at the same time enjoying the delicious meal. It was as good as she remembered it being. She quickly ate the shrimp tempura before it became soggy and then helped herself to more of the udon. Maybe she could ask the cook to make her some udon for a late night snack or find a more reputable udon shop in a better district of Rukongai. It wasn't appropriate that she was eating here, but she didn't regret it.

It was nice going back to her roots to realize how far she had come and how blessed she was to have been adopted by the Kuchiki clan and become a shinigami all at once. She was extremely lucky. Rukia finished the last bite of her udon and found Renji staring at her.

"Was it good?" he asked.

"Very," she responded. "Thanks for asking me to lunch."

Renji nodded and set some money down on the table. Rukia reached into her robes for her money and Renji shook his head at her. "I've got you covered, the least I can do for dragging you out here at such short notice."

"I suppose I deserve that," Rukia said and put her money back into her pocket. "Thank you again."

Renji grinned at her, not unusual for him, but there was something in his eyes that she didn't recognize. She supposed it was because they didn't hang out together as much as they had in the Shinigami Academy and before that when they had been two Rukongai orphans.

"I'll walk you back," Renji said once they had left the udon shop.

"You don't have—"

"I want to," he insisted and Rukia relented.

They walked for a while, not talking, just enjoying each other's company until Renji abruptly stopped and grabbed her hand. Rukia noticed he was staring at her again and he was almost at the point of making her uncomfortable when he looked away.

"You look happy," he remarked.

"I am," she said, smiling because she couldn't help it. Thinking about why she was happy invariably made her think about her favorite person, Byakuya.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, why are you even asking?"

He shrugged and Rukia couldn't read his expression, which she could have in the past. She wondered what he wanted and if this was why he had asked her to lunch all of a sudden.

"Will you go out with me?" Renji blurted out.

Of all the things he could have asked, she hadn't thought it would be that. Too bad he was years too late. She had once had a crush on him, when they'd first entered the Shinigami Academy, but that had faded and even then he couldn't have compared to Byakuya.

"I can't," she began then paused because she didn't know the best way to phrase it. Rukia took a deep breath, thinking about how to broach the subject. With Renji, only the truth would due. She owed him that. "I'm seeing someone."

Renji looked startled. "Who?" he asked.

"I can't say."

"Can't or won't?" he persisted.

Rukia pulled her hand out of his grasp. "I'm seeing someone, let's just leave it at that."

Renji opened his mouth to say something and abruptly closed it a moment later. "Fine," he said. "Fine."

He walked off then, leaving her standing there watching him leave, wondering how to repair the rift in their friendship. Was such a thing even possible?

-

A/N: Byakuya is now a very happy man ^-^! I just decided to throw this in there to resolve the Renji/Rukia issue that had come up earlier in the fanfic and now that it's done with… don't you feel sorry for Renji? What'll happen when he learns that Rukia is with Byakuya? Of course, that won't be for a while! I was planning on releasing this for my birthday (12/17), but I was a little late. Sorry about that.

Not doing well at all on my exams… that means I'm going to have to work so hard next semester. *sad face*

Released: 12/18/08