Author's note: this is it boys this is war. I promise after this we get back to the UST, just bare with me.
It wasn't that his demands had been ignored that pissed Renji off. Half the time even he didn't listen to his own advice and he tended to come out mostly okay from it. It had more to do with the fact that the one goddamn time Renji was honestly trying to do the mature thing and keep Shuuhei safe after it was partially Renji's fault that they had picked up this whole mission thing together, and then that Shuuhei seemed to have lost his mind and marched straight into Huenco Mundo without a zanpakuto like it was all fine and dandy that did it.
Dream-Shuuhei was right; Renji did learn things on his own. He learned that Real-Shuuhei was kind of a dick.
And then that the man who had nearly been hollow-chow a minute ago had the audacity to go over Renji's head on the matter to the captains was just insult to injury. Renji should have known that his captain and Captain Histugaya would have a soft spot for Shuuhei. The guy was, admittedly, usually the one who bullied Renji and Rangiku into finishing their paperwork on time.
Stupid Shuuhei.
Stupid, dumb, sweet, well-meaning, looking-at-the-ground-like-a-kicked-puppy-dog Shuuhei. God why did he have to do that, humbly shuffling next to Izuru and looking all broody and cute? Not that Renji had been looking over at him.
At this point Renji was so far gone that he couldn't even be bothered to think of why thinking that one of his (stupid) friends was cute was a bad idea. Just… fuck that.
Now united, the group of soul reapers had decided to explore the cavern deeper together. The supposed "back-up" group had seemed to be on the right track, the veins of energy brighter and warmer here than they had been in the section of the tunnels that Renji, Ichigo and Rukia had been seeing to.
Renji noted, with some amusement, that Ichigo appeared uneasy with this "let's be reasonable and explore the area slowly in a coordinated group" plan. A proficient shinigami Ichigo did make, but the kid would have to learn how to conduct actual investigative missions without stabbing something every two minutes sooner or later. Rukia was holding up better, although she seemed torn between staying by his and Ichigo's side or gravitating towards Captain Kuchiki. Renji was a little tempted just to do so himself, his lieutenatly instincts kicking in somewhere in the back of his mind.
Shuuhei was talking to Izuru, not quite loud enough for Renji to hear. That was good. Izuru liked Renji, and liked making sure that his friends didn't hate each other. Maybe if Renji went over there and joined in on the conversation, he could finally get a real talk with Shuuhei. Just casually slide over…
Nope. Not happening. False alarm. Renji visualized the headlines in gossip magazines across the Seireitei: Abarai Renji Fails Socializing As Normal Human Being, Surprising No One. Why was this so hard?
Next to him, Rukia gave Renji a curious look and he realized that he had been glowering as they walked. He remembered that Rukia thought Shuuhei had a crush on him (which was a baseless, ridiculous accusation. Silly Rukia.) and tried to think of ways he could prove to both parties that he wasn't a heartless bastard. Normally when he felt he had wronged one of his friends, which was admittedly Shuuhei sometimes because one didn't maintain a healthy friendship without occasionally pissing each other off, he would throw a bottle of sake at them and call it a night. This was kind of a more serious clash than usual, however, so maybe he'd need to put actual effort into this.
Then again, Shuuhei was a lot of great things but he was also a cheap son of a bitch- Renji had ended up watching him shamelessly stuff his face with Omeada's leftovers and scraps enough times to know. That was a massively unattractive thing that had happened, now that he thought back on it. Shuuhei was lucky that he was cute. Maybe Shuuhei would forgive Renji more quickly if he bought the other man dinner.
Buying him dinner in the completely platonic, non-date-like sense. That was what Renji was thinking about.
Yep.
Oh boy.
An elbow sharply jabbed Renji in the side, "Oof! What was that for?" he snapped at Ichigo, who of course lacked the decency to look sorry.
"You still with us? You were spacing out so much that Byakuya stopped a five-minute long lecture to look offended that you weren't paying attention. Plus you've got this face like you're sort of constipated."
"What? Yeah, I'm fine. Just-" Quick, think of an excuse to be upset that doesn't sound whiney. "-This feels kind of pointless. Do we even know what we're looking for, or is this a flying by the seats of our pants kind of deal?" Nailed it.
"I can sense the source of the spiritual energy getting closer. We can decide how to handle that situation when we can get a clear vision of what we're dealing with." Captain Kuchiki answered from the head of the pack. "Until we reach that point, however, it is very important that we stay-"
The cave floor creaked ominously beneath them, a pathetic, unhappy kind of moan that one could only expect to be an omen of misfortune in the near future. The ground sank beneath them, falling in on itself like elastic being pulled down.
"… On track." Captain Kuchiki finished placidly before the ground gave away altogether.
The floor fell away beneath their feet before anyone could determine where one cry of surprise began and another's yelp of pain on impact ended. The eight soul reapers fell in an undignified pile, displacing a cloud of dry dust in their mist.
Coughing out the dirt in his lungs, Renji attempted to disentangle himself from what he thought was Ichigo's elbow and Rangiku's leg and brush away the dust from his eyes. He looked upwards, at the hole where they had apparently fallen through, into a larger dug-out chamber below. He didn't get a very good look, though, because as soon as the dirt was cleared from the air, a blast of hot steam hissed and whistled into his face.
Flinching at the unexpected burst in pressure, Renji lifted a hand up to shield his face from the hot steam, little specks of what might have been ash floating into his eyes.
Looking around, it was clear that the veins of blue tracking the walls earlier had grown into thick branches of glowing spiritual pressure, some slivers crackling and popping with pent-up energy releasing in hot jets of bursting air. The heat emanating from them burnt the stone to slag, curling into the air in puffs of soot around the cavern. The energy rippled in waves of color, pumping rythemically in time with the high-pitched shrilling of the steam.
"… Well at least it looks like we're closer now." Rangiku commented, helping Shuuhei hoist Rukia to her feet before brushing the dust off of her haori, "If the increase in creepy around here is anything to go by. Now we just need to-"
Whatever Rangiku was about to say was cut off by a dark fist clawing through the chamber walls.
"We have more company." Captain Hitsugaya warned, in time for several more other hollows to slink in from the surrounding tunnels until an entire pack had garnered close, curious at the intrusion in their quickly constructed nest.
A fight broke out, this one affording to tip in the shinigami's favor for the high ceilings and extra room. It was even enough open space for Ichigo's attacks to be safely effective, and there were no small supply of hollows preying close enough to become targets. All eight soul reapers were quickly busied with eliminating as many of the creatures as time would allow.
Renji's head whipped around automatically, looking for a head of dark, spiky hair among the battle-frenzy. Looking-
Looking in time to see an expertly fired arc of lightning blast forth from Shuuhei's palm to strike a hollow square in the chest. The monster absorbed the blow like a lightning-rod before exploding into darkness and entrails. Another was decimated by a shakaho blasting it into a burnt crisp. Okay, so maybe Shuuhei was doing pretty good on his own after all. Well, good! Now Renji could stop feeling like a paranoid asshole.
Renji's mouth turned up in a smirk, pulling Zabimaru back from the guts of a dying hollow to hold the hilt firmly in both hands.
"Banka-"
Goddammit Shuuhei what the fuck are you doing now?
Renji stopped, momentarily forgetting all about releasing his bankai or tearing into the horde of hollows. His attention, instead, was spent of wondering what Shuuhei could possibly be thinking as he suddenly stopping blowing away hollows with his hado in favor of darting across the chamber floor, nearly getting swiped at by a hollow every five feet. The scarred man seemed oblivious of his obvious danger, scrambling like a madman away from the battle.
Renji groaned an exasperated "You've got to be kidding me." before setting his zanpakuto back into its sheath. In his mind, he could hear the distant roar of Zabimaru's feral form growling in disappointment ringing through his ears, but it would have to wait. Renji followed after Shuuhei through the battlefield in bounds, having to complete an undignified hop over a half-dead hollow to catch up.
Shuuhei vanished into one of the tunnels splitting away from the chamber, seeming to be in hot pursuit of something. He ran, a stark black shadow outlined against the glowing blue lights and haze of hot, steamy air. Renji kept after him but it was hard to keep him in sight because wow Shuuhei was fast, he must have some really fit legs. That didn't mean Renji wasn't going to break them.
By the time Renji had to stop and gasp for air, Shuuhei had managed to disappear completely. He could still hear the distant howling of hollows echoing from back behind him, the sharp sounds of the other soul reaper's attacks slicing through the monsters, but it had decreased to a distance drone.
Renji tried to rest for a moment, putting a hand against the cave wall only to flinch away from the heat of the rocks. Right, forgot about those.
Renji tried to look ahead in the tunnel, the beating light being his only illumination. "Shuuhei?" His voice echoed up and down the dark cave. "Shuuhei, come on. Don't be stupid. The fight is that way!"
A low groan coming from directly behind Renji made him freeze, musty breath hitting the back of his neck and a long rope of what Renji could only pray was drool draping across his shoulder.
Slowly, Renji inched around, turning his vision until he looked straight face-to-ghoulish-face with a sadly not unfamiliar bone-white mask. The vine-pronged, hound-like hollow from the river, that Shuuhei had claimed to see a second time in the portal, crouched over Renji. It hissed breathily, the vines on its back squirming in the air like snakes, roughly entwining around Renji's legs and brushing him up and down possessively. Something glinted among the untamed nest of feelers. Kazeshini, blade partially coated in rust blood but still distinguishable with his chain swinging behind it.
Renji stumbled backwards, hands fumbling to find his sword but not wanting to take his eyes off the hollow. The monster howled and advanced and Renji tripped backwards onto the ground.
A bright blue light flashed behind the hollow, swallowing Renji's vision before the creature lurched from the impact of the explosion. Blood dripped from the back of its head at the creature collapsed. Behind it, Shuuhei stood, palm smoking dangerously and steel eyes fixed intensely on his target as a second blast left his palm with deadly accuracy on the hollow, which howled in agony before collapsed against the wall knocking boulders aside before it collapsed into dying darkness.
As the hollow faded into blackness, Kazeshini clattered to the stone floor. The blade shrunk to its sealed form, the cave light bouncing off the blade to bathe Renji and Shuuhei in a ghostly glow.
Shuuhei's footsteps echoed against the tunnel floor as he walked over to Kazeshini, stooping over to pick it up. He turned the sword over in his hands, tutting at the grime coating it's blade like he had just dropped it in the mud instead of lost in inside a hollow for like three days. After a moment of considering Kazeshini, he looked back to Renji and offered him a hand back up.
"You know you really should be more careful." Shuuhei chastised, "I'm not always going to be around to save your sorry ass, you know?"
"You're an asshole. And thanks." Renji conceded, offering a tentative smile. "You got Kazeshini back!"
Shuuhei hummed in agreement, his expression betraying nothing but the barest quirking of his lips upwards to show how pleased he was. "About time, too. I was wondering when people would stop treating me like I'm made of glass just because I don't have my stupid sword."
"Yeah." Guilt coiled in Renji's stomach, only offset by attempting a sardonic "Shows those jerks, don't it?"
Shuuhei's half-hidden smirk grew into a genuine smile. Renji had never noticed the way Shuuhei's eyes looked when they softened, looking more gentle than Renji considered any man who had just blown up a hollow at least three times his size had any right to be. "I guess. But I think those jerks are alright after the first few times they save your life and junk."
And oops, now Renji is smiling a stupid, goofy grin and it won't go away quick think of dead puppies or something, anything other than how cute Shuuhei's smile is.
Luckily or unluckily, Renji got just that. "Hey, do you think that's supposed to be there?"
Shuuhei turned around so now both shinigami were looking at a hole in the cave wall, smashed apart by the hollow's fall. A harsher, brighter blue light peaked out from between the boulders, the now familiar pulsing of power now so strong it was a ringing in their ears.
Both men crept closer to the source of the energy, greeted by the sight of an off-shooting chamber. The veins of blue spiritual energy coiled around like a vortex, outlining in great swirling patterns to the center of the chamber where the floor and the ceiling broke free from the walls to spiral together, attached to what, at first glance, looked like a glowing egg.
But as the two shinigami moved closer, the egg twitched. It contracted and expanded like a real heart, sending more pulses of light and energy with each exhale. It beat weakly, looking exposed and vulnerable out in the open after it's hiding place had been unceremoniously pried apart like a chest cavity.
"I guess that's the source of all the excess energy, huh?" Renji commented dryly, "It's kind of weird. I didn't think that something literally made out of power would look so…"
"Fragile?" Shuuhei suggested.
The both just stopped and stared for a few moments, the battle raging between the hollows and their friends seeming to be miles and miles away. The blue glow had a heavenly quality to it, and though it was beginning to hurt Renji's eyes he did not want to look away.
"What are we supposed to do with it?" Shuuhei finally asked, sounding as if he didn't have any idea where to begin.
Renji shrugged, although he knew Shuuhei wasn't looking at him, "What we do with all other spiritual energy that needs to be taken care of, I suppose. We purify it."
Now that the spell was broken, Renji shuffled forward, beginning to draw Zabimaru. Something, however, made him hesitate. Decidedly, he left his sword at his hip, and just motioned towards the glowing object with his hands, looking expectantly at Shuuhei.
"Well? What are you waiting for?"
Shuuhei looked a little affronted, eyes stretched wide in surprise. He quickly recovered, though. Shuuhei tentatively approached the thing glowing in the center of the chamber, raising Kazeshini warily.
For all his cautious approach, Shuuhei struck quickly, so fast Renji barely had time to process it before Shuuhei's blade sunk into the manifestation, which emitted a buzzing noise like the kind from the portals in protest. Shuuhei grit his teeth and pushed on his sword, which slid deeper in agonizingly slow as if he were pushing a pencil through a mound of clay.
Shuuhei looked at Renji, his face full of an expression Renji had long since lost the processing power to decipher. "Help me." He demanded.
Renji's hands were on Shuuhei's before he could think of why that might be a bad idea. His fists tightened around Kazeshini's shaft and together they forced the sword clean through the pulsing heart of energy.
It dissipated almost instantly, making Renji and Shuuhei stumble over at the loss of net force. They fell to their sides with individual yells of surprise, Kazeshini still grasped between them.
Around them, the veins of energy were vanishing, the light trailing off into darkness like lanterns extinguished after a festival. Hot air caught behind the veins met cooler air and exploded into steam, blowing ash and smoke into the air and all around Renji and Shuuhei, who scrambled to stand back up. Renji dropped Shuuhei's hands, although he had the insane impulse not to.
They had done it. Renji and Shuuhei shared mad grins of victory, spending perhaps a solid moment just reveling in the sense of accomplishment. Then the two rushed back to the others with crows of victory, and only mildly complaining that the others hadn't left any hollows for them. The rest of the group, now looking fairly worn and exhausting compared to the newly re-energized duo, happily announced that the mission was completed and that they could go home. There would be no more portals, and Shuuhei finally had his zanpakuto back.
On the way out of the tunnel, Renji and Shuuhei walked with their arms slung over each other's shoulders as if they were drunk and staggering out of a bar like a usual Friday night, ignoring the bemused and downright irritable company around them. Shuuhei beamed at Renji, a wide, toothy kind of grin and although Shuuhei's face was smeared with soot it did not stop that face from being handsome.
They walked out into the endless night of Huenco Mundo. The mission was complete. Everyone was safe. And even though Renji had finally situated all the immediate problems in his life and could finally be please with himself, he also knew that was impossible.
Renji had a problem. Renji was in love.
Renji was royally fucked.