Renji was frantic when he came back.

He bustled about, readying the already ready horses, shouting out commands to nobody in particular and constantly berating himself for something or another. He just kept moving, hands busy, feet busy, mouth busy—anything to cover up the utter panic he felt at the pain of a single girl.

"I told her that she wasn't in any condition to come out to a bar. She didn't listen, she never listens," he muttered, working himself into a rage. But then he cast a stray glance at Rukia, who was still in Ichigo's lap, and all his anger left him. Seeing her curled up in sleep—really, the only reason he wasn't suffering because of his comments was that she wasn't in any position to hear them—reminded Renji that he could never really be mad at Rukia, because she was Rukia and part of what he loved about her was that he had to love her regardless.

The fact that Rukia was really cute asleep might have also played a role in his decision, but Renji preferred not to think about it.

But Rukia was hurt, and if Rukia couldn't be at fault—Rukia could never be at fault as far as Renji was concerned—then there had to be someone else at fault. That someone else could really only be Ichigo, but he knew that wasn't fair either. The poor guy probably didn't even know he had a hollow inside him, let alone the fact that Rukia had given him the power to save his life.

The fact that Ichigo was a captain-class fighter might have also played a role in his decision, but Renji preferred not to think about it.

So he took his frustration out on himself, and tried not to offend anyone. Self-control wasn't exactly something you learned in the 78th district of Rukongai, so he considered the fact that he hadn't punched someone, anyone yet miraculous.

Still, he had eased Rukia with the utmost care onto his horse. Then he had mounted himself, and didn't unleash a barrage of swears you could only learn in the 78th when the horse bucked and then proceeded to continue stubbornly in the wrong direction. He only caught up with Ishida and Ichigo after 5 minutes of forcing the horse into a reluctant gallop—this time in the right direction.

He was deeply jealous of Ishida, who seemed to have controlling his chestnut mare down to a science, and of Ichigo, whose big white stallion obeyed him without fail even as Ichigo rode him with about as much expertise as a sack of potatoes. His own black horse was small and ornery in comparison. He supposed that being a captain had its perks after all.

Ichigo caught him staring, and gave him a grin. "Don't be deceived," he said, patting the flank of his horse. "Hichigo here may look pretty, but he's as spirited as hell. He'd buck me off any day."

Renji gave him a wane smile and tried not to comment on his riding in response. If he said anything, he was sure it was going to be rude, and he was going for polite here. Well, at least anything but being diced into tiny pieces.

"Renji," said Ichigo, suddenly. "Is, uh," he paused, suddenly painfully aware that he didn't even know her name.

"It's Rukia. Rukia Kuchiki," supplied Renji helpfully.

Ichigo looked at him strangely, an eyebrow quirked in disbelief. "Like Byakuya Kuchiki?"

"Yeah," replied Renji, cringing a little at the name. Byakuya Kuchiki was, despite being his captain, one of his least favourite people. The man didn't even have the decency to show up to meet the members of his squad, leaving Renji to run all of the squad 6 as the lieutenant and the stand-in captain, and he insisted on setting the stupidest rules from the behind the scenes. If Kuchiki wasn't a nobleman and the last remaining descendant of the Kuchiki line, he'd have been fired long ago.

"They're not related," he added quickly, seeing the incredulous look on Ichigo's face. Rukia had met him on the streets of the 78th district—hardly a place you'd find the children of noble families.

Ichigo nodded. "So is Rukia going to be OK?"

"The truth is," he began hesitantly, his shoulders slumping a little. "I don't know. I mean, it isn't the first time this has happened. If she gets out of bed, walks around without using her wheelchair—her wound could act up. And Rukia, she's really stupid about listening to people about what's good for her, so her wound, it acts up all the time. And," Renji swallowed and broke eye contact, looked straight ahead. "I don't know if her body can handle that."

"Why don't you stop her?"

"I've tried. With my job at the military, I can't look after her properly, and she's always really bad at taking care of herself," responded Renji. He shot a glance at Ichigo, a mysterious glint in his eyes. "Rukia is and always has been a selfless fool."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

OK, I've gotten some reviews regarding longer chapters and I'm going to address them here. Well actually, I've only gotten three, but that's out of 7 so that's actually 42.85714285714286% which is like half if you round like an idiot and ignore all conventions regarding-

OK, Doydle. Breathe.

So, first off, I've tried writing longer scenes for this fic. My first attempt at chapter one was stupidly huge. But I didn't post that, mainly because I felt that with the longer chapter, the writing wasn't tight enough and the whole thing was rather boring. Now, I'm not saying that all longer chapters are boring. I'm saying that I decided not to write a longer chapter because of personal reasons.

That decision affected my whole fic, because I whenever I write, I more or less write the same way throughout. It's terrible-I'll read a book and I won't be able to write anything new for a while because I'll write like the book's author.

So the scenes and things are going to stay shorter for now. I'll tell you what I'll do though, I'll start combining scenes in chapters so that they're 'longer'. But don't get me wrong, important scenes are probably still going to get their own chapter, and I'll do the combining in editing, which may take a while. That's another thing about how I write-I'll write one thing and I'll keep editing and editing and editing until it's presentable.

Most of the stuff I've posted thus far is not presentable, and I doubt I'll ever post anything presentable.

Also, this is my first fanfic. Like, ever. So obviously, I'm inexperienced and stupid. I really do need reviews, because otherwise I'm going to stay that way.