Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

Gigai

Rukia cursed the day she had entered that damn bathroom.

Since she had just finished business with her brother and had felt an urgent need to use the toilet, an urge that couldn't wait until she reached the 13th Division's barracks, she'd decided to use the 6th Division's bathrooms. Yes, she had been puzzled because of the weird paper signs on the doors saying 'men' and 'women', but she had opened the door to the women's bathroom anyways.

She should have noticed her mistake instantly, since women usually do not have urinals in their bathrooms. Yet, she had already taken two steps into the white-tiled room before she did, and before she could have done anything, it had already happened.

'It' taking the form of Renji, her best friend, appearing in the doorway that led to the showers. Which would not have been any problematic, mind you, if he hadn't been, at the same time, naked. Stark. Naked.

Water had been dropping from his long red strands onto the floor and his upper body, creating rivulets of water down his nicely shaped pecs and abs. He'd been holding a towel over his head, apparently just in the process of rubbing down his hair.

And did I already mention that he was very, very naked?

Rukia had just frozen on the spot, staring at him out of eyes as wide as saucers. And he had, too, hands in his hair, and still naked.

Her mouth had opened, but nothing had come out, and in that moment of pure, utter surprise, her brain hadn't worked properly. She knew because it had allowed her eyes to wander over his chiselled and tattooed features, down, down, down until they could finally take in that little patch of red hair and his, admittedly impressive, manhood. Under normal circumstances she'd have excused herself, turned away and let him dress or just go away. But as her brain hadn't functioned in the right way, she'd just stared open-mouthed at his nakedness.

And worse: she'd reacted. Her body had grown hot in places, become wet in others, and suddenly there had been images in her mind, images of them, together, of him doing certain things to her, with his ...

"R-Rukia?" he'd finally asked incredulously, and she'd been snapped out of it in the blink of an eye.

"The sign!" she'd blurted, and still hadn't the presence of mind to take her hands up to cover her eyes, or to turn away, be it for shame or just to give him as much privacy as she could in that situation.

"Umm ..." Renji had just said, still eyeing her in surprise. And not making any move to cover his nakedness in the least.

"I ... I ...!" she'd stammered, and had finally managed to whirl around and run. Out of that damn bathroom, out of the building and far, far away.

Since then, she'd avoided him. Oh, the embarrassment! The ground would open and swallow her if she ever met him again. Luckily for her, he hadn't come to see her, either. Maybe it was just as embarrassing for him? But then, why the heck hadn't he reacted then, just stood there and let her ogle him? She didn't get it, but fact was that since that incident, she'd had dreams of it every night. In some of them she'd approach him and ask him to feel his body – her face grew hot just thinking about it! In others, he'd corner her and kiss her and press his body against hers, all that sculpted muscle and hard flesh – she had half the mind to hit the wall with her head every time she remembered it. But there they were, the pictures in her head, pictures of her and her goddamn best friend, and they wouldn't go away. She'd even gone so far as to buy a women's porn mag to cover up those pictures with those of other, more harmless men – but it hadn't worked. Full of shame and guilt, she'd stared at the pictures of naked men's bodies, imagining how this guy's abs looked nothing like Renji's, or how that one's crotch would look with tattoos. Heck, she hadn't even known the moron's damn tats went so far down!

Well, now she knew, and they haunted her dreams. Lately she'd even started daydreaming about it!

She'd practically begged Ukitake-taichō for a temporary transfer into the World of the Living, saying she wanted to spend some time with Ichigo. But the truth was she was running away, and she was ashamed to no end.

Now she was sitting in her 'room' in Ichigo's cupboard, feeling restless and bored out of her wits. The orange-haired idiot was in school and she hadn't felt like going with him, so it was her own damn fault. And as usual, pictures of Renji floated through her mind, and made her all hot and bothered. Which she strongly disliked. He was her best friend, for heck's sake! And the worst of all was that she really, really, really wanted to see it again. She could deny it all she wanted, but she wanted to see, to touch, to feel him in a way that wasn't exactly how a friend should think about her friend.

Her gaze wandered over all the things in here, and suddenly stuck to the foot of a doll that had once belonged to Yuzu. Doll. Body. Gigai!

She jumped up and hit her head on the cupboard's ceiling. Grumbling and rubbing the aching spot, she nevertheless felt her heartbeat in her throat. In a flash, she jumped out of the cupboard and opened another door, the door to the one that they had once discovered held all their gigais when they weren't there. Rukia rummaged through the mess of bodies, shoving Hitsugaya-taichō's leg one way and Ayasegawa's arm the other, looking for that familiar flash of red that she'd grown to like so much. More than was good for her.

And finally, under the wide skirt that belonged to Matsumoto, she found what she was looking for. Swallowing hard, she warily eyed Renji's gigai as it was lying there, crumpled like a doll. A very, very sexy doll.

Rukia almost bashed her head against the wall at the thought. But then again, the sight of Renji in casual clothing like that was just too fine to look away. Why hadn't she ever noticed how that shirt clung to his muscled upper body like a second skin? Or the way his jeans were riding deliciously low on his hips? Why hadn't she?

Well, now she did, and it would be her downfall, that was for sure.

Slowly she reached out for him. She needed to touch him. She felt guilty as hell, like this was a violation of some sorts, but it was only a gigai, right? A non-living, non-breathing imitation of his body. He would never know, and she would finally find peace if she did this now, right?

Right.

Her fingers found the hem of his shirt. Her heart beat frantically, furiously, as she slowly lifted it and pushed upwards. The first thing she saw were the tattoos, inky black on his gorgeous skin. Then, the muscles, and she was very close to drooling as she placed one palm on the flat plane of his abs. She sighed involuntarily when she let her hand glide over smooth skin and hard muscle beneath, higher until she reached his pecs. Her fingertips explored his skin, and she could almost feel the heartbeat under her touches. She found one nipple and slid her hand over it, imagining doing that to him when conscious, but immediately shaking her head hard for her stupidity. He would never know, he wasn't supposed to know what this did to her.

Sliding her hand lower again, she reached the waistband of his jeans. Funny, he almost looked like he was breathing. Her imagination had gone hyper now, just like in one of her daydreams, when she imagined him lifting her up and kissing her like there was no tomorrow, pressing his hard body against hers ...

Her fingers trembling now, she touched the button of his jeans. There was no question of undoing it or not, she needed to see him, feel him, to have the flame of this damn curiosity of hers smothered before it could become a wildfire. And she could talk to him again without blushing and running away.

The button popped open under her hands, and she reached for the zipper. Weird, it felt kinda hard beneath. Just as if ...

Her heart almost stopped for a second when a hand shot up and grabbed her by the wrist. She almost fell backwards but that hand held her in so strong a grip that she couldn't. Her gaze practically flew upwards, and the second she met his eyes, his open eyes, her heart really stopped.

"Jeez, it's hella hard to play dead when you're doing all that," Renji said and smirked.

Rukia gasped, and her mouth opened and closed like a fish's, unable to say or do anything. She wanted to scream. This was her worst nightmare. How the hell had this only happened?!

Renji sat up now, his hand still firmly grabbing her wrist. "I knew you were acting weird ever since that. But had I known ..." He chuckled, and amusement was written all over his smug face.

With a jerk, she tried to undo his grip on her, frantically scrambling backwards. "No – no! This isn't ... this wasn't ... Why are you even here?" she practically shouted at him, her face a deep red and her heart beating so furiously that she was probably very close to a heart attack.

"You weren't coming back, and I figured it had something to do with, well, me, and so I wanted to come and see if you're well, and bring you back." He was holding her wrist in an iron grip. She couldn't get free at all. "And if you now say that this wasn't what it looked like, I'm gonna laugh."

She saw that familiar sparkling in his eyes, the one that promised mischief. And right now she really wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole, and never come back. This wasn't even just embarrassment, this was hell. She wanted to die on the spot.

"B-but you ... and I thought ... if I, just once ... talk to you again ..." she stammered, unable to look away from him.

Renji was still smirking, and damn her, it looked sexy as hell. "I get it, I get it. But, you know, you could've just asked."

Wha-?

"What do you –" ... mean, she wanted to say, but that was the moment when he just pulled on her wrist, she fell forward, right into his arms, and then his lips were on hers and no words could get out anymore. His hand was in her hair, and the other had sneaked around her waist, holding her close, and oh his body felt exactly as it had in those dreams of hers. She moaned into his mouth, and as an answer Renji pulled her on top of him, into his lap so she was straddling him. And yes, the inside of his pants really felt too hard to be normal, and it made her so hot it drove her crazy. His tongue entered her mouth, and she moaned again, this felt so good, he was so sexy and he apparently wanted her, and oh how she wanted him, and she was going to have her first time in Ichigo's cupboard.

Oh, and speaking of Ichigo.

"Well, it's all fine that you two're finally getting it on and all, but could you please do it not in my closet?" Ichigo's exasperated voice resounded in the small space they were currently sharing, and they both froze on the spot.

And while Rukia could only stare at her friend standing in the closet door in horror, Renji just smirked. "Then let's continue this somewhere else," he whispered into her ear, and she melted.

Yes, yes, that sounded just fine.