Black-and-Red Conflict

thank you so much for the comments on the last chapter, they always make me soo happy ^^

edit: thanks so much for the anonymous comment, about how urahara can't actually be in Soul Society.. i had of course not thought of that at all anymore. so don't wonder about it now, i will change that bit as soon as i get to the rework here


~~~Eighteen~~~
Touch

About a week after she had left to the Living World, Rukia returned to Soul Society. She greeted Renji with a kick in the shin and, while he jumped up and down on one foot, stood with her hands on her hips, demanding an explanation. The time off had done her good, he could see that. He was glad she was back and was even happier she had greeted him with a kick and not with the disappointed expression she'd had on her face when she'd left. When it came to an explanation though, he was not sure how to give her that. Of course the whole situation was a lot better now than it had been, but it was still far from clear enough to talk about it to someone else, not even to his best friend. Actually especially not to her, her being Byakuya's sister.

But somehow – he himself wasn't really sure, how – he had managed to make excuses once again. She'd glared and crossed her arms and tried to look really, really angry, but altogether she had been in a much better mood than he had feared. He assumed a certain orange-haired human had something to do with it and brotherly jealousy flared up shortly before he reminded himself that Ichigo had, after all, been the one who had fought for Rukia as much as he himself. They had parted after that and the small, black-haired, young woman had gone back to her division while Renji went back to his and back to the man who was the cause of all this trouble.

A quite alluring cause by now, too. When the lieutenant thought back on their training two days ago, he couldn’t help the hint of a shiver that passed down his spine, remembering dark gray eyes that had locked with his, showing pride, praise and desire as well as a dark voice that, in Renji's mind, had spoken so much more than just one word and the vice-captain's name.

The lieutenant shook his head and walked with vigor to clear his mind. He had a huge amount of work awaiting him, but still he thought about Byakuya. The division was busy now, going over the previous missions. All events needed to be analyzed, new strategies to be planned and many problems demanded to be dealt with in the near future. The first reports needed to be reread and partly rewritten. Renji hadn't been able to train further with Rikichi, let alone with his captain. The only time he had seen Byakuya had been on the previous day, when they had met shortly to decide on the issues they would address in the meeting of all captains and vice-captains this afternoon.

Before, Renji would have stated that actually Kuchiki-Taichou decided on those issues more or less alone and without really giving much care about his lieutenant's opinion, but Byakuya had surprised him once again. He hadn't just handed Renji a list of reports they would need for the meeting, he had instead made a few suggestions as to what he deemed important enough, then waited for his vice-captain to do the same. In the first minutes, Renji had been so perplexed that he wasn’t able to do much more than stare and blink.

“Abarai-Fukutaichou,” the captain had said then, “if you don't care to contribute, you force me to just choose by the handwriting on the paper. I am quite sure it won't be any of your reports then.”

That had been enough to make Renji stammer and blush. Not only what had been said but the way it had been said as well. It was a joke of course, or rather an attempt at one. Not easy to realize when the face opposite his remained as passionless and almost bored as it did, except for that tiny hint of something like a smirk around the graceful lips, or that glint in the gray eyes, which probably only the lieutenant was able to notice. Renji had pulled himself together then and they had indeed decided through an admittedly slightly awkward discussion. In the end it had emerged that there wasn’t so much to report at all. The missions had been normal, no unusual occurrences, despite a slight rise in strength of hollows in certain areas, which might as well have been a coincidence. Still, they had intelligence that other divisions had brought graver news in connection to the matter and every fact that seemed somehow related, would need to be divulged before the assembly.

Said meeting was today on less than an hour from now. So, as Renji approached the squad's office building, he was just in time to see his captain stepping out. He greeted the noble with a small bow, which was returned with a nod, then fell into step behind his superior. They made their way in silence, Renji's eyes moving over the shoulders in front of him, wondering if under the uniform, they were indeed as broad as they looked. As soon as he caught himself though, he looked away, only to return his gaze moments later, finding that Byakuya had turned his head slightly to the side, a position that enabled him to watch his step but still glance backwards at his lieutenant from the corner of his eyes.

Renji swallowed and tried to neither stare nor avoid the other's gaze. He wanted to act as if everything was normal, as if there wasn't this weird relationship which he could not define. But none of his usual easy talk would find its way to his mouth and he was certain that the stiff way he was stalking behind his captain must have been highly suspicious for everybody who saw them pass. Fortunately they didn't meet many on their way and the redhead's paranoia had almost subsided as they reached their destination. Many captains and their lieutenants were already present before the assembly hall and even though most of them were polite and well-behaved enough not to show it all too openly, for a second their looks caught a little bit too long on the 6th squad's captain and vice-captain before polite greetings were uttered and quiet discussions resumed.

There were only a few more minutes until the meeting’s start, in which Renji's attention was caught by the 8th and 13th squad's captains standing and talking some meters away. Ukitake looked as pale as always and somehow seemed very intent on keeping his eyes on his partner, while that other man, Kyouraku, was staring straight at Renji and his captain. He had never been one to hide it if something caught his interest. Poor Ise-Fukutaichou could tell you all about it.

Renji frowned and met the gaze with a scowl before he looked away, remembering that the man was of a higher rank. Byakuya seemed not to notice the others at all, or he had chosen to simply ignore them, honoring them with as much attention as he would a speck of dust on a rooftop four miles away.

They finally were led in by a servant, through a wide entrance hall and into a spacious room were they took seats on low tables, placed in pairs to provide a place for each captain and their lieutenant.

Even though there had been quite a few meetings after the whole incident with Aizen, it was always strange and unsettling to see the empty places where the vanished captains had been seated before, to see their lieutenants alone instead or, in case of the 5th, to have the place completely empty. Izuru and Hisagi managed their squads well on their own, considering all that had happened. Also had Urahara's ban been loosened under the circumstances and he and Yoruichi did frequently come to lend a hand to Soul Society, but they weren't attending these kind of meetings and even if they had, they could of course not have replaced three captains and one vice-captain, who was still unable to resume her tasks. So, once again, there was a short moment of awkwardness as everybody was seated and looks caught on void spaces, before tea was served and the discussions finally began.

Renji tried to concentrate, but he tended to get lost in his thoughts on these occasions. This time, the fact that his captain sat only a few centimeters from him was an even greater distraction. If he just extended his own hand slightly, he would have been able to touch the pale one that was placed loosely on Byakuya's knee. He knew everything that was said now was important and that he should listen to the reports of how the level of hollows in certain areas hadn’t simply risen slightly, as their own squad had experienced, but had in fact become dangerously high. But it was too hard to stay concentrated. He wished more than ever he had that perfect discipline of his captain, who looked as composed as always, who seemed not at all faced by the fact that the man sitting by his side had driven him close to his limits, if not even over the edge.

The redhead almost let out a sigh of relief as they could finally rise and follow Yamamoto-soutaichou into another, rather small room. The walls were covered with several lined monitors that, with a humming noise, sprung to life, showing numerous statistics as well as several maps. In the middle, on the biggest monitor, a world map could be seen slowly moving and then zooming in on Japan, displaying, the further it focused, red areas signaling the worst accumulation of high-level hollows. Renji noticed Byakuya stopping right before him, but just as he wanted to do the same, the other Shinigami still entering the room pushed him forward another step. Captain and lieutenant froze as their hands touched, Renji's left to Byakuya's right, hidden between the loose uniforms, unnoticed by all others as the attention was focused on the screen and Yamamoto's voice.

Since they had more or less resolved, or at least drastically lightened their conflict a week before, they had behaved extremely carefully. Circling each other in a tricky, cautious dance, they had been waiting, watching, advancing just to pull back again. They were hesitant, not sure how to proceed, not yet daring to breach the wall that kept them from touching each other unless absolutely necessary. But all the time they had, deep inside, remembered the fire their contact had brought before and unconsciously they had always craved it. Even though one was reluctant of being hurt again, while the other was conscious of having hurt, all that was needed to bring that heat back to life was a spark.

Renji's heartbeat sped up as he felt the cool skin on the inside of Byakuya's hand against his fingertips and he instinctively increased the pressure until his sense caught up and he stopped and waited, all tense, for his captain to break the contact. They were in a meeting, this was a public space and Kuchiki-Taichou would surely not tolerate something like this here. But to the redhead's surprise, Byakuya did. The noble's hand stayed where it was and after a few more seconds, there even was a tiny push backwards. It was gentle, hardly to be noticed, but there. From then on, most of what happened around them hardly reached Renji's mind and he didn’t even bother reminding himself that there were important things being discussed here, his sense had been switched right off.

For Byakuya it wasn't as easy. He knew it was absolutely intolerable for a captain's attention to be diverted in a meeting like this. He tried to concentrate on the map again, to sharpen his hearing, which seemed to have momentarily turned deaf to the voice of his general, but only succeeded on staying focused with the greatest of efforts. To move his hand forward though, and lose the touch of that small centers of warmth that were Renji's fingers would have been even harder. As they started to move against his hand, stroking over his smooth skin with increasing pressure, a veil was cast before his vision and he had to force his breathing to stay leveled, had to force his eyes to stay opened.

“The 13th and 2nd squad's reports speak of a rise of strength of about eighty percent in ...”

The voice that should have pushed the 6th squad's captains sense of duty to the highest levels threatened to dissolve into nothing but a monotonous background noise. He saw the room, the screens, the other people before him, but could hardly convince himself that anything of it held any meaning. He did not know afterwards how he had managed to lock the most crucial facts away in his memory, when he could hardly recall hearing them. He could only remember how his fingers had, at first slowly, hesitantly and then more urgently, wound together and intertwined with Renji's. How his hand had taken on the same heat, how fascinated he had been by the rough and worn landscape his lieutenant's skin presented to his probing fingers. How strong and brash an opponent that hand was and, what impressed him maybe the most, how underneath it all, it could be soft and subtle. Abarai Renji was not what came to mind when one thought of gentleness, but the way he firmly, yet carefully, drew circles on the inside of Byakuya's wrist, stroked the heel of his hand, caressed along the slender, pale fingers, showed that however he may have acquired it, he had far more sensitiveness than his captain would have ever expected.

It was almost impossible not to imagine those hands on other parts of his body, but in the last moment Byakuya pulled himself together. He suddenly unwound his and Renji's fingers and gripped hard on his lieutenant's strong wrist, forcing both of them back to reality. It wasn't as if the noble didn't like the touch they had shared, but he could have never allowed himself to let go while in front of his general and numerous high-ranking officers.

“...from Karakura Town. The threat seems especially strong there. We do not have definite figures yet, but high-level hollows seem to gather there even more than in all other areas mentioned. We have to monitor the situation especially closely there.”

A red mark was drawn over the map where the aforementioned place lay. The town in which Kurosaki Ichigo acted as a substitute Shinigami, backed up by his friends, the town Rukia had just returned from. Byakuya listened to the reports as emotionless as ever, while Renji grew slightly tense before he told himself that the cocky strawberry-head was probably happy about having stronger opponents. At least Renji knew that he himself would be. And since Rukia was back safely in Soul Society, he didn’t think he really needed to worry. There were other things on his mind after all. For example the man whose hand was tightened around his wrist right now.

“If the concentration grows even stronger, we will be forced to send backup there. At the moment it seems Kurosaki-kun and his friends can manage on their own, but we should keep a close look. Please be sure to inform all your subordinates of the endangered areas that we know of by now. Don't take unnecessary risks. That was all.”

Yamamoto-soutaichou shortly nodded at them before he stepped forward to take his leave. The captains and vice-captains bowed to him respectfully and a narrow path was formed between them for him to pass.

Renji's and Byakuya's hands parted then and as everybody began to leave the small room, they were pushed out by the flow of exiting Shinigami. They did not obviously look at each other, but Renji couldn’t help a few fleeting gazes at the man who was now by his side. He stopped immediately though as a smugly grinning Kyouraku passed him and tipped his head in greeting shortly before he moved on.

The redhead frowned darkly. It was impossible for anybody to have noticed his and Byakuya's contact. Still that man looked at them as if he knew something. It was annoying and Renji didn't like it at all. It was hard enough to get a clear thought through all this and get closer to the noble without having to worry about other people giving birth to new rumors.

Finally outside Byakuya stopped and as the last members of the assembly were out of earshot, he turned towards Renji. His posture was reserved as always, but his eyes had that dark glimmer that meant he was not as calm on the inside as he was on the outside.

“I hope you have paid attention, Abarai-Fukutaichou.”

Renji flinched slightly. Attention? How could he have, by any means? But admit to that? Not in front of this man. He nodded, if a bit hesitantly. They stood a meter apart and Renji craved to get even closer, but he knew that standing in the open, his captain would never agree to that, so he just waited. Fortunately Byakuya did not want to pursue his first point any longer.

“Let us train again.”

Byakuya had his head turned to the side and away from Renji. His voice was steady but, it seemed to Renji, a bit lower than normally. That change of theme definitely came as a surprise, but the redhead found himself nodding fiercely in agreement immediately.

“But this time, we will need space and,” Byakuya looked back at his vice-captain, “seclusion.”
Renji felt heat fill his body and rise to his cheeks. Space, seclusion, could that mean...?

“Or was that not what you wanted, Abarai-Fukutaichou? To once again measure your Bankai against mine?”

In that moment, it felt to Renji as if his heart had skipped one beat. Happiness and excitement flooded him and he couldn't do more than just stand and stare. A little voice in the back of his head mentioned that he was doing that most of the time, actually, whenever he was with his captain lately. Not that he cared, really.

“Yes.” He breathed.

Oh yes!


~~~