Simple Like Tea

Chapter 18 - Confrontation in the Face of Resistance

Renji watched her face, radiant as ever in the soft evening glow, as she ran her brush through her hair, completely unaware of being watched. She was lost in thought, distracted, as she’d been the entire time he’d watched her. Of course, he hadn’t seen much from where he was, hidden behind the bushes across the pond from her terrace, but he had heard the bustle of the servants, measuring and pulling, adjusting the long white kimono while she stood unnaturally still, like a statue with just a little too much life in its face.

Eventually, they’d left, one by one, until she was finally alone to take her bath. And then she’d come out of the bath and sat on the terrace, brushing her hair mechanically, her eyes distant. She sat there for a long time, and he sat watching her, feeling pathetic and somewhat perverted, trying to work up the courage to reveal himself to her. To talk to her. To face her at last. To ask her to come away with him, someplace far. He’d run to the real world with her. They wouldn’t be able to find them. He swallowed convulsively as she sighed, placing her hairbrush next to her and staring with unseeing eyes across the pond. Her yukata wasn’t properly tied so much as draped around herself, and it slipped to reveal a perfectly rounded shoulder. Again he swallowed convulsively. He had to do it now, or he’d miss his chance. Every passing second brought closer the wedding. Every tongue in the seireitei was wagging with the rumor, still a rumor to most. He knew it better, knew it for what it was. A horrible truth, wrong and twisted.

It wasn’t until she looked up at him, startled, that he realized he had left his hiding place. Immediately she was on her feet, turning in the opposite direction, and Renji shot forward to catch her before she reached the door. “Reiko!” he begged, grabbing hold of her wrist and dropping straight away to his knees. “Please, let me talk to you!”

She stood shivering, her free hand clutching the folds of her yukata closed at her throat. “What are you doing here?” she hissed, and her eyes darted to the door over her shoulder. “If you’re seen, if anyone comes in…” Again she looked anxiously over her shoulder.

“I won’t be seen, just please, listen to me. I have to talk to you, I can’t stand leaving things the way they are! Please, Reiko, please…” She groaned and bit her lip, her cheeks reddening as he stared at her. His grip loosened on her wrist, a sign of trust, and he noticed suddenly that she was wearing a bracelet. He looked at it, bringing her wrist closer to his face. She had never worn any jewelry before. “What’s this?”

She tugged at her hand, trying to release his grip, but he held it tighter. “A gift.”

His eyes narrowed. “From him?” No need to specify who he meant. The idea that she wore his gift enraged him, made him see red. The thought of her actually marrying him was incomprehensibly maddening.

She lifted her chin defiantly. “What if it was? What’s it to you?”

He suppressed a snarl but tightened his hold on her wrist all the same, yanking her down so she was sitting across from him. She yelped in surprise, and when she looked at him now it was in horror. “What about this?” he practically growled, his vision clouding with his rage. Her yukata had slid down her shoulder again, and he reached out, lightly running his finger over the angry red and purple bruise he saw on her perfect unblemished skin. He gently placed his hand around her shoulder and saw that the bruises fit, though it was proportioned differently. A perfect hand print. “Another gift?”

She slapped his hand away, gritting her teeth angrily. “Don’t.”

But Renji was too far gone. The sight of bruises on her beautiful skin had his blood boiling. How dare that heartless monster hurt her? His eyes scanned her and he saw more bruises around the wrist of her free hand as she pulled her yukata back up her shoulder. He took her other hand, though she resisted, and pushed back the sleeve of her yukata. Again he fit his hand over the bruises, and again found a perfect imprint on her forearm. He looked up at her, his eyes blazing. Anger was radiating out of his pores, and his vision was still clouded. “Why did he hurt you?” he whispered, not trusting his voice not to crack with fury.

“Renji,” her voice was soft and sympathetic, and her expression was strange.

“Why?”

She shook her head, her face turning red again. “He didn’t hurt me.”

“Reiko!” He choked on his rage, his voice more an angry hiss than anything human. He wouldn’t be able to bear it if she defended him!

“It’s not what you think,” her eyes held his in an unwavering gaze, pleading, apologetic, anguished all at once. “You’re such a fool, Renji,” she admonished, and the smallest of smiles changed her features, a small smile that was more unhappy than any of her tears had been. “You’re too late.”

She looked away from him then, again turning back to the door. She wouldn’t meet his gaze, and her voice sounded as though it were coming from far away, from the inside of a tunnel or a grave. “Byakuya-sama is passionate.”

"Passionate? That cold fish?"

She glared at him, anger making her soft features unfamiliar. "Very passionate! We spent the earlier part of the day making love!"

The sound of his racing blood filled his ears, like static trapped in his head. "You and... Byakuya?"

She bit her lip and looked away, her face such a deep shade of red it matched his hair. "He loves me," she whispered fiercely, as though trying to convince him of her words. "We... love each other."

He didn’t miss her pause. “You’re lying to me, Reiko,” he murmured, feeling protective of her, feeling tenderness pass through him in a flood. Making love? The captain making love to her? His mind rejected the idea, and his ears rang with the deafening static. Automatically, he wrapped his arms around her, and she angrily put her hands against his chest to shove him away. She was powerless against him. It was like a child was trying to fight him off.

“Renji, stop!”

“You don’t love him,” he spoke urgently. He cradled her head in his hands and looked in her eyes, and they were wide and alarmed at what they saw in his face. He must have looked crazed. He felt crazed! Reiko and Kuchiki Byakuya, making love, so passionately he left her bruised everywhere... His mind reeled with hurt and betrayal. He had no right to feel betrayed, but he did. Her wide-eyed gaze, more frightened than alarmed now, made it worse. “Say you don’t care for me. Look in my eyes and tell me that you don’t feel for me, that you don’t love me at all. That I meant nothing to you. That you didn’t want me.”

Her eyes tightened. “That was never the point, Renji. Whatever I felt for you was never in question. It was what you felt for me that makes this conversation pointless.”

Renji winced. Her words stung, but only because they were true. “It’s not fair,” he growled childishly, pulling her to his chest. Again she struggled, again in vain. How could she have done this to him?! “I cared for you. I still care for you. I wanted you in my life, not because of Rukia or Ichigo or anything else. I wanted you in my life because I wanted you, beautiful and sweet and amazingly understanding you. You were a wish I didn't even think to make. You were a dream I was too blind to have. You were all these wonderful things I didn't have the ability to imagine! I wanted you back then, and I want you even more now. I’d be gentle and caring, more than you could ever dream! I'll love you the way you deserve! I'd never hurt you like-” He cut off, grinding his teeth in anger. He brought his head down and brushed his lips over the side of her throat, and she gasped, struggling to get free with renewed vigor.

“Stop!” Her hands were fisted in his kimono and he didn’t know if she was pushing him away or pulling him close. “Renji, don’t, please!” Like she was asking for the opposite of what she said, he felt her heart quicken and her grip tighten as he started placing open-mouthed kisses against her neck. “No!”

He pushed her back and he was suddenly on top of her, and there was no mistaking the pressure of her grip as she tried to push him off of her. Why was she fighting him? Didn’t she see? Was she so scared of Byakuya that she couldn’t give herself to him?

He was angry again, and unwanted images of the monster grabbing her, shaking her, hurting her and scaring her filled his mind, causing him to hold her more securely against his chest. He let the images consume him, because he didn't want to face the other images, images of his hands on her, leaving perfect imprints in her skin as he gripped her in bed, as he moved inside her, as he took her... “I won’t let him hurt you,” he promised fervently, speaking directly into her ear so she could hear how much he meant it. “I’ll protect you! I’ll be the one to rescue you!”

She gasped at his words, and he heard her breathing become ragged. She sounded like she was hyperventilating and Renji held her closer in response, wanting so desperately to take away her fears. “Renji, why are you doing this to me?” her voice broke towards the end of her sentence. “Why are you making this harder? Don’t you know how impossible you’re making it to push you away?”

He shook his head, not understanding, not caring, when he suddenly felt her wrap her arms around his neck. His heart burst with life. His hands searched for her face and he kissed her eyes, her cheeks, her forehead and her nose. When he started kissing her jawline she groaned and clutched him closer. She shuddered once and stiffened, but she didn’t try to push him away anymore.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, not knowing exactly what he was apologizing for, but sincerely sorry for troubling her, for hurting her and being stupid, for not being honest with her from the start. “I’m so sorry, Reiko. I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”

Her hands flew up to her face and she shook her head, a strangled sob escaping her throat. In a panic, Renji gripped her wrists, pulling her hands away from her face so he could shower her with kisses again, pausing only to make soothing noises. He hated the thought of her in tears.

And so consumed was he by that thought that it wasn’t until he felt the angry flare of reiatsu that he even realized they were no longer alone.





TBC

AN/ OH NO! Shit's hit the fan now!

I'm sorry this is such a short chapter, really I am, but coursework has been such a pain, it's just not even funny anymore. I'll try my hardest to update with another (probably short) chapter soon to make up for it, but for now, this is all I got. We're approaching an end, my friends, and while it saddens me, I'm kinda excited. I hope you'll all continue to read with me until I reach that end, and enjoy yourselves while you do.

Until next (short) update, LOVE VIBES! ^^