Black-and-Red Conflict

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~~~Four~~~
Companion


“They W-WHAT???”
“Don't yell!”
Rikichi looked around, his shoulders drawn up, scratching the back of his head nervously.

“They argued in the hallway. Abarai-san almost drew. I thought they'd, they'd... it was horrible, and... kinda really cool,” he finally continued in a hushed voice, a vague grin on his face. His hand clutched his small sake cup and turned it over and around before he filled it the third time and took another sip, grimacing. He'd never liked the taste of sake, but Renji-san drowned the stuff like water so he would, too. Hanatarou on the other hand, sat across from him with a glass of water, mouth open and gaping.

“C-cool? Kuchiki-Taichou angry? He's scary! When he looks at me, I-I...”
“He doesn't look at you...,” Rikichi objected, leaning his head to the side.
“N-no, but...“ Hanatarou blushed and let his eyes wander over the room another time.

They were in a bar in first district, very near to the wall of Seireitei, a place where many Shinigami hung out regularly to share drink and gossip whenever they felt like it. Hanatarou didn't generally like bars, but since Abarai Renji was one of the people frequenting this bar, Rikichi of course wanted to come here. Soon the room would be filled with customers and the chance was high they would be talking about the fight of Kuchiki-Taichou and Abarai-Fukutaichou the other day. After what had happened this morning, Rikichi was more than eager to hear about it, since the day before he'd been off running different errands as he had to most of the time. Tomorrow was free for almost everyone, so the sake would run plentiful and tongues would be loose, the perfect chance to find out a bit more about what had been going on.

Hanatarou had met Rikichi sometime in the afternoon when the tattooed youth had still been really pale and twitchy. Even though he didn't seem especially bright, the 4th squad Shinigami had immediately noticed that something bothered his friend, so when they'd been free of work they had eventually ended up here, soon talking excitedly.

“Kuchiki-Taichou looked really tired in the morning, but when he came out later he was all icy'n ignored Abarai-Fukutaichou and then they just... started fighting and I got that really bad feeling so when Kuchiki-Taichou told me to leave I was outta there 's'fast's I could,” Rikichi repeated and continued his description of the incident breathlessly. He froze as he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder and noticed how Hanatarou shrunk back into his chair opposite from him. None of them had noticed how Ikkaku and Yumichika from 11th had entered the bar and approached the two silently as they heard two very promising names out of Rikichi's mouth.

“Jo, you just go on, don't mind us, we'll just have a seat'n some booze and we're aaall ear!” Ikkaku drawled. Rikichi turned red.
“Uhm, I... dunno. I'm sure Kuchiki-Taichou wouldn't want me to...”
“Exactly! Beautifully grasped, Rikichi-chan,” Yumichika chirped, interrupting him, “That's exactly the reason you will tell us everything you know about what is going on between our favorite ice princess and stray pup Abarai!”

Both Shinigami sat down on either side of Rikichi, filled his sake cup up to the rim from their own flasks and suddenly the youth wasn't so sure anymore if the choice to come here had been such a good one. He cleared his throat and, pushing the cup away from him, looked hopefully to the entrance of the bar where every young Shinigami's dream, Matsumoto-Fukutaichou, just entered. Hope lit up in his eyes but as soon as he heard Ikkaku call out for her he felt his spirits drop.
“Oi, Rangiku-chan, over here! Here's the talk!”

She frowned a bit over the disrespectful address but dismissed it in the prospect of good gossip and almost ran over to them, dragging a very annoyed Hitsugaya-Taichou with her. The same scene repeated itself numerous times until the one table was crowded with people and another one was moved over. The group was an interesting and rather unusual one, even some of the most unlikely people had appeared, or had been more or less forced by others to appear just like Hitsugaya-Taichou. Ise-Fukutaichou's face was dark-red as she was reluctantly almost carried inside by her captain.

As finally everybody had found a place to sit and something more or less alcoholic to drink, the murmur died down and all eyes rested expectantly on Rikichi. They didn't let him off until he had told them what he had witnessed that morning in all detail. In exchange he at least got a very lively description of the fight the other day, even if he had to piece it together from five different versions told by only three different people. Still, when finally the general discussion opened up and soon got quite agitated, he moved over to sit quietly beside Hanatarou, who cast him a compassionate look. Rikichi had a bad feeling about all this. It didn't seem right to be gossiping about his captain and lieutenant. He felt as if he betrayed Renji-san and even worse was the idea of what Kuchiki-Taichou would do to him if he ever found out.

At that moment another Kuchiki entered the room and in just a few moments all eyes were on her and the noise at the table died down. Rukia stopped for a second in her track and raised one eyebrow sceptically before she stepped closer to their table.

“Based on the fact that you all suddenly go all quiet, I assume you're talking about my brother, right?”

A few embarrassed coughs and clearing of a few throats confirmed her guess. There wouldn't have been much sense in acting as if she didn't know. There probably wasn't one Shinigami around the upper seats who hadn't heard about the fight. There was a bit of nervous shuffling as they cleared a tiny space for her on one bench.

“Fine, what do you want?”
She sat down.
“There's no chance you might... you know, be able to tell us a bit more?” Matsumoto leaned over the table.
“And, you know, about the other fight this morning?”
“I wasn't even there when they fought, and - what? This morning? What are you talking about?!”
Now Rukia shifted forwards to lean over the table as numerous sly grins showed on the faces around her. When nobody answered she grew impatient.
“C'mon! Tell me!”

All eyes moved towards Rikichi whose face once again glowed in a bright red as he caught a very suspicious look of Kuchiki-Taichou's sister. He really felt worse with every second. Of course, there was no way they'd let him go anywhere without telling the whole thing once again.

As he had finished, the small, dark-haired woman looked at him thoughtfully. Her hand was closed around Ikkaku's sake flask and she soon lifted it to her lips to down the rest of the liquid in one draught. Then she stood up abruptly, making various people around her jump at the sudden movement and grinned widely.

“Thanks guys! Always nice to hear some gossip!”
With that she turned, even as several voices rose in protest.
“Waahait a second! You know something, how dare you not telling us!”
Yumichika sounded indignant and several grunted agreements from the others followed.
“Ahh, no, I don't really know anything. But, I don't have a good tolerance for alcohol so I better head home now. See y'all some other day, bye bye.”
With that she vanished out the door before anybody could hold her back.

Worry and suspicion were written clearly on her face, as she made her way in fast steps to her flat not too far from Seireitei's center. Nothing of this sounded good at all. Of course she had noticed that something was going on. She maybe didn't have as much contact with Renji anymore as they'd have liked to, but nothing could ever change the bound they shared. They'd lived on the streets together, they'd fought together, and often enough there had been rumors about them being in love. It wasn't true, though admittedly even 'friend' seemed too lame a word to describe their relationship. Renji was a companion, a brother more than Byakuya was.

As expected, she found him sitting on her doorstep. She swallowed all the teasing comments she'd had on the tip of her tongue as she got one good look at his face and instead just opened the door wordlessly, beckoning him in. He sat down against one wall in silence while she put up a kettle with water for some tea. Next she sank down cross-legged opposite from him.

“You look like shit,” she finally offered. He looked at her with eyes that mirrored confusion and after a moment he said, “Yeah... guess so. Kinda feel like it, too.”
Rukia's brows rose. This wasn't good. If he didn't have some casual retort for an insult like the one she had just uttered, there was something very wrong.

“Renji, what's going on.” She leaned forward slightly, trying to make him look at her. He did so, but shook his head and grinned in a rather insane manner, just to have his features settle back into the confused look just a moment later.

“Things were alright, weren'they? Like all the shit with Aizen and you and then he saved you and when Kurosaki and the other's went back, problem solved, right? I mean, I talked to him when he was restin' and... and healin' and everything was cool. All worked well and what, few weeks later he suddenly gets all back to Mr. Ice and just drives me crazy and some more weeks 'n freakin' hell breaks loose! I just don't get it. He was like before, like when he almost... like when he cut me open when we fought all out. He looked so mad I thought that's it but then he... awww man. Fuck. I just don't get it. FUCK!”

Renji had stood up and started to pace the room somewhere in the middle of his speech. Now he was about to smash his fist into the wall but Rukia was in front of him in a second with a stern look on her face and he caught himself. Running his hand through his hair he accidentally loosened the band but instead of catching his read mane and bind it back up he let it fall over his face as if hiding behind it.

“What did he do, Renji, what happened between you and nii-sama?”
With two fingers Rukia lifted some strands that had fallen over his eyes and peeked up at him. But he seemed distant and didn't answer. She couldn't remember when she had seen him this out of himself the last time. This was not Renji. This was not the brash, loud, annoying companion she was used to. She sighed as he didn't answer and stepped around him and towards her small kitchen. The water was hot by now and it seemed Renji needed to tell in his own pace whatever it was he needed to tell.

As she brewed the tea and filled two cups, Renji sat down at the small table. He leaned back and swore again under his breath, then he looked at her grinning and said, “I'm really pathetic, right? Aww man...”

She sat down wordlessly and put one cup in front of him. He just watched her, with a look so damn pleading that she wasn't sure how to bear it. In an attempt to cheer him up she threw a few cubes of sugar at him and felt a wonderful if short moment of relief, when he tossed them right back into her hair and grinned. But his lips tightened again too soon. Finally he spoke again.

“I don't actually hate'im, ya know? I mean I kinda did, yeah, ok, but after all those things cleared out, he took you in 'cause of his wife... and that he was jus' gen'rally like, caught up in rules or whatever, I don't really get it but I don't care, guess tha's just he. We were alright, that was 'mportant, right? He didn't have a problem with me, and I think he was proud I got that far with Zabimaru so soon 'n then...shit, he was almost nice. And today he..... oh maaan.....”

“Renji! What are you talking about? What did Byakuya do? I know you two have had problems but why? What happened?!”

“Damn, how should I know! He just... changed and I got pissed and we kinda just pissed each other off more every day... but we didn't even talk. I wanted to talk but he just... he really ran away from me and... now, you know 'bout the fight yesterday evening.”

“Yes, I heard about it... you were definitely very much yourself when you called him 'highness'. Stupid as always, but...,“ Rukia couldn't really help the grin that slipped onto her lips, “I wish I had seen his face.”

Renji looked up and smiled a bit himself.
“Yeah, tha'was great! But, guess he got me back for it.”
Rukia hesitated.
“Yes,” she said, “I heard about that, too... I can't believe he called you that. It's impossible. He's so .. I don't know, it's just so not him. I didn't believe he fought you either, when I heard the first time. He just, he doesn't call people names, he...”

“I know, dammit!”
Renji hit the table so hard with his palm, Rukia flinched.
“It's not him. But I have no idea anymore what's 'him'. I just don' know what ta do 'nymore. Just going through hot 'n' cold all the time, there's no way I can understand him. You'd also think it's not like him to ki-”
Renji caught himself in the last moment and actually slapped his hand over his mouth hard enough to cause a smacking sound. The look on Rukia's face though, was still confused and not shocked, so he hoped she hadn't quite guessed the right word.

He pushed over his still half-full cup of tea as he jumped up. He couldn't tell her about this. This was crazy, this was insane. She'd probably think he was an complete idiot. Ok, she thought that anyway but... no way.
“I-I should go, really.”

Rukia stopped him simply by stepping into his way while he was moving towards the door. She had her arms crossed and sported the “you-don't-go-anywhere” look that was generally not ignored by the people who knew her well enough.

“Now wait a second,” she said with a stern voice. Then she paused and they stared at each other. She was afraid to have another taste of that pleading look from before, but she would not just let him walk away in the state he was in.

“Look, Renji. It's ok if you don't wanna tell me, alright? I'll be really mad if you don't do it at some point, 'cause you make me really curious but, ok, guess I'll live with it. For now. But I know this got you deep.”
She spoke in a calm voice and her small hand on his chest pushed him back towards the table slowly.

“You're troubled, right?”
Renji sank back on the chair and nodded hesitantly.
“You hurt.”
Renji frowned, but had long since learned that he couldn't hide much from Rukia. He nodded again.

And suddenly Rukia grinned in that strange complete-mood-change-way of hers, then went into the kitchen and threw a wet rag at him from the doorway.

“Very well, then clean up the mess you made. There's another futon in the closet, you know where. Towel's on the small shelf in the bathroom if you need a shower, and I think you do. Put the toilet seat back down after peeing or you're dead.”

Renji could hear her clatter around with some cutlery in the kitchen. He started to wipe the table and managed a small smile to himself. He was more than glad to have a friend like her. He wasn't sure how he'd have made it through the night if he hadn't had the chance to come here and get a least a bit of distraction and the odd kind of comfort they always shared.

Later at night when they finally lay each in their futons, placed head to head the way they had always slept as children, he quietly asked, “Rukia?”
An annoyed grunt told him that, no, she'd not been sleeping yet but had definitely been close.
“Why'd you move outta the Kuchiki mansion?”

She paused some moments before she answered. Then she spoke in a soft voice.
“I found the place terrible. It's huge, it has too many rooms, too many empty spaces, too little noise. It's the definition of lonely. And then, after Aizen's treason I think nii-sama wasn't too happy to be there with me alone. I guess after all the stuff about my sister Hisana had just been brought up again, it hurt him. I noticed and when I asked him if I could move out he agreed. But he insisted to pay for my living here.“

She sighed, then fell silent and Renji didn't ask any more. Soon her steady breathing told him that she'd fallen asleep. For him though, real sleep was impossible to think of, and as he finally managed to doze off, everything he could see was a huge labyrinth of empty rooms and paper doors that slid open and closed on their own account. In hallways devoid of all sound, illuminated by cold white moonlight, a figure in a silver kimono was searching its lonely way. Cherry blossoms fell from its dark hair to mark were it came from, but they became invisible on the white floor. The figure's eyes were a stormy blue-gray and they called out in a desperate plea. But the merciless moon swallowed all meaning and left the figure to search and run through that labyrinth, forever alone.


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