Simple Like Tea

Chapter 9 - Over


When Byakuya saw Renji in a gigai leave the teashop his initial reaction had been anger. How dare his lieutenant defy a direct order? Lie to him about where he had been spending his time? Omitting information he had specifically asked for from the reports?

Then he saw Renji’s happy gait, how foolish the man looked with his face screwed up in thought and his stance completely vulnerable. He was smiling in a way Byakuya had never seen him smile before, not even when he had cockily challenged Byakuya to fight and proudly stated that he had achieved Bankai. He was smiling but he was also muttering to himself, Byakuya realized with amusement. He was being so careless, not even trying to hide his spiritual energy. Once Byakuya had passed through the Senkai gate he had immediately picked up on his presence and following it here had been exceedingly easy. That he was in a gigai was also odd. Not only was he visible to all those who had spiritual energy, he was visible to the humans as well.

Renji walked by where Byakuya was hidden without seeming to notice at all, and he disappeared into the night without ever looking back. Byakuya stepped out of his hiding place in the shadowed doorway of a bakery and looked at the little teahouse at the end of the street. It seemed to fit right in with all the surrounding shops. Did a spiritually aware human really live here? There was no other reason why Renji would remain there all night. It wasn’t difficult to derive that this was where Renji had been coming all those other nights as well.

For a sinking moment he wondered about the gigai. If the human really was spiritually aware, why did Renji need a gigai? Was this some sort of wild goose chase? But Renji didn’t have any friends in the real world besides Ichigo and Rukia, and maybe the strange assortment at Urahara’s shop. He knew that was a fair distance away from this teashop. He rationally reminded himself that Renji might very well have friends in the real world, that Byakuya didn’t necessarily know every intimate detail of his lieutenant’s personal life, and that he was grateful he didn’t. Most importantly, standing around in the street at night wasn’t going to do anything, and he was running out of time.

He walked to the shop with his senses sharp. If whoever lived there was indeed spiritually aware, he didn’t want to be spotted. There was a spiritual presence coming from the shop, but it wasn’t at all powerful. Nothing about it differed at all from the spiritual presences he felt in all the other shops. Whoever was in there was alone, he noted gratefully. Less chance of being spotted. He took one walk around the shop, looking in through the large windows. There were no lights on, but the streetlamps and the full moon were enough. It seemed like a pretty ordinary teahouse. The tables and chairs were all western style, and what looked like a modern kitchen spoke of clinical cleanliness.

He looked up and saw only one window, adorned with sheer yellow curtains. There was a flowerpot outside, housing wilted-looking flowers. With a small jump, he landed on it and looked in through the window. The room he was looking into was a mess, but more importantly, beyond the twin screens placed along the middle of the room was a bed, and in the bed a sleeping form.

Byakuya tested the window and found it open, then stepped carefully into what appeared to be a kitchen sink. Annoyed with himself for not noticing it, he lighted on the floor of the apartment, noting the contrast between this place where whoever it was slept and the spotless shop downstairs where they obviously worked.

There was a small desk directly opposite the closed door topped with papers and what appeared to be a bowl of mint leaves next to a shrine that held faded pictures of a smiling young man in a suit and a severe looking young woman in a formal kimono. Beneath the window from which he had entered was a kitchenette with a small sink and rows of cupboards. From the rafters in the ceiling hung drying herbs and what looked like all kinds of shriveled fruits and some vegetables. Opposite the kitchenette were the two screens separating the room from what appeared to be the sleeping area, with the bed in the center so that light from the window would fall across the sleeper’s face. The floor was littered with what looked like the dried remains of whatever hung on the ceiling. Empty bags and ripped newspapers sat unobtrusively next to a shopping basket containing several paper-wrapped packages, some of them stained green.

The entire room smelled of herbs. Byakuya eyed a string of shriveled chili peppers hanging from the rafters and wondered just what kind of tea this person made. Growing skeptical he eyed the shrine to the side cautiously again. The eyes in the pictures seemed to be watching him, questioning his presence there.

Ordinarily he never broke into a person’s home like this, but time was becoming a luxury he could not afford. He had to find out one more thing before he would return to soul society - for the present. Byakuya stepped towards the twin screens and looked through them. To the right of the bed was a dresser, to the left a doorway that must have led to the bathroom, with a laundry basket overflowing in the corner. His eyes shadowed as he looked at the face of the sleeping human. It was a girl.

As he watched her face she sighed and rolled over. He stepped carefully into the space around her bed and walked around to the side of it to look at her more closely. Perhaps not a girl. A woman. Her age was difficult to guess, her features soft and rather plain. Her dark hair was almost certainly black, but it was hard to tell in the dark. Her lips were slightly parted as she breathed evenly, and her little fists clutched at air. She must have been having a dream to be gripping like that. Her shoulders were the only things visible from under the sheets, and they were bare. He eyed the yukata discarded on the floor a little distance away from the bed, his eyes darting from the white bra and panties that were also discarded on the floor a small distance away. He focused on the yukata.

On impulse he took a silent step away from the bed, kneeling to pick it up. The cotton was worn, as though this were a yukata worn and washed a thousand times already. It smelled faintly minty, mingled with a musky smell that tickled his memory but that he couldn’t identify. Feeling suddenly embarrassed, he dropped the yukata and looked at the woman in the bed again. Her bare shoulders meant she was likely nude underneath that sheet, and again he felt embarrassed. He could almost sense the eyes from the shrine, but he fixed his gaze on her face even when she shifted in her sleep and reached clutching hands towards him again. A plain face, soft-featured and almost appearing to glow from this angle, but still plain. She had to be spiritually aware enough to see him without a gigai, she simply had to. He would have to find a way to verify that, but it would come later.

Byakuya turned to leave and heard her murmur in her sleep. He stopped to listen. “Renji…”

His eyes widened. It had been unmistakable. She had spoken the name of his lieutenant. Not that he needed further confirmation that he was here with her, but there it was. No, that wasn’t it. The way her fingers had looked for something to hold, the fact that she spoke his name so softly like that in her sleep. Was the girl in love with Abarai? And then the lieutenant himself, his subdued personality, his sudden change in character, his stupid smile and his foolishness… was Renji in love with the girl?

He looked at the discarded clothing again and swallowed. She was nude, and her clothes had been left on the floor. The way Abarai had looked, walking out of here, and the way the entire room smelled, as well as that musky scent he had caught whiff of from her yukata… Byakuya’s gut clenched at the thought of his lieutenant having been here just minutes ago, bedding her, probably the reason her face glowed that way, that soft face of hers he had found plain had been contorted in pleasure and she had – he stopped himself before he went too far down that line of thought. Suddenly the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. Renji had been hiding her because he loved her. Or at least, he was bedding her, and very likely thought he loved her. That had to be it.

Angrily Byakuya slipped quietly out of the room and stood on the street. He could not think about that now. The chances of finding another spiritually aware female within the timeframe he was allowed were close to nonexistent, and even if he wasn’t completely certain she was spiritually aware just yet, she was the best lead he had short of walking around waiting to be seen. He didn’t want to hurt his lieutenant, but there was more at stake here than the feelings of one foolish shinigami that had always had more heart than sense. If she also loved Abarai, it would complicate matters, in which case he would have to find a way to arrange things so that this girl could not refuse him – she just had to be able to see him, she had to be - and in the meantime, he had to keep Renji away from her.

**

“Rukia is… what?”

Byakuya looked at Renji as though he was slow. “Rukia is pregnant. This morning she has sent a hell butterfly to me informing me of the news. I assume that as a friend of hers and Kurosaki Ichigo, she would have wanted you to know as well.”

Renji’s heart beat hard against his ribs, his blood roared in his ears and his vision seemed hazy. Over, over, over. He thought that her marriage had driven the point home, how over everything was for him, but apparently, it hadn’t. Rukia was pregnant, she carried within her Ichigo’s child. She would be a parent with him. “That’s… sudden.” Renji knew he should be congratulating his captain, but words were difficult to form.

Byakuya's quirked eyebrow seemed almost amused. “Indeed. However, it is done, and merits some sort of celebration. My sister and her husband will be returning to soul society, but they will not be housed in the Kuchiki house.”

Renji tried to compose himself. He couldn’t act this way. The last person he wanted to suspect of his feelings towards Rukia was her brother. He had dedicated so much to surpassing him when he had adopted her, and now that he had lost her, the desire to surpass Byakuya was pretty much all he had left. And if had only thought he lost her before, this was sufficient enough to drive the point home, more so than a thousand hammers beating his brains ceaselessly. Worse.

“Kurosaki Ichigo will be taking on his responsibilities as a full-time shinigami and the captain of the fifth squad effective this afternoon. The house they will be residing in is not completely ready yet, and I imagine Rukia will be needing assistance in her current condition.”

“Taichou, what does this have to do with me?” Renji was impressed by how steady his voice sounded.

“I am placing you on active guard duty with my sister and her husband for the next five days. I expect you to help my sister during that time while her husband settles into his new position as captain.”

Renji gulped. If I can’t go to the real world, I won’t be able to see Reiko.

Who cares about Reiko? This is a chance to spend time with Rukia!

Rukia, who is married and carrying Ichigo’s child.

Renji truthfully wanted to sit down someplace and drink himself into a coma. Or maybe he wanted to find a hollow and jump down its throat. He wanted the ground to swallow him up, to split beneath his feet and take him away, he wanted the gods to strike him dead where he stood. He debated finding Kurotsuchi and demanding he be taken as a test subject for a very dangerous very illegal experiment. Anything but this, please, please, anything but this…

“Is everything clear, Abarai Fukitaichou?”

Renji jumped. For a moment he had forgotten Byakuya was there. “Hai. Everything’s fine, sir.” He swallowed a large lump in his throat. “And congratulations. You’re going to be an uncle.” Somehow, he managed a smile.

Byakuya’s left eyelid twitched. “Thank you. Dismissed.”

Renji left the office and immediately made his way to his empty house. He would be spending the next five days with Rukia. Day and night, likely. In her home as she furnished it for her life with her husband and child. A life that did not include him.

Over. Over over over. Everything was over. Renji walked into the little house that would probably be all he would ever know and locked the door after himself. Over, completely and utterly over, he sat on the bare wood floor near the door and wondered if he was going to cry. But whatever it was that boiled and bubbled and burst inside him, it was far more than mere tears.



TBC


AN/ This was a tough chapter to write, believe it or not, but I tried! Things are gonna start cooking now that Byakuya's gotten thrown into the mix. I also decided that if Ichigo was going to marry the daughter of a noble house who just happens to be the little sister of a very prominent captain, not to mention the fact that he can kick ass up and down soul society without having to really try very hard, he should absolutely be made into a captain. Why the fifth squad? Because I said so, and in this story I am god. *evil laughter*

But no seriously, next chapter won't take as long to go up, and will set the stage for some very interesting complications. Thanks to the reviewers and all those readers who take the time to check for updates. I'm floored by it! Really! Please keep coming back and reading...