Searching for something new [Closed, Complete]

[captbetterthanu.livejournal.com]

Who: Byakuya Kuchiki captbetterthanu and Renji Abarai inuzuri
What: AIM Log
When: Right after this entry. Yes, I know, backdated LIKE WHOA. I didn't realize that I never friended the community and then stuff happened. oWo
Where: Byakuya's room
Summary: Renji decides to crash at Byakuya's place and finds his Captain napping.
Rating: G

Byakuya was tired. Bone deep tired. He had been unable to sleep once he had returned from the Malnosso, his wounds becoming aggravated at every turn. But he healed, slowly, and then he had trained. It only made his body worse, however.

So, he was made to rest again, suffering through a sore body during the night. It started raining suddenly and he felt Renji’s reiatsu fluctuate wildly. He knew exactly what he Lieutenant was doing and ventured outdoors to find him. The rain had soaked him to the bone almost instantly.

It did not take him long to find him and their conversation had been brief, though he’d realized belatedly that he didn’t address Renji properly at that time. But he shrugged it off for now. It was a couple days later and he had still had restless nights.

He was exhausted and tired. Byakuya all but collapsed onto the couch, groaning softly as his sore muscles were, again, aggravated. He then sighed out an exhausted breath, drawing his legs up slightly, crossing them at the ankles and resting his knees against the back. His body curled in slightly and before he knew it, he was asleep.

Renji had a visitor he’d rescued from the storm and homelessness.

He’d forgotten her name almost as soon as she told it to him, but that probably wasn’t entirely his fault – it was long, and completely unpronounceable for someone who spoke Japanese. It’d take a while, and many more tries, before he’d get it, even though it seemed like she’d be rooming with him till she found a suitable place for herself.

She’d commandeered the couch, but now that she (Danea? Dacina?) was asleep, Renji just felt awkward hanging around. Half-whittled sculpture and knife in hand, he closed his front door behind him as quietly as he could and went next door to Byakuya’s.

Where he saw an eerily similar sight.

Byakuya’s hair was the colour of pitch, while Danica’s was bright blonde, but they were lying on their respective couches in the exact same position, dead asleep. The two of them presented the same image, they spoke the same way…

…And yet Byakuya, lying like this, was absolutely astonishing.

K-Kuchiki-taichou sleeps?!

He’d never thought about it. It was, perhaps, the weirdest thing he could ever remember seeing.

The opening of the door stirred him, Renji hadn’t known he would be asleep and therefore hadn’t been quiet. His body was struggling to pull him back to sleep as his body shifted, drawing his knees up higher and curling a bit more.

His brain shut off and settled back into sleep within seconds.

To describe that little shift Byakuya made, that little sound, Renji’s brain came up with the strangest word.

Cute.

Of course, the rest of his mind absolutely flailed to throw that word away. That was insane! He just wasn’t used to it, that’s all. It was just odd to see Byakuya doing something so… normal.

Well, normal Byakuya was being normal as he continued to sleep on, oblivious to his Lieutenants presence, let alone his thoughts.

Suddenly, Renji felt very awkward. But somehow it felt less strange to sit around in a room with a man he’d known for fifty years than with a woman he’d met two days ago.

After several strange moments, Renji finally sat down in a chair by the wall and began to whittle, deliberately not looking at his sleeping captain. He looked… almost childlike like that. That was probably why he’d thought he looked cute – like a child.

So strange.

Several hours later, Byakuya was practically in a ball when he peeled his eyes open. He couldn’t tell from the light outside what time it was and right now, in his sleep-fogged mind, he didn’t care. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands and yawned, covering his mouth.

He rolled his shoulders and heard them crack loudly. He winced slightly but continued stretching. The couch was not supportive for his body and it cracked in response. Finally, he noticed there was another spirit pressure in the room and turned his head, sitting up.

“…What are you doing here?” Byakuya asked softly, looking to his Lieutenant. He was tempted to order than man out for entering without permission but even this situation was odd. He could sense something about Renji that he couldn’t quite place.

He wanted to know what it was.

Renji was startled - he’d been so focused on his whittling, he hadn’t noticed Byakuya move. His carving was really starting to take shape: a figure about half a foot tall, standing proud, hair long-ish – but it didn’t seems to want to decide which length. Nor, it seemed, did the piece know whether it needed boobs or not yet. Funny, that.

“Uh…” Renji replied eloquently. “Uh, I got a roomie for the next couple days… a newbie. She was sleepin’, it was weird, so I came over…”

Wow. He has attained a new level of lackluster excuse.

His new roommate was sleeping and it was weird? A delicate eyebrow went up. “And your reason to come here?”

“C-’Cause it’s a little less weird to hang around a sleeping guy you’ve known for 50 years than a girl you’ve known for three days,” Renji spluttered, unaware of the hot blush rising on top of his cheekbones. He found his bare toes very interesting before his sentence was even done.

“But is not the point of ‘hanging out’ with someone is to actually enjoy their company,” Byakuya rested his chin on his hand, his eyes slightly amused. “And, of course, they are awake.”

“That’s why I came here, ‘cause she was asleep and I thought you’d be awake.”

“Yes,” Byakuya countered. “But that did not give the reason as to why you stayed.”

“I onno, I was already here?” He was deflecting the questions, but he didn’t know what, exactly, he was attempting to hide.

Byakuya simply raised an eyebrow, looking at Renji with that same expression as before. He wasn’t sure where this conversation was going. He wasn’t sure if he particularly cared. The point was, Renji was in his home without permission and had been here for a few hours at least. How had he not sensed his presence?

“What time is it?”

“Like nine?” Renji was whittling again.

Damn, he wasn’t going to be going to sleep any time soon then. “You should head back to your room and rest, it will get late soon enough.”

And Renji should have a bed, anyway.

“Ain’t tired,” Renji replied before he realized that this might be a dismissal and looked to his captain to see if this was so.

Byakuya was already getting up from the couch, some more bones cracking as he moves his feet and knees. He gives Renji a sarcastic look. “Then why don’t you go attempt to burn your kitchen down again.”

God damn it, he just couldn’t keep his emotions in check sometimes. It was really unnerving, trying to get his composure back. It’s been over a week now. He was fine. Everything was fine.

Byakuya sighed and walked to the bathroom, intent on showering.

Dismissal.

Renji tried not to think too hard about the (relatively) fiery show of emotion that had just burst from Byakuya as he walked to the door, clicking the doorknob open.

He couldn’t have given a reason why he hesitated if anyone had asked.

Byakuya stepped into the bathroom and nearly shut the door before he hesitated in clicking it shut. He opened it briefly and leaned out slightly. “Boil first, then add the rice. I will assume you didn’t destroy anything if I do not see anything amiss in my kitchen, understood?”

He already had some fruits and vegetables that waited to be cut that could be added to the rice, but he doubt Renji would know what to do with them right now.

It took him a while to get it.

Byakuya’s kitchen was… well, a little intimidating, now, but he’d give it a shot, anyway.

By the time Byakuya came out, a very tense Renji was watching a (covered; someone had said something about that) pot of rice boil merrily away.

Byakuya opened the door clad in only a light yukata, his hair towel dried and brushed. He raised a brow at Renji. “I see my kitchen still stands.”

“Ain’t that hard ta cook rice, ya know,” Renji said, overly blasé. There was something funny about seeing Byakuya dressed like that; he looked away.

“Yes, which is why you started quite the commotion on the journals a few days ago,” Byakuya remarked. He grabbed the vegetables and waved Renji away from the pot of rice. He cut them up and added them to the mix, stirring them in. He did this for only a few minutes, just to get them moist before he turned the stove off.

He reached over to a cupboard and grabbed two bowls, filling them each with food. He stuck chopsticks in it and handed one to Renji.

Damn it, he cooks, too? Renji had secretly hoped that Byakuya’s life with servants had left him without some general skills, but apparently not.

“Thanks, taichou,” he said as he took the bowl and began to scarf the food down like he’d starved.

He didn’t cook that well. He just knew the basics, but Byakuya was not going to tell Renji that. He simply ate his food in silence, sitting down at the table.

Renji was using his chopsticks like a shovel into his mouth. He was bare chewing - a swallowing machine.

“Good rice,” he said in one of the brief moments in which he stopped to breathe.

“You were the one who made it,” Byakuya snorted, refraining from rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, the other stuff makes it, though,” Renji replied, almost defensively, before realizing what had just gone on.

Byakuya raised an eyebrow, placing another piece of rice and broccoli in his mouth. He didn’t know what was going on, but this conversation was both amusing and trying.

…Well, this was awkward.

His blush was high and pale. “Thanks, though, taichou.”

“For what?” Byakuya asked mildly.

His Lieutenant was acting strange. Why?

“Eeeeeeh…”

He should just shut up right now. Before anything got even stranger.

“Nothin’. Nevermind.” He finished his rice.

Byakuya refrained from sighing. He was going to have to make it an order if he didn’t find out soon enough. But for now, he let it slide. Perhaps he was thinking too much on this. He placed his both down, two-thirds finished, and placed it near Renji. “Finish that for me, I will be in bedroom if you need me. Feel free to use the couch.”

He stood up and walked toward the room, softly shutting the door but leaving it partially open.

Renji dutifully finished Byakuya’s bowl and stacked them both in the sink. Now Byakuya was out of the room, he felt the prickle on his skin go down, his agitated heartbeat return to normal…

What was that?

He flopped over the back of the couch and lay there, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. Quietly, he wondered.