Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Caged Flower ❯ Chapter 2

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Title: Caged Flower Part 2 -

Series: Bleach

Pairing: Byakuya/Renji/Byakuya

The moon shone brightly on the still surface of the pond the long branches of the towering weeping willows grazing the surface. The bright circle of milky white light could almost have been within reach if Renji hadn't known it hung, as it always did, high in the sky beyond the hands of man.

The red head sighed softly, shoulder's slumping, hands bunching and easing rhythmically in his lap as he frowned at the dark surface lit by the soft glow. He had come here because he was tired of running into Byakuya at every turn. It had been a month since the day he'd gone to the courtyard garden of Division Six hoping to spend a few quiet hours' pottering and planting away from his constant torment. But it had not been meant to be, his Captain had stood, stark and still as always on the gentle rise of grass at its heart when he had arrived, the young cherry blossom tree at his back and a pale pink bloom in his hand. Renji had stood frozen for long moments watching Byakuya, heart thundering even as his stomach tightened and frustration swelled at what he could not have, before he had turned away, all hope of relaxation gone in a single instant.

Renji dropped his head into one hand, massaging temples with broad strokes of his fingertips as his forehead pressed to his palm. His body felt so tightly wound he thought he may just snap like the string of a Koto plucked badly. His muscle's ached, tension setting them to a steady hum - why did it have to be like this? Renji just couldn't figure it out, why Byakuya kept appearing where ever he wasn't expected. It was like the man was purposefully tormenting him. He'd turned up in the garden yes, but he'd been doing it for month's. The stoic noble had appeared at a game of `football', as Kurosaki called it, that Renji and his friend's had played, then at Division nine when he'd gone to see Hisagi on his day off to cajole his glowering sempai into getting out of his division for a break. Everywhere Renji went when not on duty he appeared - causing the stress that had normally only plagued Renji's days to become a ceaseless, never ending cycle.

Renji sighed audibly, shoulders slumping, hand falling away from his eyes as he looked at the still surface of the pond listlessly. His mind was awash with thoughts and ideas that were viewed and discarded just as swiftly because most were flight's of fancy that had no place here. They were Renji's dream's given fleeting form and dis-guarded just as quickly because he couldn't bear to dwell on what he knew would never be.

He never felt the reiatsu of the silent man stood on the rise behind him.

Byakuya watched his lieutenant in complete silence, reiatsu pulled in so tightly it was forced under his skin. He frowned at the despondent man before him, so different from the man who sat across from him in his office, different from the brash, overbearing man that spent loud nights out drinking and laughing drunkenly.

He shifted minutely and knew the moment that Renji heard cloth shift, those broad shoulder's stiffened, his head lifted making the long hair that was loose around his shoulders shift and ripple like a wave across his back. Byakuya knew the moment that Renji realised just who was watching him as a barely audible sigh lightly fogged the air in front of his face that was still turned away from him.

They were but a few of the reason's that Abarai Renji was his lieutenant, his almost unnatural senses, sharp and focused, his strength, clear in powerful shoulder's that swung Zabimari with force and determination and the tenacity that never wavered. There were more, but they were not why Byakuya had come to the pond in the garden's of the thirteenth division that were lovingly tended by Ukitake when he was well enough to do so.

Byakuya had come searching for the man that had sat beside the quiet water's for over an hour, wanting something and not certain how to direct the lieutenant into it. He had thought, had hoped that when he had felt Renji on the other side of the shogi door's in the Sixths garden there would be more - but there was not. He felt frustration building in his gut like bucket being filled with water until it reached overflow. He could not make Renji act, had thought he could guide the man into it, it had taken him a while to notice just what the quick glances, flushed cheek's, embarrassed smiles and numerous other little quirk's were. But he recognised them for what they were - a simple reflection of his own ardent gaze, well hidden smiles and tender thoughts.

But he was a noble, the head of his family and his Division - he could not be seen to be pursuing the man that had slid under his cool, indifference like the veneer it was and finding the man Renji wanted to see underneath. Byakuya had to go about this with more cunning than most, blatant courtship was not an option for men of his station. That even he could not do what he wished with all the power his Captaincy and his status within the nobility gave him irked him to no end, he was ever the pawn of the social hierarchy - caged within it like the King on the chess board.

Byakuya let out a soft breath, shoulder's remaining rigid, his posture perfect even if he wished he could relax and let his shoulder's ease from their customary position. He would not, could not. And then shadowed eyes that Byakuya knew where the colour of a fiery sunset met his own steel grey. Byakuya watched as a heavy frown dipped red brow's, shifting the tattoo's across Renji's forehead that were uncovered and exposed to his eyes. He could see the curiosity and recrimination in blood red orb's, the pinched corner's of Renji's mouth a clear sign that he was upset.

Byakuya sighed softly, the faintest stirring of breath in the cool air. Byakuya felt like he was intruding and it wouldn't be the first time he'd felt it, all the time's he'd followed his subordinate on his day's off - just to see were he went and what he did - annoyed and frustrated Renji to no end. byakuya could always feel the tension in the air between them, Renji's reiatsu flavoured by the emotion's he hadn't yet learned to hide. Byakuya was glad of it too, how else would he determine Renji's feeling's? The man blew hot and cold like the weather, but he understood that bit of Renji too, though it had taken many years of study - they were a true contrast of self.

“What are you doing here, Taicho?” Renji asked, the word's hard and none to friendly, his shoulders rigid with tension. His emotion's were on the surface, raw and aching like a wound that never stopped bleeding. He had little tolerance left for the reserved word's he tried his best to use whenever he was in Byakuya's presence. He hadn't even bothered to rise from his seated position, not caring that it was rude, not minding that the man stood higher than him - wasn't it always the same anyway?

Renji waited a few beats and the soft, refined voice of his Captain filled the still air that was gaining a hint of winter's chill, “I have reason enough, I need not inform you of everything Abarai.”

Renji didn't even blink, just stared at the man for a moment before speaking perfunctorily, “Do as you will then.” Renji turned away, staring back at the glassy surface of the pond, waiting with tension singing through his very bone's like someone had pressed a tuning fork to him.

The dismissal surprised Byakuya into speaking, no forethought or planned word's, just instantaneous reaction, “You have been watching me.” He was to controlled to curse and yet he wished the often colourful word's that spilled from Renji's lip's came so easily to his own in moment's like this. It had been so long since someone had shocked an answer out of him.

“You knew?” Renji looked at Byakuya with wide eyes, voice questioning.

His only answer was silence, Byakuya's face was half in shadow and half lit by the moon's pale light but the expression was empty. There was nothing, no recognition, no acceptance, just a steady gaze and those familiar thin lips set in stone.

Byakuya dared not speak, the cool mask of station and nobility falling into place to disguise the slip that had led to his outburst.

Renji `s head dipped as he looked away from Byakuya, the milky light only highlighting all the things that defined the noble and the very reasons why he would never deign to consider Renji at all. They were the very thing's that had kept Renji from saying or doing anything. Renji glowered darkly at the ground, the sight of Byakuya's composed face, kenseiken perfectly aligned along the side and the top of his head trapping inky black strands of hair that Renji had always wanted to plough his fingers through. That ever present pale white scarf that hid milky pale skin from his curious gaze, the need to stroke across Byakuya's pulse, to kiss across a bobbing Adam's apple - denied.

Renji could feel the anger boiling up in his gut like a pot that had been simmering for too long, the content's ready to be flung in a hot, scalding arc skyward. It was the very thought of Byakuya knowing - having likely always know - how he watched him, did thing's above and beyond what was expected. Renji had been doing it all along, he recognised that, even when he'd seen Byakuya as a standard to reach and surpass and that just pissed him right off.

Renji growled thick and harsh in his throat, dark gaze looking up at his Captain with anger flaring his reiatsu, curling his lip in open scorn. Renji didn't know if it was directed at the man who had come to mean so much to him, who'd pushed him farther than anyone, but who still made him feel like the Rukongai brat he'd once been or at himself for allowing Byakuya to do it.

“Of course you bloody knew; what, did you take some sadistic pleasure in torturing me?” Renji hissed with open venom colouring his words. “You fucking bastard - do you have any idea at all what this has felt like - do you!” Renji accused, his chest heaving as word's were spat from his lips like the real world bullet's he'd seen on Ichigo's TV, his hand's clenching tightly, body tensed as though if he'd let it go he'd launch himself at Byakuya and strangle the man.

“Renji.” Byakuya's soft exhalation of the red-head's name was an admission all on its own. He had never spoken it aloud before, never to the man himself. But he couldn't keep it in, could see the pain, the frustration and the outright agony that pinched Renji's lip's at the corner's, bared his teeth like a cornered animal and snarled defiance. Byakuya didn't know how to undo this, how to make it right, how to sooth the savage pride and pain he could see fracturing before him. This was his doing, his reserve, his pride and his stubbornness had wrought this.

“Leave me the fuck alone!” Renji shouted, voice cracking at the end.

Renji glared for a moment before turning away, presenting his back to the man and showing him the only way Byakuya seemed to understand. Renji dismissed him, fist's clenching and unclenching in his lap, his heart an unsteady beat in his chest as shards of glass pierced his insides as his heart shattered with the weight of emotion's he had no control over.

Byakuya was stunned into silence for a few incomprehensible moment's, he had never heard Renji sound like that, had never... maybe it was for the best. This need that burned like a guttering flame in his chest was fragile, easily blown out and he felt it waver and dim inside him. His voice slipped free, cool, calm, unremarkable, “I...” Byakuya drew a breath, tasting moisture, crisp winter air and something earthier, he turned away, his haori picking up in the breeze, his hair lifting to flow behind him as he moved away, “I am ... sorry.”

Renji's eyes opened slowly, head lifting and wondering if he'd heard correctly. Byakuya didn't apologise to anyone, had he really just...? Renji spun around to look at where the man had been stood seconds before and caught only the gentle movement of fallen leaves rattling across the floor.

“Shit.” Renji cursed rising quickly, could he catch the fastest man in Sereitei? He didn't know, but he was going to try. His anger had faded at the hesitant words, surprise and dawning realisation settling in his gut like lead. What the fuck had he been thinking? Yeah he was pissed, but Byakuya - he'd found him hadn't he, come here, like he had so many time's and Renji had always believed he was cursed to suffer this gash in his chest forever.

But what if... what if Byakuya was reaching out in the only way he could?

Renji bit off another curse, energy building as he pushed reiatsu through his feet and launched forward in a cloud of dust and debris. Leg's pumping, arm's churning, hair whipping out behind him in a flag of red as he sprinted after the man he'd wanted, needed, yearned for since before he even knew what it was he felt. Renji would be damned if he'd let go of Byakuya now.

Not when he finally had something he could hold onto.