30 Wounds

1. papercut "Argh!" The yell from down the hallway caused Ichigo to glance up from his essay: the sound of thrashing movement afterwards caused him to jump up and race towards the bedroom, heart slightly faster as he pulled out his substitute shinigami badge. He burst through the door onto a cursing Renji, who was jumping up and down, his middle finger on his right hand stuck in his mouth. He didn't stop even when Ichigo came in, merely ignoring him in favour of getting louder in his angry yells. "What the hell is wrong?" Ichigo demanded as he strode over to the taller man, stopping him from jumping about. Renji let out a few more swear words before pulling his hand from his mouth. "Stupid book," he said, pointing to the copy of Harry Potter he had been attempting to read for the past week, and which now lay messily on the bed. "Gave me a papercut." Ichigo stared at him for a full minute before bursting into incredulous laughter. "A papercut?" He gasped at Renji, who was steadily turning as red as his hair. "All that noise over a little papercut?" "It hurt, okay?" Renji snapped, but Ichigo just laughed harder. He began inspecting his finger, which already looked clean of any marks, as if it lifethreatening, complete with a five-year-old style pout. Ichigo thought about smiling at that but decided not to. Renji glared at him. "You can stop laughing any time, you know," he grumbled. Ichigo was sober for a few seconds. "Papercut," he said, and started laughing again. After a few seconds he was almost helpless; he sat down heavily on the floor, tears beginning to fog his vision. Renji kneeled down beside him and kissed him hard, sucking on his bottom lips. Possibly, this was an attempt to shut him up. When he pulled away, Ichigo was gasping, though no longer from laughter. "Forget about it," said Renji, his hand trailing downwards, "and I can make it worth your while." That night, when Ichigo is pushed onto the bed by a hard body and a hot mouth, he remembers when Renji sweeps the book away with a careless hand. "Careful," he whispers. "You don't want to get a papercut." Renji's retaliation makes him wonder whether it's more worth his while to not forget about it. 2. weddings "You," said Renji, with only a slight slur in his voice, "aren't very nice to me." Ichigo tried to focus on him, but it was difficult when there was at least two of him. They have drunk - he tried to count - a lot of wine, but they are at a wedding and what else are you supposed to do at a wedding? "Whaddya mean?" Ichigo asked, as he watched a giggling Orihime fall into Ishida's arms, who remained the lone sober person in the room. "Inoue looks nice," he added, almost absent-mindedly. "No." Renji said firmly, possibly trying to point at him but really pointing over

his right shoulder at an unconscious Chad. "You had your chance. Anyway, it's not Inoue anymore, it's... Ithida?" He shook his head, as if attempting to clear his ears of water. Anyway," he went on, almost sounding as if he know what he was talking about, "you have never been nice to me." "I don't-" Ichigo lifted his head off of the table. "- know what you're talking about." "It's not my fault you nearly got Rukia killed." Renji sounded sulky. "You didn't have to almost kill me." "You almost killed me too" Ichigo said in outrage, the effect of which was spoiled rather by the fact that he wasn't even looking anywhere near him. "It was selfdefence!" "And then you tried to beat me up when I came to your school." Renji looked almost heartbroken and was clearly not listening to a word that Ichigo was saying. "That's because you were dressed like you were from the 60s. And then when you left everyone thought I was gay." "That would explain a lot," muttered Renji into his drink. Ichigo stood up slowly, his face full of thunder. His foot caught on his chair; he stumbled and almost fell over, but regained his balance at the last moment and straightened up, a slight pink tinge on his cheeks. "I'm not gay," he hissed. Renji sneered at him. "Really? What kind of a gay name is 'Strawberry', anyway?" "It's not 'Strawberry'," yelled Ichigo. Chad woke with a start. "It means - it means something I can't remember right now, but it's not 'Strawberry'." Renji watched impassively. "Then how do you explain that you don't even care about any of the girls who've thrown themselves at you?" "It's not that I don't care about them." Ichigo said, slightly uncomfortable. "I've just known them for too long." "What about her?" Renji asked, pointing to a pretty brunette from Ishida's side of the family. "Would you sleep with her?" Ichigo looked at her for a long time. "I don't know," he said finally. "She's not really my type." "That's because your type is men." Renji nodded sagely. "I'm not gay!" Ichigo yelled again, and then tried to punch him. He missed completely. For Renji, this didn't matter - the intent was still there, and so he launched himself forward with a yell. The fight lasted barely five minutes: both men were simply too drunk to cause any damage and the fight was made up of bad aim and immature insults. Eventually Ichigo became sick of it and jumped forward: Renji caught him and, spinning him around, slammed him against the bar. The spark of attraction that came from realising his friend was quite hot had long passed that in Ichigo's mind. The sleepless night were long gone, replaced by dreams that touched upon uncomfortable and made awkward the new emotion between

them. Every touch was felt for minutes afterwards, and though Renji hadn't seemed to have noticed anything, Ichigo went out of his way to avoid the slightest touch. The drink tonight accounted for the overabundance of contact, and also possibly for what Renji was doing. The simple crush of lips moved on. Ichigo reacted and it became harder; the battened down lust overflowed and he soon pulled Renji towards him with insistent hands that shook only a little. Renji's hands tangled in his hair as his tongue moved past Ichigo's lips, and Ichigo was suddenly glad that he was being held up, even if it was against the hard, unrelenting bar. Between the pulses of blood in his ears, he became aware of yelling. Renji pulled away, clearly also hearing it, and both realised with horror that a spotlight was trained on them. Blinking, Ichigo could just make out that it was Rukia who had positioned it on them. He shielded his face: everyone was staring at them, some, like a fair few of the shinigami, laughing, others, like Orihime, Rukia and Tatsuki, cheering. "RUKIA!" Renji gave chase to the girl with a murderous expression on his face. Rukia barely had to run, being the rather more sober one. Ichigo took a sip of his drink and smiled as he watched the two. "I love weddings," he said to an unconscious Chad. 3. plasters "ARGH!" "Shut up, will you?" "It hurts, you know!" "All I know is that you're a baby." "They're just plasters; you can stop hitting me now." "Yes, but you're taking half my skin off with them." "You're enjoying - AH! You did that on purpose!" "...Yes." "Kurosaki Ichigo, you're a sick bastard." "This hurts me more than it hurts you." "Shut up, you pretentious twat. You're clearly getting some sort of twisted pleasure from this." "I wouldn't if you weren't screaming in pain." "It hurts!" "It's your own fault for chasing Kon through that thorn bush." "Got him though, didn't I?" "And then you insisted I covered every scratch with these things because they had

pictures of monkeys on them." "They reminded me of Zabimaru! Anyway, if I knew it would hurt this much, I wouldn't have bothered." "For the love of - OW!" "You're like a five-year-old who's -" "OW!" "- just fallen off his first bike." "The only way any of this could be worth it would be if someone was kissing them better." "..." "No." "Come on!" "No!" "Please?" "No." "Ichigo..." "That was nice." "Do it again." "NO." "But it's stopped hurting, Ichigo-sama." "That is cruel and unnecessary flattery." "Worked though, hasn't it?" "That is really nice." 4. the art of smiling The day that Soul Society found out that Kurosaki Ichigo and Abarai Renji were sleeping together had started out as normal day (at least for the two involved: Yumichika had to spend an extra hour doing his hair after an incident with Yachiru) that slowly, but surely, turned into something quite horrific. To begin with, with hindsight, perhaps they shouldn�t have left the door to Renji�s rooms open. And perhaps, just perhaps, Renji shouldn�t have told Hisagi that he�d be there, and to send anyone looking for him there (�How was I supposed to know? I didn�t even know Ichigo was coming over in the first place.�) Also, perhaps, and this was the biggest perhaps, perhaps they shouldn�t have been having sex at 3 o�clock in the afternoon � though, as Renji pointed out, when is a good

time then? But they both agreed that if they�d known it was going to be Ikkaku who walked in on them, they probably wouldn�t have done any of those things. Because Ikkaku immediately told Yumichika, who then ran off and told Matsumoto, who then told the entire 10th Division during a routine training session, and from there onwards everything was lost. After all, it wasn�t every day that the shinigami world found out that two of their captains (who were war heroes, no less) were sleeping together, or that they had been for a few months now. The fact that the two of them, who were fairly loud, �shout it from the rooftops� people, could keep it secret for so long was enough of a shock for their friends that they could not even bring themselves to feel angry over the fact that it had been secret. Once the shock from that thought wore off, everyone was then struck with the realisation that this was Renji and Ichigo who were in a relationship. Ikkaku thought the world was ending; Yumichika pondered the extent of which it could be considered beautiful; Matsumoto announced that it was absolutely wonderful, and Hitsugaya wandered off in search of some painkillers. It was not long before their closest friends were being asked if they had known anything about the affair. Most truthfully denied knowing a single thing, but Rukia smiled mysteriously and refused to answer, while Byakuya murmured that Renji �had been his vice-captain, after all.� But to those who don�t know them, the lower members of the divisions, they barely noticed anything out of the ordinary between the two � when they met in the streets between divisions, their conversation was never unusual, and they spoke and left with grins, no displays of affection at all. And they still went out with the other men they knew were their friends, and laughed and drank together, and still rolled into their separate divisions at around 2am, Renji and Hisagi demanding that everyone get them more alcohol, while Hinamori tried to stop Ichigo from waking up the entire 5th division. But to those who really knew them, they began to notice things that they hadn�t before. And, astonishingly, it wasn�t even the most observant member of them who noticed it first. Zaraki Kenpachi did not pride himself on having a large amount of brains, but more on his fighting ability. Yumichika might scorn that as being an ugly thing to have in life (Zaraki just reckons that�s the gay in him talking), but the captain feels that even without the best brain in the world, it�s easy to learn and grow, and fighting has helped him to do that. He can read people like its second nature now; missing something in a battle means death, and he rather likes to win. The ability that he�s honed and sharpened over the years has given him the edge that keeps him at the top, but to be honest, it�s not just in a battle that he uses it, because, after all, what sort of man would he be if he didn�t use his advantage for things like blackmail? He�s always thought that there was something a bit odd about Ichigo, but then so did everyone else in Soul Society, because of that incident with Orihime and the not jumping her bones. So he couldn�t really base anything on him, because he was pretty much a given. He likes watching Abarai the most. A man like that, he never learnt to keep him emotions buried down, and Zaraki noticed the slight touches on Ichigo�s shoulder, the momentary silence when the orange haired boy entered the room. He�s noticed the eyes that flick back and forth between the other man and whoever Abarai happens to be talking to.

But now that�s it out in the open, and Abarai can follow Ichigo around and make sure that he doesn�t get into any trouble, like he is now in their monthly fighting session, Abarai seems to be more obvious that ever. Zaraki can feel the glares in the back of his head like he�s actually being stabbed (not that it would make any difference, more likely to just cut the other captain) and when they�re finished that sprawled along the ground, bleeding and laughing (Zaraki) and breathless (Ichigo), Abarai runs up, desperate and annoyed and hits Ichigo softly on the head as he helps him up. �If I knew that this was what it was like every week,� he tells the bloody man, �I wouldn�t let you do it.� And it�s said in the kind of voice that implies death if he disagrees with his assessment of the situation, and yet it�s accompanied by a smile that recognises the importance of the training. Ichigo just gives him this happy little smirk, and Zaraki thinks that if they�re going to be so obvious about it, the two faggots deserve each other anyway. When Renji stumbles into the fourth division holding a semi-conscious 5th division captain in his arms, the poor members on duty thought that the apocalypse had come and they were being attacked for the first time since Aizen had been defeated � how else, they asked, could one of the strongest (if not the strongest) captains in the Gotei 13 be in that state? Unohara checked her calendar and then realised that it was the day that the 5th squad captain fought the 11th squad captain and everything calmed down a bit. The rumours surrounding Renji and Ichigo had even made it all the way to the 4th division, and they, like everyone else in Soul Society, were desperate to see for themselves if what they had heard was actually true. Their captain and vicecaptain had to literally push people out of the way as they attempted to make their way into the room Ichigo had been placed in. Kotetsu yelled a lot; Unohara commented calmly that she doubted such noise was beneficial for a healing environment, and gave the kind of smile that stuff fear into the parts of the heart that even Zaraki couldn�t reach. Judging by the slightly frantic look on Renji�s face, Unohara doesn�t think that he�s seen the aftermath of a fight that had just taken place. She likes to think that it makes Aizen�s destruction seem tame. But still, she reassures him, because they have literally done this a thousand times before, and the injuries are not so life threatening that the 5th squad captain will need to be kept in overnight. There�s a sort of relief on Renji�s face when she says that that suggests that he hadn�t really believed her when she said it wasn�t life threatening, and only the action of actually sending Ichigo home would convince him. She likes that look of complete joy, a moment of pure emotion in Sereitei, which has changed, evolved since the betrayal, and perhaps not for the better. She knows that people find it hard to trust now; she can see everyone wondering whether that person that they think they know well is really who they think say they are. And so that wide, goofy grin on the 9th division captain�s face is something she welcomes and greets and loves. �The guys�, as Renji likes to call them, are a slightly rag-tag group, with Yumichika coming up first, dragging Hisagi behind him, and Iba bringing the rear, wondering if he�s the only straight one in the place. They�re the friends that they have that they can trust the most, who they know will always be there to fight for them or protect them, if needs be, and who�ll understand if it�s something that needs to be done solo. Renji drank with them and went out with them and laughed with them long before Ichigo came along, and now that he�s here

nothing�s changed � now there�s just one more person to drink with, to go out with, to laugh with. Even now that the secrets been revealed, there�s nothing that changes in the going out part, or the laughing part, and there�s only been a slight difference in the drinking part, because it doesn�t escape anyone�s notice that when the two men get slight drunk, the fact that they can causes them to act in ways that would never have come about if they were sober. Renji�s hand likes to place itself on Ichigo�s hip, or play with his hair at the base of his neck, or wrap around a waist or shoulder. And Ichigo smiles and laughs and pushes him away, or kisses him sloppily, his own hands coming up to pull at the hair tie or to pull at the material of whatever outfit Renji is wearing at that time. Yumichika announces that it�s almost as beautiful as Hisagi and himself, but is quick to stress the almost part. Iba mimes throwing up and when he goes into the bathroom to find them kissing against the wall, he actually does throw up. Kira thinks that it�s really very sweet, and that he�s glad that Abarai-kun has someone now that Rukia has married Kuchiki-taicho, and he�s sure that Ichigo-san will be perfect for him. When he shyly tells Ikkaku this, he gets lauded for being a romantic sop, but at least he gets kissed for it too. Ikkaku tells them to get a room, because he don�t need to see that shit, and then goes back to trying to grope Kira. Hisagi tries to turn his head away and forget about it, because he�s got to work with that person on Monday. The vice-captains of the 5th division and 9th division find the entire thing cute and disturbing respectively. Hinamori doesn�t find Ichigo in any way or form as good looking as her previous captain, and she acknowledged that they were rather different personalities. So in her opinion he could be with anyone he wanted. The short moments when he wasn�t scowling in a way that suggested anger but didn�t really are when Abarai-kun was around, so that�s something that makes her laugh and she knows that if there�s one thing she needs, it�s more laughter. Hisagi likes that there�s a constant smile on Renji�s face, because it reminds him of how far they�ve come, all of them, since the war with Aizen and Tousen and Gin; but the reason that he keeps inside and has only told Yumichika, the real reason he likes that smile is because it�s different from anything else he�s ever seen, the smile of someone in love and someone who�s willing to do anything for that other person. It�s a smile that�s different from Aizen�s calm, reassuring upturn of lips, or Tousen�s straight faced glance (because men of justice don�t smile) or Gin�s constant smirk, and that�s something important. That�s something to preserve. Rukia looks at the two best friends she has in the world now, and it�s hard to picture the broken men they once were, Ichigo forced to kill and cut and destroy while Renji could not quite find the strength to save those that he wanted to, because the men they fought were stronger than anyone could ever have imagined. Broken men, with broken hearts, as Ichigo missed his chance, and Renji realised that she didn�t love him in that way. It had hurt, proving that to him, and she�d turned to her brother for help, which led to a cruel cycle. But now he winks and gasps and laughs, honestly, truly laughs, at Ichigo, and kisses him hard, free and cheerful, as Ichigo returns the kiss. She likes seeing

them together; she likes to see the hidden looks and smiles, the carefully constructed touches or brushes. It proves that they�ve moved on, and that there�s hope for them in the future. Those wounds that were created in the war have faded over, until she can only see the faint scars that probably manifest themselves in the form of nightmares, like hers do � though, she supposes that it�s not really her place to know what happens at night between the two. Byakuya thinks the whole situation is totally ridiculous and can�t understand how any vice-captain of his could lower themselves to a fake shinigami with a stupid bankai. No amount of pointing out that Ichigo is, similarly, a captain, changes his mind. 5. letting the cat out of the bag "Where is he?" The esteemed captain of the ninth division burst through the doors of the fourth division in an array of hakama and loose her, the arms of his captain's robe slashed and bloody, his sword still extended and sharp from the battle he had just left. He sent division members scurrying out of his way as he strode through, desperate in his attempt to find whoever it was that he was looking for. Unohara stepped out of her office straight into his path, and Renji stopped short less he knock the smaller woman over. She smiled pleasantly at him. "Abaraitaicho?" She asked, with a slight amount of surprise. "What can I do for you?" "Where is he?" Renji repeated, withdrawing his sword and sheathing it with shaking hands. "I heard he was injured in the attack. Where is he?" Unohara gave him a weird look. "Who, Abarai-taicho?" She asked, sounding exasperated. "Ichigo, of course!" Renji said loudly - perhaps too loudly, as the sound of the other captain's name brought not an insignificant number of looks. Kurosaki Ichigo was perhaps the most well known man in Soul Society - a war hero who had saved them all from the previous captain of the division that he now headed. No person in Seireitei didn't know of Kurosaki Ichigo, but this current presentation of fear and distress was slightly new. "I'm in here, Renji," came a new voice from Unohara's office, and after a second Ichigo appeared at the door, his arm wrapped in a bandage and dark rings under his eyes, but otherwise fine. "Ichigo," said Renji, looking as if he couldn't quite believe his eyes. "For the love of God, Renji," Ichigo said in an exasperated voice. "It's just a flesh wound." The two looked at each other for a couple of seconds and then Ichigo was pressed up against the wall, his injured arm pushed painfully between his own body and Renji's which held him in place. "Renji, not here-" he began, but what he was about to say was cut off as Renji kissed him and he decided to say it in a little while. "If you ever scare me so much again," said Renji breathlessly when they separated, "I will actually kill you." Ichigo's only response was to hit him on the head and send him sprawling to the floor - it was then that Renji realised that the entire

4th division had crowded around and was watching. Rukia said later that she wished she'd been there with a video camera. Renji said that the last thing they needed was photographic evidence.