"Why do we do this?"

"Hm?"

"I said why do we do this?" came the annoyed voice of Ishida, glaring at Renji.

Renji stared back at Ishida, frozen as he had a rather large bite of ramen still halfway out of his mouth. He tried to answer the question with his words muffled by the noodles, but was cut off by the annoyed Quincy.

"Finish your food!" he exclaimed while pushing his glasses up his nose as he turned to the target "Then answer me."

Renji smiled through his food and quickly devoured it while he watched the target with Ishida. "Ah… that was good. I never get enough to eat at Urahara-san's place. Always calling me a 'freeloader' and shit… Thanks for buying that for me." He smiled to Ishida, who continued to scowl.

"Answer the question." Ishida said without breaking his gaze at the target.

"Hmm… 'Why do we do this?'… I could say that it's because we're worried about him; since he can't sense anything 'supernatural' worth a damn. Or it could be that we're attracted to his 'spirit energy' or some bullshit like that." Renji paused as he turned his gaze back towards the "target," who was currently sitting on the grass next to a short, dark-haired girl. "But, the real reason is that we can't leave him alone."

Ishida sighed at the answer Renji gave. "I don't know when it happened. But, when I found out Rukia and him had started… you know… I just got so…" Ishida strained for the right word, his facial features scrunching as he did so, but was beaten to it.

"You were jealous," said Renji. He didn't break his own gaze at the "target" as Ishida glared at him. "It's OK to be jealous when someone you love falls in love with someone else. I've been there…"

Ishida snorted at Renji's conclusion. He knew that he had been jealous. He knew that at some point, he had fallen for the orange-haired boy. But, since Renji and he had started watching Ichigo on his dates with Rukia two weeks ago, he had never really admitted it. He had just gone along with it when Renji asked him. "How did you know I would come along with you to do this?"

Renji gave a small chuckle as he grinned and looked back at Ishida. "Do you think you were the only one watching him? When you were watching him, I was watching you. Hell, I think I knew you liked him before you even did."

Again, Renji was on the receiving end of one of Ishida's glares. Again, Renji showed no signs of noticing it. Ishida opened his mouth to ask him how he knew, but it was obvious. Renji had been through this before. He knew the way people looked at the ones they loved, especially when the love wasn't returned. Of course he would know how to find someone who felt the same way.

Ishida suddenly felt cold. The sun had set a half-hour earlier and he had forgotten his jacket. Renji looked over at Ishida as the smaller boy wrapped his arms around himself. He let out a sigh before he pulled Ishida into his lap and wrapped his own arms around him. "I think you do this on purpose. This is the third straight time you've 'forgotten' your jacket."

Ishida leaned back into the warmth of Renji as he retorted, "Why would I do that? You're imagining things."

"Of course I am," Renji said as he smiled to himself, "They're getting up to go somewhere, you want to follow?"

"In a minute, just let me warm myself up here for a minute."

"Sure thing," Renji said, looking down at Ishida. He didn't notice the two figures leaving the park across the street from where they were observing.

Ishida didn't notice them leaving either.