III. Tomorrow

Light flooded his vision as Renji jerked to consciousness.

The face before him was beautiful alright, but certainly not who he was expecting.

"Yes, Taicho," Renji slurred lackadaisically, sitting up. He didn't give a damn that he wasn't wearing anything in front of his captain. "Is there a matter so urgent you had to pull the curtains back this early in the morning?"

Kuchiki Byakuya stood by the window, looking regal and of course, perfect. His ebony eyes cast an appraising glance at Renji, from his unkempt hair to his suspiciously messy bed.

"Rukia has gone."

It came out sounding more like a statement, but there was a hint of question in there somewhere. Why did he have to speak like some omniscient deity who knew everything?

Renji looked away, narrowing his eyes in mild irritation.

"I know. She's supposed to go back today."

"You were too busy to send her off?"

Running his hand through his hair, Renji exhaled impatiently. "Sorry," he said, with a hint of reluctance. "I was too tired -"

"I hope she doesn't regret what she did," Byakuya interrupted him, with all the authority and arrogance of a noble in a senior rank. "You bear a heavy responsibility."

This visit didn't seem to involve formal SS work. Glaring up at the captain, Renji asked slowly, "Are you threatening me?"

Holding that glare without wavering an inch, the captain sighed imperceptibly.

"The thing I don't understand about you, Abarai, is how you like to make things harder for yourself.

"What you did was like taking your enemy's zanpakuto and twisting it in your own wound, injuring yourself more and leaving a worse scar. And Ichigo's zanpakuto is not a kind one. Letting go is more difficult, but it would mark a clean break."

Renji snorted, getting off the bed and pulling on his pants. Sitting back down on the edge of the bed, he took a deep breath.

"Taicho... you don't know your sister as well as I do then."

Renji ignored the fact that the temperature of the room had just dropped considerably.

"She's innocent, and cares more for other people than herself. I know last night she had already made up her mind between Ichigo and I.

"But she feels sorry. Not for me, but sorry that she can't be with me. And last night was her way of saying she would never apologise to me again. Where there's love, is there anything you cannot forgive? I'm the single moment before her 'forever and ever' with Ichigo. I feel her presence even though she's already gone, and she knows I'm always there for her."

Byakuya stared at him, clearly unable to see his logic in its entirety.

"Well," he muttered, after a few beats of clueless silence. "She looked happy when she left."

"There. That's the whole point," Renji said.

"That's everything."