"Hn," he grunted, unimpressed.

In his hand was a creme-vellum envelope with the seal of one of the Seireitei's noble houses embossed in gold foil on it. The card inside of it announced a grand ball to mark the opening of the Season, and that, as a Lieutenant of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, he was invited. He looked up to meet his friend and fellow lieutenant's eyes with a skeptical look on his face.

"You should go," Izuru said. "I mean, what's the point of finally making lieutenant after all that hard work if you don't get to enjoy some of the perks?"

"Oh. Uh-huh..." he gestured to the mountainous stack of paperwork covering every available surface on and near his desk. "I'm about all 'perked-out' thanks."

"The food is really great," Izuru pursued. "Lady Inori is famous for her gala's, everybody who's anybody wants to attend."

"My point exactly," Renji replied, tossing the card on top of one of the stacks of paperwork on his desk. "It's not exactly my kind of scene."

"Aw c'mon, what's not to like?"

"I'll start with being stuffed into some monkey-suit and go from there," Renji said.

"You don't have to wear the formal dress uniform if you don't want to, it's perfectly allowable to show up in formal civilian clothes," Izuru said, like he thought that might make any kind of difference to him.

"I don't own any," Renji said flatly. "Besides, can you see me in the middle of all that nonsense and politics prancing around like I'm some kinda nobleman?"

"Technically, you are now," Izuru added. "Seats, Vice-Captaincy's and Captaincy's all provide a certain rank among the nobility. Granted, it's usually not as high as a lot of the ranks that a lot of the officers are born into naturally--"

"Such as you and the Kuchiki," Renji interjected.

"But it's there," Kira continued, ignoring his comment. "The fact that you got an invitation at all means you can't be ignored by them."

"I only got n invitation because that Inori woman is trying to score brownie points with my boss," he said frankly. "And as far as I'm concerned that's just one more reason not to go; Lieutenant or not, I don't belong in that world. I don't think I'd like to spend the whole evening being stared at like an exhibit in a zoo. That's exactly what'll happen, and you know it."

"Don't be silly," Izuru scoffed, a little unconvincingly. He wasn't a very good liar at all. "They'll love you, all you have to do is pour on the charm. I've seen you do it, so I know you can; all the nurses in Fourth are half in love with you."

Renji grinned unexpectedly, his smile a mixture of roguish and boyish, and it did indeed transform his features from mean and unapproachable to affable and good-natured.

"They give me extra food if I'm nice to 'em," he confided to his friend. "And extra sponge baths. Extra long sponge baths. Extra long and thorough sponge baths."

"Same principle here," Izuru said. "If you're nice to them they'll be nice to you. I dunno about the sponge bath thing though; some of them might go for it, but you'd have to deal with angry fathers afterward."

"You still haven't given me one good reason why this sounds like anything but a disaster in the making," Renji said.

Izuru's manner changed a little, going from bantering to serious.

"I'm worried about Hinamori," he confided. "She never leaves her squad headquarters, and from what I hear, she won't even leave her quarters unless she has to. The morale in Fifth has never been lower and I overheard Unohana say that she worries about Momo's ability to recover mentally from it."

The "it" refferenced being Aizen's recent betrayal of the seireitei and personal betrayal of Momo, who revered and loved him to an extent that some might consider unhealthy. Certainly she was in a grave state of shock. Renji wouldn't admit it out loud but he was worried about her, Momo might be trained as a fighter, but her nature was gentle and kind, she'd always struck him as being somone fragile and he cared for her as protectively as any big brother might.

"Yeah, I heard it was pretty bad," Renji said, scratching the back of her head in discomfort. "I saw her in the last Lieutenant's meeting, she just stared off into space. It was strange, and when I tried to talk to her afterward it was like I wasn't even there."

"I think she just needs to get out from under everything. You know... socialize," Kira said, toying idly with a letter opener and pretending to find the edge fascinating so he didn't have to look up while he was speaking about a raw and sensitive subject. They were all hurting, in their own ways.

"If we get her away from the headquarters for a bit, hopefully the change of scene will knock her out of this depression she's been in."

"I think it'll take a lot more than a change of scene to do that," Renji said skeptically. At his friends frustrated look he quickly amended

"But you're right that it couldn't hurt either. If nothing else she'll be around people she can't afford to offend, so she'll be forced to interact with them. Anything that gets her out of her shell at this point is worth tryin' I guess."

"So.. you're in?" Izuru said hopefully. "I don't think I can pull this off alone."

"Why are you recruiting me then?" Reji asked curiously. "You'd do better with someone who's noble too, like Kotetsu or Chiba, who'll fit in in that place. One look at me and they'll be telling their servants to hide the silver."

"Right now Hinamori needs the support of her friends," Kira cleared his throat. "And while she's friendly with both of those two, I don't know if they're both the sort that can really look out for her like I know you will. I've seen you Renji, you take care of your own. Besides..."

A slow, smug, teasing smile spread across his usually morose and serious face, putting Renji immediately on his guard.

"The Kuchiki siblings will be there."

Naturally, Renji pretended that he didn't care about that in the least.

"What's it matter to me whether those two show up or not? It's got nuthin' t' do with me," he mumbled.

"Ri-ight, and the chance to see Kuchiki the younger in a beautiful ballgown has nothing to do with you either right?"

Renji scowled and crossed his arms, fully aware that his friend was teasing him.

"Rukia's pretty popular at these things," Izuru said in a light, considering tone that still managed to hold a teasing edge in it. "Not as popular as the manhimself, but there are a lot of eligible young noblemen out there who'd just love to marry into all that wealth and upper tier nobility."

Renji's scowl deepened.

"Idiots," he growled. If that was their only reason for hanging around her, he definitely wouldn't forgive them.

"Think of this as an opportunity to show her how much better you are than any of those other guys," Izuru said with a backwards wave as he left the office. Renji sighed with a scowl, he had basically just agreed to it and his warriors pride wouldn't let him back out of it. He was stuck.

:It's just one evening,: he told himself. :I can go there, eat some snacks, be nice to the women, keep Hinamori out of trouble and then come back home, no problems.:

He very carefully wasn't going to let himself think about this being his first real social event since attaining his Lieutenants rank, and he definitely wasn't going to think about this being the first time he'd get to mix with Rukia as an equal within the Seireitei.

:I'm only going for Hinamori and the food,: he thought firmly. That was his story and he was sticking to it.

:Now all I have to do is find where I stuffed that stupid dress uniform.:

There it is Chapter one, this one is going to be longer than Those Who Can Put You Together, and it is openly more Renkia than that one, but like the other, it dances along the fine line between romance and friendship. It starts out kinda slow and it was written more to keep me entertained than because I wanted anything epic, but I think its a fun read. Please enjoy it, and if you have the leisure, leave a reveiw to tell me what you thought of it, because let's face it, how often are we going to get to see Renji wearing a formal uniform? (The way I have the formal uniform for the Soul Reapers envisioned makes him look totally hot!)

This one takes place in the timeline between where Rukia decides to stay behind in the Soul Society after nearly being executed, and when she shows up again later on.