AN - This is a Bleach fanfiction. Featuring Abarai Renji & Kuchiki Byakuya as main characters. It takes place in an imaginary country called Fenore (the eastern part), mostly within the closed walls of a monastery. Byakuya is a high priest. Renji is something of a professional wanderer. Things change.

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The storm was getting worse. The rain hit his face furiously, slanted by the freezing wind. He was soaking wet, and he was pretty sure that, if the wind was not making so much noise, he would hear his bones rattling. The exhaustion did not help. Every single muscle in his body screamed for relief. But there was little choice. In the dead of the night, after having walked for god knows how many miles, there was no light ahead… There was no light anywhere. Heavy, seaborne clouds hung low, obscuring the celestial light, and there was no man-made light around. The mud was knee-deep, or so it seemed, as he fought for each step. He shrugged off the assailing desperation, taking yet another step, pushing aside yet another branch. He managed two steps before he dived, face first, into the mud. He gagged with disgust, as his mouth and his nose filled up with wet dirt. That was pretty much it. Definitely the lowest point in his life. No money, no shelter, taking a mud bath in the middle of nowhere, with no destination. Marvellous. Just perfect.

He tried wrestling against the mud, and finally making peace with his pathetic state, he chose to crawl ahead. It has finally happened. He was reduced to a beast, a four-legged creature crawling through the mud. It would have been easier to give up, but he was too stubborn to do something so mundane. Anyways, things never came easily to him, so he might as well break his fucking spine in an attempt to find a roof or something that resembles one.

The irony did not escape him. It was a wonderful night. To anyone with a full stomach, a cup of hot tea, and a blanket. He always liked thunderstorms. Nature raging against civilization, purging itself from all the pent up anger. Divine. Trees relenting to the wind, rivers flowing through the streets, children chasing the paper-boats…His consciousness was slowly abandoning him as he remembered the happy squalor of his childhood ramblings. Where was he going, anyway? And why on earth was he so adamant to get there?

Renji extended his hand trying to catch his paper-boat before it dissolved into nothingness. A sharp pain brought him back, and the crawling man lifted his eyes only to realize his journey was over. He clawed along the seemingly endless wall until his bleeding fingers recognized the change in texture. With little strength he had in him, he rang the bell once, and then he fainted.

He woke up in a small room, lit up by the candle on the small cabinet near the window. It was still dark outside. The warmth of the bed, and the fact that he was free from the raging fit of nature relaxed his body and now it screamed with pain and anguish of remembered wanderings. He tried to sit up in order to scan the room, but his muscles rebelled and pinned him down in a position which allowed him only to move his head. Discomfort ran through his entire being as he realized how fucking helpless and lost he was. If someone would come in to claim his life, all he would be able to do is to chose which way to tilt his head. He waved the ungrateful thoughts away: even if he was to die in that room, at least he was vaguely comfortable and dry. And clean for that matter. His consciousness drifted off as he slowly slipped into that same dream vision of chasing paper-boats down the street, laughing and enjoying one of the rare happy moments of his childhood.

Renji opened his eyes, completely confused with what seemed to him a complete disappearance of the lapse of time. It was still dark outside, the rain still reverberated against the walls and windows, and the candle on the cabinet seemed to be as big as it had been when he was last conscious. He tried to make sense of his position in time and place, but it was impossible. The only thing he knew for sure was that he had crawled through the woods of the somewhere in eastern Fenore, and that in the middle of a vast, wild darkness he stumbled upon civilization.

The door made a familiar sound, and a dark-haired figure entered his abode. The figure had long hair, and the lithe body was clad in a black and white vestment. He could not discern whether it was a man or a woman, but whoever it was, the graceful movements gave out an air of reverence and serenity which made Renji feel safe. He opened his mouth in order to show he was awake, but no words left his lips. A violent cough shook his entire body, pain searing down his spine. The monochrome figure knelt next to him, and he realized he was not lying on a bed, but on a futon. A cold compress cooled his forehead and made him groan in delight. He was definitely running a fever. He closed his eyes, allowing himself to drift apart from the person kneeling next to him, going on with what was obviously necessary ministrations, and he was finally at peace. No one would go through all that trouble just to kill him.

The Second, Kuchiki Byakuya, was the one who salvaged the mud-covered wreck of Abarai Renji. He was the only one awake that night to hear the tremulous bell which chimed only once a year, to mark the beginning of the festivities. The man was rarely surprised, having amassed a formidable experience during his long years of service in the East Fenore monastery. However, the sight of Abarai Renji almost surprised him. The man looked wild, as an untamed beast, covered in a strange mass of mud and congealed blood. Byakuya had experience with beasts of incommunicable vileness, but he had never encountered one sprawled in a pool of rain at the main gate of the monastery. The strange markings on the man's face and his ridiculously red hair, coupled with his size made Byakuya wince momentarily, thinking that he might have slipped into some dream, without realizing it. Somehow, he managed to drag the man into one of the vacant rooms. In the process he had gotten himself so dirty that, after having meticulously washed the redhead intruder, he had to have a bath himself, and a change of clothes. The entire ordeal was more than he was prepared for after hearing the bell, so he swore a couple of times. Being the man of the cloth, it was hardly appropriate to curse his bad luck of having been on call that night, so he regained his composure as he clumsily lowered the heavy body onto a futon. He wondered about what kind of a man he had just saved. Those strange tattoos that first assailed his senses went all over the man's body, which was almost as muscular as the First's. Almost, Byakuya repeated as he realized that the First's physical appearance could hardly be compared to any living thing. He always thought it was strange that the head of the Yumearuku order, the spiritual leader of Fenore, had such an immense, overwhelming physical presence. It seemed redundant. Admittedly, his stature must have come in handy when there were transgressors to be punished.

Byakuya closed the door having checked on the man, making sure that he was still breathing.

"Kuchiki-sama," he heard someone call out his name. Ayasegawa Yumichika lowered his gaze and bowed his head slightly as a sign of respect, and he awaited acknowledgment in order to meet Byakuya's eyes.

"Yes, Yumichika?"

Having heard his name, Yumichika's gaze met Byakuya's. Byakuya never realized why the First allowed such extravagance in vanity among his servants. The man, despite being docile, was nothing more than a peacock, strutting about as a if he was in a beauty pageant. Yumichika's opinion of the Second was very similar to the one Byakuya held of him. The difference, however, was that Yumichika exerted an effort in looking as beautiful as he did; Byakuya just could not help it.

Only after he smiled to show how radiant his features are, Yumichika spoke:

"The First requested for your audience, Kuchiki-sama. Concerning the stranger." The feather adorned man lowered his head once again, and he turned gracefully, knowing that the Second was behind him. He then opened an umbrella and held it over Byakuya's head as they walked to the main residence.