Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Architecture ❯ One-Shot

Architecture

by debbiechan

Disclaimer: I don’t own Bleach; Kubo Tite created it. Viz, Perriot Studios, and Shounen Jump and various bootleg merchandisers make a monetary profit off Bleach--not I.

Description: R. Renji and Ishida are (literally) thrown together in Las Noches. A little shounen ai-ish, not much.

This fic was written for firstmidnight and the bleach_flashfic LJ community. Her request is here: http://community.livejournal.com/bleach_flashfic/36727.html?thread=172663#t 172663

I’m sorry I’m late with this fic; it was the hardest request to fulfill yet. Gal specifically stated no future-fluff and that’s been my specialty lately, so trying to work my mind around canon rescue-team specifics was a challenge. I can’t write Grimmjow, but since Gal’s a RenIshi fan (pimp: she owns http://community.livejournal.com/renishi/profile), I thought I’d go that way.

For Gal

"Not again," muttered Renji.

The flaming pink Espada had been dead for some time, but someone was still playing with the corridors. The floor shifted left, then tipped right, and Renji and Ishida were knocked off their feet.

Renji started to rise, but Ishida put up his palm. "Wait!"

"For what?"

Renji felt a flush of anger at this bastard who wasn’t coming to fight him head-on.

"Hold on," Ishida said. "I hear something."

Fucking Las Noches. Like a playground instead of a battlefield. What did Boy Genius think was going to happen now? Why did they have to wait? If the floor was about to give way, what difference would waiting make?

Ishida answered Renji’s thoughts: "The gears are going to throw us up."

Something clacked, like tracks being moved, and sure enough, Renji and Ishida were pitched toward the roof. They fell back down right away. The last couple times the corridor had rattled, they’d been thrown into an empty room with no opponent. This tumbling around was re-opening Renji’s wounds. The toss to the ceiling had given him a painful smack to the face.

"They’re not even fighting us!" Renji shouted. "They’re grinding us up like peppercorns!" He hit the wall with his fist. "Fucking rock!"

"There’s no use yelling at the architecture."

Renji stood up, rubbing his jaw. "Ow."

Ishida spoke in that bratty, superior tone. "Why didn’t you put your head down? I told you we were going to be thrown up. Look, I cushioned the blow." Ishida demonstrated burying his face in the crook of his arm. "If you’d put your arms forward, though, you might have broken some bones--"

"I don’t need a kid like you telling me how to take a fall!"

The corridor pitched again, and this time Renji fell on top of Ishida and the roof fell on Renji.

When the dust cleared, Renji realized that debris surrounding them on all sides prevented their progress in any direction. He was about to summon Zabimaru to sweep away the pieces of heavy marble (hey, it had worked when his ban kai form had shot through that wacko-o Espada’s lair!) but Ishida stopped Renji’s hand as it grabbed for his sword.

"Play dead," Ishida said.

"What?"

"Listen, the Espada said that there were cameras in the corridors. Right now no one can see us." A large sheet of ceiling balanced on Renji’s Shinigami back. There were chunks of rubble forming a lean-to on either side.

"Um," Renji said. "I can’t hold up this piece of roof forever."

Ishida, who was lying under Renji and whose black hair was white with dust, rolled his eyes. "You’re not even holding it up!"

"Yes I am!" Renji shifted a shoulder. He was strong! He was strong enough to stop that fraccion blob earlier--that one that was going to pulverize Ishida with its giant fist--and he was strong enough to keep this rock from crushing the kid now!

"Stop pushing against it," Ishida said. "You’re not holding it up. It’s caught between two other boulders."

The kid was always right.

Renji relaxed his spine and lowered himself--squashing himself face to face with the kid--and Ishida winced.

"Am I hurting you?"

"No!" Ishida’s whisper was a hiss. "Keep your voice down. There may be audio devices in the corridor too."

"I don’t get it." Renji was trying to maneuver his body so it wouldn’t press directly on Ishida’s. There wasn’t much wriggle-room in the wreckage. "Do you expect us to just lie here forever? We have to get up sometime."

"I know that," hissed Ishida. "But whoever is manipulating the corridors may be a flunky and not a fighter--or else he would’ve come out to face us by now. If he thinks we’re dead, his attention may be diverted somewhere else or he’ll leave his post to tell his superiors we’re dead, and then while our reiatsu is still undetectable--"

"When can we get out of here?" Renji had no patience with Ishida’s explanations.

Ishida was making a strange face. "I’ll tell you when."

Renji didn’t like the idea of holding still, but he had no qualms about listening to Ishida if it meant surviving. There was still Rukia to save and--wait a minute. They were outside the reiatsu-sealing laboratory now. Maybe he could sense Rukia’s reiatsu.

THERE SHE IS!

"Rukia!" Renji bolted excitedly and bumped his head on the slab above him. "Goddammit!" He fell back on Ishida.

"I feel her too," Ishida whispered. "She’s not far from here."

"We need to go to her now," Renji insisted. "Her reiatsu is--"

"I know. It’s very faint. I don’t even think we could sense it if we weren’t so close. But we have to wait."

"WHY?"

"Ssssh!"

Renji knew why. Boy Genius was all about finishing the mission and rescuing that other girl, even though Rukia was near death. Renji glared directly into Ishida’s glasses. "I’m getting up to save Rukia."

Ishida’s face looked strange again--was he in pain? "No," Ishida said. "Do you want to save Kuchiki-san or not? First, we have to wait for whoever’s watching us to get distracted. Then we can head East." Ishida cocked his chin to his left. "I can sense Inoue-san over there--"

"WHAT? You want to rescue her first? When she’s farther away?"

"Listen to me," said Ishida. "We have to save Inoue-san first because she’s a healer and she can save Kuchiki-san and Sado-kun. Or do you believe your primitive kidou skills are enough to address Kuchiki-san’s state?" The question was sincere. "Do you? Because if you can help her, when I say the word, you go for her and I’ll go towards Inoue-san."

If Renji’s kidou was any good, it would’ve healed himself and the kid. After the fairy went down and Renji was sure the ugly thing was dead, he’d done his best on Ishida. The kid had bitched so much about stomach cramps and Renji burning his bellybutton that Renji had given up and turned his healing palm on his own thigh--the one he himself had split open when trying to close-range hurt the Evil Butterfly.

Renji had torn the wound open further. Damn kidou. It was humiliating. Here he was a captain-class Shinigami and he couldn’t do a healing spell any better than your average first year academy student.

At least he’d tried. Both he and Ishida were still blood-drenched and sore and in need of a medic but maybe by accident Renji’s kidou had plugged an internal wound in the kid. Maybe? Even if Renji’s spell had helped, it had also nearly broken one of the kid’s ribs in the process. Renji had yanked his glowing hand away when he heard bones in Ishida's ribcage start to whistle. He could’ve done more damage to Ishida than the kinky Espada had.

"I can’t heal Rukia," Renji admitted. "I don’t want to kill her trying. You’re right."

Ishida nodded. He wasn’t so bossy after all, really. Just smart.

The two of us…." Renji knew the two of them worked well together. "The two of us will get the healer girl."

"Inoue-san," Ishida corrected him and looked away with that face that made Renji wonder if maybe Ishida wasn’t more injured than he let on.

Then Renji felt it.

The reason why Ishida looked so damn uncomfortable.

The kid wasn’t in pain. The kid was….

Renji hips were pressing against Ishida’s rock-hard boner.

"Arrgh!" Renji let out an involuntary cry of alarm and shifted his weight. That motion only served to slide his hipbone across Ishida’s--"Arrgh!"

"SHHH! What’s the matter with you, Abarai?"

"I’m sorry," Renji said. He wriggled his lower body again. Fuck.

"What the hell are you doing, Abarai?"

"I just don’t want to--I--." The only way Renji could keep his body from touching Ishida’s was to raise himself at an awkward angle. With a bent neck and a sore back, he looked down at Ishida. "I’m sorry."

The kid met his eyes and his cheeks turned poppy-red.

Renji’s hard breathing was stirring Ishida’s hair.

Renji’s hard breathing blew dust out of that hair.

The white flakes danced around Renji’s face.

Oh no. Renji was going to sneeze. "Ah--!"

Ishida’s hand reached up and pinched Renji’s nose. "Don’t do it. Just a few seconds more. Give them just a little time to think we’re dead."

The seconds ticked by, and when Renji felt like he had his sinuses under control, he tore Ishida’s fingers away. "Now can we get out of here?"

The kid’s eyes were transfixed. He was listening for something. "Wait," he said. "Whoever is watching us is going to test the corridor again. Play dead."

Renji dropped on Ishida again, closed his eyes. Good thing that Renji’s own groin area was soft and exhausted because he didn’t want the kid to get the wrong idea.

The kid had good ears. Sure enough, the floor swung from side to side. Debris rattled around them. Renji heard more pieces of ceiling fall, but the two dead warriors were trapped in their tight spot and not exposed as debris shifted.

The corridor shuffling stopped.

"Now?" Renji opened his eyes. "Can we go now? The security guards are off to report that they’ve shaken their enemies to death and--"

"Ssh! One more minute."

It couldn’t be that the kid liked being pressed against Renji this way? No, no--even knowing Ishida as little as Renji knew him, Renji knew that he wasn’t the type to risk lives just to have a handsome Shinigami’s lower regions snuggled against his crotch. Actually, when you considered that Ishida was the sort of person who would be attracted to Renji, the kid’s bravery in this situation was all the more admirable.

He was strong. Fragile-looking but really tough. He reminded Renji of Rukia in that way. Delicate bones and this bitchy attitude.

"I can’t sense anyone’s reiatsu," Ishida whispered, "but the operating mechanism is so close by that I should be able to hear when someone leaves his post. If not, just a few more seconds and it would be reasonable to make a run for it."

Poor kid. Just a human. He’d already fought who knows how many opponents in this place and then that fairy Espada had torn him up so bad.

"I’m sorry," Renji blurted.

"For what?" snapped Ishida.

"I mean--" Renji felt a little warm. Battle sure made friends of the oddest people. He and the kid couldn’t be more different and yet-- "I don’t mean to be touching you," Renji stammered. He’d started the apology so he may as well finish it. "It’s just that I can’t move anywhere in here, and--" He may as well mention it because it was dumb not to. The kid’s arousal was poking at Renji like a sharp weapon. "You’re being pretty patient here for a … for a …." What the hell had Renji gotten himself into?

"For a what?" The kid looked sincerely confused. Didn’t Ishida know he was a … fancy boy?

Renji couldn’t bring himself to say "fancy boy," so he said, "You know."

"What the hell are you trying to say, Abarai?"

"Are you stupid? I thought you were smart. You’re--we’re--touching like this and you’re being pretty okay about it for being--"

Ishida glared. He exhaled a breath that lifted his chest against Renji’s, and Renji felt … irritated.

"Ishida, you know what I’m talking about. You’re---like that Espada we just killed."

Wrong thing to say.

Ishida’s blue eyes flashed with indignation. "I’m--WHAT?"

"You’re--you know. The clothes, the fussiness, the smarts…."

"And?"

"You like men."

The kid lost his indignant look and his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

With no specific purpose behind the thought, it occurred to Renji that Ishida was prettier than Rukia. Usually people didn’t look good if you got up to them this close.

"How--what--?" Ishida was sputtering. "That’s just…. You’re stereotyping."

"Uh sorry," said Renji in as casual a voice as he could manage. "So I guess you don’t swing that way?"

"I--" Ishida exhaled a deep breath. Renji could feel the kid’s bones shuddering beneath him. "Did I say I did? Why are you--?" Ishida composed his face and put on some cool look, even though his face was bright red. "NEITHER did I say… that I don’t swing that way. I am just pointing out your … crude stereotyping. If all clothes-conscious, intelligent males were…. Then my father…" The kid shook his head as if to bat away an unwanted image.

The kid had a point. Not all the fancy boys Renji had known in the Rukongai were prissy types. In fact, some had been like Renji himself. Coarse-looking, tough, not exactly subtle. There had been that one guy who…

Well, that had just been the one time. Renji wasn’t that way. He’d just wanted to satisfy an urge.

"I’m sorry," Ishida said.

"What the fuck are you apologizing for?" This situation was more aggravating that fighting that insane Espada.

"For…." Ishida frowned. "I can’t help my body. I have less control over my adolescent hormones than I do my reiatsu. That’s just the way it is."

It seemed to Renji that Ishida’s erection grew even larger.

"It’s just…." Ishida continued. Why was the kid talking about this? "It’s just a part of what makes up a man. Like a wall. Architecture."

What sort of dork refers to his cock as architecture?

"Like a doorway," Ishida went on. "Like a--"

Please stop, Ishida.

"Look," said Ishida, obviously frustrated with his own metaphor. "I just don’t know when it’s going to go off. It’s not because of YOU or anything so don’t get the wrong idea. It’s… it’s… random. Like how these corridors keep moving."

Oh God. It moved. Renji’s moved. It was coming to life. It was going to pop out of his fundoshi like ban kai.

Ishida looked more terrified than he had in front of that fairy Espada.

Spokes of blue light shot out in all directions and debris around the two warriors disintegrated.

Renji was on his feet. "Why’d you do that?"

"Time to go!"

"You said you were going to tell me before it was time."

Ishida looked a little unsteady. He put his palm on the cracked wall and brushed dust off his shoulders. Gods, that cape. Sparkly gold cord--what was that about, eh? Renji had known hookers that presented themselves less fancily.

"Abarai, did you want to bust out yourself? Is that it? You wanted to draw your sword and I stole your turn?"

Renji knew why the kid was stalling. He was shaky on his feet and still gathering energy to do that whatchacallit Quincy shunpou of his.

Renji grabbed Ishida by the upper arm and they were off running. It was the length of a corridor and halfway up a flight of stairs before Renji realized that he was still holding Ishida’s arm--even though the kid was maintaining a decent speed.

He dropped the arm.

I’ve got to stop touching him.

END