Nothing's Changed [Byakuya × Renji]

9 - Sixteen

Currently at age sixteen Renji stood behind the counter at a convenience store, snickering at the twenty-two year old he had looked up to when he was younger, obviously he saw that the eldest Kuchiki was ready to check out and leave, but he wasn't going to let him go.

"So, how's it been going?" He spoke, bringing up a hand to rest his chin on it; arching his back slightly while extending his legs behind him to make himself comfortable. Staring at the puzzled man, why was he puzzled? Neither of them knew.

"It's been going alright, have you spoken to Rukia lately?" Byakuya leaned in a tiny bit, lowering his voice. Even though he knew that no one else was there he still felt as if he needed to keep personal matters quiet. "Well duh, if I'm taking her home everyday I have to," he answered as if it was obvious, which it was.

"You're right, my apologies," slightly nervous gray eyes looked towards his basket, not wanting to focus on the cocky teen in front of him, how come I never see you at school? Is what he wanted to ask, he was dying to know the answer. But he let it slide. "How has school been for you Renji?"

He allowed his eyes to focus on the teenager once more, who shrugged and started to ring up the substitute's items. "It's been alright I guess, lonely without Ichigo and Rukia, but I get to see them when I'm not working, so that's cool." The worker sighed a little, placing the scanned items into bags, setting the three bags onto the counter. "Alright, that'll be-" he started, but was cut off by an almost panicked raven. "Renji, how come I haven't seen you lately? Whenever I'm at the highschool I can never find you, if it's a school day and I'm back at the house I never hear your motor vehichle pulling into the driveway,"

Renji shrugged a little, being very surprised at this outburst, looking away from the adult as he thought of an answer, chewing on the inside of his mouth. "I dunno, guess you just don't pay attention."

With those words stuck in his head from the previous night, Renji sat in his bedroom with Ichigo, the two were punks; dressing in mostly black from their pants and shoes, to their jackets. Renji took it a step further and started to get tattoos, one famous location was on his forehead; cutting his hair so that there were two very high peaks above where his now shaved off eyebrows were.

Instead of red eyebrows he had the start of what he wanted to be intricate tattoos, he absolutely loved them and thought they would look really cool when finished, even though Ichigo teased him for it.

On the other hand the thirteen year old Kurosaki boy had a very nasty attitude when it came to people other than his best friends and family.

He got into a lot of fights, his father wasn't very happy with him, but there was no containing the feisty punk. He didn't have any tattoos, obviously due to his age, but he basically begged and pleaded with his dad to let him get something pierced.

He and Renji agreed that cartilage piercings were cool; they both wanted one. But alas the young teenager's dad had always said no.

But, much to his dad's chagrin the best friend's were going to do it themselves. First up was Ichigo; sitting on the king sized bed he had spent a couple of nights in, biting down on his knuckles; nervous.

"Is it gonna hurt?" He looked up to his best friend of several years who held the tip of a sewing needle over a lighter, pulling back on the wheel to light it. "Well no shit it's gonna hurt," the older teen laughed a little and glanced to his friend, grinning.

"But you'll be ok, you're a tough little shit." The two exchanged chuckles as the older stalked closer to his friend, sitting down next to him while lining the needle up on the spot the very impressionable thirteen year old had wanted, then pushed it through as fast as he could.

"Holy fuck!" Ichigo bit down harder on his knuckles, causing to them to bleed slightly. This and the pain from the needle caused him to tear up a little bit, squeezing his eyes shut.

His ear felt like it was on fire, it was pulsing, yet it felt numb at the same time. The entire time the eighth grader was dealing with the pain his friend laughed and slapped him on the back before ruffling his hair and looking over towards his nightstand, grabbing one of the two black hoop earrings, "alright Ichishit,"

The two had very special nicknames for each other, one would see them as hurtful, but they saw them as endearing. "You've done good on the first part. Let me know when you're good,"

"Renren," Ichigo started, using his favorite nickname for his best friend, "my ear feels so hot, jeez. It hurts a lot." He looked to his knuckles, then up to his friend who held a very sarcastic look of sadness, "aw, you poor thing. You'll be ok," he chuckled and placed the opening of the closure ring to the tip of the needle; slowly pulling it out whilst pushing the circular metal in.

Once that was complete he admired his handy work, ruffling Ichigo's hair once again, "hey Renren, have you seen Byakuya lately?" "Yeah, saw him last night," he shrugged as if his answer was something that happened everyday, "how is he?"

As if he was sitting in front of a screen, the sixteen year old saw last night all over again, frowning a little to himself, he just doesn't pay attention anymore, bastard. He sighed a little bit and leaned back, letting his arms support him, "he's alright I guess. Did you have him last week?" "No, but I saw him in the halls and he looked pretty messed up."