Nothing's Changed [Byakuya × Renji]

15 - Stressful Day Out

After eating pancakes the three teenagers begged the twenty-three year old to spend the day with them, it took some convincing; but they talked him into walking towards and hanging out at the towns lake. Along the way Ichigo and Renji kept trying to trip each other, bursting out into gut busting laughter whenever the other fell.

They were reprimanded the few times they were successful; but that only seemed to fuel their antics. What really made then stop was the final time Renji fell, scraping up the side of his face, the palm of his hands and even tearing a hole in the knee of his jeans. As the group passed by a small drug store Byakuya told the children to stay still while he went inside to grab Band-Aids.

While he was inside the three outside had a small chat, "so, what took you and my brother so long to come to breakfast?" When the man in question looked over to Rukia, he saw a huge smirk on her face, "I was just asking him about a test that I took when he was subbing. Why?" Ichigo snickered a little and leaned against the wall of the building; crossing his arms over his chest, "why were you sleeping with him anyways?"

"He always slept with my brother when we were younger, even at camp." Rukia giggled a little bit, watching as the oldest Kurosaki's eyes widened, "seriously? All the time?" He was a little dumbfounded. Sure he would stay the night at Rukia's with Renji there, but he would always wake up much later than the older teen. "Mhm! He'd take his little stuffed animal into my brother's room and ask to sleep with him," the youngest Kuchiki put her hands together and put them against her cheek, mimicking a pose that a princess might take, "oh Byakuya, I'm scared. Oh Byakuya. Rukia hogs the bed, oh Byakuya, I love you. Let me sleep with you tonight."

Renji had enough of the teasing, "shut up!" He barked, looking between the two shocked thirteen year olds, he never got angry with them; well he would get angry—but he would never yell at them. Not like he just did. The younger teen's stopped teasing him and looked down to their feet; as if it wasn't awkward enough Byakuya came out just as the high schooler flipped his lid.

"What happened?" The guardian of the three children looked between them all, trying to find an answer. He sighed when he never received one and started to open the box of bandages he got, "do I need to separate you three when I leave?" He joked a little bit, which caused Rukia to smile. "No, we were just teasing Renji about him sleeping with you," the raven looked back to his younger sister after applying the first bandage to the angst filled sixteen year old's cheek, then looked back to him. "Oh really now?" He looked towards Ichigo. "And why were you teasing him?"

"Because he's sleeping with another guy," the orange haired teen said nonchalantly, "I slept with you all the time too Ichishit," Renji snapped a little, earning a gentle ear tug from Byakuya, "well that's different!" Ichigo's face seemed to light up like a stop light, he crossed his arms over his chest and looked away; causing Rukia to giggle. "Ichi's jealous!" She jumped around the flustered thirteen year old twice before hugging him and nuzzling his shoulder gently. "Don't be like that Ichi, you know Renji loves you."

Love? He loves him? Byakuya looked to the teen he was tending to, watched how his face took on a light shade of red; exposing his embarrassment. "You love him?" His voice shook a little bit, he didn't understand why; at least he hoped he didn't understand. "I love him like I love Rukia, like family I guess," Renji thought this would work, but Ichigo had to interject. "You know you like us more than that," he snickered a little bit, wrapping an arm around Rukia's shoulders.

The exasperated teen rubbed his face, groaning a little at the sting from his injury, and because he wanted this day to be over with; he wanted to leave the situation. "Alright, alright. Now you should really stop teasing him. Today is supposed to be a relaxing day at the lake, should we just turn around and go home?" The eldest almost threatened the kids who were just mocking their friend. They shook their heads violently, "nonono! We still wanna go!" "Then I suggest you leave Renji alone, you're not five year olds anymore." He glanced to the annoyed ginger, "neither are you."

After everything settled down and they arrived at the lake they started to have fun, sitting down in the grass next to the water; looking up at the clouds and pointing out of there were any funny shaped ones. Ichigo and Rukia did most of the talking, laying against each other as they had little conversations between cloud spotting; giggling whenever one of them brought up a funny memory. Meanwhile Renji and Byakuya kept some distance from the other two, they were still sort of close; but their voices were considered back ground noise.