It's Simply That I've Always Loved You

Chapter 10

“Shinji’s near.” Hisagi stiffens where he stands at the very edge of their territory, his eyes wide and his nose twitching as he turns to look around them, trying to pick out the nearby pack from the thicket of trees around them. “I can smell him, Renji. I’d never mistake him for anyone else.”

Renji knows. He’d picked up on the scent of their wayward wandering pack members only a few moments ago, knowing better than to try to chase Shinji out of hiding. “He’ll come when he wants to come out. You know things have been tense ever since Aizen…”

He trails off and Hisagi winces but nods. The defection of Aizen had caused more problems and rifts in their pack than anyone ever seemed willing to want to sit down and think through at length, not that Renji can blame anyone when it comes right down to it. It wasn’t just people like Momo and Kira and Hisagi, wounded by losing those who meant something to them. It was the splinter of their pack, Hirako Shinji turning away from the rest of them when he realized that Aizen had done all of this right under his nose without him ever picking up on it. When he chose to walk away, the wolves he brought with him in the first place went with him.

Except for Kensei. Shinji told him to stay behind, and now Renji thinks he understands why.

They stand still until the crack of a tree branch has Renji’s head turning, revealing a familiar figure who steps through the trees and stops right at the boundary of the pack borders. It hurts to see that in more ways than one, but Shinji had been clear that he was leaving and had no intentions of coming back not even as a non-hostile visitor.

“Hey, Shin.” Renji waves for Hisagi to remain in place, walking up to the sudden and would-be pack alpha, taking in his rough appearance. “Are you guys good for the coming winter?”

Shinji sighs at him, picks a few stray leaves out of his hair. He’d worn it down when he was with their pack but had tied it back when he left. Renji has memories of Aizen playing with it and thinks tying it back had saved Shinji from just cutting it all off. “Even if we weren’t, you know as well as I do that I wouldn’t be coming back with the rest of you.”

“Of course not. I wouldn’t expect you to.” It would be foolish in more ways than one because Renji knows Shinji, had spoken to him at length about pack matters because Shinji was one of the people Byakuya trusted the most. It made Aizen’s betrayal sting even more.

It was no one’s fault. Aizen had been cunning even at the very end, and none of them could have seen it came no matter how carefully they watched him. If Shinji and Momo were unable to notice, if Byakuya himself detected no malice from Aizen, then no one else could have known. Not that it seemed to matter to Shinji. He blamed himself, over and over again.

“Just thought I’d touch base with you about what we’ve seen up in the mountains. Not as high up as Zaraki’s pack, but still up there.” Shinji’s expression is pinched and Renji knows who he’s going to bring up before he does it. “Sosuke’s up there. He’s got a pack to himself.”

That had been what Renji was expecting to hear, in all honesty. “As long as he’s outside of our pack boundaries and Zaraki’s, there’s not much we can do about that right now.”

“Oh, believe me, I know. He was real sweet when we crossed paths. Got some real mean ones in that pack of his even if they seem deceptively sweet at first.” Which means… Not better things, and Renji can only imagine the kinds of wolves Aizen would surround himself with if the choice was up to him, if he had total reign over them. A king filling his court with only the most deadly soldiers and assassins, the ultimate protection. “He asked if we wanted to stay.”

Renji winces. “That must have been hard. How was he looking?”

“Still missing the eye. I don’t think he could have healed it fast enough when Byakuya tore it out like that.” Shinji snorts. Aizen deserved it and no one felt all that bad for him incurring the wrath of the very man he tried to take down. “Otherwise, he’s fine. Scarred but alive, which ain’t exactly what I wanted to find out. Kinda hoped he went off somewhere, got infection, and died.”