It's Simply That I've Always Loved You

Chapter 18

When Hinamori mentions a blizzard at lunch, Renji files the information firmly away into his brain to prepare as soon as he leaves her home. She invited him and Hisagi to come eat with her. The loneliness must be getting to her, though Renji hardly has it in him to sit her down and tell her the truths they’d learned during the meeting with Aizen’s omegas. That the alpha she’d idolized and adored and eagerly awaited courtship from had been lying to her, had been lying to all of them, in more ways than they could ever imagine. Byakuya hardly had to tell his council not to let anyone else know what they had learned in the meeting. Traditionally, everyone remains silent, and Byakuya himself conveys the information he finds important to everyone else.

Kira would be with him, but by Renji’s judgment, he’s probably into the aftercare stages of his heat and Rangiku is likely looking after all of his needs, so he does not overworry too much about it. If he did not trust her with Kira’s safety and happiness, he would hardly have let her stay in Kira’s rooms without a fight to prove she belonged there.

He says goodbye to his friends after they help Hinamori clean up and goes back to his own home, gathering as many pelts as he can from the collection he keeps stored from the winter. Unlike many of the alphas here— and like Yoruichi, funnily enough— Renji has an abundance of wolf pelts. His former pack had a custom that you would keep the pelts of the wolves you killed in battle, and Renji. His tattoos say it all, don’t they?

Someone else would have thought too much about it, but he never does. After all, those challenges were never made by him. As one of the strongest fighters in the pack, all Renji had to do was defend his status, not seek out anything more for himself. He had no desire to be alpha of that pack— nor does he this one— but he had a position to defend, and it came at a cost he was more than willing to pay.

Now, he gathers all of those furs up in his arms and carries them across the snow to Byakuya’s home, thumping the side of his body against the door more than actually knocking. He should have thought this through. His hands are full.

Luckily, the door swings in, and Renji’s eyes narrow when he finds Ichigo lounging comfortably in the doorway, wrapped in what looks like an awfully nice kimono. “What the hell are you doing here? Did you move in or something?”

“Why? You jealous?” Ichigo smirks up at him, pets a hand over the pile in Renji’s arms. “Oh, someone came by with courting gifts. Aren’t you a determined alpha?”

“It’s cold. Let me in.” When Renji tries to walk past him into the house, Ichigo only shifts which side of the door he’s leaning against. “Oh, fuck off. Let me in.”

Pale brown eyes glitter up at him as Ichigo tilts his head, hand rising to his lips in faux thought before his eyes harden, his expression deadpan. “Why don’t you make me, Abarai?”

The question has Renji’s eyes widening in shock. “There’s no way Byakuya is just letting you get away with that mouth, brat. Why are you even here? Don’t you have, like… Like—”

“Chad’s getting pretty close to his rut cycle so it’s not a good idea for me to be hanging around too close,” Ichigo tells him, and Renji wonders if that’s supposed to be a jab at him until bony knuckles playfully tap him on the jaw, not hard at all but he still jumps. “Wow, it just takes a knock from an omega to throw you off? How are you the pack beta?”

Renji huffs in annoyance and leans closer, but Ichigo only grins and pushes back up into him, and he smells sweet like any omega but he’s definitely not messing around. “My pack alpha lives here and I need to talk to him. Official pack business. Now move.”

“You getting your knot in him isn’t official pack business.” Ichigo says without missing a beat, grinning when Renji chokes at that. “I guess that’s one way to stay warm tonight.”