It's Simply That I've Always Loved You

Chapter 23

The sunlight takes days to melt the snow from the blizzard and longer still to handle the thick ice that came to subsist on the lowest level of the ground, but they manage to outlast it. Just the same, Byakuya is grateful for the moment when he can step onto the front porch of the building, fur wrapped tight around his shoulders as he surveys the ground around them. They can go back to their lives now, he is sure of it, so he gives the all clear and is unsurprised to feel the alphas spill out around him, tumbling into the snow.

“I love the winter.” Hitsugaya seems unperturbed by the cold, gathering the snow up in his hands, throwing it over his head and letting it come to settle in a fine powder on his shoulders, invisible in his hair except where it catches the sunlight and glitters. “If it was this cold and snowy all the time, I think I’d be just fine in it.”

Byakuya raises an eyebrow at him. “I’m surprised you haven’t moved further north.”

“There are parts of Russia that are permanently frozen like this all year round, but this pack is home.” Hitsugaya flashes him a smile, and Byakuya chuckles softly.

He ruffles Hitsugaya’s hair as he moves further into the clearing, eyes darting from rooftop to rooftop to make sure the weight of the snow and ice hasn’t caved in anyone’s home. Not that he can check Yoruichi’s home from here, the tree branches too heavy with frost for him to be able to make the roof out from here, but he trusts her to take care of hers and her own like she always has. She must catch him studying the distance because she changes, loping across the snow in easy, effortless bounds.

Renji comes to stand next to him, his hand sliding against Byakuya’s for a moment before their fingers easily link together. “That wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be.”

“I think I’ll have to send a few up to Kenpachi’s compound to make sure he made it through fine.” Byakuya says. “Not that I doubt him, but it’s only common courtesy.”

“They always get the worst of it as high up as they are.” Renji agrees, squeezing his hand.

If the weather was better, or if he wasn’t pregnant, Byakuya would go himself and take Renji, Yoruichi, and Rukia with him to show that he comes in good faith. But the last thing he wants to do is risk the pregnancy. Just thinking about it has his hand gravitating toward his stomach, fingers rubbing over the area through the layers of his clothing. Luckily, his health had been fine during the time they were all cooped up, and even without the mark it feels as though Renji’s sheer presence is enough to keep him calm and relaxed. He should have been stressed, but instead he found himself calm with Renji nearby.

Renji catches him touching and smiles, turning to press his own hand to Byakuya’s stomach. “What’s Kenpachi gonna say about this? I remember how many times he gave you shit for not wanting kids when he was a single alpha raising a daughter on his own.”

Byakuya rolls his eyes. “Yachiru is a perfect little demon. How could I resist having children who would grow to be just as unbearable and terrorizing as she is?”

“Ah… Should be keep Yumichika from finding out for a while?” Renji frowns and Byakuya winces at the mention of the younger omega’s name. “It might not be good for him to hear.”

It had been months since Byakuya last saw Yumichika. The distance between their packs meant it was difficult to see Kenpachi’s pack for any meaningful length of time, and the weather was not always favorable. Living so high up on the mountain meant that travel would be uphill, steep in some places, with the risk of avalanche during the winter and mudslides during the spring and summer when it rained a serious issue. That being said, Byakuya knows there is no way Yumichika could have conceived in that time.