A/N: Well this is the end of my first story! Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed and supported me thus far; my final request to you all for this story is to keep your eyes OPEN for the next story. I am planning an AU starring Kara and Renji if anyone would like to see this relationship again (definitely with a more developed plotline), along with the appearances of many more characters than I put into this story, so look forward to it! Thanks so much again for being a wonderful audience, and I hope my fluff doesn't suck!
Eternal. FLITTER: Lol, better description of WHY she was in ICU for 13 hours this chapter. What can I say to you but thanks for always reviewing and keeping me motivated to continue this story? I hope your support is going to continue!
iWolf: I wouldn't really say 'poor Renji' in this chapter... but I'll leave that for you to decide. Thanks for your support and opinions throughout this whole story, and thank God my grammar doesn't suck!
Lauren: Thank you for the review, it made me really happy! I hope you enjoy the last chapter, I now feel a great sense of accomplishment for what I've done... teehee :3
And that's it folks! It's been a fun ride~!! Depending on feedback, I might write a sequel which continues this plot into the main storyline... but don't expect it for a while, I really want to get that AU up :3
Chapter Ten: Starting Point
"Damn, what the hell did you do to yourself?!" Matsumoto sighed. "You stupid kid…"
Kara scratched the back of her head, frowning. She had been in the hospital for nearly four days and was almost completely recovered, thanks to the continuous healings she received from the 4th Squad. The 10th Division Vice Captain had been allowed to see her for the first time, and was now sitting in the visitor's chair next to the side of the bed. "Nothing much…" she mumbled.
Matsumoto smacked the top of the younger girl's head. "Don't lie!"
Kara saw stars. "Matsumoto-san… that hurts…" she gasped.
"Sorry… I forgot." Matsumoto had enough grace to look somewhat sheepish before she crossed her arms across her voluminous chest and resorted to repeatedly kicking the bedframe. "I heard from Captain Unohana. You got your arm all sliced up almost down to the bone, then you, somehow, manage to hit the ground at over seventy miles an hour without even thinking about how you were going to land, so you got your leg broken and multiple fractures on the rest of your bones, not to mention what the impact did to your internal organs. And then you had to go ahead and make the break even worse by moving around, meaning that you needed surgery to get all the bone splinters out of your shin! Captain was pretty furious when he found out… you'd better watch yourself for a while."
"How's everyone doing?" Kara leaped on the subject change. "Captain Unohana wouldn't let me have any visitors all this time."
Matsumoto sighed. "Everything's pretty much back to normal. Captain was pretty touchy for a while until we got the report that your surgery was successful. You know Renji was sitting outside your door the entire time? He's the only one Captain Unohana isn't letting in; she said it wouldn't be good for you to get too riled up while you were still in recovery." She surveyed her subordinate knowingly.
"That's because he's an idiot…" Kara muttered unconvincingly.
Matsumoto chuckled. "Oho, what do I see here? Is Kara turning red?"
"W… What?"
Matsumoto leaned in slyly. "Hey, Kara, are you in love with Renji?" she whispered.
"OH isn't that interesting!" Kara pointed lamely out the window. "… Um… there was an interesting cloud. You missed it."
"Is that so…" Matsumoto looked up at the cloudless blue sky and laughed aloud.
If it was even possible, Kara turned even redder. "I… I meant it was a bird…"
"Right, it was obviously a bird you saw," Matsumoto agreed. "A very cloud-like bird. In any case, you still haven't answered my question."
"What question?"
"Don't you want to know how Renji feels about you too?"
Kara turned a bright red at being asked so bluntly. Thrown off by the question, she looked at her folded hands. "… During the fight, Renji saved my life. I got hurt trying to help him too… I don't know, when I got out of surgery he had the most awful expression on his face," she suddenly burst. "Matsumoto-san, he looked really mad about something. Do you think he's mad that I tried to save him too? It's just that…" Kara hung her head in embarrassment. "I didn't want him to die… At that moment, the only thing I was thinking…if he died, it would be…"
To her shame, Kara found that her throat had completely sealed itself, and there was a big fat tear dripping out of her eye. She hastily wiped it away.
Matsumoto peered at her thoughtfully for a moment. Then she pouted. "Ya know, your haircut is terrible, by the way."
"It's not like I could help it…" Kara grumbled, surprised and relieved by the change in subject, crossing her own arms. Her burned, orange hair was now in a bizarre diagonal which started under her left ear to touch her right shoulder.
She had asked for scissors before, but the hospital seemed reluctant to provide her with any… apparently they remembered the time she had cut her way through the screen window and escaped, slipping away on a mission before they could catch her again.
"I'll trim it for you later, when you're released," Matsumoto promised. "And afterwards we'll all throw a party for you!"
Kara blinked in surprise, then smiled. "I'd like to drink with everyone, it's been a while."
"Then it's settled!" Matsumoto got up and stretched. "Since you'll be released tomorrow, I'll start go getting everyone ready! I'll come back and visit you later!" She started to leave, whistling a little song.
"Matsumoto-san…"
"Yeah?"
"Don't you have work to do?"
There was a silence, then Kara blinked and Matsumoto had disappeared. She groaned and put her head on her knees. "Damn…"
"Renji… yo, Renji!"
Renji turned at the sound of someone calling his name, sweat running down his face from training outdoors. "Oh, Rangiku-san."
She clapped her hands like a little kid. "Kara's going to be released from the hospital tomorrow," she informed him. "So I'm going to throw a party to celebrate her release! Want to come?"
Something bitter rose up in Renji's throat. "…"
"Oh come on, don't be shy! You know you want to be there! And…" She winked at him slyly. "You might get a chance to-"
"Sorry… I'm going to have to decline."
Matsumoto blinked. "What? I don't understand; why can't you come?" she demanded, hands on her hips.
Renji averted his eyes and resumed training. Images flashed through his mind's eye… Kara laughing and pummeling his face into the ground, that first time he had met her, their intense rivalries, her smirks and her smiles…
Kara emerging from surgery, covered in bandages… her bloodied face emerging from her tattered wings, and her voice, asking him if he was alright…
"I don't want to talk about it."
"There's nothing wrong with relaxing every once in a while!" Matsumoto persisted. "It'll be good for you! And besides, Kara would be glad to see you too."
Renji faltered. The bitter taste in his mouth died and gave way to something much stronger. "I wouldn't be glad to see her," he grumbled.
He was rewarded by a punch to the back of his head. With a yell, he flew facefirst into the wall. "What the hell was THAT for?!"
"How could you say something like that?!" Matsumoto glared down at him, serious for once. "That kid… she was waiting patiently to get out of the hospital so she could see you again! She got hurt because she wanted to protect your sorry ass!"
"Hey, just wait a sec-"
"Rejected." Matsumoto punched him again. "Don't you get it? Kara protected you because you're an important person to her. It was her choice, and then you go around blaming yourself for it; isn't that an insult to her feelings for you? And if you still have the guts to feel bad about it, then think about what you would do… what you've already done!" She turned her back on him. "Think again about whether you want to come or not," she shot back, before leaving. "Geez!" she groaned to herself. "Why do such troublesome guys like him exist…"
Renji rubbed his head awkwardly and stood up, dusting himself off.
A slight wind blew in the courtyard and he stretched, trying to relieve the stress built up on his shoulders. "Honestly… such stupid things…"
Kara was bored out of her mind. Being in the hospital was nice and all, but it was nighttime. After Matsumoto had left, she had tossed and turned a bit before going to sleep for the rest of the day. And now she couldn't sleep.
She couldn't even talk to Kikou; Captain Unohana had taken her sword away to be kept for safekeeping while she recovered; later, she had asked Hanatarou and he explained it was to make sure she didn't accidently use any spirit power, so she could recover more quickly.
Rolling onto her back, Kara wondered what Renji was doing… probably paperwork or sleeping, it was two in the morning.
"Yeah, all the work that I've got for today is already finished. In any case I've got a question for y- What the hell is up with that 'I-don't-believe-it' face?!"
"You… finished work… early…"
Despite herself, Kara snickered at the memory.
"Hey Kara, are you in love with Renji?"
In the dark, she could feel the heat rising in her face. Kara groaned and stuffed her head under the pillow, burrowing under her sheets.
Another headache… just the last thing she needed.
"Drink, drink! It's a party!"
"Yeah! Rangiku-san, I'm going to get super drunk today!!"
"Kira, don't push it…"
"Aww, don't be such a party pooper Hisagi! Here, you drink too!"
Hitsuguya sipped tea and chewed moodily on one of the meat buns which had been brought as a snack. "What a stupid party…"
Matsumoto, already drunk, patted her superior's head. "Aww, loosen up a bit Captain!"
"No thanks…"
Kara laughed and took another sip of her own drink. She wasn't really in the mood to get drunk, but it was funny watching the others steadily become drunker and crazier. There was a slight breeze which made the newly cropped hair on the back of her neck swish a little. Matsumoto, true to her word, had trimmed her hair into a line across the back of her neck, leaving two thin bangs on either side which hung in front of her ears. It didn't look bad, per say, but Kara thought it gave her a too… cute-looking bunny thing look. She sighed. Only thing she could do about her hair was to wait for it to grow back.
At the same time, she wondered where Renji was. Surprisingly, quite a few people had shown up for her party. Hitsuguya was only there because Matsumoto had forced him to come. She had also invited Kira, Hisagi, Nanao Ise, the Sentaouro and Kiyone pair, and Ikkaku and Yumichika were causing havoc by getting drunk and picking fights with everyone.
All eyes suddenly came to rest on Matsumoto as she abruptly stood and opened the door. "If you're going to just stand out there, might as well come in and have a drink with us!" she bellowed into the night.
There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to figure out who the hell she was talking about. Suddenly she disappeared, and as quickly, she reappeared, dragging someone with spiky red hair by the collar.
Kara instantly brightened. "Renji!"
Sheepishly, Renji shook Matsumoto off of him and made a face. "Hey…" he said amidst the drunken chorus of welcome. Resigning himself to his fate, he grabbed a bottle of sake and a cup and sat down next to Kara.
Kara smiled. "Hey, Renji, wher-"
"Yo, Ikkaku-san! Long time no see, how've you been?"
Kara was surprised and a little hurt by this… but maybe she just wasn't making herself heard. She tried again, twice, and he had ignored her or interrupted her by calling out loudly to someone who happened to be on the end of the table. Determined not to let it get the best of her, she waved and laughed like everyone else.
The pair didn't exchange a single word with each other for a while after that, just joining in among the general chaos of the party.
An hour later, when Ikkaku accidently broke the table, she stood up. "I'm going to go outside for a bit," she explained, grinning. "It's getting too hot, what with all you drunkards in here."
"Ahhh don't be so mean Kara!" Matsumoto yelled in mock-anger. "This is your- OMIGOD KIRA DON'T START STRIPPING HERE!"
Kara choked back a laugh and quietly slipped out of the room as everyone tried in various ways to stop Kira.
The noise of the party became muted by the cool night air as Kara strolled away from the room. She sighed gratefully. The party was fun, but it had been rather loud, so the quietness was rather soothing. She leaned against the courtyard wall and closed her eyes.
"Hey."
Kara jumped at the unexpected voice, and then grinned. "Yo, Renji! Don't scare me like that," she laughed.
"Yeah… mind if I stay here?" he asked, gesturing towards the wall. Inwardly, he cursed Matsumoto for revealing his presence and winced at how idiotic he sounded, even to himself.
Kara grinned again, so Renji took that for a yes and sat down next to her.
A rather awkward silence settled down.
"Hey Renji… did I do something to make you mad?"
Renji jumped a bit at the unexpected question. He glanced at her, but she wasn't looking at him; rather, she had her face decidedly turned away. "Why suddenly ask something like that?"
Kara hugged her knees to her chest, trying to keep her voice steady. "…no reason really. Did you notice there's lots of stars out tonight?"
Renji blinked in surprise. "I guess… there's no clouds today."
She looked up with a grin plastered onto her face. Nothing was wrong, why would anything be bothering her? "Oh, Matsumoto-san came to visit me yesterday-"
"She talked to you too?"
Kara froze. There was a mantra going through her mind, something along the lines of holy shit what the hell did she say to him…holy shit what the hell did she…
Renji saw the faint blush to her cheeks in the moonlight and looked away to hide his own face. "Kara…"
"Ah! We should go back to the party, the others will wonder where we went!" Kara bounced off her seat and started to stride away. "We don't want to make them wait!"
A large hand gripped her shoulder tightly. Kara tensed, but Renji didn't remove his hand. "Kara… what are you running away from? It's only me."
And that's the whole problem, you idiot…
"Look at me."
Kara turned, praying that it was dark enough to hide her face.
She flinched when he reached out with his other hand… and took a lock of her hair between his fingers. Kara blinked. In his eyes, there was a something she had never seen before… sadness, shame... "Your hair… I'm sorry…" he murmured.
"I'm not," Kara suddenly heard herself retaliate.
Renji stepped back, stunned, then angry. "You're not sorry that you almost got killed, that you could have died because I was…"
"I'm not sorry about this hair," she clarified. "And you weren't. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been able to fight like I did and I would probably be dead!"
"How the hell are you not understanding what I'm trying to say?!"
"You're the one who doesn't get that I really care about whether you live or die!"
"Don't you get that you were in the hospital for that long because you were doing something stupid and reckless-"
"If saving your life was stupid and reckless then don't ask me to do it again! I said before, if it wasn't for you I'd be dead!"
"I never asked you to begin with; my point is that you could have died when you did that!"
"So why were you doing it?! You saved my life too, too many times for me to count, you were in just as much danger as I was! I should be yelling all of the stuff you're yelling at me at you! Why can't you understand I really care ab…" She trailed off, her face turning a darker shade of red as she realized what she had been about to say. She coughed awkwardly. "And anyways, we both saved each others lives then. So you have really nothing to apologize… for…"
Kara found herself trailing off a second time. Not because she was embarrassed by what she was about to say, but she suddenly found herself in a tight embrace. She gasped. "Renji…?"
"Don't say anything for a second." He shifted so one arm was wrapped around her shoulders, the other hand cradling the back of her head. "It was pretty damn awful, waiting for you to come out of surgery," he said hoarsely. Like this in his arms, she seemed so small and fragile… but he knew, somehow he had always known that she… "If you ever make me worry like that again, I'm going to kill you myself."
Kara suddenly felt overwhelmed. She slowly leaned her forehead against his shoulder, breathing in his scent and closing her eyes. Indescribable warmth filled her heart as she did, fueled by so many things that she couldn't have possibly named them all. "Same goes for you," she whispered in spite of herself. "If you ever disappear, I will never forgive you."
Hesitantly, she wrapped her own arms around him, and then hugged him close to her as his embrace tightened in response. She was sure he could feel her heart beating some kind of stampede against the inside of her chest. She could hear his, matching the pace of her own.
Renji pulled away a little. Kara looked up at him; their eyes locked for one moment before his lips were on hers. All thought was blown away in Kara's mind as she felt herself being enveloped by his warmth, his gruff yet tender love. She was dimly surprised at how soft his lips felt against her own. Ever so gently, she shifted the slightest bit, tilting her head to deepen the kiss. Renji did not seem to have any qualms about this, he shifted the hand on her shoulders to embrace her torso and drew her a little closer to him.
When they came up for air, Renji looked at her for a second before turning a brilliant shade of red and backing away a couple steps, releasing her. He rubbed the back of his neck and lightly coughed awkwardly. "Well then… uh…"
Kara smiled. It was the first time Renji could remember ever seeing her look quite this way, completely red but smiling so happily.
And it was in that moment all the awkwardness disappeared from the air and complete understanding took its place. This time Kara was the one who start. She simply thumped her head against his shoulder, hoping it would hide the fact that tears of joy were running down her face. Renji either didn't notice or didn't say anything, simply concentrating on holding her as closely and as tightly as he could.
"Oh, look what we have here!"
Renji and Kara both froze. Matsumoto hung over the balcony, waving her sake bottle. She beamed. "So it worked, did it?"
"Oh, let me see this!" Ikkaku pushed his way out the door, quite drunk, and laughed too loudly. "Renji!! You've finally found yourself a girl!! C'mere you sly dog!"
They both let go of each other instantly. "Shut up," Renji muttered.
"Kara~~! Come here for a moment!" Matsumoto sang, gesturing her over. As a beet red Kara meekly obeyed, the other guys swarmed out and jumped on Renji like a pack of wolves. Like a pack of drunken wolves singing the corniest love ballads they knew.
Matsumoto dragged her inside into a closet. "So?" she asked, taking another sip from the sake bottle. "How was it?"
"It was… nice…" was all Kara managed to say.
Matsumoto shrieked with laughter and patted Kara on the back. "You'll become a woman soon enough, just wait and see!"
"Mastumoto-san!"
The closet door opened, and Hitsuguya stood there. "Matsumoto, what are you doing?" he asked tiredly.
She chuckled. "Nothing at all, Captain."
"Holding conversations which can be heard by everyone in the room, I suppose?"
As if Kara needed to be more embarrassed.
Hitsuguya glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed. "It's getting late… I'm going to head to bed. Kara."
"Yes, sir?"
He paused, then coughed awkwardly. "…make sure your report on your progress with Kikou is turned in by tomorrow."
"Yes, sir."
"Aw Captain! Why don't you just say congratulations like you really want to?!"
"Can it, Matsumoto."
Kara laughed, and laughed as she realized how really lucky she was. Surrounded by friends who would support and help her, people who understood and sat with her when she was down… and finally realizing that she was in love with her best friend, a typical story of the guy who had been next to her for her entire life being the one…
Well, she wasn't about to complain. So let the future throw whatever it wanted to at her. What mattered was what she held here; surrounded by the warmth of people who cared about her. To always have this place to return to...
She stood up and poured herself a drink, to find a little gold bird suddenly sitting on the edge of her cup. She jumped. "Kikou…?"
It is good to see that you have recovered, little one. Have you decided what you will protect?
Kara smiled. "Yes."
Kikou nodded, pleased. Very well. Prepare yourself, Hotarubi Kara! You and I have much work to do.
It disappeared in a little gold flame. Kara put her hand on the rim of the cup where it had been, silently contemplating…
Renji stumbled through the door, having finally freed himself from the group which was now singing and dancing outside. He blushed when he saw she was the only one in the room.
Kara grinned. Her best friend, her comrade in arms, the one whom she could always trust, and her overall most important person was standing there. She sighed and tossed a cup at him, which he reflexively snatched out of the air.
"C'mere. You and I have got a few things to discuss, Renji. Setting down some rules right now is the most important thing to do."
He blinked, surprised. "… sure?"
After she poured him some sake and drank a bit herself, she glared at him. "The first thing is…"
"Is…?" Renji asked a little apprehensively when she remained silent for a minute.
Kara turned red. "… don't disappear anywhere without telling me, alright?"
He grinned and used her head as an elbow rest while he sipped his sake. "Same goes for you too," he said, over her protests of the treatment.
Kara socked him in the stomach, which successfully removed the presence of his elbow from her head. "The only other thing I really want to say for now is that if you don't survive the Winter War, I'm going to kill you."
Above his pained stomach, Renji had to process that for a moment. Then he whacked the back of her head in revenge. "Fine. But if you die, I'll force you to eat banana pudding."
Kara, in the midst of clutching her aching head, widened her eyes in shock. "That's low," she growled.
Renji only grinned, she elbowed him. An interesting relationship seemed to be taking an interesting direction as the pair began to first bicker, then bellow at one another about the righteousness of banana pudding, as the snickering eavesdroppers listened through a crack in the door.
And in his quarters, Hitsuguya was awakened by the presence of a Hell Butterfly, commanding him to come and receive orders from Commander Yamamoto about a certain matter which had appeared in the human world. This matter would be the start of the real threat and fighting which would shake both worlds for months to come…
But that's all a different story.