[closed / incomplete]
WHO: Renji Abarai [rukongai_dog] and Luke fon Fabre [replica_dreck] and the Disreputable Dog [walker_dog]
WHAT: After Renji’s upset journal entry, Luke shows up to give some comfort.
WHERE: Renji’s home
WHEN: Late night, after the clinic fire
( Renji may be miserable and Luke may not know how to immediately fix it, but hell if he was going to leave Renji alone in his misery. )
WHAT: After Renji’s upset journal entry, Luke shows up to give some comfort.
WHERE: Renji’s home
WHEN: Late night, after the clinic fire
( Renji may be miserable and Luke may not know how to immediately fix it, but hell if he was going to leave Renji alone in his misery. )
"You should dry off first," she advised. "You'll catch sick if you stay all wet and cold like that. I'll be all right for a little while longer. Fur, you know."
With a satisfied nod, she turned her attention to Luke, her tail wagging furiously and a grin spreading across her muzzle. She loved meeting new people, and this one definitely smelled friendly.
"Of course I can talk," she said simply. "I'm the Disreputable Dog - or the Disreputable Bitch, if you want to get technical."
She gave no more explanation than that - she never did. And it always seemed to be just enough for people to shrug and scratch her behind the ears.
Ooh, scratching - that sounded really good right now. She flopped down onto her hindquarters and lifted a back paw to scratch furiously at her neck, just above her collar.
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That was funny, Renji noticed dimly.
He took the towel Luke and place awkwardly on his shoulder and rubbed his hair with it violently. When his head emerged again, his hair was messy and sticking up in all tangled directions, but at least it didn't drip.
"Guess'll go... get changed, then," Renji mumbled, pulling his shirt off over his head before he'd even turned towards the bathroom. His years and years of living on the streets had acclimatized him to a lack of privacy, and so he didn't even notice that he was stripping all the way to his underwear as he walked away down the hall, before he was even out of sight. His bold, black tribal tattoos gleamed with rain his chest and back, and the newest additions on his thighs peeked out from underneath the hem of his boxers.
He turned into the bathroom and locked himself in, and there were five quiet seconds before a crash. He'd kicked the door.
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At Renji’s mumble, Luke’s attention had been drawn up, a tint of a flush growing on his cheeks as his gaze followed his manager. Was it... okay? To just strip like that? And... where did his tattoos go? A bit more red on his cheeks, he turned back to the dog, scratching at her ear and trying to avoid his embarrassment.
That, of course, was until he heard the crash. Embarrassment was forgotten and he turned to the bathroom door, flinching. “Renji,” he mumbled sadly. After a particular sigh, Luke raised his tone, shouting back, “No breaking the door!” Because he really didn't want to have to watch Renji change anymore than he already had.
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Renji sat on the edge of the bathtub, still soaked, face in his hands. He couldn't look in the mirror; the drug-drawn face he'd see would disgust him. He couldn't look in the shower; he and Byakuya had done too much there.
And his body had begun to speed up, anxious for more of its greatest poison.
So his face was in his hands and he tried to ignore the pull he'd begun to feel towards the bar - the bar where he'd find his joy plant, his opium.
He took a shuddering breath in and out, in and out, and reached for his towel. Blindly, he began to dry himself, wringing out his underwear while it still hung on his body.
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Uncertainly, he stayed where he was for a long moment, glancing back towards the bathroom. Luke wasn’t sure if he should trust Renji in there after that crash. The point of being here was making sure Renji wasn’t alone.
“Let’s check on him, girl, before he does something stupid,” Luke finally muttered to her. He stood up slowly, before finding his way back to the bathroom door. “Renji?” He asked through the door. “Are you okay?”
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Luke's question, however, got a rather scathing look from her. Of course he wasn't all right, that was why they were here.
Still, she put a paw to the door and scratched gently, a low whine escaping from her throat.
"I know it seems hopeless now, sir, but..." she thought for a moment, then shook her head. "But it will get better. I believe that."
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Fuck. Forgot clothes.
It didn't really bother him, but a jitter was slowly starting to form in his right hand. He'd last a couple hours, he supposed, before he gave in and had another hit. But for now, he'd do his very best to ignore it.
His guests sounded concerned. Maybe it was a little unfair to shut himself up when they were around - they'd come to keep him company, after all, among other things. He opened the door (still only in his underwear) and surveyed the faces of the dog and the boy standing there slowly. He saw honesty there - something he himself hadn't been as in touch with as he'd originally thought.
His heart sank deeper into the pit it had created, but Renji scratched the Dog's ears slowly anyway.
Curling up on the loveseat with a blanket, the Dog, and Luke nearby suddenly seemed like a very good idea. Maybe it'd slow the acceleration of his needy body.
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Get the tangles out of his hair.
Get him warm, comfortable.
Let him know they still cared about him.
Somehow, Luke hoped that the Dog would stick around and help him, fill in the obvious parts that Luke didn’t know what to do with. “It will get better.” Luke muttered, repeating her words with hope, slipping past Renji while he was petting the Dog. “We’ll help however we can, so just hang in there.” He grabbed up a brush from the bathroom, before going back to the two.
Maybe... maybe it was better to just let Renji stay like that. He certainly didn’t seem to be making any steps to fix it. Then... well, he’d just move them all to the living room. Brush Renji’s hair while Renji petted the Dog. Offering up the very smallest ( ... )
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"I think that sounds fine," she said encouragingly. "Why don't we find somewhere to sit down, somewhere warm?"
He was dried off now, at least, and Luke could take care of the tangles in that ridiculous mane of his. They'd keep him warm, and stay by his side, to be sure nothing could happen.
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He wouldn't sit on the couch for the same reason he hadn't looked at the shower.
It occurred to him that if he drank himself into oblivion he could probably put off his next hit by a full either hours or so, but it was an opinion he didn't voice. The Dog had probably noticed the shaking in his hands, anyway.
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After a moment, Luke sat on one edge of the loveseat next to Renji and patted the other side of Renji for the Dog in an offer. For a second, one hand brushed Renji’s hair back, away from his face, before he dropped his hand, and the other deposited the brush beside him. Maybe he’d switch the order of his ideas of what to do with Renji. The tangles were going to be hellish anyway, why bother with them if Renji was like this.Out of ideas and getting the impression consoling words weren’t doing the trick, he went back to the one thing Guy had taught him that always worked. He gave Renji another hug, this one, with little intention of moving soon. Luke’s forehead ended up almost at Renji’s ( ... )
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Still, she took the invitation, leaping up onto the loveseat beside Renji in one smooth bunch and flex of muscles. She stayed standing for a moment, just long enough to give Renji's cheek a gentle lick, then flopped down onto the loveseat with her head and forepaws in Renji's lap.
It was about as close as she could get to a true hug, her furry bulk warm against Renji's bare chest, her sides moving gently as she breathed.
No one should hurt like this, and she had in her the vaguest idea to get the scent of whoever it was that had left Renji like this, track them down, and drag them forcibly back - she probably could, really, though her seeming lack of ability to change her size might make it a little more difficult... Not to mention her magic being missing...
But at the moment, it seemed more important to provide what support she could, even if all that meant was doggy kisses and soft fur.
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Despite the jitters that came with his need, Renji was exhausted. He had nothing left. The intensity of his guilt and loss had ebbed since the arrival of these two - now he felt it just as much, but was numbed enough by the boy and the Dog not to do anything stupid.
Probably. Yet.
He squeezed Luke gently, to keep himself in the real world.
"I'm... glad you guys could come."
He was waiting for the inevitable questions, though. Eventually, they would want to know.
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“Anytime, Renji,” he muttered against Renji’s chest, before tilting his head to the side so his voice was more tangible. “Thanks for letting us be here.”
Luke wanted to know what had happened, wanted to know so he could scramble up some idea of how to fix it. He was also terrified of bad timing.
“When... you feel up to it,” because Luke wasn’t sure if he would. “You can tell us...”
Maybe the Dog had the right idea with just dragging Byakuya back.
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Until Luke asked the question. Her ears perked in response, hoping for an answer, but to her it seemed fairly obvious what had happened.
Renji had done something - it didn't much matter what, to the Dog - which had constituted a broken promise, and spurred someone important to leave. That was the basic gist of the situation. And the Dog knew, of course, that it must have been something quite serious.
But anyone with a heart needed only to look at Renji - even to read his journal entry - to see how repentant he was. To understand how much he regretted what he had done, and to see how desperate he was to fix it.
Love...it shouldn't be so simple to lose. The Dog understood that, if nothing else. Circumstances aside, love was...love. That was the important bit.
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