Heat Wave (Part Three) - Better Than Me
Title: Heat Wave (Part Three) - Better Than Me
Series: Bleach
Pairing/Characters: Renji/Rukia (Characters by Kubo Tite)
Warnings: None
Notes: Previous chapter: Heat Wave (Part Two) - Sweat - Ayasegawa/Madarame - Rating - NC-17
Summary/Excerpt: “I did.” A smile tugged at the corners of Renji’s mouth. “I knew you’d make it as a shinigami. And I should have known you’d overachieve.”
“There you are.” Despite choosing to look everywhere else first, Renji was not the least bit surprised to find Rukia on the roof. He had simply hoped she would be elsewhere. But even in this mad heat, it was her escape.
Renji stepped carefully over the roof tiles and briefly thought what he always thought when he stepped up here - that they would have to replace their tiles long before anyone else would have to. He reached her side and stretched out beside her, looked up at the stars as she was. He hadn’t expected a breeze up here, but was still disappointed not to find one.
“Renji.”
“Yeah?”
“Remember nights like this when we were little?”
His reply was softer this time. “Yeah.”
“We used to talk about what the shinigami were probably doing…how they’d be sleeping in their cool houses, safe and satisfied.” A pause. “We weren’t exactly right. It’s just as hot here.” She sighed. “I didn’t really believe we’d ever find out.”
“I did.” A smile tugged at the corners of Renji’s mouth. “I knew you’d make it as a shinigami. And I should have known you’d overachieve.”
“Me? What about you, Captain Abarai?”
“I had no choice. I am what I am today because of you. You were adopted into the Kuchiki family, so I had to become at least Vice-Captain. Then you got yourself in trouble, so I had to learn bankai, had to face down my own Captain as well as Aizen, and do it all in such a way that I not only would survive, but be rewarded for it instead of punished. You always were pushy.”
“Renji, I never cared. You know that. Becoming Captain made it easy for us - but it was never necessary.”
“I thought it was, but not for the reasons you think. It’s because ever since we met, you’ve been better than me.”
“Renji!”
“Shhh. I don’t want to hear it. It’s how I felt, and it’s how I still feel. I don’t think it’s a bad thing anymore, is all. You’re better than me and so I have to live up to you every day. That’s what makes me who I am. And you know what finally drove that through my head, don’t you?”
“Ichigo.”
“Yeah. Ichigo. He didn’t care if someone was better than him.” Renji grinned. “Hell, he didn’t even care if the person he was saving wanted saving or not. He taught me that it didn’t matter. If you care for someone, you do what you have to do.”
Rukia was silent a moment, then smiled. “Everything we are is due to someone else.” She reached over to take Renji’s hand into her own. “And every great thing is done for someone else. When we understood that, we finally started living, didn’t we?”
“It was when we started being ourselves. That’s why it’s just as hot here as it was in Rukongai. I’m still that stray dog, and you’re still that beautiful star I reach for.”
Rukia turned her head to look at him, and Renji felt those blue eyes hit him like a punch to the gut. He smiled. “Something else hasn’t changed, either.”
“What?”
“You’re still a midget.”
There was a very still moment in which he grinned and she stared, and the heat pressed down on them like a blanket. Then she was on top of him, yelling, and he was laughing, catching her wrists and pulling her down for a kiss.
Things didn’t change. They simply got better.