Abarai Renji is tenacious. (renji) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-11-17 16:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, ichigo kurosaki, renji abarai |
Who: Ichigo Kurosaki, Renji Abarai
What: Debating about dreams and calling each other names etc, while Renji’s supposed to be working. Bickering: It’s what they do best. Also? Renji’s manager is convinced she’s the Good Luck shamrock Carebear when she’s asleep. That’s why she’s a closet alcoholic, since it's Irish and the good luck didn't seem to stick with her. This is because crack makes my world go 'round and 'round.
When: Beginning of November, way before the truth plot.
Rating: Medium, for language. Cuz...it’s them.
Status: Complete!
Renji was once again at work, only it was very slow, since most people who had lost their voices thought it was some sort of epidemic. Even they were missing some employees. Rangiku had called in with no voice, and there was probably only so much in the way of hand motions that she could make before she had a wardrobe malfunction. Not showing up when that was taken into account? That made sense.
And so Renji had one arm hanging out the open drive-thru window, his chin on his arms, and he was staring out in such a way, that it looked like he was asleep with his eyes wide open. He might even start drooling on himself, any second now.
Ichigo still had no car, but that would never stop him from bugging the idiot who had decided it was fit to warn him by yelling at him about sunglasses. He’d walked right up to the drive thru window, gave the redhead a fierce poke in his forehead and at the same time he screamed in his ear, “Hey, dumbass, can I get something to eat or do I have to wait forever?”
He wasn’t exactly thrilled to be here himself, but Ichigo had a feeling that maybe Renji could explain more about the nonsense that was happening around here. People going well...what did you call that when people couldn’t speak? Whatever. People suddenly not being able to speak. He wondered what was the cause of it, and he silently hoped that Renji could speak. Or, well, if Renji couldn’t speak, that would be kind of awesome, because then Ichigo could make fun of him for it and planned on doing so if that were the case.
Renji had flailed, his own hand thwapping Ichigo in the face and the top of his head met the top of the drive thru window's frame. That was going to leave a mark. Or a bump. WHATEVER. It hurt. He held up both hands in a classic WHATSA-MATTER-YOU way, kind of like how drivers on a freeway do when they take their hands off the steering wheel after being cut off. Whatsamatteryou, Ichigo? Why you do that, asshat?!
"What the HELL, Ichigo!" he hollered, causing one of the cooks to drop a pan with a clatter somewhere in the kitchen. "Don't do that. I was thinking, dumbass, and now I have headache. I also told you not to walk up to the drive-thru window to order."
That wasn't a no response either, because Renji would probably throw something for free out at Ichigo anyway.
He threw off his hat they made him wear there, luckily it was a baseball cap and not something stupid, like a felt pineapple with sewn on grill marks. It also made it easier to see that not only was his hairline very angular now, but his eyebrow and forehead tattoos had new friends, in the form of tattoos on his neck. Which looked to have been there for a while and were not freshly done.
Ichigo just gave Renji an amused look when he was promptly hit himself. Luckily for Renji, he was known for his hard head, both in this world and the dream world, so don’t worry, Renji, no brain cells were damaged just yet. “Well, I don’t have a car, and you can’t exactly talk to me if I walk into the restaurant now, can you? So, this will have to do unless you’re offering to buy me a car.” Ichigo managed a grin in response, joking of course, but it wouldn’t be his fault if Renji took him seriously.
Still, when Renji pulled off his hat, Ichigo gave him a critical look, staring at him intently. Now, Ichigo wasn’t known for his power of observation. Usually it took someone hitting him over the head (which, Renji had done already), or tossing it in his face directly before he got the secret messages. And this was no different. Ichigo just blinked blankly at Renji, wondering if the idiot really wanted something else to do with him. “So you can take off your damn hat. Big deal. What’s the point?” returned Ichigo with a shrug, shoving his hands into his pockets.
That skull was thicker than thick. It's true. He also looked at Ichigo like his skull was pretty thick too, before he snatched up the hat, leaned out the window, and went to thwap Ichigo upside the head with it.
"I took it off because I bumped my head, DUMBASS! And it gets hot in here. Also? NO, I am not buying you a damn car. Get a job. I had to pay for mine!" He jabbed a thumb over in the direction of where the employees parked, to where a rusted out toyota carolla from the 70's was parked. It wasn't exactly the kind of car anyone wanted to go pick up chicks in. Not that Renji was doing that anyway.
RUKIA DIDN'T COUNT! ...ok, maybe she counted, but he doesn't want to ever admit that either, much like the dreams.
"Why're you here and don't tell me its because you only want a burger," Renji said, almost accusingly, even if he was appreciative of Ichigo going through all that to help everyone when the shit really hit the fan. "Did you dream about me yet or what?”
That might sound kind of intimate to any eavesdroppers. If Renji’s manager heard that? Her nose might spring a leak.
Ichigo grinned over at the other despite the thump to his head, and he moved his foot up to put a foot to Renji’s face in annoyance. “Dumbass,” remarked Ichigo bluntly, returning to his balance and shoving his hands into his pockets irritably. “I don’t exactly want a car yet. Got plenty of other ways to get around here just like back home.” He shrugged.
“And what the hell kind of question is that about me dreaming about you?” retorted Ichigo with a smirk on his features. “You some kind of disgusting pervert?” Oh, he knew exactly what Renji was talking about, but he never minded giving people a bit of a hard time when he could afford to do that.
"Yeah, I'm totally hot for your body," Renji sarcastically replied, after trying ineffectually to slap Ichigo's foot away with one hand. At least it was removed from his face, so it was all good as far as he was concerned. These two fought like they were related somehow (like brothers, or cousins) anyway, so all of this felt pretty much normal.
Meanwhile, in the background, Renji's manager was having a total slack-jawed nosebleed moment, just listening in. Of course, Renji isn't noticing that.
"Before I try to get in your pants, tell me what it was you remember," he was telling Ichigo, with an eyeroll, so he could try to line up things in his head, even if he was still trying his hardest to reject everything. "This dream stuff is stupid, so maybe it's like those sub lime messages they beam into your head so you believe stuff."
It's subliminal, but whatever Renji. What. Ever.
“Uh huh. If it’s just messages, then how the hell do you explain the additional tattoos you’re getting?” remarked Ichigo with a shrug. Ichigo also failed to notice Renji’s manager as he shoved his hands in his pockets again. “I was fighting you, because your dumbass captain tried to take Rukia back to...well, some other place. Your Captain fucking nearly killed me, dumbass, so don’t get on me about whether or not I should back off what the hell he says. From what I gathered, I was only trying to protect that Rukia girl for whatever reason, as she seemed to be going back to her death for something. Pretty stupid shit if you ask me.”
Ichigo frowned, giving Renji a look. “Aren’t they supposed to be siblings, even there, in that dream place? Byakuya and Rukia. What kind of idiot wouldn’t try to save his own damn sister? I don’t know eveything, but we must have been friends or something for me to want to try to save her.”
"Tattoo NINJAS," Renji yelled, like he was cursing the universe, fists clenched and everything. It is the only explanation that he will accept as to why he keeps getting more and more tattoos.Just wait until his sword shows up.
Renji's manager thought they were involved in crazy talk, but she lives in the OC too, and kept having dreams of being a CareBear. Not even a good one, but the green Irish times one that was a not-so-secret alcoholic behind the scenes. Just like in real life! But her employees drove her to it. Damn employees.
Meanwhile, back in Renji Land, he was listening to what Ichigo was saying and kind of looking a little beady-eyed and ashamed. Because yes, all of the things. Those happened and that's weird, so someone must be....
"...huh someone must've had the sub lime messages beamed at you on the same channel," Renji explained, pretty sure this was some sort of government conspiracy or something. Because submarine limes were the cause of this. Uh huh.
Even so, the only way Renji could defend himself was, "Yeah, my Captain was pretty hell bent on following the rules, even if it was like, me, or Rukia, or like...if he had a kitten? He'd probably turn it in if it broke the law. He follows that shit to the letter, Ichigo. If you got in the way of the law being followed, he's gonna take you down."
Renji had dreamed the rest of it, but it wasn't going to make sense telling Ichigo all of it, when it still didn't make sense, to himself. Not when he's telling himself that tattoo ninjas are giving him tattoos when he's asleep. And that some submarine lime off the coastline was beaming dreams into their heads. What? Renji’s still not the sharpest tool in the shed. It’ll get better when he’s able to accept that it’s real (around the time Byakuya informs him to stop being a dumbass).
"They aren't real siblings. Rukia's adopted. Here and there," Renji also pointed out. Only in the dreams, he was there for that part. "And it's not like I wanted to arrest her, but in that dream, I have a job to do and I clawed my way up to that point from being some scrappy orphan kid, to get that job. I wasn't gonna disobey an order. It was given from way high up in the command chain somewhere. Higher than even Byakuya, all right?"
Ichigo just gave Renji a look that said he seriously didn’t believe anything that he was hearing. His eyes narrowed a bit and he reached out and gripped the collar on Renji’s neck. “So you’d arrest someone even if you didn’t know why they were guilty to save your own damn ass? Yeah, I think I know why we fought each other.”
He tugged Renji close for a moment then pushed him back, shoving his hands back into his pockets and stepping back himself. “So like an idiot you just followed an order, huh? And do you know yet what happens to this Rukia girl in the other place anyway?” He couldn’t understand it. Just because someone ordered you to do something, doesn’t mean you have to do it, at least not in Ichigo’s mind. Especially if you haven’t understood why you were doing something, then as far as Ichigo was concerned, no action should be taken. Stand up for what you believe in. That’s what he’d been taught, and those were the principles that he was going to stick by.
"She disobeyed a rule. If you can't remember what the hell it was, then why should I bother explaining it all? It's complicated, but I didn't do it to save my ass, and as far as I knew, yeah. She was guilty. I had to do my job, like it or not, or even if you got in my way, Ichigo. Which, trust me? You got in my way a lot."
Renji reached forward and gave him a shove back, for being a punk. It didn't do a thing to make Renji look less punk like either. You two. So rude. At least it was just a little shove and not enough to send Ichigo toppling over or anything. After all, this guy wasn't Renji's enemy, even though it seemed like they were at first. Renji knew more than he was letting on too, because he was in a state of denial, and because he didn't want to really believe it, either.
"It worked out later and yeah, I know what happens. But I need to find out if this dream stuff is true or not. That's all I'm gonna say about it. If I tell you, then it could like...uhh...do that thing where I tell you something and then you believe it and think it's true even if you haven't experienced it for yourself."
The word was influence, but of course, it didn't stick in Renji's brain. It would have made that explanation much more efficient.
"You let me know if you have any more dreams," Renji told him, "and I'll match it up. I've probably got a big head start."
Ichigo just gave Renji a look. The sort of look that said he really did think that Renji could be a dumbass most of the time. “I don’t have to let you know shit. All I know is unless this Rukia girl committed murder, then she didn’t deserve to die or whatever the hell she was going back to.” He crossed his arms pointedly.
“Guilty or not, I don’t think whatever she did meant that sort of punishment, especially to be handed down by her own damned brother. Sorry, dumbass, but brothers are supposed to protect their siblings.” He was going to remain steadfast on this point, not really willing to shift points there.
“So, we done here?” questioned Ichigo irritably, not really wanting to get into an argument in this moment. At least, not a further argument.
"HEY! I didn't say I liked it and it's not like I knew what the hell her brother was thinking, alright?!"
Renji's blood pressure was hitting a boiling point, but there was nothing unusual about that. It hit that point at least one time every hour, if not twice. Fine, three times, bare minimum.
"You're getting pissed off without knowing all of it," Renji pointed out. "I'm not your enemy, Ichigo. That's all I can say until you figure it out yourself. So knock it off and save the attitude for some other dumbass out there that isn't me."
There was a pause before Renji barked out a very loud, "For the record, I'M NOT A DUMBASS!"
Ichigo just smirked in response, and he turned and started to walk away from the restaurant and from Renji. His hand waved back in dismissal from Renji as he turned away. “I’m not the one getting pissed off as far as I can see,” remarked Ichigo lightly.
He shrugged at the last comment and continued walking, not really interested in doing much else at the moment. “Oh, as far as you being a dumbass, if i didn’t bother you, you wouldn’t get worked up so much if I do call you that. And you wouldn’t recognize yourself as one either, even in defense. Just saying. Anyway. See ya later, Renji.” Ichigo was certain that Renji would just start shouting after him, but Ichigo didn’t really care. He had no idea what he’d discover later on in the dreams, but he knew that sooner or later, they would come to him.
"...still a fuggin' jerk," Renji said, shaking his head, and going back to work.