“Shinji’s near.” Hisagi stiffens where he stands at the very edge of their territory, his eyes wide and his nose twitching as he turns to look around them, trying to pick out the nearby pack from the thicket of trees around them. “I can smell him, Renji. I’d never mistake him for anyone else.”

Renji knows. He’d picked up on the scent of their wayward wandering pack members only a few moments ago, knowing better than to try to chase Shinji out of hiding. “He’ll come when he wants to come out. You know things have been tense ever since Aizen…”

He trails off and Hisagi winces but nods. The defection of Aizen had caused more problems and rifts in their pack than anyone ever seemed willing to want to sit down and think through at length, not that Renji can blame anyone when it comes right down to it. It wasn’t just people like Momo and Kira and Hisagi, wounded by losing those who meant something to them. It was the splinter of their pack, Hirako Shinji turning away from the rest of them when he realized that Aizen had done all of this right under his nose without him ever picking up on it. When he chose to walk away, the wolves he brought with him in the first place went with him.

Except for Kensei. Shinji told him to stay behind, and now Renji thinks he understands why.

They stand still until the crack of a tree branch has Renji’s head turning, revealing a familiar figure who steps through the trees and stops right at the boundary of the pack borders. It hurts to see that in more ways than one, but Shinji had been clear that he was leaving and had no intentions of coming back not even as a non-hostile visitor.

“Hey, Shin.” Renji waves for Hisagi to remain in place, walking up to the sudden and would-be pack alpha, taking in his rough appearance. “Are you guys good for the coming winter?”

Shinji sighs at him, picks a few stray leaves out of his hair. He’d worn it down when he was with their pack but had tied it back when he left. Renji has memories of Aizen playing with it and thinks tying it back had saved Shinji from just cutting it all off. “Even if we weren’t, you know as well as I do that I wouldn’t be coming back with the rest of you.”

“Of course not. I wouldn’t expect you to.” It would be foolish in more ways than one because Renji knows Shinji, had spoken to him at length about pack matters because Shinji was one of the people Byakuya trusted the most. It made Aizen’s betrayal sting even more.

It was no one’s fault. Aizen had been cunning even at the very end, and none of them could have seen it came no matter how carefully they watched him. If Shinji and Momo were unable to notice, if Byakuya himself detected no malice from Aizen, then no one else could have known. Not that it seemed to matter to Shinji. He blamed himself, over and over again.

“Just thought I’d touch base with you about what we’ve seen up in the mountains. Not as high up as Zaraki’s pack, but still up there.” Shinji’s expression is pinched and Renji knows who he’s going to bring up before he does it. “Sosuke’s up there. He’s got a pack to himself.”

That had been what Renji was expecting to hear, in all honesty. “As long as he’s outside of our pack boundaries and Zaraki’s, there’s not much we can do about that right now.”

“Oh, believe me, I know. He was real sweet when we crossed paths. Got some real mean ones in that pack of his even if they seem deceptively sweet at first.” Which means… Not better things, and Renji can only imagine the kinds of wolves Aizen would surround himself with if the choice was up to him, if he had total reign over them. A king filling his court with only the most deadly soldiers and assassins, the ultimate protection. “He asked if we wanted to stay.”

Renji winces. “That must have been hard. How was he looking?”

“Still missing the eye. I don’t think he could have healed it fast enough when Byakuya tore it out like that.” Shinji snorts. Aizen deserved it and no one felt all that bad for him incurring the wrath of the very man he tried to take down. “Otherwise, he’s fine. Scarred but alive, which ain’t exactly what I wanted to find out. Kinda hoped he went off somewhere, got infection, and died.”

“Guess you’re not going to listen to me when I tell you that what happened really wasn’t your fault in the first place.” Renji says, and he knows it’s a waste of time.

Shinji’s smile is pained and his laughter makes the hairs on the back of Renji’s neck stand up. “As if, Ren. I’ve taken my share of the responsibility for what Sosuke did. I’ve been away long enough for our pack to be properly exiled. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“If you came back now, Byakuya wouldn’t hold it against you.” He knows that better than anyone, remembers the gutted expression on Byakuya’s face in private as the weight of Shinji leaving settled on all of them. “No one would. They get it, you know, but you weren’t the only one those three left behind and no one else is getting it held against them.”

Shinji is quiet for a long moment before he sighs and tips his head back, eyes fixed on the sky filled with heavy grey clouds above them. “Maybe they ought to, then.”

“That’s a little harsh.” Renji tells him, flinching when Shinji only barks laughter again.

“Is it? Then I guess that’s just who I am now. How can you fall asleep next to a man every night and wake up to his face drenched in sunlight and not see that he was plotting to kill your pack alpha and take over through such disingenuous means?” Shinji rolls his shoulders and Renji can see fresh scars on his shoulders, ones that hadn’t been there the last time the spoke, but that was months ago and Shinji could have gotten those anywhere. It felt wrong to Renji’s eyes. “Oh well, I suppose. If Byakuya doesn’t wanna blame them for letting it happen, so be it.”

Letting it happen, huh, Shinji? “I don’t think anyone was willfully ignorant about what was going on. Byakuya knows that better than anyone. He’s not that much of a bastard.”

“And I sincerely hope that doesn’t come back to bite him in the ass because Sosuke is exactly that much of a bastard and that means the ship he runs is a lot tighter.” Shinji gives Renji a meaningful look, leaning into the space between them— but not quite over the line. Always so careful of what that would mean. “Not trying to scare you, Renji, but Sosuke’s got some nasty people with him. Nasty omegas, even. Make your alpha look like nothing.”

That prospect is a bleak one and yet, not wholly surprising. “If he tries anything, then we’ll handle him. But we aren’t going to go hunt him down and walk into a trap.”

“Probably your only real option. Well, that’s really all I wanted to say to you.” Shinij’s eyes slide right and his lips press into a thinner line. “How’s Kensei been doing?”

He’s staring at Hisagi. Can he smell Kensei on him? “Fine. He misses you, though. Maybe you didn’t think much of it but he cares an awful lot about you still. If you came back to the pack, he’d welcome you with open arms in a heartbeat.”

“What an awful mistake for him to make.” Shinji muses. “Where would that leave Shuhei?”

“He’s a beta. It wouldn’t leave him anywhere.” Renji claps a hand on Shinji’s shoulder, not keen on getting into such a personal argument because it’s only going to hurt Hisagi in the long run and Shinji… Is not pack anymore, and therefore not his problem. “But you do what you need to do. I hope you guys find somewhere suitable for the winter. Must be hard out here.”

“We make do.” Shinji shrugs like it’s nothing, and maybe to him, it is.

There is no farewell before Renji rejoins Hisagi, who watches him with uncertain eyes until Renji sighs and slings an arm around his neck. “Just wanted to tell us what he’d seen up in the mountains about Aizen’s pack. Not anything we didn’t already have an idea about.”

“He asked about Kensei. I don’t understand why he wants to just… Roam around in the wilds where he can get hurt.” Hisagi’s voice is low and urgent and Renji sighs and wishes he was better at this, as good as Byakuya is at it. “I don’t understand anything about him. He’s an omega, he could come home and he… He’d fit with us, I could be his beta. I’d take care of him. I saw his arms, Ren, I could even from here, there are more scars—”

Renji cuts him off before he can properly wind himself up, not looking forward to dealing with Hisagi getting upset over something that he can’t change. “I know how you feel about this, but Shinji makes his own decisions for his own pack. He was right. He’s technically in exile now, and he was nice enough to warn us even though he doesn’t have to do that.”

“I just don’t get it.” Hisagi’s voice is mournful. “Kensei wants him to come home so badly.”

“Yeah, I know,” Renji murmurs, and he points Hisagi in the direction of home.

Kurosaki Isshin is visiting for a temporary period of time to spend time with Ichigo, and Renji can pick out his scent even from a distance. He’s sitting with some of the pack who used to know him, talking to them animatedly while Ichigo hovers nearby, seemingly disinterested. That had been a hell of an argument. Renji had been there to listen to Isshin trying to get Ichigo to come home with him while Ichigo loudly insisted he hadn’t joined the pack just to turn around and leave it, that he wanted the home he was guaranteed here.

Byakuya stood up for him. It was tense, Byakuya staring Isshin down and Renji wonders if it makes the others think of the past, of Isshin’s failure to take Byakuya down when he had the chance. But he doesn’t ask, because that would be improper of him.

He leaves Hisagi with the others and finds Byakuya with a group of older omegas, the handful of them discussing something that doesn’t quite reach his ears before Urahara sees him coming and cuts Byakuya off. Maybe they can smell Shinji’s scent on him, or maybe it’s in his face, but the moment Byakuya looks at him, he Knows. Renji can tell.

“What did he have to say?” Byakuya asks, and Renji sighs and wets his lips.

He quickly recounts Shinji’s information, watching Byakuya’s eyes twitch at a few select phrases before he nods, letting his head droop forward. “Ah, Shinji. I wish he would just come home.”

“I think we all do, but I don’t believe it would be such an easy task these days.” Ukitake says, resting a hand lightly on Byakuya’s shoulder. “While no one initially blamed him for Aizen’s betrayal, I think some opinions of him have soured specifically because he left.”

Byakuya nods once, his gaze unreadable. “Yes. I have heard some select muttering.”

“Well, everyone should elect to keep their opinions to themselves on matters that don’t actually concern them.” Urahara beams, throwing an arm around Byakuya’s neck. “So Aizen’s gonna stay cooped up in the mountains all winter? Fine by me. Once it shows, they ain’t gonna be able to travel much anyway so we’re in a better place than they are.”

“They haven’t had the time necessary to erect a fortress similar to Zaraki’s so I have no doubt they will have their own hardships to face. As such, they will not be a true threat to us.” Byakuya nods, seemingly satisfied, and then meets Renji’s eyes directly. A fierceness burns there that makes Renji’s throat tight and his face hot. “How is Hisagi? It must have hurt him.”

The concern for one's pack members. Truly, Byakuya is the best pack alpha. “He’s going to be okay. Of course, he wants Shinji to come home. He still really believes that he and Kensei could take care of him. He’s just… Not put it together that it isn’t what Shinji wants. ”

“Who knows what he wants?” Unohana hums thoughtfully, her fingers pressed to her lips as she looks up toward the sky. “Who can say, other than him? Shinji chose the path he wanted to choose from the many laid out before him, and all we can do is respect his choice whether we agree with it or not. His pack obviously believes this was the right choice.”

Byakuya nods thoughtfully. “Thank you, Unohana-san. Renji, walk with me for just a moment. We have certain things to discuss in private.”

“Of course, alpha.” Renji breaks away from the group with him, and they get a fair distance away from anyone before Byakuya finally chooses to speak to him.

“As much as I would like to do something about Aizen, unless we have express proof that he comes after us or has violated our pack boundaries, there is nothing I can do.” Byakuya presses his lips together, nose scrunching adorably with annoyance Renji wishes he could kiss him, but doing that in front of everyone… Byakuya would kill him. “Attacking Rukia does not amount to enough to after him. She isn’t sure if she was in his territory or not.”

“And as long as he says she was, he has probable cause.” Renji murmurs, disgusted.

Regretfully, Byakuya nods, fidgeting with the long sleeves of his sweater. The chill in the air is growing by the day, it seems. “Most pack alphas do not respond with immediate violence over such a mistake, but it is well within his right to do so. He could argue, even, that we sent her to spy on him and he responded in kind. So we have to leave him alone.”

“Shinji said his pack was nasty. Omegas that are stronger than you.” That hadn’t been the exact wording, but Renji got the gist of it around Shinji’s speech pattern.

“I do not doubt this to be true.” Byakuya murmurs, and Renji wants to argue the point because he’s never, in his entire life, met an alpha with the type of internal strength that Byakuya boasts so freely. “If Aizen wants strong omegas, he would have found them. He’s charismatic enough to sway anyone to his cause if he really wants them to be a part of it.”

Renji huffs, annoyed with the entire situation. It feels bad to have their hands tied behind their backs like this, with so little they can physically do other than lie in wait and hope Aizen makes a mistake or leaves an avenue open. “I just wish he hadn’t caused so much trouble.”

Byakuya is quiet for a long moment before he heaves a sigh, pausing as he pinches the bridge of his nose and Renji stops, frowning, wanting to comfort him. “He left my pack in pieces. Shinji left, and he took a lot with him. Aizen took a lot with him. Our pack is still recovering from the loss and I don’t think it ever truly will, not wholly. Love is hard to heal from.”

The realization of what Byakuya is saying hits Renji head-on and he bites down on his lower lip, not knowing what to say, not knowing if he can say anything to make this easier on Byakuya. It hadn't even occurred to him that the pain suffered by those who lost loved ones because of Aizen would speak to Byakuya on a personal level, that it would make him think of Hisana and everything he lost with her death. He’s a fucking moron for not putting the pieces together himself so he could offer his pack alpha a shoulder.

“I’m sorry.” he says, for want of literally anything else.

Byakuya shakes his head and wraps his arms around himself, and Renji can’t stand that so he steps forward and folds Byakuya up in his arms. “It is hard on everyone. The situation is not an ideal one. I would have Shinji home and fewer people wounded, but I must work with what I have and attempt to heal those who are still suffering.”

“You got me.” Renji reminds him, “And I got your back. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I know.” Byakuya smiles softly up at him and it makes Renji’s heart beat faster, and he wonders distantly if Byakuya knows how he feels. “Perhaps Aizen will come down this spring when we take the time to meet up with Zaraki and Shinji. He’s an alpha in the area now, so it would be well within his right if he wanted to establish his pack.”

The thought makes Renji’s stomach roll. “That’s all we need. Zaraki’s going to bite his head off and it’d kill Shinji to have to see him in the flesh like that. Fuck, I don’t like this.”

“I don’t, either. But it is what it is. We’ll simply have to make the best of it.” And then Byakuya leans into him, and Renji forgets what they were talking about for a moment under the sweet scent of cherry blossoms that wraps around him sweet and comforting.

There is only so much they can do with what they have, so Renji defers to Byakuya’s judgment and leans into his scent and wonders what changes spring will come.

And with spring… His courtship of Byakuya can officially begin.