With winter in full swing and the ground outside covered in frost and snow, Renji can hardly go outside and pick flowers to bring back to Byakuya. There are a thousand ways to court an omega but most tend to choose the most traditional routes, something that is made easy when spring is in full bloom. Flowers would be ridiculous. Byakuya is pregnant with his baby and Renji should do better for him for that alone, so he waits until he knows Byakuya should be close to rising, sneaks into his kitchen, and makes him breakfast.

Sneaking, as it turns out, is really just Orihime letting him in when he knocks on the door and giggling as she watches him from the table with a cup of coffee. The young omega has been getting along well with their pack, particularly alongside Rukia, and Renji is glad for that. Any alpha would be happy to know an omega in their pack is happy, and he is no different when it comes right down to the smaller details.

“Your friends should be leaving this morning to go see Aizen’s pack.” Renji says for lack of anything better to say, his gaze intent on the stove. “You worried about them?”

“No. If anything happened to Ishida-kun, Sado-kun would be right there to protect him. He’d be able to tell if he was in distress no matter what.” Orihime smiles cheerfully up at him. “I don’t have a reason to be afraid. How is Byakuya? Is he still sick?”

Renji could lie but he doesn’t. “He’s doing better. Unohana gave him medicine and it’s helped get rid of the nausea. Think the situation and the weather’s got him run down.”

That isn’t technically a lie because it is the situation that has him so much more stressed than he would be normally, not just the pregnancy. So Renji cooks something that should be easy on his stomach and thinks about when the nausea leaves and Byakuya starts to show and maybe he gets a little too wrapped up in that, the thought of Byakuya’s skin curving softly with the weight of pups. They’ve got some time to go before that.

“You must really love him.” Orihime muses, and Renji looks at her. “When you get quiet like that, your scent flares up some. I think you must be thinking about him.”

“Uh, yeah.” That’s not a lie. “I just, he means a lot to me. Byakuya, that is. He’s… I don’t have words for him. He’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a mate and more.”

Orihime’s smile softens. “I know what you mean. It’s how I feel about Rukia. When we found her, I thought. I really thought she was going to die, that we hadn’t found her in time to save her. And then just like that, she turned around and she saved me.”

“I know that feeling. I don’t have any real drama with my old pack, I mean. This.” Renji taps one of the dark tattoos on his arms, the symbol of just how high he rose then. “But that was normal, not really something to leave behind. I just wanted a change, and there he was with open arms. The kindest and most thoughtful pack alpha I’ve ever met.”

Then, Renji had no idea Byakuya was an omega. It was later, much later, when he first inhaled Byakuya’s beautiful floral scent that he put two and two together. Now, he knows why he never picked up Byakuya’s scent. After all, suppressants muffle the scent.

The thought makes him unbearably sad, but he’s relieved to know Byakuya is fine now.

Orihime nods thoughtfully. “I understand. I had that impression when we met him. Rukia said he was cold, but he hasn’t been cold the entire time I’ve known him.”

“He’s opened up a lot since Rukia left. I think it might have been one of the big eye opening moments he really had. I’d like to think I helped out, too.” He wonders how much credit he can take, how much of Byakuya’s heart he thawed on his own. “Now, I just want to work on making him my mate officially so that I can spend the rest of my life adoring him.”

At the words, Orihime giggles. “I didn’t take you for being such a traditional romantic.”

“He brings it out in me, I think. Makes me really sit up and want to pay attention.” It’s true in more ways than one. Byakuya gave him something to think about that wasn’t fighting.

Nothing was wrong with wanting to fight. Renji befriended many of the alphas in the pack through battling, through testing each other and seeing each other’s limits brought into being. But it was different in his old pack. Fighting was everything those bonds had been built on with little room left for anything else, and Renji doesn’t really have any desire to go back to that. The Kuchiki Pack is built on a stronger foundation, one fostered by Byakuya’s family and their intent on making sure that the pack itself was brought together. The man who killed Byakuya’s father found a quick end under Byakuya’s claws.

Renji was never here to witness that, though he’d heard the stories. The bastard barely had a week to settle into the position, enough time for Byakuya to mourn his father’s passing and steel himself to take the pack back and make it his, teeth rending flesh from bone to ensure everyone that the Kuchiki family was here to remain.

Just the thought of it raises a pleased rumble in Renji’s chest. He wishes he could have seen that, but he’d seen the fight with Aizen. He watched how fast Byakuya recovered from an injury that could have killed him, how he forced his body into the shift to fight and nearly ripped Aizen’s throat out before the coward gave up and vanished.

“Renji.” The scent of cherry blossoms startles him and he looks up to find Byakuya standing in the kitchen doorway and shit, fuck, oh my god. “What are you doing here?”

“I, ah.” Renji blinks at him a handful of times. Words refuse to come to him.

Orihime, bless her heart, is more helpful than she has any right to be. “He came to make you breakfast since he’s officially starting his courting of you.”

“Ah, I see.” Byakuya muffles a yawn against the palm of his hand. “That’s acceptable.”

He walks into the kitchen and sits down, and Renji stares at him for a beat or two too long before turning back to the stove. Traditionally, omegas wear dresses. Such a thing had fallen out long ago, and people typically wore what they wanted. Rare were the times when Renji saw omegas stick firmly to the old style. Kira only ever wore dresses during the spring when it was warm and maybe before Renji had fallen for Byakuya, maybe he caught himself studying Kira’s bare legs more than once. Who could blame him?

Renji has never seen Byakuya in a dress and just assumed the omega had none, that he preferred his own style of clothing and nothing that was expected of him. It fit in perfect with everything Renji already knew about him. He always forged his own path.

Even the photographs of Byakuya and Hisana together from the day they announced their official mating to the pack, they were just nice kimonos. Which, fine, Renji did not care how omegas dressed. Just, you know, Kira’s legs from time to time. Once or twice.

Byakuya is sitting at the kitchen table, talking to Orihime. In a dress.

You’re fine, Renji tells himself, and no, he is absolutely not fine. No part of him is ever going to be fine ever again, not at this rate. It’s just a dress. It’s just a fucking dress.

The skirt stops just above Byakuya’s knees when he sits down and Renji loses at least ten more brain cells when he imagines how easy it would be to touch Byakuya. To slide the skirt up his thighs and kneel between them and nope, he’s just too horny for his own good.

To be fair, he’s coming off of his rut and his protective instincts have been flaring pretty badly between yesterday and today. He keeps remembering things like the fact the asshole who attacked his soon-to-be mate is keeping a pack not that far from their home, that Byakuya is pregnant and more vulnerable than ever before, that Aizen definitely is a snake who would take advantage of that, that Renji is the one standing between Byakuya and any challengers which means he is, in effective, protecting him. That Byakuya is trusting Renji with winning his heart, which means a whole hell of a lot.

Rukia sweeps into the room a few minutes later, pausing next to Byakuya’s chair. “I haven’t seen you in a dress in…” She trails off, frowning. “Ten years? Where were you hiding it?”

Byakuya blinks at her placidly. “I have several. I simply wear them when I am alone.”

Oh. Renji’s head spins at that revelation and he turns off all the burners on the stove, satisfied that the food is cooked and sure he has no desire of hurting himself. “Breakfast is ready.” He announces, and Rukia gives him an odd look before shaking her head.

Byakuya stands to help him gather drinks for everyone, pausing at the door of the refrigerator and Renji just. Just really looks at him for a minute, the lavender dress that brings out the soft matching hues in Byakuya’s grey eyes, the way the fabric sits on his hips and around his shoulders and God, the skirt. “What do you think?”

“Hmm?” Renji blinks at him, feeling like an idiot. “What do I think about what?”

The fact Byakuya can be so patient with him is just another reason to love him. Byakuya catches the material of the skirt between his fingers, stretching it out. “About this.”

“Oh.” Renji sets the jug of milk very carefully back into the refrigerator and clears his throat. “I think you look beautiful. I’ve never seen you in a dress before.”

“I thought it would be fine to wear around the house.” Byakuya smoothes a hand over his stomach and it looks like he’s smoothing a wrinkle out of the fabric but Renji’s brain pops and he thinks it might be on the verge of just exploding inside of his skull. “It’ll be easier when I start gaining weight, I think. And they’ll be more comfortable.”

He’s talking about wearing dresses more often, Renji realizes, and he thinks his heart may just give out. “You should wear whatever you feel most comfortable in.”

“Thank you.” Byakuya kisses the corner of his mouth and takes two of the glasses from the counter, carrying them to the table. The skirt whispers softly around his knees.

They sit down to eat together and things are fine, and maybe Renji is a horrible person and rests his hand on Byakuya’s thigh under the table, feeling nothing but soft thin cotton between his hand and Byakuya’s bare skin. Rukia does not try to tear his arm off at the shoulder for it, and she and Orihime are just disgustingly cute, Rukia feeding her bites off of her plate and insisting Orihime eat more. She’s probably, admittedly, close to her rut cycle. Hers and Renji’s nearly synced up once because they spent so much time together, and that would have been a disaster of epic proportions.

It might for real if they end up living in the same house, he realizes dully.

After breakfast is cleaned up, Byakuya catches him lightly by the wrist. “I’d like you to check up on Kira Izuru if you have a chance today.” He says meaningfully, and Renji just blinks at him and wonders if his own traitorous thoughts somehow gave him away.

Does Byakuya know Renji used to look at Kira? Does he know? To be fair, who wouldn’t?

“He’s been staying with Matsumoto recently, I think she’s been watching over him.” Byakuya continues, taking Renji’s dumbfounded silence as a request for more information. “Everything we’ve learned has cut him deeper and deeper and I don’t think he should be on his own right now, so that works out. But you’re his friend, and I want your estimation.”

“Of course.” The thought of Kira being torn up more by Gin when he’d been doing even a little bit better is sadder than Renji has words for at the moment.

Byakuya’s face softens and he takes a step closer, pressing his cheek against Renji’s own. “I feel helpless sometimes, for as well as I can lead this pack and protect it, I could not shield the hearts of those wounded by Aizen’s betrayal.” Byakuya tilts his head, his lips soft against Renji’s skin. “And so I ask you to help me, even though it’s not your duty. There is only so much we can do, but we should do everything in our power.”

“You know I agree with that.” Renji pulls Byakuya flush against him, pressing his nose into Byakuya’s hair, inhaling his floral scent. “I’ll go check on him right away and let you know if there’s anything unusual about his behavior. If Matsumoto has him, I’m sure he’s fine.”

“She’s very capable, so I assume he is fine as well, but I want to be sure.” Byakuya leans back and tilts his head up, and Renji thinks oh and kisses him.

They stand like that for a moment— and it would be scandalous, to be so familiar with Byakuya like this when he’s just started courting him, but Renji no longer cares. He kisses Byakuya for a good few minutes, just luxuriating in the taste of his lips, the warmth of his skin, the thought that he’s warm and full and taken care of, and then shrugs his fur back onto his shoulders and sets off through the snow for the building Kira lives in.

It’s more like a series of small apartments than anything else. Kira is on the top floor and Renji knocks on the door, waiting patiently for an answer even though he can smell the very distinct scent of burning firewood and ash that means Matsumoto Rangiku is in the room. Her scent is sudden and sharp and it burns the inside of his nose enough that he’s coughing when she finally opens the door, filling the frame with her body.

“Oh, it’s you.” She clicks her tongue at him. “Have you come to see Izuru?”

“Uh, yeah.” Renji blinks at her, taking in her casual appearance. A soft and slouchy sweatshirt that slips down one shoulder, yoga pants that cling to her toned legs. “Is he here? I know I didn’t knock on your door by mistake.”

Rangiku tilts her head, her blue eyes flashing with warning. “He’s in the bath. I know you’ve been busy, but surely you realize that he’s in pre-heat right now.”

“Oh.” Renji understands now why Byakuya sent him to check on Kira. If he’s this close to heat, he’s bound to be more emotional, and this entire situation has been fucked. “Taicho sent me to check on him. You only have to put up with me for— Are you sharing it?”

“I am.” Rangiku is quiet then, expression soft. “He’s been so sad, and going through a heat alone is bad for him right now, I think. So I offered, and he accepted.”

That’s admittedly better than most of the choices he could have made, though Renji has to wonder just the same. Rangiku and Gin had been close— Friends, or maybe lovers though the jury is still out on that one because Gin was presenting himself as an alpha wolf when he was a member of their pack. Which he so obviously is not, but Rangiku has never seemed like she’s into other alphas. She flirts madly with every omega who crosses her path, though, and Kira is. Well, he definitely is her type, Renji knows that much.

Which makes him wonder if Kira made this choice out of any kind of intelligent thinking or if he latched onto the first person who made him think of Gin to get him through this.

Yeah. This is why Byakuya asked him to come check on Kira, then.

“Well. That’s good, then.” Renji shifts nervously on his feet. “Taicho said to check on him, and I’m not in the mood to get my ass chewed out for not doing as I’m told.”

Rangiku sighs and takes a step back. “Fine, fine. Like I said, he’s in the bath. I have to finish getting the bedroom cleaned up, so take your time.”

“He ask you to clean up for him?” Renji asks, toeing his shoes off just inside the door.

Instead of answering right away, Rangiku gives him a sideways look, then smiles enigmatically and shakes her head. “My rut. It was due soon anyway, and it’s syncing to his heat because I’ve been spending the night here when he asks me to.”

“Are you two…” Renji trails off, not sure what to say.

Rangiku’s face softens. “Not yet.” She murmurs, “But I want to be. But he needs time.”

Oh. Oh. “I’ll try to be quick about things for both of your sakes.”

He knows how stressful it is to have an alpha in the den right before a heat or a rut and right before both, it’s a miracle Matsumoto isn’t trying to scent bomb him out of the apartment so that he leaves them both alone. He can smell Kira’s marigold scent as soon as he steps into the hall leading to the bathroom and tries to breathe through his mouth instead, not intent on making things harder for anyone involved. The bathroom door isn’t locked, but he knocks and waits for Kira to tell him he can come in.

“Sorry to interrupt.” Renji says, sitting down on the toilet lid. “Taicho asked me to come see how you were doing, and I’m starting to see why.”

Kira is hidden by bubbles up to his shoulders and he looks warm, face flushed and rosy and his eyes half-lidded as he lounges in the water. His hair’s damp, strands sticking dark this temples and Renji can smell the shampoo there, something mildly floral that doesn’t overpower Kira’s own scent but rather twines with it so that he smells like a spring garden. Like Renji would want to roll around and— So Kira is really good at picking scents.

“Rangiku?” Kira asks, and Renji nods. “She’s been sleeping on my couch for a week.”

“Jesus.” Renji should hardly be surprised. He knows her. He knows how careful she is.

Kira wets his lips and shrugs, draws one knee up to his chest. “I don’t mind. It’s nice to have an alpha around. She’s going to rut me through my heat because I asked her to.”

“Why did you ask her?” Renji asks, voice as careful as he can afford for it to be.

“Because she’s been here for me for a week, Renji, she’s been making sure I eat and sleep and when I had a nightmare, she…” Kira trails off and Renji winces because he thought Kira might be suffering but it’s worse to hear him talk about it out loud. “She laid down with me and held me and let me cry on her shoulder and I’m tired of trying to do this alone. Going through heats alone isn’t easy, you know. And I’ve had to since Gin— Since he—”

“Yeah.” Renji can smell a soft rotten edge to Kira’s scent and wants to touch him, but Rangiku would bite his hand off for that. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. It’s… I feel like a shitty friend for not thinking that through.”

To his surprise, Kira only sighs and deflates, but the sour edge to his scent goes away and he smells like happy flowers once more. “I know. I just. I know you’re worried and I even get why, because Gin fucked me up pretty bad. But do not mess this up for me. Rangiku, she’s been so kind to me. I want to let her take care of me.”

The thought is not exactly a bad one and Rangiku is a beautiful, fierce alpha who lives up to what kind of an alpha would end up becoming friends with someone like Ichimaru Gin. If she had her way, she’d probably have Kira bonded and pregnant after this heat and maybe, okay, that might be jumping the gun a little but fuck they’re both blue-eyed blondes and Renji can just imagine the little golden pups running around. His brain’s in bad, bad places these days. But she would be so good for Kira, the kind of alpha who dotes and showers attention and Kira would be flustered and flushed if she turned every megawatt of that flirty smile on him and kept it there and she would, Renji knows she would.

If she wants to knot Kira through his heat, then let her. He needs someone.

“I don’t want you thinking I’m overstepping or trying to be your alpha or anything,” Renji tells him, and now Kira actually looks at him. “But you’re my friend. Is it okay if I, like, talk to Ran about this? Make sure her intentions are all in the right place?”

Kira looks thoughtful about that, head thunking against the tiles behind him. “Yeah.” He finally says, “Because I think I’m a little shit at straight thinking like this.”

“Don’t feel bad.” Renji tells him, “My thinking’s been shot for like weeks now.”

He thinks, for just a second, that Kira isn’t going to say it and then he does, going straight for the throat of the matter. “Knotting Kuchiki taicho was that good, huh?”

Shit, Kira. “Yeah.” Renji admits, because it was and he kind of owes it to Kira to let him say a snide remark or two if it makes him feel better. “Yeah, it really was. I’m fucked over it.”

The smile Kira sends him is small and secret. “I thought so.” He singsongs, and then he sits up a little, fishes a washcloth off of the side of the tub and wets it in the water before running it over his bare shoulders until they shine with water and he smells so sweet and fragrant. And he’s so vulnerable like this. “Don’t be mean to her, is all I’m saying. She’s been so nice to me and I want her to keep being nice to me.”

“I don’t think I could chase her off if I tried.” Renji admits, and Kira’s smile widens.

It dims for just a moment, though, and Renji’s heart aches at the sight. “I just hope her heart is in the right place.” He finally says. “She doesn’t have to love me. I wouldn’t ask that of her. I just hope I’m not some cheap replacement for Gin.”

“I don’t think she fucked him.” Renji says, but Kira just shrugs like he doesn’t quite believe that and Renji wonders, distantly, if that means Kira accepted the idea that Gin was openly cheating on him or if they hadn’t been exclusive just yet. “I hate to ask this, you know I do, but she isn’t just a cheap replacement for Gin for you, is she?”

“Oh.” Kira shakes his head slowly. “No. She could never be. That’s… It might seem mean to just say it, but Gin could never. He wasn’t good at things like she is. He wasn’t good at taking care of me like she is. Didn’t have any of that alpha instinct.”

And wasn’t an alpha, so never could have had it. “It sounds like you’re happy with her.”

“I am.” Kira’s smile widens once more. “She makes me happy. That’s nice, isn’t it?”

“Super nice. Well.” Renji stands, and he feels a little unsteady on his feet because fuck, Kira is pumping out the pheromones. “I’m going to talk to her, and then I’ll be on my way.”

It’s going to take Kira less than two minutes to entire fill the room with his scent once more at this rate, Renji is sure of that much.

Rangiku meets him in the living room, restless energy rolling off of her in waves. “On your way out?” she asks, her voice faux pleasant. “Kira was fine, was he not?”

“He was.” Renji squares his shoulders and tries not to let the burn of her scent overwhelm him. “I just want to check that you’re doing this for the right reasons. Kira’s my friend, so I have a right to be worried about his well-being.”

The way Rangiku looks at him makes him think he’s about five seconds from being slammed to the ground but she manages a pleasant smile. “Izuru has been breaking apart at the seams every time Gin’s name gets dragged back into pack business.” She says, her tone clipped and to the point. “He’s been dying inside because of it. You have no idea how much Gin meant to him, how much losing him truly hurt him.”

Renji bites his tongue on that one. “He thinks the two of you were together.”

“Everyone thinks that.” Rangiku sounds annoyed. “Maybe I wanted that, but Gin didn’t. He didn’t want anyone but Aizen, so I don’t know why it’s still such a point of contention among everyone. I’ll take care of reassuring Izuru that Gin and I were never together. That he isn’t a replacement, because I know that’s what you’re going to ask me.”

The fire in her scent burns and Renji sneezes. “Christ, Rangiku, calm down.”

“I’ll consider that.” She says, and no she won’t because Renji’s nose burns and burns. “I want to take care of him because he’s a sad, lonely omega who needs someone to take care of him. He’s beautiful and sweet and he has a biting sense of humor that makes me laugh. He goes soft in my arms when I hold him and he smiles when I tell him terrible jokes. I’m going to rut him through this heat until he can’t move, until Gin’s name isn’t even on the fringe of his mind. Does that sound correct to you, Abarai fukutaicho?”

Woodsmoke billows through the room and Renji nods quickly, stumbling. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Don’t worry about us.” Rangiku tilts her head. “You can come check up on him after his heat if you want to. But if you show up while I’m still caring for him, I’m going to take that as a challenge and I’m going to kick your ass in front of him to show him that he’s an omega worth fighting over. You can tell Taicho that if you’re so inclined.”

The thought makes Renji smirk. “You’d really fight me for Kira’s comfort, huh?”

“And I’d win.” Her scent finally calms down enough for Renji to breathe and she waves a hand at him dismissively. “Go home to Byakuya and tell him that Izuru is all taken care of. He’s almost done with his bath and I’m going to wrap him up and take him straight to bed, and he won’t be leaving for the next few days. You can trust me on that.”

Renji nods. He believes it. “Thanks for watching out for him, Ran. If it had to be someone, I’m glad it’s you. I’m glad it’s someone who’d rip Gin’s throat out for him.”

“I wouldn’t stop at his throat, not now.” Rangiku’s smile is predatory and he watches her eyes bleed the bright, bright blue of her wolf form, and that’s. That’s fucking terrifying when she’s on the edge of a rut because an alpha right there can be brutal as hell. Can rip and bleed for the omega ruling their heart. “Would you, if it was Aizen?”

So they’re going there. “I wouldn’t.” He says, and Rangiku rumbles at him.

She sees him out of the apartment and by the time he gets back to the house, her scent has dissipated enough that he can breathe normally once again. It still makes Rukia cough when he walks back into the house— she and Orihime are curled up on the loveseat together and Orihime only giggles, though the sound is high and bright. An omega’s reaction to the scent of an aroused alpha.

Byakuya makes the most displeased sound of all, though, yanking Renji down onto the couch with him and Renji just hears Rukia’s small “oh” before Byakuya swings a leg over his lap and sits on top of him. The soft thin skin over Byakuya’s wrists is pressed to either side of his neck a moment later and Renji swoons just a little when he realizes Byakuya is scenting him, firmly removing Rangiku’s scent from his own until he smells like Byakuya.

Never one to be outdone, Renji hauls Byakuya closer, pressing his mouth against Byakuya’s scent gland, the one in his throat, and biting down on it. Byakuya squeaks softly but lets him and Renji just revels in it, the way he can smell himself on Byakuya’s skin, hands running up and down his back, feeling the shape of his spine through the dress.

The dress, whose skirt is flipped up because of their position so that Renji can feel Byakuya pressed down against him. Yeah, okay, it’s not his fault because he’d just walked out of someone’s den when their scents were all over the place.

“Better.” Byakuya says, sliding off of him to curl up at his side, and Renji hopes his face isn’t giving away too much as he slides his arm around Byakuya’s shoulders.

For now, this is enough. He’s content to have Byakuya at his side, content to know his friend is being taken care of. Until Ishida and Ichigo return, maybe everything is going to be fine for just a little while. He certainly won’t look the gift horse in the mouth.