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The Ties That Bind Us	By : KaiBlueOtaku Category: Bleach > Yaoi - Male/Male > Renji/Shuuhei Views: 3623 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Bleach and all its characters are owned by the talented Tite Kubo. I own only my story, and am merely borrowing them to tell it. I receive no payment for my writing.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
DISCLAIMER: Bleach and all its characters are owned by the talented Tite Kubo. I own only my story, and am merely borrowing them to tell it. I receive no payment for my writing.
                Warnings: Caution, surprises ahead! Don’t want to give any spoilers though…
                A/N: I’ve wanted to write this so badly for so long. That’s why I had to edit the previous chapter, because I just had to get past it so I could move into the next section of my plot.

                Usually I would be updating The Silence Between this week, as I usually alternate working on this and that one, but I was eager to write this chapter finally, so you get updates two weeks in a row on this one. Sorry to all my TSB fans- I’ll try to get you next week…
WWWWWWWWWW

                Shuhei and Renji went home to Seireitei later that evening, and that’s when all the trouble began.

                They went to Renji’s place, and Renji had just finished cooking a simple dinner for them both of rice and pan fried fish with some vegetables, when Shuhei jumped up and bolted for the bathroom. Renji poked his head around the corner, and could see- and hear- his lover kneeling before the toilet, vigorously throwing up.

                Dinner forgotten, Renji crouched beside him, rubbing his back. “Hey, are you ok, Shuu?” he questioned, concern heavy in his tone. Shuhei shook his head and continued vomiting until there was nothing left, and then dry-heaved for several minutes before finally pulling himself back under control. He panted and winced, resting his cheek on the cool surface of the toilet seat.

                “Water?” Shuhei asked, his voice raspy from the stomach acid burning his esophagus. Renji filled his toothbrush cup at the bathroom sink and passed it to Shuhei, who took a sip, swished, and spit it in the toilet. He rested the cup on the other side of the toilet seat across from him and stared dumbly at it.

                “What happened?” Renji was completely perplexed.

                “Just hit me all of a sudden,” Shuhei croaked. “That fish, the smell of the fish…” He retched again briefly, then drew a long, slow breath in through his nose, biting his lips together. “I gotta go home to my place, Ren. That smell… I can’t eat anyway… I just need to lay down.” He stood shakily and pressed his hand over his mouth, meandering out the door back toward his own quarters.

                Renji stared sullenly at the food for a few moments, then decided to eat his share and save the rest for lunch tomorrow. He scarfed half down and packaged the rest up. He changed out of his shihakusho, knowing it would smell like fish, and opened all his windows to let the place air out. He threw the fish-scented uniform into his laundry basket and followed after Shuhei. His boyfriend was moving very cautiously, a hand resting on the wall of a building, pausing occasionally, so even for all his chores, he caught up before Shuhei had reached home.

                “Shuu, are you ok?” he asked again.

                Shuhei shook his head. “I am so sick right now, oh my gosh, Ren. I just gotta get home is all.”

                Renji kept the slow pace with him the whole way back to Shuhei’s quarters, and got him settled into his bed. “Can I make you some mint tea? I think that’s supposed to be good for upset stomach.” Shuhei nodded, so Renji set about brewing some, then poured them both a cup and pulled a chair up beside Shuhei’s bed. “What’s wrong?”

                “I don’t know,” Shuhei admitted. “It just hit me, like I said.” He groped blindly around beside the bed for the presence of a small waste paper basket, which he moved closer to him in case of another bout of unexpected vomiting. He sat up a little and took the tea from Renji, sipping it and humming in satisfaction, inhaling the sharp aroma of the mint. “I’m sure I’ll be fine in the morning.”

                Renji nodded, then grinned. “So, how is he?”

                Shuhei almost dropped his teacup, spitting tea back into it in surprise. “Renji!” he protested weakly, met only by laughter.

                “If you’re going to fuck him Shuhei, you have to tell me about it,” Renji insisted with a sly smile. “I’m going to make that a rule right now.”

                Shuhei rolled his eyes and blew on his tea. “Alright,” he relented. His brow furrowed as he struggled to remember. “I was kind of out of it. Grimm seemed to know something, but didn’t want to tell me, for some reason. A lot of it’s kind of hazy. But it was really good. Intense.” He took a sip, and then searched Renji with soulful eyes. “You don’t think he drugged me or anything, do you? Maybe instead of aspirin, he brought me a roofie or something? Maybe that’s why I’m sick now…”

                “No, no, Shuu,” Renji admonished. “No, nothing like that. Tia told me you went into heat.”

                Shuhei choked on his tea. “Excuse me? ‘Into heat’? What, like a dog? Are you kidding me?”

                Renji shugged. “She said it was one of those ‘pack things,’ that being with Grimm the night before probably triggered it. It’s weird, but I guess it seems reasonable enough, considering everything else lately.”

                Shuhei’s eyes widened. “This is absurd. Well, hopefully this is just some of that, and will pass by morning. Come to bed and hold me, please? I feel like crap.”

                Renji was happy to oblige him.

WWWWWWWWWW

                Morning did not bring the hoped-for relief. If anything, Shuhei’s sickness was worse. He swung his feet out of the bed and no sooner set them on the floor then he was snatching up the waste paper basked and retching again into it, this time nothing but pale bile, since he’d already lost all of his lunch the night before and had eaten nothing since. Trembling, he pulled his feet back under the covers and laid back down. “Dammit. Can you let my Third Seat and the rest of the division know I’m sick today, Renji?”

                His boyfriend nodded, but pursed his lips in worry, holding his hand to Shuhei’s cheek and forehead. “You don’t feel feverish, but I’m going to send over someone from the Fourth, just in case.”

                Shuhei screwed up his mouth in displeasure. “Ren, it’s probably just a stomach bug, don’t waste their time. I’m sure I’ll be fine by tomorrow.”

                He wasn’t fine though. Not the next day, nor the one after that.

                “Shuhei, I really am going to send someone from the Fourth over now. You’ve been this sick for days with no improvement. Something is wrong,” Renji insisted, sitting at his lover’s bedside. “All you’ve managed to choke down is a little bit of plain rice and some water and mint tea. This can’t be healthy for you.”

                Shuhei was too exhausted and weak to argue.

                Lieutenant Isane Kotetsu was in the Fourth Division office when Renji entered. She smiled softly at him. “Good afternoon, Lieutenant. What can the Fourth do for you today?”

                “It’s not me, it’s Shuhei,” he said coming over to her desk. “He’s been puking since we got back from the World of the Living a few days ago, he can hardly keep anything down. He swore it was just a little stomach flu, but it’s been days now. Can you have someone go check in on him, please? I’ve got somewhere I need to go right now.”

                “Oh, of course! We’ll get someone over there right away,” Isane replied, and Renji gave her a nod of thanks, then headed for the Senkaimon.

                He needed to talk to someone who might have answers.

WWWWWWWWWW

                Hallibel was already at work when Renji arrived, but Grimmjow, as usual, was home. He was out in the garage, playing his guitar, and Renji let himself in. Grimmjow nearly dropped his guitar.

                “Dammit Renji!” he protested vociferously. “You nearly gave me a heart attack! What in the hell are you doing wandering around without a gigai?”

                “I came to talk to Tia. Shuu’s pretty sick, and I was wondering if she knew anything about it.”

                Grimmjow looked instantly concerned, and set his guitar in the stand, flicking off his amp. “Sick? Like how?”

                “Puking. He can’t keep much of anything down, he’s taken several days off work, just been laying in bed.”

                Grimmjow scratched at his head. “Damn, that sucks.”

                “I was hoping that Tia might be able to tell me maybe if this is part of him going into heat or whatever,” Renji asked, leaning against the door frame.

                The blue haired man shook his head in the negative. “No, that should be done by now. I’ve never heard of a bad after-effect like this. Are you sure he didn’t just catch a stomach flu?”

                Renji shrugged. “That would have been over in a day or two, tops,” he said. “Can you call her, please? I’m really getting worried about him, I’d like her to come straight home after work.”

                “Yeah, sure,” Grimmjow agreed, and went into the house to make the call. When he returned though, he wore an even more worried expression. “She said she’ll meet us at the shoten in ten minutes,” Grimmjow said. “She wants us to go back with you to check on him right away.”

                “I don’t think that’s necessary,” Renji protested, but Grimmjow was already lacing up a pair of sneakers.

                “She sounded really serious, Renji,” he replied as he stood. “I don’t know what’s the hell’s wrong, but we’re going over there right now.”

                Hallibel beat them to the shoten, and had already spoken with Urahara apparently, because she was out of her gigai and waiting impatiently. “Let’s go,” she insisted.

                “Tia, what’s going on?” Renji asked.

                She shook her head, and gave a serious, sidelong glance to the shop keeper as if swearing him to secrecy. He held his hands up in innocence, then proceeded to press the tip of his cane to Grimmjow’s chest, knocking him out of his gigai. The three of them hurried through the Senkaimon and back to Shuhei’s room, which, during Renji’s brief absence, had turned into an outright circus.

                Lieutenant Isane and Captain Unohana stood on the front porch looking worried, along with one of the seated members of the Fourth whose name escaped Renji at the moment, though he seemed vaguely familiar. He assumed it was this young and timid dark haired man who had been sent to check up on Shuhei, and whatever conclusion he’d come to apparently had required the personal attention of his Lieutenant and Captain.

                Renji rushed inside despite Isane’s warnings, and was mortified to find Mayuri and Nemu in the room, along with an assortment of the sort of questionable devices that the Twelfth was so well known for. Mayuri had something pressed against Shuhei’s bare stomach and was studying the readings on the screen of the contraption. Hallibel stepped up behind Renji and laid her hand on his shoulder in consolation, because she could see that he was trembling. Grimmjow stepped beside Renji and watched the procedure with curious concern.

                “What’s the matter with him?” Renji demanded finally, when Mayuri only continued to hum in interest over the readings. The strange man glanced up in annoyance then, and switched the device off.

                “May I have a word privately with you, Captain?” Hallibel asked, and stepped out on to the porch. Mayuri crossed his arms, clearly bothered by what he considered to be an impudent and forward demeanor on her part, but reluctantly followed.

                Renji kneeled beside Shuhei’s bed and took his hand. “Hey, are you okay? That mad scientist didn’t hurt you or anything, did he?”

                Shuhei shook his head weakly. “No, but nobody seems to know yet what the problem is. Or if Mayuri does, he hasn’t said so yet.”

                Maniacal laughter erupted from the porch, and Mayuri came back in, wiping a tear from his eye. “Oh my… Well, it’s as I suspected.”

                “Is it serious?” Grimmjow demanded, obviously every bit as worried as Renji was.

                Mayuri waved dismissively. “Nothing that another seven to eight months won’t cure. Although one of you is to be congratulated,” he added, glancing back and forth between Renji and Grimmjow. “You’re about to become a father.”

                “What?” Shuhei cried, pushing himself up in the bed and closing his shihakusho.

                “You’re pregnant,” Hallibel said coming back inside, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Grimmjow, how could you have been so stupid? You didn’t use protection?”

                His jaw dropped. “What the hell? He’s a guy… That’s not even possible…”

                “He was in heat, Grimmjow! Did you not understand that?” Hallibel demanded.

                “He’s a guy, Tia. It’s not possible,” he insisted again.

                “Correction,” Mayuri interjected, raising a finger. “It is uncommon, though not entirely unheard of. The circumstances which Miss Hallibel described to me fit the criteria. His is, without a doubt, pregnant.”

                “You knocked up my boyfriend?” Renji demanded, fire flashing in his eyes and ire rising in his tone, and Grimm turned to Renji, holding his palms up in innocent self-defense, but Nemu stepped forward.

“Our readings suggested two separate and viable samples of semen present,” the Lieutenant offered.

Mayuri nodded. “Nemu is correct. According to the information provided by Miss Hallibel, either one of you is equally likely to be the father of the child.”

They all looked at Shuhei, who was staring in absolute wonder at his stomach, hands rested on it. “I’m going to have a baby?” he asked incredulously.

“But how is that possible?” Grimmjow asked, still baffled by the mechanics of it all.

Mayuri scrutinized the Espada, and then, apparently judging him none too bright, offered a simple, if haughty, reply. “It’s very complicated science. You wouldn’t understand it, I’m sure.”

“You must not travel to the World of the Living for the entire duration of the pregnancy, it could damage the fetus,” Captain Unohana said, coming into the room. “I will gladly provide your care personally.”

Mayuri narrowed his eyes at her. “I have overseen multiple cases such as this. Have you ever dealt with even a single one?”

Unohana smiled in that way she had, which seemed genuinely kind but simultaneously set everyone around her on edge. “I believe it’s the parents’ choice typically as to who is permitted to provide prenatal care, so perhaps we shall allow them to decide.” Both captains turned to Shuhei, and Mayuri drummed his fingers together, grinning in unnervingly gleeful anticipation.

Renji and Shuhei shot one another a look of mutual horror, and cried out simultaneously, “Captain Unohana!”

Mayuri ground his teeth in annoyance and began gathering up his various devices, muttering curses under his breath, something about “rare specimen” and “hindrance to science,” then stormed out, Nemu right on his heels.

“Have you ever overseen a case like this, Captain?” Shuhei asked.

“Honestly, I have not,” she admitted. “I assumed, though, that you probably wished to avoid you and your child becoming one of Captain Kurotsuchi’s experiments.”

“So true,” Renji agreed.

“I am inclined to believe that most aspects of the pregnancy will be identical,” Unohana explained, “And I have overseen a number of standard female pregnancies. Your ongoing nausea is obviously what is commonly referred to as ‘morning sickness,’ but which can, in fact, strike at any time of the day. I’ll provide you with some tea to help with the nausea, but your greatest benefit will be eating a small snack every two hours, or even less. Once the nausea is managed, you should be able to return to work, but no heavy lifting or sword practice until after the delivery. We’ll have to take the baby by caesarian, of course. I’ll contact Urahara, to see if he has any familiarity with this type of case. I’m sure that Captain Kurotsuchi will be less than forthcoming with helpful information at this point.”

“He’s already gathering information,” Hallibel said, and all eyes fell on her. “I suspected as much, and discussed this with the shop keeper when I arrived at the shoten. Yes, he is familiar with the situation. He’ll forward whatever he’s found, once you contact him.”

“Or bring it in person,” Kisuke announced with a smile, walking through the door with an armload of books. “I wanted to congratulate the fathers personally, and bring a little gift.” He handed a white onesie to Shuhei. Emblazoned across the front of it in green was the logo of the Urahara Shop. “Green is gender-neutral, for whether it’s a boy or a girl,” he said with a wink, then stood and turned to Renji and Grimmjow. “So, which of you is the other father?”

Renji shrugged and scowled pensively. “Well, before Mayuri got all butt-hurt and stomped out of here, he mentioned that there was an equal possibility of either of us. So, we won’t know until after the kid is born, and we run a paternity test.”

“I can sell you one,” Kisuke suggested in a conspirational tone.

“That won’t be necessary,” Hallibel said in a curt manner, and Renji and Grimmjow looked up at her. Her eyes were narrowed, her jaw set decisively. “Honestly you two, I expected better,” she huffed and shouldered past them, coming to Shuhei’s bedside and kneeling. She took his hand and smiled warmly at him. “This child belongs to the pack, and will be raised as such.” She turned such a wrathful glare then on the potential fathers that even Kisuke shrank as she silently dared either of them to defy her in this matter. “I won’t hear another word about which of you is the father, do I make myself perfectly clear?”

Grimmjow and Renji nodded mutely, but they seemed equally irked by her ruling. When she turned back to Shuhei, the two men shared a glance that was easily interpreted by both; This isn’t over. Not by a long shot.

It would simply have to be settled in private, and that’s all there was to it.

WWWWWWWWWW

Hallibel still had to work, but with Grimmjow being unemployed aside from the band, he was ordered to stay in Seireitei and help Renji with caring for Shuhei until he got back on his feet. Hallibel said she would be back some evenings and on the weekends to visit, and that she would call all of their bookings for Desgarron and cancel indefinitely due to “family emergency,” which was technically somewhat true. Shuhei wasn’t allowed to travel to the World of the Living until after the birth, so they couldn’t perform for quite some time.

Renji still had to work during the days as well, and so he reluctantly left Grimmjow in charge while he was attending to Division business.

Grimmjow and Shuhei sat in Shuu’s room, pouring over the pile of books that the shop keeper had left for them. A few were notebooks, with things scribbled in the pseudo-scientist’s negotiably legible handwriting, but the rest were actual pregnancy books from the World of the Living, like “Expectations for the Expectant Mother,” which Urahara had taken the liberty of scribbling out the word “mother” on the cover and writing “father” above. That one, which Grimmjow was flipping through, was filled with crossed-out material, notes scribbled in the margins and, when he’d run out of space, also on colorful square sticky-notes that sometimes stuck out the edges of the pages, making the book look more like an origami rainbow attempt gone horribly wrong.

“What does that one say about morning sickness?” Shuhei asked, thumbing through one of the notebooks and trying to decipher the chicken scratch amidst the mixture of helpful diagrams and absurd doodles, like the animated flip-book in the margin, depicting a sperm swimming across the page and intersecting something that looked like a multi-faceted sphere, and then exploding in a puff of smoke and turning into a baby. He sincerely hoped it was Jinta who was responsible for the cartoon, and not the shop keeper himself. The concept of it being the latter made all of his reference material feel slightly less credible, somehow.

Grimmjow flipped to the glossary and found the page listing for “morning sickness,” and turned back to the chapter, pulling off a sticky-note to see what was beneath it. “Nausea, vomiting, triggered by bad odors, strikes any time of day,” Grimmjow read, skimming the material. “Worse usually in the first pregnancy, caused by hormones… Eat whatever doesn’t make you sick, stay away from whatever does, blah blah blah…”

“What does the note say?” Shuhei asked, pointing to the bright pink colored slip of paper stuck to Grimmjow’s finger.

He turned to it and studied the writing. “It says, ‘Standard morning sickness usually lasts twelve to fourteen weeks, but male pregnancy is highly accelerated at onset, with the first week or two being equivalent to the first month or two of female pregnancy, after which it loses momentum somewhat until achieving a pace approximating that of an average female pregnancy, coming fully to term around thirty to thirty five weeks instead of the standard female term of thirty nine to forty one weeks.’ Here in the margin, it says, ‘Morning sickness in the male pregnancy is typically of a shorter duration, due to the accelerated progress initially.’ Oh, guess I read that out of order, then.” He pressed the note back to the page and closed the book, staring blankly at the teddy bear and the baby bottle on the cover. “Shuu,” Grimmjow began, voice distant and worried. “What are you going to do if it’s mine?”

“Love it,” Shuhei said in a tone that suggested the answer should have been self-evident.

Grimmjow sighed and ran his hands down his face. “No, I mean about Renji. He wants to kill me right now. I really had no idea. I mean, this is crazy, even for me, knowing all the Alpha dynamic shit that I do. I no way in hell expected something like this, let alone considered it ever even possible.” He shook his head. “Fucking Hallibel, not telling me something like this… You’d think she would have made good and sure I knew something this important before she stamped her fucking blessing on it.”

A few moments of tense silence were finally broken by Shuu’s soft words. “You’re going to have reign in that mouth of yours and clean up your language, if we’re going to have a baby running around here, Grimm. No matter whose kid it turns out to be.”

Grimmjow glanced up at the slender man lying in the bed, and saw the smirk on his face. It was infectious, and they both began to laugh uncontrollably; a much-needed emotional release from the tension of the whole situation.

When they finally calmed, Grimmjow wiped a tear from his eye, and nodded. “Yeah, I’ll work on that, I will. But seriously Shuu, what am I going to do about Renji? He was jealous, and just when we got everything smoothed over, this happens, and now shit’s twice as bad as before.” He paused and caught himself, saying, “I mean, ‘crap.’ Wait… ‘Stuff?’ Ugh…” He rolled his eyes. “This is going to be hard.”

Shuhei chuckled. “Don’t worry about Renji too much, Grimm. I love him, but he’s a hothead, trust me. He’ll cool down eventually. This will blow over.”

“Yeah, I just hope he doesn’t kill me first,” Grimmjow quipped, but whether he was serious or not was unclear. “At least these rotating shifts we have because of his job are keeping the two of us apart for now.”

“That’s not really the answer though, Grimm,” Shuhei scolded him gently, and the blue-haired man rolled his eyes again.

“Fu- I mean… Yeah, you think I don’t know that? But maybe he’ll calm down enough to not want to kill me. You’ve been feeling good enough the past couple days to go back to work soon, right?”

Shuhei nodded. “Between the snacking and the medicine and tea that Captain Unohana gave me, I think so.”

Grimmjow tipped his chair back, resting his head against the wall. “Yeah, when that happens, I’m going to be making myself scarce for a while.” He glanced at Shuhei. “You think I could get drunk enough to maybe just let him beat the shit out of me, bare-fisted? Would that get it out of his system?”

Shuu snickered but shook his head. “I don’t really think violence is the answer here, Grimm, but you two are going to have to hash it out between yourselves in the end. I don’t know what’s going to satisfy him at this point, but I’ll talk to him tonight, see what I can find out.”

Grimmjow nodded somberly. “Thanks, I’d appreciate that. I think Tia’d be a little put out if Renji murdered her mate in cold blood, and she was forced to raise my child alone.”

“Hey, I’m part of this equation too, you know,” Shuhei said indignantly. “She wouldn’t be alone, I’m the father for sure. Well, mother… Dammit…” His hand flew over his mouth, and he gave Grimmjow a sheepish look. “What am I even called? I mean, it’s not ‘surrogate,’ because it’s my natural child. Well, ‘unnatural,’ whatever…”

Grimmjow shrugged, looking at the clock and standing. “I dunno, whatever you want, I guess. But Renji should be done at work any second; you think you’re ok if I take off? You need anything? Water? A snack? A different book? A blanket? A…”

“Grimmjow, I’m fine,” Shuhei chuckled. “I’m not an invalid. The nausea has been better today; I can manage if I need anything in the next few minutes. Go home. Tell Tia I’m doing better, and I’ll see her if she comes this weekend.” Shuhei noted Grimmjow’s intent gaze, and followed it to where his hand was resting absently on his completely innocuous-looking stomach.

“Can you feel anything?” Grimmjow’s voice sounded unexpectedly raw coming out, even to himself.

Shuhei smiled whimsically, looking down and laying his other hand on his stomach. “No, not yet. It’s too early still, according to some of the books, and Urahara’s notes.” He stared at his flat belly under the blankets for a moment, then looked up at Grimmjow. “Do you hope it’s yours?”

Grimmjow covered his mouth with both hands in bewilderment. “Fuck me… I don’t even know, Shuu. Honestly. I never thought about kids, not for half a second. Hollow don’t normally breed, you know? It was so far off my radar it was in another galaxy. I just…” He shook his head, glancing nervously at the clock again.

“Go on, get out of here. I’ll talk to Renji tonight. Remember to let Tia know, ok?” Shuhei ushered him off with a ‘shooing’ motion, and Grimmjow nodded, waving a hesitant farewell then heading for the Senkaimon to return to his house in the World of the Living, after a quick stop at the Urahara Shoten to pick up his gigai.

Renji came in not five minutes later, and found Shuhei reading, alone. “That shiftless asshole,” Renji snarled, kicking at the chair that Grimmjow had been occupying not long before. “He just left you here by yourself? What if there’d been an emergency?”

“Renji.” Shuhei closed the book in his lap, marking the page with a finger, and reached the other hand toward his lover in an inviting gesture. Renji huffed, but came to him, kneeling beside the bed and taking his offered hand, kissing the palm and pressing it to his cheek. “I sent him home, Ren. He’s pretty spooked right now. He thinks you want to kill him.”

“Damn right I do,” Renji growled, and Shuhei withdrew his hand, looking hurt. Renji roared in frustration, digging his fingers into his hair and standing abruptly, turning away and punching the wall. Plaster cracked and fell to the ground, and Renji rubbed absently at his knuckles, grinding his teeth. “How could you stand up for him, Shuhei?” Renji snapped, but it was clear now that his anger was a flimsy mask for a soul-deep pain. He flopped into the chair, his defenses crumbling like the plaster on the wall. “It’s so damn weird, the whole mess of it… But if the baby’s his…” He made a choking sound and looked away, biting his lip, tears welling in his coffee-colored eyes.

“If it’s his, what?” Shuhei pressed. “Will you love me any less?”

Renji looked up in horror. “Of course not, Shuu. Damn, you think I’m mad at you about all this?” He dragged the chair to his bedside and took his hand. “I love you. I’ve always loved you. This doesn’t change anything. It’s just…” He shook his head, his silence speaking volumes as a few stray tears managed to escape and drop off his lashes.

“Then you’re really mad at yourself?” Shuhei asked carefully, unsure.

Renji nodded mutely, and wiped at his eyes with the back of his sleeve, sniffling, breathing slowly until he pulled himself back together enough to speak in a broken voice. “This is my fault. I was jealous of nothing at all, and then I let that night happen with all three of us, and then I gave you permission to mess around.” He sniffled and wiped his eyes again, drawing another shaky breath. “If it’s his, that’s the unkindest cut of all. At least if it was mine, you know…” He left the sentence hanging ambiguously.

“No Renji, I don’t know,” Shuhei pleaded. “Can you explain it, please? Because the last you told me, we were good with him, and now all this. I really don’t feel any different about him, or you either. But you two are both freaking out, and it’s got to stop. You’ve got to figure this out. What would make you happy? Bloodshed? Do you want to beat his face in with your fists?”

Renji scoffed and sniffled. “No. That’d just make things worse. Where’d you get a stupid idea like that anyway?”

“Grimm.” Renji looked up in shock, and Shuhei continued. “It was his idea, to get drunk and just let you pound him. He was hoping it would help you ‘get it out of your system,’ he said.” Renji shook his head, incredulous, and Shuhei caught his chin and gazed into his eyes. “He doesn’t want this to be bad between us all, Ren. Pull your head out, and go make peace with him. And do it nicely, ok? Because I don’t want things to be bad either. We were all good the other night, until this crazy pregnancy thing happened. Really, what does it change between us, you and me, if it was his?”

Renji sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know. I just want it to be mine, I guess.”

“Well, I can understand that part of it, but if it turns out NOT to be, what then? Are you going to hate me, and Grimm, and the baby? I mean, Tia had a point; the baby is going to belong to the pack, and will be raised that way. In the end, the other father doesn’t matter.” He kissed Renji on the forehead. “I still love you. I won’t love you any less if it’s his. And I don’t think I could love you any more if it was yours. So what difference does it make?”

Renji pondered this for a moment, then nodded, and kissed Shuhei chastely on the lips, squeezing his hand. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “Tia would be pissed if she knew we were both still so bent out of shape about this. I’ll go apologize, try to smooth things over with him.” He stood, still holding Shuhei’s hand, and gazed at him with adoring eyes. “I’m such an asshole sometimes. Why do you put up with me?”

Shuhei reached his hand up and Renji bent down, finding himself pulled into a passionate kiss that lasted rather longer than he’d expected, and getting him worked up more than he liked. He began to wonder maybe if he could just apologize to Grimmjow when he showed up for the day-shift with Shuhei. But when Shuu pulled back, he left no question about that. “Because you’re my asshole,” he teased, groping at Renji’s backside, causing them both to smirk naughtily. “And I love you anyway. Grimm’s a jerk sometimes, but he really didn’t know this was going to happen. He’s scared I think, Ren. Not just scared of you right now, but scared of it being his. Go set him at ease. I think he’ll feel better if he knows that both of you support me, and you’re on the same team. He needs somebody with him on this, he’s kind of alone right now.”

Renji sighed, mourning the waste of a perfectly good erection as he turned and dutifully trudged toward the Senkaimon.

He picked his gigai up from Urahara, and checked the wallet in the pocket, fishing out his debit card. Hallibel and Urahara had set him up with a bank account for his share of the earnings from the band. He rarely had occasion to break into it, but tonight seemed like as good a night as any.

The walk wasn’t far, and the evening was warm enough still, though there was a bite of autumn in the air. Renji ducked into a convenience store and quickly located a case of the brand of beer he always saw Grimmjow’s fridge stocked with, and paid for it. Better to come bearing gifts, he reasoned as he continued on his way.

The mournful strains of what Renji knew to be Grimmjow’s guitar assaulted his ears as he approached the house. The garage door was down though, so he apparently wasn’t quite as willing tonight to share his sorrow with the neighborhood. Renji knocked, but then just walked in the side door of the garage.

Grimmjow was just setting his guitar down to come answer the knock, but he stilled, eyes wide, fixed on Renji’s face when he saw who it was. Then, Renji lifted the case of beer aloft, and Grimmjow swallowed, and began pulling off his t-shirt.

“What are you doing?” Renji asked, confused.

“It’s white, and it’s one of my favorites,” Grimmjow said in a resigned tone, throwing the shirt toward the washing machine against the interior wall. “I don’t want you to get blood all over it when you break my nose. Glad you brought a twenty four pack. Should have brought liquor though. I’m going to still feel it, but maybe that’s what you want.”

“No, man, no… It’s a peace offering,” Renji said. “I talked with Shuu tonight, and I came to apologize. I’ve been an asshole, and we need to straighten things out between you and me.” Renji had been tearing open the case, and tossed one of the cans to Grimmjow, who caught it but eyed both the can and Renji with equal distrust.

“No bloodshed?” the blue haired man asked skeptically, but with a tinge of hope.

Just then the door from the house opened, and Hallibel looked out. She took in the scene and narrowed her eyes, sensing the tension in the room. “What in the hell is going on out here, you two?”

“Posturing. Scuffling for rank. Mind your business, Tia,” Renji growled, irritable that his already-difficult apology was becoming even more complicated.

Hallibel was aghast, and shook her head in disbelief, but shockingly, went back inside the house. Grimmjow gaped at Renji. “Damn dude, you’ve got brass ones, talking to her like that.”

“Why? You tell her to go fuck herself all the time,” Renji reminded him, and invited himself to sit on the futon, pulling out a cold beer for himself and cracking it open.

“I’m her mate, Renji. And even I barely get away with that kind of shit,” Grimm said, sitting down at the opposite end of the futon, opening the beer but still somewhat wary of Renji’s intentions, especially since he’d shown such verbal aggression toward his Alpha just now. And cowed her, nonetheless. “She probably only let it slide because she expects you don’t know any better.”

“She told us to knock this shit off, and said she didn’t want to hear any more about who the dad was,” Renji said, leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I think she probably knows we need to straighten this out between the two of us.”

“Man, I’m sorry, ok? I didn’t know it was going to happen like this. I never wanted to push anything between the two of you, and sure as hell not myself. I had no idea he could get pregnant.”

“Yeah, well, that makes two of us,” Renji agreed, taking a swig of his beer and leaned over to tap his can against Grimmjow’s. “Let’s drink to boyfriends and messed up situations.”

“That’s fucked up,” Grimmjow said, shaking his head in refusal. “You don’t drink to shit like that. Let’s drink to family.” Renji glanced up in surprise, and saw the sincerity in Grimmjow’s eyes.

“Damn you,” Renji chuckled, taking a sip. “Ok then, to family.” They were silent for a short time, then Renji laughed again. “It’s hard to stay mad at you, Grimmjow.”

WWWWWWWWWW

A/N: Sorry for the semi-cliffhanger! And also for not specifically listing “MPreg” in the opening warning, but it would have been a terrible spoiler…

And just a little FYI: For anyone who might be wondering, I wasn’t planning on this becoming an MPreg story back when Renji and Shuhei were discussing kids in chapter 3. MPreg in this setting is not entirely unknown, but rare enough that most average people haven’t heard of it, aside from scientist types. They were more discussing adoption, or theoretically what their kid would look like if they had one together biologically, but neither of them knew that was possible at that point.
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The Ties That Bind Us