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By midday the weather had warmed up enough that Renji decided to wait for Hisagi outside. He left Zabimaru and Senbonzakura in the office, the latter having mostly forgiven the former for his indiscretion, and took station against the yard gate with Kazeshini at his feet.
The dobermans's black and tan coat glowed in the bright sunshine as its head rose and fell, eyes glued to the red ball Renji was bouncing on his palm. Every fourth or fifth toss, Renji would let the ball drop to the ground. It bounced wildly, sending Kazeshini skittering in all directions across the yard, innate grace vanishing in the heat of pursuit. Once he'd caught it, he'd bring it back, so proud of his achievement, and poke Renji in the thigh with it until Renji took the ball and the whole rigmarole started again.
Finally, after about ten minutes of waiting and playing, Kazeshini suddenly lost interest in the game. Abandoning the ball over the far side of the yard, he stood stock still, head cocked and ears raised, his undocked tail straight out behind him. Renji turned to peer up the lane himself and, sure enough, about ten seconds later, he heard the low growl of an engine.
"Ride's here," Renji said, slipping a leash around Kazeshini's neck as a red, black and silver Suzuki Bandit and sidecar rumbled around the corner. It stopped at little way up the lane, where the road was wide enough for another vehicle to get by and, as the driver killed the engine and leapt off, the doberman started a high-pitched yelping bark of welcome.
Hisagi tugged his helmet off and left it on the seat, running long fingers through messy dark spikes as he jogged back towards them. "I'm late, I know. There was this thing with the graphics that I couldn't get to work and by the time I got the layout done, it was way past time I should've left. Sorry."
He reached the gate and hung over it, making a fuss of the dog dancing on the other side. "Hey you," he cooed to Kazeshini, then glanced up at Renji. "How's he been?"
Dressed in his black biking leathers, with cheeks flushed from the cold and lips pinked like maybe they'd been kissed that way, it was all Renji could do not to lean over and plant one on the guy. But that wasn't his to do. Their fling had been brief and friendly, and over years ago, back before either of them had even thought of moving out into the sticks. These days they were just friends.
Still, it wasn't easy sometimes, especially since Hisagi was completely Renji's type, and rode a motorbike to boot. It was like a perfect storm of attractiveness, designed to sneak past all of Renji's defences.
"He's been fine, just like he always is," Renji replied, breaking the spell by moving away from Hisagi and unlatching the gate. "Did his obedience no trouble and then played with Zabimaru. He was even okay with the bitch who's here for the day." Though Renji had kept Senbonzakura on her lead and had got Rikichi to help supervise their first meeting, just in case.
Standing up as Renji pushed the gate open, Hisagi shook his head. "I don't get it, honestly I don't. When he's with me, he only has to see another dog and he goes mad."
He held out his hand for the leash. Renji passed it over saying, "That's because you're scared of what he's gonna do. He feels it, thinks you're scared of the other dog and tries to protect you."
Hisagi sagged, his gaze firmly on the doberman now pressed to his leg and nudging a wet nose into his hand. "I know. You keep saying the same thing, but I don't know how to change things."
"You could start by actually staying for next week's session."
It came out sharper than maybe it should have. Sharp enough that Hisagi's head shot up, expression hurt. "I do try," he snapped back, "but I'm not like you. I can't just drop everything because of the dog."
Because the job came first, like it always had, which was why he and Renji could never be anything but friends.
Pacing himself was a lesson Renji had learned the hard way after starting up his own business. While he was more than happy to work hard, he also now understood how to say 'no' when someone tried to dump more on his plate than he had time to deal with.
Hisagi had never got the hang of doing that and, as a consequence, spent seven days a week, fifteen hours a day, in front of his computer. He'd probably spend even longer if it wasn't for Kazeshini needing exercise and company. That was one thing he did right, at least.
Renji huffed a sigh. "Well, try harder next week, okay? Right now, you're just throwing money away on these classes." Not that Renji should be complaining. It was all income. Still, it was galling to spend so much time on a dog and see no improvement.
"I will, I promise." Earnest and eager, that was Hisagi through and through. No wonder people took advantage of the idiot.
Renji let him go with a smile and a wave, and watched as the pair headed back towards the motorbike and sidecar. Kazeshini travelled in the sidecar, he had his own harness and everything. The pair were a bit of a fixture around Seireitei.
Inuzuri Dog Training lay just beyond the outskirts of the village proper, close enough to walk to the chippy if the weather was nice and you were feeling fit. And if the chippy was open, which was rarely this time of the year.
Hisagi and Kazeshini made about half the distance back to the bike when two people appeared round the corner from the direction of the village proper.
No, scratch that, two people and a dog. It was General Yamamoto, Renji's next client. The slender white-haired gentleman dressed in a Barbour jacket and green wellies walking beside him was Sasakibe-san, who was either Yamamoto's friend or his partner; Renji hadn't worked up the nerve to ask which.
Not that it mattered. The crucial thing right this moment was the wire fox terrier trotting obediently at Sasakibe's heel.
Renji knew the moment Kazeshini spotted the other dog because every muscle in the doberman's body tensed. His ears went forwards, his tail went high, and his walk turned into a stiff-legged strut.
A second later, Hisagi saw the dog too and he hauled hard on Kazeshini's lead, which of course immediately told Kazeshini that there was something here to worry about. And, to his dog brain, the only thing it could be was the fox terrier. It was a textbook case of reinforced defensive-aggression, and Renji knew exactly what was coming next.
Kazeshini went ballistic, up on his back legs, barking and snarling at the very end of his lead, all trace of the calm obedient dog he'd been five minutes ago gone. Hisagi was having to brace himself to avoid being pulled over, and even so his feet slid across the tarmac.
Renji vaulted the gate, ready to sprint up the road to grab Kazeshini if Hisagi lost his grip, but before disaster could strike, Sasakibe reversed his course, bending to clip a leash onto his own dog's collar as they disappeared back round the corner.
Sensible as the move was from Sasakibe's point of view, Renji couldn't help huffing in frustration as he pulled up. Now Kazeshini would think he'd driven them off, thus reinforcing his bad behaviour yet again. At this rate, it was going to be impossible to break him out of it.
Unlike his companion, General Yamamoto had continued coming up the lane, and though he might look as old as the hills and use a stick to walk, he kept up a brisk pace. He was almost all the way to Renji's gate by the time Hisagi had wrestled Kazeshini back under some semblance of control.
Fingers wrapped tight around Kazeshini's thick collar, Hisagi towed his dog backwards down the road towards the motorbike and sidecar. "Sorry about that!" he yelled, waving a hand apologetically in Yamamoto's direction. "See you next week, Renji!"
As he reached Renji, the general's remarkable eyebrows drew down into a forbidding frown and he snorted in disgust. "That young hoodlum needs to take a firmer hand with his dog."
Renji boggled at the old man, who was pulling aside his heavy camel hair coat. There, tucked inside, was Ryūjin Jakka, or Ryū for short, General Yamamoto's elderly pekingese, who, to Renji's certain knowledge, never set foot on the ground when his master was around to carry him. And he had the nerve to say Kazeshini needed a firmer hand. Talk about pots and kettles.
"Come along now, sweetheart, don't be such a baby," Yamamoto was saying as he tried to ease the small dog out from under his coat. As usual Ryū didn't want to come and was doing his best to stay in his warm cosy nest. Yamamoto petted him, running liver-spotted fingers through long gold and black fur. A little snuffling whine started up, which, as Renji knew, was only the start of things to come.
Eventually, Yamamoto managed to extricate the peke and, hugging him against his chest, let the little thing lick at his face as he kissed and petted it some more before reluctantly handing him over.
Renji, who'd watched the performance with a mixture of exasperation and amusement, took Ryū and held on firmly as the peke squirmed and the noise level went up to a yapping whine that he could keep up for hours. The sound of Hisagi's bike briefly drowned it out and Renji extricated a hand to raise in a wave as Hisagi drove past.
"I hope you're all ready for him, Abarai," Yamamoto was saying, still petting the dog's ears. Ryū's front legs paddled in mid-air as he struggled to get back to his owner and Renji felt the strain from holding onto him with only one hand. Peke's might be small but they were solid citizens.
"Shh, shh, shh," Yamamoto cooed, making kissy faces at the dog and fussing at it. "Daddy has things he needs to do. He'll be back soon, I promise."
"You know, sir," Renji said, settling the peke against his chest as Yamamoto finally stood up to go, "if you just left without saying anything, he'd be a lot calmer." Every week Renji said the same thing, and it didn't make a scrap of difference; the General still had to say his farewells. Like right now.
"But I can't leave without saying a proper goodbye to my baby, now can I?" The old man bent over the dog again, cupping its head in both hands and planting a kiss on its snub nose, apparently oblivious to the fact that he virtually had his face in Renji's chest to do so. This close he smelled like hot peppermint and smoke. It was very disconcerting. Renji craned his neck to give the old man space.
Thankfully he didn't indulge for too long. A moment or two later, he backed away, actually getting as far as taking a couple of steps down the lane before stopping to wave back at Ryū. "Bye bye then," he called, "I'll be back in an hour and a half. You be good for Uncle Abarai while I'm gone," and with that, he finally set off back down the lane towards the village.
Uncle Abarai. It was all Renji could do not to burst out laughing. Who'd have thought the old man was such a sap.
Shaking his head in amusement, Renji turned to go back into the office. Zabimaru was watching out of the window. When he saw Renji coming, he vanished and a second later a different head appeared, this one far narrower and white. 'Sakura looked out at Renji for a moment, then woofed, her bark muffled by the glass.
At the sound, Ryū squirmed in Renji's arms. "Yeah, yeah," Renji said, adjusting his grip. "I'll let you down in a mo, but not out here. Yama-jii'll kill me if you get mud in your coat"
They reached the office door. Renji opened it and thrust Ryū inside at ground level, letting the little thing scamper across the floor to say hello to Rikichi, who was waiting for him, already on the floor with his arms open. The peke scrambled up onto his lap, wuffling as he doled out kisses and sending Rikichi into peals of laughter.
Renji left them to it and hopped the counter, greeting Zabimaru with a head scratch and 'Sakura with a chuck under the chin. He swung into the computer chair and peered at the screen. There was some kind of spreadsheet open on it, full of complex calculations. "You doing anything on this?" he asked.
"Ah, don't close it!" Rikichi yelped, sounding a bit muffled. A second later his head appeared over the counter, face flushed and hair everywhere. Ryū must have been giving him a proper love. "It's my thesis!"
Renji held up both hands to show he was being good. "You planning on working on it over lunch?"
"I was," Rikichi replied, "if that's okay."
Since Renji had only been planning on surfing while he ate, and Rikichi's work would get the kid qualified that much more quickly, he let Rikichi have the machine back. Pushing away from the computer, Renji said, "No problem. I'll eat upstairs."
It was no hardship, so long as he actually got some food. There wouldn't be time between Ryū and Wabisuke, what with Kuchiki coming to pick 'Sakura up at two thirty.
If the guy actually turned up. Renji had his doubts about that.
Behind Rikichi a familiar yapping whine started up. Renji sighed as Ryū started running backwards and forwards in front of the office door. Left to his own devices, he'd do that for the entire time he was with them, getting louder all the time. Distracting him was the only thing that worked. "I suppose you'll be wanting me to take that noisy thing with me, as well."
Rikichi grinned at him sheepishly. "It would help me concentrate."
"What about you two?" Renji asked, giving Zabimaru and 'Sakura a questioning look.
'Sakura ignored him. She'd stolen Zabimaru's chair and had her back firmly turned on the rest of the room. At Renji's question, Zabimaru lay down with his chin on his paws and flattened his ears against his head as if to say, you have got to be kidding!
"Traitors," Renji muttered.
He and Rikichi danced the dance of the countertop door, and once they'd swapped places and Renji was on the outside once again, he swept down and scooped Ryū up in his arms. The horrible crying stopped, but the licking started. Renji fended the peke off the best he could, saying, "Me and my friend here are going for lunch. I shall see you all in about an hour."
Still grinning, Rikichi returned to his seat by the computer as he waved them off. Zabimaru had joined 'Sakura by the window, though he hadn't tried to retake his chair. A wise move, Renji thought.
He got two steps up the stairs to his apartment before a sudden thought occurred to him. Leaning back down, he stuck his head round the door. "You can redirect the phone if you want. I'll handle anything that comes in while you're busy," he said, before starting up the stairs again.
Now if Kuchiki called making excuses, Renji would be the one to deal with him.