Meanings

Renji read the latest letter with a sigh, frowning as he tried to work out the meaning behind it. It still puzzled him that ever since he had been found after the war, badly injured, that his captain had been sending him these letters to his recovery room in 4th division every few days.

When he had received the first one he had thought that maybe Captain Kuchiki wished to find a stronger lieutenant and didn't want to say it to his face. Though Renji would not have expected him to be so cowardly about something like that, he couldn't stop that doubt from entering his mind.

After reading the letter, though, all he got was the feeling of well wishes from his Captain, and a reassurance that his position was safe. Yet at the same time it felt odd. There did not appear to be anything in the letter that his captain couldn't have said to him directly, so why had he sent them as notes? The only reason Renji could think of was that he was too busy to pay a personal visit.

Weeks passed and he had still not seen Captain Kuchiki in person. During a sleepless night due to the pain running through his still recovering body, Renji reached for the letters and re-read through them.

His eyes widened as he noticed something so subtle it had hardly been apparent it was there. Renji wouldn't call them love-letters exactly, but other than the reassurance that his position was safe in the first letter, Captain Kuchiki had not once mentioned work. Every letter since had been full of get well soon messages, and news of how the recovery of other Shinigami was going.They were still very formal, but a lot less formal than what he had been expecting from his Captain.

Scanning them once more, Renji almost dropped the letters in shock when he noticed something so obviously out of place that he had completely missed it before; his Captain had signed them as Byakuya.

To anyone who did not know Captain Kuchiki, that would not seem like much, but Renji knew that that was a subtle indication that their relationship had changed, that Byakuya had not forgotten what he had admitted to him before the war got into it's worst stage. It was a way of Byakuya showing to him that it was alright for them to be on familiar terms, that he was willing to give a relationship between them a proper chance.

Holding the letters close to his chest, Renji soon fell into the best sleep he had had for weeks.