Renji finally just gave up and leaned on Daemon. That was okay, he told himself. The expression he directed at his friend was too bitter to be called a smile. "Yeah, well, I learned early on that sometimes love's not enough." He sighed. "Look, I... let the nurses kill me once."

And fuck, it hurt to admit that.

"I let 'em do it. I was kind of... fucked up. But it didn't work. It'd be real stupid to try to do something like that again. Trust me to think up new kinds of stupid."