Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Come on, if I did, I'm sure I would have better things to do than write fanfiction. Like, I don't know, finally kill off Kon.
Note: Sorry, Kon fans, for wanting to kill Kon
Second Note: Sorry, Kon haters, for apologizing for wanting to kill Kon
Deep, dark shadows that seemed to some of the shinigami to bode of the abyss about to swallow their captain swallowed the room. The only light came from a shaded lamp in the corner. Anything brighter bothered the failing eyes of Ukitake.
Kiyone sat next to her taicho, her eyes only recently dried from tears. She knew that before long she would cry again, but she tried to be strong for Ukitake as long as possible.
Ukitake stirred, something he had been doing less and less as the sickness that had plagued his life had finally put him on his deathbed. Kiyone sat alert,
"Ukitake taicho!" she said, remembering not to speak in her usual loud voice, out of respect for Ukitake's illness. "Are you feeling better?" She knew that he would not recover—Unohana had been all too clear in her diagnosis. Still, she knew that she would hold out hope until the end.
"Kiyone-san…" Ukitake's voice could barely be heard as he rasped out his first vocalization in days. "Please leave the room for a minute." Seeing the look on her face, he grinned. "Don't worry, I don't intend to die alone here. I just need to talk with someone privately."
Kiyone's brow furrowed in confusion. Who did her captain want to talk to? Shunsui was hung over from spending yesterday drinking next to Ukitake, Sentaro was taking his turn at paperwork, and all of the captain's other friends were currently fulfilling their shinigami duties. Suddenly, a hand placed itself on her shoulder, and a cane was visible from the corner of her eyes. She turned, wondering who could sneak up on her, hiding their spirit force so easily. She gasped when she saw the man who had come up silently behind her, the man with the green-striped hat.
"Ur…Urahara Kisuke…"
Urahara gave a small smile, tinged with sorrow.
"I apologize for stealing your captain from you, Kiyone-chan," he said softly, "But he and I have things we must discuss." Nodding quickly, Kiyone backed out of the door, wondering what her taicho could possibly have to talk about with the infamous ex-captain of the Twelfth Division.
Alone together for the first time in over a century, the two shinigami stared at each other in silence. After a long pause, Urahara knelt down before Ukitake, placing his hat on the ground.
"Ukitake, please forgive me…" Ukitake's eyes softened as he guessed the underlying cause behind Kisuke's visit. He gave a weak chuckle.
"Get up, you idiot."
Kisuke looked up, then slowly rose to a kneeling position.
"I am not an idiot. Don't try to remove the blame from me, we both know damn well that this is my fault." All traces of a grin on Ukitake's face went away as he was reminded of his impending fate.
"You didn't mean it…" As he said it, both of them were transported in their minds back to that day in Kisuke's lab, so long ago.
Ukitake was on one of his strolls through Sereiti (I hoped I spelled that right!), when he saw a light in the distance. Looking around to find his bearings, he smiled when he realized the light was coming from the division of his friend, Urahara Kisuke. Having nothing else to do, the brown-haired captain walked towards the light.
Kisuke looked up as he entered the lab. He gave a grin as he raked through his messy hair.
"Konichiwa, Ukitake-taicho. What brings you to my humble lab?" Ukitake let out a grin at the clutter surrounding the younger captain's desk. He could see that it was all focused around a tube in the center of the desk, filled with a glowing fluid. In the center was a glowing sphere.
"What is that thing?" asked Ukitake, his curiosity aroused. Kisuke brightened, encouraged by this notice of his work.
"This is an experimental revised mod soul," he said. "Been working on it for a while. Oh, that reminds me!" Kisuke leapt up from the chair, and ran towards a door leading to another part of the building. "I'm going to get something to show you! Be right back…" His voice was already fading into the distance. Laughing, Ukitake took a closer look at the glowing orb.
It was really only a small leak, but the enormous forces bottled into the mod soul were more than powerful enough to take advantage of it. The blast knocked Ukitake against the wall, ten feet away. He awoke and hour later to see Kisuke's face.
On his deathbed, Ukitake sighed.
"We didn't even know it had changed me until a few weeks later," said the dying captain. "I never would have connected the incident with my… condition." He looked up, directly into Kisuke's face. "It took courage to tell me you were responsible, to face my ire." Kisuke hardly seemed cheered.
"This was my ezperiment, and it's killed you!" Tears began to drop from the former captains eyes. Then, to his surprise, a punch knocked him onto his back. It had come from Ukitake. Too stunned to speak, Kisuke remained on the floor.
"Don't say that, Kisuke." Ukitake, through drained from the physical activity, sat up. "If you blame yourself, you'll be doing nothing except damaging two lives instead of one. You don't think I would be petty enough to want that, do you?"
Sobs now wracking hhim, Kisuke nodded, and soon left the room.
Three days later, Ukitake died. Urahara Kisuke did not appear at his funeral, though his banishment was temporarily rescinded for the occasion.
He had made his peace.