A/N: I realize that there are probably x1000000 of these already, but I couldn't just not write something to celebrate. :P
Destiny has a funny way of repeating itself.
I couldn't help but think so as I stood, silent and still, feeling the old familiar surge of power coursing through my veins that I had not known in so long. The weight of Zangetsu over my shoulders, along with the reassuring feeling of his presence beside me in preparation for battle were as new to me as they were familiar.
Kind of like you are right now.
The first thing I see are your eyes. They are the same complex mixture of blue and violet that I had struggled not to remember with such lucid clarity for 17 months, but as I look at them now, they are as well-known to me as if I had last seen them yesterday.
Your smile, along with the look in your eyes, both carry an infinite amount of words that you would never say but that I understand as clearly as if they were each spoken aloud; as they always have.
And as I look at your face, I feel a calm settling into my chest…Like seeing the sun rise after a particularly long night.
For that moment, it's as if nothing has changed.
As if I hadn't watched you fade into a thousand particles before my eyes.
As if 17 months had not passed without a single word from you.
As if I had never woken up in the middle of the night, instinctively looking at your empty closet in my room, only to realize that you weren't there.
As if we had never been apart.
But then that moment passed. That image of you that had been frozen in my mind slowly started to shatter as I began to notice the differences.
The first and most obvious one was your hair. You cut it shorter now, it barely reaches past your chin. It makes you look older, somehow. I can't picture you in the gray high school uniform anymore, or wearing my sister's summer dresses.
Then I see the badge strapped proudly on your left arm. I can read the number for the 13th division, and see the flower etched underneath. It suits you.
And I see the gloves you're wearing; they reach past your elbows and are a soft white color that I've seen before. I recognize them immediately and can only guess at who gave them to you.
When I look back up to your eyes, I realize something else: I no longer have to tilt my head as far as I did to meet your gaze. You've grown taller then, though you still only reach up about the middle of my chest from what I can see. Somehow, I draw some comfort from that thought.
As I look upon all the evidence of the time that has passed, I feel a numbness settle over me. It's a kind of muted pain, throbbing weakly somewhere in my chest.
"Ichigo…" You speak at last, for the first time.
It's not the first time I hear your voice after all this time; the memory of it coming from my substitute badge just a few days ago is still vivid. But hearing you, just a few feet away, is an entirely different matter.
The sound of it is like an alarm that wakes up all my senses; I feel the barely suppressed pain of not seeing you, I feel the quiet inner despair at having thought that it would probably be decades before I got to see you again, I feel fear of not knowing if I would be able to go on in a world without you…
And then I feel all those emotions melt away under the cool waves of your reiatsu, and the soft understanding in your smile.
I avert my eyes then…Suddenly, all the walls that I spent so long building around myself have been stripped away in an instant, and I don't know if I'm strong enough to meet your eyes.
You seem to sense this, because all of a sudden you're stepping forward, and I feel your warm, slender fingers under my chin.
Your light touch sends bolts of electricity through my being, and I can't help but to allow you to raise my face to look into those never-changing eyes.
And just then, for the first time, I realize something. No, I don't think it's the first time. I think I've always known, but never really appreciated it;
You're beautiful.
"You've grown taller." You say, and I effortlessly hear everything that you don't say.
How long it's been since you've seen me, how it was just as hard for you as it was for me, how you had missed this…
Even so, I can feel myself smiling at the absurdity of your statement, given the circumstances.
And all of a sudden, the weight of Zangetsu feels like a burden. I want to put down the heavy sword, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I'm still conscious of the fact that now is not the time.
Restricted as I am, I do what I can: I reach out with my free hand. I see my fingers shyly brush the wispy black ends of your hair, and then I take one of the silken strands between my fingers, feeling it run smoothly over the calloused skin.
"You cut your hair." I say, and I hope you can hear everything that I don't say as well.
You do.
I see you nod and one of your hands reaches up and lightly touches my wrist. You hold your contact for another long, silent moment, while my hand hovers between your midnight hair and just shy of your face.
Our eyes meet.
And finally, I find my voice again. "It's been a while, shinigami."
Your responding smile was brilliant.
"It's not shinigami, it's Kuchiki Rukia."
And so, the blade is swung down once again.