A/N: Yay! I finally managed to write something again! See, I completely lost interest in Bleach over the summer, so of course, nothing was getting written. Since I have several collections of oneshots still ongoing, plus I promised a sequel to my longer story 'Restructuring Life', I was feeling really guilty about not posting anything. But finally I'm back into Bleach and I'm writing again, so hopefully I'll be able to update some of my older stories soon.

Anyway, about this story: I hope to make this the first chapter in another one-shot/short story collection that focuses on the theme of reincarnation. The next story (completely unrelated to this one) will likely be in 4, possibly 5 parts, but since I only have the first 3 written, it might not be up for a little while.

Title: Dream Reality
Author: Saigo no Hajime
Summary: A semi-stream of consciousness story following Ichigo's reaction to a tragedy.
Pairings: IchiRuki (though could be taken as extremely deep friendship, rather than romance)
Disclaimer: If I died and were reincarnated as Kubo Tite (or his lookalike), then maybe I would own Bleach. Until then, it's not mine...
A/N: This is a semi-stream of consciousness, so if you find run-ons or odd sentence structures, they are supposed to be there. I was trying to use them to create the right mood. If you complain about them, make sure it's because you truly thought it made the story worse, not just because they were there. If you do have problems (with that, or anything else), please do tell me. I can't get enough of reviews, both positive ones and constructive criticism, because it's both so wonderful to hear from readers and it helps me improve my writing. Also, I respond to all signed reviews with at least a thank you and an attempt to answer any questions or concerns you might have had. Well, anyway, I hope you enjoy the story!

Ichigo knew Rukia's spirit energy better than even his own. He could barely sense anyone else's and only rarely could he recognize whose energy was whose. And even then it was only with supreme concentration. But none of that was true when it came to Rukia.

If she was anywhere within the whole of Karakura Town, he could track her location exactly. He could pick her out of a crowded room, blindfolded, without a moment's hesitation. When she traveled between worlds, Ichigo was aware of her presence the instant she entered the living world. Even when they were separated, each in a different world, he could still register a faint and distant thrum of energy that told him she was still there.

When she was fighting, he would know.

When she was upset or angry, he would know.

When she was happy, he would know and would feel his lips tug up at the corners as he fought a smile.

And when Kuchiki Rukia's spirit energy suddenly and abruptly disappeared, Ichigo's sense of reality went with it.

The shell of her body lying mere feet away held no meaning for him. Her energy wasn't in it, therefore it wasn't Rukia. It couldn't be Rukia. It couldn't even exist.

The smirking form of Aizen hovering over the body didn't exist either. Rukia's energy was gone. The distant hum of her presence that he felt even across worlds had stopped. Therefore, the world itself must also have ceased to exist.

The blade rushing toward him didn't matter. It wasn't real. The pain in his fingers as he caught the blade barehanded wasn't real either. There was no blood flowing. It was fake. The torn fingers and shredded palm of his hand didn't exist. Aizen was just a figment of his imagination, so as Ichigo yanked at the nonexistent sword, the resistance to his tugging was a mere illusion as well.

It was all just a dream. Just a horrible, monstrous nightmare. But dreams could be controlled. If you could learn to control a dream, there were no limits to what you could do as you slept. So Ichigo took control. He made himself faster than Aizen, and he made himself stronger as well. But when he finally whipped Aizen's own blade through the man's neck and sent the head flying to land next to the empty NOT-dead NOT-Rukia's body, he felt nothing. It was just a dream, and soon he would wake up, and the real Aizen would still be alive and waiting. And Rukia's energy would once again be thrumming against his senses.

He didn't understand why he stayed asleep.

He followed the Unohana of his dream all the way from Hueco Mundo to Sereitei. He humored her when she insisted that she tend his injuries. What was the point? When he woke up they would be gone. But then he climbed into a 4th division futon and went to sleep, and when he woke up again he was still dreaming. Rukia's energy was still gone.

Renji was in the dream now too. He was sitting by the futon when Ichigo woke up, and his face was lined with weariness and streaked with old tears. Ichigo laughed because there was no way it was real, and he told the red-head that Rukia would laugh her head off too when she heard that the ultra-tough 6th division fukutaichou had been crying.

Suddenly Dream Renji was shouting at him in fury and rage and Ichigo relaxed because that was more like it. Renji was supposed to yell, not cry, and what the hell kind of drugs had his subconscious been on to create such a crazy image?

He chuckled and said, "Don't worry, Renji. It's only a dream. None of this will be real when I wake up."

But when his friend stopped in mid-shout and stared at him in silence; when he stood up and walked to the door; when he said softly, "Go home, Ichigo. Just go home," and walked out, Ichigo had to wonder. Why was it taking so long for morning to come?

He did go home. If he had to stay dreaming, he decided, it was better to dream about being around his sisters and his crazy father and his normal life. Anything would be better than dreaming about attending a memorial service for Rukia because, damn it, she WASN'T dead! Anything was better than dreaming about random shinigami running from him in terror, because Aizen wasn't dead either, so Ichigo couldn't possibly have killed him and there was no reason to be afraid of a mere substitute!

Only it was worse at home. Every time he looked at his closet, it hurt. Every time he walked past the rabbits in the pet store on the way to school, he felt his heart clench. Every time he looked at her empty desk in class, his throat tightened. Every time he saw a juice box, his eyes stung.

And he simply could not wake up. He tried harder and harder every day. It hurt more and more every day. He kept telling himself that it could not possibly be real, that it was just a dream, just an illusion, completely false. So why Why WHY could he not wake up!?

And then one day, finally, he sensed it: Rukia's energy was back! It was tiny, faint, and vague, so vague that if it had been anyone else, he might have dismissed it. But it was Rukia, he knew that for sure. Only, it had appeared in the middle of the day, while he was sitting in dream school, wide awake. Why had she reappeared when he hadn't had a chance to emerge from the dream?

He left class, and then school, and ran across town, following the trail of the elusive energy. Why was it here? Why was he still dreaming? Why was Rukia's energy so faint? Why…why was it coming from a hospital…from the…maternity ward? There…there she was…this was where her energy was coming from…

A baby. A tiny infant with brilliant green eyes. A sweet, bald, wrinkled, chubby-faced newborn child. Who was radiating Rukia's energy pattern. What? What was going on? She…?

Oh. Ooohhh. It…wasn't a dream. It really did happen. Rukia…really had…died. But she was here, she was back! She was…reincarnated in this innocent little human baby.

Ichigo collapsed, falling back against the wall of the hospital, unconscious. Three days later, he finally woke up. The first thing he did was run from his hospital room back to the maternity ward. In minutes, he had found out who the mother of that beautiful, special, important little baby was. And he had sworn on his soul that he would protect this little girl for the rest of his existence.

A/N: Ok, I hope the ending wasn't too abrupt or that the story wasn't too confusing...well, let me know what you think!

Oh, and a note about Ichigo's fight with Aizen: I realize that what happened probably sounded very weird, given that Ichigo was narrating it, and he was a bit crazy at the time. Basically, I have a theory about Ichigo's abilities. When he beat his hollow while training with the vizards, he supposedly gained the ability to access the hollow's strength to surpass his own limitations as a shinigami. And yet, when he loses control against Ulquiorra in the manga, the hollow is clearly still way more powerful. Ichigo is apparently accessing only a fraction of his hollow's power consciously. Why is that? My theory is, Ichigo may be capable of going beyond his own limits, but his own logical brain is still telling him he can't. He'll only be able to do it it he stops believing in those limits, which is easier said than done. In this story, the instant Rukia died, Ichigo started believing that it was all just a dream. Since limits don't truly exist in a dream state, he was finally able to move past the logic that was holding him back. So where he said that he made himself faster and stronger than Aizen, what he was really doing is accessing his full strength as a vizard. ::shrug:: Well, anyway, I hope that made sense, and that you enjoyed the story!