Scribbled this up in church, and I was just curious as to what kind of reception it would get. A few notes:
In this story, Ichigo died a natural death and passed onto the Soul Society' where he and Rukia got married. This is a future-fic, but like I said, I scribbled it up in about an hour, so it's more story-heavy than with any actual description and timeline.
Enjoy!
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He was gone when she woke up; just like that, out of the blue. There had been no indication that anything had been different about last night than the nights of the years before. They had gone back to their house in the Soul Society together after a long day of Hollow-hunting and had climbed into bed together. She had fallen asleep with her head on his chest, and when Rukia woke up, Ichigo was gone. At first, she thought nothing was wrong; sometimes he got up before her and went to train, or get coffee, or some other mundane thing that he enjoyed doing when he was alive. When he didn't show up after three hours, Rukia got a little worried, but figured that he was caught up doing something important. At ten hours and there had been no word from him, Rukia panicked. She dashed around the Soul Society, screaming his name, frantically trying to find her beloved husband. Eventually, Renji caught up to her and calmed her down enough to explain that he had been reincarnated.
"But why so soon?" Rukia cried. "I've been here longer than he has!"
"You were born here Rukia." Renji tried to explain. "You don't get reincarnated."
"No!" Rukia exclaimed, unwilling to believe it. "He's out there somewhere, I know it!" She broke free of Renji's grasp and ran forward, ignoring his cries to stop and slow down. Suddenly, a shadow fell over her, and looking up, she saw that it was Byakuga.
"He's gone Rukia." He said in a voice softer than she had ever heard come out of his mouth. "He's gone." Rukia stopped running, exhausted, as her brother floated down to her. She fell to her knees and let the tears fall from her eyes as she finally accepted the truth: Ichigo was gone. Reincarnated. She would most likely never see him again. She cried from a long time.
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18 years later, Rukia was patrolling some small town in America on the reports that a semi-strong Hollow was in the area. It was the middle of the day on a Saturday, but she made no attempts to hide herself from the eyes of the people walking by; there was no point when they wouldn't be able to see her anyway. She turned a corner onto a less crowded street.
"Oi! Why the hell do you have a sword?" Rukia glanced around, wondering what foolish human was walking around with a sword. When she saw that there was no one doing any such thing, she slowed down. There was no way…
"Yeah, I'm talking to you! What makes you think that you can get away walking around with a frickin' deadly weapon?" She turned around, and she saw a teenager that couldn't be older than fifteen looking at her; not through her, at her. Somehow he was able to perceive that she was there. But that wasn't the thing that made her stop breathing, that wasn't the thing that made her heart leap into her throat and wiped her mind clear of any and all coherent thought. It was undoubtedly him. Ichigo. Well, not him, exactly. Instead of Orange hair, it was a slightly toned-down fiery red. He wasn't as tall either. But the trademark things were still there: his scowl, his rudeness, and his absolute disregard for the fact that he was yelling at someone who, as he pointed out, was carrying a deadly weapon. But through all of the, she could see his soul, and it was the one that she had fallen in love with all those years ago.
"Ichigo?" Rukia asked quietly, more to herself, than anyone else. The reincarnated Ichigo scoffed.
"Who the hell is Ichigo? I'm Damian! And I asked you a question!" Damian/Ichigo pointed out to Rukia. Rukia smiled. She had found him again. She had lost all hope, but she had found him again, even if it was just by accident.
"You want to know why I have a sword?"
"That's what I said, isn't it?"
"Well, sit down, this might take a while…"
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Btw, the whole thing with Rukia being born in the soul society: there is no mention of her having a previous life in the manga, and if there is than I missed it. But, seeing as that is how I saw it, I thought it would be OK. Hope you enjoyed!