Characters: Rukia, Ichigo
Summary: I know we'll know how to make the best of this. Lifetime after lifetime, I'll be there.
Pairings: IchiRuki
Warnings/Spoilers: No spoilers
Timeline: No timeline needed
Author's Note: Weird… I've never had much inspiration for IchiRuki before chapter 423.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Your lifetime is so short, and mine's so long. You will have died of old age before I even look like an adult, though I begin to get the suspicion that you won't live long enough to see old age—you're such an idiot, Ichigo, and you don't think that much about your own safety.
It's all a bit of a conundrum, isn't it? It's given us both more than a few headaches.
But it will all be alright in the end. You and I have long since learned how to make the best of everything. I know you'll know how to make the best of this. You're an idiot, Ichigo, but I have faith in you.
Your life will pass away from you quickly. I am not so old for a Shinigami, but I can appreciate how short a human lifetime is in the scheme of things. You're all like mayflies, living in the sun for one day before dying beneath it the next, legs twitching one final, frenzied dance.
I can see you now, dying on a cracked field, under the sun. When you die, I'll be there to make your journey swift and safe, but for now, we still have the sun, still have that short time.
We'll find a way to make it sweet. Find a way to make these short good times worth all the tears that may come later. You and me, we both already know what tears taste like, we've both already swallowed them until we were sick from them. We've already swallowed a sea of tears, so what comes when you'll die will just be a rain puddle.
And when you die, I'll be there.
It may take us years, decades, centuries to find each other again, but I'll be there. The afterlife will even out the scales, smooth over differences—we'll have as much time as we'll ever want.
Lifetime after lifetime, I'll be there. How can I be anywhere else but with you?
It will all be worth it, for our one day in the sun.
