Title: It's Gone Now
Author: nostalgic-maiden
Pairing: Eh, none really.
Characters:
Rukia, Renji, Byakuya
Summary:
In which the first man in her life thinks about what he could have
done.
Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.
a/n: Oh, my poor, poor neglected Bleach fandom...I live! Actually, I wracked up quite a collection of Bleach one-shots that I've never published...and none of them are good enough for them to stand alone as a one-shot...so yes. Here's to finally having a collection of my small pieces!
He swore once that if he was ever able to reach her again, he would never, ever let her go.
Never.
A man could only make such a mistake once in his life – once was more than enough for him.
If only he could go back and change the things he had done before; if he could turn back time, he would go back to that particular moment and say, "Don't go."
And maybe things would have been different. No, things definitely would have been different.
For one, she'd still be Rukia. Just Rukia. No fancy family name, no fancy protocol to follow, no fancy brother watching her every move.
Simply Rukia. It had been enough back then – why wasn't it enough now?
Of course, that was a rhetorical question – Renji might be rather dense at times, but even he knew that to be part of a prestigious noble family, one had to behave in a certain way.
Why, oh why had Rukia suddenly piqued Kuchiki Byakuya's interest? There were tons of other dark-haired, violet-eyed women out there, and from what he heard, Rukia didn't even have that kind of a relationship with Byakuya. So why on earth had his captain decided toadopt the poor girl? Well, many people would kill to be in her position, that was certain. But the expression he always saw on her face, or rather, the lack thereof, told him that it certainly wasn't the case with her.
He wanted to reach her so badly. He needed to be able to talk to her again, to smile at her again, to hold her again. Like back when they were simply Rukongai citizens, when things were solved easily by having a quick and dirty fistfight instead of all the procedure and paperwork and protocol and bullshit like that.
But the past is the past, and now there are two lonely shinigami standing in the shadow of a powerful, but just as lonely captain.