Amongst the crowd, a short woman streams along the crowd with ease. She takes a sharp left towards the fences; jumps over them and strays off the dirt path to the grass. After fifteen minutes of limbly crossing over rocks, branches, and rivers, she stands still-
-and inhales deeply.
Her fast-track mind instantly slows down as she faces the field. The familiarity of it as always calms down her heart beats and keeps her at ease.
Nothing here has changed.
When the sun is settling back for the dark stage to set, she moves back and climbs up a tree swiftly.
She lies there and dreams.
/-/
He turns, and pauses, feeling something strange thrum in his veins. Before he can even understand it, he grabs his jacket and heads out. It isn't until he's within ten minutes of running that he finally understands that this familiar feeling was him sensing her long-gone reiatsu.
It'd been years, centuries, since he'd felt her reiatsu.
(it has to be her, it has to be her, it has to be her.)
When the forest is within his sight, he uses his memories to leap over the various rocks, branches, that would've otherwise tripped him had he not remembered. He stops, his heart beating fast, and finally looks up.
/-/
She was awake the moment she sensed an abrupt heightened reiatsu erupting from Ichigo. At first, she was worried he might be in danger, but his fluctuating reiatsu was excited, desperate even; so she'd assumed this was just him finally being a regular teen who parties and whatnot. And then, without even opening her eyes, she instantly recognizes the footsteps: firm with purpose yet hurried at the same time.
Kurosaki Ichigo
Instead of obeying her instinct to flee immediately, she stays very, very still and silently chides herself for dropping her guard.
After all, he should've forgotten everything by now.
/-/
After ten whole minutes, she still doesn't hear any movement that indicates he's moved away.
He isn't going away.
She scowls darkly.
Urahara, you better had not lie to me.
/-/
His breath catches in his throat as he confirms what he'd felt. His heart beats at his throat and he swallows it down, forcing his brain to function.
It's her.
(Urahara had been right after all.)
"Rukia?"
She stiffens up immediately, leaps off the branch, and runs in the opposite direction, all the while thinking-
-how and why the fuck does he remember my name?
"Rukia!"
She boosts her speed in her escapade but feels him quickly gaining on her.
(He always was a fast chaser, she thinks dryly to herself for a split-second.)
She stops on her heel, and pivots around with a hand outstretched.
"Bind, Hanako!"
A yellow glow flashes before him, and then he's falling forward but manages to keep his face from slamming into the dirt. He struggles against the binds around his hands and feet, and stops when he sees a pair of leather boots in his face. He looks up and blinks.
A Chappy mask?
"Who are you?" the muffled voice demands. Although happy to hear her voice- muffled or not, the shock that she'd even ask such a question has him blink slowly in disbelief before narrowing his eyes.
"You know me." He says firmly.
The deafening silence surrounds the both of them. Then, she bends down and hesitantly tilts his face to her.
What she sees on his face makes her jolt back and dig her feet in the ground to stomp out the urge to flee and the urge to collapse into a heap of emotions. Refusing to look at him, she quickly pulls out her Gikon.
"It's useless."
Her thumb pauses mid-way from the button. She looks at him again through her mask, her composure carefully kept in place.
"What?"
"You won't make me forget."
She sees his desperate, searching eyes that almost breaks her determination.
Instead, she gives him a pained smile that he (thankfully) cannot see.
"Sorry."
/-/
a/n: i typed this a while back and found it again, so i thought 'why not?' so here it is~ leave me your thoughts 'bout it! :D