Bleach©Tite Kubo
Summary: There are places where time stands still; where time, silenced, does not march on, leaving Sereitei stranded behind it. Inexorably, the Sixth Division office is one of them. Post-Soul Society arc.
Time stands still, here in the office.
His taicho is still as cold as ever; he arrives early, leaves late. Renji watches him through half-mast eyes as the clock ticks by. Life goes on.
There are places where time is frozen. National parks, ancient monuments, quiet places, Kuchiki-taicho's eyes.
(Renji can see those eyes, centuries from now, as stunning and quicksilver as always and forever.)
Beautiful, transcendental places, where even Time leaves her sickle and sleeps in unbreathing silence. Strange as it seems, this is one of them.
The still white air, the steel cabinets – all these Time leaves in favour of more interesting playthings. Time is fickle; she gets tired of her toys so easily, even as they crumble in her hands to fading dust.
The office is too boring, too mundane for her; and sometimes Renji wonders if his taicho has planned it all out as meticulously as his haori folds and his hair falls. Whether he has planned all this out, this place where time does not touch.
This place where time stills, quietens, and sleeps.
You would expect some reaction from Kuchiki-taicho, after the moon fell from the sky.
But no. Byakuya Kuchiki is full of surprises, and this is one of them.
Nothing has changed between them. (Just as nothing has changed in the office, with its steel and its ice, mirroring slate-gray eyes.)
Nothing has changed… but everything has.
There are terrible changes.
Momo sleeps, even as she dreams of happier days.
Rangiku drinks, even as the blood turns to sake in her veins.
Hisagi snarls, even as Tousen watches with unseeing eyes.
Sereitei weeps, even as its residents staunchly lick their wounds and tell themselves it's all over.
(It's not over; the worst has yet to come - and they all know it.)
There are wonderful changes.
Kira stands stronger, even if he doesn't see it.
Rukia loves Ichigo, even if she doesn't believe it.
Sereitei grows stronger, even if it doesn't fight it.
And… Kuchiki-taicho.
Kuchiki-taicho smiles, even if he doesn't know it. Kuchiki-taicho is strong, and he knows how time leaves all in its wake. He accepts the loss and the death, so he smiles in the knowledge that all will end.
...He smiles, and Renji is thankful for it.
He does not say it, though; he allows the small smiles to pass unnoticed, so as not to break the silence in time. He has no wish to rouse it and let it march relentlessly on.
Time stands still, here in the office.
Aizen is not gone, Gin is not gone, Tousen is not gone.
Momo blushes. Rangiku laughs. Hisagi smiles. Death and tragedy are forgotten memories. Battle fades away into the humdrum of everyday life.
Paperwork is unending, identical black scratches bleeding into white manuscript; brushes dipped in ink, nonsense stained on perfection. Mistakes are made, paper torn, tear-stained sheets discarded; thrown, disposed of, as life ruthlessly, inexorably, marches on.