Author's Note: Another little piece from me. I'm in the process of writing a long one-shot now, fingers crossed I can get it out soon enough. This story is a little abstract, but not more so than another abstract story of mine, Mariposa. Please pay attention to each part carefully, since a part may not be related to the next one. I'll be happy to answer any question you may have; just shoot me a review or a PM. With that said, I hope you enjoy this!

Disclaimer: Kubo owns BLEACH, and Your Heaven is a song by YUI.

Your Heaven

It feels that we met once

A long time ago

In a city full of red roofs

That I saw on a photo

Why is the sky's colour like this?

It's the first time,

Yet strangely,

It feels nostalgic

Kuchiki Rukia could hardly believe her luck.

Not only had she been late, but she also forgot to bring her class assignment, apparently. If she returned home to retrieve the paper, she would be late for school. If she didn't fetch the assignment, she was sure she would be skinned alive by her Mathematics teacher.

She should have believed it when Hisana-neechan told her the other day that her horoscope for the week foretold some unfortunate incidences. Standing still on the kerb, she found herself looking at the sky exasperatedly. It was a beautiful day. Too bad her fate wasn't quite as identical.

After giving it a considerable thought, Rukia decided that she'd explain it to the teacher later. Cursing softly, she continued running to school, afraid of the double wrath she'd face should she fail to reach on time.

Kurosaki Ichigo believed ardently that the gods hated him and had forsaken him.

He eyed the three delinquents in front of him furiously. He had woken up late that morning; he didn't need the universe to give him another obstacle. Yet there he was, face contorted into a deep scowl and knuckles prepared to pound the light out of the losers who dared to annoy him on the wrong day.

Tossing his schoolbag aside, he charged towards his attackers as they made the moves to hurt him. Praying that he wouldn't be late for school, he could feel adrenaline rushing through his veins as he engaged the three guys in a fight.

Running into a fight wasn't what Kuchiki Rukia wanted or needed.

She had decided earlier that if she wanted to make it to the school on time, she should take a shortcut. Normally, she would be avoiding the path like a plague—the alley was famous for its community of delinquents. But faced with no other feasible choice, the petite girl toughed it out and changed her route to the said alley.

She was sprinting to the end of the narrow street when a few screams caught her attention. Turning her gaze to a nearby corner, she saw a carrot-top battling three burly teenagers. Her heart dropped. That wasn't what she had wanted to see. She immediately panicked. What if one of them landed in the hospital? Worse even: what if one of them got killed? That would make her a witness of a murder. She decided that she should call police to report the rowdy behaviour. She was about to fish her cell phone out from her bag when a strong hand grasped her wrist roughly.

"Come with me, and keep silent, girlie."

Ichigo had just driven his fist into the last of the teenage delinquents' jaw when he saw a suspicious man approaching a petite girl.

Her school uniform indicated that she was from the same school as he was, and he wondered what a girl like her was doing in the dingy back alley. From the look of her hair, it looked like she had been late or something of the sort, and had resorted to taking the path to cut time.

The shady man had now begun assaulting the schoolgirl, and Ichigo felt an unexplainable anger building up inside him as he watched the scene unfold. When the adult man tried to grope the unlucky girl, however, something in Ichigo finally snapped and he charged towards the two without any hesitation.

In the split second before he attacked the thug, the girl turned to look at him, her impromptu saviour. It was within that split second when her violet eyes made contact with his amber ones that his mind failed him in a wave of distorted memories.

Who are you…?

"No!"

An eerie scream pierced through the night. Rukia's eyes shot open harshly, thus putting an end to her nightmare. Panting wildly for air, she reached weakly for the night light and turned it on. Beside her, Ichigo had also woken up and was staring at her worriedly when she looked at him.

"Are you okay?"

Rukia breathed heavily, unable to answer her husband. He gathered her trembling form into his embrace to soothe her raging nerves. After she had calmed down slightly, she managed to stutter, "I…you…oh God, there was a lot of blood…too much blood…"

Ichigo could only tighten his hold around her. He still remembered when the first episode occurred a few months ago. He still hadn't found the reasons behind Rukia's nightmare, but he realised that he was starting to get weird dreams as well. He saw some monsters, some people dressed in black robes, some masked men…and a lot of blood. There was always too much blood.

"Ichigo…"

"I'm here, Rukia. Don't worry. I'm here."

Still unable to comprehend what was actually happening, Ichigo turned to look out of the window. The moon shone gloomily at the two of them, as if it was sending them a sad song. He then rested his chin on top of his wife's head, trying to offer her some solace from the uncertainty they were swimming in.

"Ichigo!"

Ichigo couldn't suppress the grin that formed on his lips upon hearing the voice. He eyed the sandwich he was holding and quickly gobbled it down with a speed that was almost unreal for a four-year-old like himself. He then looked up at his mother and said, "Mommy, can I go and play with Rukia-chan?"

Masaki took one look at the raven-haired friend of her son and smiled at him. "If you're tired, I'll be waiting here."

Ichigo nodded happily at his mother's approval. He took one cookie from the picnic basket his mother brought and ran towards Rukia as fast as his legs allowed. Masaki smiled at the sight of the two young children; they did look cute together. Rukia took hold of Ichigo's hand and led him to the playground. Never once did the smile disappear from Ichigo's face as Rukia engaged him in a series of childish plays. She was his favourite playmate.

"Ichigo! Here, here!"

Rukia was sitting on a swing, her short legs not reaching the ground. Picking up the hint, Ichigo rushed over to his friend's side and gave the swing a gentle push. Rukia laughed ecstatically, her pigtails swaying together with the swing's motion. Ichigo, too, laughed at the sound of his favourite laughter in the entire universe.

She was indeed his favourite friend.

Evening soon came and Ichigo could see Rukia's older sister, Hisana, approaching the two of them to bring Rukia home. Ichigo knew the rule: he should never throw tantrum when Hisana-neechan came to fetch Rukia. There would always be another time. Goodbye only meant until tomorrow.

However, tonight, Ichigo saw something different in Hisana-neechan's eyes when she picked Rukia up. The older girl kissed her young sister once before telling her, "Time to leave, Rukia. Say bye-bye to your friend."

"Bye-bye, Ichigo," Rukia said sweetly. She was sad to leave, but she knew that she could meet Ichigo again the next day. "See you tomorrow!"

"See you tomorrow, Rukia," Ichigo replied equally as sweetly. He could hardly wait until tomorrow.

He then ran towards his mother, who had packed up and was ready to go home. "Mommy, let's make strawberry cookies for Rukia-chan tomorrow!" Ichigo suggested, out of the blue, as he picked his bag from the ground. "I gave her a cookie today and she said she loved it."

Masaki didn't know how she'd break the news to her son. "Ichigo," she started, and her heart clenched at the look of confusion on Ichigo's face. "Hisana-neechan and Rukia-chan will be moving out of town tomorrow."

"I'm sorry, Ichigo," Masaki added as she engulfed her son in a warm hug. Ichigo still couldn't believe what he had just heard. Shocked and pained from having his friend ripped away from his world, he cried all the way home that night.

Why do you leave me again?

Walking down the memory lane wasn't what Rukia had expected to do after she finished tidying up her old closet.

Now, with a large photo album on her lap, she found herself staring at pictures of herself when she was young. There were baby pictures of her, laughing happily in her parents' arms. There were pictures of her when she was a little older: the first day of kindergarten, the first day of elementary school, her birthday pictures…

She smiled ruefully, letting the past overwhelm her. She arrived at pictures of her when she was already entering adulthood, and then her eyes fell on a particular picture of a young man.

The colours had already faded, but there was no mistaking the orange hair that the lad on the picture was sporting. Rukia had actually been surprised when the guy said it was his natural hair colour. She laughed at him, telling him that it was a bad lie. But as it turned out to be, he wasn't lying to her.

The next stream of photographs told a silent story of her and the orange-haired guy, Ichigo, together. First trip to Hokkaido. Dinner at Kurosaki household. Her brother's wedding. Their engagement. Their wedding party. Their honeymoon. First child. Second child. Every picture held a piece to the puzzle of her life story and she could feel the tears that started to form in her eyes.

A single teardrop finally fell when she arrived at the last photo of her and Ichigo together. They had been cooking together for a family reunion dinner they were hosting and as usual, they got into a bickering over the simplest matter, this time being the number of eggs they should use in the sponge cake. Their grandchild, Kaya, had apparently found it funny and snapped a picture of her grandparents seething at each other. It was two weeks before Ichigo passed away silently in his sleep.

Rukia let her tears flow freely following the first lone drop. Memories are pictures painted in colours that never fade, she remembered; Ichigo once told her that. She felt tremendous missing for her late husband and quickly put the photo album aside before she was overtaken by grief once more.

Where under this vast sky are you now, Ichigo?

Rukia frantically ran to the villain, tossing her sword aside in the process. Sode no Shirayuki's blade hit the pavement with a silent clank before the blade shattered into million pieces. On the ground was a bleeding and unconscious Ichigo, who had just received a blow to the heart a moment ago. His amber eyes were glazed with something Rukia knew a little too well: approaching death.

"Let him go, Aizen, let him go!" Rukia gravely implored, tears streaming down her face as she knelt beside the man she loved so much. "Take me, but let Ichigo go! He doesn't even have anything to do with your plan!"

Ichigo stared into Rukia's eyes, horrified. He could feel his life draining away from him; no way in hell he was going to let Aizen take his world away from him. He reached to Rukia with trembling fingers and Rukia immediately caught his hand with both hands.

"Ichigo…" Her tears stained the substitute shinigami's blood-soaked shihakusho.

"Ru…kia…don't…"

"He'll kill you…if I…don't do this, Ichigo…" Rukia stammered through her tears. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

Aizen eyed the grieving shinigami in front of him and smirked devilishly. "Very well," he said, as he grabbed hold of Rukia and fled the scene. Rukia could feel pain shooting through her small body, but the one which hurt her most was the look on Ichigo's face as Aizen dragged her away.

"Ru…kia…"

Rukia could feel a sense of familiarity as she gazed into the amber eyes of the man in front of her.

"Give me the blade, shinigami," he said with utmost conviction that Rukia shivered a little from the effect it brought upon her.

"It's not shinigami," Rukia replied, her heart swelling with a feeling of nostalgia and…something else she couldn't quite understand. "It's Kuchiki Rukia."

His hand rested on her blade, guiding the sharp tip towards his chest. He gave her a smile she knew she had seen a million times before, before proclaiming, "I'm Kurosaki Ichigo."

As the tip of her blade ripped through the boy's chest, she could feel her energy being drained away, and in return, she felt as if she was running back in time, to the skies of yesterdays, through memories of distant past she couldn't vividly remember but vaguely recognise.

It's you, isn't it?

Took you long enough to come around, Rukia.

You idiot, I had no idea where you are.

Doesn't matter now. I told you I'd always find you, right?

Right. As if you were actively searching for me.

The bond between us will never be broken, Rukia.

As the last of her spiritual energy drained into his body, she eyed the human boy in front of her once again and found the answer lurking in his amber eyes. She smiled, despite the grave situation that both of them were in.

I can't wait to meet you again. And again.

FIN