Title: Grace
Pairing: Byakuya/Hisana (in that she is mentioned and remembered)
Rating: PG
Summary: Byakuya's POV. Time has passed and Byakuya is reconciled


He'd loved her, greatly, and she had not returned that love - it was as simple as that. And he had known it from the start, and still had wed her, even against the wishes of his elders. He had hoped time would bring about a change; time had failed, of course, and he still does his best to not begrudge it.

He wishes, more often than not, when he remembers her, that there could have been more (more time to hear her voice, to see her face, more time to be; that Rukia could have been found some time before; that time had passed more slowly) but nothing comes from it, as nothing can.

He does not mourn, though memories do bind him. They will begin to fade, he knows, with promises now out into the open and his shoulders unburdened, and while he does not welcome it, he neither fears the thought. Instead, he will treasure what warmth they can still offer, and let them go with bitter, silent grace when they would leave him. Like Hisana herself.