For some reason, I felt compelled to write something heavy. I don't know what came over me, and whether the characters are OOC but if they are then please forgive me. I am but a mere dreamer
Disclaimer: Bleach doesn't belong to me. Set post-Soul Society arc.
For a few days he saw very little of her. Most of her time was spent inside the vast Kuchiki mansion and he was busy sorting out the chaos that came with the painful betrayal. Whenever he returned home it was to more work, so much that it was all he could do to steal some time to contemplate in front of Hisana's portrait.
It was during one of those times did he come upon her, standing before Hisana's altar. She must have heard the door open, must have seen the sudden illumination in the room but if she did then she made no sign of her awareness.
He soundlessly stepped in and stood by the door, waiting for her to turn around and acknowledge her presence.
She never turned around.
He studied her in silence. From behind, she greatly resembled her sister; perhaps smaller and lacked the womanly curves that graced Hisana's slender form. But no matter how small, the resemblance was there.
"…nii-sama?"
He calmly recollected his thoughts. Rukia still didn't turn around. There was a pregnant pause as the girl tried to search for words sliding around her mind.
"…Did you love her?"
Love.
Emotion.
Not only an emotion, it was one of the most intense of all feelings. Life can't be complete without even a fleeting glimpse of its presence.
His eyes remained unmoved. "I do."
Rukia half-smiled. Nii-sama was always precise, always careful when he spoke. I still love her. "…Was she…happy?"
His time with her was so brief, so fleeting. She was a sakura petal floating to the ground; beautiful, fragile, bloomed and withered before his very eyes. "…I think… she did."
Rukia's smile grew wider this time and her eyes brimmed with unshed tears. "Then that's good…isn't it? She – at the very least, you gave her a happy life, nii-sama." She laughed a little. "I don't know why; I don't remember her at all yet – I should be angry at being abandoned; should blame her for her hard life I had to lead before coming to Seireitei – yet I don't blame her what she had done. Maybe, if she didn't, she would have never met you, and she would have never been happy," She turned around and Byakuya could see she was truly smiling now, and he could see Hisana smiling at him. Hisana was always smiling that gentle smile, even as she breathed her last.
You gave her a happy life.
Rukia bowed deeply and straightened up again. 'Thank you, nii-sama."
Long after Rukia left he stood before his wife's portrait, staring at her gentle smile. So much of her was gone, yet so much he could see in the living Rukia. Rukia was perhaps everything Hisana was not, but Byakuya could still see her there.
"Thank you, Hisana."