Author's Note: Thank you to Huan, Splitheart and Icyangel for the reviews and to everyone else who is still reading.

The mountains were beautiful. The sky was clear and blue, the harvest was ripe in the fields and the whole landscape rippled gently in a soft breeze. The journey was so much easier than Rukia remembered. Every stop softened the memories a little, overlaying them with new ones. She had wanted to walk this path ever since the day when Kaien pointed it out to her. She had wanted to walk it, with him at her side, showing her all the things he remembered from his childhood. Since that would never be, she would have to try and remember for him. And it was in such a frame of mind that she arrived, alone, at the house in the mountains.

Just as on that fateful night, she was met by the ragged child with the wild eyes. Save that Ganju was a man now. He rose slowly as she approached. His body was swathed in bandages attesting to his recent injuries, but that wasn't why he moved slowly. She was probably the last person he expected to see. His face was wary:

"Ne-san!" he called towards the house.

Rukia stood waiting in the light of a setting sun. She had dawdled and it had taken her most of the day to get here. She suddenly realised that she wouldn't get back until long after nightfall. And she had told Ichigo she wouldn't be late.

Shiba Kukaku emerged from the house: an imposing woman. Rukia recalled, from conversations with Kaien, that his sister worked with fireworks and it was for this reason that she wore close-fitting, even revealing clothes and bandages on her hand and forearm. She had lost her right arm long before Rukia was even born. She appraised her visitor with centuries' old eyes:

"What do you want?"

Just as they had on that night so many years ago, all the thousand and one things Rukia had wanted to say evaporated in the clear air. She stared at the woman in whose features she saw the echoes of a man she had loved:

"I just wanted to say – I'm sorry."

There was a terrible silence. Kukaku sighed deeply. Then:

"Thank you. I forgive you. Ukitake came here shortly after it happened and explained everything. I always swore to myself that I would forgive you on the very day that you apologised."

Rukia stared. Years of shame, dismissed just like that. She thought she might burst into tears or fall to her knees, but she didn't; she just stared, and suddenly cried:

"I'm so sorry! I should have come" –

Kukaku struck her hard across the face:

"Enough! You only needed to apologise once."

"I'm sorry." For her troubles, she received another smart cuff across the face. She put her sleeve to her nose, checking Kukaku's blows had not drawn blood.

"I told you to stop apologising."

"Sor" – This time, she flinched away before the older woman could raise her hand. Kukaku laughed out loud and put her hands on her hips.

Kaien had warned her: this woman had grown tough, dealing with two rapacious brothers. Well, that might be the case, but Rukia wasn't so easily intimidated herself and she was fairly sure those blows had been delivered, not because she had apologised, but because of the long years in which she hadn't. For that reason, she was willing to take whatever punishment Kukaku saw fit to mete out.

It was at that moment that someone called her name and Rukia turned to see Ichigo striding out of the trees:

"I looked everywhere for you!" he cried and she smiled as he stopped several paces away and frowned, trying to understand the scene before him. He gave up and shook his head: "Are you coming back, Rukia? We leave early tomorrow. I thought you'd want to take at least some of your things."

"Yes," she said and looked away. A luminous sunset had painted the sky orange and the moon was rising in the east, and the peaks of the Rukon were as beautiful as they had been when she was a child. Yes, it was strange how the world revolved. She had been trying to think of the best way to tell him, but, in truth, she wasn't very good at these things and it might take her the rest of her life to find the right words: "The thing is, Ichigo, I've decided to stay here."

All the certainty drained from his face. She saw it leave and she saw the truth for an instant: the effort it took him to nod and remake his smile. When he looked up at her again though, his brown eyes were clear and she realised, with wonder, that, for all that it cost them both, he understood.

She could tell him that his life was precious, that their worlds were too different, that she would remain while he grew old, and where would they be in a thousand years time? But he knew all of that already. No-one got to choose who they fell in love with, however inconvenient it might be. And none of those things had influenced her choice, after all. It had been made for purely selfish reasons. Because she had been searching for a very long time. True, she had found some of her answers in those brown eyes, but the others, the most important onces, had been waiting for her here. She understood now where she was meant to be.

It was not because she was happy. It was not because she loved a man who would cross worlds to find her, she thought sadly. But because, if she were to go, she would leave an absence. It had been a surprise to discover that she had always belonged here. Right here. And Kaien had been right.

"Good." Ichigo was smiling now. It was a beautiful smile.

"Good?"

"Yeah. You see, I just remembered why it was I wanted to save you."

He would go and she would stay. Perhaps, she thought, her teachers had been on to something when they talked about a balance of souls between worlds. Right now, the balance felt almost exactly right. But maybe that was the way he was looking at her. Or maybe just the precise shade of the sky at that moment. She let her eyes meet his and remain so, drinking in his colours in the setting sun. It was a pleasure she had never allowed herself before, and he just stared back, that small smile still lingering on his lips.

"So," Rukia murmured, after the moment had stretched to an almost exquisite intensity: "That's it."

Behind her, Kukaku cleared her throat, making them both start:

"It's too late to return to the sereitei. Why don't you stay tonight as our guests? You would be most welcome."