He held her close, tears streaking down a face that had seen so much pain already. How could fate take her away again? Ichigo held the petite female close to his chest, gently cradling her. The gasps that Rukia couldn't stop were her last, desperate attempts at life. The man - no longer a boy now - held back his own cries of pain and outrage. The tears would do for now.
"Rukia," he whispered, and earned a flutter of the eyelids as they revealed her purple irises. However, they were already dark, and some light had gone out of them. "We're going to get you to safety, Rukia. Captain Unohana is on the way, she'll fix you up in no time. It'll be alright," Ichigo lied to her. "Stay with me."
The woman, on the brink of death, still rebuked him. It was quite a feat, for one so heavily injured. "Ichigo… you f-fool." She coughed, and blood spattered her hands. It leaked from the corner of her mouth, dripping down her neck to the once black uniform that she wore.
It was now a sickening russet red color, stained with her own blood. The gaping wound in her chest and stomach, along with the cuts and slices to her arms could not be ignored. "I'm d-.. dying, Ichigo. Stop pretending with me." The words came out in a soft, raspy whisper, and the man removed his shirt, pressing it the her injuries, as though that would stop the continuation of blood flow from them.
Too little, too late, Ichigo realized.
Rukia coughed again, and her breathing increased, more shallow than before. Surrounded by death, Ichigo had hoped to save the one that had given him the power to save. He had found his light in the world of darkness, someone to guide him and to help him learn in grow in pursuing the righteous justice. The woman gave him a weak smile, even when he denied that she would die soon.
"You'll be fine," he whispered back to her. It was almost as though the man willed into words what he wished to occur.
Another cough, another precious amount of blood lost. Her eyes slowly started to close, and Ichigo realized that Rukia was beginning to slip away, faster than he had anticipated.
"No!" Again, he whispered out the defiance that welled up within him.
Rukia's body began to go more limp, her breaths numbered. It was a heavy chore, living through the pain. But it was worth it, she deemed through the haze of red and black, for Ichigo. He was someone that had lifted her from her melancholy, her own sort of personal despair. He had become her light, her reason, her protégé.
By now, she could feel the new moisture on her face. This Kuchiki would not cry. It was Ichigo, his own tears seeping onto her cheeks. "Ichigo," she rasped out, eyes just barely open. "Don't cry for me." It was as though a new strength had invigorated Rukia, for this one final moment with the man that changed her life. "We'll meet again, in another lifetime. Don't forget me. I trust you.. I e-entrust y-you with my he-… heart.."
Her head tipped back, and the breath caught in her throat.
Ichigo, hugged her close, feeling no more breathing within the lifeless body, no more life to his Rukia, his one that had given him the means to love and protect. "I will keep it safe for you," he whispered, the tears rolling more furious now, as they mixed with the dead shinigami blood.
"Until we meet again."