RenjiRukia – The Hill

It was quiet. No one was outside, not even the birds. The houses lay in a straight line next to each other but no one was outside them and fixed with the plants, went to get any water or food. It was as everyone just had disappeared from Soul Society/Seireitei.

Suddenly the silence got disturbed by a giant gate that popped up in front of Seireitei and out from it a person walked out. The person was dressed in a black Shinigami outfit with a pair of white socks and sandals. On the persons left side it hung a sword.

The person began to walk and the gate closed behind her/him.
The only thing that happened when the person walked towards the 13th squad's camp was that a black cat with yellow eyes followed her/him a bit.

"Captain Ukitake, I'm back."

A middle-aged looking man came out from a room and smiled when he saw who had come to visit him in this early morning.

"Kuchiki", he replied and laughed. "Back already? I thought that you would stay longer together with Kurosaki Ichigo and his family in the real world. Did something happen?"
"No. No need to worry Captain. Everything went just as planned. It was just that we managed to finish everything much earlier then we thought", Kuchiki Rukia answered her Captain with a smile in her face.
Ukitake smiled even more and clapped Rukia's shoulder. "I am so glad to hear that, Rukia. You have always been a good Shinigami that finish her missions with a nice marginal of time. But you must be hungry! Come and eat little with me."
"I don't want to sound rude Captain Ukitake, but I have someone I need to meet." With those words Rukia walked out from the 13th squad's camp.
She instead walked towards the 6th squad's camp and searched up their Vice-Captain Abarai Renji.

"Renji?" Rukia called and looked around in Renji's room but it was empty so she decided to walk around the camp and see if he was there somewhere. When she didn't find him their either she decided to try to their "special place".

Abarai Renji - Vice-Captain of the 6th squad - stood on a hill outside Seireitei and looked down at three small bumps on the ground. Those three bumps were from three of his and Rukia's childhood friends.

He sighed deep and was just about to head back to Seireitei when he saw the shape of a short person standing some meters from him. The sun made the person stand in shadow so at first Renji had a hard time to see who it was.

When the person walked closer to him Renji smiled when he saw that it only was his friend Rukia.

He waved and walked towards her. "Hi, are you back already?"

Rukia nodded and gave Renji a hug. "Yeah, it went faster then expected."

Renji smiled and hugged Rukia back. "It's nice to have you back, Rukia. In some way Seireitei isn't the same without you."

Rukia looked up at Renji with surprised eyes. "Really?"

"Sure, why shouldn't it?"
"I guess you're right… As usual", Rukia said and blinked towards Renji. "But you, shall we not go back to Seireitei? I haven't eaten anything since last night and I'm starving!"
Renji laughed and messed Rukia's hair. "Of course. If that's what Rukia wants, then Renji have to do as Rukia wants."

Rukia laughed and was just about to turn around back to Seireitei when she stumbled on her Shinigami outfit and fell right on top of Renji.

Renji got so surprised by the extra weight on top of his chest that he fell backwards. A *bump!* heard when they hit the ground. No one of them moved, especially not Rukia when she felt how close she laid on Renji. This close they never had been before and that made her heart beat faster, her body got warm and her stomach tickled.

Rukia slowly, after some long minutes of silence, turned her head towards Renji's face and looked him in the eyes. Renji looked back in them and smiled a little.
"Rukia…"

Then Rukia did something she never thought she would do.

She kissed Renji's lips.

Renji himself just laid still and tried to take in what just happened. He looked at Rukia all the time she was kissing him. He felt how also his heart begun to beat under Rukia's and that feeling made him… he couldn't describe it.

When Rukia let her lips of from Renji's she sat up and turned away her head. "Gomen…"
"Hey, what is it?" Renji sat up to the half and stroked Rukia's hair.
Rukia shook her head. "This… this is wrong… You're a Vice-Captain and I'm… I don't even have any rank…"

"You are not worth me? Is that what you mean, Rukia?" Renji looked at Rukia and stroked her cheek gently. "You know what? I don't care if you would be a Captain, Vice-Captain or anything else, Rukia."
Then Renji kissed Rukia back on her lips before he hugged her gently and hold her. "I care about you Rukia, I thought you knew that. I like you just the way you are, with or without rank."

"You… do?"
"But of course I do, Rukia. If you would ask around I am pretty sure that it would be many people that say the same thing." Renji smiled and kissed Rukia's cheek.
Rukia smiled back also and laughed.

The rest of the day Renji and Rukia spent together on the hill together with the graves of their three childhood friends. And one thing they both knew for sure deep in their hearts:
If their friends still would have been alive today they would have sit next to them and felt happy for them both for their new found love as they would see them hold each others hands and watch the sunset.

Together.

Sandra Magnusson 2010/01/05