Disclaimer: Rukia and Byakuya do not belong to me.

AN: ByaRuki if you believe. But mostly a short little one-shot that takes place after SS-arc. Spot of spoilers but very vague. I should be working on other stuff but this pairing was just banging about in my head, plus Byakuya deserves so much more love.

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frown

-lines that she has on top of her forehead are shallow but present. The violet eyes simmer with something almost like pain. Her head is bowed respectfully as she bids goodnight.

Almost every night, Rukia has nightmares about it. There is a fierce hotness that burns her from outside to inside to out. It scorches her skin and glows red hot before pouring into her veins vicious and viscous like sizzling molten iron. And pain, oh the pain pierces through her bones, through every nerve in her body and she is helpless as it engulfs her because in these dreams, in these dreams there is no boy to protect her from her fiery death.

Sometimes she wakes sweaty and gasping, sheets twisted and heart racing. Sometimes, rarely, like the tingling cool breath under a mid-afternoon's heat, she is saved.

There is a presence on her bed as she wakes. A someone who she recognizes easily as she softly holds her breath.

Then there is silence.

The silence of a tinted sky.

The silence of a girl hasn't quiet seen enough.

The silence of a man who often sees too much.

His hand nearly sets on her hair but it is still, then uncertain. A name is on his lips but he manages to catch it before it breaks the tranquility of the air.

Rukia only feels the slightest touch on her head and the softest whisper of a command before he is gone.

Sleep and flutters like a scarf after him.

She sleeps obediently, like the sister she is but this time a coolness settles over her, just barely, but enough for her to wake up with a-

smile