A/N: The thought of these two characters together and the tragic ending that Tite Kibo gave them in the manga was just too much for me. I had to give them a chance to be together.

RxExR!

A Piece of Heaven

Ichigo and Rukia looked down at the grave that was adorned with flowers and both felt lumps forming in their throats. Rukia's eyes were already shedding her tears while Ichigo was doing his damnest to stay composed.

But it wasn't working.

Of all the people that Aizen's actions had caused to die and perish, Ichigo had never forgiven him for this one death. It had been over two years and yet he couldn't help but feel the despair again that he had felt in the moment that she had been hit. He couldn't help but let the sorrow fill him at the thought that she was no longer there.

Rukia hiccuped slightly next to him and their hands were entwined as they stared down at the grave in front of them.

Orihime Inoue

Beloved friend and companion

For one so great of heart

You suffered too much

May you rest in eternal peace

He and Tatsuki had chosen the inscription and they had not argued once about it. Many people had come to the funeral, pupils, former classmates and colleagues of her brother, neighbours, friends, distant family and members of the Soul Society.

Even now she was still missed, even now all of them could feel the whole that had been left by her absence.

She hadn't meant to die, she had been supposed to survive. They had gone to Hueco Mundo to bring her back alive. But Aizen had been too many steps ahead once more. He had anticipated that she would one day betray him, attempt to make the Hokyoku cease to exit. He had known that she would never betray her friends.

So, unknown to everyone, he had planted poison in her food. She had eaten that food for weeks, unknowing of the toxins that it held.

And when he had been fighting against Ulquiorra she had collapsed but gotten back up again. They had thought that she was going to be fine. She had healed Uryu, using up the remainder of her powers without her even knowing it. Or maybe she had known that the end was inevitable. It would be the kind of thing that she would do, always think about the others before herself. Uryu still wasn't able to forgive himself for her healing him when she should have been healing herself. He would have gladly lost his left hand for her.

They hadn't even been able to salvage her body.

When he had finally killed Ulquiorra, she had gone up to the Fourth Espada, said something to him that Ichigo in the haze after returning from being a hollow could not understand. Ulquiorra had slowly been dissolving turning into dust. With tears on her face she had reached towards him, their hands briefly touching as he reached towards her as well.

That had been surprising. He still couldn't understand how or why Ulquiorra had been reaching out towards her.

But she had turned around to them afterwards, to him and Uryu, and smiled a heart breaking smile. Tears had been running down her face.

"I'm sorry Ichigo, Uryu. Goodbye."

It had been the only time that she had ever called them by their names without the usual suffixes that she always added.

It made the situation that much worse for them.

And she had turned into dust, just as Ulquiorra had done before her. They didn't know why but they assumed that the poison had been the cause of it.

When they had had to return home without her, Tatsuki had beaten them all up in her anger and pain at losing her. They had taken it without a word of opposition. They deserved each and every harsh word that she threw at them.

She hadn't meant to die.

"Come on Ichigo." Rukia said softly, wiping away the tears as they left the graveyard once more. "Captain Ukitake wanted to show us something, remember?"

"Yeah." Ichigo whispered softly, throwing one glance back at the grave that they had left behind them.

No apology to the stone that adorned her empty grave would ever be enough to express the regret and guilt that he felt.

~.~.~.~.~

"Now, when I found these two I couldn't believe it myself. You must remember the promise that you made that you wouldn't go and talk to them, okay?" Captain Ukitake looked at Ichigo and Rukia sternly and they both nodded. They wondered why it was so important to him that they shouldn't talk to these two mystery people but they had promised him that they wouldn't, so they wouldn't do it.

"Over there." The white-haired Captain of the 13th Squad pointed over to a small cottage that was sitting comfortably in one of the main streets of the outer rims of the Soul Society. It was a nice area, not as posh as the upper-class area but not as dirty and manky as the very outer sectors. If Ichigo were to describe the area in human terms, then he would call the people living here as comfortably middle-class.

Their breaths hitched in their throats as they saw Orihime leave the building. Her hair was tied into a comfortable ponytail and it swung back and forth on her back. Her eyes were dancing as she called for someone inside the house to hurry up and she was smiling broadly.

Ulquiorra was the one that stepped out of the house to join her.

Ichigo and Rukia were pretty sure that they had stopped breathing completely.

At least, he looked like a more human version of Ulquiorra. His eyes were still emerald and his black hair was now tied back in a similar fashion to Orihime, although his was considerably shorter. The tear stains were gone from his face and he had no hollow hole anywhere on his body.

He was also smiling.

"We sensed their high spiritual pressures a couple of months back and found them here two to three weeks ago." Captain Ukitake said softly. "The two of them are always together and we approached them a week ago to see whether they remember anything about their former lives at all."

"And do they?" Ichigo asked impatiently, feeling the need to go and talk to Orihime and apologise for her death rising within him.

"They do." Captain Ukitake nodded and Rukia looked at him in surprise.

"That's unusual. Normally souls don't remember anything once they enter the Soul Society." Rukia commented.

"We know. They've asked us to leave them in peace for now, they still want to enjoy their time with each other for a bit before seeing all of you guys again." Captain Ukitake said with a small smile.

"They're together?" Ichigo looked in horror at the Captain and he merely gestured towards the two of them walking down the street.

He turned and saw Orihime's hand entwined with Ulquiorra's and they were smiling and looking at each other as if they were the sun of the other's universe.

"According to them, they fell in love before they reappeared here, it was one of the reasons why she had so little trouble acknowledging her own death. She knew that he would be waiting on the other side for her and that all of you would be able to live on without her. She had great faith in your strengths, something that wasn't proven wrong." Ukitake smiled gently and Ichigo felt another lump clog up his throat.

"How long?" Rukia asked.

"Four to five more months." Captain Ukitake replied, knowing that she was talking about meeting Orihime again.

"Why so long?" Ichigo asked, knowing that it would be nigh to impossible to wait that long.

"She's pregnant and wants to have her pregnancy pass by peacefully." Ukitake said, smirking at the shocked expression on Ichigo's and Rukia's faces.

"She's pregnant?" Ichigo finally managed to choke out.

"Yes." Ukitake nodded.

"She's finally at peace then." Rukia said as she watched the two people that she had never thought she would see together leave around a corner.

"Yeah." Ukitake nodded once more.

"We'll wait." Ichigo said softly after some time. Out of all of them, Orihime was one of the few that deserved to live her afterlife in peace, she deserved this heaven that she and Ulqiorra had created together.

"We will." Rukia agreed.

After all, what were another five months knowing that she was alive and well, compared to the two years of believing her to be dead.

Heaven.

She guessed everyone found their own version of it in the end.