Okay, so I've been obsessed with the song Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event since I first heard it. Long before Ichigo and Rukia became truly separated after winning the war, I'd thought about how perfectly this song would fit them if she ever returned to Soul Society and left him in the world of the living. This piece is kind of a songfic, but the lyrics are actually woven into the prose instead of running parallel to the plot. Even better, I fully recommend listening to the song while you read this.

Sometime Around Midnight

As he sat, caught in the midst of a celebration, his thoughts were anywhere but. The swirl of sake in the bottom of his glass held him transfixed as the party raged in a mad circle around him. Sado's band had the crowd entranced: bodies swaying, voices stuck in a laugh and the haze of alcohol giving the bar a distinctly brighter taint.

Ichigo wanted none of it.

His head down low, he signaled the bartender for another shot and prayed that maybe this next one would dull his mind enough that he could actually enjoy himself on this most cursed of days.

"Kurosaki!"

He didn't need so look to know that Ishida was coming up behind him. "Yeah?"

"Get out there and start having fun with the rest of us. You're depressing Inoue-san," Ishida said while collapsing into the seat on Ichigo's right.

"Don't feel like it yet. Give me another twenty minutes to get properly wasted."

"You idiot. What's there to get wasted for? This is a day for merriment. An annual celebration of the end of our troubles."

Like a word caught on the tip of his tongue, her image wavered ever-so-briefly in the back of his mind before blinking out when he tried to grasp onto it. He sighed wearily and waited a few more seconds to respond. "This just doesn't bring back the wonderful memories to me as it does to you."

"Look, we get that you don't really remember much of your . . . extracurriculars . . . during high school, but you know that we won a great victory five years ago. Why can't you accept that like everyone else seems to?"

"Because I don't have a single goddamn memory of winning shit! It's all gone . . . everything that I know was important . . .was precious . . . to me." He wanted to rip his hair out as he captured on the one image he had of her: a white ribbon waving resiliently against the dark sky. Despite all attempts to see past it, to delve further into his own mind, five years' worth of effort had gained him no ground.

"Che . . . being a shinigami isn't all that great."

"Says the one who was raised to despise them." And I wasn't talking about that anyway.

"Whatever. Just hurry up and join us."

Ichigo quickly gulped back another cup of the burning liquid and stared resolutely forward as his pseudo-friend walked away. He slammed the glass back down and was about to raise his hand for another when his eyes snagged on a flash of white amid the dark masses.

He was falling off the stool to stand for a better view before he could even process his actions. Back and forth, he fervently scanned the people in the bar until, there, he caught sight of the pure color once more. With a careless flick of the wrist, he tossed a few bills in the bartender's general direction and then began the dangerous game of weaving his way through the crowd.

Bumped, jostled and touched more freely than he normally would have tolerated from a close friend, Ichigo raced, as much as one can, though the sea of bodies, always pushing forward to where he last saw a glimpse of her tantalizing sight.

He jumped up again to find her and this time was graced with the view of her face: pale, framed with glossy black hair, secretive smirk and eyes so beautifully violet. Ichigo pushed harder, his heart beating out of his chest, his blood pounding under his skin hard enough that he thought he'd explode.

And then they were meeting eyes.

The image in his head, the one that had evaded him for so long, that hinted on the edge of every single fucking dream, solidified in an instant.

Her smoothness.

Her unique, addictive scent.

Her. Rukia. His.

His fingers twitch to run through her hair once more. His mouth savors for the taste of her against his tongue. His ears are desperate to hear her voice. And most of all, his mind yearns to relive the life with her that had long since been lost.

But she was talking with a red-haired man, the panic rising in her face as she shot him one last glance before bolting.

The crowd parted easily for her and yet seemed to halt Ichigo at every turn. He was almost to the door when someone finally grabbed him completely.

It was Inoue, but even so, he was on the verge of committing murder if it meant leaving the bar that much faster. "What!"

"Are you okay, Kurosaki-kun?" Her cloying voice was so wrong, it grated on his senses.

"Yeah, I'd say you look like you've seen a ghost, but we all know that's not possible." Great, Ishida was there too.

As Sado's band broke into another song, this one distinctly melancholic and heavily reminding him of all that he had to lose, Ichigo snapped. "I don't have time for this right now! Just get off of me!" He forcibly removed Orihime's grip from his arm and viciously shoved people from his path.

I just have to see her. I just have to see her. I just have to see her.

He pushed the men entering the bar aside as he dove through the door that they'd just opened. The street lights were blinding as he set off in a stumbling run. The world faded in and out as the sake began to truly set in and suddenly he was cursing every drop that he'd so stupidly allowed to pass his lips.

But other than the flashes of memory that lurked behind his eyes, there was no physical sight of her. He could see her peeking out from his closet, lounging on his bed . . . clutched tightly in his arms . . . but nowhere was she along the deserted street.

Ichigo fell to his knees and let loose the mourning that had been roiling under the surface for five years.

Rukia, his vibrant little shinigami, had done what no other could.

She'd broken him.

Alright, so I know that you might be disappointed due to the sad ending, but fear not. There is another song which I feel kind of leads off from this one, so I'm playing around with making this a two-shot.

Feel free to tell me what you think of continuing the story. Or, if you know of a song that would be perfect for them, tell me and I'll see if any plots come to mind.

Thanks!