It had been a long day for Abarai Renji, but now it was finally over.
After having to put up with a whole afternoon and evening of official procedures and serious faces which meant so little to him, Renji was happy to finally be alone in his modestly furnished room. And even though his body wasn't tired, for he had trained it to be able to endure much more strain then he had experienced today, his mind felt exhausted.
Slowly he started to take off his official shinigami clothes. Removing the heavy fabric from his skin made him feel a bit better, as if this simple act of undressing was the last stage of an unknown ceremony, and now that he was naked the ceremony had finally ended.
Yes, it had been a long day for Abarai Renji. The day he had officially became Kuchiki Byakuya's lieutenant was over.
One step closer to you, Rukia.
The silverish light found its way through the opened window into Renji's room, shining softly upon his ink marked torso and hands as he stood by the window gazing at the moon that floated over the dark sky above the Court of Pure Souls.
There were burdens on his heart he never shared with any of his friends. The damned moonlight peering through his window and touching the silence of this dark room made those burdens feel even heavier. Renji remembered how he had gazed at the same moon floating over the same dark sky with the same heavy feeling on his heart on the night of that day.
The day she left.
He remembered that day all too well. That was the first day in a very long time that he had wished he was still in Rukongai. That filthy, godforsaken place where he was just another stray kid without a future. That place he wanted so badly to get out of.
That place where it was just him and her. No different worlds parting them.
The dark of a small hut where they had slept, her body close to his, so close he could feel her breathing. Even though they lived on the street and had nothing, they had each other.
Now, without her, no matter how much he had, it felt like nothing.
Was she looking at this same moon from somewhere in the Kuchiki residence?, Renji wondered. Did she ever think of him the way he thought of her? At nights like this one, when the weight of regret silently clutched the heart, did she miss him the way he missed her?
Wishing he could trade his soft sleeping mat for a hard wooden floor in Rukongai, Renji went to bed. Maybe he would dream of her, the only woman he needed as much as he needed the air he breathed. And maybe for just a little while he would feel like a whole man again.
He looked out at the full moon which was still floating over the same dark sky.
"Rukia..." Renji said to the moon but the moon remained silent.