Title: "Their Son"
Fandom: Bleach
Characters: past Nanao/Ryuuken
Rating: G
Word Count: 134
Time: 31 minutes
Disclaimer: Bleach not mine.

She had gone back to her maiden name. Maybe she didn't want to sully the Ishida name with association to those they most despised. Maybe she had just taken to heart "to death do us part."

He wasn't at all surprised about her quick rise in the ranks. She had been a master of demon arts and a maker of soul-synthesized silver before she died.

They don't hate each other, but what was between them can never be again. Their memories are tainted with days of her slow, painful slip into death and his inability to save her. They are tainted by what she is now and what he isn't. They are colder people now, harder and colder.

They love their son, from afar, Ryuuken and Nanao do, though he may never understand it.