Disclaimer : I'm only going to say this once and i won't bother repeating it with every new chapter i post, so remember it well : I do NOT own Bleach, ONLY this story. Have fun reading it and please review. Constructive criticism is apreciated.

Chapter 1

In an age, when there was nothing left but ashes and dust, when all the world seemed to come to an end and all humanity seemed to linger on the precipice of death, when all hope seemed to have gone with the wind …she was born: a beautiful child, a child of eternity, a child of hope and immeasurably beauty, with soft, silky raven hair, red lips that could steal your heart away in a blink of an eye and a softness in heart, that could melt down the coldest ice-berg.

It must have been the middle of January when that had happen, though the bitter image of earth, as it was now, couldn't resemble anything close to it, as it was all falling apart. Somewhere in the great, deep universe, somewhere between where the deep, blue ocean came to make love to the sky's endless horizon, a soul, as pure as heart as winter's gentle snowdrop, came to life. An angel was born and her name to be…was Rukia.

Hundreds of years had past since an angel had last came to see eternity, but as the end came fiercely near, the most unexpected thing had happen…and that was she. Her parents, if they could be called in such a manner, two of the most powerful angels in that time, made a promise to the sky that, if there was any hope left to save the earth, they would give their lives to do so. And they did…

On a cold winter's day, when the gates of Heaven were once again attacked by the demons of Hell, they stood alone in front of them, with their bare purity, hoping that they would be able to stop them. Blood was raining from the sky on the cold, shivering earth as they would, one by one, push the demons away with their white, radiating swords of justice; when all of a sudden, one of them fell into a cloud with his wings bleeding. The woman angel flew down to grab him, as he was swallowed, deeper and deeper, by the intense clouds. She managed to reach his grip and started to flap her wings desperately towards the entrance of the gate. A muffled sound sizzled near her years, when one of the demons threw an arrow towards her, piercing her heart.

The whole sky darkened and an infinite hole seemed to appear in the middle of it. A lingering sunbeam came out, striking all the demons and leaving no trace of life, when an unexpected rose petal rain started to pour on the clouds. The other angels came out to see what had happened and gazed at the sky as a small angel fell down through the whole on a white, shiny cloud covered in red, soft rose petals…they took her up in their shivering hands, raised her to the skies above, with a slightly scared and amazed smile on the top of their lips. The two other angels were now lying near the gates. The wounded man, trying to hold his pair's head up so she could see, took his last breath with two words coming gently out of his mouth: "Thank you."

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Years have passed since then and peace became closer to being a possibility than an untouchable illusion. The child, that had once been brought to Heaven, turned into a shy and fragile girl, the girl became a beautiful and courageous teenager, but in the end even the teenager reached the age of a woman. She spared not one second of her life, always on a rush in raising herself up, as well as she could, under the guidance of the elder angels. If at the beginning she had little friends, she had now become one of the most appreciated and respected angels; but the only person, that had never left her side thorough all of these years, was her childhood friend and confidant, Renji. But now, as another stage of their lives had arrived, their destinies were bent to intertwine…or so they thought…

"Rukia?Rukia?" 'Where could she have gone this time', Renji asked himself, while looking desperately for her through the white chambers of the main hall…but she was nowhere to be found…

"You still can't trace her spiritual power…After all these years and she's still an unreachable sight for you, Renji, isn't she?", a light voice whispered in his ear.
He did not need to turn his head towards the place where the voice came from, because he already knew who that angel was.

"I don't seem to be the only one." he said with a defensive voice, opening the gates of Heaven, without even caring if the angel had heard him. 'That Hitsugaya, he never stops bugging me, does he?' he thought.

He slammed the gates behind him, spreading his large wings in the vernal sunset and raising himself slightly from the clouds to look for her. But there she was…sitting on a small, glimmering cloud, with her back at the reddish sky, gazing at the world beneath her. She didn't seem to care that it was slowly turning dark and that the icily, silver moon was slipping through the clouds, closer to her. She didn't seem to care at all…while her thoughts were slowly falling out of her, in the deep abyss.

"You needn't have come after me. I can manage on my own now and I don't need you as my guardian angel. You seem to have forgotten that I am one", she slowly let the words get out of her mouth. She didn't seem to care too much, comparing to him, as if being there alone would be the most natural thing for her at the moment. He took another step, trying to reach her with his eyes, but not too close to be considered an offence towards the still young angel.

"You are my most priceless possession, the most important person to me and I won't take the risk of anything happening to you. You should know that by now." Renji retorted warmly." I won't give into impulse and let your life hanging on destiny's thread. Not now. Not when we are so close to becoming one."

A moment of utterly silence covered the air around them. Then, with a rough, but still so beautiful and touching look, she turned her face towards him and without even sketching a trace of sentiment she lifted herself up from the small cloud.

"The fact that I have been chosen to be your pair, does not mean that you possess me.", she cut him off as politely as possible. "There is nothing in the world that could change who I am and what I choose to be. You should have known that by now, too." she spread her beautiful, long wings soaring through the clouds and leaving him behind.

"I know that, but I still have hope. Leave me hope. I beg of you. Leave me hope." Renji whispered in an almost crying, low voice.