A/N: Writing fics again after several years, I hope my previous fans enjoy my new writing style. Enjoy Moment by Moment.
"How could you? How?" screamed a small woman.
Ichigo stood frozen, staring at the blood covered corpse in her arms.
"He was my everything, and you took it all away!" she shrieked. Ichigo gaped in breathlessness, gripping his hand against the crumpled up car door.
"Don't act like you're the only one suffering! She's dead too! My only love is dead too! Yet you want me to feel the pain and regret all on my own? Give me a break! He is just at fault as I am!" he said, pointing a shaking finger at the dead red-head in her arms. Tears were already billowing out of her eyes as she sobbed like a child, unable to contain the pain any longer of losing her husband. Ichigo merely took several steps back, feeling nothing but anger, sorrow, pain and contempt. He was kidding himself. It wasn't that man's fault. The woman was right. If he hadn't been distracted by his wife standing at the corner he wouldn't have run the red light. He wouldn't have crashed and hit the man in the oncoming car. He wouldn't have spun out.
She wouldn't have died.
He only sank to his knees as he desperately clung to the earth as he also let out an ear-piercing wail of agony.
Ichigo woke with a start, cold sweat dripping from his forehead and neck as his vision focused.
The hospital.
He gulped up a few breaths before looking to see his wife in the hospital bed beside him, her lustrous long orange honey blossom hair now gone from having been shaved off. He let out a sigh.
Another nightmare.
He glanced at the unconscious body beside him. Two months after the accident and she was still a coma. Yet he was just thankful she hadn't died like he thought she had that day. As long as she was breathing, as long as she still had a pulse, there was hope.
Suddenly a light knock deterred Ichigo's attention to the door. He blinked. A visitor? He couldn't think of anyone who wasn't busy to visit the two of them at the moment, and it was most definitely none of Orihime's family. Warily, Ichigo spoke with a dry voice, "Come in."
The door swished open with barely any audible sound as a small petite woman with raven black hair and amethyst eyes walked in. She looked as though she either hadn't slept for quiet a while or had been crying for ages, maybe even both. Ichigo, however, was stunned to see her of all people. He blinked. "What…? Why are you here?" he asked in a shocked manner. The woman sighed.
"I came to apologize." she finally said after a few awkward moments of silence. Ichigo, still, was stunned. A thousand different thoughts were buzzing through his head already, now add the victim of his own foolishness in and he was just having a ball. He looked down at the ground and fiddled with his fingers, processing how to form thoughts to words, and words into his voice.
"But… there's no reason to apologize. I…" he paused. "The whole incident was my fault, really. You don't need to apologize to me." he said. Yes, he had felt the guilt of the accident every night in the form of night terrors. What made it worse though, was that he woke up each time, alone and in pain, without the light of his life there to comfort him, stroke his hair, and whisper sweet nothings in his ears. The woman shook her head.
"No, my husband was drunk and going way too fast anyway. I should have driven and not let him, then maybe I could have reacted to you and stopped, but… I couldn't say no to him. Renji was always my only weakness…" she said, almost reminiscing of fond memories. She seemed to be lost in thought, just as Ichigo had before as well. She must have been just as conflicted as him, she reacted just as slowly as Ichigo in her replies, and acted as though she were trying to keep herself from thinking of happier times. She acted as though she had to keep thinking of his death to remind her that she will never be happy again. Ichigo continued to stare at the floor with somber eyes, wondering what he could say. He didn't want to blame the woman nor her husband, he had accepted long ago that her husbands death was due to his own stupidity, and he was unable to forgive himself for taking another's life, even though he never meant to.
"Still… I'm truly sorry for your loss. If I could change the course of events, I'd gladly take his place." he finally said with a long drawn out sigh. He would have rather been the one to die so this perfectly innocent bystander would still have the love of her husband to get her through each day. He knew Orihime well, and that even if she were to suffer from his death, she would eventually be strong enough to lift her head high. After all, she lost her own brother, but managed to pick herself up and continue walking life's road despite the loss. Orihime was strong. She wouldn't let Ichigo's own death get her down. She knew he wouldn't want her to suffer. After her own pause of thought processing, the female only chuckled pathetically.
"It's fine… but… thank you. I'm sorry as well. I didn't like the way I left things during the accident." she said as though the words and memory left a bitter taste in her mouth. As though admitting her mistakes was painful. Ichigo shook his head.
"I don't blame you. All either one of us could do was feel angry. But, thank you. Truly. Thank you Miss…" he paused. "Now that I think about it, I never got your name. What was it…?" he asked, looking up at her. The other gave a pitiful chuckle, looking almost sheepish as her eyes made contact with his.
"Rukia Abarai. Or, now that I'm a widow, Kuchiki. Rukia Kuchiki." Ichigo gave a weak smile.
"Ichigo Kurosaki." he replied, reaching out his hand to shake hers. Rukia slowly reached out and took his much larger hand and shook it gently, barely gripping his hand at all. Several moments passed as they continued to shake their hands, neither one wanting to be the first to let go out of the awkward feelings that would follow. Finally, Rukia stopped, but didn't let go. Her hand began to shiver as Ichigo looked at her face to find her lowered head dripping with tears. Rukia cried silently for several moments before Ichigo placed a re-assuring yet uncomfortably awkward hand onto hers before she finally let out a loud sob, her other hand covering her face in a pathetic fashion. Ichigo merely sat there with Rukia's hand sandwiched between his, frowning and resisting the urge to cry himself.
A/N: Such a short prologue, but I didn't want to to be extremely lengthy. I wanted to write just enough to leave an impact and make the readers want to know the full story and what happens next. I hope I was able to elicit some feelings of any kind from readers out there. That's one of my top priorities when writing, is to really make my audience FEEL. Thanks for reading, and leave a review if you have something to say! : Critique is welcome, as long as it's not full out rude and inconsiderate. I can tell if a review is constructive or not.