A/N: This fic was written for a request made at the Fic on Demand LJ community. Here's the request:

I want a Ichi-Ruk-Ren triangle set any time after the end of book six (about episode 16), mentions Kaien and his possible reincarnation connection to Ichigo. And Renji angsting about how this makes him lose. Again. Like always.

He had heard the rumors circulating back when Rukia first became shinigami…about how she had such a hopeless schoolgirl crush on her Lieutenant, Kaien Shiba. The rumors had only made Kaien's death at her hands seem all the more tragic. But Renji had always dismissed the rumors as idle gossip, something bored shinigami spun out of tiny tidbits of circumstantial evidence because they had nothing better to do with their time.

Until now, that is.

Things had been going so well between him and Rukia. He had been making efforts to bridge the gap that had formed between them when she had been adopted into the noble Kuchiki family. They were finally getting closer, and he'd been working up the nerve to take their friendship to the next level.

And then she had disappeared…just gone, off of everyone's radar. She'd gone out on a normal run to destroy a Hollow, and she'd never returned. She hadn't died…they would have been able to detect the complete destruction of her reiatsu…she'd just vanished. It had taken them weeks to track her down, only to find that she had given her shinigami powers to him…Ichigo Kurosaki.

It was only after seeing that boy that Renji began to believe those rumors from long ago. In terms of appearance, Ichigo was nearly identical to Kaien (except for his hideously orange hair), and in terms of personality, they might as well have been twins. Rukia had bound herself so tightly to him that they couldn't even convince her to return willingly to Soul Society. It wasn't until they had left Ichigo nearly dead on the street that the will to fight seemed to leave her. Apparently, she didn't want to have the death of another man she loved on her head.

She had done it again…created herself a hopeless romance that had no chance of ever blossoming into something real. No matter how strong his reiatsu was, Ichigo was still human and she was not. They could never be together. Her chances had been better with Kaien, a married man who was well known for being honorable. That's how ridiculous her obsession with Ichigo was. At least Kaien had been a shinigami.

And that, Renji decided, was why Rukia never gave him a chance…why she was content to keep him at arm's length no matter how hard he tried. She only seemed capable of romantic love when the situation was beyond impossible. When she was given the chance for something that could actually progress, it just didn't seem to interest her. Perhaps a normal romance didn't fit into whatever grand definition of love she had stuck in her head.

Either way, it still meant that he had lost her…again. He'd lost her the first time when she'd been adopted by the Kuchiki clan. She'd been swept away from him and immediately accepted as a shinigami…where she fell hopelessly for Kaien, if rumor is to be believed. And now he'd lost her again to Ichigo.

She didn't understand the danger she'd put herself in…didn't realize that Renji wasn't there to condemn her, but to save her before it was too late. Couldn't she see? He had to take her back…otherwise, she'd always be on the run. He needed to bring her home so that she could do her penance and put this whole mess behind her (he couldn't honestly believe that Byakuya, her own brother, would really let her die for her crimes).

But she'd never see that he was doing this for her own good. She'd only see a bitter man trying to steal her away from the person she really loved.

She'd only see her one-time friend…now, her executioner.