Author's Note: I wanted to say a big thank you. The last chapter proved particularly popular and I'm aware that some new people have added story and author alerts THANK YOU! I therefore just need to put in a quick explanation. Rukia's adoption, in the last chapter, is part of a broader arc told across several stories. If you've read them then you will be aware that she is remembering these things from the Shrine of Penitence. For new readers, I just wanted to put this short excursus in context so that the reference to the Shrine makes sense, and also to reassure you that the story in flashback will continue in the next chapters and stories.
Thank you Shadewolf7, Truantpony (for the reviews, especially!), ForbiddenME, Pinky357, Immortal Vows, Chellythemadhatter, Insomniatic95, Sallythedestroyerofworlds23 (also for the reviews and thank you for consistently updating your own stories as I love reading them), UNTensaZangetsu, xDark Fangsx, Superlynx, BobTheSexyTurtle, .love, Enaalemap, Makaykay15 (thanks for all the reviews), Kaze05 (thanks for all the reviews), Splash into Forever, War90 (thanks!), Yellowwomanonthebrink and Bakane. O.O I can't believe you're all reading. Thank you so so much!
In his new life, as a shinigami, with new friends and a new purpose, Renji had made it clear to her that she had ceased to be the one he returned to every night. She had been afraid then. So had her decision to accept Byakuya's offer been made partially out of spite?
It had severed her last link to Renji. As a noblewoman, she was no longer a part of his world. It was a clean cut. Easier, that way, she had believed.
Sister now to one of the most powerful men in the Sereitei, the strays of Rukongai would be given no leeway to touch her.
Byakuya never asked any more of her than the role she had been assigned that day: his younger sister. He gave her shelter; he gave her wealth. More food than she could eat. More clothes than she could wear. Everything, save for the one thing that she had been promised. A home. A real home. With a family.
And he resented her. The woman who looked like his wife and was not his wife. And for the gifts he gave her, coupled with the warmth he never could, she began to hate him.
Rukia leant back against the cold stone of the Shrine of Penitence. There was nothing to do here but think. She could sense fighting beyond the walls of the Shrine, but only as a whisper, half-heard across a great distance. The seki-seki drained her reiatsu at a constant rate. It didn't incapacitate her, but it did leave her tired, her muscles coiled and leaden. She didn't feel hunger any more. She didn't eat the food they left her.
She wondered why, after everything he had done to drag her, protesting, into his life, Byakuya had deserted her at the end.
And she wondered why Renji, back at the academy, had clasped her shoulders and smiled and told her to leave. To walk out of his life.
She wondered.
And, somewhere, smoke was rising over the Sereitei.