Holy holes and donuts Batman! I'm back! Never thought it would happen did you? Well after two months of boot camp, one month getting settled in and two whole months underway making sure nothing bad happened in the Bering, I am back in action and it's nice to write again let me tell you. This is kind of sad but I'm writing it anyways, much love and thanks for reading in advance.

DISCLAIMER: I'll get masted if I don't.

Sitting under a tree in the Rukongai two children spoke of many things, what they could steal for dinner, if one of their friends who had been missing for three days would eventually turn up, and what they would do when they were grown up a little bit more.

"We'll open up a shop and give out food to kids for free but make the adults who can pay for it." Renji was always trying to think ahead, Rukia on the other hand was always thinking in the now, what would happen in a few years was of no concern to her, she might not make it a few more years so why worry was her outlook.

"Maybe, right now though we're kids and we don't have to worry about stuff like that." She was letting him down easy, not hurting his feelings when she shot down his dreams of the future. The small girl stood up and was framed by the light of the setting sun and Renji was again struck by how much he might actually love this girl, even though he was just a boy and didn't even understand the magnitude of such thoughts.

He eventually stood up and went to stand next to her to ask her a question that would later become the bane of his existence. "Hey Rukia? What kind of boy do you think you'll marry one day?

Large violet eyes rolled over to look at him and she blinked a few times before shrugging and walking off, "I'm to young to think of that now, I'll think of that later." He knew better than to push her when she had given what she found to be a satisfying answer and so he left it alone, and soon it was forgotten in the mess of other things in their lives.

A few weeks later they were fishing in the brown river near their makeshift home and he was once again thinking ahead into the future as he looked at her fighting with a particularly wriggly fish. "Hey Rukia, you never answered, what kind of boy do you think you'll end up with?"

She walked up to him and handed him the fish while she rolled her eyes and shrugged, she knew he wouldn't give up on this question, he was always like this, he would get stuck on one thing and not leave her alone until he got an answer. "Why do you wanna know?"

"Because I just wanna know that you look into the future sometimes, I know you don't like to." He began to cut up the fish for cooking and she started the fire, and slowly they sunk into silence until she forgot that he had even asked a question. "So? Do you have an answer?" She thought for a moment and then shrugged again.

"I think I'll marry and amputee with a stamp collection." Renji frowned and he knew it wasn't a real answer, but he also knew that question time was over for now and he would take that ridiculous answer for now.

When they entered Soul Reaper Academy they had less time together and still the question would surface every now and then but he never asked it, they were at an age now that it didn't seem appropriate for him to ask her something like that, they weren't kids anymore after all.

One night he walked past her room and heard her whimpering and crying to herself in her sleep, she was having a nightmare like she used to have when they would curl up on the cold floor of their hut during storms. He pushed her door open and walked in shutting it behind him and going to the bed where he did what he had always done in those days, he laid down and wrapped himself around her until she stopped crying and actually woke up.

"You're so nice, so smart, and your such a good friend." She was half asleep and not making much sense but he would take what he could get from her, because he could feel in his bones that she wasn't always going to be around for him to see. He had the urge to ask her but he decided it could wait until tomorrow, little did he know that tomorrow she would be taken from him for a very long time.

Years and years later almost to many to count the same two sat under a tree in Karakura Town, watching their human world friends play something called Frisbee which seemed to be a pointless game of hitting each other with a plastic disc and the one who managed to catch it was deemed the better player.

Once again Renji was thinking on the future and that day from so long ago rose into his mind as he sat there blankly looking at everything in front of him. He thought of the shop that they never opened and then he realized that she had never given him an answer to what kind of man she would marry one day. Looking over she was sitting there looking the way she always did, small and perfect, and watching the game with great intrest and she seemed distracted enough by it that she might actually give a real answer this time.

"Hey Rukia? What kind of man do you think you'll marry one day?" She looked over to him and shrugged, "Like what kind of boy do I like?" He shrugged and finally nodded, "Yeah I guess so." He hoped that she would say him, but he knew deep down that she wouldn't.

She looked out to the game again and he watched her eyes follow the serious looking boy with the ridiculously bright hair for a moment before she answered. "I like boys with strong convictions, an underdog with good intentions, someone always seriously joking and rambunctiously soft spoken." She looked at Ichigo again and shrugged before continuing, "I like boys that like their mothers." She stopped and looked at Renji who had a neutral expression on his face. "That's quite a list you have there." He remembered when she had told him that he was such a good friend, and now she was breaking his heart, she had torn his world apart and now he had to pretend that she hadn't.

"Yeah I guess so, better than an amputee with a stamp collection though." She knew what he was asking, he was such a good friend she had to break his heart, she just hoped he could keep pretending that she hadn't just torn his world apart.

Jeez Louise, I feel like I haven't written in forever, so I hope it wasn't as bad as I think it was. Well I mean I like it but I don't think I can judge it anymore. Oh well… hopefully I get some reviews, thanks for reading.