Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or the characters.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams — Epilogue

Three Years Later

"So, you think she'll like this one?"

"Uh huh, Ichi-nii!" Kaien said happily, bouncing around. Now six, the little child was still full of energy and his eyes still glowed happily, but he was beginning to turn into a young man. Ichigo smiled and ruffled his hair, to which Kaien pouted and tried to rub it back in place. Renji, who was standing up against one of the display cases, his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his lips, sighed and looked over to the object that Ichigo was holding.

"Yah, I think she'll like it."

"Sure?"

"Yup!" Kaien said, his eyes wide as he stared into Ichigo's hand.

"So ... if she doesn't, I get to blame you, right?" Ichigo asked, smiling at the pout from the little boy.

"Nope! You blame Uncle Renji!"

"Hey, wait, why me?" Renji protested, frowning playfully as Kaien laughed. Ichigo watched them, shaking his head, as Kaien climbed onto Renji's shoulders and grabbed hold of his bright red hair.

"C'mon, we have to get Kaien back or Byakuya'll have our heads," Ichigo said, walking up to the counter to pay for the item he held in his hand. Renji nodded, raising an eyebrow when Kaien, who had climbed up onto his shoulders only seconds before, quickly scrambled down and ran over to Ichigo, taking his hand and pulling it.

"My daddy is waitin'. We'd better hurry, right? Rukia-chan and Orihime-san are waitin', too!"

"And Ishida-kun," Ichigo reminded him, picking him up and swinging him onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Kaien squealed as he flew through the air, and gripped tightly to Ichigo's hair once he had managed to sit right on his shoulders. Ichigo groaned a little under the weight.

"You're getting big, Kaien! We can't keep doing this forever," he said, pocketing his purchase as they walked out of the store. Kaien just giggled and chanted, "Faster, faster, faster!"

"Isn't Renji supposed to be the Reindeer here? Make him carry you," Ichigo pouted; his heart wasn't in the whine and he smiled happily as Kaien yapped the whole way back to the garage.

Nothing much had changed in the last few years. Orihime and Ishida were still together, and the speech therapy that Orihime was undergoing made it possible for her to talk completely normally now, but she would still probably never sing in the way she always had. Byakuya and Kaien were still a small family of two, and Renji was still annoying and the king of awkward. And Rukia ... well, she was still the same, too.

Her black hair was a little longer now and swirled beautifully around her face whenever it was down, though, and her intense violet eyes seemed to hold so much more. She was still short, something that she was painfully aware of whenever Ichigo would tease her about it. But she still kicked hard, too. Very hard, which Ichigo was very painfully aware of.

"Yo! We're back!" Ichigo called, slinging Kaien off of his shoulders and down onto the floor in one swift movement. The little boy ran over to his dad and started jumping up and down, saying, "Guess what Ichi-nii got! Guess what Ichi-nii got!"

Ichigo's eyes grew wide as he bolted and covered Kaien's mouth with his hand. He crouched down beside the little boy and said, "No, shhh, it's a secret!"

"Oooh, I see!" Kaien said, his eyes wide with happiness. "Secret!" Looking back up at Byakuya he said matter-of-factely, "Sorry, dad, I can't tell you!"

Ichigo smiled and ruffled his hair again, something which Kaien sighed deeply to and rolled his eyes.

"Well, here we are again. Another year to waste," Ichigo said into the microphone, shifting his guitar so he could better speak. Everyone behind him was getting ready to start; Renji was searching for the drum sticks he'd lost and Byakuya was making sure his Bass was in-tune while Rukia just twirled the microphone cord around her fingers; no matter how many times she sang, unless Ichigo was ther with her and his gaze staring deeply into hers, she was always afraid.

Ichigo continued to speak to the crowd.

"We've moved forward in these last few years, and it was with the help of this band that I've been able to move on from something that happened in my past. And I know none of you want to hear these sentimental speeches, but I ask you all to bear with me for just a few more minutes. There's something I want to do, that I need to do."

Ichigo put the mike down and turned to Rukia; she looked slightly curious and smiled as he walked a little closer. Her violet eyes were questioning and her soft black hair seemed to shine in the light.

When he took her hand into his and got down on one knee in front of her, however, the look of curiosity turned into one of complete shock. He smiled nervously as there was a collective "Aww!" from the audience. He reached into his pocket and took out a small, blue velvet box and flipped it open to reveal a beautiful diamond ring; the band was pure silver and the diamond in the middle was a light blue; it was a good size, not tiny, but not huge, and was in the shape of a heart.

Rukia's heart was pounding in her chest as Ichigo began to speak.

"Ah ... well, never done this before, so ... " Ichigo's nervous smile was lop-sided as he shrugged and looked up into Rukia's surprised eyes. "I know I was quite an ass when we first met, but ... I think that it was after I heard you sing that I started to fall in love with you, and I fell hard. I was always the guy who people thought would never fall in love, the guy who everyone thought would never do something nice for a girl because his heart told him to. Well ... goes to show how much they know, because I love you and would do anything in the world for you."

There was a small pause and the silence was shattering.

"Will you marry me, Rukia?"

Rukia's violet eyes were filled with both surprise and shock as she stared down at Ichigo; her heart skipped a beat as he said those five small words. Feelings of a million kind washed over her as she stared into his light amber eyes.

She loved him more than anything in the world.

Ichigo felt as though he would explode with happiness as Rukia whispered, "Yes."

Reaching inside the velvet box, Ichigo carefully took out the ring and took hold of Rukia's small hand; he slipped the ring on her finger and smiled as he stood back on his feet and pressed his lips to hers. There were loud cat-calls from the crowd, and the whole band was clapping. When Ichigo finally pulled back, he was smiling brightly. He whispered, "I love you, Rukia," and she echoed the words back to him as he turned around to the crowd, the hand that wasn't holding his mike was gripping Rukia's hand tightly as the lights reflected off of her ring.

"I know I promised that we'd do original songs, but before we do, bear with me. I would like to do one song by Green Day because this song is close to my heart in a million ways. I know that everyone here, no matter how small, has their own broken dreams. I know I had mine. And nothing can ever heal those, but there is something, someone, who can help numb the pain. I know that probably only a small portion of you believe me, but it's true. There is something in this world that can help heal those broken dreams."

Ichigo paused, taking a breath in; he didn't notice as Orihime reached over and took Ishida's hand in hers.

"Today, before we really start, I want to sing Boulevard of Broken Dreams. It speaks of everything I ever went through. But, now, because the woman I love more than anything in the world is by my side, never again will I walk alone ... "

Ichigo paused again as he faced the crowd. Rukia was at his side, her hand in his and her smile echoing his as her eyes glowed as brightly as the diamond ring that represented all of her love for Ichigo.

" ... On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams."

THE END

NOTE: Concrete Angel is out now! Yay! If you care, jump on over to my profile and read it. It is finished as of 9.2.07.

Anyway ... do you think it was a proper ending? Hmmmm?

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