Title: Sunrise

Rating: G

Characters/Pairings: Rukia

Word Count: 353

Warning: SADDNESS AHEAD.

Summary: Rukia watches the sun rise with her old friends.

A/N: Good Lord, I don't update in FOREVER and this is what I give you? Head, meet wall. I promise, next time I'll give you something funny.

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She stands there on the hill looking over the Seireitei, the graves of her friends the only ones keeping her company.

The sun rises on the horizon, pink and orange rays shooting across the city stretched at her feet. A few lingering stars still hang in the sky, small testaments to stubborn hands holding on even from the heavens.

Do they ever let go?

She has a suspicion that they never do. The corners of her mouth tilt up in the sad imitation of a smile at the thought. They would never give up, even in the end.

The sun rose a little higher and those stars faded a little more, but she had looked away already. She turns her back to Seireitei, staring unseeingly at the graves in the ground. No matter how many times she comes here, it always hurts. She isn't supposed to hurt. She isn't supposed to feel pain, but the single posts casting long shadows on the ground hurt her somewhere she cannot name.

Those shadows are fingers that snake through her and hold on, even in the end.

It hurts even more now.

The threads of the past wind around her again and she blinks at the memories playing before her. Blood and tears swim in her vision, mixing and mingling and stinging her eyes. The air tastes bitter as sword clinks ring in her ears and burnt flesh assaults her nostrils.

The war is over and there is peace for now. The battle was hard won.

As she watches the shadows sweep across the dirt, she can't help but think that maybe it had cost too much.

She is alive. He had protected her. Maybe he would have wanted it this way. Maybe she isn't worth saving. Maybe he would do it again. Maybe she doesn't want to thank him. Maybe he doesn't want her thanks. Maybe he is stupid and maybe she is even more stupid than he is.

She looks up at the fourth pole planted in the ground and reaches out the hand that she should have given him long ago.

"Renji..."