Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. It's property of Tite Kubo.

Author's Note: Welcome back, guys! Today I ignored a little bit my obligations to write this one-shot for you guys. Since I won't have any time later today, I wanted to do it now, so here we go. Hope you guys like it although it has a certain ambiguity to it that will be explained in another one-shot.

IchiRuki Month has almost come to an end, but I'll keep posting next week as I'm so behind lmao. But let's take a moment to appreciate this is the farthest I've gotten in terms of actually finishing all prompts on time.

Again, thank you all for reading and reviewing!

See ya!

that is (courage)

Prompt: courage

Summary: And in that moment there is no hesitation. No more fear. Just acceptance of what they have.

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." ― Lao Tzu

In this world there are some unmistakable truths.

There are some things that aren't supposed to change.

The sun comes out during the day.

The moon comes out during the night.

Time goes on and on, with no sign of ever stopping.

And the Earth will keep on turning.

But there is one thing in particular that, above all, shouldn't change.

The cycle of life and death.

Beings are born every day and they also die every day.

As long as there has been life on Earth, this is how it's meant to be.

Especially for humans.

They will be born.

And when they die, they will go to the Soul Society and live a new life there until their death.

Then, they will be reborn on Earth.

And this cycle will keep on repeating.

Again, and again, and again.

Until humans cease to exist.

A soul cannot live on Earth as a human.

And a human cannot go live to the Soul Society without haven't died.

This is the way things are.

Or at least that was the way they were until Ichigo made an appearance.

A human with Shinigami powers of his own.

A human with an inner Hollow.

A human born from a Shinigami and a Quincy.

He had changed it all by just existing.

But he had managed to transform the Soul Society and its many rules.

Especially two very important ones.

Souls cannot live on Earth.

Humans cannot live on the Soul Society.

But now that is possible.

Because Rukia spends a great deal of time in Karakura, and Ichigo also regularly visits Seireitei.

How had they done it?

How had they discarded thousands of years of traditions and laws to be together?

Because they are not supposed to coexist like this.

Yet it had been easy.

They would risk it all for the other, so they had.

They had quite literally thrown all laws out of the window in favor of something more transcendental.

Their bond.

You see, when you find the only person in this whole world that gets you and supports you, you don't just let them go.

Whether living or dead, it doesn't matter.

You hold on.

And so they had.

But first they had had to come to terms with it.

What their bond truly means.

And ask the question: how far would they go for each other?

For Ichigo, he had always known.

In the depths of his soul, he had always known that Rukia is the one person he never wants to lose.

And when he had actually lost her, his suspicions had been confirmed.

For Rukia it had taken longer.

She had always known he was important.

But she hadn't realized how deep those feelings ran until she had tried to imagine a life without him.

And even then, neither had truly realized the importance of this discovery.

Of how their bond could stretch even farther than that.

But now they have some insight to this situation.

Now that they have been together for almost two years, sharing a life in two different worlds, they can understand there is something they hadn't seen before.

And the fact of the matter is that what they have cannot be so easily defined.

It isn't comradery.

It isn't just friendship.

It isn't only romantic love.

But because it cannot be explained, the thought of what they have is scary.

Without a name, sometimes it feels like there is just water.

Water you cannot collect with your bare hands.

Water that grows exponentially until it swallows you whole.

And it drowns you.

Drowns you in its vastness.

It is so intense that it requires boldness to cease it.

The question they have to ask during the moment of truth is: is it worth it?

Cause there are sacrifices to be made.

Lives that will not run their course as intended.

A destiny that has to be shattered.

It is frightening.

What to choose, then?

Conform yourself with living the life you were meant to live or take another road?

The path nobody else takes.

A path that could easily take you to heaven or hell.

Is it too risky?

Will they do it despite the obstacles?

But now they are here.

And it is time to decide.

It is dusk and as the sun dies, it sets everything aglow.

There is a door behind them.

A door that may close for forever.

It is a now or never situation.

It is what they realize as they gaze into each other's eyes.

What to choose?

One look is really all it takes for clarity to dawn on them.

And in that moment there is no hesitation.

No more fear.

Just acceptance of what they have.

Of what they want.

And what the future has in store for them.

So, they take each other's hands and walk out of that door, together.

As it was meant to be for them.

(Later, on long winter nights, they will sit by the fire in front of two pairs of curious eyes, who will ask them why they had taken that decision.

Who will wonder why things have become the way they are.

And they will answer,

"Well, you see, that is courage")

A/N: Ah courage. How I've come to hate that word after the ending and the meaning attached to it. Let me reiterate how it makes no sense unless Aizen was being sarcastic. Cause that wasn't courage but cowardice. And there's nothing in this world that will make me change my mind about it.

So, obviously, I needed to give that courage a new meaning and I found this lovely quote by Lao Tzu that I put at the beginning of this one-shot.

Loving someone with all your being gives you the courage to move forward. And that can apply to any type of love, between family members, lovers and friends. You always hear about how fierce mothers become to protect their offspring, not only humans but animals too. And I think, at least for humans, their love for their child gives them the courage to go through so many trials and tribulations. It can be one of the purest forms of love. But when we talk about other forms of love, someone always seems to give less than the other. Or we say that being loved is what gives you strength. That you're nothing if nobody loves you, particularly if nobody loves you romantically. And to that I say, bullshit! In whatever relationship, you have to love with all your being because you love that person, not because you're only looking to be loved in return. That is selfish. The truest love is the one that comes freely. And what I think Lao Tzu means is precisely that because you love this person, you can go through great lengths for them, because this love that you feel, by itself, gives you the courage to bear it all.

And if there is one fictional couple I believe embodies this type of love is IchiRuki.

We've said it so many times.

They were always there for each other out of their own free will.

It wasn't about debts or anything of the sort.

They wanted to protect each other, so they did.

And, again, even if it was a platonic love in the end and not the whole nine yards, it was still love.

And the strongest love in the series.

The only ones who sacrificed it all without ulterior motives for each other.

And in this fanfiction they are even going further. They are going to change how things are, sacrifice some things, the life they were meant to live without the other (aka the Bleach ending) for what they truly want: each other. And it's going to take a lot of courage. We've seen that some people close to them don't approve. Perhaps in the SS there's going to be some opposition. And there's going to be problems in how they handle their lives from now on. But they're going to overcome every obstacle for love. So screw Aizen and his monologue, this is true courage and not all of that nonsense.

Never conform, guys.

Always strive to get what you want.

And yes, at the end there is a reference to their future children asking them about their relationship, and then them telling the kids this is what courage is about, as a middle finger to Aizen.

I want to thank jobananasan for reminding be about the poem The Road not Taken by Robert Frost as the meaning of this poem relates to what I wrote about the path nobody else takes.

Also, this one-shot will have a companion piece, less ambiguous, that explains what went down.

Hope you guys like it and I'll see you!