Where I Was

by Muerte-chan

One-shot. What Rukia did during the past seventeen months. Rated T for language. Spoilers for chapters 423-459. Sort of, but not really, angsty.

Hi, everybody! I know it's been a while since I cranked out a story, so please be kind.

Also, keep in mind that this was done in a few hours without me once looking back over it. I just kept writing and never looked back, eh-ha. And it's about 12 pages in LibreOffice. I'm using LibreOffice just because I like telling people that I use a green, spanish sounding word processor. I'm kind of a dork. (:

I wrote this as my way of explaining what Rukia had been up to all of this time, you know me- girl power! And Rukia's also my favorite character behind Ichimaru Gin, but he's dead now. That really made me cry.

This one-shot spoils chapters 423-459. Can you believe that 36 chapters passed without us seeing a shinigami? I don't know how I standed that long. Whew! Glad that's over. I hope something like that never happens again. I also hope that Ginjo gets kicked off that roof. Or was it a roof? Oh well, I think it's a roof.

And that's all that matters, right?

It began in the season that was between winter and spring. It was just coincedental that this happened exactly one year after Ichigo and Rukia had met.

It was, in fact, exactly twelve months, zero days, zero hours, zero minutes, and zero seconds after Ichigo and Rukia had their first encounter.

The sky was the same now as it was then-still blue with just enough orange to allude to sunset. In a few more hours it would be exactly one year after their first official meeting, when Rukia had drawn on Ichigo's face and they had interacted for the first time.

But that was then and this was now.

"This is goodbye, Ichigo." Rukia smiled at Ichigo, her eyes tender.

Ichigo returned the look, "...So it seems."

"What? Don't look so sad," Rukia folded her arms across her chest and grinned, "Even if you can't see me, I can still see you."

Ichigo scowled, "What? That doesn't make me happy at all!" He looked down and ran his hand through his hair, "Anyway, I wasn't looking sad!"

They moved so that they were standing right in front of each other. Rukia lifted her head so she could look into his eyes, and he tilted his head down.

"...Give everyone my regards."

"I will."

"Bye, Rukia."

Ichigo could no longer see Rukia.

"Thank you."

Kuchiki Rukia became a fukutaicho exactly six months, thirteen days, three hours, and seven seconds after she had said her goodbyes to Kurosaki Ichigo.

Her promotion didn't come as a shock, after what she-and all of her friends-had accomplished in the Winter War, she had expected to become a seated member of the Thirteenth Division at the least.

"The tattoo won't hurt that badly, you just need one on your chest in case you ever go into the World of the Living. Be thankful your division has a pretty flower on it. Mine doesn't match the rest of my tattoos."

Rukia took on her new duties with all of her being. She filled out countless piles of paperwork, calmed her two third-seats a number of times, made sure that Ukitake-taicho was well rested, trained the new recruits, and spent hours on end with her fellow fukutaicho.

The paperwork was the worst. It wasn't as if her division was the Eleventh, but nevertheless, there was still a lot of paperwork to fill out. And with paperwork came long sleepless nights, as well as papercuts. Rukia was sure that after just a week of doing all of her division's paperwork that she had exhausted their supply of tea. With her twenty-second papercut, Rukia stopped visiting the Fourth Division for a band-aid and a social visit. She got papercuts so often that it just wasn't worth running all over Seireitei for. After two months, Rukia knew everything about every single seated member of her division-she was still working on the unseated members.

Calming Kotetsu Kiyone and Kotsubaki Sentaro came right in hand with making sure the Ukitake-taicho got his rest. In fact if she ever suspected that he was getting too worn out all she had to do was mention it, offhand, to either Kotetsu or Kotsubaki and it was taken care of.

"Get out of my way, Sentaro! Taicho needs me to help him, afterall I am his favorite third-seat!" Kiyone shoved Sentaro against a wall.

Sentaro grabbed her shoulders and spun her around, "Be quiet, Kiyone! Can't you see that Taicho's trying to rest? And please, I am definetly his favorite, right Taicho?"

"Taicho! Here let me fluff your pillow, it'll be filled with my love. Since I do have the most love for you~"

Sentaro's jaw dropped and he started to stutter, "Ki-ki-ki-kiyone! How could you say that? Taicho, you need to know that I admire you the most, I would do anything for you."

"No you wouldn't!" Kiyone jabbed Sentaro in the chest.

Sentaro glared at Kiyone, poking her back, "Yes, I would!"

"Liar!"

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

But once Ukitake-taicho was taken care of, she'd have to send them out separately around Seireitei as to distract them from each other.

Rukia really enjoyed training the new recruits, it reminded her of her days with Shiba Kaien and Miyako.

"Come on, Rukia. You've almost got it!" a smile at her new achievement, "You see, now this is the kind of stuff that makes me proud to be your fukutaicho."

Both her former fukutaicho and third-seat, respectively, had helped form her into the person that she was today, and she loved the thought that she could one day become such an influence for the members of the Thirteenth. She'd occassionally spar with them, capturing their attention with her beautiful zanpakuto.

"Mai. Sode no Shirayuki."

"Is that really your zanpakuto, Kuchiki-fukutaicho? It's beautiful," an unseated member remarks.

"Do you think mine will ever be as pretty as yours?" someone else asks.

Rukia smiles at the people clamoring around her, trying to get a good look at Sode no Shirayuki, "It doesn't matter if your zanpakuto is beautiful or not, it's about being able to communicate with all aspects of yourself," her tender smile switches to a joking grin, "Or so I'm told, I'm not entirely sure."

They all groan, "Kuchiki-fukutaicho!"

Rukia makes it a point to visit with her friends at least once a week, she knows how important the bonds of friendship are.

She does different things with different people. With Matsumoto Rangiku, it's drinking.

"Don't you ever-hic- feel bad-hic- of leaving everything to Hitsugaya?" Rukia asks, starting to feel the buzz.

Rangiku smiles sadly at her, "Sometimes. Most of the time I feel like I'm too caught up in the past, the would've beens, the could've beens. I'm leaving more and more to Taicho, and I forget that he has things on his mind too."

Rukia frowns and puts her hand on Rangiku's arm, "Rangiku-"

"Oh, just ignore me," Rangiku waves her off, "Come on, Rukia-chan, let's go see what Hina-chan's up to!" Rangiku grips Rukia's wrist and starts out at a dead run, bringing Rukia along with her.

Abarai Renji and Rukia usually sparred or hung out or went on a stupid adventure for the day.

Renji and Rukia were in a field out in Rukongai. They had specifically chosen this field as not to attract attention.

"Okay, to determine who has the best zanpakuto we'll need to do three tests. One will be to see how far our zanpakuto can reach, another how high, and the last is the reaction time." Renji ticked off his fingers as he spoke, he needed to make sure that he wasn't missing anything.

Rukia leaned against her zanpakuto, "Are you done talking tattoo-brows? Let's get on with it, we're burning daylight here/" They both laughed.

"Okay, okay. Howl, Zabimaru."

"Mai, Sode no Shirayuki."

"Hiho, Zabimaru."

"You're using Bankai? No fair."

"When you achieve Bankai you can use it, too."

"Hey, you better watch out, I'm almost there."

Rukia was almost there, she had been working hard to obtain her Bankai. In fact it was days like these that she had Renji use his Bankai on her, in an effort to release her own. The new skills she achieved practically required to where gloves, she had nearly lost all of her fingers from frostbite several times. She had found the gloves in an old wardrobe in the Kuchiki Manor, according to Byakuya-nii-san, they had once been her sister, Hisana's, gloves.

"Whatever, you're all talk. You ready?"

"Of course, on three."

"One,"

"Two,"

"THREE!"

"Tsugi no mai, hakuren!" Rukia had to call out the move, which in battle, would alert her enemy of what she was about to do, if they had knowledge of her zanpakuto.

All Renji had to do was fling his arm forward and watch the large, boney snake shoot forward.

"Wa-ho! Did you see that? Yours took forever to even do, I totally won." Renji grinned.

Rukia gaped, "Should one of us measure that? Because I'm not going to do it."

"Well, I don't wanna do it either!"

"I already said that I wasn't going to do it! Therefore, you have to do it."

"C'mon, Rukia. It'll take forever to do. I know you don't have much time left of your lunch break."

Although Rukia knew that Renji was baiting her so he could claim that he was the winner, her stomach had let her know that it wanted food. "Okay, Renji. Let's go search for some food. And as the winner of the best zanpakuto, I believe that you should pay for it." Rukia had already slung her zanpakuto over her shoulder and was walking down the hill towards the Seireitei.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan, wait . . . what! Why should I have to pay for it? Hey, come back here!"

It was through Rangiku that Rukia had become friends with Hinamori Momo.

Rukia was sitting in a corner of the room, sipping tea and twiddling her thumbs. Momo was on the floor, trying to keep steady as she put glitter on the third card she was making. As she trailed glue over the cover, her tongue hung out of her mouth and her eyes crossed as she tried to keep her concentration.

"Hi...na...mo...ri, Hinamori!" Rukia cupped her hands around her mouth to amplify the sound.

Momo freaked out upon hearing the sudden shout in the previously silent room. She was so surprised that she upturned her whole carton of glitter on herself, which was not good for the wet glue spots that were all over her.

"Kuchiki-chan! I'm-I'm-I look like a sparkly vampire! Oh my god! Get it off, get it off!"

Rukia doubled over, her laughter too much for her, "Not on your life!"

"Then it has to be on your life."

Rukia stopped laughing to look up at her murderous friend, "What do you mean? Oh no, please don't." Rukia's tone had quickly turned to fear when she had seen Momo advancing on her with glue and glitter.

She scrambled to her feet, pushed the door aside as quickly as she could, and broke out into a sprint to escape Momo's clutches.

"Come back here! I swear if you don't let me cover you in glitter, I'm going to get you! Really get you!"

Of course she spent time with other people too.

Rukia couldn't keep up her speed for long. She needed a plan. It hit her between the Sixth Division and Eighth Division. She took a left at the next intersection, another left, right, left, left again, and finally a right. Rukia stopped for a moment to catch her breath and to look for the one building that could save her.

There it was. Smack dab in the middle of the division-Hitsugaya Toshiro's office. With the last of her energy she entered.

The white-haired taicho looked up from the gigantic stack of paperwork that he was filling out. "Kuchiki, what do you want?"

"Ummm, is-is-is Matsu-chan, I mean Matsumoto-fukutaicho, here?"

Toshiro raised an eyebrow at the way Rukia was acting, it was extremely suspicious. "Yes, she's on the couch over their sleeping." He pointed over his shoulder.

"Thank you, Hitsugaya-taicho! Oh, and if you see Hina-cha-Hinamori-fukutaicho, tell her I was never here." And with that, Rukia plopped herself onto the ground, so that the couch-and Rangiku-completely obscured her from view.

"Seriously, you all act like children." He sighed.

"Who does, Shiro-chan?"

The voice surprised Toshiro, he had not noticed Momo come in. "No one, Momo. Now what do you want?"

Momo was miffed, Shiro was being mean, "I wanted to know if you had seen Kuchiki?"

Toshiro huffed and began to massage his brows, "She told me to say she was never here. And what are you doing, going around with glue and glitter? You're acting pretty childish, bed wetter-Momo."

"Hey!"

Rukia then spoke, still in her hiding place, "Mooooomoooo, can't you seeeeee how meaaaan Shiro is beiiiiiiing to yoooooou? Yoooooou should get hiiiiim, forgeeeeeet about Ruuuuuukiiiiiiaaaaa."

Toshiro glared, Rukia and her little ghost act was not helping? Momo would absolutely not believe that.

"You're right," Momo spoke to the room, "Thank you, conscience. I'll really get him good."

"Wait? What? Stop, stop it, Momo!"

"Never!"

Neither Momo nor Toshiro noticed Rukia sneak out of the office, and Rangiku was still asleep-a snot bubble growing out of her nose.

There were also times when the whole gang got together.

"Ikkaku, Iba-don't hog all of the sake!"

"He wouldn't be hogging it if you guys shared some of the food!"

"It's a rule that you're only allowed to eat if you have a seat. Remember? Because Renji and Rukia can't stop spilling it all over the place."

"It's not our fault that their aren't enough seats!"

"Yes it is, you guys were the ones who volunteered to bring them."

"It's not like you're all completely innocent."

"Hey, there were three things to choose from, and the four of you chose to bring seating."

"It's not as if it's that big of a deal, we can rotate chairs in a while."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Whatever."

"Umm, you guys? While you were fighting, we were eating your food."

"Hey!"

Rukia got into contact with Urahara Kisuke and Kurosaki Isshin fifteen months, eight days, two hours, and twelve seconds after she said goodbye to Ichigo.

Patrolling Karakura was boring, Rukia decided, when her best friend could no longer see her.

For some reason, when she arrived, no one had been there to greet her. It was odd because Urahara and Yoruichi made it a point to greet the shinigami that they knew when they arrived in town.

It was about a week into her assignment and Rukia had seen no sign of any of her friends. No Ishida Uryu, no Chad, no Inoue Orihime, no Kisuke Urahara, no Kurosaki Isshin, no Shihouin Yoruichi, no anyone. Could they be purposefully avoiding her?

Rukia decided to go to them. Feeling the need to get a glimpse of Ichigo, she made her way to the Kurosaki Clinic. Rukia had almost made it to the street that the Kurosaki house was on, when someone grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her around the corner.

"Back the fuck off," Rukia growled, she had yet to see the person who had grabbed her.

Spinning her around to face her, her assaulter let out a sob, "Masaki! Did you hear what our third daughter just said to me? How could she be so mean to her papa!" Kurosaki Isshin let out a sob into Rukia's shoulder.

"Isshin! It's you, you had me scared for a moment. Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" Rukia wrapped her arms around Isshin and let out a shining smile. Had anyone been turning the corner at that exact moment, they probably would've been blinded by the white-ness.

"I am glad to see you as well, Rukia-chan! But there will be time for a reunion later, I need you to come with me to Kisuke's right away." Isshin was in his shinigami form, so Rukia suspected that he had left his body in his room taking a nap, lest anyone wonder where he was.

Rukia furrowed her brows, this was making no sense. "Why do I need to go with you to Urahara's? In fact why haven't I seen anyone this week? Where have you guys all been?"

"I'll answer that when we get to the Shoten, we can't talk out here."

"Why not?"

"You'll find out soon."

Rukia reluctantly followed Isshin to the Urahara Shoten, which, at better times, had once served as their command post. They being the substitute team.

It felt like ages before they reached Urahara's shop, Isshin, apparently, didn't want to risk being seen by anyone. And when they reached the shop, Isshin insisted on knocking "Jingle Bells" before entering.

"Now are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"Wait until we get into the basement."

Rukia smiled in anticipation, afterall she hadn't seen the old training grounds in over fifteen months. She was about half-way down the ladder when she let go and jumped, she couldn't take going down each and every bar. There were too many.

"Ah, Rukia-chan, welcome to my humble abode." Kisuke exclaimed upon seeing Rukia, he fanned himself-he had been working for sometime and was starting to sweat.

Rukia bowed her head, "Hello, Urahara. I'm sorry to forgo all of the pleasantries," she turned back to Isshin, "But I would really like to know what the hell is going on."

Kisuke tipped the hat further over his eyes, "Language, language, Rukia-chan. Would you rather have Isshin or I explain to you?"

"I don't care either way. I just really want to know." Rukia plopped down on the ground and leaned against a stone pillar.

"Okay," Isshin spoke up, "We believe that my son has joined up with some rather unfavorable people in order to regain his powers."

Rukia shot up, "I can't believe you'd even say that, let alone think that! There's no way! Ichigo would never do that! In fact, if that Ichigo does something like that, I will personally kick his ass!"

Kisuke fanned himself some more, "Well, it's nice that you believe in him as fiercely as ever, but we have proof that the people that Ichigo has affiliated himself with aren't what they seem."

"What do you mean?"

"We heard from our good friend Ishida Ryuken, Uryu's father, that someone has recently attacked Uryu. Rukia, Uryu confirmed it himself, the person Ichigo and Chad have been hanging around is the same one who cut Uryu down."

"You can't be serious! Why haven't you told Ichigo!"

"We haven't had the chance, Ichigo and his new friends are busy training and we haven't had a chance to contact him. Besides, do you honestly think that Ichigo would believe us without proof? Neither of us are known to be too trustworthy."

"Then what do you propose we do? Sit and wait for Ichigo to get cut down, as well? What do these guys even want? Wait...if they've gotten to Ishida, what has happened to Inoue?"

"It seems that someone has gotten to Inoue-chan, as well. Although it was a different person than the one who attacked Ishida-kun. We believe that those men are out to get Ichigo's newly founded fullbring power."

"You've answered all of my questions except one."

"What are we going to do? We're going to give Ichigo his shinigami powers back."

"What, how?"

"Rukia, you were the one who activated his powers the first time, weren't you?"

"Yes, but we can't do the same thing we did last time. Even though I have more control over my reiatsu, it doesn't matter. Ichigo will suck it all out no matter what I do. Although he lost most of his power, he'll still have enough to drain me."

"What if we told you that we have a way to make sure that doesn't happen?"

"What do you mean?"

"Follow us."

Kisuke lead the way with Rukia following behind and Isshin closing up the rear. Kisuke lead them down another ladder, further into the basement. In the center of the room was a regular katana, held up by metal props all around it.

"What is that?"

"Rukia, meet the faux Sode no Shirayuki~" Isshin displayed the katana like a saleswoman displayed her products.

Kisuke took over, "The faux is the exact same as the real Sode no Shirayuki in her unsealed state. The plan is for you to fill it with your reiatsu."

Rukia looked perplexed, "But why do you need me to do it? Can't one of you do it?"

"No," Isshin grinned at Rukia, "You see, I've already tried it. While Ichigo was sleeping I tried stabbing him and nothing happened. And then both Kisuke and Yoruichi tried it and it still didn't work. We then came to the conclusion that we'd need you."

"All three of you stabbed Ichigo...while he was sleeping?" Rukia slowly drawled out, "What the hell! You could have killed him!"

Rukia back-handed Isshin in the face and punched Kisuke in the gut.

"You old men are just sick. Didn't your mothers teach you better than that? Anyway, where's Yoruichi-san? I want a piece of her, too."

Coughing, Kisuke managed to respond, "Yoruichi and Tessai are with the children, Jinta and Ururu. We all decided that it would be safer for them to be outside the city once we got light of the upcoming battle."

"Upcoming battle? You're just full of surprises aren't you, you old creep?"

"Yes, well, we very well can't give Ichigo shinigami powers when he's full of that fullbring shit, now can we?"

"Besides," Isshin piped up, "We need to make sure that everything about the faux Shirayuki is perfect."

Rukia nodded, "Okay, let's get to work."

Rukia cut her hair exactly sixteen months, fourteen days, two hours, and thirty-four seconds after she said goodbye to Ichigo.

Rukia sat in a chair and closed her eyes. She was clenching the arms of the chair so tightly that her knuckles were white, "Okay, Isshin just get it over with."

"Rukia-chan, why are you acting like I'm cutting your arm off?" Isshin looked confused, "You asked me to help you with your hair."

She didn't turn around when she replyed, "I know that I asked you to help, I'm just nervous. I only want a trim, so please don't go overboard."

Isshin grinned, "Oh, I'm so sorry Ru-chan! I accidentally chopped most of it off."

He went to to cut a tiny bit off the end when Rukia whipped her head around. She thought that he had been serious, and with that movement, he cut off most of the hair on one side under her chin.

"Oh, my god! Isshin! Why would you do that? I said a trim and you hacked most of it off, now I look like Hanataro!"

"What should I do now, I don't think that I can fix it."

"Just cut the rest of it, just make it match."

Rukia, Kisuke, and Isshin were ready to restore Ichigo's shinigami powers exactly seventeen months, three days, four hours, and twenty-one seconds after Rukia said goodbye to Ichigo.

Kisuke, Isshin, and Rukia were all sitting in a room of Urahara Shoten sipping tea and discussing the latest episode of an anime they all liked. They were talking about their favorite characters being cornered by the show's villains and sort of having a mexican stand off, when Uryu burst in.

"I suggest you guys get ready because I think the big confrontation's coming up."

Uryu was gone as quickly as he'd arrived.

Rukia, Kisuke, and Isshin arrived at the battle between Ichigo, Uryu, Ginjo, and Tsukishima exactly seventeen months, three days, five hours, and nine seconds after Rukia said goodbye to Ichigo.

"So I guess that we should wait until we get a signal from Ichigo." Rukia said.

All three of them were sitting on the building's front steps. At first they had gone inside, but after seeing what was going on in the lower floors they did not want to see what was going on in the upper floors.

"What kind of signal are you talking about?" Isshin asked.

"Maybe when we do finally see Ichigo, we should warn him that there is an 'I hate Ichigo' mob going on between all of his friends and some of his family." Kisuke remarked.

"Nah," Rukia muttered, this was getting kind of boring-they had been waiting for at least twenty minutes. They should have taken their time coming over here.

Suddenly, they could hear someone screaming, "No!" someone who sounded a lot like Ichigo.

Rukia sighed, brushing herself off after she stood up, "That would be the signal."

The group of three managed to squeeze under the reiatsu supression cloak Kisuke had brought and trudged on past the mob and up the stairs, to Ichigo, Uryu, Ginjo, and Tsukishima. To their surprise, the scene on the rooftop was to their advantage, everyone was in the perfect positions. Uryu was on the floor, bleeding, Ichigo was crying, back facing towards them, and Ginjo and Tsukishima were walking away.

"Ginjo..." Ichigo looked distraught, "GINJO!"

Ichigo was begging Ginjo to turn around, to acknowledge him, to reassure him that he wasn't useless without his powers.

With a hard thrust, Rukia managed to lodge the fake Sode no Shirayuki into Ichigo's chest. Even though, technically, the reiatsu wasn't coming directly from her, it had once been hers and she could feel him taking it.

When Ichigo turned around to look at the person who stabbed him, Kisuke ripped off the reiatsu supression cloak that had been covering the three of them.

"...Dad...?" Ichigo could hardly get the word out, he couldn't believe his eyes, "...Ura...hara...-san...?"

Ichigo grasped the faux zanpakuto protruding out of his chest, "...So that's it...that is it then?"

The rain that was pouring from the sky intermingled with his tears. Staring at the solemn faces of both Kisuke and his father, Ichigo spoke again, "Dad...you...too? That's how it is...?"

Isshin's eyes held some pity for his son, who had seem to have fallen so far, "...You idiot. It wasn't me who stabbed you. Look closely. You should be able to see their form by now. Just who...is holding that sword!"

Ichigo focused on the form that was becoming more and more clear by the second. His eyes widened even more than they had before. Rukia smiled at him when she realized that he could finally see her.

Ichigo managed to get out, "...Rukia..." before the faux zanpakuto did it's work and restored Ichigo's shinigami powers.

The glow from the zanpakuto was blinding as it called all of the nearby floating reiatsu in the area to Ichigo, to fill in what Rukia's reiatsu hadn't managed to completely get.

Ginjo and Tsukishima looked back in shock.

Ichigo was a shinigami once more.

Rukia smiled a real smile exactly zero months, zero days, zero hours, three minutes, and twelve seconds after she and Ichigo had locked eyes.

I'm not one for dramatic endings, but that was pretty dramatic in my opinion.

I feel very accomplished for finishing this, I really don't like to finish things. Finishing things makes them final, as in nothing can ever be changed or done differently, which I don't like.

What I do like are happy endings, which this kind of is. Or is it a happy continuation? Or resuming what was once great and ending the shitty arcs that make no sense, waste time, and aggravate me?

Just kidding, I didn't think the Lost Agent/Fullbring arc was shitty. It was just super annoying. That's right. I use phrases like super annoying, and I say it like a valley-girl.

Woah, I've been writing this bolded word junk for a long time. According to my computer it's been over 90 minutes. But I am watching a movie on the left side of my screen, so it's not entirely my fault. I'm much more efficient when I'm not watching really bad comedy.

Also, it was brought to my attention today that in the play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, Fabian is the non-best friend in the Fabian-Toby-Andrew friendship. It matters to me because I'm currently practicing for my school's summer production of the play, but it also kind of reminded me of Tessai, Kisuke, and Yoruichi. Where Tessai is clearly the non-best friend in the Tessai-Kisuke-Yoruichi relationship. Poor Tessai. ): It's sad because he's an awesome character and doesn't get the recognition that he deserves. He was featured a lot in the beginning of the manga and now we don't see him anymore. It's pretty sad. I think it's because Kubo created so many characters and doesn't know how to put them all in.

I think that's enough ranting for now, thank's for reading.

Bye, now!