Title: Howl at the Moon

Living in Limbo

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KUCHIKI ESTATE

- 24 HOURS AGO -

Coming home after a long hard day of work at the office, Rukia walked through the foyer of the Kuchiki family estate, mentally and physically exhausted only to be informed by the butler of an important message from her brother. Apparently, her brother, Byakuya needed to speak with her as soon as she arrived home.

Handing her suitcase and purse to a waiting servant, she sighed tiredly and headed towards Byakuya's den. Time flew by so fast. Six months had passed since the other part of her heart had gone missing, and before she knew it—November would be rolling around the corner in under 2 days. Ever since that fateful day, Rukia had been listlessly going through all the motions of life like an automaton. Everything was at a standstill, and nothing really mattered to her anymore. There was a gaping whole in her heart, and each day that passed drew her further and further into despair.

It was several minutes, before she arrived at her destination due to the vastness of the estate. At the closed door, she politely knocked and waited for permission to enter. Receiving word, she softly opened the door and shut it behind her.

Byakuya was still studying some legal document line by line. Knowing who his visitor was without looking up, he waved absently to a chair in front of his desk gesturing her to sit.

Primly sitting in the chair with her hands folded on her lap, Rukia waited patiently for her brother to complete his task before addressing her. Not long after her entrance, the paperwork appeared to obviously meet with Byakuya's approval as he signed his name with an elegant flourish. Before turning his attention completely towards Rukia, he shuffled the loose papers neatly into one pile and placed them into another folder on his desk.

After setting aside his business work, Byakuya lifted his eyes to stare at Rukia. His eyes momentarily dropped towards her left hand before looking deeply into her eyes again as he asked, "It's been 6 months. Why won't you let him go?"

Rukia dropped her eyes pointedly toward her widowed brother's own ringed finger, and twisted her own diamond engagement ring in distress as she answered his question with a question of her own, "Would you have let Hisana go?"

There was a long telling pregnant pause, until Byakuya sighed "touché" under his breath, then replied simply with an adamant "no" to her question.

Raising an eyebrow in suspicion however, he asked, "Are you sure nothing happened between the two of you? As much as I disapproved of the boy; and despite his horrid lack of manners and his outrageously loud hair, he always wore his heart on his sleeve for you."

Her eyes darkened with distraught emotion before she could conceal it from the ever observant eyes of her brother who missed nothing. Visibly stilling her trembling fingers, she answered haltingly, "Of course not, nii-sama. For some unexplained reason he started acting strangely almost 7 months ago, and not long after . . . . He sent you that letter."

No personal goodbyes, just an unemotional letter canceling all their wedding plans with no explanation other than that he had finally realized the error of his ways, and he was no longer fit to be her husband.

Indubitably, she did understate Ichigo's erratic behavior before his disappearance to her brother. Ichigo had never enjoyed social crowds, but suddenly his dislike transmuted into something deeper and more . . . vicious. He became extremely solitary, aggressive, and . . . possessively territorial over her. Male or female, he didn't like her spending any given time with anyone other than himself. And heaven forbid if someone tried to lay a finger on her . . . .

Rukia shuddered unconsciously at the memory of the man he had almost beaten to death for flirting playfully with her at a social event they had both been required to attend. The most disturbing detail about his actions during the chaos that ensued was the blood-curling animalistic growl that she had heard under his breath before he leapt onto the unsuspecting hapless man.

Byakuya had to utilize all his incredible resources to forestall any impending lawsuits or criminal punishment for the very public incident. Needless to say, the event put Ichigo further out of reach of her brother's good graces. Not that her brother ever had a kind word to say about Ichigo to begin with.

There was always a bitter antagonism between the two most important men in her life, which stemmed from . . . well . . . being the two most important men in her life. While Byakuya resorted to using multiple methods of bribery, blackmail, and threats to scare Ichigo away. Ichigo, in his own method of madness, had used his own devious wits against Byakuya by practically eloping with Rukia.

In the end, they had settled everything the way normal men did. They battled it out with their fists, completely wrecking one of the Kuchiki rooms so extensively the room had to be reconstructed. Although, Rukia was completely disgusted with the behavior of the two men, it did resolve the whole marriage blessing matter—if grudgingly, as Byakuya was the looser of the 2 hour testosterone chest pounding man-fest.

Byakuya's original question however, brought her back to mind what she was truly hiding from him. Rukia wondered briefly if he suspected anything, if someone had told him something, or if he was just using his amazing business acumen to perceive there was more to the story then she let on. Dr. Unohana had promised the details of her attack would not be relayed to Byakuya, citing patient confidentiality despite being the family physician. Other than the matronly physician that treated her, there was no other person other than Ichigo who could have witnesses the details of what had happened to Rukia. The only details that Rukia herself could remember began after waking up from her supposed attack and of course the physical outcome of it.

Rukia's hands clenched spasmodically oin her business skirt unconsciously as she thought back to the night that scarred her forever, it relentlessly beat at the back of her mind that she could not remember anything that had happened.

Immediately following the event where Ichigo had to be pried off of the admirer that had attempted to make sexual advances towards Rukia; Ichigo had driven her directly home. The silence in the car was disturbingly thick, wrought with unspoken words and emotionional turmoil.

After reaching her home, he had walked her to her room in seething silence. However, what happened afterwards remained a blank spot within her memories. She vaguely recalled both Ichigo and she entering her room, but after that . . . all her memories drew a complete blank.

Obviously, Rukia must have lost consciousness at some point upon entering her bedroom. When she awoke the following morning, all she knew was that her evening gown and undergarments had been torn to shreds and was scattered throughout the room, as if some wild animal had clawed it asunder into small bits of confetti. Waking up naked and sprawled uncovered upon her bed wasn't the only frightening detail she came to realize. Her naked flawless pale skin was liberally littered with bruises, shallow scratch marks, and love bites. Her neck, shoulders, breasts, and parts of the area between her legs were also extremely sore.

Swallowing the bile that threatened to spew out, Rukia breathed in and out deeply, and tried to calm her racing heartbeat. Afraid of the marks and her lack of memory, she immediately threw on some clothes and went to visit her family physician, Dr. Unohana.

Other than the visible abrasions and bruising along her body, her doctor reassured her that she hadn't been raped and her chastity remained intact. Rukia remembered feeling so relieved that she would still be pure for her wedding. However, what the doctor said next deeply disturbed her to this day. Judging by the patterns of scratches and teeth bruising around her body; the signs pointed to some sort of animal mauling her. The teeth markings were cognizant of a large canine mandible seen only on large wild beasts. Adding to the mystery, none of the bites or scratches broke the surface of her skin anywhere on her body.

In addition, the doctor implied that perhaps her black out was caused by an event that was so traumatic her brain simply blocked her from remembering the details.

Intuitively, she knew that only one person could answer the mysterious details of that night. And that would be her fiancé, Ichigo. Both of them had made promises to each other to consummate their love on their wedding night only. With the wedding drawing near at a scant 1 month away, she didn't understand why her clothes had been removed and her body riddled with love marks.

Ignoring the slight trepidation when the memory of his fight with her potential Lothario surfaced, she searched high and low for him throughout the city. When she still couldn't locate him, she called upon all their acquaintances and his family members for his whereabouts. Without luck, he had disappeared and for several nerve wracking weeks she couldn't find any signs of him. Even reporting him missing to the police yielded no results.

However, approximately 2 weeks later, Byakuya received an unmarked letter. A letter that caused her untold heartache and pain as it was a notification to unceremoniously cancel all their wedding plans—shattering their idealistic future dreams.

Six months later, she was still shell shocked about the outcome of those events. For a while, she entertained thoughts that the letter was forged, and that he had somehow been kidnapped. But the extremely wealthy Kuchiki family had never received any ransom demand, which negated that theory.

The only other conclusion that she could think of was that he had met with an untimely murderous end. However, she refused to allow herself to contemplate that dire end without further physical proof.

As a result, Rukia had been living in this constant limbo, unable to find closure on the disappearance of the love of her life. In addition, she never did recover those lost memories from that one fateful night. All her efforts with multiple therapists and hypnotists came to naught. However, she was positive that the event was pivotal and contributed to his disappearance in some way. That's why she persisted in trying to remember. Perhaps, the events would provide a clue to his absence.

If nothing else, her heart still belonged with him. Instinctively, she knew that he was alive somewhere. The hope still fired her unwavering determination in finding him.

Noting her emotionally distant gaze, Byakuya silently pulled out a file from a hidden drawer within his desk. The sound of the file being tossed across his desk towards Rukia, snapped her attention back to her brother in questioning surprise. But what he said next shocked her to the core.

"The investigators have finally located him."

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A/N:

Please review and let me know what you thought of Rukia's back story. It's a transitional filler chapter to build Rukia's character and lay the foundation of all that's transpired before the prologue.

I hope you enjoyed the little tidbit about the pissing contest between Ichigo and Byakuya. I could so see that happening . . . . Except the girl in me would want to see their clothes being ripped off during their manly catfight . . . ahem . . . I mean brawl. LOL And no, I'm not into yaoi!

Special thanks to everyone who took the time to review. You guys are absolutely awesome. I wasn't certain this story would appeal to most readers. It was because of your reviews that I beefed up this chapter at the last minute despite my wrists pains and tried to get this second chapter published so soon.

Next Chapter: "Dormant Memories." Rukia, several hours before the prologue, and you can already guess by the title what this chapter will be about.