Hello People! Long time. Once again.

Here is the final chapter.

An epilogue will be coming up shortly. It will tie up the remaining loose threads.

Personally, I think this is the best ending for Ichigo/Rukia romance.

Thank you for supporting this story as much as you did.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

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Chapter 3: The Fairy Tale

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I have always loved Daturas.

Most people would call it an odd preference, given the poisonous nature of these innocent looking flowers. One wrong choice to add it as a condiment, and you could lose your life. The elders in our village would often tell us, the naive and utterly disinterested kids, stories of how daturas' flowers and seeds would be crushed to produce poison of the finest quality and slip it in drinks for one purpose – assassination.

But they were so beautiful.

White, moon-shaped, thriving alone in any place that would let them… someone must have named them angel's trumpets for a reason. In spite of the poison flowing within – the inexorable, intrinsic nature they are born with – they bloom so brightly, so radiant, so hopeful, giving unfathomable joy to the onlooker… how could anybody hate them?

My brother would often -

"RUKIA!"

The voice startled me so badly that I almost tore off the petals of the datura in my hand. Taking in a deep breath, I calmed myself before turning around to glare at the offender.

A very unapologetic and curious looking emperor who had no business to be here.

Even though it's his palace garden and I am obviously the intruder here…

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, annoyance coursing through my entire being in waves. It was late afternoon and I was admiring the vast gardens of the palace, minding my own business. It was one of those rare days when I had moments all to myself, with no Michiru or Inoue or any other person surrounding me.

I loved Inoue the most in this world – but I needed some time for myself.

And then there was the King. As far as I was concerned, I was not required to see his aggravating face for another few hours at least. Why was he here then? Didn't he stay in the official quarters during the day?

His eyes flashed. "Some way to greet the emperor, dear consort."

Consort.

I was going to kill him.

Holding back some choice words that would've no doubt, established just how much of a consort I was, I turned away and tried focusing my attention on the patch of daturas.

Daturas.

Brother…

The grass beside me rustled and to my absolute horror, the King settled himself comfortably beside me, his eyes studying the moonflowers with genuine interest. As soon as I felt his shoulder touch mine, I scooted away as far as possible.

He tore his gaze from the flowers and frowned at me. "Do you loathe me that much?"

"Absolutely. I hate you."

He stared. "Such conviction. You mean it."

"And your point is?"

Why was I so angry all of a sudden?

The past few days had actually been… calm. I still tried killing him at every opportunity I could, and he dodged every time, and we still exchanged insults - well, I would be the only one doing the insulting while he would wave me away in that infuriatingly nonchalant manner of his – but on the whole… I hadn't been this angry in a while now.

Why have I not been angry in so long?

That brought along with it another set of thoughts, which I firmly refused to acknowledge. Shaking my head, I refocused on the King, still studying me thoughtfully.

Did nothing infuriate this man?

"Do you like daturas?"

That took me by surprise. This man… he always dismissed my upsurges! "That is none of your concern, I believe."

He sighed. "Back to where we began, huh."

I wanted to tell him we had begun nothing, but he turned back to the Daturas and said, "These flowers are poisonous. Why would you like them?"

He was not helping my temper. "So what if they are poisonous? These flowers are beautiful. That poison… it protects them. It saves them from the selfishness of humans who are only too eager to destroy every perfection they see." I turned to point at the patch of daturas, gently blowing to the late afternoon breeze. The sun was beginning to set, the sky colouring the white field in breath-taking shades of orange.

And then that feeling, that sensation of having witnessed the same scene under a different sky in a different time washed over me, bathing my senses in a strange numbness. The breeze carried with it a voice I had not heard in years but had repeated, a billion times, in my mind every night, trying to hold on to every remnant of its memory. The deep baritone, the flatness, the low pitch, the assuring tones…

Daturas are poisonous, but it is in their nature Rukia. If they were not poisonous, how would they protect themselves?

"I know," I say, hoping it will reach him.

But I know it doesn't.

Every night, there are a billion things I imagine telling him if I could see him one last time.

You were always right, brother.

I plucked the oranges off that tree that day.

I am sorry about being a brat that day at the gathering.

I always loved you.

I want to listen to the story of the genie.

You were the best brother I ever had.

I am a very strong girl right now.

I am no longer scared of daturas. In fact, I love them.

I miss you.

What would I tell him, if I could see him again? Which of these would convey the millions of scattered thoughts, musings and emotions I had been holding onto since his death?

But he was not here. No matter how much I searched or prayed or ran or cried, there would be no coming back. In death and only death could I hope to find him.

All my life, I have never, ever wanted to give up and die as much as I did in that moment.

Why fight? Why live? Why not just give up and join him wherever he was? This world was hell anyway. Only murderers, assassins, corrupt men, strangers existed here.

My home had been destroyed years ago. I didn't belong anywhere, anymore.

I wanted to go back, I realised. Go back to the world where my brother, my friends were alive. Where I had a family to live with, a home to belong to. Where cruelty didn't exist, where Inoue and I could be happy-

Inoue.

And just like that, I blinked, the sight before me fading into nothingness. There was no Datura field, no brother, and no breeze anymore. I was back in the darkening garden with the small patch of daturas before me, staying deathly still.

I withdrew my hand. It had started aching, and I hadn't even realised. The ache within me remained though, a reminder of the fact that the pain of losing my brother had never really faded behind the pillars of strength I had built over the years. It persisted; it was the foundation on which my strength had been built. A painful irony, that my pain is what made and kept me strong.

I also realised something – the King was still watching me.

He suddenly looked older, mature and beyond his years – his eyes gazing so intently that I felt he were looking right through me, seeing into me.

He looked away, eyes scanning the horizon. "I see."

It was only later that I realized I had been crying.

"Kuchiki-san?"

"Mm?"

"The commander wants to meet you."

"W-what? The commander?"

Panic settled. Had they found out? Had the King finally made use of his wits and told them that I was out to assassinate him?

I absolutely loathed the small voice in the corner of my mind that whispered, No he wouldn't.

"He wants to see you now." The guard repeated in a sterner voice, taking my hesitation to be a sign of potential rebellion.

I looked back at Inoue, laughing at something with Michiru.

Whatever happens, keep her safe.

I looked back at the guard, his impatience beginning to show in the restless flexing of his fingers and tapping of foot. "Alright."

"Ah there you are."

I closed the brass doors behind me. Every time I'd shut them, they'd close with a resounding bam, announcing my presence.

But today they came together noiselessly, as if shielding my presence. Not that it worked.

The King was lying on his back, his eyes drooping. "I don't feel so well today…"

I know.

"Was it something bad that I ate today?"

No.

"I must have spent too much time outside."

That's not it either.

"Anyway, I think I will rest. You can sit here and continue your story." He managed a small smile. "The pauper who fell in love with a prince, right?"

My throat felt like lead. "Yes," I managed.

He shut his eyes, draping one arm over them. "Go on. Tell me."

I walked towards his bed chambers, silently seating myself next to his sleeping form. Every part of me felt numb from within.

This was it.

It would all end today.

He lifted his arm to peek at me. "No attacking? You have a great opening today."

For a scary – and strangely relieving moment – I was sure he knew. He knew he had been-

He coughed. "It's worse than I thought." He mumbled, draping back his arm over his eyes. "Please continue. I think I will fall asleep in moments."

It felt surreal. I felt like I was not in my body. I was a spectator watching the events unfold – my mouth spouting a story I vaguely recall hearing in childhood, his hands shifting uncomfortably over his eyes, the dagger on my side weighing down with every ticking moment.

His eyes finally shut. And I knew they would not open for a good while.

Forever, if the body that presently felt like a stranger's did what it had been sent to do.

'We have administered poison from the daturas in his wine. It should take effect within minutes of you being summoned in his chamber.'

I bent over his face, checking his breathing. It was stable… near dead.

'It may not be enough to kill him. But you will have the perfect opening to drive your dagger through his heart.'

I removed the dagger from the hilt wrapped around my waist. It gleamed in the dim lights of the chamber, looking surreal.

'Take the chance, and kill him Kuchiki. Avenge your friend and thousands of other women who have had to die at his hands.'

I looked at the dagger. Had it always been this heavy? It didn't matter. My body didn't feel like mine anyway.

'We will station our guards outside the door to ensure nobody disrupts our victory. You will not be executed – we, the righteous ones, shall take over the throne and condemn the King for his crimes.'

"King," I recalled, looking at the King's sleeping face. "They all call you King. Do they know your name?"

'Remember-the wicked always die for their crimes.'

"You are wicked," I didn't know if I was telling him or convincing myself, "you killed Rio. You killed all those women who had been enslaved here for no fault of theirs,"

Get angry, Rukia. Get angry. Think of all the horrible things he has done. You have been waiting for this, I reminded myself.

I looked at his sleeping face, imagining the devil behind that sea of calm and innocence. "You have harassed people in your rule. Encouraged trading of women like ordinary market commodities, subjected them to horrible atrocities-"

The hand holding the dagger was beginning to feel like a part of me again. My senses were returning to my body.

Good, keep going.

"- you singled me out from your- your-your harem, not that I am a part of it!"

The anger began coursing through me, reflecting in my rising voice.

You are doing well.

"You are cruel, terrible, inhuman, and monstrous and every other filthy word I can think of! How could kill those women? How could you exploit them only to have them executed in the morning?"

Kill him, kill him, kill him.

Everything was coming back to me. That day at the market, when we first met…

"How could you buy us from the market and bring us here? Why did you save me in the market? Why did you bring me here?"

Yes, he deserves this.

The first night when I exchanged turns with Inoue and we made this deal…

"How dare you ignore my outburst and dismiss it as nothing? Why did you force me into this story-telling deal with you? Why did you anger me till I could think of nothing but assassinating you?"

Yes, he deserves death.

The nights after that when I'd attack and he'd dodge…

"You made a fool out of me. Pretending to look oblivious when you were clearly aware of my intentions to attack you. Why? Why did you do something so infuriating and foolish?"

Yes, he deserves to be killed.

That day in the flower fields…

"Why did you come there? How dare you come there? Why couldn't you have left me alone? Why did you follow me and ask me all those questions and try prying in matters that are none of your business-"

Yes, how dare he? He should die.

The guards outside could probably hear me. But I didn't care. I was so angry, so angry. I wanted to stab and strangle and stab and strangle and stab and strangle the man before me till he gave me the answers for all these questions.

I caught him by his collar and shook him, the dagger lying forgotten on the bed. Maybe I would strangle him after all, this lying, cheating bastard-

"Why are you like this?

'I want you to rest and recover, Rukia,'

"Why are you a villain – "

'You never asked. Not that anyone ever does.'

"- A murderer-"

'If this is hell, I don't wish for heaven.'

"- a monster…"

'I am stupider.'

"– A heartless creature – "

'Do you loathe me so much?'

"A manipulator – "

'I see.'

My eyes were stinging, vision blurred. I could no longer see his face. I felt pathetic, probably looked it too, but the burning knowledge of what I had been feeling and denying could no longer be shielded behind all the meaningless questions I had been throwing his unconscious person's way.

"Why do you make me believe you are innocent, Ichigo?"

At that exact moment, the brass doors flew open with an angry resonation. I let go of Ichigo's collar, grasping my knife and turning around to look in the heated eyes of the commander, flanked by a dozen guards.

"You." He snarled, his brown eyes gleaming angrily. "I knew a harem slave could not be trusted."

"You are mistaken," I replied, choosing to ignore the insult. "This man here has not committed the murders. There has to be a misunderstanding somewhere."

His thin lips curved in a cruel smile. "Oh? I know that."

The knife almost slipped off my fingers. "What?"

"I know he has done nothing," he continued, eyeing me in a disgusting manner. "We wish to overthrow him, since his ideology on ruling our kingdom goes against everything our ancestors ever did."

I was suddenly very, very afraid of the man before me. "What do you mean?"

He clicked his tongue. "This man wanted to take down the women-selling market and stop the harem rites. Foolish man. He refuses a tradition set by the most ancient of rulers!"

The relief that washed over me was so paramount that I almost laughed.

I was right. He is a good man.

But I could also feel bile rising to the back of my throat, which did nothing to lessen the fear and repulsion I felt from this man. "How can you even think like that – you lied to me. You wanted me to kill him!" it suddenly made sense. "That is why you sent for me. If I had assassinated him, you would've simply put the blame on me, executed me and taken over the throne."

"Enough talk." He sneered. "You failed in your task to assassinate the King."

"Ichigo."

"What?"

"Ichigo." I repeated a little louder this time. "His name is Ichigo. And I will not let you kill an innocent. His reputation has been tarnished enough by the likes of you anyway."

The commander inhaled sharply before clicking his fingers in a silent order for the guards to lunge at me. They took out their swords, the whole dozen of them, and rushed towards me. I backed towards the bed, readied my dagger, assuming a defensive stance.

It was alright. My heart felt strangely light – Ichigo was innocent. I would go down fighting a man who had been wronged. It didn't matter how many guards there were – I could take down at least two of them before being incapacitated.

And maybe atone for the way I had wronged Ichigo…

But the swords never reached me.

Once again, a tanned hand appeared from above my head and stopped the sword coming my way.

"I am beginning to suspect you enjoy me saving you."

My breath hitched.

It was him. He was alive.

Ichigo got off the bed to stand beside me. In that moment, about twenty guards entered the chambers and I realised, for the first time since I had come here, the actual enormity of the chambers.

The commander and his guards were surrounded in no time. The commander scowled in Ichigo's direction. "You."

"And you." Ichigo retorted. His eyes were blazing with anger, lips pursued in a grim line. "I suspected you of treason and rebellion a long time back, Aizen. But given the goodwill you commanded in the army, I could not do anything without sufficient evidence convicting you of these crimes."

He looked at the guards who had entered the chambers and completely surrounded the commander and his allies. "You all bear witness to the confessions of this traitor! We heard him confess to tarnishing the reputation of the current King, of conspiring to overthrow and take the throne for himself. This man shall be taken for trial tomorrow morning, and his punishment – whether to be executed or exiled – shall be decided at the trial! Take him out of my sight for now!"

The guards bowed slightly before scurrying about to do their job. The commander kept screaming obscenities and thrashing against the guards, swearing revenge while his allies hung their faces, the fear of execution written on their faces. The chamber was soon empty, just Ichigo and me left behind.

I looked at him and blurted out the first thing on my mind. "How are you alive?"

He smiled a little at me, sweat drops lining his forehead. "Did you observe the field properly the other day, Rukia? It is filled not only with daturas, but all sorts of poisonous herbs and flowers. As an heir, a part of your training involves developing immunity towards poisons. Since childhood-" here he paused, sitting on the bed and closing his eyes. "I have been administered small doses of poisons of different kind – so that if anyone tries to poison, it would not kill me. Of course, if administered in small quantities, as was the case today."

He was smiling slightly, almost goading. He probably didn't intend to make me feel that way, but I was instantly hit by a novel sensation – pity. As a child he had grown up in a hostile environment, with enemies abound, and been told to trust no one… how lonely must that have been?

And it suddenly crashed on me. All these days, not once had I seen Ichigo Kurosaki, the person behind the villainous King I had been intent on building in my mind.

"The girls are safe," I looked back at him. He had not noticed my discomfiture, it seemed. "They were sent to a different village. I could have abolished the slavery system a long while back, but a leader's power comes from his subjects. And the loyalty of my subjects has been, for a long time, been divided Aizen who has always been there, and me, an heir with rebelling ideas. Hence I had no option but to wait till I got the opportunity to show all my subjects the truth of the real traitor."

"Rio is alive?"

"Yes."

The world was suddenly better. He was innocent, Rio was alive, and hell would be abolished.

But there remained one thing to be done.

I turned to fully face him. "Ichigo?"

His eyes registered surprise before his face morphed into a grin. "Yes?"

I inhaled deeply, before bowing, hiding my face from his eyes.

"What are you-" I could hear the surprise in his voice.

"I am sorry, My Lord."

It felt strange, but strangely right. This is something I should have done a long time back, but I didn't. Blinded by my misgivings and distrust, I had misjudged a good heart. Apologising from the bottom of my heart was the least I could do.

"I am sorry for trying to assassinate you. For all the cruel words I said, for all the terrible things I did. For all those miserable days I subjected you to, I am truly sorry. I understand that an apology does not absolve me of all that I have done…. And I understand if you don't wish to forgive me."

For a brief moment, there was silence. The courage to lift my head and look him in the eyes with the shared knowledge of me being in the wrong deserted me.

But somewhere deep within me, I knew he'd forgive me. I had known it since the first time we'd met in the market, when he had saved me from the precarious noble.

But the pain of losing Rio, of losing my brother to the cruel system in the past…. Most of all, the fear of losing my resolve to the apparent kindness I saw, heard and felt in Ichigo's presence every night we spent together, made me push that benefit of doubt to the darkest corners of my mind.

"Lift your head, Rukia."

No, my heart protested. But I lifted it, slowly, coming eye to eye with Ichigo.

He was looking at me with an unreadable expression. His eyes penetrated mine, trying to say something, ask something, search for something – and I suddenly felt very conscious. He was not just looking at me – his gaze was reading into every inch of my soul that I bared to him. He could see it all – my guilt, shame, fear and confusion.

It was the most vulnerable and honest I had ever been with anyone. I was letting him look in the darkest, dampest, most shielded corners of my being.

I had not intended for it to be that way, but it happened. This man had a pull I could not escape, a vortex I could feel myself getting sucked into since the first time we met.

Why?

Somewhere within, I knew why… but today was not the day I was going to get answers. Maybe someday in the future, when I could begin to understand him, I would understand all the whys as well.

"I understand."

I looked in his eyes, and then I knew.

He had known pain. He had known loss. He had known loyalty and love.

And in that moment, I felt another wall between us break.

The hand that had extended my way all those weeks back, not once faltering or failing me, was still there, blindly grasping for my fingers.

It was time to reach out to it.

"I am Rukia Kuchiki," I said, watching as his eyes morphed in confusion. "It's a pleasure meeting you, Ichigo."

The confusion in his eyes melted and he smirked. "You look familiar, Rukia. Have we met before?"

No Ill-rumored kings, no dirt-ridden slaves, no conspiring generals. It was time to begin afresh

– As just Rukia and Ichigo.

So here it is!

I hope you all liked it. Maybe I made this last chapter a little too emotionally descriptive?

For the followers of COTP, it has been updated as well.

See you fellas soon! Thanks once again for the support, and I hope you liked it. :)

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