A/N: Slight spoiler for the soul society arc. Tried a slightly different style for this one and I have mixed feelings about the result.

Disclaimer: This is fanfiction people!! Bleach belongs to Kubo!!!

Resemblence II

Rukia slowly slides back the cupboard door. It's well past midnight, and she knows she should be sleeping. Instead, she makes her way noiselessly across the room to stand beside Ichigo's bed; to watch him while he sleeps. She smiles, noting how his scowl has melted into to something far more peaceful in the pale light of the moon.

The first time she had made this short journey, from the cupboard to the bed, she had done so out of morbid curiosity. Staring at him for hours, cataloguing the similarities between his face and the one it resembled, only to discover that she needed more time. The next night she had crept to his bedside once again, and the night after that as well, until it had become a bizarre kind of ritual.

They both had the same eyebrows, she had realised one night, and their mouths pulled the same way when they smiled or frowned; although Ichigo did far more of the latter than Kaien ever had. Another night, unable to resist the temptation, she had discovered that their hair, while radically different in terms of colour, had the same soft texture. Their noses were similar as well, but Ichigo's was a little rounder at the tip, and his lips were just a little thinner. Kaien's eyelashes had been much thicker, and Ichigo's ears were slightly bigger.

In terms of personality they were united only by their reckless desire to protect. Although this is a lesson she has learnt during the days they spend together and not from her nightly vigils. Whereas Kaien had charmed his way into the hearts of everyone he had meet, Ichigo seemed to repel anyone who tried to approach him. His affection, when he did show it, was not boisterous like her superiors had been, but rough and awkward. Most significantly, Ichigo did not wear his heart on his sleeve as Kaien had done, but kept it buried, revealing it only sporadically to a select few.

Rukia smiles as she looks down at the boy she has learnt to respect and care for and, as she does so, she suspects that she might be in trouble. She has long since identified the myriad of similarities and differences between the man of her past and the boy of her present, but she still makes this journey every night. The familiarity of his features had drawn her at first, the likeness soothing her fractured heart, but something else had prompted her return night after night. The truth, she realises, is that she is beginning to like the differences more than the similarities.

_____________

A few nights later, when Ichigo lies dying on the cold, hard road and her brother attributes her emotional reaction to the the similarity between the boy and her dead superior, she is relieved that no-one can see the truth.

Because, when she looks at Ichigo now, she can no longer see the resemblance.