A/N: I brought this out earlier, because I'll be leaving tomorrow for Independence Day and won't be back until Sunday. These chapters will be short because it was intended to be a one-shot. Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: Bleach characters by Kubo. This chapter has some death, focused more on Rukia.
She felt a strange sensation when the boy had touched her. He had a gentle but firm grip on her arm that overwhelmed her senses, if only for a moment. She never had any soul- living or not- touch her like that, a touch that only held the emotion of concern, worry, and strange curiosity.
She understood how all living souls searched to know everything they could, being the curious creatures they were. But in the living world, angels were to be imaginary. Many people still believed they were real- few ever saw one.
And he was able to see her.
She couldn't alter his memory like most angels did when they met those special living souls, she couldn't at all.
Not without her graces from Society Above.
As punishment, the head angels had stripped her of all her graces- her ability to alter memories, and living in Society Above. They even destroyed her wings so she could never fly, making the ordeal as painful as possible for her. They now hung on her back dead, the sign that marked a fallen angel.
Becoming a fallen angel was the first degree of punishment. If any other law is broken again, the final blow was fatal.
She remembered what her friend had told her when she was being exiled. She had hoped he would give her comforting words that would be useless, but he wouldn't try to fool her.
"If you fall even more, it is said an angel turns into a demon, taken to live in purgatory." Renji warned her. She could only look at him, cold fear running through her veins.
A demon in purgatory.
"So please, Rukia… They'll welcome you back after a while, and I'll wait." She saw something different in his eyes, but couldn't quite place what it was.
But can her dead wings bring her back to Society Above? The hope she felt after his words were ripped as she fell onto the soft ground of Earth, her bleeding wings. He was wrong- they would never bring her back.
A fallen angel remained exiled.
Rukia watched as the drops of water fell from the clouds over head. It was raining once again, as she watched from the same spot under the protective tree. Her eyes roamed around her surroundings once again, her eyes hovering on the large, abandoned house right behind her.
This was where he lived.
This was where he died, and where he was buried.
They were under the same tree, where she sat in the same place since she dropped to the Earth, after her wings were torn. She wouldn't leave his side, she didn't want to.
When she first met him, she was so much younger, naïve. She was assigned to stay down in the living souls lived, waiting for any soul that was destined to go to The Realm and become an angel.
She remembered of being tired flying around the large area and had alighted onto the ground where they first met.
---
Years ago
"Oh, what is this here?" She turned around and froze. A living soul was standing there, looking at her curiously. She backed away a few steps, nervous. No living soul had noticed her while she had been there. Was he one of the exceptions she was told…?
"I must be one lucky man; I don't see that many women with beautiful wings, though." He gave a warm smile, making her eyes widen, her stoic expression disappearing. She cursed for faltering.
"Relax- I seem to be the only one who has been seeing you perching everywhere like a little bird around town." He told her. She stayed wary, but he made no sudden movements.
"Well, you may stay if you want- you're an angel right, so it really doesn't matter I guess!" He grinned at his own joke, and started walking towards the large house. Rukia could only stand there surprised, before snapping out of her stupor and calling out to him.
"Wait!" She called. She appeared in front of him the second he turned as two of her finger touched his forehead. This was how angels altered a soul's memory, as they automatically received the information of the living soul and using their graces to modify it. When she lifted her fingers from him, she disappeared.
His name was Shiba Kaien.
She returned to the tree that afternoon. Unsurprisingly, he still remembered her when he saw her again. He stayed longer, talking to her. Again, she didn't alter his memory.
"So what are 'ya, my guardian angel?" He joked around once as he looked down at her with soft eyes.
"G-guardian angel…?" She mumbled.
"Yeah, an angel that watches over someone. I used to be like that with my wife- Miyako would always laugh when I fell or did something stupid just so she didn't fall or hurt herself." He sighed. Rukia could see a different smile on his face that she had not seen before.
She clenched her hands.
That day ended with him falling asleep under the tree with her right next to him. She relaxed her shoulders for the first time coming onto Earth.
She soon stood outside his home, looking solemn.
"What's wrong, Kuchiki?" He always called her Kuchiki after she told him her name, but it still held closeness of knowing the angel.
"…I'll be leaving." She mumbled.
"Leaving already, I see…" Kaien mumbled, disappointed. She stared at the ground, not wanting him to see she was obviously upset. She gasped when a large hand took her chin and gently raised her head up to stare back at him.
"Don't look so sad. A beautiful face like yours isn't suit for unhappiness." He whispered. It calmed her, and they had a proper good bye. She lifted her two fingers up to alter his memories this time when he grasped her wrist in a gentle hold. She couldn't help but gasp as she felt his warmth just from his hand.
"Please don't. I'd rather remember the way you are, Kuchiki." He said. Shocked, she could only nod. He released her and her hand dropped to her side. She then left Earth, not looking back.
The head angels didn't find out about her encounter meeting a living soul. They did not find out about how she left him with untouched memories of her.
She did not tell any soul-living or not- of the law she had broke, as she harbored something heavy deep in her heart, not letting it out.
She felt the happiest, until the day she returned to the area, expecting him to greet her once again.
She and another angel came down to suppress a possessed soul that was not a problem until recently, when it became demonic. When they arrived to the familiar tree and house, they were horrified at the scene.
There were corpses everywhere, blood- the demonic soul had already caused quite a few casualties. Rukia roamed the blank faces of the shells when she noticed one was still alive. Every inch of her body turned cold when she recognized who it was, as he called her name out.
"K-Kuchiki…" His strangled breath called out. Without hesitating, she rushed towards him, forgetting of the other angel and everything else. Only his bloody appearance was in her sight.
"Kaien!" She yelled and kneeled down towards him. He gave her a smile, but it looked gruesome with blood on his face.
"Heh, you really are like a guardian angel Kuchiki, thanks for coming again before…" She didn't want to hear the end of his sentence; her heart feeling like it was ripping.
"No, stop! It's not your time to die!" She stifled a small sob, but the tears were welling under her eyes.
"It might not have been… But I'm one lucky guy to see such an angel before a death like this. I wonder if I'll see Miyako after this again…" He muttered, a wistful look overcoming his face.
"Kaien…" Rukia whispered.
"Thanks." He muttered, touching her hand. She grasped his between her own, squeezing tightly. His eyes fell off of her as they glazed over.
She stared at his cold body, feeling the warm liquid falling down her cheeks.
That morning, all of the bodies were gone- either perished by fire that was lit, or buried under ground by the same demon.
She had failed as an angel- and he was dead.
But it still became worse.
"Kuchiki Rukia. We have received word that you are suspected of violating one of the laws set for angels. Our report says you broke Law One of the commandments of showing emotion and feeling towards a living soul." The voice boomed, the true wrath of an angel making her knees shake. She flinched away from the authoritative voice, but she could not run away- they had surrounded her. She remained silent, listening to the voice continue on.
"How do you plead to this report?" It asked. Rukia could only shake her head, unable to speak without her voice shaking from intimidation.
"Until we can confirm if this statement is false or not, you will remain inside the Central Realm, where you are to stay in confinement. In the Central Realm, your graces will be stripped as an angel of question. You are dismissed." Rukia quickly left and headed toward Central Realm before getting persecuted of not following orders, her mind still going through what had happened.
She was isolated in the Central Realm for the next several years, as everything else that was not ruined went downhill.
---
Now she was here, on Earth once again.
She raised her head and looked out towards the direction the boy left, suddenly remembering him.
It was very surprising as he had suddenly appeared next to her, talking to her. No one had been able to see her for the months she had already been here, which she was grateful for.
But the living boy seemed different.
She tried to remain indifferent to his several questions, but she couldn't help start getting annoyed at his concern. She didn't need some strange, human adolescent trying to help her, for there was nothing he could help her with.
She even went to lie to him to send him on his way, but something inside her stopped herself from finishing the sentence.
When his hand met with her skin- His hand shot warmth through her whole body with one touch.
He had only asked her if she was an angel only once.
Of course, Kaien was correct without even asking- but the boy seemed not as surprised to meet an angel- although he seemed very distraught at the sight of her wings.
Rukia focused back on the rain that was still pounding the ground, and then looked over her shoulder at her bloody wings.
She sighed, thinking once more of the orange-headed boy. She looked back forward, and hesitantly stood up. Her feet wobbled- she hadn't stood on her feet for a while. She took a step forward from under the canopy of the tree and could feel the rain drops pelt her skin. She spread her wings manually behind her hands as the water hit her wings.
This would wash the blood stains, she thought. That, plus it felt soothing.
A/N: Please, please, please review! It truly makes me happy and it will to see your review! Please voice any questions if you're confused about the story of angels, I can gladly explain!
