FicWad

Title: Ahead
Characters: Kuchiki Byakuya and Kuchiki Rukia (Familial/Platonic)
Theme: Loss
Summary: Maybe she jumped the gun this time, maybe she bit off more than she could chew. Maybe she’d known all along. It still hurt though. Ficlet. Complete.
Disclaimer: If you’ve heard of it before, then it’s obviously not mine.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
For the first time in what seemed like a long time, Rukia had been able to honestly say she was having fun and that she had friends who didn’t have to know about the fact that she’d grown up in the Rokungai Districts or was the younger adopted sister of the head of noble family. Meeting Ichigo had been a breath of fresh air, staying with Ichigo and his friends – who became her friends, as well – had been an adventure she wouldn’t soon forget. Those two months had seemed fleeting due to the abrupt ending. She wasn’t sure what she would miss more, the new friends she would never see again or the old friends, namely Renji, she might possibly lose. One thing she knew she could not possibly miss was the love or support of her only brother because she never really had either of those from him in the first place.

Now, now she knew she would never have that last one. Not with her impending execution or with his refusal to visit his little sister. She wondered briefly why he’d taken her into the family if he never intended to care or even help her. She supposed it didn’t really matter. Some part of her wanted to say that it did matter because if he did care, if he just didn’t show it, then maybe, maybe, he would defend her. And maybe, she could make up any wrong she had committed in his eyes. Maybe they could begin the road to being siblings. But the fact remained that he didn’t care, and he never would, so it didn’t matter. No matter how much it hurt to admit that to herself.

Leaning her head back so it fell against the sekkiseki that made up the Reiryoku draining tower, she allowed her violet eyes to close in defeat and resignation. She would be executed soon, and she had no doubt that her nii-sama would be in attendance. Briefly she wondered what the look in his eyes would be, would her death affect him? Or would he just be relieved to finally be rid of her? The cynical part of her wanted to laugh and say it was the latter, but the still relatively young girl ached inside at the harsh thoughts. But then again, was it really all that harsh given her reality?

She was going to die.

And yet all she could focus on was the fact that her brother didn’t even care, her family wouldn’t even bother to intervene. She didn’t regret what she’d done to put her in this situation because it was worth it; every last particle of spirit energy that she had given to Ichigo was worth it.

Opening her eyes again, she shifted so as to look out the little window that she’d settled herself directly to the right of. It gave her a small view of the world she’d grown up in, and she couldn’t help but think how ironic it was considering her current situation. She used to be out there, used to believe that in one in this tower probably deserved to be here, and she believed that humans were just creatures that needed protecting and would eventually die anyway. For all the things she could see, she’d been blinded to the world around her. Yet now that she felt like her eyes were wide open and she was truly seeing, she only had a little window to see the world out of.

A small bitter smile curled the corner of her lips, her nose tingled with the forewarning of tears, and again her eyes closed.

Feeling tired now, more so than she had ever felt before, all she wanted now was to sleep. To sleep and never wake. Because there was nothing left, she would die soon, and the people who mattered - her brother, Renji - would do nothing to stop it. This was her fate, and she merely wished it would already be over with.