10Word Count: 2,202
Timeline/Spoilers: set throughout series; vague references up to the current manga arc (#38 in particular if you're a real stickler for spoilers; also, #39 borrows a quote from Fade to Black)
Summary: The clack of her wooden geta across the floor echoes in his ears, and he knows he's home. ; fifty sentences of the death and strawberry [Happy IchiRuki Week on Tumblr!]
Notes: This was written using theme set 'delta' from the livejournal community 1sentence. Forgive me for the excessive (and incorrect) use of semicolons and run-on sentences.
Title and lyrics come from Eclipsed by Evans Blue. (Go listen to it right now!)
Warning: Lots of chp 423 crap that I never got around to writing when it actually came out (sorry, not sorry) LOL. Some adult themes, as well.
we love our tragedies
we're both broken in our own little ways
we're broken, but we fit together just right
you know I saw the black inside your eyes
I saw they were eclipsed by mine
and they looked just right
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#01 – Air
"I missed you," he says out loud; and they've never needed to voice these things before (the "you changed my world" was very much implied (at least he thinks so)), but that was before, and this is the aftermath, and though the sounds leave his mouth unbidden, he means every word.
#02 – Apples
He recalls the days of apple-flavoured juice boxes and rooftop lunches that somehow shift into rescue operations and wartime measures, and he wonders when everything stopped being so simple.
#03 – Beginning
For years afterward, many will recount the tale of his daring rescue mission – how he and a small band of comrades stormed Seireitei, left no laws of the Soul Society untouched, thwarted captain after captain, and managed to uncover a brewing conspiracy on the side, but they always seem to forget the fact that she saved him first; (he never does.)
#04 – Bugs
Who would have thought that the great and powerful substitute shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo would scream like a small child at the sight of an eight-legged creature crawling down his homework? (Rukia won't ever let him live it down.)
#05 – Coffee
Ichigo's mind has mostly blocked out the first, and only, time he ever let Rukia have caffeine, and he is glad of it.
#06 – Dark
They're strewn across the bed, clothes discarded and limbs entwined, with Rukia looming over him, in what is (about to be) their first time, smirking – "don't worry, I'll be gentle with you" – and he can't decide whether he's more irritated or aroused.
#07 – Despair
And he's begging her in a whirl of "don't go"s and "hold on"s and "they're on their way"s, but she just gives him that same sad smile with her violet eyes intense as the first time she said goodbye, and it brings back those seventeen months spent without her and he can't do it again, not one more day, and certainly not a lifetime; she asks him, "we'll meet again, right?" as her eyes shut, and she slips away into the night.
#08 – Doors
Her extended stay in the world of the living spanned two months (and if he's being honest with himself, it took an even shorter period for her to worm her way into his heart, though he hardly knew it at the time), but it takes only a single instance, as her foot steps over the threshold of the senkaimon, for humanity to forget her; the world isn't cruel, it just carries on; Ichigo does not.
#09 – Drink
It somehow irks him that he towers a foot and a half over her, as she looks all of twelve years old, but Rukia can still drink him under the table, while he can't even set foot in a bar.
#10 – Duty
Coarse as she is, Rukia has always been a kindhearted soul, but they both know she went above and beyond the call of duty that night their fates first intertwined; and he can never stop repaying her for it.
#11 – Earth
She thinks (hopes) she might find it in Ukitake-taichou's quiet comfort, in Byakuya's empathetic aura, or in all of Gotei 13's pitying shroud, but that missing piece of her is nowhere to be found in the afterlife; rather, it resides in the hands of a human boy worlds away, and she doesn't know if she'll ever get it back.
#12 – End
Staring down hard at the ground of his familiar street, she refuses to look him in the eye because she won't let his last image of her be this fragile, fleeting ghost of a girl, but she suddenly can't stand the thought of not seeing him not seeing her and she twitches her head up with the slightest gasp at that last possible moment, and she can't decide whether she regrets or is grateful for that last shared look between them, for it will haunt her until the end of days.
#13 – Fall
And she wonders if this is their punishment for tampering with the order of the worlds; he's a regular Icarus who had his day in the sun before his wings melted off.
#14 – Fire
As much as she can beckon forth her Kuchiki mannerisms and exude a piercing chill without ever laying a hand on her zanpakuto, Ichigo has always been far more interested in the fiery zeal he sees lurking in her eyes.
#15 – Flexible
In the afterglow, as they lay side by side, still gasping for air, she turns to him with that same lecherous grin – "not bad for a rookie" – and he just groans.
#16 – Flying
Rukia's screaming bloody murder after Ichigo flings her down towards Renji; she's streaming down like a missile locked on target, and she swears to herself that if his fight with Aizen doesn't kill the buffoon, she will make certain he dies by her hand.
#17 – Food
Ichigo swore he'd break off the engagement if she so much as breathed another word about a seaweed ambassador wedding cake topper.
#18 – Foot
Their feet are mere inches apart, but she's half vanished already, and the distance feels like leagues, and he's thrown back to the first time she walked away from him, that day in the rain; "Move one inch from here…and I'll never forgive you," she'd whispered harshly; 'Yea, well, I won't forgive you for this either.'
#19 – Grave
The thought that all these human friends of hers will one day be bodies in the ground never fails to unnerve her.
#20 – Green
It hits him that he's grasping a dead girl in his arms, here in the plush grass under the shade of the trees, even though she exudes a bright warmth that her tiny body can't contain as it pours over him; if this is what death feels like, he thinks it might not be so bad.
#21 – Head
They've always understood actions better than words, death-defying feats and kicks to the head over verbal affirmations, so is it any wonder that a single look can convey everything?
#22 – Hollow
He wants to tell her, "don't leave" and "I don't know how to do this without you" and "this isn't fair" and "I need more time" and "you made the rain stop" and "I love you" and "this isn't goodbye, it can't be," but she's fading fast, and it comes out as "thank you" instead; his eyes tell her all she needs to know, but it still isn't enough.
#23 – Honour
She recalls what Ukitake-taichou once said about fights for life and fights for pride, but she'll be damned if she loses another good man to his stupid sense of honour.
#24 – Hope
Her image is already waning by the time he leans in to kiss her (perfect timing, Ichigo, really); he shuts his eyes tight, willing himself to pour as much affection and passion and sensation into this single action, so much so that she can't possibly vanish from his consciousness; but when he opens his eyes, she is already gone.
#25 – Light
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't slightly embarrassed at how honest to god baffled he was, even just for a moment, at her response ("of course she's going to stay here, idiot. it's her world. why did you ever think otherwise?"), and there's an odd pang in his chest that he can't ignore, but he brushes it off to turn to her with the most sincere smile he can muster; all he'd wanted was to see that light back in her eyes again; as long as she's happy, it'll be okay.
#26 – Lost
Rukia knows the exact instance he stops seeing her – it's not in the way his breath catches silently or how his shoulders slump almost imperceptibly; their eyes never leave each other's, but oh, she knows.
#27 – Metal
If he were a sane man, he would question the merits of having her sword haphazardly thrust through his aching chest for a second time, but then again, insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
#28 – New
She's vanishing right before you, in the street in front of your house, the same place where it all began, and it strikes you as inherently wrong because this was the stage set for a scene with a courageous shinigami who changed your world, but now this is where it ends; and this is how you break.
#29 – Old
"I was alive once, too, you know," he barely hears her whisper.
#30 – Peace
It's different, living in a world with no wars left to fight and no villains left to conquer; his insecurities sneer that their relationship could never work in times of peace, that the rush of battle and sense of impending doom was what brought them together, and without it, they would falter; thankfully, a swift uppercut to the jaw is enough to set him straight.
#31 – Poison
In the span of months, this rash, thoughtless, impudent human boy has upended her sensibilities and turned her entire world on its end; he's like a poison racing through her veins, leaving her dizzy and disoriented, and she can't help but relish in it.
#32 – Pretty
She's not a traditional beauty like Inoue, whose idol status is well-pronounced throughout their school, but there's something about her that's so striking, so breathtaking, that he simply can't tear his eyes away.
#33 – Rain
There's a rainstorm caught in her eyes, and she silently bids their friends to forgive her as she leaves without any parting words, because she's already said the only farewell that matters, and she can't bear to do it again.
#34 – Regret
Renji wonders if she knows she was just as untouchable to him as his captain was; those Kuchikis certainly had a way about them, and after all this time, he's still just a stray howling at the moon.
#35 – Roses
She brings him flowers – two dozen long-stemmed roses – citing some intensive research on "human courting rituals," and he can't help but find her stupidity oddly charming, even if his cheeks are burning as he grudgingly accepts the flourishing bouquet.
#36 – Secret
She wants to tell him, "You cleared up the rain for me, too."
#37 – Snakes
Rukia knows that Matsumoto-fukutaichou still mourns over that serpent of a man and it puzzles, even disturbs, her, but when the older woman extends an invitation for a night on the town, she doesn't hesitate to accept; sake seems to be the solution to both of their troubles.
#38 – Snow
"If you're already dead, how the fuck can you temporarily die when you release your bankai?!" (Rukia thinks the kick to the gut was well-deserved.)
#39 – Solid
His soul resonates so strongly with hers, and their bond is so solid, that sometimes he thinks this cannot possibly be the first time they've found one another in the cycle of time ("You know, if death isn't really the end of everything, then that first time we met, it might not have really been our first time. For all we know, we might of been connected from way before that."), but whether it is the first, the last, or the most recent of many, he finds comfort knowing that that it will always begin and end with Rukia.
#40 – Spring
She never feels closer to her sister than in the spring, when the cherry blossom petals fall and she catches a glimmer of the one Hisana fell in love with – the man she calls "brother".
#41 – Stable
She watches him lie unconscious for a month straight and in the midst of his slumber, she cruelly, selfishly wishes that he would remain in this state of suspended animation forever, if only it would mean that they would not have to say goodbye.
#42 – Strange
He thinks perhaps that she clings to the novelties of the world of the living because she never lived long enough to experience them for herself.
#43 – Summer
Summer was the last time everything was right in his world; it was when Masaki had lived and when she drew her final breaths, and it was the last time he felt whole before a sword through his chest changed everything.
#44 – Taboo
He is of the living, and she of the dead, and it's the most heinous of trespasses, the wrongest of wrongs, but as his warm hand meets the curve of her hip and his lips mesh with her own, she can't help but think that nothing has ever felt quite so right.
#45 – Ugly
They never talk about Inuzuri or Rukia's childhood, but one day, she takes his much larger hand in hers and spirits him away to a shoddy neighborhood in the slums, and Ichigo knows this is her baring everything before him.
#46 – War
In one soul-shattering moment, he realizes that even if they were to die together in this battle, they'd still end up in separate worlds once more.
#47 – Water
She's like the first sip of cool water against the cracked lips of a man wandering the desert; you need to drink her in just to survive, but gods does she scorch your throat on the way down.
#48 – Welcome
In a rare instance of somberness from his nearly insufferable father, the goat chin takes a long drawl from his cigarette before telling him, "Masaki would have loved her" (he doesn't have to ask who).
#49 – Winter
Though her ice-type zanpakuto would suggest otherwise, winter is her least favourite of the seasons; winter meant threadbare clothes and huddling for warmth in front of too small fires and barely surviving until spring; it's really no wonder she's developed such an affinity for sundresses.
#50 – Wood
The clack of her wooden geta across the floor echoes in his ears, and he knows he's home.
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.
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when our hearts meet, will we make it then?
will we even notice that they are eclipsed?
A/N: I love, love, love doing these 50 sentence fics (even though I totally cheat and use more than 50 sentences), and I'm glad I finally got through this one. It's been in the works maybe a year now? Anyway, please review and let me know what you think! Even if it's just to say "I liked/didn't like this" or what your favourite part(s) were, anything at all means the world! Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed. :)
