Hi there! I wrote this one some time ago (2011 I think) and it was my first Bleach fic ever. I decided to translate into english recently because I'm super into Bleach these days. I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo, not me.

It was a place as empty as its own name denoted. The false sky, full of breakings as a consequence of dozens of battles happening there, was completely opaque. The inverse moon of Hueco Mundo didn't shine at all, and the brightness of the stars was nonexistent. It seemed like a curtain had been drawn behind the sky and thousands of minuscule light bulbs that didn't light up enough had been switched on. At least it was what Orihime thought when watching the only piece of sky she could see through the window of her prison. And everybody agreed with her.

The rescue mission was at his peak. In that precise moment Ichigo was fighting Grimmjow, trying desperately to get a bit closer to the place where Inoue was imprisoned. He was not the only one, all her friends had come to help her - Ishida, Chad and even her shinigami mates. Every one of them was putting his life at risk, giving his best to defeat Aizen and come back home.

Lying in the cold tiled floor Rukia was staring the same as Inoue at the same time. Looking at the false sky of Las Noches, covered in blood, her wounds open, her gaze lifeless, with no breathing and surrounded by the Caballeros Exequias, she was found by her brother. He managed to get rid of them and took Rukia to a place that seemed not safe but a bit less dangerous. He left Rukia on the dry, sandy floor and called for his lieutenant Abarai Renji to take care of Rukia.

"Of course I will do it, captain" he answered quickly. "Go help captain Zaraki and the others."

Byakuya said nothing else and left. Renji sat on the ground and tried to put Rukia's body the best possible way. She had already recovered her breathing, luckily, but she was still unconscious and her wounds seemed to be pretty serious. He shivered. He hadn't gone to Hueco Mundo to stop Aizen or rescue Orihime. He had gone following the orders of his captain, of course, but also to look after Rukia. He knew what she thought about it – that she was a strong woman, one of the most capable shinigami of the entire Gotei 13, that she needed nobody to watch over her. But that kind of situations made Renji think that she was not so right at all.

After all it had been his task since she left. When they decided to become shinigamis their objective was to protect each other and fight to become stronger and being safe. But then she abandoned him. At first, Renji felt betrayed, but immediately he understood that he had to let her go. Rukia was everything he had and he only wanted the best for her since she was so important. She had found a family –a true family– that would give her the future and the life she could never had if she stayed by his side. He understood their friendship was not valuable enough – It wasn't wothy enough for her to lose that chance. She became a different person, more distant, colder, and more unapproachable. All he could do was watch her in the distance, following the footprints of her steps and making a useless effort to protect her. The rift between them was so huge that Renji thought it would never closed. Rukia belonged to the elite now and he was not enough for her.

And then that ryoka, Kurosaki, appeared. Rukia went to the human world to accomplish the easier mission in the world and at the end she joined her fate with an ordinary human. Well, it's true, Ichigo was not an ordinary human but anyway – was him so important for even Rukia to risk her life to protect him? Renji felt hurt again as he hadn't felt since she left. He had stayed behind, he had sacrificed their friendship for her to improve and now she payed back for that by being ready to die for a human. He himself wernt to the human world to arrest her. He admitted that it hadn't been his best idea but he was angry. He had trained hard day after day to surpass Byakuya and become somebody worthy of her. Rukia had ignored him and however she preferred to die for a human that had stolen her powers and had given her nothing but problems. He tried to explain all this to her in the prison but her only answer was silence. So he went in search of Kurosaki to kill him, although he knew well his purpose was to rescue Rukia – something that deep down he wished to do but it was forbidden to him -or maybe he was not brave enough to confront his captain and the entire Gotei 13. Certainly, Renji underestimated Ichigo since the very first moment – he thought he would never reach his objective. But after his humiliating defeat he had to beg that stupid ryoka for doing what she was not capable of. He felt how that separated him from Rukia even more.

Things had changed a bit after Aizen's trap was uncovered. Rukia was condemned to death no more and they had got some time to talk but never about the past. She had asked if it was true he had faced Byakuya to give Ichigo extra time and stop her own brother to execute the death sentence. Renji simply answered yes and said that he would do it again despite the overwhelming defeat and its consequences while he shivered at the memory of thousands of blades of Senbonzakura Kageyoshi cutting his sking. That was all. After that, Ichigo came back to his world and Rukia was not the same anymore. Even when she didn't show it, Renji knew it.

And then Aizen had claimed the reign of hollow's world and kidnapped Inoue, however, nobody knew why he was interested in that girl with such underdeveloped power. On the other hand, it had worked perfectly as a trap to attract Ichigo. He knew his enemy well and he knew he would run to save whom was important for him without thinking about it.

Rukia moved and trembled slightly as she was cold. She was awaken. Renji noticed and went quick by her side.

"Don't move, Rukia" he said. "You are lucky to be alive, you are severly injured and probably some of your ribs are broken."

Rukia frowned, it was still hard for her to focus properly and all she could discern were blurred, non-defined shapes. At last her view cleared and she could distinguish a pair of brown eyes, some weird tattoos, a red hair, a pair of sunglasses. Renji. For some reason she wanted to escape from the worried look he was giving her in that moment.

"What's that noise?" the girl asked referring to the bangs, crashes and explosions they can hear in the distance.

"Oh, that? Probably Kurosaki fighting against Grimmjow. They have been doing that for a while" Renji replied, without much interest in those matters.

"Ichigo? I have to go immediat-! – she tried to stand up but the pain in her chest was too strong.

"You're not going anywhere, idiot."

Rukia lied down on the sand again focusing on the hard task of breathing. It hurt so she imagined Renji was right and, at least, a pair of her ribs were broken. She kept silent much time while hardly remembering the fight. It hurt almost as much as the wounds. In that precise moment Renji asked:

"What happened in there, Rukia? Your opponent should be very strong to do this to you…"

The shinigami was reluctant to talk about it even when Renji insisted. It had been a torture, a true nightmare, to revive the darkest, most tragic episode of her past. She finally answered:

"He was the ninth Espada, Aaroniero. He had… had a horrible power. He can turned into other people."

Renji didn't understand where Rukia meant so he let her keep talking.

"He changed… He changed into Kaien" said Rukia in a very low voice. "He tricked me. He told me he had been him all this time. He said that when I killed him I really killed the hollow but not him. He said he took the appearance of the Espada in order to survive and gain Aizen's trust. I believed him." Once she began, Rukia found talking easier. "And he attacked me. He said he was upset because I tried to kill him, he was disappointed because I didn't try to fight for saving him. That is the truth even when he was an impostor."

Rukia seemed to be about to cry, while Renji was stunned. It was almost the first time they talked so close in decades and there she was, admitting all her suffering. He didn't know what to think about it.

"He is so long gone, Rukia" Renji said. "It was not him anymore, he stopped being him when the hollow swallowed him. You didn't kill him, the hollow did it. You only protected yourself and all your squad members. You were very brave. And you gave Kaien the peace he couldn't find in other way. He was probably grateful in the end."

"I killed him!" Rukia yelling, with tears in her eyes. "It was me, I killed him, he was…" she couldn't finish the sentence.

Renji didn't need to hear the end of the sentence, damn it. Although they had drifted apart he was not blind nor a fool. He already knew Rukia had fallen in love with her lieutenant since the very first moment. While she swore herself hundreds of times that what she felt about him was nothing else but admiration and respect, he saw obvious and clear love feelings. But all that disappeared abruptly with Kaien's sudden death. Rukia had suffered a lot so she had thrown away these feelings, she considered them a weakness. She never told Renji that but he knew it so well, he could read her like an open book. Meanwhile, they were kept separated because of some ridiculous fate.

"Will Ichigo be alright?" Rukia asked, worried because the noises of the battle didn't cease.

"Probably" Renji replied, a little distracted. "He's giving everything in the fight" he added when he noticed the answer sounded too unconcerned.

Renji felt very bothered when he noted Rukia's expression. There she was, on a knife edge, about to die, filthy, wounded, painful, but she didn't care about anything like that because she could only think about Ichigo. Renji knew very well what was on her mind in that moment. No matter how Rukia had promised herself not to fall in love again after what happened with Kaien, that human had a privileged place in her life. Why would she die for him, if that was not the case? It exasperated Renji. Rukia was a very intelligent and perceptive person but she was blinded by her own feelings and she was not able to notice that Kurosaki would never feel the same way for her. The proof was right over there, a few miles from them – Ichigo was immersed in a fight to the death, inside enemy's territory, to save the woman he really loved. He didn't understand how Rukia didn't realize it.

"He doesn't love you" he pronounced these words unintentionally and when he was conscious of it, he went into a panic.

"What have you said?" Rukia was very sure of what she heard but she hoped it was all a misunderstanding.

"In for a penny, in for a pound", Renji decided. He could ruin no more their disastrous relationship anyway and he only wanted her to see the things for what they really were as soon as possible, in order to not suffer again.

"You get me perfectly, dammit. I know how you feel about Ichigo but he doesn't love you" Renji repeated.

"You have no right to say that" Rukia coldly answered. "You know nothing about me."

"You sure have no right to say that either" Renji argued. "You may have forgotten about me, about us, but I know you better than anybody else, even if you don't like it."

Rukia remained silent. It was true, how could she have forgotten? She had spent her whole childhood by his side. They had fought to change their lives. They became shinigamis. And when it seemed everything was gonna be alright, she left him. Rukia had been thinking Renji hated her for all these years so she decided to forget their friendship. She turned into a serious and reserved person. How much she missed him. But the rift between them became too big to overcome. Even so, nobody could substitute him, never – nor Kaien nor Ichigo. But she couldn't say it.

"Fuck it, Rukia" Renji gripped her shoulders, being careful because of her wounds, and made her to look into his eyes. "You can hate me more than you already do if you want to, but I won't let you fool yourself anymore. Pay attention to these noises. It is Kurosaki, who is fighting against a formidable enemy in a strange world to save Inoue. Inoue, Rukia. He loves her, not you. You only need to look at his face to learn it. It surprises me that you don't want to realize it." Renji was slightly unsettled when he finished his speech.

"Enough. Why are you doing this?" Rukia asked in a soft voice, looking away.

"Because I don't want you to suffer" Renji said, determined. "Although I am a fucking stray dog and don't even deserve to be you friend I care about you and I want to protect you. I haven't lost sight of you for all these years, I've been following you in the shadow of Captain Kuchiki and I've been trying to become stronger because the only thing I wanted is for you to look into my eyes again.

Too many words. Renji was not used to give speeches about his feelings. He was absolutely sure he had just destroyed the last reminders of their friendship with his confession, if they still existed. The rift had turned into an ocean they wouldn'tbe able to get through. But he hadn't said anything false. If only he was able to explain her how important she was, how much he needed her…

Rukia couldn't stand that confession, it was very painful. Of course she knew Ichigo was in love with Orihime, she could be a little naïve but her feelings about him were different. She just felt he had put at risk so much for her that she owed him something more than her life. She had told Renji when in prison – she had caused Ichigo too many problems, she had blown his world in pieces since the very first moment her sword pierced him. And now it seemed he never hated her but he only wanted her to be happy. It was nothing else but jealousy that had confronted Renji and Ichigo. She felt even more selfish and mean.

"How did this happen?" Rukia said suddenly. She was talking for herself but she knew Renji was listening. "I should've never gone with the Kuchiki's. I regretted that decision since the very first moment I saw you, when we just formalized the adoption" Rukia confessed. "Deep down inside I wished you had stopped me and said you would never let me go and asked me to stay with you."

"How could I have done something like that?" Renji was astonished. "At least you found a family that could give you the life you deserved! What kind of friend would I have been if I had tried to stop it? You would have hated me for being so selfish. I could give you nothing. Even today I can't, apart from my own life and everything I've been keeping deep inside of me, damn it!"

"Renji! Are you trying to say what I think you're…?" Rukia felt how her heart skipped a beat, and her breathing got jumpy, whicht made the pain in her chest worse. She couldn't stay calm. There he was, her childhood friend, who she had been so apart from, admitting openly that she was especial beyond his huge pride.

"Do you need more words?" Renji said, then leaned over her and stole a kiss.

It caught Rukia by surprise. She was about to faint again because of the pain, the kiss and the amount of emotions she was feeling at that moment. So she separated with a big effort. The red-haired man glared at her again.

"Renji, I…" Rukia started but she was interrupted.

"I don't want to hear anything, Rukia" Renji said categorically. "I know I've messed everything up but I couldn't stand it much more."

"It's not true you're nothing for me." Rukia spoke loudly and ignore him. "And I don't hate you. I never wanted us to stop being friends because you are much more than that."

It was then time for Renji to be confused. He needed a simple explanation because he refused to believe what was happening. Nothing like this -including their kiss- could have happened, not even in his best dreams.

"But Kurosaki…" he managed to babble.

"Forget Ichigo already. I don't love him" Rukia said.

And despite the danger, the wounds, the war and the false sky of Las Noches Renji thought he couldn't be happier. How many years he had been waiting for that moment, how many times he had imagined it all was a nightmare and that she had never forgotten him. How many nights he had barked at the moon like a stray dog, like a lonely wolf that didn't deserve the brightness of the stars.

"Renji… Am I going to die?" The terrible question asked by Rukia took him back to reality.

Abarai Renji was not a man that feared many things but the weak voice of Rukia scared him, as well as the paleness of her skin and her faltering, stertorous breathing. She was getting worse every minute and he was there alone in the middle of a dead world, far from his friends and incapable to ask for aid.

"Hell, no! Don't you dare say these things" Renji said trying to calm down her. But finally Rukia closed her eyes and Renji could feel the anxiety inside his chest.

Rukia opened her eyes two days after. The first thing she saw was the black, opaque, false sky of Las Noches and its inverse moon that didn't shine at all. Immediately after that she saw a man with his red hair all messed up who was about to faint in relief. Well, Rukia had survived thanks to Captain Unohana's miraculous intervention just in time. One minute more and it would have been too late. Renji thanked the Fourth Squad's Captain's ability and experience.

"Ren-ji?" Rukia's voice was hoarse, she had a sore throat. Her friend had his back towards her in that moment.

"Don't talk too much. You need to recover, it was very close" he said. "And when you do that I'm gonna take you home."

"But we still have a lot to do" replied Rukia painfully. "Aizen hasn't been defeated yet. Ichigo and the others need our help."

"I lost you once, Rukia. Yesterday I was about to lose you again. There won't be a third time" Renji assured.

They remained silent. On one hand, Rukia didn't know what to say to such display of affection; on the other hand she needed to rest. Of course she wouldn't come back home until she accomplished the mission. She needed that idiot she had as a friend to understand it. Well that idiot that had become much more than a mere friend.

"Do you know how many times I've awaken and I've seen your face?" Rukia said suddenly. Renji startled. "Ichigo saved me from being executed but every time I've fallen you where there, out of nowhere, like if you were following every one of my steps. I'm not as strong as I believed, Renji. But I will help my friends no matter what. The question is, are you ready to protect me like you always did? If so, there is no reason for us to be separated anymore."

"Of course I'm gonna protect you. Don't you doubt that" Renji answered. He smirked and leaned to kiss her.

"Good" she said, closing her eyes.

Ichigo was uninjured after his fight against Grimmjow. Well, maybe not uninjured but alive, which was pretty much. They were one step away from saving Orihime and the final battle against Aizen. Completely recovered, Rukia fitted her sand-color cape that waved in the wind. Beside her, Renji observed Las Noches fortress. He gripped Rukia's shoulders, she put one hand over his and the other one on her sword handle.

"Let's go to help our friends" she said, then they get into the desert.

Maybe it is not one of my bests but it's RenRuki all the way and it's good.

I hope you liked it. I would appreciate it a lot if you leave a comment! :)

See ya!~