A/N: This was originally meant to be a nightmare!fic where Ichigo has nightmares about the war before losing his powers and Rukia is there and yAY fluff but somewhere along the way it kind of turned into…well, this. I love writing Ichigo getting protective and flipping his shit when Rukia's injured, and vice-versa, except you hardly ever see that. Rukia's too cool to flip her shit – unless it's the Diamond Dust Rebellion. She looks ready to cry when Ichigo gets trapped in the ice and then she just starts attacking everyone.

Just, ugh. Protective!Ichigo and Protective!Rukia, Injured!Ichigo and Injured!Rukia. Expect more of it later.

Anyway, enjoy. Feedback is also always appreciated!

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, but I wish I did.

once

It always starts out the same.

He saves Rukia, first. Swoops down from the tallest tower to rescue the falling queen, never mind the princess that's still waiting patiently at the top. Let the knight in blue and white help her, anyway, his Hollow sneers – the dragon is dead, and you are the king, so go save your queen.

He saves her from the other snarling, raging beast, no problem. All according to plan, to the outline, to the story. He's seen this part before, and will do again. He fends Yammy off decently enough until he hesitates, is subsequently overpowered. Byakuya and Kenpachi swoop in and save the day and that's okay too, it's all according to plan, the script is flowing nicely.

He knows what happens next.

Mayuri comes, talks about dissections and experiments, and so does Captain Unohana, something dark and predatory in her normally gentle eyes. Like something craving blood – and he notices, yes, notices that hint of bloodlust, but brushes it off because really, it's Unohana-san and sure she's intimidating but she's not a real fighter, but oh she is, she is, she really is, but it will be a long time before he figures that part out.

The Garganta opens and the bloodlusting doctor wants to come along, and so does the queen straggling back to her king.

She walks right past her brother, not even sparing him a sideways glance and that must sting, to know that you're not the most important man in her life, not anymore, no, now she's got an orange-haired part-human she can't take her eyes off of. She limps up to him, bloody and resolute and there's thunder in her eyes, there. He's seen that look. How many times has he been on the recieving end of that look? It's the look that tells him she's going to do what she wants, never mind what he says.

This is the part where the scene changes.

This is the part he can never change back.

He is supposed to reassure her, tell her he'll be back soon. Back for the princess and the knight, back for her, his queen, his queen, though he'll never say it aloud.

He says nothing, here. Instead, she opens her mouth and tells him: "I'm coming with you." In this change of script, she is a conquerer, and she will stay beside him and take back whatever he loses to Aizen, take it back with snow and sword and the thought properly terrifies him, the thought of his queen and the villain duking it out.

But she is resolute, and she'd go whether he said no or not. There is so much in her eyes, so much more than he knows what to do with. Byakuya could perform the strongest binding kido he knows and threaten her within an inch of her life, and she'd probably still go.

So go she does.

There is a growing sense of worry gnawing in the pit of his stomach by now, the growing sense of not right not right not right, and it only gets stronger when he sees patches of blue sky on the other side of the long corridor.

It's all blurry after that – blood and promises and the shinigami dropping like flies and the sky, such a lovely, burning sky. Such a beautiful place to die.

She nearly does, come to think. Aizen ducks for him, too fast to see, yet another deviation in the script. He doesn't see it, rubbed raw by Old Man Yamamoto, broken and lifeless and missing an arm in a crater some miles away.

He doesn't see it coming.

(she does)

Little feet move, past him, skid to a halt before him.

The queen always protects the king.

It's an old saying, really. Something about chess, maybe. But his Hollow murmurs it now, something that sounds almost like pain searing through his warped voice, mixing in with all the rage and the disbelief Ichigo feels.

It is the first time he has ever gotten the feeling his Hollow is shaken, and it nearly floors him.

Rukia is falling.

It's the only thing that registers past his shock. For a moment, she'd been in front of him, his name ripped from her throat, arms spread out before her. Sode no Shirayuki hangs at her waist – not enough time, he thinks. Not fast enough. Not fast enough to get her zanpakuto unsheathed, to properly parry the blow.

She'd used her body instead.

Such a quick thinker, his precious, darling girl.

Her name spills out of his mouth, trembling and terrible, soaked in her blood.

Her eyes are dull, gray and lifeless as she stares into him, as the blood gushes and squirts from her chest, her mouth. Her lips curve up into a horrific parody of the smirk he loves so much.

I did it.

Her relief is palpable, in the millisecond their eyes meet, but then the moment fades and she falls.

I did it.

darling boy, did you see me?

He grabs her before she hits the ground. Something inside of him breaks.

tell me, have you ever met someone you can't live without?

The queen always protects the king.

I have.

He couldn't have stopped the Hollow inside if he'd wanted to, honest.

Tensa Zangetsu is called upon, in the fragile moments caught in the Torn World.

He achieves the final Getsuga Tensho, trades his reiatsu for brute strength.

The Hollow helps, a bit.

It's a bit hard, handing that control over. But his Hollow is willing to be the horse, just this once, without complaint, and Tensa Zangetsu doesn't seem to mind when he takes control. The spirit sitting in his mind's eye looks different, anyway. More concerned than he lets on. His mind is away.

Ichigo's mind flashes back to a white sword, the ghost of a woman residing inside. He thinks of sword beasts and a demure lady with white hair and twinkling ice-blue eyes. He thinks of shimmering laughs and old man Zangetsu, materialized during one of those rare, peaceful visits to Soul Society after Muramasa.

Dark eyes on white silk, fire and ice, night and day, red and blue, yin and yang.

He's heard it before. Will do again.

How even their zanpakutos balanced each other out.

The Hollow inside him roars. Tensa Zangetsu gives him everything.

Come the end, he doesn't even need the Final Getsuga Tensho. Come the end, it is him and Aizen and a specialty kidō courtesy of Kisuke.

Come the end, there is the silhouette of a queen, returning from the war.

He doesn't lose his powers, in this version.

She calls him an idiot and they don't kiss, because it's not that kind of fairytale. Instead she hits him and he calls her a shrimp, and they don't need any skirt-twirling or hand-holding or carriage rides into the sunset.

They get it.

All of them – they get it. Even the princess begins to understand, a bit.

There's not a happy ending here. There are moments, sure, scattered between the pages, but there is no happily ever after because this story doesn't have an ending.

Their story never really ends.