This was based on a prompt from Eien. I decided to use it as a first chapter for a multichapter fic featuring my favorite Rukia pairing! This is my ship. Ashido was done a dirty in canon and I refuse to let that stand.

That being said, I plan to make this fic pretty much episodic. Shorter, more contained chapters.

Although the focus is on reintegration and all that comes with it... this is going to be a slightly more lighthearted take on the theme than what I have written/plan to write in other fics.

Ashido's age: I had to make a guess here, folks. He said "centuries" in the anime, and given that shinigami do seem to age... I decided that since Ashido hasn't visibly aged, it's somewhere between 2 and 3. Also for plot reasons. So in this fic, he's been in the forest for a little over 200 years.

Sorry for the long notes, and I hope you enjoy!

Prompt: "You came back."

Hope is a poison.

Ashido had known that for a long, long time. It had sat in his soul for years, while he waited in the emptiness of Hueco Mundo for rescue that was not coming - never was. Corroding, eating away inside and filling up the vacant space in the wake of its meal. It drove him to create graves for people that had left no bodies behind. So that he would not forget them, an eternal reminder that someday he would bring their spirits home.

But time pressed in on him, and every day it became just a little harder to take up his zanpakuto. A little harder to fight. Harder to face the blank graves.

The day he stopped believing that someone was coming to find his vanished team was the day hope died in him.

And that was when he truly understood Hollows for the first time. How it felt to be left with a huge, gaping nothing inside. What it was like when no one came to save you from your agony. He was on his own, with nothing but the graves and Hollows for company.

A few more years passed, and even that pain had faded; the wound in his soul scarring over. New scars crisscrossing his heart; flesh that did not feel pain, or cold, or warmth.

It no longer hurt to talk to his friends.

Still, he kept going. Ashido didn't want to die. Not yet. He wanted his friends to be proud of him when he finally rejoined them. Duty and his sword were all he had left. That, and the knowledge that he could still do some good in this hollow, empty world.

But then, he'd met another shinigami for the first time in his centuries of isolation.

Rukia… Kuchiki.

Ashido remembered the Kuchiki's being a powerful noble clan back in the Seireitei. But that meant little in the Menos Forest. So he'd tested her. Burden or comrade? He had to know which she would be. It was better for the both of them that way.

Rukia, though… she was strong. Even after seeing the horror of the Forest, she had not wavered in her conviction to find her friend, to venture into a place of monsters he had taken care to avoid all this time. Las Noches was a nest of adjuchas, and their vasto lorde King of Hueco Mundo held power far beyond that of any captain in the seireitei. The shinigami had long believed the vasto lordes to be a superior class of menos, but they had no true understanding of what this one was capable of. Yet Rukia still wanted to go, to save her friend.

She'd greeted his friends with him.

How long had it been since he'd last visited them, before she came? How long had they waited for someone to come rescue them?

Too long. Far, far too long.

And she had told it to him straight, when he'd asked about the level of Hollows in the Living World. He'd appreciated that, despite her reluctance to talk about whatever tragedy had befallen the shinigamis. Ashido wondered, too, about the circumstances that had led to someone being captured and held at Las Noches. In his memories, the vasto lorde that ruled there did not care to take hostages. Even if he did, the chances of Rukia's friend surviving long were... minimal.

Her dedication to her friends evoked his admiration, and respect.

It had been slow, and insidious, this poison she had afflicted him with once more.

The hope of seeing his home again, the chance to finally let his friends' families know how they'd spent their final moments. He'd given up on that… until her.

And now here he was, again. Alone in a forest of death. With only the Hollows and the silent graves for company.

Strangely, there was no resentment in him for the brief hope she'd given him. No, instead he was… happy. Happy that he made a difference at last, after centuries of effort.

He hoped she found her friend. That she wouldn't be too late, as he had been for his.

For now, his plan was to search for another way out of this place. Where Rukia and her friends had fallen through was a good place to start as any.

If all else failed, he could always take a chance and leap through a garganta again. A faint smile spread across his lips at the thought. Exciting way to return… he was sure to cause a fuss.

He would save that as a last recourse, though.

Exhaustion crawled through him, slowing his blade. Ashido hadn't quite rested enough after he'd taken down the Hollows chasing Rukia's group. It was time to think about retreating, but there were still so many Hollows close to his hideout. Something was definitely changing on the surface, and now the Hollows in the Menos Forest were frenzied.

He hoped that Rukia was still alive.

Suddenly, the movements of the Hollows changed once more. They became listless, confused.

Then he heard it - explosions from above! Like the Hollows, he turned to face the source, watching as sand burst downward from the desert's ceiling. The petrified trees creaked and groaned, and Ashido found himself running as they crumbled and fell.

Hollows screamed - those that were not swift enough were buried by the raining crystalline wood.

Just as abruptly as it had begun, it ended - the screams of the escaping Hollows cutting off in the middle.

The temperature plunged, and Ashido's breath came out in white clouds.

He knew this reiatsu. He knew it.

This was more than he had even dared to hope for. So much more.

She stood in front of him. Covered in small scrapes and dried blood, her clothes tattered from battle.

"You came back."

His voice was hoarse, and the words seemed inadequate for the emotions bursting inside of him, where once was numb emptiness. She shouldn't have given him a second thought once was she was out of this place. Her job had been to focus on her friend. Not on returning for him. He was used to being on his own.

Her smile was like the sun he hadn't seen in these many long years. Bright, rare, and beautiful.

"Ashido. Let's go home."