Epilogue

The sound would have gone unnoticed by most, but to his ears it resonated with the same hair-raising intensity that only nails against a chalkboard could elicit. His head bobbed up and his gaze immediately shot over to the closet set into the wall opposite him.

Lifting his head, he could discern that the door was ajar. A sliver of shade where it was not supposed to be grabbed his attention. His next reaction was to search the area for the presence of another.

Closing his eyes, he exhaled a soft, "Rukia."

On cue the door slid back, revealing his sister. Her head hung low, her eyes glued to the tatami mat, and clenched against her chest was the handful of letters she had managed to rescue before making her escape into the closet.

"Honorable brother," she answered, trying her best to look appropriately reverent and shamed, "I -" she began but was quickly interrupted.

"You may go," he murmured, waving his hand in the direction of the door. Anger or reckless emotion was not going to solve anything. No rules had been broken, and the damage had been done. Being cross with her was not going to amend the past.

Rukia jerkily raised her head. Her expression was a mixture of hesitance and relief. Nervously, she looked up from the tatami to find her brother sitting with his head bent and his eyes lowered.

Gone was the desolate and somber man that possessed his shell moments before. The ever inscrutable, aloof Kuchiki head had returned. True to his nature, he sat stubbornly refusing to give Rukia the slightest acknowledgment.

He knew she was staring at him; he could feel his skin heat under her gaze. He knew she was watching him with that wide-eyed imploring look – the same look his wife had wielded so convincingly years before.

He would have obliged the latter, but for the former he could not muster the energy to spare her a fleeting glance. He just could not see that face.

He heard the unmistakable rustle of a woman fumbling to pull herself up. Then, there was the tension that followed – words that could not be spoken on Rukia's part lingered deep inside her chest.

"Y-y-yes," was the only coherent noise she could force from her throat. Gracelessly, she straightened her posture. She had one good step under her before she suddenly realized that clutched against her chest were the missives. Panic washed over her, and she nervously scanned the room, hoping she would find a solution to her predicament.

'What to do with these? How embarrassing!' Shaking, she teetered back and forth between placing them on the desk or just taking them.

Her inner struggle was quickly becoming apparent to the room's other occupant.

"Put the letters on the floor," he said in a flat tenor.

Before he had the words out good, Rukia was already setting the epistles down. "Forgive me," she said, hastily offering him a bow. Feeling the tension in the room increase exponentially with each passing moment, Rukia turned on her heel and quickly scuttled out of the room.

Byakuya paid her no heed as she stumbled through her exit. Instead, he kept his gaze to the bookshelves, and waited for the "clack" of wood hitting wood. When the door finally shut in her wake, he dipped his head and placed the palm of his hand against his face. Tiredly, he rubbed his eyes, making sure to squeeze the bridge of his nose before placing his hand back down on the desk.

He sighed – deeply – and turned his attention to the parchment piled in the middle of the floor. A lugubrious smile curved a corner of his mouth as he eyed the letters. He knew what they were, and before he lost his resolve he stood and crossed the room. Deftly, he plucked the missives from the floor and carried them back to his desk.

"Hisana," he murmured under his breath.

Once seated, he set all but one of the letters down, and unfolded the one he spared. His somber grin widened when he saw the familiar strokes of his own calligraphy sprawling across the parchment. He indulged himself and read the note in its entirety.

"She was right. I was terrible," he mused mordantly to himself.

Fond, sweet memories filled his head as glanced away from the paper. He was not sure if it was unconscious curiosity or plain happenstance that his gaze, then, fell to the book situated on his desk. It was the very same book he had retrieved from the center of the floor when he first entered the room.

"She must have kept the letters in the pages," he thought to himself. Impulsively, he reached for the tome. His fingers coiled around the coarse and cracked leather binding; single-handedly, he drew the book closer, and dusting off the cover he inspected the title. Gold, flaking letters spelled out: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro: A Collection of Poetry and Interpretations.

He smiled. "Hisana…"

Quietly, he thumbed through the pages, stopping at the poem, "When She was Still Alive".

AN:

Wow, I can't believe I am finally done. I can't believe it took this long to finish! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who stayed with the story this long. It means a lot to me! So, how did I do with the 30 Kisses challenge? Well, I think I managed to get a kiss in every chapter (minus the prologue and epilogue, of course). Just in case anyone is interested in how the chapters (in my mind) correspond with the prompts, here is the breakdown:

01 Look Over Here = Chapter 1 Look Over Here; 02 News; Letter = Chapter 2 Haiku; 03 Jolt! = Chapter 3 Thunderstruck; 04 Our Distance and that Person = Chapter 5 Where Sky Meets Ground; 05 Hey, You Know = Chapter 6 Dream Snare; 06 The Space between Dream and Reality = Chapter 4 Transcendence; 07 Superstar = Chapter 16 Ambushed!; 08 Our Own World = Chapter 8 Inner World; 09 Dash = Chapter 22 Stranger Searching Part I & II; 10 #10 = Chapter 28 The Full Number; 11 Gardenia = Chapter 20 Smoke and Mirrors; 12 In a Good Mood = Chapter 9 Poetry in Motion; 13 Excessive Chain = Chapter 26 The Chain of Fate; 14 Radio Cassette Player = Chapter 27 The Little Things; 15 Perfect Blue = Chapter 12 Halcyon Days; 16 Invincible, Unrivaled = Chapter 7 Fragility; 17 kHz = Chapter 25 Frequency;18 Say Ahh = Chapter 13 Perscription; 19 Red = Chapter 19 Red, Red, Red; 20 The Road Home Chapter 15 Over the Pond; 21 Violence = Chapter 10 Somnanbulated; 22 Cradle = Chapter 31 Only in Dreams; 23 Candy = Chapter 11 Trifle; 24 Good Night = Chapter 24 Lonely Souls; 25 Fence = Chapter 14 A Barrier; 26 If Only I Could Make you Mine = Chapter 29 If Only...; 27 Overflow = Chapter 18 Words Better Left Unsaid; 28 Wada Calcium CD3 = Chapter 30 Selfish Moments; 29 The Sound of Waves = Chapter 21 It Comes and Goes in Waves; 30 Kiss =Chapter 17 Stealth?