Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

Prologue

They were always in love. Growing up together she loved him while forcing him to eat sand. During high school he asked her to the dance and she still loved him after he arrived late. In college he would sneak in to the girl's dorm after hours, sharing his secrets with her. She would wait for him after his anatomy class and together they would walk to the local coffee shop where Ichigo always ordered her favorite. At the graduation party her family threw he silently propose to her in the hallway. She waited for him to finish medical school and he waited for her brother to give his blessing. After their third anniversary Ichigo and Rukia bought their first home. An old antique home that took them a year to restore into a dream home. When Ichigo saw the large oak tree in the backyard he knew that Rukia would love it. The tree was large enough to shade more than half the backyard. He even built a bench underneath it and made plans to build a tree house for his future children. Sadly, no child ever graced the backyard or the house. During the time in that house their love had evaporated leaving behind nothing but bitterness.

Rukia was raised to believe that divorce was a sin. Marriage was to last forever during both wonderful and terrible times. Every second he was in her presence, she wanted nothing more than to tell him to stop the divorce. Not because she still loved him but because it would shame her family name.

Ichigo was raised to believe that nothing was more important than love. When his father first told him this he found it clichéd and idiotic. When he finally realized the importance of love it was too late. She left him alone in their large house. It took him several days to discover that she was staying with her brother and that she did not wish to return. He did not object when he was asked to sign the separation papers although his heart screamed for him to.

Couples therapy did not work. She threw her cell phone at the incompetent therapist and he broke the coffee table. Rukia was served with the divorce papers the next day. She spent the day locked in her room flipping through the photo albums she had neglected for years.

Ichigo gave her the house, Rukia gave him the expensive sports car. The only thing she would not give up were the old records they had found in a thrift store during their honeymoon. Ichigo could not comprehend why she would want to keep them. Not once has she on her own initiative did she play a record. Ichigo usually listen to them in his office after dinner. Frank Sinatra's voice would wander down the stairway into the bedroom that they rarely shared. Rukia would wait for the records to stop and when they did, she would wait for him to return to bed but he never did and she never asked him to.

Their marriage as well as their love was finished.