A/N: I guess I'm tired of all the romance so I wanted a friendship fic….sorta.

Disclaimer: hmmm….naaaaaaaah!

Playlist: No Such Thing by John Mayer

First and Foremost

"The war…" she breathed in awe, staring at the dead man before her. "It's over…"

"Rukia!!" Ichigo called, trying to make her snap out of her stupour. He took her shoulders and shook her violently.

"Fool," she nearly laughed at him and in joy at the situation, "Do you know what this means?"

"…No." she smacked him upside the head.

"It means it's over!" she leapt at him and wrapped her skinny arms around his neck, both laughing in glee.

Their moment was interrupted by a firm voice. "Kuchiki Rukia," the authoritative voice of the captain general boomed, "You, Lieutenant Kuchiki of the thirteenth division have killed the traitor Aizen Sousuke, yes?"

She stood up tall, her posture perfect. Ichigo smirked down at her in barely mocking pride. "Yes sir."

He looked down at her warily. "Then by order of the thirteen protection squads of Sereitei I hereby pull you from your duties as the liaison officer in Karakura and proudly offer you the position of captain of the fifth divison," he chuckled under his breath. "as a formality I will give you 48 hours to decide before announcing your inauguration officially, though I have an inkling to what your answer will be." He then left the pair alone.

An awkward silence fell upon them.

It was Ichigo who broke the silent, "Dammit midget, and I thought I'd get that position before you did."

She kicked him in the shins, "Asshole! Don't presume things like that!!"

"You bitch! It was just a joke." He whined as she beat on him, forcing him to resort to restraining her. She bit his arm and he shook it, trying to unlatch her teeth from his arm why simultaneously screaming in pain, "Man, you're fucking crazy!"

"Rukia, such behavior is not befitting of neither a Kuchiki nor a Captain." Immediately Rukia freed Ichigo's flesh from her cast iron grip, bowed to her brother and stood tall and proud. Well as proudly as one could while wearing tattered clothing, covered in bloodstains with her hair rumpled, and in disarray, wearing a large grin on her face.

Byakuya found he'd never seen his sister look more dignified nor filled with pride.

And he found himself overcome with guilt. Because he knew; more than Ukitake, more than Kurosaki and more than Rukia herself, exactly what he had done to his baby sister. He had taken the strongest, and least delicate of blooming flowers and shielded it from the sun, hiding the blossom in shadows and it was only when she struck out and left the place he had confined her to did she manage to grow.

Byakuya had held Rukia back, he knew this even if she didn't, he had kept her from being as strong as she could have been. And he regretted that when the time came for this growth to occur he hadn't been there; he had missed it. And instead the young substitute was the one who'd seen.

So as she looked up at him for approval, begging him to for once not keep her from a position that she so rightfully deserved, she begged with her cyan eyes so similar to Hisana's, to not protect her physical being, but to help her protect her dreams.

The noble had made his choice.

He laid a pale hand on her shoulder, the warmth of his sisters flesh heating it's own cold clamminess. With his other hand he reached up and pulled the white Kenseikan from his hair, slid his hand from her shoulder to grasp her hand and pressed the noble hair piece into her hands.

They didn't speak and yet a million words were exchanged. They forgot about Ichigo's presence, they forgot about Aizen's corpse, they ignored Renji who had just arrived on the scene and a life time of apologies were swapped.

"I must take my leave," Byakuya told her, after pulling away from the minimal but most human contact he'd had in many years. And then he was gone and Ichigo was asking Rukia what the hell had just happened.

X x X

The sounds of celebration fell upon no deaf ears. Every man, woman and those of questionable gender were hooting, hollering and getting drunk, if not off alcohol then off the shear atmosphere of joy that surrounded the Sereitei.

Two friends had broken away from the celebration to talk amongst themselves, to plan, to wonder on what would happen to them from there on out.

"You're going to accept the position aren't you?" Ichigo murmured softly, falling back onto the grassy hill.

"What else did you expect me to do?" she chuckled dryly.

"Dunno, I guess I always expected you to come home with us after it was all over, stay, y'know? I would've thought you'd be the one to keep helping me."

She sighed and dragged her gaze from his disappointed face and shifted it towards the night sky. "That life wasn't meant for me Ichigo, how could I have possibly handled watching all of you grow and move on with your lives while I stayed perfectly the same?" she shook her head, "No, that would have been the darkest form of torture; watching all you love move on while you are still the same as you've always been."

"If I asked you to stay, would you?" he finally met her piercing cobalt eyes, "The position will still be waiting for you in a couple years if you wait-"

"You know I won't Ichigo."

"You are my nakama, a precious person, an important friend. Never forget that. It's why I want you there, where I can protect you, even if you don't need it." He laughed darkly, knowing he was loosing his battle. "It'd drive me crazy never knowing what the hell's happening with you."

"You know I love you like that too, but as my nakama could you handle being the one to hold me back from my dreams? Even if it's only for a little while."

So the two friends stood and hugged and all was right with the world because they understood. They were a part of each other's family, even if it was an unconventional use of the word.

That night the best friends you could ever have seen parted ways with the promise of meeting again and maybe letting their friendship grow to more.

One day.

A/N: Because of the million times I've read about Ichigo doing it, I thought Rukia deserved to kill Aizen at least once.

Fight the oppression of male egotism girls!

-Siers