Forever and Always

Chapter 1 - Lost in thought

As Ichigo gazed out across the moonlit sky, he couldn't help but remember a similar day, three years back. It was the night he had seen his very first hollow, the night he'd met Rukia. He sighed heavily and turned back towards his room. Who would have thought that within three years so much could change? But no matter what anyone else might think, the past two had definitely been the most painful.

Two whole years without his powers, two whole years in which he'd witnessed his friends do the job he had done, his sisters grow in terms of spiritual pressure and the world just passing him by. Annoyingly, the one thing which had stayed the same was the idiot whom he had to call his father. The one thing which he might not have minded changing had stayed the same throughout all these years.

He sighed again. He's started university a couple of weeks ago and at the moment his room mate, Arashi, was out partying again. Arashi stayed true to his name and was a constant storm. A storm which left a tonne of chaos in his wake as could be seen by the mess he'd left behind. Great, now he'd have to clean up everything because otherwise he'd have to listen non-stop to the various wise cracks Arashi would give about how work had to be shared when you have a room mate. Ichigo snorted. Yeah right, more like leaving all the work to your room mate in Arashi's case.

As he got back to work he wondered what Rukia would be doing right now.

At that very moment, Rukia had little time to actually be thinking about much. As she dodged another wave of Senbonsakura's blades she felt the sweat dripping down her back. When Byakuya had finally agreed to help her train her combat skills, she had been as surprised as she had been happy. Since the winter war three years back, not much had occured in the soul society that had required anybody's combat skills. To be honest, most of the soul reapers missed the time leading up to the winter war since it had actually given them something to do. Now it was just back to good old patrol work as well as the usual paper work.

Surprisingly a lot more people missed the people from the world of the living than she had initially thought. Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, Uryu and all the others from Karakura were sorely missed by those who knew them. But all of them were forbidden to go back to the world of the living unless the need should arise to do so. And until now, that need had not arisen.

"Rukia, I believe it would be in our best interests if we stopped for today. You seem very distracted today."

A slight blush crept up her features as she noticed that she had been lost in thought again. Turning quickly to her brother she though she could see a slightly amused look in his eyes before blinking and it being gone.

"Thank you for your kind patience with me brother. I am truly sorry that I am so unfocused today." Rukia responded quietly, bowing her head slightly in respect for her brother, and most probably in shame too for being caught daydreaming again.

"I will see you again later then." And with that her brother took off across the grounds in flash step.

Sighing, Rukia put away Sode no Shirayuki, her thoughts once again wandering to the inhabitants of Karakura. In her present state of mind she even missed Kon, that perverted lion. At that thought she chuckled but quickly caught herself again, making sure that no one else was around. She had been working incredibly hard at keeping her longing to go back to Karakura hidden but around this time of the year she couldn't help herself, it was too close to the time when she'd met Ichigo for the first time. As she looked at the setting sun she sneezed. Hm, maybe he hadn't forgotten them and was thinking about her.

A/N: This is the first time that I've attempted this sort of thing. I hope that it went well. =)

I also want to mention that any romance between two characters normally takes quite a while to develop so don't expect anything too fast between any two people to happen since I like to take my time with the development of the relationships between the various characters. Just sayin' ;)