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‘Like a river flows, surely to the sea, darling, so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life too
For I can’t help falling in love with you’
A cold autumn wind blew through the garden, the leaves on the trees falling en masse every time Mother Earth exhaled a sigh on the scene of a small family, enjoying a small picnic in a private garden.
A strong, tall and quiet black-haired man watched his niece, Ichika, dance to the music playing out of a small, dark grey box. An ‘eye-pod’ that Uncle Ichigo no longer used, which she excitedly told him about as he walked up to the jovial atmosphere Rukia and Renji set. They clapped along to the song, encouraging Ichika to try to sing along with the songs.
He nodded in greeting to his sister and his lieutenant, or, he supposed, his brother-in-law now, and sat on the spread blanket, joining them in the audience of Ichika’s impromptu attempts of singing.
“Last time I went to Uncle Ichigo’s, me and Kazui-kun watched movies that were animated by hand, daddy,” she said as she sat down on Renji’s lap. Byakuya resisted smiling at it. Ichika was the picture definition of ‘Daddy’s Little Girl’.
She continued speaking, while making some motions with her finger on the device, “We watched this one really good one about an alien and a girl and her sister and the girl really liked this guy that um...one second, okay, she liked this singer and Kazui-kun and I were up all night listening to him!” She frowned, quickly swiping her index finger on the glowing screen of the device, “Though the music is in another language so I don’t know what the words mean but it sounds super pretty! The guy on the song’s voice is really deep like Uncle Byakuya’s!”
With that she pointed at her beloved uncle, face flushed and eyes full of love. Byakuya knew, as soon as she was born, he’d die for her. The love in her eyes merely cemented the idea in his mind. He would give her the world, and protect her more intensely than he protected even Hisana’s memory. Renji and Rukia were laughing, sitting oddly apart, but smiling.
“Oh, I found the song!” Ichika loudly proclaimed and pressed hard on the device, the previous song, whatever it was, being interrupted by a new sound. Now, from the small box played a song with a gentle chorus, a lilting guitar, and a deep voice that pushed the very limits of the box.
Byakuya’s heart somehow felt both like it stopped and as if beating faster than it ever had before. He gripped his palms to his knees, and tried to control his thoughts. He was transported to a moment in time, over sixty years previous, to the most in love he had ever felt.
/////////
He had taken Hisana to the living world, as a surprise to her. She had never been, and while he understood the deep importance of her search for her sister he also missed his wife. He wanted to let her forget, but for a moment, the tragedy of her youth. It was their third anniversary and sickness had not yet completely weakened her. He wanted to enjoy a day with his beloved, with the woman he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his long life with.
Her face was flushed as she grabbed his hand in the middle of the restaurant, pulling him to his feet. He panicked, but for a moment, but her smile put him as ease, as it always did. She knew him like no other had ever or has been.
“Everywhere we have been today I keep hearing this song playing, do you hear it? I don’t know, Byakuya-sama, what it is saying but I think the emotion comes through. I feel it in my heart,” she said as she began moving to the rhythm of the song against him.
“And what emotion, beloved, do you feel it is saying?”, he asked, flushing furiously and holding her tightly against him. Dancing was not his forte unless the dance involved a fight to the death. He flushed more when he realized other couples stood from their seats to join the dance.
“The emotion,” she almost sang, pulling him from his anxiety, “is love.”
“Ah”, he whispered as he leaned in and kissed her neck, her neck, and, finally, her soft lips. Time stopped. Anxiety and stress and all those negative emotions ceased to exist. In that moment, he knew that true happiness was real, and that soul mates were real.
/////////
The memory stung like a brand on his heart. After her untimely death, after he allowed himself to feel any emotion related to Hisana, he found out the name of the song. The song that Hisana tried to sing, trying to match syllables and vowels from a completely different language In the end giving up and just humming, eyes closed, holding him tightly. The song that was put on repeat as many around him, previously shy, danced to.
The song that currently rang through Ichika’s box, a decrescendo signalling the end of the song.
“Captain, are you alright?”, Renji asked, worry evident in his face, small wrinkles forming around his eyes and mouth. Byakuya’s heart either began beating again or slowed down from its marathon sprint, he wasn’t sure as he looked at his lieutenant. Brown eyes, gentle like the song and full of feeling, and of something he was afraid to admit he saw there.
“Ah, yes, I apologize. The song is...was a favorite of Hisana. It brought her great joy, even in the last few months of her life,” he responded, doing his goddamn best to hide the true pain erupting through his chest.
“My sister listened to music?” Rukia asked, expression neutral, but curious.
Alas, Ichika had none of Rukia’s poise and had all of Renji’s impulsiveness.
“What! You know who Elvis is? You know this song? I knew you were the best,” she yelled, running up to him, repeating the song on her box.
He looked at Renji and Rukia, closed his eyes and answered, voice heavy with an emotion he thought he had locked away decades previous, “I enjoy the song, as much as Hisana did. It brings me great joy that you enjoy too, Ichika.”