"Rain, rain, go away, come again another day."

Renji clutched Ichigo captains' haori, still ripped and torn and spattered with blood. It was raining today.

Ichigo was always sad when it rained.

"Rain, rain, go away, come again another day."

That was the mantra Renji would sing to him when they were sitting on the couch in Renji's room in the seated officers' barracks. Ichigo would settle in Renji's lap, burying his head in the crook of the tattooed neck.

"Rain, rain, go away, come again another day."

Renji would rock Ichigo back and forth, chanting to him, holding the strawberry tightly in his arms.

It was raining that day, in Heuco Mundo. The day of the Winter War. An anomaly by anyone's account. But that didn't matter. Renji never got to hold Ichigo that day.

"Rain, rain, go away, come again another day."

Renji clutched the robe tighter to him, tears beginning to spill over, sobbing viciously. Ichigo had had to face the three of them alone; and oh, God-

"I'm sorry, Renji. He's dead."

"RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY!"

End