The Royalty Series

Ichigo would never admit it, not even under torture, but Soul Society would never be his home. The palace with its echoing marble halls and obvious wealth would never have the same comforting feel of his bedroom back in Karakura. It would never have the quiet peace of Urahara's porch or the sense of rightness that opening his own front door had brought him.

He would never be truly comfortable in the huge echoing rooms. They all felt cold and empty to him. And the fawning formality did nothing but grate on him.

It didn't matter though - because Soul Society was Kisuke's home.

He had seen the hastily brushed away tears on the other man's cheeks when the gate had been opened to bring them to Soul Society. He had watched the hesitant steps the blonde had taken, so afraid of being denied entrance once again as he had been so many times before. And he had held his lover's trembling body when he had stumbled after emerging.

Soul Society would never be his home, but it was Urahara's. He would sooner rip out his own soul than take the other man away from it again. Not after he had been denied for so long. He can learn to adapt. He can carve out a little piece of this new place and make it his. It took him awhile to realize, but he can be happy as long as he has Kisuke...because while it isn't home, waking up every morning with the blonde in his arms is something better.

* * *

Home is where the heart is. Someone very wise once said that and Kisuke can't help but reflect that whoever it was must have been brilliant indeed. They had summed up in six little words something it had taken him over a century to learn.

He had thought that being banished would kill him, had thought that being alone and cut off from all he knew would break him. It is one thing to walk away from a home you hated. He had walked away from his life in the Rukongai without a backward glance. But it was different to be forced from a place you loved, a place you thought you belonged. Those first few years he had longed to go home so much, had opened so many gates only to be denied each time - until finally it become too much, too painful to continue and so he had stopped.

He had turned to Karakura and built a life for himself there. He had made friends and even formed a family of sorts. And while it might not have been home – it had been his.

And then, magically, as if all his prayers had been answered - he had forgiven. All his sins forgotten and he could once more go home. He had stepped through the gateway to the place he had thought his home with Ichigo and stood there taking it in. And he had realized it hadn’t mattered. Coming back to Soul Society hadn't been coming home. Coming home had been stepping into Kurosaki Ichigo's arms.