Nonsensical little drabble written purely for my own pleasure.
by any other name
"Abarai Ichika."
The name tastes familiar but sour as she smiles and introduces herself to another one of her new classmates. The boy reacts only for a moment, a slight twitch of facial muscles as he recognizes her and all the implications that name brings along with her, but he is clearly from a good family because he says nothing and smiles a bland smile and shakes her hand like she was any old girl at the academy.
She used to make the mistake of asking her mother why she had a different last name than her. Why her dad had a different last name than her. Why there was Abarai Renji and Ichika and then Kuchiki Rukia.
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Kuchiki Rukia. Kuchiki Taicho. Kuchiki-sama. Rukia. Midget. Her mother goes by many names. (She wears a different face for each one.) None of them imply any relation to her or her father.
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It used to bother her. When she first started at the academy and rumors would swirl and collide like waves as she walked down the halls, pricking at her skin over and over until finally she would bleed.
"I heard her mother used to live in a human's room! And Abarai Fukutaicho still married her…" "They don't even have the same last name..is she actually Kuchiki Rukia's daughter?"
Her skin is now iron.
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Her mother is cold and beautiful just like the sword she wields and the element it embodies and when she watches her smirk with Kazui's dad when she thinks no one's paying attention she understands the ice queen only melts for one person.
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They share a normal mother-daughter relationship. She tucked her in at night until Ichika deemed it unnecessary, read her stories and played with her and taught her how to harness the ever growing energy inside of her and punished her when she broke the rules. But there is something detached in her eyes and her smile always has an edge and as she gets older Ichika understands that love does not always imply choice. The more she learns about her mother, the woman with all the names and faces, the more she understands she has spent her life making the best out of less than ideal situations.
Ichika is the product of one of them.
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She remembers very vividly one late night her father coming by and waking her mother up when she'd fallen asleep at her desk doing paperwork with Ichika in her lap, offering to help her finish the work in the morning, take Ichika away to bed, get her a cup of tea, something, anything. And her mother had blandly replied "oh thank you but really Renji I'm fine, I don't need any of that."
Correction:
I don't need you.
(It took her so long to realize-
it was never about her.)
They are seperated by far more than last names.
My more angsty head cannon always has Rukia and Ichika's relationship being strained mostly because Rukia gets frustrated being married to someone she doesn't love and Ichika perceives it was being about her. Also head cannon includes Rukia having a hard time with motherhood so that doesn't help either.