Warning: First Bleach fic posted. Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Wish it were so, alas 'tis not.


Rukia wanted to be winter. At times she yearned to escape and freeze her heart, coat it in an icy shield for protection.

She knew the approval she desperately sought from the Kuchiki family would come if she were (white pride) like Byakuya: cold, distant, unreachable, untouchable, hanging far above the seething, roiling, dirty mass of emotion that was lesser beings as the moon hangs over the messy earth

She is not. Rukia wishes she were snow and ice, that she were more like Byakuya, but she's not and she can't be. Rukia loves her life too much, loves the world and everything in it too much to let it go. She is pepper and spice and not so very nice, and she is cool but not cold, a handful of snow easily melted by the heat of one body.

But there are times when her skin will feel as cold to the touch as ice and Ichigo is afraid she has finally frozen solid, become another Kuchiki ice sculpture.

It happens most often after she fights, wielding her zanpakutou with cold precision to protect, defend, attack, survive. Sode no Shirayuki is a weapon, slim, pretty, and white as bone, whipping through the air like a freezing wind, a lethal ribbon.

Compared to her Ichigo is summer, hot, burning passion (black passion). He is full of color and vigor, unable to prevent the sharing of his warmth any more than the sun. He is determined to thaw out Rukia's icy shield, warm her skin with his own until both their bodies are flush with the same heat of desire.

She'll flow over him like smooth, cool silk and he'll warm her from the inside out, fill her with heat so intense she'll melt in his arms and forget she ever wanted to be winter.

He'll do it, but it takes time. Rukia is stubborn and proud, so much so that each fiery kiss he gives her, each warm embrace or burning touch thaws only a drop at a time.

It will take a very long time, but Ichigo is patient, with plenty of heat to share. He will never give up, for nothing quenches a hot fire faster than ice cold water; icy, distant eyes, an impenetrable frozen wall…Ichigo wonders who would be more lonely, the one hiding inside or the one waiting outside?

But someday, when he succeeds, Rukia will thank him for it.

Maybe.


And there it is, folks. Let me know if I succeeded in creating the mood I was going for: sensual yet thoughtful.