Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, or anything related to Bleach. 'Cept volume 4 of the manga.
Reflections
By Hikari Konoshiro
He didn't know why he'd done it. He couldn't have answered even if you asked. All he knew, was this was all her fault. If she hadn't been so amazed by it when they'd spotted it in the store, he probably wouldn't have gone ahead and bought the bloody thing. It was so stupid. He hadn't been near one since the day his mother died…
He placed his hand in the wooden structure of the piano. He thought he had gotten this instrument of destruction out of his life forever. After his mother's funeral, in which he played at, he vowed to never play again. No more.
He smirked to himself. How long had it been now? How long had it been since he had remembered that vow? If it had been six years since she passed away, it must've been about six years since he made that vow. And now, he was betraying that vow. For her.
Thinking about it now, he recalled the days when he would sit with his mother, after his piano lessons, playing with her and listening to her sing along. In those days, he used to complain about it since he said playing the piano wasn't very manly, but thinking back and reflecting on those days, those were the times he truly loved.
He sat down on the piano stool. He wondered to himself why she had been so amazed by it. There was nothing interesting about it. It was just a huge chunk of wood that emitted sound when you hit a key. Admittedly, it was rather amazing when someone who was very experienced played it, but otherwise there was nothing amazing about it at all.
Actually, he wasn't breaking his vow by just buying the piano, as his vow was to never play again. But he found his hands reaching out to push back the wood covering the keyboard, and he couldn't hold himself back from pressing a single note.
DUN! The note rang out into the air. He took his finger off the middle C and the note slowly echoed in the air. He pressed a second note, a little higher up the keyboard this time. Note after note he pressed, until he found himself playing some sort of tune. Oddly enough, it was the same tune his mother used to play to him. He closed his eyes and began to sing, and it felt to him as if he were singing along with her. He was not afraid to play and sing along. As he was too wrapped up in playing, he didn't notice Rukia creek open the door and wait in the doorway listening to his beautiful melody.
"The stars hand high up in the sky,
Emitting a small glow to I.
And I, as I wait in wonder it glows,
This smile on my face begins to grow.
For here, twinkling on, one long star from me,
Flows brighter and brighter for all to see.
Filling all with delight and increasing warmth,
My twinkling star, this gentle dawn.". Slowly, the piece began to fade out and he placed his finger n the final note. That note echoed through the air. There was silence. His eyes stayed closed, enjoying the final note of the piece.
Slowly, clapping ensued. He opened his eyes wide in surprised and spun around on the stool, searching for the source of the applause. Rukia stood in the doorway clapping, a big smile on her face.
"That was amazing Ichigo! Could you teach me to play like that?" she asked. It took a moment for her compliment to completely sink in. Once he had got it all through his head, he nodded and scooted over on the stool. Rukia sat down beside him, and he placed his hands over hers, to direct them to their correct positions to play his piece. As he directed her hands around on the piano, he realised something. He realised that trying to protect those memories of his mother by running away, would not help him at all. And so, he made a new vow. To protect Rukia no matter what. And that was that.
A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you all liked that little one-shot. I'm a big IchigoXRukia fan, so if you aren't then please don't flame me! I can't take the heat! Also, that was only a bit of random writing I did during class today, and before you ask NO! There has never been anything in Bleach about Ichigo playing the piano. But I wanted something a little different. Oh yeah, the song in the middle of this is a poem I wrote specially for this one-shot, so comments about that too please! Anyway, that's all I got time for! Rate and Review!