Just a little drabble that came to me this morning.

And thankies to my idol, fuzzibunniez, who is such a sweet gal!

Don't own the Bleach. [insert tears]

Ichigo's smile.

Somewhere, within the single digit-ed districts of Rukongai, lived a little boy and his mother.

Every day, with a small smile, the mother left to work in the Kuchiki rice fields, and the little boy snuck his way into the alleys of his district, and played with all the other little boys, who's parents also helped tend the fields.

Every season, the head of the Kuchiki clan would come to survey his fields, and to see their progress, and the mother noticed, that this time, he was an hour late, and looking perhaps a little... flustered?

She left the fields when he did, to the raised eyebrows of her friends, but she only gave them a smile and a wave.

When she returned to the small house owned by the Kuchiki family, there stood a crowd of little boys, asking where her son was.

She gave them each a sweet from the small pocket in her threadbare kimono, and gave them a smile and gently shooed them away.

She gathered their other set of clothes, and a cooking pot, enclosing them in a cloth and hefted it on her back.

She tilted her kasa [farmer's hat] slightly up, so she could look to the street names, and she walked through the gates of Seireitai to the Kuchiki manor.

She was met with a small smile, and she chatted for a moment with the women who opened the door, having been escorted by the gateman, who were shooed away by the friendly servant.

When she asked to see the clan leader, the other woman bit her lip, telling her that he was busy and most likely would stay so until the evening meal, though the sun was still in the middle of it's journey.

When the Kuchiki leader and his lover were directed to a room for supper, they saw a woman sitting with her back to them.

His younger lover paused in the doorway, as did the elder.

Her orange hair.

She turned, with a small smile, "Ichi-kun," her voice was soft and motherly, "how could you have gone so long without your smile?"