"…Car…ni…val? Um…?" Rukia stared at the paper in her hand, not wanting to admit that she had absolutely no idea what a "carnival" was.
Ichigo stopped at the sound of her voice and turned around. "Don't pick up papers that are just lying in the street! That's gross! And weird!"
She ignored him and walked past him.
"Don't ignore me either-Whatever." He sighed and resumed walking. "What is that paper anyway?
"It's a carnival!" she declared triumphantly, pronouncing it car-knee-vill. "Can we go?"
"Do you even know what a carnival is?"
"Of course I do."
No you don't, he thought. "Why do you want to go? They're for little kids."
"Well I never went to one when I was little."
He looked over her shoulder [not very difficult] at the paper. "It says tonight's the last night. Isn't there anything else we're supposed to be doing, like preparing with Urahara-san for some absurd war or something along those lines?"
"Nope! Tonight's totally normal."
"Nothing is normal when you're around." He got a smack in the back of the head for that.
"Come on, please?" She tried puppy eyes at him, but some of the effect was diminished, considering she had just hit him.
"Fine, just so you'll shut up."
"Yes!" She grinned the entire way home.
***
"One thousand yen, please."
Ichigo handed over the money and glared at Rukia. "You better enjoy this."
"Yes sir!" She mock saluted him. He glared even more. She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Um, your tickets…here you go." The nervous-looking ticket salesman practically threw the tickets at them and called, "NEXT!"
"Wow! There's so much to do! Where do we go first?" Rukia had a rare smile on her face. It was almost contagious, but Ichigo absolutely never smiled.
"What about the Ferris Wheel? It's that big round wheel that goes around slowly, but I think you'd like it."
"I know what the Ferris Wheel is!" Rukia said indignantly. "And how do you what I'd li-"
"Kurosaki-san! Rukia-chan!" Orihime's voice came to them above the noise of the crowd. Then they saw her running towards them, followed a bit more slowly by Tatsuki.
"Hello, Orihi-" Rukia was cut off by Orihime hugging her suddenly and almost suffocating her. When she finally let go, Rukia had a deer-in-the-headlights look on her face.
Orihime started chattering a mile a minute at Rukia about Ishida, and dresses, and fish, and her apartment. Tatsuki turned to Ichigo.
"I didn't expect you to be here." She smirked. "Especially not with Rukia, of all people."
"It was her idea." He gestured to Rukia, who was nodding patiently and smiling. She almost seemed to understand what Orihime was rambling on about.
"Oh." Tatsuki looked at the sky, which was darkening as night resumed her reign over the sky.
"Hey, you think Rukia can join us for fireworks this year? She couldn't come last time we went."
Tatsuki turned to look at him. "Of course, stupid. You thought we wouldn't invite her?"
"Ooooooo! You guys are going on the Ferris Wheel too? Let's all go together!" Orihime exclaimed as she grabbed Rukia's hand and motioned to Tatsuki and Ichigo to follow them.
At the Ferris Wheel, the man missing an eye took their tickets and let them into the last carriage and started it. They slowly traveled up, up, up, until they reached the top.
"Woooowwww…" Orihime breathed. "Isn't this so cooolll??" She reached across to touch Rukia on the knee. "Isn't it?"
"Huh?" said Rukia, who had been staring at the sky. "Sorry, I kinda zoned out there. I'm tired." She smiled at Orihime.
It was true, Ichigo noticed. He hadn't seen the very faint dark circles under her eyes. But more than that, she didn't look excited or happy anymore. The smile she gave Orihime had a sadness that he knew only he could tell, after spending so long with her. The sadness was back in her eyes again, that sadness he hated to see, hated it more than anything. He was mad at himself for not realizing before that she wasn't happy here.
"Do you know what time the fireworks start?" Tatsuki asked, interrupting his thoughts.
"Probably around nine. It's eight thirty now."
Rukia became lost in her own thoughts again. This "carnival" was a lot like the Soul Fairs they used to have once a year in the Soul Society. She remembered when Kaien-dono had brought the entire thirteenth division one year. The Ferris Wheel had been her definite favourite ride. She had dragged Kaien-dono on it at least four times. How ironic, she thought, looking at Ichigo, that the very next time she had ended up on one of these, it was with the one that looked so much like him, and who she thought she might be starting to feel the same way about.
She gazed at the stars, oblivious to Ichigo's worried glances at her. She was surprised when the ride was over.
"Well, let's meet back here at nine, okay?" Tatsuki waved at them and walked off with Orihime.
"We have half an hour to kill. What do you want to do now?"
"I don't know. You know this place better. You pick something."
Ichigo sighed. He had no idea what happened on the Ferris Wheel, but it had made Rukia sad and distant. Then he got an idea as he spotted one of those game booths with stuffed animals. "I'm gonna try that," he said.
After he had paid 200 yen to throw some rings at a bottle with Rukia staring intently at the bottle, he won easily and picked out the bunny.
As they walked away, he tossed it at her. "Here. Cheer up. I thought I said you better enjoy this."
She hugged the bunny tightly and smiled to herself. Ichigo apparently quite as uncaring as he pretended to be all the time. "Hey, Ichigo?"
"What."
"Can we go on the Ferris Wheel again?"
***
"Whoa! Look at that one!" Orihime pointed gleefully at an explosion of green in the sky.
The fireworks were especially pretty this year, with all different kinds and colours. The four of them sat on the grass, away from the crowd.
"That one was my favourite," said Rukia seriously. "No, wait, that one was!" she exclaimed as orange and purple lit up the night sky.
Ichigo almost laughed as he remembered what he had said earlier. "Nothing is normal when you're around."
Maybe not normal's not that bad.