Snowy Days, Quiet Nights
Chapter One: Snow Bunny
Rukia wonders if she should be insulted when Ichigo calls her a snow bunny. She wonders because, you see, she likes bunnies, but on the other, Orihime's eyes are bright with barely contained laughter. And Ichigo is giving her that look that she can't resist. The slight crook about his mouth says, I dare you. The small inward, downward tilt his eyebrows says, I know you can't resist for long.
He really knows her to well. Rukia can't resist a dare. There is precedent that suggests she doesn't need to even know what she's being challenged over, too.
She wonders for a moment while Orihime shakes with noiseless giggles and Tatsuki grins, blindingly, and Renji watches from atop the wall where he lounges like a big cat.
Rukia grins wickedly up at Ichigo, and crushes a handful of snow into his nose.
Then she knocks him on his ass while he's still brushing tiny ice crystals out of his eyes, and kicks a freezing white wave at him.
His eyes are red from the sudden bother, and snow water runs from them in rivulets that look like tears from a distance.
"Who's a snow bunny?" She asks, smiling sweetly. Her voice is light, weightless with good humor.
Ichigo licks his lip, and his breath comes out in a little cloud in that brief moment it's open. His leg flashes—he's gotten so fast since they first met—and kicks Rukia's out from underneath her. She lands with a surprised grunt on his shins.
Shoveling a little pile into one hand, he looks contemplatively at it, then at Rukia's rainbow-stripped, toboggan covered head.
She can see his thoughts as he thinks them.
"Do. Not." She grits.
But, of course, he does. She lunges for his wrist as the other hand, the one not filled with snow, goes for her hat and lifts the thick knit up.
Rukia isn't able to manage a good grip on him; her fingers are numb from the cold even inside Orihime's borrowed mittens, and the material of his jacket is unhelpfully slick. He thrusts the handful beneath her hat, and yanks it down to her nose.
As she struggles with the material, clumsy fingers a distinct nuisance, she can't help the grin that comes out as Ichigo's hands pull her close. His breath is hot on her jaw as he says in her ear, "Snow bunny Kuchiki, you seem to be having problems."
She can hear the smirk in his voice, and she's preparing to snarl a clever retort when his mouth opens against hers, and the contrasting warmth of his tongue on the back of her teeth blows away her plans like smoke. Rukia decides that being a snow bunny isn't a bad thing.
She makes a mental note to get revenge for the icy water running through her hair, however.