A/N: Ah, yes, another Ichirukia drabble. Poor you, I've been waiting a long time to find the right fandom for this scene, and I found it in Bleach. Bleach! Who would have thought? Like Jammies, it has no specific timeline. Read and review!
I don't own Bleach.
A Lovely Nowhere
Rukia had never taken the time to sit down and watch a sunset. There was always something that had to be done; Hallows that needed to be exterminated. She had caught brief glimpses, but never had she sat down and actually watched the sun disappear completely. There was a day when they both had found time that evening to stand there at fence and watch the sun cut into a bloody horizon.
Somehow, the subject of their relationship had come up. Rukia wasn't sure how it had wheedled itself into their conversation, or who brought it up first. Looking back years later, it was one of her favorite conversations. His words made her smile. She remembered asking if their age difference bothered him.
Ichigo smiled. "You don't look older than me."
Of course, Rukia immediately opened her mouth to remind him of his youth, but then he added, "I have a cousin who married a man twice her age. She had known him all throughout her childhood. He was a good friend of the family, and he came to visit often. When her father asked her how she could bear to marry someone so old, she said, 'Dad, he raised me to love him.'" He turned his gaze into the claret sky. "He raised me to love him."
"That's irrelevant." She immediately regretted it; she had not meant to blurt it out. "We've haven't known each other that long."
He looked at her sideways. "You think so?" he said. "But you taught me about Hollows and being a Death god, didn't you?"
There were times Rukia wondered what was more difficult: Killing Hollows, or dealing with romantics. This was one of those moments.
She avoided his gaze and instead nodded towards the setting sun. The whole sky looked as if it had been set aflame. "Look at the clouds," she said, "all burnished in gold. Do you see how they slowly drift into nowhere, without reason?"
Ichigo smiled, stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, it's pretty."