Smile
Date Written: 7-25-06
Date Uploaded: 7-29-06
Last Editing: 7-26-06
Rating: G
Spoiler Warnings: none
Author: April
Additional Notes: Not the best of ways to start us off, but I like stream-of-consciousness fics. And there is a little hint of action at the end. This is the first piece of Bleach fan fiction I'm actually releasing, but I've been a fan of the series for a long time. We've all agreed that we're keeping towards the Rukia/Ichigo vibe. Enjoy.
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It wasn't a scowl. No… not quite.
Rukia pondered exactly what it was as she examined his face. It was tilted slightly away from her, resting lazily on his hand, supported by the desk. He wouldn't notice her… they'd been out too late the night before with a particularly nasty Hollow. He was exhausted. So she'd taken the opportunity to study him carefully, this man whose fate seemed intertwined with hers.
She could make her eyes focus on the teacher, anyway. They kept wandering back to him… Her thoughts kept drifting back to that look on his face at the very moment she was examining it.
Not a scowl… It wasn't an active reaction as it would have been on a normal person. There was nothing making him angry. Well, how long could he hold a grudge about the bunny stickers on his desk? That couldn't be it… It had been there before. Since before they had met.
It just seemed as if it had always been there, carefully etched into his face by the years and the experiences. So that it wasn't a glare, a scowl, a grimace… it was more of a… mask. His default, his protection. She half-frowned at the idea. Ichigo…
But maybe part of her liked it a little… He always wore that look, but there was the occasional circumstance in which he would smile. The fact that each one of these occasions was so rare made her cherish the seconds in time when he would drop his guard to let through that light.
She knew each one by heart. There was the grin, the way he would almost try to hide it, but his firmly set eyebrows would lift and the corner of his mouth seemed to twitch in a way she found most amusing. There was the smirk, an arrogant condescension when he knew he was right or he was just plain being cocky. She loved hating that look…
He had genuinely let himself smile only a few times, and never outright to her. She would catch them out of the corner of her eye when he thought she wasn't looking.
They were the best of all. She could almost see the thought stir first- smile. Slowly, the acidic glare would neutralize and his eyes would light up. At first it would be clumsy, as if in the time between he had forgotten just how to, but then it would emerge. His lips would dissolve from the frown into a grin, soft and unguarded. And he would smile. Really and truly. These were glimpses of his lost childlike innocence, a pure and candid look at Ichigo, untroubled by doubts or fears. And each one she remembered distinctly.
She could remember where she was, what the air felt like, what she felt like… It shouldn't have mattered. She couldn't explain it. But she felt different when she knew he was happy.
His dark eyes shot back toward her, that scowl deepening. She didn't look away. Instead, something strange came over her, something she might regret later, but had to do in that moment anyway. She smiled at him. Out of class she would get a confused glower and a vindictive 'what!'. But here, he was caught off guard.
Somewhere down the hall, a bell rang, signaling the end of the class.
He looked somewhat surprised by her reaction, and his eyes questioned her motives with no degree of concealed suspicion. She stood quietly, the tiny grin never leaving her face, and whispered the words barely loud enough to hear. "Smile, Ichigo." And she walked out of the room.