Author's Note: This is basically the IR fic that I always meant to write but never really got around to. It's based on an old Chinese legend that I feel fits IR perfectly. Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.

Convalescence

"Ah, you're awake."

Rukia looked over at him as he sat up in his bed roll, stretched, and yawned.

"Where am I?" he asked, looking around.

They sat at the edge of a large room that opened up to roughly an acre of peach blossoms in bloom.

"I had you released to my custody and moved here. This complex is detached from the main house, so we shouldn't be bothered much. I figured that you would appreciate the privacy."

"Released to your custody?" Ichigo smiled as he scratched his head.

She pursed her lips as she gave him a glare that made him shrink away a bit. "I am a lieutenant of the Gotei 13, whose authority can only be countermanded by a captain. You, on the other hand, are a mere Academy student and a baka who thought he could attempt a 90s-level kido spell on his very first day. Do you even know what sort of damage you did to that wing of the Academy?"

"I agree that it probably wasn't my best moment."

"The headmaster wants a written letter of apology."

Ichigo sighed and laid back down. "I guess some things never change."

Rukia smiled a little as her serious facade started to crack. "And you didn't even beat anyone up this time."

"I just almost exploded everyone in my class."

"All of whom are currently out spinning stories about how they survived you going berserk and attempting to blow up the building, and getting treated like heroes for it."

"There go my chances of making any friends." He closed his eyes and frowned.

"Your friends all thought it was hilarious. Matsumoto almost keeled over in laughter and decided to drink a keg in your honor. Renji was impressed and relieved that someone managed to outdo his failure at attempting Hado 31 in kido class. Even Captain Hitsugaya managed a smile."

"What about you?" Ichigo opened an eye and looked at her. "What did you think?"

Rukia thought for a moment and gave him a sly smile. "I was relieved."

"What?"

"That even the great prodigy himself had something that he could fail so spectacularly at. Your ego was getting a bit too big for your own good. Something had to give it a good puncturing."

He smiled as well. "I thought that was your job."

"But I can't be joined at the hip with you all the time, can I? I have duties to attend to, subordinates to discipline..."

"Are you going to discipline me too?"

"Sure. What would you like? For me to poke you in the ribs and call you baka-baka-baka?"

"I'm not sure that would prevent me from doing the same thing again."

"I know." Rukia sighed and stood up, looking out at the fluttering pink petals that had been caught in a gust of wind. "In any case, that blast did a good bit of damage to your reiatsu, so you'll have to stay here until it recovers and - ahem - think about what you've done."

"I suppose there are worse places to be. Which of the seventy-two gardens is this one?"

Rukia turned around and gave him a sharp jab in the ribs. "It's number thirty-eight, baka-baka-baka. And it's my favorite."

"It's very... pretty."

"Of course it is." Her eyes shined. "And there's a family of rabbits that lives under one of the peach trees over there."

Ichigo laughed. "Figures."

"Sometimes the baby bunnies come out and nibble on a few blades of grass, and they're tiny enough that you can hold them in the palm of your hand!"

"Can you eat them?"

"Ichigo!" She gave him another sharp jab in the ribs. "How dare you speak of eating bunnies!"

"I was just kidding." He held up his hands in surrender.

"Hmph." She sat back down and started to sulk.

"What's that?" he asked, wanting to change the topic. He pointed at an instrument set up on a low table out underneath the peach trees.

"Oh, that? It's a shichigenkin."

"Can you play it?"

"Ichigo, I am a lady of the Kuchiki family. I can perform ceremonial dances, arrange flowers, do calligraphy, play Go, draw..." She narrowed her eyes as he made a face. "...and play the shichigenkin."

"Play something for me then." He gave her a winning smile, as if he hadn't infuriated her just one minute earlier.

"You're shameless..." she muttered.

"And an invalid whose recovery would probably be sped up infinitely by a song on this very fine day."

He was right. Today was a perfect day for playing a song out beneath the trees in full bloom.

"Very well."

She walked out into the garden, with him following close behind. She seated herself on the cushion laid out behind the instrument, and ran her fingers over the varnished wood.

"So how do you play this?" asked Ichigo, having seated himself on another cushion on the other side of the instrument.

Rukia laughed, gently plucking the strings as she tuned them. "It's mostly the same as the guitars that Hisagi-senpai constantly plucks away on. Thicker strings are lower in pitch. Longer strings are lower in pitch."

"Anything else I should know?"

"Well... there's an old story about this instrument," she said as she began playing a piece of her own composition.

"I'm interested."

"As the story goes," she said, her fingers sliding over the strings in a slow, rhythmic pattern, "there was once a man who was very good at playing the shichigenkin. This man had a friend who was very good at listening to the shichigenkin. Whenever his will was towards high mountains in his playing, his friend would say, 'How towering are the mountains!' Whenever his will was towards flowing water, his friend would say, 'How vast are the rivers and oceans!' No matter what he thought of, his friend would never fail to understand. That was because his heart and his friend's were the same. Later, when his friend died, he broke the strings of his instrument and vowed never to play again."

"That's a sad ending to that story."

"Yes, quite."

"So, one can divine another's thoughts from their music if their hearts are the same?"

"So the story goes."

Ichigo closed his eyes, a smile appearing on his face. "A summer afternoon... Rain... Tears... A certain baka picking a fight that he couldn't possibly win... Relief." He opened one eye and gave her a cocky grin. "How close am I?"

Rukia stopped playing in shock. "How did you..."

"I guess I must be really inspiring..."

The expression on his face was so infuriating that she couldn't help but try to bop him on the head. He quickly caught her hand, however, and after a brief wrestling match, she found herself lying on the floor with him on top of her. She stared up at him, the pink peach blossom petals in his hair clashing horribly with its orange tinge.

"If the servants find us like this, there'll be hell to pay," she said.

He reached out and tucked her stray bang behind her ear, in order to get a better look at her face. "Do I look like I care?"

"No."

"Do you care?"

"No," she replied, pulling his head down and crashing his lips against hers.

They remained like that for several minutes, without a care in the world, before Rukia finally pushed him away, needing to come up for air.

"So that's how a lady of the Kuchiki family kisses."

"No, they usually use more tongue."

It wasn't her best moment, but it was worth it to see the look on his face. She took advantage of his confusion to flip him over so that he landed on the floor with a thud.

She stood up and started smoothing out the wrinkles in her robes.

"I have to go back to my division. Enjoy writing your letter of apology, baka."

"Yeah." He laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "See you."