Awkward Encounters at the Local Graveyard

IchiRuki


Rukia doesn't really know who Masaki Kurosaki is. Only knows that she's the dead mother of the boy who's thievery she had long since come to tolerate, despite her desire not to. She doesn't know the woman, never did, and yet she stands before her grave now, laying down a bundle of freshly picked flowers.

Rukia doesn't pray to her, doesn't talk to her, only lays down the flowers and steps back for a moment of silence - a sign of respect. After all, Rukia has no business burdening the ancestors of another family. It's only ... Ichigo, that's his name, easy to remember, hasn't been spotted in nearly a year. Although the grave remains well manicured, the lack of flowers which Rukia assumes had been there constantly for nearly two years under Ichigo's dutiful presence leave Rukia antsy and sad.

Of course, Rukia hadn't immediately started visiting the cemetery. For awhile she simply pushed the boy and the flowers and the grave from her mind. She had come to peace with and knew that once every couple of weeks a few flowers would go missing and now she knew why ... Only, the flowers stopped going missing. They sat there in their splendor and Rukia, pissed and annoyed, couldn't enjoy them. At the six month mark Rukia swallowed her doubt, humored her curiosity and ventured to the cemetery. She had strolled to the back of the large lot and gazed in something close to discomfort at the pile of dead flowers resting on the soft grass. For a couple of weeks she'd checked back, to see if anyone would remove them; but no one had. Until, one evening as she was clipping her garden she suddenly had the desire to bring some of the freshly picked flowers to her new not-friend.

And so now she stands, six months into this odd, uncomfortably relaxing routine.

There is an air of calm about the cemetery. Rukia doesn't really like cemeteries (has never been one to visit them needlessly) but she thinks that maybe the spirits appreciate when people come to them - maybe they gossip about their visitors. To be forgot is to be erased, as the tale goes, and no one deserves that terrible thing. Her own sister, gone and buried in her home city of Tokyo gets yearly visits from the woman, so as not to be forgot, and she suspects her brother-in-law makes the same trip although the two have not crossed paths since their fight nearly three years ago.

Rukia is snapped from here reverie by the sound of approaching footsteps. When she turns, a man and two girls are approaching. The man and one of the girls (a sandy-blonde) are talk animatedly, the other girl, possessing hair so black it almost rivals Rukia's own, has made eye contact with Rukia and seems to have no intention of breaking it. Rukia, not one to shy away from a nonverbal challenge, holds the contact, bows awkwardly at the girl and is just about to leave when the man's head suddenly snaps to her. It looks almost painful, the force used in which to make his sudden movement, but Rukia doesn't comment as she thinks it may be rude ... she has better manners than that.

The man, apparently, does not. Still, he is abrasive in a kind of... Endearing way...

"A guest!" He shrieks, flinging himself to Ichigo's mother's grave. Rukia, politely and awkwardly side stepping him, has a distinctive and uncomfortable feeling that these people are also part of Ichigo's family.

"Uh..." she says lamely, "I was just leaving..."

"Nonsense!" Bellows the man, "any friend of my late wife, is a friend of mine!" So the man is Ichigo's father. The black haired girl rolls her eyes from where she stands near Rukia's side and let's out an exacerbated sigh.

"Actually," says Rukia, uncertainly "I'm more a friend of ... Ichigo's." There is a pause as she can't recall if this is the first time she has said his name outloud, and she continues: "I really didn't mean to intrude on your family's memorial."

"My heathen son," says the man, hugging the tombstone, if Rukia's dismissal of his attack has caught him off guard, it doesn't show, "can't even bother to tell his loving father when he's in a relationship! The nerve, the dejection!"

The black haired girl and her sandy-blonde companion pivot, in turn, to Rukia, who's face, she feels, prickles with an embarrassed blush. The black haired one speaks.

"Ignore him," she says, "it's easier that way." She stares at Rukia critically and then crinkles her nose a bit as if remembering something. "I'm Karin Kurosaki, Ichigo's sister. This is Yuzu, we're twins." As an afterthought she adds, "fraternal, obviously." Behind her, Yuzu smiles and waves shyly. Rukia bows again.

"I am Rukia Kuchiki."

Karin nods, as if in thought, and Yuzu pipes up behind her: "how do you know Ichi-nii?" She blushes, "if you don't mind our asking."

Rukia figures the two must be around 18, either just on the tail-end of high school or perhaps just starting college. She thinks about the question but has no great answer to give.

"We've had a few ... Run-ins," she mutters this last part, almost annoyed though she hopes the sisters have missed it. To clarify, she adds: "I live just down the road, there-" and she point in the general direction of her house. She knows they can't see it, it is small and shoved into the gap between two large estates, but she points none-the-less. Yuzu turn and nods as if she can see it, and Karin looks over her shoulder before returning her attention to Rukia. "I should really be going-" says Rukia, again. The man is alerted to this (he makes a move and appears to want to restrain her legs) but Karin is fast, stomps her foot into his face and gives Rukia a firm nod, a small smirk at the edge of her lips. Rukia smiles and turns to go. She is a few steps closer to the entrance of the cemetery when she stops, and finds herself inexplicably wanting to ask the family something. It is an odd question, none of her business really, but Rukia asks it anyway.

"Our of curiosity," she begins, awkwardly, "I haven't seen Ichigo of late, has he gone somewhere?" Yuzu grins, Karin grins, the man's smile splits his face.

"My idiot son is studying abroad in Italy at the moment!" He bursts forth. Then a sly look crosses his eyes. "He'll be home at the end of the month. We should have a family dinner to celebrate~" He's looking at Rukia as if the statement is directed at her and Rukia, for the life of her, can not fathom why that would be. As if to solidify his already very telling facial expression the man says, pleased: "Rukia, you are, of course, invited!"

Rukia blushes because she barely knows any of these people and is about to politely decline when Yuzu matches her father's intense look.

"Yes!" Yuzu says, her eye hold a kind of determination Rukia hasn't seen since the last time she was staring down her sword at an opponent across the mat. Yuzu pulls out her phone, opens the screen and turns it toward her. "Put in your phone number and then I can call you when we have our dinner." She's smiling so brightly Rukia is at a loss for what to do.

"We-we've only just met," stutters Rukia, taking a step back, when Yuzu's face drops and she looks like she might've gotten her feelings hurt Rukia back peddles, "aren't you worried I might be ... er, dangerous?" she stops, for lack of a better word, "or something..." She trails off lamely.

"Of course not!" cheers Yuzu.

"Yuzu's cooking is second to none," Karin adds helpful, though with what appears to be little interest, from a couple of feet away. The man nods fervently. With a defeated sigh Rukia punches in her phone number. Adds a bunny emoji because Yuzu seems like the type of girl to appreciate this little quirk and grins a little.

"Okay," she says, unsure, "give me a ring sometime." She smiles broadly at the odd but not unfriendly family, bows once more because the Kuchiki in her demands it, and then beats a hasty retreat. The man is lovingly screeching something about his third daughter behind her and she thinks this other girl is either just as strange or else twelve different types of accommodating to put up with such a group.


There'll probably be two more chapters as far as I can figure. But don't be sad, next chapter will show the reappearance of Ichigo! And won't take place at a cemetery... As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. Also, sorry for any errors and such as this was written on my phone and slightly harder to edit.

Imagine Yuzu, Karin and Rukia becoming texting pals...