The door opens and he sees her coming to the roof.
He twitches but doesn't move from his spot.
She gives a curt nod to him and then places her elbows on the rails and looks out ahead.
With one eyebrow raised, he continues to observe her, then he decides that she wouldn't do anything to him or disturb his privacy.
He returns his stare back at the sky.
It becomes a routine.
The bell rings and Ichigo goes up the steps to the roof and lies down. She comes up and leans forward on the rails and stares ahead of her. He returns his eyes up towards the sky. And when he's about to leave, she's already gone.
No conversation is ever passed between them.
It's a few days later that he finds himself looking at her whether he likes it or not.
First time, he observes her form and posture and notices that it's relaxed, no curt smile, no tension, just relaxation. He decides he likes it.
Second time, she tosses him his book, which he of course catches it spontaneously; it's one of Shakespeare and he glances over at her in wonder.
She doesn't look back.
Third time, he's up on the roof's little building; she stands at the doorway staring at the empty spot then looking up at him, lying on top of the roof's building. Rukia chuckles, bends down, picks it up, and returns to her spot, lunch in hand.
He grins despite himself.
Fourth time, he walks up the steps and she's there first for once, in her usual spot, yet this time he can see her face, the face she is making.
And he knows that expression, he knows it because it's the same one he always makes when he's out here, lying on the roof and just staring straight up, as if hypnotized. It catalyzes his heart into a steady rhythm that soothes him.
Maybe, maybe she too, has a wound that wouldn't heal.
Fifth time, his eyes are so prominently bloodshot red that even Rukia can't help but pause and look at him. At first, he thinks she's going to back away and run off, screaming and gossiping away that he secretly smokes weed, or that he's a vampire waiting to bite someone. Instead, she straightens her back, boldly walks over to him, and looks at him in the eye.
"You need sleep," she says it as a matter-of-fact.
"I can't," Ichigo says hoarsely, "got too much on my mind."
Rukia's gaze softens.
"I know," she says quietly, "but you're going to make people worry and you're not the type to want that," she says determinedly.
"How do you know?" he asks as she pulls him down forcibly onto her makeshift pillow.
"Because you're easy to read," she says casually, but he senses that the tone meant she didn't want to talk anymore about it, so he let's it go.
"Isn't this the part where the girl offers her lap?" he asks instead, giving her a playful grin while lying down.
"No, because I don't want stiff and sleepy legs afterwards," she snarkily replies.
He laughs shortly and it dies instantly as it came- it had been awhile since he'd laughed, if ever, since then; Rukia looks over at him and says-
"You can sleep Ichigo. I'm right here."
Before he falls asleep, he realizes that this is their first, real conversation-
-and that she called him Ichigo.
a/n: holy shit, i'm on my second chapter in a day already; well that's cuz i wasn't satisfied with just that short first one; i think imma make this slow-paced. maybe. idk. i don't make any promises- least not anymore.
review? :3