Anywhere With You

Note: Some more IchiRuki! I got this insane idea while trying to work out of my writer's block on another story, because the thought of Ichigo and Rukia playing around on the high walls of Seireitei made me laugh. This is the first and only time I will ever say this, but... Yay for writer's block! Also...just in case it's confusing to anyone; shunpou (or flash step) is a shinigami technique. This is placed sometime post-Soul Society arc.

"It's all stone walls," she said. "In Seireitei...there's nothing but cold stone. Nothing is alive. We're the center of this place—we're its heart, and yet we're the only place that barely beats with life."

This from the lips of Kuchiki Rukia, shinigami, as her bare feet swung in the air, then hit against the solid stone of her perch. Swiping a charcoal lock of hair away from her face, she laughed.

It was a dry laugh, mocking and sad. He'd never understood her sense of humor.

"Look. It's prettiest before sunrise." She paused, and the sad look melted from her face, replaced with an almost playful hint of a smile. "And sit down before you fall down! I won't be the one scraping you off the street when you take a dive, I hope you know."

Again her feet swung, rhythmically absentminded, against the wall, meeting only thin air before they rested. A breeze ruffled her robes, coming from beneath and lifting the black cloth up over her ankles. Hair swirled lazily about her head.

Before them, for miles and miles, Rukongai spread out, marked by green grass and pale brown huts. Sometimes a very small river or brook would break the monotony, along with the occasional spattering of trees. If they were a hundred feet closer to the ground, they might have been able to hear the laughter of children playing in the closest districts.

"Don't you think this is a stupid idea?" Ichigo asked, very carefully lowering himself to a sitting position. "This is what—a few feet wide? Maybe a bit more? And if we fall, we've got all of about three hundred feet before we make pavement pancakes. Hey, did you realize there's no gate leading out onto this portion of the wall? If I remember correctly, we climbed over the wall of a guard station."

"Since when did you care about whether or not there were doors? If there's not a door, you break a hole in the wall and make one, you idiot. Don't lecture me." But she was smiling. She bit her lip and gave him a quick glance. "There," she pointed. "Can you see it? That tree. I've been in Rukongai a few times, and I've never seen one as big as that. I used to climb it."

"You miss it?"

She knew he wasn't talking about the tree.

"I don't regret anything, if that's what you mean. I have some very good friends here. It's a choice I made, to come here."

Yet she still looked sad. Ichigo slowly stood, and made a very big deal out of stretching, making sure to lean back just enough that she'd grab his robes and pull him forward, hissing about stupidity and its consequences, and then gesturing pointedly to the ground far below before glaring into his eyes.

"I know, Rukia. If I fall, you'll leave me to rot. You don't need to repeat it. Anyway, come on."

"Come where?" She stood, though.

"You know you and your weird metaphors? Let's make this place beat."

He grabbed her hand so she couldn't run away.

"I don't like the sound of this," Rukia murmured.

"I'll race you. Around the whole wall. Shunpou isn't against the rules, either. In fact, it's encouraged. So, get ready—"

"This is stupid! No way!"

"—get set—"

"Ichigo, let go of me now! I'll shove you off this wall myself! Let—"

"—go!" Ichigo said. He turned around, a huge grin on his face, just inviting her to slap it off. "Catch me if you can, midget." Then he jumped away. About fifty feet down the wall, she saw him.

"Ohh, you idiot," she murmured, a grin spreading over her face. Then she called to him, "Yeah, you wanna know what? I'll give you a head start. You think I'm helpless? You've got a new thing coming to you! You caught me at my worst when you took my powers, you leech! Get ready to meet Kuchiki Rukia, shinigami!"

He laughed. "Oh yeah? Prove it!"

She chuckled, unable to help the grin that spread over her face. "I'll give you ten seconds before I catch up and kick your ass! Get moving!"

He waited for a moment, but then he gave her a quick glance. He must have seen she wasn't kidding. He turned, and a few more flash steps brought him out of her rage of vision. Slowly, Rukia counted down, bracing herself eagerly. "Three...two...and—one!"

The guard stations were a bit harder to manage than anything else. If a person did not concentrate, it was very easy to find oneself flattened against one of the raised towers or fallen into one of the sections where the wall was slightly lower. It took her ten seconds to see him. "Hey, Ichigo!" she called, taunting. "You wanna bet I'll beat you? At least you'd make some money out of your humiliation!"

He grinned backwards, oh-so-kindly flipping her off before renewing his efforts at running. "Nope! I'll betcha all the money I have in my pocket that I'll beat you to the finish line."

"Your loss."

She supposed it was a very cruel twist of the knife, but if she was honest, she hadn't been going as fast as she could. A few steps brought her up behind him. Black hair whipping about a maliciously grinning face, she tapped his shoulder. "Hi."

He swore loudly.

What she really wanted was to make him slam into a guard tower. That would be too cruel, though, and she wasn't in the mood to heal broken bones. So she grinned at him with the twisted schoolgirl grin she'd perfected. "I'm gonna win and you're going to owe your life to me, fool."

"Dream on. You're just a little devil with a God complex!"

Oops.

For just a moment, he lost his concentration. The way he shrieked like a girl before falling haphazardly into one of the drop-offs was something she'd hold over him until he died. Rukia landed smoothly, several feet ahead of him on the wall, and continued to run. "You were saying?" she yelled over the whistle of the wind.

She made it two steps before him, and though the difference translated to just a bit less than a second, she was still the undeniable winner. He ignored that for just a second.

"So, you think we got some hearts beating again?"

She raised her eyebrows, suppressing a laugh with a huge amount of effort. "You think we'll ever get out of jail for scaring half the guards to death?"

"That place in Rukongai...that tree. Why don't we go there sometime? If you want to."

She remembered her earlier thoughts, but somehow, they felt more distant than the years that had torn her away from that past. "Doesn't matter anymore. And...thanks."

Though she didn't voice her thoughts, she believed that pretty much any place would be alive when he was there. It sounded frighteningly corny even in her own mind, but that stupid death-defying fool really did have a way of snapping people to attention. Half of Soul Society would recognize the name of the stubborn, orange-haired ryoka who'd turned Seireitei upside-down on his first visit. The other half wouldn't recognize his name, but knew him by face, anyway.

"If you keep stirring things up, you'll find yourself in a big mess," she said, and after a brief moment, extended her hand.

"Huh?"

"Money. You owe me money. I won."

He frowned, digging into his pockets. Then he grinned. "Oops. I forgot...I don't have a cent on me. If I remember correctly, I promised you only what I had in my pockets."

Rukia crossed her arms. "Suuure." After a moment, her self-satisfied grin returned. "That's not how we do things here, though. You know what happens when a man can't pay his debts?"

Ichigo stepped back just a bit.

"Yep. You're all mine until I decide you've paid up."

"No way!"

"And you gotta call me Master."

He shook his head. "Never."

Ichigo had to admit, though...he found it quite amusing how wide Byakuya's eyes went when the sixth division's captain saw Ichigo trailing behind Rukia, scampering to catch up.

"Faster!" she ordered.

Ichigo thought Byakuya would be forever traumatized when his servile reply was, "Yes, Master."

Author's Notes: Insane? Oh yes. Random? Slightly. While writing one scene to another story, this idea attacked me. Brutally. So I couldn't help writing it. Do I actually believe Ichigo would follow along with Rukia's debt payment plan? Well...only if it involved freaking out her stuck-up brother. I also think that Ichigo wouldn't hesitate to do something crazy to snap Rukia out of a bad mood. Anyway, I hope this was okay! Any thoughts at all would be loved to death. Please Review?