Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach unless it is in the form of Sodium Hypochlorite.
Previously: 'Enough!' said Byakuya coldly as they eyed each other. 'Rukia come with me. As for you, Kurosaki, I will speak to you later about this.'
'Strawberry,' Rukia muttered quietly so only Ichigo could hear as Byakuya swept out of court with Rukia in tow, leaving Ichigo staring after them. The court broke out in mummers and Ichigo glared at the people around him causing them to wilt under his gaze before he stormed out of court as well leaving a wake of people behind him.
'Well I don't think I have seen Kurosaki so irritated before, especially by a girl,' said King Jyushiro to Queen Yuki.
Yuki only smiled, 'you under estimate Rukia, dear. And I have not seen her respond like that to anyone before.'
'So they have each found someone who gets under their skin,' laughed Jyushiro.
Chapter Six: Expectations of Oneself
Rukia, after being firmly escorted from the court gathering, spent the rest of the day under the watchful eye of Byakuya while he talked about the importance of finding a husband. Rukia just sat there, letting the words flow around her. 'Duty … honour… Before winter…' Byakuya talked onwards.
'Did you hear me Rukia?' Byakuya asked. Rukia snapped back to the present.
'Rukia were you even listening to anything that I said?' Byakuya said as he was met by a blank look.
'Yes nii-sama.' Rukia said hoping it was the right answer.
Byakuya looked at her, conveying the slightest hint of resignation in his frozen demeanour
'Go back to your quarters Rukia, we will speak again later.' he said dismissing her. Rukia stood, bowing to her brother before she turned and walked out of the room, trying to rid the feeling of ingratitude that Byakuya instilled in her from those few words. Her emotions contradicted themselves. She owed it to her family to be married and to one day have children so that the Kuchiki name might continue but … I wish that I did not have to marry one of those idiots that are continually being pressed upon me. Ugh. They will treat me as a trophy wife and talk down to me with their stupid smug grins on their faces. I could never marry anyone like that.
Still frustrated from seeing Byakuya, Rukia decided to train with her tessen to relieve all of her anger. Taking out her bag where she kept her tessens she encountered only the normal ones that were no different to what samurai normally used. Damn I forgot that someone took my special tessen. She sighed picking up the pair of tessen. The only people that could have picked it up are samurai and I bet that it was Renji or Kurosaki that picked it up. Rukia made her way to the practice court, determined not to let the opportunity of practicing go to waste. She started warming up then stopped as a particularly annoying thought presented itself. Rukia stamped her foot letting anger fuel her little rant. That is so frustrating. I can't go anywhere near them. Let alone have a conversation with them before the court's gossipers spin a tale that I'm going to marry one of them. Ugh! I hate court life. She stood looking up at the moon. Lucky moon. You get to sit there looking pretty and nothing bothers you. The moon shone overhead partly obscured by drifting clouds, throwing shadows across the court. I sit and look pretty and end up getting marriage offers from idiots! She grumbled to herself as she looked at the moon. She sighed. It's no use complaining if you don't do anything about it Rukia. She admonished herself. Right now just focus on your training. Holding the base of each fan in the palm of her hand, she extended her arms and crouched slightly, feet spread, in a defensive position. Moving her foot across the ground, she slid forward, thrusting the fan in front of her. Slide, thrust, slide thrust, opposite leg to arm. Now she snapped the fans open, imagining that she had her special tessen with the sharpened ribs, Rukia sliced through the air. Now the pattern changed. No longer repeating the same set of moves she lunged, ducked and spun totally focused on defending and attacking against a foe that only she could see. Graceful as a dancer she flowed through each step. She didn't notice a figure leaning against the doors to the court watching her with wonder and amusement. Increasing the pace, her action became sharper till she became a deadly whirlwind of silk and steel.
He leaned against the door, completely at ease with watching the petite woman as she lunged, ducked, and swerved with a sense of grace that was only found in the most skilled of warriors. He grimaced inwardly at the irony of the way that events had occurred today. He had been informed, by letter, that his dad wished for him to 'hurry and find a girl before the good ones get scared away by his scowl'. Not to mention the very subtle mention of wanting at lest 4 grandkids from him, Ichigo noted sarcastically. Oh and on a side note, the Kuchikis are now major allies to the Kurosaki family. Great, just great. Temporally forgetting who he was talking to, he now had a Kuchiki holding a favour above his head for insulting his midget of a sister. If that letter had been one hour quicker, maybe he wouldn't be waiting for cold Kuchiki to call on him for said favour.
Breathing heavily she straightened, snapping the fans closed. A tingling sensation began between her shoulder blades making her roll her shoulders in an attempt to relive the feeling. Turning around the first thing she saw was the shock of orange hair before she registered the face of the person to which it belonged to. Leaning against the door was Ichigo Kurosaki.
Oh shit. she thought. She didn't know what to do. She had no excuse for being here. If it weren't for the fact that being in the private training grounds was not bad enough, she had in her hands a pair of tessen, used only by samurai and noblemen. The tessen suddenly felt like she was holding heated pieces of metal which burned her hands and her conscience. No. I must not think like this. I haven't felt this guilty since I picked them up years ago, why must I start now? She straightened and waited for what he would say. You will think your way around this Rukia. Just wait for Kurosaki to say something first.
Ichigo straightened from leaning against the door and walked across the packed dirt floor. His eyebrows remained in that permanent scowl. Rukia, now focused on what she was going to do, took the chance to gauge Ichigo. He was wearing training clothes just like her, his sanpakuto she normally saw him with, attached to his hip. Rukia looked again, the handle of a sanpakuto stuck up from behind his head and the tip could be seen pointing out from behind him almost touching the floor. That's his real sanpakuto! Rukia's eyes went wide as he walked closer. It's massive. It looks even bigger now that I'm closer to it. That last thought brought her back to the present. She looked up to see Ichigo Kurosaki smirking at her as he stopped in front of her. She crossed her arms unconsciously and narrowed her eyes at his smirk, still feeling unsettled at being caught out, under all of her façade. Mirroring her stance, still smirking, he looked at her, conveying in that look that he knew that she had some explaining to do if she didn't want to be exposed to anyone else.
'What are you doing here,' she challenged satisfied that her voice was steady and held authority. His smirk just widened and she almost could see him going through the motions of rolling his eyes in his mind.
'I could ask you the same question,' he replied, 'though I think that I have valid reason for being here compared to you.' Rukia huffed. It was true she shouldn't be touching a tessen, let alone be training with them at night in a samurai practice court.
'So do you normally train here?' Ichigo asked. Rukia was taken aback. He didn't ask her why she was in the possession of a pair of tessen or about the fact that she shouldn't be in the practice courts, instead he was simply inquiring about her training.
'Yes I train here.' she answered truthfully, still surprised at his question. Finding her feet, she asked with a bit of suspicion, 'Aren't you going to going to demand that I leave here and give you my tessen?'
'Why would I do that,' Ichigo answered, 'It's stupid to ask you to give me the tessen since you obviously know how to use them, which is more than I can say for a lot of samurai.' Rukia looked at him confused and slightly astounded. What is happening? He just complimented me, I think.
'What?!' said Ichigo starting to get creeped out by Rukia's staring like he had grown an extra head.
Here was one of the best samurai of the Imperial army and he was just standing there. That doesn't stop him from being a berry-head. Rukia sighed heavily and shook her head at her thoughts. Figuring that he wasn't going to call the guards any time soon she guessed it was a good as time as any to ask questions.
"Why do you train here at night?" she asked hopeful of finding an answer for her interrupted training sessions.
Ichigo reached over his shoulder pulling his sanpakuto over his head and resting the point of the blade in the court's dirt floor. The actual blade of the sword reached half way up his chest. Leaning on his sanpakuto he gave Rukia a smirk that she was starting to get to know oh so very well.
"Oh," said Rukia kicking herself for not spotting it sooner. "You mentioned that training with amongst people was a problem." she finished, remembering the cryptic comment he had made before.
He snorted, amused by her understatement of the issue.
"Yeah every battle crazy guy has to try to fight me just because they can't seem to understand that I can actually wield it." He exhaled heavily and muttered almost to himself "idiots", looking at the ground in thought. Silence fell and Rukia waited for Ichigo to say something more. Is he just going to stand there? What is he waiting for? Ichigo straitened before swinging his massive zanpakuto over his shoulder, back onto the belt which held it against his back. Now he watched and waited for her to do something. Silence stretched out again. Figuring that she wasn't going to do anything, he spoke. "Well Kuchiki, I have to train. So if you don't mind…"
Rukia looked at him, an incredulous expression on her face. "What, aren't you going to tell me off for practicing here?" she asked in disbelief.
"No. So like I said, I have to train," Ichigo said clearly dismissing her as he pulled out his other zanpakuto. Rukia huffed at his manner before she walked past him to the doors. It took a couple of seconds for her to realise that she had just been cheated of her practice time on the court.
She spun around, "Hang on, why do I have to leave?" she questioned. Ichigo turned to her, not expecting her to question him.
"I'm training." he answered as if that was the only reason she needed.
"I was here first so-"
"So what?" Ichigo cut her off, "You aren't allowed here. You aren't allowed tessen." Ichigo was teasing her. Unfortunately Rukia couldn't see that.
"So, I don't think that you have much to argue with." he finished. Rukia balled her fists up and shot him a venomous look. How dare he remind her of what she wasn't allowed to do! He was rubbing salt into the wound he had just created.
"Shut up Strawberry!" she hissed. That provoked a reaction. Suddenly Ichigo wasn't that nonchalant, his ever present scowl deepened.
"Mid-"
"Berry-head!" Rukia wasn't one to lose or let someone insult her height. She turned away and stalked off the court, satisfied that she had won the argument and kept her pride intact.
Ichigo watched her go, unable to retort. If he said anything now he would only hurt his own pride by saying something to her back childishly.
That was twice now that he had been beaten by her, something that he was not accustomed to at all.
Hi guys. Long time no see hey. I am so bad for making you wait this long for an update. Enormous thanks and gratitude go out to anyone that has asked when I'm going to update and to the select few who have pestered me to update. I need that constant hounding to write. So HUGS for you! XD I am not going say much else but for anyone that wants to know the progress of my writing please visit my profile.
And I guess you guys don't need to be reminded to review do you?
SeraphinaDonna
