Chapter Six
Rukia was in her stateroom sitting at the vanity later that night getting ready for bed. She pulled her hair out of the bun and noticed Aizen standing in the cracked mirror.
"I know you've been melancholy," he said gently. "Yet you give me no indication why." He was carrying a black velvet case under his arm. Aizen laid it on his arm and opened the case revealing a brilliant necklace. A large blue stone was set into a platinum chain encrusted with diamonds. Rukia stared at it numbly.
"I was planning on giving you this after the engagement ceremony in New York but I felt you needed a reminder of my feelings for you."
The blue stone glittered in the light and Rukia ran her fingers over it.
"Is it a sapphire?" she asked awestruck.
"Diamond, 56 carats," Aizen replied putting the necklace around her neck. The dark stone stood out against her pale skin. "Louis the sixteenth wore this, la Coeur de la mer, the…"
"The heart of the ocean," Rukia finished. She was overwhelmed by the diamond. It felt more like a dog collar than a necklace. She felt owned, not loved. "Sosuke, it's overwhelming."
"It's for royalty," Aizen said, his lips at Rukia's ear. "And we are royalty. There's nothing I couldn't give you, nothing I would deny you. Open your heart to me Rukia."
~*~*~*~*
The next day Rukia sought Ichigo out in the steerage holds. They walked along the A deck promenade ignoring the stares of the well dressed first class passengers. They had no idea what a steerage boy was doing with the first class princess. Ichigo felt self conscious.
"Mr. Kurosaki," Rukia began but Ichigo cut her off.
"Ichigo, call me Ichigo please."
"Ichigo, I feel like such an idiot, it took me all morning to summon the nerve to talk to you."
"Well you're here aren't you?" Ichigo asked with a soft smile. Rukia blushed.
"Well yes, I…" she dropped to her knee in a deep bow. Many of the passengers stared in shock as Rukia held her pose for several seconds before she stood up and dusted her dress off. "I wanted to say thank you, not just for pulling me back but, also for your discretion."
"No problem," Ichigo replied bowing awkwardly to Rukia.
"I know what you must be thinking," Rukia said. "Poor little rich girl, what does she know about misery?"
"That's not it at all, what I was thinking was what had hurt this girl so much she felt she had no way out?" Ichigo responded truthfully.
"Well it wasn't just one thing," Rukia said walking down the deck. Ichigo followed her. "It was all of them, everything, I was trapped. I wanted to get as far away as possible but even the Titanic wasn't big enough.
"I'm an idiot," Rukia admitted. Ichigo looked into her violet eyes.
"This Aizen guy is he one of them?"
"He's their ringleader, unfortunately," she showed him her engagement ring, a large diamond set into a platinum band. Ichigo looked at it in shock.
"Damn look at that thing," he exclaimed. "You'dve gone straight to the bottom, no kidding."
"Two hundred invitations have already gone out and meanwhile I feel like I'm standing in a crowded room screaming at the top of my lungs and no one will listen."
"So you basically feel like you're stuck in the seventh circle of hell and you can't get out because you're gonna marry this Aizen guy?"
"Yes exactly!" Rukia exclaimed. Finally someone got it.
"Don't marry him!" Ichigo told her. Rukia's face fell.
"I wish it were that simple," she sighed.
"It is that simple," Ichigo said indignantly.
Looking for a change of subject Rukia grabbed Ichigo's sketchbook out from under his arm.
"What is this silly thing that you're always carrying around?" she asked flipping though his works. "What are you some kind of artist?" she sat down on a deck chair and continued flipping through his works. "These are good, very good actually."
"They didn't think much of them in ol' Paree," Ichigo said bitterly sitting down in a chair next to hers.
"You are quite the traveler, for a po—" Rukia started but she stopped thinking she'd offend him.
"Go ahead say it," Ichigo teased. "I'm poor."
Rukia laughed as she continued going through his sketches. She had come across a series of nudes, mostly of the same woman. A couple of officers walked past and Rukia held the book up to hide the drawings.
"Are these drawn from life?" she asked a faint blush coming into her cheeks.
"Great thing about Paris, lots a girls willing to take their clothes off," Ichigo responded.
"You liked this woman," Rukia stated, "You've used her several times."
"She had beautiful hands," Ichigo said nonchalantly. Rukia smirked.
"I think you might have had a love affair with her," Rukia teased.
"No just with her hands!" Ichigo defended. "She had a great sense of humor though, oh and that woman," he indicated a drawing of another woman. She was older and fully dressed, sitting at a table, with several glasses around her. "She used to come into the same bar every night wearing every piece of jewelry she owned waiting for her long lost love."
"You have a gift Ichigo," Rukia concluded handing Ichigo his sketchbook. "You see people."
"I see you," he said quietly.
"And?"
"You wouldn't have jumped."
