Chapter 10: Old Haunts

Rukia was curious. Very, very much so. As soon as Ichigo had picked up the phone earlier, he skirted out of the kitchen and locked himself in the bathroom, which meant she was unable to hear any pieces of the conversation. His elusive mannerisms surrounding this whole situation and his mildly distraught expression as he spoke the caller's name tipped her off that this was no ordinary phone conversation.

Either he anticipated her to deliver some bad news or this person calling was the bad news itself. Those were her best guesses.

Left in the kitchen alone and without the recipe printouts that were still in Ichigo's pockets, Rukia was unsure of what to do with herself, especially being a guest in someone else's apartment for the first time. Well, she certainly knew what she wanted to do, which was to eavesdrop on this conversation Ichigo was having with this mysterious person, but she knew that it would be a morally questionable act.

And yet…

Unable to suppress her curiosity and under the pretenses of telling herself it was to make sure Ichigo was fine, Rukia tiptoed towards the bathroom, stopping in front of the door and pressing her back against it. Muffled conversation began seeping through.

"…I don't understand…"

"…Okay."

"…I'm not sure why that's relevant?"

Then there was a long stretch of silence before another quiet "okay" was uttered. Another stretch of silence followed with , and Rukia frowned, wondering if it was time for her to leave. Before she was able to escape however, the door opened up behind her. She spun around, cheeks flushed, "Ah, sorry, I needed to use the restroom and — "

As soon as she saw his face, his eyes, she stopped, excuses be damned, trying to cover her tracks be damned. There was something in his expression that just seemed so distraught that she tossed aside all their previous disagreements and teasing and her quiet crush and saw him as someone who needed a bit of comforting or a place to vent, whether he knew it or not himself.

Ichigo seemed so mentally preoccupied with acting like everything was fine that he didn't even think to question why Rukia was at the door or if her explanation sounded suspicious. He simply scratched his head and quickly changed the subject, "So, the rice pudding? Karin and Yuzu will probably be back soon."

Before Rukia could even respond, Ichigo marched away towards the kitchen, with her following along wordlessly. The two then resumed their preparation and cooking as if the phone call had not occurred, but Rukia could tell that her chef partner was thoroughly distracted by the fact that she had to repeat herself at least once every time she asked him for an ingredient or equipment. He also hardly spoke, despite being quite the talker every other time they had interacted. Her attempts at small talk were met with short, non-committal responses.

Eventually, Rukia was resigned to silence with frequent glances over at Ichigo, who appeared to be living in his own head.

"Hey, can you take the little bit of chicken that's left and cut them?"

Surprisingly, she did not have to repeat herself this time, and he took to it.

A sudden yelp of pain from Ichigo made her jump. Glad she didn't drop anything, she looked over to see red gushing from his hand onto the cutting board.

"I think I may have accidentally cut my finger," Ichigo said sheepishly.

Rukia leapt into action. "Hold it over the sink, don't move."

She grabbed his arm and led him to the sink. After washing the excessive blood off his hand, she examined his wound and realized the amount of blood made the injury out to be worse than it was. The cut was definitely not small, but it was shallow enough that her worries were calmed.

"Do you know where Yuzu and Karin keep their first-aid materials?"

"No."

"This will have to do for now then." She handed him some paper towels. "Just use it to apply pressure on the cut until it hopefully stops bleeding. I can clean up the blood on the counter."

"I can help with that."

"No, no, just take care of your hand, I can do it."

With a wet towel in hand, Rukia set to work wiping and rinsing away the blood on the countertop while Ichigo stood by, watching. When she was done, she gestured to his hand, "How is it feeling now?"

"I think the bleeding's under control now."

She reached out and took his wrist, pulling his hand closer to examine. He was correct, the bleeding did stop mostly. Sighing in relief, she looked up at him, and their eyes met, hers showing concern and his showing something imperceptible.

"Sorry about making you clean up all of that." His hand still laid in hers.

"It's not a problem."

"I was a bit distracted."

"I could tell." She paused, gathered some courage and said, "If it's not out of line for me to ask ... is it because of the phone call earlier?"

He took his hand back from hers at that point, making her feel for a moment as if she made a mistake in forcing the topic, but he simply grabbed another paper towel to press onto his cut. Perhaps a bit too nonchalantly, he said, "Yeah, it was just my ex-girlfriend calling."

"Oh?" She desperately wanted to know more, but also realized that asking specific questions may come across as insensitive.

Luckily, Ichigo appeared to be in an indulging mood and elaborated, "Her wedding is coming up, and she wanted me to RSVP. She wants me to come."

"How long is it until the wedding?"

"Two weeks. The deadline to RSVP was technically last week. But I guess I never got around to it."

Rukia felt like that was not the whole truth, but she also did not want to question it. Instead, she asked, "What did you tell her?"

"Well in summary, I told her that I didn't have a plus-one to the wedding and that I didn't want to third-wheel all our mutual friends. She said to tell her if I ever change my mind."

"If it's just someone to go to the wedding with, you can ask Yuzu or Karin to tag along. Hell, you can even ask me to go with you if it means free food and meeting up with some old high school friends." She tried to play off the last part as a joke, in case it came across as off-putting, despite knowing in reality that she really meant what she said.

Ichigo apparently took her seriously on both accounts. "It would be quite an inconvenience to you. I wouldn't ask for that much."

"No, no, not at all. I quite enjoy weddings, though I don't have the luxury of attending many, since my close friends make it a habit of theirs to remain single." She was speaking of Momo, mostly, but wording it that way sounded more convincing. Though, she was unsure about what she was trying to convince him to do. Go to the wedding in general? Take her to the wedding? See her as someone he can potentially take to the wedding?

Well, she had to admit to herself that a part of her did want to be his plus-one to the event. It wouldn't have to have any serious meaning behind it. Just some good fun. But ... she perhaps wouldn't mind if it did have a meaning behind it. "So really, if not having a tagalong is what's stopping you from going, there are options around it."

"I guess you're right." His eyes skirted around the kitchen, as if weighing each of the options in his mind. "It would be nice to have a reunion with everyone..."

Heart pounding louder than usual, Rukia turned towards the food on the (now clean) countertop, not wanting to appear anxious to influence his decision-making.

"I'll see if Yuzu or Karin is free during that weekend."

Damn it.

A/N: Don't lose hope. :)