xxv.
Class has ended. Ichigo is not very far from his college building, down the marble stone steps and a few meters off it when a small stone hit his left leg, he turns around furiously, halfway mounting a curse and half expecting Keigo to be fooling around.
Instead, he sees Rukia sitting idle on the steps of his college building, looking pointedly at him.
She shows him two more small stones, and threatens to throw the second one.
It was natural, the way he turns towards her. "What?" He mouths, raising a hand - a clueless gesture.
Ichigo remembers Rukia teaches kendo during the afternoon, and her prep school started days ago which means she should be busy and not here.
Rukia flicks at him another small stone, hitting his right leg this time.
"Hey, stop that!" Ichigo starts shuffling towards her, forgetting that swift, smooth gait he uses whenever he's in public.
"Oi, where's your kendo stuff?" he asks her equally pointedly when he gets into a comfortable talking distance, "and what are you doing here?"
"I couldn't get your attention, you look at a straight line and walks the same line and scowl so much," Rukia comments, shaking her head.
"You scare people too easily," she tells him light heartedly with a hint of little laugh, as if she finds it amusing.
But Ichigo brushes it aside and admits to her, "that's the idea." He looks over his shoulder then back at her.
Today, she's a contrast to the dark green leafy vegetation and tall trees around his college building, today's a blossom-colored dress and her hair tied in yellow ribbon, the same stubborn bang between her eyes.
She fits well, sitting on the white marble steps of his college building, looking carefree. Her purple bike nowhere in sight.
It is warm, already three thirty in the afternoon but he still couldn't look at the sky without being blinded, but the trees shade them well.
Few students run past them, some of them taking their umbrellas out, before remembering why he approached her.
"What is it?" He asks again, unconsciously putting his hands in his pocket.
He's sure she sought him out not just to throw stones at him.
"What?" Ichigo isn't very fond of guesswork.
"Oh, of course!" Rukia leans down on her bag as she search for something. Then she hands him a folded paper of sort - a card.
"What's this?" He takes the coloured card.
Rukia is sneering at him, it is an impressive sneer, Ichigo notes, chilly and splattered prettily on her face, as if an hour of blue skies before storm falls.
"Invitation," she answers coolly.
'To?"
There are tiny, colorful fingerprints on the folded card - watercolors, and on closer inspection, some of the colors are staining Rukia's dress and arms. Ichigo looks at the finger prints on her dress, and on the card itself, and then on her hands - where colors have faded, watered down to pastel.
"For you, silly," she tells him proudly, "it wasn't my idea though, my kids like you. You brought them strawberries and treated them ice cream, remember?"
Ichigo tries not to snicker at that, ah, yes, sacrificial offerings for the devils and their queen.
He reads the card, sees horrible drawings and intermingling messages because the writings were big. The messages are incoherent - kids, written by kids, ranging from please come, carrot-kun to I command you to build our props!
Ichigo reads, "The Hop-Loving Bunny and Her Carrot Subjects Versus Zombie Pumpkins: First Chapter…huh?"
"Sounds catchy, right? It's an original. I wrote it myself."
He flips it over and sees boxed illustrations trying to chronically tell a story, bunny-fied carrots and devil-horned pumpkins trying to massacre each other were drawn from box to box.
"We are studying theatrics, we would like you to build us a mini theater stage, and set up the lights and music and all, we want you to make our school backyard look like a mini high school festival, and of course, be the guest of honor," Rukia tells him seriously,
"What?"
"The idea is that pumpkins are mutant carrots and they are bad; they are originally carrots which ate other carrots that's why they expanded and hardened - mutants - and became horned-monsters themselves, and the Queen Bunny is just trying to defend her royal subjects from-"
"What? - no, don't tell me you're the queen bunny?" He asks her incredulously, no, no, no.
"No, of course." But Ichigo doesn't believe it. He looks at the invitation, all of her monsters signed the paper, and her included as their teacher.
Ichigo focuses on the bunny-fied (and the tallest) carrot leading the charge against an army of pumpkins, the poor carrot looks very familiar, he holds a katana and is scowling at the pumpkins but is oddly wearing a black backpack: what the fuck.
Ichigo looks at his own black backpack.
"It has a twist!" Rukia promises, and by this time, she is already standing right in front of him.
Ichigo tries to refocus on the invitation and what it meant for him, humiliation, and well, it's not like he will act in her silly and logic-less storytelling session, more like be the props-man.
"Wait, 'we want you to' is that what you said?"
"Yes. What do you think?" Rukia's eyes were wide. Strange, strange girl-teacher.
But Ichigo can only think of one thing; he deadpans, "no way, burn this instead."
(but he's still clutching the invitation)
Rukia, however, smiles.
a/n: thank you, hopelessromantic