"So, do your brother and sister have to stand around at their orchid booth all day?" Renji asked Rukia as they made their way past booths advertising advanced formula fertilizer and decorative orchid clips.

"They get to stand around at their orchid booth all day," Rukia clarified. "People come up and admire their orchids and they get to talk about foliage variegations. They take turns wandering off to go talk to their orchid friends and see who has interesting rhizomes for sale. At some point, they will probably go promenade around to other people's booths to offer their personal judgement on this year's offerings."

"Aren't those orchids worth small fortunes?" Renji pressed, his brow furrowing in a way that made his tattoos scrunch together cutely.

Rukia glanced over at her friend, tall and clean-scrubbed in what was quite obviously a new kimono. Rukia would bet even money that Hinamori had picked it out. He had traded out his usual white hachimaki for a dark blue one, tied to cover most of his forehead. He looked desperately wholesome, her shamisen case slung over his shoulder like it weighed nothing. "Abarai," Rukia asked in a low, conspiratorial tone, "are you thinking about pulling a heist at the Orchid Show?"

Renji's cheeks abruptly turned bright red. "I was not!" he excused. "I was wondering if I signed up enough folks for security! I mean, I was thinking about it in the sense that there's clearly a lot of movable, high-value merchandise and low crowd control."

"There's a lot more security than it looks, everyone's got private ninja," Rukia pointed out, highly amused at the thought that for all the new kimono and lieutenant's badges, his brain couldn't help but run the numbers, just as hers did. "Plus, orchids are difficult to fence- you have to either care for them yourself or move them quickly, and they lose a lot of value without their provenance. Plus, there's the risk of bringing down the wrath of all the noble houses, led by my own brother, if you got caught. He's not supposed to bring his zanpakutou to this thing, but, ah, Sister is very sneaky. She's a terrible influence on him."

"You've thought about it, eh?" Renji asked, his mouth quirking up at one side. "This purely theoretical orchid show heist?"

"I've thought about it so much," Rukia admitted, ducking her head. "I've sat through so many of these things."

"The real reason I asked," Renji went on with a chuckle, "is because I was wondering if your sister and brother were gonna come hear you play."

Rukia's mouth dropped open for a brief moment. "Oh, goodness, no," she flapped a dismissive hand at him. "They've heard me play hundreds of times before. That's valuable time they could be previewing next year's offerings in sphagnum moss."

Renji's face tilted down toward her, his forehead creased with concern. This dummy, Rukia's heart sighed. These rich people feed me and wrap me in silly kimono and give me everything in the world, and he's upset that they won't come to my stupid little recital. She smiled back reassuringly. "I think you've gotten the wrong idea. This isn't like… a concert. It's ambient music. I'm decorative, just a pretty girl plunking away at a stringed instrument. Ideally, you don't even notice me."

"Impossible," Renji declared, and her heart skipped another beat, just before he ruined it with, "not while you're wearing that."

Rukia laughed, trying to cover her momentary lapse of coolness. "Oh, I was wondering if you noticed it." It would have been hard not to. Her outfit was very flowy and very pink, covered in frilly butterflies landing on floofy peonies. She had been having such a nice time talking to Renji that she had forgotten to hate it for an entire five minutes. "It's lovely, isn't it? The pinnacle of feminine beauty."

Renji eyed her appraisingly. "Not that fond of it, to be honest. I prefer the blue one you had on the other day."

A bold gambit, Lieutenant Abarai! Rukia arched an eyebrow at him, without uttering a word, daring him to second guess the claim he had just staked.

Renji backpedaled, but it was clear he was only willing to give away so much ground. "Er, I mean, it's a lovely kimono. I'm sure a person who knew anything about kimono would have a lot of nice stuff to say. I just never thought pink was your color and I got no idea how you're gonna play a shamisen around those sleeves." He tried to run his fingers over his hair, and realized he couldn't with the way his bandana was tied. "It's nothing personal. I like you just as much in a shihakushou, to be honest." He winced, realizing that wasn't the right thing to say, either, and threw up his hands. "Look, if you're gonna hit me, go ahead and do it, just watch out for the shamisen."

Rukia snorted and cracked a grin. "It's an abomination, Abarai, and you should say it. Like I said, Lady Akizuki, who arranges the musical program, feels that we should be ornamental, as lovely to look at as we are to listen to."

"Gross," Renji declared. "And insulting to true fans of shamisen music."

"Oh, like yourself?" Rukia chuckled.

"Absolutely not. The shamisen is the one with the long neck and the strings, right? People play it during puppet shows?"

Rukia really did hit him this time, for making her laugh. "Why did you lie to my sister, then?"

"Me? I did not!"

"You did, you told her you came to hear me play the shamisen!"

"I did!" Renji protested indignantly. "I came to hear you. I'd come to see you juggle knives or arm wrestle a bear or put on a puppet show, if that's what you were doing!"

"Oh," Rukia replied, looking away. There was a warm feeling in her chest that might have been embarrassment or possibly something else.

Renji rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, uh, not just that, I guess. I also came to ask you if, ah, if you wanted to go out on a date with me."

"A date?" Rukia repeated, her heart vibrating like a plucked shamisen string.

"Yeah. I guess I got a little overwhelmed last week at dinner, and I left before we made plans again. I thought about droppin' by your division, seein' if you wanted to get drinks after work sometime, but I thought that was maybe a little forward, especially if the Thirteenth gossips as bad as the Sixth. Also, maybe Ladies don't get drinks after work. Then I started to write you a letter that I was gonna send home with the captain and I realized how hard it was gonna be to figure out where and when and what we could do all in a letter, so I thought maybe I'd just catch you at the Orchid Show and we could, uh, talk about it." Renji offered her a small, hopeful smile.

Rukia wasn't used to small gestures from Renji. She was used to shouting and kicking down doors and crashing through windows. That small, hopeful smile just about killed her dead.

After a few moments, it was followed by a small, hopeful "Well? Whaddya say?"

"You haven't actually asked me anything," Rukia pointed out, even though the real reason she hadn't answered was because she was too busy feeling small and hopeful herself.

"Oh!" He cleared his throat. "Will you go out on a date with me? One day next week, maybe?"

"Sure," Rukia agreed. She cogitated for a minute on his other question- what could they do? Brother and Sister gave her quite a bit of freedom in some respects- they'd let her join the Gotei, for one. Sister had insisted that she be allowed to try for a rank, even though Brother was against it initially. She had expected him to put his foot down and pull her out after Kaien's death, but instead, the opposite had occurred- it was Byakuya who had talked her through her grief, convinced her that she had acted correctly. He seemed to regard her with more respect ever since, and, unfortunately, higher expectations as well.

Socializing was another story, however. Her periodic entreaties to maintain quarters on-base were always discarded out of hand. Sister had approved of the Shiba whole-heartedly, and had trusted them as chaperones of a sort. Since their death, Rukia's social circle had shrank down significantly. Captain Ukitake, of course, was a close friend of the family. Rukia occasionally had lunch with Kiyone and Sentarou- high-ranking officers from good Seireitei families. She'd managed to beg permission to attend after-hours squad functions before, but a casual meet-up in one of the Gotei-frequented izakaya would be right out. "Drinks is a little iffy," she said slowly. "We could go out to dinner. Especially if it were at a Kuchiki-owned restaurant. Friday?"

Renji's face lit up briefly and then fell. "Friday won't work. I got something Friday. Er- I mean- well, you would be welcome to come to that, I guess, but if your family wouldn't approve of drinks with just me, they sure ain't gonna approve of this. I could try to get out of it, but Matsumoto gets sneaky if you try to cancel plans on her…"

"Relax," Rukia jabbed him with her elbow. "How about Saturday, instead? Or are you going to be too hungover from drinking with Lieutenant Matsumoto? That sounds dangerous."

Renji frowned seriously. "I'm not that big of a drinker anymore. I mean, I like to drink! I just don't like feeling it the next day. Guess I'm an old man now."

Rukia got ready to rib him, when her brain put two and two together. "Friday's your birthday!" she hooted. "The 31st, that's right! That's why you can't get out of it. You are an old man!"

"I can't believe you remembered," Renji mumbled self-consciously.

"I remember things that are important!" Rukia protested. "And are you free Saturday or not? I can buy you dinner with Brother's money, and then I don't have to buy you a present."

"You don't have to buy me a present anyway," he protested.

"Very rude," Rukia teased. "Asking a girl out just before your own birthday."

"You're hard to pin down, y'know," he grumped. "I gotta ask you these things while I got the chance." He seemed to be thinking about something for a moment, before his face softened into a smile. "Saturday would be great. Gives me all day to wash my hair and try on outfits."

"Oh, just let Hinamori dress you again," Rukia declared. "That blue looks nice on you. Or was it Kira? He always had good taste, too."

Renji opened his mouth, prepared to get offended, then closed it again. "Thanks," he said. "And it was Hinamori."