Author's Note: As with the previous chapter, this is meant to be in line with ep. 32 of the anime. I've changed my style a little, to defluff my work, but if it sounds odd, let me know please! I'm trying to find a happy medium : ) I had a LOT of fun writing this, so please please please tell me what you think! Thanks!

Hana

He smiled.

He was walking and smiling.

Like a total idiot.

But he couldn't stop.

Ha, what was that anyway, Rukia?

It had been over a week since their memory in the forest. Since then, whenever they ran into one another, they never spoke of it. Instead, when their eyes would meet, they would smile slyly, as though such smiles whispered a supremely beautiful secret. Himitsu.

No one could have known about the moment that had transpired that afternoon, which even now was lost somewhere between the shade of the trees and cool comfort of the fallen leaves. Hence, they smiled. Like idiots.

It was a Friday afternoon. Fridays, they usually spent together wandering about the Seireitei, recounting the week and laughing as they did as children. But today, they had planned a special trip. It was a special Friday.

She was waiting at the southern gate, facing the enormous opening. The mousey outline of her small figure seemed almost comical against the gatekeeper himself. In her right hand, she held the pink passes she had obtained for her and Renji.

"RUKIA!"

"I should buy you a watch."

"I'm sorry I'm late."

"Then learn to tell time, genius." He let a smile escape, but hit her lightly on the shoulder to distract her attention from it.

Without looking, she handed him the pass. Together, they met the gatekeeper, handed him their passes, and walked out onto the dirt road that stretched far in front of them. Inuzuri, the 78th district of South Rukongai, after all, was far away.

Several hours later, the muggy and familiar smells of the Rukongai river reached them. The sun, which all afternoon had been seeping his way into the fibers of their robes, had now retreated in defeat and lay dormant in the warm orange luminescence of its set.

Rukia was happy to feel the cool breeze that rose from the river. She felt lighthearted, and happy that Renji was by her. Noticing that the spot where they had once fished was empty, she reached down to the hem of her robe, rolled it up to her thighs and galloped to the river. She laughed, "RENJI! YOU'RE TOO SLOW!" He, unobservant and stunned, ran after her.

She was a faster runner, and plunged into the water first. Throwing her feet up, tossing water at him in scoops, she watched him scramble to roll up his robe on the bank.

"Poor kitty-chan. Afraid of the water?" she yelled with a coy smile.

"You just WAIT, Ru..KIA!" He lunged in after her. Anticipating the charge, she bent down and threw handfuls of water at his face, laughing at him all the while. Ox as he was, with water in his eyes, he lost control of the charge and fell heavily on her. Splash!

Thankfully, they were close enough to the bank to not be submerged in the murky water. She came back up gurgling with water and laughter. He came up with just water.

"Is that all it takes to bring you down, Renji?" she giggled. They were very close now. Her sitting with her back to the bank, arms behind her back to support herself, and him leaning oddly between her legs and his arms parallel to hers.

"It's because you cheat all the time. Guess you can't win otherwise," he responded with as much a stern face as he could muster. He failed, and smiled again.

They laughed together, enveloped and simultaneously hidden by the encroaching evening.

Suddenly, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and pushed up with her waist to take advantage of his unbalanced position, and flipped him over backwards into the water. He, again taken by surprise, came up with just water.

"Cheat, huh? You're just slow. Admit it," she laughed. Though she was sitting on his waist, with her knees around him, he could barely feel her weight. Breezes of water swirled around them, holding her just barely above him.

That's when she noticed it. She saw something small of a light pink shade peeking out from one of the inner folds of his robe. He followed her gaze and lost all the color in his face, which was promptly replaced by a blushing red even the deviant sun would be jealous of.

Without asking him, she reached down unhurriedly and opened his outer robe with her small fingers. His eyes screamed in protest as loud as they were able, but he did not stop her. Then she reached under his inner robe, letting her fingers graze his soft skin below. He nearly fell backwards in the water.

She couldn't believe what she held in her hands then.

Hana-da.

Cough, cough. Renji had lost all focus of the situation. "Err, yeah, um. That, well, you know. Yeah. That was for you. If you want it. Yeah."

But it was as though she could not near him. She was lost in the small, delicate pink flower she held. Slightly flattened by their water wrestling, it was still as beautiful as the same flower she had held as a child, several years ago, to the day. The same flower she plucked out of the river and held against the warmth of the fading sun, all those years ago.

That's why he wanted to come here today, she understood.

"Renji… how…"

He hadn't planned on it being this way. He planned to be suave and cool. Mr. Charming. He had planned to flash his big Renji smile at her, and she would respond with a girly laugh, "Oh Renji! You're the Greatest!" she would offer with enthusiasm. He would laugh a big, manly laugh, "Oh yes, I am the greatest. Ha, ha, ha!" he would chortle.

Instead, shed had faked him out and pinned him. And she found it of her own accord. Then he responded in random one-word failures. Jeez.

"Renji… how…" she repeated, having forgotten her previous attempt.

"Yeah well, you know."

Jeez, he thought. Can't you say anything else, you moron! He paused.

You shined that day, he said to himself. In all the wreck that this place was, you shined like the flower you held.

Unobservant as he was, he began to see that it wasn't the river droplets that were on her cheek. Tears departed gently from her lowered eyes.

Rukia could no longer see the flower in her hands. Her vision was abandoned in tears, the existence of which she could not explain. The tears, without telling her, flowed from the part of her that never believed in the care of another… in the love of another.

She could not speak, and would not soil the moment with lost words. Instead, in a movement that seemed to last eternities, she reached forward and held him. She held him as though in doing so, she wanted to feel like he was holding every part of her. But wordlessly, she pulled back just far enough to look at him deeply, as though to ask "Renji… how…" in a secret language.

Renji was puzzled by all of this. Was she sad? Why was she crying? Again? He thought the flower would make her happy. But, clearly, it wasn't working. Damn, forget being suave again, he scolded himself.

Then, giving into her desire, dropping the flower between them, void of all emotion and logical explanation, she kissed him. She held his neck with one hand, pulling him towards her with all the strength she could call for, while she held his face with the other. She pressed her lips intensely against his.

Taken as always by surprise, Renji took a moment to adjust to the change. He couldn't even close his eyes! But with the adjustment complete and the pleasure of her kiss setting in, he placed one arm around her to pull her against his chest, and his other hand on her face. His mouth, cautious at first, found freedom in the embrace of her lips. She welcomed his eagerness. Their hands mirrored the wanderings of their tongues, and with each passing instant, their kiss continued with curiosity, understanding and passion.

Toying, kissing, and wrestling in the water, they stayed the rest of the evening and dried themselves by a fire before heading back.

They arrived to the gate by late evening, looking a bit as though they had both spontaneously and continuously fallen into every puddle in Rukongai. "You guys alright?" the gatekeeper asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, uh, we got lost… in the river…" Renji started and stumbled,

"but we found our way out eventually." Rukia concluded definitively. She flashed him a coy smirk a la Ichimaru to confirm.

Together, they thought.

Then Renji smiled again,

like an idiot.

The gatekeeper, on the other hand, was just confused.

La Fin!

The next installment, I've decided, will start with Rukia's entrance into the Kuchiki clan and try to work more into why they grew apart. Any advice?