Chapter 2 – she's hope for the nation's troubled youth
Renji skidded to a halt in front of the theater three whole triumphant blocks ahead of Ichigo before realizing that he had no money. Or, at least, no money he knew how to use. Rukia was right behind him, and she poked him in the ribs—hard—when he stopped moving. He flinched and took an aggrieved swipe at her head, which she ducked easily. She shot him an equally aggrieved-looking glare a second later, but one that had a suspicious laughing gleam in it.
It was almost a wonder that he recognized it now; so many years had passed since he'd last seen it. That was the same look she had worn so often when they were kids together in Rukongai, when they swore and pushed each other and fought for the sheer joy of fighting, when they ran with other kids their age and it was just them against the whole world. Actually, it was still pretty much them against the world, he decided. It was just a little more complicated and there were more worlds involved now.
She interrupted his ruminations by stomping on his foot.
"OW."
"Renji! Buy me some tickets for the moving picture show," she demanded.
"Renji! I'm hungry. Go steal some pears for me."
"Che, go get them yourself, Rukia!"
"Che." He looked away to conceal his trepidation. He had only the barest idea of how to use the foreign money. Urahara's briefing was a fuzzy memory in his mind. "Go get 'em yourself, you want 'em so bad." He shifted from foot to foot, but stopped when Rukia kicked him in the shin.
"Ha!" she smirked up at him. "You don't know how to buy them, do you?"
Affronted, he stared down his nose at her, drawing himself up to his full height and crossing his arms. "Of course I know how to buy tickets! Che, I've got the money, I was briefed by Urahara, and the window has a goddamn sign." He was rewarded by Rukia's quick glance around, as she hadn't noticed the window with the sign yet. She recovered her aplomb quickly as soon as she spotted it and drew herself up too, tossing her hair back with a flip of her head.
"So you're just too scared, then?" she taunted wickedly.
Lambent blue eyes had stared down at him from the dead tree arrogantly. "You're just too scared, aren't you? Little scaredy-cat!" seizing upon the turn of phrase, she began chanting it with the innocent delight in cruelty that is the sole province of very young children.
Somewhere not too deep within him, a little red-haired boy jumped up and down and howled insults. Renji, however, contented himself with a murderous scowl. In a clear voice, he said with dignity, "'Course not. I'm just…waiting for Ichigo to get here." With a stroke of brilliance, he added quickly, "So he can pay. Because. This was uh…his idea in the first place."
Renji danced his anger out beneath the tree, punching at the air in a show of strength and bravery, yelling back half-understood obscenities until she fell off her branch from laughing at him.
Rukia gave a cough that might have been a laugh, but she was always quite amenable to the idea of other people paying for things. Renji was glad to see that today's theater visit was no exception. Kurosaki Isshin had recently begun giving her an allowance, and she had quickly and eagerly seized upon the concepts of money management, something that so far had never been required of her.
Renji decided to let her mirth slide and was about to check on the wallet's Ichigo's progress to the theater when Rukia's eyes went very wide. Renji had just enough time to mutter "oh, shit" and remember that –
He had instantly shoved the laughing girl so that she fell again after she had clambered to her feet, and it had quickly become a whirl of fists and knees and twin shrieking, prepubescent voices
-- before a hard shoulder slammed into the small of his back and he was tackled to the pavement.
"You bastard," Ichigo yelled, grabbing Renji by his shirt and rolling the flailing Shinigami over. Renji whipped up an arm to protect his face and, predictably, received a swift punch in the stomach. He grunted, but had been prepared for it, and reached up to grab Ichigo's collar. Fisting his hands in the material as his assailant brought his arm back for another blow, Renji flung Ichigo to the side. The teen rolled and leapt to his feet moments after Renji had risen to his. They faced off across the dingy theater's entrance, heedless of the other prospective theater-goers hurriedly backing away.
"I…ya…you," snarled the boy, at a loss for words at how to express his fury. "You carried me!"
"Well, yeah," grinned Renji. "If you really feel that strongly about it, there's always the memory chikan, right?" he said reasonably. "Oh, and you're gonna have to pay for our tickets, too."
"What?"
"Right, Ichigo," said Rukia earnestly from the sidelines, glancing at the clock. "I want good seats, and we might be late if--" she broke off with a disgusted snort as Ichigo lunged for Renji's throat. Renji danced out of the way, but Ichigo was not to be deterred. A few more lunges and he managed to turn it into a grappling match as opposed to a chase, and they thrashed about for a while, each trying to get the other in a headlock. Rukia stood rocking backward and forward on her feet, torn between joining in, trying to stop the fight, or just watching and, later, pointing and laughing at their stupidity-induced bruises.
Seeing the nervous lady in the "ticket booth" speaking intently into the Shinigami-communicator-looking device Ichigo called a "telephone", Rukia decided breaking them apart like a conscientious, law-abiding human citizen would be best. So she walked up to her two brawling companions, considered her timing for a moment, then grabbed Renji by the hair while simultaneously planting a foot in Ichigo's stomach. She didn't scruple to use her reiatsu-augmented strength, either; they were ripped from each other's grip, Renji yelping and clutching at his hair and Ichigo actually going flying. Though the fascinated onlookers had retreated to a safe distance, they nevertheless had to scatter out of the orange-haired boy's path.
As he lay stunned on the pavement after rolling twice from the force of her shove, Ichigo wondered why he always, always forgot how strong she was. Renji flailed until Rukia released him, then howled with disbelief and pointed at the red hairs he left clutched in her fist. "Augh! That was my hair, Rukia!"
Rukia narrowed her eyes at Renji and crossed her arms. "Yes? And this was my movie!" She then turned her focus to Ichigo and glared at him, too, trying her best to ignore how the growing crowd of onlookers she was attracting was shuffling forward again. Really, these humans would stare at anything, wouldn't they? "Ichigo! Buy the tickets."
Ichigo levered himself up from the pavement, still fired up with fighting hormones and unwilling to let the issue go just yet. "Why—" he ground out, but trailed off mid-tirade as he saw the Look she was giving him. "Uh," he managed cleverly. "I'll just buy those tickets then." He spun quickly and made his way through the press of too-shocked-at-the-violence-to-snicker-but-only-just people to the elderly ticket lady, who put down the phone after a final few words and eyed him nervously.
He coughed uncomfortably and then muttered, "Three tickets for that rabbit movie." He reflected that today was not turning out to be a good day for his ego. His spirits sank further as he saw the ticket lady's brain click decisively into amusement from where it had teetered on the edge of trepidation at his approach. He swore he could feel the eyes of the crowd boring into his back as he stood there, and her shuffle for change behind the counter seemed interminable. Finally, tickets in hand, he turned around and realized that no, he hadn't been imagining it; just like he thought, the crowd of suburbanites was torn equally between staring fixedly at him or Renji and gazing in awe at Rukia.
The girl in question stood serene, arms crossed and nose in the air, Kuchiki mask in place and looking Totally Unconcerned at the scrutiny she was under. Ichigo shoved the tickets into her hand and slouched self-consciously after her as she strode determinedly towards the doors. Renji skulked after them both, sharing a commiserating look with Ichigo over her head.
The doors shut behind them and the crowd erupted into delighted chatter. As she busied herself with selling tickets, the old matron in the ticket booth decided that perhaps the troublesome young men of this new generation wouldn't turn out so badly after all with girls like that one around.