The times that the band gets together are-pardon her French-a goddamn nightmare.

As a general rule, they always do a two hour practice before any gig in someone's garage before heading out to the venue. It gets them the warm up they desperately need, and prevents any weird sync ups the band might have during their performance.

Before Rukia came along, it used to be really productive.

But now…

"Would you stop clunking your keys in the middle of that bridge? I'm trying to hear Tatsuki's drums so I can sing on the beat!"

"Well if you'd stop scream-singing over my vocals, maybe you'd hear the beat!"

"Are you calling me off-key?!"

"Well you definitely aren't on, idiot!"

Now Tatsuki needs a drink as soon as she hits the club they're performing at.

Well this is gonna fucking suck, she thinks as she sips her drink, glumly watching the two vocalists continue to bicker setting up their equipment.

It'll be a disaster, she's sure of it. Never will a set go down into flames faster. Urahara will ghost their calls, Chad will decide he's better suited for the tropics, and Tatsuki will end up on the street collecting recyclables for money. Goodbye, glamorous hot-drummer life.

All thanks to her idiot best friend and this manic pixie dream girl.


And yet…

Time and time again: she's wrong.

They kill the set, sell a bunch of merch and by the end of the night they have 100-200 new followers on Instagram and Twitter.

Best of all: there's not a single hiccup between Ichigo and Rukia during these performances. From the audience's perspective, it's as if they've been performing together for years they're so in sync, so in tune with each other both vocally and performance-wise.

In fact…

"Are your vocalists dating?" An audience member approaches Tatsuki at the bar after one particular performance. This is about their fifth or sixth gig since Rukia joined, and Tatsuki is just beginning to think that maybe the offstage chaos is just gonna be a ritual to ensure a badass set.

She shakes her head. "Nah, not a chance. They're just… Well. Colleagues at best."

It's not the first time she and Chad have been asked this, and she doubts it'll be the last. Ichigo and Rukia's chemistry onstage was incredible if you didn't know how much they hated each other just two hours earlier. You could mistake it as sexual, and Tatsuki's sure Ichigo has a masochistic crush on their petite keyboardist-but nothing that he'd act upon.

Usually upon her answer, the guys will grunt and nod, and the girls will sigh out a pretty "that's a shame," before moseying off.

But this guy shrugs, and she follows his gaze over to the two chatting with some patrons separately, a couple feet apart. "Could've sworn they were. But… Maybe it's for the best for ya'll, you know? You wouldn't want it getting too personal n' cozy between the two of them…. And then they break up and you have a Fleetwood Mac situation on your hands."

Tatsuki feels a twinge of feral overprotectiveness for her band and is about to lash out Fleetwood Mac are you kidding me dude? You think we're back in the 70's and can't be civil? (even though it would turn out later that she'd think the same thing, so a double fuck you to that guy), but he turns around and saunters off before she can say anything.

She snorts and goes back to ordering a snack from the cute barmaid, mentally shaking her head.

The two of them? Dating? Like she said: not a chance.


Just a couple days after that, Urahara approaches them with a deal from a record company and Tatsuki is stoked out of her damn mind. Judging from everyone's wide eyed stare at the flimsy paperwork in his hand, she knows she's not the only one.

"So here's the deal: it's my job to go over all the legal details with you all. What you'll be paid upfront, what percentage you can expect from sales, our budgeting when it comes to touring, etcetera. Cool stuff. Everyone's getting pretty excited about you guys, so I don't think we'll have to lowball a deal."

Everyone agrees: all of them know the following they've gathered, and it was no small number. They were sure they were in a decent place to negotiate a deal for their freshman album.

"And now… Let's discuss what we can offer as incentive. What's a song of yours that could seal the deal?"

Suddenly all feelings of mutual agreement are gone. Tatsuki and Chad exchange a look as their bandmates both inhale.

"Urahara I think you'll find my 'In the Ice' song to be worthy of performing for them-"

"Pffft yeah right, 'Nice Vibe' is waaay better-"

"Oh you're so right, Ichigo, that's a far better choice for the company if they like the sound of someone heavy-breathing into the mic for a full ten seconds."

"That's an artistic choice, not like you know anything about art you fucking brat!"

"What did you say, fool?!"


Urahara decides on two songs, actually: one that Chad wrote, and an old tune of Ichigo's that Rukia had Frankenstein-ed some lyrics to. It was enough to satisfy both of them, and also bring Chad's impressive (albeit rare) work forward too.

More importantly: it got them the deal.


"Obviously I'm going to be writing most of the album." Ichigo huffs, and Rukia is just about to object when Tatsuki clears her throat.

"No. No you're not. Urahara, Chad and I have already talked about it, and I've been appointed to tell you how this is all gonna go down."

Ichigo turns wide-eyed to Chad, who shrugs. "Chad, you-?!"

"Keep your panties on n' shut up, Kurosaki. And stop looking so smug, Rukia." She swivels her head to the shorter woman, who's smirking.

"No one person is gonna write the songs. We're a team, damn it, and it's time we start acting like one. We've got a record deal now, enough of the high school shit of fighting over whose stuff will be played and whose won't. Here's how we're gonna do this: I'm not writing anything-. yeah yeah, hold your applause assholes. I won't be writing anything, but you're damn sure I'll be working hard on making some kickass beats for every song. I'm not a good writer, but I'm good at what I do. Chad, you said you've got another song you wanna work out. That sounds great. We'll look at the one you performed for the company and this one when things are more cemented and compare… Or add both, depending on how this next bit goes. As for you two children, listen carefully. We're on a time constraint-they want us to be in the studio, ready to record in a month. A month. None of us have time for your bickering over whose song deserves to be on what track, who sings the chorus and who sings the lead, whatever. It's been cute, but this is our shot and I'm not gonna have either of you fuck it up." She pauses to let it sink in. "Love you both, but no."

Ichigo scowls, but Rukia clears her throat delicately. "You're right, Tatsuki. We don't have time to be playing silly games. We can all agree on that." She shoots Ichigo a pointed look, who's about to snap back before Tatsuki butts in again.

"So here's what we're gonna do. You guys are the best songwriters, no doubt about it. So you will write the songs… Together. Make your own time to get together, because Chad and I have enough to do. If you wanna go over previous songs you wrote, then it has to have the approval of the other person to at least be presented to us. If it's good enough for the two of you though... It'll probably be good enough for us. Otherwise, write a whole new song that both can agree on. No bullshit allowed here, just good fucking music. Is that a deal?"

Ichigo huffs and puffs and definitely wants to bitch about it, but he agrees. Rukia nods too, but Tatsuki doubts she's much happier about it.

When the meeting is over and Ichigo and Chad have already left, Rukia approaches Tatsuki.

"I don't ever want to be a bother. I know how close you all are, I've gathered a bit from Ichigo," Rukia starts babbling, and Tatsuki is a bit shocked-she had no idea Ichigo and Rukia knew anything about each other. "I'm sorry if I've-look, you know it's not easy-Ichigo and I clash but-what I'm-thank you. For what you said about 'loving us both,' and all that. Sometimes I want to tear his head off, but I enjoy working with you and Chad. Thank you for accepting me as part of this band."

"Oh, stop. You've been one of us since you joined. Even Ichigo voted you in." Tatsuki pats Rukia's shoulder. "It's a challenge working with him for sure… But he's talented, and you're talented. We just gotta make it work out."

"Absolutely, I agree." Rukia is silent for a bit as Tatsuki returns to packing up her stuff, then hesitantly she hears: "Ichigo voted me in?"

And when Tatsuki turns around to confirm it, she swears she sees the smallest smile on Rukia's face.