Here's the thing: Ichigo is not an asshole.
He's not a misogynist, he doesn't believe in that men-are-better-than-women bullshit-and that includes the topic of music. Yeah, he loves Jim Morrison and David Bowie and Bob Dylan something fierce-but he's also a sucker for Nina Simone and Stevie Nicks, for Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell. Does he hide a tear or two when A Case of You comes onto his "For Mom" Spotify playlist?
None of your damn business. (But yes.)
And maybe this is all to over-explain: he doesn't have a problem with women challenging him. Look no further than Tatsuki for proof.
… He just has an issue with Rukia challenging him.
And-okay-look. She's excellent. The stuff that she's written is so well-crafted it makes his teeth grind in envy, and what she can do with the piano is incredible. She's talented, she's brave, she knows a good melody when she hears one, she's got an electric stage presence, not to mention she's insanely pretty-
… Talented. She's insanely pretty talented. Did he already say that?
But all of that does not give her the right to drive him this up the wall.
"I'm telling you," she repeats coolly, so slowly like she's explaining something to a child, "I'm telling you, those bars do not work here. It clashes with the lyrics-here, do it again on your guitar, I'll sing. It sounds clunky."
"That's the point! It's not supposed to be clean!" He runs his hand roughly through his hair, but grabs the guitar from beside him anyway. They're sitting on the ground in his garage, an hour or so before practice with the rest of the band.
They've been at this for a week already, and they've had a collective collaboration of…. One. One song that was Rukia's original creation, and it was like pulling damn teeth to make his own edits. With a song from Chad, that leaves two for their album, and… Six more to go.
Six more to go when they've only got three weeks left to make them.
"I understand you weren't classically trained like I was-"
"Thank God for that, boring shit isn't my style-"
"How dare you!"
"All right, all right! Look I'm sorry." He puts his hands up defensively as she huffs, and he is sorry. Kind of. He might enjoy riling her up as much as she does him, but that's beside the point.
"What I mean is…. I chose these bars with the lyrics because it's messy. Hear me out: it's a heartbreak song. Right? This important person in this kid's life died, right? And he's trying to get through it. He's trying to comprehend how something so fucked can happen to the best person he's known, and-he's struggling. To understand, to go through his life the same way, whatever. And it's beyond him. So… This bridge is his having these overwhelming emotions, and stumbling through each individual thought because nothing makes sense. So… It's not supposed to sound pretty, if that makes sense? Like, the point of the song is it sounds good, just not in a traditional way. Because that's doing an injustice, to make it sound nice."
She's staring at him with an unreadable expression, and Ichigo tries to rewind and remember if he said anything about the song being about his mom's death. He didn't-but then he realizes he may as well have.
He clears his throat, looks down and plucks a couple of chords on the guitar to distract himself. "Okay, fine. It's stupid, let's just move on to-"
"The line 'What distracts us from losing someone when they were everything?' That's good. I like that a lot. What if you expanded on that, in the bridge?"
"... You got any ideas for that?"
"No. It's your song, your experience. You do what you want with it." She shrugs, and rifles through the rest of her notes. He realizes he should probably say something, something like "That's it?" or "When my mom died I played her favorite album, Joni Mitchell's Blue every day for a whole year," but he's stumped.
"... Rukia-"
"Just give me the edits and I'll tell you everything you did wrong." Her eyes glint, and he rolls his own.
"Yeah yeah, now let's see what you've got, Mozart."
Tatsuki doesn't know what they've been up to for the past three weeks, but whatever's been going on: it's working.
The first week was a rough start, when all the vocalists could present her and Chad was a song that-while good-was… One song. Tatsuki thought she was gonna have an aneurism, Rukia looked down sheepishly, Ichigo tried to argue back but looked guilty anyway, and Chad sipped his tea.
"You're not worried?!" She spun around to her bassist while the lead singers sauntered off, thoroughly chastened. "We're about to be out of jobs because of those two, how can you just sit there drinking tea?"
Chad shrugged. "No, I'm not really worried. Actually, I think your plan is working a lot better than you think it is."
She's about to go off on Chad. Plan? What plan? You'd think I was playing some cupid matchmaker, not maintaining our record deal the way you say that!
But she took one good look at him and sighs. Fighting with Chad isn't really a fight.
Especially when she's proved yet again that he's always right.
The two have just acoustically performed all seven songs that they've created, topped off at the end with a song called Sun and Moon that's bound to be their first single, no question about it. It's a duet about falling in love with someone who challenges you, and while Tatsuki can easily pinpoint the lyrics Ichigo wrote for it-wow. Somehow in just three weeks the quality of his writing has gotten exponentially better, and she can't help but feel proud of him.
His strong, gravelly voice with Rukia's delicate warble ends the last note with a haunting harmony, and the others of the team-Tatsuki, Chad, and Urahara-are silent until Urahara lets out a low whistle.
"Well shit." He adjusts his hat, chuckling. "I think we've got an album, team."
Tatsuki grins and agrees.
Besides the occasional scuffles, Ichigo and Rukia are both rather civilized in the recording room. No storm-outs, no stony silence as they all tune up. The process is….Cordial?
In fact, Tatsuki thinks as she watches them, heads together with the producer, sharing a pair of headphones, If I didn't know better, I'd say they're…
She doesn't hear the conversation, but Ichigo's turned to Rukia and says something with a snide sideways smirk, and Rukia slaps the back of her hand to his belly with a hard THWAP. Ichigo doubles over, but he's laughing and she's shaking her head but she's smiling and-
Well shit.
The drummer doesn't have much time to panic about this, though, as just a few seconds later the two ask if everyone's ready to record the next song.
She breathes in, breathes out. Soul Vibes really is shaping up to be an awesome album, at least.
