A/N: Well, I must say that this has been the hardest chapter for me to write thus far. D8 Probably because I can't write romancy stuff very well. Comes with the territory I guess, of trying to expand my abilities. . . Still, I like it overall. :)
Though I would much rather like a second opinion: in other words--REVIEW! lol. For those of you that have been, you are my adoration, my duckies! X3 Much love to you all! Hahaha. Anyways, Here it is, and enjoy ^^
Mon Cœur S'ouvre à Ta Voix
(My heart opens itself to your voice)
Then She Attacks Me Like A Leo III
Tiny feet swung back and forth idly, frowning around the half a waffle dangling from her closed mouth. In her hands was a cell phone with a map of Karakura Town with no indication of any hollow activity, eyes boring a hole into the screen in concentration as she mentally dared the device to announce any foreign presence.
"So you're just gonna take this on your own?" The black haired young woman clad in a pink tank top and jeans sitting on the edge of the open closet nodded, taking the phone in one hand and using the other to take another bite of the waffle. Violet eyes followed her orange haired companion as he walked back and forth in the room, shirt buttons being done up as he looked for the things he needed to take with him to school.
"Well, if you guys need me, you know where to find me."
They both looked up as the window slid open and a scowling Hitsugaya crouched into the room.
"Don't insult me, Kurosaki, you're help would only get in my way."
"And a good morning to you too, shorty." A half smirk and Ichigo shouldered his bag, offering a sarcastic salute as the vertically challenged captain glared him down from the bed.
"It's Hitsugaya-taichou to you, substitute."
Unfazed, Ichigo headed for the door with a grin. "Rukia, you know the deal."
Waving him off, she called a goodbye as she hastily finished her waffle and twisted to pull something out of the closet, gesturing for the flustered captain to sit at the desk as they heard the main house door close loudly a floor below.
"Good morning, Hitsugaya-taichou. I trust you slept well?" She wasted no time, instead offering him a paper full of well organized notes and a plate of food she brought up after Ichigo's family had left.
At least Orihime wasn't on the premises this time.
"Slept fine. What's this?" His attention turned to the paper, food momentarily forgotten.
"A list on what we got so far." Watching him carefully as he read through it, Rukia took a seat on the edge of Ichigo's bed. Pale shoulders hunched, her palms found their way to the edge of the mattress for support, legs swinging slightly. "There's no doubt that whatever's been striking women has been doing so at clubs. All of them were single and appeared to have gone in alone."
Were they really that stupid to step unaccompanied into a place that clearly was nothing but trouble? Toushiro didn't think anyone was that. . . well, dumb.
It reflected in the heavy sigh and the way his brows furrowed.
"I called the other shinigami on duty—apparently the two that were killed were trying to stop an attack and were overpowered—it's possible that they underestimated their opponent, but I wouldn't doubt that our target could've had the element of surprise somehow."
"Anything else?"
"To be honest, not really. We still don't know if it's a hollow. The radar, according to intelligence from Soul Society, says that there is a flickering as if a hollow is there for the span of a few seconds—but only at night; sometimes even in two different locations in the same time span. And we can't blame it on glitches because it's been verified that the system is working perfectly fine." A quick glance and he noted how her gaze had turned a shade darker, mouth set in a grim line as she stared at the paper that was spread on the desk before the captain.
"The victims are all missing."
She had recognized one of the names on the list—a girl from school who had sat with Tatsuki and the others every once in a while at lunch, and it made her realize how close to home it had hit. If it were any unknown human it would've been less uncomfortable, but somehow it being someone she had spoken to not even a month ago left her more attentive of the situation.
A soft exhale, and teal eyes followed her movements as she took to staring at hands that were now clasped in deep thought. There was not even an inkling of fear about her, Toushiro noted, even though her life could possibly be more on the line than ever; it didn't seem to faze her at all.
It made him respect her just a little more.
"How many humans are there gone, exactly?" His cheek was propped on a cupped palm, elbow leaning on the desk for support as he turned the chair just enough to have her in view. Before he realized what was going on though, Rukia rose to join him at the desk, hands splayed on the smooth surface and thin black brows furrowed in concentration.
"Seven humans, two shinigami." The tone was somber, eyes falling to the listed names of the victims on the paper. In the back of her mind, she could remember how a mere half hour ago Ichigo and her had sat before a small radio and written down the names of the human victims one by one on the paper as they were said.
Swearing, Toushiro ran a free hand over tired features before sighing heavily. "And do we have any idea where the next target will be?"
"We were trying to figure it out." At this, Rukia twisted and pulled a folded map out of her back pocket, spreading it on the desk for him to see. There were marking all over it—spots with a vibrant x on top of them, others circled, and some holding question marks over the different colored areas denoting separate parts of the town.
"That's too many for humans not to notice. What do they think it is?"
"A serial killer. They even detained a suspect." A quirked eyebrow as she glanced at him.
"An innocent?" She shook her head.
"Ironically enough, no. But if we don't stop this before our target's next attack, the suspect will be set free."
". . . And our possible locations?"
"There are five clubs in Karakura-" A finger pointed all of them out for him-"-of which he has attacked three."
When he realized which two were left, he cursed. "Opposite sides of the map, great."
Nodding, Rukia turned to sit on the bed again, Toushiro immediately feeling the abrupt emptiness beside him—a lack of someone radiating a gentle but cool reiatsu that felt similar to his own. From where she was as of now, he could only just barely catch her scent, her reiatsu muted so low (for her own safety) that it was indiscernible from the small distance between them. "We have a fifty-fifty chance of catching him. If we could just crack whatever pattern he has, we can find which one he's aiming for."
Surely this couldn't be too hard for someone who had graduated young from the academy with flying colors?
Leaning over the map, the white haired young man looked at the crossed out locations and the numbers above which he assumed were the order of the victims, immediately diving into the puzzle with nothing short of a business-like approach that caught his partner's curiosity. For a few minutes she sat there watching him probe, question, mutter, and frown his way through the possibilities silently.
She didn't realize she was gawking.
In fact, she was in such deep thought that it could've been argued that she wasn't watching him, except for the fact that her contemplation had been about him (of course she had no idea what was going on, so the argument would've been useless to begin with). From the angle she was currently at (a few feet away from the desk so that Hitsugaya would have his personal space) she could see his profile just enough to discern most of his expression as he worked; and somehow it made her smile.
Curious violet eyes noted how the captain's brow furrowed, how icy aquamarine eyes roved over the map and rough fingers formed imaginary lines from location to location, lips muttering incoherent thoughts. Her gaze followed his hands over the map as if in a trance, wondering for a moment how it was that such a prodigy could look so normal at work.
He looked . . . sort of. . . attractive. . .?
There's nothing wrong with that thought. Sode no Shirayuki interjected as Rukia dipped her head to hide the sudden onslaught of redness to her cheeks.
He's just as much a man as you are a woman, you know.
Was she. . . encouraging the notion?
I am merely stating a fact, is all.
Rukia didn't like where this was going.
You're not a hollow, Rukia-sama. Having feelings isn't against the rules.
Well, it might as well should be! Yes, Hitsugaya-taichou was nothing short of amazing and . . . cute (even if the word was hard to say even in her mind), but he was a captain and she was a nobody. She doubted he would ever look her way in anything short of comradeship—something destined to fail even before it had started. Plus the fact that the very idea was beyond mad!
But why was she even considering something like that?
Shaking her head, Rukia tried her hardest to derail the thoughts circling her like swarming bees, only to find she couldn't get past the deliberation without much difficulty.
Toushiro meanwhile, had almost completely forgotten Rukia's company in the room until he felt a familiar prickling sensation that made him aware of the other shinigami behind him. Stopping mid-mutter and risking a glance up, violet met teal for a moment before the black haired young woman sitting properly on the edge of Ichigo Kurosaki's bed blinked away the soft melancholic look on her features.
"Hm?"
An awkward moment of silence filled the bedroom where he questioned what he had seen, birds chirping outside and the sunlight illuminating both the bed and the young woman perched upon it. Somehow it was as if the light was searching for her on the bed, was coming through the half-curtained windows just to touch the pale skin of her petite back with its' ribbons of light in the silence.
Then it hit him.
"The numbers. . ." Tilting her head in curiosity, Rukia got up from her perch to join the captain at the desk once more, wary this time—almost shy as she kept more distance between them than before but unable to hide her interest in his findings.
"It's looking for someone." Lilac orbs followed his hand as Toushiro pointed out the pattern he had picked up.
"Notice how he hadn't attacked those two at all, even though he had plenty of time? He's going to one of these three again." Here, attentive eyes noted the names written in quick kanji over the crossed out clubs. "The other two don't have whatever-whoever- he's looking for. And if you count how many times he's attacked each place—we're most likely to find it again at Fusion."
Blinking, Rukia turned to him from where she was leaning over the map. "Hitsugaya-taichou, how do you know it's after a specific person?"
"They all share the same characteristics: they went in alone, were single, but most of all they looked alike." She didn't budge at the implication of danger for her. It didn't scare her at all to think that what she was here to do was simply because she could play the part right. It wasn't like she wasn't aware of the consequences anyways, especially since Inuzuri had taught her long ago that this sort of thing was her specialty—particularly if one had a bumbling idiot like Renji doing the stealing.
"There's someone within the radius of these three that it finds appealing." When their eyes met again, there was a strange look on his face and Rukia couldn't help turning away at the intensity behind his gaze—couldn't take any more of it after the odd thoughts that had been running through her head just moments before.
Still, she tried to force herself to concentrate.
"We have to go in as humans to not attract its attention. To be honest sir, I've never been in a club."
"Neither have I."
A strange silence, and then-
"I'm sorry Hitsugaya-taichou, but I had to call in someone who would be able to help us with this situation." The way her hands fidgeted nervously didn't help him feel better. In fact, it made him wary of her, on top of the fact that his fingers were twitching with the desire to just grab her wrists to make her stop fiddling.
"Who did-" Rukia jumped as her phone rang shrilly in the room. Digging in her jeans pocket, she took out the device with a sheepish grin and flipped it open, bringing the tiny device to her ear. A concise greeting, and then the small shinigami exchanged quick answers with the person on the other end, all the while throwing nervous glances at the captain until she finally took the phone in one fluid motion and flipped it closed, stuffing it back in her pocket before turning her full attention back to him.
"They're here." Were her only words of explanation, turning towards the door but not before grabbing the map and the list and stuffing them into her back pocket. She allowed his exit first, closing the door to Ichigo's room behind them and leading him down the stairs towards the main entry where someone had begun to inexhaustibly ring the doorbell.
Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong,dingdingdingdingding-
It wasn't until a while later that Toushiro thought that that should've been the giveaway clue to who was at the door.
When finally Rukia dove and wrenched the door open, Hitsugaya watched in bewilderment as a familiar young man with blue hair and sharp sapphire eyes stepped through, immediately offering his curt greetings and followed by an obnoxiously familiar squeal of joy (which conveniently started as soon as she stopped playing with the doorbell).
"TAICHOOUUUUUUU!"
At least she was sober.
Toushiro didn't bother to dodge, too astounded by the sudden presence of his lieutenant and the Quincy to understand what was going on. While he was being unabashedly smothered by Matsumoto's sizeable assets, Ishida was already eyeing Rukia analytically.
"I figured we would need help fitting into the club. . . so I called in a couple experts." Grinning guiltily, Rukia looked from face to face in the room.
"We need to get going on your outfits now, or else I'll never finish in time." Pushing his glasses up, Uryuu crossed his arms over his chest in a serious manner, already geared up with a small bag the others were already sure was nothing but a wide array of sewing materials.
"Shoppiiiiing! We're going shoppiiiiing!" Grabbing Rukia by the wrist, the buxom blonde enthusiastically dragged the girl out the door before a single protest could be made. Toushiro could already hear Rukia trying to come back to at least to close the door, to which Matsumoto finally agreed after the Kuchiki woman conceded to buy her a souvenir.
Waiting for her, Hitsugaya watched as she secured the door and pocketed the key.
"What did Kurosaki mean earlier when he said that you already knew the deal?"
"Oh, he meant about how to lock up the house. He gave me a key so I wouldn't have to jump in through the window in the daylight with my gigai. We figured it was too much of a risk to keep this from humans if I got caught."
From then on the captain of tenth division remained relatively silent, at least until Matsumoto nearly suffocated him (again) with her chest in the subway ride and Rukia started snickering, which he silenced with a glare.
With Rukia clearly taking care of everything, the least he figured he could do was not become a load—as much as he despised being dragged around. Besides, the young woman seemed like she was starting to enjoy herself as she asked questions on how she should act, what she should do, how she would dress—to which Matsumoto and Ishida readily answered.
"Now," his lieutenant began, wagging a finger at her, "if he starts to try to get smart and puts his hand on your leg-"
"He won't get that far." Silence for a moment, and then all eyes on Toushiro as he turned with a dangerously narrowed stare from his seat in the row before them. "We'll catch him before he lays a single finger on you, Kuchiki."
At this their eyes met and a deep blush spread on Rukia's cheeks.
"Atta-boy!" Matsumoto cheered from beside him, ruffling her captain's hair. She ignored his protests as she turned back to their companions.
"Anyways, like I was trying to say, have a little fun with this! Flirt a little, attract some attention-"
"I can't protect her if she has a bunch of men trying to feel her up, Matsumoto, stop feeding her bad ideas!"
"I can protect myself perfectly fine, sir." Now when had he heard her say that before? Oh yeah, when she was going to walk alone in the dark. . . with their target on the loose.
"Either way, we can't let her go in alone." Ishida interjected before the tension spread. "If you don't walk her in as a couple, most of the men will target her from the get-go. Besides, even if a couple walks in, usually they don't stay together in there, so it's nothing out of the ordinary to be seen separate once you're inside."
"You've been to the club, Ishida?" Rukia asked in surprised curiosity. It wasn't like she knew much about him, but somehow it seemed strange to her—the main reason she had chosen him was because they needed outfits that wouldn't make them stick out like a sore thumb, but that had been the extent of what she believed his experience with such a matter would come to.
His face turned red but he didn't reply, relief spreading on his features when a voice on the intercom called their stop.
"Come on, let's go before the next group rushes in." Raising a brow, Rukia followed the quincy out, noting how he nervously pushed his glasses up and tried to keep a neutral expression.
By the time they had all pushed through the crowds and made it onto the streets, Matsumoto had already spotted three stores she wanted to try and promptly grabbed Rukia by the wrist again, dragging the smaller woman excitedly after her into the crowds with their two male companions protesting at the sudden surge of energy.
The only plus to this, Rukia thought as Rangiku gave a wink to a young man eyeing her, was that the buxom blonde had the uncanny ability to clear a path for them as they walked.
Other than that, her wrist wasn't really taking to the treatment well.
Glancing back, she waved a hand high, calling out to Ishida and Hitsugaya who had fallen behind in their momentary disorientation by the bustling crowds. By the time they had caught up to the two women they were already in the store and Rangiku had three blouses draped over one arm.
"I don't like this place." Rukia muttered with a wince at a price tag.
"I'm not surprised Matsumoto dragged you here, to be honest. Modest was never part of her vocabulary." Toushiro muttered dryly from behind her.
Turning, Rukia looked around with nothing short of discomfort, almost as if she was afraid to dirty something if she touched it—or even just looked at it. "I don't think I can afford anything here."
Toushiro raised a brow. "Doesn't your brother take care of your expenses?"
A grimace was his reply before she shook her head. "I take care of all my things myself, except for food and housing. I don't like to take Byakuya-nii-sama's money."
"Well gee then, what's the point of having such a fancy name if you can't take advantage every once in a while?" Matsumoto popped up from behind the rack Rukia was leaning by, grinning.
"Don't worry Kuchiki-san, it's always the guy's job to pay anyways, right Hitsugaya-taichou?"
"Eh?!"
"Yeah, you'll pay for Kuchiki-san, right?"
"M-matsumoto-san I really don't think-" Rukia tried to interject.
"Ne, come on taichouuu, it's not like you get to go out on a date every day!"
"Matsumoto-san really it's not a-"
"Matsumoto we're here on a mission, we're not here to play!"
"Seriously? Yeesh, lighten up!" Huffing, she brought a hand to Rukia's shoulder, pushing the younger woman in front of her towards the dressing rooms with a free hand. "And don't worry about it Kuchiki-san, I'll take care of it. You won't get many chances like this to play dress up so I'll make sure we make it worth your while."
Rukia didn't notice when the strawberry blonde turned and stuck her tongue out at her captain, to which he scowled. By then Ishida had found some clothes though, and promptly dumped his chosen bunch into Hitsugaya's arms before ordering him into the changing room as well.
And even though Rangiku demanded to see each and every outfit on Rukia, the latter of the two refused to come out when she realized how much skin was showing. In fact, from his changing stall Toushiro could hear his vice captain trying to coax the younger woman out of the dressing room to show her. It wasn't until Rukia's blatant lie that the last blouse didn't fit that she got some peace, Matsumoto racing off excitedly to find a better size.
"I'm starting to think Matsumoto was better suited for this." He heard her mutter.
And of course, he couldn't agree more.
Matsumoto, though taking the mission seriously (it was shopping after all), found the blue haired quincy looking through a rack she had missed and went towards him with a twinkle in her baby blue eyes, unable to help the sudden chance to speak with him alone. Personally she thought the young man was cute (if not a bit stiff) and messing with his head was something she had wanted to try ever since she had first seen him in Kurosaki Ichigo' s company.
Not to mention the fact that she wanted someone to scheme with now that she had a possibility at a new betting pool for the Women's Association.
"I think they look cute together." She didn't look at him. In fact, it was so offhanded that Ishida immediately felt that there was some sort of test going on when she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye with something akin to a Cheshire grin. A nervous finger pushed up the glasses falling off of a thin nose, Uryuu wondering why exactly he felt suddenly cornered by Rangiku as he rummaged through different blouses and tried to come up with something neutral to say. "No?"
There was a look of deep contemplation, Rangiku noted with delight. Of course he already knew who they were talking about—she somehow could tell Uryuu wasn't slow when it came to these things and she was also well aware that by putting the bait out, he would get curious enough to become her underling if she handled her cards right.
"To be honest. . ." A sigh as he continued to look through the racks of clothing—"Everyone figures that eventually she's going to end up with Ichigo."
A moment of silence as she frowned thoughtfully at the blouse she had just lifted off of hanger. Finally deciding she didn't like the hot pink flower print, she placed it back.
"There's no way. She's way too short for him, can you just imagine how they would—"
"No, no I can't and I would rather not!"
A strange look.
"I was talking about how they would look together."
Silence again, this time with Uryuu red-faced.
"Oh."
Grabbing a tank top and adding it to the one already draping off of her shoulder, she turned with a wicked smirk towards the dressing rooms.
"Though I do think you would be right. Sex would be rather hard with-"
"M-matsumoto-san!"
Throwing her head back, she laughed all the way to Rukia's dressing room.
Somehow they ended up with a system in which Rangiku took care of Rukia, Uryuu of Toushiro, and once they felt satisfied with a particular piece, would ask for the other's opinion. Slowly, through five stores, six grumpy sales clerks, one particularly (scary) bubbly one, and two nearly matching outfits, the now tired group ended up at one final store for a final attempt to search for the last of Rukia's outfit: a nice skirt.
"What about this, what do you think, Ishida-kun?" Raising a particularly skimpy piece, Rangiku caught the young man's attention as they argued (now completely comfortable around each other) about the pros and cons of such a short piece (if it could even be called a skirt to begin with). Momentarily alone, Rukia turned to Toushiro.
"Sorry sir, I'll understand if you want to leave. I can take care of this by myself."
Apparently she had noticed his discomfort, which he honestly wasn't trying too hard to hide—in his opinion, this was a waste of time. But then again, it wasn't like they had anything to do until night time anyways . . .
"No, it's fine. As stupid as Matsumoto can act sometimes, she can be pretty sharp too. Just don't listen to the flirting part—I don't feel like taking out a human because he was trying to get smart with you."
"By the time you get to him sir," Her face was turned towards the racks of clothing but he could see the mischievous grin on her face, "I think he would be out cold."
There was no Momo here. No gentle little girl with a naive smile and a too soft heart. He liked that—couldn't even help the half smirk on his face. She was small, but she was anything but a pushover (which demanded respect) and he could do that.
Hell, he welcomed it even.
"Just remember that not everyone is sober when you go in there." He offered in warning. There was a small, almost cheerless laugh as she turned to him.
"I grew up in Inuzuri, sir--there's nothing a man can do that scares me." A strange look flickering on her features, and then she was walking away towards Ishida who had beckoned her over and left Toushiro to his own thoughts.
Inuzuri. . . . this tiny woman had endured Inuzuri?
But wasn't she a noble?
He barely protested (a total lie) when they continued poking at his gigai, when they ordered him to change a million times (he shut up after Rangiku offered to dress him as Rukia's sister) or even when they were trying to teach him how to walk in with Rukia's arm in his (a plan he still wasn't sure about, but hadn't realized was just Matsumoto plotting with Ishida once they had come to the sound conclusion that here was prime matchmaking potential—though the betting pool back in Sereitei would be just as sweet). There was nothing that gave any of his thoughts away as they had lunch or even when he yelled at Matsumoto that having done this was not going to be an excuse for the paperwork he was sure was piling up on both their desks.
Which of course went unheard, and he knew was going to come back to bite him later—hard.
As they finally walked back to Ichigo's house from the subway station, he barely spoke; hadn't noticed when Ishida had wandered off a different path to go home for a while to finish alterations, or when Matsumoto loudly called her goodbyes and said she was going to visit Orihime until they decided to get ready for the mission.
Rukia steered them through a park, the afternoon sunny and warm enough to where children and parents were seen freely around. It had been a while since he had seen the terrain, noticing off in the distance the soccer field where he had helped Ichigo's little sister a long time ago.
You should speak.
. . . . did Hyourinmaru seriously just try to get him to talk?
Yes, yes I did.
Why?
If you talk to her, I can almost see Sode no Shirayuki.
He wondered why his zanpaktou was so adamant about it until he felt the disgruntled sword's frown.
Her element is ice too.
Mirroring the look he felt aimed at him, Toushiro sighed.
"Something wrong, Hitsugaya-taichou?"
"No, it's nothing."
Silence again, at least until Rukia caught sight of an ice cream vendor and hesitated. Remembering who she was with at the last moment though, she caught herself and instead continued while praying her companion hadn't noticed.
No such luck.
"If you want some, you can go get it. Our mission doesn't start until later." Noting her flinch, he couldn't help the amused look he threw at her as she turned away in embarrassment.
"I have no idea what you are talking about, sir." Children playing around them, and he turned to her seriously.
"Call me Hitsugaya-san here. There's too many humans around. I probably should've told you that earlier but I forgot."
"Y-yes Hitsugaya-tai. . ." Hesitating, she tried again slowly. "Hitsugaya-san."
But then she killed it again by bowing.
"I'll be right back." Beginning to trot over, Rukia stopped in her tracks for a moment, seemed to think something over and turned on her heel towards him.
"What would you like?" Shaking his head, the white haired young man waved the question away.
"I don't like sweets." Black brows shot up to her hairline, violet eyes openly staring at him in baffled surprise. Before she could even think to close her mouth again, the question popped out.
"Why?"
"I get too many from people who have no idea what else to get me."
"I'd kill for a present like that." Not a single drop of sarcasm, not even a blink. In fact, there was a bit of a sparkle to her gaze. . .
"So uh, you going to get your ice cream or. . .?"
"Ah! I almost forgot!" A sheepish grin. "So what flavor would you like, Hitsugaya-san? There's Strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, melon, coconut, cookie dough, uuummm. . . banana and watermelon."
Wondering how many times she had been around the vendor to have so easily learned the flavors, he was about to ask when he realized what options she had mentioned.
Watermelon, watermelon, watermelon, watermelon-
"Just get me a watermelon one I guess." There, perfect. Inconspicuous, calm, and not a radical reaction to the wonderful realization that they had his one weakness.
A few minutes later found them sitting on a park bench, Rukia smiling contentedly as she chewed on a piece of her cone.
"I thought you were born in the upper parts of Rukongai." He said before the question could lodge itself in his throat any longer. It had been bothering him for some reason since she had mentioned the fact—it didn't make sense to him.
Glancing sideways at him, her gaze turned to the lake and the ice cream was momentarily forgotten.
"I was adopted into the Kuchiki family when I was still in the academy. Before that, I lived in Inuzuri."
There was nothing to say after that. Though Rukia was surprised to note that he had actually listened to her, she didn't offer to make any more conversation of it. Somehow, it was relaxing just sitting here with the young genius, for once forgetting that he was above her and just relaxing into her seat while enjoying the icy treat.
Watermelon. . . it wasn't exactly what she would've guessed of him.
The lapping of the lake, the slight breeze, the cold of the ice cream against nearly frozen fingers—deep inside Rukia wondered if this was what being human was all about. The peace of the living lulled her senses as she closed her eyes, enjoying the moment with a renewed respect for the human world.
But if she had paid just a little attention, Rukia would've seen that the white haired young man beside her was too busy establishing respect for her.
Because the company. . . . that wasn't half bad. Although stemming from the same element would account for at least a little bit of the uncanny connection between them, no? That was, to the very best of his logic, what he tried to get to explain the sudden desire to understand someone other than himself. Not that he was very self-centered or anything, but having to deal with other people was such a hassle.
Nonetheless, Toushiro Hitsugaya couldn't deny now that there was much more to Rukia Kuchiki than he had originally thought—especially with the name she carried on her conscience, even here with an ice cream cone and a serene smile on her soft features.
The afternoon was warm (but not overly so) and the ice cream tasted almost as good as the fruit itself in Hitsugaya's mouth as he allowed himself to slouch a little on the park bench, taking a breather for a moment with a fellow ice weilder.
But if another shinigami were to appear now, he would've passed them by without much of a glance--much less stopped to pay respect to one of higher rank.
Because all they would see would be two human teenagers enjoying a date.
