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Put it all on me

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Rukia does not claim to be a Cool Mom, she just is. It's how it works. She's always had a fantastic relationship with her kids which Ichigo claims is purely based on the fact that Rukia herself is a child.

But that's not an argument Rukia is going to get into, mainly because:

"Really, Ichigo, height jokes? Haven't you grown past that?"

"Why? It doesn't look like you did," he drawls.

Anyway.

She looks the part on a daily basis of being the Cool Mom: When she isn't in her Shinigami robes, she's dressed in a comfortable shirt and shorts combination with variations of skirts thrown in between. There's no time to look fancy or pretty when you're half-heartedly sparring with your brats in the backyard, and not when Masaki's hobby of the week is painting, or when Kaien has just discovered how fun puddles are.

It's why Rukia makes a concerted effort to dress up a little more.

She rarely gets the opportunity, for one, and for another, Rukia wants to make a good impression especially since she hasn't been able to attend the others, and her absence has no doubt been noticed. She wants to look good.

And if Ichigo looks like he's seriously debating ditching the PTA meeting they're going to, to steal Rukia away for a night at some hotel, all the better.

(She'll make it up to him, he knows she will.)

Besides, usually, Ichigo goes to these things alone; the PTA meetings and the fundraisers.

Not because she's uninterested, she's just busy.

With Rukia rounding off her full-time duties in Soul Society before taking up the permanent post as Karakura's Shinigami representative, Rukia hasn't spent much alone with the kids since the paperwork for the position went through, and whenever she can, she and Ichigo have agreed that she'll get to catch up with them while Ichigo does their parental duties at the school the kids are enrolled at.

With her transfer finalized, this is the first PTA meeting Rukia's going to, and well, she hadn't realized there would be repercussions to Ichigo going alone besides the judgment that she's an "absent" mother.

"Should I be concerned that all the PTA moms assumed you were a single dad?" Rukia begins, dangerously calm as yet another woman eyes her distastefully when only seconds ago, she'd been fluttering her lashes at Ichigo.

"No."

"Really."

He squeezes her hand in his even as he throws a lazy smirk her way. "Jealous?"

She huffs. "No."

"Really."

Rukia gives him an unimpressed look, and decides almost belatedly, "I'm dressed too well for this."

He huffs out a laugh. "Okay?"

"They're the jealous ones," Rukia tells him, prim and proper, nose in the air and exuding such snobbish conceit that she wouldn't be out of place amongst the Court of Pure Souls. It kind of makes her sick. "You happen to be a good looking doctor who carts around our children and actively participates in their lives, and you have the audacity to be happily married!"

Amused, he echoes, "Oh?"

"They were probably hoping I was ugly," Rukia decides, "or that our marriage was on the rocks. Quick, kiss me before they think that!"

"Romance is dead," he tells her, dutifully dropping a kiss against her forehead which makes her pout even as he snakes his hand around her waist, palm resting innocently against the curve of her lower back. "And just so you know, no one thinks that."

Which only leads her to accuse, "You're so dense."

"Or maybe," Ichigo trails, "I'm too focused on our kids, and the fact that I get to drag my beautiful wife to these shitty meetings without wasting our alone time to care what other people think."

Sighing dramatically, Rukia pats his hand and coos sweetly, "It's adorable how you can be so naive."

"Rukia," he begins in a sigh, equally as dramatic and put upon.

"Don't worry," she assures with a wink, "naive or not, you're still getting lucky."

The next PTA meeting they attend Rukia doesn't put nearly as much effort in looking so put together - her hair's in a messy bun, she doesn't have makeup on, and she's essentially wearing her pajamas because she'd been building blanket forts with the kids before they'd left.

She thinks she sees some grudging approval in a few PTA moms' eyes, but joke's on them, it doesn't matter what she wears, Ichigo still holds her hand and looks embarrassingly in love with her.

For all that she touts how lucky Ichigo is (and how lucky he's going to be), Rukia knows she is too.