Chapter 6: Blast from the Past

Momo was extremely, extremely suspicious. Throughout all the years that she and Rukia had known each other, she had learned how to pick up on all the subtleties of her friend's mannerisms. That meant any fluctuations in Rukia's mood were immediately discernable, and during this phone conversation, it was clear something big had happened.

Just as Rukia finished the retelling of the events that happened with the unexpected visitor, a realization dawned upon Momo. "Rukia, I think — and correct me if I'm wrong — that you may have a crush on this guy."

Rukia maintained three full seconds of silence before spontaneously protesting, "Momo, I have no idea what you're talking about. I was only—"

"Okay, okay, okay," Momo interrupted. Knowing that Rukia was most likely more oblivious about her own feelings than an unbiased outsider would be, despite the obvious signs, she attempted a different approach. "Let's just analyze the situation, then. You've always said that you're a rational person who likes to look at the evidence, right?"

"Of course."

"Well, then I have some straightforward questions. It might clear things up if you're able to answer them for me."

"Go ahead."

"What color are his eyes?"

Rukia huffed. "I don't see how this is relevant, Momo."

"Just answer it, please."

"Like a very warm brown, I would say. Any other ridiculous questions?"

"Is he tall?"

"My head goes right up to his shoulders. If I had to guess an exact height, I would have to say at least 180 centimeters."

"His most distinguishable characteristic?"

"Probably how blunt and insulting he can be. You should have heard what he said to me the night we first met, and then all of that ends up making me irritated, and so I say something rude back, so it's a vicious cycle, really." Though she tried to sound matter-of-fact, her words began running into each other as she finished the sentence like the last leg of a sprint.

Momo began to laugh. "Okay, let me lay this out for you then. If you would've asked me those questions, or any of his friends I would bet, they would have said 'dark,' 'very tall,' and 'his really ginger hair.' In fact, your last answer was probably the one that clued me in the most. Ask his mother and I still believe she would have said his ginger hair. You, however, jumped right to his personality!"

"Well...I thought his hair was too obvious of an answer. Besides, you saw him for all of, what? A minute? Two minutes? I think you're jumping to conclusions."

"Well my question did ask for his most obvious trait. But hold on, I'm not finished yet. The first two answers you gave were also much more detailed than what a mere acquaintance would have said. Add that to the fact that I think you left out some big details in the story, and I'm almost certain you like this person more than you let on."

Rukia was quiet for another stretch of time.

"Keep in mind we've known each other for more than ten years, is it? I've helped you with all your past crushes, flings, whatever you want to call them, so I know the signs," Momo said with an air of confidence.

"Okay, I did leave something out," Rukia admitted. "To make up for the bowl breaking, he said he would pick me up and give me a free ride to work tomorrow morning."

"What do you mean, 'free'?"

"Oh, I left this out, too," she said. "You see, he works as a ... taxi driver. So it's free as in he will not charge me for the fare."

Something in Rukia's tone finally made understanding dawn upon Momo as the pieces of the puzzle clicked together. "You don't like that he's a taxi driver," she said. "Is that why you're so reluctant to admit that you might have started to like him? Because you think what he does for a living isn't up to your standards? We've always been pretty open about this topic to each other in the past, you know. Is this why it's different this time with this guy?"

"I feel like you're trying to accuse me of something," Rukia mumbled.

"No, no, nothing accusatory, I swear. I just want to understand the situation. So am I right?"

"I don't know," said Rukia. "I still don't understand half of it myself. Maybe you are right, Momo, and I just don't want to admit it to myself. Let's just say for a second that I do like him and that we do end up together hypothetically, I would then come to the point where I need to introduce him to Byakuya and the rest of the Kuchikis, and you know how that would turn out. You know, Byakuya's family nearly disowned him when he married my sister because they thought she was too 'beneath' him."

"But Byakuya married her anyways."

"Right, but that doesn't mean much for my situation. He still made up with his extended family, and he still cares about what they think of him, and as an extension, what they think of me. He'll interrogate Ichigo to death about his job, how much he earns, where he went to college, which I question if he did at all. Things like that. They're very important to him and the rest of the family."

"And are they just as important to you as well?"

"... I ... don't want them to be anymore."

If Ichigo were forced to describe his daily morning routine, he would sum it up as "a complete and utter disaster." Typically, it involved him hitting the snooze button at least twice, before the threat of being late to work finally invigorated him enough to actually get out of bed and prepare for the day ahead. Breakfast then usually included whatever was convenient at the time that he could find, which sometimes can consist of nothing. All of this was to say, morning was definitely not the best time of day for him.

This morning, however, he actually felt refreshed, although he could not pinpoint a reason why. For the first time in over a year, he managed to wake up fully without needing to slam the snooze button even once. With all of the extra time that he had that he previously squandered by oversleeping, he even attempted to tame his spiky hair and made some toast for a proper breakfast.

And, to further prove how much he had his life together this morning, Ichigo actually remembered that he had not checked his mail for quite a few days. He usually didn't expect any and had no real obligation to check, considering he paid all his bills online and have not corresponded with anyone through snail mail in a decade. However, it never hurt to at least maintain some adult responsibilities.

Much to his surprise, he was greeted with three letters.

He tossed aside the first two, which were junk mail from credit card companies, but froze at the sight of the last one. The senders' names were in plain sight, and they were very familiar indeed.

"Orihime Inoue and Uryu Ishida," he mumbled to himself. Interesting.

Resisting the urge to open the envelope immediately, he first returned to the privacy of his own apartment before carefully making a clean slit on the edge of the paper. He withdrew from the envelope an elaborate card, complete with gold ink highlights and lace patterns and the scent of something ... flowery? Monotonously, robotically, he began to read the text aloud despite being able to guess for certain what it was upon first sight.

"You're invited...to the wedding of Orihime Inoue...and Uryu Ishida ... on the day ... please RSVP ..." he trailed off in silence as he took in the rest of the information. There was even an option for him to bring a plus one.

Why would she send this to him? It had to have been at least two years since he last saw Orihime face-to-face, and that was only at their most recent high school reunion, during which they exchanged little more than the obligated pleasantries.

He had been doing so recently well in forgetting her, too, even beginning to find that Rukia Kuchiki cute, but this new development ... oh, Rukia ... the thought of her jolted him back into reality.

If he didn't leave in the next few minutes, he would not arrive in time at Rukia's apartment on time like he had promised. Grabbing a coat, Ichigo haphazardly stuffed the card in his pocket and pushed all thoughts of it out of his mind. He still had a number of questions regarding the invitation, but he knew that he would not be able to find an answer to any of them anytime soon, so rather than pointlessly mentally agonizing over this for the moment, he set out to pick up Rukia.

Rukia was dressed, groomed, and ready to leave right as the clock struck 7:15 AM. Realizing that she did not have Ichigo's personal cell number—and that he would not be able to contact her whenever he actually arrives—she made extra sure to finish preparing ahead of time and to be waiting at the sidewalk in front of her building with considerable time to spare. Just in case if he arrived early.

7:25 AM. She began to pat down and smooth her hair.

7:29 AM. She started glancing up and down the street, hoping to spot a flash of yellow.

7:30 AM. She was so used to everyone in her office being exactly on time for meetings and appointments, so she had to admit that she was slightly taken aback that he has not yet arrived.

7:32 AM. She spotted the signature yellow color of a cab turning at the intersection. She took a step forward before realizing that the driver was not Ichigo and that there was already a passenger in the car. She stepped back.

7:34 AM. She spotted another cab driving down her street, and to her relief, the driver had the characteristic ginger, spiky hair of Ichigo.

The car slowed as she gave a small wave, ultimately stopping right in front of her. She hesitated a moment, but then decided to open the front seat door.

"Oh, you're sitting in the front?"

Pausing, she then began to shut the door, saying, "Sorry, is that against company policy? I'll go in the backseat then."

"No no, it's okay," Ichigo waved it off. "I was just surprised because all of the people I've driven before have sat in the back. Some of my coworkers have had front-sitters so it's completely fine, just unusual."

"Okay, if you're sure then," Rukia said and situated herself comfortably in the seat beside his.

"Where to?"

She gave the address of her company.

"Okay. Traffic was a bit awful while I was getting here this morning, so getting there might take a while," he warned.

"That's no problem."

He nodded in acknowledgement and started the cab in the right direction. Unlike the first time she was in his car with him, he did not attempt to start any conversations and kept his eyes locked on the road, which, to Rukia, appeared out of the norm. Never was he this quiet and seemingly distracted during the other occasions that they had interacted, either. Perhaps he was just having an off day, but she had been hoping that they would at least ... talk. The silence was disappointing, almost.

Glancing out the window, she scanned for something interesting, maybe a landmark or a pedestrian, to bring up as a topic that might stimulate a conversation but came up empty-handed. The route to the office was one that she had traversed countless times before, and to Rukia, nothing about it seemed interesting enough to talk about or bring up. As a backup plan, she then scanned the inside of the cab until her gaze landed upon the glove compartment right beside her, which was occupied by a crumpled, albeit ornate, card.

"An invitation?"

"Hmm?" He looked at her, then followed her eyes down to the card briefly. "Oh. Yes. It is."

"It looks very fancy, what's it for? Wedding? Baby shower? Graduation party?" Rukia was intrigued. As a Kuchiki, who were ardent fans of formal parties and all the pageantry that accompanied them, she grew up attending a number of them.

"Wedding."

She waited, expecting him to elaborate. When he failed to, she probed, "Whose is it?"

"A friend's."

Finally realizing that perhaps his curt responses were a sign that she had stumbled upon a sensitive topic, Rukia ceased her questioning. Much to her surprise, however, Ichigo himself chose to continue.

"Well, actually, not so much a friend as an ex-girlfriend," he admitted, eyes never leaving the road and expression blank.

"Oh?" Rukia said gently, noncommittally.

Ichigo paused momentarily, before rapidly shooting a glance over. In a more vexed tone, he continued, "In fact, we had been together all of high school. Then, ya know, we graduated, and everything kind of fell apart, just a bit."

"Did you two try long distance?" Rukia leaned towards him almost imperceptibly.

"For less than a year, but then she broke it off because she thought it was 'unsustainable' and started seeing someone else." He swore under his breath when a car in the adjacent lane cut him off. "Sorry. Anyway, she wanted to stay friends, but I couldn't really handle it too well. She'd try to text or email me from time to time afterwards, but I obviously tried to stay as distanced as I could. We haven't talked in years, so I don't know what her motivations are for sending this to me. I'm guessing this is her version of telling me, 'Look, I've found someone. Have you?'"

How does one respond in a situation such as this? Rukia had no idea. Thankfully, she did not have to.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be venting to you like this. We barely know each other. You must think I'm being oversharing," he immediately followed up.

"Oh it's no problem," Rukia shook her head and gave a small laugh. "A lot of my friends say I'm a good person to vent to." That was a lie. He probably the only person besides Momo that has vented to her in years. After his ramblings, however, he seemed to return to his old self again, much to Rukia's relief.

For the rest of the cab ride, he began the dramatic retelling of a Yuzu and Karin story, knowing that to be a safe topic. Right as he was progressing to the climax, however, they arrived at Rukia's destination.

"That's too bad, I was just getting to the good part," Ichigo said, breaking out of a falsetto imitation of Karin's voice.

"It's okay, you can always finish it at a later time," Rukia replied and dared to flash him an uncertain grin as well. It quickly disappeared, however, after the realization that she was now, in fact, three minutes late to a company meeting. "Shit!"