midsummer and supersymmetry
day 18 – afternoon
Certainly, like the dark side of the moon and deep freeze and the first star of the universe, there are things that are hard to understand like:
"Did you just put cucumbers slices on your strawberry sundae?"
Rukia, so pretty and so lithe and so airy, stares at him like he's a lunatic, one elegant eyebrow raised, "sorry?"
(Ichigo makes good with his offer of lunch out, and she agrees without hesitation)
And so she sits beside him, on a single curved couch spanning half of the small, circular table, the windows behind them, the sky above had turned a wispy shade of blue and white, warm light streaming through the boxed windows, making his tea and her blood orange juice shimmer.
"Did you just-?" Ichigo chokes, the oddness in it, what is that like?
"Hmn?" Rukia prods, putting her first spoonful of strawberry sundae with a cucumber slice in her mouth, and smiles –he assumes the taste would be- just as pleasantly.
"What? I like cucumbers, other women put them on their eyes or sun exposure, but me, I just eat them."
Ichigo doesn't know what she's talking about, about cucumbers on the eyes or sunburns, but he's listening anyway. "I can't decide actually, kind of like these two together and so…"
Ichigo just finished his lunch: pot roast and green beans and potatoes, and is finishing with a cup of warm tea. Rukia ate so much; every bit of this and that in the menu, crepe and almond nuts in salted-caramel ice cream and now her second round of dessert, strawberries and cucumber. Ichigo glances at the brown bags beside her, maybe he should have gotten more food stuff for her.
"Ichigo-" there's something really earnest about him, Rukia thinks, he's so un-disturbing, and really patient it's very absurd and he picked this quiet corner of the café with a quiet French music playing in the background and she remembers how brooding and intimidating he was back in school and he's just really, really different now.
"-what do you think of today?"
Ichigo feels gauche –and disorienting- and strange even, he just stares at Rukia, amber eyes behind black-rimmed glasses unblinking. What a strange question, he thinks.
Ichigo shifts slightly on his side of the couch, and says quietly, "That's a strange question, Rukia."
Oh. "You mean, stranger than black holes and moons and just these – these, explosive things in the sky and numbers and equations?" Rukia puts another spoonful of sundae and bites a cucumber slice, "sorry, I don't know how to describe them."
Ichigo laughs –actually more likely a combination of half-cough and half-chuckle, but air passed through his nose and mouth and that's still considered a laugh, Rukia should applaud herself for that.
"Just normal answers, no jargon you hear? Just…" Rukia continues, twirling her spoon on its little china ice cream plate, "…what do you think of today?"
Ichigo glances around for a minute, and thinks of the different shades of the sun spreading in the café and thinks of her violet eyes and how it glimmers in the sun, too.
"It's sunny."
Rukia expected as much, but it's a start though. Rukia realizes, the past days were quaint yet too silent, Ichigo had been kind and quiet and understanding and there are many important other things they have yet to talk about like her suddenly appearing on his doorsteps and things currently going on with him. Rukia knows –realizes- how they don't say much to each other, and perhaps, what do you think of today? is a nice start.
"I think it's an okay kind of day, but yes, it is sunny."