Birds of a Feather (Flock Together)
IchiRuki
Ichigo drank his coffee heavily creamed and with a spoon of sugar. Rukia drank hers black as her hair and never once cringed as she brought it to her lips. They avoid edeyes, Ichigo tried not to look down too frequently, for fear of seeing something he knew she wouldn't want him to; Rukia's eyes rarely landed on him, each time they did, he could tell because her cheeks would develop a pink tinge and her gaze would flicker away to stare, studiously, out the floor-to-ceiling windows of her spacious living room. Her apartment was substantially large than his own and appeared to have a second bedroom, for which the door was closed.
"Do you even like that?" Ichigo asked, finally, pointing with his stirring spoon to her cup. Rukia glanced down at it and raised a brow, confused.
"What do you mean?" she said, taking another sip.
"Black coffee," elaborated Ichigo, "no one drinks it because they like it."
"Well, no," Kuchiki replied, "I drink it because it has caffeine, the taste of it was never something I really considered …" Ichigo chuckled, holding his cup to her.
"Have you ever tried it with anything added?" he asked in offering. Rukia took it with steady fingers, and when they brushed his they were cold as ice.
"My family rarely allows things to be sugar-coated, figuratively or literally," said Rukia, evenly, and took a sip. Ichigo could see her eyes visibly widen, she licked her bottom lip, as if treasuring it, and then the moment was gone and she reigned herself in. She coughed once, pushing the cup across the table back to the orange-haired visitor and said simply,
"It's … pretty good."
"You need to have a real cup of coffee," said Ichigo with a smirk. Rukia crossed her arms, huffed and stuck out her tongue at him.
"They way I take my coffee is fine, too," she said.
"It's bitter," Ichigo retorted. Rukia looked personally offended by the statement, her cheeks red in indignation.
"Yeah, well…You're bitter!" she declared after a moment. They looked at one another for a breath and then Ichigo gave the knowing grin of a person who has won by default and Rukia pretended to ignore it, and him, gazing, like a martyr, at the wall behind his head. For a beat, everything was tranquil. Birds were chirping as the sun rose over the skyscrapers of inner Tokyo, one of which was probably their friend, free of Ichigo's lost shirt. The building rumbled, as it always did, when a train passed underneath of it. Ichigo was exhausted, but content, and Rukia looked as though she'd gotten the best night's sleep which probably meant that she rarely slept at all.
The nob on the front door jiggled quietly, but the lack of sound alerted both Rukia and Ichigo to it. The door opened just as Ichigo stood, ready for an intruder. Rukia stood, too, and bowed deeply. Ichigo was officially lost.
The intruder was a tall man, of a firm stature, and a face like a plate, that is to say flat and unchanging. He said 'good morning, Rukia,' in such a way that it managed to sound both like a command and the highest disapproval a person could verbally bestow on another person.
"Good morning, brother," said Rukia, the fire in her demeanor all but gone. She stood to full height again and offered a small smile which the man - her brother? - did not return.
"Err," said Ichigo, stupidly.
"You may leave," said the man, his words were ice and the look he gave Ichigo could have killed a man. Rukia stepped in, uncomfortable.
"Brother," she said, "this is Ichigo Kurosaki, he lives next door."
"I know who he is," said the block of ice, "I know of all your neighbors. What I do not know is why he is in your living room, without proper clothing, and why you are sitting with him," the man's eyes flashed toward her, then back to Ichigo, "also without proper clothing," he said, finally.
"There was a bird in her room," said Ichigo, annoyed.
"A bird?" said the man.
"A pigeon," Rukia added, helpfully.
"And I got rid of it," said Ichigo, "like a good neighbor,"
"Using his shirt!" Rukia clarified. The man looked unimpressed. Rukia, perhaps to dissolve the tension in the air, perhaps as a belated attempt to restore propriety, said:
"Ichigo, this is my brother-in-law, Byakuya Kuchiki."
Byakuya Kuchiki did not seem to want to be introduced, Ichigo also didn't care much for the introduction.
"Why are you here so early, brother?" asked Rukia, desperate to distract either of them from glaring a hole into the other.
"For our breakfast appointment," said Byakuya, his eyes did not leave Ichigo.
"It's six in the morning," said Ichigo. Rukia shot him a look, a silent promise to kick his ass at a later date, and shuffled around the table.
"I'm surprised you can tell time," said Byakuya.
"Ichigo, why don't you go?" Rukia said, her voice ridiculously sweet. Ichigo raised an eyebrow, gave her a devilish grin, and said, remarkably unhelpful;
"I'm getting to know Byakuya."
Byakuya's mouth twitched in a way that did not even remotely seem healthy.
"I'm going to go put clothes on," said Rukia, giving up and not wanting to bare witness to the shit show that would no doubt take place at any moment. She felt awkwardly positioned in between two warring forces and wanted as little to do with it as possible. On her way to her bedroom she kicked the back of Ichigo's knee and hissed 'leave' in as acidic as a voice she could muster.
Ichigo, of course, did not leave. When she came back out some twenty minutes later the two had not moved an inch, did not look to want to move, seemed to be locked in some sort of ridiculous staring contests which Rukia was not surprised in the least to see Ichigo participating in, but which her brother's participation through her off guard. She wasn't sure she should interrupt; she couldn't physically haul Ichigo out the door while her brother watched her. A Kuchiki was better than that … but her brother was a skilled martial artists and she was not sure she wanted to see Ichigo, broken on her floor, so early in the morning … he wasn't a wholly unpleasant presence.
"Rukia," said Byakuya, suddenly, "this … boy … will be joining us for breakfast." Ichigo looked as dumbfounded as Rukia felt. "Meet us downstairs in ten minutes, boy," said Byakuya, the air around him full of ice, and then he turned heel, his scarf fluttering behind him, and strode out the front door.
Rukia, confused and unsure, scrambled to the door and then turned quickly to Ichigo.
"You don't –" she began, but Ichigo flashed her a smirk like he knew and didn't care.
"See you downstairs," he said. Rukia opened and closed her mouth several times and then breathed heavily through her nose, resigned to hell.
"Lock my door behind you," she said, dejected but with fire in her eyes, like she might personally break his knee caps if he didn't, and then she left him standing there, to catch up with her brother, and Ichigo felt oddly enthralled and on edge and also as though Byakuya might have murdered him, had there been just a bit more time.
The second chapter no one asked for! I have one more chapter for this, which I'll probably post on Friday, even though this was (and still is) mostly just about the first chapter and nothing from this point on can be deemed either good or important. I just ... I really wanted to add Byakuya, at first I thought it'd be kind of funny to make Byakuya the person Ichigo thought Rukia might be dating but ... well, shit changes when you go from a concept to writing. So, obviously, that didn't last.
Anyway, if you enjoyed please review~!