Name: Duck Trouble
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance/Fluff
Summary: "Rukia, get back here!" It was too much like when, eight years ago, it had been him running down to the river. But she'd be alright ... because he was there to catch her if she fell.

Authors Notes: This came to me while my little brother was talking non-stop about a baby duck he had seen today.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or the characters.Thanks to CrystalRaindrop007 for Beta'ing!

Duck Trouble

Rukia was walking along silently beside Ichigo, her arms clasped behind her light blue sweater. Her khaki skirt swirled around her knees and the beautiful flower patterns seemed to shine in the snow. A soft smile graced her lips and a sparkle was in her eyes as she looked across the vast horizon; the sun was setting, and the different colors made the snow seem to glow. Ichigo, who was beside her, was wearing a simple black sweater and jeans. His shoes crunched in the snow as he walked along, his gaze on the ground and his hands stuffed deep in his pockets.

Rukia turned her head around and around, trying to take in her surroundings; she hadn't seen snow before. She loved it. It was beautiful. The tiny, unique flakes drifted down from the sky and landed softly on her face. It felt strangely cold when it would land on her, but she loved how her shoes pushed gently through the white powder.

Closing her eyes, she stuck her tongue out and let the snow land on it.

"Ah ... what the hell are you doing?" Ichigo asked, raising an eyebrow as he pulled his tall body out of its slouch. He'd grown taller than he was when he'd been fifteen; he was now 6'1", pretty much towering over Rukia. She looked up at him and smiled, her pink tongue still sticking out.

"I'm catching the snow."

"On your tongue?"

"Uh huh. It tastes good."

"Riiight."

Ichigo went back to ignoring her, but a minute later, curious and, making sure she wasn't looking, he stuck his own tongue and let the snow land on it. Yup. She was insane. It tasted like water.

Rukia continued to skip along until her bright violet eyes caught sight of something. She pulled her hands from behind her back as she began running down to the frozen river.

Ichigo's eyes went wide as he watched her take off. He cursed under his breath and began to run after her, yelling, "Rukia, get back here!" It was too much like when ... eight years ago, when he was nine, it had been him running down to the river. "Rukia!"

Rukia slid to a stop on top of the ice and frowned, reaching her foot out to press on the solid water. Nothing happened and she jumped onto it, running over to the middle. Ichigo stopped himself before he got all the way there; Rukia was small enough so the ice supported her, but what about him? Biting his lip, he watched her as she walked across, intent on getting to her target. Her arms were spread out around her like an airplane and her feet were constantly sliding to the side on the slick ice. Ichigo bit his lip harder.

"Rukia!"

"Shh, Ichigo, you'll scare it."

'It' turned out to be a tiny, baby duck, who had its foot stuck in the frozen water. As Rukia bent down beside it, it quacked softly, like baby ducks did, and tried to flap away. But because its foot was frozen into the pond, he couldn't move. Rukia reached out and gently ran her hand down his soft body.

"Shhh, little guy. I'll get you out of here," she said quietly, her voice not above a whisper. With her free hand, she began to probe at the ice.

Ichigo, tired of doing nothing, reached into his pocket and gripped his Shinigami License tightly. He flew out of his body and onto the ice, and before he could stop himself, he fell flat onto it. Rukia turned around and glared at him.

"Stupid! You trying to break the ice? And why are you in Shinigami form?"

"So I won't break the ice."

"How will being in Shinigami form help?"

"I dunno, I just seem to weigh less when I'm a Shingami. And do you want me to help you with that or not?"

Rukia looked down at the ice she was picking away at; nothing had happened except her fingers had gone bright red from the cold. The ice was still solid except for the places she had been able to scratch at it. Sighing, she nodded, still petting the duck as Ichigo walked over and leaned down beside her, taking a rock from nearby and beginning to scrape at the ice.

"Thanks, Ichigo."

"Welcome."

Neither said anything else until the baby duck was free. The second he was, he began to run away from them and Rukia pouted.

"Hey! Come back!"

Ichigo sighed and rolled his eyes as he watched her begin to chase after the duck. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and watched the show as she began to slip; she wasn't in any danger, there was snow everywhere surrounding them. The duck, which had a little more traction on the ice with his tiny, webbed feet, was ahead of Rukia until said little Shinigami slipped on the ice, her feet falling out from under her. Bight violet eyes wide, she fell to the ice with a thump and began to slide across it on her backside.

Smirking, she reached out and grabbed the duck as she passed by it, and was too busy cuddling him to realize that she was about to smack into the snow. Too late.

Ichigo winced as she hit, back first, into the large pile of snow. It flew all over her, mixing with her hair and landing all over her face. The duck was quacking a little, but seemed to have calmed down as Ichigo walked over and offered his hand to Rukia. She accepted it once she was past the shock and stood to her feet, beginning to shake snow from her clothes. Ichigo put a hand in her hair and shook it all around; snow flew from it and landed all around them.

"Thanks. I think. Oh, and by the way, Ichi, your body is probably freezing to death."

"Ah, crap!"

Ichigo ran back to his body, slipping and sliding the whole way, and finally got back inside as Rukia walked off the ice. In her hands, she still held the baby duck.

"C'mon, Rukia, you have to let it go," Ichigo said, frowning at her.

"Why? His parents are gone. He's all alone. I don't want him to be alone."

Ichigo sighed. She'd been alone at one point, too, he knew; that was why she'd been to anxious to help the baby duck.

"Rukiaaa ... "

"Please, Ichigo?"

Now, she was pouting. Her lip was stuck out almost half an inch and she had made her violet eyes as wide as possible. The fact that her cheeks were bright red from the cold didn't help, and Ichigo caved in less than two seconds.

"Fine."

"Yay!"

"But you take care of it, alright? And tell my family that it was your idea, not mine."

Rukia didn't even hear him. She had skipped ahead of him, cuddling her duck as she walked. Ichigo shook his head and sighed. The sun was going down as they walked along, in no hurry to go anywhere, just happy to be outside, and with each other.

Neither had any idea that there were two people watching them, either. One pushed his green and white hat lower over his face so the snow would avoid him and the other laughed. The first man said, "He's a lot like you, you know."

"He's my son, what do you expect?"

"Nothing less."

"Yeah ... And he went and fell in love ... with the girl who made the rain in his heart stop falling."

Hmm ... so what do you think? Hmm? Did you like? Hate? Despise? And Rukia is NOT OOC, to my knowledge. I think she would be all sweet with a ducky like she would with bunny. If you think she is OOC, flame away. I will ignore you.

Please Review!