Title: Way Back When

Theme: Ice cream

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Characters/Pairings: Ichigo, Rukia, Yuzu, Karin, Renji, Masaki, Isshin; Isshin/Masaki, implied Ichigo/Rukia

Rating: G

Summary: Sometimes, it's nice to remember the good old days.

Author's Note: A big thank you to all of the reviewers, it's lovely hearing from you and I enjoy reading all of your comments. Thank you. 3

Rukia laughed aloud as she watched Karin and Yuzu running along the bank of the river, chasing some of the frogs that had made the mistake of showing their faces. She patted Ichigo on the back.

"I hate to say this, but your father actually has some great ideas every once and awhile." She took another lick of her triple scoop ice cream cone that Isshin had bought her earlier. "I haven't done something like this since I was younger than Karin and Yuzu."

Ichigo turned his gaze away from his sisters to glance at Rukia. "Really?" It was somewhat hard to imagine Rukia as a child. "You and... Renji?"

Rukia nodded, a soft smile on her face. "The thing about Soul Society is that it never does anything by halves. When it was Winter, it was Winter - a person could freeze to death if they didn't have sufficient heat..." Her face fell for a moment at the sight of some unpleasant memory.

Ichigo looked away, giving her the precious privacy that was so hard to find when coupled with grief.

After a moment, Rukia spoke again. "The Summers were always so hot, hotter than this even."

"Really?"

"Yes. We used to come down to the river all the time, and just spend the whole day walking through it. Sometimes, if we were lucky, we were even able to catch fish for dinner." She smiled at another memory. "Toki was the best at catching fishes, he was always so patient. He could wait in the same spot for hours just to catch one fish. Of course," she reflected. "He always ended up catching the most."

Ichigo let out a small grin. "How good was Renji? Was he second best or was that you?"

Rukia burst out laughing at that point. "Renji? He was awful! He kept running around with this stupid stick trying to spear the fish. He always ended up tripping over it and falling head-first into the water. And of course, I was second-best, what else would I be?"

Ichigo wisely did not comment.

Rukia let out a satisfied sigh. "I've missed this." She took another bite from her ice cream that refused to melt away like Ichigo and his sisters' had.

Ichigo coughed somewhat embarassed. "You know, back when my mom was... here... my Dad used to take us on picnics like this all the time. We would spend the whole day here, just playing in the water. Dad would teach us how to swim and all sorts of other random stuff, and Mom would be collecting some of the flowers to make a bouquet..." A smile came over his face. "My favourite part was when the sun was setting."

"Why's that?" Rukia's voice reminded him of where he was.

He shrugged. "I don't know why exactly. By that time, the twins and I were always exhausted, but that was the time when Dad would get Mom to dance with him in the water. He would start singing, always these really corny romantic songs off-key and Mom would just start laughing and she wouldn't stop..." He paused. "You know, we're wasting a whole bunch of time looking back on old memories, when we could be doing something else."

Rukia smacked him lightly on the head. "It isn't "wasting time" moron, it's "time well spent". Honestly, how you've managed to survive for so long without me to correct all your mistakes, I'll never understand." She said in a lofty tone.

"You might want to finish your ice cream while you still can," Ichigo threatened. "Because in a moment I'm going to dump your ass in that river."

Rukia took one more bite of her ice cream before setting it off to the side. "Don't worry, Shirayuki will take care of it for me." She grinned at him, mischeviously. "And who says that you'll be tossing me into the river? I'm pretty sure that that will be me tossing your weak ass in to swim with the fishes."

He smirked.

A moment later, there was a shriek of laughter and a yell as two bodies fell head-first into the suddenly freezing water.