Standard disclaimer applies.
Author's notes: When I started writing TV Marathon, I had two ideas on how to develop it. Surprisingly… or not, they turned out to be completely different. So here is my second take with the "watching the TV together" theme. Enjoy!
Entertainment
23.03.2005
Rukia and Ichigo find that one of the few activities they can share without bickering, as much as they usually do anyways, is watching TV. Of course, that is if you don't include the initial fight for the remote control. Once the issue for the control is settled, everything goes on quite smoothly. Thus, they watch the TV together on weekend nights when Isshin takes Yuzu and Karin for their weekly bowling session (how the girls cope with their father, Ichigo doesn't understand even now). It is the only moment of the week that lacks one of their quarrels.
Except tonight, when she suddenly lifts up from her seat on one of the corners of the sofa, sits on the coffee table just in front of Ichigo, and stares at him with no apparent reason. Ah, and surely enough, she is efficiently blocking the TV screen from his sight. Most probably, this will just work to annoy the hell out of him.
"Rukia, what the hell are you doing? Move over," he grunts commandingly to the girl, trying to push her with his left hand and cocking his head to glimpse at the TV. But he fails to do so, because the stubborn girl won't move even one inch.
"I don't want to." She sounds so childish it almost makes Ichigo snort. Despite her small size, there is no other indication of her being a child.
He grunts once again. "Move, damn it," he tells her impatiently, "I want to watch the end of the freakin' movie, that you chose by the way, but you cover the whole bloody screen. The only thing I can see is your stupid face."
"So?" Rukia looks straight into his amber eyes, as though she wants to see something else in them. "I can only see your face too and that doesn't bother me at all." There is a hint of a mischievous grin on the dark-haired girl's face. Ichigo vaguely thinks she's had too much chocolate today. "Is the movie that important?" she asks softly.
Since he doesn't make any indication of replying, she busies herself with regarding him carefully. Ichigo's eyebrows are drawn together in a deep frown when he glares at her, conscious of the way she's looking at him. "What Inoue told me is correct," she declares after some time of analysis, her bright, blue eyes wide with amusement, and the grin turns into a smirk as she thoughtfully rubs her chin with her thumb.
"Hn…" He gives up, shaking his head in defeat, and doesn't go through the trouble of pushing her away anymore. He already knows how annoying the petit-sized woman can get when she becomes this pigheaded, and so he lets Rukia finish her incessant ranting. There's nothing much left to do to shut her up now.
"You know, Ichigo," she starts with a sweet, playful tone laced onto her voice. It annoys Ichigo way more than he actually admits. She smiles, "You do have a funny face."
He is startled, and his eyes tell her so when they go round like saucers, but he doesn't look away. Instead, he then glares at her fiercely and grunts some random curse at her. Rukia laughs, content with his reaction, and he is even more stunned at the unusual sound coming from her. He recalls hearing it before but he still is unfamiliar with her sincere laughter. It's not that he couldn't get used to it, however.
They stay a little longer like that, looking at each other and not speaking at all, as the ending song of the movie dies down with the final credits.