Author's Note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU.


Find Me a Find

Rukia frowned at the sink and tried to come up with the proper response to her roommate sarcastic comment. Living with other people when there weren't servants around to pick up after everyone was something of a pain. Rukia enjoyed the freedom of living on her own, but there were some things she missed about the luxury of living with her family. Still, there was something to be said about sharing space. Ichigo was rather fun to rile up. He had the tendency to be just as sarcastic as she was. It took them a while, but they had been able to find a balance where they could live together and not kill one another.

Of course, that didn't keep her from getting irritated with Ichigo. The guy could depress a hyena at times. She wasn't sure what exactly his problem was, but he had a tendency to close himself off from everything around him. More than once Rukia had found herself dragging him out to have some fun. She'd practically made him introduce her to some of his friends. They seemed like a nice bunch, and Rukia couldn't quite figure out why Ichigo didn't spend more time with them.

Still, for all his surliness and unsociability, Ichigo was a good friend. Rukia had seen that first hand in the way he looked out for the members of his small group of friends. Once you had Ichigo's loyalty, he would go to just about any extreme for you. He also was rather oblivious to certain things. For instance, Rukia was pretty certain that both Tatsuki and Orihime had crushes on him. Or in Orihime's case, infatuation was a better word. Ichigo either was completely oblivious to this fact or was a very good actor. Given that he was a guy in his twenties, Rukia was going to go for oblivious.

She hadn't expected to come home from class today and find her roommate more taciturn than ever. Something was clearly wrong by the way he was acting, though Rukia wasn't sure what it was. Tomorrow was a Saturday though. Perhaps she could find some sort of activity for them to do together. After her visit though. Once a month Rukia made a trip to her sister's grave. She would bring flowers and chat with Hisana, filling her in on the newest events in her life. Rukia truthfully didn't remember much about her older sister. When they had been orphaned, the system had separated them pretty quickly. Hisana had been dead several years before her husband had found Rukia and she had been adopted into his family.

But talking Hisana's grave allowed her to say things she wouldn't tell anyone else, and it made her feel closer to her sister. This time around she was longer at the florist than she expected, and when Rukia arrived at the graveyard, she found something rather unexpected. Ichigo was here. What was more, he seemed to be here with his family. And he didn't seem to have noticed her. She watched as the little group made their way to a grave.

It was probably the anniversary of a death in the family. Rukia left to it and returned to her conversation with her sister. When the sky started to get overcast, Rukia was just about done. She gathered up her things and her umbrella and decided to head home. To her surprise, Ichigo was still here, though it looked like the rest of his family had left. It was starting to rain though, and he clearly didn't have an umbrella. So Rukia headed over to the grave he was standing in front of. As she got closer she could see who it was for: Masaki Kurosaki. His mother.

Taking a deep breath, Rukia walked over to Ichigo's side, holding the umbrella over them both. Ichigo didn't really seem to notice at first. Rukia waited. Sometime it took a little while to come out of the spell you were under when visited someone's grave. Finally, he glanced over at her. Rukia smiled gently.

"Hey." She didn't ask questions. It was really not something you wanted to deal with when you were visiting someone. If Ichigo wanted to talk or explain, he'd do so when he was ready. If not, that was fine with Rukia.

"She died ten years ago."

He would have been nine. Rukia remembered being nine. It was a year or so before Byakuya found her. It might also explain why Ichigo was so antisocial. Losing your mom at that age would have sucked. You were old enough to remember her, but not old enough to realize that there would be a time where Mom wasn't around all the time. And the flat tone he said it in made Rukia think there was more to this story than just that.

She didn't push though, and the two of them began to walk back towards campus. At some point, Ichigo took the umbrella; it was easier for him to hold it, so they were both covered. It continued to rain, and somewhere along the line, Ichigo began to talk. It had been on a rainy day that his mother had died, and he had been with her when it happened. The whole story poured out, including the guilt that he felt. Finally when he ran out of words, an awkward silence descended, and Rukia found herself telling him her story. By the time they finally got home, it was really too late to go out and do much of anything. But that was okay with Rukia. What they had done today was pretty important. Of course, she also had a feeling that it wasn't going to change much. Which meant there was an argument coming over whose turn it was to wash dishes.