Requested by Yamagi Kushida- thank you
Ichigo x Kiyone
Tears
He had been coerced into taking her on a date by Captain Ukitake- not that the Captain would ever force anyone to do anything, but sometimes gentle words and meaningful looks could say reams more than intimidation could.
He took her to a nice enough place in one of the better districts of the Rukongai, since she wouldn't be able to get permission to go to the human world, where there was decent food and a pleasant atmosphere. He thought that it would be a good place to go on a date with a girl that he barely knew, and only then from brief conversations when she was on gate duty and he was waiting for Rukia.
He really, really didn't know where he had gone wrong.
Because she was crying. Damn well crying. They were in a decent restaurant and she'd changed out of uniform into a pretty outfit and he had accepted (on Rukia's demand) that he was going to have to spend a fair bit of money, and so far they had been having a good time, and now she was wiping her tears away with her napkin and making small, gulping sobs.
A tear had fallen onto her fork, and for a moment he watched it infract the light like a beautifully liquid diamond before he looked back up at her face.
"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. It's just… it's just…"
He stared awkwardly at his plate, glad that no-one had noticed yet, because if they had he would be feeling rather uncomfortable under the weight of dirty looks. He paid for the meal quickly, and lead her out into the warm night.
They walked in silence until she stopped, and then she cautiously began to speak.
"I'm really sorry that I made you feel awkward."
He shrugged in response.
"You just reminded… Kaien was buried on this day-"
"It's okay, you don't have to explain."
Ichigo was not trying particularly to be sensitive or kind- in fact, it was more the case that he was trying to make sure that she did not start welling up again. He had absolutely no ability to deal with crying women.
"It's just that Rukia was right! She said you were like him and you are, you really are, and it's just so… so…"
Ichigo had failed- he felt incredibly uncomfortable already. He was fully aware that people had made the comparison before now, and he had never liked it. He was his own person, not some reincarnation of the man who had inadvertently broken Rukia's heart. He didn't want anything to do with Rukia's heart, at all.
"I'm sorry, I'm not going to cry again. You are like Kaien… but at the same time, you're not. It took me by surprise. I think I was expecting a new him, but you're different, and perhaps… perhaps not in a bad way."
He looked over at her then, and she was smiling.
"I think I prefer you. Is that wrong to say?"
He shrugged as they arrived back at her division barracks. He hadn't even known that she had known Kaien, and now this? He waved her goodbye with forced nonchalance, and made his way back to the world of the living.
He hadn't been intending to (who wants to repeat a date like that?) but after a week of thinking about it, he wrote her a letter.
He was thinking that, for thier second date, he'd take her to an amusement park.
He was hoping she couldn't cry there.