For every moment that we live in joy, joy lives in us.
—
"Onii-chan, remember to buy some beef on the way home!"
"I got it!" Ichigo grumbled as he slipped on his shoes. Rukia was already outside inhaling the morning dew like an excited baby bird. Sometimes it amazed him how much energy she had in the morning. Must be to do with the countryside lifestyle, no preservatives and shit.
Today was a muggy day. A cottony layer of fog floated in the humid air. Luckily Ichigo got his hair genes from his mother's side; she had luxuriously strong hair that held its ground no matter what weather conditions. Rukia did not have such luck; her hair was already sticking up like a poorly trimmed hedge.
She didn't seem to care so much for her appearance though. Other girls in his class would be fussing with hair oils by now. But this kid, this Rukia kid, she caught a reflection of herself in a window and gave it a lame thumbs up. She was becoming more like his dad every day…
(He thought high school girls were supposed to be sugar and spice and all things nice dammit, not like an old man in a standup comedy. Was it all a lie!?)
"Come on, Ichigo! Where is your youthful energy?" She called with such tiresome vitality.
"Shut up, it's Saturday," he called back lethargically. He didn't understand why he had to get up so early on his precious weekend to get vegetables from the Farmer's Market. What's wrong with the grocery store?
"You don't understand, Ichigo!" Rukia had declared half an hour ago, standing before his horizontal body with her hands on her hips as he pulled his pillow over his head to avoid the sabre of light coming through the rudely opened curtains. "The nutrition content in food has decreased drastically in the last one hundred years! Don't you want to live long and healthy? Don't you know how important it is to have a well-balanced diet with plenty of vitamins and minerals!? The fresher the produce, the better!"
"Go chug a multivitamin or something," he drawled from beneath the pillow.
"I don't like medicines," she said.
"It's fine, vitamins aren't allowed to call themselves medicines. OW!"
"Get up, Ichigo!" She yelled, her foot slammed onto his backside. "Get your ass out of bed and do something productive with your ass!"
"Can you stop with the ass stuff? Stop talking about ass all the time, it's not how a lady should act! Don't you learn this stuff from your manga?"
"To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on."
"Don't use Shakespeare out of context!"
"Come on , Ichigo." There it was, Ichigo recognised this tone as the hairs on his back stood up in aversion like even they were trying to get away from the sickly sweet sound. "You said that weak little girls like me shouldn't go around carrying heavy things like ripoff waterlogged lettuce . Isn't that what you told my boss at Day Day Fresh Fresh?"
"You're still hung up about that?" Ichigo said incredulously. "It's your boss' fault for spraying so much water on vegetables! Why do I have to pay for the weight of water that I can't even use? What kind of person calls their shop Day Day Fresh Fresh anyway? Isn't Day Fresh enough?"
"Shunsui-san is a great guy!" Rukia exclaimed. "He understands the value of water! You're the one that doesn't know how to use the water on a sprayed lettuce!"
"Stop kidding yourself Rukia, it's just to make the lettuce look better!"
"Haven't you heard of what morning dew is?!"
"What are you two arguing about so early in the morning?"
They both turned towards the door. Karin stood there in her pyjamas, yawning and scratching her back. "You're going to wake the whole house."
"Sorry, Karin," Rukia chuckled sheepishly, "Ichigo and I are getting ready to go to the Farmer's Market. Do you want anything?"
"Hey, I didn't say I'll go!"
"Can you guys get some apples? Yuzu used them all baking pies."
"Hey! Karin!"
"Certainly!" Rukia said.
"Hey! I said hey!"
Ichigo yawned as he trailed after Rukia's enthusiastically fast strides. Maybe it was a mistake not letting her go to work. She had as much energy as a kid high on sugar. Almost made him miss those quiet peaceful times when she was falling asleep in class. Is this her normal, unfatigued state? What did she eat growing up? Was she breastfed by the goddess of war?
Sad though; he hadn't even found her this annoying at their first meeting, so she had probably been working too inhumanely much since then.
"Oi, Rukia," Ichigo said. "How're your ribs today?"
"Fine and dandy, thank you!"
"Scale from one to ten?"
"Zero!"
"What about now?" He lands a hand heavily on her left shoulder which causes her to stop completely.
"...Three," she grits. "For a doctor's son, you're really not gentle at all."
"You're not the type that gentle works on." He takes his hand and heat away. "Chill, I said I'll go so stop trying to shake me off."
"...how do you know that," she mutters.
"What?"
"Nothing." She falls into step next to him. Walking side by side, comrades off on the important mission of obtaining the most bountiful vegetables.
It has been two weeks since that incident. Karin was discharged from the hospital the day after Rukia woke up. The police had yet to find the culprits behind the incident but the search was very actively ongoing. Rukia was visited by the police for her statement while still in her hospital bed. An orange-haired, big-busted female and a white-haired, small-framed male who seemed to be her boss but looked younger than Ichigo. Apparently he had a baby face, or so the big-busted woman had said with a teasing smile directed at the fuming policeman.
Rukia fit in well at his house. She got along swimmingly with his dad, the two of them sitting in front of the TV after dinner each night howling in synchrony at some lame comedian show (more than once Ichigo had wanted to pull the TV plug as she doubled over in pain while still laughing too hard). Yuzu loved her and called her 'Rukia-neechan', made apple pie every second day after Rukia had complimented the first one with tears of joy in her eyes (it was like she had never seen one before, the sparkle in her eyes when she smelled it had been a sight to behold). Karin was… well, Karin had always been slow to warm up to strangers (maybe because it was summer, Karin was warming up pretty fast).
Rukia had a proper bed which was set up in the room of his sisters, but Ichigo knew she didn't sleep there. She seemed to like small spaces, considering how tightly she curled up every time he found her in the armchair closest to the balcony. Almost like she had fallen asleep there while considering leaving through the window.
He knew she wanted to leave. No, not yet. Not while the people that hurt them were still out there. He knew she thought she was a bother, a freeloader that intruded on his family's life. He wasn't good with things of the heart and talking cheesy words. He just hoped his actions were enough. Act as normal as possible. Throw in an insult here and there...not like that was hard, she did irk him like no other. Things that would make himself comfortable: not tentatively treated like a guest and unintentionally made to feel out of place, not given the wide berth and unintentionally made to feel isolated. Simply the same as always, same bickering, same dynamics, except they saw each other more often now. Of course, living in close proximity with someone caused you to learn things about them that you didn't know before. Like how soft and frizzy her hair looked in the mornings. Like how she preferred to use soap over laundry powder or liquid to wash her clothes. Like how she says a prayer to a photograph each night, the corners taped with yellowing sellotape, five people on a pale green background. It was reassuring to see the human sides of her. Sometimes he worried that she would fly away, like a crow after Halloween, or a sparrow during the season change. He always felt slightly unsettled when it came to her.
Rukia carried one of those super lame foldable shopping trolley bags. It was a bright purple colour and had a logo of a rice brand printed on it. If Ichigo remembered correctly, it was a gift with purchase at Day Day Fresh Fresh for Grandmother's day a while ago. Yuzu had been outraged at Rukia's casual clothes (which even Ichigo had to admit, did her no justice) and had given her half of her own wardrobe. Today she wore a short-sleeved blue dress. Yuzu's clothes fit her perfectly despite their age difference. Rukia was so small.
That was why he had to protect her. Her body was small, but her heart was big. She was kind to the neighbours, watered the plants carefully, stroked the back of the nauseous patient waiting in the emergency room. Rukia might not believe it, but Ichigo knows that under the layers of her walls and gates, something gold is there.