Disclaimer: I own nothing in this. Just a collection of Byaruki and Ichiruki moments in canon novels.
Second Floor, Kitchen
"Now, what do I do first?" Rukia placed both hands on her waist as she stood in front of the stove, looking up at him.
"What?"
"The curry!"
"I already asked you, what about the curry?"
"And I told you, tell me how to make it."
"Oh, so that's it. But is that really how you ask someone for a favor?!" Ichigo sat down in the chair in the corner and scowled at her.
Rukia felt a sudden rush of anger and raised an eyebrow, but she quickly lowered her head and said, "I'm sorry."
"What... what's wrong? Why are you so agreeable today?"
"I don't have time. I need to finish it before dinner..." He stared at her profile, her eyes lightly closed, and realized something. "Are you making it for Byakuya?"
"So you do know..."
"Oh, so that's it." He thought to himself, Your face could've told me everything I needed to know.
Before, Rukia and Byakuya hadn't shared any sibling affection. Now that the previous battle had helped her discover Byakuya's true feelings, she was carefully considering how to handle their new relationship. All these complicated emotions were written on her face, even though she hadn't realized it yet.
"Curry... First, do you have any curry mix?"
"Mix? What is mix?"
"It's the main ingredient in curry. I wonder if Soul Society has it..."
"Wait a second, I'll go ask."
Rukia went up to a nearby cook who was busy cleaning a fish and spoke briefly with him. "He said he'd heard of it, but never saw it before. I told him it was something that looked like mud... like a muddy kind of thing."
"No, never mind." Ichigo clasped his hands together and closed his eyes. I remember that one way to make it was to fry some wheat flour and then do this and that to it, but I can't remember any of the details. His sister Yuzu used an instant mix to make curry. His mother Masaki had thought it should be made from scratch with flour. But Ichigo wasn't even tall enough to reach his mother's wrists back then, so he couldn't remember the exact details. No matter what, he first needed to get his hands on some curry mix. And Soul Society's resident expert at getting her hands on such rare items was...
"Okay!" Ichigo stood up. "I'm going to go ask Yoruichi-san. You can start on the diced meat and vegetables. I'll be back soon."
"Oh, thank you!" Rukia replied... and then immediately regretted not asking him what sorts of vegetables would taste good in curry.
She started to recall what it had tasted like in her mouth. She closed her eyes and made scooping motions toward her mouth with the spoon. All the cooks nearby stared at her in bewilderment.
When Ichigo returned to the kitchen, Rukia was busy peeling potatoes with a very serious expression. The cutting board was covered with a small mountain of diced onions and pork.
"Huh? That's quite a lot! How many people are you planning to make this for?" Rukia looked up. Her eyes were still red from cutting up the onions. "Oh, Ichigo! How was it? Did you get the curry mix?"
"Yoruichi-san said she'd bring some."
"Then it shouldn't be a problem." She went back to work and used what looked like some very dangerous techniques to peel the potatoes and dice them. Ichigo sat down in the chair in the corner.
Ichigo flipped through the magazine and let out a deep sigh. And here I thought the shinigami were going to be a bit more intimidating than they actually are... Instead, the members of the Gotei 13 seemed to have the same sort of existence as performers and wrestlers in the real world.
"Now I'm having trouble trying to imagine what Byakuya eating curry would look like." Ichigo put the magazine back and stood up to stretch.
The curry would be ready in another fifteen minutes. Rukia stood in front of the stove and tried to imagine Byakuya eating curry.
Byakuya bringing the spoon to his mouth, his cheeks already stuffed full of curry. Byakuya noisily chewing the curry. Byakuya with curry stains around his mouth. Truly... no matter how I think about it... Nii-sama wouldn't look right eating curry...!
Rukia looked down at the pot full of curry, boiling merrily away, and froze. "I never realized that certain kinds of food could be inappropriate!"
"But is that really a problem? As long as you made it, Byakuya should be happy to eat it." Ichigo believed that eating whatever his little sister made without complaint was the duty of a big brother.
"Really?" Rukia felt a slim amount of hope.
Rukia looked down at the porridge bubbling away in a tiny pot after Captain Unohana adviced her against serving Byakuya a heavy meal. "So I ended up making boring old rice porridge..."
Shiratama zenzai and curry rice were both foods that could bring back memories of her time in the living world. She'd hoped to use this opportunity to tell Byakuya about her adventures there. She sighed and turned off the stove. "You seem very troubled."
"Ah?!" The sudden sound right behind her almost made Rukia upset the pot. She slowly turned around. "Lieutenant Kurotsuchi! You scared me..." It was the Lieutenant of the Twelfth Division, Kurotsuchi Nemu. "You seem troubled. Did you need some excitement?" she asked in a monotone.
"Um... maybe." Rukia was a bit scared because she had no idea what Nemu was thinking but nodded anyway. Nemu pulled out a tiny bottle from her waist pouch. "This is for you." She held the bottle in front of Rukia's face. It was filled with a clear liquid.
"This is..."
"With just one drop, this drug causes a violent reaction in the brain, which will then..."
"No, no, no, no! I don't need that kind of excitement!" Rukia immediately retracted her hand, which had just been reaching for the bottle.
"Really?" Nemu looked at her sideways and added, "I think it would be good for you."
"Yes! Thank you for the offer!"
"There are only a few... side effects."
"Even a little bit is something!" Rukia would never dose her brother with any sort of unknown drug. A voice suddenly came from Nemu's chest.
"Nemu! Don't dawdle! Hurry up!" It was the voice of the Captain of the Twelfth Division, Kurotsuchi Mayuri.
"Yes, Mayuri-sama," Nemu said to her chest. It seemed like there was a communicator in there. "Um, thank you again!" Rukia called out to Nemu, who'd turned to leave without another word.
She stopped at the doorway and turned to look at Rukia. "...You're welcome." For just a moment, it seemed like she smiled, but she just as quickly left through the doorway. Alone again, Rukia covered a carrying tray with cloth and placed the covered pot on it next to a small bowl and spoon. She then stood back a few steps to look at her creation. "Eh..."
(Just as I thought, it looks very plain... if only there was something I could add...) She started searching through the shelves, looking for some pickled vegetables or dried plums.
Just then, a shinigami said softly, "Umm, Kuchiki-san." It was Kira Izuru, carrying a small bag.
"Lieutenant Kira..." Rukia stared at her surprise guest. They'd been in the same year together at the Academy, but they never had much interaction, at least not any that would be a reason for him to visit her. "Why are you here?"
"Umm... Abarai-kun told me that you were making some food for Captain Kuchiki... so I brought this." He handed the tiny bag to her. Inside was a box about as big as Rukia's palm, labeled [Spicy Mentaiko Premium Quality].
"This is expensive... can I really accept it?" She stared at him in wonder, trying to think of what reason Kira might have to give her a present like this. (Maybe Nii-sama showed him some sort of kindness...?)
"I am so sorry!" Kira suddenly bowed to her after a few seconds' silence. His shoulders shook, and his voice was strained. "I... helped push your execution forward...!"
To Rukia, this was completely unexpected. "...Please raise your head." She smiled warmly at him.
"But...!" "Lieutenant Kira was merely following his captain's orders. You should share no blame in the matter." Kira looked up at her warm, comforting eyes and felt as if tears were about to spill out of his own. He quickly looked back down.
"Really, there's no need to worry." From his withered hair to his emaciated face, she could tell that his troubles lately had been many.
"I'm sorry...!" He quietly apologized yet again. "I said that you didn't need to apologize. I never even thought of blaming you for anything." She smiled at him as he looked up again. He lowered his head and walked quietly out of the kitchen.
When he was gone, Rukia cut the mentaiko into thin slices and placed it on a dish by the pot. She removed her apron, took off the tri-corner hat, and lifted the tray. "...Here I go!" She took a deep breath and left the kitchen. Step by step, she walked carefully toward Byakuya's room. As the setting sun's rays touched her face, her expression was strained from nervousness.
Rukia slowly climbed the stairs up to the third floor. When she arrived, she saw a certain figure standing in the middle of the corridor. Closer in, she recognized it as Seike Nobutsune, Byakuya's white-haired and bespectacled servant. He bowed to her when he noticed her as well.
She quickened her pace and walked up to him. "I want to see Nii-sama... is it okay to go in?" Seike regarded her with a kind expression and said, "Please wait a moment." He then said to the closed door, "Byakuya-sama, Rukia-sama is here."
Byakuya immediately replied, "Let her in," from behind the door. Seike quietly opened the door and bowed to him. Rukia shuffled into the room. Her hands were sweating beneath the tray from nervousness. "Excuse me." She then forced herself to look up.
Kuchiki Byakuya was sitting on the bed by the window. He was covered with bandages all the way up to his neck. She felt pained just from the sight of him.
Next to him, the setting sun shined on an exquisite tray of food, probably sent from the mansion. The main dish was the same rice porridge that she had prepared, but her own submission was completely defeated by the wide array of side dishes that the Kuchiki cooks had put together.
"Are... you eating?" Rukia looked down at the simple arrangement on her own tray and bit her lip.
(What on earth am I doing? I should've realized that something like this would happen...) Shiratama zenzai could be eaten as a snack, but curry and rice porridge were main dishes and would very likely interfere with whatever the clan's cooks prepared for him. Why on earth did she not think of this sooner?
(I guess... I was foolish...) She'd always felt that there existed a great distance between the two of them, and right now he felt so very close. Yet he was still the head of the Kuchiki Clan and Captain of the Sixth Division. That, at least, hadn't changed.
"I'm sorry, Nii-sama... I'll come see you... some other time," she said in a tiny voice and quickly turned away from him. She suddenly felt as if the mentaiko's red coloring had become blindingly bright, almost bringing tears to her eyes.
"Wait, Rukia." Byakuya's commanding voice stopped her in her tracks. "...What is that?"
She turned around hesitantly and felt as if she had to say something... But when she was about to open her mouth, her complicated feelings wouldn't coalesce into words. In the end, she didn't manage to say anything and just lowered her head.
The room was filled with a warm orange glow. Byakuya looked at her face full of sorrow and suddenly smiled. "Seike," he called.
Seike came in at once and stood to one side. "Remove this." A simple command. Seike replied, "I obey," and removed the tray in a flash.
"Rukia." She had been watching Seike leave the room, but now he turned to face her. She looked at him so uneasily.
He closed his eyes. "...I'd like to eat now." At first, Rukia didn't understand what he meant.
"Ah..." But when she looked up at his peaceful profile, she finally realized. He wanted to eat the rice porridge that she made. She was suddenly so happy that she started shaking all over.
"Yes...! Right away, Nii-sama!" She placed the tray on the table next to him, poured some porridge into a bowl, added a bit of mentaiko, and handed it to him with still-shaking hands. He spread out the mentaiko with a spoon and took a bite of the reddish porridge.
"Ah, Nii-sama! Could I tell you about some of the things that I saw in the living world?" she asked as she handed him a second bowl of porridge.
"...Go on." She'd never seen his expression so gentle before. This endless day was finally almost over.
Inoue Orihime entered the kitchen, calling out, "Ku-chi-ki-san-!" Ukitake Juushiro followed her in, both carrying the empty pot of shiratama zenzai they had brought back.
"She's not here..." Orihime noted, and Ukitake agreed. They looked around, but couldn't find her, so they left the pot behind and left the kitchen.
"Where did she go? Kuchiki-san. It was so good! I really want to thank her..." Orihime said wistfully.
"Wait, Orihime, can't you feel Kuchiki's reiatsu above us?" Ukitake pointed to the ceiling, and Orihime focused on it.
"Oh, you're right! I can feel it! And there's someone else..." Orihime exclaimed.
"Yes, that's Byakuya. He has already been moved to a single room," Ukitake confirmed.
Orihime clapped her hands. "Then I'll go thank Kuchiki-san and check on her brother at the same time!"
"Orihime," Ukitake called out, stopping her.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I think it's best to leave them alone for now," Ukitake advised. He knew the complicated relationship between the two and felt that the situation was improving, so it was better not to interfere.
Orihime nodded, and Ukitake sighed, leaning against the window frame. "Soul Society's evening colors are so beautiful..."
Orihime leaned out the window, placing both hands on the frame. "That's dangerous!" Ukitake warned.
"Shh!" Orihime gestured for quiet. When Ukitake looked puzzled, she pointed upward. He leaned out the window as well.
Soon, they could hear Rukia's voice from above. Though they couldn't see her face, her joy was evident in her tone. Orihime smiled at Ukitake and whispered, "See?" He smiled back.
Rukia, in a particularly good mood, returned the empty pot of porridge to the kitchen.
"Ichigo?" she called, spotting him at the counter.
"Oh, Rukia!" Ichigo greeted her, holding a sponge covered in bubbles. He had come to return the curry pot but decided to wash it himself when Rukia wasn't there. "Did you go see Byakuya?" he asked while scrubbing.
"Ah," Rukia replied, her voice showing that she had been successful.
Ichigo thought for a moment. (It might sound strange if I say something like, "That's great!") He decided to do something else instead. "You can bring the tray here. I'll take care of it while I'm at it."
"Really..? Thanks then," Rukia said, handing him the tray and sitting down. The day's fatigue caught up to her, and she felt tired all of a sudden.
"The curry was delicious!" Ichigo commented.
"Oh... that's great!" Rukia closed her eyes, listening to the sound of water splashing from the faucet. It was soothing, like waves crashing, and it began to lull her to sleep.
"The Eleventh Division guys were eating it like crazy... Yachiru even got it in her hair..." Ichigo's voice gradually faded away. When he finished washing the dishes and turned back, Rukia was already asleep.
Ichigo smiled as he looked at her peaceful face. (What a happy expression you have there.) He felt deeply grateful for his time in Soul Society and the things he had to protect.
"Hey, Rukia! Don't fall asleep here! Go back to your room!" he gently shook her shoulder, feeling overwhelmingly happy.
a/u: thank you so much for sharing this to us!