Day Eight

sing a song of sixpence

"I'm sorry for the way I acted the other day, Rukia-sama."

I'm sitting in my reliable chair with the ornate back, facing the back wall of my cell, when I hear the familiar voice greet me. He's exactly on time according to my internal clock. I hear the lock click and the barred door swings open, his timid footsteps nearing my seat. I look at his approach on my left, but I can't smile at Hanatarou just yet. "All is well as long as you refer to me as Rukia."

Hanatarou has a blank look on his face, so I smile first. He blinks, then the smile and relief of forgiveness washes over him. He cheerfully offers me the tray of food before leaving to retrieve his broom. I don't understand why his assignments require him to clean the cells so often, since there isn't much to begin with anyway, but I don't question it. I'm glad I get daily interactions, and today, it seems like Hanatarou took extra efforts to make sure I forgive him.

"Ice cream?" I ask, an eyebrow perking up inquisitively.

The deviousness in his smile is unmistakable. I smirk back at him, secretly wondering if our simple conversations are enough to corrupt him. Exactly how evil am I?

"It wasn't that difficult to obtain it, Rukia," he said, as if reading my thoughts. Hanatarou casually turned his broom upside down to reach the high corners of the cell. "Unohana-taichou threw a party for us, just to increase our morale around the Division. I thought you'd appreciate it."

"Appreciate it? I appreciate you, Hanatarou," I reply with a smile. I haven't even given the dessert a second look. "Thank you for being a friend when...I feel like I have none."

He frowns as he lowers the broom, leaning upon the bamboo handle. "Don't speak like that. You look so gloomy and sad."

"I can't help it sometimes," I mumble quietly. Looking down, a pool of liquid begins to form around the base of the ice cream scoop, so I lower my spoon and begin to eat it, so Hanatarou's efforts don't melt away. It tastes delicious, like the dessert I remember from the human world.

"You don't seem that upset when you tell me all of your wonderful stories," Hanatarou says. He gives me an encouraging smile, even though his eyelids droop with its own expression of gloominess. "I enjoy hearing them, in fact, I look forward to my duties knowing that I'll get to speak with you. If I may be bold, you're a lot different than I expected you would be."

I laugh, somewhat louder than I expected it to come out. The sound is foreign to my ears. When is the last time I laughed anyway?

"And exactly how did you expect me to be?" I ask. It almost irks me that someone has preconceived notions about me, even if it's just Hanatarou.

The boy shrugs. "I thought you'd be more stuck-up, incapable of feeling..." Hanatarou looks like he wants to continue, but he stays quiet, leaving his sentence unfinished.

"And?"

There is no mistaking the look in his eyes. It's almost reminiscent of pity, perhaps more sorrowful. But Hanatarou's eyes pierce into mine, making me colder than the dessert in my hands. "I never knew someone could hurt so much, Rukia-sama."

I find no rest in the silence that falls over my cell. Hanatarou opens his mouth again, and I don't want him to regret what he said because it's true and it's too late. I've already shut down.

I quickly finish the rest of the ice cream, which isn't a feat since most of it has melted from me gripping the bowl tightly. I put the dish down, and when I look up, I realize I'm smiling back at Hanatarou. The proper, noble-side of me surfaces, the side of me he first expected to see when he met me, and I can't do much to push it away. It's the mask that I wear, when I come dangerously close to remembering.

"I understand, Hanatarou," I say blankly. My calm response seems to appease him, so I continue my charade. "But I assure you that I've had fun times as well. The days I spent in the human world...I'd never trade them for anything. No regrets."

Hanatarou's eyes are darker, making the bags under them more pronounced than before. "They're going to kill you, Rukia."

"Sitting on death row is not the time to be thinking of one's mortality," I reply coolly. Focusing on morbid and depressing thoughts is not how I want to end my days. I want to focus on the sun, how it possibly kick started life. I love night better, and at least the window in my cell points to the sky, allowing me to count the bright stars I've always adored. I'm trying to think about my favorite songs. The thing I miss most about the human world is music, the emotions it evokes, and the unpredictable rhythms that get ingrained in your body until you can recall the melody by heart.

My companion is unusually quiet. When I look at him, his eyes divert away, the tell-tale signs that Hanatarou had been watching me, and I smile at him. "Hanatarou," I say firmly. He returns my gaze, focused on what I am about to say. "Sometimes people engage in what you may see as suffering, but that's far from the case when that person faces an obstacle head-on. Remember everything that I told you, because it's what I understand as what's important in life. Don't ever forget who you are, and never back down from something you believe in."

My eyes find the ground when I think about Ichigo. If that idiot can put himself in harm's way, then so can I. Time for remorse can come later.

"Shooting myself in the head sounds good. Maybe I can cut my own head off with my zanpakuto. No, I wouldn't die fast enough. What if I just ran out of here screaming? Then the Midget will pull me back here by my ears," thought Ichigo, who slouched in a dark corner, by himself, glaring at anyone who dared approach him. Despite his deep set frown and smashed together eyebrows, Ichigo still saw Rukia across the long room. She looked radiant under the multi-colored lights, a smile plastered on her face, and dancing around in her new purple dress.

"She can have the fun for the both of us," he thought darkly.

Ichigo took up one table along the length of a long booth that ran down one side of a narrow bar. Ten feet across from him sat the kitchen opening where the cafe sold an assortment of light foods and their famous bubble tea, which Ichigo ordered two for himself and Rukia, but she was too busy being amused at the front of the cafe. Hers sat at the table by itself, just like Ichigo. He looked down the length of the booth. There were other solitary guys sitting at their respective tables as well, but Ichigo noticed one huge difference between himself and them. They enjoyed the cafe. They sat with happy-go-lucky grins on their faces, watching their significant others all of whom congregated towards the front of the room where Rukia stood, and sipped on their bubble teas as if there was nothing better in the world.

"I'd rather face a hundred hollows at the same time then have to come back here," Ichigo muttered to himself.

In her glee and excitement of the night, Rukia turned around to catch Ichigo's eye. When their gazes met, she beamed at him, waving an enthusiastic hand back at him. Ichigo coolly nodded at her, and she turned around to continue dancing or whatever the assortment of girls were doing together. "I hate it," he thought with all of his resolve.

Karaoke bars.

What sadistic mind thought of taking horrible, off-key singing public? That same person, who had no regard for humanity, knew girls flocked to the novelty of pretending to be their favorite pop star, holding onto the microphone, and reading along to the words of songs they already knew by heart. Yes, Ichigo hated it with a passion. His ears ached, his back hurt from slouching so low in his seat so none of his classmates might possibly catch him, his teeth throbbed from chewing the round tapioca pearls until he grounded them into powder.

But at least Rukia was having fun.

From what he could see, the raven-haired girl loved dancing to the pulsating music, her body mixing with those around her, and the folds of her precious dress washing around her slender legs. Not that Ichigo was looking at her legs anyway.

"Ass is out of this world, huh?" he thought with a smirk. That dress was the reason Ichigo found himself in his current predicament. He figured Rukia would choose to go to her favorite ice cream shop and request a double scoop for herself, but Tatsuki, his oldest and supposed friend, suggested that Ichigo took her to check out the new boba tea cafe. She never mentioned anything about karaoke, and Ichigo guessed that Soul Society had no such thing because Rukia kept asking questions about what the people standing by the equipment were doing. He should have known Rukia would be interested in karaoke because when he described it as "torture", her interest perked up.

Ichigo straightened up when he watched Rukia take the microphone and ascend on the stage, her pale skin taking in all of the different colors illuminating her from above. He heard several hoots and hollering from random guys that Ichigo couldn't exactly pinpoint who said what, but he tried to single out the moron who dared to call her a "fox".

Suddenly, Rukia started to sing, and Ichigo's eyes darted to the front of the cafe. Their eyes met, and she waved at him again, before her eyes returned to the words moving on the screen. "Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns, it calls me on and on across the universe," she sang in English.

Ichigo recognized the classic song, but he wondered if Rukia knew what she was singing, or even how famous the originators were. And those wonders continued as he watched the raven-haired girl sing, a smile pulling at each corner of her pink lips, her eyes illuminated by the ever-changing lights, and her voice chilling him like he never thought possible. Ichigo suddenly felt possessed and strange; he never knew Rukia had such a big voice for a small body, although she yelled at him quite often. The song ended almost too fast since it began, and the karaoke bar erupted in cheers, mostly fueled by deep male voices. Rukia bowed gracefully before passing the torch and handing the next person the microphone. Rukia beamed back at Ichigo, but remained in the crowd by the stage.

"Hey, bring that last girl back!" yelled a male patron, who stood rather close to Ichigo.

"Yeah, encore!" chimed in another.

"She can sing to me allll night!"

Ichigo's eye twitched. This was why he hated people and socializing. Ichigo certainly didn't want to expose Rukia to such brass and offensive young males in the common Japanese population, or any other young men at that. Suddenly, instead of the blinding anger that surged through him, another feeling electrified his body. It was almost carnal, in the sense that Ichigo wanted to possess Rukia, and make sure the others knew that he already claimed her as his guest from across the universe. Rukia was too innocent and naive, and it was his duty as her host to protect her from the downsides of the human world, such as male hormones.

He made up his mind. Ichigo stood up from his table rigidly, making his way down the aisle towards his friend, glaring at every male in the bar, silently challenging them to watch while he moved. Once he reached a close proximity to Rukia, his eyes fixated upon her, the caramel pools boiling.

Rukia felt a heavy presence behind her, and Ichigo's raging reiatsu. She could tell something pissed him off, and she didn't want to go because she was having so much fun. Turning around with one of her sweetest smiles, Rukia's gaze slammed into Ichigo's burning stare. Her heart skipped a beat at the intensity, but she smiled on anyway. "Hey Ichigo, do you want to sing a duet with me?" she asked in her proper human voice.

Ichigo frowned, but put his hand on her upper arm. They both felt a blushing heat rise, as he hadn't touched her like that before. His grip was firm, but tender at the same time. "Let's get out of here," he replied gruffly.

"But why? I only got to sing one song, and I didn't even get to pick it!"

Ichigo's eyes flickered towards the length of the bar, and he could see several pairs of eyes on them. Nosy perverts. "Come on, I just want to get out of here," Ichigo repeated. While he didn't sound too demanding, Rukia could sense the agitation in his voice. She tried to barter with him one more time by frowning herself, but Ichigo put his other hand up on her shoulder. "Please, let's go. I'll let you borrow my mp3 player and you can sing anytime you want!"

"Only when your family isn't home," Rukia pouted. "If you take me to get ice cream, then we can go."

"Deal," Ichigo quickly agreed. Before she could argue with him again, he slipped an arm around Rukia's shoulders, firmly ushering the girl out of the karaoke bar. Ichigo looked over his shoulder, shooting the male patrons an evil parting glare. They pretended to watch their own girlfriends who cheered on the current aspiring singer, not daring to give Rukia a second look.

Walking out into the open night, Rukia felt a protection from the chilly air under Ichigo's arm. It was strange to walk to close to him, and she sneaked a peek at his face while they hurried away from the cafe. Ichigo's stare kept his attention away from her, while Rukia got a good look at the scar under his strong jawline. They walked in silence for a few minutes, and when they were sufficiently away from the business of the downtown area, Rukia cleared her throat.

"Uhm, Ichigo," she said. Finally looking down, Ichigo blushed as he removed his arm that draped across Rukia. She shivered for a moment, instantly missing his warmth, but she didn't complain. They kept walking, this time stiffly and awkward, and when Rukia couldn't take the silence anymore, she stopped to face her companion.

"What?" he asked defensively.

She didn't know where such modesty came from someone she regularly watched fight with brash strength and ferocity, but Rukia smiled when she realized how much Ichigo must have suffered to take her out tonight. He really hated karaoke bars. Rukia put her hands on her hips, and Ichigo scowled, as if bracing himself for the inevitable fight. "Thank you."

Ichigo didn't hide his surprise. His expression softened. "What?" he repeated again, sounding like a broken record.

Laughing quietly, Rukia smiled to further show her gratitude. "Thank you for taking me out tonight. I had a lot of fun."

"Ah," was his only reply. Ichigo secretly played with tiny lint particles in the deepest corners of his pockets, struggling for a response. He wasn't about to offer to take Rukia there again; he couldn't endure that kind of torture. Finally, Ichigo remembered what normal, well-mannered people would say. "You're welcome...Stumps."

Rukia may have looked radiantly content, but he couldn't resist the jab. His ears hurt, after all.

Her lips scrunched into a pout, but Rukia remained silent. She narrowed her eyes menacingly at Ichigo and continued their walk home. Feeling a bit tired, Rukia figured she would tease him about being jealous later.

A/N: inspired by Anthony Bourdain's distaste for karaoke. Rukia sang "Across the Universe" by The Beatles. thanks for all the reviews and alerting! i luff you all!