AU Prompt: "Sometimes I steal flowers from your garden on my way to the cemetery, but today you've caught me and have demanded to come with me to make sure the "girl is pretty enough to warrant flower theft" and I'm trying to figure out how to break it to you that we're on our way to a graveyard"

Awkward Encounters at the Local Graveyard

IchiRuki

Okay, so in his heart, Ichigo really does know that stealing is wrong … but then … he also knows that the nearest flower shop from his house is in the opposite direction of the graveyard. Several miles in the opposite direction, in fact. And it's only one or two flowers, nothing major, and he is sincere in his promise that one day he will confront the owner of the garden and reimburse them for all that he's taken over the past couple of years. Ichigo is not inherently a thief, after all, he just happens to be kind of tight on money — and not in possession of a car. That's what happens when your once prosperous doctor-father starts his own clinic and is incapable of turning away even the most financially unstable. Ichigo doesn't hold this against him, his father is a lot of things, but a bad person is not one of them

When the garden house peaks out around the corner, Ichigo is glad to see that the flowers nearest to the street are in full bloom. The rose bushes at the forefront of the driveway bloom near constantly and are usually what Ichigo goes for, but tulips are nice, too. He's also pretty relieved to see that there aren't any cars in the driveway and that all but the front light is on. It's nearing evening and the sun's pretty close to being gone so it's a good bet that no one is home. He grabs one tulip and breaks it off at the stem and is in the process of getting the second when something connects with the back of his knee (is that a child?) and he comes crumpling down. There's a distinctive "Ah ha!" from above him.

"What the hell?" He shouts, twisting around to glare at his assailant; but she's glaring back at him with a kind of ferocity that almost makes him falter. Almost.

"You're the idiot who keeps grabbing my flowers!" She demands. She is clearly not a child (she's got to be in her twenties) but she's still short and Ichigo is kind of having a hard time taking her seriously. Behind her, propped up against one of the brick entrance pillars is a bike. "Every time I come out here and have to look at the damage you've caused I want to murder you — do you know how bad it looks when a tulip plant is missing its flower? It looks bad, it only grows one flower it's not like it can be covered up you moron. It just sits there and looks unpleasant for all the world to see." She's crossed her arms over her chest like a defensive chipmunk. Her anger is almost endearing, if it weren't also directed at Ichigo … He stands up, brushes off his jeans and then retrieves the remarkably unfazed flower.

"It's just a couple of flowers," Ichigo grunts.

"They're a couple flowers that I work very hard to make sure grow. I kind of wish I could enjoy them." The woman has relaxed a bit, like it's hard for her to stay angry for any long period of time.

"Look," says Ichigo, "sorry. I'll pay you back — but can I just have these? They're … for someone, and I'm running late."

"Are you kidding me?" The girl glares, "you really just expect me to let you walk off after stealing from me for years. No way, fruit head —"

"…Fruit head?"

"I wanna see what kind of girl is so important that you would steal flowers for her for two years. Two. Years, dumbass."

"Okay, look, midget. I've got a name. Ichigo. Stop with all of the insults."

"Your name is literally strawberry…" The girl grins.

"Fuck off," Ichigo frowns.

"You should be nicer to the girl who has single-handedly saved your relationship, strawberry."

"Ichigo—" Ichigo scowls.

"Strawberry," the girl rebukes.

"— and you didn't save my relationship; you really think I need flowers to keep a relationship going?"

"Everybody needs flowers to save a relationship. They'll get you out of all sorts of stuff … or into it," she winks. Ichigo throws a hand over his face to hide the blush on his cheeks.

"I don't have time for this," he groans and then pushes past the girl, striding down the walk way. His flustered state keeps him from noticing that he's got a follower until a minute or so later. When he turns on her suddenly she's strolling behind him, hands clasped behind her back, looking, unabashedly at him.

"What the hell," Ichigo growls, "don't you have something better to do?"

"No," says the girl bluntly. "I told you, I want to meet this girl."

"Why?" Ichigo frowns. The girl is silent for a moment.

"Lets call it curiosity," she says finally.

Ichigo tries a couple more times to shake her, but she's moved to his side and has stopped responding so it's pretty clear she has no intention of turning around. With their new established reality Ichigo is becoming more anxious. He is, after all, not meeting a girl — he's not even in a relationship. And there's no great way to tell his persecutor that they're on their way to a graveyard to see his dead mother. He could go somewhere, to a coffee shop maybe? And then pretend like he's been stood up, but that feels like a blow to his pride, and he's not familiar enough with the area to know where to find a coffee shop. His next best option is sincerity …

"Please don't do this to me, …"

"Rukia," supplies the girl.

"Rukia," Ichigo finishes. "You really don't want to do this."

"Why?" says Rukia, she glances up. She's got to be a good head shorter than him, it's almost laughable. But then, she's also much more intimidating than her height should let her be given that she's still got someway of looking down at him even as she looks up at him.

"Just … trust me, midget." She glares and Ichigo knows he's just messed up whatever chance he had to get her to leave him alone.

Ichigo's getting pretty uncomfortable by the time the graveyard comes into view. Rukia either hasn't put the pieces together yet or hasn't noticed the graveyard because she's still got steel in her eyes. Which is completely unnecessary, it was only a couple of stupid flowers, why is this such a big deal to her? She's been glancing at him every few minutes … and he's been doing the same. She's not … wholly unattractive and if the circumstances were slightly different and she weren't such a raging pain in the ass he'd probably invest a little more time in that thought.

"Look," says Ichigo. Rukia turns her head slightly, not to look at him but to acknowledge that she's heard him. "We're not … meeting a girl—" he bites out. Rukia jerks up to look at him. "I mean," Ichigo rubs his neck awkwardly and scowls at a distant cloud, painted orange by the setting sun. "Technically we are, but…"

"Not great at the whole talking thing there are you, strawberry." Rukia grins. And her words only make it harder. They stop in front of the graveyard entrance.

"We're here…" says Ichigo, the hand not holding the flowers is deep in his jean pocket. Rukia pivots, sees the rod iron entrance and her whole face lights up with realization.

"Oh fuck," she mutters. For a moment she seems to contemplate what to say. Ichigo gets it, it's awkward. Nothing she could say or he could say would make it any less awkward. He walks past her, makes his way to a plot of land in the far left of the field of headstones. His mother's is clean and well manicured. Rukia follows behind silently.

"Who is she?" Rukia asks, after Ichigo has said his prayer and removed the old flowers. He stands up beside her. Her hands are in the pockets of her dress and she's standing a reasonable distance back.

"My mom," says Ichigo.

"I'm sorry," says Rukia simply. Ichigo has always appreciated the simplicity of the statement. For awhile they are silent. Ichigo takes this time to reflect on his mother's life and presumably Rukia is reflecting on what happened to result in her being here. But after a time she kneels down beside the grave and pulls something out of her pocket and lays them on top of the grass.

"Flower seeds," she explains. "They're what I was buying just before I caught you stealing," she turns on him then, grins. "I guess I can forgive you, by the way. But only because she seems like a really great girl."

"She was an amazing woman," says Ichigo, gives a grin of his own. "Sorry I stole your flowers, midget."

"It's fine, strawberry," Rukia says. "I'll uh, leave you two alone now." She turns, and just before leaving she lightly taps his shin with her foot. "Don't let me catch you doing it again," she smiles.

Update, July 2015; This story is now just that: a full blown story. Please continue to read!

Cross-posted on Ao3.

The prompt comes from Awful-AUs on Tumblr. There'll be at least one more chapter so stay tuned if you're interested, I'll probably have it posted by or before next week. Also, leave a comment! I really appreciate those!