I was cycling by the beach today and telling my friends the horrible story of how I learned to ride my bicycle, when I started thinking about fanartist's pic on the IchiRuki LJ community. Maybe Rukia was blushing and mad because she had accidentally crashed her bike into Ichigo. And then I wondered if Soul Society even had bicycles.

Beware. Tons of fluff ahead.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. I do not own Bleach. I will keep repeating this until you believe me.

Distractions

Rukia learns how to ride a bike. Or tries to.

When Keigo came to class even more hyper than usual, Ichigo should really have listened to the alarm bells going off in his head. Especially when the former didn't react to Ichigo's morning greeting of a kick to the head.

Instead, he popped up again and announced cheerfully to the class. "I got a mountain bike for my birthday!"

This met with a lacklustre reaction. Orihime, who was too nice to point out that most high school students would be boasting about their motorcycles, was the first to react. "Congrats! Does it have a rocket launcher?"

"No…" Having been exposed to Orihime's flights of fancy often enough, Keigo soon overcame his shock and resumed his sparkling expression. "But it does have…"

Ichigo tuned the over-enthusiastic boy out. He wasn't interested in listening to whatever special features Keigo's mountain bike had, especially since he was wondering where Rukia had disappeared to. She left her bag here… I hope it's not a Hollow…

He snapped back to attention, however, when Keigo suddenly said cheerfully. "Kuchiki-san! Would you like to ride my bike to school tomorrow?"

Rukia froze at the door she'd just walked through. "I've never ridden a bike before," she said cautiously, but not dropping her sweet façade at all. Inwardly snarling, Ichigo glanced at Rukia's stunned but curious expression, and punched Keigo hard. "Idiot. You don't even live near her."

"IIIIIICCCCHHHIIIGO! Aren't I your friend? Why do you keep hitting me?"

Stupid Rukia. Trust her not to know what a bicycle was.

---------------

Rukia didn't waste any time beating around the bush.

"What's a bike?" she demanded as soon as she met him after school. He had unconsciously formulated an explanation for her, and so was able to reply easily.

"It's something that has two wheels that people use to get around. Like cars."

Since he had already explained what cars were to her when she had tried to walk in the middle of the road instead of the pavement, she more or less understood. "So it's a car with two wheels?"

"Does the same thing." Ichigo shrugged at her question. "Doesn't look like a car though."

She took some time to consider this. "Why don't you ride one to school then?"

"I like walking, and I stopped cycling after Karin learned how to ride the bicycle…"

He stopped when he noticed the gleam that always heralded a lot of pain in Rukia's eye.

"Teach me."

---------------

The bicycle was smaller than he remembered. Luckily, since Rukia was quite small herself, that didn't matter. They had smuggled the bike from his house to a rather shady spot in the park to practice, so at least Ichigo could be sure that his nosy classmates or his family wouldn't be asking why he was teaching Rukia how to cycle. The extra trouble was almost worth it though, since Rukia looked as excited as the time she'd found the TV.

"OK, first, you have to get on the bicycle."

Rukia glared at him as if he'd told her to do his math homework for him. "How?"

So maybe it wasn't worth it. Ichigo suppressed his urge to strangle her and concentrated on ways to make it simpler for her. "Just swing one leg over the bike," he said grumpily.

He had forgotten she was still wearing her school uniform, and had to look away as her skirt went dangerously high. Stupid bikes, he thought as he blushed furiously.

"Is this right?"

He forced himself to turn back and look, and luckily the skirt was back in place. "Yes, but you're behind the seat."

"What?"

"The black thing. You're supposed to sit on it."

She followed his instructions, and promptly fell over. Ichigo barely had time to laugh before she stomped over and kicked him hard and repeatedly. "Was that intentional? What kind of stupid thing is this? It can't even balance!"

"Hey! You're the one who wanted to learn!" he yelled back at her, and picked himself up, massaging his injured leg. "Can't you be more grateful?"

Rukia crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Suppose not." He picked up the bike, reflected that he'd look like an idiot if he tried to demonstrate on such a small bicycle, and resorted to hand gestures instead. "You have to get on the bicycle like this, and sit on the seat, keeping your feet on the ground. Use your feet to balance the bicycle."

He handed the bicycle back to her and told her to try. This time he made sure he looked away until she had seated herself.

"I'm done. Now what?" Rukia looked annoyed at the fact that she was still wobbling, which probably meant that she was nervous. Ichigo suppressed a grin.

"Put one of your feet on the pedal."

It took her several tries since she kept stepping on the pedal so hard that it spun. While she was busy, Ichigo silently sniggered in the background, but schooled his expression when she finally got it.

"Then you push off with the other leg and coast with your feet on the pedals."

Ichigo took his time savouring the dumbstruck and horrified expression Rukia had. Now that was for all the times she insulted him for not understanding fighting techniques! The only problem was, Rukia was never dumbstruck for long. Throwing down the bicycle, she gave him the evil eye.

"This is a trap to make me look stupid."

"No."

"And you're secretly taking tape recordings of this so that you can show them to everyone and make them laugh."

"What… Jeez stop being so suspicious!"

"What kind of instructions are those?"

"Normal instructions. Different people have different ways of cycling. Just try it."

With much grumbling she obliged.

---------------

A few hours later, Ichigo reflected that he'd have better luck training a flea circus. Rukia on the other hand, had sustained quite a number of scrapes and bruises.

"Ow!" She slapped the hand that was attempting to clean the wound on her knee. "Can you be more gentle!"

"I'm trying!" Ichigo snapped back as he wet his handkerchief with the water from his waterbottle. "You could make it easier by not jerking around so much."

"I wouldn't if it didn't hurt!" She hissed, but stilled and let him tend to her scrapes. They passed a moment in silence, Rukia simply watching him as he bent his head to work. He could feel her stare at the back of his head, but didn't dare to check her expression. The silence was strange, but comfortable, and he didn't want to be the one to spoil it.

He got the worse of the dirt out, and stood, pocketing his handkerchief. "It probably needs disinfectant," he told her. "Put some antiseptic on it when we get home."

She flexed her knee experimentally. "It'll do."

Noticing the dimming light, he looked up at the darkening sky and frowned. "We'd better head back…"

"No."

And there was that irritating Rukia stubbornness again. Ichigo scowled as he watched her mount the bike.

"Not everyone learns how to cycle in 1 day you know."

Rukia ignored him and pushed off.

"This is pretty good already."

She wobbled a few centimetres before stopping. This time, she caught herself.

"Anyway, you don't need to cycle."

She started again.

"You should probably move the handlebars."

Rukia let the bike coast to a halt before turning back to glare at him. "Shut up."

He watched her coast a few rounds along the path before giving up and walking towards her. She jumped in surprise and nearly fell off as he held the handlebars steady. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Helping you. Just pedal." He told her. Surprisingly, she didn't argue, fumbling for the pedals before getting into the steady rhythm of moving the pedals up and down. That strange silence settled over the both of them again, and he was vaguely aware of her next to him, her breath moving even and steady as she concentrated. They spent the next few minutes like that.

"Getting the hang of it?" he asked.

"Mmm," she mumbled, staring at where their arms crossed.

"Want to try on your own?"

"Maybe."

She put her foot down and he let go, stepping off the path and crossing his arms. "Try to concentrate on one spot, and cycle towards it," he offered helpfully.

Rukia took a deep breath, and, staring with all her might at one spot, started to pedal. To Ichigo's surprise, the bicycle began to move forward without a single wobble.

"See. You've done it."

Rukia pedalled a while more before turning to give Ichigo a smug look. To his horror, the bicycle swerved and started heading towards him. Too late, he realised that he had forgotten to teach her how to brake.

The bicycle crashed into him and the both of them tumbled over in a pile of hands and legs. For a moment they lay stunned, before Rukia started shaking her fist at him from where she was tangled between the bicycle and Ichigo's stomach. "You idiot! You're so… distracting!"

Knocking the bicycle into his surprised face, she stormed off after pulling her leg from its trap underneath Ichigo's leg. He continued staring at her retreating back in shock for a few moments more, before picking the bicycle up and wheeling after her.

"That's not my fault, idiot," he muttered.

That's the end! Hope everyone liked it.