Draft of picfor1000 fic

[fay_e]

GO GO GO!

Title: An Acquired Taste
Author: raynos
Fandom: Bleach
Spoilers: If you know what the Hueco Mundo arc is, you're good.
Author's note: Endless puns on strawberries in the name of fluff, if you're familiar with the source material. =) Some liberties taken in the second and third parts beyond what's in canon and I've assumed that inter-world travel is a lot hard than it looks.

Summary: Ichigo doesn't like strawberries. He really doesn't.




The walk to Seireitei was quiet, almost as quiet as Rukia's walk to the Shiba estate. Then Rukia had worried about her apology to Shiba Kuukaku. Now Rukia only had one thought: amazement that Ichigo had accepted her decision to stay.

She received a glare when she sneaked a glance. "What's wrong?" Ichigo demanded. "Do I have something on my face?"

"No, that’s what's wrong with it.” Ignoring the shade of purple he had taken, she continued, "For someone who told me all my opinions were rejected, you're actually listening to me."

Ichigo's purple changed to an embarrassed red. "I can change my mind, can't I? Besides, it's different! You're safe now."

Rukia's face heated too, but she did not look away. "I'm still not going to thank you."

"Oh yeah?" Ichigo grinned. "Maybe you can change your mind."

"I won't thank someone who saves my life just to recklessly endanger it by throwing me off the Soukyoku!"

"Renji was there."

"Should I feel better?" Rukia asked. When there was no reply, she turned to find Ichigo hanging back. "What's wrong?"

Ichigo inched forward. "The walls won't shut on us, will they?"

"Walls?" Rukia looked around - they were near the West gate, but there was no visible boundary between Rukongai and Seireitei. "Why would there be walls?"

"The walls only appear if you don’t have a pass!" a loud voice informed them. An equally large body followed the voice - Rukia recognised the newcomer as the gatekeeper. Ichigo raised his hand in greeting.

“Yo Jidanbou!”

“Ichigo! Kuchiki-san.” Despite her confusion, Rukia bowed. “I haven’t seen the two of you since Sougyoku Hill.”

Ichigo rubbed his neck. “Ah, things have been busy. And you left so quickly.”

The ground below Rukia’s feet rumbled with Jidanbou’s laughter. “Seireitei always makes Shiba-san touchy! And I couldn’t leave my post for too long. But now that you’re here, I have something to ask you.”

“Yeah?”

“Why isn’t Ichigo a lovely name?”

Ichigo turned a red that Rukia never knew he was capable of. She had to hold back a giggle – she had never thought about it herself, but Ichigo could have more than one meaning. “I think Ichigo is a lovely name,” she declared.

“It isn’t! It really isn’t!”

“Maybe you’ll change your mind,” Rukia told Ichigo, laughing.

============

Ichigo was startled out of his sleep by soft rustling, but didn't immediately wake. Renji was on watch – if anything had happened Renji would warn him.

There was an "oof", followed by a whispered argument. Ichigo turned his back on the noise, and rolled onto Rukia's bit of the sheet. It was cold - she had been awake for a while. Ichigo tried to burrow into the stone out of habit. Just a few more minutes...

Someone was waving something in front of Ichigo’s face. Something that smelled like... chocolate...

Ichigo bolted upright and would have beaned himself on Renji's chin if Renji hadn't thrown himself back. "Watch where you're going!" Renji grumbled.

"Don't lean over people when they're sleeping!" Ichigo's gaze fell on the thing in Renji’s hand. It was dark brown, with chocolate shavings scattered on top. "What's that?"

Renji grinned and waved the box in front of Ichigo again. "Gone for so long that you don't remember what food looks like?"

Ichigo stared. "There can't be cake. We've been stuck in Hueco Mundo with no way out for weeks."

"Wanna find out?"

Maybe all the sneak attacks on Aizen's fortress had driven Ichigo insane. "No thanks." Now he was awake. He sat up -

- and was greeted to the sight of Rukia sorting through various snacks.

"W- where'd you get that?!" he demanded.

Rukia smiled at him beautificly. "From Aizen's stores."

"YOU BROKE INTO AIZEN'S STORES?"

"And did a pretty good job," added Renji, now munching on chocolate flinched from the cake.

"YOU BROKE INTO AIZEN'S STORES?"

"Renji, feed him. He's obviously delusional."

"You're the one who's delusional! Who said that we shouldn't go into Las Noches unless it was important?" Ichigo would have said more if Renji hadn't stuffed chocolate into his mouth. It melted on his tongue and his abused stomach growled at the thought of real food.

Renji grinned. "That's more like it."

"Aren't you the least bit suspicious?" Ichigo wanted to know. "Aizen has us trapped in Hueco Mundo and hiding out in caves. Do you think he'd leave food lying around?"

"I had to sneak past the guards, fight off some servants and avoid the Espada. Don't be ungrateful." Rukia held something out to Ichigo. "I got this for you."

It was a handful of strawberries - large, round, full. The redness of them stood out against the black of her uniform and the whiteness of her hand.

“This is from us,” Rukia said.

Renji snatched one immediately. The sound of the juicy fruit bursting against Renji’s teeth decided Ichigo. He reached out and took one as well.

Rukia smiled and bit into her own strawberry.

==========

Ichigo stared at the cake as if he had not seen one before. Alright, maybe he hadn't since Hueco Mundo, but Renji thought it was a pretty nice cake, all red and yellow and laden with cream.

“So that’s your birthday cake?”

Ichigo tugged at his collar and didn’t meet Renji’s eyes. “Yuzu always makes strawberry shortcake for my birthday.”

“Figured that you'd like strawberries,” Renji picked a strawberry off the top of the cake.

“My name has nothing to do with it! I only eat them because Yuzu puts them on my cake,” Ichigo replied, his voice slightly raised.

“You didn't seem to have a problem with them in Hueco Mundo.”

Ichigo tried to hide behind his collar. “That's different!”

Rukia probably knew about Ichigo's strawberry aversion, if her smug look back then had been anything to go by. Still, Ichigo had eaten the strawberry...

Renji held out the strawberry to Ichigo. “You know you want to.”

Ichigo glared, but he still leaned over and bit into the strawberry.