Ichigo/Rukia log; The Play Part One
Log is private; No characters were there to see, etc. etc.
Who: Ichigo and Rukia
What: The Hitachiin twins set them up on a date. And everyone but The Moronic Two knows except, ironically enough, them. This log consists of watching a play and hand-holding and dinner and dancing and KISSES and escar-goats and SHARING ICE CREAM and cuddles at the end of the night. ♥_______♥
Where: Somewhere near Tokyo? NO CLUE AHAHAHA :|
When: ........something like two weeks ago. >.>
Why: Because Floss likes to cause trouble and Riah and I like to cause fluff. :|
Notes:
+ Ahahahahahah. This is. Slightly on the long side. What. WHAT. >||
+ But it's cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute. X33
+ This is what each of them were wearing: Cuuuuuute *___*
+ Byakuya is totally the Reigning Ball Room Dancing Champion of Soul Society. :|
Rukia turned over on the bed, yawning as she finally woke up from her nap. Their afternoon at the zoo had worn her out, not only from excitement at seeing the animals and petting the bunnies, but a certain orange-head had pushed her against the huge snake display glass, causing her to fall into hysterics for at least 15 minutes. It was tiring being the only girl.
Sitting up in bed, she rubbed her eyes, looking at the grumpy figure bending over the desk.
"W-what time is it?" she said with a yawn.
Ichigo had been trying to read Macbeth while she napped, but she was incredibly distracting, stretched out unconscious on his bed like that, and Certain Memories that resurfaced everytime he glanced at the book wasn't helping. So instead he'd gone to shower and change and now he was trying Very Hard not to wrinkle his dress shirt.
"It's a little after six," he said with a glance at his watch, turning to look briefly at the shinigami as she slowly woke herself up. "I was going to wake you up soon if you didn't on your own. You should go get ready."
Rukia turned, letting her legs dangle off the side of the bed so she was facing Ichigo. Running a hand through her messy hair, she looked at him. "Are you doing homework in that?" She was apparently still a bit disoriented. "Six? Oh. The play thingy. Is Yuzu-chan in her room? She said she would help me."
"I think so," Ichigo told her, draping am arm over the back of his chair to look at her. "And I haven't been doing homework long. I was just waiting for you, so hurry up."
"Oh. Okay." Rukia stumbled out of bed and plodded out of the room.
Her dress was in Yuzu's room, along with all of her accessories. When Yuzu had found out that Ichigo and Rukia were going to see a play, she had been so excited that she had almost seemed offended when Rukia chose to ask her to go shopping with her at the last minute. The two of them had picked out the perfect dress with the perfect accessories and the younger girl had even offered to do her hair. Just so she and Ichi-nii would look perfect. Or something.
Ichigo scowled and turned back to his book to wait. He was ready. She'd better not take as long as girls were said to take.
In all honesty, Rukia could have been ready within twenty minutes. All she had to do was slip on the dress and a few trinkets and brush her hair. But Yuzu had a different idea. Between her fussing and Rukia's fidgeting and Karin's surprise visit and grumbling about how girly this all was, it took nearly an hour for her to finish. However, when she did, it was to see quite an elegant vision in the mirror. Giving Yuzu and hug of thanks and Karin one too, she made her way to Ichigo's room, blushing and knocking on the doorframe.
"Took you long enough," Ichigo grumbled, setting the book down open on the desk and turning to glare at her. He did a doubletake, though, when he noticed her in a real dress, and her hair all different and was she wearing makeup? His glare deepened into a scowl and he turned away from her with a blush. He couldn't really think of anything else to say
"Shut up," Rukia grumbled, looking away awkwardly. From the glance she had gotten, she noticed that he had put on a suit jacket along with his shirt and his hair was combed nicely and-- God. She blushed slightly, eyes averted. "Are we going?"
"Yeah." Ichigo pushed himself to his feet and actually tightened the tie that had been hanging loosely around his neck, all the while very carefully managing to Not Look at Rukia. "Are you completely ready? We have to take the bus there."
Rukia pushed a curl away from her face as she nodded. "I'm ready. Where are we going?" She tried not to stare too overtly as Ichigo tightened the tie. He looked rather...dashing. Not that she would admit it.
"...Um." Ichigo grabbed the tickets off his desk and read the location off of them. "The New National Theater. Come on, I already looked up which bus and stuff to get on. I'd rather get there early than late." He ushered for her to leave his doorway; the thought of squeezing past her alone was making him blush, and he'd rather not have to deal with that.
Rukia nodded before taking his gesture to leave to heart and, rolling her eyes, cleared the doorway. It was only as she reached the bottom of the stairs that she realized just what--or rather who--would be waiting for them both in the living room. Oh god.
"Keep going," Ichigo grumbled, prodding her in the back at the bottom of the stairs. "What're you stopping for?"
Rukia flushed as flashes of light went off to loud bellows of "OH MASAKI. LOOK AT OUR USELESS SON. TAKING OUR THIRD DAUGHTER TO SEE A PLAY! ICHIGOOOOOOOO. DADDY WANTS TO SEE YOU IN YOUR SUIIIIIIT!"
"DAD!" Ichigo was blinded by the sudden onslaught of light, but he recognized the click of a camera when he heard one, and felt his face flush when he realized he and Rukia looked like they were dressed up to go on a date or something. Scowling and ducking his head to hide it, he grabbed Rukia's hand and shoved past his father, dragging the shinigami behind him. "Knock if off, Dad! Come on..."
"OH MASAKIIIIIII. SEE HOW CRUEL AND SURLY OUR SON HAS BECOME. I TRY TO FEED HIM THREE TIMES A DAY AND THIS IS HOW HE TREATS ME. NOT LETTING ME TAKE A PICTURE OF HIM AND OUR THIRD DAUGHTERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR--" were the last things Rukia heard before
she was dragged rather roughly past Isshin and out of the front door.
"SHUT UP!" Ichigo bellowed, and slammed the door shut behind him. He didn't release Rukia's hand as he stomped down the street toward the bus stop. Stupid fahter. Stupid clothing. Stupid Rukia. He was going to burn those pictures when he got home.
Rukia glared and yelled at him all the way to the bus stop. "OY. OY!! LET ME GO. YOU'RE RUINING MY DRESS AND EVERYTHING. ICHIGO, YOU MORON! OYYYYY!"
Ichigo scowled and dropped her arm, stopping by the giant plastic box and crossing his arms as he glared down at her. "I didn't even touch your dress, shut up! And quit yelling so loud, people are probably trying to sleep!"
"It's seven o' clock, moron. No one's sleeping," Rukia said, glaring as she straightened her dress. Stupid Ichigo and his lack of tact. "You're so irritating sometimes."
"At least I wasn't the one standing there like an idiot while my dad took pictures," Ichigo griped, scuffing his nice shoe on the sidewalk. He glanced at his watch. The bus should be here shortly.
"I was not. I was at the bottom of the stairs and only for a second," Rukia said, blushing. Freaking Ichigo. She was going to hit him upside the head, dress or not.
Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Sure you were. Get away from the curb, the bus is coming." He stepped back and dug around in his pocket for change for the both of them. He didn't know why he was so grumpy tonight, only that Rukia was really freaking distracting in that dress, and it was annoying him.
Rukia hopped away from the curb as the bus pulled up, giving Ichigo a rather withering look. He was so grumpy tonight. Crossing her arms in irritation, she mounted the bus steps and disappeared inside without another word.
Ichigo paid for the both of them and flopped down on the seat beside her, only remembering he was in a suit when the starch reminded him. Stiffening rather abruptly, he quickly straightened himself out and settled down again, grumbling too himself. Stupid clothes.
Rukia said nothing, staring instead out of the window. She was a bit miffed at Ichigo for being so monotonous when she was getting excited, but that irritation soon melted away as the lights of the city flashed by. She turned to him, tugging on the sleeve of his suit. "Where are we going?"
"I told you, the New National Theater," Ichigo grumbled, but his tone wasn't as annoyed as before. "It's in Shibuya, shouldn't take more than ten minutes to get there."
"Oh okay," Rukia said, excitedly turning back to the window to watch the lights flash by again. She pressed her nose against the glass as well as both of her hands, as though she wanted to catch the lights outside. They looked so pretty in the darkening sky.
Snorting softly, Ichigo couldn't help but smile a little as he watched her; she was acting so much like a child it was cute. "Have you ever even been on a bus before?"
"Of course. I took buses to get from Inuzuri to Seiretei all the time," Rukia said, rolling her eyes, but not looking away.
"Psh, Soul Society doesn't have buses," Ichigo scoffed. He leaned over a little to peer over her shoulder, curious what was so interesting.
"No really. How'd you figure that one out, smart one?" She said, turning her head to look at him just as he leaned over, resultin in a slight collision between their two foreheads.
"Ow--hey, watch it!" Ichigo leaned back again quickly, rubbing his forehead as he scowled at Rukia. Stupid.
"Ouch. God, Ichigo." Rukia rubbed her own forehead, scowling at how annoying everything was being. And how she was going to have a red spot on her forehead. Great. "Watch where you're leaning, stupid."
"Watch where you're tossing that big head of yours, then," Ichigo shot back. He settled back in his seat again and crossed his arms, completely unmindful of the suit. They were nearly there.
Rukia stuck out her tongue before craning her neck to see the front of the bus. "Are we almost there?"
"Yeah." Ichigo reached around her to pull the wire drooping from the top of the bus, then stood when it slowed to a stop. "Come on, it's at the end of the block. We have twenty minutes before curtain."
Rukia stood up excitedly and followed Ichigo down the aisle and off the bus. "Are there going to be a lot of people there? What is the play about again? Is it your favorite? Have you been to plays before? What do people do at them, just watch?" she babbled in enthusiasm.
Ichigo took her by the elbow to keep her from getting lost in the theater crowd milling around, because knowing her she's see something shiny and wander off, and began leading her toward the actual building itself. "Um...yeah, probably. The play's not my favorite, but it's a good one. It's about some fairies playing with people's love lives. Yes, you just watch. And there'll be an intermission to go get something to drink or something, but you have to be quick."
Rukia let him lead her by the elbow, taking the time to look out at all of the people and the buildings instead. She had never been here before. It looked fancy.
"What's your favorite then? Are the fairies magical like in Harry-san's world? How long are we supposed to watch? What do they have to drink? I can be quick!"
Ichigo scowled and mumbled something while he looked away; he was not about to admit that his favorite was Macbeth. "Yeah, they're magical. I don't know, it'll probably be a couple hours, they'll have water and things...do you ever stop asking questions?" He was glad she was excited, even if she didn't know it was a Shakespeare play yet.
"Maybe they come from Harry-san's world! That would be so exciting," Rukia said, turning to Ichigo with shining eyes. She looped her arm through his so that they wouldn't get separated before continuing. "What do you do after watching a play? Do you talk to the people who were in it? Are there lots of people watching it? I want a juicebox! And I will ask questions when I have them, shut up."
Ichigo snorted, tucking her arm closer just in case. "I don't think Shakespeare knew about Harry Potter. You can probably talk to the cast afterwards if you want to, though. Sometimes they walk around in costume during intermission." He was looking up at the building as he talked; it was a lot bigger than he'd thought it was, those twin people must have gone all out. "Er. I don't think they sell juiceboxes here."
Rukia's eyes had widened at the size of the building. Nothing in Karakura was that huge.
"It's enormous. They really use it just for a play? It looks like an official building or something," she said, holding onto him tighter as the crowd thickened in front of the building. "Talk to them? Really?? I want to talk to them! Especially the fairies. I bet they're pretty. Maybe they can do magic. Maybe they know Harry-san even if Shakespeare-san didn't. And they should always have juiceboxes. >|"
Rukia was rambling, and Ichigo wasn't sure how to address everything she said without sounding like an idiot. so instead he just laughed and led her up to the entrance. "Does this place look like it would have juiceboxes? You'll have to wait until afterwards to get one."
"Well it looks rich enough to afford some," she grumbled as they approached the entrance.
"Juiceboxes are not for rich people," Ichigo said with a snort. He pushed the door open for her and stared around at the inside; it was, if possible, fancier than the outside. He'd never been to a theater like this.
Rukia blinked as they stepped inside, her questions and train of thought about juiceboxes coming to a halt. "W-wow. How did you afford this?" she asked, looking around with wide eyes.
"I don't know. The twins said it only cost 1500 yen." He was beginning to think they'd chipped in on the side without telling him. "Should we. Um. Find our seats?"
"The twins?" Rukia looked at him quizzically.
She looked around at the crowd nervously. The seats were starting to fill up. She nodded. "Do we just, we, sit anywhere?"
"Yeah, they're the ones who found this place. No, we sit where the tickets tell us to." He pulled them out and scanned them for seat numbers, then squinted at the crowd, trying to pinpoint their location. "Looks like we're in the middle somewhere."
"Are there numbers on the seat?" Rukia asked, looking curiously at them. "How can you tell which one is yours? There are millions of them!"
Ichigo pointed. "There are letters for the rows, and numbers on the individual seats. We're seats 25 and 26, row L." He started tugging her toward the center aisle, forced to squeeze psat several groups of people.
Rukia followed him, becoming increasingly more excited as they came closer and closer to their seat. She had never been to a play before. Or a theater, really. And she was here with Ichigo and it made her sort of incredibly happy. For some strange reason. Well, whatever. She would get to see fairies!! That was the important part.
It took a while, but they finally made it, and Ichigo stopped and pointed them out to Rukia. "These are ours, go ahead and pick one." He looked up to judge their distance from the stage. Not bad, really. He hoped Rukia could see over the heads in front of her.
Rukia chose her seat, sitting down and immediately sinking into the soft velvet cushions of the seat.
"These are comfortable," she said, trying to straighten herself enough to see over the heads of the people sitting in front of her.
"Can you see?" Ichigo asked. He plopped down in the seat beside her and made sure he wasn't ruffling anything, then pulled out the playbook resting under his cushion. He hadn't seen a rendition of Midsummer Night's Dream in a while, and he was curious about it.
"Sort of. I can see the short man's shiny bald head," Rukia said, seemingly mesmerized by the lights bouncing off of the head in front of her. Then she turned to look at Ichigo. "What's that? Don't tell me you brought Shakespeare-san along with you."
"This is the playbook," Ichigo explained, shaking his head in vaguely irritated amusement. "You have one under your seat too. It gives you the synopsis and who's in it and everything. Can you see above the stage? You don't need to see the floor itself."
"I can see it just fine. I'm not that small." Rukia stuck out her tongue at him before reaching for her own. Picking it out, she opened it. It took her a few minutes to realize that it was a bit difficult for her to read. She never had been very good at the whole reading-in-Japanese-in-the-human-world bit. A bit embarrassed, she took to looking at the pictures instead, fingers tracing the color pictures of fairies in the forest.
Ichigo noticed when she was doing and leaned over to point at a faun. "That's Puck. He's the reason the whole play happens. And this is the king of the fairies."
He pointed to another one. "Looks like they cast okay."
"Why does he look like half a goat?" Rukia ask, slightly confused. Was that a type of fairy? Weird. She looked at the king of fairies, tracing the gold on his crown. "Where's the queen of the fairies?"
"She's not in the picture," Ichigo explained, leaning in to get a better look at the picture and make sure. "Pan is a faun, they're supposed to look like that." The lights dimmed suddenly and Ichigo looked up in surprise. "Five more minutes, looks like. Excited?"
Rukia looked up expectantly as the lights dimmed, immediately setting the program down in her lap and placing her hands on the handrests instead. She sat up straighter and, eyes shining, she nodded excitedly.
Ichigo chuckled to himself and sat back in his own seat again. He hoped she actually enjoyed it; maybe if she did, they could do this again.
Rukia sat straight as the play began, grip on the handrests tightening or loosening as the story progressed. She wasn't completely understanding all that was said, but she could tell from the actions and the costumes just who was who and what was going on from the most part. From time to time, she looked over to Ichigo, wanting to ask him a question, but the human boy looked so relaxed and carefree and so happy that she couldn't bring herself to interrupt his concentration. It was rare that she got to see him without that permanent scowl on his face.
Ichigo was enraptured enough by the performance that he almost forgot he was seeing it with someone who might not be familiar with the story. He glanced at Rukia occasionally, but she seemed fascinated enough that he didn't want to distub her. After a while he set his hand on the armrest unthinkingly, only rememberig Rukia's was there after a few moments, and comfortable enough not to move it again.
Rukia's eyes were torn away from the sleeping fairy queen when she felt something warm settle on her hand. Looking down, she realized it was Ichigo's own hand. Blushing a little, she thought to say something, but then decided against it. It wasn't as though he was bothering her. In fact. It might have. Maybe. Felt sort of nice. Well. She didn't mind it at least. Giving him another quick look, she turned her attention back to the play, confused as to why a man had suddenly grown a donkey's head.
Time seemed to fly by, and intermission had come before Ichigo knew it. Blinking in the sudden light, he turned to Rukia hopefully; this was a good performance, and if she didn't like it now, she wasn't going to like Shakespeare at all. "So what do you think?"
Rukia turned away from the stage, looking at Ichigo. "Well. It's. Er. Hard to understand," she admitted, blushing. "But it's colorful and there's someone with a donkey head. Maybe they were at Brawl for a disaster thingy sometime." She was smiling, clearly enjoying herself and her company.
"Shakespeare's always hard to understand at first, you just kinda get used to it after a while." He laughed at her comment about Brawl. "Not everything is connected to the internet, you know. Puck did that as a sort of joke."
"I-- er. Right. Well I got used to it. Of course," Rukia said, coughing to hide her embarrassment. Truthfully, she had been able to pick up maybe a line or two of what they were saying throughout the entire first half. But Ichigo didn't need to know that. "I-- well. It could have been. Shut up."
Ichigo grinned. "Do you even understand any of what's going on?" he teased. Chances were she was only catching bits and pieces, if she'd never studied any Shakespeare before, but at least seeing it acted instead of printed made things easier.
"Of course I understand what's going on," Rukia huffed, crossing her arms and glaring at him. "I'm not stupid."
"You don't have to be stupid to not understand Shakespeare," Ichigo said with a snort, still grinning. "Even English speakers find it hard. I just read it a lot."
"Because you're boring," Rukia said, sticking her tongue out, but her attention turned back to the stage as it became obvious that the curtain would be opening again soon. "I can tell what they're doing even if I don't really understand it."
"Good. That's the whole point of seeing it live." Ichigo looked up when the lights dimmed again; that had been fast. "Maybe next time we can see one with a more straightforward plot."
"Shakespeare-san has straightforward plots?" Rukia asked, surprised. She had looked through a few of Ichigo's Shakespeare books and none of them had seemed straightforward in the least. Then, blushing a little--although why she would be blushing, she didn't quite know--she turned to Ichigo with a smile. "I'd like to see another one sometime. They're fun!"
Ichigo smiled back; he was glad he'd finally gotten her to appreciate Shakespeare, even if his happiness right now went a little deeper than that. "Macbeth is pretty straightforward," he told her, and willed himself not to blush at the memories it procured. "So is Romeo and Juliet. They're both tragedies, though."
"Ah, is it?" Rukia asked, averting her eyes. She hadn't actually, ah,
gotten to find out what MacBeth was about. Er. Exactly. Owing to...circumstances. "Are they both as good as this one?"
"Macbeth's my favorite." Stupid freaking blush. He was not trying to imply anything with that statement. "Romeo and Juliet is a universal story now; everyone knows it."
"Oh. It. Er. I'm sure it's a very...good play," Rukia said lamely, grateful for the restart of the play, even if it cut her off from asking just what this Romeo and Juliet was about. At least she wouldn't have to think about MacBeth and, ah, "reading" it.
Ichigo was glad the intermission was over as well; it gave him an excuse to Not Think About Macbeth anymore, or about Rukia, or about...other things. Which was Good, because now was not the time to be blushing for no reason; Rukia would call him on it for sure.
Rukia watched the rest of the play in peace, sufficiently enthralled in the fairies and the humans and the donkey-head to not be embarrassed anymore, although she did find her eyes wandering to Ichigo a few times. Just to. See his reaction. To the play. Clearly.
The first thing Ichigo did when the play was over was turn to Rukia and grin, too entertained by the performance to both fixing a scowl to his face. "Well? What did you think?"
Rukia returned his grin enthusiastically, too excited to try and hide the fact that she had really liked it, Shakespeare-san or not. "Fairies! I want to meet fairies!" she giggled.
Ichigo couldn't repress a laugh. "Maybe you can go to Harry Potter's world and meet some, although I don't know if they'll be like these ones. So what do you want to do now? Are you hungry, or should we just go home?"
"I could ask him," Rukia nodded thoughtfully. Definitely fairies. She should be one for Halloween. Ichigo's suggestion at food only fueled her excitement. "Dinner! Let's eat dinner. :D"
Ichigo had gotten hungry himself, and he pushed himself to his feet before reaching fown to offer Rukia a hand up. "Okay. Where at?"
Rukia took his hand and stood, letting go of it to straighten her dress. "As if I know any place to eat around here. Why don't you choose, stupid?"
"Fine." Ichigo didn't feel like fighting about something stupid right now. Everyone was leaving their seat at once though, so he was forced to wait a little while before he could move, the jostling people making it difficult to move far from Rukia. "We'll take the bus back and see if we can find something on the way."
Rukia clung to his arm as the people jostled them. Not that she had much of a choice, the dense crowd pushing them rather close together as they waited to leave. "Won't we, er, look a bit out of place?" Rukia asked, wincing as someone stepped on the back of her rather long dress.
"We can find somewhere nice," Ichigo told her. He elbowed the guy who'd stepped on her dress for his carelessness and reached down near Rukia's thigh to gather it up so it didn't happen again. "Here, stupid, hold it up out of the way."
"Really? I haven't really eaten anywhere nice all fancy before," Rukia said, grinning at him. She blushed as he reached down and took it from him, jerking away when her fingers accidentally brushed his. Scowling, she averted her eyes, pointing at the opening in the crowd. "Let's go before we get stuck here for the next half an hour."
"Fine, come on." Ichigo was blushing as well, though he thought he might have managed to hide it by grabbing her arm and starting off through the hole in the crowd. He thought about what she'd just said, and what he could do about it. He could take her out someplace nice, he'd saved up more than enough to afford it, but the idea made him vaguely nervous. He'd never taken a girl out to a nice dinner before. Rukia or not, that still implied, quite loudly, DATE.
Still. She was worth one nice dinner. And. She'd just said she'd never been to one before. So. He could show her what it was like. Just once. Just so she would know, of course.
Rukia was too busy avoiding Ichigo's eyes to do much as he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the crowd. Somehow they made it through the crowd and out of the theater in one piece, her dress and his suit just slightly rumpled from the pushing and crowding.
"Where are we going?" she said happily, not thinking to let go of his hand even though they had left the crowd behind.
Instead of leading her back to the bus stop, Ichigo took off down the sidewalk, eyes scouring the buildings around them for anything that looked nice. "I'm not sure yet," he told her distractedly. "But that theater was nice, and lots of people go out to eat afterwards; there's gotta be something good around here..."
Rukia followed, too interested in their surroundings to pay attention to the fact that they didn't seem to be going bacck to the bus stop. "Let's try to avoid Italian, though. It reminds me too much of my date with Ichimaru." She shuddered, although it hadn't been a bad date at all. But. Details.
Ichigo squeezed her hand subconsciously at the reminder. "Fine with me. What do you want, then? They've probably got something for everything around here."
"I don't care," she said, oddly elated at his comforting gesture. "Surprise me!"
Surprise her. Right. And get his brains knocked out of his head when she didn't like it. Oh well, maybe the play had placated her enough not to physically abuse him for taking her to eat something weird.
"How about that place?" he asked, pointing to a pretty building that looked like it could be French.
"What is it?" Rukia asked, immediately fascinated by how pretty the building was. It looked fancy. They looked fancy. She was rather excited.
"French, maybe?" Ichigo said with a shrug, and led her inside. It was pretty damn nice. A matre d' person had to show them to their table, one with a nice view of the rest of the restaurant. Looking around, he still had enough of his wits about him to remember to pull out a chair for Rukia.
Rukia had been about to reach for her own chair when Ichigo pulled it back for her. Surprised by this gentlemanly act, she managed a "Thank you" before taking her seat carefully. She tucked her dress around her, making sure it wasn't in anyone's way. She looked up to observe the rest of the restaurant. It somehow made her nervous to realize that most of the people there were most likely couples. No--wait. Yes. The two in the corner were definitely a couple, judging by the pecks they kept giving one another. Coloring slightly as she realized what this must look like to others, she turned her head back to Ichigo.
Ichigo had noticed too, and was now scowling at the menu in front of him in an attempt to conceal his blush from Rukia. Surely some of the people here were Just Friends. It only made sense. Not everyone could be dating, right? Right.
"Have you ever had French cuisine before?" he asked the shinigami curiously. He didn't think he had. He couldn't pronounce the majority of food listed.
Rukia picked up her own menu and took a few minutes to stare blankly at it.
"Of course. Rukongai is just famous for its French food, didn't you know?" she said, looking at him over the top of her menu with an "Are You Really This Stupid?" expression on her face.
Ichigo scowled. "So is Karakura, obviously." He paused when the waiter suddenly brought them some water, but it was fairly obvious they had no clue what to order yet. When he left again Ichigo frowned thoughtfully at his menu. "We could...just...pick something random and hope it's good?"
"They don't eat....weird things do they?" Rukia asked, looking at the menu with a scrunched up expression on her face. Was was......es-car-goat? She didn't want goat. Ew. "You choose."
"Snails," Ichigo announced, skimming his own menu. "They eat snails, but I can't remember what they call them. Other than that, I dunno. Choose your own."
"Ewwww." Rukia made a face, imagining herself eating the slimey things and nearly gagging. She glared at him over the menu. "How am I supposed to know what to choose, stupid? I can hardly read these names."
"Well I can't read them," Ichigo said with a scowl. "I guess we can ask the waiter or something."
"Sounds good to me," she said, nodding promptly and putting the menu down. "As long as we don't eat snails. Or ess-car-goats."
Ichigo snickered at that, setting down his menu as well. "It's escargo, I think, not goats. Ew."
"It has a t at the end stupid," Rukia said, opening the menu and pointing at it before grinning triumphantly. Stupid Ichigo. She stuck her tongue out at him, but quickly withdrew it as the waiter approached
"That's because it's French," Ichigo retorted. "They pronounce things weird." When the waiter arrived he asked for the menus again in Japanese, which were readily provided. Much better. He peeked at Rukia from over the top of his. "Easier?"
"Yes. Shut up," Rukia said before disappearing behind her menu again. She reemerged only to declare that she wanted soup and some vegetable dish that she could hardly pronounce, but that was what pointing was for.
Ichigo nodded and picked out something a little more substantial for himself; it looked like some kind of chicken...thing. Then he sat back in his seat and waited for the waiter to return. "I hope the food's as nice as the decorating."
Rukia nodding, eyes drifting around the restaurant. There seemed to be a gathering of people in an area clear of tables. Curious, she stretched to see what they were doing.
"What are they-- o-oh," she stopped her question as she realized that most of the people who were out of their seats were dancing in the designated area. They seemed to be having fun.
Curious, Ichigo followed her gaze, then blushed as well. She didn't want to dance, did she? Oh God. Not that he couldn't, just. It was very Date-Like. And she probably had no idea. Which would be just his luck, of course, because he was finding it very difficult to tell her no while she was dressed like that.
Rukia looked at Ichigo and blushed, immediately turning her gaze back to the dancers before he caught her looking. Unconsciously, she began drumming her fingers on the table to the rhythm of the music playing.
Ichigo noticed the drumming and swallowed thickly. She did want to dance. Crap. And it wasn't like someone else was going to ask her. Which was a Good Thing, really, because he didn't like that idea much anyway. But. Still. That meant he was supposed to, otherwise she's be staring at those couples all night.
"...Er. Did you want to, um." He glanced at the dance floor again. He thought he was being very eloquent, given the circumstances.
Rukia tore her eyes away from some lady's pretty swishing dress to look at Ichigo. She blinked as he left his sentence unfinished. "Did I want to what?"
"Dance, stupid." Honestly, he'd been clear enough.
"O-oh." Rukia blushed and then scowled. "Well how was I supposed to know? I'm not a mindreader."
"Well you were staring over there. You think I'm a mindreader?"
"I--well. There are people over there. It's easy to get distracted by them," she said, scowling.
"Yeah, I know," Ichigo grumbled. She was being stupid and difficult on purpose. "I was asking if you wanted to go over there too."
"I-- oh. Well. Right." She looked away, blushing. "I mean. We don't have to. If you don't want to. I don't care. Whatever."
"Well I don't care," Ichigo said with a scowl, looking away. "It's your choice."
"I--no. It's not my choice. Or. Just my choice. I don't care either." Stupid Ichigo. >|
"I just said I didn't mind. I'll go if you go. I mean. If you want to go." Stupid Rukia. >|
"And I'll go if you go. If you want to go," she returned, glaring at him. Honestly. What a stubborn idiot.
Ichigo glared back. "Can you even dance?"
"Of course I can dance. I'm a Kuchiki. Can you dance?" she said haughtily.
"Yes," Ichigo returned haughtily. Honestly, it couldn't be that hard. "I doubt Kuchikis dance all that often." The mere thought of Byakuya
on a dance floor made him snort.
"Kuchikis are very elegant dancers," Rukia said, getting up from her chair. She was going to prove it to him. "Nii-sama has won the annual Soul Society Ballroom Dancing Contest for 15 years in a row.”
Ichigo couldn't help it; he laughed at the image that procured, and couldn't have stopped even if he'd tried. "Your brother competes in ballroom dancing?"
"And why wouldn't he? Nii-sama is very graceful. Unlike you. I bet you couldn't dance without stepping all over my feet," Rukia smirked.
Ichigo shoved himself up from the table and smirked at the obvious challenge. "I bet I could. I bet you're the one who can't control her own jabby feet."
"Ha! I could outdance you from here to Rukongai, Kurosaki," Rukia said, grinning.
"You're on, Kuchiki," Ichigo said with a smirk, and reached around the table to grab her arm and tug her towards the dance floor.
Rukia followed, going a little slower than she normally would so she wouldn't trip over and tear her dress. Once they reached the dance floor, she stopped to listen to the music. It wasn't too slow, but it wasn't head-banging either. Somewhere in-between. It was nice. And possibly in French.
Ichigo's smirk widened as he held his hand out for her, thoughts focused on nothing other than the fact that he was going to cream her, and then maybe she'd shut up about teasing him.
Rukia took his hand with one of hers and placed the other at his shoulder, smirking in return. As if she would let him win this.
It wasn't until Ichigo curled his fingers around her waist that he remembered the last time he'd done such a thing, and he had to fight to keep from flushing. Stupid Rukia and her stupid warm skin. He would beat her at this, and the moment the pain went away after she stepped on him would be the moment he won.
The same thoughts were running through Rukia's mind, although that didn't stop her from tightening her grip on his shoulder. Of course that also had to do with the fact that her hand was slipping a bit. "You're too tall," she glowered at him.
"You're too short," Ichigo shot back, tugging her closer. "And you're standing too far away, stupid. Told you you didn't know how to dance." His smirk reappeared.
"I do too. You were the one standing too far away," Rukia said, blushing and glaring at him as she stepped closer. "I don't have germs, you know."
Stepping closer just to spite her, Ichigo's fingers tightened around her subconsciously at the thought of what they were doing. "Well neither do I."
"I don't know that. For all I know, that orange hair could be the result of a virus," Rukia said, smirking. Although. She did really like his hair. It was soft. And. The color wasn't bad either. It made him...Ichigo. And not some other stupid person. Not that she cared. Because She Didn't. :|
"So could your purple eyes," Ichigo retorted with a scowl. She was always picking on his hair all of a sudden. It ticked him off sometimes.
"Shut up," she muttered. So they were purple. They had always been purple. It was irritating how often he commented on them.
Ichigo stuck his tongue out at her, hardly mindful of the fact that they'd begun swaying to the music already. HA. Moron. He won.