I Shall Roam the Summer Fields, Chapter 3 [Bleach]

[sophiap]

Title: I Shall Roam the Summer Fields ( Master Post)
Fandom: Bleach
Characters: Ensemble, and while this is primarily gen, a number of pairings (mostly but not entirely het) figure in the background. See master post if you need more details.
Word Count: Novel-length overall, c. 3,500 in this chapter.
Rating: R, mostly for language. Also, see

Comments

[incandescens]

I like how you expanded the conversation here, and how Rukia herself perceived Ichigo's motivations; personal is always going to trump 'duty' for him. And how they've grown in different directions. Sigh.

(sorry, earlier mispost)

[sophiap]

I'm glad the expanded conversation worked. A comment on the previous chapter got me to thinking that I really needed to goose that up a bit. I'm hoping it comes across that the gap in communication is both their responsibility, but that there's still a closeness regardless.

[incandescens]

It does definitely come across. If this were a report card, both of them would get a comment of 'COULD TRY HARDER'. :)

[sophiap]

Very much so, yes.

[sophiap]

Yay! Good to see you again! I'm having such a blast working on this story, so I'm glad you like it so far.

[lirpachan]

Another great chapter. Out of the entire thing I think the ending was my favorite. I loved what Rukia did not say to Renji, but was implied. I think Rukia's non-goodbye to Orihime was another of my favorite moment's from this chapter; the closeness of all the characters despite past actions and the time that's passed is definitely present and I could feel that through that scene :). Friendship is awesome XD.

Keep up the great work, hon!

[sophiap]

Thank you very much! I'm very glad to hear that the closeness came across; getting a balance between 'things have changed' and 'there's still a connection' was tricky.

As for the Rukia and Renji thing, my headcanon for them was that Rukia was really hoping (expecting, even) that Renji would try to keep her from leaving when Byakuya adopted her, and she was deeply hurt when he acted all happy for her and so on.

[uminohikari]

♥! I really liked the explanation of why Ichigo refused.

[sophiap]

Thank you very much!

[hystericpixie]

You did jaded!Ichigo really well. That conversation with Rukia was well-done, it shows how they do know each other best, but have grown apart through the years. (Also IshiHime, squee!)

While it's nice to see Tatsuki and Sado in Ichigo's future, they still seem little more than window dressing. Sado, as always, says little. And is it just me, or are all of Tatsuki's actions/reactions only a response to something that Ichigo did or said? Renji observes that there may be something going on between Ichigo and Tatsuki, so was this deliberate on your part? I guess my point is, we know what IshiHime have been doing with their lives, but Tatsuki and Sado still remain just Ichgo's friends. Of course, I realize this may be too much for one chapter, but a hint or two would be nice. (Am not sure I explained myself well, there).

I do enjoy reading your stories, and I look forward to the next chapter.

[sophiap]

I am so glad that conversation went well. I think what you saw there was version #3 of the thing. Getting it right was a struggle.

As for Tatsuki and Sado, yeah, they had to be backgrounded a bit, or this chapter was going to get bogged down (originally, chapters 2 and 3 were supposed to be one chapter, but then it grew. And grew.) and the Ichigo-Rukia interactions were what I needed to focus on here. There will be more Tatsuki and Chad later on, I promise. I did try to get in some Ichigo-Tatsuki bickering over things like the air conditioning, Tatsuki's complaints about being on holiday duty, Ishida going out of town when he did, etc. in order to show they were very comfortable with each other.

My putting Renji's line was less to get the reader thinking Ichigo/Tatsuki than it was to get Rukia thinking about her own past with Renji.