"Well wat is it?" Rukia stopped stroking the orange hair of the boy below her, "Hm?" "Wat's wrong?" "Nothing's wrong," she smiled solemly and continued stroking the boys hair, his eyes remained closed but he was not asleep, he rested his head in her lap, the remained under the Cherry Blossum Tree, the wind blew petals down from the tree, "Rukia, Im not falling for it," Rukia lifted her head from Ichigo's orange hair, she held it up, as a singal petal fell into her palm, she brought the petal down and layed it on Ichigo's chest, the pink looking soft against the purple of his shirt, he opened one eye and looked at the petal, "Isn' itn't lovely? It's fragil too, but it's held to a high standered," Ichigo opened th other eye and looked up at the girl, her yellow dress was not as bright under the shade of the tree, he looked at her with a questioning look on his face, "People expect these petals to be perfect, to be beautiful, to rain down on them every spring, and for the ones that stay in a girl's hair, or to never wilt, all flowers are held to a high standered, to always be elegant, always be beautiful, always be cool and soft, but not to break, and wen a flower starts to wilt and loses all beauty, the flower is for gotten, and slowly dies, isn't that sad?" Ichigo no's by now that everything Rukia says or does has a metaphoric meaning, so do her sad little pictures, he looked up at her, her eyes were sad and swimming in tears, wanting to rain down her cheeks, and yet her voice held only sadness, only lonliess, no tears, but they were soon to come, "It is sad, but I think that a flower is a flower, and all flowers, are eautiful, and elegant, and dipect the finer things in life, and I think, that flower should be planted, bloom for a very long time, and then wilt away, because that's wat flowers were meant to do, and there's nothing wrong with that," "But wat if that flower is picked, anhd showed, and put in a vase adorned with jewels? Wat if that flower is taken from the ground and put in a vase, would it wilt sooner?" "Alot sooner! That's why I try not to pick flowers, and if I do it's for a purpose," They were both silent for a moment, "Rukia, tell me," "Tell you wat?" "You no wat, tell me wat's bothering you," "Nothing's bothering me," "Don't give me that, I may not no wat's bothering you, but I do no that something is, they say that the eyes are the gateways to the heart, you may be an actres, but you can't make that disapear, I no wen your upset," Rukia was silent, he raised his head up off of her lap, sat on his nees, and pushed her head to meet his lap, and stroked her hair, she simply stared into a deep nothingness, stared at something that only she could see, "You can't ignore it forever, weather you tell me or not I'l find out, I'd like to hear it frm you, but I wil find out, I have ways of finding out," "Is this one of them?" "s wat one of them?" "This, nagging," "Actually yes, but I didn'y realize that I was nagging you yet," Rukia smiled, but it was a deep, sad smile, full of tears, full of lonliness, "If we are told to hope, and if we are told not to believe in anything we cannot see, and if hope is something that we cannot see, then isn't something wrong?" "Yeah, something's wrong, I just wish I new wat it was," Rukia closed her eyes to keep the tears at bay, "Ichigo? Wat do you think of me?" "Alot," "Brother, Brother cares for me you no?" "If you consider letting your sister get nearly burned alive by a giant range bird careing then yes," "Don't criticize Brother, it's complicated, he's doing the best he can," "I doubt that but go ahead," "Well, he does, and he promised my sister, before she dies, that he would protect me," "He isn't doing a very good job, condiering that you come to me with tears more than you go to him, and that my swod does most of the protecting," "Brother has no time for petty issues, but, you understand, that he dosen't like you?" "The feeling's mutual," "But if it were not for Brother, things would not be the way they are, I probbably would never have met you that night, as much as Brother hates to realize that, if we change one detail, no matter how small, in history, nothing will be the same, and many more tears will be shed, even if it was for the better," Ichigo thought for a moment, "Before you say anything else, let me just tell you, it was pretty lonely, that small amount of time that we were apart," "It felt like forever, didn' it?" "Tch, it was only, wat? One two, weeks?" "But I still wish that I had spent that time with you, that you had been at my bedside, instead of thin air," "I no, I wish that too, I never would've left, you no that don't you?" "I do," "Remember those two words at the wedding, will ya'?" Rukia looked up, "It was so lonely turning around and constantly noing that the closet was empty, I actually spent alot of time reading romantic stuff," "You can't stand romantic stuff," "I could then," Rukia lightly covered Ichigo's hand with her owne, "Rukia, I don't ever want to lose time again, I always want to be with you," Rukia closed her eyes to stop the tears, she new wat he was going to do, but tears of happiness were not wat she was holding back, she felt something cold slip onto her ring finger, "Rukia, I want you to marry me, I'm in love with you, please," Rukia glanced at the ring, "It's beautiful," she maneged, it was bronze and it looked like it had been around for centuries, but that's wat she liked about it, it was uniqe, it had a singal diamond in the middle, Ichigo leaned down and kissed Rukia's lips gently, "Will you smile now?" "Ichigo, Brother is forbidding me to see you, he said that I've changed since I met you," "And you have, and so have I, but fo the better," "Ichigo, Brother was very clear, he-" Ichigo silenced her with a kiss, tears streamed down Rukia's porcelin face, he rose up, Rukia still absorbed in the slowly fading kiss, "Rukia, please say 'yes', please?" "Ichigo, I want to but-" "But, do you have to do everything 'Brother' says? Do you want to give this up?" "...No," "Then say 'yes'," "Ok, yes," they kissed again under the Cherry Blossum Tree THE END