Fragaria Vesca

By Summer

It is said that when the First Man was created and a wife was given to him, they lived together very happily for a time, but then began to quarrel. At last the woman could stand it no longer and left her husband and started off toward the Sun Land in the east.

The man followed alone and grieving, but the woman kept on steadily ahead and never looked behind her.

The Sun, took pity on the man and asked him if he was still angry with his wife. He said he was not and the sun then asked him if he would like to have her back again, to which he eagerly answered yes.

So the sun caused a patch of the finest ripe huckleberries to spring up along the path in front of the woman, but she passed by without paying any attention to them.

Farther on the sun put a clump of blackberries, but these also she refused to notice.

Other fruits, one, two, and three, and then some trees covered with beautiful red service berries, were placed beside the path to tempt her, but she will went on until suddenly she saw in front of her a patch of large ripe strawberries, the first ever known.

She stooped to gather a few to eat, and as she picked them she chanced to turn her face to the west, and at once the memory of her husband came back to her and she found herself unable to go on.

She sat down, but the longer she waited the stronger became her desire for her husband became and at last she gathered a bunch of the finest berries and started back along the path to give them to him.

He met her kindly and they went home together.

~ a Cherokee legend

Chapter One: Cerasus

Later, when he looked back at that first meeting, he figured he was first drawn to her by her dress.

It was white and rimed along the bottom with red ribbon and the whole of the skirt was covered in strawberries.

He had been in a two-on-two pick-up basketball game with his best friend Chad earlier that day on the other side of the park. They had easily won the bet and his half of his winnings was sitting comfortably in his pocket.

He was happy and content with the beginning of summer vacation a week away when he chanced to turn his gaze to the small hill and to where she had been sitting.

She was sitting at the top, her back to him. Her white flats had been kicked off beside her and a notebook was sitting on her lap. She was content to look at what ever was on the other side of the hill, beyond what he himself could see. Her dark hair reached her shoulders and her red shirt was a sharp contrast to the green grass around her.

But it was the strawberries on her skirt that really held his attention, at least a first. He had his own particular love/hate relationship with the fruit that stemmed from his particular name, the bright orange of his hair and a childhood of teasing.

He took a few steps closer to the small girl sitting on the hill when she turned her head and glanced in his direction.

She was pretty, with a strand of her dark hair straying across her face, but it was her eyes that caught his attention. A liquid blue/purple he had never seen before. They were beautiful.

She however, hadn't noticed him. She had been looking at a house in the distance wondering if the occupant of that said house could see her where she sat, or if he even cared.

No. She knew he cared. He cared about the impression she made on others and how she was a reflection of his house. He cared about her being a proper lady and of staying out of trouble.

But of her as a person. She wasn't sure he would ever care about such a thing.

It was then a shadow crossed her vision and she looked up.

Above her stood a tall boy with bright orange hair.

He had on a dark tee-shirt and cargo shorts and remnants of sweat still clung to this clothing. Not only could she still see where it had left its traces on his clothes, but he smelled of it too.

She would have easily been horrified if it wasn't for the cheesy grin that marked the boy's face, and she smiled up at him.

"Is there something I can help you with?" she asked, a light ring of laughter in her voice.

"What are you doing up here?"

"Is there some sort of law that says I can't be up here?"

"Well, no," Ichigo said, using one of his hands to rub the back of his neck.

"Then I don't see the validity of you questioning as to where I choose to sit." She smiled up at him brightly.

"That's not what I meant!"

"Then why did you ask it?"

Ichigo made a face and sighed. "I was just wondering what you were doing sitting up here alone."

"Can a girl just sit alone?" she asked with a grin. "I'm joking. Here." She thrust the notebook in her hands up to him and he took it gingerly from her grip.

Upon closer inspection he realized the notebook in his hands was really a sketchbook. He flipped open to the first page finding a detailed sketch of a little girl.

"Oh, wow. These are amazing." His face broke out in a huge grin as he flipped through the contents of her book. Savoring each drawing as he did so.

"You would think so now, but you should see my earlier work."

"I'm sure it's fine."

She looked up at him again, holding her hand to shield her eyes. "Would you mind at least sitting down? Your so damn tall it hurts my neck to look up at you."

Ichigo folded as asked to sit next to the pale girl with the captivating eyes.

"Better?"

"Much."

They smiled at one another and Ichigo handed her back her sketchbook.

"So, you sit up here and draw people at the park?"

"It's better then being at my house." She gazed out to what he could now see was a playground filled with happy kids and families. She held the book in her lap with her left hand as she played with the trinket on her necklace with her right.

He watched her, noting that it was a charm shaped as a strawberry.

"Do you have sort of obsession with fruit?" Ichigo asked.

She looked over at him and laughed.

"It's a rather funny story actually."

"Really?"

"Yes. Shall I tell it?"

"Indulge me."

"Well, it started in pre-K."

"Pre-K?"

"It's school, for three and four year olds."

"Okay."

"And it was all the rage for young girls to have all things made with cherries."

"Cherries?"

"Yes, and shush. Your interrupting."

He smiled. "Go on."

"Well, my brother heard about it. Although I don't know how. And he couldn't have me be more unfashionable then the rest of my classmates. So he came home one afternoon with this doll and this hideous pink dress. Somehow along the lines he thought the trend was with strawberries. And he gave me this doll called Strawberry Shortcake. In any case, neither was the fashion and I was made fun of. Dreadfully. To this day he still brings me home the occasional strawberry themed item."

Ichigo smiled.

"Although to be fair, strawberries are also the only thing I can grow. Renji said that's because their mostly weeds. But did you know that the strawberry is really a member of the rosaceae, or the rose family? It's true that they are not actually roses, they belong in different genus, but I think its much closer to say they are roses then weeds."

"You know a lot about flowers," Ichigo said.

"No, not really. Byakuya has taught me most everything I know."

It was then her phone made a strange chirping noise that startled Ichigo and had the girl pulling a silver phone with a bunny attachment out of her pocket.

"Blast, I have to go. It was nice talking with you-"

"Ichigo," Ichigo said, following her lead and getting up off the ground. "My names Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Ichigo Kurosaki." She smiled brightly, then turned and started running down the side of the hill.

"Wait!"

The girl turned back, nearly falling down with the effort."

"What's your name?"

"It's Rukia." She turned and she was off again. She was out of sight in a matter of moments, but Ichigo watched from the hill until he could no longer see her bright red shirt and strawberry skirt.

What an interesting girl. He thought, turning to leave and tripping over a pair of white flats in the process.

First off: I don't own Bleach. Thank you to Tite Kubo for the amazing Ichigo, Rukia and all the wonderfulness that is Bleach! I don't own any of it…but if you want to share then I wouldn't mind if you gave me Ichigo…

Second: I wonder if anyone will read this fic… right now its so open even I don't know much of what will happen next… although the bit about her shoes was in there only because I realized that I never said she put them back on, and it makes a good scene in the next chapter… but no… this isn't some random Cinderella version… that was just a last minute detail slip.

Third: I do not own Strawberry Shortcake. She is owned by American Greetings (who knew!) And I did have a Strawberry Shortcake doll as a little girl. I use to love the way it smelled. Plus mine came with sprinkles that I put on my ice cream and made it change colors.

Fourth: Fragaria Vesca means: Wild Strawberry and Cerasus means: Cherry

Fifth: Yes, I gave Rukia the ability to draw… and she talks the way she does in this chapter because she was raised to talk this way. I figured Byakuya would have raised her to talk really proper and with few slang, and since she doesn't know Ichigo, she'd speak to him in the same manner she was use to speaking with most everyone.

And that's it for now on my little notes. ^-^