Betting it on a Name (Rukia/Shiro)

"What, was that the first time you actually looked at the textbook?"

It was just in her nature to ask those sorts of questions, especially given her mood still wasn't exactly the best. That said, this ramen did manage to lighten it a bit, so hey, they were making progress, right? With the first half of the egg gone, Rukia actually started on the ramen proper, though she rather visibly didn't have the same excitement as she had towards the egg.

"Don't worry about disappointing me, Shiro. You should be doing well for your own sake."

"...Yeah. I guess you'd say it's better, these days."

Rukia's own mood fell more than a bit, thinking about all that. So much of her had wanted to say 'no, not at all, it was way better out there,' but it just wasn't. She never had to worry about where she'd sleep, if she'd wake up the next day. She'd had friends out there, but did she not have friends in the Seireitei?

"Maybe once upon a time, the Rukongai was better, when the Seireitei was stricter. Hey, if the Captain Commander finishes all those changes she's been working on, it honestly might end up being better again. But right now? I'd be lying if I said my life wasn't better now. Maybe that just says more about what it was like back then, though."

Well, wasn't that quite the admission? Of course, it wasn't as if Rukia hadn't already known that. Did he think those sorts of things weren't on the Academy records? It was important to know who was worth keeping an eye on, but she'd never especially considered him a huge danger. Mostly because of how lazy he always was around class.

"Join the club."

That was the most she'd say on that particular topic. It wasn't really much of a secret, after all. It was in half the history textbooks in the Academy, if you bothered to look into the affair with Aizen.

"It is good ramen, yeah. I'm surprised something this simple manages to get along in the Seireitei. Mostly students who come by, isn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll talk to my Captain about it later, I'm sure she'll get all the paperwork through without much trouble. I hope you know this isn't going to be a free cruise through your apprenticeship just because you won a bet, though."

Though her words were harsh, they weren't necessarily reprimanding in their nature. Rukia just felt like it would probably be good to remind him this would still actually be work. Being too mean about it would set a bad precedant for the rest of their time working together.

Ah. Her ramen is gone. Well, that just means she can finally eat the other half of that egg. Nice.

"Any questions for me about this?"

Was that real? No, that surely wasn't real. He was just joking around, yanking her chain. Obviously, he wouldn't ask her out here and then just forget his wallet, right?

Man, that sure was impressive.

"Starting strong on not disappointing me, huh?"

With a rather exaggerated sigh, Rukia fished through her bag for the kan to pay for their meal. She didn't exactly mind paying for a meal with a student, but there was something about the specifics of why she was paying that made her at least a little bit more annoyed to be doing so. She really couldn't tell just how much of what he did was an act or not. Setting the money onto the counter, she stood from her seat as she straightened out her uniform.

"You know, most of the time you usually want to bring your wallet with you before you go. Won't always have a friendly teacher around to catch mistakes like that."