Cucumber in a Bowl of Hot Sauce [Rukia, Shiro]

"Well, we teachers are looking out for the best interests of our students. Half of you wouldn't pick up on much of anything if we didn't give you a reason to focus on it."

Rukia thought for a moment to lean up against him as he sat down, but for now, she'd honestly rather just enjoy the tea and talk with him. Well, the tea actually could have been better, but she'd still drink it without any issues. It mattered more that he'd made it for her at all, it was a nice gesture.

"I didn't really have any plans, but it sounds like you've got a few. Get a drink, hm? You hoping for a repeat of last time?"

She was obviously teasing, her eyes narrowed as she gave him a little smirk. Admittedly, though, that was covering up a little more of a genuine worry about that situation. It hadn't exactly been something she'd been ready for, and they'd hardly seen any repeats of it since then. Was that what he was hoping for here? Should she be annoyed by that, or was it reasonable for him to want that?

This was hard.

"I'm looking right at you, believe me."

Well, that was maybe a little bit more flirty than she'd actually meant for it to be, but Rukia didn't mind too terribly. Sure, she turned a little red in the face, but only a little bit. Nobody was around to hear it, anyway, so it could have been worse.

"Well that someone must be pretty special, huh? I'm glad they're doing so much for you."

Honestly, it did throw her off a whole lot hearing Shiro be that...well, up front about everything. If she had been a little red in the face before, she was infinitely more red now, her gaze shifting firmly to the other side of the room as she took a long dring of her tea, just to avoid saying anything more embarrassing than what she'd already said. She knew this was serious, and she was doing her best to take it that way. But it was still weird to just hear him lay it out like that.

"...Like last time, huh? You know that was...new for me. It's not like I hold it against you or anything that you've done all that before. I'm not just dating you because of what happened that night. I like you. You you."

Setting the teacup down, but still not entirely able to look Shiro in the eye, Rukia simply leaned against him. She had no idea what she was doing.

"I want to have fun too. Just... I hope you're willing to wait up for an old lady to figure things out."

Any response Rukia might have had about waiting for marriage was sort of stifled by the rest of what Shiro decided to lay on her immediately afterward. She could have expected any number of things from him, but that definitely wasn't one of them, and there was no small part of her that rather instinctively wanted to hit him just as a natural sort of reflex. It startled her, more than anything else.

She settled for a small bump to his chest.

"Well, I think I'm pretty lucky to have such a good student. Putting up with a teacher like me that hasn't had much field experience, I'm surprised half my lesson plans even work outside the classroom."

If he wanted to go with this silly euphemism, she was all too happy to roll with it for now. Besides, it almost made the whole thing a little more fun, a little bit less tense. That helped, especially as his arm snaked its way around her. Was she supposed to like that? She did like it, but it sure wasn't something she was used to.

"I'm...not really waiting for anything in particular, I guess. I haven't thought about all that enough to really even come up with some checklist or anything like that, and I definitely haven't thought about getting married in a long time. I just never really met the right guy for it."

She would have been lying if she just said "until now" or something like that, even if she was pretty sure that would have sounded good. It didn't change that, despite how much Rukia liked him, she couldn't really say with any authority that Shiro was the sort of guy she'd be willing to spend her whole life with, someone she'd just put that much trust in. It wasn't that she didn't think he could be that. But she needed more time.

"I'm not going anywhere, you know. If you need more, um...you know, kido lessons. I'm here."

"I--"

What was she even supposed to say to that? That was the least clever thing that he possibly could have said, but there was something about how brazen it was, how completely seriously he said it, that Rukia couldn't even formulate an immediate response. Well, that and the hand under her chin. That was messing with her too, though not as much as that absolutely terrible line.

"I... I can't say I've ever heard of that kido before. You must be reading some pretty weird textbooks if that's what you're putting in the lesson plan..."

That probably wasn't nearly as much of a comeback as she would have wanted, but honestly, what sort of comeback was Rukia even supposed to use for something like that? Banter usually required some kind of...you know, tact. And he'd just completely sidestepped that.

"Well...go ahead and demonstrate."

Of course she's speechless after something like that. How is she supposed to even respond when he goes through all this ridiculous setup just go not even follow through? It wouldn't be right to say Rukia was flustered, more just...baffled. This definitely wasn't normal for relationships, right? Well, maybe she shouldn't be comparing to what was normal. Not like this was a normal relationship, anyway.

"Seems like you did. Here, let me try."

Well, if he's going to be like this about it, her two options were to double down or to just do the opposite. Naturally, she chose the second one, and she pulled herself in surprisingly forcefully to kiss him. Of course, the thought had crossed Rukia's mind that this was exactly how he wanted this to go, that he thought he was very clever for baiting her into this. If that was the case, then hey, might as well congratulate him for planning things out so well.