He could tease her back, or even start a harmless argument to defuse the building sense of extraordinary ordinariness that is making the conversation so difficult to flow from his lips, and it may even be the correct decision, for once, to do so.

But it is that self-same sense of the unusual that holds Ichigo's often sharp tongue for just long enough that, instead, he tilts his face to the side to offer Rukia another soft-edged smile with only a little frosting lingering at the side of his mouth, though the line between his eyebrows still lingers in discomfort.

"I wouldn't want you to let me get spoiled while nobody else is around. I can't think of anyone else I know who'd be able to do the job as good as you do."