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Do you know what is awesome?

BUBBLES is awesome.

No, really. See, someone looted (Dinah and Zinda) a factory's worth of liquid soap and sent vast amounts to the farm. Someone else (Steph) knew where to get glycerol and what happens when you add water, liquid siap and glyercol together. And someone else (Sokka) fashioned a bunch of wands of various sizes.

Although, actually, the tennis racket is Loo's favourite.

Mel, Loo and Hana are all out on the grass between bunker and farmhouse with a huge bucket of bubble mix, making a moderate mess.

Bubbles are awesome. Join them.

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That's OK. Mel has more than enough casual to share. She swings the racket around towards him, leaving trails of bubble clusters in her wake, and grins.

"Think this is the most fun we've had in ever, right, girls?"

Loo is hovering around her Mom's legs, and offers a wave at the man, before tugging at Mel's arm for more bubbles. Hana toddles over boldly, in case the mop and bucket are toys.

Advancing children! Brace for impact.

"Um. Hello." Ichigo doesn't really know what you're supposed to say to kids, seeing as he's never spent much time around them and he was one himself for only a few years. He sets down the bucket when he notices her interest, but it's empty and rather boring if you ask him.

"Where'd you find the stuff to make bubbles? Did you make it?"

That's not going to stop Hana pulling the mop out, though. Just in case the end of the mop turns out to be REALLY INTERESTING. Or maybe hiding a toy in there somewhere. The handle clatters to the ground and knocks the bucket over.

"Yes," she says, but she's not really listening.

Mel smirks, and shrugs to both conmfirm and clarify Hana's answer. "The birds found more soap than we're gonna need for a year. "Figged we could spare some for playtime."

"Where'd they find that much soap?"

A sensible person would assume a grocery store or some such place, but Ichigo's head is immediately filled with thoughts of a nearby soap factory. He isn't sure why, but it seems so plausible in his mind. This IS (or was) America, after all. What does he know?

"Warehouse out by the big lakes," says Mel, who's not big on the old names for the Noram States. "Unlooted and fulla soap."

"I guess not everybody's rioting for soap in this place, huh?"

He remembers the city, and he remembers a lot of people stunk. Him included, probably.

"I guess your kids find fun wherever they can in a place like this, huh?"

"The farm?"

Mel glances at him, an eyebrow quirked. "Place is worlds better than where I grew up."

Given what she's invested, you'll have to excuse her if she sounds a little insulted.

Being a city boy all his life, Ichigo has found the farm to be a bit...um, empty. All his time used to be taken up by school, by friends, by the occasional bout of fisticuffs with other local youths, and with Shinigami duties. Those things alone tended to take up about 110% of his day.

Here he has all the free time he could ever need. Time to think, time to relax, time to rest, time to talk and joke and enjoy a very different life.

It's a special kind of hell for somebody like him.

"I don't mean- it's not, like, bad, or anything. It's really nice here. Especially compared to everything else I've seen so far. I mean really nice." Metropolis wasn't his kind of place. It was too big, too busy and too hectic. He grew up in a small city, not a major one. "Maybe it's just me. I grew up in a small town outside Tokyo all my life, so being out in the country like this is...weird. For me, anyways. I'm not used to it yet."

He's not sure he ever will be, but he's not about to go running back to the crowded confines of the Big City in his state. Anyways, he feels much safer out here, and it's much easier to remain calm.

That might be a major difference, then. Mel has nothing like any free time. And she hasn't since the girls were born, eevent through Eden. Here, she hardly has time to get restless for killing things.

"What kinda things did you do for fun?"

"Um." This is a valid question, but his answer is going to sound stupid. "Go to school?" It really was a big part of his life. He always got good grades and was never very good at making (or having) friends, so homework and school and studying took up most of his day. "I guess I did normal stuff too, like go to the movies and stuff."

"Scopes we had." She means movies, but she'll let him infer that himself. "Really drank 'em up when I was a kid. I liked Westerns."

Ichigo looks confused at first, but eventually realizes what she's talking about and nods. He's a fan of movies himself, but the culture gap is becoming a bit apparent now.

"Me too, though I've only ever seen a few Westerns. When I was in the city I saw a movie on a little television, but I realised I can't understand English if it isn't coming directly from a person. It's like trying to read it: all I get is gibberish."

Which sucks for Ichigo, considering where he is. He can't even get books to pass the time!

"Ouch."

Mel has a little sympathy for him, even if she can't quite relate. "I remember when my ex was trying to learn to read English. It gave him no end of headaches."

"Good for him for trying, because I don't think I'm even going to get that far. There seems to be a shortage of teachers around here, and I'm not going to make much progress on my own."

It's not that bad, anyways. People are more interesting than books or movies, it's just that sometimes it sucks to be alone and bored with no real options for entertainment.

"... you wanna sit in with the girls sometime?" Mel offers. "They're just starting. I've got a hoard of early learning books."

"Oh. Um." Ichigo looks at them, still playing, and is rather shocked by the answer. People here keep doing that. Nobody in Metropolis was jumping at a chance to lend a helping hand (well, one person), and he's still surprised by how welcoming the people on the farm have been.

"Maybe I will," he says, looking thoroughly embarrassed. He doesn't want to learn English from children's books while sitting amongst children, but if he does want to learn, what choice does he have? "That'd be nice, actually. Least I wouldn't have to worry about falling behind."

That was a joke. He is now entertaining worried thoughts about being out-educated by small children.

"You've never seen the speed kids learn, have you?" Mel says, clearly amused.

"'Sepcially, my kids." 'Cause they're a pair of geniuses. Clearly. Thinks their Mom.

"Well maybe I would have to worry," Ichigo says, and he can't help but smile a bit. Kindness will do that to a kid. "But I'll do my best to keep up, if you'd really let me give it a shot. If I can understand you and have a book of English in front of me, I can't see a reason I wouldn't be able to try."

Besides, it might be good for him to have some kind of consistent human contact. His fear of hurting people has had the unwanted side effect of making him a very lonely young man, and even the company of two children and their mother would be great right about now.

"Course I'll give you a shot," Mel says. "Give us a reason to really go for it, too. I've kinda been letting them do what they want. Time we tried getting some schooling."

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