Disclaimer: Although the severely warped and twisted imagination is my own, Shaman King and its characters are the property of Hiroyuki Takei.
Author's Notes: I had been wanting to write a story involving Ren and Horohoro for quite awhile now so one of my friends made the suggestion that I should do something that involved them going for ice cream. This is what happened.
Ren thought, in retrospect, that it would have been more romantic if Horohoro were the one treating him to ice cream. As it was, Horohoro had simply decided that they should go for ice cream and before Ren could protest he had been snagged by the arm and forcibly removed from the premises of Funbari Onsen. Given these circumstances it was readily apparent that Ren would end up being the one to pay for the ice cream when they finally reached the cart over by the park. This only served to reinforce Ren's disdainful admiration of the blue-haired shaman's skill at shamelessly mooching off of other people. Ren assured himself that he only put up with this because he happened to enjoy the other boy's company despite himself and also because Horohoro made for an exceptional human punching bag when he became obnoxious enough. Rest assured, it wasn't because Ren actually liked him. Or at least that was what Ren was busy telling himself in an attempt to keep himself from blushing in public.
Horohoro, on the other hand, was filled with boundless energy as always. And why shouldn't he be? He was getting to spend some quality time with Ren and soon enough there would be ice cream on top of that. So what if Ren was probably going to hit him for it later? Horohoro was too caught up in the present moment to be concerned about that. He could certainly cope with the bruises that might result from that if and when it happened. However, right now the ice cream cart had come into view and that meant that the demands of Horohoro's bottomless pit of a stomach took priority over any rational apprehension he might have previously had about the potential consequences of deliberately mooching off of Ren since it wasn't like he had much in the way of money on hand himself. Then again, he never seemed to have much money. Maybe that was something he should have given a little more consideration, but for the time being ice cream awaited him no more than ten feet away!
Ren grimaced at the multi-colored pillar of different flavored scoops of ice cream that adorned the waffle cone that was placed in Horohoro's hand after the other boy had finished placing his order. Considering he wasn't the one that would be paying for it, Horohoro clearly wasn't holding back. Ren quietly ordered a single scoop cone of peach flavored ice cream for himself and cast Horohoro a scornful glance before redirected his golden gaze on the gentleman tending to the ice cream cart. After paying for the ice cream and pocketing his change Ren finally accepted his own ice cream cone and walked away with Horohoro who was already dutifully licking is own excessive pillar of colorful ice cream.
"I somehow doubt it was necessary for you to get that much ice cream," Ren shot at Horohoro after attending to his own ice cream cone for several licks.
"I was hungry," Horohoro defended himself. It wasn't really a very good excuse and he knew it, but all those flavors just sounded so good so he decided he might as well indulge himself. Hopefully it would turn out to be worth the punishment he would be forced to endure from Ren later on. Not that he really minded, but Ren could hit pretty hard when he felt like it. Horohoro quickly returned his attention to the towering pillar of the ice cream cone that was still in his hand, not out of concern that it would melt because that was unlikely to happen to any amount of ice cream in the possession of someone with his particular skills, but because he really was hungry. It might have made better sense to have stayed at Funbari Onsen until after lunch, but that particular thought hadn't occurred to Horohoro until just now. Oh well, maybe next time he would remember to think of it. Besides, this way he got to spend some time alone with Ren.
Ren dutifully ignored Horohoro's lame excuse and focused on his own ice cream cone. It was really quite good so the expense of treating Horohoro wasn't a total loss. It was still going to take them awhile to work their way back to Funbari Onsen so he might as well take the time to enjoy it. He refused to believe that Horohoro actually intended to finish off that monstrosity that managed to pass itself off as an ice cream cone. No doubt Ren would be forced to help him burn off the calories from devouring that ridiculous sugar-filled confection. Ren immediately tried desperately to pretend he hadn't just started thinking about that so that he wouldn't go completely red in the face while attempting to finish off what was left of his ice cream cone. It wasn't going very well.
Horohoro grinned as if he could sense Ren's discomfort, "Don't worry. We'll have plenty of fun once we get back."
Ren's fist intercepted Horohoro's upper arm accompanied by the sound of a crunching waffle cone as the remaining ice cream contained within dripped around his fingers. Horohoro winced. That one would probably leave a mark for a couple of hours before it healed. And now he was going to need to wash his t-shirt. Oh well, at least this gave him proper incentive to make Ren squirm. He seized Ren by the wrist and began licking the lingering peach flavored ice cream residue from between his fingers.
The combination of anger and embarrassment that took hold of him caused Ren's face to take on a rather fascinating shade of red. The minutes that followed culminated with Ren and Horohoro in a rainbow splattered, dripping heap in the middle of the sidewalk after Horohoro finally lost control of the hand that had been supporting his ice cream cone. It was definitely going to take some work for them to get cleaned up after this.