Pickles.. Soy sauce…salt.. Ichigo read off to himself. as he stood in an aisle with a shopping basket in his hand. It was s lovely Sunday evening, and he and Rukia had gone to the convenience store for some items that Yuzu needed for dinner tonight.
Rukia, who stood next to him, was glancing around in curiosity, having not been to living world's indoor markets before. Everything was shiny, neat, wrapped in plastics or boxes and was alluring to her. She took a step away and Ichigo reprimanded, "Rukia, don't wander off,"
"I'm not going far," she replied hastily, walking off into the next aisle. Ichigo decided to let her go- it wasn't a big store anyway, and she could find him easily. He moved on in search of grape flavored jelly, when he heard Rukia's footsteps as she approached him.
"Ichigo," her voice held tones of excitement and he groaned inwardly, knowing without even looking at her that she'd found something she either wanted to try out, or buy. He glanced over at her then, seeing her shuffled down the aisle, eyes sparkly with excitement and a bag of marshmallows clutched in her tiny hands, the plastic bag labeled chubby bunny marshmallows.
He'd thought to tell her no at first, but her sparkling eyes and all too excited smile ended up winning him over. They're just marshmallows anyway, Ichigo thought, as he moved to the next aisle to find bread with Rukia following him, clutching the marshmallows to her chest all too joyously, even if Rukia ended up not eating them, Yuzu can just use them in hot chocolate or something.
He glanced at Rukia for a moment, seeing how happy she looked with something as small and rather silly as a bag of marshmallows, which would barely cost him 200 yen, and sighed. It was always a slightly strange and sobering moment when he noticed Rukia finding such joy in something as trivial as a bag of marshmallows. Something he might've taken as not a big deal. He'd grown up with things like this. Rukia hadn't.
Ichigo made his way to the register, gently taking the bag of marshmallows from Rukia's tiny hands ("I'll give them back to you! Just wait for five seconds so I can pay for it!") and paid for the items. Taking the bags, he handed the one with the marshmallows to Rukia, who took it gleefully and thanked him, and exited the store quickly,wanting to get out before she could get her hands on anything else.
As they were leaving, Rukia spotted a capsule toy machine and walked over to it in curiosity. It was a silver machine, and it had something colorful inside, and it enticed her. She glanced over her shoulder to see Ichigo, who was looking in the opposite direction from her, at his phone, "Ichigo! What's this?"
He looked over at her then, and sighed, closing his phone and walking over. "It's a capsule machine. It's for kids."
"What does it do?"
Ichigo stared at her curious expression for a moment and sighed, putting the grocery bags down, he fished a coin from his pocket. "Okay look. You put a coin in here." he slid the coin into the slot, "And you turn the handle." he pointed to it, and Rukia grasped it, turning it a bit.
"Nothing happened." she looked up at him with a look that said, this is lame. Ichigo shook his head. "You didn't turn it enough." he took her hand, placing it back on the handle. Rukia turned it more, and there was a a short clanking sound. She looked up at him in surprise.
He pointed to the metal bar at the bottom of the machine, "Open that and see what came out."
She did so, taking out a small, plastic capsule that fit in the palm of her hand. It was pink in color, and she looked at it curiously before looking at him again. "...What is it?"
He took it from her and pried it open. Inside was a plastic ring- the type you would find on the chubby fingers of a four year old. It was made of plastic, and painted over with silver. The 'jewel' in the center was orange colored and in the shape of a heart, also made of plastic. Ichigo could recall his own sisters owning many of these when they were small, their own tiny fingers decorated with the colorful rings of plastic as they pretended to be princesses.
He reached down and took her right hand, sliding the plastic ring onto her finger. "This machine is pretty cheap. You should see the ones they have at the mall. They cost a bit more, but the product is usually a lot nicer." he stated offhandedly, not wanting to make things awkward. He wasn't sure if Rukia was listening to him or not, as she was busy staring at the ring on her finger with an expression he couldn't quite read. She looked up at him with a quiet expression. "Thank you."
He reached up, running a hand through his hair as he picked up the grocery bags again, "It's not a big deal.. come on, Yuzu's probably wondering what's taking so long."
"Yeah," she replied, remembering her bag of marshmallows again and smiling. He took her wrist gently, pulling her along as they walked home.
It's nothing, Ichigo decided as he glanced at her. He would buy her a hundred plastic rings if it meant that she would be happy. In the end, that was really mattered.