Title: Christmas for Ichigo

Fandom: Bleach

Rating: T, mild language, sexual situations

Description: AU. Humor columnist Gin Ichimaru decides to play Santa to his down on his luck barista, Ichigo. He thought he was just doing a good deed, not knowing that Ichigo has had a long time crush on him. Christmas fic. Romance, cheer and yaoi.

Disclaimer: Bleach is created and owned by Tite Kubo, I merely pay homage to characters and a story I love.

A/N: Two months of unemployment so far. It seems that most of my adult life during Christmas I haven't had a job, so you could say this story comes from a genuine place (i.e. you stupid moving company! Bunch'a jerks!). Gin in this is based off a person I know and respect.

I'll be updating fairly quickly, I have the story worked out, maybe a couple of chapters. It'll all be done before Christmas, or else what's the point?

White Chocolate Cappucino

"Thanks," Gin said, getting his drink.

The boy smiled at him, "You're welcome."

It's surprising how many people don't thank me, Ichigo thought. Not that it's required or anything, but still, it's nice when it happens.

Ichigo started cleaning out the bar, wiping down spilled syrup and cream. He started humming along to the Christmas song playing over the loud speakers. He didn't see Gin smiling to himself as he read a book in the corner.

At least someone is happy, Gin thought to himself, sipping on his coffee. His phone buzzed and he looked at the message he got. It was from his old friend Rangiku. "Are you taking me up on that bet or what?" she had messaged. He ignored it. He could be nice to people if he wanted to, he didn't need to take a bet to prove it.

The boy's phone started buzzing too. He took one look at it and hurriedly answered, stepping outside but leaving the door open by accident.

"Hello?" Ichigo answered.

"This is Cross Country Moving, calling you back," the cheery sounding woman replied.

"Yeah, you moved me about two months ago and I just realized that I'm missing some boxes," Ichigo said.

Gin couldn't help but listen in, he was a nosey person. He could only hear Ichigo's part of the conversation.

"I know you're not a storage company, but it seems like if you had some stuff of mine left on your truck you'd call and tell me about it!" Ichigo was getting irritated. "I haven't had time to unpack before this. Why does that matter? You have my stuff and I need it. What do you mean you threw it out? Why didn't you just call? Those were my Christmas decorations! I had ornaments I made when I was in freaking grade school in there," Ichigo paused then remembered something. "You bastards, my mom's hand painted bird ornaments were in there too! You DID NOT throw those out!" he was practically yelling into the phone. "Well of course I'm upset. No I don't need to control my tone of voice; you've basically stolen from me. Not only that but I paid you to do it! YES I want to file a complaint, not that it matters because all my stuff is gone and I don't even have money to buy new stuff! You know what, never mind you jerk! Yeah, Merry Christmas to you too, you bitch!" Ichigo said, forcing himself to not throw his phone to the ground. Yeah, like I could afford that, Ichigo thought. I'm not even going to be able to replace my cheap fake Christmas tree, much less my android. He sighed, thinking about his mom's Christmas ornaments. Damn it, I'm not going to get teary eyed over something so stupid. It's just that I'm not going to see family or friends, I have no money, and now I won't even have decorations that remind me of home. He took a deep breath, not noticing the intense interest he had caused from the man inside.

About twenty minutes later the man came up to the counter with his empty paper cup.

"Do you want a refill?" Ichigo asked.

"Yes, and a lid," Gin said. "Rough day?" he asked.

Ichigo blushed, wondering how much the man had heard. "Yeah," he replied simply.

Gin didn't really want a refill he just wanted to get close enough to read the name tag on Ichigo's work apron. Ichigo Kurosaki he read, memorizing it.

"Thank you again!" he said cheerfully, putting some money in the tip jar once Ichigo's back was turned.

A couple of minutes later Ichigo noticed it, pulling out the twenty dollar bill. That was nice of him, he though with a smile. No one else was in the coffee shop so he pulled out his drawing pad and began to draw. He did a loose sketch of the man who had bought coffee, just like he did of most of the patrons at his work. He wrote "big tipper" underneath, not knowing Gin's name. Then he crossed that off and wrote, "Silver fox". The man had been pretty handsome. Ichigo wondered how old he was. He seemed to be fairly young, way too young to have hair that color. He had heard of people dying their hair gray, but that was usually a trendy girl thing, and plus, he didn't live in a very trendy city anymore. Not that you could call where he lived a city, it was more of a tiny Podunk town in his mind, though he supposed it was big for the area. He sighed and moved onto a sketch he'd been working on of his sister Karin playing soccer.

"You're actually going to do it?" Rangiku gushed.

"It's not that unusual," Gin replied.

"Oh really? You going out of your way to be nice to someone isn't unusual? If it was to put salt in their drink then maybe I'd believe you," Rangiku said.

"Oh come on, I'm sure I'd come up with a much better prank than that, even on the fly," Gin claimed.

"Fine. Prove it," Rangiku said, gesturing to the room.

"Old ones are sometimes good ones," warned Gin, standing up. He was lucky that the table had clean plastic cups for water and not glass ones. He had one under his arm now. An unusual looking man, striking even, he drew a lot of attention as he stretched his long frame, standing next to the table in the café he and Rangiku were eating at. He reached for his chin, cracked his neck once, and then bending it to crack it again, this time cracking the glass under his arm to make a startling loud noise. He fell to the ground like a rock, not moving. People gasped and moved around his prone body. Rangiku sighed and picked at her salad.

"He's ok," she waved off the onlookers. "He'll get up eventually."

Gin popped open an eye. "Well you don't have to ruin the fun, do you?" he asked.

"Hello again," Gin said to the orange headed boy. "Do you work here a lot?"

He neglected to mention that he had come by earlier in the day and a young dark haired woman had been working so he had wandered around for a few hours until Ichigo's shift started.

"As often as I can," Ichigo replied truthfully. It's not like it paid a lot, the more hours he got the better.

"My name is Gin Ichimaru," Gin introduced himself, reaching a hand across the counter.

Ichigo reached for it without thinking before realizing something. His mouth dropped open. "G-Gin Ichimaru?" he stuttered. "Oh my god! You're my favorite author!" he reached down behind the counter and pulled up a newspaper that was turned to the columnist section, where Gin wrote his weekly humor column. "I read your column every week and have all of your books!" Ichigo said excitedly. "Oh, and congratulations on the Pulitzer!"

"Yeah, I think they must have been smoking crack when they handed me that," Gin said truthfully. He really had no idea how he had won that thing.

"This is so great!" Ichigo beamed. Gin smiled back at him. Well, he's a fan. Does that make this easier or harder? It probably makes it creepy, Gin thought to himself. Not that the creep factor has ever stopped me before, so…

"Can I have two white chocolate cappuccinos?" Gin asked.

"Of course," Ichigo started adding it into the register. "Two?" he asked.

"A friend of mine is going to be joining me today."

Ichigo wanted to ask who, but thought that might be stalkerish. Gin frequently mentioned the people he hung out with in his weekly columns and on his blog, which Ichigo religiously followed.

"Gin!" a blond lady said from the doorway, walking in.

Blond with weaponized boobs, must be Rangiku, Ichigo thought to himself with a smirk. Gin wasn't exaggerating when he talked about her, he thought.

"Is that the kid?" Rangiku asked in a hushed voice as they waited for their drinks to be made.

"Yup," Gin admitted.

"He's kind of cute," Rangiku said. "I like the hair, and I love the sullen attitude."

"Go for it if you want," Gin suggested as Ichigo called out their order.

Rangiku smiled and sauntered over to the counter. Gin couldn't see what she was saying but she was leaning so far forward that her breasts were pressed against the bar. He could see Ichigo reddening and laughed to himself. Rangiku gave a light laugh and took the drinks, heading back to Gin.

"He's adorable!" she declared. "Shy too!"

"I think he's not into you," Gin claimed.

"No man is not into me!" Rangiku said determinedly.

"Well, no straight man," Gin replied.

"Oh," Rangiku said, looking over her shoulder at where Ichigo was wiping down the counter. "I don't know about that," she said.

"I do. He's an artist, lives alone, is far from his family, is barely making ends meet, and his hair is all natural. AND he's gay," Gin said.

"Already been doing your research?" Rangiku asked.

"No, those are just my guesses, but I'm good at guessing. I'll hit Aizen up later tonight to do a background check on the boy, but I'm expecting to see past date student loans and a former address in…" Gin thought about it for a while.

"See, even you can't guess everything," Rangiku said with a smirk.

"I'm betting you it's some place a lot more cosmopolitan than this," Gin stated, sipping his coffee. "He has the reverse "we're not in Kansas anymore" thing going on."

"Reverse?"

"Well the line was to refer to a country girl being in a big new land, and a new city. He has the look of someone used to a big city finding himself surrounded by trees and country accents."

"Bet?" Rangiku asked.

"I'm already in a bet with you. I refuse to be in more than one bet with one person," Gin explained.

"Someone cute and naïve like him, can you really be nice to him?" Rangiku said, her eyebrows raised.

"You make me seem like a monster. I'm just a guy who likes to have fun."

"At other people's expense."

"Sometimes. Most of the time they can afford it," Gin said.

After they left, Ichigo began to sketch. He blushed slightly when drawing Rangiku, since the way he drew he made her have porn star proportions. She was big though, he thought to himself, thinking about her leaning over the counter. To tell the truth, breasts, all breasts in general but specifically huge ones, kind of freaked him out. How did she walk around that way? Wasn't she unbalanced? Did she have to wear special bras to hoist them up? Did that hurt? What did boobs feel like anyways?

He had an easier time with Gin, doing several quick drawings of him leaning back in his chair drinking, and one sketch he spent a lot of time on doing just his face.

I can't believe I actually met him. I forgot how young he was because it seems like I've been reading his stuff forever, but he started getting published right out of high school. I love that hair. I don't know why I didn't recognize him, but then again he always just has his author pictures be pictures of his cats dressed in suits looking studious. Ichigo pulled out his phone and went to Wikipedia to look up Gin Ichimaru.