Disclaimer: I don't own anything except Kitty!Kon (again xD)
Warnings: IchigoxRenji and RenjixIchigo near the end, otherwise nothing.
Notes: The story behind this? My mother dragged my father and I around town while she looked for things she wanted to decorate the house with this year. Why now? Because there's a sale on Sunday and everything good would be sold out by the time she got around to buying it if she didn't buy it now. So...yeah. I just kinda stuck these three in that situation and let it run. It's a rough draft, technically, but I felt like sticking something up just to stick something up. Have fun with it xD
It's That Time of Year...
Ichigo didn't hate the holidays, per se – on the contrary, he loved them. What he hated was the month and a half frenzy leading up to Christmas. When he was little, the frenzy hadn't started until December itself. Then as he grew, the frenzy started sooner and sooner. Now he was twenty-three and here wasn't even the middle of November and what had he been dragged into?
Christmas shopping.
With Rukia.
Of course, Renji was dragged along, too. Even if Rukia hadn't asked him, Ichigo would've dragged his roommate along anyway. There was no way he was going to spend the night going from store to store stuck alone with the girl, whose eyes lit up like a five-year-old's at the mere mention of Christmas.
"Ichigo! We should get this for the door!" Rukia called, holding up a wreath wrapped in candy-cane ribbon with red berries.
"It's too gaudy," Ichigo said. He was letting Rukia have her way with this for now, but it was his house and he was going to at least have a say in it. After all, it was their first Christmas in the new house.
Rukia squealed. "What about this?" she asked excitedly, pointing to a two-foot tall tree made of tinsel. Pink tinsel. Barbie pink.
"It's pink," Ichigo and Renji said in unison.
"Well, yeah…"
"Where would we put it?" Ichigo asked pointedly.
"On the coffee table?" she suggested.
"The Christmas tree is going in the same room – we can't have two trees in the same room."
"Why not?"
"Because it's stupid," Renji said.
"Exactly," Ichigo agreed.
Rukia sighed, but she wasn't put out for long. Her eyes lit up again at the sight of a box full of giant glittery ball ornaments. "Oh, Ichigo! What—"
"We've got no room," Ichigo said, cutting her off.
"Oh… Yeah… I should get something for nii-san," she said, skipping off down another aisle.
Ichigo and Renji exchanged glances before they heard Rukia squeal, "This will be perfect!"
"Go get a cart," Ichigo said to Renji.
Renji sighed and exited the Home Depot. They were lucky all the Christmas stuff was right in the front, otherwise Renji would've gotten himself lost trying to get in and out of the large warehouse – honestly, who would've thought Rukia could have a holiday field day in a home improvement store? But Ichigo had been in America longer than they had – he had gone to some fancy-name school for college and now worked at some fancy-name company for a good chunk of money, which was the only reason he even had a house. It was small, sure, but it was still a house.
America, however, was the oddest place Renji had ever been to. Even in the store, they were getting odd looks with them speaking Japanese. He and Ichigo could easily pass for Americans (Rukia not so much) – Ichigo especially. He often surprised people with his slightly accented English. Renji and Rukia were fluent in English but all three of them were much more comfortable speaking in Japanese. Things often got interesting around Ichigo's American friends, as he'd be talking to them in English and then yell something obscene at Renji in Japanese, which more often than not just made Renji crack up.
"No bunnies, Rukia!" Ichigo was saying as Renji came back with the cart.
"I didn't think bunnies were a Christmas thing," Renji said.
"Anything's a Christmas thing if you stick it in a scarf and a Santa hat," Ichigo explained, dropping a box in the cart. "She found a white tinsel tree," Ichigo explained. "She's going to decorate it and take it back to Byakuya."
"Decorate it with what?"
"We'll get ornaments at Target or something."
"Aren't we going to that linens place you mentioned?" Rukia asked.
"Linens'N'Things – yeah, we'll go there, too, but I don't think they have much."
"I still wanna go." Rukia giggled.
"Yeah. I know."
They left Home Depot with the little white tree, about five boxes of outdoor lights, and a hanging thing with three snowmen and a sign that read "Let it snow!" After they dropped the stuff of in Ichigo's car, they went to Linens'N'Things, found nothing, and then went to Target.
Ichigo pushed the cart along with his arms crossed on top of the handle, trying to look bored as they followed Rukia.
"We need something for the fireplace mantle," Rukia said.
"We can't have lights," Ichigo replied. "There'll be too many lights with the tree and everything."
"What about tinsel?"
"Too much tinsel, too – we could get garland for it. Make it look a bit festive."
"Garland?"
"Yeah – I'll show you if we find some."
"Okay!"
"What's this stuff?" Renji asked, pointing to a stack of spools of what looked like soft, fuzzy tinsel.
Ichigo shrugged. "Soft stuff."
Renji picked up a spool. "It feels like Kon."
Ichigo snorted in laughter. Kon had upgraded his plush body for that of a cat. As the mod soul was a nut about keeping clean, his fur was exceptionally soft.
"Ohhh!! I love these lights!" Rukia squealed, earning a few odd glances from the other shoppers in the store.
"You're too loud," Ichigo said, rolling the cart in her direction.
"But aren't these just so pretty?" Rukia shoved a box of lights colored blue, purple, and teal. "Can we get them?"
Ichigo sighed. "Yeah, alright."
"Yay!!" Rukia dropped that box plus three others of the same pattern, and three boxes of pink and white lights.
Ichigo was about to protest the pink when some musical thing went off, scaring Renji (who had hit the "Try Me!" button out of curiosity). "Baka…"
"What is with those things?" Renji asked, glancing back over his shoulder at the musical toy.
"It's…festive," was the only explanation Ichigo had.
"What isn't festive?"
"Around this time? Nothing."
"Hey, Renji, come here," Rukia called.
Renji went to her out of curiosity and ended up getting a clip-on cardinal stuck in his hair.
"Cute," Ichigo teased with a snicker.
"Shut it, berry-brains, and help me get it out."
Ichigo complied, but only because Rukia had skipped off elsewhere.
"You know, if you put some green and gold ribbon in your hair, you'd be pretty festive yourself," Ichigo suggested playfully.
"If you so much as attempt that, I will kill you."
"What if Rukia attempted it?"
"I'd…" Renji stopped and huffed. "She'd pay."
Ichigo eyed him. "How is it that you'd kill me but not Rukia?"
"Rukia's a girl."
"And she'd kill you if she heard you say that."
"Yeah, but the ribbons are a girl thing. And your hair's too short to put ribbons in."
"Haha. Very funny, asshole. Would you like to sleep on the couch tonight?"
Renji chuckled. "Alright – point taken."
"Ichigo!" Rukia called.
Ichigo and Renji followed the voice and Rukia tossed in two spools of ribbon, causing Ichigo and Renji to exchange glances, both narrowing their eyes in a mutual "don't even think about it" expression. A few seconds later, Rukia had rooted out three more spools of ribbon and threw them in as well, along with a few rolls of wrapping paper (one of them had bunnies on it), three bags of different-sized bows, and two boxes of ornaments.
After the Target adventure, Ichigo drove them over to Michael's to find a garland for the fireplace mantel and some tiny ornaments for Rukia's tree for her brother.
"Would this be too much?" Rukia asked, holding up a little bag of blue ball ornaments.
"Yes," Renji and Ichigo said in unison. She already had a little bag of penguin ornaments, silver stars, and blue and white light bulb ornaments. The tree was only two feet tall, after all.
A little bit later, Renji found where the garlands were and Ichigo grabbed one. "Now all we need are some clip-on birds," he added.
"No birds," Renji said. "Especially not clip-on ones."
"Aww – I think they'd be cute," Rukia said.
They decided on glittery berries for the garland.
As they walked down the main aisle to the front of the store, Rukia stopped. "What smells good?"
"Scented candles," Ichigo said, pointing to the racks of mason jar candles.
"Oooh…" Rukia opened up one and smelled it. "Oh! Smell this, you guys!" she said excitedly, shoving the jar in their faces.
Ichigo sniffed it and tilted the jar so he could see the label. "Sugar cookies?"
"That does smell pretty good…" Renji said in wonder.
Rukia took that as a sign and closed up the jar and stuck it in the basket. "What do these others smell like?"
They spent another five minutes smelling all the candles and ended up with four different candles in the basket.
Back home, Rukia happily worked on decorating the little tree for Byakuya while Renji and Ichigo sat on the couch, watching TV. Well, Renji was watching TV and Ichigo was doing something on his laptop.
"Whatchya up to?" Renji asked.
"Chatting with Karin. Yuzu's been trying to teach her how to cook."
"Is Yuzu the only one gifted with the ability to cook?" Rukia asked, looking up from her work.
"Yep," the boys said in unison.
"You need to stop doing that – it's creepy…"
"Doing what?" Renji asked.
Ichigo laughed. "Saying stuff at the same time."
"Heh. Well, speaking of cooking, I'm kinda hungry…" Renji said, getting up.
"Me, too," Ichigo said, putting his laptop aside to follow suit.
"Can somebody grab me a soda?" Rukia called.
"Sprite?" Ichigo asked, opening up the fridge.
"Yeah."
He grabbed a can and handed it to the girl before returning to the kitchen. "What're you making?" he asked Renji, who had a bagel, ham, and Swiss cheese.
"Breakfast bagel," Renji said simply. "Want one?"
"Sure."
"You guys," Rukia called, getting their attention, "I'm gonna go back to Soul Society for tonight at least, okay? I want to give nii-san his tree," she added with a smile.
"Okay," Ichigo said.
"Have fun," Renji added.
Rukia smiled at them. In two minutes, she was gone.
"If I wake up with ribbons in my hair, I'm gonna know it was you," Renji warned.
"Put ribbons in your hair while you're asleep and helpless? I would never do such a thing!" Ichigo said in mock indignity.
"You wanna try callin' me helpless one more time?"
Ichigo just grinned with a mischievous glint in his brown eyes. "I'm on top tonight, Renji, or did you forget that?"
Renji snorted. "Dammit," he said before leaning over and kissing him. "Just remember – whatever you do to me, I can do back to you."
"I know. That's the only reason why I haven't made you dress up as a little schoolgirl. Well – that, and that I have no desire to actually see you in a schoolgirl outfit."
"You scared me there for a minute…"
"You're too…you to even look remotely attractive in a skirt."
Renji laughed. "You, on the other hand…"
Ichigo glared. "If you do… You will pay. Severely."
"Oh come on – you've got skinny, virtually hairless legs, a skinny figure – you'd make a cute girl if ya weren't so damn tall."
"You have a sick fetish."
"Can't be any worse than your sado-masochism."
"You like it."
"Did I say I didn't?" Renji smirked, setting down Ichigo's half of the breakfast bagel in front of him.
Ichigo bit into it. "Geeze… Why do you cook so well?"
"Because somebody in this house needs to."
Ichigo just smiled.
Renji woke up in the morning with a start, realizing that Ichigo wasn't cuddled up next to him as he usually was. He ran a hand across his hair and found the reason why Ichigo wasn't in sight – there were multiple ribbons tied in bows in his long hair.
"ICHIGO!!!"
Somebody snickered from the doorway. Ichigo was standing there in his jeans, which were loosely belted by a red ribbon with a large red bow stuck just above the hem of his pants. "Sorry – you didn't achieve helpless last night."
"And what…are you supposed to be?"
"Compensation."
Renji grinned.
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