Pink Box
ichigoxrukia.
my first fic for the bleach fandom, so pls be gentle!
AU-ish, 'cause er, i made them a couple here? (X
apologies for OOCness. I've never watched bleach in my life. well, YET. grins.
apply standard bleach disclaimer.
a/n:
if you don't really know what's a neoprint machine, it's a photo machine that looks like a big gigantic box, and you simply, well, enter one to snap a dozen of pictures of you and your friends, personally decorate the digital prints, then wait for the machine to print it out! it's that simple, and it's pretty popular in japan.
Ichigo learns a lesson. Never bring Rukia to a neoprint machine. ichigoxrukia
-
Rukia stared at the funny pink box for quite a while. Ichigo stood by her side with hands deep in his uniform pockets, and lifted fingers off from his hand. One, two, three, four...He jumped from his feet, his eyes acquiring a mad tinge. She had stood there for a total of four minutes! Four!
"Rukia," he yanked her arm, and caused the black-haired lass to jerk away with a cry, "what the hell are you standing there for?" Ichigo looked annoyed, and knowing what the funny pink box actually was, he wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. He didn't want to be caught dead by any of his schoolmates (who knew what the guys would say) for having actually stepped into a neoprint machine.
Anything but a damn neoprint machine that looked frilly, pink and flowery.
But Rukia didn't seem to want to move away. Instead, she spun in her heels, and pointed a finger eagerly at the funny pink box. "Ichigo! What's this?" And to the strawberry-blonde boy's horror, she began to shake the large neoprint machine. Ichigo thanked the gods there were no one currently inside.
"It's nothing." Ichigo hastily said. Sliding his hands into his pockets, he shuffled his feet along before Rukia could get any funny ideas in her head. "Rukia, I'm going if you're not coming along!"
"Ichigo, it looks like it's a drink machine..." Rukia crouched down so that her eyes were leveled with the many pictures framed outside the pink box. Then her eyebrows drew together, as she turned to Ichigo. She was frowning. "Why do people like to vandalize the drink machine by pasting pictures of themselves on it?"
"Rukia," Ichigo half-groaned, half-sighed, "let's go."
"Not until you tell me what this is!" She bent down to look up the slot where Rukia believed was far too small for a can drink to drop from. Her fingers picked at it. Was it really possible for the can drinks to squeeze through such a thin tiny hole? Impossible! And before Rukia could finish mulling over the thought of the small tiny hole where can drinks supposedly drop from, or why people pasted small little stickers of themselves over the drink machine, Ichigo had already tugged on her arm and pulled her away.
"Let me go, Ichigo!" Her voice made Ichigo slam a finger into his ear, wincing.
The boy turned around, and yelled into her face. "You're being annoying, and now I'm late! What's your problem, woman? You can come back to the neoprint machine anytime you want to, okay?"
"A neoprint machine?" Rukia's eyes rounded. Is that what it was?
Oh shit, Ichigo thought with horror. Now what stupid monster had jumped into his mouth and possessed him to say that, he had no idea.
Rukia turned in her heels, and began flying at top speed towards the pink box. So it wasn't a drink machine, she thought with joy as she examined the drink-machine-lookalike once more. Ichigo was groaning behind something along the lines of 'GAAAAH' and burying his face in his hands. He was ready to wring Rukia's neck if he had to.
"Ruki--"
"Ichigo, let's try it!" She was bouncing on her feet, and leaping into the neoprint machine.
"WHAT? No way! Get your puny ass out of here, woman!" Ichigo shouted. Nope, she didn't seem to have heard him. No one came out of the pink box. Damn. "Rukia!" Running a hand through his hair frustratedly, Ichigo charged into the neoprint machine and prepared to drag the girl out...
...only to have a fist slamming in the side of his jaw.
"Ittai! What the hell was that for, Rukia!"
"My ass is not puny, Ichigo!" Another punch which would have made contact with Ichigo's left cheek had he not dodged in time. He caught her hand in his fist, and glared down at her.
"Whatever, Rukia--"
She was already dropping coins and coins into the neoprint machine gleefully.
"Rukia..." Ichigo ruffled his hair until it was a messy chunk of orange. Jeez, she was so damn troublesome!
Instantly, when she had popped enough coins into the neoprint machine, a squeaky voice spoke, instructing Rukia what had to be done in order to operate the machine.
"Ichigo, you never told me there were neoprint machines here!"
"...You never asked." Ichigo rolled his eyes. What was that sissy music playing in the background that sounded like his little sister singing? ...Dammit. He could already have been home instead of here playing with some stupid machine. He looked down at Rukia, who was busily pressing some things away on the control panel. She looked like...She looked like she didn't know what the heck she was doing.
"On the count of three--" A voice came out of nowhere.
Ichigo turned around, senses alert. What the hell was that!
Rukia looked at him with wide eyes that registered more glee than shock.
"What the heck did you do, Rukia!" He demanded.
"I just pressed a few buttons here and there and--" She tried to explain.
"Three...two..." The voice continued to boom in the large pink box. Rukia now looked frantic as she turned around to trace the source of the voice and just what it was counting down for. Ichigo, by then, had his face in his arms. Rukia noted in time that Ichigo's face was really, really red.
"Rukia..." His tone was dangerous.
"ONE!"
Lights flashed so brightly all of a sudden that Ichigo went temporarily blind, his lips parting slightly in what-on-earth-is-going-on look of his, and Rukia's eyebrows both high up on her forehead in a confused look.
And a click, snap!
...What?
"Ichigo, look at this!" Rukia pointed to the control panel, where a picture was beginning to form in colors and shapes. It was a picture of them - in their utterly confused states. Ichigo slammed his fists down at the control panel, causing Rukia to kick him in the shins. "This is so...so ugly!"
"You're not making things any better!" Rukia threw his complaint back at him, and before he could yell at her to stop-kicking-me-in-the-shins-anything-but-the-shins again, lights blinded them once more in its scintillating, rapidly flashing manner. Ichigo held his hands to his face. Stupid machine! It was not going to take his face at all! Hah, fat hope.
"Three...two..." Funny pink box counting down.
Then Ichigo was aware of something leaping onto him, throwing him off-balance entirely as his hands came down to reveal his caught off-guard face.
"One!"
And the neoprint machine snapped a picture of Rukia and him falling in a heap, onto the ground. Her, in his arms.
"Rukia, what the hell was that for!" Noticed the close proximity between him and her. Thought bad, bad thoughts. No, no, Ichigo, bad! Face reddened, ears warming. Cheeks flushed. Bloody stupid heartbeat that went erratic.
"You kicked me, you bastard!" Shaking fist.
"And why would I kick you for, you idiot!" Looked away. Stupid dangerous thoughts that included Rukia and him and alot of funny things.
He was getting out of here.
"Three, two--"
As Rukia tried to distangle her limbs from his, only to stumble into his arms again, he was aware of the lights that flashed in his vision.
Click, whizz, snap!
This time, a picture of him atop of Rukia.
And Ichigo hated neoprint machines forever.
-
When they had finally stepped out of the funny pink box (Ichigo had cursed it to hell two-hundred and twenty-five times) having fully decorated their neoprints - Rukia had insisted inserting many many rabbit cliparts onto it, Ichigo was hungry, angry, tired, and mostly, red.
Dammit, he was never going to do this again. Rukia and her curiosity equalled dangerous with a capital D. So Ichigo walked out of the pink box, hands in his pockets, refusing Rukia's look. Besides, she was too absorbed with the neoprint she was holding in her hands, anyway, as she skipped alongside his side.
"This is so fun! We should do this more often, Ichigo!"
"No. Never." Was his blunt, short answer.
"Not like I asked you!"
"You just did." He pointed out.
She glared at him, before shoving the neoprint in his chest. Then she was skipping off into the distance again, humming a tune under her breath. Ichigo could only roll his eyes as his gaze eventually fell onto the neoprint stickers they had taken just a few moments prior.
He flushed red at the first one. Stupid candid shot of him atop of Rukia. With alot of rabbit cliparts around it, and the text 'PERVERT' (she had written it apparently with thick yellow ink) on it. Ichigo's eyebrows knitted. That...that imp!
His eyes moved to the second one. Yeah yeah, the heat never let up. It was another picture, not candid this time, where Rukia had embraced him from behind with a smile on her face, and her two fingers held out in a twist. A soft smile touched Ichigo's lips. He looked like crap in that neoprint, but Rukia did looked...Rukia.
The third one was...weird. Ichigo scratched his head. He couldn't recall when the hell it was taken. He had gone and pulled Rukia by her scarf in the neoprint, and she looked ready to wham a fist in his face anytime. Did that happen? They did that so often, he couldn't really remember. Oh well. Again, there were alot of rabbit cliparts decorated as borders around the neoprint.
The last...
Ichigo coughed, reddened, and slid the neoprint into his pocket.
Eh, nope. He didn't see anything. He didn't see anything. He didn't see anything.
Jeez...
His fingers twitched, and before he knew it, he was pulling out to look at the final neoprint again.
Just a simple picture. Considered normal, even, by others' standards.
A picture of him and her, just like this. With his arms around her (after Rukia had finally pleaded him to take a normal picture of them just once), and her palms resting neatly on his chest. He scowled at the camera, but she was smiling that Rukiasque smile of hers that always made his heart flip over.
Ichigo may had scowled in that neoprint, but now, he was looking at it, smiling.
Apart from the usual overexcessive use of rabbit cliparts around the neoprint, his eyes didn't miss the little small heart Rukia had added in a corner.
Feh, troublesome girl...
He slid the neoprint into his pockets, and looked up to Rukia, who was still blissfully skipping away.
"Oi!" He called out to her. But already, his footsteps were carrying him ahead to where she was.
"Hurry up, you idiot!" Rukia shouted.
Ichigo resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and prepared himself for a kick in the shin when he caught up with her.
Stupid ugly pink box machine that deserve to burn, he thought along the way...
...and then fingered the neoprints in his pockets once more.
Ichigo knew he was never the best liar, anyway.
owari