Strawberry Ice-cream
Author's Note: This is my first attempt at shounen ai. Please give some feedback about it. I accept flames and constructive criticisms. I got my inspiration from drawing a picture of Hitsugaya eating ice-cream. Then I twisted it and it became a fanfic in the end. XD
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for the plot. This takes place during Bleach 116, at night, and after Hitsugaya and Matsumoto went to stay at Orihime's, but before the fight with Shawlong and the other Arrancars.
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The familiar cry sounded throughout Karakura City that night. The ever vigilant Chappy-lover slid the door to the closet open and jumped out of her bed, landing on the floor with a soft thud. She picked up her slipper and tossed it at the sleeping orange-haired shinigami substitute to wake him up. She didn't want to alert the rest of Ichigo's family so she decided not to yell and scream at him. However, the slipper method didn't seem to work so she edged closer to him and gave him a kick on his back which was facing her. "Ichigo!" Rukia spoke in a loud whisper. "Ichigo!"
"…Five more minutes, Mom…" She heard him mumble before he pulled the blanket over his head to block out the noise.
"Dammit…" Rukia cursed under her breath as she checked her mobile phone for the hollow's position. The signal beeped for a while before it died down, and the indication of the hollow faded away. "That's strange…" Rukia mumbled, folding back her phone. "Maybe Renji or someone else disposed of the hollow before I could even get there…Oh well," Rukia shrugged as she walked back calmly to her 'room', closing the door in the process.
＜ブリーチ＞
Hitsugaya Toushirou hopped from roof to roof as he tried looking for the way back to Orihime's rooftop. Sheathing Hyourinmaru, the latter sighed as his mind trailed back to when his mobile started beeping. That lazy buxom strawberry blonde of a fukutaichou was too busy eating with the orange-haired ryoka girl to even pay attention to the incoming reiatsu clearly belonging to a hollow, so Hitsugaya got stuck with the eliminating job. Again.
As the faint moon glow shone upon his figure, leaving a trail of his silhouette following him, Hitsugaya finally reached where he left his gigai and slipped into it, spitting the rikongan out. He lied down on the tiles of the roof, ready to succumb into a well-earned good night's sleep when he heard two simultaneous squeals for joy as they dug into their food that Orihime had specially prepared. At first, Hitsugaya wanted to block out the insane noise by trying to get to sleep, but as time passed by, he felt himself getting hungrier and hungrier to the extent that his stomach growled. Blushing a little out of embarrassment, he could hear Hyourinmaru's amused chuckle at the back of his head.
"What're you laughing at?" Hitsugaya scowled.
"At the fact that you're actually feeling hungry," Hyourinmaru replied truthfully.
"Shut up, Hyourinmaru. It's no surprise since I didn't have anything to eat since…" Hitsugaya blinked twice in rapid motion as soon as he realized when the last time he actually had a good meal. "…since…last week…" he mumbled the last bit under his breath, but the dragon heard it all the same, triggering another light-hearted chuckle from the dragon. "Perhaps I should eat something…"
"How about those candies Ukitake gave you?" Hyourinmaru suggested wrongly.
"Eww. No." Hitsugaya made a disgusted look as he opposed to the idea. "I might just throw up from the high sugar level."
"You haven't even tried them. How do you even know they're too sweet for you?"
"From the word 'sweets', Hyourinmaru. Obviously, if they weren't sweet, why else would they be called 'sweets'?" Hitsugaya stated the fact.
"Let's try something else then." Hyourinmaru paused to think up a list of food to suggest to the young captain. Humming a little tune as he did so, Hyourinmaru finally found something. "Ah. How about some human food? After all, it's been quite some time since you came to the material world. Why don't you try out their style of food? It could be quite informative."
"Hmm…What do you suggest?"
"…I think I heard something about stir-fried fish."
"I hate fish."
"…How about chicken wings?"
"Yuck."
"Mashed potatoes?"
"I'm not a potato fan, Hyourinmaru."
"Duck rice?"
"No."
"Sushi?"
"I practically eat that every day in Soul Society."
"Sashimi?"
"And that too."
"Ah, I know, how about-?"
Hitsugaya was unwilling to let his zanpakutou speak any further. "No."
Hyourinmaru got quite put off by Hitsugaya's sudden rudeness. "I haven't even finished-"
"I already know that whatever you're going to suggest is not going to be very palatable."
"All I wanted to say is for you to just try out some ice-cream."
That got Hitsugaya's attention going. "Ice-cream? What's that?" Hitsugaya enquired inquisitively.
"Well…you'll have to try it out for yourself to find out," Hyourinmaru cooed childishly, unwilling to let out the meaning behind the magic word 'ice-cream'.
"…Do humans squeeze the cream out of the ice to make that?"
Hyourinmaru could've sword he felt his stomach curling at the suggested thought. "Where on earth did you get that idea?"
"From the word 'ice-cream'. Hyourinmaru, how the hell can you suggest something that is harmful to ice?!" Hitsugaya exclaimed.
"We don't even know whether it's harmful to ice or not. I was just suggesting some food!" Hyourinmaru protested. "Maybe you could ask some of your human friends what ice-cream is."
"I don't have any human friends. I practically have very few friends in Soul Society, let alone in the human world," Hitsugaya scoffed.
"There's Inoue."
Uh-oh. Hyourinmaru's weird suggestions again…
"She's busy with that lazy butt down there," Hitsugaya stated simply.
"That big burly Mexican boy?"
"I have no idea where the hell he even lives."
"The Quincy boy?"
"What kind of suggestion is that?!"
"...That shinigami substitute? You know, that orange-haired kid?"
Hitsugaya blinked. "Oh. You mean Kurosaki with the hellish reiatsu. I don't even count him as a comrade, Hyourinmaru."
"But he's the only human left on the list. This could be a good chance for you two to have some interaction or something."
And Hitsugaya Toushirou was left in his own world to think about it.
"…Oh come on, don't sacrifice your poor innocent stomach over this."
The hungry white-haired captain immediately ran to Ichigo's house.
＜ブリーチ＞
Hitsugaya somehow managed to find a way to climb up to Ichigo's window where he sat earlier on that day. He opened it quietly so as to not stir the orange-haired boy awake. As he tried stepping across the sleeping Ichigo, he stopped as he stretched his thin and stumpy leg out. His eyes had trailed down to Ichigo's sleeping figure. The durian-like hair was sticking out from underneath the blanket and Hitsugaya could hear his soft breathing as he slept. It was so calm and so peaceful. Feeling something rather warm creep up to his face, Hitsugaya shook his head rapidly to get rid of the strange feeling. 'Damn…This isn't the first time I've been feeling like this, but it's somehow stronger than all the other times…' Hitsugaya thought, reminiscing about the times he had felt something familiar to what he had been feeling before as he tried stepping across Ichigo's bed again.
The first time was when he heard that the orange-haired shinigami was part of the ryoka who had infiltrated Seireitei and injured Jidanbou, the one he had taught the city rules to. He was quite concerned about Jidanbou so he decided to pay him a little visit before the captain meeting commenced. To his utmost surprise, he found the giant standing there like he always does every single day, totally unharmed. When he asked him about what had happened earlier on, all the giant did was grin and said, "A very powerful person beat me to it, literally." As soon as Hitsugaya heard that one single sentence about one single person who was so daring enough to challenge Jidanbou, Hitsugaya began to admire whoever that person was for his bravery. Soon, during the captain's meeting about the ryoka invasion, he put two and two together and concluded that the person was the ryoka. The admiration had turned into curiosity…and something else.
The second time was when he learnt about that very same person's bold rescue planned out for Kuchiki Rukia. Apparently, that person had accomplished bankai just to have enough power in order to save Rukia. Hitsugaya felt that it was quite a pity he was too busy with figuring out the reason behind Aizen's (fake) letter to Hinamori at that time, otherwise he'd be able to meet that person face to face. Upon hearing that he managed to save Rukia, however, Hitsugaya couldn't help but feel a slight tugging at his heart…
Hitsugaya shook his head, trying to get the weird memories and feelings out of his head. Since when was he someone who clung onto the past? When he got to the other side of the bed, he tip-toed downstairs to the kitchen, not wanting to wake the strawberry boy up and ask him a stupid question like 'what is ice-cream'. Hitsugaya Toushirou would find out for himself. He didn't need any help at all, period. When he got to the kitchen, he walked up to the fridge, again assuming that ice-cream was kept there due to the word 'ice', and opened the door to the fridge. He looked around and a tub or a box of some kind caught his eye. Blinking in confusion, he took it with both hands and closed the fridge. The words on the box read:
おいしい イチゴ アイスクリーム！！！
Oishii Ichigo Aisukuriimu!!!
Hitsugaya Toushirou blinked.
…Delicious strawberry ice-cream?
＜ブリーチ＞
Kurosaki Ichigo stirred awake as he felt his stomach grumbling in hunger. Sitting up on his bed, he stretched his lazy muscles and scratched his back. He got off the bed, careful to not wake Rukia up. He looked at the clock hanging on the wall. It read 10 pm. Ichigo sighed. His lunatic of a father had gone out and still hadn't returned. Oh well, it wasn't his business anyway, Ichigo figured. He walked down the stairs into the kitchen. He opened the fridge door and looked around for something to eat.
There were chocolate bars and other kinds of sweet cavities that were meant for Rukia and Yuzu. Karin had her favorite snacks bundled up in one corner and wrapped up in a plastic bag with black marker ink clearly labeling the bag with the words screaming 'Karin's Property!' Ichigo decided not to touch anything belonging to his younger sister as his eyes traveled up to look for ice-cream instead. He blinked. 'That's odd…' Ichigo looked here and there again.
…Where was that tub of strawberry ice-cream he just bought yesterday?
Then he heard it. A metallic clang of a spoon against something hard. Ichigo spun around, expecting to see his crazy father eating the ice-cream but no one was there. At least, that was his initial thought before hearing the sound again, this time with someone licking, possibly, the spoon clean. He crept over to the toilet and pressed his ear against it. Sure enough, the noise was louder. There was someone in the bathroom.
Kurosaki Ichigo kicked the door open with a bang, only to find a startled Hitsugaya Toushirou helping himself to another scoop of heavenly strawberry ice-cream.
＜ブリーチ＞
Rukia slid the door of the closet open, having this desire to eat something that would fill her stomach. (A/N: Why am I making so many people hungry?! XD) She walked over to Ichigo's bed, her eyelids half-closed since she was still sleepy. Her eyes widened only when she found Ichigo missing. "…Ichigo?" she asked, hoping that the idiot of a strawberry was playing a trick on her, making her feel worried for no apparent reason. However, he wasn't. "Ichigo!" Rukia called, looking around in a panicked manner. Only when she heard his familiar voice exclaiming something did she decide to check downstairs and look for him.
＜ブリーチ＞
"T-T-T-TOUSHIROU?!" Ichigo exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at the white-haired captain who just wanted some peace and quiet to enjoy his ice-cream. Well, it wasn't his, anyway. "So you were the one who raided my fridge…" Ichigo mumbled softly, but loud enough for the embarrassed Hitsugaya to hear.
Blushing madly, Hitsugaya turned away, trying to focus on the goodness of the ice-cream. "Tell anyone about this and you're DEAD, Kurosaki…" Hitsugaya warned, his voice firm but waning. "Close the door, dammit!" Hitsugaya exclaimed in an ashamed tone. Ichigo just did what he said and edged closer to Hitsugaya, not really believing what he was seeing. As soon as he noticed the weird stare, Hitsugaya asked, "What're you staring at, Kurosaki?" He then took another small bite from the ice-cream.
"Um…May I ask…" Hitsugaya blinked from the pleasant but uneasy tone. Since when was Ichigo polite? "…where the hell did you hide the real Toushirou?"
Hitsugaya felt really insulted. He gave Ichigo a kick in the stomach, causing the orange-haired shinigami to fall flat on his butt, and scooped up a huge scoop of ice-cream from the tub, tossing the scoop towards an unsuspecting Ichigo. The ice-cream hit his face with a splat, and the orange strawberry was soon covered with strawberry ice-cream. "You baka," Hitsugaya spat, trying to control his anger. "I'm Toushirou! I mean, Hitsugaya-taichou!" Hitsugaya hastily corrected, suppressing his embarrassment by gulping down another scoop of ice-cream. The tub was already nearly void of ice-cream. Scratch that. A few more scoops and Hitsugaya would've been the reason why an entire tub full of ice-cream could vanish overnight.
Wiping the melting ice-cream off his face, Ichigo found his voice to speak. "But…but…I thought you hated sweet stuff! How come you're eating ice-cream in the middle of the night? And how did you enter my house anyway?!"
"I was hungry, Kurosaki, and I didn't want to wake you up so I helped myself to some ice-cream," Hitsugaya simply stated, taking another scoop of ice-cream.
Ichigo snatched the tub of ice-cream and held it upside-down to exaggerate matters. "Some ice-cream? Toushirou, you practically finished the entire thing, damn it!"
"Give me that," Hitsugaya scowled, trying to snatch the box back.
"Hell no, unless you give me back all the ice-cream you just ate!" Ichigo demanded, pointing at Hitsugaya's stomach.
Hitsugaya blushed and folded his arms. "H-how can I, Kurosaki?! Like you said, I ate it! You want it, you're going to have to open up my stomach and take it out!" At that, Hitsugaya nearly threw up at the twisted suggestion and so did Ichigo. The sugar level must be messing up his brain…He could practically hear Hyourinmaru laughing at him crazily.
"No way in hell am I gonna do that to you, Toushirou," Ichigo's tone of voice had become softer and much more concerned.
Hitsugaya didn't mind the change. "You got any other bright ideas, then?" he challenged, taking the chance to swipe the box and take the second last scoop of ice-cream.
"Oh yeah…" Hitsugaya heard Ichigo whisper in his ear. He felt the warmth from Ichigo's hand brush against the back of his neck, sending weird but nice tingles up his spine. "Yeah I do…" Ichigo whispered again as he held Hitsugaya's chin to his own chin level. Hitsugaya felt his heart thumping against his chest. His usually low body temperature was rising very considerably. It was that strange feeling again. Ichigo brought Hitsugaya's face closer to his, finding himself staring into those beautiful emeralds Hitsugaya had for eyes. Oh, such beautiful and tempting jewels, indeed! Ichigo just couldn't resist them. In fact, he silently admitted, he had fallen prey to those dazzling eyes; he had totally lost his willpower just by laying his own seemingly dull and lifeless eyes on them.
It was particularly one of the reasons why he fell for the icy captain, after all.
Ichigo let go of Hitsugaya's chin, only to realize that the captain must've had such a shock that he fell backwards once Ichigo's grip was released. Ichigo held Hitsugaya back up to support the stunned white-haired child. Hitsugaya himself didn't understand why he felt so weak. One moment he was staring into Ichigo's delicious chocolate brown eyes, and the next, he was staring at the plain and dull white ceiling of the bathroom, and then back again, it was Ichigo's eyes. "Ichigo…" Hitsugaya whispered, not realizing that he had just called Ichigo by his given name.
Ichigo didn't seem to realize it either. He must've been too caught up in admiring the beauty of Hitsugaya Toushirou and his equally beautiful eyes. Ichigo placed a finger on Hitsugaya's lips, hushing the icy captain. "Don't speak, Toushirou. I don't want you to lose the flavor of my ice-cream just yet." Without any other warning, Ichigo leaned in and gave the 10th Division captain a kiss on the lips. Hitsugaya just gave his will to Ichigo and fell limp. Even Hyourinmaru wasn't saying anything to interrupt the two. Their tongues interlocked with each other, and Ichigo could taste the flavor of the strawberry ice-cream. The familiar tingling sensations overwhelmed their bodies as they hugged each other, their passionate kiss not breaking off. They had stayed in that position for a good five minutes before Ichigo lost his breath.
Sensing his breathlessness, Hitsugaya broke the kiss. Both of them took a while to take in sufficient oxygen before Hitsugaya whispered an audible 'Wow…'
Ichigo smiled sheepishly, his cheeks lighting up with a tinge of pink. He moved closer to Hitsugaya and gave him a short peck on the lips again. "Well, Toushirou, I told you I had a better idea of how to get my ice-cream back."
Hitsugaya's lips curled to a smug smirk. "You didn't tell me anything, Kurosaki."
The only thing that interrupted their sweet moment together was the voice of Rukia calling Ichigo's name incessantly. Upon hearing Rukia's voice, Ichigo sighed sadly. "Sorry, Toushirou…but Rukia's calling me."
Hitsugaya felt that tug at his heart again but he didn't want to show it. "I understand…Kurosaki."
"Will I get to see you again?" Ichigo asked with hope burning in his eyes.
Hitsugaya gave him a faint smile. "Only when my duties permit it, Kurosaki."
To bid their farewells, Ichigo leaned in to give Hitsugaya another short kiss before turning and leaving the bathroom. Hitsugaya smiled sadly, and left the Kurosaki household by the window in the bathroom.
＜ブリーチ＞
"Where were you, Ichigo?!" Rukia scolded when she caught sight of Ichigo walking up the staircase all of a sudden.
When Ichigo gave her a surprise by smiling warmly, he replied, "Oh it's nothing. Just…having some ice-cream."
Rukia looked at the open door of the bathroom, arching an eyebrow. "In the bathroom?"
"What's it to you?" Ichigo snapped, not wanting Rukia to find out his secret. "Anyway, why were you looking for me?"
"Oh, at first, I was pretty hungry, but then you dad came home and…" Rukia shifted her feet. "Well, um…Just come with me upstairs and have a look."
Rukia then walked up the staircase to Yuzu's room. Ichigo was about to follow her when he suddenly remembered that there was one last scoop of ice-cream in the tub. He tip-toed back into the bathroom to clean up the mess and looking down at the final scoop, he couldn't help but pick up the spoon that Hitsugaya used and scoop the ice-cream up. Slowly putting the spoon in his mouth, Ichigo smiled as he calmly ate the scoop of ice-cream.
It…was the sweetest ice-cream scoop…he ever had…
…Even Shirosaki Hichigo had to agree that the kid was just simply delicious.
＜ブリーチ＞
Hitsugaya sighed a contented sigh as he rested upon the tiles of Orihime's rooftop. He had been gone for about half an hour, and it was a wonderful half an hour without the interruption from his annoying fukutaichou. Thoughts and memories about the literally sweet kiss filled his head. His mind then trailed back to when he was looking for the ice-cream to taste. He then remembered that there were two other tubs of ice-cream other than the strawberry-flavored ice-cream for him to freely choose from. One was a peach-flavored ice-cream and the other was chrysanthemum tea-flavored ice-cream. Hitsugaya tensed up.
Why strawberry ice-cream and not either of the other two?
The peach ice-cream would personally be his favorite flavor if he were to eat ice-cream every day. It was sweet and with just one bite, one could just taste the goodness of the ice-cream. Peach ice-cream looked innocent at sight and sweet on the inside. Why hadn't he chosen that flavor?
Then he moved on to the chrysanthemum tea-flavored ice-cream. He enjoyed drinking chrysanthemum tea, to be frank, because he didn't like to drink anything else. Milk was deemed too childish for him and sake was definitely out of the question. Humans had actually created chrysanthemum tea-flavored ice-cream. Wouldn't he be the first one so eager as to just try it out when he was at Kurosaki's?
And soon, realization dawned upon him. He smiled a little.
He knew why.
Peach ice-cream might be sweet and innocent, but after taking too much of it, one could get quite sick of it. The more one ate peach ice-cream, the more tasteless it would get. Either that, or the taste would get too strong for one to handle. Chrysanthemum tea ice-cream was too bland for his taste anyway. If he were to choose to live on only one flavor of ice-cream, he would lose his sense of taste if he were to choose chrysanthemum tea-ice cream. Or worse, he might just go bonkers if he were to live only on that kind of ice-cream.
However...Strawberry ice-cream…was perfect.
It was sweet, and the taste would linger on forever. It gave a very lasting impression. The more one ate, the more one would want some more and more strawberry ice-cream. It was one of the three most popular flavors with vanilla and chocolate. Strawberry ice-cream never tasted bland, and neither did it lose its taste over gradual time. It could be deemed the best ice-cream in the world, if he had a choice.
Yes…That was why.
As Hitsugaya Toushirou heard the two girls squealing in delight over the ice-cream they were feasting on, he closed his eyes silently, letting the moonbeam shine on him as he remembered the ever-so sweet succulent taste of perfect strawberry ice-cream.
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A/N: So what do you think? That's my first go at shounen ai/yaoi, whichever you prefer to call it. By the way, do any of you get the meaning behind the comparison between the three different flavors of ice-cream? (smiles hopefully) Well? Do you? And if you're wondering, I made up chrysanthemum tea-flavored ice-cream. I don't know if there's even such a flavor. I just made it up for the sake of the comparison. (grins sheepishly) And I do know for a fact that eating ice-cream on an empty stomach is bad for health. XD
And those paragraphs on Hitsugaya thinking about his feelings towards Ichigo…Well, I'm planning to do a short fic on that with two different versions. One through Hitsugaya's perspective and the other through Ichigo's perspective.
By the way, I really ate momo (peach) ice-cream before. The more I ate, the more I can't taste it anymore and so, the more I felt like throwing up. I left all the rest of the ice-cream scoop (yes, one scoop) for my aunt to eat. XD
That'll be all. (smiles) I hope you've enjoyed Strawberry Ice-cream! Ja ne!
Reflect the truth of which you see
Tsuki-no-Kurokage