Baby Rusk

Empty.

Just like she had presumed. There was no one insight and not even a sound was heard. A small smile crept to her face. If she was going to do this, she had to do it as quick as possible. Also, she must be as quiet as a mouse.

She tiptoed to the hallway and then stop abruptly. She scouted around her. Her sight and hearing suddenly sharpen by hundred percent, if it was possible. As nothing registered to her senses, she jumped down the stairs, careful enough not to hurt herself or making any noises.

Rukia was turning to a ninja or a spy on a mission, in her own home.

The mission that she required to complete was located at the kitchen, which was about five meters from where she was hiding, behind the staircase. Stealth was not a problem as she was quite good in it. The big question for this mission was the other person that had the could always detect her presence no matter what. Rukia neither know nor understand how that man detected her. As if she had a beacon or something. She had to be extra careful and better ninja if she ever wanted to complete today's mission.

She checked out her surrounding once again. Then, after her guts gave the green light for her body to move, Rukia swiftly moved to the kitchen. Within a blink of an eye, she was where she needed to be.

There, in front of her, on the table, sat a lone air-tight food container. Her target. Rukia inspected the surrounding, looking for any booby traps or anything that could notify anyone of her presence at the kitchen.

The coast was clear. Nothing strange or out of place. With a wide grin that could put Ichimaru Gin's to shame, she walked towards her target; the square, pastel-blue, air-tight food container.

Rukia easily popped the lid off. There, inside it was the most treasured item was gleaming. She felt her heartbeats increased by each seconds her eyes and sense of smell feasted on that cream coloured biscuits. The smell of it so intoxicating; sweet and milky-ish. Her stomach grumbled. Oh, she needed one of these, right now!

She took one of the two-inches in diameter, circle morsels. Her eyes gleamed with happiness as she brought it closer to her face. The usual ceremony of appreciating the biscuit consisted of taking a deep breath of the biscuit's aroma, adoring each and very crumbles and last but not least, licking her now-dried-up lips.

Her jaw dropped slightly as she brought the biscuit into her mouth. She bit down and the food disintegrated as soon as it came in contact with saliva. Rukia savoured the subtle flavour of milk coming from the treasured food item. She took another bite.

"RUKIA! What are you doing!?"

Her brain went to overdrive. Panicking. God, she was caught!

She shoved the remaining of the baked good into her mouth, chewed quickly and forcibly swallowed it.

"Are you eating the biscuit again?"

Rukia turned. There was no point of denying it or even tried to hide it. She was still hugging the biscuit's container and also that guy always knew.

"But I bought it!" Rukia replied, trying to back herself up. "And I only ate one. There are still a lot of them."

One of Ichigo's eyebrows shot upwards.

"One just now. I had another two pieces in the morning" Rukia answered.

The strawberry blond sighed. He had told her many times not to eat the biscuit. But she liked... no, she loved them so much.

"It's Ryuu's teething biscuit. It's for the baby! Not the mother." Ichigo replied as he grabbed a hold of the biscuit's container. He had said this many times before but his wife refused to listen to him.

"But... but!"

"No buts. This is not for you." With that, he took the container, put the lid back on and stored it on one of the tall shelves, somewhere he knew she couldn't reach.

"Ichigo you're mean!" Rukia scoffed with her arms folded across her chest.

"Rukia. It's baby rusk. BABY. Not children. Not teenagers. Not adults and definitely not for an old woman like you," and for that stupid statement that came rolling out from Ichigo, she gave him a painful kick at his shin.

Kurosaki Rukia stomped away, leaving her husband suffering all alone in the kitchen. She hated him. Why couldn't he understand her unique love for that baby's food? It wasn't like she was going to finish the whole box of two dozen pieces at one sitting. She was just having two... three… okay, four pieces a day. But this only happened when she was feeling hungry, after breastfed her one-year old boy.

She liked the biscuit. It was sort of addicting, especially its subtle milk flavour and the way they melted in her mouth. She usually nibbled it as she doing her work (and please read that as doodling picture of her son with rabbits in her sketch book). That mean husband of hers…

Her stomach grumbled again. Rukia then decided to sleep off the bitter feeling of disappointment due to fail attempt to enjoy baby's rusk. As she laid beside her sleeping son, her brain was already making plans. She would try again to steal the teething biscuits when he's out.

.

.

.

When Rukia woke up from her nap, the first thing that entered her mind was how cute her son would be, and also Ichigo would be very pissed, if she dressed him in a Chappy overall that also came with a pair of bunny's ear on its head cover. Kurosaki Ryuu was still sleeping soundly beside her. Rukia ran her fingers in his raven, messy hair. Two distinct features that he inherited from his parents. Her little bundle of joy, the love of her life.

Suddenly, her eyes noticed something on the nightstand beside Ryuu. An orange-white box with a brown teddy bear. A green sign with a white and blue writing decorated half the box. There was also a couple of very familiar looking biscuit in the picture. It was a big box of baby's rusk, original flavour. Her favourite.

She got out of the bed to inspect the box. Was she dreaming? Rukia took it. It felt real enough. She opened the flap. Inside there was a small note stuck between three packages of baby's rusks.

'Midget, this is yours. Don't go and steal our son's. Enjoy! –Ichigo'

Now, how could not her love towards this yummy, round, milky biscuits increase? This one tasted like a thousand times better. Rukia couldn't contain her excitement as she popped one into her mouth, enjoying the taste as it slowly melted in her mouth.

She was too oblivious towards her surrounding to notice her Ichigo hiding behind the bedroom door, watching the happiness radiating from her. Ichigo chuckled. As long as she's happy, Ichigo thought as he took a bite of a baby rusk he took from a certain air-tight food container, on one of the high shelves at the kitchen. He also started to like this baby's food.


A/N: Anyone else out there that like Farley's Baby Rusk? *munching on one*