Author's Note: This is the first in a series of one-shots that I've challenged myself to write focusing on love, lust, and food in the Bleach universe. Each chapter will feature one pairing. Most entries will be canon, although a few may stretch the universe a bit. All, for now, are rated "T", but I reserve the right to change the rating if the mood (*squirms slightly*) strikes me.

These one-shots were inspired by a show I listened to about "Gastrosexuals," which is defined in Urban Dictionary as, "Men who use their culinary skills to impress their friends and potential love interests." I have expanded that definition to include women, as well.

Feel free to suggest foods and/or pairings you'd like to see, and I'll do my best to incorporate your suggestions into future chapters. Enjoy!-Lex

Chapter One: I Scream For Ice Cream (IchiRuki)

She was upstairs in the closet, sleeping. He was downstairs in the kitchen, still wondering why Isshin had taken the girls and left him alone. Well, sort of wondering.

"Dirty old man," he thought. "As if I don't know what you're up to."

Three hollows in the past few weeks and both of them were becoming complacent. The war had been over for a year, school was out. She had insisted on moving back into the closet while the girls were gone; he hadn't slept in three days, worried he might do something in his sleep he'd regret. Like opening the closet door…

They hadn't even kissed, although there had been the time when she tripped over a pile of dirty laundry on his floor and he had caught her before she fell.

"You are a pig, Ichigo," she said, as she looked up into his face, just inches away. Her cheeks were slightly pink, and he nearly dropped her on the floor. "You do not know how to keep your room clean when Yuzu isn't around to pick up after you."

"I…" he stammered, painfully aware of how close his mouth was to hers. He could see the tiny gold flecks in her violet eyes. He had never noticed before how they sparkled in the sunlight.

"Baka," she said, pulling away from him and pulling out her phone, hoping there'd be something else on the screen but a lone text message from Renji, still in the Soul Society.

He stooped down and picked up the clothes, tossing them into the hamper he had missed last night. He turned back to say something to her, but she had jumped out the window and up onto the roof.

"Idiot," he said to himself.

Then there was the time he nearly ran into her in the hallway, dressed only in a towel, her hair wet. She looked like a drowned rat. A very tempting, delicious drowned rat…

"Stupid," he said to himself, shaking the image from his brain. "You're going to make yourself crazy."

Yuzu had left her favorite cookbook on the counter.

"Boys need to learn how to cook, too," she said, wagging her finger at him.

Karin glared at the two of them and grunted. "He's hopeless, Yuzu. The only way he can cook rice is in a machine," she said, throwing down the gauntlet.

From that day on, when he was around, he watched Yuzu cook when he thought she wasn't been looking. He'd never told anyone, but he actually tried cooking a few dishes at Chad's apartment with some success– Chad having been sworn to the utmost secrecy.

"Breathe a word of this to anyone," Ichigo told him, "and I'll personally kick your ass into Hueco Mundo." He had only been half-joking.

He took the cookbook and set it down on the table. It opened of its own accord to a page out of which stuck a piece of paper with a border printed in teddy bears and hearts. On the paper was a handwritten note in Yuzu's still-childish print:

Ichi-nii,

Carpe diem. The way to a girl's heart is through her stomach. Dad's a letch, but he's right.

Yuzu

PS: I know you've been watching me cook, so don't even try to play innocent with me!

Ichigo blinked. That was his Yuzu? Sweet little, innocent…well, she was in high school now, he thought, sheepishly. He didn't want to think about what that might mean. His sisters were no longer the little kids who were only interested in soccer and teddy bears. And, come to think of it, he had seen Jinta leaving the clinic several times in the last month. He looked down at his hand and realized he had unconsciously ripped the note in half.

"I'll kill that brat if he comes anywhere near my sisters," he thought, laying what was left of the note on the kitchen table.

He looked back at the cookbook. 'One Pound Caramel Ice-Cream'. And, on the counter, the electric ice cream maker Yuzu had gotten as a birthday present, along with a bag full of wrapped caramel candies. He smiled.

"No one needs to know I made the stuff myself," he thought, picking up the candies and beginning to unwrap them.

A pint of heavy cream, three eggs, a half-pound of sugar, a pound of caramel and an hour later, he watched the creamy concoction swirl around the machine. Bands of thick, white custard mixed with the heavy caramel sauce in dizzying bands of tan and brown. He stopped the machine and dipped his finger in. He'd never tasted anything so rich.

He smiled. A mischievous smile, half bad little-boy, half hormone-imbued man.

He reached for a small bowl and spooned out some of the ice cream. It wouldn't take much, he knew. Just a little bit…

********************************

She was lying on the bed in the closet, trying to decide if she should shed her gigai and head to Urahara's to train. Another day without a hollow. She yawned.

The door to the closet slid open, and she sat up abruptly, hands folded over her chest in protest.

"You are supposed to knock."

He said nothing, but grinning annoyingly.

"What is wrong with you, Ichigo?" she said, irritated now.

Again he said nothing, but this time, as she began to speak, he withdrew a spoonful of ice cream from the bowl behind his back and unceremoniously stuck the spoon, upside-down, into her open mouth. Then, slowly, he pulled the now-empty spoon from between her lips and watched her with interest.

For a moment, she did not speak, overcome by the sensation of creamy sweetness which caressed her tongue. Then, she began to round on him, trying to come up with just the right insult for the situation.

And, again, he put a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. "A spoonful of heaven," she thought, wondering why she had never tasted anything so incredibly…sinful… before.

She sat, speechless, on the small bed, her mind a jumble of acid retorts and goo. She couldn't think. All she could do was run her tongue around her mouth, licking the tiny droplets of sweet cream off her lips.

Ichigo's grin was now a half-smile, half-smirk.

"Missed a spot," he said, putting the bowl and spoon down on the side table and sitting down next to her on the bed.

She raised her hand to her lips, but he took it before it reached its objective.

"I can help with that," he said.

She had expected him to pull a napkin out of his pocket, or even to use his own hand to wipe her lips. But, instead, he kissed her, tasting her sweetness, which was far more intoxicating than the caramel ice cream could ever be.

What began as a look of surprise on her face melted, as the bowl of ice cream was want to do, and she sighed softly. He released her lips and she whispered, "Ichigo."

He smiled, dipped his finger in the bowl and rubbed the cold concoction onto her lips, then kissed her again, this time more deeply. She wrapped her arms around him and ran her hands through his already tousled hair.

"I owe you dinner, Yuzu," he thought, smiling still.

The bowl of ice cream lay, melting into soup, on the table by the bed.

A/N: Feel free to suggest pairings and food for future chapters! I'll update when the muse strikes…mmmmm.