Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. :) Just this story.

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Pictures

written by: anime16

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Chapter One: The Start of a Love Story.

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Momo Hitsugaya, with uneven footsteps, jostled her husband Toushiro on the old attic's direction. She resolved to clean it weeks ago but couldn't bring herself to even step on the dark, dirty, who-knows-what's-in-there place. So during her husband's off from work, she sought his cooperation.

"S-Shiro-chan...I'm right behind you..." she stammered. "Don't be scared, ok?" She licked her dried lips and clutched on his shirt with all her might.

Who's more scared between us? Toushiro rolled his eyes and guided his wife upstairs, on the cold and dark attic. "Momo...if you don't want to clean the attic, then it is alright with me. You don't have to push yourself. Leave it to our maids. They are there for a reason. I didn't hire them to slack off you know."

"Y-Yeah I know. But I told you I want to clean our rooms and of course our children's rooms by myself. And the attic holds so many memories we have since we started going out." Momo loosened her clutch on his shirt and gave him a tight hug from behind instead. "I want to keep what's important to me in privacy, Shiro-chan. And you know our memories were so important to me."

Toushiro smiled and placed his hands on Momo's hands on his stomach. "If that's what you want, then I'll just have to help you. Come on." He grabbed her hand and hauled her towards the attic.

It was chilly and dark in the attic. Toushiro felt the switch on the right side and turned it on. The lights haloed the dirty attic, full of cobwebs and earthly smell.

"Alright, let's do this." Momo pushed her long sleeves upwards and sauntered on the centre of the attic, all in while, knocking off a couple of boxes down. She gasped and stooped down, finding a lot of familiar pictures.

"Shiro-chan..." she gasped when she saw a lot of pictures of her. "I have so many pictures here."

Toushiro joined her on the ground and smirked while taking some of the pictures on his hands. "These were the pictures I took during our high school days. It's mostly about you. It filled almost two boxes or maybe three?"

She grabbed a picture from the ground and frowned. "When did you take this picture?" She handed him a picture of her laughing in the classroom.

"Oh, I remember this. It's one of the instances I force you to leave you hair out of the bun. I hate that cloth of yours which always hide your beautiful hair..." He trailed off and gulped loudly when she glared at him. "Well...what happened was..."

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The Hinamori Manor was a large estate surrounded by spacious terraced gardens. The iron gates flew open and a luxurious car drove in. It rounded the circular path made by gravel and stopped in front of the main house itself. It was an elegant, white mansion made by using a stone from a hundred years ago. Its stylish door situated between two eye-catching window panes.

Toushiro Hitsugaya sat at the back of the car, listening to the songs in his iPod. He waited patiently for his childhood friend to emerge from the mansion. And he half-expected her to be panicking and screaming now since he arrived earlier than expected.

As if on cue, he heard a series of shuffling feet and the door of the car was opened in a rush. There was an added weight on the car seat beside him and the door was slammed shut. There was the rustle of clothes and someone took off the headphones from his ears.

"Shiro-chan! Why are you so early?" Momo Hinamori scolded her childhood friend, tucking an out-of-place hair lock behind her ear. Her hair was tied in a messily bun and it must be from her hurrying that she failed to fix her hair properly. "I was literally screaming my head off because my hair isn't tied yet. And Maya-san is missing! So I have no choice but to tie it myself. Look, look! It's so messy –"

"Then don't tie it in a bun..." Toushiro interrupted her ramblings by pulling off the cloth that was tying her hair in place. Her dark brown hair slumped down her shoulders and he smirked, clenching her cloth in his hands. "You look better without it anyways."

His lips twitched upward in amusement as he watched her redden in embarrassment. It was so rare to catch her off guard nowadays and he was totally in bliss that he managed to do it.

"Give me back my cloth!" she shouted, leaning towards him to grab the one he stole. "I look ridiculous without it." She gritted her teeth and lunged into him. She draped a hand on his chest and the other one was reaching for the cloth that he swayed upwards.

"I said you look better without it!" He grunted, managing to place his hand upwards where she couldn't get it. "You should really take your time listening to my advice."

She glared at his hand as she puffed her cheeks. Her ears turned slightly red in mortification. She tried desperately to get her belonging back. "Give it back to me, asshole." When she couldn't reach the said item, she looked down at him and realized the position they were in. Her face was just inches away from his, her lips almost kissing his cheeks. And she could feel his hot breath tickling the side of her face.

She felt her heart skipped a bit, feeling uncomfortable all of the sudden. It was a first from her since she was always at ease whenever he was nearby. She pulled out too early and settled herself at the far end of the car, too far away from him.

"Fine, don't give it to me," She murmured, giving him one last long look before sticking her tongue out and turned around to ignore him. She stared at the scenery outside the tinted windows, trying to hum away her fast heart beat. She didn't know why exactly she was feeling this way towards him. They were inseparable since birth and she knew every nook and cranny about him, and why of all people she was conscious of him now.

She risked a glance at him and saw him keeping an eye on her too. She looked away, propping her elbow on the arm rest of the car and placed her chin on the top of her hands.

Is it because of how handsome he looks right now? She wondered. The way he grew up to be such a fine man. His spiky, white hair that was so soft to the touch and his piercing emerald eyes that so unique and exquisite. His slightly tanned, lean, muscular body, that was due to soccer. And oh god, she couldn't continue right now. She was definitely fantasizing about her childhood friend.

She shook away all her thoughts but waving her hands in the air in a weird manner.

Toushiro, who was looking at her all the time, raised an eyebrow at her odd behaviour. There was something she was hiding. Normally, she wouldn't give up getting back her cloth. But today, she herself withdrew from the fight. But, it was all too good for him. He saw her hair down and he could say she was very pretty. He smirked.

He reached a lock of her hair and on the second time of the day managed to catch her off guard again when he smelled and kissed it. He breathed in her scent and his smirk grew. She smelled of peach. He knew by then that he would never forget her scent.

"What are you doing?" Momo screamed, snatching away her hair. She turned red, heck even her neck was slight red.

"I smelled your hair." Toushiro shrugged. "What's wrong with that?" He folded his arms and smiled smugly. "Why are you so embarrassed? Are you afraid of letting me know, you didn't shampooed your hair?"

"I shampooed my hair! It was the peach-flavoured shampoo I loved." Momo pouted. He smirked yet again. He was right. She smelled like peach, just like her name.

He unfolded her arms and looked ahead. "We're finally here." He tugged her cloth inside his pockets when her attention was caught by the sight of their school. The car drove inside the school and parked. They went out of the car and Toushiro gave instructions to his driver to fetch them later that afternoon. The driver nodded and once he was completely out of the car, he turned the engine on and sped off.

Momo stretched her arms in the air. She had long forgotten everything about her cloth that was still in Toushiro's possession and the uneasy feelings she got a while ago from her closeness to her childhood friend.

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"Good morning everyone!" Momo greeted her friends as she hustled Toushiro forward. The poor guy grunted as he sat down his seat beside the window. She grinned and sat beside him.

"Guys, the lovey-dovey couple had arrived!" Rangiku announced and added, "And Momo had a messed up hair! What did they do inside the hot seat of their honeymoon car? They made out, maybe?"

Momo flushed, remembering the scene a while ago.

"Momo is blushing!" Rangiku gasped. She clicked her tongue and smiled towards Toushiro. "Isn't it great Hitsugaya? It means you have a chance!"

Toushiro fight off a blush and hollered, "Matsumoto! For the first and last time, I don't like Hinamori that way!" He huffed. "So don't bring that up anymore."

Ouch, Momo suddenly felt hurt. She shouldn't be. Toushiro was just her best friend, her childhood friend. Nothing more, nothing less. She hummed away all the negative feelings and managed to smile in the process. "Y-Yes, that's right Rangiku-san."

There was an awkward silence afterwards. Thankfully, it was broken when Ichigo and Renji barged in.

"Hello guys!" Ichigo and Renji greeted simultaneously.

Ichigo glared at Renji and took hold of his collar. "Don't copy me."

Renji did the same too. "I am the one who should say that."

Ichigo and Renji were childhood rivals. They were at each other's throats ever since the beginning. They never allowed the other side to win. They were one messed up pair of rivals but they do care about each other in a brotherly way.

Renji liked Rukia, a lot. But he didn't have the courage to tell her that since he believed that she was in love with Ichigo, which was quite true since she stick close to him for the past few months until Ichigo confessed to Orihime and they became an item. Maybe that's the reason why Renji and Ichigo were always bickering at each other.

For the first days of Ichigo and Orihime's exclusive dating, the gang watched as their fondness for each other grew and became love. And maybe that's the time, Rukia gave up. Instead, she slowly turned her feelings to Renji. But that latter didn't see the signs, poor him.

Momo watched as her two friends glared at each other, neither was willing to back off. After a few minutes, Karin Kurosaki, Ichigo's little sister, managed to break their staring contest by walking in front of them. She approached Toushiro and said, "Prince...Can you teach me that amazing move you did in your last game in soccer?"

Yes, she called him Prince. Her reasoning: Toushiro was so talented and shining, like a prince. And Toushiro never corrected her, maybe he liked to be called that way. Or maybe he liked Karin. Momo's heart felt like being squeeze. She clutched her chest and frowned. For quite some time, she started to ignore it.

She looked at Karin by the time she leaned down and kissed Toushiro's cheeks. "Thanks a lot, Prince. I'm looking forward for the one-on-one practice."

Toushiro rubbed his cheeks annoyingly. "Don't kiss me as you please, Kurosaki." He glared at her. "It's a bit disturbing and doesn't feel right."

Karin shrugged. "Whatever. It's just my way of saying thank you." She walked passed Momo and patted her head. "See you around Princess. Watch Prince for me, kay?"

Ichigo blocked her sister's way. "Kissing as a way of thanks! Are you an idiot? As your brother –"

He was interrupted when she tiptoed and kissed his cheeks. "See you later, Ichi-nii. You kiss Hime for me."

Ichigo turned red and stammered, "K-Kiss Orihime." He mumbled incoherent curses and frowned. "Don't play with me, Karin."

She raised her pinkie finger and had put it inside her ear. "I don't want to hear anything anymore." She exited the room and slid the door close.

Orihime approached Ichigo and took his hand. "Don't worry about it Ichigo. It's completely alright with me."

"Karin or the..." Ichigo gulped and added, "...kiss."

"Eh?" Orihime flushed and looked around, trying to get her answer straight. She closed her eyes and shouted, "Both." They stared for each other for a while and like a magnet, they leaned to each other. Their lips were inches apart when the gang whistled.

Both of them jumped apart in embarrassment.

"How nice..." Rangiku smirked. "Don't mind us, go make out."

"We will not!" Ichigo barked.

All of them laughed at the silly couple.

Toushiro, on the other hand, watched Momo laughed. He smiled secretly and fished out his mini camera from his bag. He focused it on Momo and snapped a picture of her. He closed his eyes and added mentally, only you can make a simple picture look wonderful, Momo...

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Author's Notes: So how's the first chapter? I know I'm not that good in writing so you can give your thoughts about my work. Just give constructive criticisms, ok? Thanks for reading and see you on the next chapter.