AN: HI there. First off I am VERY sorry that this took so long, the second I decide to write a fic life is like "Oooh, let's mess with her". Lolz, also, this chapter kind of sucks. I needed to develop certain things so… yeah…. And it doesn't help that I sorta lost a bit of confidence in my writing. But anyways, please forgive lil ole me and enjoy :o)
Chapter 3 – Obsession
All his training and experience as a Taichou had never prepared him for this. He could fight the most dangerous beings, recover from the most life-threatening of wounds. But this, nothing in his life had ever gotten him ready to face this dilemna… Ada. Just one word, one name, no explanation needed. She intrigued him, made him curious about her, as no human girl had done before. Did he like her? He supposed that could be it, but there was more to it than that. Hell, they hadn't said enough words to eachother for him to know if he actually liked her or not. This, he decided, was different.
Ada was never an issue to him at first. Sure, she certainly captivated his attention, and he found himself wanting to know more. But fulfilling that want, that's what got him into this mess. He allowed himself to become, much to his chagrin, obsessed.
This obsession started the afternoon he followed her home from school. She had walked tall and proud through the streets, not paying attention to the few people from school that stopped to stare and whisper. At one point, Hitsugaya wondered how far her house actually was, as she had been walking for nearly an hour and was fast approaching the outskirts of Karakura Town. Finally he saw it. A little farm type house, more resembling a cabin than anything else, came into view. He watched her as she went about her business, making dinner, doing dishes, and he couldn't help but smile as he saw her to a little dance to the song on the radio. This routine was short-lived, however, as she soon left the house in a waitress uniform.
Hitsugaya cringed. 'A full day of torture at school, and now she has to go to work?'
Ada walked back along the road leading to downtown Karakura, her face the epitome of exhaustion. But, Hitsugaya noticed, there was also a hint of determination there as well. Within minutes her demeanour had changed. The second she walked into Café Amai, she had magically transformed into a bubbly, cheerful waitress who socialized vividly with her customers. It was obvious she was a favourite here, especially among the male customers, who discreetly checked her out as she bounced from table to table. Her attitude seemed to be contagious as she flitted about, filling orders and practically blowing sunshine out her rear. 'What a façade.' He thought to himself.
He noticed that the ocean blue sky of day was slowing changing to the velvety navy of night and realized he had been gone, preoccupied if you will, for way too long. With one last look he turned away and started towards his apartment. Mmm, what he wouldn't give for one of those muffins right now- 'Geez,' He thought sarcastically to himself. 'I wonder why THAT is?' Those muffins were about the last thing on his mind.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"TAICHOU! Where have you BEEN?" The second Hitsugaya had turned the second corner he was glomped by his Fukutaichou, his face brutally assaulted by her oversized… womanlies.
"Mmhmphfmnn…"
"AH! We were so worried. Your patrol ended hours ago and no one had seen you since school ended and… Taichou?"
"MMPHFMNNNMPH!"
"Oh dear, sorry Taichou…" She said sheepishly, rescuing him from the confines of her twin deadly weapons. He glared at her. "I know, it's annoying, my boobs try to kill me too sometimes. Usually when I sleep."
Hitsugaya shook his head, continuing to gasp for air. This was just his luck, running into Matsumoto like this. She was always so nosy and he had a feeling she was going to bother him about where he had been. What was he going to say?
"So…" She began slyly. "Where have you been?"
"I was patrolling and saw something odd, so I went to, erm, check it out" Close enough to the truth, Ada was a tad odd.
"What did you need to check out that took you four hours?"
'Damn.' "It was nothing, just this person I was curious about."
"It was that girl I heard about from Ichigo's school, wasn't it! He said you were asking about her and stuff. So what, you followed her home?"
"It's… it's not like that I…"
"Taichou you stalker! If you want her you have to talk to her, not follow her around like a little lost puppy! Girls like it when you-"
"MATSUMOTO! Knock it off, I do NOT like her. Something seemed off and it was my duty to find out what. I don't like her and I'm not a stalker!" Fuming, Hitsugaya shunpoed away as fast as he could towards his apartment, leaving Matsumoto shivering from his little outburst. 'Saw that one coming' He thought mockingly to himself.'So much for playing hero, I ended up playing creepy kid with a muffin craving.'
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
That night Hitsugaya tossed and turned. Ada invaded his usual nightmare, her face being what he saw now instead of the blurry face of the other girl. He couldn't decide whether that was a good or bad thing. Most likely bad. His self scolding began over breakfast and lasted until he arrived at the school. He was a Taichou for kami's sake! He had no business obsessing over a human girl, she wasn't even related to this mission. He was being absolutely ridiculous and he knew it. Even his earlier hunch had been proven wrong: he had watched her for hours last night and still there was no trace of unusual reiatsu anywhere near her. Anything weird he felt about her was probably just her own personal reiatsu, even humans can have small levels of reiatsu. So, Hitsugaya concluded as he took his seat in homeroom, this would have to stop. No more getting distracted by Ada, they had an important mission to complete and he would be sure they completed it without distraction.
'And speak of the devil,' Hitsugaya thought with a sigh when Ada herself came staggering sleepily through the door. She quickly took her seat in front of him as the teacher glared at her, though not before giving a tiny smile which Hitsugaya did not return.
For the next few hours Hitsugaya did nothing but try to think of ways to end this mission quickly. Unfortunately, he came up with squat. There was really no way to hurry this along solely because they didn't even know what they were here to retrieve. He sighed in frustration, getting the feeling that they might be here for a while. Needless to say, Hitsugaya was in a terrible mood as he headed outside for lunch. He sat slightly away from the group as everyone else chatted animatedly about some trip to the mall or something else that could occupy their time in this boring town. Hitsugaya rested against a tree, his eyes closed, his thoughts wandering.
"Umm, Toushiro kun?" A timid voice said from beside him. He opened his eyes and, low and behold, Ada was there.
"What do you want?" He replied a little too harshly. No one was interested in the mall now, as they were all blatantly staring at Hitsugaya and Ada with bemused expressions. Hitsugaya's short reply took Ada by surprise, and she began to stammer out her answer.
"Oh, well, nothing really… I-I just thought maybe y-you'd… I brought you some muffins… to say thanks for yesterday and I w-was hoping we could maybe eat lunch together-" A bright blush started to swiftly spread over her cheeks, making her face closer to her eye colour than her natural skin tone.
"Not interested." He replied sharply, and immediately regretted it.
Ada's strangled smile fell from her face. He wished she would have just gotten angry at him for being so rude. Instead, her eyes sparkled with fresh tears, though she held them back. She was shaking and had a crushed look to her. Defeated. He hated seeing her like that, so he opened his mouth to make it right but she cut him off.
"No, it's fine. I see. I shouldn't have…" At this point Ada realized that everyone in the school grounds was staring at the scene. "I'm sorry," she said as she dropped the basket and ran. The muffins rolled out onto the ground as Ada ran home as quickly as she could. She was so embarrassed, so stupid, why the hell did she even do that?
Back at the school, Hitsugaya was mortified. 'Wow you asshole', He thought angrily to himself. Not to mention that everyone had just saw that lovely scene and was now staring at him as though he were the most savage beast they had ever seen. And now he felt terrible, he just made a girl cry, ugh. He took a look around him and noticed the looks on everyone's faces: Most of the girls looked shocked, the guys looked like they were trying to make him think they hadn't seen what just happened, but two people stood out from the group. Matsumoto and Ichigo were both seething with anger, and if looks could kill… well let's just say Karakura Town as a whole would have been blown to smithereens.
"Orihime, Rukia, could you guys go check on Ada please?" Asked Ichigo through his teeth as he took a step toward Hitsugaya. They both nodded and ran off to catch up with her. Ichigo was so angry he wanted to hit Toushiro, unfortunately for him Matsumoto beat him to it.
-SMACK- "Taichou what the HELL is wrong with you?" She demanded angrily, her hand reeling back in preparation for another blow. "You act like you like her one day and are a pig the next! How dare you?" -SMACK-
"Oi, knock that off baka!" Hitsugaya yelled back, rubbing his now red cheek. Thankfully for him, the bell signalling the end of lunch rang. Matsumoto stomped off to the school and everyone still watching quietly followed suit. Sighing, Hitsugaya bent down and carefully put all the muffins back in the basket. There was no point in going back to class, everyone would probably just glare at him for the rest of the day. Instead he decided to head towards the apartment, and perhaps make a stop the beautiful park near the river on the way by. He needed the time to think anyways.
Sitting by the river, all he could seem to do was stare at the muffins. They were a gift, a gift made just for him. And he had humiliated the girl who was kind enough to do such a thing. The sound of footsteps behind him made him tense, then tense even further when Ichigo sat down next to him. "We need to talk," began Ichigo. Hitsugaya simply nodded. It seemed Ichigo knew what was going on here and there was no avoiding it now.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
After reassuring Rukia and Orihime that she was fine, and declining their offer to join them at the mall tonight, Ada sent them home and decided to head to work early. Today was only a four hour shift and now, after the fiasco at school, Ada wished it were longer. Little did she know that she would be wishing the exact opposite very shortly.
As Ada approached the Café, she noticed a small figure leaning up against the wall outside, with a shock of white hair and a basket of muffins. Her stomach began to do flips and she considered going home and calling in sick. Yet as she went to turn away, the figure spotted her, and appeared equally as nervous. Ada walked slowly towards him, expecting another rude outburst. Perhaps he was here to mock her? Or, judging from how hard he was currently gripping the basket, perhaps he planned to chuck it at her head…
"I, umm, I wanted to thank you for the muffins… and I guess we could possibly eat them together… unless you're busy…" Hitsugaya muttered. "It was rude of me to speak to you like that, so I apologize."
"It's okay, I really shouldn't have imposed like that, very stupid of me."
"It wasn't your fault, you weren't imposing, I was just…"
"In a bad mood?"
"I suppose you could say that." Hitsugaya said irritably. "So… did you want to share them?"
Ada cast a nervous glance at the Café, kicking herself for opting for a longer shift. "Actually, I have to work right now, but I get off at 7 if you wanted to…" She stopped talking, aware of his hesitance.
"A group of us are heading to the mall tonight, well I'm being forced… I'd like you to come."
She grinned wide and nodded enthusiastically. All of a sudden the mall sounded pretty good to her. Taking that as a yes, he told her he would be back at seven and proceeded to walk away. Ada practically bounced through the doors of the Café, hoping time would pass quickly. She blushed, surprised at her own excitement, and shook it off. He was just being nice, but still, something to look forward to. And that did not happen often.
Down the street, Hitsugaya nearly kicked himself when he realized his sudden craving for muffins.
AN: So… please don't kill me. I hope it wasn't too horrible and I promise to try my best to make the next chapter knock your damn socks off ^_^
AND big spank youz go to:
Shinku no tamashi - yes, he is ooc, sorry! Otherwise Ada would probably knock him out for being too quiet/grumpy :P
ToshiroHitsugayagirlfriend - I have a plot in mind, it's pretty good I just hope I can write it well, so it should be quite long, sooo glad you loved it!
theunseenowl - YAY thanks, really happy that you liked it.