"Today is the Tenth Annual Women's Shinigami Association Chocolate Day," Yachiru announced happily.
Her eyes shifted to Lieutenant Hisagi seated beside Nanao, holding a pen and pad of paper. He was officially here to do a piece for Seireitei Communication, but he looked mostly like he was trying to hide from the rest of the Women's Association behind the other lieutenant. "We will let you try a sample from each dish, Spiky," Yachiru told him. "But if you get greedy we're gonna boot you all the way back to the Ninth."
"Yes, ma'am, thank you," Hisagi answered. Yachiru was always terrifying when any food was involved, but in the presence of a dozen different chocolate desserts every one of the women resembled lions on the prowl.
Chocolate was a rarity in Seireitei, all of it having to be brought from the World of the Living. Urahara had started selling it to shinigami not long after his removal to the World of the Living, and it had caught on among the women despite their rare opportunities to sample it. Over the past decade the Senkaimon governing council had begun to complain about the volume of chocolate passing through the gates and had attempted various forms of regulation.
The Women's Shinigami Association was their greatest enemy. Captains Unohana and Soifon made sure chocolate was not banned altogether, and Nanao worked tirelessly to protect supply lines. Of late most chocolate had found its way to Seireitei through the Senkaimon of the Four Great Houses.
Chocolate Day was the creation of Yachiru, but everyone participated. Each woman had made a dessert using chocolate and brought it to share. The first couple of years they had had competitions, but in the end had decided that just pigging out together was more fun.
Hisagi was the first adult male permitted to attend. The women had held an emergency meeting two days earlier to decide if they could afford to share. Toshiro and Kinta were always welcome, but it was held at their house, and Toshiro helped Rangiku make multiple varieties of chocolate ice cream.
Toshiro grabbed a bowl of ice cream, said a polite hello to all the women, and retreated as quickly as he could, but Hisagi was forced to stay. He watched the women dig in at the table full of heavenly dishes but didn't dare touch anything himself. Instead he jotted down a few notes as to the appearance of various foods and tried not to be noticed.
"We're not going to bite, you know," Nanao said, interrupting his careful description of a whipped cream and fudge confection.
Hisagi raised his head and risked a slight smile; she was holding out a plate of desserts. "Thanks," he told her as he took the plate and a metal fork from her hands.
He hadn't ever actually used a fork before, but how hard could it be? After a couple of stabs at the chocolate soufflé Unohana herself had prepared he was beginning to doubt himself. He seemed to be murdering the delicate soufflé rather than managing to pick any of it up.
Beside him, he heard a huff of frustration. "Honestly, how helpless can you be?" Nanao demanded.
She leaned against him to take the fork from his hand and adjust his grip. "It's not difficult to use a fork. It's much simpler than chopsticks. All you have to do is hold it properly, and try to stop stabbing at your food. Use more of a scooping motion."
He didn't hear much of what she said. He was too focused on her breasts pressing against his arm.
"Give it a try," Nanao suggested, and when he did nothing she raised her head. She immediately noticed the direction of his gaze and the pink tinge to his cheeks.
She sat back immediately, her own cheeks turning an echoing pink from embarrassment. "Aren't you supposed to be asking questions?" she said stiffly.
He didn't answer. He seemed to have been frozen in place. His brain had been short-circuited by her proximity. "Idiot," she snarled under her breath. Then, forcing a calm, sensible expression to her face, she said, "Lieutenant Hisagi, didn't you have-Shuhei!"
Hisagi jerked his head up, blinking like he'd been woken from a deep sleep. "What, Nanao-I mean, Lieutenant Ise, what is it?"
"Didn't you have some questions you wanted to ask us all?" she said coldly.
"Right, yes, for the newspaper, I do," he scrambled around for the notepad he'd set aside when she'd served him, and flipped through the pages quickly. "Um, do you have a favorite dessert?"
Nanao raised an eyebrow. "That's the best you could come up with?"
"It has follow ups," he defended.
Rangiku watched the interaction between Nanao and Hisagi with some interest. Nanao was her usual no-nonsense self and Hisagi was as helpless as ever. He struggled to get through his interview questions while Nanao proved she could be both cooperative and completely impossible at the same time. Every answer she gave was either short and so general as to be completely useless for his article or long and technical enough that he had no hope of following, much less using her explanation in the paper.
She was currently explaining the argument with the Senkaimon operators in extremely boring detail, and Hisagi, one of the most polite men in the entire universe, was listening patiently to the whole thing.
There really wasn't anything out of the ordinary in the way they were talking, even the way Hisagi's eyes occasionally strayed from Nanao's face to her body was typical of him, but there were two things that made her curious. Nanao had leaned into Hisagi to help him with his fork, and that had to be the first time Rangiku had ever seen Nanao willingly get that close to any man, and secondly, Hisagi had called Nanao by her first name without even following it with 'san'. There was definitely something going on.
Rangiku was so focused on the pair across the table that she forgot that she had a toddler sitting next to her with a plate full of chocolate. She was graphically reminded of the fact when, with the only warning a small voice declaring, "It's for you," Kinta shoved half a slice of chocolate mousse cake into her mouth and across her face, dropping what did not smear across her face onto her chest.
"Kin-chan!" she shrieked, turning on the chocolate-coated child. While she had been distracted watching Nanao and Hisagi, Kinta had liberally decorated himself with a generous portion of every dessert. Even his pretty gold curls were now matted with fudge.
Everyone else burst out laughing as he grinned at her and said, "It's yummy!"
It took everything Rangiku had not to swear a blue streak. "You're right," she said, forcing a smile. "And now it's bath time."
She scooped the boy up and turned to her guests. "Please, everyone, don't worry about us. Take you time; stay as long as you want, and enjoy yourselves. I'm afraid Kin-chan and I are going to have to take our leave here. Good night!"
Kinta waved a gooey hand at the women over his mother's shoulder as he was rushed from the room.