Title: Making the perfect Valentine's gift
Author: Tuliharja
Summary: This year, Tomoyo will succeed in making the perfect Valentine's chocolate for her husband, even if it's the last thing she does!
Disclaimer: BLEACH belongs to Tite Kubo while Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle belongs to CLAMP. I'm merely writing fanfiction. I don't either own the cover art of this.
Author's note: Thank you FerusAurelius for betaing this!
.:Making the perfect Valentine's gift:.
"This year…this year I shall succeed!" Tomoyo declared in a determined tone as she looked at all the ingredients on top of the huge kitchen table. She had gathered five times more ingredients than necessary to make Valentine's chocolate as in all the other years she had been too naïve and only gotten three times as much. Each chocolate had always failed in one way or another, but this year she wanted to create a true, good-smelling, and tasting chocolate for Byakuya. She wouldn't rest until she made that perfect chocolate for her husband!
Pulling her sleeves up, she took a cooking book and turned to the correct page to make chocolate. She had been studying chocolate making from various cooking books and watched chefs make it. She had bought the best tools and ingredients to make chocolate. Nothing could go wrong!
Taking a deep breath to calm her mind, she focused on the task ahead. She should just calmly proceed, and she could make it. She would make something simple, like heart-shaped chocolate as even that itself would be a masterpiece. All the other years Byakuya had gotten charred or otherwise oddly shaped and strange-tasting chocolate. One year Byakuya even ended up in Fourth, because of her chocolate. The memory of that made Tomoyo sweat drop as thanks to that event during this time of year Unohana made sure there would be room for Byakuya for possible food poisoning.
"I won't disappoint you…" Tomoyo whispered to herself before she grabbed a cocoa powder bag and a cup. She would first measure all the ingredients before starting to cook.
Measuring up the powder wasn't that easy as it would puff when she would take it from the bag and put it into the bowl. Coughing, Tomoyo somehow managed to measure enough cocoa powder. The next thing she measured was sugar. Yet as she took the sugar bag, it accidentally slipped between her fingers.
"Ah!" she let out a surprised yelp, before she hit the table with her elbow, making the flour drop onto the floor. A huge puff of white filled the kitchen, making Tomoyo cough as she waved her arms, trying to clear up the air. While trying to do that, she heard a loud bang noise and realized she had accidentally hit something else, making her a bit startled which made her hit the table again.
By the time the air cleared enough, she noticed the table was in a state of disarray along with the floor. A soft sigh escaped her lips as she looked at the mess she had managed to make.
"Ahoy~!" suddenly a cheerful voice shouted before the door was opened with a loud rattling noise. Rangiku peeked through the doorway.
"Coast is clear! Nothing is burning," she announced before she let out a whimper. Turning around, Tomoyo could see Rangiku and Rukia at the doorway. The latter was holding her balled fist up, while Rangiku was pouting heavily at her. It was obvious Rukia had smacked Rangiku, because of her comment.
"Rangiku-san, Rukia-kun, what you two are doing here?" Tomoyo questioned the duo curiously.
"Ah! Unohana-taichou asked us to make sure you hadn't-gah! Rukiaaa! So meeean!" Rangiku whined as she held her head, Rukia coughing lightly.
"We were wondering how your chocolate-making was going, 'neesan," Rukia answered. "We also thought we could help you."
"Eh? Really? Thank you!" Tomoyo merrily thanked the duo, her smile radiant. It made the two other women smile, too.
"Though, it seems at first we have to do a bit of cleaning," Rukia commented, earning a groan from Rangiku. "Come on, Rangiku-san. This is to help 'neesan."
"Ah, and because I made sure this year I would have lots of ingredients you can also make your Valentine's chocolates," Tomoyo added quickly, making Rangiku's eyes start to sparkle.
"Really? In that case~, let's clean up this mess and start making that chocolate!" Rangiku exclaimed cheerfully, earning a merry shout from both Tomoyo and Rukia.
The trio quickly cleaned up the kitchen together, before they started to prepare the chocolate mass. While it took them a few hours to get the actual chocolate mass done, they had to redo it a few times when the molding of it failed, or otherwise, the chocolate mass got ruined.
"Ugh! This stupid chocolate just won't solidify!" Rangiku complained as she shaped her chocolates to look like hearts while Tomoyo tried to mimic Rangiku. Yet her hearts looked more and less like diamond-shaped squares than actual hearts. Rukia had tried to make Chappy, but it just kept collapsing.
"Rukia, use your Zanpakuto," Rangiku told Rukia, making the ravenette blink her eyes at this.
"I'm not sure if Sode no Shirayuki will like that…" she started slowly, making Rangiku wave her finger at her.
"This is an emergency! An emergency, I tell you!" Rangiku told Rukia, who sighed slightly.
"Alright then, stand at the side," she advised as she then unleashed her Zanpakuto. "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki! First Dance, White Moon!"
All three women watched how a pillar formed around Rangiku's chocolates, before those shattered along with the ice.
"My chocolateee!" Rangiku shrieked in horror.
"Oooh! That was a very powerful attack, Rukia-kun," Tomoyo admired Rukia, who blushed slightly.
"But my chocolate is now fully ruined!" Rangiku complained, making Rukia wave her arms in a comical manner before she bowed to her several times in apology.
"W-well, we still have lots of ingredients, so let's at first test which Rukia-kun's attacks would be best to solidify the chocolates, ne?" Tomoyo suggested peacefully to Rangiku, who crossed her arms underneath her huge bosom. Huffing, she merely nodded her head.
Giving Rukia an encouraging nod, Tomoyo gestured for Rukia to proceed with their experiments.
"Next Dance, White Ripple!" Rukia called out, fully freezing Tomoyo's chocolates into ice balls.
"Oh…" Tomoyo breathed. "I think, melting those would merely damage the chocolate in the process…"
"W-well, let's try one more time…Third Dance, White Sword," Rukia called out before she stabbed her Chappy chocolate. The trio watched how the chocolate started to solidify, making them all look at each other in a victorious manner. Yet the Chappy chocolate started to suddenly tremble from Rukia's power before it cracked and turned into tiny pieces. A silence fell around the trio as they looked at the icy chocolate mess they had made.
"E-everyone! Let's not get down! Remember! We still have ingredients to make chocolate!" Tomoyo stated in an encouraging tone, trying to pour hope into them all. "Besides, I think with the last solidifying attempt Rukia-kun was very close to perfection. If she could just add a little less power to her attack and just use the tip of her Zanpakuto on the chocolate, I'm sure it won't crack."
Tomoyo now picked some of their earlier chocolate that had been abandoned because the mass had turned out all wrong. This particular one had gotten too much salt in it.
"We have these failed chocolate masses that you could use as practicing 'dummies'," Tomoyo suggested as she offered Rukia a few pieces. Slowly nodding her head, Rukia looked at both Rangiku and Tomoyo.
"I'll practice with the solidifying. In the meantime, you two can make a new batch of chocolate," she said, making Rangiku nod her head, while Tomoyo looked at her with worry. "Don't worry 'neesan! Valentine's day is only tomorrow, so I'll have plenty of time to make mine. Besides, we originally came here to help you make perfect chocolate for 'niisan. Not to mention, just waiting over the night to see which chocolates turned good…umm…well, let's roll with this!"
Slowly, Tomoyo nodded her head to Rukia. Despite the fact she was still feeling rather unsure about this all, she couldn't help but smile thankfully to Rukia. She had gotten such a lovely sister thanks to Byakuya!
Both Rangiku and Tomoyo rolled up their sleeves once again and quickly cleaned up the kitchen, leaving the bad chocolate masses to Rukia to practice with. Once the kitchen was otherwise clean, the duo started to make their own chocolates once again. It took them less time this time as they were slowly starting to get the hang of it, yet while Rangiku managed to shape her chocolate mass to look like hearts, Tomoyo's still looked more like squares than anything else. At the same time, Rukia had finally managed to get the hang of solidifying with her Zanpakuto, the practice chocolates now looking and feeling like actual chocolates.
"Wonderful, Rukia-kun!" Tomoyo complimented the ravenette who smiled proudly from this.
"Alright, let's try it on our chocolate now!" Rangiku added, making Rukia do that. "Hmm…though…to be absolutely sure your chocolates are good Tomoyo-chan, we need some test subjects."
"Eh?" Both Tomoyo and Rukia said in unison as Rangiku was already heading toward the door.
"Don't worry, I'll handle this," she promised, already gone.
Looking at each other in puzzlement, both Rukia and Tomoyo shrugged a bit. Rukia then returned to the task at hand, solidifying the last pieces of Rangiku's and Tomoyo's chocolates.
"Hmm…at least these look good," Tomoyo commented, touching her oddly shaped chocolate. She just hoped the taste would be even slightly good…
"Come on! You'll get free chocolate! Free!" they heard Rangiku's voice from a distance, while also someone complaining they weren't so sure about it. The door opened once again, this time revealing Renji, Izuru, Shuuhei, and Ikkaku. Behind them was Rangiku, obviously coaxing them to taste test their chocolates.
"Alright, alright, we get it! You want us to poiso-! Hmm!" Ikkaku started, just to get muffled by Renji who had spotted Tomoyo.
"T-Tomoyo-hime!" Renji breathed out nervously, giving Ikkaku a look of 'not even a word about her poison chocolates!'
Sweat dropping, Tomoyo bowed to the men.
"S-sorry to bother you all, but could you kindly help me?" she asked them, making the men blink their eyes before they quickly waved their hands and promised to try the chocolate.
Heading in front of the table, the Shinigami men looked at each other.
"So…which one of us will try them first?" Izuru questioned slowly in a low tone.
"It's obviously Renji! It's his captain's wife, after all," Ikkaku stated as he side-glanced at Tomoyo who looked at them hopefully.
"Eh? Why me? Why not YOU Ikkaku?" Renji questioned. "You always boast how strong you are!"
"This hasn't anything to do with battling!" Ikkaku argued with a huff. Renji scowled back at him. The two men pressed their foreheads against each other, obviously not going to give up on this matter.
"A-Abarai-san…M-Madarame-san…" Izuru tried to calm down his friends. In the meantime, Shuuhei looked at all the chocolate on top of the table. He could see how the women had put on display heart-shaped chocolates and chocolates that looked like crumbling squares.
Sweat dropping, he decided to try the ones that at least looked fine. Slowly, he took a bite from the heart-shaped chocolate and clapped his hand over his mouth. The chocolate tasted awful!
"Ah, that's MY chocolate, Shuuhei!" Rangiku suddenly piped from the back, making Shuuhei's eyes widen. He could get Rangiku's chocolate that wasn't just a mandatory one! Eyes watering, he started to shovel the chocolate into his mouth, but soon fell down to the floor.
"Aaaaah! Hisagi-san!" Izuru let out a horrified manner, making Rangiku huff to this.
"Oi! My chocolate isn't THAT bad!" she stated, which made Shuuhei lift his thumb up. "See? It's PERFECTLY fine~!"
"I-I don't think so…" Izuru stated as in the meantime both Renji and Ikkaku shoved Tomoyo's chocolate into each other's mouth.
"Eh? This doesn't taste SO bad…" Renji commented, Ikkaku nodding his head to this. "Though… why've you got horns, Ikkaku?"
"What do you mean pineapple?" Ikkaku questioned back, narrowing his eyes to the big pineapple before both Renji and Ikkaku drew their Zanpakutos and pointed to each other with it.
"Renji! Stop it! What's gotten into you?" Rukia questioned, grabbing from Renji's arm, just to freeze as Renji hugged her.
"What a cute bun-…gah!" Renji let out as Rukia punched his chin.
"I think Tomoyo-hime's chocolate has something that makes them see things…" Izuru pointed out weakly, trying to make Shuuhei stop eating Rangiku's poisonous chocolate.
"Eh? But it should just have ingredients you need to make chocolate," Tomoyo stated slowly while Rukia tried to push away Renji who saw her as a bunny. In the meantime, Ikkaku was swinging his sealed Zanpakuto. The Third Division's lieutenant glanced around the kitchen before he noticed a cupboard that was open. Walking up to it, he revealed an open bag of old mushrooms. Looking slightly shocked at this discovery, Tomoyo turned toward Ikkaku and Renji.
"We've got to get them to the Fourth," she stated, feeling guilty for accidentally making Ikkaku and Renji behave like that. By now Ikkaku was poking Shuuhei who was barely moving.
"It can't be that bad," Rangiku whined to Shuuhei from the side, before she grabbed her chocolate just to spit it away. "What happened to my chocolate?! Rukia, did you spoil it when you froze it?"
"Huh?" Rukia questioned while trying to push away Renji. "No, I didn't."
"My chocolate was just PERFECT and now it's ruined!" Rangiku whined back, making a tick mark appear on Rukia's forehead.
"Everybody, please calm down!" Tomoyo begged, waving her arms to try and calm down everybody. Yet she had to dodge as Ikkaku threw some chocolate at her.
"Oi! That almost hit to 'neesan!" Rukia shouted, grabbing some partly liquid chocolate and throwing it toward Ikkaku. The bald man quickly pulled Rangiku in front of himself as a shield, making her whole front and face smear into the chocolate.
"Rangiku-san! I didn't mean to…" Rukia started but soon got too covered in chocolate goop as Rangiku had thrown it into her. This ticked off the short Shinigami, prompting all of them to throw chocolate at each other, while Izuru and Tomoyo tried to calm down them.
"E-everybody! Calm down!" Izuru tried to calm down them, just to quickly fall down as hard chocolate hit him on his head.
"Kira-san!" Tomoyo breathed out in shock as she pulled him behind the counter. To her relief, he had merely gotten a big bump on his head.
"This is all your fault!" Rangiku roared to Rukia who just threw more chocolate toward her.
"Go down, red pineapple!" Ikkaku shouted to Renji who dodged the chocolate mass just to pile up a huge mass of it and balled it into a ball.
"I'm NOT a red pineapple!" Renji roared and threw the ball just to gasp as the ball smacked the middle of Byakuya's chest. The Sixth Division captain had been alerted by the Kuchiki mansions' servants to come and check the situation in the kitchen as the noise was getting rowdier and rowdier by the minute.
Silence landed in the kitchen as everybody had frozen from fear as they observed Byakuya's expression. The captain scanned the huge kitchen, just to focus on pair of legs that peeked behind a counter. Slowly, from behind the corner appeared Tomoyo who looked miserably at her husband. Without hesitation, Byakuya drew his blade in a menacing manner, making everybody erupt into shouting of 'stop it!'
"I'm fine, Byakuya!" Tomoyo's voice pierced through the chorus of voices, making Byakuya stop. A soft sigh escaped his lips as he sheathed his Zanpakuto again.
"Though…I think others aren't…" Tomoyo continued as she finally stood up from behind the counter. She looked at the mess they all had made and the fallen Shinigami. Trying to keep up a brave façade, she swallowed back any feelings of misery as now wasn't any time to feel sorry for herself.
"We need to take Kira-san, Hisagi-san, Madarame-san and Renji-kun to Fourth. Kira-san got a bump to his head, Hisagi-san has food poisoning, and Madarame-san and Renji-kun…also have a kind of food poisoning," Tomoyo listened, sweat dropping at the end of her words. With a slow nod, Byakuya made a slow motion with his hand. From behind him appeared several servants who quickly took Izuru and Shuuhei to the Fourth, while Ikkaku and Renji were herded to the Fourth. After that, a few maids came to the kitchen and told Rukia and Rangiku to follow them to the baths as they needed one. Sheepishly, the two women looked at each other apologizing manner as they followed the maids to the baths.
"Rukia…I'm sorry," Rangiku told the ravennette who too muttered her apology as they went. The only ones who stayed in the kitchen were Tomoyo and Byakuya.
Only now when things had settled down, Tomoyo couldn't help but feel embarrassed and ashamed. She had once again messed up her Valentine's chocolate.
Looking down to the dirty floor, she soon felt how a hand touched her cheek gently. Lifting her eyes up, she could see Byakuya's reassuring look.
"Byakuya…" she started softly, wanting to apologize. Yet her husband shook his head slightly to show her there wasn't anything to apologize for as he was only glad Tomoyo hadn't gotten hurt. Gently, Byakuya tilted Tomoyo's head, before he leaned toward her and pressed his forehead against hers.
"Byakuya?" Tomoyo questioned in a small, slightly confused tone as she gazed into her husband's eyes. Her husband let out a soft sigh as he merely gazed back at her.
"It doesn't really matter even if you couldn't make me Valentine's chocolate," Byakuya told his wife who looked at him in a puzzled manner. "Any gift that I get from you is a perfect Valentine's gift."
"Byakuya!" Tomoyo breathed out softly, feeling how warmth filled her heart. A soft smile bloomed on her lips as she gently placed her hands on top of Byakuya's shoulders, able to reach him while he was leaning toward her.
"Thank you," she said, feeling much better and more confident than earlier. "I'll keep your words in my mind."
A low hum escaped Byakuya's lips as he then leaned in and gave Tomoyo a kiss on the lips. The woman melted into it, the kiss feeling extra sweet as they kissed for a short time.
"I don't really want to break this moment between us, but there is much to do," Tomoyo told her husband quietly, who merely nodded his head with understanding. Slowly, the duo pulled away from each other and Byakuya ordered the servants to clean up the kitchen. He then bid Tomoyo farewell as she wanted to visit the Fourth Division and apologize to the four men.
By the time Tomoyo got there, Izuru's bump had gotten smaller, Shuuhei's food poisoning was already in much better condition and neither Renji nor Ikkaku were hallucinating. She apologized to them profound, but the men quickly forgave her and claimed it wasn't her fault and that they were alright. Once she had apologized and sworn to Unohana she wouldn't make chocolate any more or at least make anyone taste test it without at first consulting her, she went to apologize to Rangiku and Rukia.
The two women had had a long heartfelt conversation with each other and apologized to each other. So, by the time Tomoyo got to them, they ended up merely hugging and sobbing their apologies to her.
"Aaah! I still don't have Valentine's gift…" Rangiku whined while Rukia nodded her head to Rangiku, agreeing with her words.
"Well, Byakuya told me any gift that I would give to him would be a good Valentine's gift," Tomoyo started slowly, obviously having a plan to make for him.
"I'm sure 'niisan will love whatever you'll make, 'neesan!" Rukia declared excitedly to Tomoyo as she got up. "In the meantime, I think I'll just buy my chocolates and add cute self-made cards to those."
"Oooh, that isn't a bad idea, Rukia," Rangiku declared as she hooked her arm around Rukia's in lockstep. "Let's go and do some shopping~!"
"See you later, 'neesan!" Rukia called to Tomoyo, who merely laughed lightly to the duo as they went.
"Yosh…time to do what I'm best at!" Tomoyo stated in a determined tone as she got up from the chair she had been sitting in. She then spent the whole afternoon and most of the night making her gift before in the morning she presented her gift to Byakuya.
"Happy Valetine's day, Byakuya!" Tomoyo wished to her husband, holding out a huge box to him. Nodding his head in a ceremonial manner, Byakuya took the box and slowly opened it. Inside the box was deep blue haori that had golden embroidery in its hem and sleeves. At the back of it was the Kuchiki clan's crest in the same golden thread. For a few long moments, Byakuya didn't say anything, before he looked at his wife.
"Thank you, Tomoyo," he said simply. Even though Byakuya's words had sounded almost cold to the outsider's ear Tomoyo had heard the deeper meaning and also the warmth in her husband's voice that he only reserved for her.
A lovely smile bloomed on Tomoyo's lips as she looked at her husband tenderly before she nodded her head to him.
"Of course," Tomoyo answered, her words sounding almost as if she'd said 'I love you too, my dear'.
Slowly, Byakuya leaned toward a kiss to which Tomoyo answered joyfully. This was going to be one of the many best Valentine's Days between them.