Erm, I blame writers block?
As Fate Would Have It Chapter 5.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Chapter 5: changing tides.
"As You Make Your Bed, so you must lie in it." ~Daniel J. Boorstein.
That morning, Momo groggily got up at 5:45 am and began to get ready for her first day of filming. As she rode to the studio she happily kept her mind off of anything having to do with Toshiro. Sure seeing him last night had almost been the highlight of the night, but she had a job to do and he was still with Karin and it didn't look like he was planning to leave her any time soon.
'I swear to God, if I get a invitation to their wedding I might just kill myself.'
Momo shook her head, she shouldn't be acting like this, since when had she become so petty and shallow?
'I should be happy for Toshiro even if he decides to marry Karin. Karins right, I had my chance…I shouldn't ruin theirs.'
Momo arrived at the filming studio and stumbled past everyone still slightly sleepy, she didn't take note of Kira who had come into the room and his shocked face as she ignored him in her half asleep state. Suddenly Momo made a quick beeline towards her savior: Coffee.
"Coffee!" She cried out in happiness.
Toshiro who had come to oversee the music part of the movie stood in a corner with Kira, Ulquiorra and a few other of the male workers, he smirked as he watched momos antics. He almost smiled as he remembered when they were younger and all the sleepovers they'd usually have, he was completely used to momos morning routines. So the whole ignoring him as she walked in didn't affect him as it did Kira.
He was broken out of his thoughts as he heard a sharp whistle next to him, one of her co-stars who's name escaped him…
"Damn, Momo is not bad looking. Id tap that." He smirked to the other guys, as they watched momo plop down in her chair coffee in hand talking to the people around her.
"You know it dude, good call. Shes a cute one." His other friend smirked.
Ulquiorra had shaken his head at them and walked away from the group, he hated conversations like this. Toshiro watched him walk away and contemplated leaving but stopped when they turned their attention towards him and Kira.
"What about you Kira?" The first guy asked.
"Oh um well you see, ive already dated Momo…in college." He said sheepishly.
"Wow, man you are lucky" One guy whistled.
"What about you Toshiro?"
Toshiro glared towards the 2 guys who were waiting patiently and expectantly for his answer.
One of the guys in the back of the group whispered "Hey, Hey aren't they like best friends?"
"Yea I think so." Kira replied to the guy. "Since they were really little."
"Oh dude. Um sorry for talking bout your friend like that." The first guy said a little embarrassed. Toshiros anger was almost infamous in town and none of them wanted to be on the receiving end, and they had just talked about his best friend, for one thing they were sure that they were screwed.
Toshiro sighed and closed his eyes and left the group.
"Dude you are so lucky he didn't beat you up! He could of killed you!" The guy in the back whispered frantically.
"Did anyone notice how he never answered?" The second guy said.
The rest nodded. Surely it couldn't mean he felt that way about his best friend.
"He has Karin remember? that's why he didn't answer." Kira sighed.
The others just made affirmative grunts, that answer was more plausible.
The rest of the filming day was pretty much mundane. Just repetitive lines and the same scenes over and over again.
Momo was ecstatic however, the thrill of being in a movie, making it, acting, it was almost to much for her. Why hadn't she tried this before? Acting was amazing. She was almost grateful for what had happened all those summers ago. But always remembering how she got into acting or the things that made her act, they always lead the parts of the trip she'd wish to erase, they'd play over and over again in her head, like a bad movie.
As Momo bid the rest of her fellow actors and the few producers that were there she was happy to see Rukia waiting for her by her car.
"rukia!" Momo cheered happily diving towards her best friends arms outstretched.
Toshiro watched from the doorway, chuckling slightly. Momo hadn't changed even after all these years. Rukia saw him from the corner of her eyes, and surprised Toshiro by sending him a cold, harsh glare over Momos shoulder.
He had never figured out what had made everyone hate him so much. It was perplexing, but he shrugged it aside when he saw Karin walking towards him. He quickly diverted his attention from momo and rukia and put it on Karin. He greeted her and then set off towards his car.
'I'll be glad when this is over.' Karin thought angrily. Though nothing had happened between him and momo, she was still cautious.
"Oh! Karin! Wait up." Momo's voice rang out from behind her. "Here could you give this to toshiro, we haven't had a chance to catch up yet."
Momo handed her a slip of paper.
"Oh, um sure." Karin shrugged walking away. Karin unfolded the paper and saw momos number on the paper. A smirk formed on Karins face, she crumpled up the paper and shoved it in her coat pocket. Like hell she would give Toshiro momos number.
Weeks passed and filming had been just about completed. Momo sat at home fuming on the couch.
"What up?" Rukia asked walking into the room.
"He still has the nerve to ignore me!" Momo yelled.
"Who?"
"Toshiro that's who! I gave him my number and told him to call me so we could catch up on the first day of filming and now its almost over and he still continues to ignore me!" momo yelled throwing her magazine across the room.
"Maybe he lost it? Are you sure you gave it to him?" Rukia asked.
"no he doesn't lose anything. Wait, I didn't give it to him…I gave it to Karin! Do you think she lost it on purpose?" Momo asked incredulously.
"That is a likely possibility." Rukia sighed sitting down at the table.
The doorbell though brought her right back out of her seat. "Momo I swear if it is another fan of yours im kicking you out of the house."
Though to Rukias surprise once she opened the door, she saw Ichigo standing there.
"Oh hey Ichigo…" Rukia said oddly. "Momo! You have another box!"
Momo dashed out of nowhere and swiped up the box opening it in a hurry.
"What the box for?" Ichigo asked. "Oh and happy birthday though it was yesterday"
"Thanks Ichigo." Momo laughed. Once she opened the box she saw a small charm sitting there. "Another one!"
"Wow, you got another one?" rukia laughed.
"Another one what?" Ichigo asked.
"Every holiday or special occasion, someone sends momo a charm for a charm bracelet she go 5 years ago." rukia explained.
"Oh, wait you don't know who it is?" Ichigo asked.
"Nope not a clue." Momo sighed. "Oh gotta go! Bye guys!"
"So how you been?" Ichigo asked.
"Fine. What about yourself?" Rukia said monotonously
"Good Good." Ichigo nodded. "Um, so"
"What?" Rukia asked tiredly.
"About us…" Ichigo started unsurely, he had never been good with words. Rukia however froze, she knew even though they had ended it awhile ago she still sort of felt something for ichigo. "I want to,"
"try again?" Rukia said hopefully.
"Yes." Ichigo smiled. "I want to try again."
"Good cuz I do to." Rukia smirked, grabbing a fistful of Ichigos shirt and pulling him down to her level and kissing him, something she had wanted to do for so long. To her joy, Ichigo returned her kiss back full force, deepening the kiss, by nibbling on her bottom lip asking for entrance, which she happily obliged to. After awhile both of them broke apart, needing air, but smirking at one another. This was something they had been waiting for.
Later, momo ran a hand through her hair as she sat in her chair at the movie set, conveniently a few feet away from Toshiro. She had been slightly agitated all morning and something was not sitting well in her stomach.
"Um toshiro?" momo called a little unsurely.
"what?"
"are you mad? You havent called." Momo said looking away.
"No. and what do you mean momo?" Toshiro asked turning to face her.
"What do I mean? what do I mean?" momo shrieked. By this time most of her co-stars and the others in the room had faced them, wanting to see what the commotion is about.
'I cant believe hes acting like he didn't get my number. Does our friendship mean nothing?' momo thought angrily.
"You haven't called or tried to talk to me at all! You have my number so why aren't you trying to repair our friendship? Its been 5 years since we actually had a civil conversation with each other, even though we've known each other since before we could remember." Momo fumed. Eyebrows of the onlookers were raised at the statements.
"Youre not making sense." Toshiro said his anger quickly rising. "I don't have your number!"
Momo froze her retort dying on her tongue. "y-you don't?"
"No."
"Did Karin not give it to you? I gave it to her…" Momo trailed off. "She didn't give it to you? She's got rid of it? Does she not want me to talk to you?"
Toshiro felt his anger rise. It didn't matter if she was his oldest friend, no one insulted his girlfriend. He eyes grew cold as the turned into slits. Momo vaguely recognized the look, and then she realized he was pissed.
Toshiro walked towards her and stopped bringing his face to her eye level his nose almost touching her.
'he's taller then me.' was momo's only thought as he had to lean down to meet her eyes.
"I do not care how long we've known each other, no one insults Karin to my face momo. No one." He gave her a slight glare and stalked out, just as the producer announced that the day of filming was just about over.
Momo stood rooted in her spot, her eyes wide in disbelief and fear. The rest of the day really passed in a blur to her, she was slightly aware of her small congratulations for Ichigo and Rukia, and the rest of the day spent curled up on the couch being comforted by Rukia and retelling her the story of what had happened with her and Toshiro.
The next day which was the last day of shooting the movie, after it had all been finished and wrapped up. The cold air between Momo and Toshiro was noticeably by all, and sparks seemed to fly when their eyes clashed.
'He overreacted. I mean it was just a guess.' momo thought sourly.
'momo's acting like a child. She should apologize for what she said about Karin.' Toshiro reasoned. It didn't occur to him, that he was the one acting like a child and overreacting.
Before anything could be said between the two, two simultaneous ring tones surprised the pair, as they exchanged a wide eyed look of surprise.
As momo and toshiro answered their phones, rukia waltzed in looking for her roommate.
"momo its time to- oh." Rukia stopped mid sentence.
A few minutes later Toshiro closed his phone his eyes downcast and momo, nearly dropped hers as her hand flew up to her mouth to hold back a sob, as tears spilled over her eyes. Toshiro gave her a sad look and then walked out of the room, Rukia immediately was at Momo's side as she comforted her and they left the set.
"Momo, what happened?" Rukia asked worriedly as she drove momo home.
"Granny, the woman me and Toshiro spent most of our childhood with, she, she died." momo said sadly.
The rest of their ride was in silence.
The next day momo had packed a couple days worth of clothes and hopped on the first train, and headed up to where she and Toshiro grew up.
A few hours later, she was greeted with a wave of nostalgia.
Coincidently on the ride there, she met up with Toshiro as the two of them walked through the village, momo was given sad looks and condolences. Though, she noted sadly, Toshiro was met with glares and harsh words whispered about him.
"Its still the same." Momo whispered to Toshiro, who glanced at her and gave her his usual half smirk with the laughter in his eyes, and momo was reminded of times before their separation, and college, and dating. Times when they were innocent carefree kids.
They didn't want to stay in their grannys house just yet, so the two decided on hotel rooms, until after the funeral.
A few days later, it was the day of the funeral. Momo and Toshiro stood a few feet apart from each other, as the funeral dragged on. Momo hoped desperately that it would end soon, before she began to cry uncontrollably. Toshiro stood stoically still, his eyes hard, not moving from the casket in front of them.
Toshiro and Momo had both noticed that none of their relatives were here, after all on their grannys emergency list they were the only people.
"Her two greatest treasures in life were the two children she watched for a few years, Hitsugaya Toshiro and Hinamori Momo." The priest said in a loud monotone voice.
Momo felt all of her defenses fall as she burst into tears, her sobbing hitched when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her, and a chin rest atop her head. She looked up a bit and saw that it was toshiro, feeling a little safer and slightly comforted she allowed herself to drop all her defenses as she wrapped her arms around him and cried.
They left the funeral, and returned to Granny's house. The house still smelled of chocolate cookies which granny would make for them every chance they'd get. It was a wonder they weren't fat kids with all the cookies they ate. With a sad smile Momo set out her bed mat on the floor where she had slept so many times, with Toshiro right at her side. At the moment neither cared about how morally wrong people would have thought it would be to sleep not even 2 feet away from Toshiro, but it was comforting and nostalgic, and momo and toshiro couldn't deny that, that night the slept better than they had in a long time.
While momo slept she curled closer the Toshiro and she awoke with his arm thrown around her, and her face in her chest. She smiled to herself as she closed her eyes again, she could of stayed like forever, and she wished she could wake like this every morning, but a quick thought of this brought the image of Karin to her eyes, and momo couldn't do it anymore.
'I give up. I cant take him from her like that. Its not right. At least not for right now.'
Momo slowly removed his arm fro herself and set it down next to his body, she then slowly moved to the other edge of her bed mat and rolled over so she was facing away from Toshiro and she willed herself to go back to sleep.
Toshiro had always been a light sleeper, and he was already fully awake before momo was, so he knew how compromising their position could have been to some people, but he fondly remembered all the times as children when he would wake up with momo attached to his side, or their hands connected. He noticed when she woke up to and he carefully acted like he was still asleep. He was a bit sad though when she moved away from him and he tried to go back to sleep, but without her steady breathing next to him or her warmth, it wasn't that easy.
The rest of the trip passed by uneventfully, mostly recalling memories, sad passer-bys, and people who'd come and offer their condolences to the pair, but mostly to Momo. Though they had one startling surprise when a lawyer came the next day.
"Can I help you?" Momo asked unsurely.
Toshiro just raised one eyebrow in a questioning glance at the man.
"Oh yes, Hinamori Momo I presume?" He asked.
"yes that's me."
"Here I have your, uh, grandmothers last will and testament. In it she stated that the two of you are now the co-owners of the house…and the items in it. I just need you to sign here accepting that." The lawyer finished.
"Oh um okay." Momo said signing the document after quickly reading it through.
Toshiro shortly followed suit.
"So this is ours now?" Momo said as soon as the lawyer left.
"I guess so." Toshiro shrugged.
"Lets invite everyone!" Momo said happily.
"What? Why?" Toshiro asked surprised, he was happy that the past arguments were behind them now.
"We should let them see where we grew up, since you know for the longest time our parents never took care of us." Momo gave a cold harsh laugh.
Toshiro cracked a smile, and gave a small laugh. Momo tried to ignore the way it made her heart flutter. After that they invited Karin, Ichigo, and Rukia to come over, since Renji and Matsumoto were to busy to come.
The next day, as momo and Toshiro woke up quickly to prevent their friends to see them sleeping like that and they prepared for them to come over.
On the train Rukia slept the whole way their as Karin complained and looked out the window boredly and Ichigo listened to his music. Once off it was safe to say they were completely lost.
"Did we ever give them directions?" Momo asked after it had passed the time when they were supposed to of gotten there.
"Nope" Toshiro grinned widely.
"Eh. They'll find us eventually." Momo said joining in on the fun.
"I'm so lost!" Karin yelled out kicking the ground.
Rukia and Ichigo just exchanged an amused glance.
"Do you need help?" A woman said walking up to them.
"Yes um do you know where Toshiro Is staying? Toshiro Hitsugaya? Oh and Momo Hinamori?" Karin asked.
"Oh. Him that cursed child. I cant goodbye." She said quickly running off.
The 3 exchanged a worried look.
"What do they mean cursed child? That's like the fifth person who wouldn't help us because of Toshiro." Rukia sighed.
"I know where those two are." A older woman said walking up to them.
"Really where?" Ichigo asked.
"I can show you." She said as she walked off the others following her.
"What do they mean cursed child?" Karin asked.
"Oh that poor boy. Since neither of their parents were around that much, the 2 of them spent most of their childhood growing up here. All the villagers hated Toshiro and thought he was cursed because of his unusual hair and eye color and his cold personality. Well everyone except for Momo and the woman they stayed with who they called granny. Here I have a few pictures of them." The woman said handing them a slightly torn and weathered pictures of two kids, a dark haired girl, momo, and a white haired boy, Toshiro.
"Aw so cute." rukia cooed.
"They were so short." Ichigo laughed.
"Yea." Karin said half heartedly.
"Oh heres my favorite." The old woman laughed. "The two of them were always so adorable when they were together like in their own little world." She handed them another picture, this one was in slightly better shape than the rest, it was of Toshiro and Momo curled up on the ground next to each other hands intertwined and both fast asleep.
Karin felt a twinge of something unrecognizably in her heart, as Rukia and Ichigo joked and commented on the picture.
"Oh lets hurry and go. Don't want to keep them waiting." The old woman said taking off again.
After a short while they came upon a relatively secluded house with a river running near it. A short knock on the door later revealed no one to be home, as soon as they were about to leave a bubble of laughter from behind the house sent the 4 of them searching for the people responsible. When they rounded the house they saw Momo and Toshrio in the river with water up to their mid calf, and it seemed they were having a water fight, though on step later momo had fallen in and toshiro laughed at her while she said something they couldn't hear.
It was truly a sight none of them had every seen before, in the whole time they'd had known him, none of them had ever seen him this happy. Karin, Ichigo and Rukia had to resist the urge to laugh when momo tackled him in to the river, but resulting in both people going under, after a short while they came out of the water drenched but still laughing. They had yet to notice their guests.
"Oh these two never change. Always playing in the river. They used to do the cutest thing, Momo was always slower than toshiro to leave so when he'd go on ahead of her somewhere he'd always glance behind him to make sure she was coming or she was at least okay." The old woman smiled.
But when the 3 turned around to tell her something she was gone.
"oh hey guys!" Momo called running over to them. Toshiro a few steps behind her as always.
"Hey" Toshiro greeted Ichigo Rukia and Karin after they had already greeted momo.
"Where'd that old woman go?" Karin asked toshiro already clinging to his arm.
"What old woman?" Momo asked ringing her hair out.
"The one who helped find this house, she was a little taller than me, short gray hair brown eyes, scar running down her forearm." Rukia explained.
"Yea, she left really fast." Ichigo said looking around for her still.
Toshiro and Momo exchanged a small knowing smile between the two of them.
"Well that impossible." Toshiro said after awhile.
"Huh? No its not." Karin defended.
"It is, unless you saw a ghost, the only woman who fits that description died when we still lived here." Momo explained. Kairn Ichigo and Rukia stared wide eyed in shock.
"She gave us these pictures though." Ichigo said rubbing his head. But when he reached for the pictures in his pockets all that he found were ashes. "What the hell?"
"She died in a fire." Toshiro said.
Toshiro and Momo led the others inside, and gave them the tour of the house. Later that night, while Toshiro slept by Ichigo and Momo was off in the other room with Rukia and Karin on her sides, both people noticed how they sort of missed the presence of the other one securely next to them. Momo fell into a fitful sleep after awhile and Toshiro left to go sit on the porch. What seemed to be a few minutes later, which was actually a few hours later Toshiro was startled to see momo come and join him on the porch.
"cant sleep?" She asked.
"Yea what about you?" Toshiro asked.
"For awhile. Its weird being in this house with so many people, Im used to the two of us and granny." momo said quietly.
"Yea me too." Toshiro admitted after awhile.
After that the two of them fell into a comfortably silence as they looked out at the night sky, eventually going back to their respective beds and rooms for the night. Both people finally being able to fall asleep.
When they had all decided to leave and go home, Momo, Rukia, and Ichigo had taken a later train, so Toshiro and Karin where to leave first. Though it made her heart flutter when Toshiro was getting on the train he stopped and glanced back at her offering her a quick half smile and then getting on.
It was with that, that momo knew she was going after her goal again, because in that one instance she knew things had changed, and they were going to be good for her. Things were looking like they might go back to normal again.
'Sorry Karin. Its my time now.'
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder." ~American Proverb.