Chapter Two: Prince Charming

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Author-person: Hello, hello… Terribly sorry for the delay! This has been collecting cobwebs in my 'Unfinished Fanfics' folder for some time now… I thank LeyCoo for reminding me that I needed to update this. :D

This is the last chapter of Snow Cone, my first ever HitsuRuki two-shot. Oh, and I forgot to mention this before, but this story is set in the Meiji era. Sort of. Kenshin Himura's time perhaps(?).

I hope you guys like this.

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I don't get out much. So it really was no surprise if I'd somehow managed to get run over by a rickshaw (as my would-be husband had said), or get squashed by a rampaging horse on my rare walks.

Hmm….

Perhaps I was just caught up in the moment.

I'd hardly recovered from the traumatizing experience I had just gone through a few short moments ago. So, I was not entirely sure whether the odd sparkling things floating around Hitsugaya were the cause of some sort of aftershock, or if they were just the effect of the harsh sunlight beating down on us on that hot summer day.

I was probably seeing things.

I MUST be seeing things.

"Oi,"

There was no other logical explanation as to why I was eyeing him like he was the god-like Adonis he clearly wasn't. I should just calm down, reassess my thoughts and--

"Hey, snap out of it."

He put his long tan finger under my chin, and I felt my open mouth shut with an almost audible click. I blinked in surprise and realized that I was still in the white-haired boy's arms, staring at his brilliant teal orbs that were, at the moment, glinting with mixed amusement and curiosity that left me blushing like a silly little girl with a crush.

"Staring is rude, you know." He sort of drawled, his expression irritable, but his tone hinted with a little humor.

I blinked pathetically, unable to find anything to say to him and bowed my head in embarrassment. I couldn't really do anything else. "I'm sorry."

I realized that I had my hands fisted around the front of his clothes, my knuckles terribly white from clutching the fabric too hard. I would have let out a small gasp if I wasn't aware of how he would react to my being shy. So I let go of the clothing altogether before shifting slightly so that I could stand up from the ground. He held me in place.

"I would very much appreciate it if you let me get on my feet." My irritation quickly came back after taking its remarkably short vacation.

He just arched a very fine white brow and sighed wearily. "You're not hurt, are you? Anywhere at all?"

"No."

"Hm."

And before I knew it, I was already standing on the sidewalk, his warm hand holding mine as if it were the most fragile thing in the world.

I was faintly aware of the stares that the audience we'd somehow gained were giving us. And I managed to get twice as uncomfortable as I would normally have been. I fidgeted nervously and wished that Hitsugaya would hear my mental protests against just standing there in the middle of an already gossiping crowd. My eye twitched as I heard someone comment how… adorable we looked together.

Yes. Adorable. Could you believe how ridiculous these people were?

"Let's go."

Escaping the prying eyes and flapping mouths of the townsfolk was never easy, at least not for someone like me. But Hitsugaya made it seem like the easiest thing in the world. He dodged questions, waved off a horde of worried old women and winced at the slaps on his back by a couple of brawny men who I recognized as carpenters.

"Come on!" He hissed and tugged on my arm. I half-expected him to wrench it off, but he did no such thing.

He breezed through the people without so much as a shrug when he was asked by a few women if he was alright. Most of them were starry-eyed and adopting strange high-pitched voices that seemed to reverberate in my ears even as we had long passed them. I found myself irritated. Partly because I do not quite approve of flirtatious behavior, and partly because they had directed said flirtatious behavior on my fiancé.

I blinked and felt my cheeks heating up. I take it all back. I wasn't the slightest bit irritated. Of course not!

"We're going to see the town physician." Hitsugaya finally slowed down, still clutching on my hand as we crossed the narrow wooden bridge that stretched over a rivulet.

I wanted to protest, really.. I felt absolutely fine! Well, except for the fact that there was a sharp pain on my shoulder… It was bearable, and I felt no need to see a doctor. The pain would eventually pass anyway.

I opened my mouth to say something, but he simply shook his white head as if he knew what I was thinking. "We're going to see the physician." A tone of finality was evident in his voice. He spared me one brief glance and walked on, seemingly brooding about something unknown to me.

We walked in silence.

….

"I'm afraid I have to bandage you up, dear." The physician, Unohana, smiled at me and patted me on the shoulder gently. I winced. "Oh, sorry."

Hitsugaya stood at one corner of the room examining some medical equipment. He hadn't said a single word since we arrived, and I secretly thought that maybe he was having second thoughts about our engagement. It was a good thing, really. I didn't want to get married to anyone like him anyway… it would be far too troublesome and--

"Ehem."

"What is it?" I blinked as Hitsugaya turned his head to face the physician. I had no clue as to why she was eyeing him like that, so I was pretty much as lost as the white-haired boy was.

"Kuchiki-san has to get bandaged, Hitsugaya-san."

"I think you have mentioned that earlier…"

"Oh yes. And it seems that you don't mind being in this room as I tend to her… Ah… but it would seem alright, seeing as she is your fiancée after all."

"What are you sayi--?" His face scrunched up at bit… then, he stiffened. "Oh. I-I see. My apologies."

I reddened as the realization came to me, but I don't think I've seen anyone blush like my supposed fiancé before. He cleared his throat audibly, looking very befuddled and confused at what he was going to do with himself. It was only when the physician had told him to remove himself from the room did Hitsugaya manage to re-organize his scattered thoughts and become more or less coherent again. But even after all that, he still stammered out many more apologies and stumbled clumsily toward the shoji door.

….

After I had gotten my shoulder tended to, we walked out into the warm afternoon sun and proceeded to stroll along the bustling streets of Kyoto. There was an awful lot going on… and I don't think I'll have enough words or visual capacity to describe everything that was happening. There were people. Lots of them. Doing different things, at different paces. There wasn't an idle soul in the place.

I took in as much as this town had to offer, and realized that because of my rather isolated lifestyle, I had missed out on a lot of other things… I seldom had the chance to see what this town was like out of the Kuchiki house's horse-drawn carriages, or walked on these dusty streets for more than a few meters. It all felt very new to me, and I wouldn't have believed that I grew up on these streets for the first six years of my life.

There was an odd feeling at the pit of my stomach. Shame, I think. Because I had been living a life of luxury and had turned my back on my origins. Turned my back on who I truly was. A classic example of someone from rags to riches.

I sighed a little too audibly and the white-haired boy who had been walking in front of me, turned.

"Is there a problem?" He said with an unreadable expression on his (need I admit?) handsome face.

I shook my head and scuffed my sandals on the dirt road. I didn't feel like telling my troubles to anyone right now, much less getting counseling from a stranger. A stranger I supposedly hated. A stranger I was going to marry in the near future.

Hitsugaya only tilted his head to the side. His expression had softened, I could tell. Because he looked so much better with a kinder face.

I blinked at the thought.

"Come," he pulled on my hand again, this time much gentler. "I know just the thing to cheer you up."

My brain kind of died right then and there. Him trying to cheer me up was the last thing on my mind after all. What was going on in that head of his? Was my, er, depression that apparent that he deemed it necessary for a sudden attitude change?

I think I pulled a face, a rather funny one probably, because Hitsugaya was laughing his stupid head off for the rest of the walk.

….

It was a bit strange that he was leading me toward the theatre house with the prospect of cheering me up. Kabuki was the last thing that would have made my mood any better, much less geisha performances. I had always felt a little uncomfortable around them for some reason… even if they were not anything like prostitutes. They were elegant, refined and well-educated in theatrical and musical arts, that much I knew. But I always felt uneasy when I was near them, or when we were simply passing by the okiya.

"Wait here." Hitsugaya said with determined eyes and a commanding voice and ran off to the general direction on the theatre. I tried to stop him, but his being vertically challenged proved to be useful when escaping incapacitated fiancées. All I could manage to do was touch the hem of his sleeve and let out a strangled 'stop' before he disappeared into the crowd.

I sighed and leaned back against the nearest cherry blossom tree. I decided that I would wait for him to come back and endure the performance we were going to watch. He was thoughtful enough to cheer me up, and the least I could do was to watch some dances and verse reciting with him… Apparently he thought that a little entertainment would erase all my troubles. Noblemen often thought that way.

I looked down on my polished sandals and smiled wistfully. They used to be coarse. Worn and tattered. And once, I even walked the streets barefooted…

I'd tucked the memories of my childhood back in the recesses of my mind and found myself unearthing snippets of happier times I'd long forgotten… but during this little walk, it all came flooding back to me. It never occurred to me, when I stepped out of the Kuchiki House, that I would be visiting the streets that I used to play hide-and-seek in, nor had I thought that I would have the chance to see that old man my friends and I used to steal apples from (I could have sworn that he was staring at me).

It was a trip to memory lane. And it was every bit as bitter-sweet as they said it would be.

I looked at my hands stared at them, tracing the lines with my fingers. Once upon a time, they were calloused and rough. I wondered how much it took to make them as soft and smooth as they are right now.

"Here." Hitsugaya had returned and was shoving a snow cone right at my face. I blinked. "It's a snow cone. Take it." He looked away and proceeded to eat his own iced treat.

I took the cone, our fingers slightly brushing, and stared at it. "I thought we were going to watch Kabuki?"

He looked at me, obviously incredulous and shook his white head "Of course not. I tend to fall asleep barely ten minutes after the performances start." he raised a perfectly arched brow, "did you want to watch?"

I took a tentative lick at my snow cone, found myself filled with its coldness and pressed my lips against the colored ice. I looked up at Hitsugaya and found him staring at me. He went a little red in the cheeks and turned away.

I blushed as well. "No. I think this is much better than watching Kabuki." He seemed to find this a good answer and started nodding in a sagely manner.

"Would you mind telling me your problem now?"

Hitsugaya leaned against the spot beside me and cast me a sideways glance. I felt genuinely touched that he was that willing to listen to my petty troubles and found myself wanting to tell him everything.

" I was… born in the streets. Did nii-sama not inform you that I was adopted?" He shook his head and I swallowed hard, "I wasn't allowed to go out much after I'd been taken in the Kuchiki House, so I hadn't had that many chances to visit my old haunts. It's just that… I have a lot of memories outside of the mansion… most of them, happy ones I'd shared with childhood friends. You could say that… I was being sentimental."

Hitsugaya looked at me with understanding eyes. "And you miss being… free?"

I nodded and pressed the shaved ice against my mouth once more. I was happy. Very happy when I was finally accepted into nobility… but I couldn't deny the fact that I missed stealing apples from that balding old man, spending loud days with my friends and running barefoot along the streets.

The white-haired aristocrat sighed and watched as the crowd ebbed and flowed in the distance. He closed his turquoise eyes for a moment.

"If it makes you feel better, I won't treat you like a princess." He said, and I blinked at him with wide eyes.

"I won't scold you when you make rude comments in front of old noblemen, I won't slap your hand when you don't use your chopsticks properly. You can slouch as much as you want, you can run across the halls of my mansion… You can even bring your friends over if you do so wish…"

He turned to face me, a small smile playing on his lips. "You can spent cold, depressing nights on the rooftop… and I'll be there sitting with you and filling your sake cup with as much liquor as you want." Hitsugaya threw the colored paper cone in the nearest trash bin and seemed pleased that he did not miss.

There was something swelling in my chest, then. Something warm and fuzzy and I liked the feeling very much. There was even an odd tingling at the tips of my fingers and no, it wasn't the snow cone in my hands. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't feeling comfortable with him now. But Kuchiki Rukia is not a liar and I will openly admit that maybe…perhaps…possibly… he was not so bad after all.

The prospect of marrying this man in the future… seemed to make me a little bit happier.

"Hitsugaya--"

"Toushirou." He said firmly and took both of my hands in his. He was blushing and I was too distracted to notice that he was closing the distance between us. Hitsu-- Toushirou tip-toed and gently brushed his lips against mine. They were warm. I would not have guessed that he had just eaten shaved ice.

"Toushirou-san," I said. He grimaced at the honorific and found myself smiling at his expression. "Thank you."

He shrugged and looked away, red still coloring his cheeks.

"Let's take this one step at a time."

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Author-person: I was slightly hyperventilating while writing the last few scenes. XDDD It's not THAT fluffy, but when you're deprived of HitsuRuki for a few months, it kind of does that to you. That being the tendency to be over enthusiastic about some slightly sweet scenes.

I might do a fanart of this, so feel free to check out my deviantART account from time to time (the link is in my profile). Comment on the art is also very much appreciated. XDDD

The story ended up being anticlimactic, though Which is sort of disappointing, I'm sure. But I hope that some of you enjoyed this (even a little).

Error? I am only a review/PM away.

Thank you for reading and please review!