Author's Note: So, since this little story doesn't have many chapters I think it won't take long to publish all the chapters. Who knows, maybe I'll get it done before New Year?

Disclaimer: Bleach, yadayada, Kubo Tite, yadayada. Not mine, but his.

Chapter 2

Hinamori stifled a yawn. She looked over to the alarm clock on the nightstand next to their bed. Was it this late already? Still, she wanted to finish this chapter since the story was building up a climax. Oh, she and her love for reading. Which made her sacrifice her sleep and unintentionally also the sleep of Hitsugaya. Not that he would tell her that in her face, she doesn't need to know that he can't fall asleep until she falls asleep as well.

"...Nnngghh.", the young man groaned next to her. Hitsugaya shifted a bit, hoping she would take this as a sign that he was annoyed by the dim light.

Yup, he wouldn't say it in her face, but he didn't have to. She already knew. But still. "You said that I could stay up for 30 more minutes.", she said as she finished reading a sentence.

"How many minutes have passed since I told you that?", he asked very annoyed.

"...Around 10 minutes. Now be quiet and let me read." He sulked a little before shifting again, searching for a comfortable position to sleep. She stared a little at him and held in the laugh that threatened to escape her mouth. 'He may be an adult now, but he's still the same kid from all those years ago.'

Her eyes softened. Well he did grow taller than her, which saddend her. He didn't grow that much taller than her only 5 centimeters or so, much to her relief. She enjoyed being the taller one of the two, because she liked petting him on his head. Now it would just look weird if she tried that.

20 minutes left, eh? She better hurry then. Ah, let's see the main character is driving his daughter to her school. School... hmmm, now she thought about it, how was her time as a freshman? Her hands loosened their grip on the novel as she stared ahead of her, recalling the past.

Junior high school. The year when the ten year old Hitsugaya got introduced to the four years older Matsumoto Rangiku. Her initial reaction was that he looked like a punk with his gravity defying spiky hair, which for some reason got spikier as time went by. The twelve year old Hinamori assured her it was all natural. Somehow.

Matsumoto, being a popular student, wanted her friends who just entered junior high to feel welcome and how would she do that? Introducing them to her other friends of course! But not all her friends, if she did, half of the school would have to introduce themselves to Hitsugaya, Hinamori, Kira and Abarai. No, she chose her close friends instead. And so both Nanao Ise, Kotetsu Isane and her sister Kotetsu Kiyone popped up into their lives. The former two one grade higher than Matsumoto and already in high school. The latter was also a freshman. There were also Ichimaru and Hisagi, but they already knew them except for Hitsugaya. Abarai was shocked when he found out that his childhood friend Kuchiki Rukia also attended the same school. They haven't seen each other ever since she moved away with her brother, the head of the powerful Kuchiki family. And with her, the total of their once small circle of friends expanded to eleven people.

Being around with these many people means you got to know more about different people. Hitsugaya eventually found out that Hisagi practises to play the guitar, but horribly fails at it, Kuchiki and her obsession with a bunny called Chappy and Matsumoto's and Ichimaru's love for dried persimmon, which also happened to be the fruit Hitsugaya disliked the most. Speaking of food... what was Hinamori's favourite one?

Plums. He assumed that was her favourite food, since she always ate one or more during lunch. She always chewed on them slowly with a straight face as if she was inspecting the taste and texture of the stone fruit. He couldn't be any farther from the truth. Hinamori hated plums with a passion. She chewed slowly on the fruit, because she wanted it to feel the pain of being crushed to death. Now, she was very much aware that plums aren't a sentient being, but still. She wanted to imagine that they were.

The thing is, it was her mother who loved them. She always sneaked a handful of plums in her daughter's lunchbox and for her birthdays she would buy the raven-haired girl plum themed products. If it wasn't for her father, Hinamori's first name would be 'Ume' as in 'Plum' instead of Momo. No, he suggested that if they were going to name their daughter after a fruit anyway, it should be after anything but plums since he was overwhelmed enough with his wife's plum obsession. So they settled for peach instead.

So when Hitsugaya bought her a basket filled with plums for her birthday, he was met with silence from the raven-haired girl. She stared blankly at the basket and her mouth twitched. She turned her head to him after a few seconds.

"...Thank you, Hitsugaya-kun. I... appreciate it.", she said with a forced smile. "I...just.. mere words cannot express my gratitude."

Hitsugaya was a bit let down by her reaction. He thought she would at least try to hug him and he would then tell her to back off, so what went wrong? When Hinamori was busy having a staring contest with the contents of the basket, Abarai whispered to Hitsugaya, "Uh, I don't know how to break this to you, but she actually hates plums. Next time, give her some peaches, okay?"

Hitsugaya looked from Abarai back to Hinamori who was still busy staring at the plums. He wanted to slap himself in the face for giving her that basket as a present. From that day on Hitsugaya only vowed to buy her art supplies, books or something that has to do with peaches for her birthday. "...Okay."

Abarai patted the shorter boy on his shoulder. He was glad with the gift he bought her together with Kuchiki, she insisted that everyone should at least have one Chappy item and as far as he knew, Kuchiki was always right. For the most part.

"I also like to bake cookies, so I wouldn't mind if you bought me some supplies for that too."

Hitsugaya and Abarai both flinched when they heard a very amused voice from behind them. Hinamori heard what they've been saying and she chuckled at her dear friends. "Though, if you insist to buy me food you should listen to Abarai's advice." She moved closer to Hitsugaya and embraced him shortly, whispering, "Don't worry about the plums, I really do appreciate your gift." After that she went to talk to Kira who smiled softly at her, presenting his gift to her.

The white-haired boy who was a bit embarrased just watched her. She embraced him... and he didn't even get the chance to tell her to back off. He repressed the smile that almost made it to his face. Maybe next year.

Next schoolyear they got seperated to different classes. No one from the circle of friends sat together in the same class except for Kuchiki and Kotetsu Kiyone, making it only possible to see each other after school. Hinamori, Hitsugaya, Kira, Abarai and Kuchiki all turned out to be the top students of their classes. After Kuchiki came Kiyone being second place, sharing the title with her eternal rival Kotsubaki. Hitsugaya solely focussed on his work during schooltime and refused to make any new friends. Why should he? He already had a bunch of people he could trust, so he gave everyone from his class the cold shoulder who dared to talk to him. It was elementary school all over again with rumors going around about him.

"He's such a loner. I saw Miki-chan trying to approach him and he didn't even react." A girl with mahogony hair told her classmate after nudging her head his way.

"Pfff... What else is new? He never reacts. He just thinks he's too smart to hang out with the rest with us." The bespectacled girl replied while flipping her hair behind her shoulders.

The other girl covered her mouth with her hand, trying not to laugh. "So he doesn't have any friends at all?"

The short boy packed his textbooks in his schoolbag, not caring that people were talking about him.

"Ah, excuse me. Are you waiting for someone?"

He put his jacket on and then checked his desk one more time to make sure he didn't forget anything.

"Yeah, I'm waiting for- oh wait, I already found him."

Yup, everything was in his schoolbag alright. Now he ca-

"Hitsugaya-kun." Someone pet on his head, which irked him to no end. "Let's walk home together."

He slapped her hand away. "Just because you're taller than me doesn't give you the right to pet me, Hinamori."

She just waved his comment off and pulled on his sleeve. "Come on, you don't want to make grandma wait for you any longer than necessary, do you?"

He gave her a simple nod. He heard the surprised gasps from the two girls who were gossipping about him and snickered. Inside his head. Because nobody deserved the privilege of him making amused sounds except for his grandmother. Hinamori noticed it though, how his lips tugged upwards with one millimeter which made her smile too. Only her smile was way more visible than his.

Hinamori clasped her hands behind her back as they were walking on the streets while looking at the clear blue sky. "Did you have a nice day at school today?"

"It was everage, just like any other day." He swung his dark blue schoolbag over his shoulders with one hand while putting his other hand hand in his pocket. "Why do you ask?"

She skipped a few steps ahead of them and twirled around, her knee lenghth skirt flowing with her movements. "Because you were smiling!", she exclaimed happily. "And you almost never smile when your classmates are around."

He got... busted? No way she could have seen that, he was certain he maintained his impassive face that moment. He always maintained his impassive face perfectly. "No, I didn't. Ands it's not just my classmates, I never smile with anyone around." Except with his grandma, but you already knew that.

She slowed down so he could catch up to her and shook her head. "Ah, but you see, my dear Shiro-chan." He scowled at her upon hearing that name and even more when she pet his head again. "I can see through your emotionless mask you love to put on so much. In short, you totally smiled."

She pulled her hand away as a reflex when he was about to swat it away. He didn't want to believe it though. Since when could she tell his expressions apart? What happened to the 'only grandma may see me happy' rule he set up for himself all those years ago? He felt her hand again, this time on his shoulder and he watched her.

"You know.", she started off with a grin. "You should smile more often and if you don't want to do that when there are other people around... At least do it when you're with me. I'm your closest friend after all, right?"

Hitsugaya thought about it for a while. True, true, she was the closest person he had except for grandma. So should he also give her the privilege of showing his not so impassive yet still a bit impassive face from time to time? "You were imagining things. For the last time I did not smile or anything that suggested that I did."

Nah, she'll have to wait. He's not going to give in that easily. Her hand left his shoulders and she sighed, she suspected he would say that. "You're a toughie, Shiro-chan... Hey, don't give me that look!"

Well he could show her his full irritated expression for now instead of his usual little scowl. She should feel honored.

That's how their days normally went. He would wake up early, eat the breakfast his grandma made for him, hurry to Hinamori's house, wait for her and walk to school together. When they arrived at the building they would seperate their ways and after school it was her who would wait for him and walk home together. They were inseparable that way. That was their routine and with their occasional friendly banter here and there, some people thought they were more than just meets the eye. Some people like a certain blonde named Matsumoto Rangiku.

My Thanks To:

hitsuhinafan: Thank you! :D I hope this update was soon enough!