NaNoWriMo08 Final
Last excerpt from Chapter 10. Yes, last. Because I'VE WON NANOWRIMO!!! Alright, so the fic's far from finished or readable w/o cringing, but I've done it! 50K in less than 30 days because I started late too but yeah, it's done!!
Long excerpt 'cuz this is the last one.
Chapter 10
By the time Ichigo had set the sports bag down in the corner of the room and found the camera he had snuck in while packing when Toushiro had not been looking, Hitsugaya was already comfortably perched on the wooden window seal much like the times he had sat on the one in the teen’s room at the Kurosaki clinic, watching the rest of the advance team with the perpetual scowl worsening by every minute whenever his vice-captain shrieked something. Ichigo never quite understood how such a position can even be achieved, never mind the fact that the hard frame should be digging in, but the prodigy seemed happy enough and he was not about to question something that was a significant sign that his Toushiro was relaxing at least to a certain extent.
Instead, he lifted up the digital camera, intensely watched the screen, and-
-click. He thanked whatever deity it was that had turned off the flash - it probably was himself but he did not quite remember doing so - which would have instantly alerted his yuki hime what had joined them in this trip all in secret. Nevertheless he held his breath for a few seconds, not daring to even blink as he stared at the bright rectangle screen. When there was no doubtful movement from his personal - and completely unaware - model, he inwardly punched the air and pressed the button halfway down so that the clever gadget could find the perfect focus once more. He barely held back the wide grin that stretched wider and wider across his face as the quiet sound of mechanic zoom reached him and as soon as the green grid overlapped with the white, another satisfying click finally let the face-splitting grin completely loose. It was just a shame that Ichigo’s luck decided to run out at that precise moment and the frowning prodigy turned around, coming face to face with the glinting lens of the camera at last.
The widened teal eyes shifted back and forth between the black glass-topped hole and the deer in headlight look on the teen’s face and quickly and very much belatedly, Ichigo lowered the camera and waved in the air very, very awkwardly.
“Kurosaki…”
“Please don’t go back to that name when we’re alone, it’s never good news.”
The attempted innocence in the pleading did stop the black cloud from rising behind the scowling captain’s back but only for a second as Hitsugaya lowered himself from the window and approached the uncertainly smiling substitute shinigami at a pace no lower or faster than normal. Ichigo winced a bit at that, having an auditory hallucination of flashing alarms going off at top pitch in his mind.
“Give me that.” Hitsugaya said - growled - calmly, his hand outstretched. It only served to make the teen take an involuntary step back, the hands hidden behind his back along with the camera. “Kurosaki.”
“Now, Toushiro… It’s a very delicate gadget and-“ Ichigo hurriedly thought of a better way to phrase what he had been about to say when he saw the turquoise orbs narrowing into thin slits with a certain threat. “-and as much as I trust in your capability, because you’ve learnt how to use all these human technology very quickly, the memory stick has other pictures that I haven’t moved to the computer yet and-“
Ichigo did not get to finish what was, frankly put, just blabbing as Hitsugaya became bored in apathetically watching him gibbering and took it upon himself to put his supple speed into use, instantly getting around to the back of the teen even without having to use shunpo.
“Tou- Toushiro! C’mon, Toushiro, it’s just pictures…” Then he dared to take a glimpse, towering over the smaller shinigami, and blinked. “…you’re not… deleting them?”
The stoic face was still lowered, the light from the screen that displayed the picture Ichigo had just taken reflected in the emeralds. A click on one of the small buttons changed it to a similar one then another press, it was back to the one before. Hitsugaya looked up with an arched brow and Ichigo ruefully smiled, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Uh… It kinda slipped out of my mind that I had emptied it last night…?”
“Baka.” Hitsugaya muttered with a roll of his eyes and returned the tiny camera - humans did amaze him from time to time - to his boyfriend. Having pictures taken was still not the favourite pastime of his but he was not exactly mean enough to seriously erase what would be the only physical proofs of the time they spent together now. Once he recovered and returned to Soul Society, they were facing a very long time away from each other with contrastingly short period to be spared for their privacy.
“So you don’t mind?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“But you wouldn’t delete them.”
“Shut up.”
Ichigo grinned and lifted the camera back up.
“Toushiro?”
“Wha-“
“Say cheese!”
Turning his face away swiftly from the blinding flash, Hitsugaya decided that after all, he was going to maybe, just accidentally step on the thin memory stick at night.
Long excerpt 'cuz this is the last one.
Chapter 10
By the time Ichigo had set the sports bag down in the corner of the room and found the camera he had snuck in while packing when Toushiro had not been looking, Hitsugaya was already comfortably perched on the wooden window seal much like the times he had sat on the one in the teen’s room at the Kurosaki clinic, watching the rest of the advance team with the perpetual scowl worsening by every minute whenever his vice-captain shrieked something. Ichigo never quite understood how such a position can even be achieved, never mind the fact that the hard frame should be digging in, but the prodigy seemed happy enough and he was not about to question something that was a significant sign that his Toushiro was relaxing at least to a certain extent.
Instead, he lifted up the digital camera, intensely watched the screen, and-
-click. He thanked whatever deity it was that had turned off the flash - it probably was himself but he did not quite remember doing so - which would have instantly alerted his yuki hime what had joined them in this trip all in secret. Nevertheless he held his breath for a few seconds, not daring to even blink as he stared at the bright rectangle screen. When there was no doubtful movement from his personal - and completely unaware - model, he inwardly punched the air and pressed the button halfway down so that the clever gadget could find the perfect focus once more. He barely held back the wide grin that stretched wider and wider across his face as the quiet sound of mechanic zoom reached him and as soon as the green grid overlapped with the white, another satisfying click finally let the face-splitting grin completely loose. It was just a shame that Ichigo’s luck decided to run out at that precise moment and the frowning prodigy turned around, coming face to face with the glinting lens of the camera at last.
The widened teal eyes shifted back and forth between the black glass-topped hole and the deer in headlight look on the teen’s face and quickly and very much belatedly, Ichigo lowered the camera and waved in the air very, very awkwardly.
“Kurosaki…”
“Please don’t go back to that name when we’re alone, it’s never good news.”
The attempted innocence in the pleading did stop the black cloud from rising behind the scowling captain’s back but only for a second as Hitsugaya lowered himself from the window and approached the uncertainly smiling substitute shinigami at a pace no lower or faster than normal. Ichigo winced a bit at that, having an auditory hallucination of flashing alarms going off at top pitch in his mind.
“Give me that.” Hitsugaya said - growled - calmly, his hand outstretched. It only served to make the teen take an involuntary step back, the hands hidden behind his back along with the camera. “Kurosaki.”
“Now, Toushiro… It’s a very delicate gadget and-“ Ichigo hurriedly thought of a better way to phrase what he had been about to say when he saw the turquoise orbs narrowing into thin slits with a certain threat. “-and as much as I trust in your capability, because you’ve learnt how to use all these human technology very quickly, the memory stick has other pictures that I haven’t moved to the computer yet and-“
Ichigo did not get to finish what was, frankly put, just blabbing as Hitsugaya became bored in apathetically watching him gibbering and took it upon himself to put his supple speed into use, instantly getting around to the back of the teen even without having to use shunpo.
“Tou- Toushiro! C’mon, Toushiro, it’s just pictures…” Then he dared to take a glimpse, towering over the smaller shinigami, and blinked. “…you’re not… deleting them?”
The stoic face was still lowered, the light from the screen that displayed the picture Ichigo had just taken reflected in the emeralds. A click on one of the small buttons changed it to a similar one then another press, it was back to the one before. Hitsugaya looked up with an arched brow and Ichigo ruefully smiled, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Uh… It kinda slipped out of my mind that I had emptied it last night…?”
“Baka.” Hitsugaya muttered with a roll of his eyes and returned the tiny camera - humans did amaze him from time to time - to his boyfriend. Having pictures taken was still not the favourite pastime of his but he was not exactly mean enough to seriously erase what would be the only physical proofs of the time they spent together now. Once he recovered and returned to Soul Society, they were facing a very long time away from each other with contrastingly short period to be spared for their privacy.
“So you don’t mind?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“But you wouldn’t delete them.”
“Shut up.”
Ichigo grinned and lifted the camera back up.
“Toushiro?”
“Wha-“
“Say cheese!”
Turning his face away swiftly from the blinding flash, Hitsugaya decided that after all, he was going to maybe, just accidentally step on the thin memory stick at night.