Chocolate

Rating: T

Genre: Humor

Characters: Ichigo, Yuzu, Karin, and Rukia.

Summary: Ichigo had just innocently left the box of chocolate in the kitchen and gone upstairs...then Rukia, Yuzu and Karin found it.

Ichigo had a craving. He had been working for fifteen hours straight on this project that Ochi had shoved onto the other students about two weeks ago and he had been procrastinating on getting to for that duration. It was just his luck that the damn thing was due two days from now, and he was busting his ass off just to get the thing finished. He hadn't gotten any sleep and had been working since midnight. He was wired on coffee, Red Bull, and a few other energy drinks that he had bought at random for his fifteen minute break. It was about 1:25 in the afternoon the following day that he finished his essay and got it printed it out successfully without any setbacks. After all that, he was starving and in need of something other than energy drinks, so he got himself a cold cup of water and went back upstairs to take a shower. He ate leftovers from the dinner he'd missed the evening before today alone in the kitchen.

He assumed his father was in the clinic attending to patients and that Karin and Yuzu were out doing whatever girls did on the weekends. He didn't have the slightest inkling as to where Rukia might have been. Hopefully, she would be gone long enough before she came back to harass him about doing his job so he could get some rest.

The leftovers hadn't at all been filling, but he didn't have the strength enough to fix something else, so he decided to retire for the day and hit the sack. Ichigo was about to head upstairs, rinse his mouth out and brush his teeth when he rather indecisively changed his mind and decided he wanted something sweet. There wasn't much in the cupboards except strawberry pocky, which didn't in the least pique his interest. What he wanted was chocolate. The shitty thing was...there was no chocolate. No chocolate milk, no chocolate pocky, no chocolate ice cream bars. There wasn't chocolate, period. So, cursing and griping about what great luck he had, Ichigo gathered up his money and left the house to walk to the nearest convenient store so he could get as much chocolate as he wanted, stuff his face, then go into a tranquil food coma and not wake up till much, much later. Somehow, lady luck shone down upon him when he got a discount from the first store he went to on a box of assorted chocolates for 95 yen. All the prices were being reduced because the business was closing to make way for a restaurant. Nonetheless, Ichigo made his purchase and speed walked home as fast as he could. When he got to his residence, he used stealth to sneak inside his home and glanced around wearily in case his father was lurking around somewhere. When he was assured that he was alone, Ichigo placed the box of chocolates on the table and strode out of the kitchen to go upstairs and change into something more comfortable. Rukia, whom he had thought had left the house to go to visit Urahara, ambled out of the living room with glazed eyes, having thought that she'd heard someone enter the house. Ichigo had gone to his room and she hadn't seen him come in from the foyer, but she could feel his spiritual pressure so she knew it was him. Rukia had had a headache since this morning and had gone to lie down per Isshin's request. I must have dozed off, she realized now. Her head didn't hurt anymore, but she was thirsty, so she moved on down the hall and into the kitchen where she saw Yuzu standing in the middle of the room holding a plastic bag of groceries.

"Hello, Yuzu," she greeted, adjusting her plain white t-shirt, which was one size too big for her. The sandy blonde child nodded, her gaze fixated on something that sat on the table.

Attention caught, Rukia strolled over to see what it was that had her so fixated. She paused when she saw the label on the object.

"Yuzu, it's just chocolate." Rukia looked at the girl skeptically, not sure what was so fascinating about such a simple thing.

"Yeah," the girl said, fidgeting. "It's just...It's not all that often that we have sweets in the house..." Rukia could relate. It's really not all that common when a woman gets to indulge in such delicacies. There's the matter of blemishes... Byakuya had never let her have such things anyway, and to be quite frank, Rukia had never even tasted chocolate let alone laid eyes on it.

"Whoa!" someone exclaimed, and for a moment the girls panicked, thinking that Ichigo had come back. But it was Karin that pushed her way between them, jersey damp with sweat from soccer practice that morning. "Chocolate!" The words were said in disbelief, as if the confection were a miracle that had just been discovered. Karin swerved around to face the two of them, who almost looked guilty. The spitfire adolescent kept her voice low when speaking, even though Ichigo couldn't hear. The sole reason for Ichigo's delay in getting downstairs and enjoying his treat was due to the fact that he'd spilled an assortment of cans half-full of various energy drinks all over himself while he was changing. On top of having to clean it up, he also had to take a shower again and get the mess off of him, leaving the three females to squabble.

"Where did you get this?" Karin asked.

"Ichigo, I think," Rukia replied. "I heard him come in and go upstairs." A heavy silence permeated the atmosphere for a moment, and they all turned to look at the box.

"No! I know what you're thinking, K-" But Karin was already on top of the table and grabbing the box, lifting it over her head as if it were a trophy.

"C'mon, Yuzu. Just one won't hurt," she encouraged, and then turned her head to the raven-haired Soul Reaper who stood nearby, conflicted. "Rukia?"

"I-I don't know..."

"When's the last time you can remember having chocolate?" Karin pressed. Rukia clasped her hands behind her back, a pink hue spreading across her cheeks as she shifted on her feet.

"Never..."

"You've never had chocolate?" Both twins looked appalled. "Then you've gotta try it!" Karin pulled the plastic wrapping away from the box and then opened it.

"But, Karin, if it's Ichi's..." Yuzu almost looked at a loss. Her eyes didn't once leave the box of sweets.

"C'mon, Yu...You know you wanna...," she prompted, waving the box back and forth enticingly. Yuzu fussed about in aggravation, stomping her foot. "Karin, this is the last time I do this!" Rukia's first chocolate was delightful and had caramel filling; she swore she had never tasted anything quite like it and felt full of sorrow that she hadn't come across this until just now. Yuzu's nugget had peanuts and Karin's had some sort of cream filling. They had sworn the first would be their last, but when it came down to it, one just wasn't enough.

In just a span of five minutes, the trio polished off the box, the evidence smeared on their lips and face. That was about when they heard Ichigo coming down the stairs.

"AMSCRAY!" Karin howled, and bolted. Yuzu squealed, running after her sister, and Rukia dived through a window and began running as fast as her little legs would take her.

Ichigo watched as the three girls scattered from where he stood at the bottom of the stairway, a puzzled expression on his face. "Hey, guys, where's the fire?" he called. The door slammed behind Karin and Yuzu as they dashed away from the house and met up with Rukia, who was traveling at an incredible pace for being barefoot.

Ichigo's jaw went slack when he saw the mess they'd left behind upon walking to the area they'd fled from like bats out of hell. He squawked for a moment, speechless, and then-

"RUKIAAAAAAA!" he screamed, diving for the window and flying down the block after the three miscreants.

A/N: LOL. I laughed while writing this. It was a sudden idea that latched on to me out of nowhere and I had to write it down. I probably finished it in less than 30 minutes.

Hope you all liked it. Tell me what you think!