[Log] Toushirou Hitsugaya, Momo Hinamori

[davyn]

Title: Birthday Surprise
Characters: Hitsugaya Toushirou (kellenanne), Momo Hinamori (davyn)
Timeline: June 9, 1950
Rating: PG
Summary: Toushirou forgets an important date while working on the bombing case.



Momo sat her bag on the floor and carefully eased open his lock. She knew he was home because she had called the station to see if he wanted to get some dinner and he had already clocked out for the night. She peeked around the door and blinked at the shoes obscuring her path. He never left his shoes there. She eased the door open and picked up her bags again, carefully shutting and then locking the door behind her. Since his shoes were there she peeled hers off as well. That was a foot peeking over the edge of the couch.

She moved over and peered at the couch. Well at least that explained why he had forgotten her birthday last week. He was working too hard again. Last she had heard they were still not sure of the identity of the bomber and the whole thing was in danger of going cold. He was working double shifts trying to keep things moving, but things didn’t look good.

She at least could heat leftovers quite well. Even if this was her favorite meal, he liked lasagna as well and would get a hot meal out of it. He didn’t get to keep the pie; she was going to figure out how to stuff that into a container and take it home with her. Even if he didn’t remember her birthday, peach pie and lasagna could make up for a lot. Including weeks were the bad guy kept getting away.

If she was quiet she could probably have the food heated and just about ready by the time he woke up.

Toushirou wasn't too keen on waking up, but a clang from the general direction of his kitchen was enough to pull him from sleep and have his hand going toward the end table - where his gun and holster was - before he really registered who was in the apartment.

When he caught sight of Momo puttering about, messing with his stove, he straightened and rubbed his eyes. He felt like he could sleep for another few hours; how long at he been asleep, at that? He checked his watch. He'd only come home three hours ago and he was pretty sure he'd fallen asleep as soon as he got home. "Momo?"

What was she doing here? And why hadn't he woken up when she came in?

She glanced over and smiled. “Hi,” she opened the stove and stared at the food in the oven for few seconds before nodding and shut it carefully. The food would be done soon and as long as she didn’t burn her birthday dinner, they would be good.

This was the important part.

Once she was pretty certain that she wasn’t going to burn the food she turned and frowned. “You have been working too hard again.” Dark circles under his eyes, he was pale, and well while his apartment was neat compared to hers, the little bits of clutter here and there were an indication that he wasn’t spending much time doing anything here. She was almost willing to bet his bed wasn’t made and he needed to do laundry as well. “So I brought dinner.”

He blinked at her, trying to get his brain to catch up with what she was saying. She brought dinner? He stood, rolling his neck, and peering into the kitchen.

That was, indeed, dinner.

"Been a long few days," was all he said as he came into the kitchen and snagged a glass for himself. Water was looking good right now; falling asleep like he had had left his mouth dry.

"What'd you bring?"

She nodded. Things had been rather harried at work as well. Still though, she hadn’t managed to forget her birthday had she? “Lasagna,” Granny had made the best. It wasn’t something else she had mastered in the kitchen but she could talk Toushirou into working on perfecting his version of the recipe on occasion. Still since he had forgotten she had purchased it from the little Italian place down the street from the office that she could wheedle into letting her taking take out. They made good lasagna; for all that it wasn’t Grannies.

“Salad is still put up.” She motioned towards his fridge and managed to find a knife with serrated edges in his knife block. “The bread can go in the oven in a minute or two.” She shot him a glance while she worked on the bread. “Tomorrow is Saturday, are you going to let yourself sleep? You look like you need it.”

Especially if he was forgetting important dates when he was the one who reminded her of just about every other mutually known about date. She glanced at the bag she had brought the food in and then back at him from under her lashes. “There is also pie, which is going home with me.”

He ignored her question about sleeping. He had to go in tomorrow. There's wasn't any two ways about it: he was working in the morning.

Lasagna was Momo's favorite. She always raved so much over Granny's and lamented not finding anything quite as good as hers, even when he managed to find the motivation to cook it. He agreed, though, and he'd endure every birthday dinner he cooked where she said it wasn't quite as good as Granny's. "What kind of pie?"

Momo finished with the bread and eased it into the oven before pulling the lasagna out. “Peach, the little pie place down the street had some,” Granny used to can peaches in the fall for her birthday pie. As it was she had paid more than she would have in a few months for the pie, but it was worth it.

She poked the lasagna a few more times before nodding, heated all the way through and not burned. She was doing good today. “Can you get the plates, please?” If he was just going to stand there, she was going to put him to work.

Peach pie. With lasagna. Eating it together. On a day in early June.

...damn it. How many days had it been?

He blinked at her until she told him to get the plates and had a moment where he merely stared at her. He'd worked through her birthday. He'd managed to work so many shifts and have so many sleepless nights, he forgot her birthday. He moved to pull the plates from the cabinet and grabbed forks while he was at it.

He was such an idiot. He set the plates on the counter next to the lasagna. "You want something to drink?" Maybe... maybe she'd take something hard; might make her forget what day it most definitely wasn't.

Momo thought about that for a moment and nodded before moving to the fridge to get the salad. “A drink would be nice,” he wasn’t the only one who had had a long day, although if he pulled out the whiskey she would have to go for the water. She had no idea how he managed to drink the stuff.

“Still working on the same case?”

He hesitated for a moment. He hadn't expected her to take him up on it. Somehow, he doubted she'd want straight whiskey to go with her lasagna and salad but he did have another option.

He wasn't quite sure how long it had been around - he half-remembered it was some sort of inane gift at some Christmas party he'd had to attend - but there was a bottle of red wine stashed in this kitchen. That should do nicely, at least for dinner. Later, he could pull out the harder stuff and berate himself for forgetting her birthday.

Toushirou pulled out a couple glasses and a corkscrew, and then moved to the table to pour the wine. As not awake as he was, it was far better than to try to carry full glasses across the kitchen. Not when Momo was involved in anyway. She could be amazingly clumsy.

Momo glanced up when he didn't answer the question and blinked at the bottle of wine. He owned something other than whiskey? Red wine that that. It had to be some sort of a gift from Rangiku or… well something. Still though, it was better than watching him drinking whiskey while eating lasagna.

It didn’t take long to transfer the food to the table and settle in. She paused long enough to get a good look at his face now that he was up and moving and sighed. He looked like he was going to fall asleep on his feet or in the chair. "Is the same case wearing you out?” He, most likely had other things he was working on as well, but he didn’t normally look this run down after a long week.

Had to be the bombing or at least that was probably most of it.

Toushirou took over scooping out the lasagna and salad when she brought it over. Might as well; it was her birthday dinner and she'd been the one to bring it over and heat it up. (He was under no delusions she actually cooked it; for all he knew she'd blackmailed one of her neighbors into it. In fact, he rather hoped that was the case. Momo cooking anything scared him.)

He sat across from her and shrugged at her question. "Other cases don't suddenly stop coming up because one's bigger than the others." Things were hectic, to put it mildly.

She nodded and turned her plate a little so she had better access to her food. "You are working too hard," she pointed her fork at him and frowned. He was always working too hard, he needed to take a break and actually sleep. "I won’t be happy if you get pneumonia again."

The last time he got sick it had been because hadn't been taking care of himself. She was going to go ahead and say that if he was tired enough to forget her birthday after a good ten plus years of celebrating it with her, he was much too tired. She frowned. At least he was getting a hot meal tonight. She would leave him the leftovers as well, minus the pie. That would ensure he ate something tomorrow as well. If he remembered to eat.

He was such an idiot sometimes.

He blinked at her and raised an eyebrow. "You weren't happy the first time." That wasn't much of a threat; the things she'd said to him the first (and only) time he ended up with pneumonia kind of spoke to her not being happy with him at all. He'd never known he could get so sick and still be blamed completely for it.

He took a bite of lasagna and washed it down with a sip of the wine. He set his glass down and then tore off a piece of bread. "I'm not going to get sick again." She worried too much.

She shook her head and decided that since he didn't choke on the wine it was probably a good brand. She took a cautious sip and blinked a little. He definitely did not buy the wine; it was too good to be something that he had picked up. She took another sip and shook her head at him.

"You will if you don't sleep," she muttered. He would to; he always got sick when he didn't get enough sleep.

She was looking at the wine like she was surprised it tasted good. He rolled his eyes. He could pick out good wine; just because she hadn't seen him actually do it doesn't mean it couldn't happen. (Even if this particular bottle was given to him. That was beside the point, of course.)

"I will sleep." Sometime soon. Probably tonight, at any rate. He had come home earlier than he had been lately. Hell, he had been sleeping when she'd come in.

Momo nodded. "Good." She turned her attention to her food, it was good lasagna, good salad, good wine, over all it was a good birthday dinner.

They ate quietly, which was just fine by Toushirou. He didn't need a lot of inane talking right now, especially when he had to find a way to tell her he regretted forgetting to put togeher her birthday dinner, but he did have a gift for her.

Lucky for him. He'd bought it weeks ago, wrapped it up and put it in the closet.

He took the last few bites of lasagna and salad, then poked at his bread a bit. How to bring this up? He'd look like an ass any way he did it.

Momo pushed her plate forward and sat back with a small sigh before sipping at wine. Pie now? Pie later? Pie at some point, if she went for seconds she wasn't going to be able to manage dessert at all tonight although she could probably manage one more glass of wine before she needed to head home.

"Pie now or later?" She had a lot of pasta to let settle for a little bit and then she was going to eat a good portion of the pie, but if he wanted some now she could do it.

He shrugged. "In a few minutes." Pie right after a full, hot meal just didn't sound right. He'd let the pasta settle first.

He glanced toward the bedroom, wondering if he could get into the closet and get her gift without her figuring something out. He sipped at his wine and then turned back. No, she'd figure it out. Momo was irritatingly perceptive when he didn't need her to be. (All other times, though, it was hit or miss.) Standing up, he gathered the dirty dishes.

Might as well make himself useful.

She did ponder letting him do the dishes on his own, she had bought the food, heated it, and he hadn’t remembered it was her birthday. He was tired though and she had dropped in unexpectedly, she peeled herself out of the chair and scooped up the salad bowl. She could dump it all in bowls for him and get it in the fridge, he could load his dishwasher.

Maybe she would buy him a nice frilly pink apron to go with his dishwasher.

He rinsed off the dishes; he may have sprung for a dishwasher but he was regretting it. He still had to practically wash the dishes before he put them in but he had it and he was going to use the damn thing.

He loaded the dishwasher quickly - there were dishes there from his breakfast that morning - and shut the door. He'd turn it on later.

He looked over toward Momo, raising an eyebrow at the look she was giving him. What was that about? It was the "I'm thinking about something you'll hate" look. "More wine?"

She nodded. One more glass of wine would let her walk home safely. "Are you going to drink more wine or are you switching to whiskey?"

Toushirou had already grabbed a different glass for the whiskey. He just gave her a look and held up the whiskey he already had out.

Something a little harder than wine sounded pretty good right now. Especially in light of forgetting her birthday.

He still needed to get to the closet without her noticing. Or suck it up and just admit it and go get the thing.

How did he drink that stuff? She moved to the couch and settled in the corner after pouring herself another glass before propping her feet up on his ottoman. He had a comfortable couch. If she wasn't careful she would do exactly what he had done earlier and fall asleep.

"Did you get a chance to go to Erie?" Last he had told her he had been planning on going back there to close some things up and finalize some things to sell the house. She wasn't sure if he had gone or not though, he... well he hadn't mentioned it.

The couch was calling his name; he settled in and set his glass on the coffee table. "No," he said. "Rangiku's shop was robbed right after I mentioned it, and then the Fitzgerald murder..." He trailed off. And almost as soon as he'd wrapped up the last bits of that and put in all his paperwork and showed up for the grand jury, the damned orphanage went up.

He took a quick sip of his drink and leaned back against the couch. She would mention the place in Erie tonight. Probably an attempt at a guilt trip over forgetting her birthday.

It might have been working.

She took a sip of her wine and nodded. "If you need help, let me know." He was stubborn about Grannies stuff, but it was Granny. Putting the house up was going to be hard no matter which one of them dealt with it.

He nodded, then leaned forward and set his glass down. He didn't need to be talking about it now. He was already stressed; he hardly needed to have a talk about Granny and her house.

"Pie?" he asked. Maybe if he distracted her with pie, he could get her gift without her really figuring it out.

Momo nodded before setting her glass on his coffee table and pushing to her feet, “I will get it.” She wasn't going to be able to stay much longer, he looked tired and she was getting there.

Toushirou waited until she was in the kitchen before he got up and made his way into his bedroom. The small gift - a watch resting in a small blue velvet box - was already wrapped with silver paper and sitting on a shelf in his closet.

She always forgot the time, skipping meals because she claimed she lost track of time. She needed a watch and when he'd seen the square face and the delicate leather band, he couldn't resist picking it up and saving it for her birthday.

Idiot girl needed a watch.

Momo turned with two plate of pie and shook her head; she set his piece in front of where he had been sitting and hoped he didn’t expect her to wait on him. The pie was delicious; she leaned a little further into the back of the couch. Good food, good pie, good wine, it wasn’t a bad night.

Toushirou paused in the hallway, holding the small box in both hands. Oh, she'd moved to the couch, and set a piece of pie down for him. He sighed softly; time to suck it up and face the music.

He slipped into the room and carefully set the gift on the coffee table in front of her, then sat, never saying a word. Bad enough he was late. She didn't need trite birthday greetings to go with it.

She paused midway through her pie and blinked at the little box. He got her a present? He forgot her birthday, but still managed to get her a present? She eased her fork back onto her plate and sat it on the table. She glanced over at him and when he just sat there she carefully picked it up. So it wasn’t a joke.

He got her a present. She carefully un-wrapped the box and hesitated. The little velvet box under the wrapping paper was a not what she had expected. She turned it over in her hands curiously. It looked expensive. He didn’t do expensive, her last birthday present had been something she had needed, but not expensive. She opened it carefully and stared at the gold watch. He bought her a watch? He bought her a really nice, expensive looking gold watch. She carefully eased it out of the case and smiled up at him for a second before turning her attention back to the watch.

He bought her a gold watch. A beautiful watch, with a leather band.

When she didn't immediately turn to him and demand how he'd forgotten her dinner and remembered a gift, he wilted a bit and sat back to watch her open it. She would like it, he hoped. She needed a watch and he'd taken a lot of care and time finding just the right one.

She was so slow opening it, but it was almost worth it when she grinned. Relieved, the corner of his lips quirked, for just a second. She seemed to really like it, and she really couldn't lecture him about forgetting if she liked it that much.

Not that he completely forgot.

It had tiny hands and neat little markings on the leather and was fancy enough it would work in the court room or at functions all the silly functions she had to attend. She turned and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and squeezed.

"Thank you." She gave into the impulse to kiss him on the cheek. "I love it."

She... missed his cheek. Sort of. He swallowed and blinked, then look down. Maybe he'd not be blushing by the time she looked back? She didn't even seem to notice she'd missed his cheek and got the corner of his mouth and...

...whiskey. There it was.

She turned her attention back to the watch and froze. She glanced back up at him out of the corner of her eye quickly and worked to control the blush she could feel easing up her cheeks. She had seen that look once before and that had been the last time she had managed to catch part of his mouth. Only the last time she had been a lot fuzzier, and things had been spinning a lot, but that expression had been there. She couldn’t even blame the alcohol this time.

Oh that was idiotic at best. She took a calming breath and eased the watch back into the little spot it belonged on in the box. Right, well maybe he hadn’t noticed.

When he downed his whiskey, there was at least pie. That was the second time she'd done that; the last time was at that godforsaken Christmas party and she'd been so lit he had tried not to think too much of it.

But... her lips...

Damn it. He took a nice big bite of pie and concentrated on it.

Good pie. He liked pie. He should get more whiskey from the kitchen to go with it.

Momo glanced at her almost eaten piece of pie and decided finishing off her wine was more important at the moment. Right, well it was getting late wasn’t it? She needed to retreat and quickly before she really started blushing. It was Toushirou and she had practically kissed him.

She couldn’t even explain it away the way she had last time.

"I should probably head home," she managed to sound normal, which was good because she could feel herself getting hot with embarrassment, "before it gets too late."

Toushirou swallowed a bit of pie and nodded toward Momo. "All right." He carefully set his glass on his pie plate and then grabbed her empty glass; these, he'd clean off and put in the dishwasher with the rest.

He paused and then sighed. Momo liked to hear these things, even if he thought it were trite and, well, it was late. That's why he should say it. He really was very late. "Happy birthday, Momo," he said, leaning over her.

He didn't give her a chance to respond - although, maybe he'd get another missed cheek kiss out of it; that might be worth it - and went into the kitchen.

Momo froze when he leaned over her, eyes widening and then... and happy birthday?. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but that was nice. Especially since it meant that he had remembered and hadn’t pulled the present out of nowhere. She scooped up her box quickly; glad that he couldn’t see her face at the moment. "Thank you."

Toushirou nodded once and then went into the kitchen and set the dishes down on the counter. She liked her gift; that relieved him more than he could say, especially after missing the actual day and forgetting to cook her dinner, or take her out.

She would have preferred lasagna and peach pie at home anyway. That was good at least.

And... He sighed softly. Missing the cheek kiss had him reeling again. He'd taken pains to just file away that last little peck on the corner of his mouth and just as he was thinking he might be over it, she had to go and do it again.

She was trying to test his patience, wasn't she? He'd finally gotten the last one out of his mind and suddenly he was regretting not reaching up and...

He wasn't thinking about it.

He left the kitchen and leaned against the wall behind the couch. "You're welcome."

She turned to head to the door and grab her shoes and paused. Well that was a casual pose maybe that meant he hadn’t noticed. She was just, going to pretend that hadn’t happened and just stop giving him sisterly kisses on the cheeks. She couldn’t embarrass herself if she did that. “Thank you for eating with me.”

Pretending nothing had happened was hard. She had never been good at it. She decided to focus on the food instead. “You can have the leftovers,” she frowned at him. “Get some sleep.”

He shrugged one shoulder and gave her a weary look. "Was sleeping when you came in." Which meant he was probably going to fall asleep almost as soon as she left. He glanced into the kitchen; the pie was still there on the counter. She was leaving that? If she did, he'd take her a couple pieces tomorrow. Drop them off at her office, at the very least.

"Be careful going home." He'd offer her cab fare, but he knew good and well she wouldn't take it. It would get all awkward again and she'd end up mad. Better to just pretend he knew she could take care of herself.

She nodded, adjusting the strap of her purse and pulling on her shoes. “I will be,” she promised, waving quickly and easing open the door.

“Don’t forget you have court this week.” She flashed him another smile slipped out the door. It was time to go home and soak, maybe go over some case notes, and then sleep. She would think about all this tomorrow, maybe.

Maybe not. It was Toushirou.