This was my very first oneshot for this series. Hope you guys like it!
The Last Day of Summer
*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*
“Hello?”
“Hey, Captain. It’s Matsumoto.”
“Matsumoto? Why are you calling me?”
Snickers in the background, followed by hushing noises. “Um, there’s this, uh, emergency going on at (y/n)’s house.” Snort. Laugh. “We need your help.”
“What are those noises in the background?”
“What noises? ‘Shut up! He can hear you!’”“
“Who are you talking to?”
“No one! It’s just getting really hectic around here. So get down here right away!” Click.
Hitsugaya stared at his cell phone. ‘What the hell was that all about?’ he thought to himself.
It didn’t take a genius like Hitsugaya to figure out that Matsumoto was up to something. She was never good at hiding things. But it was a long hot day, and your house was just a block away. He decided to go and see what they were plotting.
Slipping on his shoes, he sighed and opened the door. Searing heat and blinding sunshine greeted him outside. He took one last longing glance at the air conditioned coolness of the inside before walking out. He groaned at the intensity of the heat as he walked along the sidewalk. Being an ice Shinigami, he detested summer and all types of warm weather. It was completely understandable why he was acting this way on a hot summer day. Heck, he’d been acting like that ever since summer reared its ugly head. While other people rejoiced at the thought of summer fun, Hitsugaya had lurked into the comfort of the shady, air conditioned indoors, muttering about hating the heat.
So as our grumpy, yet lovable snowman neared your house, it was safe to say that his temper had boiled to the same level as the surrounding temperature. He practically kicked down the wooden gate that led to your backyard and stomped down the cobblestone path and came to a halt right in the middle of the yard. Looking around, he found no one in the area, which did wonders for his steaming temper.
“Matsumoto! Why the hell did you make me come here?!” he yelled irritably to no one in particular.
His response to his sudden outburst was a rough shove from behind. He was knocked off his feet by the force of the push and landed face first in the in-ground pool, ending with a resounding splash.
“All right!” you exclaimed, coming out from behind a tree. “We got him!”
Everyone came out from their hiding places, except for Ichigo and Renji, who had pushed Hitsugaya into the pool in the first place.
And speaking of Hitsugaya, he immediately resurfaced and shot a glare at everyone that sent chills down their spines, despite the fact that it was eighty-seven degrees outside. “Who. Pushed. Me?” he seethed, hair plastered to his face.
“We didn’t do it,” replied Ichigo and Renji, inching away slowly.
Ignoring them, he turned to Matsumoto, who looked back at him with an innocent look. “Matsumoto, what is the meaning of this?”
“It was (y/n)’s idea,” she replied. “She asked me to call you and make you come here.”
You stepped forward, a toothy grin on your face. “Yeah, Toshiro. Since it’s the last day of summer, I decided to invite everyone over for a pool party.”
Hitsugaya looked around. Now that you mentioned it, everyone was in swim gear. The boys (which consisted of Ichigo, Renji, Yumichika, Ikkaku, Chad and Uryuu) were in their trunks, while the girls (which consisted of Matsumoto, Rukia and Orihime) were in swim suits of various colors, patterns, and piece numbers. But he noticed that you were in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. “Why aren’t you in a suit?” he inquired.
“Because I was waiting until you’d show up,” you answered. “And now that you’re here, it’s time to start the party!”
“No,” he cut in, climbing out of the pool. His hair was drying surprising fast. It was starting to return to its natural spikiness.
“What?! Why?!”
“I hate summer.”
You gasped dramatically. “How can you hate summer?! I can understand hating autumn or spring, but summer?!”
“Well, the captain is an ice Shinigami,” Renji explained.
“That’s no excuse!” You latched onto Hitsugaya from behind. “Don’t go, Toshiro! It won’t be fun without you!”
“Yeah, for her,” Ichigo muttered under his breath, earning him some poorly hidden snickers from everyone else.
“I said no!” Hitsugaya declared. He shook you off and headed for the gate.
You pouted at his retreating form. Then your eyes lit up as a crafty idea formed in your head. “Oh, now I get it,” you called out. “You can’t swim.”
That got his attention. His foot froze in mid-step, nearly stepping out the gate. You continued, “You heard me, Whitey-chan. I bet you’re afraid of the water.”
The Shinigamis exchanged glances, awed by your gall. It took guts to talk down to Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya like that.
“I dare you to say that again,” he challenged, looking over his shoulder.
You took on his challenge. Cupping your hands near your mouth, you announced, “People of the World! Toshiro Hitsugaya can’t swim because he’s too afraid of the water!”
That seemed to be Hitsugaya’s breaking point. “ALL RIGHT!” he screamed. “I’ll join your stupid party. Happy now?”
You broke out into smiles. “Yay!” You snatched an extra pair of swimming trunks and tossed them to him. “Now go inside and put that on!”
He growled and marched inside, a figurative storm cloud hovering over his head.
~*~*~*~*~
When Hitsugaya returned, he was clad in nothing but a pair of black swim trunks (SOMEONE CALL THE HOTTIE POLICE!!!!! LMAO). As he stepped outside, he saw that everyone else had entered the pool. Ichigo, Ikkaku and Renji were caught in a splash fight. Yumichika was doing laps around the pool. Chad was brooding off the side. Uryuu was conversing with Orihime. And you, Matsumoto and Rukia were in the middle of a conversation. Hitsugaya noticed that you had ditched the shirt and shorts, revealing a stunning two-piece suit underneath. As he stared at you, he swore that the heat just got five degrees hotter.
You turned around and saw him approaching. You had to admit, for a short guy he packed a rocking body. A light tinge of pink dusted your cheeks. “Finally,” you said to him from your seat at the edge of the pool. “Now you can get in.”
“I’ll get in later,” he responded bluntly.
You frowned. “Uh, Toshiro. The whole point of a pool party is to get in the pool.”
“I never wanted to be part of this party in the first place,” he countered. “So I’ll get in when I feel like it.”
You stood up and faced him. “You’re going in now.”
“Who’s gonna make me?”
You glared at him right before you pushed him in. But he grabbed your arm just as he went down, dragging you into the pool as well. The two of you landed with a big splash, alerting everyone.
You came up first and gasped for air. Then Hitsugaya came up. One look at him and you burst into a fit of laughter. “What?” he demanded.
You pointed at his hair. “You look so cute when your hair’s flat!” you laughed.
He blushed and gritted his teeth at you. “Shut up.”
“No, I don’t think I will, Shorty,” you replied. Then you turned to everyone else. “Okay, time for a game. What’ll it be, people?”
“How about volleyball?” suggested Ichigo.
“Ooh, nice choice. I second that!” you said.
Orihime, Chad and even Uryuu agreed. The Shinigamis, however, were confused. “What’s volleyball?” asked Ikkaku.
~*~*~One hour of explanations later~*~*~
“All right,” said Ichigo, ball in hand. “Here it comes.”
He tossed it in the air and hit it over to the other side of the pool. Renji and Ikkaku both dived for it and ended up colliding into each other. Luckily, Yumichika was there to return it just in time. You bumped it to Orihime, who sent it back to the other side. Matsumoto returned it, but Chad managed to hit it back. Renji, who wanted to redeem himself for the earlier collision, passed it to Rukia, who smacked it to the other side. Uryuu immediately returned. The ball flew toward Hitsugaya, who reluctantly jumped for it. Unfortunately, due to his diminutive size and the depth of the pool, it flew over his head and landed into the water.
“Oh yeah!” you cheered, high-fiving your teammates. “We rock!”
“No fair!” Hitsugaya protested. “Ishida hit it too high!”
“Is it our fault you’re so short?” you asked in a sickeningly sweet tone.
He ground his teeth, but said nothing. The game progressed, with Chad serving. The ball went back and forth in a similar fashion as earlier. The only difference was that you were the one who missed the ball as it sailed over your head.
“Dammit!” you cursed. “It was too high!”
“Is it our fault you’re so short?” Hitsugaya mocked, echoing your earlier.
You glared at him and sent a small wave of water in his face. He blinked away the water in his eyes and immediately splashed you back. Before too long, the game of volleyball was forgotten as everyone got involved in the splash war. You and Hitsugaya were too focused on each other to really pay attention to each other else. You were flailing water at each other nonstop, which really wasn’t getting you anywhere besides wet. Realizing this, you ducked underwater and pulled him down by the ankles. The two of you stared at each other under water. You smiled at him, to which he couldn’t help but crack a small smile of his own. Then you pointed behind him, looking over his shoulder. He immediately turned around. He saw nothing, but suddenly felt a slight pressure on his cheek. He turned back to you, but you were already surfacing. He swam up for air and looked at you. You merely winked before swimming away to join in the other splash fights.
~*~*~*~*~
Minutes later, everyone got tired of pointlessly splashing each other and resorted to playing with your various pool toys. Ikkaku and Renji were duking it out with your battery-powered bumper boats (yes, there is such a thing. I saw them in a catalogue). Matsumoto and Yumichika were relaxing on two inflatable rafts. Rukia and Orihime were bouncing on your floating trampoline. Hitsugaya was sitting in a round floaty, minding his own business. And you, Ichigo, Chad and Uryuu were having a water gun fight. (Yes, your pool is big enough to accommodate all these nice things. I wish mine was though. Just pretend that you’re filthy rich and have a huge backyard.)
“Take that, Shinigami!” you yelled, shooting Ichigo with your Arctic Blast Super Soaker. You and Uryuu were one team, while Ichigo and Chad were the other.
“Argh!” Ichigo writhed as the ice-cold water hit him. “Damn, that’s cold!” He playfully glared at you before firing his Spider-Man Soaker. (Yeah, I’m just picking random water guns from the Super Soaker website)
As you and your friends were shooting each other, one of your shots went astray and hit Hitsugaya square in the chest. He jerked in surprise at the sudden coldness and fell through his floaty. You noticed that and began to point and laugh.
He surfaced in a way so that the top of his head was visible, but his mouth was still underwater. His position and the fact that his big blue eyes were glaring at you cutely just made you laugh more. “What’s so funny?” he seriously wanted to know. The water around his mouth bubbled as he asked.
“Chill-ax, Whitey-chan,” you said, squirting him between the eyes. “I thought you liked the cold.”
He huffed, sending out more bubbles. You giggled at his cuteness before announcing, “Hey, guys! All in favor of playing Marco Polo say I!”
“I!” called out Orihime, who was waving her hand in excitement.
“Eh, sure. Why not?” said Ichigo, putting away his gun.
“I’m game,” Uryuu stated nonchalantly.
Chad merely grunted affirmatively.
“Who’s Marco Polo?” asked Ikkaku right before he was bumped by Renji.
“Marco Polo’s not a person,” you said. But then you paused to think about it. “Well, technically he was, a long time ago at least.”
“Get to the point,” Hitsugaya bubbled.
“Anyway, Marco Polo is the name of a game that you play in the pool. One person closes his or her eyes and shouts ‘Marco!’ The other people respond by saying ‘Polo!’ Then the person has to find everyone else just by the sound of their voices. He or she can’t open their eyes while he or she is it. And the first person tagged is the next it. Got it?”
The clueless Shinigamis nodded yes. “Okay, time to decide who’s it.” You looked around silently before exclaiming, “1, 2, 3. Not it!”
“Not it!” everyone else replied. Well, everyone except Renji, who was a little late.
“Dammit,” he cursed.
“Renji’s it!” you declared. “Now, go underwater and count to ten. Then come back with your eyes closed and start saying Marco.”
Renji shrugged and went underwater for ten seconds, during which you all moved to the other side of the pool. When he came back up, his eyes were shut tightly.
“Marco!” he said.
“Polo!” you all replied in unison.
“Marco!”
“Polo!”
“Marco!”
“........”
“Marco?”
“.........”
“Oh, come on! You guys suck!”
You tried to hold in your hysterics as Renji blindly stumbled around in the water. By some stroke of luck brought upon by the author, me, he lunged and missed you by an inch. Trying to make no noise that would alert him of your position, you tried to swim away. But you bumped into someone behind you. Turning around, you saw Hitsugaya. You tried to sidestep him, but he smirked and grabbed you by the shoulders, pushing you towards Renji. Panicking, you latched onto his arms and tried to steer him in Renji’s direction instead. This caused the two of you to get into a sort of wrestling match. You were both so busy trying to get the other one tagged that neither of you noticed that Renji was coming closer, until he collided into both of you and sent you all underwater.
Everyone else watched as you went down. Then, as soon as you three resurfaced, one question was on their lips. “So who’s it?”
“I have no idea,” replied Renji, trying to remove the water in his ears. “My eyes were closed the whole time.”
Everyone averted their eyes to you and Hitsugaya. “So, who’s it?” asked Matsumoto.
Hitsugaya pointed at you. “She’s it,” he answered automatically.
“Nuh uh!” you protested quickly. “Renji got you first!”
“Did not.”
“Did too! He touched your head first!”
“Did not. He touched your arm first.”
“You liar!”
“I’m not a liar!”
“Yes, you are!”
“No, I’m not!”
This fight could’ve gone on for hours. Sadly, no one figured out who was it, because at that moment, a thunderstorm rolled in. And that meant out of the pool and into the house.
~*~*~*~*~
Just because the party was moved inside didn’t mean that the concept of partying was lost. All you needed was to break out the food and video games and everything was good. Chad seemed to be more active playing Guitar Hero, in which he blew your high scores away. All the guys were watching in awe as Chad landed the hardest chords and solos. The girls were hanging by the refreshment table, chatting away.
Meanwhile, you had sauntered to the kitchen to grab some more soda. As you stepped inside the kitchen, you found none other than your favorite guy Hitsugaya sitting off the side. His back was turned to you since he was facing the window, watching the rain splattered on the window.
“Hey,” you said, approaching him.
“What do you want?” he asked, not looking at you.
“Well for starters, why don’t you join the party? I could probably teach you how to play Guitar Hero.”
“I don’t plan on learning a pointless human game.”
You rolled your eyes. “Oh, so now I’m a pointless human. Come on, Whitey-chan, try to have some fun!”
“I’m not exactly a fun-loving person like you, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“Trust me, I’ve noticed.” You stood beside him and watched the rain fall. “I bet if you really give this party a chance, you’d have some fun.”
He scoffed. “I have more important things to worry about other than fun.”
Now it was your turn to scoff. “In case you haven’t noticed, there are no Hollows today. No world-threatening conflicts. No Aizen plotting the destruction of all mankind. Right now, all you need to worry about is how to have a good time today. You getting this?”
He stared at you, but seemed to let the words sink in. Finally, he said, “I can’t make any promises.”
“Don’t need to,” you said, softly kissing him on the cheek. “I’ll still hold it against you.”
His head spun toward you, caught off guard by the sudden kiss. But before he could interrogate you about it, Orihime ran in. “Hey! The rain cleared up!” she announced. “We can head back outside!”
“Sweet!” you cried happily, running after her. “Come on, Whitey-chan!”
He stayed at his placed for a moment, his hand flying up to where your lips had touched his skin. His eyes reflected unspoken questions that were buzzing in his head like annoying mosquitoes during the summertime.
~*~*~*~*~
The rest of the party went along smoothly. You had plenty of laughs and a lot more fun memories to store away and look back on when school started up again. At the end of the day, everyone ended up sleeping over at your house.
Hitsugaya lay on the sofa wide awake, which was completely understandable considering the fact that Ikkaku and Renji were sleeping on the floor and snoring like sawing logs. How the other guys managed to sleep through the noise was completely beyond him. The entire living room was reserved for the guys to sleep, while the girls slept in the formal sitting room (they’re both relatively the same type of room. But according to my mom, they’re completely different. Don’t ask why. I never go into detail like that).
Anyway, as he lay awake in the dark, he heard footsteps coming closer. Pretending to still be asleep, he peeked through one eyelid and saw you sneaking out through the back door. Once the door closed behind you, he sat up. ‘Where is she going?’ he inquired before getting up and heading for the door.
He found you sitting by the pool and staring out at the water. The pale moonlight reflected off the water’s surface and bathed you in a clear shimmering glow. Again, he felt the same hot feeling that he felt when he saw you dripping wet in your two-piece.
Nevertheless, he decided to approach you. “What are you doing up?” he asked.
“Couldn’t sleep,” you replied. “You?”
“Same. Abarai and Madarame snore too loudly.”
You let out a laugh. “I can understand that.”
Silence passed between you, but it wasn’t awkward. It more relaxed and comfortable, like finding solace in the lack of words. Finally, Hitsugaya said, “Something’s been eating at me all day.”
“Besides the goddamn mosquitoes?” you asked. “Well, what is it?”
“Over the course of the day, you’ve kissed me on the cheek at least twice. I want to know why.”
You stifled a snort. “Man, and I thought you were the genius here.”
He stared at you with wide eyes. “So you mean.....”
“If you’re think what I think you’re thinking, then yeah, it’s like that.”
He paused for a minute to let it sink in. Then he finally said, “Before we take this conversation any further, I just remembered something.”
“And that would be?”
“I still owe you for making Kurosaki and Abarai push me into the pool.”
And without another word, he neatly pushed you into the pool while you were still wearing your pajamas! You fell into the pool with a cry of surprise. You floated slowly to the bottom of the pool before jumping back to the surface. As soon as you broke the surface, you searched for Hitsugaya with intentions to kill. But he had disappeared.
“Where the hell are you, Toshiro Hitsugaya?!” you growled.
You were answered by someone grabbing you by the ankles and dragging you back down. Opening your eyes underwater, you saw Hitsugaya smirking at you. He was smart enough to take off his shirt at least, but he was still wearing his pants.
Glaring at him, your brilliant plan hatched a fun way to get revenge. You moved toward him and quickly captured his lips with your own.
He froze the second your lips made contact. But then he relaxed and added some pressure. You both kissed underwater until your lungs were screaming for oxygen. After finally breaking the kiss for what seemed like an eternity, you went up for air. Hitsugaya still held you close as you broke the surface.
“Well, that was interesting, right?” you panted with a breathless smile.
He was smiling back at you. “That’d be an understatement.”
“Admit it. You were having fun!”
“And what if I don’t?”
“Then I’m gonna have to bring you back down for a reminder.”
“I dare you.”
You smiled devilishly as you pulled him down for another round.
Hitsugaya had to admit after that night, summer had its perks.
