Hinamori Momo trusted someone too much. (hinamori) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-10-12 02:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, momo hinamori, toshiro hitsugaya |
Who: Toshiro Hitsugaya, Momo Hinamori
What: Meeting at lunch.
Where: Huntington Beach High School
Rating: Low
Status: Complete!
It was lunchtime and Momo Hinamori was sitting outside, enjoying the sun, and picking away at her bento lunch. She was currently munching on a rice ball made to look like a happy cat face, courtesy of some well placed nori and vegetable cut outs. She also had a laptop balanced on her knees and was typing slowly with one hand, editing a report that was due that afternoon for advanced English class.
There wasn’t much that was noticeable about her. Her hair was pulled back in a loose bun, she wore a white button-down shirt and a knee-length skirt that was a dark pink plaid. There was slouchy white socks and black mary janes on her feet. She looked a little too cute but profoundly plain compared to everyone else, and there was no one sitting next to her. Probably because she was too busy having her nose stuck in her schoolwork all of the time. Ho hum.
Toshiro was keeping himself busy, as per usual. He was attending high school during the week, and just about every weekend he was down in LA attending university and spending time with his father. When he could fit them in, Toshiro was working with Penelope Garcia and her Japanese lessons. He practiced karate still, and was considering joining the soccer team. He just kept himself busy, as school work came naturally to him and he rarely had any actual homework that he couldn’t finish at school.
Lunch, however, was a good time for Toshiro to just relax. Today, as it was surprisingly still nice outside, Toshiro decided to have lunch by himself and sit outside. However, when he got outside, he blinked when he saw a bit of an old-fashioned girl eating alone and playing with her food.
“That’s ridiculous,” remarked Toshiro as he took a seat next to the girl, giving her a side glance. He was blunt as ever, never minding who he was speaking to, even if he was just a stranger to her. “You’re supposed to eat your food, not play with it like that.” Never mind that it was just arranged like that and he hadn’t actually seen her play with her food.
"...huu?" The girl blinked back at him like she was a little confused and surprised, but at least it got her to stop staring at her report for a moment. Catching on, she finally looked down at the half-eaten riceball in her hand and then laughed. "Oh this? I'm not playing with it. It's my lunch! I made it last night."
She held it up to show him, even though there was a significant dent made on one side of it's rice-head.
"It's cheerful and nice to have something happy when I open my lunchbox." She put the rice ball down in the box and nodded toward him while smiling kindly. "You're funny, sitting down and saying that...and without even saying hello! Hi, I'm Momo. I think I've seen you around in one of my classes. Aren't you in AP English Lit and Composition with me?"
And Toshiro blinked for just a moment. Momo didn’t know him at all. It hit him like a brick, flooding a brief set of shock through his system. Momo had no recollection of him yet. It was her, though, of that he was sure. How could he not recognize her? Aizen’s antics and betrayal of Soul Society, mostly at Momo’s expense. He clenched a fist at his side, vowing that he would never let Aizen, in any form, get anywhere close to Momo. Nor Gin.
“I’m Toshiro. Toshiro Hitsugaya,” he introduced, tempted to add the ‘Captain’ bit to his name, though that didn’t apply at all in this world. “And yes, I am. It’s good you recognize me from there. And I remembered your name from class.”
He was tempted to add the truth, but even Toshiro realized how strange that sounded. To someone like Gin, who played games with everyone and half-truths, Toshiro didn’t mind getting right to the point. He started to unpack his own bento, filled with sushi and rice and a few vegetables as well. “And it is a bit ridiculous, though. I wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true.”
Momo smiled at him and even more when he seemed like he was going to have lunch with her. She closed her notebook and put it aside, picking up her rice ball and toying with one of the ear pieces. She truly had no idea who he was. Nothing other than he was just another student in her school, albeit with oddly colored hair.
Deep down, inside, something felt a little off, but it was more akin to misplaced deja vu. Nothing overt or foreboding. Momo didn't concentrate on that for longer than a couple seconds, anyway.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Toshiro-chan," she said, cheerfully. "Even if you're taking it too seriously. It's only lunch! Do you want the other one? Maybe it will cheer you up too."
She laughed a little and waited, even if he looked like he might say no. She could offer, at least, because it was the nice thing to do and she still had enough onigiri left, to share.
“It’s Toshiro,” he corrected out of habit, amused, yet grateful that things were still the same even if she didn’t have her memories. He wondered how she’d react to learning everything about the betrayal of her beloved Captain Aizen. Would she panic? Become ill? Whatever would happen, Toshiro would be right there, protecting her, providing her with a wall of shelter to everyone else in the world.
“All right then. I suppose I can have the other. Only if you take some of my sushi,” suggested Toshiro lightly, pushing his own bento closer to Momo so she could take what she wanted to take.
Her life had been astoundingly normal, so there was really no telling how she would react, someday. She was too busy looking at Toshiro’s sushi to think about anything strange or odd, anyway. After some deliberation, she took a california roll out of the box with her chopsticks and popped it into her mouth, happily chewing away at it, and blissfully unaware that he was having any thoughts of her needing protecting.
Momo's rose colored glasses? Those things were practically strapped to her head at this juncture. Everything was right with the world and the only thing she had to worry about was finishing her report and going to the office to borrow their printer, so she could turn it in. Someone spent too much time decorating their onigiri last night, that they forgot to do a final polish on their paper. To her credit, it didn't happen often at all. She was a bit of a over-achiever, too.
Once she was finished chewing and had taken a sip from a drink box of tea, she asked him, "How did you get your hair that way without it falling out? It's really, really white. All that bleach must damage it, ‘Shiro-chan!"
Still the same Momo, then, at least on the surface. Toshiro grinned behind his own sushi roll, trying to keep his attention off her for a moment, then he turned to face her.
“I’m not bleaching my hair. It’s just...always been like that. Same way my eyes have always been turquoise,” remarked Toshiro quietly. “And I’m Toshiro, not ‘Shiro-chan’,” retorted the Captain once more, an irritated look on his features.
He lowered his gaze, knowing more about why his hair was actually white, but he didn’t want to be the one to break it to Momo about her dreams. It was better if she learned on her own, and he was there to help her through it.
"Aww," she said softly, having liked the nickname she gave him, but not pushing it too much for the time being. She thought he had such a serious face and had missed the grin entirely, thanks to it being hidden behind what he was eating. Teasing him in small doses might lighten him up a bit, and so she told herself that she would do that and see if maybe she could get him to smile in response.
"Ok, I'll try to remember that," she said, even though she was probably going to go right back to calling him Little Whitey. She took another sip off the drink box and put it aside, leaning in a little. "No wonder people stare at you a lot. I didn't notice your eyes were that color, and they're not even contacts, are they?"
Her own eyes were big and brown and blinky as she got a closer look, without daring to touch his hair and see if it was soft or crunchy with hair gel.
“You do that, then,” remarked Toshiro softly, taking another piece of his sushi and enjoying it. “I...yes. They do tend to stare. It’s worse at university, though you think it wouldn’t be. I study down in LA, on the weekends, so you think they’d be used to people with different appearances.” He shook his head, though, when she asked about his eyes.
“No, they’re not contacts. I’m not entirely sure why I was born like this, but I was. I stood out more in Japan, but it’s not as bad here. I’m just used to the stares now, so sometimes I don’t even notice them anymore.”
"I'll try," she teased, with a wink and a big grin. That was over and gone in an instant, as she listened to what he was saying. "People can be mean. I think your hair and eyes are nice and different, and it's better to be a little different. If you looked like me, no one would notice you at all!"
She didn't seem too bothered by it. It did allow her to get really good grades, which didn't help with any of the stereotypes. Go figure.
"Over here it shouldn't be so bad. I bet you could get away with saying you're a cosplayer on the weekends, instead of going to school? That way people won't think you're a geek, Hitsugaya-kun."
Well, at least she’d referred to him as Hitsugaya-kun instead of Shiro-chan. It was a bit better. Still, he had to tease her back. She was Momo, practically his sister, at least in his dreams. He wondered what she’d think of him then, once she started dreaming. Would she comment on what their conversation had been like?
He bit into another sushi roll, shrugging a bit briefly, then adding, “I should hope I wouldn’t look like you. You are a girl, after all,” remarked Toshiro dryly, offering her the last sushi roll with his chopsticks if she wanted to take it. “Being a ‘geek’ is the least of my problems. I’m saving money this way, and keeping busy. Besides, high school is ridiculously easy.”
"Oh you! Maybe you should try that as a Halloween costume? You might look pretty!" she said with a laugh, taking her chopsticks and plucking the sushi roll away, giving him a wink.
Something did feel right about sitting there with him, but Momo wasn't about to question it or the teasing any further. She popped it into her mouth and chewed happily. Toshiro seemed to have some really good sushi in his lunch. She was going to have to up her ante if they had lunch again, by putting better things in her bento other than rice balls with nori kitty face cut outs on it.
When she was done eating, she began packing everything away again, asking him, "You have to have some stuff you like to do that's geeky, right? You can't study all of the time. It's good to have a little fun. I read a lot and sometimes I play farming and cooking games online, when my homework's done. Aren't you on any of the social networks where they have games, like facebook?"
Toshiro smiled softly when she commented about him dressing up as a girl, grateful that she was still very much the same Momo. He switched his expression to an annoyed one briefly, giving Momo that irritated, brow furrowed look. “No thanks,” he remarked irritably. “I’m most definitely not a girl.”
He was glad she seemed to like his sushi, and at her question, he tilted his head a moment to respond. “Er, well. Yeah, there are some places like that, I guess, though I don’t know if you’d call them all geeky. There’s a place called valarnet, that a lot of people in this area enjoy. It’s worth at least looking at once.”
Yes, it really was the same Momo, who had that sisterly teasing down to what might seem like a science. How she managed to do that with a measure of sweetness at the same time, was pretty astounding, too.
“Really? I didn’t know there was one for just this area,” she told him, ignoring his frowning and gruffness. She thought his sour face was cute. “I should try that, since it’s hard to get real friends on facebook. If there’s a farm game, maybe I can get you to help water my crops and feed my baby cows. I think I’ll sign up!”
And why not, since she had facebook, twitter, tumblr, pinterest, instagram, and myspace...even if that was still a dead zone.
She most definitely was the same girl who he’d grown up with all those years ago. Momo Hinamori. Toshiro smiled gently, packing up the last bit of his lunch and nodding in confirmation to Momo’s inquiry.
“Yeah, it’s not a bad idea,” he remarked lightly. “I mostly joined to help communicate with anyone who I might need to for my father’s position, but otherwise, it’s interesting to keep tabs on everyone around us.” In other words, it helped him keep tabs on Gin Ichimaru, who he wouldn’t trust in this world or any other world. And Rangiku, until she remembered who she was.
“I’ll try it too, since I’d like to meet new people. And maybe it’ll give me another place to post some photos of my charaben.” Momo nodded like that appealed to her, then she blinked and her eyes were wide and wondering. “What does your father do and is it important? Did I forget to ask?”
She knew if he was a transfer student, not asking - especially if it was of importance to family or one’s station in life - was a little rude.
“It’s up to you whether or not if it’s important,” remarked Toshiro with a shrug, “but he’s the Japanese ambassador here in California. With the recent influx of Japanese citizens, we are working more closely together through the network and we’re communicating more efficiently with each other that way.”
He stretched a bit, getting himself comfortable as he tried to figure out what to respond to next. “I think you’d do well if you tried to make some friends through the network, just be careful about who you talk to. They can all pretend to be whomever they wish to be, after all.”
"Oh you're very important," Momo said a little more seriously and then looked at Toshiro like he had gone a little funny. She had gathered up her things and stood up, ready to go to her locker, get her things for her next class, and try to find a printer for her report. The warning had been a little weird, considering she thought she knew all about internet predators. "Don't worry? I know not to give out my address. It'll be ok."
She smiled at him and waved as she ran off, not waiting for his all-too-serious reaction, "I'll see you during english class, Hitsugaya-kun! Bye!"