Lemon Ice
By: Yamiko #7
Hi! I just decided to write this on a whim – it came to me, and I thought y'all might like to see it. It takes place after Dear Diary, because I'm rather fond of the idea of a Chrno with his horns dating Rosette. Very fond indeed. n.n Mostly sweets and fluff here. So, enjoy!
"It's here it's here it's here!"
Rosette looked up from her latest report – another demon, another mission, another wrecked car. It was getting to the point where she could write these in her sleep. "What's here?"
"The ice cream man!" Azmaria was nearly jumping up and down with excitement.
"Really." Rosette scooted her chair back. How long had it been since she'd had ice cream?
Quite a while. Maybe longer.
"Yeah, really! And Father Remington gave me a dollar and told me to go get some!"
"Then what are you hanging around here for?" Rosette raised an eyebrow.
Azmaria looked down at her dollar bill, suddenly shy and quiet and back to normal. "Well, I…I…I was wondering if you wanted some."
So that's what this was all about. "Well, sure." Rosette smiled, rising. "Let's go find Joshua and see if he wants some."
Azmaria returned her smile and nearly skipped out the door. Rosette followed, already thinking of what she was going to get.
Chrno's ear twitched at the tinny music filtering in his room. God Almighty, but that was annoying.
He put down his book (it was a testament to his recent boredom that he was working his way through the complete works of Shakespeare, unabridged) and poked his head out the door. "Elder," he called down the stairs, "whatever that is, please turn it off."
"No can do, m'boy," Elder called back.
"And why is that?" Chrno had given up on Shakespeare (not a hard thing to do) and had come to the top of the stairs.
Elder trotted to the bottom of the stairs and grinned up at him. "Easy. It's the ice cream man."
"The what?"
"The ice cream man! He comes by with a music-playing cart and sells ice cream. Evidently he's at the gates of the Order. Looks like he's gathered quite a crowd. Although," Elder furrowed his brows, "I'm amazed he's back after last time."
"Um," Chrno began against his better judgment, "what happened last time?"
"I tried to take the cart apart and see how the music worked." Elder said it as though it were nothing to be ashamed of.
"Ever think that maybe it was just a wind-up?" Chrno blinked. "A wind-up in need of new songs, that is. Does it always play "Turkey in the Straw?'"
"Yup." Elder nodded. "By the way, how's Hamlet coming?"
"Finished it." Chrno headed down the stairs – "Everybody died." – and out the door. This ice cream man had piqued his curiosity.
Plus, it had to be better than Romeo and Juliet. He was pretty sure how that one would end.
He was on page two.
"That," Joshua declared, "was the best ice cream I've had in years."
"I'll bet it's the only ice cream you've had in years." Rosette gave him a snarky grin.
"That would be why it's the best." Joshua nodded. Both girls laughed.
"By the way, Az," he continued, "thanks for the ice cream."
"Yeah, thanks." Rosette grinned. Something nagged at the back of her mind. She was forgetting something, she just knew it…
"Hi."
"Hi, Chrno!" Azmaria responded cheerily.
Well shoot. She'd just remembered.
"I came to see this ice cream man, but I seemed to have missed him." Chrno glanced towards the gates. "Turkey in the Straw" was already fading into the distance.
Rosette grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, about that…I was meaning to save you a bite, but I kind of…didn't."
"That's okay." He smiled and led her into the shade of a nearby oak tree. "Come here." He pulled her close and kissed her.
She jumped a little as his tongue made its way past her lips, then relaxed slowly against him. This was different from anything she'd ever felt before, but she was starting to find that she liked it. Loved it, really.
Trust Chrno to come up with something like this.
Joshua and Azmaria simply stood by, watching the spectacle before them with wide eyes.
Chrno gave her one more soft kiss before pulling away. He leaned back and smiled. "Lemon."
"You…!" Rosette gave him a half-assed shove towards the tree and started to laugh, her smile widening as she heard him join in a second later.
"But somehow," he calmed down enough to wrap an arm around her waist and pull her close once again, "you just make it taste better."
"That's either corny or creepy and I can't figure out which." She gave him a look.
He smiled. "How about sweet?"
"Well, yeah." She leaned against him easily and gave a smile of her own.
"I guess that works too."
This only took me about an hour to write, which probably means it's not very good. (laugh) But that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Like I said, sweets and fluff. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you could leave a review in my mailbox on the way out, I'd much appreciate it. Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your day!