4A/N: So about three weeks later, I finally finish this puppy. Haha. Anyways, just a heads up I suppose this is an AU fic or a FutureFic of sorts. Whichever one you guys prefer. (: Let me know what you think!
31 Flavors
One-Shot
"Do I have to?"
"Yes you do."
"Why?"
"Because you promised."
"I did not!"
"Yes you did."
"When?"
"Last night. It was right before you fell asleep."
Johnny crossed his arms over his chest and sank further into the front seat of his car.
"I just said that so you'd be quiet," Johnny snapped. "How else was I going to get some sleep?"
"I don't care why you said it," Lulu said with a devious smile. "You promised."
"Lulu!" Johnny groaned, glaring at the old-fashion looking ice-cream store. "I have better things to do then sit in a Baskin Robbins and steal a scoop of each flavor-"
"It's not stealing. It's free!" She shook her head before pushing open the car door and making her way to the driver's side. Lulu swiftly pulled the door open and thrust her hand out towards him. "If you want to buy one scoop of every single flavor to test, that's fine with me. Just as long as you share. We can get sick together." She said with a wink.
The corners of Johnny's mouth quirked up and he suddenly found his hand in hers.
"What I do to keep you happy," he mumbled.
Lulu couldn't help but smile to herself in victory. People could say that Johnny Zacchara was a cold-hearted mobster, but would a cold-hearted mobster let his girlfriend drag him to a Baskin Robbins and taste every single flavor? No, Lulu thought to herself. The front he put on with his business associates and everyone he didn't trust was just that- a front.
She knew who the real Johnny Zacchara was and she didn't care what anyone else said- her dad, Lucky, Nikolas, Sonny, Spinelli or even Johnny's own father.
She was with him despite their judgments and despite the danger. It was all worth it in Lesley Lu's book.
"Why does this place look like it was built in the 40's?" Johnny grumbled.
"It's an old-fashion Baskin Robbins from 1945. They have all the original flavors from the year it opened and only those flavors. No crazy little sundaes or smoothies. Just 31 flavors."
"Do they have chocolate chip cookie dough?" Johnny asked as he opened the door for her.
Lulu shook her head. "Nope. It wasn't one of their first flavors."
"What?"
Lulu giggled at the indignation in his voice. "I don't think you could sound more outraged if you tried."
"To not have Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice-cream is just . . . wrong," Johnny said, clearly pained at the absence of the ice-cream.
"I never would have pegged you as a cookie dough lover."
"Really?"
Lulu nodded. "It just seems kind of girly."
"Girly?" Johnny asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Girly," she confirmed.
"I didn't know there was such a thing as a girly ice-cream," he told her as he reached over and tucked a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear.
"Well know you do," Lulu quipped with a smirk. She reached out and quickly grabbed a hold of Johnny's right hand, pulling him towards the counter.
"Welcome to Baskin Robbins," the young and bored employee said dryly. "Would you like to try a free sample?"
"As a matter of a fact we would."
Johnny groaned and ran a hand over his face.
"Ooh, Banana Nut Fudge! It's probably one of my all-time favorites."
Lulu reached across the counter and grabbed the spoon covered in fudge and nuts from the employee's hand and turned back to Johnny.
"Open up," she said, holding it out for him to bite.
"You're going to feed me?" He asked perplexed.
"I don't trust you to eat it on your own."
Johnny snorted. "What do you think I'm going to do with it? Feed it to the imaginary dog, Pogo?"
"Open."
"I don't like fudge."
It was Lulu's turn to snort.
"Since when?" She asked.
"Since I was in the womb!"
"You know, Johnny," Lulu said, shuffling her feet annoyed. "You're a lot of things, but I never pegged you as a liar."
"I'm not lying! I dislike fudge. Strongly."
"Liar," she stated in a sing-song voice. "In your car, the first night we met, you told me how when you were little and you had nightmares your mom would take you down to the kitchen and would make you a Hot Fudge Sundae. And how to this very day they're your favorite sundaes."
"You remember that?" Johnny asked just above a whisper.
"I'm a girl, Johnny. When a cute boy with a nice car speaks, I jot it down and put it away for later."
"I'm cute, huh?"
"The cutest of them all," she confirmed. "Now open."
He grudgingly obeyed and Lulu slipped the tiny, pink spoon between his lips. She watched his facial expressions in anticipation - there was no way he could not like Banana Nut Fudge.
"And the verdict is . . . ?" Lulu asked as soon as he swallowed.
Johnny gave a grin and nodded. "Not bad."
"Not bad? That's all?"
"Okay, okay," he surrendered. "It's pretty damn good."
Lulu laughed and unconsciously reached out and brushed her fingers lightly across his cheek. "Now there's an acceptable response. Ready for Test Taste Number Two?"
"As long as we can skip the Black Walnut," Johnny said peering down at the tub of ice-cream with distaste.
"Not a fan of walnuts?" Lulu asked curiously.
"I can't stand them," he confessed with a smile and Lulu had to bite back a sigh. His smiles, his laughs, they all snatched up her heart and left her breathless. The best part about it was that Johnny probably didn't even know the profound effect he had on her. Now that she thought about it, she wasn't too sure she wanted him to know- he'd probably use that knowledge every chance he got.
"That's okay. I can't either."
Lulu clutched at her sides as she watched Johnny practically gag on Burgundy Cherry and she rolled her eyes as he offered to eat her spoonful of Butterscotch Ribbon. Who knew that butterscotch could turn Johnny Zacchara greedy? All the chocolates- almond, chip, fudge, mint, ribbons- seemed to agree with his taste buds as did the Coffee Candy and Date Nut, but he put his foot down on eating Egg Nog Ice-Cream, but she found she couldn't really blame him. Plain old egg nog was enough to turn her stomach let alone Egg Nog ice-cream.
Lulu had never in a million years thought that she would have laughed so hard just trying to get someone to eat Pineapple Sherbet. He was like a toddler being forced to eat green beans. And the way he had to excuse himself to spit the tiny amount out had her cheeks hurting from smiling too much.
She had to get Johnny into an ice-cream parlor more often. The results were too good to pass up.
"Who names an ice-cream Vanilla Burnt Almond?" Johnny asked after taking another bite of his cup full of French Vanilla.
"Baskin Robbins."
Johnny ignored her and waved his pink spoon in the air. It was kind of ridiculous looking- a mobster holding pink anything. "I mean, who wants to eat something with the title 'burnt' in it?"
Lulu gave a wistful smile and took another small bite of her Chocolate Mint ice-cream. "My mom did."
Johnny's eyes quickly went from his cup of vanilla and up to her pensive face. "Did you come here with your mom often?" He asked, dropping the spoon into the cup and propping his elbows on the table.
"I suppose you could say often," Lulu said swirling her spoon in the melting mint sweetness. "Every Wednesday, a little bit before Lucky would get home from school, she would take me here. Girl's Time- she'd call it. She would always get a cone with Vanilla Burnt Almond. I remember having your same reaction at the name. 'Yuck, mommy! Who wants to eat burnt almonds?' And she just laughed and laughed and told me it was just a name. And that you shouldn't judge a carton of sweet ice-cream by its name, because at the end of the day it's still ice-cream.
"I couldn't be trusted with a cone, though," Lulu said and Johnny laughed. He could so picture a little blonde girl dropping a scoop of ice-cream onto a brand new dress. "I had to get the cups as to avoid any wars with the delicious Strawberry ice-cream."
"Why didn't you get the Strawberry ice-cream tonight?"
Lulu shrugged. "I don't know. Why did you get simple, old French Vanilla?"
"I'm a simple kind of guy."
Lulu smiled at that. "I don't think there's such a thing as a simple gun toting whack job."
Johnny let out a bark of laughter and Lulu couldn't help but consider it as music. "What about a simple piano man?" He offered
"I don't know," Lulu said with teasing laced throughout her voice. "Is this Jekyll or is this Hyde we're talking about?"
"I'm not sure. Which one is the crazy murderer?"
"I didn't read the book!"
"Me neither," he admitted standing up and tossing his empty cup into the trash.
"You're done already?" Lulu asked.
"All that gun toting works up an appetite," he said with a smirk.
"Oh, I'm sure." She watched him walk back up to the counter and she quirked an eyebrow as Johnny paid for another scoop of ice-cream. She watched the employee place the scoop on a cone and hand it over to Johnny. Geeze. How much could a guy eat?
Johnny gave her a soft smile as he slid back into his barstool. "You're mom was right," he told her. "This Burnt Almond stuff is pretty good."
Lulu couldn't believe her ears. "I could have sworn you strongly disliked it when you took Taste Test Number Thirty-One."
Johnny shrugged and licked the side of the ice-cream. "I think I was just being prejudice against the name and all. As a matter of fact, I think I've discovered my new favorite ice-cream."
Lulu laughed and threw a napkin in his direction.
"Hey, hey! Don't get mad at me because you have to eat out of a plastic cup!"
Johnny quickly found himself dodging a pink spoon.
"Do you want a cone?" He asked, grabbing her wrist and stopping her from going for the napkin dispenser. "Will that make you feel better?"
"I was kind of thinking ice-cream in your face, but . . ."
"Well now I know why your mom only gave you ice-cream on Wednesdays."
Lulu laughed and tried to use her free hand to go for the napkin dispenser. "Oh you do, do you? And why's that?"
"Because ice-cream makes Lulu violent," he said, causing her to throw her head back and laugh. It was just enough of a distraction for her to switch weapon choice and grab a hold of her cup that held just a little bit of ice-cream in it. She lifted it between her thumb and forefinger and threw it at him.
Johnny released her wrist and looked down at his t-shirt that was now covered in chocolate mint. He pursed his lips together in an effort to hold back his laughter and reached across the table for several napkins.
"I just want you to know that you look kind of ridiculous."
"Why?" Johnny asked, mopping up the mess. "This?" He pointed to the green ice-cream.
"No," Lulu said, shaking her head. "It's the mint chip on the side of your face that screams 'I just got owned by a girl'."
"Is that what its saying?" He grinned as he pushed himself out of the stool and trotted over to the trash can and disposed of Lulu's cup and the dirty napkins. "I wonder what you're going to be screaming when you're walking home."
Lulu laughed and brought her hands up to cover her face. "You're not going to make me walk home."
"Oh, I'm not?" Johnny jingled his keys over his head while he lapped up the remains of his ice-cream.
"Johnny," Lulu said, whirling around in her seat. He smiled over his shoulder at her as he pushed open the door. Lulu bolted up and out of her seat and made her after him. "Johnny! You're not serious!"
She watched as Johnny shook his head in amusement and climbed into his car.
"Don't wake me when you come in, okay?" He shouted out the window.
"Johnny!"