"Oh! Yuzu come here you would look so cute in this dress! Karin you too," cried Matsumoto, waving the twins over. Whilst Yuzu ran there an excited smile on her face, Karin groaned and walked lazily over to them.
Suddenly, she came up with a brilliant idea and ran over to them calling, "Hey you two! How about you try on that dress Yuzu! And Rangiku try on this um…top," she grabbed a random top which seemed large enough for the busty strawberry blonde and threw it at her, shoving the two of them into two respective changing cubicles and nearly tearing the doors off their hinges as she slammed them shut.
"Alright then," said Yuzu. "I guess it'll fit," said Rangiku.
Nearly jumping in joy, Karin turned around and sped off, down the escalators, out of the doors and all the way to the park. She jumped up and fist-pumped, "Free at last!"
"Free from what?" She whirled around to face the owner of the familiar voice, "Toshiro?"
"Hello Karin. I asked, free from what?"
For a moment she wondered what he was talking about, then remembered what she had just run like hell was chasing her from.
"Oh, Ichigo and goat-face made me go shopping with Yuzu and Rangiku. I finally managed to get away from them."
Hitsugaya nodded his head understanding, many a time the tenth squad fukutaicho had dragged him to the mall and he had to constantly run away from her. A thought struck him and he cocked his head to the side, still facing the raven-haired girl. "I thought girls enjoyed shopping."
She raised an eyebrow, "Do I really look like a girl who enjoys running in and out of shops trying on clothes?" He looked her up and down, it was true. She was an obvious tomboy through and through.
"No, I guess not. Though don't you need new clothes once in a while? Your current attire is so…worn and old."
To his mild annoyance she laughed, "Toshiro, you're so formal. You need to loosen up a bit," she paused and smiled sweetly at him," but yeah I guess I do need some new clothes."
For a moment they just stood there, her smiling and him staring at her, 'What was it?' he wondered, 'What was it that makes her looks so beautiful when she smiles? And why does my heart speed up when she smiles at me?'
He saw her lips move and shook himself out of the daze, "Sorry, I didn't catch that."
She smiled again and Hitsugaya's heart sped up again.
"I said, how about we go shopping? You and me."
For a moment, Hitsugaya thought she had been joking…he looked at her in the eye. She wasn't joking.
He wanted to say no, to refuse her, to say it was ridiculous. But all that would come out of the child genius' mouth was this single overwhelmingly intelligent word, "Huh?"
"Oh come on! It'll be fun. My dad gave me some money to spend. I buy most of my clothes in a sports store anyway. I'll probably buy some shirts, a couple of shorts. Maybe a pair of jeans here some new soccer shoes there. And don't worry, usually I just try on one shirt and buy like 4 in the same color. Please Toshiro, please!"
Oh no, she was looking at him with the puppy dog eyes, no not the puppy dog eyes!
Caving in, he groaned. "Fine, but you better not take ages like Matsumoto."
"Pff, Yuzu takes an hour to pick between 2 shirts. It takes me half that time to choose double the amount of clothes."
And with that, she grabbed his hand and dragged him, running the way she had just come from.
She only stopped running when they reached the sports store, which was thankfully, on the first floor surrounded by book stores which there was no way Matsumoto would have any interest in.
She made her way to the shelves and found the ones with the thinnest, easy-to-dry, good material and started to sort through them. Not sure what to do, he stood off to the side.
Realizing he wasn't really helping Karin pulled him closer, "Here I need you to find any shirt made out of this material in the smallest possible size: they don't sell this stuff in shops with sizes for us so."
Nodding he proceeded to do exactly as she said with a determined look, he would find these shirts no matter what.
Half an hour later, the two of them walk out of the store with Karin carrying her 2 bags: one containing 5 shirts, 4 pairs of shirts, 4 new pairs of socks and the other containing her new soccer boots.
"So now what," asked a nervous Hitsugaya, he hadn't the slightest clue of what to do now.
"Well, you complain about the clothes Rangiku buys you right? Let's go get you some clothes."
He looked at her with a bewildered expression, "What?!" "Oh just come on Toshiro!"
45 minutes later, Toshiro was carrying his own 2 bags with a tint of pink on his cheeks. Each time she had thrown him something to try on, he had refused and she had threatened to rip his clothes off herself if he didn't. The last time she had made the threat he hadn't thought she'd actually do it and tried to hold his ground. The next thing he knew she had him on the ground, sitting on his abs and holding both his hands off with one hand the other working on the button of his shirt. He had been blushing like mad even after she had gotten off and he had tried it on. He had 3 new pairs of pants, 4 new shirts, a jacket and a new pair of shoes.
Once they were out of the shop she ran off and returned with two cones covered with single scoops of ice-cream. He took the one she handed him reluctantly. But the moment he tasted it, his eyes lit up. Watermelon!
They made their way to their favorite spot to watch the sunset together in silence, when they got there they'd both finished their ice-creams. He sat leaning against a tree, she sat with her head on his shoulder in complete serenity.
AN HOUR LATER
Karin climbed up to the roof, completely unsurprised to find her shopping buddy up there too.
"Hey Toshiro," she greeted. "Hi Karin," he responded."
"Did Rangiku see your clothes?"
"Yes, she asked me who gave them to me."
"And?"
"I told her I went shopping with someone."
"Did she interrogate you?" He nods. "Did she figure out it was me?" He nods again. "Did you have to yell and hide just to get away from her annoying tips, questions and squeals?" He turns to face her, "How do you know that?"
"Remember that time I took you with me to return the book I needed for school to the library?" He nods. "Exact same reaction."
Both of them knew how it felt to be chased and pestered by the strawberry blonde and neither of them really enjoyed it, however they did enjoy complaining about her to each other on her rooftop in the evening.
Whenever he was on a mission or had a day off he would spend whatever time he had with her: Waiting for her to come back from school by either waiting in the soccer field or on her roof, and then playing soccer and finally visiting Grandma Haru and watching the sunset together.
But today was different, they had gone SHOPPING together for crying out loud. An obvious step-up in their relationship.
'Toshiro, you should tell her how you feel before it's too late.'
Hitsugaya refused to acknowledge the ice dragon's tip.
'Young master, she will have to move on at some point, you must tell her before you lose her.'
Still ignoring…
'Because when you lose her young master…the rain will never stop.'
Finally, Hitsugaya let out his breath and was about to say something to the beauty beside him when a voice was heard from the house below them.
"KARIN! OI KARIN, WHERE ARE YOU?!"
Sighing, the girl gave him an apologetic smile, whispered a quick 'Bye' and slid down, climbing into her room.
'Go after her you dolt! Go after her before she leaves you behind Toshiro!'
After a moment's contemplation, the white-haired taicho landed on her window sill and grabbed her wrist.
She turned around slowly, her head cocked to the side and mouth slightly open with surprise, "Yes Toshiro?"
"Karin…I just, I wanted to say that I had a fantastic, um amazing, um great time with you today and err…"
She giggled, "I had an awesome time with you today too Toshiro."
Without thinking, he pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her, "Karin please accept this apology for not saying this earlier but…Kurosaki Karin I love you."
She backed away and for a moment, Toshiro was sure she would reject him and say that he had just completely ruined their friendship.
But to his surprise, her eyes were filled with unshed tears.
"You dolt, I thought you'd never confess." And with that, he pulled her into his arms again and this time, their lips met and from at that moment Toshiro promised himself that no matter what happened, he would protect her with his life.