A/N: Way, way back in 2013, I started writing another Seven Sins series on tumblr. I wrote Pride first, and then the lovely paws-bells suggested I write all these drabbles in one universe (which I did), and while putting them in chronological order to make sense of the storyline in my head, I decided to finish writing them all and publish this in one go. So here it is!
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters.
Wrath
Karin knew she was in for it when she heard his cool voice just down the hall, asking her sister where she was and how she was doing. She wondered whether burying herself in her blankets would somehow make her invisible – the childish if I can't see him, he can't see me trick – but before she could even bundle up the covers, he was already in the doorway.
His turquoise gaze flicked towards the cast around her leg, and when he looked back up at her, his eyes were darkened with rage.
"What were you thinking?" he spat out.
"No 'hello?'" she joked weakly. "Not even a 'how do you do?'"
It was stupid of her, really. She knew it would only rile him up more, and he definitely was as he marched to her bedside without his scowl ever leaving his lips.
"How many times have I told you to let the resident shinigami handle things?" he hissed, his eyes scanning the rest of her body for any more injuries. She might have blushed – she was only wearing the loose, backless hospital gown, after all – had she not been more preoccupied with getting herself out of trouble with her fuming friend.
"That guy is useless," she defended herself. "By the time he showed up, half the kids in that park would probably already have been dead. And even if he did show up in time, he's way too weak to handle things."
"You are not equipped to handle things either, Karin," he said through clenched teeth. Now that he knew the rest of her was unharmed, the worry in his eyes had disappeared, but that only made his glare more menacing.
"I'm more equipped than the rest of the humans who can't see or sense things at all," she argued. "I wasn't just going to leave them there to be monster-bait!"
"Hollow," he correct her absentmindedly. "But that is not your job. How many times have we – me, your brother, your father – told you to get out of harm's way when a Hollow attacks and just wait for a shinigami to arrive? With your heightened reiatsu, you're the first one they'll go after! What was the point of all those reiatsu-suppressing lessons I gave you if you're simply going to be reckless?"
"Look," she reasoned with a sigh, "I'm all for suppressing my reiatsu to keep those monsters from attacking me in the first place. But if one shows up on its own, and especially if there are innocent and clueless people around, I sure as hell am not going to just sit in the sidelines."
"Even if you get hurt?" he barked, his eyes flickering towards her cast again.
She nodded seriously. "Even if I get hurt."
There was silence after her declaration as they stared each other down. His glower didn't get any less intense, but the determination in her eyes didn't die down either. Finally, he sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"And there's nothing I can do to discourage you from this behavior?" he asked, his gaze softening.
She shrugged. "It's just how I am, Toushiro."
"You wouldn't stop even if I asked you to?" he said, stepping closer to her side. She froze when he hooked one finger and grazed the back of it against her cheek. "Not even if I told you how much I worry?"
She almost couldn't breathe. "Toushiro...?"
He immediately pulled his hand back, flitting his eyes away. "Nothing." His voice was gruff. "Sorry for that."
He took a step back, intending to haul ass out of there after that embarrassing display, but she lurched forward and took his hand into her grasp. His questioning glance met her hopeful one.
"You should stay," she mumbled, lightly tugging him back. "I get bored in here all alone. And you came all this way already." A thought occurred to her. "You don't have work to get back to, do you?"
He took a moment to think, then shook his head. "I'm free. Surprisingly."
Her face immediately brightened, and she patted the spot next to her on the bed. "Then take a seat. I'll have Yuzu bring us some playing cards. I'll teach you how to play Gin!"
He settled in for the afternoon, and they both dutifully ignored that brief, intense moment they had shared.
.
.
Greed
Her bedroom window slid open in the dead of night, but Karin was too deep asleep to realize that a familiar taichou had hopped into her room. She simply rolled over on her bed, splaying out over her mattress even more messily than usual.
Toushiro smirked at the sight. Her hair was spread messily on her pillow and her arms were open at her sides. She really wasted no space on the bed. Her shirt had also ridden up slightly, and he poked at her exposed stomach – a spot he knew was ticklish. She instantly jerked awake, her eyes snapping open in surprise. They stared at the ceiling for a moment before darting about the room, eventually landing on him.
"Toushiro?" she called out into the darkness, her voice hoarse from the few hours of sleep.
"Sorry to visit so late," he whispered back, "but it was the only time I could get away."
If he was expecting an open-arms welcome back, he did not get it. She stared at him for a beat longer, as if still processing that he was really there, before promptly turning her back to him and curling up into a defensive ball. He gaped at her as she huffed in irritation.
"Nice of you to finally show your face, Toushiro," she hissed, childishly refusing to look at him. "You've fulfilled your duty as the boyfriend now that I got to see you for a second, so you're free to run on back to Soul Society."
He rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Karin, won't you look at me?" She didn't make a sound or even twitch, so he sighed. "I know I'm not around much –"
"Try at all," she interrupted.
"But we both know I'm too busy to just leave whenever I want," he explained. "We knew that before we even started this relationship."
"Well, excuse me for liking you more and more as the relationship went on, and for wanting to see you more," she sniffed, tightening her hold on her knees. "But it doesn't ever matter what I want, does it?"
"You're too busy for me sometimes, too!" he argued. "You're more than capable of coming to visit me yourself, but with school and work and your club, you don't."
"But even when I do, you never have time to see me anyway!" she bit back. "So why should I bother? Did you even know that I was in Soul Society last week? You probably didn't, since you can never see me when I come around to your division. I only saw Rangiku-san."
He sighed again. "I knew you were there, Karin. Who do you think gave Matsumoto all that money to take you to all those nice places?"
"Oh, nice, Toushiro," she snapped. "Getting your fukutaichou to date me for you is real classy. You should have made her put on a Toushiro mask and written down a few conversation points on note cards for her to say to me. Then I could have pretended that it was really you, like my boyfriend actually cared about dating me."
"You're not the only one who wants to spend more time together!" he snapped back at her. "Why do you think I sneaked out in the dead of night – for my health? It's because this was the only time I could spare, and I wanted to take whatever chance I had to visit."
She finally turned around, but was still in her protective ball as she glared up at him. "I know I'm being greedy, Toushiro, but you should make time."
He sat down on the edge of her bed, leaning closer to her on one arm so he could tease her fringe with his other hand. She childishly turned her eyes away, but didn't bat at his hand, and that was how he knew she was more frustrated at their whole situation rather than angry at him for not sneaking out more often.
"I try," he whispered. "I really do. I promise."
"I know," she grumbled, barely moving her lips. "That's why I feel so bad for being so selfish."
He smiled just slightly. "Don't. It's very flattering."
"Amazing," she drawled, rolling her eyes in an exaggerated motion. "All you got out of that was an ego boost."
He didn't bother defending himself, because they both knew she was only being sarcastic. Instead, he leaned over even more to murmur in her ear, "I'll try to take some time off. A vacation. Would that make you happy?"
"Yeah," she murmured back. "At the very least, it'll get you off the hook. For now."
With a grin, she finally uncurled herself and tugged him onto bed beside her, so she could use his chest as a pillow. They both fell asleep pressed against each other.
.
.
Pride
"So you're going to break tradition?" Karin demanded, glaring at Toushiro so harshly that he felt beads of sweat form along the collar of his uniform.
"Well, it's not exactly our tradition," he countered, and the hope on his face that she'd accept his excuse had her sneering in contempt.
"Correction: it's not your tradition," she shot back heatedly, going as far as to cross her arms so she appeared to be the bigger person between the two. Not that it was hard to accomplish in the first place, but his power and prestige here always seemed to add a sort of phantom height to his short stature.
A murmur rippled through the crowd as several curious heads attempted to peer around each other at the feuding couple. She overheard snatches of their conversations, mostly wondering just why she hadn't responded to his question just yet, and fumed inwardly at the lack of understanding among the general population of shinigami. She'd get to them later, however, for there was someone even more important who needed to be taught a little something about human customs – and currently he was fidgeting something fierce under her scrutiny.
Taking a step towards him, she jabbed at his chest and continued, "It is, however, my tradition, and since I am just as involved in this as you are, it only seems fair that you should have to do it."
"I've done everything else," he argued, and while on anyone else it would have seemed to be a whine, his voice was just too frosty and smooth.
She snorted, uncaring of the fact that it was "unladylike" as she flipped back her hair with a jerk of her head.
"Yes, you've done everything else," she hissed, "including everything I told you I didn't want you to do: gathering a crowd, making a scene, putting me on the spot, embarrassing both of us."
"Your sister said it was everything you secretly wanted but were too shy to ask for," he defended himself.
"Right," she deadpanned with a scoff. "And I'm sure this has nothing to do with how obsessed she is with wanting her life to be like a fairytale, with a romantic, grand proposal right at the top of her list. God, Toushiro, and I thought you knew me better."
He seemed to consider her words carefully before his tongue darted out of his mouth, skillfully licking his lips in one swift motion. It meant he was nervous, she noted. Her words had caused self-doubt in his actions, and just that simple act almost made her crack and let him out of his misery. Almost.
She couldn't be a bumbling mess of forgiveness every time he made the endearing gesture. And as much as she enjoyed being a source of comfort in his life, having a chance to watch him squirm with such little effort on her part was rare, and she relished it.
"All right," he finally sighed, running his free hand through his hair, and then repeated it. "All right. So, I will admit that maybe waiting until the annual New Year's party and then pulling you onto the stage in front of everyone we know was not the best plan."
"It was the worst plan," she muttered under her breath, shrugging when he shot her a glare that rivaled her own.
"It was the worst plan, then," he relented. "But it has already been done, and there's no changing that. The crowd is still waiting. I've asked the question. All you have to do is answer it."
She let out a small hmph, folded her arms once again, and turned her head away stubbornly. "You know that's not all that's left to do."
He sighed – a harsh, exasperated sound. "Why won't you just say yes?"
"Why won't you just get down on one knee?"
And that was really the problem they were facing, the one gesture he had yet to make and the one gesture she demanded to see – the ultimatum.
It wasn't customary for shinigami to get down on one knee when they proposed. Hell, even presenting a ring was not a part of their traditions – which he had so gallantly done – since marriages were usually arranged by the families, as had been the case for centuries. Spouses were bound by written law and loyalty, both to their partners and their families.
Toushiro had never been part of a family of any prestige – certainly not one like the noble Kuchiki family – but he had grown up in Soul Society learning these practices and accepting that it was the way his own proposal would work. Never in a hundred years would he have predicted that he would instead choose to marry a human and follow her traditions instead, but he'd been accepting of those customs; he'd asked her father for his blessings, bought a diamond ring with the help of both Matsumoto and Hinamori, and then planned an elaborate scheme with Yuzu to ensure his girlfriend would say yes.
And now he watched it all fall apart before him, all because he wouldn't bend down on one knee.
"Karin," he attempted to reason with her, still holding out the ring in its case, "please think about my position. All my colleagues are here watching, and I'm even wearing my haori. I couldn't possibly sully the reputation of my captaincy and my squad by kneeling while wearing this."
"If you didn't want the other captains watching, then you shouldn't have done this in a public place like I asked you not to," she quipped back, no mercy in her words. "And it's not like you're pledging your allegiance to me or anything. I think everyone would understand if you got down on one knee for a marriage proposal, even if you're wearing your haori."
He shook his head. "No, they wouldn't, and that is the problem, Karin. Do you think anyone here, besides those who have ever been to the Human Realm, understands the differences between our marriage customs? All they would see is me bowing towards you, and as their taichou, I am expected to maintain my dignity."
His pride as a captain depended on it.
Karin's eyes flared up in an instant. "Oh, so proposing to me has no dignity?" she cried, outraged by his poor choice of words. He immediately attempted to backpedal and fix the direction of their conversation, but she would have none of it. "You know what?" she hissed, jabbing at his chest once again. "It's either you get down on one knee, or we don't get married."
He seemed to freeze at her declaration, his eyes reminiscent of a deer caught in headlights. "I-I…"
Incensed by his hesitation, she turned towards the crowd and announced, "Then my answer is NO!"
A collective gasp sounded from their audience, and the gossip began almost instantly after. Karin stomped off the stage, hellbent on ignoring her stricken boyfriend and shunpoing to the room she'd been given since her arrival into Soul Society.
But her departure seemed to spark something in Toushiro, who stared after her fluttering hair and almost couldn't help himself as he called out, "Wait."
She wanted to ignore him. It was a conscious decision she made in that moment to simply keep walking and not look back and wait until he came crawling back to her in the morning for a proper argument. They wouldn't break up over this, for their relationship was far too advanced and mature for healthy talks to not work, but she planned on giving him hell for quite some time.
However, the crowd loudly gasped again, just as she had walked out of the circle and was about to launch herself into a shunpo, and her curiosity won over her. She turned.
There was Toushiro, down on not one, but both knees, crouched so low that his nose almost touched the dirt as he held out the ring case resting on both his outstretched palms.
"Karin," he stated calmly, and a hush fell over the gathered shinigami when they noticed she had choked up at the sight. "Karin, you are more important to me. You know that and I know that, so let's get married."
She softened instantly at his words. This was her stupidly arrogant, appearance-obsessed boyfriend throwing away his pride for her, kneeling before her in an act of loyalty and compassion in front of all the people who had ever respected him – and all just so she would spend the rest of eternity with her life and her fate bound to his.
As a Kurosaki she had dignity of her own, to not so easily forgive and to not completely melt under the heat of his actions when she had promised herself only minutes ago that it would be different this time. But she'd known it since they had first started dating: that he was the only man for whom she would readily give up that stupid pride.
There was nothing she could do but scream out a choked, "HELL YEAH!" And she raced over to him and threw her arms around his neck and pushed the ring onto her finger and kissed him senseless.
Their audience erupted into loud cheers, and even croons from a few of the women, while she grinned so widely her face might have cracked and announced, "This proposal has been more of a show than I ever wanted, so none of you are invited to the wedding!"
.
.
Envy
Karin was not used to so many people staring at her on the streets, especially when she had never seen most of these faces before in her life.
She supposed she should have expected it, for anyone who had actually been at the blasted New Year's party had been doing so since the very next morning. The band twisted around her finger must have been a sure indicator of who she was and just who she was engaged to, for no one else in all of Soul Society followed the custom of engagement rings, which was why word had spread – and fast.
It had been less than a week! Not even seven days had passed, and already most of Seireitei knew of her name, her human race, and her relationship status. She might as well have had a bolded Taken stamped on her forehead, but the ring seemed to be accomplishing that job splendidly just on its own.
Hence the reason she was muttering bitterly under her breath as she walked along her path, attempting to ignore the stares and the whispers. If she'd known the backlash from her boyfriend's grand proposal would be so wide-spread, she would have asked for something much bigger than a bent knee.
And he'd give it to me, too, she grumbled to herself, no matter what it was I asked for. The thought left a bad taste in her mouth while it would have done the exact opposite for anyone else. She supposed it was nice knowing her future husband loved her so much, but it made it harder to curse him under her breath for all the unneeded attention, which, in turn, made it harder to cope with all the looks without the distraction.
A burst of giggles from her right drew her attention to a crowd of girls whispering (obviously about her) behind their hands – the robes made it clear they were students from the Academy – and she fought down the urge to grimace. Because, through all of this torture, the worst of it all had to be Toushiro's fanclub.
Which had made her aware of an astonishing truth she had somehow never learned before: Toushiro had a fanclub.
Did they not realize he was an ice-cold control freak with a hero complex and an addiction to caffeine? What was so appealing about the way he screamed at his subordinates and snapped crabbily at anyone who dared to disrupt his alone time with his paperwork? And he was rather short to boot.
Of course, she had overlooked all this and had come to know the softie that lived underneath the tough exterior, but she highly doubted anyone else had come anywhere near as close to scratching the surface as she had. (If they had, then she probably would not be the one he was currently engaged to).
As was her luck ever since the new year had started, the same girls she'd spied from the corner of her eyes suddenly sidled up to her, blocking her path as they whispered and pushed each other nervously. She noticed how quite a few of them sported flushed, red cheeks and seemed strangely breathless in her presence.
She raised an eyebrow. "Can I help you?"
Accompanying the dry inquiry was a twitch of her hand towards her sword. It was an instinct mostly, but these girls looked as if they'd worked up their courage to badger her about something, and she'd peeked at enough of Yuzu's shoujo manga to know fanclubs were serious business. She wouldn't put it past them to attack her for their precious Hitsugaya-taichou, even in broad daylight.
After a flurry of hushed words and nervous giggles, the group of girls finally pushed who must have been a representative before her. The leader cleared her throat and appraised her.
"You are Kurosaki Karin, correct?" she asked, finally meeting her eyes after snaking her gaze up all the way down from her feet.
"And how did you know that?" Karin replied, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. She recognized none of the faces in their little group.
The girl cleared her throat again. "We make it our business to know. You see, we are proud, active members of the Hitsugaya-taichou fanclub." She gestured towards the women behind her, who instantly straightened their backs.
"Not going to call him Hitsugaya-sama?" she quipped.
"We used to, but he likes to be addressed as taichou…" one of the so-called members offered, trailing off once she realized she had spoken out of line and turning beet red. "We, um, thought it might make him happier," she meekly ended.
"And what?" Karin drawled, her hand finding her hip. "You have a poster of Toushiro hung up in a room somewhere, and you spend all day smooching it?" That famous bite they must have heard of from the proposal story had made its debut right before their eyes.
"Of course not," the leader remarked, affronted by the assumption. "Hitsugaya-taichou is a man of dignity and class, and as the president, I run my club in very much the same way. We are a fanclub he would be proud of." She puckered her lips and peered right into Karin's eyes. "And we have heard about you, Kurosaki-san."
"Oh?" Karin raised both eyebrows this time, a clear sign of challenge. "And what exactly have you heard about me?"
"That you initially turned down Hitsugaya-taichou's proposal," a girl from the back answered.
"And that you made him buy you a ring," another one piped up, causing all eyes to flicker momentarily to the band on her finger.
"And," the president added, "that you made him kneel before you, as a sign of his submission."
Karin blanched." Wha – submission?" she cried, gaping at them. "That's really not what it was–"
"It's all right," one of the girls interrupted, and her eyes glassed over with what could only be tears. "We know already. That he actually did it."
"Our brave, strong, noble Hitsugaya-taichou," another member sobbed, clapping a hand over his mouth. "He actually threw away his position just because you asked."
"He must love you a lot," the president whispered, and to Karin's horror, she had teared up as well.
Afraid of drawing yet another crowd – and quite panicked over what to do also – she held up both hands in a feeble attempt to calm the girls down. "Look," she hissed furiously, "I don't know what you think happened, but you're probably taking it the wrong way. What he did was a simple human tradition. Nothing to fuss about!"
"Nevertheless," their chairman continued, finally seeming to gather herself by taking a deep breath, "Hitsugaya-taichou has chosen you. And we're jealous. We're very, very jealous." The girls all nodded solemnly in between their sniffles. "And we're confused. He should have clearly chosen one of us, you know. We would serve him at all hours of the day and shower him with our love. None of us would ever make him kneel in public."
"O-Oi…" Karin weakly protested.
"But that didn't happen, and so we've come here for one reason only." She snapped her fingers, and to the Kurosaki's shock, a girl from the back scurried forward with a bouquet of lilies she had clearly been hiding behind her back. She presented them to Karin, who took them unconsciously. This was already not turning out to be a meeting shoujo manga had prepared her for.
"Kurosaki Karin," the girls spoke up, bowing before her deeply, "we offer you our blessing. If you are the woman our Hitsugaya-taichou has chosen, then we can only ask that you take good care of him."
And with that said and done, possibly too embarrassed to look her in the eye, the group bolted down the street. She managed to spy most of them wiping away stray tears, comforting each other through their "emotional turmoil," and clicked her tongue.
"Well, don't give me the damn flowers if you're going to cry about it," she groused long after they were gone.
Even so, she couldn't help the grin that graced her lips, both amused and touched, when she looked down at the bouquet nestled in her arms.
...
It was well into the evening before Karin managed to relay the meeting to her fiancé, and not until she had found him in his office and crawled into his lap – her favorite place to be.
"So I met your fanclub today," she told him in between placing kisses on his neck. It was a game she liked to play, trying to distract him from his work while he attempted to ignore her advances and failed miserably.
"Oh?" He didn't seem all that interested, and though she might have been put out by a lack of reaction had they been speaking of anything else, she figured his fanclub wasn't usually up to something worth worrying about in the first place.
"They gave us their blessing," she informed him, watching his face for any signs of change. He definitely smirked in amusement, though it would have been barely noticeable had she not been staring so intently.
"We would have gotten married either way," he assured her, focused more on his work now that she had paused her attack on his neck and he could actually concentrate.
She really loved riling him up, so it was with a practiced innocence that she mused out loud, "They were good people. Maybe I'll invite them to the wedding."
He halted his brush, letting the silence cloud the room for a few beats, before raising an incredulous eyebrow aimed her way. "You can't be serious?"
"Of course I am!" She grinned widely, and all he saw was the slyness in her eyes and the mischief that quirked her lips. "In fact, maybe I'll join the club. Being me, I think I'd automatically get promoted to the president's seat, don't you think?"
"Karin," he warned her, his voice heavy and serious. She only laughed, light and breezy, and without promising him anything, shunpoed right out of his office before he could convince her otherwise.
In a few days time, she mailed out exactly six invites to her wedding (one for each girl she had met that day), along with an application, to the Hitsugaya-taichou fanclub.
.
.
Lust
There was something nerve-wracking about getting married, even if it was to the man she loved.
Karin held a hand against her stomach, feeling jitters so strong that she was slightly sick. If she wasn't careful, the room would start spinning; she was already starting to regret the wine she'd had that morning, when everyone had encouraged her to eat something for breakfast.
"Yuzu, I think I'm gonna throw up," she mumbled, looking away from the full-length mirror. A Kuchiki maid had brought it in per her sister's request, and Karin had been standing in front of it for the better part of an hour, getting primped for her big day.
"Just take deep breaths," Yuzu advised, tugging on the bodice of her dress so that it was aligned over her waist. "We spent a lot of money on this dress – well, Toushiro-kun did, technically – so you don't want to ruin it."
"You're not being any help," Karin grumbled back, just itching to run her fingers through her hair. They'd left it down and running past her shoulders, straightened and styled almost in the same way it had been when she'd first met her fiancé at the age of eleven. It might have been simple, but Yuzu would surely kill her for ruining it in any way.
Finally, she heaved a sigh. "Just...Just get me Toushiro, okay?"
Her twin gasped, immediately wagging a finger. "The groom is not allowed to see the bride before the wedding!"
"There might not be a wedding if I don't see him now!" she snapped back, though it was a bit of an exaggeration. When her sister shrank back, she immediately regretted her harsh tone. It was with a much gentler approach that she mumbled, "Look, Yuzu, you have to go put on your dress anyway. Just send him in until then. He can even close his eyes."
Her sister bit her lip, finally relenting unsurely. "Well...all right. But you have to make sure he doesn't see you, okay?"
"You're a saint, Yuzu," she breathed out, a smile finally touching her lips.
...
When there was a knock five minutes later, she immediately threw the door open, only to find herself facing her fiancé's back.
"I was told not to look at you," he explained, sounding bemused and just a little entertained.
With a roll of her eyes, she threw her arms around his shoulders and pulled him back into her room, sliding the door shut again to give them some much needed privacy.
He covered one of her hands with his own. "You're nervous?"
"Not anymore," she mumbled into his ear, laying her head against his shoulder blade. "I just wanted to talk a little before we were, you know...married."
"Well, you look beautiful," he complimented her with a smirk, bending one of his arms back to trail it up her side, feeling the puffy netting of her skirt and the silky fabric of the bodice tight around her waist.
With a dry roll of her eyes, she spun him around without hesitation. She honestly didn't care about tradition, Yuzu's nagging be damned. This was her special day, and if she wanted her groom's full attention, she would get it.
Toushiro, however, seemed to have lost the ability to speak. He roved his widened eyes up and down her figure a few times, and then swallowed thickly.
"Wow," he managed to choke out. "You look..."
"Beautiful?" she filled in for him, smirking at his fish-out-of-water face. It did her ego damn good to see it.
He shook his head. "I was too naive. 'Beautiful' doesn't even begin to describe you."
It was Karin's turn to be flustered. Her fiancé said some of the most romantic things sometimes, and they usually came out of nowhere, from deep, deep underneath his usual stoic facade. It always left her flustered.
He leaned forward for a chaste kiss, which she returned without hesitation.
"Save it for the altar," she mumbled against his lips, throwing her arms over his shoulders.
"But I want you now."
She didn't even have time to think of a witty comeback before he'd swept her off the floor. She made a noise in surprise, but was silenced when he placed her on the bed.
"I think you've got this reversed," she said breathlessly. "The honeymoon comes after."
"When have we ever been normal?" he mumbled back, and then his lips crashed down on hers.
They spent a few minutes just kissing hard, moving their jaws skillfully against each other's and cradling each other's faces. Karin felt heat coiling in her stomach, making her feel antsy as she pressed herself against him. After curling and uncurling her toes a few times, trying to work out her sudden rush, she finally threw a leg around his waist. Her dress slipped down to her thigh, but she was too busy throwing an arm around his neck and pulling him closer to care.
Finally, Toushiro decided to get a bit more creative with his hands. He spent a few moments just lazily feeling the silky fabric of her dress, but then he tightly clutched her almost-bare thigh, still wrapped around his waist, and began fumbling for the zipper of her dress with his other hand. She gladly arched into him, giving him easier access, as she threw her head back when he began peppering kisses on her neck.
The zip was so tiny that his eager hands fumbled with it a lot, but he finally managed to grab on securely. And just as he yanked it down her back–
"Karin? Toushiro-kun?" They both scrambled apart as Yuzu knocked on the door again. "Can I come in?"
"J-Just a minute!" Karin yelled back, her voice much more shrill than usual. She turned her back to Toushiro and furiously hissed, "Zip me up!"
She could practically hear the frown in Yuzu's voice. "What's going on in there?" she asked through the door. "Toushiro-kun didn't see you, did he?"
Karin didn't want to lie to her sister, so she just called out, "We'll be right there!"
Their clothing was all fixed up, but Karin realized her hair was in less than perfect condition after rubbing against the mattress. Her sister was going to throw a complete fit. She began to comb her fingers through the messy strands, trying to straighten them into place as they both rolled off the bed.
Toushiro slid open the door less than a second later, his face so composed he could have won an award for his brilliant acting.
"She was just a little nervous," he calmly assured Yuzu, who was anxiously peering inside, "but I've calmed her down a bit. You look very nice in your dress." Then, he disappeared down the hall in a flash.
Karin could only laugh nervously when her sister shot her a suspicious glance. "Yup. I'm all calmed down and good to go now!"
If only her heart could stop hammering against her chest.
.
.
Gluttony
Damn, I hate weddings, Karin groused, a palm tucked under her chin as she scowled out onto the dance floor. Even if it's my own.
All around her couples were dancing, some awkwardly holding clammy hands while others were buried in each other's embrace. The Shinigami Women's Association had been ecstatic at the thought of wearing the elegant dresses they had seen in human magazines, and had also managed to scare the men into putting on equally classy suits; looking out at them all, Karin almost forgot she was in Soul Society.
At least her husband looked gorgeous, and she'd been following his fine ass from her seat for a while now, grumbling about the fact that it wasn't currently planted in the seat next to hers.
Even at his own wedding, he couldn't abandon proper etiquette and protocol. Since the reception had ended, he'd been making rounds among their guests, accepting well wishes and blessings and congratulations. It wasn't as if he contributed much to the conversation himself, but as was proper, he had pasted an interested look on his face and nodded encouragingly at anyone who engaged him in chatter.
Of course, that wasn't the sole reason she was so grouchy at her own wedding. There would be plenty of time, after all, to speak to Toushiro – the rest of her life, in fact. It wasn't even the fact that she was such a lousy dancer and had stomped on quite a few feet in the past hour (which was killing her heel). Rather, her unhappiness and her frustration stemmed from the one part of her body she never forgot to nourish: her stomach.
She was hungry. Scratch that – she was starving, ravenous, and the inhuman sounds her stomach had been growling were a grim reminder that she had barely eaten anything all day.
Waking up on the morning of her wedding had been nerve-wracking, to say the least, and for the first time in her life she had skipped breakfast in favor of a glass of wine, which she'd hoped would calm her nerves. Once the wedding party had started and she'd been given a steaming plate of everything on the menu, apparently all her guests had decided that was the best time to wish her marriage well and strike up a conversation that was longer than it had any business being.
I'll talk to you after my stomach is full! she'd been snapping at them in her mind, but on her face was only a grateful smile and a heartfelt acceptance of their kind words.
By the time the well-wishers finally left her in peace, her food had been taken away, even though she'd only managed to shovel in a few bites.
Fuck my life, she groaned to herself, clapping a hand over her stomach as if that would shush it from making strange noises. Now that everyone had given her time to herself, she was spending it with an elbow on the table and her chin buried in her hand, grumpily watching the party-goers with narrowed eyes.
In fact, she was so focused on her bitter task that she failed to notice Toushiro slip into a seat beside her – not until he sidled his chair next to hers and murmured in her ear.
"You look miserable."
She didn't jump, even despite the shock that had jolted her heart, but rather lifted her chin to nod his way. "I thought you were busy talking to Ukitake-san?"
"His third seat asked him for a dance," he explained, jerking his head towards the dance floor, where the fair-headed captain was indeed dancing with Kiyone while Sentarou seethed from a distance. "Besides, my wife looked so unhappy that I had to do something." He gave her a pointed look from the corners of his eyes, before his gaze flickered down to her stomach. "You're hungry."
It was a statement rather than a question, and she gaped. "How did you know?"
"I've been watching over you, of course, even if I couldn't step away from the guests. You've been staring longingly at your stomach for the past half hour."
She flushed, shooting him a nasty glare. "Have not."
"You're not happy," he noted, ignoring her denial. "Even though it's our wedding."
She had the decency to look sheepish and began to stammer out, "I-It's not–"
He halted her words by holding up a hand, calmly assuring her, "I wasn't accusing you of anything. Instead, I thought we'd take this opportunity of having time alone to fix the problem."
In response to her confused look, he simply grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away from the table, leading her down the steps of the podium and across the hall. No one paid them much attention as they weaved through dancers and on-lookers and groups of friends (though Toushiro's fanclub did giggle as he marched past them). They were out of the room and scurrying up a flight of stairs before she asked where he planned to lead her.
"Right here," was his answer, and he pulled open a pair of double doors to reveal an empty balcony, looking out into the breathtaking gardens of the Kuchiki estate and a gorgeous, starry night sky to match.
She heard muffled music under her feet and turned to him questioningly. "Where are we?"
"We're above the wedding hall," he replied, leading her to the edge of the banister. She placed her free hand on the railing and simply absorbed the view, enjoying the cool summer breeze on her bare shoulders. Toushiro readily discarded his suit jacket and placed it over her back, mumbling something about summer colds that had her shaking her head in amusement at his worry.
"Wait here," he murmured against her ear, disappearing in a flash.
She nodded even after she was alone, taking the time to adjust his jacket more carefully over her shoulders and deeply breathing in the scent of his cologne. It was the one she had given him, after hours of searching for the perfect scent that she would never tire of, no matter how many times she buried her face in his chest. Mmmm.
He returned just as swiftly as he had left, but this time, she took notice of the plate in his hand. On it sat a single slice of cake, decorated with frosted vanilla icing and intricate, blue flowers.
"Our cake?" she gasped, her eyes never leaving it even as he walked past.
He shrugged. "You said that you were hungry."
"Right. But you do know that cutting the first slice of the wedding cake is a big deal, right? With a crowd and cameras and applause and everything?"
"That's why I only managed to get us one. If I'd stayed for a second, someone would have caught me cutting it." Impassive to the shock on her face, he held up a pair of forks. "I managed to grab two forks, though, so why don't we sit down?"
He settled on the ground, sticking his legs in between the railing and resting the plate on his lap. He was the picture of ease when he looked back and offered her a fork.
She only gaped for a moment longer, wondering just how badly Matsumoto and Hinamori and Yuzu would strangle her for this, before grinning. Oh, what the hell. I am hungry.
Her white dress was too poofy to sit on the ground in comfortably, so she bunched it all up to her knees before sticking her bare legs in between the railing like him. She was content leaning back on one hand, her fork in the other, but was even more so when he threw an arm over her shoulders and pulled her into his side.
"Everyone is going to hate us tomorrow, you know," she warned him with a smile.
"I know." He pulled her tighter against him. "But all that matters is that you are happy."
And with a cocky smirk that didn't quite match the gentleness in his eyes, he stuffed a forkful of cake into her mouth.
...
It was not much later when Matsumoto climbed onto the podium with a mic in hand and addressed her audience merrily.
"Let's have the happy couple share one last dance alone, shall we?" she suggested with a twinkle in her eyes, which had practically become a permanent part of her features ever since her taichou had gotten engaged. "And then we'll cut the cake!"
The crowd murmured together in general agreement and shuffled off the dance floor, more than happy to clear it for their newlywed friends. Someone dimmed the lights for the added effect, leaving only a single spotlight in the middle of the room. It was empty.
Matsumoto scrunched her eyebrows and, cupping her hand over her eyes, peered out into the hall. "Taichou?" she called. "Karin-chan? Are you in here?"
There was only silence, even as everyone began craning their necks in hopes of spotting the couple of honor among the throng of people. But then there was a gasp, and a horrified Yuzu pointed at a decorated table set up against the wall.
"Oh, my God. Someone cut the cake!" she wailed, clapping a hand over her mouth.
A buzz broke out over the room as everyone attempted to figure out who could have possibly done such a thing. The rowdiest shinigami immediately began pointing fingers, threatening anyone known to love sweets to confess. Yuzu teared up as she stared at the cake she had spent hours to bake, hoping that cutting the first slice would be a sweet moment for her sister that she could document using a camera and remember forever. The noise escalated above the music, and arguments began to break out all over the place.
Up on the podium, Matsumoto looked out into the chaos, still hoping to see a flash of white somewhere. "Taichou, where are you!" she called desperately. "Aren't you going to do something about this? Karin-chan?"
Meanwhile, on the balcony above the wedding hall, the blissfully ignorant couple sat with their legs dangling over the edge, watching the stars as they fed each other their wedding cake.
.
.
Sloth
Toushiro sighed. "I have to get back."
Karin flicked his forehead lightly. "No, you don't."
"Karin," he said in warning, but didn't make any move to get up. In fact, he shut his eyes when she began to stroke his hair, relaxing once again. "You don't play fair," he mumbled.
Her only answer was to grin, and she purposely scraped his scalp with her blunt fingernails, since she knew how much he loved it. The wrinkles in his forehead all disappeared as he relaxed even more, stilling to the point that she almost thought he had fallen asleep. She would have been glad if he had; he could really use the sleep.
Not even a week back from their honeymoon, and he was already overworked again. After only a week of solidarity and marital bliss, his body had completely forgotten how to handle late-night work sessions and staying overtime pretty much every day. It didn't help that they'd spent their entire vacation simply lounging together in their new home, mostly in bed.
When he'd sent her a message that he wouldn't be coming home for dinner and not to wait up for him, she'd thought she would go see him on her way back and bring him a steaming cup of much-needed coffee. He'd looked up once he sensed her reiatsu at the door, and with just one look at his disheveled uniform and the bags under his eyes, she'd known he needed a break and didn't plan on taking no for an answer.
Ignoring his protests, she'd led him out to the nearly deserted courtyard, settled her back against a tree, and promptly dropped his head in her lap.
"I really can't stay," he kept insisting, but his actions said the exact opposite. Before long, he had propped up his knees and tucked his hands behind his head, content with closing his eyes and letting her stroke his hair.
Now, not even five minutes had passed and he was already protesting again. Karin would have none of it.
"Don't make me drug your tea, Toushiro," she threatened him playfully, and he opened one eye to look up at her.
"You underestimate my skills as a taichou," he scoffed. "I can detect poison or just about anything in my food or drink that shouldn't be there." Then, he sighed. "I know I've been working too much these days–"
"Well, at least you realize it," she cut across him, frowning. "We are newlyweds, Toushiro. Do you know what that means? It means our life right now is supposed to be all about picking out furniture and eating dinner together and having sex every chance we get. All that good stuff."
"Sounds nice," he mumbled, lazily propping one of his legs on his other knee. "But it's too idealistic for a taichou. From what I understand, Kuchiki-taichou didn't even take off time for a honeymoon when he got married."
"Of course not," she scoffed. "That's a human tradition. He doesn't even know what a honeymoon is."
"My point is that we've already been afforded a luxury with that one week I took off. It's unheard of for a taichou to take off so many days at once. Our vacations are usually very short before we're expected back for duty."
"Don't I know it," she grumbled bitterly, thinking back to when they had only just begun dating and he could barely take off time to come see her. It had always felt like he left just as quickly as he came.
"But, really, Toushiro," she continued, "being married is like duty, too, you know." He raised both eyebrows in interest to show that he was listening, and she huffed, "We have to be around for each other. Don't make me leave you for another man."
"Oh?"
"Picture this. You keep working late. Soon, you're staying later and later, until you end up spending some nights at the office and don't even come back home at all. I become more lonely, and even hugging your pillow as I sleep in our bed alone doesn't help." He snorted at that, but she ignored him and carried on. "One day, as I'm coming to visit you in your office so I can see you properly for the first time in days, I run into someone from your division. We get to talking. We find out we have a lot in common and become friends. Soon, we're hanging out all the time, and before long, I'm seeing him more than I'm seeing you. Then, one day, he confesses that he's always liked me, and he knows it's wrong, but he wants me to think of him as more than a friend. And I know it's wrong, but I've been so lonely and haven't seen you in so long that I actually consider his offer. And, alas, I leave you for another man."
He was smirking in amusement by the end of her story. "There's a plot hole in there."
"Which would be?"
"No one in my division would dare to lay a hand on you. They're all too scared of me."
She rolled her eyes. "I know you've grown a bit taller, Toushiro, but people really don't fear you as much as you think they do."
He shook his head. "It's not about height. It's about presence."
"Right. Your presence in our home, which is becoming more and more rare." When he said nothing, she flicked his forehead again. "You see my point, don't you?"
He was silent for a moment longer, and then asked, "You wouldn't really leave me for another man, would you?"
"Of course not!" she cried. "Wouldn't leave you for a woman, either. But I would be lonely if you stopped coming home."
He sighed heavily. "All right, all right. I see your point." There was a pause, and then he offered, "Fifteen more minutes?"
"I'll take it," she agreed readily, running her fingers through his hair again. "And, tomorrow you're going to come home for dinner. Without bringing work."
"Deal."
"Deal."
With the promise to spend more time together soon, Karin happily made the most of the fifteen minutes they had left.
A/N: Now I can finally cross this off my list! It's been half complete and sitting in my drafts for so long, and luckily, today I was itching to just write something and managed to finish this :)
Not happy with the make out scene in Lust, though. I had no inspiration. It was the last thing I wrote. Also, the idea for the Gluttony drabble came from How I Met Your Mother – Marshall and Lily searching for food at their wedding reception. No one managed to guess it on tumblr, which surprised me.
Oh, yeah, I've been diligently working on the next chapter of FnK for the past few days. I'm not going to make any promises about when exactly I'll update (because, you know, fickle muse over here), but definitely keep an eye out :)