A/N: I think that my favorite thing about this pairing is that it's so fucking open to interpretation, both their relationship and their characters because Kubo hasn't done much with them. (Unfortunately.) Writers get to flesh them out in very different, very unique ways and I love it a lot. But, I digress. This entire fic has just been me exploring their possible canon relationship and I love it so fight me.
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pride
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"I'm not a fucking child," she hissed, her pale skin glowing against the springtime moonlight pouring through her window. The pools of ink in her eyes flashed, threatening to drown him in a single look. "Don't you dare treat me like one, Toshiro."
"I don't care," he seethed, turning away from her gaze. The steel in his voice felt sharper than any earthly metal. "My only interest is keeping you safe. You need to stop testing me, Karin."
"Testing you? This has nothing to do with you!" She ran a hand through her long, black hair in an agitated manner. She could not look at him, not see the face that found its way so close to her own when she need to move forward, past him, her hands glowing hot light through dying hollows. "Karakura isn't safe! It's never been safe, and Ichigo is busy training somewhere in some other dimension! This town needs me! You can't just let me sit here and-!"
"I can and I will!" Hitsugaya hissed, looming over her in the darkness of the shadows. "Now stay here."
"Or what?"
"I'm not afraid to tie you down to that bed."
And he was gone, slipped through her half open window in a billowing mess of black and white robes.
Karin stared at her half opened window in cold fury, before reaching over towards her nightstand and slipping on a small ring on her left hand. It gleamed in an alien light before flexing and shifting into a metal gauntlet, wrapped around her forearm and fingers in clean platinum. She flexed her fingers, stared out at the window that he'd left so temptingly open for her.
She grinned hatefully, tossing on worn sneakers and a thick jacket before lifting her window all the way up and sneaking away into the darkness.
He was a blizzard, as bitter as whiskey and more chilling than any winds that this April night could have conjured and she knew it better than anyone. The skies, the clouds, the darkness called to him in shards of sharp ice and frozen air that made the hairs on her skin stand on end. His pride was an unrelenting thunder of persistence.
But Karin was a lightning storm; not even thunder could not bend her to it's will.
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greed
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Karin played with the hair at the nape of his neck as they sat by her windowsill, enveloped in each other's arms. The sun shone down on the tan flesh wrapped around his body, entrancing her. It glowed against the sunbeams. She's leaning back against the wall on his lap as he sat cross legged, his face pressed into the exposed skin of her collarbone.
"Happy birthday," he murmured into her skin.
"Thank you, " she whispers back with a warm smile.
He reached past her shoulder, towards her desk behind her, and leaned back with a very large cupcake in his arms. Karin blinked at it with a questioning smile as he muttered something about not having a lighter before muttering a kido and watching the small little stick burst into a tiny, yellow flame. She shuffled in his lap, curving her frame over him as she took the treat into her own hands.
It's chocolate, overflowing with purple icing that she takes the first opportunity to lick. "Is this my present?" she asked.
"Not really." Toshiro's voice is gravelly with sleep, and warm, sending shivers through her bare skin. "Make a wish."
She shrugged. "Alright."
For a moment, she stared at the small, flickering flame that was glowing orange in the sunrise that flooded through her window. She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking of what she wanted the most. And she felt it - the feel of his bare arms against her own, his voice running along her body, the warmth he brought only for her, and the thickness of his scent running through her nose. The acute wanting in that moment hit her in the stomach like a physical blow.
She wanted this body to be human and his home right here.
Karin blew out the candle with all her greed, all her wanting, in that one small breath, threatening to choke her.
"This thing is huge. Help me eat it, will you?" she said, taking some of the icing from the cupcake and wiping it on Toshiro's nose. He wrinkled his nose in a scowl that made her chuckle. "What a messy eater."
She leaned it an licked his nose with her tongue, making his squirm even more. "You're disgusting," he moaned.
The dark haired girl took another swipe at the icing and dragged it along his bottom lip with a grin. "Oh, looky there. Do you need some help with that?" she prompted.
He rolled his eyes, but leaned in to kiss her without a thought, introducing his bottom lip with her tongue.
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sloth
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The dead heat of August held no reprieve. It sank into her bones as they sat on the front porch with the air conditioner from the window blowing on their backs from the window they sat in front of, and ice melting inside of their tea. Thick slices of watermelon set out by Yuzu laid on their table that Karin did not dare to touch.
"That was a fucking bad idea," she muttered. Her soccer ball laid at her feet in reproach. She felt sloth-like, with the exhaustion and heat seeping through her bones and turning her world sluggish. She busied herself with braiding up a new leather bracelet, this one dyed black with a dark brown knot on it.
"I'm not surprised you thought of it," he countered through a mouthful of watermelon.
"Shut the fuck up."
He looked up boredly, and spat a string of seeds at her forehead. She groaned, wiping them away angrily, but too tired and hot and sticky to get up and hit him.
Instead, she reached for a watermelon slice, and tossed it towards his face.
It landed squarely on his nose, and her laugh was high and clear.
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envy
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He was powerful.
It wasn't any sort of strength that muscle could relay. It was not in his blade, or lining the callouses of his hands, or wrapped in the dagger of a tongue laying in his mouth. She saw it in the burning of his eyes, the arrogance that he could have frozen hell over. She saw it in the strength that laid tingling behind his palms, beneath this gigai that felt so real so many times, as he stood up too many times to count against enemies he fought. She saw it as he transformed from a teenage boy into a captain before her eyes.
And she envied his power - it made her entire body burn with jealousy. She wanted to protect everyone she loved, so desperately, and it shook her to the core that she couldn't be strong enough when she had to be.
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lust
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It's dark, a pitch black full moon nestled into the October sky, when he comes again.
Their embrace is hot and heavy, with his sinewy arms crushing her hips against him repeatedly. She didn't hold back either, clawing at his through his clothes to bring their bodies closer. The palpable heat between them burned at their skin.
They've been waiting too long for this closeness, and it's palpable in the air. There is something like relief that floods through them, crashing desperately for release.
They fall onto her bed, in a mess of whispers and kisses that he trails up her collar bone. She sighed contentedly, raking her fingers through her hair for purchase. Karin has never felt Toshiro's fingers so needy. His calloused finger tips run along her hip bone where her shorts and her shirt didn't meet.
For a moment he stops, and he waits, breathing her in. "I missed you so much."
She shook her head. "I missed you more."
Her eyes stayed closed for a while. There should have been a word stronger than that, but she can't think of it. There's nothing in her mouth that can encapsulate her desire for him acutely enough. There is no word that is direct enough. Instead, she pulls him towards her, pressing her lips insistently to his, desperation clawing her stomach raw.
She wants him and she knows it and she wants him to know too.
Toshiro kisses her thoroughly, leaving very little room for oxygen, and she pushes him away suddenly. "Give me a second."
"Hmm?" he murmured, leaning back as she sits up. She shook her head at him before slipping out of her heavy sweater, leaving her in pale skin and a black bra. She reached over and lifted off his shirt. He cooperated easily, lifting his arms when needed, and never taking his eyes off off her heavy gaze. She tossed both of them across the room, breathing deeply before meeting his gaze again.
It's not unnerving anymore.
"Are you sure?" Toshiro asked.
Karin pulled him closer, her hand curving around the back of his throat. "Yes," she breathed, words piling onto her tongue that she does not want to say, words that suddenly have much more power than she wants them to have. She is sure. She has never been more sure in this moment and it hurts. She is scared to say anything that will be eternally meaningful, monumentally fearful because he was always so fleeting.
But right now, his skin was hot and his eyes were honest. There was nothing more real than this boy right now.
The dark haired girl kissed him headily as he leaned into her and grasped her by the back of her thighs. He yanked her onto his lap with an insistent squeeze as their lips met. She snickered as she broke the kiss, his lips finding her collarbone once more as she reached behind her back and unhooked her bra. Karin tossed it somewhere, not caring where it ended up as his tongue began toying with the gooseflesh raised across her chest.
Not a hint of apprehension was hidden inside her - only an unbearable heat.
Toshiro pushed her back onto the bed, with her legs kicked up over his hips as he hovered over her. He kissed far, far down her chest, moving more boldly with every touch. "Have you done this before?" she asked as breezily as possible.
"No." He punctuates this with grazing his teeth over her nipple. Karin gasped sharply. She could feel the smirk in his voice that made her cheeks flush. "Have you?"
"Nope." Karin rolled her hips into his, breathing harshly at the bulge she felt between her legs and how unnaturally good it felt. He groaned aloud, the sound of it rumbling in his chest. Toshiro squeezed the back of her thighs again, almost in reproach, making her smile. "Are you sure you can handle me? I might just break you."
"As if, Karin," he muttered into her skin. She laughed again, silenced by his another heavy kiss.
Toshiro moved upward, brushing his teeth along her skin, and then biting down right under her jugular. She whimpered, bucking her hips into his again and arching her neck.
Could he taste her pulse? It was thrumming just under his tongue. Her entire body was burning, tingling with need, and her core throbbed as melted into his frame. This lust was more painful than anything she's ever felt.
The hunger coiled in her stomach, demanding his touch and his scent to drown her.
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wrath
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"Are you kidding me?"
Hitsugaya looked up, bewildered, as Karin stood sharply from the couch as he slipped his cell phone back into his pocket. Her face has been made up by her sister, with sharpened cheekbones and warm gold flushed onto her eyelids. The anger played mysteriously on her face, making everything more alive.
"What?" he snapped, annoyed already. "What now?"
"Are you ditching me on Christmas Eve for paperwork?"
The white haired shinigami sighed, running a hand through his messy hair. The words tied onto his tongue in obligation. "Karin, I have a duty and apart of that is making sure that I get all my work done," he said, monotony creeping into his tone. She knew this as well as he did.
"It doesn't matter!" she snapped. "I keep seeing you less and less - you haven't even been here for three hours and you decide to leave just for a few fucking reports? This is a joke."
"I don't like jokes and neither do you," Hitsugaya deadpanned.
"I meant us," Karin hissed, kicking off her heels angrily and leaving the living room to stop upstairs. Hitsugaya followed with a contrite expression.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" he yelled back.
"You know!"
"But you love you explain things, don't you?"
She shrieked incoherently, swiveling around to meet him stomping her foot like an animal ready to charge. "I haven't seen you in months and when you finally decide to show up you decide to go just like that?" Karin growls. "What, you only come around when it's convenient for a quick fuck?"
His face contorts into a livid mask, angrier than her own. "How dare you belittle my feelings for you?" Toshiro says, voice raised. "I left Matsumoto in charge of a group of new recruits who need training just to see you. You know that this isn't my world, Karin. I don't stay away by choice."
She breathed harshly, balling her hands into shaking fists. "This is never going to work out,"
Toshiro rolled his eyes. "Don't be melodramatic."
"You live in another fucking dimension," she snapped, walking into her room. Hitsugaya watched her silently as she walked towards the desk at the far end, picking up a minuscule, neatly wrapped box and tossing it at him. He caught it neatly. "I'm not stupid, and neither are you. Just take it and go."
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gluttony
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Karin fell in love with a ghost that kissed broken promises into her lips every time he came around.
He'd branded her, made her his without her realizing it for a long time. It was a physical pain. No other man could bring her into the same state of euphoria, of peace, of rightness in the way he did. Time passed, seasons changed, and she still let him into her bed, with a body that wasn't real and a soul that did not belong with her.
Maybe she branded him too - he never took off the bracelet she'd made him for Christmas. It was braided with yellow had a blank wooden plate on it's front. Before she fell asleep tossed over his side, she twisted it between her hands and stared at it blankly.
The urge to carve her name into it, into his skin, into the artificial heart beating just underneath his chest, called to her in whispers.
Maybe she was a glutton for heartbreak, but so was he.