Unsaid
A/N: Just a sudden inspiration during an incomprehensibly boring meeting. Pretty fast paced. RXR. Enjoy. HitsuXKarin oneshot. AU, normal world.
XXXXX
Kurosaki Karin looked up from her homework and glared at the shadow hanging over her.
"What do you want?"
The shadow didn't make a sound, but nodded his head towards the door. He then stalked out of the small room. Karin quietly followed after the cold, quiet male who was walking at a fast pace. She huffed. What was wrong with him? He thinks he can just barge into her room and call her out for no reason? The last she remembered, the two weren't on good terms. Wait. Scratch that. They were never on good terms.
She stared intently at her longtime neighbor, wondering what was wrong with him. He was acting surprisingly strangely; usually the smug and arrogant male would start insulting her the moment they saw each other.
"Oi! Toushirou! Answer my question."
The male glanced back briefly before replying, "Just follow."
The two continued on in silence until they reached the park two streets away from their houses. Toushirou sat down on the bench in one fluid and smooth motion. Karin, however, stood in front of him, hands crossed, looking quite intimidating
"This yours?" When Toushirou finally spoke, it was in an icy, emotionless voice of fury. He reached out his hand, and in it was a thin, white card. It was plain, decorated only by a single black butterfly, its wings lined with bright red lines. The paper itself was of thick, smooth, quality paper that looked brand new. But Karin knew better; that card had been with her since very early in her life. Was it 5 years ago? Yes, it was. She was only 13 when she had gotten that card, and never once had it left her. So why was it in Toushirou's hands?
Karin's confused mind finally started functioning properly and she realized with a gasp that he had most likely read the contents of the card. She snatched it over and cried, "Why do you have this!?"
The look in Toushirou's eyes hardened. "Who was it?"
"What?" Karin asked, genuinely confused. "Who was what?"
"Who did you give this to!?"
Karin was shocked by Toushirou's sudden raise in volume. But she stood firm and glared right back at Toushirou's furious teal eyes. "That's none of your business! Why do you even want to know?"
"Because that guy just threw it here!" Toushirou exclaimed, pointing down at the bench he was sitting on. "He threw away your feelings like they were nothing!"
At this time, Karin understood what was happening. Toushirou had misunderstood. She should have been happy that he was reacting so violently, but hearing Toushirou talk about her feelings triggered something in her.
"Oh? And what does this have to do with you? You don't see me interfering with your love life." Toushirou scowled at this. "And who are you to say anything about my feelings?"
Karin glared at Toushirou for a while before stomping away. She never turned back, and therefore didn't see the male's hurt and frustrated expression.
XXXXX
"Karin-chan! It's dinner time!" Yuzu called from the door to their room. "Are you alright? You've been sitting there and staring at that card since you got home. Did something happen between you and Hitsugaya-kun?"
Karin stood up from the bed and gently placed the card down on her table. When she turned around, she forced a small smile on her face.
"Toushirou saw it." She simply stated, and Yuzu's eyes widened in realization.
"WHAT!?" Karin had to cover her ears when Yuzu screamed. "He saw it? How? When? No, don't answer that. What did he say?"
"He thought that I confessed to another guy, and because he found it on the park bench, where I most likely dropped it when I went there yesterday, he thought that the guy I confessed to just left it there."
"Wait, wait, wait! But how does he know it's yours? He's never seen you with it before!" Yuzu questioned, but when Karin shot a meaningful glance at her, she understood. "Handwriting!"
Her twin nodded her head solemnly and turned back to stare at the words on the card.
I didn't want things to be like this
But somehow, it turned out this way
I'm in love with you
And I wonder
Will there ever be a time
When you will return these feelings?
Yuzu came up behind to pat her sister on the shoulder. "Karin-chan, don't worry too much about it."
"It's been 5 years, Yuzu. But I still can't get myself to throw that card away. I'm sick of holding on the past, holding onto that small sliver of hop. We're never going to be more than neighbors. He hates me, Yuzu! I feel so stupid, falling for him just because he took pity on me and played soccer for me."
"He doesn't hate you! And it's not pity! I know that he likes you, a lot! He played for you because it was you! And stop calling yourself stupid! That soccer game was really important to you, so of course you'd fall in love with the hero who saved you when you were hurt!"
Karin could only laugh at her sister's optimism.
XXXXX
"Was it you?" Toushirou hissed at the male he was pinning against the wall. He stared straight into the frightened sea blue eyes of Karin's friend, Hihara.
"Wha… What?"
"Were you the one who threw Karin's fe – " The furious male corrected himself before he let the word "feelings" slip, " – card away?"
"Card? What card?" Hihara asked, confused as to why the male was so angry. He was extremely surprised when he came up to him and told him to go to the roof, and even more surprised when he was slammed towards the wall and glared down by burning teal eyes.
"The one with the butterfly on it."
"No!" Hihara exclaimed loudly, panicking. "Of course not! Karin would beat the hell out of anyone who touched it, and if I threw it away, she would kill me! I'm not looking for suicide, ok?"
Toushirou let Hihara go in surprise. "Wait. What do you mean?"
"Dude, you don't know? I thought you were her neighbor! Why do you always come to me for these questions?" He put his hands up defensively when Toushirou growled. "Ok, ok! Chill! That card is like, I don't know, really important to her or something. We call it her 'soul' just for fun. I don't know when she got it, but when we first met each other, she already had it and she made it very clear to us that touching it means certain death."
"When you met? That was years ago!"
"Yeah, I know. I don't understand why that thing is so important."
Toushirou stared at Hihara in contemplation, making Hihara uncomfortable. Karin's soccer buddy never understood the relationship between the hot-headed female and the icy male. They would fight and compete all the time, yet there was this weird tension between them that pulls those two together.
"What else do you know?"
"Not much… we never knew what was so important about that card, and though we've got glances, all we could see was the text but not the content. You should ask Yuzu. She definitely knows about it."
Toushirou nodded and was about to apologize and thank the boy when a third voice cut in.
"What's going on here?" Karin stared from one guy to another suspiciously.
"Nothing much!" Hihara answered, overly optimistic. But he was ignored as Toushirou and Karin continued their stare down until the white-headed male turned and left without a word.
"What was that about, Hihara?" Karin asked, fuming.
"Oh. Toushirou was just asking about your soul. How can he not know? You guys have been neighbors for longer than us being friends!"
"What!? What did you tell him?"
"Um… just what I know…"
"Damn it!" Karin advanced upon her friend. "Why did he come find you anyways?"
"He's always been finding me for some weird questions. Anyways, why are you up here?"
Karin raised her brow in confusion when she heard Hihara's answer, and made a mental note to confront Toushirou about what happened later. "I was looking for you. The guys are having a practice game. You wanna come?"
"Yeah, of course. Let's get going then!"
XXXXX
Yuzu took her mitts off after she turned off the stove fire. She ran over to the door and swung it open to come face to face with the Kurosaki's longtime neighbor.
"Oh! Hi, Hitsugaya-kun!" Yuzu said cheerfully while deliberating on why he was here. "Would you like to come in?"
The stoic boy nodded, and both of them entered the house.
"Do you want anything to drink?"
"No, it's alright."
The two of them settled down in the living room, and a small silence ensued before Yuzu spoke up.
"Are you here because of Karin-chan?"
Toushirou looked at Yuzu, a little surprised, before he nodded.
"Karin-chan came home pretty upset yesterday." Yuzu continued, looking into Toushirou's eyes. "She told me that you picked up something that was hers, and that you read it."
Toushirou nodded once again. "I'll assume that Karin told you what happened. I think I got something wrong. I talked to Hihara, and he said that Karin had that card for a long time already. I want to know about that card."
This time it was Toushirou's turn to feel uncomfortable under Yuzu's scrutiny. Though the younger twin was soft spoken and gentle, her silent and firm glance could elicit a chill upon anyone's spine.
"Why?" She asked, daring Toushirou to not answer her. Toushirou stared right back, and a mutual understanding passed through them, the two coming to a consensus.
"Ok!" Yuzu cheered, back to her bubbly personality. "I can tell you some things, but not all. Besides, we don't have the time. Karin-chan's going to come back soon, and I don't want her to know that I told you anything since she'll be angry at me. So, what do you want to know first?"
"About that card. What does it mean to her? Hihara said it was like her soul…"
"Well, she does treasure it more than anything. To clarify, she didn't get it from anyone, and she never gave it to anyone. It was something that she wrote herself because she felt very confused and frustrated over something at the time. After that period, she kept it with her all the time even though she knew she should have thrown it away."
"Confused and frustrated over what?"
"Her feelings."
Toushirou felt something stab at his heart. Karin had feelings for someone for such a long period of time?
"For who?" He asked, an urgent note in his voice.
"Who do you think it is?" Yuzu asked slyly, "Just think about it, Karin-chan wrote that card 5 years ago. What do you remember happened that was really important to Karin-chan then?"
The male furrowed his brows in concentration. Immediately, an upsetting memory sprang up. "Karin's soccer game against those cheating brats?"
"Hitsugaya-kun! Don't just call people brats!" Yuzu scolded lightly, "But yes, against them."
"What does that game have to do with anything?"
"I told you, she fell in love that day."
XXXXX
Karin raced through the streets. There was only one thing on her mind: to find Toushirou. As she cut into another shortcut and ran through the narrow alleyway, she thought back to her newest revelation.
Flashback
She was on her way home when she spotted someone who looked very familiar. He had a soccer ball tucked under his arm and was gulping down a bottle of water. A name suddenly popped into her mind.
"Sasaki!"
The male turned around as Karin expected he would, but he dashed off the moment his brain processed who it was that called his name. Karin, bewildered for a second, hurried after the escaping male. She caught up to him moments later, grabbing onto his arm and effectively stopping him. The two panted for air for a while, before Karin scolded, "Why the hell did you run! I'm not going to bite your head off, ok? Even though I remember you cheating during that soccer game by tripping me, I'm not one to remember grudges from so long ago!"
Sasaki shook off her hand and backed up, putting some distance between the two of them. "Kurosaki, you wouldn't bite my head off, but your boyfriend would!"
"What?" Karin exclaimed, "I don't have a boyfriend!"
"Yes you do! Well, unless you broke up with him!"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"You don't know? After that soccer game, your boyfriend even came and beat us up just because we tripped you and hurt you! He warned us to leave you alone and to not come near you!"
Karin shook her head in disbelief. "Sasaki! My brother's not my boyfriend, alright!?"
"Of course I know! I'm not stupid, nor am I blind! Who would mistake anyone for your brother when he has such strangely bright yet natural orange hair? Who I meant was Hitsugaya Toushirou!"
"Toushirou?"
End of flashback
As Toushirou gently closed the door behind him, his hand once again uncontrollably clenched tightly into a fist. She fell in love that day? With who? His mind was working overdrive, trying to remember every face he saw that day. But none of them were significant enough for him to etch their faces into his mind. Did someone somehow slipped under his watch and stole her heart?
Karin's voice calling out his name cut through his thoughts before they could wander into unwanted and depressing territory. His head immediately snapped over to take in her bent over, panting form that had stopped some ways away from him. His eyes lingered over her chest inhaling and exhaling as she took in deep breaths before he pulled them back to her face as she stood straight.
"I need to talk to you." Karin said before she grabbed onto his sleeve and dragged him towards the park. Throughout the whole walk, the two did not make a sound to break the silence as both of them were deep in thought.
"I just met Sasaki." Karin said as soon as they stood in front of the bench where they had been just the day before.
Toushirou could only stare at her. Sasaki? The guy who tripped her? Didn't he tell him to stay away from Karin? So why… His train of thought was suddenly intruded by another thought that made his blood run cold. Could it be, he's the one Karin…
"Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Sasaki said that after the game you beat his team up and told them to stay away from me."
"Wh…what –" Toushirou stammered, surprised that she knew. He had thought that Sasaki took his threat seriously enough that he wouldn't tell her. Damn him!
He turned his head away to look at the tree behind Karin, a light blush on his cheeks. It was now Karin's turn to stare at him. Toushirou, the Hitsugaya Toushirou, was blushing?
At this exact moment, Yuzu's words came back to her.
"He doesn't hate you! And it's not pity! I know that he likes you, a lot! He played for you because it was you!"
Could it be true? Could Toushirou actually… like her? Yesterday's scene at the same exact place flashed back to her, and she wondered if he was angry because he thought she was rejected by some other guy.
"Yesterday, you were so angry… Was it because you…" Karin trailed off, but the implied words were well understood.
Toushirou was debating with himself. Should he deny it? But there was no use denying it anyways…
He slowly nodded. It was such a small nod that Karin almost did not catch it, but when she did, she blushed as well. Then, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the card that she had carried with her for 5 years, and held it out to Toushirou. The boy was at first surprised, but slowly accepted the card anyways.
I didn't want things to be like this
But somehow, it turned out this way
I'm in love with you
And I wonder
Will there ever be a time
When you will return these feelings?
As the words entered his vision and his brain once again processed them, he realized with a start what Yuzu had been trying to hint at him. Karin was… in love with him?
Karin was shocked for the umpteenth time as Toushirou started to uncharacteristically laugh so hard that he was grabbing his stomach and trying hard to prevent himself from falling over. She was even more startled as she was suddenly pulled into his arms. She stiffened as she felt the vibrations from his chest as he continued to laugh, before relaxing in his hold. When he finally calmed down until there were only occasional chuckles left, he said, "I'm an idiot."
Karin smiled as she snaked her arms around his waist and returned his embrace. "You should have said something, you idiot. How would I know anything when you're always like ice?"
"Hey! You didn't say anything as well…"
As the two of them continued to banter as they walked off hand in hand, the card lay on the floor, forgotten. The butterfly on the card seemed to shimmer and glitter, before the wind picked up and the card was swept up by the breeze.