Okay people. Tis me again. The story of mine, Long Time, No See, was my very first fan fiction. When I went back and read it, I realized how much of a better writer I am now from when I first started. I also decided to delete that story and use it's contents as a guideline for a much better written version of it.
DISCLAIMER: We've been over this people, if I owned bleach, Grimmjow and Ichigo would be married, Toshiro and Karin would have kids by now, and Gin would've lived. Therefore, I obviously don't own Bleach.
SO, without further adieu, I give you Long Time, No See - Chapter One.
Karin's Reflection
-Karin-
I never did see the need to pay attention in class when all I had to do was look over the material once and understand it. Therefore, I always stared out the window during class instead. It was calming, watching the trees sway slightly in the breeze and seeing the world pass by peacefully. It also gave me time to think. I would think about many things – family, friends, soccer, and weekend plans, anything that came to mind, really. And just like any other Friday, I was sitting and staring out the window during eighth period. This particular Friday, though, was the very last day of school.
The teacher had left the room, deciding that none of us were going to pay attention to him, if my classmates' excited chatter was anything to go by. I sighed, beginning to pack my school bag, wondering if maybe Ichi-nii would come back today. He'd been gone on a 'trip' (as he'd told Yuzu when he'd had to leave) and hadn't been home for almost a month. He had pulled me aside later that night, right before he left, and told me to take care of my sister and father, as he always did when he went on these 'trips'. He looked me right in the eye and told me that if he didn't come back in the next month, to find Urahara and find out what's going on from him, because it was apparently 'likely that the Soul Society was keeping him hostage again and making him work and goddamnit if he was putting up with their crap for more than a month' or so he'd put it. The reason he'd told me to do this in the first place was because he knew I could see them. The soul reapers and hollows.
The first time he'd learned I could see them and I learned he was a soul reaper was when I had stayed up late one night, watching the stars go by. Ichi-nii had jumped from his window and landed safely on the ground, a giant sword strapped to his back. I was bewildered at why he was dressed as a soul reaper. "Ichi-nii!" I had called in a desperate attempt to get his attention. He had whipped around and stared at me incredulously. "K-Karin? You can see me?" I nodded quickly and rushed down stairs. Throwing the front door open, I had ran over to him and started asking him a bunch of different questions. Finally he sighed and slapped a hand over my mouth. "Karin. We can talk about this another time. I have somewhere to be as of now, though. Don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow afternoon. I just need to speak with a few people." When I hesitantly nodded my head, he smiled and rushed off into the night. I had went back to my bedroom and started wondering if Ichi-nii knew another soul reaper I knew, Hitsugaya Toshiro.
I had bonded with him by nagging him a few years back constantly until I finally convinced him to play soccer with my friends and I. He swore after the match that it was only because he'd had nothing else to do, but after I found out that not only was he a soul reaper, but a high ranking one too, I had my suspicions that maybe – just maybe- he considered me a friend. Then, a year after that, he'd come back and we'd gone to see his Granny. After that incident, he'd left a few days later. But, he only stayed away for about a month before he came back. He said he had some off days, so I took him and showed him around Karakura and he'd answered every question I had on the world of the dead. In the time lapse of the next two months, we became good friends and he visited me as often as he could. About a week before Ichi-nii had left, Toshiro had come to visit me. "We've….been engaged in war by the Aizen man I've told you about." he'd started. "I won't be back for a very long while….if I come back at all. Karin, if I don't come back, let me tell you this. In the time I spent with you this past year and a half, I think you melted my frozen heart, if only just a little. You did me some good. My subordinates don't avoid me as much anymore and I actually smiled at Matsumoto yesterday. Thank you." I had just stared on as he clasped my hand in his, raised it to his face, and brushed his lips across the back of my hand. "Goodbye." he'd whispered and shunpoed off to the war. Then Ichi-nii had left a week later.
That was all five years ago.
Ichi-nii had come back after about half a year, beaten up, broken, and bruised, and Yuzu and I had cried into his chest as we clung to him without letting go since the moment he'd come through the door and fallen to his knees, holding his arms out for the two of us. Yuzu had cried because she hated seeing Ichi-nii beaten up and hurt, but I had cried because I knew the reason. I knew that he'd been through a war and had returned home to us safely when he could've died. I was thankful to have my older brother right in front of me, living and breathing, home and well, as he cried with us. Dad had been serious for once, silently watching from the background as the three of us reunited. Later on, when we'd finished crying, the two of us had refused to let our brother out of our sight. Yuzu had drug him to the kitchen and continued dinner that she'd been making and I pulled out the seat beside my brother and sat down. Dad had sat down across from Ichi-nii and it seemed as though a silent message passed through them. Later that night, as Yuzu and I curled up beside Ichi-nii in his bedroom, I laid awake, thinking about the silent communication between my father and brother. When I thought about it, Dad was very accepting of all the times Ichigo had run off to the soul society. Realizing this had given me the sneaking suspicion that goat face knew about the world of the dead.
Toshiro, on the other hand, never came back. When he had left, I came to terms with something that I didn't want to. I admitted to myself that I loved him. His emerald eyes, his snow-white hair, his personality, I loved it all. I mean, really, once you got past his rough edges, he was a big teddy bear on the inside. So when Toshiro never showed up again, I assumed he'd died. I cried myself to sleep for days on end, refusing to leave my room and go to school. Eventually, though, I picked myself up and left all my feelings in my room. Never once did I speak a word about it to anyone.
Now, five years later, I was heading home to hopefully see my older brother. On my way home, I noticed that I had gotten lost in thought again and had unconsciously taken the long way back – the way that makes me pass by our spot. The spot Toshiro and I used to hang out at and talk for hours. Seeing that spot after purposely avoiding it for so long made me want to cry. I turned away and rushed back home, determined to forget about my white haired first love for at least the rest of the night.
Thanks for reading! R&R, please! Luv yas! ;D
-T