"Yo, Toshiro!"
Toshiro looked up from his soul pager to the raven-haired girl running towards him. "Hey," he answered and returned to his soul pager.
"There's something I have been wondering about," Karin began. Toshiro glanced at her, "why do you never call me by name?" the taichou tensed barely noticeable. "Toshiro, answer me!" he mumbled something. Karin leaned in. "What did you say?"
"I don't know what to call you, okay?!" he snapped and looked up. After noticing how close they suddenly were, he quickly turned scowling back to his soul pager. Karin snatched it away from him, leaving Toshiro pressing into the air, as if he still had the soul pager. "HEY!" he turned to her and yelled. She ignored it and asked:
"Why not?"
"Because I know more people than just you in your family," he answered with an only partial truth.
"That doesn't make sense!" she frowned as she said it.
"It does, because I would end up calling both you and your brother for Kurosaki," the taichou explained.
"And?" the human asked, not getting fooled.
"There is no other reason," he answered shortly.
"Come on, that can't be the only reason!"
"It is."
"Is not!"
"It is."
"Not!"
"Is."
"Not!"
"Is!" A thought occurred to Karin.
"It's because you didn't know my name, right?" Karin knew she was right, when she saw Toshiro tense for a short moment.
"It's your fault for not introducing yourself!" he defended.
"You could just have asked." Toshiro raised an eyebrow at that.
"Would you have asked?" he asked. Karin immediately opened her mouth, then suddenly hesitated and closed her mouth. Then she admitted:
"Probably not."
"I thought so," Toshiro commented, "now give me back my soul pager!" Karin kept her left hand with the soul pager as far away from Toshiro as she could and smiled a big smile.
"Hey, I'm Karin Kurosaki!" she cheerfully said. Toshiro just raised an eyebrow. "Pleased to meet you!"
"Isn't it a bit late to introduce yourself?" Toshiro asked dumbfounded, "I know your name from your introduction to Grandma Haru." She shrugged.
"Better late than never, right?" she simply said, "Call me Karin!"
"That's a bit too familiar," he protested.
"Call. Me. Karin." Toshiro suddenly found himself thinking, that Karin resembled Unohana-taichou. He gulped.
"Alright," he said. Karin was really scaring him right now. "…Karin." She grinned.
"Good boy!"
A/N Women are scary… Oh, and I got a multichaptered hitsukarin story called 'An evolving relationship'. Please check it out!
Please review!