Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters.


Reminiscent Thoughts

Chapter 2: Heartpounding Reunion

Hitsugaya took a deep breath as he scanned the Kurosaki Clinic. Not much has changed physically but even a human could feel the air of sadness and death that enveloped the house. Though Hitsugaya had already switched into his gigai, he still easily jumped to the window in which he thought was Karin's bedroom. Hitsugaya knew which bedroom was Ichigo's so he thought Karin might have moved into his bedroom. He peeked in but only saw Ichigo's belongings still in their old and rightful places. It still looked like Ichigo still lived there with the bed covers rumpled and the closet door opened. Hitsugaya felt a pang of sympathy for the Kurosaki family.

"How am I going to explain myself to Karin?" Hitsugaya thought, racking his brain for a explanation, as he jumped to the next window. "I obviously can't tell her the truth...can I?"

Again, Hitsugaya looked in the window, but now saw two twin beds almost touching each other. There were two feminine bodies in each bed.

"Wait...? Did Ichigo have three sisters? That black-haired girl is way too curvy to be Karin, right?" Hitsugaya looked closer and discovered that it was indeed Karin. Her black hair was a little longer than shoulder length and it was spread across her face. Karin wasn't a very graceful sleeper, with drool coming out of her open mouth and her legs tangled with the covers that were halfway off. This allowed Hitsugaya to see Karin's developed body and his breath caught as he noticed a bit of her pajama shirt riding up to reveal a bit of her pale and flat stomach. Karin's bed was closest to the window and the way the moonlight shone on her made her breathtaking. Minus the drooling, of course.

Hitsugaya lept from the window and landed gracefully on the floor. It was a hot, summer night in Japan so all of the windows were open. He walked over to Karin's bedside silently and slowly bent down to her ear to whisper, "Kurosaki."

Immediately Karin's eyes opened and saw a pair of bright blue-green eyes. She opened her mouth and was about to let out an embarrassing high-pitched scream but Hitsugaya's hand covered her mouth just in time. Hitsugaya quickly took his hand away as he felt something wet touch it. He looked down at it and grimaced in disgust, realizing that it was Karin's half-dried drool.

"You wouldn't be disgusted if that drool was in your mouth instead, would you?" Hitsugaya's annoying inner voice sneered.

"SHUT UP!"

Hitsugaya whispered, "Kurosaki, be quiet, before you wake up your entire household. Don't you remember me?" He looked down at her eyes, seeing a faint glint of recognition. "Hitsugaya Toushiro? The boy who helped you with your soccer game?"

"Duh, I know who you are. What are you doing here? To just leave without telling anyone again?" Karin snapped, obviously bitter over Hitsugaya leaving without saying any goodbyes.

"Well I derserve it, I guess." Hitsugaya sighed in his mind. This was going to be harder than he thought. Out loud, he said to Karin, "Look, Kurosaki, me disappearing was not very honorable at all but I have a very good explanation for it."

Kurosaki Karin just stared at Hitsugaya, blankly. During this time, she was not only waiting for his reason, but also looking at his features and how he grown over the years. Toushiro became very handsome, his white spiky hair was even spikier and way more...sexy.

"EWW! What are you thinking?!" Karin quickly erased that thought from her head. She moved down to his shoulders. They broadened quite a lot since the last time she saw him, he was still a scrawny little boy. His arms developed muscle and overall he was tanner. She could see his lean body through his shirt and his torso was much more developed...and he had a nice...butt. Karin just had to get that thought out.

"He has a nice butt, a very nice butt. There... all better now." With all of the bad thoughts out of her head, Karin sighed. Toushiro was pretty macho and he would never want someone like her. That one thought got her heart pounding even harder, as she looked up at Hitsugaya, hoping he couldn't hear.

"Ummm...?" Hitsugaya said, hesitantly. He never stumbled on his words and the action was most disconcerting. Even though, Hitsugaya was one of the strongest captains, Kurosaki Karin's glare was scarier than anything he has ever encountered. He found himself inwardly backing away.

A flicker of annoyance crossed her eyes as she said, "Well? Are you going to tell me the reason or not?"

"O-Oh." Hitsugaya stammered, not usually himself.

"Geez, Toushiro, you've really lost it these past seven years. I remember the last time you were here. You were way too mature for your age."

If Hitsugaya was a bird, he would have ruffled his feathers in pride. He cleared his throat, hoping to sound modest, though he didn't know he completely missed Karin's condescending tone.

Karin rolled her eyes at his little attempt. "God is he even a kid? ...Well I guess we're both not anymore." Karin thought with some sadness. They haven't seen each other for seven years.

"Well..." Hitsugaya noticed that Karin wasn't listening and he got frustrated. "Kurosaki! If you want a reason, then at least try to listen, why don't you?" Sighing, Hitsugaya felt as if he was talking to another Matsumoto. A more heart-pounding, more innocent, and a much cuter Matsumoto.

"Ahh! Toushiro! Stop thinking about those things! You're making me gag." His inner voice said, disgusted.

"I'm making myself gag! It's not my problem I can't help it." Hitsugaya stated, shaking his head furiously to slow his heart down and to get rid of some dirty seventeen year old thoughts that were creeping into his mind.

"Umm...what are you doing?" Karin asked, confused. "I'm listening now, so please continue before you shake all of your brain cells out." She laughed a little at her little comment.

Hitsugaya, seeing her laugh, immediately lightened up. "We're just friends. See? We're talking just like regular friends."

"Right. Whatever." His inner voice said unconvincingly.

Continuing with his bizarre explanation that Hitsugaya just came up with at the spur of the moment, he explained, "Well, you see. My mother all of a sudden wanted me to move to my grandmother's house. It was something urgent so I didn't have any time at all to say goodbye to anyone. I stayed there until now, and I hated every moment of it. As soon as my mother let me, I came back here to Karakura. But the only problem is..." He looked at Karin sheepishly, also realizing that he was a pretty good actor.

"...What?" Karin looked back suspiciously, knowing that there was something she had to do.

"I kind of need a place to stay." Hitsugaya finished lamely. He figured this explanation was the most reasonable compared to his other ideas including being abducted by aliens, being a fugitive, and he even considered telling her he was a shinigami.

But, nah, that was way too unbelievable.

Hitsugaya was startled out of his very deep thoughts, as he heard the pleasant tinkle of a laugh that belonged to Kurosaki Karin.

"Hahahaha! For a minute there, I thought you said you needed a place to stay. Sorry...so what did you say?" Karin asked, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.

Hitsugaya Toushiro's ego was hurt. His pride was hurt. There was no way in Soul Society that he was going to tell her what he said. Way too embarrassing. But before he could stop himself, his mouth spoke the upsetting words itself.

"I said I need a place to stay." Hitsugaya said, feeling his cheeks burn. He had gotten some tips from Shuuhei before on how to persuade women on doing whatever you wanted them to do. Trying to remember what Shuuhei taught him, he looked at Karin suggestively and licked his lips.

"Umm, I'll have to ask my dad, but you probably could." Karin said. As she noticed Toushiro looking at her weird and licking his lips, she asked, "Are you okay? Are your lips chapped? I have some chapstick if you want it."

Hitsugaya reeled back in shock at her reply, but quickly gained his composure again.

"Damn that Shuuhei. I am never going to listen to his advice on women ever again."

"Oh, no it's fine. My lips were just a little dry, that's all." Hitsugaya covered up, hoping she couldn't see through his lie.

"Okay, lemme go ask my dad. I'll be right back." Karin jumped up from her bed and ran out of the room.

Hitsugaya was going to remind her that it was two o'clock in the morning but then realized he didn't need to as he heard a booming voice through the hall.

"OH-HO-HO-HO! Lemme see this cute, new boyfriend of Karin-chan's!!" Isshin's head popped in as he took a good look at Hitsugaya. Isshin's eyes widened a little as he nodded his head quickly like a little child.

"Ooh, Karin. He's very good-looking! You picked a good one. I'm very proud of you!" Isshin urgently whispered to the bright red Karin.

Hitsugaya rolled his eyes. This was definitely going to be a very long assignment.


a/n: Heyy! Sorry, it took a while to update. I don't have a horde of chapters and just update once a week to torture you guys. xD Once I finish writing it, I upload. I don't think I would be able to stand writing an entire story in a day and not upload any. I am an Aries after all. :D And I had a very lengthy art assignment that took me ages to finish. D:

Well hope you liked it! I had fun writing it, especially the "pleasant tinkle." Had to laugh there. xD

Ugh it's really annoying how I always start out really gloomy and depressed. Well I was, so I guess it was reflecting on my mood.

SPRING BREAK! WHOOOOOOOO! So I might actually update sooner!

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God, I need new smiley faces. O

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