Alright! This is for all of you guys who wanted a sequel to 'Down the Rabbit Hole'. Word of Caution: This is the last chapter! I'm serious! I don't care if I get another hundred reviews asking for a third chapter. No can do, okay? I've got other stories to work on.
Also! SugarFox will be writing a Rentatsu one-shot based on the same video that 'Down the Rabbit Hole' was based on. It'll be posted as a separate story, so look out for it! Her story will make references to mine and vice versa. Now, enjoy!
Title: Stilted Siren
Author: MeteorLeopard (HoneyBadger)
Toushirou yanked on his sleeve again, trying his hardest not to appear uncomfortable. Behind him, the fountain was bubbling in a nauseatingly cheery fashion. Against his will, his eyes flickered to the large clock standing in the centre of the small park. Almost time.
With every tick that the clock took towards half past two, Toushirou felt his stomach clenching. Why he should be nervous was beyond him; he'd been the one to instigate this... date. The word echoed in his mind. Him on a date. Something didn't compute properly there. It just didn't. It was like saying that an eel would be comfortable on a bicycle.
Part of him was afraid that she wouldn't show up while the other half - the more sensible half - was insisting that it would be a good thing if she decided to stand him up. That way he'd go on with his Shinigami duties and she'd be left to continue on with her human life without too many complications; everyone benefitted. Except for the fact that his traitorous mind wouldn't leave him be. Five years was a long time. A very long time. Time enough to assume that any childish whims and fancies would have been thrown to the wind long ago. Unfortunately, his brief encounters with the young Kurosaki girl had remained etched into his memory. He was ice, after all. If something was to be preserved, it would take more than five measly years to rid himself of it. From time to time he'd caught himself wondering what she was doing or what direction her life was taking. Sometimes, when Ichigo was in the Soul Society, Toushirou had enquired after her. The orange-haired boy had looked surprised the first time that Toushirou had voiced his question, but only shrugged it off and given an answer. The second time that Toushirou had asked, a few months later, Ichigo hadn't even bothered to waste time being confused anymore and instead given Toushirou a few details. Upon the orange-haired youth's third visit, Toushirou hadn't even needed to ask, for which he was grateful. Perhaps Ichigo had known all along what the icy captain had been - and still was - struggling with.
And yesterday, when Ichigo had agreed to tell Karin about the note in the rabbit's pocket watch, Ichigo had asked him quietly, "It was a chance encounter, wasn't it? A meeting of dumb luck." Toushirou had nodded, to which Ichigo had sighed. "Weird how those always seem to leave the most lasting impressions." Toushirou had a vague idea that Ichigo was not referring to Karin anymore.
In his conversations with Hyourinmaru, the ancient dragon had drawn a rather fitting parallel to the situation. "A fleeting glimpse and a breath of contact, yet the memory haunts you still, a siren call on the wind." Toushirou hadn't known the dragon to ever be quite so poetic.
Sometimes he'd been tempted to visit. Very tempted. But duty had kept him at his desk and with his subordinates. Besides, he'd rationalized with himself, going to see her was only going to aggravate whatever tempting whispers were lurking in his brain.
He'd been right. When he'd seen her - Karin - sitting on that bubbling fountain yesterday, scowling at the ridiculous bobble head lying in her lap, he'd frozen for a moment. Somehow she'd changed so much, yet at the same time not at all. And that had both relieved and unsettled him. Unsettled because, despite the ridiculous costume that she was wearing, he could see that she'd grown up. Suddenly his thoughts of fledgling childhood friendship and innocent chance encounters had shifted towards the side of allure. It wasn't even that she looked particularly good in that dress. It was the oddest thing. Hyourinmaru had rumbled appreciatively in his head, echoing his sentiments.
And now here he was, feeling foolish in the long-sleeved shirt and neatly pressed pants - which Matsumoto had insisted he wear - waiting for the clock to strike 14:30 in the hopes that Karin had gotten his note. What had possessed him to write something quite so silly he still did not know. But Matsumoto had insisted that it would work. And Hyourinmaru - what had happened to that dragon? - had encouraged him too.
The clock chimed. A throat was cleared just behind him and Toushirou spun around, almost jumping out of his skin when he realized that - somehow - Karin had managed to appear in his shadow. Great. All of two seconds in her company and he was already emotionally off-balance.
It took Toushirou a minute to comprehend why the girl in front of him seemed different. Sure, she wasn't wearing the bobble head or the costume from the day before, but she seemed... off. Like a mirage instead of the true Karin that he had been expecting. Her hands were tugging on the bracelet around her wrist and her T-Shirt was fitting instead of loose and practical like he remembered her shirts to be. A blush threatened to colour his cheeks as he realized that she was wearing a skirt. Not short by any standards since it came down to just above her knees, but it was white and pretty and entirely too delicate to fit the image of the tomboyish girl that had settled in his mind. And her hair - he hadn't noticed yesterday because it had been pinned up - had grown down to below her shoulders and was now hanging loose so that the breeze would catch some strands from time to time. It was strange to look at a Karin with long hair but he found that he rather enjoyed this last detail.
Karin wasn't even looking at him. Instead she seemed to be entirely too preoccupied with staring at the fountain. So this time he cleared his throat, somehow insulted that he wasn't holding her attention. Karin glanced at him from the corner of her eye and then fixed a determined scowl onto her face. "I'm here," she muttered, gesturing to the clock. "And I'm not late. So what now?"
No 'hello', 'how are you' or even 'nice to see you again'. The corner of his mouth almost lifted at her familiar attitude. Perhaps the skirt was a temporary thing after all. It wasn't like he wore clothes like this on a regular basis either.
"Over there," he said, gesturing to the park's single cafe'. Karin nodded and began following him to the entrance.
It was all downhill from there.
The waiter who welcomed them into the cafe' was tall, dark-haired and, unfortunately, handsome. And, Toushirou realized, Karin was drawing several interested stares. His own cheeks coloured as he mentally admitted that she looked rather pretty dressed like that; almost like a doll or an enticing visage from myth and magic. However, instead of the fiery attitude that she had graced him with five years ago, Karin seemed quiet and aloof. This was not the girl that had captured his attention. Yet the stares that she was receiving were grinding on his nerves. What claim did they have on her? So he inched closer to Karin and shot each and every one of the hopeful candidates a malevolent glare. Frail little humans that they were, they shrunk away. So he got a tad territorial; he couldn't help that he'd adopted some of his dragon's possessive instincts!
They were shown to a table and, after ordering, Toushirou firmly dismissed their waiter, who looked about to open his mouth and attempt an advance on Karin. Intimidated, the waiter scurried away. Karin seemed unmoved, as though not paying attention. He didn't say anything - he'd never been a man of many words - but neither did she. Thick silence settled over their table. When she asked him a question - why he was back in Karakura - he started with surprise and fumbled with his words for a second. She didn't offer him a way out and, in his haste, Toushirou decided to comment on the one thing that had been bugging him from the beginning.
"Pretty skirt." Karin seemed unmoved though and he continued, "But, you know, you look better without one-" He broke off registering Karin's shocked face. He blushed, mortified. "No! I mean that- shorts! You look better in shorts!" Karin's face remained stony. "Not that you look ugly in a skirt," he tried backpedalling. "And it looks better than the dress from yesterday!" That hadn't helped either. He could feel his grandmother frowning disapprovingly at his lack of tact from all the way in the Soul Society.
The convenient arrival of the waiter to bring them their drinks had cut him off. Unfortunately his hand had bumped into Karin's and he'd jerked so violently that he'd tipped his glass, sending sticky brown liquid splashing all over Karin's shirt. He'd immediately offered to wipe if off for her and she'd snatched the serviette away, glaring at him. "I can do that myself!" So she had and afterwards, when she'd looked about ready to kill him, the only thing he could think of to say was, "At least your shirt's black."
He'd composed himself after that, forcing down the flustered feeling that she was giving him. It remained bubbling in the pit of his stomach, making him feel sick.
They'd left soon after. Still determined to try and win her favour - or whatever he was trying to do with this disaster of a date - he'd taken her to a larger park for a walk in the sunset. Again, Matsumoto's influence. The only thing he'd ended up doing was stepping on her heel and making her lose one of her shoes, which rolled down the bank and landed with a splash in the river. Karin shot him a look and then went down to retrieve her shoe, which was half submerged and bobbing in the current. Toushirou had followed her, wanting to fish it out for her, but understanding by her turned back that she did not want him to. So he'd stood back and watched her take her second shoe off and wade calf-deep into the flowing water. With the sunset glancing off the ripples and throwing Karin's silhouette into shadow, he was struck by the perfection of that image; the simplicity. Then she'd stepped out of the water, waving her sopping wet shoe in his face.
To think he'd even taken an extra day of leave for this...
At this point Toushirou was feeling the distinct urge to go jump off a cliff. His heart - beating at the same rate as it did when facing off against a deadly opponent - was not helping to clear his head. Adrenaline, brought on by nervousness, was making him jittery and he hated it. And Karin was so... weird! It was like she didn't know what to say to him! Of course... he had seen her just yesterday in a giant bobble head. Perhaps she was still embarrassed? But Kurosaki Karin didn't get embarrassed. She shrugged things off and carried on with her life as normal. Right?
He sighed, trying to swallow his awkward emotions. A lot could change within five years. Matsumoto kept insisting that he'd changed, but aside from the physical side he couldn't truly testify that claim. Right now though, he only wanted things to be like they had been five years ago. When she'd tell him to his face that he was stupid, wear whatever she wanted and not give a damn about what others thought of her. That was the siren call that he'd followed.
The time came for him to drop her off at her home. The sun had set, the night was still young but the air was stuffy, heavy and oppressive. They stood outside the Kurosaki clinic, awkward, shuffling their feet and looking anywhere but at each other. Toushirou wanted to get out of there. Run as fast as he could and forget that this had ever happened. But his stubborn, upstanding side was refusing such action, demanding of him that he somehow make things right between them; he couldn't just leave things as they were! How would he ever face her in the future again?
He opened his mouth as though to say something, then shut it again when words failed him. What was one to say after such a disaster of a day? Karin still smelled faintly of that sugary drink he'd spilled on her, her left shoe was soggy and the bottom of her white skirt was wet with river water. Toushirou thought that he heard Karin take a breath in preparation to say something and reflexively his eyes snapped to hers, which immediately turned away when they met.
Silence reigned supreme.
Then, from somewhere around the corner, an unearthly wail pierced the air. Skidding sounds were followed closely by enraged shouting, panicked yelps and half-stifled bursts of laughter. Then two figures shot around the corner - Toushirou's eyes widened as he recognized Abarai - and dashed right past him and Karin. A policeman rounded the corner next, shaking his fist at the fleeing pair. "Stop! Thieves!"
Toushirou watched as Karin's eyes followed the policeman as he sprinted after Abarai and the other human girl. The street was silent once again and in the aftermath Toushirou understood the vague outlines of what had just happened.
He groaned, pinching his nose and anticipating the paperwork that he'd have to do. "Can't leave them alone for even a day," he muttered under his breath, silently cursing his team for being so very useless. Then Karin snickered, her face breaking out into the first real grin he'd seen on her face since five years ago. Then the snicker turned into a chuckle and from that into a laugh; a good, warm, hearty laugh. Toushirou forgot about the looming paperwork and his gaze settled on Karin, hopeful. Then she looked at him, eyes meeting his head on, and she shook her head. "Toushirou, what the hell were we doing?"
Strange, he'd been asking himself a similar question for the past few hours. Despite himself, seeing Karin smile at him so sincerely, a smirk appeared on his lips. This was what he'd been missing. This was the face of his siren; this comfortable, friendly atmosphere around her; no pretences and no heed for social decorum. Just like five years ago. His shoulders slackened in relief as tension he hadn't known he'd been harbouring lifted. "Who knows," he replied, knowing very well that the Karin from five years ago would have hated that reply.
She did not disappoint. Frowning - and with an irritated lilt to her voice - she told him, "That's a crappy answer." His reply was the widening of his smirk. Karin's dark eyes - hard and impenetrable till now - softened.
And - there - that was the look that had gotten his attention the last time. And it was that look that made him suddenly feel like he was choking. The tension was back, but this time for a whole new reason. Matsumoto had said, as she was preparing him for his date, that girls liked men who were forward. Karin was smiling at him with a rare gentleness and Toushirou knew that he wanted to do something. He would not back down because of fear of consequence; he was a dragon and therefore brave.
So he leant forward, closing the distance between them with a step, and pressed a kiss to her lips. Well, that's what he'd intended to do. What he ended up doing was missing and instead barely catching her on the corner of her mouth. There were no metaphorical fireworks or erupting stars behind his lids; no electricity and no fire. Just the slightly odd sensation of his lips pressed clumsily to hers. Karin breathed in sharply and he jerked back, a furious blush creeping onto his cheeks. Karin resembled a tomato. She stammered something and Toushirou wanted to hit himself. Just as the awkward air between them had cleared, he just had to go and bring it back! He wanted to apologize, but Karin was already halfway up the path to her door.
Mentally he cursed himself; what kind of an idiot was he? So much for the genius label! He turned and lifted his hands to run through his hair in frustration. Running footsteps made him turn back and then two arms locked around him, enveloping him in a brief, warm, wonderful hug. He couldn't see Karin's face since she had her head buried in the crook of his neck. He could feel her exhale a little shakily against his skin and he fought the urge to shudder. He felt her pulling back and quickly wound his arms around her too, silently asking her to stay a little longer. Luckily she was still adept at understanding his non-verbal communication.
So they stood in the road for a while, hugging one another and enjoying the other's proximity. Toushirou found it nice. He didn't often hug people. Actually, he hardly ever did. Vaguely, and only on occasion, had he wondered what hugging Karin would have felt like. Up until yesterday when his mind had registered that Karin was attractive, he'd merely missed her friendly company and the odd, subtle way in which they'd 'clicked'. He was a right old idiot for adding a whole new dimension to this problem.
Toushirou was enjoying her warmth when she began pulling back a little. Reluctantly, he loosened his hold on her and parted enough to catch sight of her face watching him expectantly. Bolstered by the knowledge that she hadn't completely hated his first attempt - since she came back almost immediately - he leaned in again. This time Karin met him, somewhat unsurely, halfway. And this time he could feel the static and the jumping nerves; tension and bliss rolled into one. Regretfully, the kiss was short.
Karin stepped away then, face red even in the gathering darkness and smiling from ear to ear. He was sure that he had an equally goofy expression on his face. "Night," Karin told him, holding up a hand in a awkward casual wave, before turning and running up the path towards the door. She tripped on the step, overbalanced and flailed her arms, yelping.
"Are you-"
"Fine!" she yelled, stumbling inside. "I'm fine!" Then she slammed the door in his face.
Toushirou tried hard to keep from feeling too smug.
A/N: Please Review!
