"I know this isn't an official business dinner or anything, but I hoped you'd at least take me someplace a bit more classy."
"Just shut up and order."
Standing lean and lanky at the counter of a nearby McDonalds, Hitsugaya stared up at the vast menu board above the registers, blue-green eyes looking over his choices in what appeared to be deep consideration. Beside him, Karin dug into her wallet for loose bills and change, her face scrunched in a scowl as the true scarcity of her funds came to light. She could almost hear Shinji at the back of her mind, how he would scold her on proper business etiquette and elegant dining if he were to find out that she'd taken such a sought after client for fast-food, and just the mere thought of it had her bristling.
She'd have to swear her new acquaintance to a vow of secrecy.
Once Hitsugaya finally announced his order with a grin that had the attendant going red in the face, Karin doled out just the exact change into the server's palm, doing her best to ignore how much lighter her wallet felt while their designated tray filled with food so rapidly she nearly gagged at the thought of it's preparation.
"Not getting anything to eat?" Toushiro asked, studying the tray in her hands as they made for the dining area and noting that she'd only ordered a coffee.
"I'm not hungry," Karin lied, scanning the busy restaurant for empty seats. Plans to raid the staff pantry later were already set.
They found a small and miraculously vacant booth by the window, the cool draft emanating from the glass providing reprieve from the stuffy warmth of the restaurant and allowing Karin to stay happy and comfortable in her coat. Across from her, however, Toushiro had already begun to shrug off the bulk of his coat and sweater, greatly deteriorating in size. She tried not to gawk at how thin he was.
"So," she started, gingerly removing the lid of her coffee cup. Her lunch hour was far too short to bother with small talk. "About the contract and everything–'
"Do you own a couch?" Hitsugaya asked, and she blinked owlishly at him, watching as he took a giant bite out of his burger. It was unceremonious, the way he ate his food. Like a stray dog.
"Um… Yes?" Her brows wrinkled. "Why?"
He reached for a handful of fries. "And you live alone, I presume?"
Her glower was uncontrollable as always, albeit confused and therefore rather weak. "Yeah, what's it to you?"
"Well, I would feel kinda weird moving in if you had a significant other. I mean, I still would, but I'd feel awfully uncomfortable about it."
"Moving in?" She eyed him warily. "Did I miss something? When was it decided that you were moving in?"
"Hm?" He glanced at her, blinking dazedly. "Oh, right, I hadn't gotten to that yet had I?" Shaking his head in spite of himself, Toushiro took a quick sip of his root beer, the focus of his eyes inattentive. He was beginning to piss her off. "Apparently I'm being 'evicted', and I need a place to stay."
She bit her lip, words lingering uncertainly on her tongue. "Umm..."
"It'd only be temporary," he continued, unfazed. "I didn't want to even ask you, to be honest, given our lack of friendship and everything. But as it stands, you're the only person I know in this whole city who I can trust not to kill me in my sleep. Or worse."
She neglected to ask what could be worse than being killed in one's sleep, lest he actually answer. "Why are you being evicted, if you don't mind me asking?"
He'd begun piling his fries up Jenga style, bottom lip jutted out in concentration. "My landlord is a very apathetic man, you see. He doesn't seem to understand the cruciality of my situation."
"You're broke, aren't you?"
Toushiro faltered, looking taken aback. "I am not 'broke'," he spat defensively, knitting his brows together. He began nibbling on a fry then, looking away from her as he purposely mumbled. "I just…don't have any money…"
She stared at him in disbelief. "So, what? You expected to live with me for free?"
"Only temporarily!"
She scoffed, averting her eyes to the ceiling as she shook her head. What was this guy on? "Why can't you stay with your family or something?"
"I don't really have one." He ignored the jarred twist in her expression, finishing off his burger with one last sloppy intake. He licked his fingers thoughtfully. "I do have a cousin who lives in Paris, though I doubt she'd want anything to do with me. I was kind of an ass to her last time we spoke."
"At least you're consistent," Karin commended dryly, her lips pulling into a tight line. She closed her eyes then, rubbing her left temple with calloused fingertips as she considered the situation. She didn't like it. "Is this why you've suddenly changed your mind? 'Cause you just need a paycheck?"
"Aren't you perceptive," he praised, bearing teeth in a crooked grin as he drew soda through his straw. His eyes glinted with a particular charm, so utterly self-assured. She wanted to punch him in the face.
"Unbelievable." Anger boiled in her chest, consuming her senses, and she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this pissed off. Grabbing her bag, Karin heaved herself out of the booth and strode away in a huff, leaving her coffee abandoned and untouched. Toushiro blinked an entire five seconds later, delayed reaction hitting him like a brick as he practically tripped over himself trying to get out of his seat, his coat only half pulled on and hanging heavy from his shoulders as he stumbled after her.
"Sorry– Sorry!" He bustled haphazardly through the busy restaurant, bumping into several people on his way to the exit. A gust of cold wind hit him as he burst through the doors and onto the sidewalk, and he inhaled sharply. "Kurosaki! Wait!"
She only walked faster, an annoyed groan ripping from her throat. Her fists clenched at her sides as he appeared beside her, breathless and frostbitten, and the semblance of the scene nearly made her laugh.
"Do you take me for an idiot?" she seethed, cutting him a sharp look. "Do you even want to make music, or are you just looking to dish out some half-assed singles for a signing bonus before you bail and ruin my reputation?"
"What reputation?"
Her eyes seared into his like daggers. Shoving her hands in her coat pockets, Karin strained her tired skinny legs to move at an almost painful speed, desperately eyeing the upcoming entrance to her building.
"Will you just wait a second?" Toushiro pleaded, struggling to keep in step with her. "I'm serious about this, okay? Trust me. I've been trying to make new music for a while – decent music – but it's been a little difficult to stay inspired when I can't even pay my rent and have to pawn off all my shit just to eat."
"Have you considered, oh, I don't know, getting a job?"
"Jobs disrupt the creative flow."
Karin let out a hoarse laugh. "Right. Too much of a privileged bastard to lower yourself to the working class, I assume."
"I resent that."
"And I resent people who think everything should just be handed to them." She whipped around on him then, challenging his glare. "I at least hoped you'd have dropped the teenage-fame-syndrome shit by now."
His mouth curled in a snarl. "You don't know a fucking thing about me, Kurosaki."
"You're right, I don't."
"You sure act like you do."
She scoffed. "Well it's not like you're some famed enigma. You're whole persona is a fucking cliche."
"And yours isn't?" His tone was harsh, a rigid scowl distorting his features. She nearly recoiled from him. "Try some self-reflection before you go judging me, wouldja? 'Cause the whole 'downtrodden corporate lackey waiting for her big break' trope is practically tagged to your back."
Her jaw clenched, and she looked away, sweeping a glance over her snow covered boots. "I'm not 'downtrodden'," she grumbled, pouting slightly.
"Tell that to your face." Drawing a carton of smokes from his breast pocket, Toushiro popped a cigarette between his lips and lit it up quickly. He glanced over his shoulder to regard the obnoxious Blue Lightning Records sign, eyes growing exceptionally softer as he exhaled. "Look, all I want is for us to help each other out. Y'know – I get my career back, you get a promotion, win-win and all that. I just...need a bit more help than you do."
His voice rang sincerity, painting his face in a grimace, and she bit her lip. His gaze was painfully expectant.
"Okay." There was no point arguing with herself. The end result would be the same. "You're not signing any contracts, though, not yet. Not until you actually have some content. And no slacking."
His features grew sharp again, a cloud of smoke blowing into an unsuspecting school-kid's face as he huffed. "Fine."
She stuck out her pinky finger, her eyes dark and determined as she stared up at him. "Swear it."
He looked thoroughly offended, his face twisting further in dismay as he regarded her gesture. "What are we, grade schoolers?"
"Would you rather be punched in the face?" she offered easily, raising a brow. "I'm sure facial disfigurement will be a great debut album cover."
"Ughhh." Glancing around them disconcertedly, he locked his own pinky finger with hers. "Alright, whatever. I pinky swear–'
"–that you won't be your typical asshole self and screw me over, preferably ever, but most importantly during our time working together."
"Yeah, that. Now can we please stop–' Tearing his finger away from hers, Toushiro brought his hand up to adjust his hat, cheeks colouring. "That's embarrassing."
"Oh my God, you're such a child."
"I'm the child?!"
Karin stepped back, steering herself towards her building. Her lips cut a shit-eating grin, wide and smart. "Pleasure doing business with you, Hitsugaya."
Frowning inherently, Toushiro let her dismissal linger for a few fruitful steps, cigarette held lazily between his fingers as he exhaled.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" he coaxed, just loud enough for her to hear. Her brow wrinkled in question as she came to a halt, looking back at him over her shoulder. He smirked. "Roomie."
She sucked in a sharp breath through her nose, her head snapping forward again. "Shit," she breathed, face scrunching up as she squeezed her eyes shut, gritting her teeth. She'd forgotten that part. Taking a couple steps back, Karin turned on her heel, refusing to make direct eye contact as she came into his towering proximity again.
"Um, about that… Could we maybe, like, put your 'moving in' on the back burner? Just 'til I get to know you better and everything. Determine you're not a psychopath. Y'know, standard applications."
"Ah. And here I thought you had me all figured out." Concerning her distrustful stance, Hitsugaya relented. "I assure you I'm a very pleasant person."
"Unnerving, actually," she argued, shutting him down. "A little iffy, in my opinion."
He rolled his eyes, glancing heavenward as if in prayer. "Okay, considering I'm technically homeless tomorrow, I kinda need you to trust me now. Unless of course you'd like to put me up in a hotel."
"Do I look like a fucking bank to you?"
"Not particularly." Karin scowled. "Well, is there any way I can convince you? Preferably before we freeze to death?"
She chewed the inside of her cheek, shoulders hunching as she huddled into the warmth of her coat. "You could tell me why your former bandmates hate you so much."
"They hate me? I wasn't aware."
"I'm serious. The friends one keeps can say a lot about them. You appear to have lost all of yours. I wanna know why."
His eyes strayed to the side, jaw clenched as he inhaled through his cigarette. He let the ashen nicotine burn and fester at the back of his throat.
"We had...artistic differences. Typical band stuff."
Karin frowned. "Lying to me isn't really gaining you any points."
"I'm not lying!"
"Telling me only partial truths is the same as lying, if you ask me."
He turned up his nose, haughty and childish. "I'm entitled to my secrets."
"And I'm entitled to not let you live with me."
"Fine," he spat, stalking past her dramatically. "Have fun being 'assistant to the assistant' for the rest of your life."
Was he actually baiting her? She had to laugh, a light chuckle escaping her throat and burning like acid on her tongue. She shifted on the spot to stare after him, squinting as a gust of wind blew past her, ruffling her hair.
The sudden sound of her pager was like a distant, ignorable buzz in her ears, her boots crunching loudly along the icy snow-covered cement as she strode forward.
"Toushiro! Wait!"
As if lassoed, Hitsugaya halted his step instantaneously, looking back at her as though he were some wounded animal. Ridiculously annoying, this man was.
Withdrawing a pen from her bag, Karin began scribbling her address on an old bakery receipt, her entire body screaming with vehement reluctance as she neared him. She lingered in front of him awkwardly, clutching the pseudo-key to her home in her fingers.
"I suppose you're better than the alternative…"
"Um, thanks?"
Swallowing her doubt, Karin shot him a steely glare, practically holding his hand hostage as she pressed the slip of paper into his palm. "Temporary."
He inclined his head, tearing his hand gently from her hold. The way he smiled gave her a start.
"Temporary."
She found him cross-legged and sleeping when she stepped out of the elevator that night, a guitar case, a duffel bag, and a milk crate filled with records and varied possessions accompanying him as he camped in the hallway outside her door.
Switching the weight of her few grocery bags over to one hand and digging her keys out of her pocket with the other, Karin nudged the white-haired man's leg with her foot, stirring him awake. He rubbed his eyes sleepily, grumbling incoherently as he struggled to make his limbs work.
"Glad you found the place okay," Karin said blandly, turning to unlock her door. If there was any truth to her statement, neither of them heard it.
Standing upright, Toushiro slung his duffel bag over his shoulder and grabbed the handles of his case and crate with each hand, trekking onto hardwood flooring as he followed her inside. Booting the door shut behind him before continuing along down the entrance hall, he considered the modest space with more judgement than he could afford.
He quickly found himself lacking pleasantries.
"Nice, uh, place you've got here."
"It's small, I know. Get over it."
He passed the tiny kitchen in which she was currently flitting around, putting her groceries away in their designated places with a worn in grace about her, ending his short journey at the sofa. He could feel her watching him, as much as she clearly tried to pretend otherwise, and he flexed his fingers. They twitched with desperation.
Once she'd stuffed the empty plastic bags into a bag full of other plastic bags she had no idea why she kept, Karin propped herself up on one of the stools that lined the counter separating the kitchen from the living area, drawing an artless air about her as she glanced around.
"There's no T.V.," Toushiro deadpanned, sitting in the middle of her old red sofa as he pointed towards the apparent lack of entertainment.
"I keep it in my room," she said simply, picking at her fingernails. She spared him a quick glance. "I don't get much company…"
"I can't fathom why," he muttered sarcastically.
"I can kick you out anytime, y'know."
"Yeah, yeah." He waved her off with a flick of his wrist, leaning forward to look more closely at the short but lengthy shelf that sat against the opposite wall, of which he'd expected to host a television. Interest piqued in the light of his eyes, and he crossed the few feet of space between him and the shelf, kneeling down before it. "At least you have music," he said admiringly, inspecting her record collection with lazy fingertips and tired eyes.
"Oh, yeah. I had to keep a lot of it stored at my dad's, but I was able to bring most of my favourites."
"I don't see any of my albums."
"I said my favourites."
"That hurts," he complained.
She smirked, sliding lithely from her stool and closing their distance, kneeling down a safe foot away from him. She pulled open the lone drawer at the bottom center of the shelf, rummaging around for a moment in a mess of CDs.
"This managed to tag along," she said flippantly, handing him her copy of BLEACH'Ds first album. "You guys weren't terrible, I suppose."
He took the CD from her slowly, staring at it with a sharply blank expression. The grain of his fingertips squeaked against the hard plastic case, gripping it tightly as his hand twitched. It had such a mediocre cover, just the four of them standing side by side, himself slightly more centered than the rest, all of them ridiculously dolled up and uncomfortably fake.
He hated it.
"Do you think you guys will ever get back together?" Karin asked, having taken his resigned trance as a bout of nostalgia. Wistfulness.
He grimaced. "What good would that do…"
She tilted her head to the side, eyeing him calculatively. Her wishful thinking didn't bode well with him.
"I think I'm just gonna go to sleep, if that's cool. Kinda worn out." He flicked the CD back into the drawer carelessly, tearing his hat from his head as he stood up. He ran a hand through his hair, ignoring her studious gaze.
"Sure. I'll, uh, grab you a pillow and blanket."
Springing to her feet, Karin disappeared around the corner to what he assumed was her bedroom. In the spare moment, Toushiro rearranged his luggage into a neat pile beside the sofa, attempting a sort of good-guest gesture. He paled a bit from the suddenly strenuous movements.
He was slipping off his coat when Karin returned, a pile of linens and a pillow dropping soundlessly onto the sofa. She smiled at him, the type of smile that wanted to be genuine even as it struggled to maintain itself, and he barely managed to return the favour before she was gone again, the whisper of a 'good night' lingering in her wake.
He was beginning to come down, becoming too aware of everything. He waited for the click of her bedroom door closing before he went for his duffelbag, digging out a small ziplock bag, an old CD, and a pocket knife. He looked to the empty archway that connected the living room and the small hallway to the bedroom, staring at it owlishly and anxious as he crushed two blue pills with his blade, feeling them crack and crunch beneath his thumb. He took a second to frown at the now empty ziplock bag before he began lining up the powder with the edge of the knife, leaving it sloppy and jagged as he leaned in impatiently and sniffed it up in one brisk go.
He sat up quickly, pinching the bridge of his nose as he leaned back into the sofa cushions, and he blinked.
Just like that, he felt nothing.
