Thank you to Fallen-Yuki for some help with thinking a few parts of this through and again, to everyone who's reviewed I'm grateful.
I apologise for the slight haphazard nature of this chapter. It is the product of some severely frayed nerves. Why on earth did I agree to take a job interview on results day?
Upon returning to her room, Karin saw Ginko had changed into a more casual yukata and lay stomach down on her bed painting so immersed in her work she didn't notice Karin enter. It was only after the student had collapsed down on her bed that she jumped, whipping round to face Karin in shock.
"Either you've learnt to flash step like Yoruichi or I zoned out completely. As talented as you are I'm going to go with the second one." Karin couldn't help a small chuckle.
"Obviously. What are you painting?"
"Oh, nothing much," Was the quiet reply as the older woman ducked her head down, a light pink spreading across her face.
"Well you're no fun," Karin joked, sensing this was someone who'd be open to a laugh and sensible and secure enough not to take such comments as insults.
"Sorry to burst you're bubble Kurosaki-san," she replied, chuckling in return, "Where'd you disappear to?"
"I just had to apologise to… a friend. They brought me back here after last night."
"Ah, what would we do without those friends?"
Ginko was smiling, her wrist making delicate flicks. "You got anything planned tonight?"
"Not really. I didn't realise we had so much free time in the evenings. You?"
"Finish this. There's some conflict going around my friends and I can't be bothered with it so," she looked back over at Karin with a childish smile on her face, "I decided to shut myself away with some ink and paper."
"Doesn't sound like a bad plan."
Karin flopped down onto her back, crossing her arms behind her head and genuinely pondering what she was going to do for the next few hours. It wasn't even dark outside yet and, albeit though the last of the long summer days were still lingering. She'd never held any interest in the literature Soul Society had to offer, much of it being political or factual with the only fiction seeming to be tragic romances. Karin longed to get her hands back on some of the books she read in the read world, she had a secret love for western arts and had yet to find a Japanese novelist that could challenge her love of Carlos Ruiz Zafon and the intricate plots he weaved. The music too was a passion, having found J-pop and the such too manufactured. With a sigh she speculated her other options. With her personal art skills joining her roommate's painting definitely was not one of them.
She could try and track down her friends but then again, the 2nd squad barracks were apparently hell to get into for anyone else and she had a small suspicion that the manic that was Maseru's new captain would see her as a second Ichigo and not leave her alone until she fought him should she dare to venture anywhere near him. Football? She'd even managed to get a ball across from the real world but then came the question of who to play it with. There was this tender friendship with her roommate but she felt guilty for even thinking about asking when she saw how lost Ginko had become in her own apparent passion. Grabbing the ball from under her bed she decided it might as well be worth practising on her own a little. There were still tricks to practise and drills to repeat.
Once in the wide arena she had earlier fought in she started by dribbling the ball up and down before making it difficult for herself, adding in near on impossible direction changes at speed, before going further to imagine opposing players. Sadly she wasn't aware of the eyes watching her dodge and slide.
Breathing hard she reached the end of the arena, picturing the goal keeper in her mind before curving the ball with full force around them, stopping as a black clad figure appeared out of nowhere and caught it. It was then she noticed foot steps behind her to and she turned slightly alarmed. On the contrary, the sight made her smile.
"Sorry," said Kage with an apologetic smile, "She wanted to show off."
Karin looked back to the interfering goalie to see her peel the mask off, revealing scraped back red hair, an impossibly red face to match and a grin that was more noticeable that anything else. "I hope you didn't think we were going to leave you alone from now on," joked Tomoko with her cheeky grin, before drop kicking the ball in Karin's vague direction. She may have had the most amazing co-ordination Karin had ever seen when it came to fighting but give her a ball and the results could be disastrous. It was completely inexplicable. Karin dashed to block the ball and bring it under control before passing it on to Kage. Thankfully he was good enough to even be mild competition.
Then the realisation hit Karin.
"You can flash step?" she all but yelled to Tomoko, the affirmative response coming in the form of the other girl's grin stretching to the point her face looked ready to split.
"She can. We're the only two new members to second and after watching us fight we got Soi Fon-taicho's approval so we're being trained specifically for our duties before we start taking part in them. Step one was flash stepping, excuse the pun." Kage explained, dribbling the ball in Karin's direction again.
"Apparently I'm only the third ever person to have learnt it in a day," Tomoko added, her voice not boastful but factual with a hint of deserved pride, "The only others being your taicho and Shihoin Yoruichi."
"Well done girl!" Karin would have run over to hug her friend but she could see from the glint in Kage's eyes that this had now become a game and his long legs were carrying him towards her. Fast. With lightning reflexed Karin slid in front of him at just the right moment to kick the ball out of his control but not trip him over. Regaining balance and the ball she charged towards Tomoko, who'd had stuck to the goal. It was the only place she'd ever really been trusted to play in. As a four they'd always split boys against girls or rather, the best with the worst and the middle two together for even skills. Only, after a few weeks of playing like that they started to realise Tomoko was a beast in goal. Her reactions and space judgement meant it was rare for anything to get past her. It didn't stop there being problems after she got the ball though.
Using her height to her advantage, Karin made a 180-turn as Kage closed in on her, his long legs not as agile. Again Karin was in sight of the goal, a grin on her face at the challenge. Sensing she was being approached again she took a risk and pelted the ball at the makeshift goal, feeling ready to cheer as it soared forward.
A feral expression took over Tomoko's face and Karin saw her joy shatter as she flash stepped in front of the ball again. "You know, I much preferred it when you were on my team."
"So your accepting there's something I can do well in football?"
"Don't push it." Karin caught the ball as it was tossed back to her. Deciding that trying to have a match again Kage was going to be a fruitless exercise she sat down, and the other two shortly cam and slumped next to her, forming a triangle.
"So when you said Soi Fon watch you fight, you don't mean against each other do you?" Karin asked, curious to hear about life in the other squads, especially one like 2nd. Her two companions nodded. Karin was shocked for a moment, and then burst into uncontrolled laughter. Neither were offended, they know how different their fighting styles were and the mismatched battle Karin was imagining in her head wasn't too different to the real thing.
"So, giant versus midget match aside, how was you day?" Tomoko pushed. Though amusing to a point her earlier fight wasn't an overly pleasant memory.
Karin told them of the induction and a blow by blow detail of the duel with Renji, her friends being so proud of her Tomoko almost went as far as to squeal. "Especially after last night, though then again Renji couldn't have been in too good a state." She added a giggle onto the end.
Karin's eyes went wide and Kage too looked mildy shocked. Yes, Tomoko was considered cute by some of the guys for her behaviour, but this was small child cute, not girly cute. And tomboyish child at that. She never giggled.
"Um, Kage…" Karin began sheepishly, not wanting her friend to think she was dismissing him.
"No, I'm on it."
He got away so fast it his flash step training must have been bordering on successful. For such a calm and accepting person, it still shocked Karin how even the simple hint of a girly talk sent him sprinting for the hills. At first meeting him she'd pinned him as one of those guys who girl's could trust with problems and he'd be there to help with out. Ah well, just to prove first impression can indeed be misleading. "Come on," she said standing and offering a hand to Tomoko, "Let's not waste training space of someone wants to use it."
As they wandered out of the arena, Tomoko sensed what was coming and took a shy silence. "Did he talk about me at all today?" she asked, glum. Karin hated to do it but she shook her head. "Ah well, probably doesn't even remember after all the bloody sake."
"What happened?" Karin asked, taking her friend's hand for support. She'd seen a guy or two interested in her at the academy but the shorter girl had never reciprocated their feelings, telling Karin herself that she didn't see any point in seeing people she wasn't completely interested in and she'd heard from Kage that Tomoko loved partners the way she loved friends, there was no middle ground. You were either everything or nothing to her and it had lead her to find it difficult to men to be more than friends. The fact that she was worry about Renji already after having met him once confirmed all that to be true and had Karin worried. It wasn't that he was a bad person who would abuse that towards him, not necessarily the kind to freak out at it- if anything he was similar but on a diluted scale. It was just, to put it politely, he could be an idiot.
"Well, we were just talking. You saw that much and then it was just little things, like when I put my hand on the table he put his over it, and he kept shuffling closer to me until we were touching. Then there were moments it felt like he was wrapping his arm behind me and when Kage and I said we had to leave he walked me out the door and kissed my hand and urgh," she half groaned, half growled at herself. "I'm being stupid. We'd just had a lot to drink and this whole situation sucks."
Tomoko took her anger out on a small rock on the path, unconsciously sending it flying into a tree, shattering the bark it impacted on, "Oh great, now I'm hurting plants. Productive."
Karin couldn't help a small sympathetic laugh, "Calm down already. I won't ask you if you want me to talk to him," the soft glare told her that had been the right assumption, "so instead I'm going to tell you to come play soccer tomorrow evening and bring Kage and any new friends, then I'll round up a few more and you can just get his attention again."
"So if he doesn't notice me I get the joy of wallowing in self pity for a day or two?"
"Of course, then you realise he's a bit of an idiot and move on. Oh, and I'll try to kick his arse for you if I end up fighting him again."
Karin smiled as she saw her friends frown lift. Normally when she was human, she'd have scorned the girls who worried about guys like this, guy's they'd only met once or twice and they acted like they were their new life line. Okay, so maybe Tomoko hadn't gone that far but it was still the same idea. Karin started to realise she'd probably been over harsh on them. The reason she didn't judge Tomoko was because she knew her, and that this was a genuine concern.
Maybe if she'd got to know the other girls too…
No. That life is over. You're happy here. She thought to herself, and it was the truth.
"So you going to get the tenth squad captain to join? I remember you said he helped you win a game or two back when you were a kid," Tomoko laughed a little, "I still can't picture it."
"Yeah, why not?" Karin said. As much as they were a little tainted after their involvement in her drunken state, the memories still brought a smile to her face. "He better have been practicing the last few years."
"Kami, two people on the pitch with your skill?"
"At least three if we can get Ichigo too, but don't see what you're worried about. You're the actual ninja goalie now." The girls laughed, all seriousness and irritation from earlier forgotten.
Karin surveyed the arena; Byakuya had given them official permission to use it this time. There were members from a variety of squads, some recognisable and others completely unknown. Her heart jumped a little seeing a tuft of white hair, its owner arguing with a busty fukutaicho over who knew what this time. After Ichigo arrived it had turned into a Kurosaki vs. Kurosaki game, with Karin choosing Tomoko, Toushiro, Ginko, two other members from the sixth squad and one from second. Ichigo had taken Kage and Maseru, Renji, Matsumoto, Rukia and two members of his own squad. Not full teams but it would do. At least they were even. Somehow Yachiru had got involved as the referee too. It promised if nothing else to be fun.
Everyone lined up in there places, Karin saw with a slight glee that Ichigo had put Kage in goal. According to her own goalie, Kage still hadn't mastered flash step and though his long limbs could pretty much cover the whole the their make shift net but that combined with his inexperience left him prey to shooters like Karin who could curve a ball, often throwing himself in the direction it first went in and leaving the rest of the goal wide open. With a whistle the game commenced.
Ichigo got to the ball first, passing immediately to Renji as Ginko tracked him down, only for Renji to lose the ball the second squader who passed it straight to Karin. From there on her and Toushiro were in fallible, placing perfectly to pass to one another when there were too many of the opposite team to avoid. There was a tense moment when Ichigo pulled an illegal slide tackle on Karin, unnoticed by Yachiru, and made it to their goal. Tomoko had been leaning on the post out of boredom until he was all but a few meters away, before moving into the middle of the goal. Ichigo belted the ball into what looked liker an open corner, only to be horrifically dismayed when out of nowhere it was stopped. By half time Ichigo's team were a dismal four goals behind.
Karin jogged over to a sweating Toushiro, high fiving him before wiping her hand and laughing.
"Sweaty Toushiro, yummy," she said, her voice thick with apparent sarcasm.
"I could stop running around if you prefer?" came the tart reply, accompanied by a cheeky smirk. Unlike his teammate, he rather liked the view. Her face was literally glowing, with her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright. She'd scraped all her hair back off her face to stop it getting plastered there, showing off her subtly angular features, not to mention the regular clothes she had changed into now clung to her skin and showed off her lean, toned body. Yes, definitely a view Toushiro enjoyed.
"I'd love to say I could win without you but to be honest, I'd rather just win." Her competitive edge was infectious.
"That's funny, I remember the first time I met you and you had definitely needed my help to win that match."
"Only because some jerk fouled me and injured me. You know I'd have owned them other wise." She called out to the rest of the team to join them before turning back to him, "But seriously, what's with this sense of humour nowadays Toushiro?"
"Maybe Rangiku's had an affect." Karin raised a doubtful eyebrow, "Or maybe I've just started to realise that maybe duties and honour aren't all there are too this life, and after surviving something like the Winter War I should enjoy it more."
A smile crept onto the Kurosaki girl's face, only a mild one but it was there none the less, and Toushiro mirrored her genuine expression. Then any moment was killed as a certain class member of Karin's appeared out of nowhere and hugged her, trying to drag her into a celebratory dance, only to be pushed off and have Ginko join her. Karin tried to tell them in a stern voice it was too early to celebrate yet, that they had the second half to work through yet, but couldn't help but crack and join in. Who was she trying to kid, of course they were going to win.
True to prediction, the second half suffered the same level as annihilation as the first, with Karin's team storming to a 7-0 win. After all the group celebrations the teams filtered out slowly. Ichigo was going over to the Kuchiki Manor for some reason, one that left him drained of colour and apparently terrified, as planned Renji and Tomoko had again struck up conversation and left together, Karin didn't want to interrupt and ask where, and the most surprising thing of all was when she noticed Matsumoto was leading Kage away.
"You think it's okay to leave him with her?"
Karin flinched, seeing Toushiro was almost directly behind her and following her line of vision.
"You make it sound like she's going to do something to him."
"Maybe, but her even showing an interest in a guy without an ulterior motive is unheard of. It's always them chasing after her." Toushiro locked his eyes with a bemused Karin.
"Can't think of anything. Anyway, let them be, for all you know she might actually be enjoying his company."
Toushiro rolled his eyes but decided not to argue. For a while he had been starting to sense an air of change in the Soul Society, a change for the better. Who was he to say that his fukutaicho shouldn't be a part of it. Or in fact, as he looked over Karin once more, that he shouldn't be either? The thought sent him blushing furiously but once it was there it was like a little seed I his brain. He kept up some meaningless drabble of conversation for a minute of two before he finally got round to asking Karin if she had anything else planned for that evening.
"I was thinking I might go see Rukia but I have a funny feeling Ichigo might be needing her about now, so no."
Taking what felt like to him, a leap of faith, he took in reality a step further, "You want to come for a walk with me or something?"
Karin was taken aback by his offer, but agreed none the less. It was a comfortable silence as they left the arena, with her following behind Toushiro as he led her in down an unfamiliar path. Gradually conversation started, she asked about life in the 13 Court Guard Squads and received helpful answers embellished with stories of Toushiro's past and experiences. She guessed she shouldn't have been surprised when he turned and asked her about her own history and what had been happening in the world of the living since his last visit.
"I visit Haru-baachan a lot. She's getting weaker but the spirits look after her emotionally and my father now treats her physically. She's happy though, and I guess that's all that really matters in the end."
The news was like a blow to the young captain, and he quickly tried to turn the conversation in a new direction, "So tell me about your life. He talks about your sister sometimes but rarely you."
"He has a good reason to. It's not that my life's been hard, it's just that I didn't seem to suit it. I got good grades in school but teachers never liked me because of my surly attitude and," she seemed to choke a little, "I struggled to find friends as I grew up. I was no longer one of the boys but I just couldn't fit in with the girls. Add that to seeing ghosts and having to deal with hollows it makes my life here far better I comparison."
Finally looking at her companion again, she could see distaste on his features and a slight anger boiled as she thought it might have been at her.
"Well they were all idiots, weren't they?" Toushiro stopped walking and turned to Karin, "I don't see why people wouldn't want you around."
"Because I'm different-"
"And that's bad? That you were true to yourself? They should have seen that and taken you as who you are but then again," he let out a small smile, "I guess it was their loss and in a way I'm glad, because it brought you here Karin.
Without thinking he drew her into him arms, holding her for all but a second before stepping back, shocked with himself. After stuttering out a quick excuse he tried to leave, but not before a small hand gripped onto his wrist to stop him.
"Toushiro," she said, her voice soft and a blush on her cheeks, "I'm glad it worked out that way too and that I came here. I'm glad I got to see you again."
He laughed a little and tenderly turned back towards her, "You know, I kept planning to come and visit again. I enjoyed playing football with you and talking to you."
"You'll have to do it more often now I'm here then."
Until that second neither had noticed that she hadn't let go of him but rather her hand had slid into his, nor that they were only inches apart. Something in the ice wielding captain cracked and that warmth and desire to protect that only she seemed to bring to him came flooding over him. Slowly, he didn't want to rush this or startle her, he lifted his free hand to cup her cheek and guided her face towards his. As they were a moment apart he whispered her name again, checking reality, only for her to take over the lead and close the final gap, pressing her lips to his.
A bit of a fragmented chapter but you get to look forward to the next one being massively HitsuKarin orientated :D I'm festival going this weekend if I haven't buried myself in a hole after results (eight hours to go D: ) so may be a while but I'll try to make it good for ya ;)