Hey there everyone! Sorry it's been awhile, but you have to admit that this is sooner than the last update. Right...? *cough* Anyway! Thanks for all the reviews and favs again! You guys are great and the only inspiration I have for this story!

Once again, thank the wonderful KazeNoSakura for being my beta! And check out her HitsuKarin fics while you're at it. They're awesome!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. (And did you guys see the new chapter? *Spoiler Alert* How awesome would it be for Karin to get a bigger part and powers?)


The room was cold and damp, an old dungeon. I stood against one of the wet walls, waiting for the old woman to speak. Her hair was a dark grey and tied behind her head in a braid. She looked nearly eighty years old, but I knew she was even older. She was sitting at the old wooden table in the middle of the small room. Her long boney fingers traced the curves in the wood as she stared at me with nearly blind eyes.

"Sit down." She motioned to the chair on the other side of the table.

"I would rather stand. Now will you tell me what you know?"

She smiled and her wrinkled face lifted. "Come child. We may talk once you sit." she said in a deceivingly sweet voice.

I reluctantly sat at the table, not taking my eyes off the old woman. "Now talk."

She shook her head. "My my, children are so impatient these days."

My hands slammed down on the table and a few cracks appeared in the wood. "I do not have time for your foolishness. You well know I am older than the child you make me out to be, despite my appearance, and you know why that is. Now talk."

Her face fell slightly and she folded her hands on the table. "Well then, talk about what? What is it that you wish to know?"

"The curse. What do you know about it?"

"The curse." she repeated fondly, her smile rekindled. "Surely you know more about it than I. After all, you were the one to read it straight from my great grandfather's tomb. You are the one who lives with it, not me."

I looked to my hands that were white from being clenched so hard. "Indeed."

"So then you wish to know how to break it." she concluded. "How long has it been?"

My teeth grated against each other every time I thought about it. "Almost 94 years."

"And yet you have not aged a day." she mused. She sat there, contemplating me for a moment. After nearly a minute of silence she said. "Many would consider that a blessing rather than the curse you claim it to be."

I narrowed my eyes at her challenging tone. "Well then that is them. They would not know what it is like to live like this. I do not enjoy out living my family and friends as they all die without even my presence to comfort them. I donot enjoy fearing who I might harm during the full moons. I do not enjoy being hated and hunted by every person I come across."

"You have no right to complain about such things!" she snapped and pointed a thin finger at me. "Was it not you who disturbed Hari Mingan's grave? You brought this curse upon yourself and you will have to alleviate it yourself."

"Then how do I do that?" I yelled, frustrated with the woman. She was telling me what I already knew. "Tell me how to rid the curse!"

She sneered as she lifted her hand to her mouth. "Such a brash child. The answer to breaking the curse will never come. The curse makes sure of that. It always ends in death."

I got up from the chair and stood over the woman. I wrapped my fingers around her throat as my breathing became erratic. "I warn you, do not toy with me."

"You are pathetic. A damned beast, far worse than I or any of our kind." she mocked. "Death. Only death."

"Answer me! I tire of your games, old woman."

She smiled at me, showing her rotten teeth. "Why do you still hold hope? The thought is lamentable. You know only death meets those who may help you. You truly are a wretch."

"Shut up." I hissed, my hands gripping her harder.

She let out a jeering cackle. "Ahaha! Death is your only way to free yourself of the curse."

A growl escaped my lips. I tightened my hands around her neck and she laughed harder, further enraging me. She kept laughing. Laughing at me! "Shut up."

"Your freedom is in death!" she yelled, still laughing. "Ahahaha!"

"Shut up." I repeated, my voice still not above a whisper. I squeezed harder. I was going to silence her once and for all. Her wrinkled hand reached my face and she dug her long, untrimmed nails into my skin. But still she laughed! Why wouldn't she stop?

"Your death will free you." she coughed out, a smile still spread across her old features.

"Shut up!"

"Ahahahahaha!"

I stepped away from her body that now laid lifelessly on the floor. It was completely still, not even her mouth moved. But it didn't stop. Her laughter. That damn cackle of hers had yet to stop. The goddamn laughing! I could not make it stop! That…that laugh! It drowned out everything around me and I could only hear her raspy voice laughing in my ears. My ears! Nothing but laughter in my ears!

"Ahahahahahahaha!"

"Shut up! I screamed. I covered my ears but her laughing would not quit! She was laughing at me. I could not take it. I could not stop it! "Shut up! Quit laughing!"

Her body was motionless. She was dead. But she kept fucking laughing.

I grabbed the leg of her chair, breaking it from the rest of the wood and raised it high above my head, over her body. "Ahahahahaha!"

"Shut up!"

I brought the wooden leg down, bashing her face in beat after beat. Blood began to blind my eyes but I could not stop. And still the sounds of the wood pounding against her face did not silence the laugh! The cracking of her skull did not quiet her voice! It was not enough! I had to stop it! I had to! I would not stop striking. I could not stop until that laughter was gone!

"Ahahahaha!"

"Shut up!" I hit harder. Anything to stop the laughing!

"Ahahahahaha!"

"Shut up!"

"Karin! Time to get up."

"Shut up!" I yelled, springing up from my sleep. Yuzu stood at the foot of my bed, looking frightened.

"Karin? What's wrong?" she asked.

"N-nothing. Um, j-just a bad dream. I'll be up in a sec." I stuttered out.

Once she left the room I threw my blanket off of me. I was covered in sweat and I couldn't seem to get my breathing straight. I looked at my hands. They were trembling. Because of the dream?

Something...something about laughing. Laughing and bloody hands. Arg, but why couldn't I remember more?

I took a few minutes to settle myself down and eventually crawled out of bed. The dreams were occurring far too much for me to waste time trying to remember them anymore. I'd just have to learn to deal with them. I'd have to deal with a lot of strange things from now on. I showered, brushed my teeth, got dressed, etcetera.

There were more important things going on in my life right now to worry about dreams. And as I walked and arrived to school, I couldn't stop myself from reflecting on what was going on with my life, starting with what happened no more than three days ago. I wish I could say those last few days had been interesting, and sure, to someone who was on the outside looking in on what I'd been up to, I suppose the latest events in my life would seem rather interesting. But if you were me, having to deal with this crap right now, it wasn't. It sucked. No doubt about it.

Recap time!

About two nights ago, I found out this wonderful little secret regarding my brother and my...um, well I hadn't figured out labels yet. Boyfriend? Yeah, I guess we could go with that. So, I found out that my boyfriend, Toushiro Hitsugaya, was a werewolf and my older brother, Ichigo Kurosaki, was a werewolf hunter. I shit you not.

And because of this, I, Karin Kurosaki, girlfriend to the werewolf and sister to the hunter, was caught in the middle of it. Or at least I was. Eh, actually I still am, just not as much as before. You see, two nights ago after Ichigo and Toushiro were done trying to kill each other, they made a temporary truce. So now Ichigo and his girlfriend, Rukia (who is also a hunter) are working together with Toushiro and his friends (who are wolves as well) to stop and destroy some zombies. And then there's something to do with a candy shop owner/ex-werewolf hunter and his talking cat. You still with me? I wouldn't blame you if you weren't. I'm barely keeping up myself.

Now because I'm the only normal – and sane– person in this mix, I have to stay out of it. No problem there, as long as they aren't at each others' throats, I could care less about what they do. Of course that didn't mean I wasn't given a strict set of rules. Ichigo and Rukia laid down the law. According to them; I am not allowed to be near Toushiro or any of the Spectacular Six without them knowing, I am not allowed anywhere with the SS unless Ichigo or Rukia is present, I have to check in with them every two hours on the hour, and I am not allowed to be out at night. Period.

End of the headache inducing recap. I hope they didn't expect me to honestly follow those rules though.

I yawned and leaned back against my locker. Those stupid dreams always made me feel like I didn't even sleep at night. The annoyance of those dreams were increased due to that I could never remember more than a brief instant or two. I remembered not being me, but after that, once I opened my eyes, the dreams were suddenly lost.

I looked down the hall for Nel and Grimmjow to show up already. They were the only two people other than Ichigo and Rukia who knew about me and Toushiro. Obviously they didn't know he was a werewolf, but they knew he was my "boyfriend". I assumed the SS knew as well, but I couldn't be positive. I hadn't seen them since the whole peacemaking thing.

"Hey Karin." Nel popped up beside me in her usual carefree and cheerful mood. "What's up? How was your weekend?"

"Pretty boring. I didn't do much." After what happened you bet I lied my ass off. I studied Nel for a second. She looked more...upbeat? If that was possible. "What's with you?" I asked. "You seem kinda, I don't know, giddy."

She beamed and clasped her hands together. "Grimmjow finally asked me out last night!"

Huh? "Finally?"

She flipped her green hair over her shoulder. "Oh come on, don't act like you haven't noticed how he's been acting lately."

Honestly, I didn't. Wow, have I been so caught up in my own problems I didn't even notice my only two friends in Seireitei were hooking up? I needed to get it together.

Said friend walked up to the lockers. "Hey guys."

"Hey Grimmjow, what's up?" I said.

He opened his locker since it was his we always met up by. "Eh, nothin'. You hear we have a new teacher?"

"What?" Nel piped up. "What happened to Mr. Ukitake?"

He just shrugged. That was odd. I wonder why he was gone all of the sudden. Mr. Ukitake never missed school and the fact that he hadn't even warned us before he left was suspicious. Although lately I've been finding everything a little suspicious. But I think I was justified in that thinking, if only a little.

"Well enough about that. Karin, what is up with you and your new boy? How's the Ice Prince? Still the master of mixed messages?" Nel asked with an eyebrow raised. Clearly she already used her 'gift' to assess something actually did happen in the days past.

Grimmjow scoffed. "You're still putting up with the little prick?"

I punched him in the arm before looking to Nel. "I'm not entirely sure. I think we're together...just secretly."

He rubbed his arm with a cocky grin and said. "Secretly? How stupid can you get?" What was he talking about? He rolled his eyes and continued. "It's obvious he wants to keep shit like that a secret so Hinamori doesn't find out. He's got both of you on his arms." he confidently concluded.

I just rolled my eyes. "Yeah right. Toushiro wouldn't do that."

"I don't know." Nel said, holding her chin. "Grimmjow could have a point. You've only known him for a few months."

"You guys are overreacting. He's not that type of guy." I tried to keep from sounding too clueless to their suspicions though. That in itself would seem suspicious. Or maybe that was just me being paranoid. Whatever, like I said, I had the right to be paranoid by now. The bell rang and we started walking down the hall to class.

Grimmjow just shrugged his shoulders in boredom. "I'm just saying, you don't know much about this guy."

"I know a lot more than you guys think." I said vaguely before walking into the classroom. They gave me odd looks but sat in their seats. They seemed to think I was just stupid rather than actually being worried about me. Oh well, I take that as a complement these days. They seem to be the only ones who think I can take care of myself anymore. It wasn't like I needed anyone to worry about me. I knew what I was doing for the most part.

I knew more about Toushiro than the majority of the school, although in perspective, that couldn't really be that impressive since I still didn't know things like where he even lives! Maybe I should convince him to show me his house. Originally he told me his parents were dead and he lived by himself, but now I can assume he really does live with the Spectacular Six.

Man, I totally hit the nail on the head when giving them that group name.

I sat in my seat in the back of the room. I scanned over the class. Toushiro was at his desk by the window while the others were scattered throughout the class in their own seats. Toushiro had given me a quick glance when I first walked in the classroom. The others, however, had yet to take their eyes off me. They all looked rather curious, expect for Ikkaku who was scowling a bit and – guess who – Hinamori who was back to glaring at me. Yep, they knew. I resisted sighing and leaned back in my chair.

Hey, wait a second. Since they were werewolves...that would make Hinamori a bitch. Literally!

"Quiet down class."

Everyone silenced and looked to the front of the room from where the gentle voice had come from. Standing in front of the white board was a man, much younger than Ukitake. He had curly brown hair, thick-rimmed glasses, and a fatherly smile to wrap up the whole package. "Hello, I am your new teacher. My name is Mr. Aizen." he said in a calm voice that matched his face.

"What happened to Mr. Ukitake?" asked one of the students.

Mr. Aizen, without dropping his smile – seriously, what was with all these creeper smilers in Seireitei? – said. "He's been ill for quite some time. He has had to take an early retirement. So now I will be your teacher for the rest of the year."

His warm eyes traveled around the room slowly, like he was capturing each face in his mind. Maybe it was just my imagination, but when his eyes met mine, his lingered longer than with the others. His lips became thinner as his smile tightened for the briefest second. I got this incredibly unsettling chill in my spine and quickly looked away. What the hell was that? It felt like someone stuck their hand right through my back. Spooky shit, I'm telling you.

I was regretting having ever complained about Ukitake. Sure I might have thought he was a bit pedo at first, after all he was always smiling and liked to talk with us and even gave us candy for no apparent reason. But I realized he was just a really nice guy. And now we have this new teacher, Mr. Aizen who looked like he could secretly be a serial killer.

We didn't do much in class because the new teacher was spending most of time trying to catch up to what we had done during the past months of school. It was actually a nice Monday, if there was such a thing. That is until lunch came around...

Yuzu and I sat at our usual table with a few other kids from our classes, but today it was quieter than usual because both Ichigo and Rukia were gone. They told Yuzu they had gone back to Karakura to visit some friends again, but I knew the truth. They left right after the whole truce business at Urahara's. Apparently they have to go and work something out with their superiors. Yeah, that's right, their werewolf hunter bosses. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about it, but I'll have to trust Ichigo and Rukia. Their bosses knew about the SS living here and so now I guess they have to appeal to let them so the others can stay, and more importantly live. I wanted to go, but the whole hunter society was all hush hush. I wasn't even supposed to know about it. Not like I care though. What were they gonna do about it?

Okay, I take that back. They might do a lot about it.

The anxiety of what might be going on in who knows where Ichigo and Rukia were was bothering me though. And in turn my stomach was killing me. I felt like I was going to heave any second.

"Karin? You're not eating?" Yuzu asked.

"Nah, I'm not feeling too good."

My twin looked at me with big, concerned eyes. "Are you still not feeling good from this weekend when you faint-"

"Passed out." I cut her off. How many times did I have to tell her? I passed out! I don't faint. "And no, it's not that. I'm just not hungry."

She pouted a bit. Yuzu hated it when I did something that she thought was unhealthy, like skipping a meal.

"Hmm, that's too bad. You should eat more with those chicken legs of yours." a snide voice said behind me. I turned around to see the psychotic she-wolf smirking at me. She spoke again. "You really need to eat a cookie or two."

Who the hell did she think she was talking to? I was to my feet before I realized it. Hinamori's cloudy grey eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms.

What was with her? I hadn't done squat to her since we've met. I looked around the cafeteria to see that Toushiro was nowhere in sight. So because he wasn't here she thought she could talk to me how she wanted? I don't think so. "Run along Hinamori. I don't want to waste my energy on a petty groupie like you."

"Who's the groupie here? You're the one following my Shiro around. I'm telling you this now: Back off if you know what's good for you. He is none of your business." she said in a calm voice that betrayed her eyes.

Did she honestly think she could tell me what to do? That didn't work when Ichigo tried it and it sure as hell wasn't going to work with her. I crossed my arms as well, shifting my weight to one leg. "Actually what I do with Toushiro is none of your business. Your jealousy just makes you look pathetic."

"I look pathetic? Well at least I'm never mistaken for a 12 year old boy."

Okay, that did it. Bitch was going down! Werewolf or not there was no way I was going to let her talk to me like that! I took a step closer, undeterred by her glare. Before I knew it, the entire cafeteria had surrounded us, chanting 'fight' over and over again. Yuzu was looking horrified while both Nel and Grimmjow were cheering me on.

"A lot of talk from a desperate, whiny skank. Try saying it to my face you bun-haired whore!"

Her face was red in less than a second and she lunged at me before I could blink. Her eyes were ablaze and her hair was disheveled, a mess compared to its usual cloth covered bun.

But she didn't reach me. Toushiro was behind her so fast I didn't even see when he got there. He was holding her back with his arm tightly around her waist.

"What are you guys doing?" he hissed. "Stop this now."

I ignored him. Instead I tried to charge at Hinamori even though she was restrained. Some would call that dirty fighting. Um, hello? Chick was a freaking werewolf! She could be chained to a wall and blind folded and still have an advantage over me!

However before I got any closer someone grabbed me as well. A strong arm was wrapped around my waist, keeping me from getting any closer to the wolf in bitch's clothing. I looked behind me to see that it was Ikkaku who was holding me back. I squirmed and tried to pry myself free but to no avail. "Let go baldy, unless you want your ass kicked like Hinamori's is about to be!" I yelled.

"Karin, enough." Toushiro said in a firm tone. Okay, I'm going to seriously have authority issues when I grow up with all these people telling me what to do! Why? I can't take it. I felt like I was going to lose my mind if one more person ordered me to do something one more fucking time.

Hinamori, unlike me, had settled down and was now still. In fact the little slut seemed to lean back into Toushiro. She gave me a fake smile and said. "You know what? I shouldn't stoop down to your level Karin. I'm above fighting trash like you."

Oh hell no. She was not trying to make me look bad in front of Toushiro, or the whole school for that matter. Screw me and Toushiro being a secret! I didn't care if the school knew about me and Toushiro being together. I'd deal with the fangirls later.

I smirked at her. "You wish you were on my level. I don't have to throw myself at Toushiro! We see how well that's worked for you seeing as I'm the one who's got him!" I shouted. I knew it was a bit of a low blow, but she had it coming.

The entire cafeteria was filled with 'Ooo's' and wide eyes.

Hinamori snapped. She started trying to fight her way out of Toushiro's grip, trying to get to me as she yelled out a string of threats. "You little slut! I'll tear you apart! I'm going to kill you!"

"I'd like to see you try! Bring it on, Big Bad Bitch!" The pun was probably lost among my classmates but I heard Ikkaku try to hold back a snicker.

Toushiro growled. "Momo! Karin! Stop it."

He was still effectively ignored. We both tried to get our hands around the others' necks, but that wasn't really working out considering we were both being restrained. And to think I was chastising Ichigo and Toushiro just a few days ago. I glanced to Toushiro and boy was he pissed. He was glaring at me, but I didn't care. He should be angry with his number one fangirl, not me. I was about to yell yet another insult but Ikkaku slapped his hand over my mouth.

"Both of you, stop right now."

Everyone froze and turned to look at Mr. Aizen. He was frowning at us disapprovingly. "What's going on here? You two young ladies should be ashamed of yourselves, acting this way."

Neither Toushiro nor Ikkaku let go of Hinamori and me, but we had stopped trying to break free. He walked in between us and asked. "Who started this?" By now Ikkaku had removed his hand but I stayed silent. To my surprise, Hinamori didn't say anything either. Mr. Aizen, apparently knowing it was indeed Hinamori, turned to her. "Come with me."

Toushiro let her go and she followed the teacher as he walked out of the cafeteria, but not without glaring her bitter eyes at me the entire time. The students dispersed, disappointed in seeing no physical fighting. Me, on the other hand, looking back to what I was just about to get myself into, was thinking only two words.

Thank God.

I might have been ready to beat the shit out of her, but who was I kidding? She would have murdered me! I'm talking about a curve-stomp battle full stop.

The bald idiot finally let me go but I didn't even get a chance to go back to my seat when Toushiro roughly grabbed my arm and led me out of the cafeteria. Once in the hall, I tried to pull my hand away but it didn't work. I kept forgetting how strong he was.

"There's no need to manhandle me. Let go." I complained.

"What were you thinking?" he hissed.

I returned his glare. "Me? She started it! It's not my fault."

He looked away in aggravation and rubbed his face before turning back to look me in the eyes. "It's not that. I don't care whose fault it was. She was obviously trying to get a rise out of you, but you should have been smart enough to know that you can't fight her. If the others and I weren't here, you could have seriously gotten hurt."

"I know that." I mumbled. The more I thought about it, the more stupid I felt for not just ignoring her. But whatever, I go by pride before reason. It's a Kurosaki thing. "You know Toushiro, this is kinda your fault anyway."

His brilliant teal eyes stared at me curiously. "How so?"

"Why do you act like you don't know Hinamori likes you? If you don't like her, why can't you set her straight?" I asked. I wasn't blind and neither was the school. Everyone could see Hinamori really liked him, yet he never mentioned anything about it.

Toushiro didn't say anything. He just looked away and rubbed his face again, like it would erase the question. I turned and began to walk away.

()()()

Karin gave me the most disgusted look I'd ever seen her make. She turned around and started to walk away from me. I sighed and grabbed her wrist.

She turned around. "Are you going to answer me?" I couldn't help but hesitate at her incredibly blunt question. Her hard set scowl softened. "Listen, Toushiro. I need to know. You said you wouldn't lie or keep secrets from me anymore. Do you like Hinamori? Or do you honestly not see how she feels about you?"

It's strange. This was the first time I had ever been asked that. Momo had never even asked me that. Of course I knew she liked me, I lived with her after all. Have been for nearly three hundred years. But it was the kind of thing I never wanted to think about. It seemed like an issue that was just waiting to explode if it was ever brought up, and I was right. Momo was really going to hurt Karin. She was right, it was my fault.

"Well?" she asked impatiently with her hands on her hips.

"Yes, okay? I know she likes me."

She pursed her lips, as if she didn't believe me. "Do you like her?"

I rolled my eyes. "Do you really have to ask that? Of course not, not the way she likes me. She's practically my sister." In truth, all of them in our little pack felt like a sibling. It's hard to see them as anything less than family after so long.

Karin cast her eyes down and then back up. "But you haven't told her that. Why?"

"I just...I don't want to hurt her." Momo was too sensitive for me to outright say I didn't like her. I had hoped she would settle for less with me after a while, but I saw now that that was my err.

She stepped closer to me and put her hands on my shoulders. Her dark blue eyes were rather sympathetic. "I'll be honest, I don't like Hinamori. That's pretty obvious at this point." she said with a humorless smile. "But you're only hurting her more by not letting her down. She keeps up the hope that you'll come around because you haven't told her how you feel about her. And now she resents me because she thinks I'm taking you away, and soon she'll start to resent you too. I don't want to be responsible for you losing someone you care about."

This girl in front of me, Karin Kurosaki, had yet again utterly surprised me. I pulled her close and she wrapped her arms around me. She then looked up and pressed her soft lips to mine. After awhile she pulled away and smiled at me.

"You know, I'm lucky to have you." I said.

"Yes, you are."

I leaned back down.

Hey Toushiro, are you done yet? Renji asked, ruining the moment. I pulled away from Karin who in turn gave me an annoyed look.

What do you want? I asked.

Gym is starting and Momo isn't back yet. She won't answer us.

Momo? I called directly to her. She didn't answer, though that wasn't really hard to believe. Karin raised a brow at me. "Why don't you go to gym and I'll catch up later, okay?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." she said dryly. She started to walk in the direction of the gym but stopped and turned to me again, giving me a flat look. "You should talk to Hinamori before coming to class. Go kiss and make up." She paused. "Without the kissing part. I mean it, either of you guys try anything and I'll stake you myself."

"What?" Stake? What was she talking about? I didn't get it.

She frowned. "Isn't that like, the only way to kill werewolves?"

"...no." I said slowly. "You're thinking about vampires again..."

"Oh." Karin's face turned red. "Well, I'll do whatever kills werewolves then!"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Seriously, what's up with you and vampires?"

"Nothing!" She turned around and stomped away to the gym. I walked down the hall, opposite of her, towards our classroom. Karin was right, I was being unfair to Momo, and I needed to set things straight with her. I wasn't the religious type, but I felt the need to pray before I tried anything else.

Once I reached the classroom, I leaned against the wall next to the door. I think I could hear Momo and Aizen talking in there.

"Mr. Aizen, I don't understand. Why do you want to help me?" That was Momo.

"I can see things are hard for you right now. We'll talk later, and come to me if you're having any problems, alright?" he said in a calm tone. Something about this new teacher wasn't right.

"Thank you." The door opened and out came Momo. She turned around and smiled at me brightly. "Hey Shiro. Why aren't you in gym yet?" she asked as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened today.

I scowled at her lack of reaction to me. "Why weren't you answering anyone?"

She pouted a bit. "I was talking to Mr. Aizen. He's really nice."

"Right..." We started walking down the hall towards the gym. "Look, Momo, we need to talk. Or, well, it's me who needs to talk. I mean, you see..." I stumbled over my words. This was proving to be more difficult than I anticipated, and I hadn't even said anything yet. "Momo, I just need to say tha-"

"Toushiro." she said softly. I shopped when she didn't use that stupid nickname. "Whatever you have to say, can it wait 'til later? I really don't feel like talking about that right now."

Oh and I wanted to talk about it? The only reason I was bringing it up was because of Karin, who at this point I guess qualifies as my girlfriend. So in context my girlfriend was making me speak to another girl about how I feel...damn, I'm whipped already.

She continued. "How about tomorrow?"

And have my ass chewed out by Karin? I don't think so. "This can't wait-"

"I will see you at home." she said and walked away. I turned around after her but she ran down the hall and disappeared. I sighed for the millionth time that day. I guess I'd have to talk to her later then. Oh well, maybe it was for the best. I didn't want to hurt her, so it was better to wait until she was more comfortable.

I went back to the gym and got dressed. I had to run a few laps for being late to class while the other students were practicing basketball.

Did you talk to Momo? Renji asked.

Kinda. She left right after I found her. I replied.

Rangiku grumbled. She needs to get her act together.

What's with the hostility here? You're taking that Karin-girl's side over Momo? Yumichika asked disbelievingly.

No, it's not that. It's just Toushiro seems to be in a better mood lately. Like he's been happier ever since Karin moved here...

I rolled my eyes. Thanks for talking about me like I'm not here.

Well you heard it so that was meant for you to hear. she snapped. I'm just saying though, Momo is being melodramatic right now.

Ikkaku gawked. Why don't you tell her that yourself then?

I would if she wasn't blocking us out, Dome Head.

I tuned them out and concentrated on finishing up the last few laps. When I was done, they were all still practicing basketball. I was assigned into a team of boys and started practicing free throws. Karin was on the other side of the gym, playing with a team of girls.

"Here, I'm open." Karin said to one of the girls on her team. The girl tossed the ball directly at Karin's foot and it bounced out of bounds.

"Way to go Kurosaki! Don't you know how to catch a ball?" the girl yelled.

"What? The better question is, do you know how to throw a ball? You threw it at my foot!" she yelled back.

The girl put her hands on her hips. "That's what you say. I say I threw you the ball just fine. Right?" she directed her question to another girl on the team.

"Totally. Kurosaki is such a klutz." she said.

Karin was seething, but I couldn't help but find some humor in the situation. If she didn't want to deal with the girls she shouldn't have been bragging about me to Momo in front of the school. She brought that on herself.

I directed my focus back to my own practice team. But it got boring quick. Basketball, especially gym curricular basketball, was a pain in the ass and just downright annoying.

"Watch what you're doing Kurosaki!" yelled one of the girls from the other side of the gym.

My team had stopped to watch the scene unfold. Actually, the entire guys' half of the gym had stopped to watch. Even the coach. There were a lot of whispering about a hopeful fight since they apparently felt cheated that Karin and Momo didn't. That, however, was beginning to bug me.

A guy behind me whispered to another. "Ten bucks on Hitsugaya's girl."

Another minute, another sigh. Already the students were using labels. Dammit Karin.

The girls were playing, tossing the ball and attempting shots. And then it happened. The girl from before threw the ball. Not at the hoop but at the back of Karin's head. Every single person in the gym froze. I could only see Karin's back but I saw how stiff she was. The girl just stood by with a satisfied smirk on her face. It wouldn't be there for long though.

Let's just say I got a little scared myself.

Karin turned around slowly, her face blank, her body rigid. She let out a small breath and bent down, lazily picking up the basketball that was sitting by her feet.

"You bitch!"

Wham!

In a flash the orange ball had smashed the girl in the face and she fell over like a rock, hitting the gym floor with a loud thud. But Karin didn't stop there. As the girl tried to sit up, Karin ran up to her and punched her right in the face. Repeatedly.

The girls on her team were yelling at her to stop, but they were the only ones. Everyone else was still too stunned – myself included – to move. Karin was on top of the girl, swinging punch after punch on her.

Something about the scene was vaguely familiar.

Finally the gym teacher snapped out of his daze and ran over to her, pulling Karin off of the girl. "Kurosaki! Stop this! You're suspended!" he shouted but she didn't listen.

"I'm sick of this!" she yelled. "I'm done putting up with all of your petty shit! Get over yourselves and quit toying with me or I'll have to make you! All of you."

That last threat sounded rather menacing. The teacher pulled her away and probably to the principal's office. I couldn't help but shake my head.

A hand slapped my back, pulling my eyes from the gym exit. It was Renji. "You sure found yourself a firecracker." he laughed.

"Yeah." Ikkaku said, standing next to him. "Maybe she ain't too bad after all."

Indeed.


Okay my friends, I hope you liked the chapter. The begining was really fun to write. I hope you found it fun to read. I just wanted you all to see how a certain someone lost at one point haha. If you don't know who Karin is dreaming about yet...I fail as a writer.

Please review and tell me what you think or ask any questions you may have! Love you all!