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

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"I pass the test!" Karin shouted loudly when she went back to her house one day. Everyone, including Toushiro, Matsumoto, and Hinamori was sitting at the table when she came in.

"Oh, congratulation" Yuzu said and gave her a big hug. "I was wondered if you are going to pass that Math test or not."

"Of course, I will…I'm your sister. You should be proud of me." Karin replied, breaking into a big smile.

"What is it?" Rukia asked as she moved back from the stove waiting for the answer. She was trying to learn how to cook; if she was going to stay in the real world she had too, so far no one in Kurosaki residence proved to have a talent in cooking except Yuzu.

"I pass that test Rukia. I just feel so good right now, you have no idea how many nights I spent time studying." Karin replied grinning.

Karin was still on awe as Matsumoto and finally Toushiro pulled her into a hug of congratulations.

"That's great Karin." Toushiro said as he pulled away from her, stangely exhilarated by her happiness and touch. He knew how glad she was right now. Math was the subject that she hated the most, he could tell from what he saw when he visted her at school last time.

"Thanks." She looked at him and smiled widely.

"Kid, you don't have to hug her," Ichigo said as he narrowed his eyes. "just your lieutenant is enough!"

Rukia immediately rolled her eyes at this, she didn't understand how many times she had to tell the stupid representative shinigami who happened to be a guy she fell in love with that his sister already grew up.

Hinamori watched everything from the table, suddenly feeling like she was intruding some family moment. Her eyes clouded for a second when she saw that Toushiro hugged Karin. It seemed to her that Karin's hands stayed on his arms a second too long when she pulled back from him. She studied Karin's profile as the rest were talking excitedly. Karin wasn't someone she had expected to see. This girl was definitely pretty. She had a good sense of humor. She had an engaging smile and sparkling eyes, even though she still looked like a tomboy in her opinion. And to be honest, she was not surprised that Toushiro fell in love with her. 'But they were not together anymore. There is nothing I should be worried about. Shiro-chan told me not to worry.' She told herself trying to look at the bright side. However, no matter how hard she tried, at the back of her mind still kept asking the same question 'Does Shiro-chan still love her?'

...

Both Toushiro and Karin worked on being just friends, they were polite and found themselves quickly falling into the easy relationship they once had before becoming a couple. Toushiro focused his attention on Hinamori and worked on seeing Karin as a friend, and Ichigo's little sister only.

Everybody noticed the change between them because it was so sudden, but with Hinamori with Toushiro all the time, it was just too hard to ask a question, so they decided to enjoy the truce that seemed to have been created. However, Matsumoto made a mental note to ask her captain as soon as Hinamori went back to the Soul Society.

Rukia, on the other hand, decided to do something different. She saw the change that had occured between them. They were civil to each other, and even talking normally at time. She was wondered what had happened. She knew Karin well; all the time she had been staying in the real world, they became like best friends. And Karin had been telling her all problems that she couldn't tell her sister, which included the big misunderstanding of the 10th squad captain. She knew Karin was trying to act tough and also noticed that her mood sank lower each day, despite her outward cheerfulness. That was she decided to ask her when she had a chance.

"Karin," Rukia called Karin early in the morning when she was getting ready to go to school. "Can I speak with you for a minute?"

Karin stopped and followed Rukia to the room, not really upset that she was called.

"What's up?" She asked immediately as soon as the door was closed. The expression that Rukia was giving her made her feel a little uneasy. And she thought she knew what was coming next.

"Karin, tell me what's wrong?" Rukia started to say. "I'm your friend, tell me."

"Nothing" She replied, then shrugged trying to act casually.

But Rukia knew better. She sqweezed her hand and gave her a look that only implied 'I know you are lying.'

"Something happens Karin, I know it. Don't lie to me. You and Hitsugaya taicho had been civil to each other right now. What happened to the anger that you had? I can tell that you are hurting. You are not happy Karin, and I want to help you as a friend."

Karin immediately looked down at her feet, trying to fight the tear that had unexpectedly rushed to get out.

"You can't help me Rukia, not with this one." She told softly.

"Well, maybe you're wrong. Maybe I can help you." Rukia replied smiling.

"Rukia, I don't know it would hurt this much," She said finally. "This isn't how I expect. I mean if we break up because our relationship is forbidden, I'm prepared for that. But this...this is something different , I don't know how to explain...I...I feel like I regret everything, I feel like I miss those times when we were together, and you know the worst part is that I have to watch him with someone else, when I feel like that person should be me."

Rukia nodded when she saw that Karin was looking at her. She tried to undertstand everything, even though she didn't know much about it. At least she was glad that Karin chose to open up.

"You know I love him, and I still do," Karin continued as she wiped her eyes in frustration. "Ugh.. I hate crying."

"Have you talked to him about this?"

"About this?" Karin asked with a laugh and a sniff "No, this never comes up in our conversation. He said he wants us to be friends. What am I supposed to say? Oh, I don't think being friends will work for me, so why don't you just dump your stupid girlfriend? I don't think so. We can't go back just like that Rukia."

And with this, Karin looked at window.

"You know what? I don't think he loves her really. I think he feels save with her. I never see him looking at her the way he used to look at me."

"And does he look at you?" Rukia asked studying her friend carefully. She wasn't sure if she liked that idea.

"No, I don't think he looks at me at all."

...

Well, so far Karin wasn't the only person who had a problem with this. While Hinamori was in the real world Toushiro had been pretty successful at keeping his thought away from Karin. But now that Hinamori had to go back to the Soul Society to learn more about using Kido for healing with Unohana taicho, he found himself more and more in Karin's company and he began to grow extremely uneasy because there was nothing to distract him away from everything that he had loved about her. Actually he got a strange feeling that Karin had been trying to avoid him, which shouldn't have mattered to him at all, but instead he found himself wondering what she was doing and why she wasn't doing it with him.

The first evening without Hinamori was spent with him and Matsumoto sitting in the Ichigo's bedroom with Ichigo and Rukia doing nothing. Karin was there once she got back from school. Matsumoto and Karin seemed to have a great time teasing both Ichigo and Rukia about their behavior because they seemed unable to sit there without looking at each other. Eventually Ichigo and Rukia left, leaving Matsumoto and Karin giggling foolishly together.Three of them stayed a little longer before Matsumoto excused herself and walked out to the kitchen to find something to eat.

"I'm going back soon." Toushiro said simply.

"Back? To Orihime's place or the Soul Society?"

"Orihime's place..I'm not going back to the Soul Society until my mission here is done."

"Toushiro, can I ask something?" She asked nervously. "Do you know why that arrancar attacked me?"

"To be honest, I don't know. But I intend to find out, and if It has anything to do with you, I promise I will protect you."

"Thank you, but I think I can take care of myself." She replied jokingly.

"Oh, really? You seem to have trouble protecting yourself so far."

"Oi, stop it. I'm just trying to figure out what to do with them." She replied before burst into laughter.

Warmth flooded Toushiro's body when he saw that she was laughing. This was the first time that he saw her real laughs and her real smiles since he returned back from the Soul Society and he found that he was trying to find ways to make her do that more often, just because he would like to see it.

After awhile they fell into a comfortable silence and just sat there watching the sky through the window. When Toushiro began to have trouble keeping his eyes open, he glanced over to find that Karin already fell asleep on Ichigo's bed. He watched her sleeping for a second, before walking over to her to wake her up and tell her to go back to her bedroom.

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I hope this chapter is better than the last one. And sappy, especially in the last part I know...but I think they deserve to have some moments together. And please review...