Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite.

…

The Bodyguard

Mission 11

…

– Karin –

He was acting strangely. This she could tell, even when she had her own pain to deal with.

Then again, Karin had become desensitized to most things. To think that Ginjou would work for… Karin shook her head. There had to be a mistake. A terrible one. After all, there was a chance that Ginjou's employer hadn't ordered for Ikkaku's likely murder.

To prove it, Karin had to spend all 24 hours of her Sundays investigating it. Sundays that had previously had been precious times away from her principal, now being used to protect him. To prevent her employer's death. To prevent any more unnecessary deaths around her.

Because they'd merely been involved with her.

Or so she had initially thought, until she had looked at the USB.

Ikkaku had been right when he said there was something bigger to his disappearance than merely his acquaintance with her. In fact, it was much bigger than Ikkaku had thought. Another layer beneath what Ikkaku had unearthed. Hints of something else. Hints that he had died for. Hints that she would hang onto, even at the cost of her life.

It technically wasn't in her job description, (then again, she did lots of things not specified in her job description) but at the behest of her employer, Karin had to find out why her principal was acting so strangely.

There were shadows under his eyes again, like the first time he was introduced to her as her principal. But this time, it wasn't from drug or alcohol abuse. Unless he specifically went drinking on Sundays where she wasn't there to breathe down his neck.

But becoming drunk on Sundays didn't explain his perpetual dark circles for every day of the week.

He had all-night bodyguards assigned to give her some relief, but both Koganehiko and Shiroganehiko had reported that lately, their principal hadn't gone out. So though her principal went to random places like cafés, movies and diners during the day (forcing Karin to sit down with him so she wouldn't attract attention), at night, he stayed holed up in his room like a mouse hoarding its cheese.

Karin knew that he couldn't be spending his nights studying. His grades were still crawling on the ground (not even that, they were more like stuck beneath the ground nestled among the roots). With his brains, his grades would shoot up with just a little bit of effort on his part.

So, as reluctant as Karin was to give up any extra time to investigate on her own, she first needed to find out what her principal spent the lion's share of his nights on and why.

Presently, her principal's chosen venue was a bookstore. (which aligned with his strange behavior; before, a bookstore would have been the last place that he would go to). He now loitered around the adult fiction area.

Karin couldn't see what book he was reading, but it was very thick, and she frowned. Why not just buy the book and be done with it? He had plenty of money to spare, and she knew he wasn't a penny pincher. But he was so engrossed in it that it could be that the idea just didn't occur to him…

Curious despite herself, Karin subtly moved to look at the title. But he shifted just enough to hide the title from her. Karin repressed the urge to scowl in annoyance. If she could inch over to the right a bit… her principal then snapped the book shut, keeping his hand over the title (dammit) and replaced the book in a nearby shelf making it practically impossible for Karin to find out just what he had been reading.

Stretching, he turned to Karin and asked, "So where do you want to go next, Haru?"

She firmly corrected, "It's Akimoto, young master."

He waved her correction off and repeated, "Yeah yeah, got it Haru. But seriously, where do you want to go? I'll let you choose, Haru."

Honestly, Karin wanted nothing more than to go to somewhere restful where she could easily guard him. Like a corner of a park.

"And no place where I stay still in a corner protected by two walls."

So much for that idea. Was he really giving her a choice? Karin grit her teeth. "Do the Garden Mazes count?" At least two walls would be covered.

His face brightened. "Oh? You like mazes?"

Well, she did, but she wasn't about to tell her principal that, so she looked at him coldly and followed him to what she supposed would be a garden maze.

As long as he didn't intentionally lead them into dead ends.

…

2 ½ years ago

…

As soon as the summer heat left, a sorry excuse of fall came, along with heaps of rain. Some days were humid, while other days were just plain chilly, sending shivers through the trainees' bones as they each struggled with their ever-changing martial arts.

One drizzly day at dinner, Ginjou said dully, "I wish I had attended this Jungle back in the old days."

Chewing on a particularly tough piece of meat, Keigo asked, "Why? The corporal punishment would be worse back then, wouldn't it?"

Ginjou sighed. "Remember when you said, 'thank goodness for AC?' Well, this time I'm gonna say, 'thank goodness for heaters.' It's November and it's already bone chilling. I wouldn't be surprised if it started snowing any day. The weather is getting more and more extreme. But back in those days, the weather was more predictable. All four seasons… I forget how that feels… Oh, how I miss thee, spring, the joyful season of growth and blossoming. Oh fall, the season of harvesting – "

Shoving a hand into his face, Karin interrupted, "Yeah, yeah, we get your point, Mr. Poet."

The other boys, save for Ginjou, laughed.

The next day, Karin woke up to a steady drumming sound. Rolling off the bed, she looked out the window and groaned. It was raining yet again.

Throughout the day, the rain steadily surged down harder. But it was the day before the testing of the Chinese martial art, Mantis form; Karin had barely gotten the basic movements down; the impossibly fast snapping movements combined with the smooth swaying motions in between were too much for her. She envied the Shaolin monks, who could execute both so effortlessly – then again, they'd trained their whole lives on mountains in one discipline, and worked in conditions far worse than she did. She was just taking a crash course.

After dinner, she waved off all offers of games or delicious treats, the latter being much harder to resist.

"Don't tempt me!" she shouted at Ginjou and Renji, who were both waving macaroons and chocolate (both obtained by devious means), wafting the mouthwatering smell in her direction.

She stood right behind the doors leading out to the practice yard with freezing rain pouring down. But she needed to practice the Mantis style. Taking a deep breath, Karin stepped outside.

Her clothes, sodden and muddy, made it hard for her to move.

Finally, though her movements hadn't quite met her expectations, Karin was exhausted enough to let go of her perfectionist side. 'Screw it. My marks can just take a hit. What does it matter… I've already passed my probationary year, so it's not like I need to get first place.'

Karin climbed the eighteen flights (mud and water trailing behind her – the next person to go up the stairs would find it very slippery) back to her room. Reaching into her pocket for the key, she discovered with a curse that she didn't have it. So she rapped loudly on Renji's door, hoping he was in.

He wasn't. Sighing, Karin leaned back against the wall, ignoring how she left mud marks on it. Maybe it would be okay to take a short nap until her suitemate came back…

Returning from Keigo's room, Renji stopped when he saw a large lump of mud outside his door. He raised an eyebrow.

"What the freezing hell is…"

On closer look, he saw that it was Karin. "Man, how'd she get so muddy?" he muttered.

Though he wanted nothing more than to pick her up and carry her in, he had a façade to keep up. He nudged Karin with his foot. "Oi, Haru."

No response. Crouching next to his suitemate, Renji gently shook her. "Hey."

Still no response. Renji leaned in close to Karin's ear. "This isn't a good place to sleep, you know."

At this, Karin woke up. Momentarily confused, she looked around and then remembered that she had fallen asleep waiting for Renji to unlock the door. She staggered to her feet. "Oh, Renji. You're back." Her voice was slightly slurred. She almost stumbled and she would have fallen to the ground had Renji not caught her just in time.

Karin pushed herself out of his arms and leaned against the wall. "Oops. Sorry Renji. Didn't mean to make you all muddy."

"Why were you sleeping out here?" Renji asked her as he unlocked the door.

Karin tottered into his room behind him. "Didn't have my keys." She croaked.

His room looked like a tornado had been through it again, Karin absently noted. Out loud, she said, "Ima take another shower today."

Renji said, "Be my guest. Actually, do me a favor and please do. You need it."

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Karin asked, "Do you need to use the bathroom?"

Though he didn't, Renji decided to tease Karin. "Why don't you leave the bathroom unlocked? I've had to go take a shit over at Keigo's room for I've-lost-count times." He fought to keep a straight face as he wondered whether she would be flustered or not.

But even in a half-conscious state, Karin was too used to this to even stumble over her words. She wrinkled her nose. "No. Absolutely not. I don't want to smell your number two while I'm taking a shower. It's bad enough smelling the aftermath as it is."

Renji inwardly winced. Ooh… burn…

Karin firmly locked the door and climbed into the shower for the second time that day. When she got out, Renji was asleep on her bed on top of the covers, as if he had fallen asleep while waiting. That made it what, the fifth time?

In her haze-numbed mind, Karin briefly considered whether she should sleep in Renji's bed. Deciding that her bed was closer and that wading through his clothes-covered floor to reach his bed wasn't worth it, she crawled into her own bed, pulled the covers over both of them with some difficulty, and went straight to sleep.

Renji woke to extreme warmth and to the faint scent of apple. His arm was draped over warm flesh, which rather felt like a small waist. Not daring to hope, he opened an eye. Sure enough, he shared a pillow with a head of jet-black hair. He closed his eyes again, breathing in the scent of apple.

But Renji's felt something amiss. There was a tremor coming from the wrist draped over Karin's waist. Despite the heat of Renji's body, Karin was shivering. Abruptly, Renji sat up and put a hand to Karin's forehead. It was burning up. Even while unconscious, Karin felt the warmth to her back gone and let out a whimper of protest.

Renji didn't care that it was a day of a combat training test. But he couldn't even take Karin to the infirmary, lest her gender be found out. He paced back and forth wondering what to do.

Presently, Karin awoke with a groan.

"K-Haru!" Renji said.

Karin felt dizzy, and not in the regular groggy-after-sleep way. Maybe she had gone overboard with yesterday's training.

"Just go down and show that you're sick, and… take a day off or something. Tomorrow's firearms day, so it won't matter much. You're good at putting guns together."

Karin stubbornly shook her head.

Today's test she couldn't miss. Not when she'd trained so hard for it. No. Absolutely not. She said faintly, "Go away, Abarai."

Then assuming that Renji had gone back to his room to get ready as well, she absently pulled off her shirt, revealing her bare back to Renji. Tearing his eyes away from her slender and relatively pale back marred only by a farmer's tan, Renji scampered to his own room.

Swallowing, he called out, "Haru! Promise me that you won't linger around after you prove that you're sick!"

There was no answer. Covering his eyes with his hands, Renji bumped and tripped his way to the hallway that separated his room from Karin's.

"Haru?"

"…What?" came Karin's voice from right in front of Renji.

Tentatively, Renji took his hands off his eyes. Karin looked a little pale, but otherwise fine.

She jerked her head towards the door. "C'mon. It's almost time to train. Let's go."

Doubtful, Renji nonetheless followed her down.

Yet again, it was almost freezing temperature.

Renji looked nervously at Karin, and wanted to intervene when Karin and the preceptor of the Mantis discipline faced off, but lost focus when he fought the drunken fist preceptor.

Karin lost miserably in less than a minute.

"Akimoto! You did better than this yesterday!" The preceptor roared.

Karin said nothing.

"Again!"

So Karin slogged through the day and failed to pass the Mantis style all three training times. By the third time, she didn't even care. Renji hovered over her, but she slapped him away like a zombie would slap away a fly.

"Stop hovering, Abarai. I'm fine."

So they went to their last class. Gin saw Karin's state and his smile faded. All through the rest of class, Karin could tell even in her half-unconsciousness, that his smile was worried and rather forced. When Renji tried to support her back to their room, she shrugged him off. "Go ahead of me, Renji."

It was only then that Renji realized that Karin was too aware of Gin. He didn't know whether it was wariness… or something else.

When all the students had filed out to their dinner, Karin began, "…Gin… What did you mean, when you said that you'd keep my secret?"

Gin had his poker face smile again, as Karin had come to call it. "Of course I meant the snack storage." His smile widened. "What did you think I'd meant?"

Shit.

Karin turned away to leave. "I will see you tomorrow, Preceptor Gin."

But Gin caught Karin by the wrist.

He seemed like he was about to say something, but then he just smiled sadly and gently let Karin's wrist go. "Yes. I suppose so."

Karin could feel his gaze upon her as she trotted after Renji.

An uncelebrated Christmas passed (most of the preceptors didn't believe in holidays, though some trainees claimed to have seen the headmaster prancing around in a full-body Santa suit) followed by several months.

One day Kensei announced, "From about the beginning of March to April, we'll have a month to practice swimming. You'll take placement tests to see how well you can swim, so I suggest you brush up on your swimming skills during the next few months."

At this, Karin wanted to turn into a spider and creep far, far away.

"You can use any style you like, though I should think that freestyle would be fastest. For those who can reach the 25-meter length within 15 seconds, you can just train by yourselves and retain those times. For those who take longer, you'll have to train with me. I'll place you into groups. The ones who get there within 20 seconds, I'll call you guys sharks… the ones gets there within 25, you guys are the dolphins. Ones who get there within 30, are salmons… and within 35, the plankton."

He ruffled a hand through his gray hair as if he were annoyed.

"Over 35 seconds and you'll spend overtime; there's even a chance that you'll get kicked out, even in third year."

Though most of the boys seemed confident that they could get at least dolphin rank, Karin was horrified. Her lowest time was 46 seconds.

"If you're only trying to save just yourself, freestyle – heck, any style – will do fine. But if you're saving someone else – in this case your principal – you will have to use sidestroke or breaststroke."

Ginjou nodded and whispered to Karin, "Yeah, you can't save somebody with freestyle or backstroke."

"So once you reach the 25-meter point, on the way back, you will have to use sidestroke or breaststroke, and I will make a 10 second allowance on the way back, since it will take you time to swim with your burden."

Karin was too worried about the speed part to that she didn't even hear what Kensei said afterwards.

"Once you all reach at least dolphin level, which is the minimum proficiency, we will act out a scenario where you will 'rescue' someone from drowning. When they 'don't wake up,' you will perform resuscitation." Amusement glinted in Kensei's eyes. "And this 'someone' will be one of your fellow trainees."

The boys groaned in protest, making faces.

"Urgh…"
"Yech."
"Gross…"

Pretending not to hear the cries of his students, Kensei said airily, "You might want to choose a partner you would find…" His eyes flickered to Karin and Luppi, (Luppi shifted uncomfortably) "least unpleasant to resuscitate." He turned his back to them, a hint of a smile in his voice. "Dismissed."

After class, they meandered up, the boys complaining about how they had to resuscitate another guy.

"Man, it's times like these I wonder why they don't have girls in this school." Ganju said.

Luppi shrugged. "They're just not physically equipped to keep up with the boys."

"Then why can't they ship in damsels in distress for us to save?" Keigo grumbled.

"Or have the secretaries and nurses just pretend to drown…" Shishigawara agreed.

Mizuiro objected, "There aren't 18 women in this school for us to save."

Ginjou stretched with both hands and put them behind his head. "They might actually drown, though, if we fail."

Renji glanced nervously at Karin, who, so deep in thought, wasn't listening to a thing her peers were saying.

That is, until Ginjou nudged her. "Whaddya think, Haru?

Karin looked up. "Huh?" she said, confused. "Sorry, didn't hear a word you said."

Rolling his eyes, Ginjou articulated, "What. Do you. Think. Of kissing. Other. Guys."

With an effort, Karin managed to tear her thoughts away from swimming. She mused, "Well, it's not French kissing, is it? It's just exhaling into a guy's mouth, so it's not really kissing."

The boys looked at her like she was an alien. Seeing the looks they were giving her, Karin stopped. "Wait. Don't tell me you haven't kissed anybody before."

All the boys suddenly seemed to find the floor very interesting. That is, excepting Mizuiro. "No, I have." Well, that one was obvious.

All the boys had to restrain Shishigawara from attacking Mizuiro. "Why… you piece of…!"

Karin was beginning to have doubts about how masculine these guys were. They were boys, young men, so she assumed all of them had experience. The oldest of them was 18, for heaven's sake. Was it because they went to an all-boys school that they had no love lives? Sure, she hadn't had any boyfriends before, but that was because she'd planned to become a bodyguard since she had been 11. So she had turned down every confession from any boy crazy enough to like her.

Presently, she asked them baldly, "Tell me, what do you guys consider 'first base?'" Not only was she curious, she honestly didn't know. She'd only heard her friends talk about it once, but context-wise, she knew it had to be some level of physical contact, instead of simply referring to baseball.

There were dull choruses of 'holding hands.' Only Mizuiro said, "Kissing. French.'

That set off Shishigawara again. Renji soothed him, "Cool it kid. The rest of us haven't kissed anyone yet, have we?"

Absently, Karin nodded.

The only boy she had kissed was her brother, which of course, had been a smech on the cheek. (A/N: what the hell were you people thinking?.!.!.!)

Now she wouldn't ever kiss anybody, which made her feel odd; she had thought that she wouldn't have any romantic ideas of her first kiss, but still… Yuzu had gone on and on, fantasizing about her first kiss, and apparently it had rubbed off on her, albeit unconsciously.

But she still didn't really care. Resuscitation didn't even count as a kiss anyways.

Karin didn't notice Renji's gaze, cut somewhere between skepticism and resentment.

Another few weeks passed, and the closer they got to the preliminary swimming placement test, the more Karin desperate was. Over dinner, Ginjou offered to oversee her swimming.

"I work as a lifeguard when I'm on break from this Jungle. Maybe I could give you some tips." he shrugged.

Though she didn't want any of her friends to see her so helpless, Karin reluctantly agreed.

So for the first time, Ginjou witnessed one of Karin's attempts to swim with her clothes on. He cocked an eyebrow. "That took…" he glanced down at the stopwatch. "43.57 seconds. Slower than your fastest of 41.18 seconds, but then again, you're tired."

Not without some effort, Karin climbed clumsily out of the pool and crouched at the edge, dripping wet.

"You'll get the hang of it, man. You're already able to do it, albeit 8 seconds slower than what Muguruma will declare the 'plankton.' But why can't you just settle for just losing the clothes and swimming like the rest of us plebeians, huh?" Ginjou slapped her playfully on the back.

Unprepared for the small but unexpected force on her back, Karin keeled right into the water. She found herself sinking. Rapidly.

She sank past the ten-foot mark. The fifteen-foot mark. Instinctively, she tried to take a huge breath, but she took in a huge gulp of water instead. 'I need to get to the surface' was her single thought, but her clothes weighed her down and she had no strength to swim back up. Even her oxygen-starved brain still had the sense to not attempt to breathe in again, but her vision started to tunnel and she knew she wouldn't make it back to the surface in time.

When Ginjou saw that it was taking his friend a little too long to resurface, he frowned. 'Akimoto was swimming before… what's taking him so long this time?'

He shouted, "Oi, Akimoto! It's almost been a minute! You've proven you have big lungs now, so come up already. Are you trying to scare me?"

When his yearmate still didn't resurface, Ginjou realized that something was terribly wrong. He shed his shoes and dove into the water. He finally knew how difficult it was to swim in water with clothes on. 'Akimoto's been doing this even with his jeans on?' But he didn't have time to be impressed. Ginjou looked around desperately for a Haru-sized silhouette. He looked down and saw a figure on the pool floor. Silently cursing, he swam down as best he could. Once he reached his friend, he grabbed an arm and started hauling his friend back to the surface. He had never appreciated his friend's lightness more. He would never have made it with someone like Renji.

He burst to the surface and struggled to the side. 'Okay, from now on, I'm taking a leaf out of Haru's book and practicing swimming with my clothes. There's no guaranteeing my principal will be as light as this.'

Throwing his burden over the edge of the pool first, Ginjou scrabbled up himself. Shaking out his hair, he asked, "You alright, Akimoto?"

But his friend didn't answer. Ginjou's eyes widened in alarm when he didn't even see the rise and fall of the chest that indicated for signs of breathing.

"Oi. Oi! Akimoto!" He shook his friend, but there was no response.

Fighting back panic, Ginjou forced his lifeguard side to take over. But his lifeguard side had never been used. 'Screw that.' He put both palms on his friend's diaphragm and began to rapidly pump on it. Faced with the actual situation, Ginjou had no qualms about resuscitating his unconscious friend. After doing this about two times, he resumed pumping.

"Don't die on me, Akimoto! Don't you dare…"

After a moment, his friend coughed out water and rolled over.

Karin took deep, gulping breaths. She saw Ginjou's face peering closely at hers. Weakly, she slapped him away. "Go away, jerk." No sooner had she said that, she collapsed, passing out again.

Gingou sighed in relief. "Schizers, Akimoto. You almost gave me a heart attack."

He leant back on his arms. But his arms couldn't seem to support him. Confused, he looked at his hands; they were trembling.

He gave a weak laugh. "Ginjou Kuugo, what're you doing, freaking out over something like this?" Head in hands, he berated himself, "What the hell are you gonna do if a fellow bodyguard dies on the field? Eh, Kuugo…?"

Once the trembling had stopped, Ginjou threw his yearmate over his shoulder, once again marveling at how light his friend was.

Renji had been lying on his bed when he heard a sharp rapping on the door. "Jeez Akimoto, have you forgotten your keys again?"

The knocking became more insistent and Renji went over, saying, "Alright alright, I'm coming."

He didn't expect to see a sopping wet Ginjou carrying Karin over his shoulder.

Aghast, Renji took Karin and placed her on his bed, without a care about the water rapidly soaking his sheets.

Miserably, Ginjou explained, "I pushed him in…"

Renji didn't believe this. "Then why are you wet?" He then looked away. "Forget it. You'd better go and get changed before you get sick. I'll look after Haru."

Ginjou nodded and left.

Not long after Ginjou had left, Karin awoke.

Her head felt like it was going split open and her lungs felt weak. Nevertheless, she sat up.

"Ugh…"

It was Renji's room, Karin immediately knew. She feebly looked around and spotted Renji staring at her.

Raising a hand weakly in greeting, Karin said, "'Ey there. I… err… kinda failed at swimming today, so Ginjou had to rescue me."

Renji still glowered at her. Mistaking what he was angry about, Karin held up both hands in defensive apology. "Alright, it was a stupid thing to do. But I promise I will get this swimming-with-clothes-on thing down."

Still his eyes bored into hers. He abruptly stood up.

"What's your reason for coming here?"

Bewildered by the sudden non sequitur, Karin said dumbly, "Um? You mean back to the room? Uh, I suppose either you or Ginjou brought me back? So I dunno? Because I live here?"

Renji continued to stare straight at her. "Ginjou brought you back, but by 'here,' I meant The Academy. Why did you come to The Academy?"

Still nonplussed, Karin said as if it were obvious, "To become a bodyguard."

This aggravated Renji even more. "No! I didn't ask why Akimoto Haru is here. My question is why Kurosaki Karin is here!"

There was a shocked silence.

Karin tried to laugh it off.

"What are you talking about, Abarai? Are you on something? This is an all-boys school, why would she be here? And even if she was, how would I know?"

Renji hissed, "Don't even try to play it off. Your game is up. Now, why are you here?"

When Karin saw that she could no longer fake it, she questioned almost inaudibly, "When did you find out?"

Trying to keep calm, Renji said, "That's beside the point. Answer my question first. Why did you come here?"

Karin scowled. "That's no business of yours."

"Yes, it is! Now tell me why, Karin!"

Finally, Karin said, "Because my dad is oppressive."

Renji couldn't believe his ears. "Because your father is oppressive? Was that your only reason, Kurosaki?"

Upon hearing her last name, Karin snapped.

"No! It's not! It's the fact that I'm a girl: I can't inherit Armament, nor can I live a life on the field… All of it!"

Renji became more and more angry. "So why not a martial artist? A melee fighter? Or, for heaven's sake, a soccer player?"

Karin jumped to her feet, ignoring the pain and dizziness that ensued afterwards.

"Everybody expected me to become a soccer player. But you know what? Every time somebody mentioned it, the less and less I wanted to become one." Her face and voice became ironic. "Reverse psychology, you know?"

Renji's veins hummed with anger. "But why a bodyguard? And a male one at that!"

"My old man would veto any job involving physical work, except a soccer player, and he'd even be reluctant with allowing me to do that! Of course my father wouldn't let me live a life where I had the remotest chance of dying."

She saw Renji open his mouth to interject, so she plowed on, "For Christ's sake, my old man wouldn't even let me shoot a gun! I could assemble and disassemble every gun that ever existed, but he wouldn't let me near anything loaded! No bullets, no nothing. Everybody around me could use guns, but I couldn't! He'd want me to become a nice lawyer or doctor or something. Or heaven forbid, a nice lady who does nothing! He wanted me to marry a nice, rich man with a nice, stable income and he even said that he'd arrange an *omiai in the future! So I effin ran away and picked the occupation with the lowest profile and became a boy, to throw him off!"

[*Omiai: a meeting between strong candidates of (arranged) marriage]

"I have no privacy! I'm sick and tired of my whole life being broadcast over magazines! Exposed for reporters to exploit and distort, just to sell me out as another 'face' of one of the corporate giants in the weapons world! Do you know how angry I was when I discovered how infatuated with 'Kurosaki Karin' you were? That's why I picked a fight with you at the beginning of the year!"

Meanwhile, Renji was still furious over what he thought were pathetic excuses to run away and make him worry for almost a whole year. He'd thought that nothing short of abuse would have chased Karin away. And he said as much.

"So that's your reason? 'Boo hoo, I can't shoot a gun because Daddy won't let me. I'm gonna get him back by crossdressing and attending an all-boys training academy.' Is that it?"

Karin's face contorted at the simultaneously accurate but nowhere-near-the-whole-truth summary of what she'd done.

She threw up her hands. "Yes, it is! Oh, right, you wouldn't know what's it's like to have an oppressive parent because you don't have any!" Karin angrily taunted, purposefully hurling hurtful words at Renji, even if she didn't mean them.

Staring at Karin, Renji said in disbelief, "You're a spoiled brat, aren't you?"

That stabbed Karin's heart. He had to know that was no longer the case; she had worked so hard to get past probationary year.

But she couldn't back down now. "Yes, I am!" Clenching her fists, Karin hissed, "So when did you find out that this spoiled brat was a girl? Huh? Do the others know? Was I the only one in the dark?" She snorted with humorless laughter. "Yeah, that's a real crack up. The person of the rumor herself, not knowing. Of course I wouldn't know!"

Renji all but yelled, "I found out just after you passed your exam, satisfied?"

Karin threw up her hands. "Oh, please, by all means, scream so everybody can hear what they probably already know."

Lowering his voice, Renji hissed, "What do you think I am? Of course I wouldn't tell!"

"Good." Karin half-turned her head to look at Renji. "Thank you." she said venomously before she stormed into her room.

Renji sank into his chair, head in hands.

"Damnit…"

The next day, when Renji woke up, he found the bathroom already used and Karin nowhere to be seen. "Good riddance." he said that, willing his heart to feel the same way. Unfortunately, his heart was nowhere near to what he had just said.

He arrived at the training grounds, taking enormous effort to not look Karin's way.

At breakfast, Karin greeted the others like usual.

She grinned widely. "Hey Ginjou. You okay? I heard that you carried me up all eighteen flights of stairs. Good job. I'm really heavy." Karin slapped Ginjou on the back.

Ginjou snorted. "Like hell you are. You're the lightest fifteen-year-old guy I've had the misfortune to meet."

"Whaaat? Misfortune, you say?" Karin attempted to put Ginjou in a headlock, but Ginjou was too big for her.

Renji asked Mizuiro, "Oi, if you've finished the last third of Cifer's homework, can I copy it?"

When Mizurio's answer was a negative, Renji exclaimed, "What? I though that you of all people would have finished the homework! Is it that hard?"

"Hey Ginjou, I haven't said this," Karin nudged him with a sly smile, "but thanks for resuscitating me yesterday. And sorry for slapping you away right afterwards. But it was just on instinct, ya know?"

Despite him resolution to ignore all things Karin-related, Renji paused in grilling poor Mizuiro for what he did know, and gave Ginjou a sharp look. Meanwhile all the other boys gagged at this.

"Ew, what? Ginjou, you kissed Haru?"
"Eurgh…"

Face reddening, Ginjou defended, "Not kissed, resuscitated. Hey, if one of your best mates was dying in front of you, wouldn't you do the same? Haru wasn't breathing!"

Shishigawara stood firm. "I would have just pumped until my arms dropped off."

"Well, I probably would have, since Haru's pretty enough…" Mizuiro mused.

"What would you have done, Renji?"

Renji just shrugged, and resumed the talk of homework.

Ginjou asked Karin, "Hey, how did Renji react when you woke up?"

Karin too, shrugged and started eating breakfast.

Whenever Karin was asked about Renji, she just shrugged. Vice-versa.

After a while, the guys realized something.

The suitemates were completely ignoring each other.

Ginjou thought it was his fault, because he had pushed Karin into the pool. All the others were confused as to what was happening.

"They fought, no doubt about it…"
"Are they giving each other the silent treatment?"
"What is this, a cold war?"

The guys concluded that they would solve it sometime or another.

A day passed.

Renji was already beginning to regret what he had done, but his pride wouldn't allow him to go crawling back to Karin. Karin forced herself to ignore Renji with all her might.

A week passed.

Karin had shaved a few more seconds off her average swimming time. She hoisted herself out the water, where Ginjou squatted with a stopwatch. "39.56 seconds."

Still 5 seconds too long. Scowling, Karin submerged herself in the water again. "Again."

Ginjou sighed and sat back, resigned. "Alright." His thumb hovered over a button. "Start…"

Meanwhile, Renji was aching for Karin's acknowledgement of his presence, even if it was simply her anger. He finally understood that the opposite of amity was not anger; it was neglect. When he approached the dividing hallway between and even stretched out his hand, at the last second he clenched it into a fist and withdrew his hand.

An agonizing month passed, where they spoke only when necessary, and when they did, it was in a curt manner.

At this point, even Karin felt miserable.

'Face it, Karin. You miss him. A lot.' It was true. She too, during the first day, had regretted getting angry with Renji for what she knew wasn't his fault. It was hers. How had the fight escalated to that point? However, she too, had her pride. Every time she opened her mouth to apologize, she bit it back. But whenever Renji was avoided her, her heart squeezed in pain. Not as much as when Ikkaku had disappeared, but almost.

At the month and a half mark, their friends started panicking.

"Why aren't they talking to each other? It's been over a month!" Ganju angrily exclaimed.

Keigo, on the other hand, was morose, "What guy keeps a grudge this long?"

"They should just work it out with their fists, like they did last year!" Shishiwagara balled his fists and made some boxing motions; boxing was his martial art that week.

"Maybe it isn't something that can be worked out by physical means." Mizuiro suggested.

Shishigawara protested, "What? Everything between men can be worked out by a good fistfight!"

Luppi objected, "Not in the Yakuza world. And not between people who have hugely wronged each other."

At this point, Ginjou had long realized that this 'cold war' wasn't his fault. He may have triggered it, but he couldn't have driven a wedge so deep between the two suitemates. They had been thick as thieves before. They had even celebrated each others' birthdays, for heaven's sake!

But there was nothing he could do. Except…

Ginjou suppressed a grin of triumph as he hoisted a spear. It was decided that he would receive training for a long-range weapon that week.

On the third day of training with the long-range weapon, Ginjou planted himself right next to Renji. 'Right next to' being 10 meters apart, to keep the sparring from interfering with one from another. Ginjou would have to work this carefully.

As Ginjou sparred with the preceptor of the Liuhe Spear discipline, he inched slowly towards Renji. It was easier than expected as Renji was unknowingly circling closer to him as well. Luckily the preceptors were too involved in their own sparring with their pupils that they didn't notice Ginjou slowly maneuvering closer to Renji. Grinning when Renji was within the radius of his spear, he turned to go into one of the basic stances of the art of the Liuhe Spear, and his spear 'accidentally' cut Renji's shoulder.

"Guh!" It was so unexpected that Renji was unable to bite back a small cry when Ginjou's spear sliced into his shoulder.

Ginjou turned around and showed his concern a little too quickly, also yelled a little too loudly, "Renji! Sorry, man, it was an accident! Oh man, look at the blood!"

Karin stiffened when she heard Ginjou yell Renji's name. After a brief moment, she apologized to her preceptor and without waiting for an answer, dashed over to Renji.

"Wait, Akim – "

As he saw Renji's agitated suitemate run close, Ginjou privately patted himself on the back, congratulating himself. At least, before he faced his suspicious preceptor.

"'Accident,' eh, Ginjou? Then let's work for an 'accident' of our own, shall we?"

Though Ginjou was scared out of his wits, outwardly, he grinned. "Bring it on, Precep!"

Karin skidded to a stop when she saw Renji, gritting his teeth and gripping his shoulder; he was turning pale from blood loss.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ginjou grimaced as he saw how deep the cut was. 'Sorry, Renji…' That had been an accident. He had meant to just lightly injure Renji; such a big injury was out of his calculations. But another part of him was also smug that his plan had worked out so well. 'This'll show Renji how much Akimoto looks out for him. And it'll make Akimoto realize how much he cares for Renji.'

So even when he got whipped by the spears master, he felt .

Meanwhile, Karin had knelt beside Renji. Looking around, she snarled, "What're you waiting for! Somebody, get some bandages! And while you're at it, let the nurse know that an injured trainee is coming!"

As somebody scampered off, Karin began to tear off strips from the bottom of her shirt. Though it took some effort, she finally ripped enough strips to stem the blood flow, at least until the real bandages came.

"Look what happens when you don't watch out." Karin growled, but her voice was belied by the worried look on her face, as well as her gentle hands as she wrapped the bandages around his wound.

It was as if the past month and a half hadn't happened at all. "I was cut from behind, how was I supposed to dodge?" Renji protested.

At that, Karin put more pressure on Renji's wound. "Are you going to make excuses like that when you become a bodyguard?" Renji winced.

When Karin yanked vehemently on the end of the cloth to knot the cloth around the arm, he yelped, "Yowch! Be careful, won't you?"

"Don't be such a baby." Karin admonished. "Idiot…" she muttered, looking down.

Though Karin's words were far from worried, her actions were filled with it, as she held his hand with both of hers. Renji found that endearing. Holding his shoulder, wrapped by strips of her own uniform, Renji gazed at Karin.

Karin felt Renji's eyes on her and she thought to herself, 'Don't look up, Karin. Don't look up.' But she felt her eyes almost magnetically drawn up. Her eyes met warm brown ones, and for a moment, Karin's heart stopped.

…

A/N: Thanks again to MissJudged!