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

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Toushiro quickened his pace until he caught up with Karin after the soccer practice and the two of them walked together in an odd silence, each one lost in their own thoughts about the same subject.

Karin was fumbling with her new shoes as she walked when she tripped on a root that was sticking out of the ground in front of her. Toushiro's arm shot out automatically catching her before hitting the ground and pulled her back up.

"Are you okay?" He asked while his hand stilling holding her arms.

"Yeah," She replied gruffly. "I'm fine. What are you doing Toushiro?"

"I thought I was keeping you from falling." He said and gave her a confused look.

"Don't be daft." She yelled. "That's not what I mean. What are you doing here? Why did you go to the soccer practice with me? Honestly, you have never gone there with me, why now?"

Toushiro was shocked that Karin yelled at him in frustration as she pushed him and he stumbled back a few steps. He was too stunned to come up with a response.

"Answer me one question Toushiro." She continued.

"Okay," He replied, not sure why Karin was suddenly angry at him. He thought they were going to be friends and so far their friendship was going very well.

"Why are you with Hinamori?" She asked, her hands going to her hips.

"I don't think that it's a go-"

"You know why think you are with her?" She said, not allowing him to finish the sentence.

Toushiro just stood there listening to Karin, he was pretty sure he didn't want to know why.

"I think you are afraid. You are afraid to hurt her because she is your friend."

"No, that's not true." He shot back. "I love Hinamori, I already told you that I love her."

"Oh," She said throwing up her hand. "Don't even start that with me because it goes back to the question I just asked you. What are you doing here with me? And don't give me the excuse that you are here to protect me. I have never seen any arrancars since that day."

Toushiro opened his mouth to protest that she was wrong but nothing came out. He tried to tell himself that what she said wasn't true, even though a tiny voice at the back of his heart seemed to think that she had a point.

Karin took another step toward him and jammed her finger into his chest.

"If she is you choice, like you keep insisting she is," She said, poking him in the chest with each word towards the end. "Then you better start acting like it. I don't have time for this. And I'm trying to do what you wanted, so I would appreciate a little help from your end. Got it? It's not good to appear there right in front of my friends and act like you are jealous of me and Masaru. And don't follow me."

"Yeah," He could only nod before Karin turned and stormed away.

...

The next day Toushiro sat and watched Orihime scurried from the kitchen and back, bringing plate after plate of sweets for his lieutenant.

"You really don't have to do this," He tried to tell Hinamori to stop, but she wouldn't hear it.

"Why are you here taicho?" Matsumoto asked her captain who seated beside her while chewing sweets. "I thought you are going to see Karin today."

"Why you have to eat so much Matsumoto?" He groaned and asked his lieutenant annoyingly as he ignored the question. The truth was he was trying to decide whether to talk to her in front of Orihime. Then he decided that he might as well since he knew his lieutenant and Orihime were pretty close. She probably told Orihime everything once he left anyways.

"Well, you know I considered you more than a lieutenant." He said uncertain where to begin "And you know you are my friend too."

Matsumoto looked at him concernedly. This wasn't something she expected to hear from her young captain. She knew he had to swallow his pride to say this and deep down she could help but wonder if it concerned the subject they talked yesterday.

"Orihime-chan," She called loudly. "Do you think it's a good idea to bake chocolate cake today?"

"Oh," Orihime said gleefully. "That's a good idea. I have been trying to bake chocolate cake for awhile now. I have a recipe for it, can you help me?"

"Of course I will," She said. "But we don't have anything."

"Don't worry," Orihime said taking Matsumoto's hint. "I will go get what we need, you and Hitsugaya taicho can stay here and talk."

And with that, Orihime walked to her bedroom to get a wallet and walked out of the door leaving Toushiro and Matsumoto alone.

"Now taicho, you know I will always help you. Whatever it is," She said and turned to look at him, wondering what was going on.

"Thank you," He sighed and looked at her. He was glad that Matsumoto knew he was uncomfortable to talk in front of Orihime, and he was very grateful that Orihime knew this too. "You were right about everything."

After that Matsumoto listened in silence as Toushiro told her about everything. He told her his big misunderstanding with Karin when he got back to the real world during the war and how he felt towards everything after finding the truth.

"Now everything is all mixed up," He said finally. "I can't stop thinking about Karin and it is a big problem."

"Right, do you love Hinamori?" She asked. She was sure that she knew his answer, but she just wanted him to say it. The truth was, She knew what had happened to her captain for awhile, even though he didn't tell her anything.

"Yes, of course. I mean she is my friend; she is a person I grew up with. But I don't know if I really love her more than just friends."

"Do you love Karin?"

"Yes," He paused and said, feeling relieve that he finally admitted that out loud to someone. "And this can't work."

"Well, it certainly doesn't work for you taicho." She responded with a smirk.

"Do you think it's funny?" He demanded as he shot up. "This is serious. I can't lose both of them. Hinamori is my best friend; we understand each other because we have been through the same experience. I feel sorry for her about the whole Aizen thing. And Karin, she is my friend too; she saves my life. Our relationship starts because we are friend and she is always there with me. I can't hurt one of them."

"But you don't seem to be happy with your choice taicho."

"How can you tell that I'm not happy with it?" He asked confused.

"Well," Matsumoto smirked and replied. "You are here telling me everything."

Toushiro opened his mouth to respond but nothing came out. He knew Matsumoto was right, the fact that he was here telling her everything indicated that he wasn't happy with the choice he made. Otherwise Matsumoto would have no chance smirking at him like what she was doing right now.

"I think," She continued glancing at her captain. "You need some time to think taicho. I know both of them are important to you. I have been working to with you long enough to know get to know them and I consider them as my friends too. But taicho, it's time for you to choose."

"I could live without Karin when I hated her." He said lamely.

"True," She agreed. "But that isn't a case and we both know it."

"But you know I can't leave Hinamori, not after what she had been through." He continued. "It's not fair."

"Life is not fair taicho," She said softly. "And if you are staying with Hinamori because you are sorry for her about Aizen taicho, I can say that it's not fair either. Hinamori deserves someone who loves her and understands her, not someone who feels obligated. It's also not her fault that she didn't return your feeling five years ago too. But you can't choose the one you love taicho."

That evening Toushiro looked up when he heard the knock on the door.

"Ichigo?" He asked uncertainly. He could feel the shinigami representative's reiatsu but didn't understand why he came to visit him at this time. "What's wrong?"

"Karin" Ichigo whispered.

"What about her? Isn't she supposed to be at the house?"

"No," Ichigo shook his head and continued. "She is missing."

"What do you mean?" he asked as his heart began to pound madly. "How could she be missing?"

"She went to the soccer practice as usual, and she didn't come back." Ichigo said, his voice shaking.

"How did you know about this?" He demanded lowly.

"I went to the soccer field because she wasn't home yet but no one was there. Rukia already called all of her teammates but none of them knew where she was. They all said she left early."

"What?" He practically yelled at Ichigo who was standing right in front of him.

"I need you help Toushiro," Ichigo said. "As much as I hate to admit it, you know her well; you probably know where she goes. And please tell me if there is anything I should know about my sister."

"Taicho!" Matsumoto suddenly appeared next to him. "I have news from the Soul Society. Unohana taicho sent me a hell butterfly to tell me that Hinamori disappeared when she was coming here."

Toushiro glanced at Ichigo from the corner of his eyes; he knew Ichigo was so worried about his little sister and was shocked to hear news from his lieutenant at the same time. He too, was worried about them, but he just particularly skilled at hiding his emotions. The fact that both Karin and Hinamori disappeared at the same time bothered him greatly, but he was thinking more about the welfare of Karin right now, because he knew Hinamori could take care of herself for awhile if something happened; she was a lieutenant after all. But Karin wouldn't last that long if she had to fight a hollow or an arrancar.

"What should we do taicho?" Matsumoto asked worriedly.

"There is nothing you can do."

Three of them turned their heads to see who was in the room with them, and it was unmistakable that the person who just appeared in the room was the former captain of the 3rd squad, the same person who betrayed the Soul Society, and the other shinigamis who were his comrades and peers.

"Gin!" Toushiro and Matsumoto said at the same time with eyes widened in disbelief.

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I know it's a bad place to end. But as I said Gin is in this story, and yeah, he is back from now on. And please review!