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Isshin chuckled here, and picked up his coffee to take a sip. "I find myself liking him more and more these days."
Karin laughed at that. "Don't forget about me."
"That's not possible… Unfortunately." Isshin smirked at Karin's look, and he shook his head. "I'm just kidding."
"I'm sure." Karin hummed, but kept her smile on her face. That was a lot easier than I thought it would be… I guess Toshiro was right on this one.
A week and a half later, Thursday, September 29th
Shoving her house keys in her bag, Karin grabbed her phone and left her room to go downstairs. Her eyes went to the kitchen table where Orihime and Ichigo sat. "Hey." She greeted, before focused on Mina, who her dad was holding.
"Are you going to train?" Ichigo asked, an eyebrow raised at Karin not dressed in her pajamas already. Usually, on her days off from work, she'd be in her pajamas almost as soon as she got home.
"No I'm off of work, and Akira can't train me today." Karin replied, her focus moved down to Bingo who was running around her feet.
Orihime smiled at that. "So you're actually going out and doing things on your day off?"
"Well, I'm not really doing anything. I'm just going over to Toshiro's, and we're probably going to eat dinner and watch a movie." Karin replied, moving into the kitchen to go grab a treat for Bingo. She had insisted that they have dog treats at the house for whenever they watched Bingo.
Almost as soon as Karin had walked away, Ichigo's eyes went to his dad. "Are you okay with this?"
Isshin nodded once back at his son. "Yes, she asked me when she first got home from school today."
"So you're just going to let her go over to his apartment where it'll just be the two of them?" Ichigo countered, a frown settling on his face.
Isshin chuckled at the clearly protective tone in his son's voice. "Ichigo, I trust your sister, and she's capable of being responsible for her own decisions. In case you forgot, you made your own decisions in high school. For example, when you decided to become a shinigami and risk your life every day without telling me. Or just disappearing for weeks at a time for weeks at a time."
"I don't really think that's the same thing-"
"I'm going to stop you right there," Isshin interrupted, holding a frown of his own on his face. "This is really not up for discussion here. This is between Karin and I. We had an honest open discussion about her going over to Toshiro's apartment, and I have no reason not to trust her or Toshiro."
Before Ichigo could say anything, Karin walked out of the kitchen with a happy Bingo running around with a treat in his mouth. "Okay, Toshiro is about to be here, so I'm going to go ahead and go outside."
"Okay, be back here by ten. It's a school night." Isshin reminded, watching as she walked to the door.
"Will do." Karin replied before she left outside. She stood on the porch for a moment, then walked down the steps once Toshiro's car pulled up. Once at Toshiro's car, she got in and kissed him after putting on her seat belt.
"How's your day been so far?" Toshiro asked, as he started forward driving.
"My day has been pretty uneventful, yours?"
"It was mostly full of paperwork, and trying not to strangle certain members of my division for not recording things on their paperwork properly."
"Well, maybe dinner and whatever movie we watch later will make our day at least somewhat interesting."
"Speaking of dinner," Toshiro started, coming to a stop at a red light. "I already ordered Chinese, and we can pick it up on the way to my place."
"That's perfect; I'm starving." Karin replied, offering a smile back to Toshiro.
Over an hour later
Having finished eating dinner, Karin was sitting at the kitchen table, and going through Naomi's Instagram to look at pictures of her cat. After a moment of liking a few new pictures, Karin sighed heavily.
"What?" Toshiro asked, having heard her sigh from where he was putting away leftovers from dinner.
"I'm going to die if I don't get a cat soon."
Chuckling at her dramatic words, Toshiro moved on to put their dishes into the dishwasher. "That's a little dramatic..." He trailed off as he looked to her, and noticed her frowning at him. "But reasonable."
Breaking out of her frown to laugh, Karin set her phone down, and propped her chin on her hand. "I know it's not reasonable to say that, but I feel like it's never going to happen."
"You never know," Toshiro offered with a shrug of his shoulders. "You have been harassing your dad about it for months."
"I don't know. I think "harassing" is a bit strong."
It was Toshiro's turn to frown at Karin, as he raised an eyebrow. "You text him at least 10 cat pictures every day."
"Okay, you're right," Karin replied with a sigh. "I've always wanted to have pets. I love animals a lot more than I love most humans, but my dad never let us have any pets growing up."
"Is there any particular reason?"
"I mean it was just my dad raising us. Up until a couple of years ago, my dad ran a clinic from part of our house, and he was always really busy," Karin started, leaning her head back against the chair. "Of course Ichigo, Yuzu, and I weren't really ready for the responsibility of taking on a pet. But I'm absolutely ready now."
"Maybe you could sell him on a dog instead."
"It's not that I wouldn't want a dog. It's just that I would prefer a cat right now. I still have a somewhat busy schedule, and out of the two cats are pretty easy to take care of."
"Well you never know," Toshiro started, walking back over to the table. "Maybe you're dad will change his mind in a month or two."
Karin sighed again, but she looked at Toshiro when he had brought his hand to push some of her hair back. "I don't know if I can wait that long."
Toshiro chuckled at her over-dramatic sigh. "How about we watch that movie now?"
"Okay," Karin agreed, her eyes going back up to Toshiro. "Can we get ice cream first; I'm a little depressed."
Smiling at her words, Toshiro leaned over to kiss her. "Sure thing."
A couple days later, Saturday
Finishing the last of her waffles, Karin reached for her coffee mug to wash it down. Her eyes glued to her phone where she was liking the photo of Mina that Orihime posted on Instagram.
"Good morning," Isshin greeted, after walking downstairs. An eyebrow raised in Karin's direction. "You're up early. I thought you'd sleep in since you don't have anything to do today."
"I just kind of woke up early, and felt like getting up," Karin replied, then she motioned to her coffee mug. "I made coffee."
Isshin sighed, but held a smile on his face as he went to the kitchen. "I know I should discourage you to be drinking as much coffee as you do, but it's nice not having to make the coffee in the morning."
"That's what I'm here for." Karin shot back, chuckling herself after hearing her dad laugh in the kitchen.
Walking out of the kitchen a minute later, Isshin sipped his coffee, as he sat down at the table. "There is something I'd like to talk to you about."
"What's up?" Karin asked, her eyes moving up from her phone to look at her dad.
"I've been thinking about it, and if you still want to, you can adopt a cat-"
"Really?" Karin interrupted, her eyes wide, as she dropped her phone on the table.
"Yes really." Isshin nodded, a smirk on his face as that made her laugh. "Now there are conditions. You have to remember that you are going to be responsible for the cat. Feeding it and buying it the things it needs, or any vet bills that come along with it. I can help you out if you absolutely need it, but ultimately it is going to be your cat. Your responsibility."
"Yeah of course," Karin replied, getting up from the table, and hugging her dad. "Thank you so much. This is so awesome!"
"You're welcome," Isshin said, watching her grab her phone and dishes from breakfast. "Who are you texting this early in the morning?"
"Pretty much everyone I know. This is a really big deal." Karin replied, walking into the kitchen to put her dishes in the sink, as she started texting Toshiro.
A couple hours later
"This is going to be a lot harder than I thought." Was the first thing Karin said, walking down another aisle of animals at the shelter.
"You've been thinking about this for months. Don't you have a good idea of what kind of cat you want?" Toshiro asked, raising an eyebrow at her sigh.
"Yes, of course, I have been thinking about it, but it's not as simple as just picking out one," Karin replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "There are so many animals here that need a home, and it's going to be difficult picking one out."
"Well take as much time as you need." Toshiro told her, his focus going down to his phone when it buzzed.
Karin heard him chuckling and glanced over. "What?"
"Your dad said to make sure that you only leave here with one animal today."
"I will… probably."
Smirking at Karin's words, Toshiro reached over and took her hand. "We'll make sure it's only one."
Karin hummed lowly, as they reached the big room with the cats in it. "Since when do you have my dad's number, and since when have you started texting him?"
"Shortly after your dad agreed to let you come over to my apartment, I had come over to pick you up to give you a ride to work one day, and we exchanged numbers then."
"Okay..."
Noticing Karin's raised eyebrow, Toshiro smirked. "It's not like we regularly talk to each other. I feel like it just makes him more comfortable with you coming over to my place if he can contact me as well as you."
"I guess so-" Karin broke off, as her eyes caught onto a little black kitten playing with a piece of newspaper in one of the cages. It had one white sock, and a little white patch of fur over one of his eyes. He had blue eyes, and she felt drawn to the little guy.
One of the employees walked over and stopped beside them. "So have you found any that have caught your eye?"
"I don't know..." Karin trailed off, she stepped a little closer to the cage. There were four other kittens in the cage, but her eyes remained locked on the little black one. A smile growing on her face, as she watched the kitten step in the water bowl by accident and spaz out after realizing it's paw was wet.
The employee noticed Karin watching the kitten. "That guy has been here for almost a month. The rest of his litter had got adopted, and this is the first group of kittens that have accepted him. He just hasn't got lucky enough to be adopted I guess."
Toshiro watched Karin nod slowly, and he followed her gaze to the kitten. "Karin?"
"Can I hold him?" Karin asked the employee, her eyes still focusing on the little kitten.
"Sure," the lady replied, going to the cage, she opened it and opened the door a little. Having to struggle for a moment to keep the other kittens from getting out, she finally managed to grab the black kitten. "Now if you feel like you need to set him down, it's okay to do so. The doors are closed."
Almost as soon as the kitten was in Karin's arms, she was overcome with instant love with the little guy. He was a little wild, as he played with the string on her jacket. After a moment, her eyes moved to meet Toshiro's, as she smiled.
Returning a smile to Karin, Toshiro nodded, and his eyes went to the employee. "I think she's found her cat."
A half hour later
Moving past Karin, Toshiro opened her car door for her, and smirked after she got in. "I can't wait to get cat hair all over my car."
"Oh please," Karin started, smiling at the sarcasm in his voice. "How is that different than my hair?"
"True. You do shed like a cat."
"Ha ha." Karin shot back, sticking out her tongue at him after he closed her car door to walk around to the driver's side.
Once Toshiro had got in and started the car up, he glanced over in her direction after starting on the road. "That was a lot faster than I expected it would be. I thought we'd be there all day."
"It was just like he was calling out to me," Karin replied, her eyes focused down on the tiny black kitten she was holding. He had gotten a little spazzy as they were leaving the animal shelter, but had calmed down after they got in the car. "I can't believe he was there for over a month. How could anyone not want him? He's adorable."
The had stopped at a red light when Toshiro finally looked over to Karin. "Are you crying?"
Sniffling a little, Karin just smiled down at the little kitten who was playing with the strings on her jacket again. "No."
"Okay then," Toshiro said, smiling at how happy she was. "I guess we should go by the pet store now."
"Absolutely."
Later that evening
"Oh, he's so cute, Karin." Orihime said, having managed to pet the new kitten a few times, as he had darted all over the living room playing with his new toys.
"I know. I love him so much." Karin replied, rolling another one of the new kitten's toys across the living room, and smiling as he pounced on it.
Orihime sighed at the cuteness of the kitten. "I want one so bad-"
"Orihime, remember Bingo?" Ichigo interrupted quickly, showing her a picture from his phone. "The really cute golden retriever puppy that you adopted a few months ago without telling me, and is still a pretty big handful."
That made Isshin and Karin laugh, Orihime only shrugged. "I know, but we could always use more animal friends for Mina."
"We can get her a stuffed animal." Ichigo deadpanned, making the others laugh. Mina even making a little noise from where she was in the swing they had set up by TV stand.
A knock on the door was heard, but before anyone could say come in, Kimi walked right in. "I came over as soon as I got off work-" she stopped at the sight of the new kitten. "Oh my god, Karin."
Karin had to grab the kitten quickly to keep him from escaping past her in the direction of the kitchen. "I know."
Dropping her bag first, Kimi then knelt down to offer the kitten her hand, before she pet it. "He is absolutely the cutest thing I've ever seen. Have you named him yet?"
"Not yet, one hasn't really stuck out to me," Karin replied, letting the kitten go run off after Kimi got a chance to pet him. "This is actually the best day of my life, I think."
Kimi, who had got her phone out to take pictures of the new kitten, offered Karin a smile. "You can use these for Instagram. I was waiting all day at work for you to post a picture of him, and that obviously never happened."
"My apologies." Karin replied, making them all laugh.
"Didn't you say Toshiro went with you?"
"Yeah, but he had some stuff to do this evening, and left about half an hour ago."
Before Kimi could reply to Karin, Isshin stood up from the couch. "I think I'm going to order pizza for dinner. Kimi, would you like to join us?"
"Sure. My parents are on a business trip, and my older brother has an exam on Monday. He's on campus and studying at the library because apparently, I'm annoying to study around." Kimi said, having managed to capture the new kitten when he came back by, and she pet him.
"I don't blame him. Whenever we study together, you get distracted every few minutes." Karin added, after the others had laughed.
The front door opening, caught the others attention, as Yuzu walked inside. She didn't acknowledge Karin or Kimi on the floor, but went straight to greet Mina. "Hey, guys."
After the others greeted her, Isshin walked in after having ordered pizza. "Hey, stranger. You've been gone all day."
"I was just hanging out with friends," Yuzu replied, her eyes finally catching onto the fact that the kitten was there as it had scurried past her feet to go after a toy. "Wow, dad broke down, and finally let you have a cat."
"Yeah, he did." Karin replied, a frown on her face at the sight of a smirk on Yuzu's face. As usual, her sister's words hit a nerve.
Sensing a tension build between his two daughters, Isshin quickly cleared his throat to get their attention. "Yuzu, I've just ordered pizza-"
"That's alright dad, I ate at Hinata's." Yuzu interrupted, standing up from having been kneeling down in front of Mina's swing to shower her niece with attention.
Yuzu went upstairs, and the focus went back to the kitten after he managed to knock some paper off the coffee table. Karin's smile returned to her face. "Perfect, I always thought those papers looked better on the floor anyway."
After the others laugh, Kimi grabbed another one of the kitten's toys. "So we need to figure out this whole name situation."
"I know, but I just can't settle on one," Karin said, sighing dramatically. "You would think I would have known as soon as I adopted him."
"I figured that when it came to Mina," Ichigo started, motioning in his daughter's direction. "But over 200 sticky notes later, and we finally narrowed it down."
Orihime nodded, as she chuckled. "We might actually still have extra sticky notes left over in the study."
"No, no," Isshin said quickly, pointing in Karin's direction. "That got way out of control, and I don't even want to imagine how it would get for your cat. Pick a name and just stick with it."
"Like it's that easy," Karin said, sighing as she looked down at the wiggling cat that had jumped in her lap. Her eyes went to Kimi after a moment. "Did you start that movie paper yet?"
"Of course not," Kimi replied, her focus now going to Mina who was looking extra cute from her little swing. "I haven't even picked out a movie."
"Well just choose the same movie as me, and we can suffer through it together," Karin said, picking up the papers that the kitten had knocked over onto the floor. Smiling as that had got his attention, and he went back after the papers. "I'm going to watch Zorro. Because it was the most interesting one off the movie list."
It was quiet in response, as Kimi looked to Karin. Then she motioned down to the kitten. "Seriously?"
"What-" Karin broke off as she got what Kimi was saying. Picking up the kitten, who wiggled around a bit in her hands. "Don't you think that Zorro is too cliché for a black cat?"
"No absolutely not," Kimi replied, waving off Karin's raised eyebrow. "His name is Zorro; I have decided."
"Really?" Karin countered, a smirk appearing on her face.
"If you name him anything else, I'm not going to accept the role of his cat godmother, and he'll blame you for the rest of his life for not receiving all the gifts I plan on giving him." Kimi met Karin's eyes again, and crossed her arms over her chest.
Finally, Karin broke into a laugh, and she held the kitten up to eye level. "I'm sorry Zorro, but your cat godmother has decided. You're going to have to live with the cliché."
"That was pretty easy," Ichigo said, a smirk on his face. "All it took was for Kimi to be over here for all of five minutes."
"That's all it takes apparently-" Orihime broke off, as Mina started crying.
After Orihime had got up to go take Mina down the hall to change her, Kimi turned back to face Karin. "You're creative too. That's why I need you to find creative ways for me not to die of boredom when we watch Zorro. I mean the movie, not the cat."
"Obviously," Karin said, laughing along with Kimi as her focus went back down the kitten after she let him go. Zorro kind of works for him. No matter the cliché.
A week later, Friday, October 7th
"So you two didn't want to go to the football game tonight?"
"No, we passed on that one," Taro replied, his eyes going to Yuzu, then back across the table where his parents sat. "We're both not really that interested in it that much."
"Well, you always watch football with me on the weekend." His dad pointed out, an eyebrow raised in his son's direction.
"That's different," Taro started, grabbing his glass of water to take a sip. "That's college or national level football. High school football isn't anywhere near the same level, so it's really not interesting."
"How do you feel about sports Yuzu?" Taro's mother asked, getting attention back to their guest.
Yuzu looked up from the dinner that Taro's mother had prepared for them, and met his mother's eyes. "Well, to be honest, I'm not really that interested in sports."
"However," Taro said before she could say more. "I am going to try to win her over to our side. I'm thinking about taking her to a game for our favorite national team."
"You should probably try to take her in November," his dad started, his eyes going from Yuzu to his son. "Most of the good seats for October games are sold out. I can probably ask my buddy to help you out on that."
"That'd be appreciated," Taro replied with a lopsided grin and a nod.
"So Yuzu," Taro's mom started, offering her a smile again. "What are you interested in?"
Feeling the eyes of Taro and his parents on her again, Yuzu offered a smile. "I'm mostly interested in art. I do a little bit of everything, and it's something I'm really passionate about."
"Taro has showed us some of your paintings, and they are lovely." His mom replied to her.
"You haven't even seen the half of it. She's really good," Taro spoke up, before Yuzu could. "At the art gala, all of her paintings were bought almost immediately. Then at our art program, all the instructors loved her and her paintings."
Feeling her cheeks grow a little warm, Yuzu quickly tried to hide it as she smiled. "They liked your paintings too."
"Sure," Taro agreed with a shrug. "However, I don't think I left the best impression on some of the instructors."
Yuzu smile widened at that. "Maybe that's because you always left your classes early to go to my class to walk with me after my classes were over."
Chuckling a little, Taro smiled back at her. "You're not wrong."
After sharing a look with Taro, Yuzu tried to change the subject after feeling her face grow warm again. "Dinner has been great. Thank you so much for making it. It's been a while since I've had something that was home cooked."
"So does your family not cook much at home?" Taro's dad asked.
"Well we used to," Yuzu said, setting her water back on the table after taking a sip. "After my brother and his fiance moved out after they had their daughter, my sister got a job, and my dad works a lot too. So, it usually ends up being whatever is more convenient."
Taro's mom smiled at Yuzu. "Well, I'm glad you're enjoying the food tonight. I'm glad we could have you over."
An hour and a half later
Turning onto the road Yuzu's house was on, Taro parked a couple houses down from Yuzu's. "Here we are."
Yuzu unbuckled her seat belt, but remained in her seat. Turning a little to face him, she smiled. "I had a great time tonight. Your parents are really nice."
"I'm glad you got to meet them."
"Me too..." Yuzu trailed off, and chuckled. "Honestly, I didn't really know what to expect. I've never really "met the parents" before."
"I've never brought any girls to meet my parents before, so it was a first time experience for both of us," Taro said, pausing for a moment, as he looked at her. "Maybe we could do this again, but with your family."
That dropped Yuzu's smile right off her face. "I don't know. I don't think that'll be a good idea yet."
Taro raised an eyebrow. "You met my parents and it was fine."
"Does your parents know that we had sex, and I thought I was pregnant?"
Taro was quiet for a moment, then shook his head. "Not exactly."
"That's my point," Yuzu said, sighing heavily, as she let her head rest against the seat. "My family does know that fact, and Karin and my other friends know you're the guy that all that happened with. I don't see my family reacting well either."
"Well, your family was okay with meeting your sister's boyfriend right?" Taro countered, his eyebrow raised. "He was the one who was with her during her music program. Oh, and isn't he older than her? Way more than a year like you and I are."
"I guess, but they weren't really seeing each other until after they got home from the program. Sure, they kissed each other one time during the program, but that wasn't really anything," Yuzu said, then she sighed heavily. "It also doesn't help that her boyfriend is best friends with my brother's fiancee, and he's in their friend group."
Despite Yuzu's frown, Taro smiled at her. "Okay, well our situation is a bit different, but I'd still like to meet them at some point. I don't want to rush you, but I think it's important. Especially now."
"What does that mean?"
"Well, now that we're dating," Taro replied, reaching over to take one of her hands. "We've been going on dates with each other for almost a month now, and I'd like to make it more official."
"Really?" Yuzu asked, her smile returning to her face.
Taro nodded, as he leaned over and kissed her once. "I think things have been going pretty well, and I want you to know that I'm serious about you. I want you to be my girlfriend."
"Okay," Yuzu said, kissing him this time, and she smiled again when their kiss broke. "I want you to meet my family. Maybe next week you can come over for dinner… If you want to that is."
"I want to," Taro said, kissing her and reaching up to caress her cheek. "Maybe you should tell them who I am before I come over there though. I think if we do it in person, they might not be too friendly about it."
Yuzu laughed at that. "Good idea."
A few days later, Tuesday the 11th
"So how's the big dinner coming along?" Hinata asked, her eyes breaking away from the homework she was supposed to be doing, and her focus went to Yuzu across the table.
Forgetting her own homework, Yuzu propped her elbows on the table. "I haven't asked my family yet… Well, I mentioned it to my dad, but I didn't tell him who Taro was just yet."
"Are you serious? Isn't the dinner tomorrow?"
"I'm nervous, okay?"
"Well I'm sure they'd figure it out eventually," Hinata said, shrugging her shoulders. "I mean Karin knows, and it'll probably be obvious that she does when he comes over tomorrow."
"I'm not sure when the best time would be-"
The front door opening stopped Yuzu, and in walked her dad, Karin, Orihime and Mina, and Ichigo. Orihime set Mina's carrier down. "We missed you at dinner."
"I had to get this homework done with Hinata." Yuzu replied, her eyes going to her friend, as Hinata had stood up.
"I actually have to get going," Hinata said, then she leaned over to whisper to Yuzu. "Tell them."
Sighing heavily at that, Yuzu waited until after Hinata left to look in the others direction. "So I've already talked to dad about this, but tomorrow I invited someone over for dinner. It'd be nice if you could come."
After sharing a look with Ichigo, Orihime offered Yuzu a smile. "We would love to."
"Well actually there is something else I should mention," Yuzu said, as she got up from the kitchen table to walk over towards the couches. "The someone is this guy I have sort of started going out with… Like, as in, a relationship."
It was quiet for a moment, then Karin started to laugh from where she had just put Zorro down to play with one of his toys. "Oh finally. This is going to be great."
"It's not funny, Karin," Yuzu snapped, then she had to take a deep breath. "I also think it's important to mention that we sort of started casually seeing each other back during my art program."
Almost immediately the others faces showed they had caught onto what that meant. However, Isshin was the first to speak up. "It'll be nice to meet him Yuzu..." he trailed off, as he looked to the others after Yuzu went upstairs. "We're all going to be civil about this, and not bring up anything about what happened this Summer.."
Ichigo noticed his dad's specifically on him, and he crossed his arms over his chest. "We'll see."
"Oh Ichigo," Orihime said, resting her hand on Ichigo's shoulder after Karin had taken Mina from her. "It'll be okay."
The next day
Walking out of 7th period Art, Yuzu walked down to the first floor to go to her locker, as school was finally over or the day. At the sight of a familiar grey snapback with paint splatters on it, she smiled and walked over to see Taro leaning against her locker. "Hey."
Taro straightened up, and hugged her briefly and kissed her. "Hey."
"What are you doing here?" Yuzu asked after they had kissed again. "You usually leave after 6th period."
"Since I don't have work today, I just kind of hung out, and waited for you to get out of class."
Having changed some of the textbooks out in her locker, Yuzu shut the door, and turned to face him. "This is a nice change."
As they started walking to the front of the school, Taro took her hand. "So when should I be over at your house?"
"I think five thirty would be good." Yuzu replied, feeling a little anxious at the idea.
Noticing Yuzu's expression change, Taro nudged her a little. "Hey, it's going to be fine."
"I know it is, but I can't help it..." Yuzu trailed off, as they left out the front door of the school. Stopping on the sidewalk, she turned to face him. "Let's just hope that there aren't any world wars starting tonight."
"Yuzu." Taro said, pushing her hair back, and smiling at her.
Taking a deep breath, Yuzu sighed, and her smile returned to her face. "Right, it'll be fine."
Taro leaned his down to kiss her again. "Want a ride home?"
"That'd be nice." Yuzu agreed, her hand going back to hold Taro's as they walked into the parking lot. Trying to keep her mind far from the fact that in just a few hours they were either going to have a nice dinner or a disaster.
A few hours later
"So Taro," Orihime said, as they had sat down for dinner. "Yuzu's talked about how you're working."
"Yeah, I work part-time at the electronics store that's a block down from Rocky's," Taro replied, his eyes meeting Orihime's. "My parents were generous enough to buy my first car for me, but I want to make sure I'm paying the bill for it each month from now on."
Isshin nodded at that. "That's great, and it shows responsibility."
"Are you into electronics?" Orihime asked, not letting them fall into silence.
"Well it's really just a hobby," Taro replied, a smile growing on his face. "My dad and I would build computers from scratch, and before school started this year, we replaced the stereo system in my car with a radio we built. It took us a while, but that's because we stopped to go fishing for a couple weeks."
"Where do you usually go?" Isshin asked.
"It's this lake an hour up north in the mountains. My dad and I used to take trips up there a few times each Summer. My family has a cabin up there."
Isshin raised an eyebrow. "Lake by the lodge?"
Taro grinned and nodded. "Yeah, my parents bought a cabin up there. During the Summer my dad and I go fish, and in Winter we go skiing."
"I used to go up to there with my father growing up too," Isshin said, a smirk on his face, as his eyes went to Ichigo. "My son was never really interested in it."
"Hey, I was too. I just have had a lot going on these past few years." Ichigo shot back, a smirk on his own face.
"Well, maybe we could go fish sometime." Taro said, his eyes going to Ichigo.
For the first time since Taro came over, Ichigo met his eyes to speak to him. "Okay, but only if you can get Yuzu to go too. We could get Karin to go with us back when we went, but Yuzu would never step foot near the lake to fish."
Yuzu shrugged and smiled at that. "I just don't see the joy in fishing. I think it's boring."
"It's relaxing," Taro said, nudging her shoulder. Then his eyes moved across the table, to meet turquoise ones. "What about you Toshiro? Do you fish?"
Having been watching Karin play with Zorro with her foot under the table, Toshiro focused back on the others and nodded once. "Not in a while, but I did a lot when I was younger. I have to agree that it is pretty relaxing."
That had Karin laugh shortly, as she looked over to him. "Almost like meditating. Except for the difference between the two is that when you are fishing you don't feel like you need to bang your head into a wall with how bored you are."
"You do yoga, and that's not that far off from meditating. So, I really think you're being overdramatic, like usual." Toshiro replied, smirking at how that made her roll her eyes.
Orihime shrugged at that. "I might have to agree with Karin. When you made me meditate a few times, it was not really that enjoyable."
"Thank you, Orihime- Ow!" Karin exclaimed as Zorro's claws dug into her foot. "Shit that hurt."
"Karin language." Isshin said, although he sighed and didn't pursue it. At this point, swearing was the least of the problems he had to deal with raising his children.
Toshiro grinned in Karin's direction. "You were the one who asked for it by getting a cat."
"Thanks for the support." Karin said, laughing at how that made Toshiro smirk.
"So Toshiro," Taro started, having eyed the small black kitten that had shot out from under the table into the living room. "Since you're out of school, where do you work?"
At the looks from some of the others, Toshiro coughed. "Well, I work in government- secret agent, actually."
While that brought some laughter from the others, Karin sighed and slapped her hand to her face. "I swear. Will you and Kimi stop saying that?"
"Nope, I think it sounds pretty cool." Toshiro replied, smirking at her smiling a little.
"I know you're only half-way through high school yourself Taro," Isshin started, getting attention back on Taro. "Have you given any thought to what you want to do once you graduate?"
Taro shrugged at the thought. "I don't have any definite plans. I think I'd like to travel at some point. My parents both travel for their work, and I'd like to have the same opportunity for whatever career path I choose."
Yuzu pushed her dinner around a little on her plate, as she watched her family interacting with Taro. A smile forming on her face at how normal this seemed. I don't know why I was so worried. With all the dysfunctional dinners we've had in this house, this is definitely the most normal one.
An hour later
Walking out of the house, Taro took Yuzu's hand as they walked out to his car. For once, he was parked on the curb outside the front of the house instead of a house or two down. "I think that went well."
"I have to agree with you," Yuzu said, laughing a little, as they stopped by his car. "It was perfect. Not at all what I was picturing, but that's a good thing."
"A very good thing," Taro agreed, before he kissed her a few times. "I have to say; I will miss being all secretive and sneaking around. It was kind of fun."
"Well..." Yuzu trailed off, as she kissed him again. "We can still sneak around here and there."
Taro smiled along with her, and after they kissed again, he finally let her go. "Alright, I have to get home."
"Text me when you get there," Yuzu said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I know you're going home to study, but you might still get a little studying done while we text."
"I have a hard time believing that." Taro replied, sharing one last look with Yuzu, before getting in his car to leave.
Walking back to the porch, Yuzu turned and waited until Taro drove away, and finally released a long sigh. This was a good night.
A/N: So both Yuzu and Taro's families know that the two are officially dating, and Karin finally got to adopt her cat. Things are looking good for both sisters. What was your favorite scene?
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