Ok, to make up for my slow posting over the weekend, I got this chapter out faster. Plus, the last one was just too depressing, so I really wanted to write this happy one. I had a ton of fun with this, so enjoy!

Karin was right about Hitsugaya's need to vent. Luckily, it was one of those days that the other smithy workers had off, so only Karin saw his mild psychosis as he pounded the life out of what was supposed to be a sword.

"Isn't it a little thin?" Karin asked unnecessarily, indicating the blisteringly hot metal that looked practically like a sheet of paper.

"Shut up!" Hitsugaya growled, smashing it one last time before it gave out under the force and shattered into a thousand pieces, sending burning shards everywhere. Did I say mild psychosis? Ok, switch that to stark raving mad.

"God, I hope you never get angry at me," Karin noted as Hitsugaya screamed with frustration and pulled another smoldering hunk of iron out of the fire. Hitsugaya turned and pointed it at her accusingly.

"I would NEVER lay a FINGER on you!" he snarled, his eyes burning with rage.

"I know that," Karin assured him. "Now get that death stick out of my face." Hitsugaya suddenly realized just how close to her he was holding the scalding orange metal.

"Sorry," he apologized quickly, pulling it away from her and placing it on the anvil.

"It's ok," Karin said lightly, wrapping her arms around his neck from behind and resting her chin on his shoulder. Hitsugaya's tense muscles relaxed slightly at her touch and he reached up to stroke her arm, leaving the inevitable trail of soot along her skin. Just her presence was enough to calm him down. It was as if she always knew exactly what he needed and said the right thing at the right time. She wasn't afraid to yell at him if he had to be reprimanded, but she was also sensitive enough to know when he just required quiet comfort. It was amazing to him that she could already read him so well and react to his emotions so perfectly. He leaned his head against hers. He was truly grateful to have her.

"Sorry," he apologized again. Karin shook her head.

"It's ok. You have every right to be upset." Hitsugaya sighed.

"Yeah, but I don't need to take it out on you."

"You're not," Karin assured him. "But I think that sword you just demolished is feeling the effects." Hitsugaya stared at the remnants of the mutilated sword which were scattered haphazardly across the floor and smirked.

"I was pretty violent with that one wasn't I?" he said amused. "It's been a long time since I…" he trailed off and sniffed the air.

"What's up?" Karin asked, noting his change of mood.

"Do you smell…?" he began, pushing Karin's arms off of him and turning around.

"FIRE!" he cried. Karin whipped around and saw that, indeed, there was a fire burning steadily in the corner next the forge, it's deadly feathers lighting up the area around it, casting dancing shadows on the walls and sending thick, rich smoke into the already soot filled air.

"How…?" she started to ask, but Hitsugaya cut her off.

"The kindling must have caught!" he said desperately. "I was so upset, I guess I didn't put it away properly, and one of those hot shards from the sword must have landed on it and ignited it. And it's near the forge so we didn't notice the heat…" He didn't finish, because at that moment, something in the fire popped scattering ashes everywhere and they threw up their hands to protect their faces.

"I'll get water!" Karin said urgently. She turned around to race towards the door, but tripped in her haste and knocked into the tongs holding the still sizzling hot chunk of iron Hitsugaya had removed from the forge. The metal went flying, landing in the coal bin and flipping it over, where it spilled its contents directly into the growing fire. Karin let out a bloodcurdling scream and fell to the floor, clutching her chest.

"Karin!" Hitsugaya shouted as the previously moderate sized fire quadrupled in strength behind him owing to the added fuel. He ignored it however, and sprinted to her side. He had only ever heard a scream like that once in his life.

He and his parents were working in the smithy, just the three of them. His mother was lighting the forge, so the kindling was sitting out. Hitsugaya didn't even see what happened. His back was too her as had been selecting tools.

"Watch out!" his father yelled, and Hitsugaya turned around to see the entire area around the forge engulfed in flames which lapped around the table his mother was caught behind.

"Get Toushiro out of here!" she screamed as she attempted to throw soot on the fire to suffocate it and prevent its spread. Before Hitsugaya had time to fully comprehend the scene, his father had scooped him up and rushed him out of the smithy.

"Go get help!" he ordered. "I'm going help your mother…" but he was cut off by a high pitched shriek that to this day plagued Hitsugaya's nightmares. It was shrill and deadly and made the hair on the back of Hitsugaya's neck stand on end.

"No!" his father cried, dashing back into the smithy. Hitsugaya was about to follow, but he heard another petrified wail and was too scared to enter. He ran into the house as fast as his legs could carry him, screaming for help at the top of his lungs, but by the time people heard him and followed him out to the smithy, it was too late.

That was the last time Hitsugaya saw his parents.

"I am not losing Karin!" he thought furiously as he knelt beside her.

"Are you ok?" he asked anxiously. "Are you hurt anywhere?" Karin's kimono had an enormous scorch mark across it and it had fallen off one shoulder where it had been burned clean though. But she, miraculously, was unharmed.

"I'm ok," she said, patting herself all over as she didn't entirely believe it herself. "I guess I was just startled, having that thing so close to me…" but she didn't get a chance to finish as the fire spurted again, spraying them with embers and hot ash.

"We've got to put this thing out!" Karin stated, returning them both to reality.

"Right," Hitsugaya agreed, helping her to her feet; although who was really more shell shocked from the incident was not entirely clear. Stepping away from the fire, they each grabbed a bucket and hurried to the water jug outside.

"Go get help Karin," Hitsugaya told her. "I'll do what I can here…"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Karin shouted. "What can you do alone? It'll take too long to find someone, and by then it may have spread to the whole smithy! I'm not leaving you. We can do this together." As reluctant as he was to put Karin in danger by keeping her near the fire, Hitsugaya caved.

"Fine," he agreed at last. It wasn't like he had a choice. Karin would do what she wanted to do, whether he liked it or not.

"I'll fill, you pour," Karin decided. Hitsugaya nodded. He liked that plan. It at least kept her outside the smithy and as far away from the fire as she could get. Karin stood at the spout, filling buckets as fast as she could and passing them forwards to Hitsugaya, who threw the water on the fire and handed the bucket back. It only took a few minutes, but to Hitsugaya and Karin, it seemed like an eternity.

"I think that's it!" Hitsugaya declared at last, spilling his final bucket of water on the few remaining embers. He stirred them with a metal spoke and checked for any hiding orange specks to ensure that the fire was really out for good. "We did it!" He heaved a gigantic sigh of relief, thanking every kami he could possibly think of that they had both survived unscathed.

Karin came back into the smithy and surveyed the damage. All in all, it really wasn't so bad. Few things in the smithy were flammable to begin with, and there was already so much soot everywhere that the added char from the fire wasn't really noticeable. The entire wall behind where the fire had been was completely scorched and the floor was soaked with a river of pitch black water. Clumps of half-burnt coal decorated the ground, along with the charcoal remnants of the kindling. The air was heavy with dark grey smoke which smelled like an old barbeque pit. Hitsugaya's hair, which was usually salt and pepper colored after a day in the smithy, had turned completely black, as had his skin and clothing, which was pitted with holes from flying embers. If she hadn't known it was him, she would have had no idea who the totally jet black person standing in front of her was. He looked like death incarnate. Karin was sure that she looked the same, albeit with the rather attractive addition of a fully charred kimono. It took her a moment to take it all in, then she dropped her face into her hands and began to make sounds that were very similar to the one's Momo had been making earlier.

"Oi, Karin, it's ok!" Hitsugaya reassured, coming over to her and placing his hands on her shoulders. Karin was such a strong girl and seeing her cry over something like this hurt him tremendously. But she had been there for him throughout the whole ordeal with Momo, so now that it was her turn to be upset, he wanted to be there for her.

"It's not like this is the first fire we've had in the smithy," he said encouragingly. "And look, there's practically no damage! You're ok, I'm ok, there's nothing to cry about…" But as Karin raised her head, Hitsugaya noticed that there were no tears there. Her eyes were alight with joy and there was a wide grin on her face. She hadn't been crying. She had been laughing. It took a moment for Hitsugaya to process that fact, because a moment was all he had. Karin didn't give him the chance to digest before, grinning madly, she jumped at him, threw her arms around his shoulders and pressed her lips to his with so much force that he nearly fell over. Instead, he stepped back and allowed Karin to push him up against the blackened wall behind him as she clung to him as tightly as she could and kissed him with as much energy as she possessed. Hitsugaya kissed her back eagerly, as the weight of everything that had just happed and the relief that it was over flowed though them like electricity. Karin's severely burned kimono didn't survive the friction of being rubbed up against Hitsugaya's body and it fell off, but she made no effort to retrieve it. Instead, she lifted up her legs and wrapped them around Hitsugaya's waist, and the unstable force finally caused the two of them to topple over onto the wet, sooty floor. But, despite how uncomfortable it was down there, neither of them made any effort to stand back up.

ooooooooooooooo

If anyone would have come into the smithy about an hour after the fire, they would have found the Hitsugaya couple lying on the floor, talking in hushed, giddy voices, as they laughed and teased each other. The onlooker would have smiled and nodded and been on their way without ever realizing that the pair was not, in fact, wearing any clothing. They were so coated in soot that they may as well have been fully dressed.

"That was officially the messiest thing I have ever done," Karin said from her place on Hitsugaya's chest.

"Yeah, I don't think even I've ever been this sooty before," he replied, smiling as Karin traced spirals into the ash on his skin with her finger.

"You know, it's ironic," Karin said happily.

"What is?"

"Remember when I teased you about asking me on a date to the smithy and you said it wasn't a particularly romantic spot?"

"Yeah," Hitsugaya replied. It was hard to believe that that had only been a few days ago. So much had changed since then.

"Well," Karin continued, "what do you think of it now?"

"I still think this is just about the most unromantic thing we could have ever done," he answered. "We're lying on a hard, wet floor, covered in soot, in a boiling hot smithy that just had a fire rip through it."

"Yeah," Karin agreed. "And I wouldn't have it any other way." Hitsugaya grinned and gave her shoulders a squeeze. "But you know," she added thoughtfully, "I think I could really use a bath."

"Do you need help washing your back?" Hitsugaya asked playfully. Karin smirked.

"I think I just might," she replied slyly.

Not at all how one pictures one's first time, but hey, these two aren't exactly traditional. To be honest, the reason I decided to make him a sword smith was so that I could write this scene, and the rest of the story kind of flowed out of it. Anyway, more should be coming soon, so stay tuned :)