This is the fourteenth chapter of A Picture's Worth. I hope you all adore it.
Disclaimer: I don't own bleach
A Picture's Worth
Chapter 14- Care and Concern
"What?"
"It's an event at the summer festival we have here," explained Toushirou.
"So it's as entertaining as a regular stand?" asked Karin as they walked out of the café with drinks in hand.
"Rather it's as much of a show as the fireworks" he said nonchalantly.
"Eh? Can I come?" asked Karin excitedly.
"Well, it's just like any other festival, so you're welcomed to come if you want. During the day of the summer festival, you're off work," he said.
"Awesome! I love summer festivals" exclaimed Karin.
"No surprise there," smirked Toushirou.
"Don't you?" questioned Karin.
"There okay, I guess," he answered as they walked down the street.
"Well, I love them. I remember when I was five; Ichi-nii let me sit on his shoulders during the fireworks show. Yuzu was on Dad's," began Karin.
"Yuzu's your twin sister and exact opposite, right?" remembered Toushirou.
"Yeah, me and Yuzu loved to play that fish game whenever were at a festival," she answered.
Toushirou glanced at the gleam in her eyes whenever she reminisced about her twin. Though the two were opposites, they couldn't be better best friends. Toushirou smirked to himself. He remembered the first time she told him she had a twin sister.
"Alright, I know, Yuzu" Karin said into her cell phone.
It was a regular work day. Toushirou was being put in some outfit while Karin was on the phone. By the time Toushirou got out, Karin had hung up.
"Who's 'Yuzu'?" asked Toushirou curiously.
"My twin sister" said Karin normally.
"You mean there is another one of you lurking around. I don't know how Kurosaki stands it" he sighed. One Karin was bad enough; Toushirou would probably throw himself off a cliff if he had to deal with two.
"Ha-Ha. No, idiot, she's my fraternal twin. We're complete opposites" said Karin.
"Oh… jeez, don't scare me like that" he joked earning him a hard punch in the arm
Toushirou was convinced that the bruise was still there.
Soon, they finally ended their adventure and got back to their home safely. Karin went straight for the main office while Toushirou went to the library.
Karin uploaded her pictures, sent them to Yamamoto's e-mail address, and then headed to her room. She put down her camera on her dresser and then proceeded to lay her body across her bed.
As she looked up, she began thinking about the summer festivals she had had in the past. She remembered when she had 'accidentally' dropped hers and Yuzu's fish down her brother's shirt. She remembered when she and Yuzu would look for cute kimonos in the mall when they hit their teenage years. She remembered that she had to miss the last summer festival because she was in America. A loud growl then interrupted her thoughts.
Karin looked down at her petite stomach. The growling had come from it.
"Come to think of it, I really haven't had any solid food in a while" stated Karin before getting up.
She walked into the kitchen and pulled out the utensils, she prepared herself to make a soup that her sister had taught to her to make. Once she had all her ingredients out she got started.
She was however not aware of the creepy-crawler crawling it's way onto the counter.
A delicious aroma filled the library were Toushirou was reading a physics text book. Toushirou decided to set his book down to go and see what was cooking. He then left the library and turned towards the kitchen.
"Hey, what smells so- SPIDER!" he shouted.
Now, this may not have been the best way to tell Karin that there was in fact a spider on the counter heading her way. This was maybe not a good thing to shout out of nowhere because Karin just happened to be chopping vegetables at the time.
When Karin heard Toushirou scream, she accidentally missed part of the vegetable and sliced up her middle finger. She winced in pain as she fell to her knees. The cut that went up her middle finger was at least an inch and a half long.
The spider, which became spooked by the sudden motion, quickly fled. Toushirou quickly ran into his pantry when he saw the blood on her finger. He then quickly raced out with a first-aid kit in hand.
"Hold still' said Toushirou as he kneeled in front of her.
"Just hurry" she ordered.
"I wouldn't have to hurry if you hadn't cut yourself" he retorted as he got a wet cloth and began to clean up the blood.
"Well, I wouldn't have cut myself if you hadn't screamed at me" Karin argued through clenched teeth while he wiped the blood off.
Toushirou was silent after that and just continued to clean the wound. He then wrapped it tightly up in a bandage. Karin watched him wrap the cloth around her finger. There was concern, deep concern in his eyes. They were so soft all of a sudden.
Once the wound was wrapped, Toushirou got up from his kneeling position and stood up. Karin stood up as well.
"I think you'll live" he said.
"I'll be more careful next time" she said. Toushirou shrugged.
"It was my fault. I did surprise you" He apologized.
"Got a point there" Karin said playfully.
Toushirou only smirked before heading into his room. Karin went back to cooking however.
As Karin cooked, she thought about the softness and concern that was in Toushirou's eyes, it had really surprised her. She wondered why his eyes turned soft like that as she cooked her soup.
Toushirou was in his bedroom thinking about what had happened not many moments ago. He was thinking about what he had felt when he saw her wince, when he saw her bleed. Something burst inside of him when he saw it, and he could have sworn that what he had felt was fear, but that was absurd. Why would he be afraid? He couldn't have been afraid for Karin?
Could He?
Well that was the fourteenth chapter of A Picture's Worth. Sorry, it was so short, but it was more of a filler chapter. I hope you all loved it. Please review.