At first, Karin thought the constant apologies were a little amusing. Toshiro did not agree, but since they did little more than make everyone a bit uncomfortable he had no problems with it. At least it proved he had no need to earn their respect due to his appearance.

But then, as time went on, it quickly became apparent that the shinigami were going to be able to continue talking until the world ended or another hollow showed up. It was then that Toshiro decided they were never going to be able to get their work done and go back to their vacation if he did not end this soon.

"-and obviously we do know who you are, I'm so sorry again, I have no idea why we didn't recognize you, you have such distinctive features we should have known right away-"

"Apology accepted." Toshiro interrupted, surprising Karin slightly. She had thought she would be the one to snap and lose patience first. "Perhaps we should begin on the konsos, I don't want to keep those souls here forever, it will only attract more hollows."

The shinigami turned to the souls who had, by now, stopped hiding behind the trees. Judging by the looks of surprise on their faces Karin assumed they had completely forgotten they were there.

Though, Karin supposed she should be grateful. These people were at least better than that one shinigami who had been assigned to Karakura for a while after Rukia was saved. He was even more incompetent and he was sent to the spiritual hotspot of the world.

The group made there way over to the souls and the two shinigami began to explain what a konso was and their job as shinigami. The souls looked a bit too excited about the whole thing, so Toshiro made sure to interrupt and give them a more realistic view.

"Yes, you might be able to find your dead family members but it will be tricky. Soul Society is very large and it's difficult to get transportation through the area. While it is the afterlife it is far from perfect. You won't need to eat or drink," he explained after a quick glance at their spiritual pressure, "but some of the worst areas in Soul Society have people who do. They might try to steal food from you in order to survive. I wouldn't get your hopes up about any of this."

Quickly, the hopeful looks which had been on their faces vanished and changed into looks of despair. They glanced to where the hollows had been with expressions that clearly said they were wondering if getting their souls destroyed would have been the better option.

Well, that was not good. Better keep them from becoming suicidal. "But the good news is that we're working on making it better. Currently the production of roads and jobs is being attempted so you shouldn't need to worry about that forever. And besides, like Shiro said, you don't need to eat or drink. You'll be able to live while working only for shelter, and even then there's a low property tax depending on where you go."

Karin's explanation seemed to brighten their spirits slightly, so she stepped back and allowed the shinigami in charge of the area to send them over.

"Umm…" the soul Karin saved suddenly got everyone's attention, "What's your name?" He made eye contact with Karin as he asked, leaving no doubt as to who he was speaking to. For a brief second Karin was confused to why he would ask her, but she decided it was the least she could do. He probably wanted to get more information on the way she saved him earlier using her name.

Toshiro was pretty sure he had a crush on Karin, but as he felt like he would never lose her he did nothing more than glare at the boy- terrifying him, honestly, Toshiro's glares are scary- until Karin answered the question.

"I'm Karin Kurosaki. Though by the time you find me I might be Karin Hitsugaya, so I wouldn't count on that name." Toshiro blushed slightly and calmed down, feeling slightly silly for glaring.

The soul looked between the two of them and seemed to understand what had just happened. It scowled slightly, but then nodded in acceptance, having known Karin for less than half-an-hour in total.

"Off you go then," Karin declared as the stationed shinigami sent the soul on to its next life. She smiled and sent them a slight wave that mostly consisted of raising her hand in the air and letting it fall back down. Toshiro stepped forward and got the attention of the stationed shinigami.

"This is Squad Five's territory, correct?"

"Yes, Captain! We serve under Hirako-taichou at the current moment! Sir!" Karin rolled her eyes at their completely genuine antics and sent Toshiro a questioning look.

He explained, "We should probably send a report to that division about the hollows. They weren't anything special, but we should try to confront this matter in the same way we would if a member from our division killed a hollow here. I can just hand the papers to Momo, but a written explanation in the form of a report is probably required. That, of course, means w-"

"-We'll have to do a bunch of paperwork…" Karin interjected with a groan. She hated the stuff. In fact, she was ninety percent positive the only one who even remotely liked paperwork was Toshiro.

"...I was going to say 'we should probably get started on this now and then we can go back to snowboarding', but that works too." Karin glared at Toshiro's raised eyebrows and otherwise blank face.

"I hate you sometimes."

"Do you?"

"Strike that, all the time."

"Of course." Despite him not saying the words in a remotely sarcastic manner, Karin felt like she could physically feel the sarcasm rolling off him as he spoke.

Toshiro turned to the shinigami- who were still watching them in the same way they would a god, which was silly considering they were just military superiors- and nodded once to them.

"We apologize for disrupting your work. I will make sure our reports are delivered when we come back, so you can mention that when you write your report on today. Thank you for your time." Karin stopped herself from rolling her eyes at her boyfriend's suffocating wave of politeness, if only because she wanted to get out of the situation faster. The other shinigami all looked towards each other and then something seemingly registered in their minds.

"No, no, no, no no. You are more than welcome, you weren't wasting are time!"

"Right, we'll be sure to do that, thank you so much for your help!"

"You don't need to apologize for that, you didn't disturb our work!"

It was a bit hard to make out what they were saying because they all said it at exactly the same time while doing ninety- degree bows. This time Karin sighed slightly, but was at least able to make it quiet enough that they all could not hear her.

"Well, we'll be going then. It was nice meeting all of you." Karin quickly stated and practically pulled Toshiro along as she hurried away from the small crowd behind them.

Once she was several yards away she glanced up at Toshiro with a grimace. "The hell has Hirako done to them to make them react to us in such a stupid way?"

"I doubt it was anything he's done other than not see them very often because he's swamped with work. It seems all the lower ranked shinigami react in similar ways."

"Let's just go back, I don't want to keep talking about this." Karin let go of Toshiro and in two simultaneous flashes of shunpo the couple was gone.

"I literally can't believe you brought all this stuff with you," Karin said as she gazed down at the materials- honestly, it was easiest just to refer to them as paperworking stuff- on Toshiro's desk. "You even brought a stamp for approval, who does that!?"

"I'm not doing your work for you so I suggest you get started instead of asking questions." Toshiro told her in his usual apathetic manner. Karin rolled her eyes and poked his cheek, succeeding in making him finally set his pen and turn to give her his full attention.

"Isn't someone grumpy today? This is our vacation, Shiro. Try to be a bit less… this." As she spoke, Karin made a large sweeping motion around him with one of her hands. The sarcasm, raised eyebrow and smirk mad her fairly difficult to continue to ignore.

Luckily- or unluckily- for him, Toshiro was a master in that regard after knowing Matsumoto. The only part which made him falter was the logical aspect of her argument.

Well, it was nothing he could not handle.

Toshiro continued to look through papers and his soul phone to make sure he got all of his information right before he started on the mission report. It did not have to look great, only being sent from Captain to Captain, but Toshiro's inner perfectionist scoffed at the idea of doing anything less than he could.

Deciding he was right about having work to do, Karin also began looking through a few websites to make sure the locations she would mention were accurate.

Though, only after promising herself to start bullying him into having more fun later. It reminded her of a phrase she had heard before. Do not hit a sleeping tiger? Do not poke a sleeping monster? No, if she remembered correctly, the phrase was centered around a dragon.

Huh, an accurate metaphor for Toshiro then.

Karin gazed over the different facts she would need, making sure she had memorized them, and started on her letter. Luckily for her, being so close to all of the higher-ranked shinigami meant she had a bit less pressure than most others when it came to writing these kind of things.

Though Toshiro would probably want to read over her's too, so maybe she should avoid being too friendly. A pity, she was kind of curious if she would be able to get Hirako to snap despite how confident and humorous he usually was. There is always next time, she supposed.

The letter she ended up writing was only about a page (front and back) long, but it covered all the information they could possibly want so Karin thought she had made it more than long enough. She glanced over slightly to see what Toshiro had created.

Even on first sight, she decided that answer was simple; a monster.

The letter he was writing went on and on and on and on for four pages (front and back). She knew for a fact that not much could actually be said about what happened, what could he have filled tos pages up with. She also had spent a while editing her letter, and it looked like Toshiro had not even started that.

Maybe it was time to poke the paperwork-obsessed dragon.

"What could possibly be filling up that letter Shiro?" She asked and stood up, walking over to him. "I know for a fact we didn't do eight pages worth of stuff earlier today."

He ignored her. He probably had slipped into that zone he usually did while doing paperwork that made him (mostly) resistant to Matsumoto's distractions and requests.

Karin knelt down beside him and looked up at the expression of intense concentration on his face. She knew if she moved to attack him he would be able to defend in time to spare, but it did not seem exciting enough.

"Well," she muttered to herself as she stared up at her boyfriend, "Why don't we see how he'll react to something like that? I doubt Matsumoto's ever tried to get his attention this way."

Carefully, so as not to startle him, Karin stood behind him as he looked down over the desk in front of him. Then, when it became obvious he was not consciously aware of where she was standing, she leaned forward and bit his ear.

He jumped and ended up standing on the desk facing her. While it had not been anything original or a hilarious prank Karin felt seeing the blush covering his cheeks made it completely worth it.

For all that Matsumoto joked around and shoved her chest in Toshiro's face, she still respected him enough to know there were boundaries she would not cross.

Karin, on the other hand, had no such limitations.

Toshiro seemed to be slightly shell-shocked and unable to speak, simple standing with his mouth slightly open and trying to form a coherent sentence. He looked adorable, but Karin took pity on him and decided to explain.

"You were ignoring me."

Because that definitely made everything clear.

It did, however, seem to be enough to wake Toshiro up from the state he was in and allow him to form an actual coherent sentence after a bit more stuttering.

"I-you, that… are you really that bored?"

Karin considered his question for a moment and then looked up at him and nodded. "I finished what I needed to write and added a few extra things I wanted to. You haven't even had time to read over the eight-ish pages you wrote and I don't like it when you ignore me."

Toshiro gave a small sigh and made eye contact with her, "Sorry, Matsumoto just left me with the habit of ignoring people who do things like that and only look up to register what's happening if it seems to be an emergency. I've gotten a lot of practice with it now so it seems it's just second nature."

Karin smirked, "Except for the last thing?"

"...Yes, except for that. I still can't believe you thought that was a good idea. What would you have done if I had responded with an attack because it was so unexpected?"

"Okay, one, you are great at sensing and recognizing reiatsu so you would be able to tell it's mine anyways. Two, I could totally take you, especially if I caught you off guard like this."

Toshiro lifted his eyebrows at her, but saw no point in arguing over something he considered to be both stupid and pointless. With another sigh that seemed to be more of affection than anything else, he hopped down from the table and walked over to Karin to give her a kiss.

Of all the reactions she was waiting for and expecting, that was definitely not one of them. This time it was Karin who blushed- though thankfully did not start stuttering-looking surprisingly similar to how Toshiro had looked less than a minute ago.

"There, happy now?" he asked, though his mostly-calm expression and lifted eyebrow could not hide the faint dust of blush on his cheeks. Nor the lava lamp of blush on Karin's that she was desperately trying to make disappear.

After taking a few deep breaths Karin was pretty sure her cheeks were about their normal color and she felt she was capable of answering his question.

"I… am. Thanks…" Toshiro blinked at how unaggressive it was compared to what he had expected- especially since she was the one who started it- but just smiled at her and turned back to his paperwork.

"If you get really bored again you might as well make yourself useful and read over what I wrote." He suggested, though there was still a small smile on his face from earlier.

Karin momentarily considered how much more comfortable he must be if he was already willing to tease her right back when, at the beginning of their relationship and before, he would have blushed and tried to leave or gotten defensively angry at her.

Slowly, she raised a hand to her cheek, as if making sure the blush was gone and gave a small smile.

It was a nice change.

Toshiro felt the crisp chill in the air and took in a deep breath. He ignored the people around him who were staring at his thin winter coat- that was still just think enough to make him too hot anyways- and normal slacks with curious eyes. One child even continued staring as she walked past, not knowing how to be even remotely subtle about her curiosity. He was not really all that weird, but when someone comes out looking like the polar opposite of everyone else because of what they're wearing they tend to draw attention.

As the door opened he turned slightly and saw Karin, who was dressed somewhere between his it's-a-pleasant-spring-day outfit and everyone else's five-foot-thick clothes armor. She had her hair up in her usual ponytail and a somewhat thick jacked over a shirt he could not see because of the teal-blue scarf she had on. Now that he looked closer the colors were… oddly reminiscent of him.

"Did you pick those clothes so you would match me or is it just a coincidence?"

At his question Karin glanced down at what she was wearing and, to his surprise, glared at it like it was an annoying hollow she was against or some jewelry her sister forced her to wear.

"It's Matsumoto. She made me dress up in clothes that match you and I can't really say anything because I was too lazy to do the shopping and packing myself."

He smiled slightly as they began walking down the street. "While we're waiting at the restaurant I was thinking I would call Matsumoto and tell her what happened with the hollows earlier. Would you mind?"

"Nah. Besides, it's not like you're choosing work over me. We both have that job and are both the reason you need to call her. It'd be kinda silly for me to mind."

Toshiro tilted his head slightly to show he conceded to her point. The pair continued walking together until they reached the restaurant and the waiters brought them to their table.

"I'll be right back then," he said to Karin as he stood up to go behind the building, receiving a simple nod in return. At times like this he was glad the soul phone could get connection anywhere on the planet. Though even shinigami could not take a visit to the planet's core without being one of the strongest (who all had better things to do), so there might be somewhere on the planet they would not work.

Not that you could use a soul phone when at a planet's center in the first place.

Matsumoto did not take long to pick up the call, not that she was every expected to. She was, however, expected by Toshiro to treat him formaley when the call was work related.

It goes without saying that Toshiro's expectations did not go exactly the way he imagined them going.

"HIIIIIIIII TAICHO!" Toshiro flinched slightly and moved the phone farther away from his ear. "How have you been? It's been forever-"

"It's been a few days, Matsumoto."

"Like I said, forever! Anyways, what's the call about? Did you find out the world is about to end and you, Ichigo, Orihime and Karin are going to work together to save it again?"

For a moment Toshiro was silent, thinking over the reason behind her apparent confusion. Then, with a slight sigh, he understood what the problem was.

"...Did you even glance at the pile of paperwork on your desk?"

"Of course not, we-" "I" "- already did all the work so I didn't see any reason to look it over. Besides I've been super busy training the new recruits how to do the office jobs here and spending time with Hisagi. Why would I have looked it over? There's nothing I need to worry about, right?"

"Matsumoto, I did the paperwork regarding leaves of absence and mission approvals for this week early, there's nothing I can do to make the mission reports and files regarding injuries be finished early. Why haven't you at least glanced at the before now!?"

His voice steadily rose in volume as he talked, his anger getting the best of him for the first time in a while. Karin helped him not lose control of his emotions and freeze everyone when he got annoyed like he used to, but at heart he still had the same personality when angered.

"I was busy…." Matsumoto whined, but trailed off at the end as if to acknowledge that even she was aware her excuse would never hold up.

"Really? Busy? Doing what, might I ask?" She was completely right.

"Oh, you know… stuff. I need to spend time with my friends too. Me and Hisagi and Kira and Renji always hang out together and-" She suddenly cut off what she was about to say, leaving Toshiro to guess what she meant by her words (or lack of them).

"And drinking?"

"Well…"

Toshiro sighed, the conversation, as fun as it was, would not get them anywhere. "Matsumoto, if you had looked at what you were supposed to you would know that earlier today Karin and I were in a confrontation with a trio of hollows while on vacation."

Though he could not see her, Toshiro knew Matsumoto had instantly straightened up and given the phone call her full attention.

"Are the two of you alright?"

"We're fine. Karin's chest is bothering her because she had to fight while not fully healed but they weren't powerful enough to garner any concern. The main problem was just that we couldn't use too much power or release our swords while there. No crew to hold back the power and keep it from impacting the world."

"Though your power would probably fit right in to the state of the world around you, taicho." Her words were meant to be teasing, but Toshiro could easily pick out the relief in them.

"Any new information about the rebels at the moment?" 'Or, specifically, Kanna and Takahiro?' was heard despite the silence of the words.

"Nothing important, just some leads that turned out to go nowhere. Sorry, taicho."

"Hmm," was the only response Toshiro gave to that information. Easier to distance himself and pretend like that was all he was hoping for or expected.

"You know, me and Karin are still here for you taicho."

A brief flicker of shock made Toshiro pause before it developed into a small smile. "I know, don't worry."

"Good!" Matsumoto said, sounding much more like her usual personality now that the heavy topic was over and done with. The joy and slight slur to her voice could not completely cover the alertness still present in her tone.

"That's all I wanted to say," he began, his voice shifting out of the 'captain's voice' he so often heard Karin mocking him for, "Do try to at least look over at the work you're supposed to be doing."

"Okay taicho~!" Matsumoto called, but her tone made it clear to him that she would not be even going as far as considering doing what he told her to. Well, there was a reason he called her instead of relying on her to see it and call him about it.

"I'll tell you more about what happened when I get back."

"Sure, tell Karin 'hi' for me, 'kay?"

"Fine."

He shut off the call and tucked away his phone, heading back in the restaurant to meet with Karin at their table. The severs, seeing he had come back, brought him the menu and waited patiently.

"Anything interesting?" Karin wondered allowed, glancing up at him to make eye contact.

"No, but Matsumoto says 'hi'. She also hasn't even glanced at the pile of work that's undoubtedly forming on my desk right now."

"Don't worry so much about it, I'll help you finish. So? Anything else?"

Toshiro glanced around slightly, took in the nearby reiatsu signatures and casually leaned closer, dropping his voice. "No, our leads have made us run around in circles and no new information has come. It seems like everyone's pretty tense with all that's happening."

"You'd think they'd be used to it after the amount that happened when my brother was around."

Toshiro smiled slightly, realizing she actually had a point. "I suppose so, but with your brother off preparing for negotiations with the hollows I doubt there was anything they could do. A bit hard to get Soul Society to work when it's hero isn't around."

The mocking amusement in his tone told many different stories behind it. One where the power of central forty-six got to it's head in the form of Aizen, one where the second division unquestionably carried out assassination orders for no reason other than having two of the same zanpakuto (1), one where Momo was left unsupervised and was somehow able to come to the world of the living during the fight with Aizen.

For all that Toshiro was loyal to Soul Society, it had nothing to do with the philosophy present in the government's past actions.

Karin frowned as she saw the look on Toshiro's face and guessed what his thoughts were about. This was not the right place to be worrying about such things, especially since they were on vacation.

"But enough about that, let's just enjoy ourselves. We don't get to share many romantic dinners together."

Toshiro's teal eyes made contact with her gray ones and they shared a smile.

"You're right, sorry."

1) This is just a mention of the Diamond Dust Rebellion Movie. Not important for my story in the long run. I don't even know it's for sure right so don't quote me on this.