When he got outside, fully clothed, Karin was still looking through her clothes to decide what to wear.
"I see that you're not ready yet, so I'm gonna go ahead and when you're finished you may come downstairs and join us. Is that okay with you?"
"Yeah, just one problem... I have no idea where to look to find you."
"You just have to go downstairs and the man from yesterday and today morning will be waiting outside of a big door. This is where we'll be discussing. I'm gonna go now." And he left, leaving her alone to get ready.
Now Karin, fully clothed with a deep purple dress that went to her ankles, was making her way downstairs.
As Toshiro had told her, outside of a big double-door was the battler waiting. She went up to him to confirm that it really was correct.
"Hello and good morning. Is my husband in there?"
"Yes ma'am. Hitsugaya-sama and my masters are inside. He informed me that when you are to come, I should let you in." and with that, he opened the big double-doors and showed her in while announcing her presence.
"Hitsugaya-sama has arrived." And all heads turned to her direction, but then, the two women present gasped and talked at the same time.
"Karin-chan/Rukia-nee"
After that, they squealed and run towards each other to hug.
The battler has already left the room and so now, the two men were left awestruck and confused as to what was taking place.
"Oh my god… When Hitsugaya said that he got married, it never passed my mind that you were the wife. How are you? Oh my… I haven't seen you for so many years. We have a lot of catching up to do. How is your idiot of a brother? Has he finally confessed to Inoue-san? And Yuzu, how is she doing? You have to tell me everything."
While Rukia was talking a mile a minute, Karin was whole-heartily laughing and the two guys were having animated question-marks on top of their heads and were looking firstly at each other and then at their wives.
"Slow down Rukia-nee. Yes, Ichi-nii finally got the guts to ask Orihime-nee out and now they're married with a lovely two-year-old named Sora. Yuzu is doing very well too with her husband Jinta. Goat-chin is same as ever, and…."
"Wait a minute... You mean to tell me that you two know each other?"
Asked Toshiro, finally talking for the first time since Karin came into the room, having enough of being left out.
The other three occupants of the room looked at him and then the girls burst out laughing. Although, Rukia snapped out of it first and she talked so that she could solve the misunderstanding.
"I know Karin-chan since we were little. Her brother and I are the same age, and we used to play together when we were kids. My brother used to want to marry me and Ichigo when we grow up, but we were just friends and we firmly objected. We both were in love with someone else, and also we used to fight all the time. Finally they understood that we could never be a married couple and left us alone. And now, look at us. It really paid off to wait. We are with the ones we love."
As Rukia explained what the situation was, Karin had a hard time containing her laughter at the situation.
When the guys decided that it wasn't something that they could come to understand, they shrugged and continued talking.
The girls laughed and left the room to go do what both loved, training, and also a lot of catching up. Toshiro had promised her that he would train her with sword-fighting, but Rukia was quite good herself. Besides… she would be warmed up when he came that way anyway.
Rukia was happy she finally got to see Karin after so long, and by what circumstances…
She still remembered when Karin was a little girl who loved fighting and playing with a ball all day. Now she was all grown up and married.
As Karin was warming up for the training to begin, Rukia was looking at her and sighed.
"What? Is something wrong? If you don't want to train, it's okay."
"No, no… It's just that… no, nothing… just old times getting to me. Don't worry… Anyway, let's see what you got…"
With that they began fighting, with Rukia instructing and correcting Karin if see did something wrong.
They were training for hours. Their husbands had already finished with all the signing and talking so they went to see what their wives were up to.
They arrived at the training room in time to see Rukia having Karin blocked yet again and lying on the floor with the wooden sword on her throat. She seems to get in that position a lot.
When they were noticed, Toshiro went to help his fallen wife get up while Renji just congratulated his.
"Good work dear. I knew you were good with a sword, but I never guessed you were that good."
"My brother wanted to keep me safe so she made me attend all kind of fighting lessons. One of them was sword fighting."
"We gotta spar sometime. I wanna know exactly how good you are. Why didn't you tell me before?"
"You didn't ask…"
Renji face palmed at that statement. The rest just laughed, with him following after a while, till the battler came and informed them that dinner was ready, since they had lost lunch to fighting.
They all went and ate a fulfilling dinner.
Karin was starving since she hadn't eaten anything since the day before, if you exclude the little snack she and Rukia had while on a break.
Toshiro and Karin decided to leave the next day since they had finished the business that they had come to do. Even though Toshiro has promised her that he would train with her, seeing Rukia-nee was fulfilling enough.
They went to their room right after dinner, since they were exhausted.
When inside, they realised that yesterday's sleeping arrangements would take place again. They got to blush a little at that, and without a word went to wear their clothes.
They didn't even say a word till they were secured inside the blankets. It was a cold night.
When they were tucked under the covers, the silence turned a little more awkward but Toshiro tried to break it with fake couching before started talking
"So, ready for our departure tomorrow…?"
"Yeah… I'm ready. I'm very happy that I got to see Rukia-nee again, so even though you broke your promise about training me, I got that instead."
"I'm really sorry for not having the time to fulfil my promise to you but we've been away from home a little too long. It's not that I don't trust Matsumoto, but you know what they say… better safe than sorry."
"You're right. I like her too but she is a little too care free, and I only known her for a few days. Anyway, we better get some rest since we have a long way in front of us tomorrow. Good night…" and with that being said, she took a deep breath, leaned in, kissed him on the cheek, like he had done days prior, and turned around.
His eyes turned like saucers while he brought a hand to touch his cheek. His face turned a deep scarlet colour and he replied with a faint goodnight when his voice returned. He turned to his side feeling genuinely happy.
When Karin heard his reply, she let out a sigh of relief before sleep with happy dreams overtook her.
The next morning, Toshiro was the one waking to the sound of things rustling. He opened his eyes and witnessed his 'alarm' getting her things ready for the road.
When Karin felt eyes watching her back, she turned around to face the one that these eyes belonged to.
"I thought you woke up early every time. What's the matter now? Did you forget that we have to begin early today for us to reach the inn?"
"I overslept… I have never overslept before. Something is definitely up with me… Anyway, what time is it?"
"It's six o'clock in the morning, so you haven't overslept… Don't worry… I'm just messing with you. Besides, if you didn't wake up soon, I would have done it. I'm ready to go so get up and go get ready too. We have to hurry."
"Yeah… You're totally right… Just going for a shower and I'll be out in a jiffy."
With that he rushed to the bathroom while Karin secretly laughed.
After a week with him, it was the first time seeing him rushing to do anything. It was kind of funny. With a smirk on her face she resumed packing.
A few minutes later Toshiro had come outside, fully clothed and ready for departure. Since they slept a little more since necessary, they didn't get to have breakfast, but they just took a little snack for the road.
After some time they were on the countryside and the castle was out of their field of vision. They tried going as fast as possible without straining their horses.
With as much little breaks as possible, they were able to get to the inn a little past midnight.
Kyouraku was nowhere to be found, as he was probably asleep at this time of night, but a key was waiting on the counter with a note that said 'Have a good night Hitsugaya-sama. ;-)'.
He just mumbled something under his breath, before taking both the key and the now wrinkled-from-his-fist note and made a motion for Karin to follow him while he was going towards their room.
They were very tired from the trip, so they just said their goodnights and went to sleep right after, without having the strength to feel not even a bit embarrassed.
The night gave them dreamless sleeps.
The next morning found Karin half waking between two strong arms, and she unconsciously snuggled even closer inside that strong hug that tightened even more after her movement.
Outside was very cold and it looked like it would snow any moment, so she welcomed the heat that was luring her to sleep yet again.
Also, for some reason, she really liked it being held by those muscled arms. She felt safe there, and to make Karin Kurosaki/Hitsugaya feeling safe for anything was an achievement someone rarely, if not ever, could accomplish.
The only one that she previously felt safe with was her own brother, Ichigo, when she was small.
A few hours later, Toshiro woke up by a delightful smell of jasmine that filled his nose.
When he started getting a feeling of something really soft and quite curvy getting closer to his body, he realised that his hands had sneaked around Karin's waist again, during their sleep, and now she was coming even closer, while still asleep.
First, he had no idea how to react to this situation so he stood there and let her have her way. When she settled with her head on his chest and a hand in front of it touching him lightly, the smell came again and he figured that she was the one with this hypnotising scent.
It made him relax a little and he brought her a little closer so he could smell her more.
He decided that he liked having her in his arms, if not a little too much if he says so himself, and he would like to hold her more from now on. Her getting closer to him, even though she did it unconsciously, meant she liked it too, right?
That thought brought him into a happy sleep for yet another time.
Matsumoto was right… This marriage was the best thing for him. Maybe he was even starting to fall for her, but it was way too soon to tell since they only knew each other for a little over a week.
Time would tell.
Two to three hours later they woke up again, but since it was almost noon they decided to continue their travel the next day and just rest for now like on vacations, even though it was only half a day.
They took their late breakfast and the rest of the day was passed mostly at the bar having fun or at the room talking and relaxing.
Lunch was taken out at a nearby restaurant, since they haven't eaten together at one before.
There, they talked about everything and they've gotten to know each other a little better.
Dinner came quicker than they expected or liked, and with dinner, so came the bed time.
This time Toshiro decided to risk it and when they were tucked under the covers, he said goodnight and pecked her lightly on the lips. After though, he turned the other way before she had time to react and pretended to have fallen asleep.
Karin touched her lips where it still burned from his kiss and with a small smile on her face she replied with a faint good night too and fell asleep into a happy dreamland.