Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. I am making no money from this. Tite Kubo owns all, I'm just playing with them for a while. I also do not own any of the quotes I use at the start of each chapter. They were all found on the internet, and if they have an author I say who it is.

See all author's notes in part one. Also, this has just become the first story in a series I'm tentatively calling "After The Winter War." Full info on this is in my profile.

Oh, and the first two parts of this story have been edited to include the "Omake - Radio Kon" bits that I originally planned on including and then completely spaced on. They're there now, and there will be an Omake part in each chapter after this. The next guest on Radio Kon will be Kurosaki Ichigo. Please feel free to ask him any questions as you leave reviews, or if you want to PM them to me that's cool as well.


No Warm Memories

By Lady Callista

Chapter 3: Girl Talk

OoOoOoOoOoO

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape-

the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.

Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show.

-Andrew Wyeth

OoOoOoOoOoO

Karin almost chickened out as she approached the door, but she figured she'd comes this far, and she knew the girl on the other side of the door well enough to know she'd have a sympathetic audience. So she knocked.

"Karin-chan?" Orihime said as she opened the door. "Would you like to come in?"

"Thank you, Orihime-chan," Karin replied as she stepped in. "I'm sorry to call on you so late."

"It's alright," Orihime replied as she gestured for the girl to sit. "Would you like some tea?"

"Yes, thank you," Karin replied, wondering what had made her come here. The younger sister of a friend shows up late at night, and the girl hadn't even asked if anything was wrong. She was acting as if people stopped at her house all the time. Yet Karin had to be grateful for it, for of all the people she knew who might be able to tell her more about Soul Society, Orihime was the only one she could talk to about Toshiro. She knew Chad would have talked to her about Soul Society, but despite the whole 'I'll be the eyes, you be the legs,' thing, she barely knew him. Plus when you thought of someone to talk to he was certainly not the first person that came to mind.

"Would you like anything to eat?' Orihime asked as she knelt at the table opposite Karin and poured out green tea for both of them.

"I'm fine, don't concern yourself," Karin replied as she took an appreciative sniff of the tea. "I'm sorry for coming here, I shouldn't have…"

"Karin-chan, I'm glad you came to me," Orihime smiled as she sipped her tea. "Your brother said, well, Kurosaki-kun once asked me…well, with your mother gone and all, he said once that at some point you or Yuzu might want to talk to another girl. I told him I'd be okay with that."

Karin blushed, a feeling so strange for her that she tried to hide her reaction by burying her face her in her tea. "Thank you for the tea."

"You're very welcome," Orihime replied as she drank as well. "Are you here for anything in particular?"

"Well, there's this boy…" Karin took another drink of tea as she tried to formulate her thoughts. "Ichi-nii seemed like he was going to have a heart-attack when I mentioned it, but I don't know…I mean….I really need to talk to someone."

"Is it someone I know?" Orihime asked in her gentle way.

"Umm…maybe. Probably. Hitsugaya Toshiro." Karin's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Toshiro-taicho?" Orihime's voice didn't reflect nearly enough surprise for Karin.

"You don't sound like it's a surprise to you." Karin said suspiciously.

"Well, I know both of you, and I had thought about how cute a couple you would make…" Orihime trailed off, seeming embarrassed.

"I barely know him," Karin admitted. "Yet he's the only guy I've ever met that's made me wonder what it would be like to be more than friends with a guy. And then Ichi-nii had to go and tell me that he's actually a lot older than he looks, and…"

"Does that matter to you?'' Orihime asked quietly. "Did you like how he looked, or did you like his personality?"

"I don't care about how a guy looks," Karin said even as she blushed. "Although I certainly can't complain about how he looks. He just…I've always felt like I was so much older than any of my friends. I mean, I can see Ichi-nii when he's a Shinigami. I can see the Hollows, and I can see how you and some of Ichi-nii's other friends can see them too. It's so hard to care about the things people my age are supposed to care about when I know there's a war going on."

"The war is over," Orihime said with belief. "And your brother and the Shinigami won. The good guys won. You shouldn't have to worry about it anymore. It's why he didn't want to tell you anything, Karin-chan. You shouldn't have been worrying about something that wasn't your concern. Kurosaki-kun and the other Shinigami would never lose. There was never anything to worry about."

"If they knew they'd win, the fact that I assumed he'd been training in the month he was gone becomes pointless. But that's not what I came here to talk about," Karin replied as she finished her tea and poured more from the pot on the table. "Do you know Toshiro?"

"Yes, I know Toshiro-kun," Orihime replied. "When him and Rangiku-san were stationed in the real world they lived here with me."

Karin could only stare at the older girl for a moment, before asking, "Is he as cold with everyone else as he was with me?"

Orihime almost dropped her tea, but recovered quickly, "Well, he was never cold to me. The opinion I got was that he's very polite. He treated me as a hostess, in the oldest sense of the word. But I can see how he could be seen as cold. Think of how people react to you because of how you look, Karin-chan. You're a child, and adults treat you as such. Imagine how he must feel, to be older than most of the people he interacts with, yet to have them treat him as a child."

Karin was silent for a moment as she thought about that. When Ichigo had told her how Shinigami aged differently, all she'd thought of was that the boy she liked was decades older than her. She'd thought of it only from her perspective, not imagining how other people's views of him had shaped who he was. "Do you think it's wrong? That I like him even knowing he's so much older?"

"I don't think there is right or wrong when it comes to love," Orihime replied as she refilled her own tea cup. "If it works for the two of you that's what matters."

"Are you ever going to tell Ichi-nii how you feel about him?"

Orihime choked on her tea.

"Don't worry, he doesn't know and I'd never tell him." Karin smiled. "But you've always been there for him. And I've seen how you look at him. It's the same way I look at Toshiro."

Although Karin had said the last sentence in an embarrassed whisper, Orihime had heard her perfectly and knew exactly what she meant. Her mind worked furiously as she tried to figure out how to respond.

If you'd tell him at least you'd stop having to wonder.

You know how she feels, just talk about how it was for you…

Karin looked up from her tea as she heard Orihime's voice, yet not Orihime's voice. This had happened on occasion around her brother, and like most things she wanted to deny she simply did so. She didn't know why thoughts randomly popped into her head, so like everything else she didn't want to deal with she just ignored them.

"It's not quite the same, Karin-chan." Orihime finally said in her quiet voice. "I've known your brother for years, and one of my best friends has been friends with him since he was five. You barely know Toshiro-kun, and…"

"But he's such an amazing guy." Karin said before she could help herself. "I mean, I only knew him for a few days, but every guy I've ever known has bored me after a day. After a day of knowing them, I've known I couldn't ever see them as more than a friend. But I dream about Toshiro, and…"

Orihime giggled as the younger girl trailed off. "I dream about Kurosaki-kun as well. But I know he doesn't feel the same way about me. Rukia-san…"

"Actually, he was telling me less than an hour ago that him and Rukia-chan are only friends." Karin smirked as the older girl's eyes grew wide.

Orihime thought about that for a moment, then tucked it away. She wasn't supposed to be thinking about herself right now. "Would it be okay with you if you were just friends with Toshiro-kun?"

"I don't know." Karin replied with a sigh. "I've never liked a guy before, I don't…what I mean is…geez, I can't even talk about him without stuttering. I think I just need to think this through on my own." She sighed and rose.

Orihime rose as well, following her to the door. "Did anything we talked about help?"

"Oh, yes, definitely." Karin was already lost in her own thoughts, and had almost forgotten the other girl until she spoke. "Thank you so much, Orihime-chan. I didn't know who else to talk to."

"You can come talk to me whenever you wish." Orihime smiled at Karin as the younger girl slid her shoes on and reached for the door.

"Thanks." Karin replied as she walked back out into the night.

It wasn't a long walk home, yet Karin made it longer by taking a route that would bring her by the soccer field. She knew he wouldn't be there. All the Shinigami except her brother were gone from the real world. But she just wanted to…

Karin stopped in shock a little bit away as she heard the sound of a ball being kicked, and she practically ran the last half-block to the field. She couldn't believe her eyes as they fell upon the boy with the spiky white hair.

Toshiro retrieved the ball from the net, then turned slowly as he felt Karin's presence. Face expressionless, he walked over to her. He'd gotten permission to come to the real world by saying he wanted to see Kurosaki about something. It wasn't his fault everyone had assumed he was talking about the substitute Shinigami.

"You're here." Karin whispered, shocked at running into him just when she was so deep in thought about him.

"There's no place in Soul Society to practice." Toshiro lied as he kicked the ball over to her.

Karin stopped it with her foot and just continued to stare at him.

Toshiro's cheeks turned red as she stared at him, and after a moment he spoke abruptly. "Wanna practice a little before it gets completely dark?"

Karin nodded, and giving the ball a kick to get it started began to dribble towards the goal.

TBC…

Omake - Radio Kon

Kon: And today we welcome one of my favorite people, the girl whose valley is…well…a thing to be worshipped. Orihime!!!

Kon's flying leap towards Orihime's arms stopped abruptly as he connected with Tatsuki's foot.

Orihime: Tatsuki, what are you doing here? You haven't even been in this story.

Tatsuki: I know, what's with that? I know I'm not as popular as you are, but there are still people who want to read about me. There must be.

Kon: Well, maybe some other time. The questions today are for Orihime. "Orihime, why don't you just tell Ichigo that you love him?"

Orihime: Well, um, that's kinda direct. I mean…

Kon: How about this one. "Orihime-chan, does you chest ever get the in the way of…"

Tatsuki: This is ridiculous. Let's go, Orihime.

Orihime: But I'm the guest tonight.

Tatsuki: But if you go home you get to make din=nner.

Orihime: That's right. I was thinking of this new meal, with red bean paste and wasabi and tofu and….

Kon: Well, that was a total failure. Why does no one take me seriously? Anyway, next time on Radio Kon our guest will be Kurosaki Ichigo. That should be a blast.