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. Part of the series "After The Winter War." Full info on this series (not that there's much to it yet) is in my profile. And yeah, I think I may be getting a little OOC with both Toshiro and Karin; I don't really know how to make them work as a couple unless I do. Although since we've never seen either one of them have a crush on someone, maybe this is how they would act if they did. I mean, I remember how strange I acted in elementary school when I liked a boy…

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. Most will be Radio Kon, a few will be other fun surprises. 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 4: First Date

OoOoOoOoOoO

Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.

-Pietro Aretino

OoOoOoOoOoO

"What are you doing out here, Orihime-chan?" Rangiku asked as she found the girl standing near the edge of a soccer field, hiding behind a tree.

"Shh…" Orihime said quickly as she motioned for the Shinigami to move next to her. "Karin-chan, ah, Kurosaki-kun's little sister came to my house to talk, and I just wanted to make sure she got home okay, so I kinda followed her. Oh, but…What are you doing here? I thought you all went back to…"

"We did." Rangiku replied, her attention still on Orihime. "But Hitsugaya decided to come back for…a…something, and now he's hiding his reiatsu so I can't find him, and I need to…"

Orihime giggled, stopping the other girl from starting to rant. "Um, look behind you."

Rangiku spun around, not sure what she was expecting to find. It certainly wasn't her taicho in jeans and a polo shirt playing soccer with Kurosaki Karin.

Orihime giggled again at the shocked look on Rangiku's face. "I really should go home now, I'm sure he'll get her home safe, but they just look so cute. I don't think I've ever seen him smile before this."

Rangiku sighed and slung an arm around Orihime's shoulders. "I guess I can wait on what I wanted to tell him. Wanna go have some tea?"

Orihime smiled. "Sure."

OoOoOoOoOoO

Unaware of the two women who had been watching her, Karin dribbled past Toshiro before kicking the ball into the net.

Toshiro retrieved it and kicked it back over to her. She started towards him again, feinting left before spinning around to the right. But he'd seen her use that move several times already, so he was ready for it and blocked the goal.

Unfortunately, at that exact moment, he felt a third reiatsu joining the two that had been heading away, and didn't block as well as he should have. The ball reflected off his arm right back at Karin, catching her on the shoulder with a thump. He jogged over to her quickly as she made a rolling motion with her shoulder before wincing.

"Are you okay?" He asked quickly, reaching out to touch her shoulder without thought. She blushed and he quickly dropped his hand.

"Um, yeah, I think so." Karin replied as she rotated her arm again, more carefully than the first time. "It'll just be sore tomorrow."

"Uh, sorry." Toshiro mumbled even as he felt a flare of kido from his fukutaicho, followed immediately by another, different kido. He'd have to thank her and Inuoe later for heading Kurosaki off. Although he didn't like that they'd been spying on him, he hadn't wanted to alert Karin to their presence. Plus they'd been leaving on their own. But not having to deal with the substitute Shinigami was almost worth being spied on.

"It's okay." Karin replied, hoping the night hid how red her face was. Although his face was almost blank, there was something in his eyes that she couldn't identify. And for some reason the look made it hard for her to meet his eyes. "Not like I've never gotten hit by a ball before."

"Um…would you like to go get some ice cream or something?" Toshiro said quickly. He'd come to the human world with the sole purpose of seeing her, and instead had ended up kicking a soccer ball around by himself, trying to work up the nerve to go find her. That she'd walked by had been fortuitous, yet even as they'd fallen easily into the game he'd been unable to say anything to her. He was not a man of many words, and he was not a man who showed his feelings, and the thought that he was going to need both those things terrified him. Not that he would ever admit it.

"Sounds good." Karin answered quickly, astounded by the offer but not about to pass it up.

He nodded, and retrieved a bag to toss the ball into before slinging it over his shoulder. He motioned for her to take the lead, as he didn't know where he was going, and she headed off, thankfully not in the direction of those spying on them.

He turned for an instant to glare into the darkness at the three spies, then turned away and caught up to Karin. They walked in silence for a few minutes, and when he was sure they were not being followed, he managed to say, "So, uh, how have you been?"

Karin smirked. "Oh, same old, same old. School, soccer, Hollow killing."

Toshiro stopped walking, the lines going across his forehead the only sign that he was frowning.

"Kidding." Karin said as she stopped as well. "Do you really think Ichi-nii would let me do that?"

"You don't strike me as a person who always listens to what people tell them." Toshiro replied. "You did try to take out a huge Hollow with a soccer ball, after all, even after I'd told you to run away."

"It usually works." Karin mumbled, before saying louder, "Well, how was I to know if you could kill it or not?"

"If we are ever in that situation again, will you promise to let me handle it?" The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, and he felt his cheeks heat up. He knew he sounded too concerned for someone who had only met her a few times.

"Don't see why it matters, but sure." Karin replied. "If we're ever in a situation again where I can't destroy the Hollow myself, I'll let you handle it. It's not like it'll happen though. You live in…hey, yeah, why are you here anyway?"

Toshiro wondered if she could hear his teeth grinding together. "I told you, there's no where to play soccer in Seireitei. And that wasn't the promise I asked you to make." Although he'd been embarrassed when the words first slipped out, now he was annoyed at her interpretation of what he'd asked. He knew that she knew exactly what he'd meant.

Karin rolled her eyes at him, yet was surprised with how he was handling this. Ichigo had more or less ordered her to never try fighting a Hollow again, and Toshiro had been correct earlier that she wasn't always one to listen to what people told her. Especially when they were trying to order her around.

Yet Toshiro hadn't told her not to try fighting them, only that if he was around to let him handle it. And he hadn't ordered her, he'd asked. She didn't know if it was intentional on his part, if somehow he understood her that well, or if he would have said it that way to anyone.

She glanced over at him. It cost her nothing to agree, it wasn't like he was going to be in Karakura Town much, unless he was in the mood for soccer. Although from some of the things Rukia-chan had said, she was surprised he was here at all. It hadn't sounded like Shinigami were in the real world that often, especially the high-ranking ones, which she remembered he was. What had the strawberry blond who'd been almost falling out her gi called him? Taicho? That had to be pretty important. Which reminded her…

"I promise, if you answer a question for me." Karin said finally as they turned into the ice cream shop.

He glanced over at her and nodded as he opened the door for her.

She stood there for an instant, waiting for him to go through, and was surprised when he tipped his head towards the shop's interior with a questioning look on his face. When she realized he had opened the door for her, she quickly blushed and went through. He was treating her like a girl. No one had ever really done that before, and she didn't know if she liked it or not.

Toshiro followed her into the shop, his eyes widening at the number of flavors he saw. He'd only had ice cream once, and it had come from the single tub in Inuoe's freezer. He hadn't know there were this many kinds of it.

Karin was already scanning down the list, trying to figure out what she was in the mood for, when she saw him staring blankly at it. "Don't know what you want?"

Toshiro shook his head. He wasn't even sure what all the flavors were, as there were many more types of food on earth than there were in Soul Society.

"Well, what do you like?" Karin asked even as she narrowed down what she felt like eating. Probably chocolate chip, or maybe mint chocolate, or…cookie dough, yummy!

Toshiro glanced at the tubs she seemed to be focused on. "Mint maybe. I know I like it at least."

Karin giggled even as she smiled at the woman behind the counter. "I'd like a mint and a cookie dough fudge mint chip please. Cones."

The woman nodded and began making them.

Karin reached into her pocket for money, only to be startled as Toshiro's hand touched hers lightly. Her eyes flew over to him as he placed a black wallet into her hands.

"I don't really understand how your money works." Toshiro mumbled. "But as I asked you to come here, I will pay for them."

"Soul…uh…" She glanced quickly at the woman behind the counter before rephrasing, "You guys don't use money?" She didn't think the woman could hear them, mumbling as they were, but didn't want to get asked any odd questions.

Also aware they could be overheard, Toshiro's reply was, "We do, it's just…different." He watched her eyes widen as she took in the amount of money in the wallet.

"And apparently you get paid well." Karin replied as she took out a bill to pay for the ice cream as the woman handed it to her, then slid the change back into the wallet before handing it and his ice cream to him.

They headed back outside into the cool night air. "Um, thank you." Karin blushed even as she said it, gesturing to the ice cream.

He gave her an almost-smile. "I take it the question you want to ask in exchange for your promise couldn't be asked in there."

"Um, no." Karin replied, now nervous about asking the question. But even since Ichigo had told her that Shinigami aged differently she'd been unable to get it out of her head.

"Well?"

"Howoldareyou?" The question came out in a rush, and she looked away from him even as she focused intently on eating her ice cream.

Toshiro sighed, sitting down at a picnic table in the park next to the ice cream shop. She joined in, carefully not looking at him. "Who have you been talking to?"

"Um…well, Ichi-nii mentioned that you guys age differently, and he told me that Rukia-chan has been a Shinigami for over 40 years, so…" Karin's voice was so uncharacteristically soft that he could barely hear her.

"Most people enter Soul Society at the same age they died at. People can also be born in Soul Society. But yes, once there we age differently." This was one of the main things he hadn't wanted to tell her, but she did have a right to know. At least if whatever he felt for her kept getting stronger, and assuming of course she felt the same way. Which from the number of times she'd blushed since he started talking to her he thought she might. "I've been a Shinigami for less years than Kuchiki Rukia, although not that many less years."

Karin finally glanced over at him. "That's kinda weird. Although I understand now why you kept yelling at us when we thought you were an elementary school student."

"You certainly weren't the only ones to think it." Toshiro sighed. "Physically, I'm about the same age as you are. But people in Soul Society don't really treat you by how you look, because we've all lived for so long. I am the youngest Shinigami ever, but at the same time it's hard for them to treat me as a child when they've known me for 30 years."

Unless they were teasing him about it, he thought to himself, but there was no need to tell her of that.

Karin nodded thoughtfully, although it still creped her out to think that the guy she liked was that much older than her. "I guess that makes sense."

Toshiro could tell that finding out how old he was disturbed her, but couldn't think of how to ask her why that was. It did really drive home the point that he shouldn't be here though. He shouldn't be spending time with her. Not only was he keeping her from spending time with other people, people who weren't, well, dead, but he was causing more and more complications in her life. He knew Kurosaki would be all over her about him as soon as she returned home. And now he was telling her that he was, in effect, an adult, yet he was hanging out with her as a child would.

He already liked her too much. Especially since nothing could ever come of them being a couple. He needed to just walk away, before it got any worse. He'd also noticed that the cold inside him, the cold that he'd lived with from the moment he entered Soul Society, was starting to lessen. And that actually worried him more than anything else. That cold was his power, was who he was, and without it…

"What did you say?" Karin asked, her attention suddenly turning from her ice cream and her own inner musings as she heard his voice, although it sounded strange.

"I didn't say anything." Toshiro looked at her in confusion. "Although I do have to be going soon, so we should start walking towards your place."

Karin only nodded, now looking confused herself. "I, uh, I must have heard someone walking by." She said hurriedly as she rose and polished off the rest of her cone.

He only nodded as he rose with her and started the short walk to her house.

"So, uh, when are you coming back?" Karin asked when they were only a few houses away.

Toshiro kept his face and voice emotionless. "I don't know."

Karin glanced up at him, wondering why he was suddenly so different. He'd somewhat opened up to her while they were talking before, but now he was acting exactly like he had when she'd first met him. Until she'd asked him that question, they'd been walking in silence for almost five minutes.

"Um, well, I guess I'll see you around then." She said as they stopped in front of her house.

"Maybe." Toshiro replied as he turned and walked away. It was harder than it should have been, but he knew he had to do this. It would be easier on them both in the long run.

Karin slid quietly into her house and made it up to her room without anyone stopping her.

Once there, she flopped down on the bed, two sentences running around and around in her head. She believed him that he hadn't spoken, which meant what she'd heard had been that same weird thing that happened around Ichigo, and just earlier when she'd been with Orihime.

She'd thought at first with Ichigo that maybe somehow she could read his mind, and had ignored it as thoroughly as she used to ignore spirits. That had seemed possible with Orihime as well, but this had been different. What she'd heard couldn't have been his thoughts, unless for some reason he thought in the third person and had a split personality. And she had no idea what it meant.

He thinks he will lose me if he is not completely like me, but I will always be at the core of his being. His ice may melt to water, but that is simply another face of ice, and can always change back when it needs to.

TBC…

Omake - Society of Female Shinigami

"Yachiru-fukutaicho, why are the names of all the male taicho on the blackboard?" Rukia asked as she arrived first at the meeting.

Yachiru giggled as most of the other women came into the room. "Well, today's activity will be to rank them."

"Rank them?" Rangiku asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, well, I know no one will beat Ken-chan, but I don't know how the rest of it will go." Yachiru replied even as she put a number 1 next to Kenpachi's name.

"Are we ranking how powerful they are?" Nanao asked with a smirk. "Because if we rank them by how much they can drink then my taicho will win."

Yachiru giggled again. "No, silly, not how powerful or how much they can drink."

"Are we ranking them in the order you like them?" Rangiku asked, which would make sense if Kenpachi was first.

"No, no." Yachiru replied. "Why would a group of girls rate them on anything but how cute they are?"

There were groans all around.

Glossary:

Kido: literally "spirit way" or "demon way," these are the spells Shinigami cast. Most fall into the categories of either binding or destruction.