Disclaimer: Kubo is god. Kubo is king. Tite Kubo owns everything. Except the quotes used at the start of each chapter. They were all found on the internet, and if they have an author I say who it is.

AN: See all author's notes in part one. Finally a long, totally HitsuKarin chapter. Thanks to all of you for sticking with me so far. My first real foray into the Bleach fandom has been successful enough that I think I'll stay. And double thanks to those of you who take the time to review and let me know that enough people are liking this story to make it worth me continuing to write it. This part is for you…

"In Times That She Cried," the one-shot of how Momo stopped being a zombie, is now up. Feedback on it would be welcome, as no one has reviewed it yet.

The poll on my profile page is now closed. Check out the omake for which story will be coming after this one concludes, which will be at least 2 or 3 more parts, I think/hope. Not many people voted, but that means the ones who took the time to do so get what they want.


No Warm Memories

By Lady Callista

Chapter 7: Melting the Ice

OoOoOoOoOoO

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

-Albert Camus

OoOoOoOoOoO

Karin looked to the window, and found Toshiro inside the room, leaning against the window frame and looking directly at her. "Toshiro?"

"Karin," Toshiro's voice betrayed nothing. "Will you take a walk with me?"

Still not completely awake, Karin gaped at him as she glanced down at her alarm clock. "A walk? It's three in the morning!"

"I know," Toshiro looked abashed and slightly guilty. "But it's the only time I could get away."

Taking a quick glance at a still sleeping Yuzu, Karin climbed out of her bed and joined him by the window, whispering, "You're not supposed to be here, are you?"

Toshiro shook his head even as he climbed out the window and balanced effortlessly on the slanted roof.

"Then why are you here?" Karin hissed.

His only reply was to hold out his hand to her. His face was expressionless, which she knew by now was normal for him, but his teal eyes held hers intensely.

Karin grabbed her coat from the back of her chair, shrugging into it quickly before taking his hand and stepping out onto the roof. Her cheeks pinked as he didn't release her, but she made no move to pull her hand away. "So, now what?" She asked as she glanced at the ground.

The corner of his mouth tipped up in his trademark almost-smile and he released her hand. "Don't all humans dream of flying?"

Karin's eyes widened in shock as he moved his zanpakuto so that it hung over his chest, then turned and crouched down slightly to offer her his back.

Karin wrapped her arms carefully around his neck, her blush growing even brighter as their bodies came into almost full contact.

Feeling his body tense, she asked, "Ready?"

"Whenever you are." Toshiro said as he enjoyed the feeling of her pressed against him.

Karin jumped up, wrapping her legs around his waist. He didn't weigh much more than she did, but he held her effortlessly. Not that she was surprised.

"Hold on tight." Toshiro instructed, wrapping his left arm behind himself to rest his hand on the small of her back. She was strong for a human girl, but he would be moving very fast.

Karin tightened her grasp, trying to prepare herself. She felt every muscle in his body tense, and tried to be ready, yet still couldn't stop the slight screech that escaped her mouth as the world suddenly became a blur.

A few shunpo later they were a good distance from the Kurosaki house. Toshiro moved easily, Karin a warm, comforting weight on his back. Deciding that he rather liked her there, and realizing that he was moving too fast for her to actually see anything, Toshiro slowed down about halfway to his destination and began running along the rooftops.

Suddenly Karin laughed. "I just realized what would happen if someone saw me right now."

Toshiro shuddered slightly as her warm breath blew against the side of his neck. "We're moving too fast for anyone to really see you. But if it would make you more comfortable…"

Karin let out a little squeak as he vaulted into the air, and before she could blink they were over a hundred meters off the ground and he was…running…on the air?!?!

"Okay, now this is cool." Karin said, and she heard him chuckle over the excitement she knew was in her voice. "I want Urahara-san to teach me this!"

"He can't." Toshiro replied absently. "It's not possible for humans to…wait, Urahara is…" Toshiro stuttered as he landed on the ground in front of the Urahara Shoten. He'd known it would be too cold outside for them to talk, well, too cold for her at least, so he'd asked Urahara as soon as he came through the Senkaimon if he could use the underground training area for the night. He hadn't mentioned bringing anyone else there, but he also hadn't known that Urahara was training Karin.

Although that did explain why Urahara had opened the Senkaimon for him without asking any questions. Knowing the tricky shopkeeper, he probably knew of his connection to Karin.

"Um…Toshiro?" Karin questioned after he had stood motionless for almost 20 seconds. She would have just hopped down, but his arm was still wrapped firmly around her, holding her to his back. She'd been insulted when he first did it, as if he thought she wasn't strong enough to hang on, but had understood as soon as he started moving at the insanely fast pace he had started out at.

"Ah, sorry." Toshiro said as he released her, allowing her to jump down and move away from him. "I figured it would be too cold outside for you, and was wondering how I was going to explain the huge area under the store. But I'm going to guess you've been there."

Karin nodded, and Toshiro adjusted his zanpakuto to rest on his back again even as he entered the store and headed downstairs, feeling her following him.

Karin was silent as she followed Toshiro down the long flight of stairs.

Listen.

Karin almost embraced her power, then hesitated. Urahara-san had said that a zanpakuto's voice was supposed to be personal and private, and his tone of voice had basically said that he thought her power was somewhat rude. Using it on her friend for no reason other than to satisfy her curiosity seemed wrong.

Toshiro sat on a large rock and motioned for her to join him.

He'd gone over what he wanted to say over a dozen times, trying to find the best way to say it. He wasn't exactly good at expressing himself. But now that she sat beside him, everything he'd worked so hard on sounded stupid.

"So, Urahara-san is training you?" Toshiro asked finally, just to end the silence.

"Yes, but that's not why you dragged me out of my nice warm bed at 3 a.m." Karin replied. "You sounded surprised when I told you."

Toshiro nodded. "I am surprised, both that you would ask him and that he would agree. But, Karin, I really wish you wouldn't try to fight."

"Why? Just because I'm not as strong as you are doesn't mean I'm not strong!" Karin turned to face him fully, anger showing on her face.

"It doesn't matter how strong you are. Dealing with Hollows is the job of the Shinigami, and…" Toshiro's voice was still flat, although the twitching around the corners of his eyes showed his anger.

"You just don't want me to fight cause I'm a girl!" Karin said heatedly.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Toshiro replied, anger and frustration beginning to show in his voice.

"It's why Ichi-nii doesn't want me to fight. That's what he told me!" Karin stood up and began to pace.

Toshiro stood as well. "He was probably referring more to your age than your gender."

She spun to square off with him. "He's only 4 years older than I am!"

"And those are a very important 4 years!" Toshiro was responding to her anger by yelling at her in return.

"Well we humans can't be all mature and older than we look like you are." Karin retorted.

"It wouldn't matter if you were 50. I still wouldn't want you to fight!" Toshiro said, frustrated with the way the conversation was going. He hadn't come here to argue with her.

"I've been taking care of myself since my mother died!" Karin yelled. "Why does everyone suddenly think I can't do so? Are you checking up on me? What are you even doing here?"

"I just don't want to see another person I care about get hurt!" Toshiro yelled.

For a second, they both froze, and you could have heard a pin drop on the other end of the cavernous room.

Then Karin turned red and started sputtering, and Toshiro took a step away, snapping his head quickly to the side. His face went through several transitions before becoming expressionless.

"You came here just because you wanted to see me, didn't you?" Karin asked, all the anger gone from her voice.

Toshiro gave a single nod, still not looking at her. "When I left last week, I planned to never return to the human world. I thought it would be easier on both of us if we just never saw each other again. But I missed you. I barely know you, but I missed you."

"I missed you, too." Karin replied automatically. "But we're not really supposed to be friends, are we? Isn't that why you had to sneak down here?"

"It's just that it's hard for a Taicho to get to the real world." Toshiro replied as moved back over to the rock and sat back down. "There's no law against us being friends."

Although there is a law forbidding you from being more than friends.

"More than friends?" Karin asked as she spun around to face him.

"What?" Toshiro's head snapped up. Where had that come from? Hyorinmaru had just made a sarcastic comment about it, but Toshiro was certain he hadn't repeated it out loud.

Karin turned bright red. "Kyokon," She mumbled before speaking in her head.

'Please stop doing that. It's rude, and confusing.'

I told you to listen and you would not.

'I was listening,' Karin told the voice. 'I listened to what he was saying out loud to me.'

That boy is too stoic and repressed to…

"Urahara-san is apparently a very good teacher."

Karin blinked as the words pulled her out of her mental conversation. "What?"

"I've seen the look that was just in your eyes on the face of many a Shinigami," Toshiro replied, his mind having replayed the past minute. "You were speaking with your zan…with your soul. With your power."

Karin nodded. "I'm sorry, but I can't control it yet. It's…confusing sometimes."

His skilled mind had already come to the obvious conclusion.

"You heard what Hyorinmaru said to me, didn't you?" Toshiro questioned, trying to lead her away from thinking about what she'd actually heard. He planned on telling her at some point, but the way it had been revealed just felt so wrong to him.

"Hyorinmaru?"

"My zanpakuto," Toshiro clarified.

"Ah, yeah. I did," Karin blushed. "I wasn't trying to, from Urahara-san's reaction when he figured out what I can do I got the impression that it's kinda, well, rude, like eavesdropping on a private conversation or something, but…he's spoken me to once before, and…"

"He spoke to you?" Toshiro asked in shock.

"I…I think so." Karin said, finally sitting back down beside him. "I wasn't sure what was going on at the time, but he spoke of you in the third person, as if he was speaking to me."

"But you weren't trying to hear him?" Toshiro asked. He was curious, as he'd never heard of anything like this, but mostly he was just glad she was ignoring the comment she'd overheard about the whole 'more than friends' thing.

"No, I didn't even know that I could yet." Karin admitted. "Urahara-san just figured that out this morning. I can do it when I want to now, but I can't always stop it from happening when I don't want it to."

"What did he say when he spoke to you?" Toshiro questioned.

Karin blushed at the memory.

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.

She hadn't understood it at all at the time. Having had a week to think about it, and having done some checking on the Internet, she had an idea of what it meant. She also had lots of cheesy quotes about love melting the heart that she couldn't get out of her head.

"Wouldn't he have told you himself if he wanted you to hear?" Karin asked, grabbing onto any delay, any excuse she could to stop herself from thinking of what his Hyorinmaru had told her.

Toshiro glared at her. "Ask him yourself. He rarely speaks to me, except to make cynical comments."

"I can only listen, I can't talk to him." Karin replied, although she did wonder if it would be possible to talk to other souls the way she talked to her own. If she could hear them, why couldn't she make them hear her?

"Kyokon." Karin proudly invoked her power by name for the first time, picturing the cute white-haired boy that sat beside her in her head. "Kiku, Tamashii no Mado."

I talk to him as often as he talks to others.

Karin giggled at the first comment, and tried to ask Hyorinmaru why he hadn't told Toshiro the same thing he'd told her.

He cannot hear you. Kyokon's voice echoed through her head instead. You are not yet ready to speak to others.

I feel him thawing, but that does not trouble me. Ice and cold were what he needed, what he knew, but he was once so much more. There must be more to life than duties and memories. He does not need to live in the icy cold logic of battle to have it when he needs it.

"What's he saying to you?" Toshiro asked quietly. Unlike when she'd been speaking to her own power, her eyes had not glazed over, and he had the feeling she'd be able to both listen and answer him.

"Umm…" Karin hesitated. "Maybe he doesn't want you to hear…"

No, child. I just think it will be better coming from you.

"Ah, he says your thawing doesn't bother him. That duty and memories aren't all there is to life. He says you were once so much more than cold and ice, and that you don't need to…" Karin paused as she tried to remember the exact phrase.

You do not need to live in the icy cold logic of battle to have it when you need it.

"You do not need to live in the icy cold logic of battle to have it when you need it." Karin repeated, her cheeks turning bright pink yet again as she looked over at him from less than a foot away. She'd probably blushed more tonight than she had in her entire life, she thought with irritation.

Toshiro gaped. "I spend a week worrying that I will lose my power if I…he could have just told me…"

You are forbidden from being more than friends. But he has lived by the rules for far too long.

"He wanted me to tell you." Karin whispered. "And about the more than friends thing…"

Toshiro reached over to take her hand, and she stopped speaking as soon as he touched her, although she did return his grasp.

"I have no right to think of you that way, or to expect that's how you think of me. It would be impossible to…not to mention forbidden….and…"

"But it is how I think of you." Karin cut him off.

Toshiro couldn't think of how to reply. His heart soared, but at the same time his mind cut in with the fact that it would have been easier if she hadn't liked him back. Then he could have just left her alone, telling himself he was being a martyr by letting her live her life and not trying to win her hand. But knowing she liked him as well…

Toshiro looked up from where his gaze had been focused on their joined hands, meeting her eyes with the full force of his. "This is impossible."

Karin could only stare at him, mesmerized by the power in his teal eyes. She didn't know what had given her the courage to interrupt him, but was glad she had. Her eyes widened as one of his hands came up to ghost over her cheek.

Toshiro leaned in towards her slowly, making sure that this was okay with her. Although her eyes widened further and her breath hitched, she made no move to stop him.

Toshiro kissed her gently, his hand sliding around from her cheek to the back of her neck. He'd never kissed anyone on the lips before, and was amazed by the sensations caused by nothing but her soft lips on his.

Karin stopped thinking, stopped breathing, as he kissed her. She'd never wanted to kiss a guy before, had never found one she liked enough to even imagine it. But being kissed by him was like being given a little piece of heaven. Even as the thought popped into her head she almost cringed at the corniness of it. Yet her normally smart-ass brain could find no retort for the feelings flowing through her.

After what could have been an instant or an eternity, Toshiro slowly pulled back just enough to rest his forehead on hers. He kept his eyes closed as he repeated softly, "This is impossible."

"I love a challenge." Karin replied when she'd gotten back enough breath to talk.

TBC…

AN2: So now I come to the challenge every HitsuKarin writer faces. 1) Keep her human, and tell about how they can only see each other on occasion, bleh, bleh, bleh. 2) Fast-forward in time about 5-10 years, and have her reminisce about how they've been carrying on a forbidden relationship. 3) Kill her and have her enter Soul Society.

Any opinions? Or any other options?

Omake: Friday Night Drinking Group

"So you finally told her, huh?" Rangiku saluted Izuru with her cup before knocking it back.

Izuru blushed, yet acknowledged her toast by drinking himself. "Well, that puts me one up on you at this point."

"Yeah, these's this rumor going around that you're going after Kuchiki-taicho." Renji added with a chuckle. "How's that going for you?"

Rangiku smirked. "Not half as bad as I'd thought it would. Once you get to know him, he's actually less annoying than you are."

Renji choked on his sake as all the others around the table laughed.

"Why are we talking about this anyway?" Shunsui wanted to know.

Rangiku smirked again. "Well, it seems Byakuya and I have won the poll. The next story in this series is going to be all about us! I just love being the center of attention!"

"What about me?" Shunsui questioned. "I want to be the center of attention!"

"Well, apparently there is one person who's very insistent on you getting your own story, so just be patient." Izuru commented, pride on his face. "I already got mine though, so someone must like me more than you."

"Yeah, but that same someone likes Shiro-chan more than you, so don't get too cocky." Rangiku quipped back.

"Yeah, what do all the ladies see in that child?" Renji wanted to know.

"It's gotta be the hair." Ikkaku grimaced as he refilled everyone's cups.

"Nah, it's his zanpakuto." Shunsui replied. "It is the most popular in all of Seireitei after all."

Rangiku locked eyes with Yoruichi across the table and decided not to comment.

Glossary:

Hyorinmaru: Written with the kanji for ice, ring, and circle, this is Toshiro's ice-type zanpakuto. Interestingly enough, the kanji used for ring is also used as a counter for flowers, possibly a reference to the flower petals that form behind Toshiro's bankai.

Kyokon: Written using the kanji for mirror (kagami / 鏡 ) and soul (tamashii / 魂 ). This is the name of Karin's power, and was created by me for this story.

Kiku: literally "Listen." The release command for Karin's Tamashii no Mado.

Tamashii no Mado: Literally "Soul's Window" or "Window of the Soul," Karin's ability that allows her to hear the souls of others.