Standard disclaimer applies.
Author's notes: I'm jumping back to the very first episodes or early manga chapters , back to the time when Rukia leaves.You'll know the exact time of it when you get to the ending. (But do remember Death Butterflies one-shots don't follow a sequence) While my main focus is IchiRuki as a pairing, this one is more of Ichigo-centric-ish + Karin-centric-ish? Something like that. Oh, by the way, if I'm not mistaken, most houses in Japan have the bathtub and the toilet at different places (something about impurity and such), so that's why Ichigo has been able to take a shower but not go to the restroom? Okay, that may sound strange, but you'll know why I' wanted to point this out. Lastly, I'd like to say that I love Karin, she needs more love. So does Yuzu. :D

Big Brothers
16.10.2005

"Oi." A soft tap on the wooden surface and Rukia does not answer the door of her –his– closet.

He is tempted to slide the door open himself. God, he would have done that long time ago, but there are some nasty memories of him impatiently opening the closet only catch Rukia as she was changing clothes. Not fun. Rukia had beaten the shit out of him. Even remembering it brought shivers up and down his spine. No, not fun.

"Oi." Two positively stronger and louder knocks. That surely should wake her up if she dozed off inside. He knew very well she wasn't a light sleeper; she should be up with all that knocking.

"OI! Dammit!" Ichigo raps on the door with his knuckles loudly. He had taken long enough in the shower. Is she really inside the closet or hasn't she come back yet, after all? Where the hell could she be at this hour anyway? What would she be doing just now?

"Come on," he tries again, "Open up, Rukia!"

But still there isno answer coming from the other side. Now, seriously, where is she!

"Ichi-nii?" Karin's inquisitive voice snaps Ichigo away from his current frustration. He looks around towards the door, where his younger, black-haired sister stands looking at him with perfectly arched brows. "What are you doing, Ichi-nii?"

"Ah, Karin," his hand falls to his sides, loosening his fist. Ichigo stares at her, aware that she's found him knocking at his own closet. He must have looked so… ridiculous. And now the small girl is scrutinizing him with her sharp eyes and, no doubt, thinking of so many questions he isn't able to answer just now. There's no other choice but to play dumb with her, so he does. "Uh, nothing…"

He looks around his room, averting the little girl's eyes, because, goodness, she has got some strong gaze. At some point, his eyes land on the tray of cold food sitting on the corner of his desk. He would have to re-heat it, again. That stupid Rukia…

The fifteen-year-old crosses the space between the closet and his bed, sitting on the edge and scratching his orange-haired head lazily. He's acting as casually as his stiff body lets him to, but he knows that Karin is more perceptive than she seems so he looks back at her. "Do you need something, Karin?"

Karin is still looking at him suspiciously, arms crossed over her chest. 'There is no return, Ichi-nii, to the way things have been lately,' she feels tempted to say, but she sighs instead, dropping her head. This is something that Ichigo must learn by himself. (And a nagging voice keeps on telling her that he is going to learn it the hard way, too.)

"No," she replies vaguely but loud enough for him to hear, her gaze shifting around her brother's room as if she were looking for something out of place. "It's just that… Yuzu says she thinks that you can use the restroom now. You know," she goes back to looking at him, "she just didn't want you to go just after Pops."

Ichigo grimaces in distaste, inwardly thanking the Gods up in the sky for having such a thoughtful sister (who knows how many traumas she has just prevented for him), and answers her calmly with, "Ah, yes, thanks."

Karin nods and looks ready to go back to her own bedroom but she pauses just as she is about to leave her brother's room. Turning her head over her shoulder, she looks at Ichigo and locks gazes with him. There's something so solemn, so somber about the look that she is giving him that it captures his attention right away, but yet it makes Ichigo look back at her with wariness and doubt. It's as though she wants to tell him something important without words and just through her eyes.

When she stares at him like that, with her dark eyes focused only on him, Ichigo realizes she resembles her father a lot more than she thinks (when he's acting seriously, however few those occasions arise). It's perhaps one of the good traits that the Kurosaki children have inherited from their old man, that penetrating gaze.

"Karin?" he mumbles questioningly, unsure of what to say.

"You have to grow stronger, Ichi-nii," she says.

There's a gentle tone in her words, which flow softly and smoothly, that reminds him of Masaki, their mother. And then, there's also that calm smile on her face triggers memories hidden on the back of his mind, as though he's seen that same smile somewhere else, long, long ago.

He snaps out of his thoughts and then he can only look back at her oddly, nodding numbly even if he doesn't really get what she's talking about. Then she smiles at him briefly before finally leaving the room.

And like always, Karin trusts him to keep his word, simply because Ichigo is Ichigo. Ichigo is her big brother.

-END-

Later that night, that Sandal-hat guy will stop by to visit the Kurosaki residence for the first time in more than twenty years. Karin will be the first to notice the changes in her brother.