Guess who's back! Sorry about such a long delay, I had a rough couple of months followed by a busy couple of months. Life has a tendency to get in the way. Hopefully you'll enjoy this, given the long wait.

SUMMARY: He didn't know why he was surprised that she could play the guitar, given the obsession humans seemed to have for music.

Chapter 15: Music

Tōshirō landed neatly on a nearby building before sheathing his zanpakto. He straightened his uniform, it having become dishevelled while dispatching a couple of hollows. Relief came across his face briefly. It seemed that the number of hollows coming to Karakura was stabling instead of increasing, ever since he started teaching Karin how to control her reiatsu a bit better. It was comforting to know that not only was he wasting his time teaching Karin, but she was in less danger than she could've ended up being in.

The thought brought him back to the Kurosaki girl herself, and the fact that she was currently alone in her house. Tōshirō doubted that harm would come to her while in her own home, but he felt somewhat uncomfortable anyway. Truth be told he felt uncomfortable at the fact that he felt uncomfortable. He shouldn't be this worried about her. She could take care of herself and he knew that. But danger seemed to have a way of finding the Kurosakis. Tōshirō sighed as he shook off the feeling, and made his way back to the Kurosaki household.

Tōshirō was about to swing his way into the house through the window until he heard something that made him pause. Instead, he quietly made his way through the house until he found the source of the sound. An ever so subtle smile graced his face as he leant against the doorway of the living room, watching Karin play on an acoustic guitar, quite skilfully as well. He wasn't sure it was a good idea to hang around unannounced, but he didn't want to interrupt her. To Tōshirō's surprise, she started singing.

It wasn't a song he knew, but that wasn't surprising, there being several decades between the two of them. Her voice was quiet, but it filled the silent room easily. He had never heard her voice soft like this. He had only really heard her voice filled with excitement, contentment, or much to Tōshirō's dismay, distress. It was weird to hear a tone he had never heard before, it reminded him that they hadn't actually spent as much time with each other than he would've liked. He didn't know her as well as he wished. It was a beautiful tone too, fitting the song perfectly. Tōshirō would be lying if he said that she had the voice of an angel, but he loved it nonetheless.

Before he knew it, she had stopped and turned round to face him, startling Tōshirō. "You're allowed to come into the room you know."
Tōshirō refused to let his embarrassment show on his face. "I didn't want to interrupt you."
Karin smiled slightly. "Dude, I knew you were there."
"You did?"
"I learnt to sense your presence months ago." Tōshirō raised an eyebrow, prompting her to continue. "You have a very distinct reiatsu. Well I mean, everyone's is different, but yours seems to stand out."

Tōshirō nodded while walking into the room, sitting down opposite her. "Can you sense anyone else like that?"
"Ichi-nii. And Rukia, for most of the time anyway. Why?"
"Hmm. From the sounds of it you'll get better than your brother at sensing reiatsu."
Karin grinned. "He's been a shinigami for years, does he really suck that badly?"
"He's never been that good at manipulating and sensing reiatsu. Though admittedly he does make up for that with brute force."
"Sounds about right."

Tōshirō looked up at Karin before speaking again. "What was that song you were singing?"
Karin pulled her ponytail tighter. "I don't really know. I just remember my mother singing it to me."
"Ah." Tōshirō may not know as much as he would like about Karin, but he knew that her mother was a bit of a tough topic for her. "It's beautiful."
Karin smiled. "I think so too."
"Am I right in thinking that that's a guitar?"

Karin nodded. "You don't have them in Soul Society?"
"No, we have older musical instruments though."
"So how did you know it's a guitar?"
"Somehow human culture is seeping through to ours. I personally blame your brother. Although that guitar looks a lot different than the type I'm familiar with."
Karin spoke as she changed her position so she was cross-legged. "Oh? Maybe it was an electric guitar you saw?"
Tōshirō stared at her blankly. "Possibly?"
"Wait here."

Tōshirō did what he was told and watched Karin run up the stairs. After a minute or so she was coming back down with another guitar in her hand.
"This is an electric guitar. More familiar?"
"Actually yeah. How do the two differ?"
Karin leaned back on the sofa she had just sat down on while contemplating an answer. "Well an acoustic," she pointed to the one she was playing earlier, "can be played on it's own, whereas to sound right you need to plug the electric into an amp. The sound is pretty different too. I would demonstrate, but the amp's upstairs and I'm not running up again."

"Lazy."
Karin gave him a mock look of offence, knowing that he was joking with her, before smiling. "Not lazy, tired. It's late. Besides are you really interested?"
"Actually, yeah. Music isn't really a big thing at home, but it seems to have such a following here. I mean the fact that you have two guitars proves that."
Karin shook her head lightly. "The electric one isn't mine, it's Ichi-nii's."
"Still."
Karin shrugged. "I see your point. Do you want me to teach you how to play? Well the basics at least? I bet you're the type that learns quickly." She said the last sentence with a cheeky smile on her face that made it hard for Tōshirō to resist smiling as well.

Tōshirō shrugged. "Why not?"
Karin smiled slightly as she got up and gave the acoustic guitar to Tōshirō, sitting down on the arm of his chair before moving the guitar so Tōshirō was holding it properly. Carefully she started adjusting his finger placement. "Press those three fingers down." Tōshirō did as he was told. "Ok, now move your palm so those three fingertips are the only thing pressing down on the strings." After Tōshirō followed her instructions she gave him a pick to hold with his other hand. "Now strum all of the six strings in one motion." Tōshirō obeyed, resulting in a harmonious, if very short sound. Karin smiled. "Congrats, you just played a G chord."

Tōshirō turned slightly to look up at her, "That's all there is to it?"
Karin nodded. "Yep. Songs are made up of several chords put together. The trick is changing your finger placement to each chord in time." Tōshirō nodded. "Are you ok?"
The shinigami raised an eyebrow. "I'm fine. Why?"
"Your face is red."

Tōshirō fought hard to not let his face get any redder. Truth was, it was very hard to ignore how close Karin had gotten to him while she instructing him. While she was changing his finger placement she had ended up pressing up against him so she could reach properly, and well, feeling her 'figure' push up against him had made him a little flustered.

To make matters worse, the Kurosaki in question had changed her position and swivelled so she was now facing his side with one leg tucked underneath her, the other hanging in between his. Did the girl have any concept of personal space? As Karin pressed her hand against his forehead he concluded that apparently, she did not. "You don't feel particularly warm."
'That's what you think'
"I wonder why you've gone red." Tōshirō supposed this sort of curiosity was kind of inevitable given she was a nurse. She spoke up again as she pressed the back of her hand against his cheek. "Blushing?"

Tōshirō's eyes shot up to meet hers for a brief moment before darting away again. He couldn't say anything. Lying wouldn't work, she could always tell when he lied, somehow. His train of thought was interrupted when he saw Karin grinning out of the corner of his eye. "You're so cute!"
His head instantly snapped to face her. "I am not!"
She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, making his face go about 10 shades deeper. "I beg to differ." Before Tōshirō could reply with anything, his phone started beeping. "Another hollow already?"

Tōshirō dug his phone out of his uniform. "Apparently."
"Damn, I can't torture you more."
Tōshirō gave Karin a glare, making her smirk. "I gotta go."
She nodded. "Go already, you don't have to worry, I'll still be here when you get back." She winked after she finished talking. Tōshirō glared at her again, cheeks tinged with pink, before he left the house. He had hoped that knowing she was deliberately trying to get him to blush would stop him from doing so, but it would appear that it did not make the slightest bit of difference. He practically felt powerless when it came to Karin. What made it worse was that he was fine with it.

It kinda gives me an unfinished feel truth be told, but I didn't know how else to end it. To be honest, I think not writing for months had left me a little rusty. I even struggled to write the summary. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things soon. Although it has had positive effects, it's a bit easier to look at my writing critically. Which reminds me, out of interest, how do people prefer to have speech spaced out? I lay it out the way I do because that's why I was taught, but I've grown fonder of the way most people do it on this site, which is which a blank space between each line. So do you guys have preferences? Would you prefer me to lay speech the way I do now, or the way most people do?

I've already got an idea for the next chapter, which hopefully I'll write soon. The prompt for the next chapter 'Normal'. I hope you look forward to it!