Blergh. I've been feeling pretty crappy recently because of the heat (it aggravates my illnesses) so I decided to write something cute to make me feel better. Thank you guys so much for all the reviews, faves, alerts, etc. I've now managed to get over 40 alerts and almost 50 reviews, which is really cool. I hope you guys enjoy this!

SUMMARY: Toshiro wasn't at all surprised that she was so upset. He just hoped he could make her feel better.

Chapter 18: Flower

"Ugh I can't believe I actually lost it!"

Tōshirō sighed. "It wasn't your fault Karin. With the way the hollow cut into your neck it was inevitable that the necklace would break and fall off you. If anything this is my fault."

Karin shot him a glare. "Stop being dumb. You weren't even in this world when the hollow attacked me. Unless you want to be joined at the hip, you can't protect me 24/7."

Karin kicked a nearby railing before huffing and sitting down on the floor, having given up hope on finding the necklace. It had been a week now. Tōshirō sat down next to her, not really knowing what to say. He knew how important the necklace was to her. She had found it one day while going through a closet the family had used as a storage space. It had been her mother's. A very fine chain with a ornate flower pendant with some sort of gemstone representing the pollen. The flower that the pendant depicted was a forget-me-not, the minute Karin said it he knew why she had decided to wear it. The literal meaning of the flower was 'do not forget me'. It was easy to see why she developed an attachment to her mother's necklace when it had that meaning connected to it. Ever since she found it he had never seen her without it. So he understood why she was so upset that she had lost it. But he didn't know what to say. He had seen her angry several times. He had seen her frustrated plenty of times too. But he had never seen her on the verge of tears before.

He cautiously put his arm around her shoulders, not daring to pull her closer to him in case she took it the wrong way. But instead she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. A few moments passed before Karin finally broke down and cried. He pulled her into a hug, feeling her body shake as she soaked the shoulder of his t-shirt. It was better she cried now, rather than suppressing her feelings. He knew this wasn't a hundred percent about the necklace. A couple of months ago, when she had been a half asleep, she admitted that the older she got the less she remembered about her mother. This revelation didn't surprise Tōshirō, after all Karin had only been about 5 when she died. But understandably, the idea of forgetting her mother was stressing her out. The necklace had been an actual solid, tangible link to her mother. And now it was gone. He had literally never seen her cry before, he could understand why she was. And to be perfectly honest, it broke his heart a little.

XxXxXxX

Karin bit back a sigh as she collapsed onto her bed. It had been an interesting day to say the least. She had turned sixteen. Her dad had gone all out like usual, spoiling her and Yuzu all day. Ichigo had come round, along with some unexpected guests. It ended up resulting in a huge lunch shared by her family, Rukia, Rangiku and Tōshirō, followed by birthday cake. But soon afterwards some sort of incident at Soul Society meant that Rangiku and Tōshirō had to go back before it had even hit two o'clock in the afternoon. Karin supposed she should feel lucky that at least Rukia and Ichigo were allowed to stay.

She was about to get up to get changed into pyjamas when she noticed a box on the floor by her bed. Karin figured that she must've knocked it off when she jumped onto the mattress. Reaching down to get it, she realised it was a gift. It was a blue jewellery box with a white bow on it. She changed her position so she was sat cross-legged before she carefully undid the bow. Upon opening the box she found a hastily-written note that had been folded several times over. More interested in the note than the box she unfolded it and started to read.

Karin,

I wish I could've stayed for you entire birthday, but unfortunately I cannot ignore orders.

I would've given this to you on White Day but custom orders take a lot longer to receive as they have to make the pendant from scratch.

Happy Birthday,

Tōshirō.

He had custom ordered a necklace for her? But custom ordered stuff was always so much more expensive than regular ordered stuff. She wasn't sure she was comfortable with the idea of Tōshirō spending so much money on her. She sighed as she put the note down and grabbed the jewellery box. She stared at the necklace inside. It was an almost perfect replica of the necklace she had lost months ago. The petals were slightly different but everything else was accurate. Her eyes travelled to the gemstone in the middle. After pulling it out of the box she noticed that there was a hallmark on the back of the pendant as well. He had custom ordered a real silver necklace that had a real gemstone in the pendant. He had to have spent hundreds on it. There was no way she could keep it. It was ridiculous, him spending so much money on her. She let a small smile appear on her face. It was the thought that count though.

XxXxXxX

Karin sat at their usual spot, jewellery box in hand, waiting for Tōshirō to arrive. He was supposed to be in the human world five minutes ago, but she supposed something must've happened on his end to pull him off schedule. Another five minutes passed before she finally felt his reiatsu. She grumbled slightly as she moved off the railing to sit on the grassy hill instead. With the sun in the position that it was in, the railing had started to heat up. "Stupid summer."

"I know the feeling."

Karin turned her head slightly to see Tōshirō out of one eye before turning her head to face the view of the city again. "Tōshirō I can't accept this." Tōshirō rolled his eyes before sitting down on the grass just behind her after grabbing the box she had been holding up. "I appreciate it, I really do, I mean it's such a nice gift, but it's too nice." Tōshirō had been mm-ing along, pretending to be considering her explanation while he had taken the necklace out of the box. "It's too expens...What are you doing?"

Surprised as she was that Tōshirō had suddenly gathered all of her hair and put it over one of her shoulders she still didn't turn. It was only when she felt the coolness of the metal around her neck that she realised what he was doing. She turned round to stop him but he had already done it up. "Hey, don't just ignore me! You can't just do what you want!"

Tōshirō turned her back round so they were both facing the same way again. Tōshirō leaned forward and rested his head on her shoulder, speaking quietly. "Shut up and let me spoil you. If I was unsure about getting it for you then I wouldn't have gone to so much trouble now would I?"

Karin tried to ignore how hot her face felt. "That's not the point. It's too much. I can't keep it."

"Well you're just going to have to because I'm not taking it back."

"Why not?"

"I want you to have it. You were so upset when you lost the original one. I know this isn't the same, but still..."

"You're not gonna budge on this at all are you?"

"Nope."

Karin rolled her eyes as she leaned back on Tōshirō. "Fine." She tilted her head up to see a small smile on the shinigami's face, making her smile too. "Tōshirō?"

"Mm?"

"Thank you."

As a response Tōshirō looked down at the girl in his arms and gave her a proper, very rare, smile, causing her to blush before hastily looking away.

This wasn't at all what I originally planned, but I like this better. I really hope you liked it too. I often picture these two as the type of people who would like each other and suspect that the other one liked them back but would never actually do anything for fear of being wrong about it. So instead they would just keep pushing their luck a little until one of them finally bites the bullet. I was trying to capture that sort of thing, the two of them being super close, just before they finally got together. The next prompt is 'Day'. I hope you liked this chapter and I hope you look forward to the next one!