5 years later

Karin walked out of the class as the last echoes of the bell's ring faded. Yuzu caught up to her, and the two of them headed for home.

"Thank goodness it's Friday, ne Karin?" Yuzu bubbled out happily. Karin smiled a secret little smile to herself. If it was Friday, that meant tomorrow was Saturday, the day she spent with Hitsugaya Toushirou.

"Yeah," She replied softly, still thinking about meeting her friend. She heard muttering behind her.

"Look she's smiling! Now's your chance Hideki!" Karin brushed off the whispers, not interested in the pathetic romantic interests of high school boys. Yuzu was humming a happy little tune to herself, almost skipping along. Growing up hadn't changed her at all, although she had recently begun seeing spiritual beings, the last member of their family to gain that ability. They made their way outside, almost off the school grounds when Karin heard someone clear their throat.

"Excuse me Kurosaki-san," A timid voice asked. She spun around. Everything she did was fast; she hated wasting time on slow movements.

"Hey Hideki," Hideki was no one special. Average student, average athletic ability, average everything. But Karin had found life was easier for her if she treated everyone well, although there was no one she was truly close to. How could she make good friends when she saw monsters and ghosts around every corner? Hideki gulped nervously.

"Ah, Kurosaki-san," She was getting annoyed.

"Yes?" He closed his eyes tightly.

"Wouldyouliketogototheparkthissunday?" Karin blinked. A confession? It wasn't her first one, but she was surprised anyone had the guts to ask her anymore. She hadn't been particularly gentle with the last guy. Hideki got nervous because of her silence and started to babble.

"I know you don't really date and all, but still, I really like you and maybe if you would give me a chance we could hit it off or something, it's just-"

"Hideki," she cut him off, and tried to stay calm so she wouldn't hurt his feelings too much. "I'm sorry, but I can't go with you. I think you're a good person, but there is someone else who already holds my heart, and I could not lie to you by going with you on a date. I'm sorry." Hideki's face was crushed, but he quickly put a fake smile on it.

"Eh, oh well. I'm sorry for putting you in this position. At least you didn't do to me what you did to Masao." He gave a short little bow before running off. Karin sighed, and Yuzu giggled.

"Well," Yuzu observed. "Thankfully he won't wind up in the hospital. By the way, you never told me why you beat Masao up. Care to share?"

"Eugh, he was so irritating. He wouldn't take no for an answer, so I told him what I told Hideki just now. He then demanded to meet this guy so he could fight him. I said when he could beat me up he could beat him up. He proceeded to attack me. I kicked his ass." Yuzu laughed.

"Wow. He wanted to go out with you so much he would beat you up. What a guy."

"Stupid manly pride," Karin muttered under her breath.

"But," Yuzu continued. That was two years ago. How long have you known this person you love so much? And how come I haven't met him?" Karin blushed slightly, and Yuzu noticed.

"And the thoguht of him makes you blush? Wow, I need to meet this guy." Actually, Yuzu had changed a bit. She had gotten spunkier. She spent too much time with Jinta, and his annoying pestering was rubbing of on her. Which was bad for Karin, especially when she was trying to keep secrets.

"Ah well guess I'll have to learn more another day. I'm going to get the groceries now. See you at home!" She ran of with a wave, and Karin smiled slightly. Yuzu still took care of all of them, although Karin tried to help her out more than she used to. Then she felt a chilling power appear beside her.

"Karin loves someone?" Toushirou teased her, grinning. "Who is this person? Should I beat them up?" Karin raised an eyebrow at her companion.

"One, eavesdropping is rude. Two, why are you here? You almost never show up except for your weekly visits. Three, my love life is not your business." He kept an easy pace with her as she muttered under her breath, not speaking loudly for fear of people thinking she was crazy.

"In response," he answered with an irritating smirk. "One, never stopped you. Two, I made a bet with Matsumoto that winner had to take on the others responsibilities for a week and I won so I figured this was a good way to spend my time. Three, I declare it my business because I say so." Karin smirked back.

"What were you betting over?" He grinned.

"Drinking contest." He kept walking forward, until he realized she had stopped. The look on her face was one of extreme shock.

"You beat her in a drinking contest?" The smirk became a self-satisfied grin.

"Yup." Karin thought about it for a moment.

"Impressive."

Thank you." They continued walking. Karin sneaked a glance at her companion. He had grown up, now half a head taller than she was. He was more playful now too, a far cry from the serious captain who he once was. Matsumoto, on one of her secret visits (Toushirou would be pissed if he knew) had informed her it was thanks to her, but Karin didn't believe it. Time had passed, and he had grown not just up physically, but down mentally. And that was a good thing for him.

They wandered down the busy street, slowly making their way towards the Kurosaki house and clinic. Although they now talked with each other, they still had moments when they preserved the silence that had brought them together. They reached her house and Karin dropped her stuff. Grabbing a shinai they proceeded to a secluded grove not far off from a hill that overlooked a soccer field. There, Karin went through her kata, slowly, while Toushirou watched and corrected her in places while giving her advice. She never joined a kendo club or team. It was her and Toushirou's thing, not to be shared with anyone else. She loved the feel of moving with the fake sword, and considered this the closest she could ever come to having a zampakatou.

Time went by. When the sky began to darken they headed back to her house.

"Toushirou," he looked over at her, waiting for her to continue. "Since you don't need to get back to Soul Society anytime soon, would you like to spend the night? You can crash in my room."

"Don't you share a room with Yuzu?" Toushirou was extremely familiar with the members of the Kurosaki household, having heard a lot about them from Karin. Karin grinned.

"Nope! Now that Ichigo's gone, I get his old room." Ichigo had gone to Serietei to become the captain of the 5th squad, with Rukia as his lieutenant. Apparently no one else could tolerate him in a work setting other than her.

"Where would I sleep?" Karin's grin became evil.

"In the closet, like Rukia used to!" He glared at her.

"Hell no."

"Your only other options are the floor or sharing with me." He thought about it.

"I thought of another possibility!" Karin looked at him suspiciously.

"What?" He looked at her with so much happiness that she dreaded what he was going to say.

"I stuff you in the closet then take the bed." He kept grinning, much like Ichimaru Gin used to. She scoffed.

"Yeah, no. Not going to happen. Anyways, I know you're secretly scared of me."

"Right..." he drawled, remembering the events that had led him there.

Flashback

"Hitsugaya-taichou!" An exuberant Matsumoto called out to him.

"What," he growled. As time went by he found the days between his visits to the real world felt longer and longer.

"Taichou-sama, you're not in a good mood today." He glared at her.

"Am I ever?" A face splitting smile appeared.

"Yup! With Karin-chan!" His eyes widened slightly in shock.

"Matsumoto, why would you know how I act when I'm with Kurosaki-san?" She stopped, and her face fell.

"Well..."

"Actually," he stopped her. "I don't want to know. What do you want?" If he didn't know Matsumoto better he would've called the grin on her face wicked.

"I have a proposition." He sighed.

"What kind of proposition?"

"A drinking contest!"

"Matsumoto, how many times do I have to tell you-"

"And," she cut him off. "The winner takes care of all the other person's official duties, paperwork, training, everything for an entire week. That's a lot of free time." He paused. Ordinarily he would never have considered such a thing, but he really wanted to go visit Karin.

"You're on." Matsumoto's eyes glinted with victory.

End Flashback

"Huh," Karin looked at him out of the corner of her eye. When he didn't continue, she rolled said eyes.

"What?" He kicked a pebble. If anyone had seen it they would've seen a pebble start to move out of the blue on its own, but people tended to miss little details like that.

"You know how a few weeks ago you mentioned how I've changed?" Karin nodded. "Well I haven't. I'm exactly the same as I was, except for when I'm here, with you." He chuckled. "You have no idea how much that pisses Matsumoto off."

"How does Matsumoto know how you act around me?" He shot her a bemused glance.

"I asked her the same thing, then decided I didn't want to know."

"Smart call."

"Yup." We were back to silence. Karin found herself bored though, and decided to change the tone of their walk. She slung her shinai over her back in a sling modelled after Toushirou's.

"Tag you're it!" She said quietly, as she hit him on his arm. He jerked in surprise, then smiled, chasing after her.

"You won't get away from me!" Unfortunately they had a rule. When playing games like this Toushirou was not allowed to use shunpo. Soon though she felt the light tap on her shoulder followed by Toushirou's sprinting form rushing past. She took off. They both were wearing swords on their backs, so the race was considered even, except for Toushirou's longer legs.

He raced through town, always ahead of her until he heard a screech, and smelled burning rubber. People were yelling for yelp. Slowly Toushirou turned around. Under a red toyota lay the partially crushed body of Kurosaki Karin. Slightly above stood the same Kurosaki Karin, wearing robes of black and a sword at her hip. He looked at her and blinked. She blinked back.

"Well..." Was all she could say as she looked back down at her body. "This is awkward."