Nympholepsy

A frenzy of emotion, as for something unattainable.

Chapter 5

Karin was walking along a familiar dirt path whilst trying to figure something out. Toshirou, the cause of her dilemma, walked but a few paces behind her. Karin cursed under her breath, and turned to walk backwards. "Could you just leave me alone?"

"Sure, as soon as I've verified your identity." Toshirou replied, looking incredibly bored. Though, from what she'd seen, that's how he always looked.

"I told you, my name is Suz-" Karin's defense was cut short, as the heel of her foot kicked a rock on the side of the road, and she went stumbling backwards, until she landed on her bum. She let out an "Oof" as she hit the dirt road.

Toshirou sighed, walked closer, and offered her his hand. Karin looked at the offending hand for a moment, and then chose to ignore it. She had already been embarrassed enough, as it is. Closing her eyes, she effortlessly pushed herself up to her feet, and went about whipping the dusty dirt off of her backside. After thoroughly clean, she turned back to face the oncoming road, and began walking again. "Go home, Toshirou."

"Hitsugaya."

About to retort, Karin was again interrupted. This time, it was from the rumbling of her empty stomach, though.

"Hungry? You really should go home now. Have dinner." Toshirou taunted.

Karin took notice of the pink sky and remembered Yuzu was expecting her home for dinner. Karin chose to ignore Toshirou's comment. It was best to just try to ignore him. She located the nearest fast food joint from memory, and continued on the dirt road, with her puppy right on her heels.

About a mile of silence and setting sun later, Karin arrived at a McDonalds. Walking inside, she was glad to see there wasn't much of a line. When it was finally her turn, she ordered a double cheeseburger to go, and looked up at Toshirou. He raised his eyebrow at her.

"Aren't you hungry?" She asked.

Toshirou wrinkled his nose and looked up at the menu. "I don't eat fast food."

Karin nodded and turned back to the cashier. "Make that two double cheeseburgers."

The cashier nodded, punched a couple buttons on his register, and looked back up at the duo. "$2.12.". Karin went to get her bag off her back to fish out the money, but before she could, Toshirou had set a $5 bill on the counter. Karin looked up at him curiously.

"I don't like to be in debt to anybody." He explained, not looking at her.

Karin raised an eyebrow. "Whatever, I'll take the free food." Then looked back at the cashier as he brought their bag of food over. She couldn't see it, but Toshirou had to fight to keep himself from smiling.

Karin grabbed the bag, Toshirou grabbed his change, and together, they walked out of the restaurant. Not too far down the road was a grassy hill with a nice view of the city. Once they had reached their destination, the two climbed over the guard rail and took a seat on the grass. Karin set the bag between them and pulled out the two wrapped burgers. She handed one to Toshirou, and quickly opened the second one for herself.

While she quickly devoured her own, Toshirou took slow, small bites. Karin watched him with amusement. He really was serious when he said he didn't like fast food. When he had finished and the sun had set, he looked over at his ward.

"Are we done wasting time, now?" he asked. Karin frowned.

"I would hardly call eating a waste of time. Besides, you don't have to be here. You can go home whenever you want."

Toshirou looked back toward the dark sky. There was just no winning with her. Her stubbornness reminded him of someone… He looked back at her. There was no way… could she be…?

They reminded there, in the dark, for another hour or so. Karin had been trying to think of somewhere to go, but she just couldn't figure anything out. Maybe she could go to Orihime Inoue's house? She was Ichigo's friend… and she lived alone. But even then, she was associating herself with Ichigo's group. She closed her eyes to better focus on her thoughts. She didn't really have any close friends. She used to, back in elementary school, but they had grown apart over the years. She thought back to her childhood friends. They sure had a lot of fun back in those days. No worries in the world. Just soccer… her mind began replaying some old memories, and that was the last thing she remembered….

When Karin began to regain consciousness, she suddenly became very aware of the fact that she had fallen asleep outside. Jumping up into a sitting position, Karin surveyed her surroundings. She was in… bed? She didn't remember ever leaving the hill with Toshirou… Toshirou… oh no! He must know who she is, now. How did he figure it out? They didn't really look all that alike… maybe she said something in her sleep?

Glancing over at the digital clock, she noticed she only had an hour until her alarm would go off, and she'd have to get up for school. She realized that because she had gone to bed so early, she'd never be able to get back to sleep. Sighing, she decided to get up and do her homework, seeing as she hadn't had the time earlier.

Yuzu had probably just gotten up, as well. Deciding to pay her sister a visit before she got to work on anything, she walked down to the kitchen. Indeed, there she was, just getting breakfast started. Upon hearing Karin's footsteps, Yuzu turned to see who was there.

"Karin! Where were you last night? I was so worried when you didn't show up for dinner!" Yuzu gushed, dropping her cooking utensils, and running over to hug Karin.

"Sorry Yuzu, I ended up staying a bit later than I expected…" Karin lied. She hadn't actually been at school for more than ten minutes after class had ended.

"Well you should've called, or something!"

Karin rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking."

The corner of Yuzu's mouth tightened on one side, giving off a 'well what can you do' expression. "Well at least you're safe. Just call next time, okay?"

Karin smiled. "Okay."

"Breakfast should be done in about an hour. Do you want to help?" Yuzu offered. She was always trying to get Karin to be a little more domestic, so she could please her future husband better.

"Actually I was gonna try to get my homework done."

"Oh, okay. Well if you need any help, I'll be here."

Karin nodded. "Thanks. Seeya in a bit." And with that, she went back up to her room.

/

Upon arriving at school, Karin went straight for the Seireitei classroom in search of Toshirou. He wasn't there, but a couple of the other members were. Luckily for her, Matsumoto was one of them. As she saw the mischief light up in the red head's eyes, however, she began to rethink just how lucky she was.

Sauntering toward the open doorway, Matsumoto greeted Karin with a right embrace. "Hello Karin!" she cheered.

"Ah, good morning, Matsumoto. Sorry, but I'm in kind of a hurry. Can you tell me where I can find Toshirou?" Karin said, once Matsumoto had loosened her hold.

"Awwwe! Captain really did get himself a girlfriend!" Matsumoto cheered. Karin tried to tell her it wasn't like that, but the older woman wouldn't let her object. So she just sighed and gave up trying to convince her they weren't dating.

"Can you just please tell me where he is?" she asked, still trying to be polite.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to keep you from your man." She winked. Karin rolled her eyes. "He went to class already." Matsumoto continued on, telling Karin which class he was in, and where to find it.

As Karin made her way to the third floor, she suddenly realized Toshirou was only a junior. She had assumed he was a senior, because he hung around with a lot of them, but he was actually only two years older than herself! She smirked. His height made a little more sense, now.

Karin stopped a girl about to enter Toshirou's classroom, and asked if she would tell the boy that Karin needed to speak with him. The girl sized Karin up, laughed, and continued into the classroom.

Karin, now too annoyed to care, just walked right into the classroom. She was easily able to locate Toshirou- his hair really stood out- and marched over to him. She reached to grab his shoulder, but he turned around and caught her wrist before she could make contact.

She glared. "We need to talk."

"I don't take orders from little girls."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh please Mr. Hitsugaya, won't you just give me a moment to speak with you in private?" She asked, he voice dripping with sarcasm.

He sighed, and checked the clock. You've got five minutes.

Together, they made their way up to the deserted roof. Once they got there, Karin shut the door behind them.

"How the hell did you find out I'm Ichigo's sister?" She immediately screamed at him.

His shocked expression surprised her, however. He quickly recovered though, and smirked at her. "Well you just told me. That's how."

Karin blinked. "But… if you didn't know… how'd I get home?" She asked, trying but failing miserably at hiding her confusion.

"You fell asleep, I simply brought you to a nearby clinic." He explained, still smirking.

Karin was flabbergasted. So this is why Yuzu always warned her not to jump to conclusions…

When she was finally able to recover, she looked him in the eye. "So… what happens now?"

;D who caught the My Puppy Shiro refereeence?

Plus I used flabbergasted. Be jealous.

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