Chapter 2

Toshiro Hitsugaya

Moving In

"So this is where you live huh?" Karin asked from her position on my back. For some reason she insisted that I piggyback her everywhere all the way home. I didn't really want to do it because I didn't want anyone from my squad to see me carrying on in such an unprofessional manner but I really didn't have a choice. I either carried her on my back or listened to her complain the whole way there.

"Taicho!" I watched as my bubbly lieutenant jogged over to me from where she was standing with a group of people that I couldn't identify from where I was standing.

"Hello Matsumoto." I replied plainly. I didn't slow my stride one step to allow her the chance to catch up with us. I continued to walk, stopping only when a reached my office. Karin hopped down from my back and walked into the office in front of me.

"Don't jump around like that, you could fall." I said as I walked into the office behind her. She glanced back over her shoulder at me before turned around quickly probably rolling her eyes when she did so.

"So this is where you work?" she asked as she walked around the office touching any and everything within her reach.

"Yeah." I replied as I slid down onto the couch. I continued to watch her walk around the room looking at everything around her.

"Please don't touch those." I said to her. She was sitting at my desk about to sift through one of the many stacks of perfectly organized paper work I had spent so much time doing.

"Are they important?"" she asked lowering her hands into her lap.

"Yes they are very important." I replied.

"What are they for?" she asked.

"Paper work on all the new members that just joined my squad." I answered.

"Why do you need paperwork on them?" she asked as she began spinning around in my office chair.

"You're going to make yourself sick, and I keep paperwork on them because I need to know everything they're capable of so I have each of them fill out paperwork on themselves." I replied.

"So you know all the abilities of everyone in your squad?" she asked.

"yeah." I answered.

"Hmm, you must be really smart to be able to handle all of the information at one time." She said still spinning around in the chair.

"It's not really that much when you really think about it, it's just like reading a book." I said.

"So…can I read them?" She asked as she twisted around to face the stacks of papers on the desk.

"You want to read my paperwork?" I asked. I really find it amazing that someone who has nothing to do with the soul society is more interested in the work that a lot of other people were supposed to do. Those are the same people that are conveniently absent from work on all of our busiest days. I looked up to see her nodding her head to answer me.

"You can read them if you want, but I doubt they'll be that interesting to you." She smiled as she grabbed the first couple of papers from the top of the stack closest to her. "Just please make you keep them in order."

"And what order is that?" she asked simply. I stood from my seat and walked over to explain the cataloging system I used to organize my paperwork. She seemed to catch on a lot faster that I thought she would; before I knew it she was going through the paper like it was nothing.

"Why do you want to read those anyway?" I asked as I went back over to the couch to sit in my previous spot.

"Well I need something to do while I'm here, and until the baby gets here I'm not really going to have anything productive to do. I figure I can help you around here since you have so much work to do." She said as she gestured back to the stacks of papers on my desk that were nearly touching the roof.

"Well if you insist." I said as I returned to my place on the sofa to watch her work. She flipped through the papers happily as if she was reading something that she truly found interesting. I sat watching her work until she had completely gone through a whole stack of papers.

"I think we should get going." I said. I stood from my place on the couch and walked over to where she was sitting. She placed the paper she was holding back down on the desk before reaching her arms out to me. I lifted her from the chair and held her close to my chest as I carried her the short distance from my office to my room.

When we got there I was surprised to see that all the instruction I had left for Matsumoto had already been taken care of. She must be really excited about the baby to actually get up and do some work, or maybe it was just paperwork that she didn't like. I was downright amazed that the squad was able to pull this off with me being here to supervise.

The old fashioned simply living space that I once kept was transformed to mimic those of the living world. I added everything I thought would be necessary to make Karin feel as if she was still in the living world.

"Wow, this is unexpected." She said as she walked through the door and began looking around the small living room.

"What do you mean unexpected?" I asked as I watched her repeat the actions she did in my office. She walked around the room touching every single thing that she could get her hands on as she continued to search the room.

"This place is so old fashioned, I didn't think your house would look so much like an apartment from back home." she said as she walked over to the small kitchen area. She opened the refrigerator and started searching through it for something to eat.

"Karin, what are you doing?" I asked as I leaned over and looked at everything she was pulling from the refrigerator.

"I'm making a sandwich." She replied simply as she continued to prepare her food.

"What kind of sandwich could you possibly be making with all this?" I asked.

"Peanut butter and ham," She replied as she took a bite from her now finished sandwich. "Want some?" she asked holding the sandwich out to me.

"Um, no thank you." I replied as I turned to head into what I guessed was our new bedroom.

"So where's the bathroom?" Karin asked as she followed closely behind me sandwich in hand.

"I think it's through that door." I said as I walked into the bedroom. Directly across from the entrance to the bedroom was the bathroom.

"And when the baby gets here where will she go?" Karin asked.

"After the baby gets here we're going to move into another house that's being prepared for us right now but it won't be done for a while so we'll be staying here until it's finished." I said as I walked over to the side of the large bed and sat down on the edge. I watched in silence as Karin stripped off her shihakushō leaving only her underwear on before she crawled into bed.

"Are you coming to sleep or you gonna just sit there all night?" she asked as she reached over to give my shirt a soft tug of encouragement.

"I would like to but I have to go back to the office and make sure everything is in order there?" I said as I slowly made my way over to the door.

"Why do you need to go back there?" she whined.

"It's late and need to make sure Matsumoto and her gang of drunken monkeys hasn't torn the office to shreds trying to find her hidden sake that she keeps in the office." I replied.

"Well alright, make sure you aren't gone too long." She replied as she rolled over in the bed and covered herself completely with the blankets.

When I got back to the office I found that it was empty. Either Matsumoto had drank the rest of her stash or she was too drunk to find where she hid it, either way she was gone and the office looked like someone came through and randomly threw everything on the floor. The only thing that hadn't moved was the stacks of paperwork on my desk. She may have been drunk but she wasn't an idiot, she knew she would never hear the end of it if she ruined my desk.

It took me almost an hour to get all the books back where they belonged on the shelves and by the time I got back home Karin was already asleep. I went straight to the bathroom and readied myself for bed before I headed back to the room to go to sleep. I crawled into bed next to Karin and pulled her close. She smiled in her sleep and moved herself closer to me.

"Goodnight Toshiro." She whispered as she snuggled herself into my chest.

"Goodnight Karin." I replied as I wrapped my arms around her to feel her warmth.

I awoke the next morning to the smell of breakfast coming from the kitchen. I sat upright in the bed and looked around almost unsure of where I was.

"Morning." Karin chimed in a happy voice as I walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning." I replied as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I blinked against the bright light that shined through the windows.

"Are you going to work today?" Karin asked as she continued to cook happily.

"No, we're going to the 4th squad today." I replied.

"And why do I have to go?" she asked. I almost forgot that she wasn't as knowledgeable about the soul society as her older brother.

"A doctor's appointment," I replied.

"So we're going to the hospital?" she questioned.

"Yeah you can call it that." I said to her.

After we finished eating breakfast and Karin was finally ready after an hour and a half of being locked in the bathroom we were finally able to leave the house. Even though everyone in seireitei was wearing the exact same thing it still took her forever to get dressed.

"Good morning Hitsugaya taicho, Kurosaki Karin." Said a warm familiar voice as we stepped into the doors of the 4th squad barracks; I turned to see Unohana walking over to me. She stepped over to the both of us and bowed politely.

"Nice to see you Unohana taicho," I said returning her kind gesture.

"We have everything set up for you already, if you would follow me I'll show you to the room." she said as turned and headed quickly down the hallway to the small examination room that was set up for us.

I sat in the corner and waited patiently until Karin's checkup was done. I was happy to hear that everything was right on track and the baby was completely healthy. Karin swung her feet happily as she listened to all of the insturctions Unohana was giving her. I listened intently making a mental note of everything the soft voiced woman was telling her.

"You should try and cut back on the sugar in your diet, it could be bad for you and the baby." Unohana said as she handed Karin a list of the foods she wanted Karin the eat more of. Karin sighed and passed the list over to me, I folded the paper before placing it in my pocket.

"So can we go get something to eat?" Karin asked as we exited the building and headed in the direction of my office.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Jelly beans and peanut butter." She said as she put a hand to her stomach.

"What's up with you and peanut butter?" I asked

"I don't know I usually don't eat it but for some reason I can't get enough of it." She replied as she started to skip happily down the path in front of me.

"You shouldn't do that, you could fall." I said as I quickened my pace to catch up with her.

"Will you calm down Toshiro, I'm not gonna fall." She replied in an annoyed tone as she continued ahead of me jogging some in between each hop that she took. I continued to walk next to her struggling to keep up with her without having to break out into a full sprint.

"You know you should try to relax some, all that worrying will start to make your hair turn black." She said with a small laugh as she stopped skipping and returned to a normal walking pace.

"Was that supposed to be funny?" I asked playfully laughing a little at her silly comment.

"Only if that was a genuine laugh," She replied with a small chuckle.