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Karin stops walking suddenly and lets out a breath of air that is part irritation, part impatience and part amusement. It's a warm day despite the fact the sun is nearly set, probably one of the last warm days of the year. The sky is lit up with vibrant oranges and pink, and the trees around her cast sharp shadows. There's plenty of hiding places around her, but Karin's aware she's been followed since midmorning.
She hesitates for a moment, questioning her plan of action, but it's been a long day and her hidden companion has had plenty of chances to reveal himself to her already. She knows it's been a while, but a simple 'hello' isn't too much to ask for, is it?
Karin turns around precisely 120 degrees, folds her arms, and raises her eyebrow. She can't see anyone in the shadows of the great oak, but she just knows he's there, just like she knows Yuzu is at home and Goat-chin is in the clinic and Ichi-nii is at work.
A moment passes, then another. Karin taps her foot on the leaf-strewn floor pointedly. Something rustles, and Hitsugaya Toushirou appears in the shadows much like the ghost he is. He looks disgruntled, and slightly wary.
"How long have you known?" he asks.
Karin shrugs. "Since morning. You're not exactly easy to miss, you know?"
Hitsugaya's ever-present scowl deepens. "I was hiding my presence."
Karin understands he means something other than simply hiding behind trees and buildings, he's referring to that awareness she has of the people around her, some more strongly than others. What she doesn't understand is why she's so acutely attuned to his presence. She knew the moment he arrived in Karakura, more than fifty miles from her location at the time. A part of her has been tracking him all day, first with disbelief, the astonishment, then curiosity once she realised he was following her. When she realised he had no intention of revealing himself to her, she let her impatience get the better of her.
Now she shrugs again, slightly uncomfortable. "It's the difference between feeling a single snowflake land on your skin and being hit by a blast of snow on a hot day. One is more subtle than the other, but it's impossible to miss either," she explains. This particular snowflake has been itching at the back of her neck since morning.
"I see." Hitsugaya's expression turns thoughtful. His strange green eyes watch her sharply, missing nothing, and Karin has the disconcerting sensation that he's read more into her explanation than she meant to reveal.
"So, why have you been following me around all day, Toushirou?" she asks flippantly, trying to distract him. "You could've joined us when we played soccer. The guys are always happy to see you."
She's successful; Hitsugaya twitches. "I'm here on a mission," he says stiffly.
Karin cocks her head. The shinigami boy looks almost embarrassed. "And your mission involves following me around all day?" she tries, genuinely puzzled, but mostly to get a rise out of him.
Hitsugaya flushes quite satisfactorily. "Not quite," he admits abashedly. Karin presses her lips together tightly before anything along the lines of 'adorable' can slip out. She suddenly has a most Yuzu-esque urge to pinch his red cheeks.
"My mission," Hitsugaya clears his throat. "My mission was necessitated by the sudden increase in reiatsu you have been displaying, Kurosaki Karin."
Karin feels suddenly more wary. She doesn't know much about this shinigami business, or the organisation both her brother and Toushirou seem to work for, but she does know that they're powerful. And dangerous.
"Toushirou. What's your mission?" Karin asks, eyeing him. She feels her muscles tense, ready to trigger her fight-or-flight response at a moment's notice. She likes to think Toushirou is her friend, but the fact remains she doesn't know very much about him.
Hitsugaya doesn't look like he's about to spring into action, however. "For now, simply to observe and note the rate at which your reiatsu increases, and how that manifests," he says calmly.
Karin narrows her eyes. "And then what?" she asks.
Hitsugaya meets her gaze equitably. "And then presumably, teach you to control your reiatsu so you don't unduly upset the balance between worlds or attract too many Hollows."
Karin lets her shoulders drop in relief. She's not sure what she might've done if Toushirou intended to harm her. She doesn't know what she could've done. He's so much more powerful than her.
It takes a moment before she remembers the rest of his statement. She thinks of the monsters that have been invading her home town more and more often over the last two years and shudders.
"Is that what my brother's been doing?" she asks.
Hitsugaya's lips curl down slightly. He looks vaguely irritated by the question. "Your brother's control over his reiatsu left a lot to be desired," he says. "But he was more than capable of dealing with any problems that arise because of it," he adds with grudging respect.
Karin stifles a sudden grin at the thought of the straightlaced Toushirou and her notoriously irreverent brother in the same room together. It sounds like the setting for a bad sitcom comedy show.
Karin is suddenly struck by a worrying revelation. "I don't want to be a shinigami like him," she tells Toushirou.
He nods. "It probably won't have to go that far. Your brother became a shinigami under drastic circumstances."
Karin wonders what he means by that, but she doesn't think she's ready to know. "Okay," she says instead.
Hitsugaya nods.
Karin waits.
Hitsugaya shuffles his feet.
Karin stares.
Hitsugaya clears his throat. "Um..."
"So, your mission's over, right?" Karin asks. "Now that you've observed me?" She grins slyly.
The tips of Hitsugaya's ears turn pink as he glares. "Yes," he says with great dignity.
Karin smiles happily. "Awesome. So do you wanna go get some ice cream?" she enquires cheerfully.
Toushirou blinks. "What." he says, clearly caught off guard.
Karin jerks her thumb down the path she was walking along. "I was on my way to get some ice cream. You wanna come with?"
"I-I have my mission..." Hitsugaya stutters, wide-eyed.
"Yeah, but you've finished it, right? Now all you have to do is report everything when you go back to..."
"Soul Society."
"Soul Society!" Karin finishes brightly. The poor boy looks utterly discombobulated. Adorable. "And besides, it's one of the last chances we have to eat ice cream before winter sets in." She walks down the road and gestures at Toushirou, and he actually takes a couple of steps forward before he stops himself, duty and wistfulness clearly warring within him.
"But..."
"Do you have anything else to do?" Karin asks.
Toushirou shakes his head. "No."
"Then come on." Karin smiles warmly at him.
Toushirou takes his first step out of the shadows hesitantly, but once he starts he doesn't stop until he catches up with Karin.
"Is ice cream similar to shaved ice?" he asks curiously, and to Karin, hopefully.
"Yeah, kinda. It's basically sweet frozen cream with different flavours added in," Karin explains as they walk down the road together. "The cafe I go to has lots of different flavours, and they let you try them before you chose. You should try vanilla, it's the simplest flavour but it's a classic. And chocolate too." She's babbling, but Toushirou seems content to listen, and Karin needs a moment to get her emotions settled. "And there's all kinds of flavours - strawberry, banana, pista, toffee..." Karin counts them off on her fingers. "I think you'll like mint."
"Do you get watermelon?" Toushirou asks.
"Yes! We can definitely have that." Karin folds her arms behind her head. "You like watermelon, huh? You should come by in the summer." Out of the corner of her eye, she notices Toushirou start at the invitation, but she doesn't think much of it, already grinning at the memory. "On the hottest days, Yuzu and I go to the farmers market and buy the biggest, freshest watermelon we can find."
Toushirou's eyes are wide with curiosity, delight, and a bit of yearning.
"And then we take it home and smash it!" Karin mimes smashing the watermelon with her hands. "Dad usually joins us, though he always slips on the pieces. Ichi-nii usually joins us too, only..." Karin trails off, remembering the events of last summer.
Toushirou is politely silent, watching her with patience and a hint of curiousity. He doesn't push her to explain her statement.
She doesn't have to tell him. He won't be offended if she changes the topic. But... Karin wants to tell him. He's one of the only people who can understand, and she's tired of not being able to talk about this stuff. Yuzu has no idea about the truth, about Ichigo being a shinigami and losing his powers, and although Karin suspects their dad knows more than he lets on, as long as he doesn't mention it she doesn't know how she can broach the topic. She glances at Toushirou, who's walking quietly beside her.
"Only, he didn't even come downstairs this year," she finishes.
They walk in silence for a while.
"Is it possible for him to ever get his powers back?" Karin asks desperately. Ever since he stopped seeing ghosts, it's as if Ichigo's spirit has been broken somehow. When he became a shinigami, he had direction, motivation. She'd seen him properly happy for the first time since their mother died. Now, he walks about the house like a shadow of his former self.
"I don't know," Toushirou says. He frowns, deep in thought, his hands folded inside his sleeves. "The Head Captain and Urahara have been in talks. They may... It's possible Soul Society may still have need of Kurosaki Ichigo."
"Yes, but what about what my brother needs?" Karin cries. "Toushirou, I know Rukia watches him, I know you have as well. You've seen what he's like. He needs to be able to protect people. Now he knows what's out there, but he's completely helpless about it. Can't you see how it's killing him?!"
Toushirou pinches his lips together and doesn't meet her gaze. "He's safer this way," he says softly.
"My brother doesn't need safe. He needs to be able to protect the people he cares for!" Karin insists.
"Do you know your brother's need to protect has nearly gotten him killed more than once in the last year?" Toushirou says sharply. "He actually died once, and it was only Inoue's miraculous abilities that saved him. What if she's not there the next time? If he dies as a shinigami his soul won't appear in Soul Society, you know. It'll go on into the cycle of reincarnation. You'll never see him again."
The world sways around Karin, the blood draining from her face and leaving her lightheaded with horror. A terrible, terrible fear wells up inside her, clenching her air passages and making it impossible to breath. He actually died once. They'd nearly lost Ichi-nii.
She's never let herself think about precisely what Ichigo was doing all those times he disappeared, preferring to cling onto the vestiges of her denial. She knew it was dangerous, she knew he was putting his life in danger. But to hear it put so starkly...
Toushirou's expression is a mix of guilt and concern. "I'm sorry," he says. "I shouldn't have said all that."
Karin laughs slightly hysterically. "No. I should've asked you long ago," she says bitterly. She clenches her fists, feeling a huge wave of guilt wash over her. All this time...
Toushirou turns around fully and puts a hand on her shoulder. Karin realises they're no longer walking. She also realises she's trembling and her knees don't seem so reliable anymore. "No, Karin," he says, quietly but forcefully. "You had no reason to think that. Your brother never told you anything. You had no reason to think he was doing anything but fighting Hollows like the ones you fight."
"But I knew there was a war," Karin protests.
Toushirou's other hand comes up to grasp her other shoulder. This way, he's standing in front of her, making it impossible for her to avoid his gaze.
"There was no way for you to know Kurosaki was at the forefront of it," Toushirou says. "He'd only been a shinigami for such a little time. No one could've guessed how powerful he would be, or how determined he was to protect everyone."
Karin shakes her head, misery seeping in. "You can't remove all the blame from me. I was determined to stay in denial for so long. I didn't want to know what was happening around me.
"No one can blame you for wanting a normal life," Toushirou says. "That said, even if you had known, what could you have done?"
Karin looks up, startled. She is suddenly aware that Toushirou is taller than he was the last time they saw each other.
"You have a very high reiryokou but very little of it has been expressed until recently," Toushirou explains. "Even now, the amount of reiatsu you're releasing isn't enough to be considered remotely powerful. And even then, even if you knew how to control that reiatsu, what could you have done?"
Karin stares at Toushirou. His eyes are intense as he looks at her and Karin realises he fully believes what he says. The hands on her shoulders are warm and firm, supporting her easily. She's remined of another time, another sunset, only with their positions reversed. She was the one holding onto him. Even then, he'd provided her with steady support, giving her the truth she needed to hear.
"One of these days you're gonna have to explain all those words you keep using," she smiles weakly.
Toushirou's lips twitch up in what might have been a smile. "Right."
Karin sighs and looks up at the sky. The first traces of indigo night have begun streaking across the brilliant orange. She can even make out the faint outline of a crescent moon behind a wispy cloud.
"Thank you," she says simply. Toushirou squeezes her shoulder once before he lets his hands fall. When she looks at him, he returns her gaze with the warmest expression she's ever seen on his face.
On impulse, Karin leans over and kisses his cheek softly.
Toushirou's skin immediately erupts into a bright blush, right up to the tips of his ears. "O-Oi, Kurosaki!"
Karin laughs as he begins to stammer incoherently, his previous cool evaporating into thin air.
She links her arm in his and tugs him forward, feeling remarkably cheerful all of a sudden. "Come on. I promised you ice cream, didn't I?"