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Back again in the human world, Toshiro finds himself staring at the sunset near Karakura. The crisp winter air paints the sky a crystal clear blue. The first flurries of the early January season fill the air, and he pulls his familiar teal scarf higher around his face.
He’s watching for Hollows, he tells himself. He’s scanning for their presence, watching out for the near-daily appearances of strong spiritual energy. He’s not watching for the spiritual energy that pulls like a smoldering fire. Definitely not.
Still, he finds his focus drawn to the familiar location of the Kurosaki Clinic, where he can sense multiple familiar people.
Unintentionally, he swears, his own casual patrolling veers from its typical route, leading him into a residential area. When he finally registers his current destination, he pauses. This is not the first time his own distracted wanderings have led him here. As he slows his footsteps, he hears the sounds of familiar voices, a loud conversation that draws his attention.
This is not the first time he has found himself pulled towards Karin Kurosaki. Somehow he doubts it will be the last.
“I still think you should come to the party, Karin.”
“I told you, Yuzu, I’m enjoying my life as is. I have a bunch of important things this week, and don’t have time. We have a game tomorrow, and I heard there were scouts coming,”
“You should still give a social life a shot. Who knows, you might even end up with a boyfriend .”
“Not interested,” Karin retorts, “I’ve told you enough times.”
Toshiro can easily visualize the pout on the short-haired Kurosaki twin’s face as she replies, “But it would be nice! Then you could go on double dates with me!”
“Please, there’s no one in this world I’d be remotely interested in.” The comment feels like a leaden weight in his chest, but he ignores it. There are so few conversations he’s had with her that don’t reveal a strange emotional response that it feels normal at this point.
The two of them round the corner, and he finally sees them. He hasn’t seen either of them in over half a year, not since the resolution of the Shinigami’s fight against the Quincies, and part of him remembers how quickly time in the Human World passes. Karin’s hair has grown longer, falling past her shoulders. She’s taller than him now, and no matter how many centimeters he’s managed to grow, he has a feeling that will always be the case from now on.
His eyes meet Karin’s and he gives a small nod, not wanting to break the conversation. He is not using a gigai, and he watches as Yuzu’s eyes slide past his occupied place in space, instead landing on the road behind him. Karin’s face pales, before suddenly flushing a bright red. She mutters under her breath, something he can’t quite hear from across the road, before offering a half-smile in recognition.
He won’t bother her in this moment, since he’s clearly come across a conversation he wasn’t meant to hear. He buries his face farther into the scarf before moving away, a hasty retreat.
*
She’s the one who finds him, later that day. He’s positioned himself at the hill that oversees the whole of the town. To his own surprise, there’s been no attacks, no surges in spiritual pressure, not even more than two normal spirits for Konsos. He feels her presence before she speaks, a warm balm against the winter chill.
“Hey, you okay?”
He gives a shrug. “It’s peaceful.”
“In terms of spirits? Surprising.” She gives a half-hearted chuckle.
“Well, your brother isn’t around, so that’s probably part of it.”
She inhales sharply, before taking a seat next to him on the cold ground. “You didn’t have to leave, earlier.” Her breath crystallizes in the air before her as she speaks, and he realizes she’s dressed less warmly than before.
“It appeared to be a private conversation.” Not that he didn’t hear a part that she apparently considered embarrassing. “Sorry to have interrupted.”
“Hey, at least you weren’t in a gigai, would have been strange to have an elementary schooler give me that look before running off.” She bumps into him with her shoulder, a strange sensation given his current form.
“I’m older than you,” he grumbles, though the bite of that comment would normally leave him more frustrating than the teasing tone it always takes from her.
“Ah, right, my bad. Looking like a middle schooler.”
He scowls at her, but the expression softens as he sees her eyes sparkling with mirth. Sighing, he asks, “How have you been?”
She begins to recount her last few months, a series of school adventures and soccer games. He rather does miss playing games with her and her friends, but he’s only just finalized the last of the paperwork that had piled up after the major battles months ago. He finds himself zoning out slightly, soothed by the mere sound of her voice. Not that he doesn’t want to pay attention to her, but so many things about the Kurosakis are uncanny, and it sometimes takes a little bit of reminding that she is not like her brother. She is not a Shinigami, has no specialized abilities like a shikai or bankai.
So what is it that makes her such a powerful force in his life?
It’s strange, he realizes, as he finds himself wondering about what her own abilities would be if she were to become a Shinigami in the distant future. Something like her brother? Or her father? Something purely her, he supposes.
“Toshiro? You still there?” She asks, waving a hand in front of his face. She’s beginning to shiver slightly in the winter chill.
“Sorry, I was thinking.”
“About?”
He’s ready to speak, when he gets a message on his phone and he feels the pressure of a Hollow breaking through into the world of the living. “Never mind. I’ve got to go.”
She stands up, and rubs her arms before breathing warm air into her palms. “Go on, then.”
He presses his heels into the ground, ready to run off to a combat encounter, when he pauses. In a single fluid movement, he unfurls his favored scarf and wraps it around her neck. It isn’t much, and the cool-toned material turns her skin more of a snowy white than the usual pale. “Take care of yourself, Karin.” He represses the urge to press a kiss to her cheek as snowflakes begin to drift down from the sky.
Oh. That explains the twist in his chest when he spends time with her. But that’s something he has time for. He has all the time in the world to figure that out.
And with that, he’s off again.
*
Years later, after the Karakura Town of those old days has transformed into something entirely new, two Shinigami find themselves perched in a wizened tree atop a small hill.
“It’s so different,” the young woman says, tucking a strand of inky black hair behind an ear. “I can’t believe this is where I lived when I was human.”
The man beside her gives a small smile. “You were fighting Hollows on your own as a child.”
“You’re supposed to be my captain, don’t lie,” she says, swinging a wide punch at him.
He ducks out of the way, a familiar dance between the two of them. “I’m also your boyfriend, don’t forget that.”
“Yeah, you are.” She smiles at him, expression soft. “I still can’t believe you knew me when I was alive.”
“You’re a bit of a gravitational force, Karin Kurosaki.”
“You just say that because I can create black holes.”
Toshiro feels laughter bubbling up in his chest with the familiar warmth of being around her. Yeah, it's a bit like gravity. But it's a lot more like love.