#grimmkarin

He could hear loud, angry rustling inside as she made the bed, shifting the blankets and pillows around on the mattress that they usually shared, and growled low under his breath. Scratching his scalp irritably didn’t magically give him a solution to his dilemma, however, so he rapped on the door again.

"That piece of shit couch is the most uncomfortable thing in existence," he grouched, then instantly regretted it. He’d complained about it before too, and she’d gotten all huffy and defensive that it was the best thing she could afford, and it wasn’t like he worked and paid the bills around here.

"Oh, boo-hoo,” she snapped, and her footsteps were now angry stomping instead. She was probably disturbing their downstairs neighbors, but fortunately the couple was too insanely terrified of Karin to ever complain. “I’ll cry myself to sleep at night in sympathy for your discomfort. You asshole,” she added as an afterthought.

Scalp-scratching might not give him any anwsers, but it sure as hell helped his agitation, so he kept on running his fingers through his hair.

"It’s fucking cold, woman,” he complained through the wood, looking down at his shirtless torso. Normally he didn’t need one since he and Karin slept all tucked together on that tiny bed of hers, but now the winter air was nipping at his skin.

The door abruptly swung open, and a hand snaked out to press — viciously jab — a blanket into his chest. Before she could shut him out again, however, he slammed a palm against the door and held it open with ease. Her glaring eyes met his.

"Stop making such a goddamn big deal about it," he growled.

He stuck a foot in his mouth when the fury on her face practically turned lethal. Kicking the door open, she stomped out and pretty much knocked the wind out of him just by jabbing a finger against his rib-cage. Damn woman was strong.

"Did you really just say that to me, you cotton-candy-hair asshole?" she demanded, hands finding her hips. "You made us wait a fucking hour before contacting us long enough to tell me you weren’t coming. What the fuck makes you think that’s okay in any way!”

"No need to get pissy about it," he snapped back, letting the blanket fall to their feet. "So I didn’t meet your goddamn sister today. Big deal—"

"She was iffy about me dating a so-called Espada in the first place!” Karin half-shrieked, eyes blazing up. “The only thing she knows about the Espada is that they once tried to kill Ichi-nii and take over the world! I’ve been telling her over and over that you’re different now — that you’re a good guy. Do you even have any fucking clue how hard it was to convince her to give you a chance! And then you go and pull this shit!”

"So what?" he asked snappily. "Who gives a rat’s ass what she thinks?"

"I do! She’s my twin sister, dumbass, and I don’t date anyone she doesn’t approve of!”

Her heavy breathing punctuated the silence between them, as he finally realized he had indeed fucked up in a major way. Training with Ichigo and beating the crap out of the hybrid had just been too sweet an opportunity to pass up, and he’d forgotten all about his waiting girlfriend (or whatever Karin was) and her goddamn sister.

When she spoke again, her voice was clipped and barely controlled. “Now, I’ve convinced her to give you another chance,” she breathed out evenly, folding her arms. “Tomorrow. Lunch. Same place. You had better be there, on time, and you had better be a damned gentleman even if it kills you. Got it?”

After a few pained moments of mulling over the pros and cons of accepting her order — an order. from a human. what had he become? — he stiffly nodded his head just once. The irritated scowl didn’t leave his face, though.

Karin relaxed just slightly at his wordless reply, but her arms remained folded, and she was scowling herself. "Good."

Without another word, she whirled herself around and marched back into the room, where their cozy bed awaited.

Yuzu tutted disapprovingly. “Stop letting him get to you, Karin.”

“How the fuck can I not when he’s literally everywhere I go?” she snarled, taking a long swig of her beer. A few pieces of ice clacked against her teeth, threatening to invade her throat in a dangerous way, but she didn’t want to stop drinking so she ignored the hazard. Her brain wasn’t nearly as fuzzy enough yet as it needed to be to deal with him.

She only stopped when her sister finally yanked her cup away, her lips pursed in worry. “I swear, he’s pushing you down the path to alcoholism. And over something so silly.”

Karin rolled her eyes. “It’s hardly alcoholism, Yuzu. You blow everything out of proportion. And it’s not silly!”

“Well, I find it a bit silly that you blow a fuse over every little thing he says —”

“Because he’s a cocky jackass!”

“You know he only says those things to rile you up. Why do you let him get to you?” She shook her head. “Maybe if you weren’t so eager to argue all the time, he’d leave you alone.”

“Well, he’s got no right to say all those things.” Karin folded her arms and scowled. “We’re both here on a sports scholarship, but just because the school gives a little more attention to the football team than the soccer team, he thinks he gets to lord it over me or something. I can’t keep quiet!”

“But now it’s ruining a perfectly fine Friday night,” Yuzu pointed out with a huff. “You can’t even enjoy yourself at a simple party.”

“You didn’t tell me he was gonna be here!”

“Well, I didn’t know, all right? I was just as surprised as you. Honestly, Karin, do you expect me to keep tabs on who all his friends are and any possible connections that trace him back to our lives? No, that’s unreasonable,” she carried on before Karin could answer. “I don’t know why it’s so hard for you to ignore him.”

“It wouldn’t be so hard if he didn’t make it so hard,” she groused.

Just then, their eyes accidentally met again, over the throng of party goers, but this time he didn’t turn away instantly. Instead, his gaze lingered intensely on her for a few moments, before the slightest smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth and slowly stretched across his lips.

“You see!” Karin cried, gesturing an arm in his general direction.

Yuzu held up both her hands and rolled her eyes. “I saw nothing.”

“But, Yuzu!”

Her sister finally gave up on her and trailed away, looking for another familiar face while Karin was left to sulk in her little corner. She met Grimmjow’s eyes just one more time, and there was no mistaking the amusement written plainly across his face. She flipped him off.

.

“Shit, babe. Any louder and you’ll get the cops called on us.”

She almost flushed, but she tampered it down and refused to let her cheeks heat up. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

Instead, she glanced down between her legs and tried to shoot him her best, most deadliest glare, but the effect was lost when he suddenly kissed her inner thigh and she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning.

“I… really… really… hate you.”

That seemed to amuse him to no end, and his chuckle vibrated through his chest before he once against buried his face between her legs. Her back arched, and she clamped a hand over her mouth.

This wasn’t how she’d predicted her night would go — fucking her arch-nemesis in some frat boy’s bedroom as a party raged on downstairs — yet somehow this was always how her encounters with Grimmjow ended. This was the side no one ever got to see, because she tried her damned hardest to make sure no one ever would know. Even her own sister had no clue.

“Really hate you!” she gasped again, fingers blindly reaching past her abdomen to tangle into the mop of blue hair she could barely make out with her half-lidded eyes. His hair was coarse, but she still curled locks of it around her fingers, and then yanked. He grunted, but gave no other protest.

Her tongue darted out to rove over her bruised lips. She remembered how it had felt to kiss him only moments ago, smothering her screams into his mouth as he molded their bodies together. He’d already gotten his climax, and he could have been an ass and left it at that, except he’d pried her thighs apart and settled himself in between, to return the favor. If she had to pick one thing she liked best about having sex with the man she actively hated on a daily basis, that was probably it.

Suddenly, Grimmjow let out a low growl. She almost whined in protest when he pulled his face away, but then she was met with his smirking face.

He licked his lips once, then growled, “Say it.”

“Nnng.” Karin looked away and groaned.

She was close and she could feel it. He could probably tell, too, from all her panting. So it was time for his little game.

He ducked between her legs again, and she gasped. “I hate you!”

His movements got agonizingly slower, and she gritted her teeth in irritation. The message was clear: that’s not what I want to hear.

“Fuck you, Grimmjow,” she snarled under her breath. “You’re the worst. I hate you.”

That did nothing but amuse him and make him go just a bit slower; she was digging her own grave.

“Say it,” he growled again, more expectantly.

He was keeping her close to the edge but denying her the luxury of toppling over. Karin always hated this part. She didn’t want him to win, but at the same time, she knew losing would feel oh, so good.

He pressed against her particularly hard, and her legs instantly tightened around his neck.

“Shit, fuck,” she hissed, leaning her head back into the pillow and closing her eyes. “Fine! Fine. I love you, okay? I fucking love you, you jackass. You happy?”

“Very,” he purred, and just like that, he gave her the sweet release she’d been seeking. Her limbs tensed, fingers clawing and clutching at the bed sheet, and her vision clouded over until she saw only white for a few seconds.

He stretched out next to her on the bed after, looking her up and down as she tried to compose herself and smirking. She pulled the blankets up to cover her breasts and made a horrid face at him.

“Don’t think this changes anything,” she spat, like always. “You’re still an asshole.”

His grin was wide enough to show teeth. “An asshole you love.”

The sprightly vice-president of Karakura High gritted her teeth, impatiently tapping her foot as her droopy-eyed pupil tried to right his head after it had dropped to the table from sheer boredom. When she used his last name, she meant serious business, and even Grimmjow knew that.

“I don’t care about this shit,” he groused, leaning on the chair’s back legs and glaring at the ceiling. They’d been here for an hour already and they’d only covered one subject so far; the fact that they still had five more was making his head throb.

“Do you think anybody cares about this stuff?” she snapped, rolling her eyes. “We do it because we have to, not because it’s fun. And it wouldn’t be so hard now if you actually paid attention when we’re going over this in class.” She pushed the workbook in front of him and dutifully handed him a pencil. “Now, subtract x from both sides.”

Grumbling under his breath, he snatched the pencil from her hand none too gently and did as he was told, the pencil lead almost snapping from the pressure he put on it. As it was, when he tried to slash away the canceled out x’s from one side, he scratched the paper so hard that the pencil ripped right through it, effectively destroying the problem they were working on.

“Ugh, look what you did!” Karin cried, slapping his hand away and picking at the paper, as if her touch would somehow magically fix it.

“Guess that means we’re done with that,” her student declared, unable to smother the pleased little smirk growing on his face.

Karin glared at him through her lashes. “Honestly. If you didn’t want to study that badly, why did you insist that I come tutor you today?” He’d stopped her outside the classroom after the last bell and practically made her feel like a criminal for refusing to help him study, until she’d sighed and finally followed him to the library. If she’d hoped that he’d finally buckled down when it came to his school work, though, she’d been wrong, because he’d been fidgety and moody and distracted since the moment they had started studying.

Grimmjow made an irritated face, glaring at the edge of the table. “Because that shorty wanted to walk you home…”

He grumbled it so low that Karin didn’t quite catch his words, and he didn’t repeat them. Deciding he’d most likely mumbled something completely inappropriate as usual, she gave up and huffed.

“Fine, then. If you don’t want to do math, then let’s do history.”

He let out a little snarl under his breath, eyes flashing just at the sheer thought of more studying, and Karin gave him a steady, exasperated look.

“I’m not wasting my time here, Grimmjow,” she groused, shutting the math workbook and sliding it away. “What do you want to do, then?”

That had been a bad idea. She should have known better by now not to ask him such open-ended questions, because the answers were always the same.

No sooner had she asked when she suddenly felt something ghost over her thigh – something cool and calloused and with the distinct, familiar feel of Grimmjow’s hand. She glanced down at her crossed legs to find that he’d hooked the end of her thigh-high with one finger.

“Grimmjow,” she said warningly, glaring down at his hand.

His answering grin was lazy and unabashed. “This is what I want to do,” was his cheeky reply. His finger wiggled a little farther under her leggings, running over the skin of her thighs until goosebumps erupted on her arms.

“You’ve got some nice legs,” he murmured appreciatively.

“They’re not for touching,” she replied coolly, twisting the skin of his knuckles and flicking his hand away.

In a flash he had leaned forward, so close that their faces hovered inches apart and her hands could have rested on his chest – the flesh of which was exposed by the unbuttoned top button of his shirt. Through her shock-addled, hazy thoughts, she made a mental note to lecture him for once again not wearing his uniform properly.

Her eyes gazed into his head-on. “This isn’t on the syllabus for today,” she quipped, though her words had lost some of their usual bark when she could see so clearly the way the light reflected in his eyes. Curse him for being a violent brute of a delinquent with a coarse tongue, but having such pretty eyes.

He didn’t bother replying to her sarcasm, though it did make him smirk. He just leaned forward even more, until their noses could have touched but didn’t because he’d angled his head so his lips could perfectly slant over hers.

He’d only just pressed their mouths together when she whipped her head back, inhaling sharply.

“We can’t,” she hissed, narrowing her eyes at him.

He raised a single eyebrow. “You didn’t seem to mind the last time—”

“We can’t,” she insisted, though her cheeks had reddened just slightly at the memory of the last time. “And last time was… it was a mistake.”

“It wasn’t a mistake.” His lips quirked. “A mistake would have been if you tripped and your lips fell right on mine. But what you did…” His eyes darkened. “You knew exactly what you were doing.”

“I-I was in a bad place,” she replied, her voice just a little shrill. “Kaichou and I had an argument and you were just… there.”

“I’m here now, too,” he said smoothly, not taking offense like he so easily could have. He knew by now that winning her over would be a battle with that prissy president, but he wasn’t about to give in.

Karin tutted lightly, floundering for an argument. “Grimm—”

His lips descended on hers again, his hand finding her thigh once more, but this time she didn’t protest or pull away. He was so confident when he kissed that it made her skin sizzle and her brain fog up, and Karin tried to blame the haziness of her mind when her fingers curled around the little hairs on the nape of his neck and kissed him back just as hard. No way was she about to lose.

He didn’t acknowledge when she kissed him back, but his hand gripped her leg so hard that she almost feared it would bruise when he dragged her closer, until their chests bumped.

God, what was she doing? She hadn’t even kissed Toushiro once yet, and here she was, having her second kiss with Grimmjow!

He grunted in a low voice, a pleased and sated sound, and she wondered if this could even be called a kiss. More like… a fierce, fierce battle between their lips and their tongues. She wouldn’t have expected him to kiss any differently.

She couldn’t even explain this time away. Last time, sure, she’d been hurt and upset and looking for comfort. But now, what excuse did she have for gripping his collar and not minding one bit when his finger trailed under her stocking again?

They might have done something she would seriously regret if a soft thump nearby didn’t remind her that they were in the school library – a very public place where any student walking by would recognize her as the student body vice-president and see her furiously kissing the school delinquent – and she immediately pulled away.

They both sucked in air as their eyes fluttered open. Hers were slightly wide from the shock of what she’d just done, while his were half-lidded and extremely satisfied. They stared at each other and breathed hard for a moment, before another feral smirk crossed Grimmjow’s lips.

“Your second kiss ever, and it was one damn hell of a good one,” he rasped, picking up the end of her stocking and letting it go, so that it snapped against her skin. “Wish I could be as fast a learner as you, Kurosaki. Maybe then we’d be outta here already.”

Her mouth parted just as his grin widened.

“That’s—” She struggled with her words, eyes flitting about the room, before she hastily grabbed the forgotten math workbook off the table and jammed it into her backpack. Her chair clattered as she abruptly stood up. “That’s enough for today!”

She raced out of the library, knowing she wouldn’t sleep a wink that night, as he barked in laughter behind her.

"You go on ahead," Yuzu told her sister, unable to smother the pleased little smirk that had crossed her lips, making Karin's cheeks warm. "I think I'll leave in... oh, I don't know... five minutes?"

"Really, Yuzu, there's no need--" she tried to protest, but her twin would hear none of it and all but pushed her out of the house, waving pleasantly at Hitsugaya before slamming the door shut in her face. Karin sighed loudly.

There were footsteps behind her, and suddenly one of Hitsugaya's fingers ran down the side of her palm, almost electrocuting her from the sudden sparks she felt over her skin.

"Ready to go?" he murmured quietly, searching her face with his blank eyes.

Karin couldn't meet his gaze, but she nodded. "Yeah..."

The walk to school was quick, and Karin cursed her father for buying a house so close to the high school, even though every other morning she usually considered it a saving grace. Hitsugaya walked with distance between them, not too close and not too far, and Karin was extremely aware of whenever their footsteps fell in and out of sync.

The coversation, however, was just as she expected: about student council work.

"I was looking over the club budget requests one last time," he told her as the school came into view, "and I think we should speak with the volleyball team captain. They've requested two buses to take them to their matches, but I just don't see..."

Karin inwardly sighed as she listened to him drone about the school budget and possible money-saving solutions. She really shouldn't have been so disappointed when she never expected anything different, but she was; she'd gotten her hopes up just because he'd never specially walked her to school before.

As he switched the topic from the volleyball team to the basketball team, Karin looked out at the hordes of students entering the school around them, and in the corner of her vision, she spied something blue.

"...all their dunking really takes a toll on the net and--"

"Sorry, kaichou!" Karin cut across him, holding up a hand apologetically as she trailed off their path. Over her shoulder she called out, "We'll talk about it at the meeting! I need to see about disciplining a student!"

His eyes trailed from her face to the boy she was undoubtedly headed towards, and his eyes narrowed just slightly. If he wanted to protest, though, he couldn't, because Karin was already gone.

.

Grimmjow raised a bemused eyebrow as someone tiny and breathless stepped in his way, heaving from the run and hitching her slipping backpack up her shoulder but still managing to level a heavy glare on him.

"Yo, Kurosaki," he boomed, a slanted grin crossing his lips. Any day she came to him was a good day.

She didn't greet him back, but instead screeched, "Where is your tie?"

He glanced down at his uniform, haphazardly thrown on in the morning as always, and locked onto the same spot she had; the top button of his shirt was open, and the tie that should have been knotted in place was nowhere to be found.

His grin widened. "I lost it."

"You lost it?" she repeated incredulously, her glare leveling up a knotch.

"Well, I never wear it..." he replied casually, trying not to let his grin widen even further as he saw that her feathers were obviously ruffled. Apparently, according to the teachers who constantly gushed about the student council, she was always so mature and collected, so he took pride in being the only one who could rile her up so easily.

"And it's not just your tie!" she snapped, her hands finding her hips. "Your shirt is untucked and your hair is completely unacceptable and that piercing is not allowed."

"This is my natural hair color," was all he said in reply.

"I'm not talking about the color," she huffed, much to his surprise. "I'm talking about how you have it styled like some gang member!"

He touched it briefly, amused by her description.

"Tuck in your shirt," she lectured crabbily. "And comb your hair. And take out that damn piercing. And we're going to the lost and found and looking for your tie!"

Her tiny hand, still as surprisingly strong as he remembered it to be, clamped down around his wrist in a vice grip. She was so much smaller than him that he could have twisted out of her grasp easily, but he was enjoying himself too much. She dragged him into the building and he watched her face closely as he allowed it, a lazy smirk on his face.

The students in the vicinity all whispered amongst themselves at the peculiar sight, and then shot uneasy glances at the student council president, who watched the mismatched pair disappear into the building with an unsettled frown on his face.

.

History ended with the bell for lunch, and Karin breathed out slowly as she snapped her textbook shut. Getting to her feet and stretching out the kinks in her shoulders, she got to work dragging her desk back to its rightful spot -- because of course Grimmjow hadn't brought his textbook, so she'd had to drag her desk on over and share, and then he'd kept zoning out so that she had to whisper page numbers to him when it was his turn to read.

"You could at least pay attention in class," she sniffed disapprovingly, determined not to meet his eyes when she could feel his stare on the side of her face.

"What's the point? You'll teach it to me anyway," he grunted back, lazily unbuttoning the top of his shirt. They hadn't found his tie after all, which made sense since he'd eventually admitted that he'd tossed it to the wind pretty much the first day of school, so Karin had made him at least button his shirt properly. He'd spent all morning complaining to her that he couldn't breathe.

She sighed, sounding exasperated. "The deal was that I'd tutor you if you stopped skipping, and the point of that deal was so that you'd learn something while you're here."

"These teachers don't know how to explain shit right," he groused, standing up himself and stretching out to his full height, which was considerably taller than hers. He leaned back against her desk and smirked down at her. "I like you better."

She huffed, unconsciously taking a step back from him and looking off to the side. There was often a flirtatious edge to his voice when he said things like that to her, but now she wondered sometimes whether he really meant it so teasingly.

"Can't pick and choose, Grimmjow," she grumbled, using the excuse of taking her lunch out of her bag to not look at him. "And I'm not a substitute for the real thing."

Grimmjow scowled when whatever he was about to say -- no doubt flirty -- was interrupted by another student.

"Hey, Kurosaki!" The boy jerked his head towards the classroom door. "Hitsugaya-kaichou's looking for you."

Grimmjow's scowl darkened by a fraction, but Karin didn't notice because she was too busy trying to calm the sudden flutters in her stomach as she looked up and found cerulean eyes gazing back at her. For a brief moment, cerulean flickered past her to meet electric blue, but still, she was oblivious.

Leaving a sulking Grimmjow behind, she rushed to the door.

"Something you need, kaichou?" she asked, almost breathless from her flush. His gaze landed back on her slowly, and his stare was intense as he gauged her expression for something she did not understand, before he nodded.

"Ise-san says she won't be able to make the council meeting tomorrow morning, so she asked if it could be moved to this afternoon," he explained. "I told her I'd ask the other members before letting her know."

Karin bit her lip unsurely. Any other day she would have agreed in a heartbeat, but today was her scheduled day to tutor Grimmjow after school, and it didn't feel right to suddenly change that without warning him.

"Can I... let you know?" she asked in return, wanting to check with her student first.

Hitsugaya questioningly raised an eyebrow, perhaps having expected her immediate agreement. Before Karin could explain, however, she was interrupted by a voice much deeper than her own from right behind her.

"Fine by me," Grimmjow grunted, crammed in the doorway and looming over her back just a little too closely. Karin startled, while Hitsugaya leveled him with a cool stare the delinquent readily returned. "Go to your meeting if you want. But to make up for ditching me" -- he broke off the staring contest to smirk down at her deviously -- "you'll have to have lunch on the roof with me instead."

"Wha--" Karin stamped her foot, spinning around and thoughtlessly turning her back to Hitsugaya. "How is that fair at all!" she demanded. "Besides, I'm having lunch with the guys tod..."

She peered into the classroom for her friends, sure they would be waiting patiently for her, but found that the room was completely deserted. Those traitors!

Grimmjow (who had actually scared off her friends with a heavy glare before making his way over, unbeknownst to Karin) grinned widely. "Let's go, then, Kurosaki. Before the cafeteria runs out of the good stuff."

Completely unabashed, he looped an arm around her waist and began to lead her down the hall, ignoring her spluttering protests. Over his shoulder he glanced at Hitsugaya, and his wide grin melted into cool, narrowed eyes.

"She'll be there," he announced, then steered the girl in the direction of the cafeteria.

Hitsugaya took a single step forward, his eyebrows furrowed at the sight of the two attached at the hip. He watched the way they bantered, Karin's face red and flushed and all scrunched up in a way he had never seen it before, as if she had already completely forgotten him, and her name escaped his lips before he could stop himself.

"Karin!"

The bickering pair halted, looking back at him. Grimmjow raised a single eyebrow, but Karin's eyes widened; she had never heard Hitsugaya raise his voice before, and certainly not for her.

"Er..." He awkwardly shuffled his feet, not even sure himself what he wanted to say. "You... don't have to, you know. Come to the meeting. If what you have to do in exchange is this." His eyes flickered to the delinquent who still had his arm around her, and his voice chilled considerably. "It's your choice."

Karin blinked a few times, glancing between him and her classmate and visibly mulling over his words, before shaking her head. "Mmm, it's all right. I don't wanna give Nanao any trouble."

"But--"

"You heard her," Grimmjow felt the need to add, turning his nose up at the student council president. "She's fine with it."

Fine with me was all the two boys heard.

They started down the hall again, picking up where they had left off with their bickering -- or rather, with Karin hissing and grumbling and Grimmjow watching her face with the closest thing to an affectionate expression he could muster.

"--and don't pull me by the waist. I can walk by myself."

  "You dragged me all over the school this morning."

"Th-That was different!"

"Because it was you doing it? Oh, I didn't realize you were a dominatrix."

"Grimmjow!"

  Hitsugaya watched their backs until they disappeared around the hall.

.

Lunch on the roof with Grimmjow was a quiet affair. That is, until he took a long sip from his juice box, frowned, turned towards her, and asked, "What do you see in that guy anyway?"

Karin choked on her shrimp.

"He's tiny and looks wimpy," he went on, staring broodingly at the sky. "Guess he's got brains. But that's about all he's got going for him."

Her jaw had slackened by this point. Were her feelings really so obvious that even Grimmjow had picked up on them? Oh, how pathetic she felt right now! Hitsugaya could probably sense her raging lust from a mile away.

"I could kick his ass in a fight," the delinquent mused, taking another sip of his juice.

"Kaichou's surprisingly strong, you know," Karin replied casually, popping some more shrimp into her mouth once she was sure the last one had gotten through her esophagus properly.

She'd decided to be nonchalant about the conversation. He was probably only trying to rile her up, something he loved to do, and she would not give him the satisfaction.

Grimmjow shot her an annoyed look. "What're ya trying to say? Should I go pummel him to the ground right now?" For emphasis, he crushed the now empty juice box in his hand.

Karin rolled her eyes. "What's that going to change? I'll still... you know." Like him. A lot. More than is good for my heart.

His frown turned into a full-on glare as he picked up on the words she had not said.

"What's so good about him?" he demanded again, scowling. "Go for someone less shrimpy, why don't you? Someone like--"

"You?" she deadpanned, leveling him with a blank look, except he did not falter.

"Yeah." He stared back at her seriously, shoulders squared, a glint in his eyes. "Pick me."

Intense silence passed between them, lasting only for a single beat before--

"That again?" Karin sighed, purposely turning back to her lunch and picking at her rice. This conversation was old and she'd long since stopped letting it get to her. "Why don't you stop with the stupid jokes, Grimmjow?"

"The only one who said it was a joke was you," he growled under his breath, going back to glowering at the sky.

She ignored him.

.

Hitsugaya caught her right after the student council meeting, his hand in hers like was so strangely common of him these days.

"How was lunch?" he asked softly, and Karin's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"Um... it was fine." She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, mindlessly rearranging the beanie on her head, before Hitsugaya silently gestured towards the door. This time, he didn't ask as he began to walk her home.

"I hope it wasn't too troubling?" he murmured. "All for Ise-san's sake."

Karin tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "It wasn't bad at all. I've been seeing a lot of Grimmjow these days anyway."

She didn't notice when one of his eyebrows disappeared into his hairline, nor when the corners of his lips arched into a frown.

"You could always pass him off to someone else," he suggested. "If the workload is too much. It doesn't have to be you."

"Actually, it kind of does. He insists." She made a face, though it rather surprised her to realize she didn't mean it in the slightest. "But it's not too bad. He's not that bad of a guy."

"I see..."

They lapsed into silence, and then he mumbled, "It's for the school, right?"

"Hm?"

"Better grades and one less delinquent," Hitsugaya listed. "It's good for the school, so you..."

"Yeah, I guess." That wasn't exactly a lie; when she'd agreed to be his tutor, she'd done it for exactly those reasons. But she frowned, somehow feeling like there was more to her relationship with Grimmjow now than what it had initially been.

But Hitsugaya was watching her expectantly, waiting, and she didn't want to say something that would give him the wrong idea, so she bobbed her head. "Exactly."

His expression brightened considerably, though Karin only noticed because she had a trained eye for the slightest changes of his face after spending so much time staring at it.

She wanted to ask why -- her heart sped up and she almost dared to hope -- except just then his fingers curled around hers tentatively and her brain fizzled out in response.

“Can you get our agenda for the morning assembly to the principal by noon?” Hitsugaya asked his right-hand woman, passing her the information.

“Sure thing.” As Karin accepted the piece of paper he handed her, their fingers accidentally brushed, and every girl in the vicinity almost flew through the roof from their excitement.

“Did you see that!” one hissed. “They were holding hands!”

“He totally did that on purpose,” another whispered back. “He just wanted an excuse to touch her.”

Another girl sighed dreamily. “I wish he'd just ask her out already! They would make such a cute couple.”

As the girls continued to gossip, Karin tried to pretend their words didn't bother her even as she ducked her head in embarrassment. She wished they could have been a bit more subtle with their squealing; everyone in the hall could hear what they were saying, much to her mortification.

She took a chance and peeked towards Hitsugaya, but as always, he looked neither disturbed nor even the slightest bit unnerved by their words, even though there was no way he couldn't have heard what they were saying. She could argue that maybe hearing those same declarations every other day had dulled their impact a bit, but he never looked perturbed by their gossip. It was enough to make a girl wonder whether he liked her even a little bit, to never give any sort of reaction.

“Oh, and, Karin,” Hitsugaya added, passing her a stack of handouts. “This is a list of places we can afford this year for our school trip. Hand one out to each teacher and have them conduct a survey during homeroom, so we can decide where to go.”

“Yes, kaichou,” she replied dutifully, trying not to let her disappointment show.

“Then, I'll see you all after school,” he said coolly, nodding towards all four members of the student council before stalking into his classroom. He didn't even look back as he made his way to his desk.

The other members had the sense to shoot her sheepish, encouraging looks before dispersing towards their own classrooms, and Karin tried to shake off her own dismay as she walked to her next class, just in time for the bell to ring.

.

Three years. That was how long they had known each other, and yet Hitsugaya had never once made his feelings clear.

It was enough to drive a girl insane!

Karin sighed as she stared out the window, her cheek pressed against her palm. She knew she should have been paying attention to the class instead, but while they were in the middle of roll call, she had taken the chance to let her mind wander.

It had been three years ago -- freshman year -- that she had walked into the student council room for the first time as the new vice-president, and had found him sitting behind his desk, already diligently at work. He'd looked up briefly to send her a curt, welcoming nod, and then had turned back to whatever he had been furiously scribbling before her entrance.

With such a distant meeting like that, it was almost a miracle that they had become fast friends -- and such an excellent team, too. There was no problem the two couldn't tackle together, no budget report they couldn't manage and no school event they couldn't perfectly plan out. Their late meetings after school always flew by so quickly when the two were there together, giving each other such excellent company.

It had been no surprise to the whole school when he had asked her to the homecoming dance that first year -- and for every year after that -- or that Karin had so readily accepted his invitation every time. They were inseparable all night, sipping punch at their table together or pressed up against the dance floor. He was always a gentleman when he brought her back home after, mustering up only enough courage to kiss her cheek.

But that was as far as it went.

Every other day of the year, he was all business, his stoic expression in place as he talked about student council work with her and rarely anything else. He'd never confessed, never asked her out, never even made it clear whether he liked her that way.

Karin didn't know what to make of it.

She sighed again, this time more deeply, as the teacher continued down their attendance sheet.

“Jaegerjaquez?” she called out, looking at the faces of students all staring back at her. No one raised their hand, and her frown deepened. “Jaegerjaquez Grimmjow?” she tried again, but received no reply.

With a sigh, she marked him down as absent, all the while grumbling to herself, “Not surprising. When does that boy ever show up?”

With another disapproving shake of her head, she continued down the list.

It all went right over Karin's head, who was still too busy staring broodingly out the window.

.

With the end of class came relief for many students, but that joy was short-lived, for soon they were all making their way outside for PE class. Karin was one of the few who was actually looking forward to the class. She'd always excelled in anything involving physical activity, and PE class had always been the perfect way for her to work off the stress that built up from her other classes.

The girls' changing room was on the first floor of the school, and Karin exited it wearing a white t-shirt and red sweatpants that she had rolled up to her knees. Today they would run laps, so she made her way outside after calling back over her shoulder at the other girls to hurry up.

“Coach said to be outside in two minutes,” she reminded them as the door shut, making her way down the hall to the nearest exit. She passed by the student council room, and even though she knew Hitsugaya wouldn't be in there during a class period, she still couldn't resist peeking in and frowning when she saw no one.

Disheartened, she quickened her steps, hoping the fresh air would clear her mind, when she saw something from outside the window that made her pause. It was a small trail of smoke slowly rising past the open window before disappearing into the wind. Cigarette smoke, she realized.

Eyes narrowing, she crept towards the window and quietly peered over the edge.

A mop of shockingly blue hair entered her vision, but what really had her frowning was that the boy was definitely wearing their school's boys' uniform.

He had yet to notice her, for he sat with his back facing the window, just lazily taking a drag of his cigarette every now and then. He blew the smoke towards the ground, probably afraid that someone would see it otherwise, but had failed to realize that the smoke rising from the actual cigarette had already given him away.

Karin knew just how to deal with delinquents. After spending most of her high school life tracking them down and taking them to class, she'd learned that words often didn't get through their hard heads. And she was really in no mood for dealing with this shit today.

Grabbing a half-filled bucket of water from the hand-washing station behind her, she purposefully tipped it straight over the ledge, dumping the contents directly onto the boy.

“Oi!” Jumping up from the shock, he swiveled around and rounded on her, water dripping from his locks and the ends of his uniform. When he saw Karin standing there with her arms folded disapprovingly, glaring up at him, his eyes narrowed dangerously. “What the fuck? Who the fuck are you?”

She wasn't shaken by his coarse tongue, nor by how he was taller than she had expected and had sharper eyes than she'd initially thought. It didn't deter her, for he was built quite the same way as her older brother. Besides, was she supposed to be scared by his sopping wet clothes, damp hair, and the limp cigarette hanging pathetically between his lips?

“I should be asking you that,” she growled, jabbing at his chest with one finger. “Shouldn't you be in class?”

He batted her hand away, taking care to be extra rough, then snarled threateningly, “Move along, little girl, before you lose some teeth.”

Her response to his threats was nothing more than a dull stare. “Really? Little girl?” she deadpanned, then shrugged dismissively. “Whatever. Not to worry, because I will be moving right along -- I go to class, unlike some people -- but it's my duty to stop and tell you that if I catch you smoking on school grounds again, I will tell the teachers and get you suspended.”

He scoffed mirthfully. “And what makes you think I give a damn?”

She shrugged again. “I don't really care if you care. My only concern is the school's reputation, which you're tarnishing.”

His smirk instantly changed into a menacing scowl, but she just looked him up and down with pursed lips before swirling around and striding away, heading for PE class, for which she was now late.

“Go to class!” she tossed over her shoulder at him. “And smoking kills!”

.

Hitsugaya was waiting for her when her last class of the day ended and she finally left her classroom, slinging her bag over her shoulder. When he caught her eye, he pushed himself away from the wall and flashed her one of his usual half smiles -- the one he always reserved for her -- and Karin felt the wind get knocked out of her. It wasn't fair. Why did he smile at her like that and get her hopes up, only to never do anything and go right back to acting like his usual stoic self, dashing all her hopes?

Today was a classic example.

She nervously made her way over, smiling back at him a little herself, and asked, “What's up, kaichou?”

Immediately, his smile was replaced with a serious thin line. “Did you get our agenda to the principal?”

“Oh. Yeah, I did.”

He nodded curtly, starting down the hall and assuming she would follow. Which she did. “Good. There's a lot to be discussed at the student council meeting today, so I thought I would pick you up and we could talk about it on our way. Did he approve our agenda?”

What was she supposed to make of it?

They continued to discuss as they reached the first floor, but their conversation was interrupted by a sudden commotion from the school grounds. It sounded like dozens of students all talking or yelling at once.

Hitsugaya frowned. “What's that?”

She pointed towards the exit, already dashing outside. “Let's check it out!”

Curious, they both made a beeline for the large crowd of students that had gathered at the front entrance. Rather than heading home now that their classes had ended for the day, they all seemed fixed on something happening in the middle of their giant circle. Both Karin and Hitsugaya pushed their way through, and people made way for them when they realized the president and vice-president had arrived.

Suddenly, there was a loud, collective gasp from the students, and the circle split open right in front of Karin to allow a boy to come barreling through, where he collapsed at her feet. She gaped down at him.

“You again!”

It was the same boy she had caught smoking and skipping class earlier that day, except now he sported a blackening eye and bloodied lip. She glanced up at his opponent, whose face was not in much better condition, and did not recognize him as a student of their school. He wasn't wearing their school uniform either.

The boy at her feet either did not hear her or chose to ignore her, because he swiftly got to his feet and lunged at the thug he was fighting, landing a punch right on the man's nose. The sound of flesh hitting bone sounded through the air, and the students on the other end of the circle hastily parted so that the delinquent could sprawl on the ground from the impact.

“A fight?” Hitsugaya seethed. “At our school?” He was absolutely livid, and he even took a step towards the two fighters, but Karin held out an arm and stopped him.

“I'll handle this, kaichou,” she declared confidently, and he hesitated only for a moment before nodding and stepping back. He knew she could handle herself.

The thug had gotten to his feet once more and the two were punching it out once again. Clenching her jaw tightly, Karin pushed past the students in her path and twisted her way right in the middle of the fight, so fast that the two boys didn't even realize she was there until she was right in front of them.

“That's enough!” she snapped, except neither boy, despite being surprised, showed any signs of listening to her. They simply stepped around her and swung at each other again, and the vice-president gritted her teeth furiously at having been ignored.

In an amazing show of reflexes, she whipped out her hand and caught the blue-haired student's fist in her tight grasp, and then swung around towards the other boy just in time to aim a swift kick into his gut. Her leg arched into his stomach beautifully, effectively knocking the air out of him, and he let out a few pained gasps before crumpling to the ground for good.

Karin smirked proudly. Ichigo hadn't taught her martial arts for nothing.

The audience around them instantly began to whisper among themselves, staring at her, aghast. She leveled a heavy glare at them.

“Break it up!” she snapped. “Nothing to see here.”

Realizing she was seriously pissed, they all began to scamper away one by one.

Karin still had the student's fist held in her strong grip, and she didn't spare him a glance as she began to drag him away, out of the line of sight of the curious spectators and into the school. On her way through the circle of students, she passed by Hitsugaya, who was the only one completely unfazed by her amazing show of skills.

She paused next to him. “You can go on ahead, kaichou. I'll meet you after I've dealt with him.”

He nodded once, his face blank, and she dragged the dumbstruck boy attached to her fist all the way to the principal's office.

.

They garnered a lot of looks as they trekked through the halls -- a tiny girl with a beanie on her head dragging a gigantic delinquent behind her -- but not more so than when they walked into the teachers' lounge.

Their principal came rushing over at the sight of them, his eyes wide.

“Kurosaki-san?” His eyes trailed to the sulking boy behind her, and his lips parted. “Grimmjow? Wh-What's happening?”

“He was fighting outside, sir,” Karin explained crisply, still keeping a steady hold on the boy's wrist so that he could not bolt. “I've brought him here to be punished. The boy he was fighting should still be passed out by the front entrance.” She sniffed haughtily. “Please call the cops to handle him, sir. Not only was he fighting one of our students, but I've seen him harassing other students before, too.”

“Um... of course.” The man agreed, but his eyes kept trailing back towards Grimmjow. “And did you bring Grimmjow here all by yourself?”

She shot him a strange look. “Yes, I did.” Did he see anyone else around?

“Well, I-I must say that's... surprising,” he stammered, looking back and forth between both students. “Even the teachers have trouble reigning in him sometimes. I'm quite impressed, Kurosaki-san.”

“Che.” Grimmjow scoffed and looked away, glaring at the wall across the room. He'd only let himself get pulled along because of his surprise over her unexpected fighting skills -- nothing more. He hadn't expected such strength from a girl half his size.

Karin, meanwhile, kept giving their principal a funny look. What the hell? He was treating the boy like some sort of untamable animal or something. Was he honestly that bad?

Suddenly, she registered for the first time the name the principal had used to refer to him, and it niggled at some small part of her memory. She thought it over, and then her eyes widened.

“Grimmjow?” she repeated. “The same Grimmjow from my class who hasn't shown up to school since the term started a month ago?” Not once had she seen the boy in class, and some days their teacher didn't even bother calling his name on the roll because of it.

Grimmjow raised an eyebrow. She was in his class?

Meanwhile, Karin tutted disapprovingly. “You know you won't be able to graduate if you don't have enough credits for attending, right?”

The boy rolled his eyes, finally twisting his wrist out of her grip and stepping away from her. “Spare me the lecture, little girl.”

She narrowed her eyes, glaring up at him, and huffed, “You know what? I will. There's probably no way I'll be able to get through to you anyway, if the teachers and the thought of not graduating hasn't.” She was done wasting her time here when she had a student council meeting to get to. Turning towards their principal, she bowed respectfully. “I'll take my leave here, sir.”

And she was content to leave it at that, except she hadn't yet made it out the door when the principal turned towards Grimmjow and kindly said, “Well, if you would please step into my office? Why don't you tell me what happened?”

The boy glowered down at the man, a scowl on his face, and flashed his middle finger at him. “Why don't you just stuff it, you old codger?”

Most of the teachers in the vicinity gasped and immediately stood up, fuming at his nerve, but Karin was already on her feet and therefore made it to him first. Eyes blazing, she stomped back over and promptly kicked him in the shin, and when he growled and bent over to grab it, she latched onto his ear and twisted it hard between her fingers.

“Listen here, you little shit,” she hissed at him, even as the principal, looking flustered, attempted to calm her down. “Did no one teach you any goddamn respect for your elders? Smoking and skipping class and shit -- that's your own business. Kill your own body and your own future if you want. But don't go throwing your fists and your attitude around and making everyone else's life hell.”

She abruptly released his ear and stomped out of the lounge, leaving behind a long stretch of silence in her wake. The teachers, the principal, and even Grimmjow all stared after her, dumbfounded and intrigued.

.

The sky had already begun to turn orange when the student council meeting ended that afternoon. The other members packed up and left in a rush to catch their train, leaving their president and vice-president behind to finish up the rest of their business.

As the two finally called it a day and left the school themselves, Hitsugaya turned towards her and asked. “Was the matter from earlier handled?”

She smiled as she nodded. “Yes, kaichou.”

He stared at her silently for a moment longer, and then he did what he always did; he turned uncharacteristically tender, taking hold of her hand and pulling her back to a halt, and when she stared at him questioningly, he took a single step forward and softly grazed her cheek with the back of his fingers.

“You weren't hurt, were you?” he asked quietly, boring his intense, green eyes into hers.

Karin's breath hitched, and she was grateful that the orange light of the sunset hitting her face covered the pink her cheeks must have turned. “N-No.”

He nodded. “Good.” He stepped back again, but he didn't let go of her hand. Instead, he held it even more tightly and offered, “I'll walk you home.”

Karin didn't think she would be able to speak properly, and she didn't want to embarrass herself by even trying, so she simply ducked her head and nodded in embarrassment.

They left the school grounds together, hand in hand.

.

A lone figure watched them from afar, and electric blue eyes narrowed at the retreating couple.

Grimmjow frowned. So she likes that prissy twig of a boy, huh?

.

By next morning, Hitsugaya was back to acting like the sweet moment had never happened between them, and Karin walked into homeroom with a sigh. She wondered if he would ever give her a clear-cut sign whether he wanted her or not, because she was getting tired of playing cat and mouse.

Still feeling glum, she plopped herself down in her seat just as the bell rang. Their teacher walked in moments later and, as was customary, began to call roll. About a third of the way through the list, she paused at a name, frowned, and then sighed.

"Should I even bother calling this one out?" they heard her mumble before she looked out at the students and said, "Jaegerjaquez Grimmjow?"

There was, of course, no reply, and even Karin looked around and did not spot his mop of blur hair. Shaking her head disapprovingly, the teacher marked him as absent and then continued down the list. Karin's own name was called, and they had made it to just about the end of the attendance sheet when the door suddenly slid open.

All eyes flitted towards the entrance, and then simultaneously widened at the boy who had just arrived.

"J-Jaegerjaquez-san?" the teacher stammered, actually rubbing her eyes because she could barely believe what she was seeing.

The boy grinned back at her, a smile that was all teeth. "Yo."

He had his uniform on all wrong. The tie was missing, and his shirt was not only half untucked but was also unbuttoned at the top. He even had piercings in his ear, which was definitely a violation of school rules. But he was here.

After clearing her throat a few times, the poor teacher tried once again to speak. "You actually came to class today?" she asked incredulously.

Grimmjow was no longer paying attention to her, however. Holding his bag over his shoulder, he scanned the room very indiscreetly, gazing closely at each student's face and not even trying to hide his irritation when he did not find whom he was looking for.

Eventually, though, he spotted Karin sitting in her desk next to the window, watching him with just as much surprise as the rest of the class, and his scowl was instantly replaced by that same wide, cocky grin. Ignoring the woman who was still trying to speak to him, he strutted across the classroom to where Karin sat, but stopped at the desk next to hers instead.

Glaring down at the boy sitting there, he stretched out one long leg and kicked the desk hard.

"Move, kid," he barked, and when his eyes flickered momentarily to Karin's face, he smirked. "I want the seat next to the girl."

Poor Hanatarou immediately began to scramble for his things, looking paler than was healthy, but both Karin and their teacher were indignant in their protests.

"That's Hanatarou's seat!" Karin hissed, glaring up at the delinquent for his audacity.

"We have a seating arrangement, Jaegerjaquez-san," the latter said crisply. "If you bothered to show up every once in a while, you would know that. Yours is--"

"Look, woman," Grimmjow cut across her, now scowling. "Just be grateful I came at all. Now, I want this seat or I'm leaving. Your call."

He ended his threat with a small smirk, because he knew that all the faculty at the school strove to encourage all students to not cut class, no matter what the ultimatum that made them stay. She could hardly refuse a request as simple as a certain seat to sit in. And, indeed, the woman sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as if she felt a headache coming on, but relented.

"Oh, all right," she grumbled, batting a hand at him and going back to her podium. "Yamada-kun, I'm sorry about this, but would you please give him your seat? We've wasted enough time already."

"Y-Yes," Hanatarou squeaked, picking up his bag and abandoning his seat.

"Sensei!" Karin protested, but nobody paid attention to her. Grimmjow was the picture of cockiness as he took his new seat and stretched out his legs, and she seemed even more miffed than before. "Honestly," she huffed, "I cannot believe you would even be such an asshole as to--"

He interrupted her with a low chuckle. "You lecture me when I'm not in class. You lecture me when I am." But he was grinning, looking amused at how riled up she had become.

She hesitated for a few beats, looking like she still wanted to be angry with him, before sighing and rolling her eyes. "Well, I guess it is an improvement that you're here at all," she grumbled, folding her arms across her chest.

"Here and ready to learn," he retorted, but Karin gritted her teeth when she saw that he was clearly trying to hold back a snort.

She wished she had an excuse to ignore him, but the teacher was now fumbling to find some chalk with which to write some announcements on the board, which meant quite a few other students had broken out into whispered conversations too. There was nothing she could do but purposely ignore him when he leaned across the aisle to be closer to her.

"I'm serious," he insisted, still grinning widely. He looked like the picture of someone who couldn't care less, so Karin determinedly kept her eyes fixed on the front of the class.

"But should I even bother coming when I've already missed a month?" he continued, ignoring the fact that she was ignoring him. "This shit isn't gonna make sense to me at all. Why waste my time?"

She started impatiently tapping her fingers against the top of her desk, wordlessly sending him her snappy message: get to the point already, and then stop talking to me!

He smirked. "Tutor me."

She finally gave up on her silent treatment, but only to gape at him as she squawked, "What?!"

He shrugged nonchalantly in reply. "Teach me what I missed. I'll listen if it's you." She didn't like the way he smiled at her then, all cocky and even a little flirtatious. It felt like he was looking down on her, or making fun of her, and it just rubbed her the wrong way.

Crossing her arms again, she firmly shook her head. "No way. It's your own fault for skipping. Get yourself out of this mess."

"It's too big a mess for me to bother with it," he grunted. "If you don't wanna help, I got no problems with skipping some more."

Her jaw slackened. "What the hell? I have to help you or else you'll stop showing up again? What kind of stupid condition is that? And why is it me?"

"I'm so behind that there's no point coming at all unless someone helps me catch up. And word around school is you've got pretty decent grades."

He smirked at her pointedly, raising an eyebrow.

Her eye twitched, even though she tried her hardest not to show any reaction at all. The truth was, she was a sucker for compliments -- because she worked hard for her grades, damn it, and it was all so she could uphold the prestige of her position as vice-president.

A position that she had taken up with the promise to better the school, and all the students in it. Including crude delinquents like Grimmjow.

Goddamn it, she groused to herself, drumming her fingers over her crossed arms and hating herself for what she was about to do. She somehow always managed to convince herself to do things she really didn't want to do, and all because of her pride as the vice-president.

"If I helped you," she began, scowling in irritation when Grimmjow already started grinning once more, "there would be rules." Her eyes narrowed. "There will be no more smoking on school grounds. No more fighting. And no more skipping. If you skip even one class, that's the end of our deal."

An indignant expression crossed his face, and he looked like he was about to argue, so she plowed on. "If I'm going to put in the effort, then so are you. I told you, I don't bother with lost causes."

She raised an expectant eyebrow, silently asking for his answer.

He grumbled some words that were no doubt crude under his breath, tucking his hands into his blazer pockets and clucking his tongue disdainfully a few times. After fidgeting in his seat for a short while, he finally let out a low snarl.

"Fine," he snapped, frowning at her. "You got yourself a deal, Kurosaki."

Karin realized with a start that it was the first time he had ever used her name. She hadn't thought he even knew it at all.

Clearing her throat, she nodded stiffly.

"It's a deal, then, Grimmjow."

.

It was about an hour into their student council work that afternoon that Hitsugaya looked up from his desk and frowned.

"I hear the students have been gossiping about a problem student in our year. Jaegerjaquez Grimmjow."

Karin froze where she stood, tightly clutching the files she had been sorting into the filing cabinet.

Should she tell him about their deal? Should she tell him about how he had approached her?

Then again, she fumed pettily, she and Hitsugaya weren't anything more than president and vice-president. She had no obligation to tell him about every little thing that went on in her life, not until he let her into his.

"Is it the same boy from the fight yesterday?" Hitsugaya asked, looking at her thoughtfully.

"That's him," she replied casually, returning to her task, extremely aware that he was still watching her from behind his desk. "He's finally started showing up to class. It has everyone talking."

There was a stretch of silence between them. Karin dared a peek out of the corners of her eyes to find that he was still staring at her, mulling over her, though when he realized she had seen, he nonchalantly averted his gaze.

"That's good, then," he said simply, flipping through the school clubs' budget request forms.

"Yeah," she agreed, just as airy as him. "It is."