Written for the Secret Santa HitsuKarin Fic Exchange. Prompt: Eve.

"Aw, damn it," Karin mutters, the second she looks up, much to Toushirou's confusion. She makes a disdainful expression as she explains with a roll of her eyes. "Mistletoe."

He follows her gaze, not understand what the fuss is about. It's just a tawdry looking green and red decoration, hanging above them.

"So?" Bluntly, Toushirou asks, raising his eyebrows.

"Oh," Karin says, distinctly… perturbed. She clears her throat and straightens her shoulders. When she speaks again, it's much terser and matter of fact than he's used to. "There's this Christmas tradition. This stupid, stupid, tradition that goes along the lines of… when two people are standing beneath mistletoe, they have to kiss."

"Oh," Toushirou echoes, comprehending her former disheartened reaction. He blinks, and says the first thing that comes to mind. "Sounds like something Matsumoto would make up."

"Wouldn't put it past her, or Yuzu," Karin snorts, grinning mischievously, and it's in these moments of lightness, that Toushirou can't help but feel disarmed, can't help but mirror her, can't help but laugh, because Karin kind of has a point, and those two are anything but subtle.

"Right," Toushirou agrees, quietly.

There's a pause, Karin bites her lip, on the pinnacle of stating an outrageous idea – Toushirou thinks, almost absently, temporarily distracted by a dizzy lack of air, a tension that bursts out of nowhere, before as Karin looks up at him, her eyes darkly framed by her lashes.

"Shall we give them a show?" Karin murmurs, her hands on his shirt, tugging him forward. Their foreheads bump, and Toushirou is too flustered to say anything, flames crawling up his neck.

So he reacts like he always reacts around Karin. Instinctively, without thinking, wanting — he kisses her.

The angle is wrong, he thinks, as their noses bump and teeth clack together, but he can amend that, pulling back and tilts his head, closing the distance between them again. Karin meets him with enthusiasm.

Karin kisses him like how she lives her life, there's such joy in it, anticipating a fun memory for them to remember later, and it knocks the breath out of him. Always. Every time.

His hands slide around her, one pressing her svelte frame flush against him, the other sweeping the notches in her spine until it is tangled in her hair. Karin gasps into his mouth, the sound seared into his brain — and he takes advantage of the moment and running his tongue across her plush lips, stealing a little more of her air while he still has the chance.

It's only fair. If it's to be a memory, he might as well make it a good one.

"Oi! That's enough!"

"Kurosaki," Toushirou all but growls, his voice unexpected low, as they break apart like they've been caught doing—they were just—never mind, it's just Karin's brother being… her brother. He still feels compelled to explain the situation. "You've heard about mistletoe?"

"Yeah," Ichigo looks at him like he's stupid, of course he's heard about mistletoe, and turns his attention to Karin, who Toushirou very covertly does not peer at through the corner of his eyes. "Just don't get too carried away, alright?"

"We weren't!" Toushirou lies through his teeth, and Kurosaki ignores him.

"Message received," Karin mutters, muffled as she places a hand over her mouth.

"Karin?" Kurosaki Ichigo looks at her, smirking as Karin's cheeks turn darker.

"I said message received, loud and clear, Ichi-nii," Karin snaps, in a louder voice, furiously red, her hair in disarray.

"Alright," Kurosaki says, after a beat, shrugging, "You two play nice now."

"Go away, Ichi-nii," Karin hisses, her face buried in her hands. She peeks through her fingers, and then sighs in relief when Kurosaki is no longer there; her hands dropped by her side then, her mouth plush. "Honestly, he has the worst timings."

Toushirou makes a noncommittal sound, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. He flicks his eyes downcast, waiting for the moment that his face doesn't feel as hot as a forest fire, while Matsumoto wolf whistles and Yuzu claps in applause.

He swallows his nerves, and asks, mumbling, "Was that okay?"

"Yeah," Karin grins a crooked smile, her voice breathy and soft as she looks at him with a rush of affection, and he wants nothing more than the distance between them to be non-existent again. Her eyes are a sparkling shade of blue. "You did good."

"That was quite a kiss!" Yuzu says with a smile, offering him a grin. "You and Karin make a very cute couple!"

"We're not—" Toushirou begins, indignant, his heart flaring twice the size it always does, before he heaves out a sigh, stating. "We're not a couple, Yuzu."

He takes a bite out of a cookie, and chews. It's sickly sweet, but it always makes Yuzu happier when he eats them, Toushirou notices.

"Could have fooled me," Yuzu blithely says, "Usually, Karin doesn't act quite like that whenever she under the mistletoe with someone."

He chokes, pounding his chest, and wheezes out through his coughing fit, "Wrong pipe."

They stand in silence for a few seconds, before Toushirou realizes that he's meant to take the hint and ask, so he does with dry resignation.

"What's Karin usually like?"

Yuzu beams.

"Like she wants to get through it as quickly as possible," Yuzu informs him, after thinking about it., then crosses her arms over her chest, and looks at him curiously. "You two really aren't together?"

How many times must he say this to anyone who asks?

"We're just friends," Toushirou shakes his head, unable to hide a note of disappointment. "That's all we'll ever be."

Karin finds him a little later, sitting on the roof, watching the stars.

"Hey," She calls, sticking her head out the window. "Mind if you join you?"

"Go ahead," Toushirou nods, waiting for Karin to climb up and sit next besides him. It's nicer outside, anyways, where the chatter is a backdrop and the only light in the sky is the stars. He always feels more at ease when he's out here, not as a guard, but as someone who can collect his thoughts and be alone for a while.

But then again, he feels at ease whenever Karin is around him too.

Weird how he can still feel her mouth on his.

"I wanted to apologize," Karin says, hand on the back of her neck, trying to smile, "I… may have gotten carried away."

"You and me both," Toushirou says, glancing at her fondly. "You said to put on a show."

"We rose up to that challenge pretty magnificently, didn't we?" Karin grins, holding her hand up for a high-five.

"One day we might even get an ovation for it," Toushirou teases, wry, giving in because he does the stupidest shit when he's with Karin, and he doesn't even mind in the slightest if it makes her grin.

"Mmhm. Who do you think is the one to talk about it for days?" Karin says, before they both simultaneously agree:

"Kurosaki."

"Ichi-nii."

"Think we could have given him a heart attack if we were a little more scandalous?" Karin asks, nudging him gently, and he looks at her, thinks about it.

"Maybe," Toushirou says, not sure whether he agreed or not. The thing about Kurosaki was that he alternated between being an overprotective big brother, or a supportive one, depending on which mood suited him, and which one made Karin feel more embarrassed.

"We're good, though, right?" Karin says, concern slipping through her joviality, and her gaze lowers, sweeping his face with something almost as sweet as longing. "You and me."

"Yeah," Toushirou nods, not trusting himself to say anything else. They will be.

"Good," Karin relaxes, and pats him on the back, "Because I have to say you are a phenomenal kisser."

"You're not so bad yourself," Toushirou smirks, and just like that, they're dissolving into giggles under the starlit sky.

"I think the word you're looking for is phenomenal," Karin corrects him, once the laughter has left their system. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"I would," Toushirou smirks, humouring her, and so stupidly indulgent. He'll call himself a million kinds of fool later, but for now, he's pretty content to spend New Year's Eve with Karin.

It's cockiness that causes him to speak a second later that borders on arrogance.

"But I think I'd like to double check," Toushirou says, and Karin gapes at him, before she's cracking up and grinning her ridiculous grin, eyes bright.

"You would, would you?" Karin says, dare he say it, flirtily. He recognizes that playful tone.

He's thought about it, once or twice.

"What do you say?" Toushirou says, issuing a challenge. Waits for her to take the bait.

"I say, put your money where your mouth is," Karin leans forward, her mouth a welcome invitation, and of course Karin has to have the last word, Toushirou thinks, his thumb brushing over her jaw.

His thoughts disintegrate as easily as bottle rockets in the sky, acutely aware of the way Karin sighs into his mouth, a sound sweeter than he could have possibly imagined, and it sends his pulse racing.

The kiss ends, and Toushirou presses his forehead against hers, and they stay like that for a while, breathing each other in, mouths close enough to touch if they moved only slightly.

They missed the countdown, he realizes belatedly, dizzily, they ignored the fireworks that he'd intended to watch, and instead his stomach is doing somersaults instead. Still, it's not all bad.

"Hey," Toushirou says, softly, speaking first, as Karin's eyes flutter open, pretty as starlight. She looks at him, mouth flush, cheeks luminous, radiant as ever. She smiles back, and he wishes that this moment would never end, and that he has to kiss her at least one more time, for luck, so he does. "Happy New Year."