Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of it's characters.

Envy: A feeling of discontented or resentful longing, aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck.

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"You sure you don't want some, Toushiro? It's really, really good."

"Yes, Karin, I'm sure. Now, please get that away from my face."

"Fine. Your loss, anyway. It tastes...hmmm...heavenly."

Toushiro only turned away in distaste, not particularly wanting to watch Karin's already bright red lips and tongue run over the Popsicle, her eyes closed as if she was enjoying some sort of ecstasy.

Really, it was only a Popsicle. There was no need to make such a fuss over it. So what if it was like a bazillion degrees outside, and there wasn't any shade around, and they were both seated on a small couch in her stuffy living room, the air conditioning broken from a disaster involving her father, a garden hose, and a monkey wrench?

It certainly wasn't any reason for Karin to be so awed by the cool little treat.

Big deal. He could generate enough frost to freeze the entire Seireitei over with one blow of his zanpakuto. You didn't see him bragging about it, or luring in susceptible thirteen year old girls with his icy magic powers of brain freeze.

He sent the Popsicle a glare, watching as Karin squealed in delight and surprise as it melted on her fingers and made a beeline for her bare arm. She immediately started licking it with quick flicks of her tongue, wanting to catch every drop of cool flavor.

"It was definitely a good idea to buy these," Karin commented, happily eyeing the treat with approval. "Thankfully, Yuzu's common sense balances out Oyaji's stupidity."

Another shriek escaped her as the ice melted and dripped onto her legs, which were folded on top of the sofa cushions.

He watched in amusement – and slight disgust – as she looked down at her limb with narrowed eyes, as if contemplating whether it would be worth it to lick the juice off of her leg. He was relieved when she simply put her hand over it and smudged it off. He had absolutely no desire to watch Karin attempt to keep her ice lolly upright in one hand, while trying to put her foot behind her head to suck on the drip. Just the thought of it put him of.

It wasn't like the damn ice was that good, to warrant making a fool of yourself.

He couldn't even see what was so great about the dessert, anyway. In actuality, it was pretty pathetic, as far as ice-cream went. It wasn't creamy, or sweet, or even flexible enough to offer the one eating it a choice to consume it on a stick or in a bowl.

"Ah, crap!" Karin cried. She jumped off the sofa, looking disgruntled. "It's too damn hot today! Look, it melted all over the cushion. I need to wipe it up with some napkins or Yuzu'll kill me. Here, hold this for me, Toushiro."

And suddenly, he had the offending treat in his hand. And he was feeling smug that it was suddenly causing Karin discomfort. Maybe now, she would realize it wasn't even close to mediocre.

As Karin ran off to the kitchen to find some napkins, he observed the Popsicle in his hand. It was red, and, after a quick sniff, he concluded that it was cherry. This was what had Karin all riled up? Couldn't she just freeze some actual cherries in the freezer and suck on those?

Or he wouldn't mind freezing them for her, to get the job done quicker. After all, ice was his forte, not this dumb treat's.

"Okay, I think I got all of it," Karin said, sounding relieved as she finished wiping at her sofa, which she had done while he had been criticizing Karin's choice of assistance in cooling off. She ran across the room and dumped the dirty paper towels into the wastebasket huddled in the corner, before jumping back onto her spot beside him on the couch.

Quick as a whip, she snatched her ice from his hand and stuck it into her mouth. Now that the heat was causing severe problems, she seemed to have realized she needed to finish it as quickly as possible, so he watched her break off a piece, and begin to suck on it in her mouth, her lips pursing and meshing together, not unattractively.

Kami, did she have to act like she was kissing it?

He watched with ill disguised annoyance as she focused her attention once again on the ice-cream. Soon enough, it was almost all gone, having lived the last of its days running down Karin's esophagus. Karin noticed his staring and misinterpreted the look on his face.

"Really, Toushiro," she said in between licks, "there's no need to by shy. I did offer you one, and that offer still stands if you want some. We even have a watermelon flavored one in the freezer."

"I said I didn't want any," he snapped, irritated for some inexplainable reason as he watched her cradle the Popsicle like it was something precious, afraid to drop even a single bit.

"Yeesh. Touchy. I was trying to be nice, since you keep looking at mine with jealousy, or something. You'd think with that ice sword of yours you would understand that Popsicles are your friends."

Jealous? Him? Puh-lease.

If there was one thing he was feeling, it was not jealousy. So what if Karin had been giving the treat in her hand more attention than to him for the past fifteen minutes? So what if she seemed to think it had amazing abilities to cool her off – abilities more amazing than his own? Who cared? Certainly not him. Asking himself a whole bunch of rhetorical questions was just the norm for him.

"It's called a zanpakuto," he corrected, not wanting to touch on her other statements.

Karin just rolled her eyes at him as she swallowed the last bit of her treat, sighing slightly in satisfaction as it cooled her.

"I'm done," she announced. With amazing precision, she threw the Popsicle stick across the room, where it landed straight in the wastebasket.

"She shoots, she scores!" she cheered, raising her arms above her head in triumph and kicking her legs. Toushiro shook his head at her childishness.

Karin didn't see as she was busy wiping the sticky juice all over her hands onto her shorts, not really caring that she was defiling them as she was not a clothes enthusiast like so many women he knew.

"I just had the best idea!" she suddenly cried, hopping up from her position on the couch. She reached out and pulled his wrist, ignoring the way he cringed at the stickiness of her touch.

"I'll turn on the sprinklers in the back yard. That'll be sure to cool us off!"

She grinned at her brilliant idea as they headed towards the back door in the kitchen.

He allowed himself to be dragged along, though there was no way in hell Toushiro would ever agree to run around foolishly in her backyard, water spraying everywhere. But he knew that even if he refused to join her, she wouldn't mind, instead choosing to continue with her game and allowing him to observe if he wanted.

He smirked over at the wastebasket with the Popsicle stick inside it on the way out, suddenly feeling a lot better.

There was some comfort in knowing that, even when his entertainment quality for Karin wore out, he wouldn't be chucked away like that stick that had held the Popsicle she had loved so much. Yup, he was here to stay.

Take that, you pathetic excuse for ice-cream.

I promised all of my readers that I would not start another story unless I finished all my on-going ones, or I finished the new one I've published. And I've kept my promise! This story is complete – I have all seven one-shots written out. I just haven't put them all up because I want to tweak and edit each one one more time before posting it.

I've seen so many different pairings with one-shots centered around the seven deadly sins, and I absolutely love them. Which is why I'm shocked no one has ever done one for HitsuKarin. At least, not that I know of. Well, never fear 'cause I'm here! (I am so dorky – forgive me).

And as all we English-speakers know, the language is so complicated that one word can have so many different meanings, sometimes ranging from a more intense definition to a more mellow one. Which is the reason why I've put the definition of each of the sins at the top, so that all of you get the feel of the piece and the intensity of the emotion that I want you to feel. It'll come in more handy in the later chapters.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it!