Teeny tiny chapter for now while I force myself to read back through the rest of this. I don't suppose anyone would like to volunteer to beta this or suggest someone who might? It will also involve kicking my arse into actually writing more than one chapter a year.

"I'm surprised, surely it would make more sense for you to sleep with Abari-fukutaicho or Kuchiki-taicho?"

Karin's mood did a quick cycle from her elated state, to confusion, hurt, and finally a simmering anger. Biting her tongue, she stayed facing the door and went to go it, but not before a hand had landed on her shoulder and jerked her back to come face to face with Hiro.

She stuck with her silent treatment and responded with only a fist to his face, resulting in the most satisfying thud and idea of the other shinigami sprawled on his backside, before mustering the remainder of her composure to glide into her room without even looking back at her work. The slamming of the door was a definite closure to any argument that might have happened.

Hiro sat up, cussing and spitting blood from his split lip. Stupid fucking human. In all honesty he had started to realize that his prejudices were a little unfounded, so had avoided all contact with her lest she notice any change in his attitude- he was too proud to give anyone the satisfaction of him admitting he was wrong. But now, seeing her with a taicho, his blood was boiling.

Hiro had long since accepted the fact that he was never going to be strong enough to progress up the ranks, and normally kept himself out of the way of those who could with little to no judgement on them but this girl, this stupid human girl who hadn't even graduated from the academy yet, sparked something in him that he only knew how to run into anger. Seeing her just then, with Hitsugaya-taicho's lips pressed to hers, the spark had become an inferno.

He spat again, picking himself up and stalking to the dojo in the hope that beating the living shit out of something would help this feeling burn itself out.

Karin however, had just collapsed on her bed, the incident put to the back of her mind whilst she slept and dreamt of other things and other people.

XOXOX

"Sooo, how was last night?" asked Matsumoto, all but tackling her taicho to the floor the second he walked into he office, however her words barely managing to register as Toushiro panicked and ducked out of her path. He may have grown but it still hadn't stopped her nearly suffocating him between those things that were too big to be breasts whenever she felt to urge to.

"Taicho~" she whined further, adding a pout to the mix now.

"Last night is none of your business," he huffed with a mock angry face that only held for a second or two before softening into a smile,"but it's the only time I'm going to say thank you for interfering in my love life, and I'm happy you did."

"You're welcome. What are friends for, eh?"

"Well right now, they're there for finishing the paperwork they stopped me doing yesterday," he replied,not even half serious. That warm buzzing feeling he'd woken up with only intensified as he realized how grateful he was to his fukutaicho. He may have spent years doing little but grumble about her but underneath her lax attidute to work she had always been there to look after him when he needed it without even asking for acknowledgement in return.

"Done."

There was a heavy silence in the air.

"Done? As in, you completed it before I got here without me even asking, let alone blackmailing, you into doing it?"

"No, done as it I just burnt the whole lot to make you think I'd finished it."

Matsumoto could bearly stifle her laugh at the look of sheer horror that passed over Toushiro's face. "Taicho! How could you even think I would do that? After all these years I've been nothing but a diligent and loyal member of your squad. But you can check in the right hand draw of your desk if you still need any convincing."

The captain's hand itched to reach for that draw, just to check. But no, he was going to trust her. It was not a reassuring notion, but one he felt all the better for after seeing the smile it left on her face. Silently, they both settled down to work, something neither could remember doing since their previous captain had disappeared and left them demoralized and burdened with his work.

XOXOX

"You have got to be joking," Karin mumbled to herself as she saw her sparring partner for the day. He stood as far away as possible, with every inch of him radiating an unbridled hostility. Their nameless zanpakuto raised to each other like snakes, promised to be singing with clashes as soon as the first move was made. Karin just stood, waiting. This fight would be so much more than a standard training session. He was out for revenge for the previous night, out to show her how much he disliked her and whatever point he was trying to prove would be done there and then.

Karin was split as to her opinion. She could give in to the anger that was telling her to finish whatever was going on, to make him stay away from her food good and realize that all this accusation of cheating her way to power was all bullshit. She was strong enough on her own.

Equally, there was an element of Hiro that said he was nothing but vulnerable, like a cornered animal that didn't know how to deal with the enemy it had been presented with. She may not have had her sister's level of compassion but neither was she so cold as to want to hurt something like that.

Regardless, the second they locked eyes, he flew at her. There was no holding back from his part, and regardless of the minimal injury rule every blow he struck was designed to hurt her but for every attack he had, she had a defense. It continued on, until Karin had come to understand the way Hiro fought and she began to make attracts of her own. His strokes became increasingly more rabid and desperate with all lessons of sword fighting techniques drowned out with a sheer desire to inflict what ever pain he could. Pushed back by her superior style and strength, Hiro made a final lunge at her throat whilst her own zanpakuto was being pulled back to strike again. There was a clatter as metal hit the floor and around those two alone there was a buzzing silence. Karin dropped her sword from where it had left the lightest of slashes across her opponent's chest and returned it to it's case on he hip.

"This is over."

As she turned her back on him, Hiro was left dazed. Coming back to his senses, oh so slowly, he picked up and replaced his own zanpakuto. The silence had been replaced by a roaring of blood in his ears. "No," he thought, "No it's not." Quietly, he followed her, watching her take corner after corner until hhe'd caught up. Either she did not know he was there, or more likely she was just ignoring him like a same child that she hoped would lose interest and just give up.

He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him, and the lack of surprise on her face told him she had known what he was about to do. Instead, the anger she showed just further fueled his own. He shoved her back until he could pin her between himself and a wall, and worst of all was that she let him.

"Stupid bitch, think you're too above me to need to bother to fight me off?" he hissed.

"No, I'm just trying to figure out what the hell your problem with me is!" she spat back, still not showing any sign of breaking the hold she was in.

"You're the problem. You think you're just going to walk in from the human world and the rest of us mere shinigami are going to fawn over you and let you lead us? News flash: you are not your brother. He fought for us against Aizen, nearly died for us, and worked as a substitute shinigami before that. He deserves what he has but you," he leant forward for emphasis, to the point where it seemed barely an inch separated their faces, "are nothing. Sure, I heard about what happened at the zanpakuto caves but you've never had to be there on your own, face to face with a hollow. You've never once known what it's like to know you might die and for nothing but duty. You want to become a seated officer and lead us? You've never felt the fear we go through on duty, and have bugger all empathy with us. You don't deserve what you've been given here."

Hiro's breath was coming in shallow pants through gritted teeth as Karin looked him dead in the eye, "I'd never die just for duty. I'd die defending those who can't defend themselves. I would die knowing that even if I can't defeat an enemy or hollow, I might have beat it down enough that someone else might finish the job.

"Here's some news for you: there are hollows in the human world too. With the reiatsu levels around our family, where do you think they come to first? And who was there when Ichigo wasn't? No zanpakuto. No orders. No back up. All I had was a fucking football and my sister to protect." She shoved Hiro away and glared him down. "So shut up with all this crap about how I've had it so easy. You have absolutely no idea."

There were so many things to do in that moment that she would have expected from him, but throwing himself back at her, trapping her back between his body and the wall, and forcing his lips on to hers. That she was not prepared for. Too stunned to think or react, she stood there eyes open and felt it happen in sickening horror. He'd snaked his hands around her wrists and every squirm she made in an effort to escape he took for encouragement. That was all it took to return her to her senses. Turning her head away to free herself from his mouth she only had to whisper, "Stop," and it was Hiro's turn to feel himself break away from the spell of that moment. Shaking his head in sheer denial, he let go of her, looked at her once more. "I... I'm sorry," he managed to mumble before running.

With no destination in mind he ran until his legs burnt with the effort. Alone, somewhere he didn't recognize, he collapsed to his knees and screamed out of sheer emotion. "What the fuck?" was all he kept saying to himself. No one else was there to answer.

Karin just stood there, watching after him, completely at a loss as to what his next action might be. Her hand rested on the hilt of her zanpakuto from nothing but instinct and after a few moments she deemed it safe to turn her attention back to the surroundings. It was only then she felt the soft glow of another soul present.

Tomoko was by her side in a second, arms out as Karin dropped into them and took the support they promised, "Oh Karin," she said, her voice showing no hint of the childish nature she often put on, "What happened?"