For the shameless anon who wanted older!Karin and blushing!Toushirou. The image was too cute!

Toushirou knows he's in trouble when Karin turns sixteen.

Oh no, Toushirou thinks, blanching as his cheeks start to flush. No.

This could not be happening.

It feels like all the air has been knocked out of him, leaving him winded at the sight of her, smiling and radiant as a goddess, and he wonders how he's never seen her like this before.

This couldn't possibly be happening, and yet —

"You okay?" Karin asks, peering at him curiously, and he doesn't know what to blame — the trick of the light, his lizard stupid brain, the way her lashes frame her eyes. Or the sudden lack of oxygen since he stopped breathing ever since Karin leaned in close enough for him to count her eyelashes, and he stays exactly where he stand, still as can be. "You're looking kind of… red."

Toushirou swallows. "It's nothing."

He could blame the weather, he supposes. It's not too late for that. May has never particularly agreed with him, but he tolerates it because it's Karin's birthday and he's here for her.

"Alright," Karin shrugs, drawing back, and seemingly letting the matter to, much to Toushirou's relief. He's always appreciated her nonchalance, truth be told.

He exhales, the rush of air heavier than he expected.

Oh, shit.

He's more affected by this newfound attraction than he thought. This cannot be good.

"It's funny," Karin drawls, and her eyes flash with fondness as she regards him. Captivating him even as he sinks more and more into the depths of her beauty. "If I didn't know better, I'd almost say you were…"

His mouth goes dry.

"Oh fuck," Karin's mouth drops, lips full and rose red, and in slow motion, Toushirou watches her eye widen, a gleam of steel blue as the dots connect. "You are, aren't you?"

"What?" Defensive, all to prepared to deny whatever that she's about to say, Toushirou grits his teeth, and tries to cool his face by willpower alone. If he wills it, ice will dust over his cheekbones, and he can blame it on the cold, rather than something as stupid as a —

"Blushing," Karin declares, triumphant. Relishing the moment with a sharp smirk, Toushirou is helplessly drawn to noticing the sweetly seductive curl of her mouth. "Wow."

"I am not!" Toushirou denies it, vehemently, flaring up much to his detriment. "I'm just — very happy to see you again!"

Karin snorts. Tries to hide her smile, and it makes her unbelievably cute. He wants to scream in frustration.

He can't believe he has to deal with thoughts like this. They're so distracting!

"What did you say to me back then?" Karin teases, back to smirking, and lording it over him, and it shouldn't make him already more flustered than he already is, and yet. "Never mind, I remember. It's okay to have a crush on me, Toushirou."

"But I don't!" Toushirou bursts out; his cheeks blazing as Karin merely arches her brow, sceptical. Even if he did, which he doesn't, he's far too stubborn to admit it now, of all things. "Dammit, Karin, I don't have a crush on you!"

It's shock!

He's in shock and has yet to accustom to her face — that must be it!

He's witnessed Karin in a number of guises. He's seen her in her school uniform, and ripped jeans. He's seen her with her shorts and mud scraped knees. He's seen her in pyjamas and dressed for a party. So why — why is this so different from before?

"Alright, alright," Karin agrees easily, too complacent, and Toushirou raises his guard, finding it suspicious that she yields so quickly. She shrugs, and exhales. "Whatever you say."

The fact that she sounds like she doesn't believe it makes the condescension even worse.

"How about I turn into my future self right now?" Toushirou blurts, convinced that he was not nearly as bad as her when it came to teasing Karin. He raises his voice. "How'd you like that?"

"You'd be my favourite birthday present ever," Karin says, a dreamy look in her eyes, momentarily distracted, like she hadn't even realized that she'd said that out loud. She gasps the second she does, eyes widening before she shakes her head, embarrassed. Her cheeks flush, and there's a bitter victory in that. "I mean —"

It's so unfair that Karin has a crush on his older self, and he has to have a crush — no, not a crush — feel flustered by her when she's taller than him, his heartbeat racing irrationally even now. Why is it that they can never get it right?

"Too bad," Toushirou flatly says, glowering just a little. He's not jealous.

Absolutely not.

"Toushirou," Karin says, sounding exasperated as she stresses his name. Her hands fall to her hips, and she looks at him. "This is ridiculous."

And all of a sudden she bursts into laughter, stunning him once more by how adorable she is, radiant in her happiness.

"You should see the look on your face," Karin says, an affectionate smile adorned on her face.

"W-what?" And he hates-hates-hates how his cheeks are suffusing with hot colour once more.

"I just wanted to mess with you a bit," Karin grins, turning fiendish, and Toushirou squawks. "I mean, I'd have been flattered if you had, you know? But. We had a deal, remember? Future's not here yet."

It might as well be, Toushirou's thoughts think traitorously, as he huffs out his displeasure and rolls his eyes. Three years are going pass quickly in a blink of an eye, and yet, somehow, it'll be so torturously slow.

"Right. Of course."

I'll be way more gorgeous than you ever were, Karin had said, taunting.

He's not doomed yet.

"Still," Karin muses, considering him with mirth in her eyes. "If you're like this when I'm sixteen, I bet your jaw is going to hit the floor when I turn nineteen."

Toushirou snorts, back in his element. He recognizes a challenge when he sees one. "No promises, Karin."

"You say that now," Karin smirks, but she looks at him knowingly, entertained by the possibility. "But we'll see who's laughing at the end."

Matsumoto, probably.

"Who's doomed most, you mean," Toushirou corrects, and that earns him a laugh, and Toushirou is again temporarily struck speechless by just how pretty she's become, how beautiful she is going to be.

"Yeah, that," Karin says, slinging her arm over his shoulder. Her smile tells him that she knows his every secret. "We're going to be so hot. It'll be fun!"

"I can't wait," Toushirou deadpans, and smiles, softening at the excitement in her sparkling eyes. He's already infected by her exuberance.

It's him.

He knows it'll be him. He can just tell.

If he's in trouble now, then it's going to be so much worse when the future knocks all sense and rationality out of him and she becomes even more gorgeous than he could possibly imagine.

In the meantime, she'll have the upper hand rendering him speechless whenever she sends a slightly crooked smile in his direction, and he'll be forced to admit, that maybe he does have a crush on her after all.

Like hell he'd say something like that out loud, though.

And yet —

Karin grins at him, and Toushirou knows —

He is in so much trouble.