A small vein popped on Hitsugaya Toshiro's forehead and he tried to calm himself under the gaze of the young Karin Kurosaki. He had to be polite otherwise her brother was going to get all angry again and would go berserk.

"I'd like you to call me 'Hitsugaya-taicho' from now on," then he decided to be gentler, "In fact, any way that is respectful enough. It doesn't make it good for my reputation when you call me 'Toshiro'."

The young girl looked at him thoughtfully, a small mischievous spark in her eyes. With a sigh, the youngest captain decided that this Kurosaki was unable to follow orders, just like her brother. Probably it ran in the bloodline.

"Hitsugaya-taicho," she tried it on her tongue, then 'thck'-ed disapprovingly, "No, I don't like it. It's too big a mouth-full. That's probably why no one uses it."

Ouch, the last thing hurt a little, but the boy genius gulped it down. After all, it was better if she was honest with him. He was fed up with lies.

"Then use something else, just not 'Toshiro'," he watched almost in fascination as her brow furrowed as she whispered to herself ways to call him.

"I don't get it," she finally said, "How else should I call you? Hitsugaya-san is just as bad as Hitsugaya-taicho, my brother will get smart when I call you Hitsugaya-kun and, well, Hitsugaya-chan is just worse…"

He sighed internally from relief. She has missed the hated nickname. He wasn't going to tell her about it. Never. And he had to keep her away from Ukitake-taicho.

"Yes, Hitsugaya-chan is quite bad, please don't use it," he echoed, having to continue the farce of being polite, unfortunately.

Karin thought a little, then sprung up to him and started ruffling his hair, laughing all the while. A small vein popped on his forehead, but he kept his front. He. Had. To. Keep. Being. Polite.

"So, I'll just continue to call you Toshiro. Toshiro's perfect," she managed to say, in between peals of laughter.

The small vein became bigger. So she had been planning on this – she had never wanted to call him any other way but Toshiro. The little devil.

She was still ruffling his hair. The explosion was close.

She was going to see what happened to those who annoyed a dragon.