Teal eyes clashed with grey. Karin gulped, afraid of what he was going to say.

Something in his eyes made her more anxious than usual. His gaze on her was so emotional and so sensitive that she had a problem sitting there calmly, in his bed, without running away. It was just getting too much for her to bear.

His eyes were on the top of her list why she did love him. There were other things more important, like the fact that she always could count on him when she had any problem and that she felt comfortable and safe around him. But if she was to write down things from his feature that had made him so special to her, than she could point out his eyes as the first thing.

Some could say that they were cold like the ice he was controlling. In some way, Karin could agree with them. But after the time she knew him, she was able to read him easily. Not from his face, because Tōshirō had always kept it as unemotional as possible, but from his eyes. The subtle change of color when he was sad or happy had never went unnoticed by her. That was her way of knowing if he was comfortable when shew as around or when he preffered to be left alone.

She wandered if Hinamori could notice it too. Karin supposed that she was, after all, Momo was his girlfriend.

And the pain came back.

The sudden move next to her and the movement of the mattress pulled her out of her thoughts. She looked up, startled, when she saw Tōshirō sitting not so far away from her on the bed. His eyes were slightly darker and she could say that he was troubled. It didn't made her feel any better. He looked at her for a moment, before opening his lips.

"Look, Karin, we really need to talk. It's my fault for not approaching the subject sooner."

He could see that she was nervous. Her eyes were still as hard and sharp as ever, even when she was hungover, but her knuckles had turned white, she was gripping the glass of water so hard. Tōshirō suddenly felt nervous himself, but he calmed himself. He couldn't back now, he knew that this moment was crucial. Not only for their friendship, but also the future relationship, if there was going to be one. But Tōshirō was going to make sure that there was. He did not intend to let her free. He didn't wait so long, too long, for now to give up because of fear and nervousness.

Karin's brows furrowed at his words. She really had bad hunch about it.

"What are you talking about, Tōshirō."

He looked her straight in the eyes.

"I'm talking about your feelings for me." he said, deciding to approach it in the simplest way possible.

With Karin, there was no sense of bitting around the bushes. he knew from experience that she hated that.

"You what?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly.

Her worst nightmares had just come true. She had had a good feel about it, this converstion was going to be terrible.

"I know that you love me, Karin. I have known this for some time now, however I decided to wait before talking to you about it." he started, wanting to explain everything to her, to make her understand his motives. he stopped for a moment, wandering what to say. "I wanted to give you time. To make you comprehend your own feelings. I knew that this experience was something new for you. If I knew that you would end up hurt so badly... trust me, I would do everything to change it. I don't want to see anyone close to me hurt, esspecially not you."

Tōshirō looked on her, however he couldn't read her face, since it was hidden by her hair. He decided to continue.

"I can understand what you felt when you saw me and Hinamori today, but..."

"No, you can't."

He stopped, startled, when she spoke suddenly. Her voice shook, but not from shock this time. It was full of anger, anger directed straight at him. It was new experience for him. Sure, she had gotten angry at him numerous time, but this time her voice was also full of venom.

"Don't you dare to say that you can understand it. Because you don't know. You have no bloody idea how I felt." she started again, her body shaking, he could feel it through the blanket where he was sitting. "And why the hell didn't you tell me a word that you know that I love you?"

She looked up at him, finally, but he preffered he didn't. He never wanted her to look at him with that eyes. Tōshirō knew that he had fucked up. There was no other word to descripe it.

"I'm sure that you had a lot of fun watching me, for all this time, trying to hime my feelings. Do you how much I tried? How hard it was?" she continued.

"Karin, I'd never..." he tried to interrupt her, to explain himself better.

But she didn't let him. Putting her hand in front of her, she silenced him better than ever.

"You want to know how I really felt? How I pained for all this years to just tell you everything, but was to scared about you rejecting me and destroying our friendship? How I longed for you to see me as something more that just a friend? How much I was hurt everytime when you said 'you are my best friend'?"

"I..."

"You don't know anything about it! "

She slammed the glass on the table and threw the blankets of her. She just wanted to be far away from the very place she always liked. It was too much, the pain was too great. She felt her eyes getting wet. She couldn't cry in front of him. She stood up abruptly, but before she was able to take one step, the dizziness took over her. she swayed a little, but didn't fell. Strong arm shoot up and steedied her. As always, he was there to protect her. It didn't help her. the tears were going to fell any minute now.

"Karin, please, wait. I just want to..."

But she couldn't listen to him. Didn't want to. The fact that he knew, for long time, that she loved him, caused her to fell betrayed. She could understand many things, but not this. He had been watching her, making an idiot of herself while trying to hide it from him, keeping his mouth shut. She felt naive and stupid.

She ripped her arm from his grip.

"No, Tōshirō. I heard enough. You said that ou understand my hurt. Than you should know that I'd just recently my heart ripped from my chest." she stopped for a moment, analysing something, and then she snorted. "If you started this conversation with intention of making sure that I won't try to go between you and Hinamori, you can be calm. I assure you that I was going to stay in the shadow from the beginning."

"Karin, that's not what I wanted to to say!"

But she didn't listen to him. She didn't want to be hurt more. So she turned and, for the first time in her life, she run away.

Tōshirō was left in his home, alone, looking at her dissapearing form, wandering what just happened. And how to make everything all right again.

Karin was at her favorite place again. Could her live get any more crazy? During this two days almost everything she was hoping for was destroyed. She knew that nothing was going to be like before between her and Tōshirō. She knew that she shouldn't had snapped at him like that. But she was scared. Scared and ashamed, and reacted the way her mind told her to, to protect herself and her heart from any further harm.

She could play it better. She could say that he had imagined everything and that it wasn't true. That she had never loved him more that a friend. But she could think straight the moment he told her about his knowledge.

Karin lied down on the soft grass, looking on the blue sky and allowing tears to fall freely. She wanted to laugh at herself. In this two days, she cried more than in almost twenty years, in both life and afterlife.

Slowly, the calm hum of leaves put her into pained slumber.

Karin woke up after few hours, blinking sleepily while looking around her. it was getting dark outside, and the air was slightly chilly. She should be comming home soon. She had enough mopping for one day.

She sat up, rubbing her eyes, white haori falling down from her chest where it was covering her on her laps. She moved her hand to pull it up.

When the fact registered in her brain, her hand stopped in the midair. She didn't own any haori of her own. Looking down on it, her heart almost stopped when she recognized so much familiar kanji on it. Tenth division. It would mean only one thing.

"You are an idiot, you know that?" the husky voice which she still loved, said from behind her.

Karin didn't need to turn around to look at him. She knew that he was leaning against the tree, like he always did, looking at her. She fisted the haori in her hand.

It looked like nothing was going according to her wish this day.

"Next time, before you decide to run away, at least let me explain myself properly." Tōshirō continued, watching her back.

He run after her as soon as he came to his senses. He checked her dormitory, Matsumoto's and Rukia's places, heck, he even talked with the guards if she went through the senkaimon. Then, it dawned on him where she surely was. After all, this place always calmed her down. When he arrived, he found her, lying on the ground, sleeping, with her arm over her eyes. But still, the tear marks were visible on her cheeks. He wanted to kick himself, knowing very well that it was his fault. He knew that everything had to be explained, as soon as possible.

But he didn't want to wake her up. She needed her sleep, it would heal her pain at least a little. Definitely, it would do a better job than he had done.

Noticing that the air was getting colder, he took of his haori and covered her with it. She moved slightly in her sleep, but didn't woke up. So he waited.

"Tōshirō, I really don't want to talk about it now." she said, her voice tired and resigned.

He furrowed his brows. It wasn't like Karin at all.

"No. You are going to listen to me. Now." he said fiercely.

He couldn't watch her in pain. He had to do something about it as soon as if he had to force her to listen to him.

Karin stiffened but still didn't look around. Closing her eyes, she decided to let him talk. Even if it's going to pain her, she didn't have energy to fight. The sleep hadn't helped her as much she hoped.

"I know what you thought you saw today in my office." he started, watching her closely. He pushed of the tree and started walking to her, still talking. "But that is only one side of the story. But I would assume the same if I was you."

She opened her eyes, wandering where he was going with that. But still, refused to look at him. She didn't notice even that his voice was getting closer to her.

"There is a significant difference between what happened and what you assumed. You see, the kiss was only one sided."

Karin furrowed her brows. He couldn't mean that Hinamori rejected him, could he? After all, everyone knew that the fukutaichō of fifth division had a feeling for him.

"I didn't response to the kiss. True, I love Momo, but I can't see her as anything more than my sister. After all, we grew up together and were raised by grandma as siblings. It would be improper."

Karin blinked, suddenly noticing that he was standing behind her, his voice right behind her back.

"There is another factor why I couldn't respond to it." he crouched, so his face was at the level of the back of her head. "Someone else is occupying my heart. Someone whom I can't forget, no matter what's going on."

He watched her back stiff again.

Karin closed her eyes. So there was still someone else he loved.

"Who is it?" she asked in whisper, waiting for another blow.

Tōshirō shook his head, recognizing the tone she used. She still didn't get it.

She almost jumped out of her skin when two arms clothed in black sleeves encircled her, pulling her closer to hard chest. Her eyes snapped open.

"Baka." Tōshirō said, regretting that he couldn't see her face at the moment, but decided to give her time to adjust to everything. "It was always you. How would I love someone else?"

Karin was silent, her eyes wide open. She didn't fight against his arms, too shocked to do so. Her mind was slowly registering what he had just said. Her heart jumped in joy when she heard it. The words she longed for so long. However, Kurosaki's temper wasn't so easy to calm.

She turned around, forgetting that they were so close to each other, to give him a piecie of her mind about the fact, that he had kept silent for so long.

She looked straight into teal orbs. It was the closest she had ever been to him. She could even see the small speckles in his eyes.

Tōshirō saw what was going on. But now, having her so close to him, he couldn't stop himself any longer. So, instead of allowing her to start her rant, which he from her eyes would be, he chose the better way of showing her his feelings.

When warm lips fell upon her, Karin forgot what she was going to do. Her mind was totally blind when the electricity of the kiss run through her body. She could think of nothing at the moment, except the lips of white haired man, who was holding her in his arms, kissing her.

She was still in his arms, not moving a muscle, trying yet to understand everything. However, when he moved his lips against her, probing her to answer him, she knew that it wasn't dream. It was real and Hitsugaya Tōshirō, the love of her life, was really kissing her after admitting his love.

No matter how cheesy it was and how Karin hated cheesiness, that was the best moment of her life.

So she responded. She moved her lips against his, turning fully around to embrace him around his neck, while his arms fell to her waist, holding her close, with no intention of letting her go any time soon.

From now on, she was his, permanently, just like he was her. And there was nothing anymore, what could get between them.

Tōshirō would make sure of it.

The only thing Karin would never get out of him later in their future life, was the fact, where the hell did he learn to kiss so well.

A/N: So, there it's. The final part of "I love you". I'm really sorry about the break, but I just recently got the idea what to write. I hope that it's good enough ^^"