A/N: I really wanted to write this story for a long time! It's my first fanfic but I LOVE this pairing. I tried to keep the characters as IC as possible. It would be really nice if there are no flames for this :)

P.S.: This will be a multi-chaptered story

Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo

On to the reading!

Chapter 1

Karin POV

Kurosaki Karin was bugged. She had slowly got used to the absence of the usual brawl in the morning ever since her brother had married her Orihime-nee but today, goat-chin was talking it upon himself to create a ruckus. And it had to be today.

'Masaki!' he exclaimed to his wife's poster, 'Karin is so grown up! Twenty-one years old and already heading to her first job!'

Twirling wildly, he reached for her saying, "Come, and give your proud father a hug! Let me get rid of all your nervousness - "

He was cut off as a foot landed in his face and an extremely annoyed Karin barked at him, "Get rid of your insanity first, you demented fool!"

With that said, she marched out of the house and for once, decided not to ride her precious bike – the one she had bought after saving up her salary from her part time job – and take the train instead. Another reason for this was that her ironed black knee-length pencil skirt which she had coupled with a white shirt and black vest was sure to be ruined if she didn't.

The company she was joining was a major MNC. They had been in desperate need of a personal secretary for their new President and this was how Karin had gained her job. Not that she wanted to be a personal secretary. No, she had applied for the position of General Manager, which would unfortunately, only be free in a year's time. Meanwhile, they had told her that she could choose to take up the position of personal secretary and they would promote her after a year. Though Karin hardly understood how a personal secretary (a position she really didn't want as she was more than overqualified for the job) could be promoted to General Manager, since it was mentioned in her contract, she was satisfied. But on the other hand, she would be handling at least some of the work of the General Manager even now to learn the ropes. Saying that she was going to be "busy" was an understatement.

Karin still continued to be plagued by irritating ghosts but she didn't have to worry much about hollows as Ichigo, his friends and the shinigami representative could handle them well enough. Though there had been some trouble brewing recently…She pushed the thought out of her mind as she walked out of the train station. She was finally living the normal life she had always wanted. Well, as normal as it could get anyway.

She smiled to herself as she remembered how excitedly Yuzu, who was doing her post graduate degree in the neighboring town had wished her good luck on the phone that morning.

Her smile slid off of her face as she neared her workplace. It wouldn't do to arrive grinning like a naïve fool on the first day. She entered the glass double doors and headed to the top floor of the ten-storied building.

Karin tried to maintain a pleasant face throughout the introductions and explanations that her co-worker gave as her usual scowl, so much like her brother's, threatened to spread itself on her face. There was something that was bothering her. She had been told that the President would be her direct boss and that his right hand, some woman whose name she had not been told would be under her, though this was not usually the case. But being the future General Manager did have its benefits. What was bothering her was one simple question – Where the hell was he?

Seeing her distracted expression, her co-worker (Yoshida something), gestured towards a set of double doors. "The Boss's office is that way. He asked that you be explained your duties and given a tour before being sent to the office."

Karin sighed internally at the thought of the long day this was going to be.

Toshiro POV

He sat in the plush chair behind the huge glass-topped mahogany desk as he looked out the window of the office. His office. Damn that old man. What kind of crackpot assignment was this?

He closed his eyes momentarily and let out an irritated sigh. Clearly, he had been placed as the President of pack of utter idiots. As soon as he had stepped into the building today, he had been transfixed with stares. Again. While he knew his appearance was a bit unusual, he had expected things to settle down after a few days. But now, a month later, he was having doubts as things remained the same. He was still goggled at. People seemed to choke up and stutter when he spoke to them. Especially the women. For some unfathomable reason, they all seemed to be extremely interested in blushing and giggling at the sight of him. That was when they weren't dropping things 'on accident'. More often than not, he found himself wondering if there wasn't some sort of joke scribbled on his forehead. Maybe he would have to believe the stuffed-up sixth squad captain this time – Humans were irritatingly tedious creatures.

He let out another sigh. This wouldn't do. He was this frustrated and she wasn't even here yet. But he should have known that she would be late, of course. His supposed 'right hand'. When had she not been?

Getting up from the chair, he made his way to the door. No point in sitting around and working himself up on trivialities. He walked around the floor, noting once again the slack jaws and awed gazes that followed him around. Suddenly, he sensed a familiar reiatsu. He couldn't place it but it reminded him of some far off memory that he couldn't remember. His eyes flew wide as he remembered that some shape-shifter was supposed to be running loose in Karakura Town. But surely not. Not with a Captain in the building? Well, he'd find out.

He'd just had the thought when he caught sight of an unknown person walking by. Unfortunately, she had her back to him, but for some reason her waist-length shiny black hair that was tied up in a high ponytail seemed vaguely familiar. That's when he saw her enter the men's room.

'SHAPE-SHIFTER!' His mind screamed at him and he had to agree. Turning to one of the people standing around, he asked, 'Who's that new black – haired woman?'

He mentally groaned as a blush suffused the woman's cheeks before she replied, 'That's your new personal secretary, sir. She'll be at your office within a few moments."

As he walked back, he couldn't help thinking to himself, 'This is going to be one interesting introduction.'

Karin POV

'GAH!' Karin mentally exclaimed as she rushed towards the door opposite the one she had exited from. 'I CANT BELIEVE I DID THAT! AND THAT TOO ON THE FIRST DAY! WHICH IDIOT GOES TO THE MEN'S ROOM BY ACCIDENT LIKE SOME FLOUNDERING FOOL?! Damn that reiatsu. Why in God's name was it so familiar anyway?' While, she was berating herself, a solitary thought struck her mind. 'Shape-shifter.'

Well, damn it all to hell.

She pushed it to the back of her mind – there was nothing much that she could do and one or the other shinigami would probably show up soon. They had assured her that he/she, whatever it was wasn't that keen on attacking during the day. All attacks had been at night.

She started to walk towards the door her co-worker had pointed out to her earlier (and giggling uncontrollably as she did). Well, some people were weird and there was nothing you could do about it. She entered into a long passage and made her way to another set of doors ahead. Boy, this President sure liked his privacy.

She knocked on the door and was told to come in. But for some reason the voice sounded very much like . . .

Turquoise eyes glared at her as she entered the office.

'TOSHIRO!' she unintentionally yelled. Though he was about six feet tall and built now, there was no mistaking the fact that it was him. Or at least the Toshiro that would have been there if he were ever to show up and if, this was not the shape-shifter.

'That's Hitsugaya taichou to you.'

He stood in front of his desk, as though he had been waiting for her. His eyes widened momentarily before they narrowed in anger that was palpable as the room's temperature dropped suddenly.

'What an underhanded trick. But then, I am not surprised that a being of your meagre caliber would stoop to such a level, shape-shifter'

'THAT'S MY LINE YOU BASTARD!' she seethed, 'HOW DARE YOU SAY SUCH THINGS TO ME WHILE TAKING MY CHILDHOOD FRIEND'S APPEARANCE?'

'Enough.' He said coldly. 'Do not try to belittle my intelligence. No matter how accomplished your acting skills, I am not going to be affected. Are you not, in fact, a man who has taken on the form of Kurosaki Karin?'

'What the HELL are you talking about?!'

'Let me explain then. If you are a shape-shifter, this should make no difference.'

With that, he tackled her to the floor in one swift motion and ended up straddling her on the floor. Taking care to block the fist headed for his face, he immediately pinned her wrists above her head with one of his hands. And the next thing she knew, he ripped apart her shirt and she heard the three buttons flying away and scattering on the floor.

Blood boiled under her skin and rushed to her face as it turned completely red. He barely registered the sudden flaring of the now-very-familiar reiatsu from his memory as he looked up from the lacy black material that was no longer covered by her shirt to her face with an astonished 'Oh.' And immediately released her hands.

He really should have seen it coming.

Her palm met his face with a resounding smack as he sat there, too stunned to react.

It was at that moment that his 'right hand' chose to open the door and barge into his office, her strawberry blond hair flying behind her.

'Oh' she said, unable to control her growing surprise and the sly smile that spread across her face, 'I see you've met Karin-chan, taichou.'

He quickly (and very embarrassedly) lifted himself off the poor girl getting squished beneath his heavy frame. He knew it. He should have known. Only one person would be devious enough and stupid enough to orchestrate this.

His body shook with unsuppressed rage as he bellowed, 'MATSUMOTO!'

3rd Person POV

'For the last time Toshiro, stop apologizing.' said Karin as she took in his embarrassed yet furious expression. But there was barely a hint of the blush that she had expected to cover his face.

Rangiku, still smiling to herself as she stood at the side of the room, taking in the scene. However, she wasn't feeling particularly confident at the moment. The "reunion" of her taichou and Karin had not exactly gone as she had expected. Instead of the emotion-filled hugs (okay maybe that was a bit unrealistic) that she thought they would be sharing, she now found them glaring daggers at each other.

Shit.

'I can't believe you of all people would be dumb enough not to recognize me. ' he said and Rangiku winced mentally.

'Oh yeah? Then what about you? Aren't you supposed to be this really great child prodigy or something?' Karin countered. There was no way she was letting him pin all the blame onto her.

'There is nothing supposed about it. I am more surprised that you couldn't tell me that it was you before the whole fiasco happened. And I can't believe it was that easy to take you down.'

'Like you gave me a chance! And yeah, I've been out of practice a bit, which is the only reason that you could tackle me like that. And while we're on the subject, why couldn't you sense my reiatsu before you attacked me?'

Toshiro felt the unwelcome sense of guilt at her words and tried to push it to the back of his mind. 'It's been a long time. I haven't sensed your reiatsu for quite a while.'

'And yet you expect me to remember yours? I haven't exactly been reminiscing and waiting around for you to show up all these years!' she yelled. A small part of her mind disagreed with her words. How many times had she lain awake thinking of him? She felt a sudden surge of anger combined with hurt as she caught sight of one of her shirt buttons on the floor and she said quietly, 'Frankly Toshiro, I never thought that you out of all people would be capable of doing something like this.'

He cringed at the feeling of betrayal that conveyed by her voice.

His next words were measured and careful.

'You can leave the job if you want to.'

Her eyes flashed as she replied, 'No, thanks. I need this job. I keep my personal and professional lives separate.'

'Alright then. The working hours for today are done. You may leave.'

'Hai, Hitsugaya-san.'

Toshiro blinked as she left. For some reason that stung.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Okay, so here are a few translations in case you need them.

Taichou – Captain

Hai – yes

Nee – used as a term for older sister or as respect for an older woman (I think)

I hoped to use 'dencho' for boss but I am not sure about the translation.

Hope you liked it! Let me know what you think! Please review! ^_^