Prompt: ghosts!

Before Toushirou has time to ask Karin why she's wearing a strange outfit, a white sheet goes over his head.

For a few seconds, he sees nothing but white.

Then he hears Karin sigh, and her hands are on his head, tugging the white sheet around, as she mutters to himself, pulling this way and that. It doesn't hurt, per se, but it feels strange to his hair. It's almost as bad as getting his hair ruffled, he thinks, if not worse.

Suddenly he sees her face grinning at him, teeth bared.

"There." Karin says proudly. "I did it."

He blinks and stares at her through two round holes. He can't stop staring at her mouth. It's so… red.

"Karin."

Nodding, she lets go of him, and steps back to admire her handiwork. Her handiwork of putting a sheet over him.

"Karin." Toushirou says again, sounding more cross than he intends, but a warning is a warning. He ignores that flicker of anger, patient for the answer that he will get. "Why is there is a sheet over my head?"

"Because you're invited to Halloween." She answers cheerfully, even though her answer makes even less sense and he is more confused than before. "And you're a ghost."

"Shinigami." Toushirou corrects her automatically. "Karin." Toushirou begins and stops. Decides to take a deep breath, hold it, and let it go. He has a feeling that he might have a headache if he doesn't continue to practise these breathing techniques. "What's Halloween?"

"… it's this thing." Karin shrugs, like it's no big deal.

He waits before he prompts her, wanting an explanation.

"This thing?"

"Yeah." Karin nods, hands on her hips. "It happens once a year. Yuzu likes it." Karin states, trying to sound aloof, but failing under his scrutinizing glower that increases power the more she delays the explanation he wants to hear. Her cheeks are slowly but surely darkening into a tell-tale pink.

Admittedly, his glowering leaves much to be desired when there's a sheet over him. It's still super effective though.

"It's fun, you know? That's why I wanted you to be here."

As touched as he was, it explained nothing.

"Keep talking, Karin."

She hadn't yet explained why she'd tossed a sheet over him and expect him to be okay with it.

"Oh! Right." She blinks, then continues. "Well, what happens is that we go to people's doors—"

"Karin." It sounded an awful lot like stalling in his opinion.

"I'm getting there!" She rolls her eyes. "Chill. I thought Rukia would have told you about it." Karin huffs, and Toushirou dutifully stays silent. For now. "So, we go round to other people's houses; knock on their door, dressed up as ghosts, witches, zombies, whatever, and we get candy!"

Halloween sounded like the personification of Ukitake, if Toushirou's being honest. At least there's a chance he can avoid it.

He closes his eyes and sighs.

"So, what do you think?" Karin says, offering him a pretty smile. One by all rights, he shouldn't be able to refuse.

"Not interested." He states flatly, and begins to take off the sheet. He feels ridiculous wearing it.

"I'll make it worth your while." Karin murmurs, tilting her head to the side as she watches him curiously, and he stops, despite himself. Her eyes gleam. "I promise you'll have fun."

"You're a terrible human being." Toushirou grumbles, as he trails after her, feather light.

"Tonight I'm a witch." Karin says dismissively, carrying an empty basket in her hands, slender shoulders pale in the darkness. He wonders how she isn't cold. "Anyway, you're the floating ghost, aren't you?"

"Only because you said this is the one occasion where people won't bat an eye." Toushirou mutters. Secretly, he's happy that now he can pretend he's taller than Karin, looming above her, but never out of reach.

"Well you know witches. They can do magic." Karin gives him a lopsided smile, arching her eyebrow, finding the situation vastly more entertaining than he does. "And I do like candy."

"I fail to see how this constitutes as fun." Toushirou informs her dryly, unable to shake his head disapprovingly, without making the sheet on him shimmer.

"You'll see." Karin grins, and rings the doorbell.

Maybe it is worth it, just for the expressions of confounded adults who see nothing but a sheet floating in the air, no strings, no explanation, nothing but pure witchcraft.

Their faces turn white, and tiny children, far tinier than he has ever been, surround him on the ground, leaping up to touch the white sheet, and gravity holds them back, forever out of their grasp for a giant like him, the white sheet rustling majestically in the breeze.

There's also Karin's unmitigated glee. That's nice too.

"So, what did you think?" Karin asks, streetlights flickering on her face, but he can still catch the glitter in her hair and the wolfish shine that sticks to her teeth, bright against the red lipstick that makes her lips fuller. "Did you have fun?"

He takes the sheet off, but still floats in the air. It's not like anyone can see him but Karin.

"I guess."

"You guess?" Kicking an imaginary soccerball, the motion looks strange in a witches' costume, when it wouldn't look out of place in her usual clothes. She sighs, looking up at him hopelessly. "Well, maybe next year, huh?"

"Maybe."

"C'mere." Karin grins, standing on her tiptoes and tugging him down, her fingers wrapping around his wrists. "Trick or treat?" Murmuring, she meets his lips just as his feet touch the ground, noses bumping awkwardly together, before she laughs and tries again, kissing him happily.

And maybe just this once, or twice, or thrice, he doesn't mind tasting something so sweet.

(The lipstick stains, cherry flavoured and sticky, however, are a little harder to get rid of, to Matsumoto's obvious delight.)