Summary: Chad sure as hell isn't a normal guy, but he's still a guy.

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Chad looked up from his laptop as Karin sat down in the booth next to him. She looked as if she'd just been running; it was Saturday, and she always ran three miles a day, on the days she didn't have practice, or off season.

She had a smoothie of some sort in her hand, sipping at it occasionally. Her chin-length hair was pulled back into a bob at the base of her neck, with a few strands that escaped during the run framing her face.

Her wife beater, that used to be Ichigo's until she stole it, was sticking to her in places that made it look like she was previously in a wet t-shirt contest.

The orange track pants that she always ran in were rolled up to her knees, and her New Balance looked as if they had been run through a few hundred puddles, which probably wasn't far from the truth, since it had been a bit wet lately.

“Hello? Is there any particular reason you're staring at me?” The highschool senior took another drink of the smoothie, pulling it down to about half empty.

Chad thought for a moment; he was a bit slow right now, because 1) he's a guy, and 2) there is a very pretty girl doing strange things to him without knowing it.

“Not really. Deep in thought, I guess,” he said the first thing that came to his mind. “How's your life been? I haven't seen much of you in the past few weeks.” He winced inwardly. It seemed like that last comment sounded a bit wrong.

“Killer homework, and I've been stuck with the weekend shifts up until now. At least I got to be hyper the whole time. Working at the Coffe Grinder can be really fun. But it's more fun when I use Ichi-nii's credit cards to pay for my coffe.” Karin chuckled.

“Wait until you're in college. Right now, I have a twelve page report due Thursday. I have two done.” Chad realized that it was his own fault for starting just yesterday, and for picking that particular course in the first place, but he knew Karin wouldn't bring it up, as she did the exact same thing.

“You think you can make time for your favourite girl, so we can go see a movie?” She gave him the fake-flirty eyes. They've been friends for the past five years. They always do the fake-flirty stuff with eachother.

Chad nodded, and took Karin's smootie from her, taking a sip of it.

“Hey!” Karin tried to get it back, but he had the advantage of being six-foot-eight. It didn't help that Karin was only five-foot-two.

“I need fuel. I ran out of coffe an hour ago. Loss of caffenated fluid murders my ability to make descisions.” Since he and Karin started hanging out together, he'd become more talkative, and she'd become more of a late sleeper.

“Fine then. I'll decide for you. Tonight, we'll hang out at your apartment, and watch whatever horror movie I can come up with by then. You can multitask can't you? If not, then you've just lost about five or six hours on that report.” Karin stood up, and took what little was left of her smoothie from him as he became dazed again. “See ya!”

He watched as she walked out of the coffe shop, hips swaying. Damn, she's gorgeous. He tried to go back to his report; it had something to do with anatomy.

Speaking of anatmoy...NO! He cannot be thinking aboutIchigo's little sister that way. No, no. She's not Ichigo's little sister. She's Karin, his best friend. Well, one of them.

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Chad looked up as Karin walked into his apartment. He left it unlocked, except for when he left. Karin had stopped knocking, about a month after they'd started hanging out on a regular basis.

She was carrying a burned DVD, and a bag of popcorn; she more-than-likely downloaded a new horror movie, illegaly, and burned it to a disc.

She set it down on the coffe table, and went over to where Chad was stretched out of the couch, with his laptop laying on his lap.

Karin leaned over him, saved his work, bookmarked the websites he was using for the research for the report, and shut the computer down.

Chad ddn't seem to mind; she did this every time they were going to watch a movie, so that she could make sure he wasn't ticking away at the keyboard for his assignments, and that he wasn't running his brain ragged. Well, that was her excuse, but everyone but Chad knew that Karin just wanted his undivided attention.

Chad tensed up a little as her chest brushed past him when she was done. She got up to put the DVD into the player, and then went into the kitchen to heat up the popcorn. Cahd used this time to sit up, and cross his legs, pulling the afghan from the back of the couch over himself.

This is the first time this has happened, when Karin was there.

She returned a few minutes later with the popcorn, this time in a bowl. She flopped down beside him, and grabbed the remote off the endtable. She started the movie playing.

---

About twenty minutes into the movie, Kairn was leaning on Chad's shoulder, every so often eating a handful of the popcorn. It was making him nervous, her being so close.

What if-

“What if what?” Karin cut him off from his thoughts. Apparently, he'd been thinking aloud. Anoter negative to being a guy. He has no control of his thoughts, and no control over his mouth when he's in another world.

“Nothing,” He replied, hoping to go back to the movie, and just forget that it ever happened. But Karin was a curious girl, and said otherwise.

“No, I wanna know. What's on your head?” She puased the movie, and set the popcorn on the coffe table, turning to face Chad. He didn't say or do anything for a few minutes, irritating Karin. “Does it involve dirty thoughts?” Karin was being sarcastic.

Chad didn't say anything.

“That was my joke guess! About who?” Karin smiled, a really sarcastic smile, that said she was trustworthy whether she wanted to be or not. It didn't say anythign about not flipping out when Chad replied, though, so he was a bit hesitant.

“...” He mumbled something inaudible.

“Say again?” Karin cocked her head.

“You.” Karin looked as if she was about to remove her brain, and skip rope with it.

“Gimme a few seconds to process this.” Karin thought for a moment.

What? Chad likes Karin. In that way. Chad's an honorable guy, so he wouldn't pull anything with her. And she's the same way about him. It seems that there was something in her head that even she didn't know about...

“I wanna know. Am I the first? Or what?” Karin asked, knowing that he'd answer truthfully.

“Mmm-hmm.”

No one said anything for the next few minutes. It was like time was frozen, and it wouldn't un-freeze until they cleared this up.

Karin, bold as she is, couldn't bring herself to kiss him or anything. At least, not immediately. After getting annoyed with the silence, she leaned up, having to get on her knees because she's so short compared to Chad, and kissed him, pushing him back against the arm of the couch.

They kissed like that for a few seconds, until they had to breathe. If it weren't for the need for oxygen, they'd probably have kissed forever.

Karin accidently knocked the remote from it's place on the couch onto the floor, and leaned down to pick it up, setting on the coffe table, next to the popcorn.

Chad was trying not to stare at her ass, or her chest when she was in an upright position. He feared her smacking the shit out of him.

“We've been friends for awhile,” Karin began. “So it shouldn't be all weird between us now.”

Chad was speechless. What a big shocker...

“And we shouldn't feel any different about eachother than we always have. And I don't.” Karin smirked. “I love you just like I did the day we met. It is a bit different now, though, seeing as I'm almost eighteen, and I was like, twelve then.”

Chad didn't wait for her to finish what she was saying, and kissed her again.

Maybe things will be better, no that he's not having to keep his feelings for Karin to himself But they will have to keep things from Ichigo for awhile.

He'll probably find out when Chad and Karin move to Mars, and Chad's too far away to be 'fixed.'

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Just a little something I whipped up when I was bored, today. Nowhere near the best, but it'll do, right?