Author's Note: I finally finished it! This is a gift fic for Kitsuru from FLOL, I hope you like it (it's my first fic for Bleach so I hope it's okay). Happy (late) Holidays!

Disclaimer: Kubo Tite owns Bleach, not me.

A Snowy Kind of Fight

"All right! Although that worthless son of mine isn't here yet, now that the guests have arrived we may begin the holiday festivities!" Orihime, Ishida, and Chad watched Isshin dance around the room with respective expressions of happiness, annoyance, and worry. While Karin tried to punt him across the room like a soccer ball and Yuzu tried to stop her, Ishida chose to strike up a tune in the key of "I don't like shinigami" major.

"Why do I have to do this?" He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose before continuing. "Aside from the fact that this man is clearly out of his mind, why do I have to stay at the house of that worthless shinigami?"

Orihime replied, "Because, Ishida-kun, we were invited to stay over at their house since we all live alone. It was very kind of Isshin-san, wasn't it Sado-kun?"

Chad grunted, "Yes."

Ishida would have continued, but at that moment the worthless shinigami spoke from behind him. "If you want to leave after two minutes then think about how I feel, having to live here."

The three turned around to see that Ichigo had just entered the house.

"Hello, Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime smiled cheerfully and Chad gave a silent wave, but Ishida was interrupted before he could begin complaining by a loud cry of "Ichigoooooooooo" and Isshin tackling Ichigo back out of the door and into the snow drifts covering the ground."

"Damn it old man, what is your problem?!"

"My son, we were waiting for you so we could start the tournament!" Isshin enthusiastically threw a handful of snow in Ichigo's face, giving him time to jump away from the furious teen. Ignoring his son's curses, Isshin continued. "Yes! A grand snowball fight tournament! I've already planned the teams out and everything!"

"No way am I participating in that!" Ichigo growled. "Hey Yuzu, what's for dinner?"

"Ahah!" Isshin didn't give his daughter time to answer. "And that's the twist! We will not be eating dinner until the tournament is over! The winners will be eating a large meal cooked by the losers, while everyone else gets ordered pizza. The losers will have pizza too but they can't eat until the winners finish!"

"What? You asshole, I'll rip your hair out!"

"No! Not Daddy's beautiful black locks!" Before Ichigo could make good on his words, the rest of his family and friends rushed outside.

"Ichi-nii, try to indulge the idiot just this once okay?"

"That's right Brother! It's Christmas Eve and you can eat once it's over."

"C'mon Kurosaki-kun, doesn't it sound like it'll be fun?"

"Really Kurosaki, I feel the same way but it can't be helped."

"Please help out, Ichigo."

Ichigo looked back at his friends and sisters doubtfully.

"Right! Then it's decided! After careful consideration I have split us into teams of two, with one team of three!" Isshin grinned at them.

"What does he define as careful consideration?" Ishida whispered to Ichigo. "And why would he need to be careful about something as trivial as this?"

Isshin continued. "The teams are as follows: Me and Ishida-san; Orihime-chan and Ichigo; and Sado-kun, Yuzu, and Karin!" Taking Orihime aside while ignoring Ishida's horrified expression, Isshin whispered to her. "Orihime-chan, I'm sorry I put you with the biggest party pooper in town, but I know that you have great enthusiasm for this kind of thing and can put him in his place."

"Ahaha, it's okay Isshin-san. I'm sure Kurosaki-kun will be a very good teammate." Orihime smiled brightly. "He's never let me down before," she reassured him.

"Well, good luck to you." At this, Isshin raised his voice and called out "Everyone get ready, the battle will take place at the park! Be there in twenty minutes with your partner and a strategy."

"Wait a minute Dad. How are we going to decide winners and losers?" Yuzu voiced everyone else's confusion.

"Ah! Thank you for asking such an appropriate question Yuzu! Each group will have a fort, and your job is to destroy other forts! Last fort standing wins, first fort down loses! Everyone, the time to prepare starts…NOW!"

-x-x-x-x-x-

Orihime was a first class snowball fighter. She took this battle as seriously as a pillow fight; in other words, very seriously. Ichigo, on the other hand, couldn't care less about something so utterly pointless. Despite this lack of caring, he knew that if they got last he wouldn't be able to eat for hours, at which point he would probably have already passed out from lack of nutrition. Still, with the fort and snowballs that they had made, he was confident that they could at least get the middle spot.

"Hey Inoue, how much time do we have left?"

"About five minutes. As soon as Isshin-san gives the starting signal, I'm going to go out. Who's fort do you think I should take down first?"

"Eh? I thought that I was going to do that part and you were going to guard our place."

Orihime turned to him and her eyes were fierce. "But Kurosaki-kun, you don't like these kinds of things, and it will be much more safe guarding the fort, assuming that only a few people come after ours."

Ichigo was surprised. It wasn't often that she took the initiative. Probably…because this isn't the usual sort of battle, he thought.

But he couldn't let her do all of the work. "Maybe we could switch places after-"

Ichigo was cut off by the sound of his father bellowing, "LET THE GAMES BEGIN!" and a loud horn. Before either of them even moved, a snowball flew from behind and hit him in the head.

"What the hell?!" Ichigo crouched on the ground with his hands clutching the back of his head as Orihime ran over to him. As she began to ask him if he was okay, Ichigo looked up and saw someone behind her preparing to strike. "Inoue, watch out!" He pulled her flat on the ground beside him while covering her head with his arm, not about to let her be hit like he had been.

Several snowballs hit them, and Ichigo heard Karin call out, "Okay! Go Yuzu, attack their fort!" As Orihime and him looked up, they saw that the two girls had only distracted them. Orihime threw Ichigo's arm off and sprinted towards the circular wall of snow that the two of them had painstakingly constructed, complete with a snowman to guard it. Grabbing the head of the snowman, she threw it at Yuzu and Karin with perfect aim, stopping them from attacking.

"Kurosaki-kun, hurry and get them away from here!" With no further warning, Orihime ran into the woods near the park to search for other groups. Ichigo stumbled to his feet and ran towards his sisters, scooping up some snow to throw at them on the way. He could've protected the fort from his kid sisters for a while longer, but what they said stopped him cold.

"Really Ichi-nii, who knew you were so touchy-feely with Orihime-chan? I must admit I'm impressed."

"What?" Ichigo stared at Karin in disbelief. "Touchy-feely? I was just, well I mean, you guys were attacking us! I had to do something!"

"Ehhh, I don't know. They're only snowballs, it's not like she'd be severely injured." Karin smirked at him.

"Shut up! It hurt a lot when I got hit in the head! Speaking of which, did the two of you start before the old man gave the signal? And where's Yuzu?" Karin's grin widened as she watched the realization dawn on Ichigo's face.

"Hiyah!" Ichigo turned around just in time to watch Yuzu crash into the fort, completely destroying it.

"Hehe, nice job Yuzu. I told you he'd fall for it."

Yuzu looked at him apologetically. "Sorry Brother."

"Yeah, don't worry about what I said." Karin waved her hand at him dismissively. "I know that you could never get with someone of Orihime-chan's caliber."

"What? I could get with her if I wanted- Wait! I didn't say that!" Luckily for Ichigo, at that moment a distraction came in the form of their father.

"Ichigoooooo!" For the second time that night, Isshin tackled his son to the ground. "You and Orihime-chan are the losers! Make sure to cook a good dinner for Ishida-san and me!"

"Huh? It's over already?" asked Yuzu.

"The tournament may be over, but that doesn't mean that we can't still have a snowball fight!" The Kurosaki family looked over to see Chad, Ishida, and Orihime walking towards them, the latter having spoken. She laughed and threw a snowball at them, starting an intense snowball battle that couldn't be ruined by some people being really bad at protecting forts, and lasted until Ichigo actually did collapse from what he claimed was malnutrition.

Once Isshin had tasted some of Orihime's food, he promised to never stage a fight that would determine who cooked dinner ever again.