Edit for update - This fic was started a very long time ago, as you'll see in the new chapters. I just want to add that this is now an AR fic if you are caught up on the manga/anime as it was started well before the Winter War had even begun.

A/N: Hey ^.^ So this will be my first ever fanfic, dont expect anything too great :| I've been reading stories on here for a while now (yaoi ftw ^.~)and I'd like to do my best to give back to the community! Any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated!

This story idea came to me while eating Halloween candy, once it got started it just kinda flowed (very quickly) into something totally different o.o This first chapter is complete and i'm working on the second one now, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Disclaimer: I dont own Bleach or anything associated with it, nor do i own the candy wrapper jokes from the beginning of the story.

Any text in italics is character thought.

=Any text in italics surrounded by '=' is zanpakutou's speaking to their wielder.=

-Italic text surrounded by '-' is hollow ichigo speaking.-

It was a few days into November now; Karakura Town was showing ever growing signs of autumn. The beautiful shades of reds, oranges, and browns littered the trees leaves as the sun was setting signaling the close of a cool autumn day.

Ichigo sat at his desk in his bedroom working on his torturous homework. Normally he would just do it; he'd get it done as quickly as possible so it would be out of the way. Today was not a normal day for Ichigo Kurosaki. No matter how hard he concentrated he couldn't manage to focus on his homework.

It wasn't the beautiful autumn sunset keeping him from his work, nor was it the incessant noise his family was making downstairs. Ichigo had a totally different kind of problem on his hands today.

"Hey Ichigo," Renji interrupted for the umpteenth time. "What kind of mistakes do ghosts make?"

"Boo boos, Renji…" Ichigo muttered with aggravation laced in his voice.

Renji sighed, "How'd you know?"

"I have two sisters Renji, younger sisters. I've heard every single one of these lame jokes."

Ichigo could hear the rustling of candy wrappers behind him. Renji was sitting on the floor digging through a massive pile of candy.

"Ok, ok…how about this one…" Renji began. "Why don't skeletons ever go trick or treating?"

"They don't have any body to go out with." Ichigo huffed. This was getting really old, but Ichigo knew if he didn't answer the jokes Renji would be stupidly pleased that he found one he didn't know.

"Man you're no fun Ichigo!" Renji almost pouted.

"Some of us have work to do, baka."

"Hey I'm working… I've actually got 3 assignments to complete while I'm here," Renji stated matter-of-factly.

"So why don't you go and actually work on them so I can finish my homework?"

"Ok Ichigo, I'll be back later." Renji then got up and hopped out the window.

That was strange… a cooperating Renji is a strange Renji…I wonder if he's ok…

Ichigo was surprised to find that his concentration was no better with Renji gone; he had merely replaced one annoyance with another. For a moment he'd even though that he'd prefer Renji's lack of knowledge of the real word to this. Ichigo was trying to figure out why Renji was actually considerate for once; he was getting a headache just trying to find a semi logical explanation. The yelling downstairs was only succeeding in drowning out his thoughts.

Finally Ichigo had had enough; he stormed downstairs to see what was going on.

"Ichi-nii make daddy listen for us!" Yuzu begged of her older brother as he reached the living room.

"Oh, Ichigo, my son! You won't abandon your dear old daddy will you?" Isshin gushed effusively.

"We want to decorate for Christmas Ichigo, and daddy won't let us!" Yuzu whined. Karin was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for the arguing to be over with.

"It's November…" Ichigo stated. "Halloween just passed…"

"Oh I knew my wonderful son would have my side!" Isshin interjected.

"I don't care what you do," Ichigo continued.

"See daddy! Three against one!" Yuzu cheered.

"Oh I've been defeated!" Isshin cried to the poster on the wall of his late wife. "Why must our children be so cruel!"

"I'm going out, I'll be back later," Ichigo said as he walked out the door, dreading what the house would look like when he got home.

He wasn't paying attention to where he was going; he was simply walking, oblivious to the world around him. Ichigo was enjoying the near silence; he was finally able to hear himself think without interruption. He thought of the peaceful state that both worlds were currently in and how oddly boring it was. After living his life for so long as a shinigami and 'normal' high school student, the lack of a sense of danger made his life feel so simple. The peace was highly welcome, no one was in grave danger and needing to be rescued, all this time relaxing had given time for wounds to heal and bonds to strengthen.

The war had taxed everyone to their limit, many lives had been lost and even more injured. Everyone was glad that it was over, the real world had been saved from the destruction Aizen had planned for it, but the price for saving it was high. Of the survivors, Ichigo was probably having the most trouble dealing with his post-war emotions. Shinigami were trained for this kind of thing, Ichigo wasn't, and he knew that. He had become accustomed to the faced passed life of the shinigami, it helped him deal with the pain, helped him keep mind off of it. Now that hollow were much scarcer he barely had anything to keep his mind off of his emotions.

Quite simply Ichigo felt like he had failed. His only goal in the war was to protect his friends, all of them were injured and even a few had died. He couldn't think of a single person who hadn't been injured, even the members of the 4th division who did their best to avoid combat had gotten hurt. Because of this, Ichigo welcomed the dullness of peace, but he felt like something was missing, like a part of him had been left on the battlefield never to be returned to his heart.

The sound of metal ripping through wood had pulled Ichigo from his thoughts; he looked around realizing he was in the park. He searched for the source of the sound and not seeing or feeling anything strange, he ignored it. Ichigo kept walking through the woods surrounding the towns park, the same sound echoing through the trees repeatedly. Eventually he heard a more familiar sound; he could hear Renji fighting in the distance. He still couldn't feel any reiatsu, not Renji's or a hollows.

Ichigo panicked, he held his shinigami badge to his chest and stepped out of his body. He rushed towards the sounds of battle, he couldn't figure out why he couldn't feel a thing and it worried him. It had sounded like Renji was putting effort into fighting whatever it was so there was no reason the reiatsu should be masked this way.

Finally Ichigo reached his destination, he could hear the battle no more than 20 feet in front of him, but all he could see were the trees, completely undisturbed. Ichigo knew that Renji was highly incapable of using a kidou barrier that strong, his brows furrowed in frustration. He drew Zangetsu from his back and sliced at the air in front of him.

Success, Ichigo broke whatever barrier had been hiding the battle. Now Ichigo had a much better reason to panic, Renji was surrounded by 4 very large hollow and from the looks of it he wasn't doing too good. One of the hollows long tails flung Renji right into a tree causing him to wince in pain and cough up blood. Ichigo rushed inside the barrier and flashed to Renji's side.

"What the hell Renji?" Ichigo demanded.

"I'll explain later…" Renji managed through harsh breathing.

One of the hollow lunged towards them, Ichigo wrapped his arm around Renji's waist and flashed away just in time to avoid the attack. He placed Renji on the ground gently and turned to the hollow.

Now this is more like it, no one fucks with my friends and gets away with it.

Ichigo activated his bankai, not out of necessity but so he could take care of the hollow quickly and get Renji to Urahara's for medical attention. He rushed at the most wounded of the 4 hollow and took it out in a single blow. He could hear Renji coughing behind him; he had a pretty deep wound on his back and was losing blood quickly. Ichigo knew Renji wasn't in any real danger yet, but if this took too long it could get bad.

Ichigo smiled smugly as he released Getsuga Tenshou and took out another of the hollow, injuring a third in the process. It felt good to fight, it had been almost 2 weeks since Ichigo had even drawn his blade; he almost feared he was starting to act like Kenpachi too much.

He hadn't realized it, but after he took out the last hollow he felt something strange in the area, it was like something was trying to drain his reiatsu. It had been there the whole time, but only now did he pay enough attention to notice it. Ichigo picked a now unconscious Renji up bridal style and left the barrier through the hole he used to enter. He could finally feel Renji's reiatsu, and it was weak, much more so than it should have been from a few simple hollow.

Ichigo flash stepped the whole to Urahara's shop, he was worried now. Renji really shouldn't be that weak, those hollow were strong for being simple hollow, but they shouldn't have even been trouble for Renji.

His mind was once again plagued with thoughts of his departed friends; he had lost too many already. Even though Chad and Orihime were living on as shinigami in seireitei, their deaths were among the most painful. But Ichigo had felt the loss of shinigami friends too; those deaths were just as painful to bear, his lost shinigami friends weren't simply living on in another world, they were gone. Ichigo didn't want to lose Renji too, and definitely not over some stupid hollow.

The thought of losing Renji caused Ichigo's blood to run cold, Renji was one of his very best friends, in both worlds. Sure they were enemies to begin with, sure they fight all the time, and argue over pointless simple things, and they even know exactly how to push each other's buttons. But their bond was nearly incomparable; they had fought side by side and back to back for their own lives and the lives of their friends countless times. They had almost died, together, more times than one could count on a single hand. Heck they even almost killed each other, and moved past that faster than one would think possible.

Ichigo slowed to a walking pace as he reached the entrance of Urahara's small shop.

"My my, if it isn't Ichigo and Renji!" Urahara gushed as he opened the door.

"Renji's h-hurt Urahara…" Ichigo stammered as he walked inside, Renji still in his arms.

Kisuke's expression immediately changed upon seeing the blood dripping from Ichigo's arms. He hurried Ichigo inside and had him take Renji to a room in the back to be cared for. The usually jovial man was very serious when the situation called for it and Ichigo was grateful for that. Tesai and Ururu hurried into the room and shooed Ichigo and Kisuke out. Kisuke knew this could take a while so he made a pot of tea while Ichigo sat at the low table and waited, worry visible only in his eyes, the rest of his face held its normal scowling expression.

"So, Kurosaki-san, what exactly happened? Renji looks pretty beat up and you haven't a scratch on you." Kisuke inquired.

"I…don't know…" Ichigo admitted. "I was almost too late Urahara-san."

"Well you weren't, and that's what matters now. He's in good hands now, so go on tell me what you do know. I didn't even feel the presence of a battle so I'm quite perplexed."

"I was just walking, and I heard noise in the woods, at the park. Once I got close enough I could hear Renji, so I rushed over. Once I got there I could only see the trees undisturbed but I could hear Renji not too far in front of me."

"Kidou barrier I presume?" Kisuke questioned.

"I'm pretty sure it was but I know Renji can't do anything like that…Anyways, I cut through the barrier in time to see Renji thrown into a tree and move him out of the way of the next attack. The hollow weren't anything special, there were 4 of them, strong for what they were but nothing compared what we've fought before…that's why I was so confused."

Urahara listened intently as he poured himself and Ichigo a cup of tea.

"After I killed them," Ichigo continued, "I noticed that it felt like something was trying to drain my reiatsu…it didn't stop until I left the barrier. That was also when I first noticed how weak Renji's reiatsu was. So I rushed here…"

"Very strange, very strange indeed. Hollow can't use kidou and as you said…Renji is incapable of creating such a barrier, and as far as I know no one capable of doing so is around…" Urahara thought intently about the situation.

Now that Kisuke was busy with his thoughts Ichigo had time to think for himself again. He was worried; it wasn't like Renji to get so beat up. Ichigo had a yearning urge to see Renji, to know that he was safe, to know he would be ok. It almost confused Ichigo, that he was feeling so strongly about Renji, but he simply assumed his emotions were going haywire because of some post-war crap.

Eventually Tesai allowed Ichigo into Renji's room; he sat quietly beside his futon. Ichigo stared at the injured man and cursed himself for not getting there sooner. Renji was covered in wrapping and bandages, and bruises. He suddenly felt guilty, recalling that he made Renji leave and how easily Renji had left to begin with.

After waiting around for several hours, Kisuke had finally forced Ichigo to go home for the night. He had told him to come back after school the next day. So Ichigo did as he was told and headed home, he didn't have the energy to argue with Kisuke.

"I don't want to lose you too, Renji…" Ichigo whispered before getting up and leaving the room.

Omake~

Ichigo- Why do I have to be all emo already? Its alway me being emo! Why cant Renji be the emo one for once ...

Me- Uhhh... Renji is your best buddy ever! and *cough* look how you're acting about it *cough*

Renji- Forget that! Why did I get my ass kicked already? BY STUPID HOLLOW!

Me- Relax Renji... it will be explained! -_-