It was a dull day, Ichigo thought that days like this were when god was constipated and wanted to take it out on everyone else. The clouds were all grey and covered up what little sky Ichigo could see past the trees through his window. He didn't want to go outside, because his father had said it was going to rain. In addition, his little sisters were out with him shopping for groceries etc… Ever since he lost his powers, life seemed so mundane and dull. To add to the matter his guitar string had broken and, frankly, he was pretty pissed off at his dad for forgetting to grab some more the last time he was out at the store.

However, what they brought back was a bit of a surprise.

When his family came back it had rained out and their hair was soaking. YYuzu greeted him, along with Isshin's normal tackle. Yet, when he got up, he noticed a boy with raven black hair kneeling over him, gazing at him and offering him a hand. His clothing seemed drab and old, and his hair was a bit of a mess. Nonetheless, he was very attractive and had nice eyes. "Ichigo meet Ishida Uryu!" YYuzu smiled cheerfully and the two males shook hands, looking each other in the eye. Ichigo noticed a slight blush on the other boy's face, he was… cute?. No. Now was not the time to gawk at some stranger, not him, not now.

Still Ichigo was a bit confused; why was this kid here?

Karin noticed that look on his face, and whispered in his ear. "He's staying with us."

"Why?" He whispered back.

"He doesn't have a home."

At that very moment, Ichigo got rather pissed off. 'I'd rather live on the streets than share a room with somebody'he thought, presuming that Uryu was staying in his room. Then, he thought about Rukia, who wasn't half-bad, and sometimes she was nice company to have when he got lonely. Still, he couldn't keep him in a closet all day, and he didn't have to hide him either. Maybe he could convince the boy to sleep Either way this was going to be hell. He could tell right now.

"He'll be staying in your room if that's okay." Said Isshin, although Ichigo had that one figured out.

Ichigo rolled his eyes and noticed that Uryu had brought along some things with him. "Fine, I'll show him my room." He grumbled. "Ishida come upstairs." Ichigo led him to his room and sat down on the bed. "Sit down." Ichigo pointed to the floor, and Uryu nervously sat down on the cold hardwood floor. "You know, I don't have to be doing this right now. I could just tell my dad to take you back to where ever your scrawny little ass came from." Uryu looked at his feet. "But I don't think my dad would enjoy that. He was nice enough to take you in originally. So I think you should listen to what I have to say."

Uryu nodded. He hadn't spoken a word since he got inside.

"Why don't you talk? I'm not going to bite you if you do."

"Pfft… I find that hard to believe." Uryu scoffed. This was the first thing the teenager ever said to Ichigo, who found this snappy remark a bit cute.

"Well then… you might as well put your stuff somewhere decent so I don't have to rot my eyes out looking at them." He retorted; his arms crossed.

Uryu obediently put his bag on the ground and opened it, revealing a magazine, a sewing kit and some clothes, and a few knick-knacks, including a small Buddha statue. Ichigo thought it looked cool.

"Um… where should I put my stuff?" Uryu asked timidly.

"Well… you could put your clothes in the closet on the opposite side of mine and your gay little sewing kit can sit on the floor and your magazine can go anywhere as long as I can't see it." Uryu somewhat flinched when Ichigo said gay little sewing kit; he took quite a bit of pride in his projects. Nevertheless, he followed Ichigo's orders and then sat down on the floor again, holding his little statue.

"So… what do you normally do here? I see you have a guitar. Are you good at it?" He eyed the grey instrument.

"I'm not very good at it yet. I think I just need more practice. Anyways, why do you even care? You seem pretty content with just sitting there so why don't you just shut up and continue?" Ichigo snapped. This kid was pretty much ruining his life by just sitting there; he could at least be quiet.

Ishida yawned, lied down in the floor and fell asleep. It was weird how fast he managed to doze off, maybe he was tired before he came. He started snoring, so Ichigo kicked him a few times to get him to stop. Maybe today wasn't a good day to wear steel toe boots inside.

Ichigo started reading one of his books, and kicked Uryu again because he rolled over onto his feet. This time he got Uryu straight in the abdomen, and woke him up. "Why must you kick me all the time? It almost seems like you enjoy it. Do you?"

"I dunno. It seems like you enjoy making a big deal of everything." Ichigo glared at the smaller boy icily.

"I just rolled over, Kurosaki. You're the one who makes a big deal." He returned the stare and then sat down again. "Do you do anything other than read?"

"Yeah, I just like reading. Also, I don't like people watching me do things so reading seems good." He turned the page of his book. Hamlet.

"Oh… well I'm not watching you, so don't hold up." Uryu turned his back on Ichigo and grabbed his sewing kit. Maybe if he looked inconspicuous Ichigo would start playing his guitar. He pulled out a shirt he was working on and started stitching on a cross pattern. Sure enough, Ichigo pulled out his guitar and lazily strummed out some chords. Uryu liked the song he was making, and sat closer to him. He resumed sewing, and started humming a bit, only to get kicked in the shin.

"Stop that. It's annoying." He said, and resumed strumming.

"Sorry…" Uryu started stitching again. Ichigo was watching him here and there. Uryu made every stitch perfect; he never poked his finger, and he never had to redo a thread. In addition, he seemed to always have just the right amount of thread to finish up. His fingers graced the fabric, and when he seemed happy with his creation, he put it away. He set it in his bag carefully and sat back down on the floor yet again. Then the two ignored each other for another hour until Ichigo snapped and asked Uryu some questions about himself.

"So what did you do to live on the street? I mean, you'd need to eat." He eyed Uryu cautiously.

"Well, I did what I needed to do." Uryu blushed and looked away. Ichigo took the hint.

"So you were a hooker?" His eyes widened slightly.

"Well if you put it that way it kind of hurts my feelings but yeah, you could say." He blushed a little deeper. "I guess there's no nice way to put it however."

"What the hell man?" Ichigo kicked him in the back. "Why didn't you get help?"

"Because at the orphanage they forced me to do things I didn't want to do. Then, they kicked me a lot because I did something they didn't like. So I ran away." He paused. "And now I'm here."

Now Ichigo felt a bit guilty about the whole kicking thing, but he tried not to show it. He still thought Uryu should know his place here.

"Hm. Well I guess we should try and make this work… Just keep your mouth shut and maybe I'll let you sleep on the bed tonight," he sighed. "Maybe."

Uryu pulled out another project, this time he was embroidering a pair of jeans with some crosses on the pockets. Maybe he would just not talk to Ichigo and they wouldn't have a problem. That was his strategy for the rest of the afternoon. He listened to Ichigo's guitar and when he finished up the jeans he worked on knitting a scarf. Then another, a different color. And then another.

"Why are you knitting so many scarves?"

"I'm knitting scarves for your family. As, like, a gift because you guys took me in… See, this one is for Karin," he held up a deep red one.

"I take it the pink one is YYuzu's?" Uryu nodded. "Who is the blue one for?"

"Your father." Uryu was just finishing up that one. "Yours is going to be orange. It'll look great." He brought out a burnt orange ball of yarn and got it ready. It wasn't bright, glaring orange like Ichigo's hair, it was more of a muted, dark orange.

"Oh, thanks. I think they'll like these" Ichigo thumbed Yuzu's scarf. It was really soft and double knit. "These are really nice, but where exactly did you pick up knitting from?"

"I don't really remember much of my life from before I was seven. I don't really want to, because my mom died and Ryuken was a real dick." Ichigo assumed that Ryuken was the boy's father. Uryu continued knitting. "By the way where is your mom?" He asked, not looking up from the work in progress.

"She's dead." Ichigo looked a bit depressed. "That's the type of thing you don't really get over, neh?"

"Agreed." Uryu started knitting again, looking a bit too concentrated. "This yarn is a bit thinner than everyone else's, so yours may take a while."

"Don't worry. I needed a scarf anyways." A hint of a smile pulled at Uryu's lips.

"Well I feel very useful now." He smiled wider.

For a while they stayed quiet. Ichigo was being a nerd and played power chords for a great deal of time, and Uryu started humming again. Ichigo whacked him in the back of the head with a newspaper. It was still better than a kick but Uryu rubbed his head for a second.

"Nii-san! Uryu-kun! Dinner is ready!" YYuzu chanted.

"Coming!" Ichigo shouted back. Ichigo ran down the stairs to eat. Uryu followed him, and almost fell. Ichigo chuckled a bit, to Uryu's disdain.

When everyone had sat down, Yuzu bombarded Uryu with questions.

"What did you do to get food and money?" Yuzu looked at him with wide eyes.

"I would rather not talk about it." He said flatly.

Isshin and Karin gave a knowing look, and Uryu blushed again.

"Did you ever have to steal?"

"Nobody ever has to steal. I didn't steal at all, too. I made money my own way."

"Hm… why didn't you go to an orphanage?"

"Because the people there treated me like a dog. I decided to run away and live on my own. Until you guys found me of course!" Uryu smiled cheerfully at Yuzu, who returned it. She pranced off to the kitchen and brought back some beef and broccoli. Ishida's tummy rumbled at the smell of it.

Everyone giggled a bit at the noise. As Yuzu served everybody Uryu thought about the last time, he ate. He didn't remember it very clearly, because he got the shit beaten out of him, afterwards and then these men forced him to do things he didn't really want to do.

As they ate, everyone made small talk. Ichigo stayed very quiet, and Uryu wasn't exactly a great conversationalist so he just listened.

After Uryu had eaten at least two bowls of it, he volunteered to do the dishes. He loaded all of the plates and bowls into the dishwasher, then did all of the cups by hand so they were all sparkly. "Thanks Uryu!" Yuzu tweeted.

"No problem. Is there anything else I can help with?" He asked, looking down at Yuzu.

"Nope, I can't think of anything else…" She said quietly.

"Uryu were going upstairs." Ichigo demanded.

"Okay…" he yawned. His big meal made him tired, and he wondered if Ichigo would let him sleep on the bed. He seemed nice… enough, and he wouldn't take up much space. Maybe he could ask.

When they made it to Ichigo's room Uryu sat down on the floor. He was yawning like crazy, and he was making Ichigo yawn too.

"Stop yawning." Ichigo kicked him in the arse.

"Ow! Would you stop kicking me?" Uryu whipped around and shouted.

"Nope." Ichigo yawned again. "We're gonna have to share the bed."

"Okay that's fine with me." Uryu smiled.

"I wasn't asking" Uryu's smile fell. Ichigo was such a downer.

"Okay… well thank you for sharing with me." He smiled, trying to see if he could crack that permanent scowl on Ichigo's face.

"Well I'm not doing you a favour, there are some things that you should just expect people to do for you." He said, looking in his drawers for something to wear to bed.

"Just… please don't touch me with your feet. I can't stand it when someone touches me with their feet." That had been a huge pet peeve for Uryu.

"Me too." Ichigo replied.

He tossed Uryu a pair of blue pyjama pants, which he hurriedly stripped down and put on, making sure Ichigo didn't see him. He blushed at the fact he hadn't been given a shirt. He hid under the blanket quickly so Ichigo didn't see all the bruises on his often-mutilated body. He pressed his belly up to the cold wall trying to make himself as small as possible, but Ichigo kept cuddling up next to him in his sleep. He felt his cheeks going pink, he felt warm with Ichigo pressing up against him. 'Maybe that's normal?' he thought, wondering if Ichigo always did this to people or something.

Ichigo yawned in his sleep and nuzzled his face into Uryu's neck.

They both slept well.

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