Dedicated to BlueMiko - who reads and laughs and appreciates. - RedMiko -

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Tite Kubo. I just wish my brain worked like his…

Kind of AU, slightly OOC - but I'll leave that up to you...

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Coming Home

The night before he is to go to Hueco Mundo for what could be the final battle, Ichigo has dinner with his family. For much of the time, he allows the conversation to flow normally – as normally as it ever does in the Kurosaki household. His father accuses him of not loving him anymore – he was always disappearing with suspicious people! – while Yuzu alternates between defending and scolding her brother and offering seconds and thirds of the curry she's just learned to make. Karin is strangely quiet, picking at her rice.

When his father finally launches into an all-out physical attack, Ichigo defends easily and catches him in a head lock. "I need to tell you something," he says quietly and they become silent.

And then the explanation pours forth. It's jumbled, in pieces, starting with his mother's death, Rukia's appearance and true nature, training under Urahara. Each painful, terrifying, joyful, strange memory he pulls from his brain is laid carefully on the table for his little family to see. He winces as he admits the Hollow he has become, the Vizards he had to befriend, the Espada he has to fight.

He pulls out the badge that allows him to slip in and out of Shinigami form, tells them about Kon. He debates whether to demonstrate but knows that Karin would be the only one who could see him. Yuzu would only be able to sense him and Ichigo doubts his father would be able to either see or feel him, thick-headed as the old goat-chin was. Ultimately, he resorts to drawing pictures, resisting the urge to copy Rukia's ridiculous bears and rabbits and sticking with stick figures to tell the tale. So Ichigo continues his history, forcing himself to pause and eat, if only for the strength it might lend.

In the end, he is surprised at how his family reacts. Karin is quiet – and he remembers her earlier accusations of him being a Shinigami. This isn't news to her. Finally she snaps out, "You'd better come back, Ichi-nii. Someday, I'm going to be old enough to be a substitute Shinigami and you'd better be here to teach me!"

Yuzu alternately cries and laughs, as if she's trying to figure out exactly how to deal with all this. Stumbling, she flings herself in her brother's arms and sobs, wordlessly, while he holds her and lays his cheek in her hair.

Perhaps the most startling is his father. Isshin doesn't say much – amazing in and of itself – but smiles nevertheless. Instead, he stands and, taking his coat, leaves, motioning for Ichigo to follow.

Ichigo catches up to him just as his father reaches the graveyard. Together, they find Masaki's grave. Ichigo goes about lighting incense, fumbling in his pocket for the slightly squashed onigiri offering and they stand in prayer for a moment. Then, his father clicks open his lighter and lights his cigarette, inhaling deeply. Still nothing is said. And then his father's hand comes and rests on his shoulder and Ichigo meets his eyes and there is no need for words as his father nods at him and then looks back to dwell on Masaki's headstone.

Ichigo leaves in the middle of the night, when he's sure at least Yuzu is asleep. He gives Kon strict instructions to look after them all, whether in his body or in the plushie lion. For once, Kon is subdued and agrees solemnly. Though when Ichigo, clad in black and white and with his great Zanpakuto slung across his shoulders, steps onto the windowsill to launch himself into the sky, Kon shouts after him to be safe or he (Kon) would kick his (Ichigo's) ass for making his sisters cry. Ichigo grins and is gone.

They all deal with his departure in their own ways. Karin frowns more these days – focusing this intensity on her soccer games. She's gone to Tatsuki for martial arts lessons. She's even learning to cook from Yuzu – anything to take her mind off her brother.

Yuzu cries a little more, stifling her tears as she cooks and cleans with a fury. At night, she curls in her bed, afraid to ask Karin if she can join her in bed. Finally, she begs Kon to allow her to sleep with the lion plushie – and who could blame him if he sometimes switches over into the plushie and watches her at night, making sure she doesn't have nightmares?

Isshin – well, he visits Masaki's grave more often when he's not on duty. His face has a few more lines but he laughs frequently, going even more out of his way to make his daughters laugh too – or at least lash out at him in irritation. It is through these little rituals that the balance is somewhat restored and a measure of happiness allowed to flicker for a moment.

Sometimes, they find themselves stopping their work to stare up at the sky – blue, clouded, rain, snow, windy. There is no particular reason – just a feeling. And then the feeling passes and they resume their chores, if a little bit more slowly.

Kon watches all this with gloom. At first, he takes the opportunity to escape the house and roam the city, ogling all the deep cleavage he can find. But somehow, his heart is never into it and he returns home to find the family soldiering on and he feels the guilt. So when a section of the roof caves in, he goes with Isshin to buy wood and nails and helps as best he can to patch it up in the pouring rain. And when Yuzu sits, listless in a corner, the house spotless, he sits beside her, telling her stories of her brother's exploits. He even allows Karin to practice her martial arts moves on him, even if it means he lies awake later in the night, counting the bruises. But Kon is Kon and Ichigo's Ichigo and Kon still winces every time he sees the look in their eyes when he walks into a room – the look of blind joy and then a swift sorrow as they realize the soul does not match the familiar face.

So when Yuzu silently cries herself to sleep for the forty-fifth time in a row, clutching him in his plushie body, he wriggles his way out of her arms and pads down the hallway, down the stairs and through the front door.

The cool night air ruffles his ears as he climbs up a telephone pole and stands, glaring at the moon. "Ichigo!" he screams, dancing up and down. "Ichigo! Get your ass back here!"

A dog barks and the trees whisper in the gentle wind.

"Ichigo! I-chi-gooooo! Ichi – itaiiiiii!!"

A sandled foot connects with his head and he's sent flying, tumbling through the air to smack against a window.

"Oi – you wanna wake up the whole neighborhood?!"

Kon lies dazed on the concrete, staring up at the sky. A familiar shock of orange hair. That ridiculously huge Zanpakuto. "Ichi-go…." he wheezes. And then all is black as the air is crushed from his body.

"Kon! Did you fall out of the window?" comes a worried voice. He looks up into Yuzu's big eyes as she squeezes him in a hug and holds him up to her face. "Are you okay?"

He can do nothing but wheeze and point a claw up into the sky. Maybe she can see him? She follows the direction and the look of pure joy is the best thing he's seen in weeks.

Then, glory of glories, she pulls him tight and plants a kiss on one ear and squeals and sobs. "Oto-san! Karin-chan! Ichi-nii!" She is incoherent and frantic and running in several directions at once but Kon hangs in her arms in surprise. His ear tingles and he reaches a tentative paw up to see if it's still attached.

He wonders if this is how all kisses feel – as nice as a homecoming…

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A/N: I like Kon. I like the way he was introduced, love the occasional situations he gets himself into. I regret, in some ways, that he's become not much more than a plushie lion who sulks a lot. However - I love how protective he can get of Ichigo's sisters, especially Yuzu, when Ichigo doesn't come home - even if Yuzu dresses him up and calls him Bostav. :D Gotta love that comic relief, though!

Oh - and "itai" means "ow."