It was late. Not a soul was awake in the Kuchiki Mansion when it happened. The master of the house felt a slight disturbance and shifted in his sleep. Byakuya's subconscious identified no threat, so it allowed him to continue to slumber.
Down the hall, in his sister's room, two bassinets appeared. Rukia was in the human world, so nobody witnessed their arrival. It wasn't until the two children woke up crying that anybody was aware of their presence.
Byakuya sent a Hell Butterfly for Rukia as soon as he was told of the children.
"Nii-sama," Rukia greeted as she arrived in Soul Society. It was odd enough that he sent her a Hell Butterfly. It was odder still that he was there to meet her as she arrived. It was alarming to say the least.
"Rukia," Byakuya nodded. "Follow me."
He turned on his heel and quickly flash-stepped in the direction of the Kuchiki Mansion. Having no choice but to do as he said, Rukia quickly did the same. While Byakuya never really explained a lot of things to her, he never usually rushed to anywhere unless they were caught in a battle.
Once at the Mansion, Byakuya led her, not to his study as she expected him to, but to her room. This was even more puzzling for Rukia because, as far as she knew, Byakuya has only ever been to her room a handful of times, mostly when she was ill and he thought she was unconscious.
At her door, he stopped. He seemed to be at a loss for words, which Rukia previously thought would be something that Byakuya would never show to anyone.
"Inside is the reason why I called you back so urgently," he told her.
As he slid the door open, she saw that there were people inside. Two people holding two things. The two people were servants of the Kuchiki household. She had known them ever since she became a part of the family. Rukia stepped inside her room and saw what they were holding.
Children. A sleeping toddler and an infant drinking water from a bottle, both looked oddly familiar to her.
Then it hit her. Homura and Shizuku. Younger than she had ever seen them, but it was them, she was certain.
Rukia confirmed it by sensing their reiatsu. It was there, faint, as was expected in children that young, but it was distinctly theirs. After what had happened, Rukia swore that she'd never forget their spiritual energy ever again. Delving deeper, she sensed no traces of the hollow that had possessed them.
"How?" she asked, taking a step closer towards the children.
"We do not know," Byakuya said. "As you no doubt have checked, neither have hollow reiatsu. They seem like ordinary children."
"How did they get here?" she was beside Homura now, her hand hovering just above the little girl's head.
"We found them here this morning," Byakuya explained. "If they hadn't made a noise, I doubt anyone would have found them. There were no spiritual disturbances."
"Onii-sama…" Rukia said, not knowing what to say.
Just as she placed her hand on Homura's head, the little girl's eyes slowly opened. The girl's green eyes groggily studied Rukia's face. Suddenly they filled with recognition and Homura quickly jumped out of her caretaker's arms onto Rukia.
"Mama!" the child squealed, hanging onto Rukia. "Mama's here!"
Rukia stared at Byakuya who shook his head. The caretaker stepped forward, holding her arms open so that Rukia could pass Homura over. Instead Rukia's arms tightened around the girl.
"It's fine," she told the caretaker. "I've got her."
"You're here! You're here!" Homura kept chanting, her happiness evident. "Mama!"
"I see," Byakuya said, staring at the child in Rukia's arms and the baby holding his hands out towards Rukia. "They seem to be drawn to you. The last time they returned was to be with you, was it not? It makes sense that they would come to you now."
"But why as infants?" Rukia asked, shifting Homura onto one arm so she could hold Shizuku in the other.
"Perhaps we can ask Uraraha-san to look into that," Byakuya replied. "I shall send him a message."
It wasn't usual that the head of the Kuchiki Family played at being the messenger, but Byakuya couldn't stay in the room for much longer. His heart ached.
Rukia looked so much like Hisana, albeit with shorter hair now that she cut it, that it hurt to see his sister with the children. Byakuya lamented the fact that he and Hisana never had the chance to raise any of their own.
Ichigo wondered why Rukia just suddenly up and left in the middle of the day. Sure he saw the Hell Butterfly, but he wondered what was so urgent that she had to leave but not take him with her.
It was probably just vice-captain duties. Renji and Rukia complained a lot about the paperwork that they had to deal with. Given who their captains were, they were bound to be busy with paperwork. Ichigo knew that Rangiku didn't deal with it, choosing instead to let her captain do all the work.
Still, it was a bit worrying that Rukia wasn't back at home when he arrived after classes that day. Ichigo knew that if there was any trouble, they'd call for him and he'd be there in a heartbeat. Or as soon as Urahara could send him through anyway.
When Rukia still hadn't returned the following day, Ichigo stopped by the Urahara store to ask the man for news about what was going on in Soul Society.
"Boss isn't here," Jinta informed him. "He went off to Soul Society yesterday after receiving a Hell Butterfly."
"Is it that bad?" Ichigo asked, knowing that Soul Society didn't usually ask Urahara for help.
"Nah," Jinta waved it off. "Just some minor thing that needed explaining. Yoruichi-san went with him too. Seems to me like it was interesting enough for the both of them to go."
"But it's not dangerous?" Ichigo asked, worried now that he knew that Yoruichi also went along. She was another one who didn't go to Soul Society unless it was really important.
"Nope," Jinta said, popping off the 'p' sound. "Boss was needed and the cat lady was just here when he got the message. She must have thought it would be fun."
Ichigo accepted that explanation and thanked Jinta for his time. The kid shrugged it off, but not before reminding Ichigo to tell Yuzu to keep shopping at the store. To which Ichigo just raised an eyebrow. Sure Isshin was overprotective enough for the both of them, but Ichigo was still the twins' big brother.
As he walked home, Ichigo wondered what could have caused Rukia, Urahara, and Yoruichi to go back to Soul Society as soon as they can. He knew that it wasn't so dire as to recall all the shinigami since he could still sense Afro-san's reiatsu in town.
He sighed. As a substitute shinigami, information was given to him on a need to know basis only. Sometimes the secrecy just wasn't worth it. But Rukia was.
"I'm home!" he called out as soon as he entered the house.
"Welcome home!" Yuzu greeted, her head peering out of the kitchen. "No sign of Rukia-nee?"
The twins had accepted Rukia into the family so easily, it was hard to remember a time when she wasn't part of it. Someday, Ichigo promised himself, he'd make her an official part of the family. It just wasn't time yet.
"No," he replied. "I'll be in my room."
As he climbed the stairs he tried not to think of the frown on Yuzu's face. They all knew that Rukia had an important job in Soul Society, but she was supposed to be on leave. Isshin had explained the vice-captain's workload to them once. Coupled with Ukitake's health, Rukia and the two third seats had a lot to do to keep the Thirteenth Division running properly.
But it still wasn't fair that her vacation, the only time they could spend together that wasn't involved with killing hollows, was cut short with no explanation.
Ichigo threw himself onto his bed and scowled. He missed her already.
Rukia was dead tired.
It had been a week since she came home to find herself suddenly a mother. A week of learning that childrearing was not as easy as some people made it look. Even with the nannies that were there to help her, having to care for two children was more difficult and more exhausting than learning bankai.
At least they knew why the children were de-aged. Or at least they had a plausible explanation.
Urahara arrived the day after she did. Lady Yoruichi came with him. They ran tests on the two children, both of whom seemed to have aged a bit overnight. Urahara did most of the tests, Yoruichi seemed to just sit there and look at them from time to time. But Rukia knew better.
The former Second Division Captain was keeping track of the children's reiatsus. If the reiatsu showed any deviation, any sign that they still had a bit of the hollow inside of them, Yoruichi would be able to sense it.
They didn't.
At the end of the day, Urahara declared them to be as normal as they appeared.
"But how did they get here?" Rukia asked, looking over at the sleeping children who were spent from all the testing done on them.
"I have a theory," Urahara said, taking a sip from his tea.
"You always have a theory," Yoruichi smirked, but waved him on.
"It appears as if there was still residual energy from the hogyoku inside of you," Urahara explained. "So when you wished that they wouldn't leave you, the hogyoku energy reached out and clung to their reiryoku. It must have been weak at first, so they only manifested as their reiryoku grew enough. Which is why they're still children. It was the earliest that the hogyoku could return them to you as."
"I see," Rukia said thoughtfully. "What about the speed of which they're aging? I was told that they seemed to have aged months overnight. And Shizuku does look bigger."
"That I don't understand," Urahara admitted. He looked over to the children with a thoughtful glance. "Although I could speculate that the children will age up to their original ages when they died. I doubt that you have to worry about waking up to suddenly find them as adults."
"Well that's a relief."
"Although this is all just a theory mind you," Urahara reminded her.
"It's more of an explanation than we could ever come up with," Byakuya said as he made his presence known.
He was outside the door for the whole explanation. He convinced himself that he was not eavesdropping, but he simply waiting for the explanation to finish before entering so he wouldn't interrupt.
Not that anyone would call him out for that.
"Listening through doors again Byakuya-boy?" Yoruichi asked with a smug look on her face.
Most people wouldn't call him out for that. Except her, because Yoruichi would always be the exception to the rule.
Still Byakuya chose to take the high ground and not acknowledge her dig.
"I have apprised the rest of the captains regarding the situation at hand." Byakuya told them. "They were wary, but all issues were resolved when they were informed that the children were not dangerous."
"I see," Rukia said. "What will happen to them now?"
"The children will probably reappear here if they were moved elsewhere," Urahara guessed. "They are drawn to the residual hogyuko energy that is still attached to Rukia-san's soul. Her room contains a lot of traces of it. Hence, they would come back here or directly to her as their bodies are still stabilizing."
"The children already call her 'mama'," Yoruichi chimed in. "Why not just adopt them?"
"What?!" Rukia exclaimed, her eyes widening a fraction. Then the idea sunk in. It made sense. She was the one to care for them back in Rukongai, there was no one else. She glanced at her brother. No matter what her opinion was, he still had the final say when it came to things pertaining to the Kuchiki Family.
"I see no reason why they cannot be accepted into the family," Byakuya said after a moment. "But the clan elders would not approve."
"When has that ever bothered you?" Yoruichi asked.
Byakuya nodded, his face in his ever so stoic mask.
"I shall think about it," Byakuya said, which for him was practically a confirmation. Giving them all a nod, he left the room.
"Well, I guess our work here is done," Urahara said as he stood up and stretched. "We should probably get back to the human world. If you have any messages that you'd like us to deliver, we'll still be here for a bit."
"Oh?" Rukia asked, wondering why they won't head directly home.
"I can't travel to Soul Society and not stop by Soi Fon," Yoruchi explained. "She's so fun to tease."
"I have to give a copy of my documentation of the children to Twelfth Division," Urahara said. "Don't worry, Mayuri-san won't show up here and do any tests."
When the two left, Rukia was alone with the sleeping children. She sighed.
She knew that she couldn't go back to the human world, not while the two were still growing up in spurts. They couldn't come with her either, their reiryoku were still so unstable that they needed the reishi-rich environment to thrive.
Checking to make sure the children were still asleep, she sat down at her desk and started to write a letter to send to Ichigo.
"Onii-chan," Yuzu said as she knocked on Ichigo's door a few days later. "Urahara-san is back."
"Huh?" Ichigo asked, putting aside his magazine. "Come in."
Yuzu peeked her head in. Looking around the room, her forehead furrowed.
"Oh, I thought…" she said. "Rukia-nee still isn't?"
"No," Ichigo shook his head. "You were saying about Uraraha?"
"Ah yes," Yuzu smiled. "He's back. I was just at their store-"
Ichigo quickly ran past her. Yuzu heard the front door close.
"Urahara-san!" Ichigo said as he came inside the store.
"Welcome back Kurosaki-san," Urahara greeted. Knowing why the substitute was there, he waited until the teen had caught his breath before he continued. "I have a letter for you from Kuchiki-san."
"Rukia?" Ichigo asked, receiving the letter.
"Yes," Urahara smiled behind his fan. "I think you should read it now."
As Ichigo sat down and opened the letter, Urahara left him alone to read it. Some messages were better digested alone.
Ichigo scanned the page, noticing that Rukia didn't leave it in code as she usually did. She must have been really busy for that to happen. As he read it, he took in the message.
Children.
Essentially, Rukia now had children.
Ichigo wondered at how this would affect their relationship. But after a moment, he shook his head to clear it. Some things were better handled head-on.
Urahara walked back into the store just as Ichigo rose.
"Urahara-san, can you get me to Soul Society?" Ichigo asked. "I have children to meet."
Fin
Really late upload, but better late than never, yes?
Happy Holidays to everyone!
For those who have read and left comments on all my works for IchiRuki Week, thank you so much! And thanks to the Tumblr user IchiRuki for making this fest happen! See you all next year!