~Hybrid Child, Chapter Two~

A lot of time has passed. Over the last few months Ichigo had noticed many things that made the hybrid different from other normal infants. At six months old, the baby could already sit up without any help and used his tiny fingers to pull anything within reach into his mouth. He'd also gotten into the habit of calling Ichigo 'Mama' (Thanks to a great deal of encouragement from Mr Hat and Clogs) which was something the Ichigo wasn't exactly happy but the kid wouldn't listen no matter how much Ichigo tried to correct him.

One night, Ichigo was about give the kid his supper when he heard an ominous knock at the door. Placing the infant safely into his playpen for the time being, Ichi went to open door. At first, he didn't think there was anyone there but then he saw something fast hurtling towards him from the corner of his eye.

"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICHIIIGOOOOOOO! MY SO-"

Isshin Kurosaki. Ichigo simply took a step to the left as his father continued to travel through the space he had just occupied, only to smash into the wall behind.

"Stupid Goatface." Ichigo had had it up to the moon and back with his dad's antics. "Why can't you ever just say 'hi' like a normal pers- ooof!"

"Aha, you must be getting rusty, my son!" Isshin had grabbed Ichigo down with him and succeeded in pinning him to the floor. "You must always be ready for attack no. 2!"

"I don't think so." Ichigo immediatley flipped the switch and now held Isshin in an judo armlock. "What the hell are you doing here anyway, crazy old man."

"Well, forgive me for getting a little crazy when I found out -ow!- that my only son has been hiding a potentail grandson from his aunts and Ojiisan!"

"Yeah, why didn't you tell us, Ichi-nii?" Karin appeared at the doorway with a slightly teary-eyed Yuzu behind her. Dear God. Through all the pain and hard-ships Ichigo went through in his life nothing brought him to his knees quicker than Yuzu's tears. His twin sisters, Karin and Yuzu were almost polar opposites of each other; with one being happy and affectionate and the other being rather reserved and stoic, yet both were as passionate as the other. Ichigo released his dad as Yuzu came forward.

"Nii-san, is it true?" cried Yuzu, the tears threatening to fall from her face, "Urahara-san called and said you'd adopted a baby and that you were gonna be looking after him from now on but that was over 6 months ago... W-w-why haven't you said anything to us yet?" Ichigo's knees twitched as Yuzu sniffed dangerously, this could get ugly.

"Wah, wait Yuzu! I didn't do it on purpose, I've just been really busy with looking after him and work - which now I guess is kind of the the same thing... " Ichigo scratched the back of his head nervously as Yuzu glared back at him sullenly. Luckily Shiro saved the day by gurgling to himself from the other side of the room.

"So, he's here?" Yuzu asked, her eyes bright and happy again. It was like she had an On and Off tears switch or something.

"Err, yeah" answered Ichigo, pointing to the pen in the corner, "He's right over there."

The infant - who had been observing the noise quietly this time - watched as Yuzu and Karin came closer. The baby blinked curiously at the two people who both looked so much like Mama but also so different. The babe tried to pull himself up to see his aunts better, but only managed to keep falling on his butt every time. Even Karin couldn't help but smile at that.

"Awe, he soooo cute, Nii-san!" Yuzu reached out and placed her fingers in his ivory white and marveled at how soft it was. "He looks just like you, only lighter and smaller, of course."

"Yeah, he does kinda look like you, Ichi-nii!" Said Karin with a smile as she lightly poked the lil guy's nose.

"What's this?" Isshin had promptly decided he'd had enough of being quiet. "Ahaa, the Kurosaki genes are so strong that even those not born directly into the family shall harness the power! Masakiii! If she were still alive would be so prooooooud- ow!"

A small blue and white rattle rebounded off Isshin's head and crashed to the floor. Everyone turned to look at the tiny culprit who was smiling innocently up to everybody else. Ichigo was the first to start laughing, and once the baby joined in it was too hard not laugh.

"Well, Masaki..." Isshin Kurosaki mused as he rubbed the slightly sore spot on his head. "That's our first Grandson."


A few weeks later, Ichigo realised that he hadn't heard from Byakuya or Kisuke since they first dropped the child off all those months ago. He was beginning to wonder if he'd been forgotten about when he heard his cellphone ring. He scooped up the kid and placed him on the couch next to him as he answered Kisuke's phone call.

"Ichigo! How's it going for our new Momma?"

"I'm not a Momma, dammit!" The lil guy giggled at Ichigo outburst and repeated his new favourite word, causing Ichigo to drag his palm down his face.

"Mama! Mama!"

"Whoa…" came Urahara's surprised voice, "Was that the kid? There's no way he should be speaking that early."

"Well, he's not exactly speaking, just repeating some of the things I say. I don't think he really understands it. Didn't you say before that Hybrids develop faster than humans?"

"Faster, yes. But not that fast. This needs to be noted."

Ichigo unconsciously brought his hand down to smooth the kid's hair. "Do I need to be worried about anything?" Ichigo knew that if anything went wrong the kid would be taken any from him – whether it was Ichigo's fault or not. You would never believe it just by looking but Ichigo was really starting to get attached to the kid; after looking after him for almost a year now, how could he not be?

"No, no. If anything this is a good thing. It shows he's learning a lot from you." Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief.

"So…" Urahara's curiosity got the better of him, "what did you decide to call the him in the end?"

It had been about a month down the line when Ichigo realised that he couldn't keep referring to it as "the kid" especially not if this was going to be a long-term thing. He finally came up with a decent name and he'd be damned if he said he didn't like it.

"I call him Shiro… Shirosaki."

It wasn't exactly original, considering his own name, but the kid smiled for the first time when he said it. Ichigo would never forget that smile as long as he lived.

It took Ichigo a while to come out of his reverie and to realised that Kisuke was laughing at him.

"Hey! He's my kid and I'll call him what I want, Baka!" Ichi was about to hang up his phone when he felt the kid tugging on his arm.

"What's that? You want to say something to the silly old man, Shiro?"

"Ba… Ba-ba… Baka!"

"Good boy, now let's go get you a cookie."


END

Now that took a whole lot longer than I thought it would but I'm glad I got it done.

I'd like to point out, that I had no clue as to how a baby develops from 0-12months. I tried to research somethings but I couldn't really find out any precise info. Feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong.

The first cookie goes to TealEyedBeing thanks so much for giving me my first review, go get yourself a cookie! =D

And thanks for reading... R E V I E W please? .