Author's Note: First of all I would like to say thank you to my good friend, dogsfang, for his advice. You have been a great source encouragement for me to finally get started with my writing. Secondly, thank you to the people who added me to your story alerts, though more reviews would be appreciated. Scratch that. I just got a new review right now. Thirdly, we now move on to standard operating procedure.

Disclaimer: I do not own BLEACH. It is an intellectual property of Tite Kubo and is licensed in the United States by Viz Media LLC.

It's been almost a year since Grand Fisher ran off with his tail between his legs and things are finally getting back to normal for the Kurosaki household, well about as normal as it can be for a family that can see ghosts. It's around 4 o'clock, so school's let out for the day and the kids are either already home or on their way there. However one person, a ten year old boy with bright orange hair, was running a little late walking home from school, so of course he was running, and panting, but was most noticeable about him was that he had a big grin on his face. Now for those who knew him, this might not seem that much out of the norm, because he was a pretty happy kid. However, he was grinning for a different reason today. As he was running, he saw one of his dad friends talking to a very pretty dark-skinned lady, and he decided to stop for a second to say hello.

"Hi, Mr. Urahara. Who's that you're talking to?"

"Oh, hi Ichigo. I didn't see you there for a second."

"Who's the kid, Kisuke? He seems to know you."

"This is Ichigo, Isshin's kid."

"Really? So, Ichigo, how's your dad doing? I haven't seen him in a while."

"He's fine, and who are you?"

"Oh that's right. Where are my manners? I'm Yoruichi, Yoruichi Shihoin."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Ichigo, Ichigo Kurosaki."

Then Ichigo looked down at a wrist watch and saw what time it was. It was almost 4:30.

"Oh sorry, I have to go or else I'm going to be late for dinner."

Then he broke out into a run again and before he was out of ear shot he yelled,

"It was nice meeting you!"

After he was gone, Kisuke and Yoruichi started talking again.

"So that's Isshin's kid, huh? I could tell from his spirit energy that they were related somehow, but…"

"Yeah, I know. It's amazing that a kid his age can have so much spirit energy. Just imagine if he was a soul reaper…"

"He'd be a force to be reckoned with."

Ichigo finally made it home after pretty much running nonstop. 'I hope I'm not late for dinner. Mom said she was making her special meatloaf.' He checked his watch and let out a sigh of relief, 'Just in time.'

"Mom, Dad, I'm home."

"You were running a little late today, Ichigo."

"I know. I stopped to talk to Mr. Urahara for a little bit. He was talking to this lady named Yoruichi. She said she knows you, Dad."

"So, Yoruichi's finally back in town. It seems she got my message."

"How exactly do you know her dad?"

"She's an old friend from before I became a doctor."

It took him a second but Ichigo understood what his father meant, "Oh… So what did you ask her come here for?"

"Well, I asked her come here to help teach you how to use your spirit energy, maybe teach you how to use a few basic kido. Anyway, how was school? Anything interesting happen?" He said this last part in a way that you knew he knew more than he let on.

"Uh… Nothing," Ichigo said this while averting his eyes trying to avoid the question because he knew that his parents already knew the answer.

Then his mother spoke up, "Ichigo, you might as well tell us what happened. Your principal called earlier. He said you got into a fight. That isn't like you."

Seeing that he was already caught before he could even, he decided to tell what happened.

(Flash Back)

"Please, leave me alone!" a young girl cried. However, her tormenters simply carried on.

"Hey! She said she wanted to be left alone."

"What are you going to do about it, you little punk?" while grabbing and pulling Ichigo up by his shirt.

"This," he then proceeded to kick the older kid in a place that caused him to drop Ichigo and double over in pain.

"You need some help, Ichigo?"

"Hey Tatsuki! Yeah, I think I might because this guy's buddies are coming over."

"Well then, let's get to it."

The older kids were just laughing, thinking, "What could 2 ten year olds possibly hope to do against us?" They were severely underestimating them.

Ichigo and Tatsuki proceeded to beat the snot out of them. Then once everything was said and done, they went and checked on the girl.

"Are you okay?" Ichigo asked.

"Y… yeah," she said, in a slightly nervous voice.

"Oh, yeah… That's right. I haven't introduced myself. I'm Ichigo Kurosaki and this is my friend, Tatsuki Arisawa."

"I'm Orihime, Orihime Inoue."

"Nice to meet you, Orihime. Why were those guys picking on you anyway?"

"They… They said… They said they didn't like my hair."

"What?! Why would anybody say that? You have pretty hair."

At this comment from Ichigo, Orihime blushed and giggled a little bit. "You're the first person besides my big brother to say that my hair was pretty."

Then like clockwork, a teacher finally decided to show up, "What is going on here? Why are those kids on the ground? Who did this?"

Then a little tattle-tale popped his head and said, "Um…It was Ichigo and Tatsuki."

"Kurosaki, Arisawa, I might have expected something like this from someone else but you two? You better have a good explanation."

(End Flashback)

"Well, that awfully sweet of you, Ichigo," said Masaki

"Yes, I do believe our little boy is becoming a man, Masaki. Also I believe there is more going on here than what Ichigo is telling us, isn't there."

"I…I don't know what you're talking about."

"It's pretty obvious that something good happened after that. Also, it doesn't explain why you were late getting home," said Isshin.

"Yeah, Ichi-nii, why were you late getting home?" said Karin, with an obvious hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Karin, when did you get in here? I thought you were still playing in your room?"

"Oh, about part where Ichi-nii said that girl's hair was pretty," said Karin.

"Yeah, Ichi-nii, what happened after that?"

"Not you too, Yuzu," said Ichigo, surprised by the fact that not one but both of his little sisters were spying on him.

"I think you might as well tell us, Ichigo. We're probably going to find out one way or another."

"You too, Mom!" Then Ichigo grumbled a little bit in a way that you could tell he was irritated, "Well, alright. What happened was…"

(Flashback)

It was near the end of the school day and classes were about to let out.

"Hey, Orihime, me and Tatsuki were thinking that maybe we should see that you get home safe and those guys don't try to bug you again."

"Oh… you… you don't have to go through all that trouble for me."

"No, it's alright. We insist," said Tatsuki.

"Well, if you say so…"

Then they all started walking home together until they got to Tatsuki's house.

"I'll see you tomorrow at school, Ichigo, Orihime!"

"Um… well, I guess I'll be going now. I imagine you probably need to get home too, Ichigo. Didn't you say your house was in the opposite direction of mine?"

"Nah, it's all right. And besides, I want to make sure you get home safe."

Afterwards, Ichigo and Orihime started walking towards the apartment where she lived with her brother, but Ichigo, didn't know this.

"So, um… you mentioned that you had a brother, Orihime. What about the rest of your family?"

"Oh, uh… It's just me and my big brother, Sora. It's been that way for as long as I can remember."

"Oh. Okay."

"So, uh, here's my apartment, and, um," then she kissed him on the cheek, "thank you."

(End Flashback)

"Aw, that was sweet," said Masaki.

"Oooh!" was the reply from Yuzu.

Then Karin was practically singing, "Ichi's got a girlfriend! Ichi's got a girlfriend!"

Isshin was also nodding his head in agreement and a big smirk on his face, "Yes, I do believe Karin is right."

Ichigo was trying to hide his face, which was quickly turning red, and groaning out of embarrassment. That was when Masaki spoke up, "Alright, I think we've teased him enough," she said with a bit of a light giggle at the end. Then she continued, "Ichigo, I think that you should ask Orihime if she'd like to come over for dinner some time, and her brother as well if he's able. Do you think that's alright Isshin?"

"What do I think? I think it's a great idea!" This elicited another embarrassed groan from Ichigo.

"Bu… but…but I just met her, mom!" said Ichigo, trying to figure out some out of an embarrassing situation.

"Well, just think of it as getting to know her better."

Author's Note: This last little section after the last flashback took me forever to figure out how I wanted to write it. That was because, well with homework, plus also reading other people's work when I'm bored, it kind of eats up my time, in addition to not being that good of a descriptive writer. Hell, if I was good enough to write and/or draw manga, I'd do that. That's because I picture a scene kind of like one would be watching a television show and we usually don't take in every individual detail. We process the big picture, with the dialogue being the meat and potatoes. I had originally written the prologue kind of like a play script with only the dialogue and who was saying them next to the lines. However, I found out that you can't do that on .