A/n: Thank you so much for waiting people! I love ya'll for the reviews, favs n follows! Keep them coming!

2(.0#.!%


Chapter 3 : Remind me next time to check for messages on band-aid wrappers before throwing them out

Ichigo could feel his eyes getting wet. His voice cracked as he said, "A-are you really…"

The orange-haired woman continued to look at him with curious, bright eyes, but her overall expression was composed, calm, as if assessing the situation intelligibly.

Isshin was saying something else when his eyes opened to catch the almost quiet exchange between them. It did not take him more than a minute to get the wrong-sense meaning. "What?" he hollered, "Now you're hitting on Masaki?"

"Isshin-kun, please stop," said Masaki. "Let me talk to him."

"Masaki, no, can't you see? This idiotic-looking lad might be anyone!"

"No Isshin-kun, you see! This handsome-looking boy has the same orange hair, doesn't he?"

"Handsome-looking?" Isshin himself looked like he could have a heart attack "Oh, Masaki, have you fallen for this good-for-nothing bogus chap?"

"Well, he shares the same eyes as you…"

Ichigo sweat-dropped. He might have wanted to travel back to the day when both his parents were alive, but now – by some rude magic time-slip trick – now that he had made it, he didn't think that this was it. This discussion was going nowhere, and he wanted to confirm why he had been sent here and if there was a way to back? Did they know anything regarding this?

As he was about to open his mouth to say something like get to the point please! Ichigo felt something metallic graze his cheek. He raised his fingers to it and they touched blood. A drop of the warm liquid slid down his cheek onto the white floor. Ichigo stared at his hand in amazement.

Masaki was quick to take notice. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "Let me bring some thing to stop that," she went into the room to get medical supplies, which, given Isshin's tendencies to get into brawls, were always at hand and in abundance. Ichigo and Isshin were left alone in the hall, with nothing but awkwardness to fill the long silence.

"You don't get near Masaki, got that?" Isshin started.

Ichigo shrugged and rubbed the cut in an attempt to stop it from bleeding, "No need to get over possessive, old man; and I can't anyway."

"You dare to call me an old man when you were out drinking on the streets just a few hours ago? Ha, young people these days have to stop behaving like drunken salary men!"

Ichigo couldn't help but rise to the bait. "I wasn't drinking, you goat chin!"

"GO-GOAT CHIN!? What made you think of that, you brat! Though I'll say it's a cool name if it wasn't aimed at me!"

"No need to keep on shouting, you'll disturb the neighbours!"

"Why do you even care about my neighbours, huh?"

Before Ichigo could say something to that, Masaki stepped into the room and gave them a chilly glare. Ichigo could swear the temperature dropped by a few degrees. "You both will stay quiet, got that?"

Both father and son could only whisper a weak "Yes, ma'am." before Ichigo was dragged away by Masaki to get a dressing. Isshin tagged along and all three sat on the dining table where she could get a better view of the injury.

"Mou, this wasn't there earlier, so how'd you get a cut here?" she asked rhetorically. Her hands swiftly cleaned the surrounding dirt and disinfected the area. Ichigo hissed in pain and she told him to pick up a band-aid from the box.

"I told you he isn't normal, maybe he's an alien?" Isshin snickered, but was promptly shut up by Masaki Side Glare #32.

"By the way, you haven't told us your name," she said, throwing the used cotton swab away.

Ichigo smiled, and it felt like the first time in a long time. "I'm Ichigo –"

He's not sure what made him look down, but Ichigo chanced a glance at the band-aid he was holding.

'Don't' it warned.


A/n: Cliffhanger, omg! Review please.