Father to Son

Not for the first time he wondered just why he was here. For one he had no reason to be, unless you counted the whole blood-relation issue which was a bit moot these days, and secondly he hardly thought any good would come of it. Yet here he was standing outside the door to his son's apartment not certain if he wanted to knock to make his presence known or leave while he still had the chance to. So far he'd raised his hand twice and drawn it back to his side while he considered the points of the proverbial argument between his equally proverbial little angel and little devil. It was a comic sight, even if imagined because it's not as if that was even possible, and it didn't suit the image the older Quincy presented. So far the pair were doing nothing but to glare at one another from opposite sides which was largely unhelpful to him. Spending time with Isshin never did his mind any good and this was proof.

Raising his hand a third time, ignoring the uncomfortable heat and damp feel of it from having been stuffed into his suit jacket's pocket, he found himself hesitating again. Thank god no one could see this because it was undignified.

"Ya gonna stand outside all day?"

The rough, unfamiliar voice startled him and being the prideful man he was he merely glanced and glared hard. He saw a redheaded man, or boy because he scarcely looked even twenty to his eyes. Familiar in a faintly annoying way, he must have heard of him from someone. When it hit him, my he was distracted today, his eyes narrowed further behind his glasses. Uryuu was associating with shinigami, oh lovely.

"Well knock already. He ought to be home."

"What business do you have with him?"

"Could ask the same of ya. Mean he and I are friends. I don't know who the hell you are."

Snorting to himself at the statement he bit back the urge to chide his son whom wasn't even able to bare witness to it. Of course the shingiami didn't know who he was. Uryuu wouldn't speak of him unless he absolutely had to, yet it still stung in a strange way that a shinigami was permitted to remain closer to his son than he himself was.

"I know you can talk so ya gonna tell me or do I have to knock around you?"

"I am...an acquaintance of his." This was painfully awkward. "I was here to see if he had any information on a mutual acquaintance between us."

The redhead looked a bit amused and nodded. "Ah right."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Ryuuken nearly had to bite his tongue to withhold referring to the other as shinigami. He didn't want to give away that he knew, however, just what the man was.

"Sorry, sorry. Don't mean anything by it but you talk like him is all. Kinda funny."

Now that he hadn't seen coming and it left him feeling unbalanced, with nothing to reply with. Uryuu was like him in what sense? He was scarcely so headstrong and foolish as that boy. The teen had no respect for him without cause and ignored him in all sense unless it was to his benefit to bother with his own father. He had his reason for being angry with his father but he didn't see how it was right for his own boy to have taken on such a rebellious attitude toward him. What had he done short of try to look after his interests? No he had not tried to fill his head with chivalrous nonsense like Souken. He had wanted his boy safe not prancing after hollows when shinigami ought to be cleaning up their own messes, as it was their job to see to such things.

In his own thoughts he was drawn back to the moment when the shinigami reached around him to indeed knock at the door. Startled Ryuuken was rather tempted to try and make a break for it. That would be like admitting defeat, so the man stubbornly stayed put.

"You could have asked me to, it is far more polite."

Shaking his head the shinigami just chuckled. "You were thinkin' didn't want to interrupt in case it was important."

How angry would his son get if he maimed one of his friends? Rather he'd wager so he gritted his teeth, glaring at the younger looking man from the corner of his eye. Really youth were so annoyingly tempered these days. Then again he couldn't say he knew how old this one was but he behaved rather young in the Quincy's opinion.

Then the door opened he was somewhat surprised to see the amusement in his son's expression, oddly open for the boy he knew who closed off so fully in his presence. Still he did not get to see the weak smile on his face for long. As soon as Uryuu saw who was on his doorstep those eyes had narrowed and his lips tilted into a frown.

"What are you doing here?"

The shinigami looked a bit surprised at that and looked between the pair before his mouth opened once more. "You're...related..."

"Brilliant observation." Uryuu muttered drily and stepped back to let the pair in despite his rigid posture. "Come in lest you look like a fool standing on my step."

Ryuuken complied only when he felt the shinigami pushing him in to the unwelcoming territory. It was as he was slipping his own shoes off that he noted that he was the most uncomfortable one at the moment, which did make sense. The shinigami seemed entirely comfortable here though and even made a bit of a show of taking off his sandals as if in exasperation to an unstated demand. It was oddly domestic to the doctor and he found himself glancing at his son who for a short moment looked amused again. So the pair were indeed friendly. It stung in a way but in another it relieved the man that his son was not some hermit, not so isolated as he himself was because he didn't wish his son to feel some of the intense loneliness that he himself did.

His own shoes set aside he was surprised to see the shinigami go to make himself comfortable like he belonged here. What in the world? That seemed a bit impolite to him but he didn't think the ape would have much in the name of manners. Even if he did the commonly decent thing of ridding himself of his shoes when entering. How many times had he scolded Urahara and Isshin about that? Many. Then there was the whole entering through windows. Lord did he hate that.

"Would you like some tea?" The offer was biting and before the man could answer the redhead was.

"Be nice Uryuu." The eldest, though this was partly and assumption on his part, didn't know if he was scolding his son or taking the offer for tea. Somehow that made him feel more like an intruder than before.

Without reply Uryuu was going to the modest separated kitchen his apartment afforded him. The lack of welcome did not surprise him in the boy's actions and he took no outward offense. Why would he be treated with sincere kindness instead of awkward, formal politeness.

"He sure doesn't like you much. Gotta be his dad hmm?"

"...yes." Maybe he had spoken of him to the shinigami, but not much.

"Shame." The shinigami was sitting already, zanpakutou set aside and looking like the most relaxed of the group. His eyes were looking over the older Quincy with curiosity versus the hostility of his own flesh and blood. "Maybe if you were a little nicer he would be too."

The suggestion surprised him not that it showed, he was stoic as ever. "Hn."

The short, uncertain response must have amused him though because he just shook his head and chuckled as if he had shared some kind of mild joke instead. "Really are a lot like him. Well back from when I first met him. Definitely can see the blood between you two." In more than one sense he was sure, but it was not stated to his ears. Somehow he knew it was in his mind, maybe it was the way he was looking at him as if he knew something he did not, enjoying his removed perception of the interaction between the estranged father and son.

If he were a lesser man he might have colored in shame but he did not. Ryuuken even moved himself to sit instead of standing in place awkwardly.

"Tryin' to make it less painful on you both."

That made his eyes widen noticeably, looking more fully at the younger looking man then. Why did he care about their comfort? Maybe he wasn't a horrible friend to his son if he was staying here and trying to play mediator even if he was clueless to just what he was getting himself into.

"Recommend you make it quick as possible though."

"I suppose you are right about that." The grin to his statement, the confirmation to the other, made him half wish he could strike him. He hated shinigami to look smug even if only slightly.

"Who'd ya want to talk to him about?"

He didn't see the harm in sharing the name. "Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Eh Ichigo? What'd he do now?"

"I'm not certain, that's the reason I'm here. A...friend of mine if concerned about him."

"A friend huh? Friend who?" It was a light accusation, probably more teasing than serious.

"His father, Isshin."

"The crazy idiot?" He asked a bit dumbfounded at that, not quite able to fathom the pair in the same room together let alone being anything approaching friendly. Then again Uryuu was a bit on the rough side while friendly.

"Yes." If the shinigami thought that of Isshin he couldn't be all bad. "He found something that led him to believe that Ichigo might be in a bit of a situation."

Snorting the redhead shook his head. "Like that's new. Idiot always getting' into trouble."

Ryuuken hated to think it but this one might just be a bit tolerable, as far as shinigami went.

Uryuu was coming back out, setting down the mugs, a little less tense than when he'd left them. There was even one for Ryuuken. Looking between the two the teen was surprised to not see them glaring over the table at one another, but he had heard them speaking. It had lacked hostility which was strange, worrying even.

Not forgetting to be a polite host he settled himself down as well once he set their tea down for them, nodding easily to Renji's thanks. "This is Renji Abarai, a friend of mine and the vice-captain of the sixth division. Renji, this is my father, Ryuuken Ishida."

"Nice ta meet'cha." Abarai said and nodded to him as though he didn't notice the thicker atmosphere that had descended when the younger Ishida had rejoined them.

"Hn, likewise." Though it wasn't entirely true it was also not entirely false.

Seemed that his son was a bit more anxious than he had given him credit for originally because he fussed with his shirt cuff a moment before he was speaking once more.

"What did you want to talk about?" Uryuu wanted to be rid of him as quickly as possible.

So he wouldn't have the chance to ease into it. Disappointing but it was an odd topic in general. How it introduce it hit him for the moment as a little surreal. After all hadn't he told his son not to associate with shinigami yet he was going to ask about the romantic entanglements of one? Wasn't that a little bit of hypocrisy.

"He wanted to know somethin' about Ichigo." Abarai seemed to spare him some awkwardness.

"Kurosaki?" Uryuu was rather at a loss for that topic and a bit upset. His father was here to see him and it had nothing to do with his own son?

Nodding he tried to ignore the heat behind his son's narrow look. "Yes. His father was worried and bothered to say as much to me."

If anything the elder was only digging himself further into the hole he's stepped into. Somehow he could see his son piling the proverbial dirt right back on him as he kept digging down. Ryuuken did suppose that he deserved that.

Abarai looked between them and tried not to look amused as he was at the similarities and ignoring his own disappointment in them both. Honestly they were related couldn't they just have it out already and be done with it? Still he ad come to understand Quincy, or at least Ishida, enough to know they scarcely made things simple.

"What, pray tell, was his father so concerned about he saw fit to see you?"

It took a moment for him to push aside the tone his boy used, he didn't want to make a scene before their audience. "He wondered if his boy wasn't becoming involved with someone romantically that may or may not be suitable. He found something odd that inclined for there to be a relationship between his boy and an older man." It was as delicately as he could state it.

"Really?" The shinigami was all kinds of curious at that.

Uryuu wasn't nearly so amused and just appeared the part of an exasperated parent to see a child had finally grasped as concept. "About time."

Ryuuken and Renji seemed to be at a loss to what he meant, both looking at him in a quizzical sense wanting him to elaborate on his rather vague statement.

"Huh?" Renji looked like the physician felt, one eyebrow raised in confusion and a sort of confused frown marring his expression.

"Are you really that thick to not notice Abarai?" There was that amused look again, the one his boy directed at the shinigami. "I'd think you'd have at least picked up on something with the time you spend there compared to me."

"Still aren't makin' sense Uryuu." The lack of correction on his name gave Ryuuken a few worries about his own son. When did those two become that familiar?

Snorting and taking a sip of his tea in a pointed way that almost made the elder Quincy proud he regarded them. Ryuuken was out of their social loop so he didn't think he'd know but it surprised the teen that even Renji hadn't noticed it. The looks and the awkward moments between the lengthy odd comfortable relationship between them.

"Ichigo is quite interested in Urahara-san and entirely oblivious to just what's going on in his own head."

Abarai was choking on his tea and gaping after. Ryuuken on the other hand was looking quite surprised himself, yet not as blatantly obvious. Oh this spelled disaster for when his not-friend found out just what was going on with his son. Well it was a small blessing that it was Kurosaki's boy and not his own.

"How are you so certain of this?" The man had to ask, after all his son was still but a teenager he could misread a situation.

"I'm not blind." It was a touch huffy at being doubted.

"I didn't see it." Renji said simply, a little shocked still. "Explain. C'mon humor us."

Uryuu shook his head, a bit surprised at the lack of denial from his father to be lumped with a shinigami, but he decided he had nothing to lose by humoring them. In fact he was almost amused by the whole thing, yet still a bit burned for the cause of the elder's visit.

"Ichigo has trusted Urahara for almost as long as he's known him. You saw them during the war. How often were they back to back?"

Ryuuken had seen it some himself since he had not been able to ignore such a large conflict. Yet he had not truly seen much of the force that had massed the mismatched misfits. Quincy, shinigami and vizard all working together in a strange chaotic mishmash. Yet they had been their own force, filled with the experienced and powerful to the fledgling apprentices in comparison. Urahara had been the unofficial commander and Ichigo had not often been too far from his side. Their combination had been impressive, even in a way which Urahara could not approach with the talented Yoruichi at his side. That was saying something because that pair knew each other better than most, in such a familiar way it had created a vast array of rumors in their association that ranged from being star-crossed lovers to blood-relations.

"Dunno, a lot."

"They were very often seen together." Ryuuken supplied. "Many fought back to back though."

Uryuu nodded as if he had considered that because he had. "Yes well then and now are different. Ichigo visits the shop rather regularly. Just after the war he stayed there almost equally as he slept in his own bed at home."

Somewhere in his memory he could recall hearing that from Isshin as well. Odd, he didn't see it for himself but he could understand it. The bond forged between men when fighting was powerful. During a war you saw them as a lifeline and you clung to it after while waiting for normalcy to return. It was still up to debate of how one could read that.

"Uh yeah but I stuck around you too after it was all done with." Something that Byakuya had been oddly understanding off, but he was kind of distracted too about watching over Rukia. Neither had begrudged the other of their protective feelings over the people close to them, it had bred an understanding instead. His captain didn't mind his visits to the human world like this one so long as his work was done.

"Yes well..." Clearing his throat he looking at his father for some reason instead of the vice-captain. "Even after he was more himself again those visits didn't stop. Ichigo still goes there now. Have you seen the way he interacts with them all?"

Ryuuken couldn't claim that he knew because he had seen nothing. It wasn't a statement directed at him, however, because the shinigami was answering not long after.

"Yeah, of course I have." Pausing to think about it Renji looked like he saw the light finally. "Oh man, how'd I miss that?"

Looking pleased his son nodded and sipped at his tea again.

"Do share." Ryuuken muttered feeling as out of the loop as he was.

Waving a hand his son seemed to be charging the redhead with explaining in his place, as if he'd pointed it all out enough for them already.

"Well it's like he just sort of fits. They can do all kinds of things without talking or giving signals. Like it's natural as breathin' sometimes. He 'n Urahara move around each other like they know what's happening before it happens. Not just Urahara neither, it's the kids too."

Kisuke and the boy were that close? He'd welcomed the boy that closely into his rather close-knit group?

"Ichigo 'n Urahara might argue and snip but more like they're messin' around than anything. They used to fight, er Ichigo did, but it changed around. They're just different with each other I guess ya could say."

Uryuu was sitting his eyes closed as if that really was all that needed to be said. There could be more said but there was enough in all that to be seen.

Ryuuken had to resist hitting his head against the low table. He knew getting involved in all this was a very bad idea. Just one hell of headache for him. Looking between the pair again his son's posture hadn't changed but Abarai appeared to be thinking about all their conversation.

"You said that Ichigo was oblivious to it?" The doctor managed to make himself ask.

"Mm, I did. He doesn't see it as that. He just feels comfortable."

"Maybe he knows and likes it Uryuu." Renji argued simply and took a sip of his own tea.

Opening his eyes and shaking his head he gave a sigh. "No it's Ichigo, he'd be acting awkward if he knew. You know how he is."

Snorting Renji nodded in agreement to that. Ryuuken wondered just what that really meant but he had a feeling that Isshin would know. The boy he didn't know very well himself, only having ever met him in passing during the war. In fact he was quite sure if Ichigo had to he couldn't name him if he saw him again. It had been nothing but required at the time to know ally from enemy. Then the narrow focus that war permitted they had seen little of one another while there had been any enemies in rage of their attacks. Ryuuken's natural distant nature had not aided their relationship but it was never meant to.

And for all the answers he might have gotten in regard to Isshin's son he was left with questions about his own. Ones that he couldn't voice to him. Ryuuken looked down at his untouched tea and wondered to himself just what was going on.

"Hey ya okay there Pops?"

Choking a bit at the nickname he looked up at the shinigami as if he'd lost his mind. "What?"

"Asked is ya were alright there. Been lookin' at that tea for a little bit more."

Daring a glance he saw his son looking rather unreadable, eyes on him oddly enough. Uryuu seemed to be unsure of what to do or say. The advice to make it a quick visit hit him again and he was thinking that was just what he ought to do.

"I am fine. I should be going." If the pair wanted to argue him they didn't show it. Rising to his feet he looked to his son. "Thank you for the hospitality." For as distant as they had been things has been a bit more comfortable for the buffer that the shinigami provided. Already heading to the door on his own he noticed his son rising up to walk him to the door. It was politeness again that likely led him to do as much. Somehow he wished he could have shown himself out, then he might not feel the intense need to conceal the strange array of emotions present in his person. Instead the boy was a good host, even to him.

Shoes slipped on and glasses pushed up, without need so much as habit, he nodded to the boy without fully looking at him. "Good to see you doing well. Look after yourself." A part of him wished to say his son's name but he felt irregularly warm to him already for the space between them that time had done no good to ease.

Slipping out with barely a glance back he didn't notice his son's surprise or even really hear the goodbye he gave in a strained tone.

Feeling entirely foolish instead he descended down and out to the street he headed his own way home in the warm night. Darkness had fully descended while he was visiting with his son. He would call Isshin to talk to him tonight about what he'd heard though he thought that might not be best. Ichigo himself was outside his understanding of his relationship regarding. Ryuuken trusted his son's analysis on the subject so he didn't see the need to argue if it was true. Instead he was thinking that the man ought to keep his nose out lest he make things worse but it was never Isshin's style to keep out. Could be a small kindness of him to lead the man in an entirely incorrect direction to give Ichigo time to make his own decisions. Which would be best?

The answer was not so easily reached by his mind which was still going in circles over his strange time with Uryuu and that shinigami, Renji Abarai. The doctor didn't know what to make of those two. They had a bond that easily could have been due to their time together during the war. They were comfortable and familiar. Minutely a part of him was envious of that man's relationship with his son.

What worried him was just how close those two were. While not a wonderful father he could not help but to feel the same protective nature over his son that he had felt when he was still his son. He was not an open man but he still felt and bled like any other, just not so well openly as another would.

His mind was made up then. He'd lead Isshin away from Urahara and let Ichigo have some time to try and sort himself out. Least he could do and he supposed he owed it to the boy for looking after his son in his own strange way. He'd tell Isshin he had his own son to worry about to get out of being dragged into the later issuing chaos.

The future was a mystery and he'd have to see what happened. However, a drink before bed sounded like an excellent idea to him.