Disclaimer : Not Mine.
Warnings: perhaps spoilers for the Hueco Mundo Arc, yaoi/BL, GrimmIchi, implied MPREG
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Soft morning sunlight shone through the window of the relatively small blue room which accommodated two small hospital beds shielded by curtains that hung from the ceiling to the floor. On one of the beds lay a young boy, his brows furrowed due to restlessness in his sleep. A small gasp would sound now and then, as if a nightmare was plaguing his mind.
Kurosaki Isshin brushed the teal strands of hair of the boy slowly to make way for the ear thermometer he needed to use to check his temperature. The child had developed a slight fever when they found him collapsed outside the clinic. Karin had been the one to check out the noise that sounded in front of their home. The neighbourhood they lived in was a quiet one, not many venture out when it became dark. Thus it had been strange. For a moment, Isshin had thought it was Ichigo, sneaking home, perhaps after having a fight with his girlfriend and running back with his tail between his legs.
The slight beep of the thermometer sounded and the small-time medical doctor read the results shown on the clear screen of the device. He mentally sighed with relief when he saw that the boy's temperature had gone back to normal. As the child continued to toss around in his sleep, Isshin brought the palm of his hand to the boy's forehead and released a bit of his reiatsu hoping to calm him down. His actions proved to be comforting enough and as the child drifted to a more relaxed slumber, he studied the boy who had seemed slightly familiar to him. In fact, Isshin could feel the boy having reiatsu which almost had a hint of his son's own reiatsu. It was puzzling.
Isshin removed his hand from the child and went to sit in the visitor chair beside the bed to contemplate his thoughts. He had almost forgotten how Ichigo's reiatsu had originally felt like. It had been almost five years since he died in that faraway place, his soul lost without a trace. Isshin had been filled with grief then but he had no reason to deny a certain artifical soul his son's body, which would have been empty and deteriorate anyway. Thus Kon inherited Ichigo's form and Isshin thought it was the right choice. The girls would not lose their brother entirely. He would bear the brunt of the loss alone for all of them.
It had not been very smooth at first. Kon, though he tried to fill in the hole left by Ichigo, was who he was. He was a different person from Ichigo and he acted differently. Karin knew Ichigo was not the same and had been depressed for weeks. Even Yuzu felt something was amiss with their brother though Karin never told her so. Nevertheless, Kon did inherit Ichigo's will to look after his sisters and slowly he grew on the family in his own way. Isshin referred to him as 'Ichigo' now even in his mind. And Ichigo was doing fine. He got into one of the colleges nearby the family home after graduating from school and even brought back a girlfriend the week before, earning countless teases from his sisters and of course from Isshin himself.
"Mama?"
The soft call from the child signaled the end of his musings as he stood up and approached the boy. The child was sitting up on the bed and looking around the room as if searching for something. Most probably his mother, Isshin deduced. When the boy settled his gaze on him, the doctor found those golden eyes strangely familiar. The features were almost a replica of Ichigo's eyes. Isshin could not believe that he did not recognise the frown which he saw earlier and that was now coming back to place when the boy realised that his mother was nowhere to be found.
"Who are you, Oji-san?" The boy asked, curiosity apparent in his voice. Looking around again, he added "Where is Mama?"
Shaking his mind off the nostalgia he felt, he exclaimed loudly earning a look of surprise from the teal haired child.
"Oji-san's name is Isshin! Kurosaki Isshin!" The doctor explained his left arm in the air as if announcing his name to the world. The boy seemed to tense up at his sudden outburst clutching the blanket that was covering him closer as if to hide from the strange man. Seeing the boy's reaction, he added "No need to fear child! Jump into my arms and I'll give you a hug an--"
The man was midway through his flashy proclamation when a kick to his head sent bouncing onto the floor. Yuki felt his eyes grow wide when he saw a dark haired girl who seemed just a few years older than him, with her arms crossed in the place of where the man was earlier. Another girl with light brown hair stood behind her, peering over her shoulder.
"Ow! That's so meeean Karin! Daddy was just trying to comfort the poor boy!" The man in the white clothes whined to the girl from the floor.
"You're scaring the kid, Dad." She said dryly.
By that time, Yuki was edging his way to a corner of his bed. The girl sighed at the man on the floor and turned to face Yuki with a friendly smile on her face. The other girl moved up to stand beside her.
"My name is Karin. Don't worry about that idiot there." Karin said nodding her head towards her father, trying to reassure the boy.
"And my name is Yuzu." Her sister added and asked "What's your name?"
"It's Yuki." He said slowly. The teal-haired boy started to play his fingers around the blanket, feeling a little nervous with all the new faces around him.
"Ah Yuki-kun is it? That's a pretty name." Yuzu replied with a smile. The boy's expression brightened at the simple praise.
"It's written with Yuuitsu's 'Yu' and kiseki's 'ki'. Mama gave me that name." Yuki said proudly.
"That's cool." Karin commented.
'One and only miracle, huh?' Isshin murmured to himself in his mind, pondering the meaning of the boy's name. He stood up and walked towards his daughters and the boy on the bed. Karin and Yuzu were getting along well with Yuki, making normal conversation about their favourites and what not. Yuki was easing up to them rather quickly. Then Yuzu asked a question that would have been innocent enough if not for the answer that came afterwards.
"What's your Mama like?" She had asked the boy. Isshin's heart skipped a beat when he heard the child reply without hesitation,
"Mama's the best! He has orange hair and his name is Ichigo!"
For a moment there was complete silence and Yuki did not know why. The man had frozen in his footsteps while the two sisters he was talking to looked at him in disbelief. Yuki opened his mouth to ask them what was wrong but before the words could leave his lips, he felt the room blurred as a massive reiatsu let itself be known.
The moment the heavy reiatsu rained down on the house and broke the barrier that he had set up, Isshin rushed to the children's side, his body slipping easily into a battle stance to face the intruder. As he readied the badge which he had carried around with him since he regained his Shinigami powers, he almost missed the slightest of murmur from the teal-haired boy.
"Father."
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Grimmjow Jeagerjaques was not happy. He had been running around all night looking for his son. His son who, judging from the slight reiatsu he had felt, was alone here in the human world. Whether this was the latest prank from the little brat or something had happened in Hueco Mundo he did not know. However, he had a bad feeling about it and it was making him very agitated.
It had just been that morning when he left Hueco Mundo on an assignment from Aizen. It was the second time he had gone to that cave just on the outskirts of Karakura Town. Aizen had been sending Espada there every month on a routine checkup on the project he had been working on. Personally Grimmjow preferred missions that involved badgering the human souls in town and subsequently the Shinigami that are sent to deal with him. On occasion a Shinigami captain would be sent and it would sate the Espada's appetite for battle just enough to last till the next assignment.
He was on his last patrol of the town when the reiatsu of his son suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The scent he was no stranger to passed by him moments later, carried by the harsh cold wind of the night. Immediately, his senses peaked in alarm at that and he dropped down from his perch on one of those tall telephone poles and raced towards the direction of Yuki's reiatsu. However, mere moments after, he felt the reiatsu seemingly disappear. The Espada let out a loud curse. There must have been a barrier somewhere that blocked his senses from detecting him for a child like Yuki could not have the power to teleport himself.
That was why it took him the whole night to locate the boy. With the loss of the reiatsu as a guide, Grimmjow had to rely on another sense to track him which was his son's scent. It had not been very reliable and often than not, he had found himself in an unknown corner of town. But then again, Ichigo had always commented on his poor sense of direction of which he strongly denied. He knew where he was going damn it. It was with a feeling of urgency as he searched for his son, eager to retrieve him and go back to Hueco Mundo, to Ichigo with his child as soon as possible.
As the morning sun finally rose, Grimmjow finally reached his destination, pausing just long enough to read the description of the building before him. His eyes widened at the sign that displayed 'Kurosaki Clinic', recognizing the last name of his mate. It added to his suspicion that Ichigo had been the one who sent their son here despite having supposedly no memory of his former life. This moved him to act quicker, knowing the possiblity of something gone wrong back home was getting higher by the minute. Feeling the barrier that had been set up around the house, Grimmjow released the reiatsu that he had been suppressing during his mission so as not to attract attention. The barrier soon gave way and he followed Yuki's reiatsu to a small blue room.
As soon as he entered the room, the Espada was met with the sight of a man, presumably in a doctor's uniform, and two girls huddled behind him. His son was also covered by the length of the man's arm in front of him. Yuki seemed well and relatively unhurt, causing Grimmjow to let out the breath he didn't realise he was holding in. The boy looked at him tensely for a moment and then he averted his gaze down onto the bedsheets, as if he was ashamed.
"Brat. Come on, we're going home." The Espada tsked in annoyance.
Grimmjow likened his true nature to that of a panther. And in the wild, panther fathers never truly bring up their cubs. Perhaps it was a reason why he was not very close with his son. Ichigo instead had a natural talent with children of which he had observed in the past as well as with Yuki and Grimmjow was content to leave it that way. Yuki seemed content with the arrangement as well, preferring to stick to his mama like glue. The brat has the gall to even hog up his private time with Ichigo.
But Grimmjow does protect what is his and anyone who dared to touch his child would have to be prepared to die.
"Yes father." The boy replied and moved to get up from the bed. His answer however seemed to cause confusion to the man in front of him.
"Wait." The doctor called out.
"Move and you will regret it." Grimmjow said, the silent threat hung in the air thickly as he held a palm that could easily produce a Cero, aiming towards the doctor.
And all Isshin could do was watch, not willing to risk a battle with two of his daughters in the same room. The Espada seemed to be in a hurry as well for as soon as the boy reached the similarly blue-haired man, a large grey void opened behind them and then they were gone.
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"Rukia! Hey wake up!"
There was ridiculously loud banging on her door early in the morning and she begrudgingly walked up to open it. The short glance of the fiery red hair told her it was no-good Renji seeking a way to annoy her again as she stepped back and headed towards her bed, eager to continue to sleep her tiredness away. His next words however woke her up immediately,
"Hanatarou told me that Ichigo is already awake. Captain Uohana has requested your help with him."
With that, Rukia needed no further prompt as she raced to dress herself and headed towards the 4th Division Headquartes as fast as she could. For the first time in five years she would be able to truly face her friend and perhaps, maybe ask him for forgiveness.
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Yay! Another chapter done. I think Japanese names(Yuki) aren't made like that but well I wanted it that way, so there lol. Grimmjow and Yuki fighting over Ichigo (laughs) Oh well. Thanks a million again for your reviews and comments. Hope you aren't bored yet. You get Grimmjow this chap. There's still more to come. GrimmIchi-ness next chap I think. Till next week then. Cya.