Disclaimer: Kubo is god, Kubo is king, Tite Kubo owns everything. If I owned them it would be a half-shounen/half-shoujo series. I am making no money from this. I also do not own any of the quotes I use in any chapter.

Author's Notes: Thank you everyone for your awesome reviews; I think I responded to everyone personally, but I apologize if I missed you. Based on the number of chapters, this is totally my most reviewed story, which makes me so very happy. Thanks also to those of you who are finding my other After the Winter War stories and reviewing those as well, I'm glad you're enjoying my world. I tried to interject a little more humor into this part, as many of you have commented that you love the way I write comedy when I do omake or the other brief scenes when I've been able to do it. Unfortunately it just doesn't fit in with the stories I tell very often.

Oh, and for once I'm not 100% in love with the particular quotes I've chosen for this chapter, but I can't find better ones, and I really wanted to get to use something by Nagayan, as he is my favorite Japanese singer/songwriter.

I'll Stand By You

By Lady Callista

Chapter 7: Families

OoOoOoOoOoO

"For now, when we see each other, let's keep our greetings normal, and remember that we can't kiss like it's expected. It's not illicit, it's just that this is precious: feeling the temperature of a kiss. So to feel the temperature between us, we bring our faces closer together." "

from "KISS no Ondo" (Temperature of a Kiss) by Nagayama Takashi

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Orihime woke slowly; happy dreams were still swirling through her mind. She kept her eyes closed as she remembered Ichigo kissing her, and holding her, and… Why were there arms around her? Why could she feel Ichigo's warm reiatsu surrounding her? She'd gone to sleep last night at home, and he'd had to stay at his house with his sisters, and…

Orihime felt a moment of giddiness as she let her eyes slide open and realized it hadn't been a dream after all. Memories of fleeing her apartment to go to his house came flooding back, yet with his arms around her the nightmares that had terrified her no longer scared her at all. He had been right; somehow telling him about them had helped.

She lay on her side, relishing the feeling of him spooned behind her, his arm around her waist. She slid one of her hands up from where they had been curled under her cheek to rest her hand on his own, carefully linking their fingers. She froze when he mumbled something and shifted in his sleep, but he only shifted closer to her, his entire body pressing against her back.

Orihime felt a blush stain her cheeks as something especially hard pressed into her lower back, and she realized that…

Orihime squealed as she heard the door crash open.

"Ichigo, wake up you lazy…"

Ichigo awoke instantly at the standard greeting, instinctively spinning towards the voice and raising his arms to block his father's expected attack. It took him a second to realize that the attack hadn't come, and that his father was standing in the doorway with wide eyes. His thoughts raced as he almost heard Isshin's jaw hit the floor, and then his thoughts came grinding to a halt as he felt the bed shift behind him and felt the warm glow of Orihime's reiatsu.

"Ah, shit." He mumbled softly under his breath. He had planned to set an alarm to wake him before his father would come in so that he could take Orihime home without anyone finding out she had been there, but had completely forgotten in the rush of feelings that had come from their first kiss.

His cheeks heated as he remembered that kiss, and he saw his father's eyes narrow. "Downstairs, now!"

Ichigo rose to his feet instantly, but turned his back on his father for a moment to regard Orihime with gentle eyes. "It's okay, just wait here and I'll be back up in a little bit to walk you to your apartment to change for school."

Her face beet red, it was all Orihime could do to nod in mortification. She knew his father was, or had been, a Shinigami. That meant he could sense when his son was around, so he likely knew Ichigo had been out all night for the past week. He had probably assumed he was hunting Hollows or something, but now he would think that they had been…

Even though they hadn't done anything wrong, shame flooded through Orihime. She had only met his father a few times, yet she had hoped that now that her and Ichigo were getting closer… But she could only imagine what he must think of her now.

A squeak from the door made her look up, only to meet the wide-eyed stares of two young girls.

"Orihime-chan?" Yuzu whispered. Although she knew the girl was her brother's friend, she barely saw them together. She actually thought of her more as Tatsuki-chan's friend and remembered some of the outings the four girls had gone on together.

Orihime stared at both girls, trying to think of something to say. Then the voice of Ayame, one of her six flowers, startled her.

They're too young to jump to that conclusion, they're just confused. Take a deep breath. You can just explain about the nightmares…

Orihime flushed at the thought of even more people knowing she was having trouble dealing with things and missed hearing Karin's sharp intake of breath. She was therefore surprised when the tomboy turned and spoke to her sister.

"Yuzu, why don't you go down and start breakfast? I'm pretty sure I heard goat-head and Ichi-nii go into the clinic. They probably didn't want to be overheard."

Yuzu cocked her head in curiosity for a moment, then broke into a smile. "Of course, everyone will have to eat no matter what else happens, and…" Her voice trailed off as she moved down the hallway.

Karin took a few steps into the room and said quietly, "They're not lying to me are they? The War really is over?"

Having been warned by Ichigo not to tell Karin their father was a Shinigami, even though she knew about the other stuff, Orihime took a second to wonder who Karin meant by 'they.' Then she remembered her talk with Karin about Toshiro-kun and hurried to reassure the girl. "Yes, it's over, Karin-chan. Seire…The Shinigami won. Ichigo won."

"Then why are you having nightmares?" Karin whispered.

Orihime blinked at her, confused. She thought of what Ayame had said to her, but she hadn't said it out loud, and no one but Ichigo and Uryu knew she was having nightmares.

"I'm sorry." Karin whispered while Orihime was still trying to figure out how she knew. "I…I can do more than see ghosts and Shinigami now. Urahara-san has been helping me, and…sometimes I can hear other people's souls. I didn't mean to…"

"It's okay, Karin-chan." Orihime said quietly. Considering that she could reject reality itself, the ability to hear people's souls didn't seem that odd. "Something happened to me, during all the fighting over the past months, that really scared me. And I have nightmares about it. But… but when your brother is with me, the nightmares go away."

"So you're just here cause of that." Karin stated, but then couldn't resist asking softly, "Did you tell him how you feel yet?"

"Um…sort-of." Orihime said softly, blushing as she untangled herself from the covers to sit on the side of the bed. "I…I didn't say it exactly, but he… he held me, and…"

Karin laughed, cutting the older girl off right as she was about to reveal that they'd kissed. "Ichi-nii finally stopped being an idiot."

Orihime blinked. "You… you don't mind? Because he's your big brother and I…"

"I think when you save the world you deserve a reward." Karin said cheekily.

Orihime giggled in surprise. "I'm a reward?"

Karin reflected on the advice the older girl had given her weeks ago, and on how much happier Ichigo had seemed during the past week. She remembered Orihime and Tatsuki taking her and Yuzu to the park or the zoo or wherever when they were younger, and how the two older girls had always acted like a strange combination of mom/older sister.

Karin answered the question quietly, "I kinda think so, Orihime-neechan."

Orihime stuttered for a moment, then followed her instincts and rose to hug the younger girl. "Thank you, Karin-chan."

"You make him happy." Karin mumbled, then coughed and turned her head as she forcibly removed herself from the hug. "I'm… I'm gonna go change before breakfast."

Orihime watched with mild amusement as the girl fled the room. Karin liked expressing emotion about as much as Ichigo did, so that moment had meant a lot to her. Orihime sighed, trying to straighten out the wrinkles sleeping in them had done to her clothes, then ran her fingers through her hair to settle it as best she could. Taking a few deep breaths, she headed down to the kitchen.

Two steps out of the room, she heard a crash, followed by a long wail, and broke into a run.

OoOo Previously, downstairs oOoO

Ichigo followed his father's back all the way down the stairs, through the house, and into the clinic. He closed the door behind him without being asked. He braced himself for the onslaught as his father spun on his heel to face him, arms crossed over his chest.

"Is that the person you're trying to help?"

"No, Dad, we're not…" Ichigo trailed off in shock as the first question asked was not at all what he had expected. "Oi… yeah, yeah Orihime's the person I'm trying to help."

Isshin smirked. "I thought I recognized her reiatsu. I can feel it around you when you come home now."

Ichigo choked on the breath he'd been drawing as his father finished that sentence.

"She your girlfriend, too?" Isshin asked casually as he crossed to one of the cabinets lining the clinic walls and opened it.

"No." Ichigo said at once, his traitorous mind making him remember kissing her at exactly that moment. "Well, maybe. I mean…"

Isshin smirked as he tossed a box at his son, who caught it reflexively and glanced down at it. Then he dropped it as if someone had tossed him a poisonous snake.

"DAD!"

"It's always good to be safe, and…" Isshin's smirk was fully in place.

"Dad, no." Ichigo hissed, his face coloring. "We're not… I mean, we just barely even got together, and…"

"I'm not telling you to not do, or to do, anything. You may only be a kid to this world, but I'd say what you went through makes you enough of a man to make your own decisions." Although Isshin's face continued to grin like a slightly-crazy manga character, his eyes and his voice were serious. He crossed back to Ichigo, took the box of condoms, and returned them to his cabinet.

Ichigo watched Isshin silently cross the room until he stood at the door connecting the clinic to the house.

"Do you love her?"

Ichigo blinked as his father asked the question without even turning around. "I…I don't know." He answered honestly. "But I like spending time with her, and…"

Isshin let out a cackle. "That's one of the first signs." Opening the door and crossing into the house, his father turned back over his shoulder to call, "And the condoms are there when you need them."

Ichigo charged for the door, only to have his father slam it in his face. As he spent two seconds reopening it, he heard his father's footsteps pounding into the kitchen. "Misaki…. Our firstborn has a girlfriend!" His wailing words could be heard through the entire house.

Ichigo slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand and seriously considered running out the side door.

OoOo An hour later oOoO

"I just can't say how sorry I am for…"

"Ichigo-kun, enough." Orihime said gently, slowing her walk slightly since they were only a few blocks from school. "You've apologized for your family at least a dozen times, but I didn't mind. It… it was kinda nice to have people to talk to in the morning."

Ichigo thought of the noisy meal, with Yuzu frantically making sure all the food was perfect, and Karin and Isshin arguing over one thing or another until Karin had rammed her elbow into their father's side. Isshin had been oddly nice to Orihime, although he had made enough wailing comments to Misaki's portrait about how beautiful a girl his son had brought home, and other things even less appropriate, that both teens had spent most of the meal flushed bright red and trying to not choke on their food. He thought of the sneak attack his old man had tried to pull as they all left for school, and how he had planted his father's face into the ground under his foot less than an inch from where Orihime stood.

Then he thought of her small apartment, and how until she stepped out her door she had no one to talk to. No one to wish her a good morning. Maybe that was why she always perked up when the girls at school greeted her.

"I didn't know you knew my sisters so well." Ichigo changed the subject.

"Well, since Tatsuki-chan practically grew up with you, she'd take them out to play sometimes. Once I got to be friends with her, I started going with them. I didn't even know they were your sisters at first." Orihime said quietly.

"Karin called you neechan as we were leaving." Ichigo replied, glad there was no one nearby to overhear them.

Orihime blushed. "She's…Karin-chan is very perceptive. I… I told her it was okay. Is it? I mean…"

"It's fine." Ichigo said shortly, then let out a sigh. Both his father's asking him and Karin's new familiarity with her had driven home the fact that he hadn't actually asked her if… "Look, uh, Orihime. Do, uh, do you wanna be my girlfriend?"

Orihime stopped walking at his slightly mumbled question, feeling as if her heart had stopped for a second as well. Yet even as he noticed and slowed to turn she was walking again, catching up to him and walking at his side. It wasn't exactly the confession she'd been hoping for, but he had said she was special to him the night before. And it wasn't exactly like he was anything near a poet. "Yes." She said softly.

Ichigo was about to say something more about that, but noticed they were only a block from the school and asked hurriedly, "Oi, Orihime, do you want to tell people at school about us?"

Orihime hesitated for a moment, then answered honestly. "Not really. I… I kinda just want it to be between us, at least for a little while. It's more special that way."

Ichigo sighed with relief, glad she wanted to keep it a secret as well. Although in his case it had nothing to do with it being special. It had to do with not wanting to take shit from the guys about it.

Because while he had been sitting in her living room waiting for her to change for school, his inner Hollow had been taunting him. He knew how close his temper was to the surface where she was concerned, and no matter what one of his friends said, it wasn't worth him putting his zanpakuto through their chest. But his inner Hollow might not agree.

"I agree." He said quietly, glancing up and down the sidewalk. They were dangerously close to being late for school, but the upside of that meant there were no other students on the sidewalk anywhere near them.

Orihime glanced up at him reflexively as he took her hand, and she was too shocked to close her eyes as he leaned down and touched his lips to hers, very briefly but warmly, before pulling back and starting to walk again.

Orihime took a second to stare at his back, her cheeks heating slightly, then she took a few running steps to catch up with him. A small smile gracing her lips, Orihime brushed her fingers lightly over his hand before putting a friendly distance between them as they turned through the gate and onto the school grounds.

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"Where are these feelings headed towards, I wonder? I want to try living by my instincts, unless reasoning just gets in the way, and my determination starts to sway. These words of mine that I can't relate are being swallowed deep inside me again today."

from "Boku no Naka" (Inside Me) by Nagayama Takashi

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TBC….

AN2: "Temperature" in the translation of the title of the first quote means the warmth/coldness of an action, normally distinguished by authors by using different adjectives, such as a 'friendly kiss,' a 'sweet kiss,' a 'warm kiss' or a 'hot, passionate kiss.'

Oh, and about Ichigo's sisters knowing Orihime, I don't think it's really cannon, but it makes sense to me. We know his sisters are friends with Tatsuki, and she is Orihime's best friend and all. And since they haven't had a mother for most of their lives, I can totally see the older girls being big-sister images in their lives, especially the way Japanese culture/family works. In fact, I already used this in No Warm Memories. Sorry if anyone objects, but my fanfic = my world.

Although Karin switching to adding the -nee suffix to her name wouldn't normally be a big deal because it's actually common, in anime at least and I'm pretty sure in real life, to address older girls this way especially if you are friends, it's a big deal in this case because of when Karin chooses to do so and the fact that they've had this type of relationship for years and she's never used that suffix before. Also, Karin's 'soul power' is called Kyokon, or Mirror Soul, and she told you what it does. For anything more on this please see No Warm Memories.