He didn't know why he did it.

He only knew that he couldn't stand to be away from her for very long. Slipping into her home, like he had every night for the past three months, Ichigo carefully lowered her window back into place and scanned the room for her.

He found her on the floor with her back against her bed, slumped over to the side a bit. Her many, many projects scattered across the carpeted floor on both sides of her. Sighing softly, he moved silently over to her and knelt down to check her over.

She'd been sick lately. Her body trying hard to fight off a high fever, and yet here he found her. Out of bed, with some work scatted all over the place.

His sweet little one didn't seem to know, understand, nor care overly much for her human limitations. And as vexing as he found that to be- he also found it quite endearing as well.

She was a hard worker.

He liked that about her. Even if she did often forget to take care of herself because she was too busy to do so. But he supposed that that was just part of the reason that he was there.

He took care of her. Though he didn't leave any true trace of himself behind, he suspected that she somehow knew that someone was there. It was a tad bit difficult not to notice really. As much as he hid his presence from her during his nightly visits- there was no denying that he'd messed up a few times.

Those times had been purely accidental. But noticeable nevertheless.

It was difficult for her not to notice that something was amiss when she went to sleep on the floor like now, and woke up in her bed with her room picked up, her kittens- Raphael and Gale- fed, and breakfast waiting for her in her microwave.

He found it just slightly ironic that she had thought him to be a ghost for a little while, give his job as a Soul Reaper. And had dubbed him, Phantom. Because of his comings and goings in her home.

But she had never been afraid of him and the possible horror's that he could unleash upon her. Which had not only been incredibly stupid, but oddly puzzling to him.

Kneeling down he carefully lifted her up in his arms, noting that her fever had spiked again. He could feel the heat coming off of her and it alarmed him. If this kept up, he would have no choice but to put her to sleep using a Kido and take her to his father's clinic to see that she got some actual help.

There was only so much that he could do, after all.

Gently laying her on her bed, he started to tuck her in when he felt teeny tiny clawed feet suddenly latch onto his leg and paused to look down at his would-be attacker. His amber eyes narrowed a little bit at the long furred black kitten hanging onto his pants leg and glaring at him.

"Meow."

He snorted and slowly shook his head at the kitten's demanding tone and went back to tucking his little one in when the tiny beast let out a loud growl full of ire and wrath. Pausing again in mid motion, he tried not to yelp as the nasty tempered little fur ball climbed up his pants leg and then dug his sharp little claws into his butt.

"Ow. What is wrong with you?" Ichigo muttered in a whisper tone.

The kitten growled again and then started to knead his butt with his claws, nearly making him yelp before he reached back and non too gently pried the little monster from his backside and held it up by the scruff of his neck and then peeled his lips back from his teeth and snarled at it.

The kitten however was far from impressed or intimidated by his uncharacteristic show of aggression towards it. In fact, the little beast let out a warning sound mere seconds before lunging for Ichigo's face with it's claws out.

This time Ichigo had to bite his tongue to keep himself from letting out a startled yelp and accidentally dropped the kitten onto the bed where the little beast hissed at him and then quickly scrambled up and underneath the blanket to hide itself against his little one's front.

Ichigo wasn't sure what to make of Raphael's behavior. On one hand he was pretty impressed that the kitten had gotten the best of him and on the other hand- he was far from amused. He was about two seconds from snatching the covers off of the bed, and his little one, and strangling the jet black little menace when Gale trotted in and walked over to the bed and jumped up onto it and flopped herself down on top of her brother's hiding place.

Ichigo blinked at the feline as Raphael started to try and get out from under the covers and got smacked for his efforts by his sister.

"Smack him again for me Gale." Ichigo said. And she did. Twice. The second of which sent Raphael practically howling in distress as he raced from the bedroom.

"Endorsing kitten violence...what the hell has my life come too?" Ichigo muttered to himself as he absently reached out and rubbed Gale's head, eliciting a soft purr of contentment from the tiny Siamese before he went back to his earlier task. He had just finished tucking his little one in when he noticed the small notebook lying on her bedside table and curiously picked it up.

It was his little one's 'Phantom' book.

The one that she used to communicate with him.

Holding the carefully in his hand, his amber eyes scanned the words on the page.

Sorry for being so much trouble. I thought that I would be better today so I thought that I'd do some work. But I started to feel dizzy and might have accidentally passed out.

Ichigo's gaze flickered from the small note to his little one as he thought, My poor girl.

He was happy that she had written him a small note to let him know something of how she was feeling earlier, but he was pretty sure that if she was trying to make him worry less- she probably shouldn't have mentioned feeling dizzy or passing out.

Seeing the dark arrow pointing to indicate the next page, Ichigo turned the page and then smiled as he read.

I've never bothered to ask you you're name before, which was rude of me since I should have tried. But in all honesty I wasn't sure that you would answer. And aside from that, I haven't told you my name yet.

Ichigo's smile only grew. While it was true that she hadn't really given him a name to go with her face, he was pleased enough to call her his little one.

Still...this was good. This was very good.

It meant that they were finally making some progress and he could begin to implement some of his other plans to get closer to her.

My name is Misty Reid. I'm twenty two. My name is foreign because I was originally born in the U.S. But if calling me Misty is troublesome then you can call me whatever as long as it's not too weird.

I like painting, sketching, writing poetry, and am currently working on some stuff to put in a local gallery art exhibit. I also like flower arranging, cooking, watching scary movies, and making other things.

My favorite color- well in all honesty, I have more than one.

I tend to like pastel colors, as well as vivid and bright ones. My all time favorite colors are mint green and turquoise though. For some reason, they're just...prettier than all of the other colors.

Ichigo snorted in amusement, already knowing that she liked green and turquoise more than any of the other colors in the rainbow. She favored them more than anything.

I have two cats. Raphael- he's a sweetheart. And Gale- she...should have come with an instruction manual. I honestly sometimes worry that I brought an alien home with me.

Ichigo bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing as he carefully seated himself down on the floor next to her bed.

My favorite foods are...well I'm not terribly picky. And the food that you somehow fix for me is nice too. I really liked the seafood bento. It was really sweet of you to go to the trouble. Especially when you didn't have too.

Though I wound up fighting the cats over it. Both of the little monsters managed to sneak a few bites of shrimp from me before I could stop them. They've been eyeing the bento box ever since. So I guess they liked it too.

Ichigo muttered something about dumb cats, even as he reached out to pet Gale again and simply kept on reading.

I'm not very sure what else to write in this letter. It's sort of comes across a lot like a dating ad and it's making me nervous. So...um...what's your name? Age? Job- sorry. Do phantoms even have jobs aside from haunting people?

I guess that you can fill in anything that I've forgotten as you go. I'm...very tired.

He must have read and re read the note at least five times before finally deciding on how to respond as he turned the page and then looked for an ink pen so that he could get started.