Ichigo POV

"Hey, it's okay," I said as I sat beside her, running my hand over the back of her head. "It's just me, you're home, you're safe."

"Mmm," she whined. "Are you back? Did you take care of the hollows?" Her mumbles were barely comprehensible.

"Yeah," I said softly. "I took you home, everyone's safe."

"Mmmkay," she nodded, eyes still closed as she lay on her pillow. "Ssssgood."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I'm heading out now. I'll see you tomorrow."

"No," she whined, wriggling under the covers. "Wait," she told me and I stopped. She patted the bed beside her and mumbled something completely unintelligible. She seemed to notice this and cleared her throat. "You should stay," she mumbled.

"What?" I grew pink. That was, she was, I mean, she stayed in my room once before but she was on the floor and I was in a bed and there was no way... A girl had never asked that of me before. Maybe she was frightened after today... "Yeah, I'll take the floor.."

"What?" She echoed, fighting with the sheets to sit up. "That's not what I meant! You can't do that!"

"I mean.." I said awkwardly. "This is just.."

"I'm asking you to have a sleep over not fuck me," she grumbled and lay back down, snuggling back into the pillow beneath her.

"Uhhh..." I replied awkwardly. She was always so brash when she was awake. I'm starting to prefer when she's unconscious. "Alright," I sighed.

I had already kicked off my shoes at the door so I got in bed beside her, feeling incredibly weird sleeping in my clothes but I wasn't exactly going to get down to my boxers and t-shirt and have the shit kicked out of me the next morning, or worse, be accused of being some kind of pervert. 'What if she forgot about this the next morning and thought I was a total creep?!'

Main POV

"Mmmk," I groaned as the sunlight streamed in the window, waking me up. I rolled over and collided with a rock hard chest. That was odd. I don't usually wake up with another human being. I opened my eyes and found an arm draped over me. I was also wearing a jacket that was not mine and the arm was connected to someone. A living, breathing, other person. I looked up and saw it was Ichigo. Then I remembered vaguely being carried home last night and asking Ichigo to stay with me. 'Oh my god! What if he thought I was some kind of creep?! Who just suggests that!' All thoughts like that disappeared when the arm over me tightened around me and pulled me closer.

His arms pinned me against his chest and I felt the most secure I'd ever felt in a long time. I was enveloped in his scent, something I'd felt a great deal of comfort from when I was wearing his t-shirt. It's one of the reasons I was so reluctant to give it back. Unlike most teenage boys, Ichigo wasn't a particularly smelly one. He didn't think deodorant was shower in a can, he showered regularly and when he did sweat, it was an unobtrusive sweet smell. I could feel his heard beating softly against my chest and the longer I was pinned in his arms the more I relaxed. Clearly if he was holding me hostage like this he didn't think I was a creep.

I drifted back in and out of consciousness, still pinned to Ichigo's chest and breathing his scent in deeply. Vaguely I was aware he was probably late and I should wake up so I could tell Ichigo it was time for school. That thought disappeared when I felt a hand in my hair and soft stroking motions. He must have been waking up. I tried to open my eyes again, wriggling slightly as I tried to wake up properly.

"Mmmk you're gonna be late for school," I managed to get out finally.

"I'm gonna skip it," he mumbled back.

"Ichigo," I shot up. "It's almost the end of the school year!"

"What?" He asked waking up and looking down at the position we were in. I could see the blush creeping up on his face as we were still tangled in each other's limbs as I lectured him.

"You can't afford to miss school, you need to study all you can for your final exams!" I said wiggling out of his hold.

"You're being ridiculous," he said letting me go. "It's one day. It's not going to ruin my career prospects. And I can't believe that's what your freaking about about."

"What should I be freaking out about?" I glared at him, arms folded.

"Your shirt slipped up," He pointed out in his typical nonchalant way he was famous for when it came to his sisters. But no wonder he was still blushing. I looked down and tugged my, or should I say his, t-shirt down over my boobs.

"Better?" I asked and I watched the red slowly seep out of his face. "Since you're not going to school we should probably head to Urahara's shop and find out what he wouldn't tell us last night. Let me go get changed," I told him, grabbing some clean clothes and heading to the bathroom quickly to dress and brush my teeth. He came out of my room shortly after and we walked along the hallway together as I headed to the fridge to make something quick for breakfast.

"Morning you two," Renji smirked at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Don't you start," I rolled my eyes.

"Don't you look at me like that you creeper!" Ichigo yelled and pointed at him. "Nothing even happened so don't you suggest anything."

"Suuuure," Renji replied hopping up onto the stool by the counter. "What's for breakfast, I'm starved."

"I take it you decided not to go to school either," I said and he shrugged.

"It's not like I'm there for the education," he replied.

"So what'd you find out?" I asked as I sat down in front of Urahara.

"What no Hello Kisuke-kun, you look very sexy in your robe today, it's nice to see you again so soon?" He pouted and I smiled softly.

"Sorry, let me try again," I got up and walked out of the door, waling back in. "Hello, Kisuke-kun. How are you today?"

"I'm very well Uo-chan, thanks for asking" he replied waiting for me to continue.

"You look very sexy today in your robe," I grumbled, rolling my eyes.

"Well thank you! It's nice of you to say~" He waved his fan affectionately at me as he grinned goofily.

"That aside," Ichigo grumbled from beside me. "What did you find out?"

"Good luck making him call you sexy," I said to Urahara who laughed.

"I scanned the area and looked at your clothes for residual energy and I can now recognise it's signature," he started and I accepted the tea Tessai brought. "And then I went through some old records, some belonging to me some I found going through the computers in the soul society.."

"YOU WENT ALL THE WAY TO THE SOUL SOCIETY?!" Ichigo chocked on his tea.

"Doubt he'd do that," I replied.

"I didn't," Kisuke waved his fan. "Actually I hacked into Kurotsuchi's computer ages ago and can read through all my old files and research whenever I want. And sometimes he's made additional notes which are very helpful."

"Okay we get it, you're a genius," I folded my arms.

"It's nice of you to say," he cheered. "The same energy signal usually appears every ten years, this week and usually for about a week. 5 days is the average."

"Okay," I tried not to get grumpy. "What does that mean?"

"If you just wait 10 years you can just walk straight back through the rift," I grabbed him by the collar. "Uo-chan," he replied raspy. "I was just kidding let me go."

"What next?" I scowled sour enough to rival Ichigo.

"Well we could try force the rift open but there's no way we'd be able to be sure we opened it to the right place. We could send you through to an entirely different universe, and that one could be much worse. There might not be a young and sexy scientist to help you," he explained. "I propose we wait a little longer. There might still be something I can do but studies on this phenomenon are only just beginning to happen."

"So basically you're going to spend the next 10 years trying to figure something out and if you fail no hard feelings because it opened up anyway," I growled. "Anything else?"

"I'd like to look at your head wound, I have a few theories I'd like to test," he replied leaning over to examine the healing scab I had on my head.

"Anything?" I asked seething.

"Just as I thought," he hummed before getting up and heading off. I looked over at Ichigo who had been uncharacteristically quiet.

"Are you alright?" I asked him, still fuming but I raised a concerned eyebrow anyway.

"He said 10 years, didn't he?" Ichigo asked serisouly.

"Yeah, it's a long time to be stuck here. I couldn't just walk back through the rift. By that time my siblings would be all grown up, they'd have buried another empty casket and I probably would have laid down roots here by that point. I mean, I'd be 30," I told him.

"That's not my point," he told me. "Do you know what date your brother disappeared on?"

"Of course I do it wasOh!" I said, suddenly realising his point. "You think it's possible? He didn't die in some accident somewhere, he got stuck here after coming through the rift?"

"I think it's more than possible," he replied. "You said yourself there was a bank account in your name here already. He disappeared without a trace 10 years ago and there was no signs of trouble."

"If he's here then how do I find him?" I asked.

"You said he was much a big a fan of Bleach as you were?" He asked and I nodded. "I'm surprised we haven't run into him already. Wouldn't he want to be where all the action is?"

"He hasn't seen as much I have," I told him. "We watched it as it was coming out. I doubt he got past the Hueco Mundo arc. He might not know anything. Or he's been eaten by a hollow," I said grimly. "That'd be just my luck. A chance at finding him and he's dead already."

"Don't talk like that," Ichigo told me.

"Well what do I do?" I asked. "Put out a missing person's report? It's been 10 years you don't think someone's going to ask why I didn't file one sooner? Oh sorry officer, I didn't notice he'd gone up until now."

"Uo," Ichigo growled back at me. "It means he's alive. And he's here, we can find him."

"Why do you want to find him?" I asked.

"You're telling me I shouldn't want to reunite you with your brother after you've been missing him for 10 years?" He asked.

"Well actually," I told him. "We haven't known each other all that long and you don't know my brother at all. Why should you care?"

"I care because he's you're brother," Ichigo replied.

"Alright," I sighed. "We're getting nowhere with this," I told him.

"Uo," Urahara came back in. "I wanna try something," he said and I raised a brow at him.

"What?" I asked and got smacked in the head as an answer. "Ow! What the fuck?" I yelled looking up at him as he stood next to the body on the floor. The body on the floor. That was my body. I looked at his hand, he had one of those soul grabbing glove things everyone seems to have.

"Urahara!" Ichigo yelled as I looked down at my body. Well, me actually, my body was to my left. I was wearing the clothes I'd first come to Karakura in. I sat in shock for a moment. That meant that...

"Just as I suspected," Kisuke said sitting back down and taking a sip of his tea. "Uo, could you tell me, are you having any trouble breathing?"

"No," I replied as I stared down at myself.

"I have a theory," he said. "I think that when you hit that Kido barrier something more than a head injury happened. I think that when you broke the kido barrier it exploded and knocked your soul from your body. I think it destroyed your soul chain too."

"Then why haven't I turned into a hollow yet?" I asked.

"When I knocked you from your body just now I felt the rift energy as well as your spiritual pressure," he explained. "From the studies I looked at, the rift close much too early and I think you absorbed it. I think after you broke the kido barrier and were knocked from your body, the cut on your head absorbed the rift and when you fell forward you were able to get back into your body. I think you were able to do this because your two energies fused together."

"So what does that mean?" I asked.

"It means many things," he shrugged. "For starters there's a new way to turn people into shinigami, because that's what your energy resembles. You have a red spirit ribbon. It means that now your two energies are fused, the rift may not open again and it means that because you absorbed it, you're not going to turn into a hollow."

"It may not open?" I looked up at him shocked. "Before you said I had to wait 10 years. Now I'll never see my family again?!"

"Uo," Urahara said. "Calm down."

"Calm down?!" I yelled and I climbed back into my body and got up off the ground. "Fuck you Kisuke."

I headed out the door without another world, feet carrying me on autopilot out the door and through the dirt field out the front of his shop. Before I knew it I was running, but where I didn't know. This was the worst news I could have heard. Now it meant there was no possible way back. I was banking on there being a way. I was surviving on the hope I could get back, I could see them again. Now I had nothing. What would I do now? I had no family I knew about, no job, in fact all I did have was a bunch of forged papers and an apartment I didn't know how I'd keep paying for.

"Uo!" I heard from somewhere behind me but I ignored it. I couldn't deal with anyone else right now. I kept running, I was running as hard as I knew how. MY thighs burned and so did my lungs but I didn't want to stop, I couldn't stop.

"UO!" I heard someone yell, it was closer now. I was running slower now, breath not coming to me as easily as it did before. I hadn't realised where I was going before but now, I was stood in the alley where it all started. I looked at the spot I'd fallen in, there was still a blood mark on the ground there. I hadn't noticed it the other night in the dark. I dropped to my knees by it. What was I supposed to do?

"Uo." It was Ichigo, he was the voice I'd heard. He'd followed me all the way here from the shop. I'd been running what was normally a 25 minute walk. Also given his shinigami powers, even though I had a head start I didn't know how he hadn't been able to catch up to me until now. Unless he was letting me out run him. He dropped down beside me. He wiped something off my face. I didn't realise I'd been crying. Now I couldn't stop. I didn't know what I was supposed to do now. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me close in that warm, comforting grip I'd been in more than once before. He smelled just like he always did, spicy, sweet and there was a bit of natural musk. He smelled like home, like safety. Even at a time like this, where I didn't know anything, where I was so desperate, where I had nothing. Even then, he smelled like that, I had him.

"What am I supposed to do?" I cried out, gripping onto his shirt. "What now?"

"We'll figure this out," he told me, stroking my hair. "I'm not ready to give up."

"How?" I asked.

"I don't know," he told me. "But I won't stop until you're home."