Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or the characters.Thanks to CrystalRaindrop007 for Beta'ing!

Shadows In The Night — VI

Ichigo woke early in the morning, blinking to clear his eyes of the bright sunshine flowing through the window. He sat up, putting his hand over his eyes and yawning. Rukia was still sleeping deeply beside him. Yawning again, he stood to his feet, careful not to wake Rukia, and began walking around the room. After a quick survey, he realized that he, Isane, Urahara, Yoruichi and Byakuya were the only ones up. But said Captain Shinigami was missing. Isane couldn't tell him where because she was in the shower, Urahara was too grumpy to care; he had just woken up, and Yoruichi was still healing Renji.

So he went in search of coffee.

Lots and lots of coffee.

He finally found it in the main room on the table. Sitting down, he poured himself a large cup and held it in his hands, willing the warmth from the cup to seep through his body.

He was just about to take a large gulp when the cup was suddenly lifted out of his hands. He pouted and looked up into the very tired face of Rukia Kuchiki.

"No coffee."

"Why not?" Ichigo pouted. "Just because you can't have it, you're banning me, too?"

"It'll slow your healing."

"Pint-sized devil - "

Was all Ichigo was able to get out before earning a sharp jab to the side of his head from said pint-sized devil. He grumbled as Rukia dropped down beside him, tiredly leaning her head against his arm.

Neither spoke for a few minutes. Ichigo sighed and reached over, picking up his new cup of tea and sipping on it.

"Nii-sama said he will help us into the Soul Society," Rukia finally said, yawning. Ichigo was surprised, and didn't bother to hide this fact. Rukia reached over and took his cup of tea, sipping on it. Ichigo gave her a half-hearted glare.

"You're brother's going to help us?" Ichigo asked, not quite believing his ears. He quickly took his tea back from Rukia and began sipping at it again.

"Yeah."

"Will we have to go through Sen-Kimon?" Ichigo asked, his concern clear on his face.

Rukia shook her head. "We'll travel with Hell Butterflies."

"Good. I don't think it would be good for you or the baby," Ichigo said, wrapping his arm around her and rolling his eyes as she stole his tea again.

Their conversation was cut short when the door flew open and slammed into the wall.

Ichigo and Rukia jumped.

"What are you doing out of bed? You nearly died yesterday!" Isane screamed.

Ichigo winced, grabbing his stomach. When he had jumped, he had accidentally hit it against the table, spilling his tea in the process. He looked up into the face of an extremely pissed Isane. He had never seen her like this.

"You nearly died yesterday, and today you go prancing around! Get back in bed!"

Ichigo whimpered and scrambled back to his blanket in the other room, climbing under the quilt and laying down. He didn't want to admit it, but he really was in a lot of pain. Of course, that had to do with Isane coming in screaming and yelling, making him hit into the table. As he peeked out from under his quilt, he saw that Urahara, whom was much more awake now, was sitting across the room, grinning. Yoruichi was sitting next to him, having just finished healing Renji.

Urahara grinned as he spoke.

"Being pushed around by a girl? Wuss."

He was shut up by an elbow to the head from Yoruichi.

Ichigo snickered quietly as he turned away from the crazy, sandal-wearing shop man and stared at the wall.

"Look, Ichigo, I don't want to be pushy, I usually leave that to Captain Unohana-san, but since she's not here, I have to be. You need to stay in bed and rest! If you don't, you won't heal properly," Isane said, walking into the room and looking down at Ichigo. "And Byakuya-Sama is out reporting to the Soul Society. If he doesn't convince them that he wasn't able to find you, they will send reinforcements and we could all be in trouble. So please rest."

Ah. So what was why she was in such a crappy mood.

Ichigo nodded and sighed, pulling his pillow over his head to block out of the sunshine.

He was a lot more tired than he realized, probably from lack of coffee, and he could feel himself falling to sleep. As he slowly slipped into a deep sleep, everyone else tip-toed out of the room, careful not to wake the sleeping carrot-topped teenager.

Hours later, Ichigo was awake and sipping more tea as Unohana began healing Renji again. It was taking much work and a lot of help from Yoruichi to heal the red-headed man; the damage that the Hollow had inflicted on him was great. Rukia had fallen back to sleep over thirty minutes ago, so everyone was being quiet. However, that silence ended when Byakuya entered through the door.

"How did it go?" Ichigo asked, turning from his position leaning up against the wall to face the elder Kuchiki.

"We leave as soon as Renji can be moved."

Ichigo took that as "It went well" or "Nope. No one is coming to kill us."

Byakuya went over to Unohana to ask about Renji's condition and Ichigo was left alone again.

Maybe he could sneak some coffee . . .

This plan was ruined as Isane growled at him from across the room.

"Where is Ichi-nii?"

Yuzu, who had just finished cleaning out Ichigo's room, looked up at her father, her gaze filled with worry. Isshin smiled and said,

"He's gone. But he'll be back sometime."

"Oh," Yuzu said, disappointed. Then, she perked up again and asked, "Well, then where is Rukia-Chan?"

"She's with Ichigo. I guess I should tell you, huh?"

Yuzu's eyes were glowing with excitement as she nodded happily. She was just about jumping up and down on her feet, her stuffed lion hugged tightly to her chest as she smiled. He was gasping for breath, but no one noticed as Isshin smiled at his daughter and opened his mouth to speak.

"He and Rukia-Chan are going to have a baby. That's why their gone. They'll be back sometime. And Yuzu . . ." Isshin was cut off as he bent down to where he was eye-level with the stuffed lion. Two streams of tears were flowing down the lion's face as he cried loudly. "Is that lion . . . crying . . .?"

"N-Nee-san and Butt-face Ichigo are having a . . . a . . . a baby? Nooooo!"

"It is talking! Karin! Come here! Father has finally found a stuffed animal worthy of your care! It TALKS!"

"Yeah, right."

Karin said as she walked up behind her father, lifting her leg and licking him straight onto the ground. She then proceeded to step on his head and the head of the "Taking Lion".

Ichigo sneezed.

"We'll leave now," Byakuya spoke.

"Huh?" Ichigo asked, turning around and staring at Byakuya, who was looking as stoned-faced as ever.

"Renji's ready to be moved," Unohana explained, standing to her feet and knocking dirt off of her clothes. Ichigo nodded, reaching down and picking up the still sleeping Rukia. She groaned in her sleep and grabbed onto his Shinigami robes with both hands.

Ichigo watched in amazement as Byakuya opened the gate; he'd seen several gates opened . . . but it never got old. It was still very cool.

"Unohana-san, Isane-San, go first," Yoruichi said.

Ichigo was confused.

"Uh . . how are we going to move Renji?" he asked, eying the large man. He sure as heck wasn't going to pick up the big lug. Yoruichi answered his question by picking Renji up and slinging him over her shoulder gently, walking through the gate after the two doctors. Ichigo shrugged. Well, that problem was solved.

"Kurosaki, you next," Byakuya said, turning to Ichigo.

Ichigo nodded and stepped up to the gate. It sure seemed more threatening when he wasn't going through it without thinking much first. This time, he was thinking a little too much, though.

He closed his eyes and walked through. Though he had never traveled this way, he still imagined it would feel something like this. A strange sensation was running through him as he exited on the other side. Unohana and Yoruichi were already far ahead of them, and Isane was waiting by the gate.

Ichigo looked up into the sky.

It was sunset . . .

He could see they sky clearly from his position from on top of the cliff. The bright pinks, reds and oranges flowed gently through the sky as he watched. The sun was casting a beautiful glow on the trees surrounding them, giving it a surreal look. It was beautiful . . .

"We have to move. Come quickly," Isane said, breaking into Ichigo's thoughts.

Ichigo nodded and began following her. Rukia was still clutched tightly in is grasp, and as he began running to catch up with Unohana and Yoruichi, he could feel her beginning to wake up. He could hear the gate shutting behind him and he knew that Byakuya would be following them soon.

Once he caught up with Yoruichi and Unohana, he could tell that night was approaching fast. The sun had nearly disappeared behind the trees, and the beautiful colors were almost gone. The stars were beginning to show through the black blanket of sky.

"Ichigo?"

Ichigo looked down and smiled at Rukia. She had woken up.

"Hey, sleeping beauty."

"Where are we?" Rukia asked, trying to get a look around Ichigo's shoulder. He shifted her so she could see right.

"We're in Soul Society. Just a little longer," he said quietly, kissing her forehead.

She nodded and settled into his arms again, resting her head against his chest.

"It's not going to rain tonight . . ."

She looked up as Ichigo spoke, and a ghost of a smile appeared on her face.

"Yeah . . ."

The sunset was gone. But she knew that it would be there again.

As she stared up into the stars, all she wished was that she could be able to share it with Ichigo again.

For the record, when I was replacing this chapter with an edited version, I messed it up and somwhoe lost everything I had written. I didn't have it backed up, so I had to re-write it going off of a detailed outline. Sorry if anything is wrong.

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