Just so people don't get mixed up, I am going to explain the children's ages and appearances.

Aiko:
Age: 7
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Emerald Green

Kaori:
Age: 5
Eyes: Light Green
Hair: Short brown - Shoulder length

Diasuke:
Age: 4
Eyes: Ice Blue
Hair: Dirt Blond

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

Shadows In The Night — VIII

"No, Batman was the one with the mask. Superman is wearing tights and underwear with a big, long cape."

Rukia, who had just woken up, was walking through the small house when she heard Ichigo's voice. Curious, she had walked over to where the voice was coming from; a very small room beside the living room. She peeked inside to see Ichigo laying on the floor in what was apparently a boy's room. There was a little boy sitting on top of his bed, and as Rukia watched, he jumped down and fell into Ichigo's grasp, giggled, and jumped back up onto the bed again.

As the two talked about Superman and Batman, the little boy continued jumping off the bed as Ichigo caught him.

"Then who was Robin?" the little boy, Diasuke, asked.

"A bird? I don't know. All I remember about that movie was Batman. Never really watched it."

"Oh."

Both were silent for a second, and Rukia watched as the little boy jumped off the bed again and into Ichigo's arms.

"Who was Spider-man?"

"He's the guy who shoots webs out of his wrist."

Rukia was now very confused. Shaking her head, she walked away from the door and into the kitchen.

The two little girls, Aiko and Kaori, were sitting at the table, drawing on pieces of paper with broken crayons. They smiled and waved as she walked in, scooting over and letting her sit beside them.

"Wanna draw with us?" Aiko asked, handing Rukia a small, green crayon. Rukia nodded and began drawing a green bunny. She was just finishing up the ears when Diasuke and Ichigo walked in. Diasuke ran over and climbed up between his sisters and looked at what they were drawing. Ichigo, of course, commented on Rukia's drawing. Which earned him a glare; it would have been worse, but Rukia had made a 'no hitting' rule for around the kids.

"Is that spider-man?" Diasuke asked, pointing to Aiko's picture. Ichigo looked at the drawing; it was a cat.

"Um . . . nope."

Diasuke shrugged and stole one of the crayons as he began doodling on his Kaori's page. This started a fight. Ichigo stood back and watched them go at it. He knew that he should have stopped their fight, but watching them almost made him feel like they really were a family.

Before entering the Soul Society, the two girls had lived in Japan for all of their short lives, and Diasuke had lived in the United States with his mother and baby sister. Diasuke had told Ichigo that he had only been living with his mama and father for about six months, but he was happy because they let him call them mom and dad.

Nichelle and Naoaki had had to leave for the day to visit a friend, Sakura, who was sick, and had asked Ichigo and Rukia to watch the children.

The two couples had only known each other for about two weeks now, but everyone got along well. Ichigo and Diasuke were always talking about movies or other Earth things that Diasuke remembered, and Aiko and Kaori loved coloring with Rukia, because they liked to teach her how to draw certain things.

And she actually learned.

"Hey, Diasuke, who was Superman?" Ichigo quizzed, if not to help the child remember, then to get him to stop fighting.

"Underwear!" Diasuke yelled, giggling. Ichigo smirked. Rukia frowned in disapproval.

"Ichigo, what have you two been talking about?"

"Movies! The ones I saw when I was little; Ichi-nii is helpin' me member 'em!" Diasuke said, smiling. Ichigo nodded.

"Yeah, though I never saw most of them. I saw posters and heard people talking about them, soo . . ."

"Spider-man shoots webs out of his hands, and Superman wears underwear over his clothes!" Diasuke explained, smiling and illustrating by pretending to shoot webs out of his hands, and pulling up his underwear from his jeans. "And Batman wears a mask!"

Diasuke must have been hyper, because in the next few seconds, he had pulled his shirt over his head and was running around the room. Rukia rolled her eyes at Ichigo as Aiko leaned over and began showing her how to do bunny ears right.

"Hey, squirt, come on. Let's go play airplane," Ichigo said, picking Diasuke up by the underarms and walking him out of the room. Diasuke giggled the while way.

"Rukia-Chan?"

Rukia looked up into the bright green eyes of Kaori, who was grinning brightly.

"Hm?"

"Look what I drew!"

Rukia smiled at the picture of a puppy. It was light brown and had pink spots.

"He used to be my puppy back with mommy and daddy. His name was Keiko," Kaori explained, going back to drawing pink spots on the dog. Rukia smiled fondly. These two little girls were so happy, yet they remembered their real parents and their lives before.

She had got along a whole lot better in the Soul Society, because she hadn't remembered anything of her life before she came there. And Renji and the group had helped her along. She'd had friends; a family of sorts.

So did these little girls; they had a new mama and father, but they still remembered their real families. How could one replace a real mother and father so easily? How could three little children seal bonds such as these kids had, when they all remember their before lives?

How did they move on?

After forty minutes of playing airplane with Diasuke, Ichigo had confirmed his theory that kids never ran out of energy. He finally put Diasuke down for a nap, promising the child that they would play more later. He then walked back into the kitchen where Rukia was now sitting alone. The girls had gone willingly to bed.

"Hey, how ya feeling?" Ichigo asked, sitting down beside her and smiling at the brown and pink puppy drawing that was sitting in front of Rukia.

"Fine. When are Nichelle and Naoaki going to be back? I like the kids, I really do, but they wear me out too easily," Rukia said, leaning her head on Ichigo's arm.

"I know it. Diasuke has totally worn me out. But I know where the little guy is coming from. I grew up only having sisters, too. It can be annoying when you want to blow things up, but they only want to play dolls."

Rukia laughed tiredly, and Ichigo stood up, helping her to her feet, too.

"Rukia, you should go get some rest."

Rukia shook her head.

"I'm not that tired," Rukia protested. "Besides, I sleep more than sixteen hours a day already."

Ichigo turned her around to face him, his face set in determination.

"Rukia, if you're tired, get some sleep. Don't push yourself. It's not good for you, and it's not good for the baby. You want a healthy baby, right?"

Rukia nodded, her eyes cast down to the ground.

"Then get some sleep. Everyone will still be here when you get up," Ichigo said, giving her a brief kiss before gently taking her by the shoulders and propelling her into their small bedroom. Rukia looked up at him and smiled a little, climbing into the bed and burrowing under the covers.

Ichigo smirked and walked out, turning off the light on his way.

He walked into the living room and looked around. It was a mess. If he left it like this for Nichelle and Naoaki to find, he would probably be in trouble. Sighing, he set to picking up the toys and papers that littered the room.

The living room wasn't all that big; a large couch leaning up against the right wall, and a small couch against the left one. The wall opposite to the front door was lined with three other doors; the girls room, Nichelle and Naoaki's room, and Diasuke's room. His and Rukia's room was right beside the couch.

He was just about finished in the kitchen, which he found to be just as messy, if not more, than the living room, when the door opened. He poked his head out from the kitchen to see Nichelle and Naoaki walk inside.

"Where are the kids?" Nichelle asked.

"Nap. I think we wore them out as much as they wore us out."

"What did you do all afternoon?" Naoaki asked, sitting down on the couch and taking his shoes. "And thanks for watching them. I don't think that doctor would have liked three kids running around while we were trying to visit Sakura."

"You're welcome. And Rukia drew with the girls for a few hours and I played with Diasuke," Ichigo said, smiling as he leaned up against the wall.

"Well, thank you again. Oh, and Ichigo, one of my workers quit today, and we need someone else to help work in the wood shop. Would you be willing to help?"

Naoaki worked in the local wood shop, which provided wooden products from chairs to chests to cribs. The workers made everything by hand, and those who couldn't help with the making put protective coverings on the wood before selling it.

Ichigo shrugged.

"Sure."

"Good. We'll leave tomorrow around eight."

The next day, Aiko, Kaori and Diasuke were helping Ichigo, Rukia and Nichelle in the kitchen. Ichigo had just barely returned from work at around four in the afternoon, and Nichelle had proposed that everyone make cookies. The kids, of course, had decided that they wanted to help.

And that was how they ended up where they were now.

In a flour fight.

Nichelle would have been angry at them if she hadn't been the one to start it, and if she wasn't currently playing a large part in it.

Ichigo was using Diasuke as a shield; Rukia was hiding behind the cookie pan, and the kids were just trying to get as messy as they could.

Nichelle was limiting the flour usage; she needed what they had left to make bread. The fight was about over, but Naoaki decided to walk in at that very moment and received a face full of flour.

He then put everyone in time out. Ichigo, Rukia and Nichelle included. Then he was left to clean everything up.

By himself.

Sighing, Ichigo realized that there probably wouldn't be any cookies that night.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Naoaki poked his head in from the kitchen.

"Ichigo, would you get that?"

Ichigo nodded and stood to his feet, knocking some of the flour off of him as he walked to the door. He failed to realize, however, that he was utterly, completely covered, head to toe, in the white powder. And when he opened the door, the wind blew hard into him, making the flour cloud up around him.

Coughing hard, he walked further outside into the fresh air. When he turned around, he saw Unohana and Byakuya standing there.

"H-" Ichigo was cut off by another fit of coughing. "Hello, Unohana-San, Byakuya."

Byakuya frowned as Ichigo, again, spoke to him in the familiar. He then raised an eyebrow at Ichigo's appearance. He decided not to say anything when he got a look inside to see three kids sitting in a corner, throwing flour, that they picked off of themselves, and his sister, who was also occupying a corner.

"Come on in. It's a little messy right now. Um . . . something exploded in the kitchen?"

No one looked like they believed him.

"Ichi-nii!"

Ichigo tuned around to see Diasuke covered head to toe in flour. His eyes were closed tightly.

"I gots flour in ma eyes!"

Ichigo sighed and picked up Diasuke under the arms. Turning back to Byakuya and Unohana, he said quickly,

"Be right back."

And then he hauled Diasuke into the bathroom, quickly rinsing his eyes and stripping him down to his underwear, telling him to stay put while he grabbed some clean clothes. Ten minutes later, Diasuke ran into the living room, giggling, dressed in a pair of clean jeans and a sweater.

Ichigo found that Unohana and Rukia had retreated into another room to do their checkup.

The two little girls, now cleaned up by their mom, ran up to Ichigo.

"Where Rukia-Chan?" Aiko asked.

"She's busy. Why don't you go help you dad cleaning?"

The two girls nodded and ran into the kitchen, and Ichigo was left alone with Byakuya.

Awkward . . .

Well, how was that? I love writing little kids, so I decided to write a chapter about their new life around the three children. I don't know if people like these chapters just following their day-to-day life, soo . . .

Please Review!