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

Shadows In The Night — X

"Ichigo, I'll be fine. Go, see your family. You'll only be gone for three hours. Nothing will happen in that time, and if it does, I'll send Nii-Sama to get you," Rukia pushed, watching as Ichigo paced around the room.

Ichigo, who had asked only ten minutes ago if it would be OK to be gone for three hours while he explained what was happening with him and Rukia to his family, was now insisting that he shouldn't leave. He was worried Rukia would give birth in the time he was gone, and he said there was no way in Hell he was going to miss the birth of the baby. He had his reasons, and everyone knew, although they were unspoken.

He might never see the baby again after the birth.

"Rukia . . . Unohana only gave you two more days before she has to deliver. What if something goes wrong?" he asked, pausing his pacing to walk over to Rukia's bedside and sit down, taking her hand in his.

"Ichigo, go. I'll be fine."

"But Rukia . . ."

She growled and Ichigo sighed.

"OK. But I'll only be gone for two hours. Rukia, if anything, and I mean anything happens, call me. No waiting. I'll come right away," Ichigo said, standing to his feet. Rukia nodded as he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before walking to the door to notify Unohana where he was going to be. Rukia smiled as she watched him walk out, her hand straying to her stomach.

The baby was moving again; which Unohana said was a very good sign.

After talking with Unohana for a few minutes, Ichigo turned and walked back into the room, sitting down beside Rukia.

"I'll be gone for about two hours. Unohana told me she would notify me if anything happened. Will you be OK?"

He was sure she was going to hit him by the look on her face. But instead, she sighed and nodded.

"I'll be fine, Ichigo. Please, go see your family."

Ichigo nodded and walked over to the window, prepared to jump out, for they were not allowed to use the front doors of the mansion.

"OK. Rukia . . ."

Ichigo turned around, still perched on the window edge.

"Hm?" she asked, turning to face him.

" . . . Love you."

She smiled.

"I love you too, Ichigo."

He smiled and jumped out the window.

Ichigo took a deep breath before knocking on the door to his house. He could hear Yuzu and Karin inside; they must have just returned from school. Besides his sisters, he could hear his father talking to himself, loudly, from inside his office.

Ichigo took a deep breath as the door opened. His little sister, Yuzu, was standing there, shocked for a second before she hugged Ichigo, screeching loudly.

"Ichigo! You're home! Daddy wouldn't tell me where you went, just that you went with Rukia and she was going to have a baby. Oh, Ichigo, I'm so glad you're home!"

"Hey, Yuzu. Can I talk to dad? This is very important," he said. He wanted to hug her and Karin and play with them for hours, but he had promised Rukia he would only be gone for a few.

"Sure! He's in here!" she said happily, skipping into the living room, her face glowing with happiness as she took his hand in hers as she hopped along. "Daddy! Ichigo's home!"

Ichigo was surprised when his dad didn't greet him with a kick to the face. Instead, he quietly asked Yuzu to leave them to talk, then took Ichigo into his office, which was further away from the rest of the house. He turned around, a completely serious look on his face. He looked more serious than he had ever been. He looked more serious than he had when Yuzu and Karin had been born, and more serious than when Karin broke her leg in third grade, and much more serious than he had when he had told Ichigo that Rukia was pregnant.

"Hello, dad," Ichigo said, smiling a small smile as he watched the emotions flickered over his father's face. Finally, he seemed to settle on happy and pulled Ichigo into a hug.

"Good to see you, son. How have you been?"

"Good. Um . . . I came here to tell you a few things and to see Yuzu and Karin. I can only be a few hours, though."

"How's Rukia? Bring her to visit," Isshin said, sitting down on the nearby chair.

"Uh . . yeah, about that. We're not exactly living close by. I'm not supposed to tell you this . . . but . . . can you keep secret?" Ichigo asked, knowing he was going to be in big trouble if his father told anyone what he was about to tell him.

"Ichigo, your mother and I kept our marriage a secret from her parents for about five months."

"Yeah . . . um . . . dad . . . I'm a-a . . . Shinigami," Ichigo said quickly, knowing his dad probably had no clue what he was talking about. And when he got back to the Soul Society, he was either going to be killed by Rukia, Byakuya, or someone else. But he was definitely going to die.

"I know."

"Huh?" Ichigo said, the two words his dad had said not quite registering. He turned to face the older man, who was smirking.

"I know about Shinigami."

"Huh?! What!" Ichigo yelled, his eyes going wide and his mouth falling open.

"I've known you were a Shinigami for a long time now. Ever since that day that Rukia showed up, jumping through your bedroom window, I knew. I could see her, but pretended not to. A Shinigami's main defense is that people can't see them. I knew that, if a Shinigami was nearby, there was probably a Hollow, too. So I tried to get to Karin and Yuzu when it attacked, but I couldn't. I felt so helpless; like when your mother died."

"Dad . . ." Ichigo started, but stopped when Isshin started talking again.

"I've known about Shinigami for a long time now. I knew it was a Hollow that killed your mother, and I didn't interfere when Yuzu and Karin were attacked that day at Masaki's grave. Once they were safe, I knew that I had to let you fight. It was for your pride, and Rukia knew that, too. And Kon's annoying."

Ichigo laughed, despite his surprise.

"Dad . . . if you knew what it was that killed mom . . . how come you didn't go after it? How could you let it go?"

"I could have, but I would had to have left you and Karin and Yuzu alone all the time. You're my kids and I couldn't do that. Masaki wouldn't have wanted me to. She would have wanted me to raise you guys like I did. What do you think she would have done if I left two four-year-olds and a nine-year-old alone to go fight because she had died? Nothing I could have done would have brought her back, no matter how much I wanted it to. So I needed to let her go and take care of her children. You three were the thing she treasured most. And I knew that," Isshin said, smiling sadly. Ichigo took a deep breath and dropped down into a chair.

Everything he had just learned had him in shock. He knew that he was going to feel it a lot more later, but right now he was numb to it.

"Dad, where's my body?" Ichigo asked, slightly worried. Then, he gasped. "Holy crap! Yuzu was able to see me and I wasn't in my body! And you can see me to! But that means . . ."

"I've been able to see ghosts and stuff for a while. We put Kon in your body-"

"Wait; we?" Ichigo interrupted, holding up a hand. Isshin sighed and continued,

"Me and Urahara. Anyway, as I was saying, we put Kon in your body and he is under close supervision at the Urahara shop. Ururu and Jinta are keeping him in line and not letting him do anything stupid like go have sex with a random girl. We thought that that would make you feel weird when you and Rukia -"

"Dad!" Ichigo yelled, his face going red as he ducked his eyes, trying not to meet his fathers. Isshin laughed..

"Come on, Ichigo. You have a baby; it's no secret that you and Rukia have been . . . involved . . . for a while now."

Ichigo blushed deeper. Isshin stopped smiling and asked,

"Hey, Ichigo . . . where are you hiding? Because as far as I remember, having a child between a human and a Shinigami is illegal. And your being part Shinigami would make it worse," Isshin said.

"How do you know about that? And for the past five months we have been living in a few different districts of the Soul Society. Right now, we're living with her brother," Ichigo explained. Isshin nodded, deep in thought for a minutes before his face showed surprise.

"Her brother? Isn't her full name Kuchiki Rukia? Her brother is . . . Captain Kuchiki Byakuya?" Isshin asked, the disbelief clear on his face.

"How did you know?" Ichigo asked.

"God, it's a miracle that you're still walking after getting his sister pregnant. He's a cold, violent guy."

"Actually, after he found out, I wasn't really walking. His Vice-Captain, Renji, kinda . . . well, he nearly killed me. But not because Rukia was pregnant; just because they were sent after us after we started running away," Ichigo paused. "And why am I telling you all this?"

Isshin just smiled and stood to his feet.

"Dad, I like it when you're not acting like a total idiot. Remember that."

Isshin smiled as he opened the office door for Ichigo, who stood to his feet, too, and followed his dad out of the room. As soon as Ichigo walked into the living room, he was assaulted by Yuzu and Karin, who both enveloped him in large hugs.

"Yay! Ichi-nii is back!" Yuzu said happily. Then, she asked, "Where's Rukia?"

Ichigo smiled softly.

"She's not here," he said, sitting down on the floor beside his sisters. "And I can only stay for about twenty more minutes, OK?"

"What?" Yuzu said, her smile turning to a frown. "But I want you to stay! Everyone does!"

Ichigo was confused.

"Everyone?" he asked.

Yuzu nodded. "Inoue-san misses you, and so does Yasutora-kun. They come by every now and then and ask where you are and when you'll be back. They're sad, Ichigo. Please stay."

Ichigo smiled sadly. As much as he liked his friends, and wanted to stay, he was going to be wherever Rukia and their baby was. He wouldn't leave Rukia's side; but maybe they could all come back together one day and Inoue and Chad could see the baby.

"I can't stay, Yuzu. I need to go back to Rukia."

Yuzu sighed and shrugged. She then looked up at Ichigo with sad eyes. "I understand. But will you and Rukia-Chan come back soon? Please?"

"Maybe, Yuzu. Maybe."

She hugged him. Ichigo looked over Yuzu's shoulder to see Karin just sitting there, her eyes cast downward. He could see her crying.

She never cried.

"Karin . . ." he started, reaching over and lifting her head up with his hand. She looked into his eyes, quickly wiping her tears away. "I promise I'll come back sometime soon, OK? And I'll bring Rukia with me."

Karin nodded and Ichigo hugged her, too, pulling both of his sisters close to him. Pulling back, he smiled at them.

"Now-"

He suddenly stopped talking and frowned. Yuzu and Karin looked on, curious, as he stood to his feet and ran into his father's office, where said father was doing paperwork. He knew that reiatsu . . . it had to be Byakuya.

"Dad!"

Isshin jumped a few inches as he spun around in his chair, sending Ichigo a small glare. Ichigo ignored him.

"Byakuya's close! Something must be wrong with Rukia!"

Just as the words were out of his mouth, there was a frantic knock on the door. As Ichigo ran to answer it, he was glad that he had taught Byakuya to knock on doors; for the last time he was on Earth, looking for Rukia, he had knocked down the door. To both the front room and to Ichigo's bedroom. And he had found Rukia and Ichigo, both nearly naked, sleeping in the same bed.

That had been awkward.

The first words out of Ichigo's mouth were, "What's wrong?"

And indeed, Byakuya was standing at the door, his usual look plastered to his unchanging face. Isshin appeared beside Ichigo and then slithered away again when he saw the Captain Shinigami.

"Rukia's having trouble; the baby has to come now. She sent me to get you; hurry," Byakuya replied.

Ichigo nodded, telling everyone that he had to go before running out of the house, Byakuya on his heels. The Captain opened the gate to Soul Society and Isshin watched as his only son dissappeared through the gate.

"If it's a boy, name him after me!" Isshin yelled to the closing gate, smiling.

His little boy wasn't a baby anymore.

Ichigo ran inside the small room, skidding to a halt beside Rukia's bed. She was breathing hard, wincing in pain as the contractions hit. He sat down beside her, taking her small hand in his and holding it tightly as he brushed back her sweaty hair. She smiled, then tried not to scream as another contraction wracked her body.

"Is she OK?" Ichigo asked Unohana, who was currently prepping her for the birth. Unohana nodded.

"She's fine now. We've decided to not even try a natural birth. Rukia is almost completely drained of energy from the contractions alone. There is no way she can make it," Unohana explained, closing her eyes as she gave the baby a quick blast of reiatsu to help mature its lungs just a little more before the birth.

"And the baby?" Ichigo asked quietly. Unohana nodded grimly.

"It should be fine. We were able to mature it enough so it can live and breathe outside the womb, but we didn't have the seven days we wanted; we only had four. But I'm hoping he will be fine. I can do a little more once it's born, but after that, it's all up to him," she explained, smiling sadly.

"Why do you keep calling it 'him'? Do you know?" Ichigo asked. Unohana shook her head.

"No. But I hate calling a living, breathing baby an 'it'."

Ichigo nodded, smiling down at Rukia. She looked up at him and smiled bravely back.

"How do you feel?" he asked her, running his fingers through her hair and kissing her on the forehead.

"F-fine," she responded.

Ichigo nodded and gripped her hand tighter.

"Captain Kuchiki, will you please hand me that scalpel?"

As Unohana said this, everything started happening at once. Since Rukia had already been given drugs, she was ready to give birth. Isane Kotetsu had been called in so she could attempt to heal Rukia and give her strength during the operation. Byakuya watched from the other side of the room, having stated that he was getting in the way. Ichigo was holding Rukia's hand and talking quietly with her as Unohana worked. She couldn't see anything that was going on, and couldn't feel it either, so Ichigo was telling her everything Unohana did.

"The baby's out! Isane, cut the cord!" Unohana yelled, holding the tiny baby in her hands. Ichigo could barely see it, for it was so small.

"How is my baby?" Rukia asked, trying to see the baby, but failing.

After the cord was cut, Unohana held the baby in one hand as she attempted to help it breathe. Finally, a tiny, quiet cry filled the room. Unohana smiled and sighed in relief. Then, she said,

"Congratulations. It's a boy."

Rukia smiled wide. Even though her movements and reactions were sluggish, she was trying to sit up. Isane gently pushed her back down, saying that she hadn't been stitched up yet and was still bleeding. Rukia nodded and turned to Ichigo, her eyes pleading with him. She said quietly,

"I want to see him, Ichigo, please . . ."

Ichigo nodded and stood up, walking over to where Isane and Unohana were cleaning up the baby. Byakuya walked over, too, and smiled at the tiny child.

"Can I bring him over so Rukia can see him?" Ichigo asked softly, reaching out to touch the baby's head. The little boy looked up at Ichigo in surprise and jerked his head away, curling his tiny hand into a fist and running it clumsily across his head, yawning. His eyes were a beautiful violet and his hair was bright orange with black streaks in it. Ichigo was surprised.

"Is that hair natural?" he asked, taking the baby into his arms as Unohana said he could do so. "And why is he so big? I've seen babies this old before . . . their tiny . . . and they never move around like this . . ." he said in wonder, smiling as the baby yawned again, kicking one of his feet out and hitting Ichigo in the chest.

Unohana smiled, too. Then said, "Most babies born at this point weigh roughly one pound and are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. But we were able to make him grow at five times the rate in this last week. Your baby weighs four and a half pounds and is eleven inches long. But it's strange that he's only four pounds. With Rukia maturing him as much as she did, he should be nearly six or so pounds. But it doesn't matter; he's healthy and that's what matters."

Ichigo's smile grew as the baby in his arms began cooing. He walked over to Rukia and sat down beside her, leaning over so she could see the baby. Tears of happiness flowed down her face as she watched him.

"He's so beautiful . . ."

Ichigo didn't answer, he just took her hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Michio. I want to name him Michio," Rukia said quietly. "It means: "Man with the strength of three thousand". Ichigo, can we name him Michio Renji Kurosaki?"

"Yeah. I'd like that," he said, reaching out his hand to touch Michio's tiny foot. His toes were smaller than Ichigo's own fingernails. Michio tried to pull his foot back as Ichigo touched it, squealing. Rukia laughed at the little sound, wiping her tears away as she reached out her own hand and brushed at his tiny head of orange-black hair. Unohana walked over and smiled down at the couple and the baby.

"He's small, but the maturing that we did mostly focused on his organs. So he's almost fully developed. That's why he's moving around so much and breathing fine. We do need to give him medical attention and special care for-"

Unohana was cut off as Rukia yelled out in pain.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Rukia just winced again, breathing hard.

"It feels like a c-contraction . . ." Rukia said, closing her eyes tightly.

"She is contracting again! I think she's gonna have another baby, and if we don't preform the C-section soon, she might start pushing . . ." Isane said, a worried look on her face as Unohana flew over and took her place.

The next thirty minutes were hectic. Ichigo was confused, worried and happy at the same time; Rukia was nearly sleeping from the drugs she was given, but was fighting to stay awake, and Byakuya was hovering over everyone else's shoulders, trying to get a look at his second niece or nephew.

Finally, Unohana announced,

"Four pound, twelve inch baby girl. Congratulations."

Ichigo nearly fainted. He and Rukia had talked about the possiblity of it being twins because of her being so fat. And Ichigo had received several books to the head for such a comment. But he had never really, deeply thought about it.

But two babies?

"Do you have a girl name picked out?" Unohana asked, a worried look on her face as she checked the smaller baby over.

"Yeah. A girl is all we really thought about because Rukia said she wanted to name it if it was a boy, soo . . ." Ichigo scratched his head, trying to shoulder Isane and Unohana out of the way so he could see his baby girl.

"Well . . . what are you going to call her?" Byakuya asked, truly interested, though he was trying to look as uninterested as possible.

"Raye Anyame," Ichigo answered just as Michio started to cry.

Ichigo rocked the baby back and forth in his arms, finally looking up at Unohana a few minutes later. "Um . . . I think he's hungry."

"Rukia's sleeping, so I'll show you how to feed him with a bottle in a few minutes, OK?"

Ichigo nodded.

Thirty minutes later, Michio was sleeping quietly in a small, clear, plastic crib; much like the ones in Earth Hospital. His little sister, Raye, was sleeping quietly beside him, turning around in her sleep every now and then.

Ichigo watched them and smiled.

Unohana had explained that if Rukia ever had more kids, she would most likely carry to at least six or seven months. The only reason that she had been unable to carry longer was that it was twins; which meant twice the stress with the high spirit pressure. Ichigo was glad to hear it; because the pregnancy had been terribly hard on her, and he didn't want her to go through that again. Unohana had also explained that, though very small, the babies were perfectly formed and would be fine with close supervision and care. They would grow fast, too.

But he didn't care how small they were. As long as they were healthy, he was happy.

Raye, like her brother, had orange hair with black streaks. It was weird, but Unohana explained that it was completely natural. And while Michio's eyes were violet, Raye's were a bright, completely ice blue. Ichigo could watch them forever. They were simply beautiful.

As he was about to get up and go check on Rukia, Raye suddenly began crying. Ichigo walked over and picked her up, careful not to wake Michio, and held her close to him. She was so small. As he rocked her back and forth, she quieted down and snuggled close to him, looking up at him with her ice blue eyes.

"Hey, Raye. I love you, you know that?" Ichigo said softly. She stopped crying almost immediately, snuggling closer to him and blinking tears out of her bright blue eyes.

Ichigo was busy trying to rock Raye back to sleep when he glanced over at Michio's crib. The tiny baby was laying still. Too still.

Ichigo panicked as he watched and prayed for the small movement of the baby's chest.

It didn't come.

Michio wasn't breathing.

Well, what did you think? Like it? Hate it? Hate me? Don't you just love cliffhangers? LOL! Anyway, I mixed Ichigo and Rukia's hair colors because I thought it would be cool!

4,000 words total, this chapter was! (Is using Yoda speak)

Please Review!