Breath of Life
Awakening~
As Isshin almost fell to the floor, he found himself suddenly jolting awake. The man tried rubbing the sleep from his eyes, wondering if things were just a dream. When he moved his hands away he found himself staring right at a familiar face. Except this time the young man's eyes were open wide and looking right at him. "Nii-sama?"
The doctor chocked back upon hearing his brother say this despite the fact it was in a rather weak voice. "Kaien?"
"Who?"
The eldest Kurosaki suddenly felt the color leave his face and his knuckles went white as he looked at the young man. "Kaien... you're Kaien of course. Don't you remember?"
"No." Kaien attempted to sit up, only to find himself suddenly falling back to the bed. He let out a sound of frustration and simply let his head hit the pillow.
"But you remember me, don't you?" Isshin's eyes twinkled with some hope.
"I..." The young man closed his eyes. "I don't remember you being this old. I remember being in a traditional Japanese home and you came home. I got up to greet you."
"Do you remember anything else?"
"No." Kaien continued to keep his eyes closed. "I'm sorry Nii-sama that I can't remember anything more, let alone how I came to lose my memories."
"There is nothing to be sorry Kaien. None of this was your fault." The doctor then made another comment. "And you should be calling me Isshin. You stopped calling me that..." The man suddenly paused. "Kaien... how old do you think you are?"
His brother lifted his left hand up and shook it slightly in a slow motion. "I would say I was physically between eleven to twelve years of age. I wasn't very big, but I wasn't a child anymore. Why do you ask?"
Isshin found himself swallowing hard. "Kaien, how old do you think you are?"
"You looked to be in your teen years and now you look to be in your late twenties, so that would make me in my early twenties."
The man found himself pinching the bridge of his nose. "I have a seventeen, almost eighteen year old son. I would have had to have had Ichigo when I was like, what? Eleven at the youngest?"
"Be patient with him Isshin. He doesn't know that you have a teenaged son. You may want to break it to him easy."
Opening his eyes, Isshin saw that Kaien was looking at him worriedly. "I said something wrong, didn't I?"
"Kaien, I have a teenaged son so saying I'm in my late twenties, while a nice gesture is not exactly accurate." Isshin continued to place pressure on the bridge of his nose.
"If you had him when you were sixteen it is still possible for you to be in your late twenties." His brother tried pushing himself up again.
Isshin stood up and placed hands on his shoulders, shaking his head as he did so. "How did you... wait. You think my son is just starting into his teenage years? That would be my daughters age range. My son... well, he's seventeen, almost eighteen. That would put me into my mid thirties at least would it not?"
Kain's face suddenly paled. "Nii-sama, what all have I missed out on?"
"I'm a little bothered by the fact you didn't think thirteen years of amnesia was a problem, but instead are more concerned about twenty years." Isshin closed his eyes. "Twenty years is right, but Kaien would only have aged to his early twenties in Soul Society. I can't explain that to him though."
"My early thirties." Kaien raised a hand above his head on the pillow. "Nii-sama... could I be left alone for a bit. I need to think."
"First, stay out of trouble and in this room for the day resting. I've got a clinic to run, so I'll be able to easily check in on you to see how you're doing. Second, don't call me Nii-sama. If my son hears you saying that he's not the type to let you live it down. You aren't eleven to twelve years of age. Speaking of which, third... please act like an adult as much as possible. I'm hoping the amnesia is just your memories."
Isshin stood up and stretched. He glanced out the window of the room. "It's early, so Yuzu isn't up yet. I'll go ahead and make us some breakfast. What would you like to eat?" Silence greeted his ears. "Or are you going to refuse to eat because you're in a depressed mood. I don't need that, all right. I don't want you getting sick."
"Understood."
After picking up his trey of food, the man headed into the kitchen of the house, shaking his head as he did so. He then went about getting the ingredients for making ohagi. Isshin was packing the bean paste around the rice when Yuzu came down. "Daddy, what are you doing?"
"I'm making myself and our patient some breakfast." The man let out a chuckle as he watched Yuzu wipe the sleep from her eyes.
Her eyes then went wide upon seeing what he had made. "Ohagi? Ohagi for breakfast?"
"I told you last night, this patient is different Yuzu. I need to get him to eat, so I'm not taking any chances." Isshin smiled.
The girl walked over to the sink, only to suddenly glare at her father. "You didn't eat all of your dinner!"
"Yuzu... I told you, I had an all nighter. I love eating your cooking, so it isn't as if I wasn't wanting to eat it." He then picked up the two plates and headed into the clinic. He first went to his desk and put on his jacket before he walked into Kaien's room and plopped one of the plates onto the table. "Eat up."
His brother didn't at first move, but then turned to look at the food. "Ohagi?"
"Yeah... ohagi." Isshin sat down on the stool as he bit down on his first ball.
Kaien at first struggled to sit up, but the enticement of the ohagi got him to wriggle into a position so he could eat it. Despite the fact he found the strength to sit up, eating it was slow business. "This is really good Isshin."
"I'm glad you like it." The man continued to munch on the food. "Do you remember anything?"
"I didn't get any memories back." Kaien swallowed another bite. He then paused. "Are you actually worried that I forgot what my favorite food was? I don't remember liking it, but I do know it is my favorite."
"I was just checking Kaien. This means it is just memories that your missing, which is a good thing." Isshin paused from eating his food. "What is it?"
"Kurosaki... Doctor Kurosaki." Kaien read off Isshin's name tag. "So this means my full name is Kurosaki Kaien?"
A piece of the ohagi went down the wrong tube for the older of the two brothers. Isshin blinked a couple of times. "Um... yeah. Your last name is Kurosaki."
Isshin finished his food and put his plate under Kaien's. "Look, I need to go make some phone calls before I open up the clinic, why don't you sit tight."
"I don't have the energy to move nii-sama, so don't worry about it."
The former shinigami shook his head. "He's already slipped back into calling me Nii-sama, of all things."
"He feels comfortable calling you that rather then by your first name. It is honestly more personal then simply using your name."
"Attaching sama to the brother part? I think that is my biggest problem because nobody calls their brothers and sisters nii-sama or nee-sama anymore." Isshin grabbed the phone on his desk and dialed up Urahara. "I've got another problem."
"And what would that be?"
"Kaien saw my name tag and is under the impression that he is a Kurosaki, not a Shiba. He doesn't have any memories other then one of me coming home when he was younger. He didn't even remember his name, just that I was his brother."
"He's got it bad." The two then discussed the details of Kaien's health.
