Well, this one has a lot more of the characters than the last. Lemme see . . . it has Inoue, Ishida and Tye, and it had Byakuya and Renji, and a lot of kids I don't care to name now. ;D

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or the characters.

Daddy Pt. X — Birthdays

"Yo, Rukia! Ishida and Inoue are here, is that everyone?" Ichigo called from the kitchen, holding a crying Aya in his arms. He groaned as Kaien dug his fingers into the whipped cream and slathered it all over Masaki's face. Just then, Rukia walked into the kitchen, saw Kaien and Masaki, handed Atsushi to her brother, and went over to clean up Masaki without answering Ichigo.

Ichigo sighed.

Atsushi started crying.

Ichigo groaned.

Masaki started crying as Kaien put more whipped cream in her hair.

Ichigo would have rammed his head on the wall if it weren't for Aya in his arms.

Renji smirked.

"Regretting having this many guests over for a kids birthday party?" he asked. Ichigo glared at him.

"Wasn't my choice. I just had a feeling that if I didn't do what Rukia wanted, she might tie me up and stick me in the closet. I guess she didn't want to bare a houseful of kids alone, so she invited you, Byakuya, Inoue and Ishida to help. But, come to think of it, if she tied me up and stuck me in a closet, she would be alone caring for the kids, soo . . . "

Ichigo scratched his head and handed Aya, who had quieted down, to Renji before walking over to Byakuya and taking the baby out of his arms. Atsushi stopped screaming immediately and laid his small head against Ichigo's chest.

"That's a good boy. You're hungry, aren't you?" Ichigo smiled at the baby, who was reaching out for Rukia. "Come on, then. Let's go pester mommy, OK?"

Ichigo made a funny face as he walked off with the cooing baby in his arms. He quickly found Rukia cleaning Masaki again with Kaien pouting in a corner.

"Hey, Rukia, Atsushi's hungry. Let me finished cleaning Masaki, OK?"

Rukia nodded, sighing deeply as she took Atsushi off into the nursery.

After cleaning Masaki up, Ichigo herded the kids into the living room. Kaien jumped up and down, clapping his hands happily, as he ran over to his group of friends. Ryo, Keiko and Lia were among them. Masaki jumped off to join Kaien and his friends, and Ichigo turned to walk over to the group of adults.

"I will die before this party is over!" he announced, raising an eyebrow at Renji when he saw the red-headed man making faces at the one-month-old baby. "And Renji . . . just so you know, that's not very attractive."

Renji glared at him. He said, "Well, it's making her be quiet."

"Other things do that, too, you know. The sound of a fan, Kaien waving his hand over her face, Rukia singing, any music, her stuffed frog, gently bouncing her up and down in your arms and rubbing her back, for starters. She's quiet in the bath if you turn the head fan on and she likes to watch out the window as the car moves," Ichigo said, ticking the different things off on his fingers. Renji blinked a few times. He said,

"Uh . . . where is her stuffed frog?"

Ichigo smirked.

"In the nursery. I'll go get it; Rukia's nursing Atsushi."

Ichigo stood up from the couch and disappeared from the room. Ishida, who was watching from the other end of the room, walked over and raised an eyebrow.

"Wow. That man really knows his kids. I'm at work most of the time, so only Orihime knows what will calm Tye. I kinda envy him," Ishida said.

"Well, he took off work for two months; he only has a month left, then poor Rukia is stuck with them all day," Renji said, shaking his head. "Kids are sweet, but two of them, all day with no help . . . I'd lose my mind."

Byakuya, who had been silent for the most part, said,

"I think she can handle it. After all, she deals with Kurosaki day and night."

As Renji glanced at his captain, he was sure he saw the closest thing to a smirk that he would ever see on the emotionless face of Byakuya Kuchiki.

"Well, as for me, I don't ever plan on having kids. And surely not four!" Renji said, throwing his hands up in the air. "It's like . . . they're asking to die young."

"Young? Huh . . . what are you, stupid?"

Renji glanced up as Ichigo walked back into the room, holding in his hands a bright pink, frilly stuffed frog. He handed it to the crying baby and took her from Renji. Aya quieted down and snuggled close to Ichigo, sticking her thumb in her mouth. He smiled down at the baby before walking over to Kaien to stop him from sticking one of the party hats in his mouth.

Renji shook his head.

Rukia and Ichigo were insane.

"Daddy! I wanna blow out my candles!" Kaien said, laughing as Ichigo held his hands over the little boy's eyes. Ichigo stuck his tongue out and made a show of sighing loudly before slinking off. Kaien jumped out of his chair and hauled Ichigo back. "No, daddy! Stay with me!"

"Ok, Kai," Ichigo said, patting the little boy's orange head. Kaien smiled brightly, showing off his three missing teeth, and leaned over the cake, holding Ichigo's hand in his right hand and Rukia's in his left. He blew as hard as he could, and no one commented as Ichigo began helping him when none of the candles were going out.

Kaien was beaming as he saw all seven of the wax candles smoking.

"Yay! I did it!"

Ichigo hugged him before pulling the candles out and beginning to cut the cake.

"Daddy, wanna know what I wished for?" Kaien asked, standing up in his chair and bouncing up and down. Ichigo smiled softly.

"But you can't tell me, or else it won't come true."

Kaien looked like he was about to burst with the excitement of telling someone, and when Ichigo said such, he dropped back down in his chair, saying, "Oh."

Ichigo, who could see that he was on the verge of tears, leaned over and whispered something in his ear. Kaien brightened immediately and ran over to Byakuya, pulling his hand to haul him down to his level. Rukia turned to Ichigo.

"What did you tell him?"

Ichigo, smirking, said, "Ah . . . just that Byakuya doesn't count, so Kaien could tell him what he wished for."

Rukia jabbed Ichigo in the stomach and, still smiling, he slithered to the side just as Kaien came running back over. Ichigo looked up at Byakuya and mouthed, 'Thank you'. The older man just nodded, a smile on his face, which surprised everyone in the room.

"Daddy, can I tell ya later?" Kaien asked, taking the piece of cake that Ichigo offered. He nodded before sitting all seven of the kids around the table. Kaien sat by Masaki and Ryo, while on the other side of the table, their other friends, Nathe, Keiko, Lia and Sasuke, were talking happily.

After the kids were set down, the six adults walked into the living room where Ichigo proceeded to fall onto the couch with a loud sigh. Just as he was about to bury his head in the pillow, a small, loud cry sounded from the nursery. He sighed and stood to his feet, dropping the pillow onto Rukia, who was sitting next to him.

"I'll get it."

And he walked off, Rukia nodded and smiled, leaning her head on the couch and breathing in deeply.

"Thanks," she muttered, snuggling up into the couch and hugging the pillow.

Ichigo walked into the nursery and smiled when he saw Aya screaming, her little blue eyes squeezed tightly shut as she cried loudly. He moved over to her crib and reached in, lifting the baby into his arms. She calmed down a little, but not much.

After checking, Ichigo discovered that she had a clean diaper. He changed it anyway and walked out into the living room, holding Aya in his arms.

Dropping down onto the couch, he leaned over and muttered something quietly into Rukia's ear. She sighed and, smiling gently, took the crying Aya from Ichigo and lifted her shirt. All other males in the room blushed bright red and Rukia rolled her eyes. Ichigo smirked and leaned over the back of the couch, grabbing a baby blanket and handing it to Rukia to cover herself as she fed Aya.

"Men are so sensitive," she said, wincing as Aya fed. Inoue, who was on the other side of the room holding Tye, nodded happily. Ishida rolled his eyes and sent Ichigo a look saying something along the line of: women-are-nuts.

"Daddy!"

Ichigo groaned as he stood to his feet and stretched before following the voice of his son into the kitchen. He found Kaien, who had cake all over his face, standing up in his chair and bouncing up and down.

"Can I have more cake?" he asked, his eyes glowing happily. Ichigo nodded and took the plate before putting cake onto it. After Kaien was happy again, he made sure all the kids had enough and walked back into the living room, only to stand up and run back two seconds after he got sat down. Something had broken.

He could have heard that crash from anywhere in the house.

When he arrived in the kitchen, Kaien was standing up in his chair, looking down at the floor. He had broken the table vase. Sighing, Ichigo set to cleaning it up, and when Rukia, Byakuya, Renji, Inoue and Ishida all ran in, he explained that Kaien had simply dropped the vase.

"I help daddy!" Masaki said, jumping off of her chair. Ichigo tried to stop her, but she was quickly picking up the glass pieces and holding them in her hands. Then, from across the room, Ishida caught Ichigo's eye and mouthed 'Hollow'.

In the next second, Ishida ran out the front door with Renji on his heals; Byakuya wanted to purify the Hollow instead of killing it completely.

The only people left in the room were Ichigo, Masaki and Byakuya, as Inoue and Rukia had started leading all the kids into the living room to watch a movie; the only sure way to quiet them down.

"Ouch!"

Ichigo turned around to see Masaki sitting on the floor, holding her right hand in her left. She was crying, and as Ichigo bolted over, she held out her hand.

She had cut her finger.

Ichigo smiled gently as he took her small hand in his and reached for the cup towel. He pressed it firmly to her finger and then turned to Byakuya.

"Could you get the band-aids? Their in the bathroom beside Rukia's vitamins on the shelf."

Byakuya nodded and walked out of the room, heading to the bathroom. The small house that the Kurosaki's were living in only had one, so Ichigo hadn't needed to specify. His eyes ran over the shelves, and instead of grabbing the band-aids and running off, he let his eyes linger on the different items littering the cupboard.

You could tell that children lived there. The toothbrushes had cats and dogs on them, and there was children's shampoo covering the edge of the bathtub. Along with the children's shampoo, there was one scented Strawberry, then a men's shampoo, and baby shampoo. There were at least three scrubbies hanging on the shower head, and there was a mat on the bottom of the shower that prevented you from slipping. It had pictures of fish on it.

Besides the shampoos and tub, the towels, which were neatly stacked on the shelves beside the sink, had pictures of flowers and animals and the washrags were worn with use. Byakuya raised an eyebrow at the picture hanging on the wall. It had been taken special, he could tell. Though . . . why it was in the bathroom, he didn't know.

In the picture, Ichigo and Rukia were standing side-by-side. In Rukia's arms she held Aya and Ichigo held Atsushi. Kaien was sitting on Ichigo's shoulders, holding tightly to his hair and giggling. Masaki was clutching Ichigo's leg, and the look on his face suggested that he was about to loose his balance. And Rukia looked like she didn't notice.

Shaking his head, he grabbed the band-aids, which had bunnies on them, must have been Rukia and Masaki's conspiring, and walked back into the kitchen. As he passed the living room, he saw that all the children were watching Finding Nemo and were all being quiet. Rukia looked like she was about to pass out on the couch, and Inoue was just as excited at the children about the movie.

When he walked back into the kitchen, he stopped in the doorway and watched Ichigo with Masaki. She had climbed up in his lap and had her head laid on his chest. He was gently running his hands through her soft black hair, and, as Byakuya watched, he kissed her finger and then her head.

And, for the first time in forever, BYakuya nearly smiled.

"Here are the 'band-aids' you asked for, Kurosaki," Byakuya said, handing the box to Ichigo. He nodded, thanked him, and took out one of the band-aids.

Opening it, he removed the cup-towel from Maskai's finger and placed it tightly around her finger, saying, "There. All better."

"Thanks, daddy!" she said, standing happily to her feet. Byakuya watched her bounce out of the room as Ichigo told her that she was missing the best fishy part in the movie.

"By the way, Byakuya, what was Kaien's wish?"

Byakuya looked up at him and said, "He wished that his little sister loved him more."

Ichigo smiled softly. Byakuya said,

"You know . . . you might just be good enough for her."

Ichigo looked up in surprise, then, after thinking for a second, said,

"What? Took you seven years and four kids to find that out? Geez. You're dumber than I thought."

In case you didn't get the last part, Byakuya is talking about Rukia. And I think the next installment will be called A Child's Wish. Just a thought. It will be about Kaien and Masaki mostly.

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