The Kurosaki household was never a quiet place. Growing up in a household that was both home and clinic, and that was headed by someone as… enthusiastic as Isshin enabled Ichigo to sleep through almost any background noise. So on this morning in particular, Ichigo easily slept through his family's morning cries and calls, the rattle of pots and pans, a loving appeal to Masaki, and a tentative call of "Ichi-nii." In fact in his vague state of almost-wakefulness, Ichigo couldn't remember ever being more comfortable or more reluctant to leave his bed. The morning sunlight, filtered through his window shades, was giving everything a golden glow and he was cozy and warm in his bed. He absently tightened his arm around the dark-haired Shinigami beside him, and tried to drift back to a deeper sleep.
But the morning, and Ichigo's hope of making it to at least the age of thirty before succumbing to an Isshin-induced heart attack were completely ruined by Isshin's abrupt, gleeful entry into Ichigo's room. Geared to pounce on his lazy son (and thereby hopefully get the best of Ichigo) and trailing a cheerful Yuzu and a reluctant Karin behind him, Isshin barreled into the room with the force and subtlety of a tactical nuclear strike. Ichigo, well-used to his father's sneak attacks, was instantly jolted from near-slumber, and sprang into a seated position so quickly and with such force he slammed his head against the back of his bed.
As Ichigo shook off the sudden head-wound, Isshin screeched to a halt beside Ichigo's bed. Seeing the look of surprise on his father's face, Ichigo realized with a sinking feeling that his father had not halted his imminent assault out of any paternal concern for his son's well-being, but rather the elder Kurosaki had been stopped dead in his tracks by the sight of a sleep-mussed Rukia, blinking herself into wakefulness beside his teenage son.
In the split second of silence that followed, Ichigo tried to brace himself for the imminent disaster. Isshin, being Isshin, appeared to be gearing up to excessive joviality in wake of his shock at finding a girl in Ichigo's bed. Yuzu, being Yuzu, was exclaiming how glad she was that Rukia was home, while Karin attempted to drag her innocently oblivious sister from the room.
"Ichigo" cried Isshin joyfully "You've given me another daughter. How happy Masaki would be. Rukia give your Papa a hug" he enthused, all smiles and happy tears.
Ichigo mentally rolled his eyes. Not too many fathers would be this happy about suddenly finding a girl in their teenage son's bed.
Isshin moved to Rukia to engulf her in an overenthusiastic hug, but in doing so, he caught sight of the other side of her face, and stopped dead for the second time that morning.
Rukia, seeing the sudden shocked look, was jolted from her sleep-induced befuddlement and clapped her hand across her cheek, covering the all-too-visible scar, and shifting her head so her hair could shade her face and eyes.
Isshin, suddenly more serious than Ichigo could remember him being since the death of Ichigo's mother, crossed quickly to where Karin was still, futilely, attempting to drag Yuzu away. "Girls" cried Isshin with patently false cheer "Papa needs to talk with Ichigo for a minute. Yuzu, why don't you pull out all those books and magazines I have on weddings?"
Yuzu, thrilled to have something exciting to do, practically bolted from the room. Karin suddenly left behind in her sister's wake shot a troubled glance at the pair on the bed before also retreating.
"Why does everyone keep mentioning weddings?" muttered Ichigo, earning a glare from his diminutive bed-partner, who hadn't completely forgiven him for his idiotic comment the night before.
Forgetting, at least in part, the presence of Isshin, who was closing the door, Rukia burst out, "why do you keep complaining about it?"
"Well it's a bit of a shock," exclaimed Ichigo, testily.
"You can't possibly believe I'm thrilled about this," shot back Rukia "I don't know how I'm going to explain this to Nii-sama"
Ichigo hadn't considered the Byakuya- related complications involved in marrying Rukia and was about to start up a whole new set of complaints based on that theme, when he remembered that Isshin was still in the room.
Isshin was regarding their argument with a half-smile, quite different from his normal enthusiastic expressions, but he became more serious when he realized that he had regained the attention of the duo. "Are you all right Rukia?" he asked pointedly.
"I'm fine" assured Rukia, equally serious.
"Who did it?" asked Isshin, managing to embed the seemingly innocuous question with a wealth of meaning.
Rukia could have sworn that Isshin's eyes darted momentarily to Ichigo, but she reassured herself that she must have imagined the look. After all, Isshin was just a normal human, despite his son's incredible abilities, and therefore he couldn't possibly suspect the presence of Ichigo's darker half. "It was just an accident."
Isshin assessed her for a moment before seeming to accept that. "Then we'll have to plan for a wedding of course, so that you can officially be part of the family." Cheered Isshin, instantaneously transformed to his normal self.
"Pipe down old man" complained Ichigo, rather unsettled by his father's rapidly shifting moods, and the incomprehensible undercurrent that had seemed to exist a moment ago. His father couldn't possibly suspect, could he?
"My brother will have some requirements for any ceremony we have," interjected Rukia.
"Of course." Enthused Isshin, but he was already retreating, leaving them alone in Ichigo's room.
As soon as Isshin had gone, Rukia bolted from the bed and ran to Ichigo's drawers, pulling out clothing and throwing it at him.
"What the hell?" grumbled Ichigo, buried under a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.
"Get dressed. Get me something to wear from Yuzu. Something … concealing" ordered Rukia.
"What are you going to be doing?" shot back the disgruntled teen.
"I'll be in the bathroom. Meet me there with the clothes" replied Rukia, before ducking her head out into the hallway, looking both ways, and then hightailing it out of sight, presumably to the bathroom.
Grumbling all the while about idiot fathers and stubborn Shinigami, Ichigo got dressed. Afterwards, as he snuck down to Yuzu's room to purloin some clothing for the aforementioned stubborn Shinigami, Ichigo felt a sudden whisper of discontent from his hollow. Although faint, it was the first sign of life from the hollow since the events of the night before. And it was persistent. The feeling grew in intensity, and the hollow seemed to grow stronger, as Ichigo hurriedly grabbed clothing at random from Yuzu's closet and ran it back to Rukia.
Ichigo felt chilled. He told himself that the hollow would not, could not break free again. "I'm stronger than that" he thought, "It won't happen again," but even so, he started to wonder if he should, perhaps, be running in the opposite direction away from Rukia. Almost as soon as he reached the bathroom, however, the hollow's presence faded. Ichigo passed Rukia the requested clothing through the cracked door, and was left standing in the hallway, trying to figure out what the hell was going on and wondering if banging his head against the wall repeatedly would be an improvement on his morning so far.
Before Ichigo could attempt to better his morning through brain damage, Rukia emerged from the bathroom. Clad in Yuzu's hooded jacket and pants and sporting a gauze bandage on her cheek, she had hidden the scars to the best of her ability. With considerable impatience and determination, Rukia grabbed Ichigo's hand, dragged him back to his room and through the window, and set off at a brisk pace. "Hurry up" ordered Rukia "I want to get to Inoue's before she leaves for school"
And Ichigo complied, his inner turmoil momentarily forgotten.
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Author's note: This chapter would have been posted last week, but the first half of it was accidentally deleted (sob). Sorry for the delay and thanks for all the reviews and support.