After Ichigo had woken from a wonderful night full of deep slumber and found himself next to the gorgeous appearance of what he assumed to be at least his lover, he had showered, eaten and now was trying to get the mentioned gorgeous man to meet his family, when they were standing just meters from the orangettes house.
Eventually Shiro gave in to his pleas, deciding that it wouldn't do any harm, but could be useful.

So they entered the Kurosaki household together.
"Yuzu, Karin, Dad! I'm home!"
Moments later Ichigos father came from upstairs, welcoming him home with his usual flying kicks, which got answered with the same treatment from the son.
Shiro watched the family bonding with amusement, seeing as the father had no chance against his son, which didn't surprise him, since he knew about Ichigos secret source of strength.

Isshin peeled himself from the ground after a final kick from Ichigo, who, now that he had blown off some steam, asked.
"Where are the girls?"
"At their clubs. Ichigo do you want to introduce me to your company, by any means?"
The orangette hesitated a bit, knowing that his father knew damn well about Slayers and Vampires, but being unsure if he should reveal that Shiro was one of the latter.
Finally he brought himself to make the introduction, despite the trouble that might arise from it.
"Umm, this is Shiro. You know the one I've been talking about lately."

Ichigos father looked at the albino male, taking in every of his features, that could be seen.
"So is he...you know...one of your guild, clan, whatever?"
"Uh, no dad. He's...quite the opposite."
His dad didn't seem to get it, so Ichigo tried it otherwise.
"You remember, Kisuke saying he'd be dangerous? Surely he wouldn't say that about one of his comrades, would he?"
"Well, no, he would. If that comrade would maybe be a narcissistic, sadistic person, that would be dangerous for anyone..."

'Ouch.'
Shiro thought at the mentioning of narcissism.
Yeah, he could be like that sometimes, sue him, but that Ichigos father came up with it was a bit surprising.

"If I'd be one of them and dangerous, I'd sure as hell wouldn't be standing in front of you, but rather pushing up the daisies."
The albino told in between the dialogue of father and son.
Isshin seemed to have gotten it, finally, as his eyes became large as dinner plates as he looked from Ichigo to Shiro and back, all the while gaping like a fish.

"You mean, he's a..."

"Vampire."
Ichigo finished, his dads sentence, who than turned his gaze to the Vampire

"And you are..."

"A couple."
Shiro finished it this time, his lips pulling into a smile.

It was Ichigo now who looked a bit dumbfounded at Shiros words.
"We...are?"
They hadn't yet talked about what this was about them, but Shiro telling that they were an item, as if it was a decided thing, left him baffled.
"Of course Ichigo."
The albino told, taking the orangettes right Hand into his own and breathing a light knuckle kiss on it.
"Ones like me, learn not to fall in love too easily, but when we do it's unconditionally and for a very long time."
Ichigo blushed lightly when Shiros eyes met his and he saw all of the passion and love swim in those pools of gold.
Abruptly, Shiro changed to the matter at hand, which was the threat that the slayers represented for Ichigo now.

Speaking to Isshin the Vampire took a good look at the ground floor of the Kurosaki house.
"As your sons significant other, I have to tell you that your child is in serious danger. Not of my kind but of his own."
His gaze finally met the older Kurosakis.
Isshin understood the graveness of the situation, by the tone the pale Vampire used to speak, but he was amiss of the reason.
"Of course you'll tell me why, won't you, Vampire?"

"Naturally. Your son has come to ... a delicate situation. The slayers no longer will see him as one of their, but as one of my kin. To make the situation even worse, Ichigo has had a little blackout, as it seems, and attacked, who, as far as I'm informed, is one of his long term friends. The kid is fine, but still, the slayers don't like it if one of their group is attacked."

Isshin needed some moments to grab the information he'd been given, what was not least due to the noble choice of words.
"So what do you want to do about it?"
"I want to put guards outside of your house, until we maybe can achieve a truce."

Meanwhile at the slayer headquarters

"How is Ishida?"
Kisuke asked as he entered the ward, where the young archer had been placed in and Neliel was taken care of him.
"He's fine, except for the blood loss. It is a wonder Ichigo came back to awareness, before it had been critical for Ishida."
The green haired woman put a wet cloth on Ishidas forehead, than turned to Kisuke.
"What shall we do now?"
As much as he disliked it, Kisuke knew they had no other choice but -.
"We have to eliminate him and hope that either he will leave the circle, or won't be resurrected with this curse."
"How do you think this happened? Was it Shiro?"
Kisuke shook his head, than locked his steel gray eyes on Neliels.
"No he wasn't the cause of it. When it happened he was as much shocked as we were and, I hate to say it, but he told us the truth when he said he didn't do anything to Ichigo. I have no idea how it could came to this."

The female slayer rose from her seat, heading to pass by Kisuke and leave the room, but being held back by a hand on her wrist, after just one step.
She looked back, to see Ishida, barely awake and panting.
"Don't kill him. … We should act on his wishes for once."
Neliel looked back over to Kisuke, who sighed and hung his head in defeat.
"Fine. When you're recovered you can give it a try."
Ishida smiled weakly than fell back into unconsciousness.
Again Kisuke sighed, before he turned around and waved Neliel to follow him out of the room.

They walked into the living room, where the remaining two waited, while distracting themselves with tending to their weapons.
Shuuhei looked up to the entering ones.
No words were needed, his look alone told the others what wanted to know about.
"Ishida is getting better, he just woke up for a few moments."
The blonde man explained, while walking ahead to his desk.
After he had sat down in the chair behind it, he folded his hands and rested the elbows on the tabletop.
"On his wish we will stay put for now. It opposes me as much as it probably does you, but he wants to try and speak with the Lucifers breed."
Silence hung in the room like heavy air, no one dared to speak a word, for or against Ishidas wish.

Finally, Renji said, without stopping to polish his gun.
"So we'll wait."
He laid the gun on the table in front of him and began to search for something in his west pocket, when he found it looked up to the group and waved a stack of cards.
"Anyone in for a round of poker?"

Chapter 17
End