Urahara slid the door open with a loud smack, slightly surprised to see at how at ease Ichigo was with his hollow. They had shown some signs of amicability earlier, but to allow it to… He attempted to think of a word for the position they were in. 'Is it still spooning if they're not lying down?' Either way, Ichigo was pressed back against the hollow's chest with two arms wrapped around his midsection while the hollow lazily rested his head on the teen's shoulder.

"What do you want?" Shiro asked, narrowing his eyes at the shopkeeper's sudden intrusion. Setting aside his thoughts for later, Urahara plastered the creepiest smile he could muster on his face as he produced two enormous syringes from his sleeves.

Ichigo paled slightly when he caught sight of the needles. The contents were a bright green and were glowing slightly? "Uhhh… What are those for?"

"Medicine," Urahara replied cheerfully, "as requested." Orihime watched the shopkeeper walk across the room and take a seat next to the two intertwined boys. Setting one needle down, he wasted no time in pricking the hollow with the other. A dark substance flowed into the syringe as he pulled the plug back. Shiro cocked an eyebrow as he watched but said nothing as Urahara removed the needle, eyeing the chamber before shaking it slightly, turning its contents into a dark, murky green before it was placed on the floor. Ichigo watched avidly as Urahara repeated the same process on him with the other needle. A light blue substance was extracted from Ichigo which produced a lighter green when mixed with the medicine. Satisfied with his results, the scientist gathered the dark green syringe, flicking the needle then releasing a small amount to get rid of any air bubbles. A foul stench permeated the air while the tatami mats emitted a bizarre smoke where the contents had landed. Before Ichigo could protest, he was pricked with the needle and its contents were emptied into his arm.

"What the hell was that?" Ichigo asked, wide eyed as he stared at the discolored and smoking spot on the floor.

"It's a special reiatsu needle," Urahara explained as he readied the other needle. Shiro watched with intrigue as he was poked a second time and given his dose of medicine. Relief spread quickly, tingling slightly as the medicine circulated. "I needed to mix a fresh sample of each of your reiatsu for it to work."

"There," Urahara commented as he collected the used needles and stood. "You should be able to move around somewhat normally now. I wouldn't suggest getting separated a long distance from one another. It should last a while, but please let me know immediately if the effects start to wear off," he warned.

"Dinner will be in a few minutes," he added with a smile before heading towards the door.

"Good, I'm starving." Ichigo commented as he extracted himself from the hollow's grasp, groaning in pleasure as he stretched out his muscles properly.

"Dinner? Can I even eat human food?" Shiro pondered aloud.

"You won't know until you try, Hollow-san." Urahara said.

"Call me Shiro, Ero-tenshou." Orihime quickly covered her mouth to keep from laughing, but Ichigo couldn't help but laugh at the nickname for the shopkeeper.

"I like this one already!" Urahara announced. "Decided on a name already?"

"Shirosaki Hichigo," Shiro muttered.

"Ohhh... I thought you might pick Kurosaki," Urahara said thoughtfully, stroking the stubble on his chin, "but maybe Shirosaki is slightly more appropriate. See you at dinner!" he added cheerfully as he snapped the door shut.

"What a weirdo," Shiro commented. "Oh well. I've always wanted to try human food."

Orihime smiled. "I'd be glad to introduce you to as many new foods as you'd like, Shiro-kun."

"I think I'd like that," Shiro replied, instantly changing his demeanor and returning her smile with one of his own.

Ichigo looked between the two sitting on the floor with nearly identical goofy smiles on their faces. "Come on, let's go eat." Ichigo extended a hand to Orihime. She stared at it for a moment before grasping it and letting him pull her to her feet.

"Thank you, Kurosaki-kun." Orihime beamed up at him with a bright smile.

Ichigo frowned down at her. "You can call me Ichigo, you know," he grunted.

Orihime was caught by surprise and her face flushed. She averted her eyes down but her cheeks only heated more as she realized she was staring right at his stomach. Shiro stood, grinned and shook his head at interaction between the two. Orihime shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts. "Ano… Only if you call me Orihime in return."

Ichigo let a small smile escape as he replied, "Sure… Orihime."

"Arigatou, Ichigo-kun." They stared at each other for a moment before they were interrupted.

"You guys finished yet? Whatever it is we're eating, smells amazing," Shiro said as he opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

"Hai!" Orihime said excitedly, stepping past Ichigo and bouncing into the hall. Stiffening at first when Shiro wrapped an arm around her, she quickly forced herself to relax as they walked towards the dining area. Ichigo followed shortly after, closely watching the two in front of him. Something didn't quite sit right with Ichigo, even if it was his hollow that had his arm wrapped around her. This was going to take some getting used to…

Ichigo was really trying to do his best not to laugh, but watching his hollow eat for the first time was turning out to be the funniest thing he had seen in months. Shiro seemed to have the general idea of how to use chopsticks without being told, but since he never actually had any real experience with them himself, he was failing quite miserably. Every time someone had attempted to give him advice, they were silenced with a hard glare. At this point everyone at the table was half done with their meals and seemed to be pretending the hollow wasn't there. Orihime was still giving him sympathetic glances from time to time and Ichigo couldn't help but watch in amusement out of the corner of his eye.

"FUCK IT!" the hollow screeched as he lifted the plate up to his mouth and simply began shoveling the yakisoba into his mouth. The table stayed silent for a few moments before everyone began laughing in unison. Returning his plate back to the table, the hollow chewed his first taste of human food, slurping up a stray noodle that hung out of the side his mouth. "Urusee," Shiro grumbled quietly as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"You're really doing quite well for your first time using chopsticks, Shiro-kun," Orihime reassured him after the laughter had died down. "Did you like it?"

"It's kind of slippery and slimy but it tastes good enough," Shiro said, lifting his plate up to his mouth again and shoveling in a few more bites.

"It's called Yakisoba. It's fried noodles and vegetables," Tessai explained.

"It's good," Shiro grunted with a mouth full of food.

After dinner, Orihime went to assist Tessai with the dishes. Yoruichi headed outside and the kids went to finish their nightly chores.

"Have you given any thought to a gigai or what your cover story will be in the human world, Shirosaki-san?" Urahara asked.

"Uhhh… Not really, no," Shiro admitted. "I guess a gigai would be useful."

"I'm going to guess you don't want to go with the long lost twin or relative scenario."

"No," Ichigo said flatly.

"Well, considering you are supposed to be attending school up north… He could be one of your new friends from school."

After considering it for a moment, Ichigo conceded, "I guess that will work."

Crashing sounds were heard outside of the shouten, Ichigo and Shiro both gave the shopkeeper a quisitive look. Urahara already had his fan in place and simply shrugged in response. The outer door to the shop was shoved open loudly and several more crashes were heard before the door was opened to reveal an intruder in shinigami apparel.

"DADDY'S HOME!" Isshin yelled at the top of his lungs before completely ignoring Ichigo and launching himself on top of Shiro to embrace his son's look-a-like. Shiro went bug eyed and froze in shock when Isshin suddenly encased him in a crushing bear hug. Peering over the man's shoulder, he gave Ichigo a look as if to ask, "WHAT THE HELL?"

After a moment Isshin extracted himself and ran over to declare to the nearest wall something about how he now had two sons to inherit the Kurosaki name. Shiro suddenly snapped out of his shock and kicked the over-excited man with a blow to the back of the head, causing him to smack into the wall before comically sliding down it like a pancake. "I ain't your son and I ain't takin' the name Kurosaki," Shiro declared as he stared at the man incredulously.

"Truly worthy to be my son…" Isshin muttered, tears streaming down his face. Ichigo was taking the opportunity to sit back, shaking with silent laughter as he watched the scene, admitting his father's antics were quite hilarious to watch when he was not the victim.

Urahara interrupted. "We've just decided that Kurosaki-san's hollow is going to take on the role of 'out of town friend'. His name will be Shirosaki Hichigo."

Isshin immediately jumped up and threw his arms up into the air at the injustice of it all. "SHIROSAKI? What kind of name is that? KAA-SAAAAAANN~! Our newfound son has already forsaken us without ever meeting us." Isshin wailed loudly. Shiro looked at Ichigo, hoping for some kind of explanation but Ichigo just shrugged. "Wait." Isshin suddenly darted out to grab Ichigo by his clothes, shaking him. "What did you do to make him hate us so much? I didn't raise you to treat your new siblings so horribly!"

Ichigo punched the man down to the ground and while accentuating each word with a stomp of his foot, he said, "He. Is. NOT. My. Brother. Understand?"

Orihime choose this moment to come back in with a plate of tea. "Ichigo-kun… That's not very nice!" she scolded.

Ichigo looked at Orihime incredulously as he pointed to the idiot he currently had pinned under his foot. "HE started it. HE always starts it. I have 10 times the maturity he has and he's probably 30 times older than I am." Isshin quietly muttered something about not being that old.

Urahara was busy smoking a pipe, enjoying the free entertainment. Kurosaki's were always good for that. Orihime set the plate of tea on the table in front of the seat next to Urahara as she passed out the tea. Shiro quickly scrambled to take the seat beside Orihime before Ichigo could sit down, sticking his blue tongue out at him when Ichigo glared at him.

"Thanks, Hime," Shiro thanked her in a sickly sweet voice, receiving a smile from her in return.

Ichigo reluctantly took a seat next to the albino and his father sat between Ichigo and Urahara. "Thanks, Orihime," Ichigo mumbled as she moved to set a cup in front of him.

"Oh, no problem at all… Ichigo-kun," Orihime stuttered out as her face began to flush.

As she turned to set a cup down in front of Isshin, she only caught a glimpse of the gleam in his eyes before he hugged her half to death. "You two are finally on a first name basis! A new son and a new daughter in one day! I can barely contain myself; this is too much happiness for one day!"

Ichigo's mouth dropped for a moment before he socked his father's face over Orihime's shoulder, effectively removing him from Orihime's embrace. "This is you containing yourself? Stupid old man!"

Isshin mumbled something about a daughter while he was knocked out on the floor. Orihime quickly took her seat, face now completely red. "Ma, ma… Such a violent family," Urahara commented as he finished his pipe.

Seething, Ichigo sat with his arms crossed across his chest as his mind reeled. Ichigo's eyes shot open when he felt something prod his ass. Turning around, he saw Shiro's hand firmly attached to his rear end. Ichigo glared at a widely grinning Shiro. A moment later, Shiro flew across the room with blood freely flowing from his newly broken nose, breaking through a door in the process.

After dinner, the trio headed down with Urahara to the lab to get started on taking measurements for Shiro's new gigai. Urahara had been receiving several upgrades from Seireitei over the last several months, but it had managed to keep that lab at home feel he had come to enjoy over the past century. After instructing the teenagers not to touch anything on pain of death, Urahara whisked off to one of the back rooms.

The room was mostly dark apart from lightly glowing cylinders and test tubes. Even in the low light, creepy looking scientific equipment could be seen everywhere in the large room. Ichigo and Orihime stayed close together while Shiro had decided to satisfy his curiosity and roam around the room, looking but not touching.

Unfortunately, breaking Shiro's nose turned out to be much less satisfying than Ichigo had though it would be. Orihime offered to heal it of course, but much to her dismay, Shiro had refused. He explained that he needed to know if he could still use his regeneration skills. Although the regeneration appeared to be much slower now, his nose had already stopped bleeding on its own and was looking much better than it was half an hour ago.

Suddenly the lights overhead turned on causing the teens to shield their eyes and squint over at the two near the door. "Ah, gomen, gomen. I should have turned the lights on sooner. I did promise Akon-san here a chance to help me with Shirosaki-kun's gigai if he decided he wanted one."

"You made me do all of the in-depth reiatsu analysis. It'd take you longer if you did it yourself," Akon muttered.

"I didn't make you do anything! You volunteered. Besides, I've had a lot of things to keep me busy the last few days."

"Yea, whatever."

Jotting down numbers as they went along, the pair of scientists did some physical measurements followed by waving several other strange looking sensors over the hollow. "So, Shirosaki-san, measurements are almost done," Urahara announced, "but how would you like it to look?"

"What do you mean? Isn't it supposed to look like me?" Shiro blanked.

"Well, yes… But it also needs to look human," Urahara explained.

"Whatever. I don't care. Just make it as close as humanly possible," Shiro said, rolling his eyes.

"You haven't mentioned anything about money," Ichigo blurted out as he came to the sudden realization.

"Nope~" Urahara said, flipping out his handy dandy fan to lightly fan his face.

Ichigo frowned. "How much is this going to cost?"

"It's not going to cost you anything," Urahara stated, as he snapped his fan shut and used it to point at Ichigo.

"Right. So I'm supposed to believe you're doing this out of the goodness of your heart? Is this some sort of dangerous proto-type or something? Or is this just for your own scientific indulgence?"

Urahara let a smile cross his face. "All of the above. However, considering that you have the two best gigai scientists in existing working on a unique gigai for a one of a kind hollow, this is as safe as you are going to get. Your father also already offered to pay for the gigai and any medical services while you were here."

"Goat Face?" Ichigo questioned, confused that his father would offer such a thing.

Urahara laughed. "Some time I'd like to get the full story behind that nickname, but for now we are all done here."

"Finally!" Shiro said, bolting away from the two scientists.

"Now you three get out of here!" Urahara ordered, waving the teens away with his fan.

"We aren't staying here tonight?" Orihime asked.

"Nope, you've all been here for three days. Certainly you've leeched off my kind-hearted hospitality for long enough."

"Che. Whatever." Ichigo turned to leave. He'd only been awake a couple hours and already the damn Geta-boushi was driving him crazy.

"Wait! Before you go, please take those bracelets on the table with you. They will conceal your reiatsu and appearance from the enemy. Wear them at all times when you are outside of the shop. The Kurosaki residence is completely shielded. I also took the liberty to place a barrier around your residence as well, Inoue-san."

"Oh! Arigatou gozaimashita," Orihime said with a bow before retrieving the three bracelets off the table.

"Remember. At all times when you are outside of those places. It is extremely important." Urahara emphasized. "Kon should be upstairs by now. Let me know if you have any trouble returning to your body, Kurosaki-san."

"Right."

The teens walked towards the exit of the lab as Urahara called out to them in a sing-song voice, "Have a pleasant evening, you three. The gigai will be done tomorrow afternoon, I'm not expecting you back until then. Be sure to behave and don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

Of course Kon had decided to launch himself at Orihime the moment he laid eyes on her, commenting on how big she had grown since he last saw her. A quick foot to his own face, Ichigo quickly knocked the mod soul out of his body with his badge and intentionally set the green pill right next to the stuffed lion on the table. It had been a while since he had been back in his body, the process felt slightly different than usual. As soon as he was back inside his body everything felt normal enough. After a quick touchup to his nose from Orihime, he threw on the bracelet and stepped outside. Ichigo made yet another mental note to try to remember not to beat the shit out of his own body, even if the mod soul occupying it was a serious pain in the ass.

Three shinigami officers approached the Urahara Shouten, as soon as they had arrived; Urahara stepped out onto the porch area to greet them. "Well?"

"We sensed no unusual activity while the three were outside, sir. Although the hollow exhibited no dangerous behavior, he was… enjoying himself as he harassed the living."

"Harassed the living?" Urahara questioned.

"The hollow took full advantage of his apparent invisibility to pull petty pranks on the living."

Urahara burst out laughing. "I knew I liked that one. He has spunk. Anything else?"

"They arrived at the Inoue residence safely. With your permission, we request to pass through to Soul Society so we can report this to the Captain Commander."

"Of course. Thank you for your assistance." Urahara sat down and watched them open a senkaimon and disappear into the brightly lit passageway. Procuring his pipe from his sleeve, he proceeded to fill and light it before gazing up into the night sky. He let his mind wander as he watched his own exhaled smoke lazily drift upwards.

Two days prior

"Did you even bother to read that report I made at your insistence?" Urahara asked in exasperation. "It clearly stated that one portion of the soul cannot live without the other. If a shinigami dies so does their zanpakutou spirit. As well as their hollow if present. The same applies in reverse."

"The souls appear to be separated completely from one another. I hesitantly gave the vizards my trust but I cannot trust this hollow to behave now that it has a body of its own!" the commander declared.

"If you kill Kurosaki's hollow, he will more than likely die with it," Urahara explained. "Even if they have separate bodies now, they are still linked with each other."

"Where is the proof of this?"

"There are several factors but the hollow appeared in a white version of Kurosaki-san's bankai outfit. There was also a white version of his zanpakutou in bankai form found nearby."

A minute of harsh silence later, the Yamamoto replied, "Then what are suggesting we do?"

"I suggest that you let me take care of their surveillance and protection as I continue my research on this matter. There is no way to be certain that this entity is even Kurosaki-san's hollow avatar until he confirms it himself. If the hollow is the entity that used to reside within the boy, let me make sure that it is to be trusted. This situation does worry me; however it is too early to be making any rash decisions."

"The top priority is to keep those three out of Aizen's hands. I will be informed the moment they awaken and you are to immediately detain the hollow in the same manner as the espada prisoner if you suspect he is unsafe. I will be sending some of my squad's officers to check up on the situation once they have awakened," the commander informed Urahara.

"I understand. Arigatou gozaimasu, Soutaichou." Urahara said graciously, bowing before taking his leave.

Yoruichi stepped out onto the porch and took a seat next to her long-time friend. "What did they have to say?" she asked, leaning back onto her hands and joining him as he gazed up at the stars.

"They made it there safe," Urahara informed her.

He looked over at her. "I'm honestly surprised at Shirosaki-san's behavior. I thought it was unlikely he would attack souls, but I was not expecting him to possess the type of feelings that he does."

"I think it's kind of cute."

"What's cute?"

"Those three. Ichigo is finally growing up, ne?" Yoruichi said with a sigh. "Ahhh… It seems like it was just yesterday he was that incredibly shy 15 year-old training for bankai. So fun to tease."

"I hope you didn't completely embarrass the poor boy."

"I only flashed him a few times. He didn't have to act like he was going to be scarred for life over it though."

"Leave it to Yoruichi-san to be completely unashamed of her body."

"I get such priceless reactions every time." The pair sat together in a comfortable silence, staring up at the stars together for several minutes before Yoruichi broke the silence once again. "What do you think those three are doing?"

Urahara glanced over at her before letting a smile slowly spread across his face.

Shiro stopped in the middle of the deserted side walk as they were nearing Orihime's apartment. He watched the two bright-haired teens walk in-front of him, hand in hand. Orihime was laughing and Ichigo was looking down at her fondly as they walked along. Ichigo stopped after a moment and turned around to see why Shiro had stopped. Orihime looked up at Ichigo with confusion before she noticed Shiro had stopped and was looking up at the sky.

"This is your first sunset, isn't it Shiro-kun?" Orihime realized. Shiro looked at her for a moment before taking in every detail about this moment. The sun shone through her flowery knee length shirt making the shadowed outline of her legs stand out. The sunset seemed to make their bright hair glow even brighter as it backlit the couple. Although her face was slightly shadowed, he could still easily see the smile on her face. The sky looked like it was set aflame as the giant ball of light had sunk halfway into the distant horizon.

Shiro nodded as he uttered a single word, "Amazing."

Well, I went to work on the chapter this morning before bed and decided to cut it off here. Shorter than some of the other chapters, but I like this kind of length. Probably could have had this out a couple days ago if I had decided after I wrote the last part... Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it!

Much more planned for next chapter! Ice cream and shenanigans at Orihime's house, Shiro gets his gigai, a visit to the Kurosaki house, etc. Fun stuff! With all this stress from the upcoming move and such it's been hard to find the motivation or the ability to sit down and write. I'm moving next week so I'm not sure when I'll be doing the next chapter but it's already lined out. Once I get settled in, I'm going to try my best to work on my update schedule. I'm trying my best to get used to writing and setting deadlines but writing has turned out a bit harder and easier in some ways. I can make excuses all I want but the bottom line is I need to do better. I don't want you to forget what's going on between chapters. Thanks for reading!

Japanese for the Chapter

エロ店長[ero-tenchou] – ero (from erotic- means pervert) tenchou- manager, store leader. Perverted Shopkeeper. Figured it fit Urahara pretty well. (comparable to Naruto's nickname for Jiraiya, ero-sennin… Hehehe, I think those two would get along veryyy well.)

ウルセェ[urusee]- Shut up

商店[shouten] – shop; Urahara shouten, Urahara shop