Of Birthdays and Siblings
~Not So Nice~

The three headed back to the Kurosaki household as it continued to snow. Toshiro glanced behind him every so often at the footsteps they were leaving that were being filled with brand new snow flakes. They stopped at a corner and the shinigami found himself lifting his feet from the place he stopped and stepped back to watch it feel.

Ichigo felt the corner of his mouth twist up. "I thought your zampaktuo was an ice zampaktuo Toshiro. How come you're so enthralled with snow?"

"It is rather fleeting, just like a good deal of things in my life." The small boy suddenly glanced up to see Bambietta looking at him, yet another frown on her face. "Look, I am not going to even try to placate you. I learned the hard way recently that all it does is make me physically ill."

"Its not that. What did you mean by the fact a good deal of things are fleeting for you."

The three started moving again and Toshiro placed his hands in his pocket. "I don't like talking about it. Maybe I'll be in the mood to tell you some other time."

The three arrived at the house and Ichigo opened the door and headed in. He could see that the table was set and a nice lunch was spread. Yuzu hurried over with a smile on her face. "Uryu-nii said he would be joining us well. Who are the other two guests?"

Toshiro stepped from behind Ichigo and Yuzu let out a squeal of delight before glomping him around the neck, causing the boy to flinch. The smile on her face faded upon seeing Bambietta and a horrified look appeared on her face. The small female hurried over to where Karin was already sitting. She bent over and whispered into her sister's ear. "Karin... did you know that Toshiro-kun is cheating on you."

"I thought we told you we weren't dating." The dark haired Kurosaki twin kept her tone low so as to not upset their guests.

The white haired child suddenly felt his sister leaning on his back, whispering into his ear. "Hey, I think that brown haired girl has a crush on you."

The small male blinked a couple of times before turning to give his sister a look that declared the fact he thought she was crazy. "No... she doesn't have a crush on me."

"Then why did she react so negatively to me?" Bambietta asked.

"Perhaps it has to do with the fact you haven't exactly been trying to be friends with people." Ichigo walked over to the lunch table and sat down. "Thank you for lunch Yuzu."

"You're welcome Ichi-nii." Yuzu suddenly beamed at her brother, a huge smile on her face. The small female then turned to look at the two quests, a frown on her face as they both sat down. Toshiro glanced at her warily while Bambietta watched the two.

"I didn't want to say it, but my sister said something creepy again."

"I think young master she was implying the fact that Yuzu doesn't know the two of you are related and thus has come to the assumption that you are cheating with your sister."

"Now why would she think something like that. I'm not dating anyone right now."

The small brown haired twin's mouth suddenly spread across her face and a wicked glint flickered across her eyes. "Toshiro... why are you cheating on my sister?"

The small taicho's jaw dropped while Karin suddenly slapped her hands over her eyes and leaned on her hands. "Yuzu... I told you we aren't dating."

Bambietta blinked a couple of times before speaking up, an overly mischievous look on her face. "We've kissed twice."

Toshiro's head hit the table in frustration while Karin peeked out from the fingers covering her eyes, the one eye that showed widening from the shock. Ichigo watched with a rather amused look on his face while Yuzu's face turned a bright red and her cheeks puffed out. Her hand took the utensil she was going to dish the food up with and moved to bring it down on Toshiro's head.

The substitute grabbed it, suddenly frowning. "Yuzu... this is Toshiro's sister."

"Oh... that's different." Yuzu piped up just as Toshiro lifted his head up, his eyes out of focus and his cheeks flushed up. "So... if my sister and your brother marry, that means you and I will be sisters, right?"

At first Toshiro's eye twitched, and then the corner of his mouth. He then crossed his arms and buried his head into his arms and let out a groan. Bambietta frowned at first, but a smile spread on her face. "Yeah. That would make us family."

The corner of Ichigo's mouth twitched while Karin continued to stare though the fingers on her hand. She then looked at Toshiro and removed her fingers from her face. "Don't worry Toshiro. If a family member kisses you it doesn't count as your first kiss."

Toshiro glanced up again. "That isn't the problem as I already got that. My problem is the fact she thinks it is all right to kiss me on the lips because we're siblings."

"Well, isn't it all right?" Yuzu spoke up.

Ichigo suddenly crossed his hands across his chest in annoyance. "No absolutely not."

The brown haired twin glanced at her sister for an answer and Karin let out a sigh. "No, it isn't."

"Perhaps I should ask dad..." Yuzu piped at.

"That old goat. He'd likely say it was all right to kiss him but not Ichi-nii, but that wouldn't be right at all."

Toshiro's attention perked up. "Speaking of your father, where is he?"

"He called saying he had a business meeting." Yuzu sighed. "He's bad about doing that when Ichi-nii's friends come around. He doesn't do it with any of our friends who aren't also Ichi-nii's."

The small Shinigami turned to look Ichigo in the face. "You told me your father is a Shinigami. Exactly who is he?"

This time Karin's mouth dropped and her hands slammed against the table, causing everyone at the table to flinch and look at her. Ichigo felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "Hey... Toshiro. Not only is Yuzu here at the table and not able to understand half of the conversation, Karin actually didn't know that dad is a former Shinigami until you blurted it out."

"Ichi-nii... what else are you not telling me about dad?" Karin's slammed her head down.

"That is it as he hasn't bothered to tell me anything else. As I was telling Toshiro, since he is a Shinigami, it is possible that our mother was a Quincy."

"I already knew mom was a Quincy because Uryu-nii was a Quincy." Karin snapped the words out.

"That makes absolutely no sense at all." Ichigo blinked a couple of times. "How is mother related to Uryu?"

"She's his aunt!" Karin piped up.

Yuzu blinked a couple of times. "Even I knew that Uryu-nii was our cousin. Remember, he went to Grandpa Rin's funeral."

"Don't bother Yuzu. He doesn't remember." The small female snapped the words out.

"Well... that is a revelation I didn't expect." Toshiro stated just as the doorbell rang. Glancing up, he found himself frowning. "Speaking of which, he's here."

Yuzu smiled and hurried over to the door. When she came back, she was clinging onto the Quincy's arm while the young man frowned. "Ichi-nii doesn't remember Grandpa Rin's funeral."

Ichigo felt his eyebrow twitch. "Uryu... can you explain why my sisters think that our mother is your aunt?"

"How should I know?"

Yuzu turned and looked at Karin. "Now he's being mean too."

"Perhaps both of their memories were erased?" Toshiro spoke up, shaking his head as he did.

Uryu pushed up his glasses. "Kurosaki, do you have a picture of your mother that I could see?"

Ichigo hiked his thumb and everyone looked up at the overly large poster on the wall. "How can you miss that?"

"I thought it was a picture of a movie star that your father idolized as he is that crazy." Uryu sighed. "But now that I think about it, that person does look like my aunt Masaki."

"See!" Karin stated. "So I wasn't keeping anything from you while you kept the fact that dad was a Shinigami from me!"

"I don't know what is going on, but here is some food." Yuzu spoke up, beaming as she did so as her part of the argument was solved.

"So... they're also children born of darkness." Bambietta suddenly commented, her lips pushing together. Four sets of eyes turned to stare at her while Yuzu continued to smile and dish up the food.

"I take it your referring to those who have both Quincy and Shinigami blood in them?" Uryu frowned. "They are called that because they are seen as impure? It's not a term I've heard from my father."

The small female frowned, but before she could say something Toshiro spoke up again. "You still haven't told me who your father is Kurosaki."

"He could have changed his name Toshiro." Ichigo frowned at the boy.

"His name is Kurosaki Isshin if that helps Toshiro." Karin sat down and began to eat.

The boy's eyes were narrowed for a few minutes. Ichigo slapped a fist into the palm of his other hand. "I forgot. His zampaktuo has a similar name to mine. It's called..."

"Engestu." Toshiro spoke up taking a bite of food. "I know exactly who he is, and if he hasn't told you anything about himself then I am quite sure he of all people has his reasons. While Ishida's described him as being a fool, he is far from it and only plays the roll of the fool to put people off his guard. He is highly intelligent and is... was considered one of Soul Society's child geniuses."

"You act like you know our daddy." Yuzu spoke up.

"He hasn't made me make a promise to keep who he is a secret. When you guys see him again, please tell my former taicho that I know full well that he is your father and there is no point hiding from me anymore when I come over. Also, you can tell him that his sister is getting tired of running the Shiba clan and that she is not the head of the family, nor are the other two brothers."

Ichigo felt his jaw dropping, while Uryu's eyes widened. "You mean that I am related to Ganju? No way in hell!"

"Actually... that explains a lot about your family Kurosaki..." Uryu pushed his glasses up.