Disclaimer: I do not own bleach. I just play with the universe and make no profit for it, muhahaah!

#S#

Today was a nice day, Ichigo decided as he walked down the street with his left hand in his jeans and his right holding an open book. There had hardly been any hollows, and Goat-face hadn't been that annoying today either. The sun was covered by the clouds in the perfect way that gave sunlight, yet procured shade for his side of the path. The teachers hadn't called on him today, and his relatively peaceful trek to Geta-Boushi's place had been undisturbed.

However, as he walked up to the shabby looking candy shop, he heard a loud crash and a muffled outcry from somewhere inside. It seemed, that while he had had a great day, someone else was utterly miserable.

He easily ignored the disaster and walked in like he owned the place before placing his book in his back pocket. Ichigo followed the noises to the back room where he knew Urahara kept his inventions –he had been warned away from that room- before throwing the door open when it became obvious only the blonde was home and he had no other option but go inside.

"Oi, Urahara-san?" Ichigo called out as the smoke started to escape the room through the door. He ignored it, and merely stalked inside without a single preoccupation "You should get some vents in here."

"Kurosaki-san?" Urahara called out from… somewhere to the left. "I thought I had mentioned the lab was off limits."

Ichigo waved off the complaint as he did every time he did something he wasn't supposed to do before walking in the general direction he thought the shop keeper was. The fact that the smoke had started to clear helped him greatly, and soon enough he found the blonde man kneeling by a weird contraption that looked oddly reminiscent to a portal.

"I'm not gonna go on a rampage and destroy your gizmos." He proclaimed sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

Urahara looked up from the panel and gave him a stupid pout Ichigo knew was all for show. "You never know, and I invest hours in some of these things."

Ichigo sighed but didn't refute the point. Instead he concentrated on Urahara's new project as he scanned the papers and parts lying around on the floor, desk, boxes and other inventions.

"And what are you working on?" the orange head asked instead to diverge the attention.

"Glad you asked!" Urahara perked up happily as he went back to tweaking with some wires "This is a mirror into alternate realities. It lets us take a peek into other worlds in the same attractor field!"

"Hmm," Ichigo hummed as he kneeled down next to the blonde to see what he was doing "Is it restricted to parallel points, or can it see past or future points of those other lines?"

"Well-" Urahara paused as he turned to Ichigo with an incredulous expression.

Usually, Urahara likes to answer questions with a little of technicality because it is fun to see others fidget and not understand a word of what he had said. Usually, it always works, and Kurosaki Ichigo had been no exception… though the boy tended to ignore him instead of actually paying attention, now that he thought about.

So really, when he had answered Ichigo's question, he was expecting a confused huh? Not interest and intelligent questions on further description!

"You-" he tried to begin again before Ichigo out stretched a hand to point at one of the wires.

"And you're doing this wrong." The orange head stated as if he was chastising a child. "If this is what I think it is, then the control panel should be set up in a way that connects the main power energy to the proton generator and the particle splitter, otherwise you'll just get glimpses of the same place, in another universe."

Urahara stared as he alternated his wide eyed look from Ichigo to the wiring. He had been about to connect it to the proton generator only and… that would have caused what the orange head said, he would get an image of his lab… in an alternate universe. But if he connected both!

"Thank you for pointing that out, Kurosaki-san." He said honestly after he had picked up his jaw from the floor "I hadn't noticed that… I wouldn't have expected you to notice that either."

Ichigo snorts as he tried not to roll his eyes "You may not know because you don't exactly have a complete file on my studies lying around somewhere, but after the Shinigami business started I was still 23rd place in my year grade over all."

Urahara continued to stare.

"And before that happened, I had more free time to study, so I would be 1st place and my grades were always outstanding in a way that had the teachers debating for a while if I should skip a grade or two."

He continues staring.

"Oi," Ichigo waves a hand in front of the shop keeper's eyes when it becomes obvious he has frozen from the shock "should I go get Inoue?"

"…No." he finally seems to snap out of his trance "I had never had the chance to read your school file, so I guess it was a negligence from my part, my apologies Kurosaki-san."

Ichigo sighed, typical of Urahara to have his file lying around somewhere.

"I guess," the blonde starts again as he turns back to his project while weighing his words carefully "I wouldn't mind you coming into my lab from time to time."

Ichigo merely gives him an unimpressed stare as he passes a hand through his unruly hair. He really shouldn't have expected anything less from the man, he always takes advantage of any situation that might benefit him.

Not to be continued…

Now, just for the record, I have no idea what half the mumbo jumbo I said was about –except the attractor field and points in time and lines- so do not ask me. It sounds sciency enough, so it's staying.

Thanks.

This goes off to, Yuu3! Smart Ichigo.