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He should have seen it coming, hindsight was always twenty-twenty after the fact. After having gone through the war against Aizen and the Espada, then Ginjo and the Fullbringers, and finally Ywhach and the Sternritters, one would think that Ichigo would be prepared for anything. That anything after those violent and traumatic events in his life, everything else would be an absolute breeze. But, as usual he was wrong and foolish to believe otherwise.
“Ichigo, are you even listening to me?”
He slightly flinched back from the annoyingly stern voice that was quickly causing his temper to flare up faster than a hollow outbreak. The scowl that used to be normally associated with the man formed on his features, as he tried to hold back his tongue from lashing out.
“I heard you just fine. I just don’t want to believe what came out of your mouth is an actual concept that you are seriously suggesting.”
A short huff of aggravation was the only response he got, watching as the petite woman who looked much younger than her actual age walked across the room to stand next to her husband who was currently dealing with their daughter swinging from his bicep. She squealed with delight, before launching herself off her father to bounce over to Kazui and join him playing on the living floor with his pile of building blocks.
“I honestly don’t see what the problem is, Ichigo,” Rukia huffed out, arms crossed and trying to come off as intimidating. Even though she was on her way to being highly considered for the position of Squad Thirteen’s captain, she would always just be Rukia to him - the woman who turned his life into what it was now and one of his best friends. Hell, Rukia was basically the older sister he never had (and to be frank, never really wanted) and while he was eternally grateful to her for helping him obtain access to his powers, he really didn’t see why he was obligated to this asinine request of hers.
“Of course you don’t, you annoying midget. Just because you bully Renji around and make him agree with whatever you say doesn’t mean that I’m just gonna lay on my belly and roll over too!” He ignored the look of annoyance on said man’s face, interrupting his challenge of rebuttal before continuing on, “And besides, what if Orihime and I already have plans for that time-frame? That would be beyond rude to insinuate we would just drop everything for you two knucklehe-”
“For your information, I already happened to discuss this with Orihime ahead of time and she was perfectly fine with it! In fact, she was the one who volunteered the two of you for this important task!” Rukia interjected, turning her head to the side to mumble out, “Honestly, you act like I’m threatening to throw you to a pit of hollows.”
Ichigo clenched his fists tightly, an agitated growl forming on his lips as he prepared to tell her exactly how her “requests” were much more complicated than she made them out to be when the sound of the front door opened and quietly clicked shut. He glanced over his shoulder, and felt his shoulders sag in relief at the sight of Orihime walking in with arms full of grocery bags. Kazui looked up from building some sort of odd-shaped castle with Ichika and pushed himself up, eyes beaming with delight at the site of his beloved mother, and raced to tackle her at the knees.
“Mama, mama! You back! Back from story!”
Orihime laughed softly, setting the grocery bags down to pick up their son and nuzzle her nose against his. “I am back from the store! What a smart boy you are, Kazui!” The toddler clapped his hands and wrapped his small arms around her neck. Ichigo felt his body grow warm in content as he watched their typical greeting, knowing this was something he would always protect. His two most important people, the lights in his life and owners of his heart. The moment was unfortunately broken when he heard a snicker behind him and muttering of “Look at that dopey look on his face”, which reminded him of the fact he had two unwanted guests in his home. Before he had a chance to say something back to the redheaded lieutenant, Orihime looked their way and exclaimed, “Oh Rukia! Renji! What a pleasant surprise! And you brought Ichika over too! Oh wow, you must have been having a lot of fun, huh Kazui!”
She started to bend over to pick up the grocery bags while still holding onto Kazui, but Ichigo quickly hurried over, grabbing the bags easily in one hand and placing a tender kiss against the crown of her browline.
“Welcome home, Hime.” He quietly whispered into her skin, enjoying feeling her shiver in delight whenever he spoke that way to her. Orihime hummed back and smiled brightly at him, “I’m home with my two favorite people in the whole wide world.” She stood on her tiptoes to place a proper kiss to his lips, cutting it short much to Ichigo’s displeasure to walk around and greet their house-guests like the polite person she was. He couldn’t hold back a small smile, and headed towards the kitchen to put away their goods from the store while still listening to the conversation. A frown pulled at his lips, as he could hear how Rukia was lamenting the fact that he was being “downright stubborn and refusing to assist his close friends, practically family!” in their time of need.
Even worse, they all knew that Orihime wouldn’t be able to refuse and Rukia was playing the world’s loudest violin while still being the smallest - probably. He sighed in defeat, knowing how this was going to turn out as the future captain continued to draw out her despair over Ichigo being a cold-hearted bastard that would let his only “god-daughter” (how they wound up being considered Ichika’s godparents was beyond him, but not nearly as crazy as Orihime asking the two knuckle-headed soul reapers to be Kazui’s aunt and uncle) out on the streets while her parents were away on a work-related trip, and interrupted her tirade.
“Alright already, enough with the mopey crap! She can stay here while you guys are doing whatever it is that is supposedly so important to do for the next three days.”
Orihime turned to smile at him, happy that he agreed to let Ichika stay with them and excitedly began to list all the fun activities they would do together while Rukia and Renji quietly fist-bumped each other for their successful plan of leaving their daughter in the world of the living. Ichigo could only imagine that Byakuya was either accompanying the couple on said trip or was just as equally busy as to not being able to watch his only niece, and he knew how much of a sap the stuck-up captain was towards the small redhead. In all the years that he had known him, Ichigo had never seen Byakuya crack a barely legible smile towards anyone, but somehow the offspring of his adoptive sister and lieutenant was able to bring it out without much effort.
As Orihime and Rukia went over the details of how long they would be babysitting Ichika and what her schedule typically consisted of, Ichigo followed Renji back into the living room to watch their kids continue building with the blocks from earlier. A heavy sigh escaped his lips, knowing that an impending migraine was well on its way as he rubbed a hand across his face in a feeble attempt to soothe it as Renji chuckled in response to Ichigo’s distress. Not even having the energy to throw back a glare towards the man, he kept his eyes on their kids, silently watching them interact and create a world of their own imagination.
“Hard to believe that it’s almost been an entire decade since all that shit happened.”
Ichigo had to strain his ears to catch what the redhead casually spoke, surprise coloring his face at the sudden change in topic. Renj didn’t even bother looking at him, but a toothy smile still formed on his face that held a trace of an edge within it as his eyes stayed on the children.
“If you hadn’t gone on to beat that bastard, none of us would have this now. This peace, freedom, our future,” a subtle nod towards the toddlers, “it would have all died the moment you gave up.”
A sharp scoff escaped Ichigo, not having to look towards Renji directly to see the lone brow rising in question to his wordless rebuttal. He leaned forward, resting his forearms across his knees as he continued watching the kids build what looked to be one of the buildings in town that was mainly used for filming one of their favorite shows that starred an annoying “supernatural specialist”.
“If you really want to thank someone, you should be telling this to Orihime and not me. She’s the real reason we all have this still because if she gave up on me back then...well, you know how it is.”
He knew that they all still thought about that day, were still affected by those events nearly a decade later. Hell, Orihime had a nightmare about it not even two months prior and thinking about how quickly she was overcome with despair still made his stomach churn in fear.
Renji was silent for a while, lounging back into the couch with his arms casually resting against the frame and looking up at the ceiling as if staring down some invisible foe, before deciding to continue the conversation. “Maybe so, but the way I see it, the two of you are just an extension of the other. Two pieces of a whole, much like how me and Rukia are. So by definition, I’m not technically wrong in what I said.” By then, a lop-sided smirk formed on his face, causing Ichigo to smile back in response. “No, you technically aren’t wrong.”
Ichigo’s hands gripped the sides of his arms, resisting the urge to get up and help Kazui trying to place a block on a part of their structure that was too high for the toddler to reach, only to relax when Ichika quickly came bounding over to the other side and offered her assistance to aid the younger child. It both astounded him to no end, yet didn’t surprise him in the slightest at how easily Kazui and Ichika’s friendship formed with one another, as both kids were the complete opposite of one another. It seemed that their physical genes of taking after their fathers were strong in both of them, while their mannerisms were nearly identical to their mothers which helped to off-set their seemingly clashing personalities.
In a sense, the two of them were each other’s closest friend and sibling, forged in a bond that didn’t require blood for relations. And if their parents had their way, these two and future children from their rag-tag group of friends or family would never experience the hardships they suffered in their youth. Ichigo had no doubt in his mind that Ichika would grow up to eventually attend the Soul Reaper’s Academy and later become a member of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, her lineage pretty much guaranteeing a spot amongst the ranks. But him and Orihime wondered if their son would eventually show signs of having powers like Ichigo or his mother, and how it would potentially affect his life as he continues to grow up.
Is this a life that he would even want? Am I just damning him to a future that he would wind up hating? Would he blame us?
Before these dark thoughts could further cloud his mind and judgement on the decisions he unknowingly made towards his son, he felt a pair of hands tap his arms softly and looked up to see Kazui standing in front of him with wide eyes.
“Hey, what’s up buddy?” Ichigo asked, concern lacing his voice as he quickly looked over the toddler for any cuts or bruises that may have been acquired in the last five minutes. Kazui dramatically shook his head from side to side, and reached a hand towards Ichigo while asking in a serious tone, “Daddy, why you sad? Do you have owie? Need mama’s fairy?”
Ichigo froze, unable to respond to the toddler’s inquiry and feeling taken aback at how sharp his eyes were to pick up on such a subtle change of his father’s mood. Either that, or my face was too obvious about the line of thinking I heading towards
He smiled softly at his only child, moving his hands to pick Kazui up and place him on his lap, and running his hand through the back of the child’s hair while resting their foreheads together. “Nah, daddy is okay. I’m sorry if I interrupted your game with Ichika.” Kazui shook his head, patting his hand against Ichigo’s cheek in reassurance, and exclaimed happily, “It okay, daddy! Buddy check on daddy, make sure daddy okay!” He smiled a wide toothy grin, cheeks flush with happiness that nothing seemed to be wrong with his dad. Ichigo closed his eyes, fiercely holding back the stinging of tears forming and tightly wrapped his arms around the little boy that held the world in the palm of his hand.
“Thanks buddy, I’m glad I have you looking out for me. Maybe your name should have been Ichigo instead.” Kazui laughed in childish delight at being hugged and wrapped his arms as best as he could around Ichigo’s neck, and responded gleefully, “But daddy protect! So daddy is Its-ee-go!”
“That’s right, daddy does protect! He protects everyone and everything, so that’s why he’s Ichigo!” Orihime confirmed along with Kazui, walking into the living room with Rukia following behind her to check up on Ichika. Ichigo leaned into Orihime’s embrace from behind, breathing in her familiar scent of fresh linen and sweet bread, and smiled as he felt her lips brush against his forehead. It was this feeling, this way of life that made him realize that even if Kazui did wind up having powers like his parents, Ichigo would make sure to always be there to help guide him and give him the best chance of a life with the least amount of loss.
After all, he was given the title of protector and that was something he took very seriously.