A/N: This story came and hit me out of nowhere. It started as something totally different than it ended as. Gotta watch out for those rabid plot bunnies. This is set after Ichigo regains his powers and before the Quincy arc. I think.

I don't own Bleach or any of the characters.

"C'mon Renji! You can't seriously be done already?"

"Oh, shut it Ichigo! You're swaying on your feet!" Renji shook himself once, before leaping back up to attack Ichigo again. Ichigo merely grinned and blocked Renji with Zangetsu. The clash of their zanpakuto was hard enough to produce sparks.

Renji saw a flash of pink to his right and smirked as Ichigo was thrown to the side by hundreds of sakura petals-in actuality, hundreds of tiny blades.

Ichigo flipped and regained his balance, panting slightly. Then he lifted his blade over his head and started to yell "Getsuga Ten-" before he was interrupted by a column of ice that nearly trapped him. He spun around and yelled indignantly at the tiny shinigami standing behind him.

"Oi! That nearly killed me, Rukia!" She snorted and put her hands on her hips.

"I didn't kill you. Besides if you did get hit by that, you're more pathetic than I thought."

"Hey-" Ichigo never got to finish his thought. Before he could argue, Renji tackled him and they both started falling to the ground. They landed with a crash in a cloud of dirt and smoke, Byakuya and Rukia landing gracefully next to the dirt cloud.

Renji emerged, coughing and grinning like the fox that snuck into the hen house. He walked over to Rukia and nudged her shoulder playfully while saying,

"I bet he'll be feeling that for a while." Rukia rolled her eyes and shunpo-ed to the rapidly thinning cloud of dirt. The dust finally cleared and Rukia started a bit at the sight that lay before her.

Ichigo was lying in a small crater, unmoving with blood dripping from his temple. Quickly, she darted next to his side and placed a hand on his chest as she leaned over him. Out of nowhere his eyes shot open and he sat up, crashing his forehead into Rukia's.

Both of them reeled back, putting their hands to their heads and groaning. Rukia took her hands away from her face and snapped at Ichigo.

"What was that for? Idiot!" She kicked him in the chest and Ichigo grunted as his head slammed into the ground again.

"Me? I'm not the one who was inches away from my head. All I did was wake up and try to sit up and now you're kicking me!" As they growled at each other, suddenly Ichigo and Rukia heard laughter. They looked up simultaneously and saw Renji laughing along with Shinji. Kisuke stood next to them, smiling and Byakuya merely stood and watched this all, impassive as ever. Rukia stood up and walked over towards Kisuke, asking,

"What are you two doing here? I thought you were over in the World of the Living on an assignment."

"We just finished so we decided to come back and see what all the ruckus was about. As usual, Kurosaki-san is the cause." Kisuke chuckled as Rukia reached him and started explaining.

"Ichigo and I were training when Renji and Nii-sama came over. Ichigo and Renji started fighting and we all somehow wound up fighting against Ichigo." As Rukia was explaining, Ichigo scowled and went to stand up.

Apparently, his body didn't want to comply because the second Ichigo stood up, his legs crumpled beneath him. The shinigami standing on the edge of the mini-crater immediately rushed over to his side. He tried to wave them off saying he was fine but Kisuke grabbed his chin and forced Ichigo to look at him.

Kisuke grimaced slightly when he saw that Ichigo's eyes were unfocused and his pupils were dilated, even in the light of the afternoon sun. The blood dripping down his face from a blow to the temple was probably the cause.

"I think you have a concussion, Kurosaki-san. We should take you to the Fourth Division. Captain Unohana will fix you, no problem." Ichigo's frown deepened as he registered that and then realized that he was going to have to get treated. And by that scary captain. If he could have stood up and protested he would have but the world was tilting and going a little hazy around the edges.

Suddenly he realized that getting his head fixed might not be such a bad idea after all.

^v^v^v^v^v^

"There. That should be it. Do you feel dizzy at all when you stand? Any pain?" Ichigo slid off the table and stood firmly, not swaying whatsoever. Ichigo shook his head a couple times to ensure that no lingering traces of dizziness remained.

"Nope. All good now. Thanks Unohana-san." Captain Unohana smiled and replied,

'I'm glad that you are feeling better. Maybe you should stay for a little while longer."

"Uhh, no thanks. I'm just gonna go now." Ichigo quickly dashed for the door before Unohana could react and kept running. It wasn't until he heard someone call his name that he skidded to a halt and turned around to see who it was.

Shinji was waving at Ichigo, a Cheshire cat grin on his face. Ichigo jogged back over to Shinji. To his surprise Byakuya, Rukia, Renji and Kisuke were all there, sitting on a deep blue blanket. Shinji smirked as he said,

"Run away from Unohana again, Ichigo?" Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"It was that or stay overnight. And that is not happening." Ichigo shuddered at the thought of Captain Unohana and her scary smile.

"Well, since your head's all better come drink with us! We got some good sake to share." Ichigo raised a brow at the cup of alcohol offered to him.

"You know I'm under age right?" Shinji just scoffed and downed the sake himself. Byakuya was frowning in contemplation as Ichigo sat down.

"Kurosaki." Ichigo turned to look at Byakuya.

"Yeah?"

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen." Byakuya was surprised by this (although it didn't show) and picked up his own sake cup and sipped contemplatively . He watched Ichigo with curious eyes as Ichigo and Renji started to argue over whose fault it was that Ichigo had a concussion.

^v^v^v^v^v^

All was quiet in the fourth division barracks. The only noise that could be heard was snoring and the occasional mumble of someone dreaming. The full moon shone gently down on the scene below, oddly peaceful compared to earlier in the day. The shinigami gathered there were relaxing on the grass, gazing up at the stars or casually drinking sake.

Rukia had somehow wound up perched on a tree branch above the others and was lying across it, swinging her feet back and forth. Renji was sitting next to his captain, who looked aloof and uncaring as ever. Shinji and

Kisuke were still drinking, not competitively, just enjoying sake and company.

Ichigo was lying on his back, not moving whatsoever. Shinji, deciding it was high time Ichigo actually ingested some alcohol, stood up and moved over to kick him. He stopped though, right before his kick made contact.

"Why'd ya stop?" Renji asked, surprised Shinji didn't punt Ichigo across the grass. Shinji turned and put a finger to his lips. He quietly walked away from Ichigo before murmuring,

"Punk's asleep." Rukia frowned and jumped down from her perch.

"Should he be sleeping? I know he was healed, but you generally shouldn't sleep with a head wound." Urahara waved away her concerns.

"He's fine. Unohana healed him, so there's no chance of him not being fully healed. But being healed is sometimes tiring, so we should just let him sleep." At that moment Ichigo rolled over and faced the shinigami.

Ichigo's eyes were closed and he was breathing slowly. The strangest part was his ever-present scowl was missing. His face was almost...peaceful.

"He looks different when he's not frowning all the time." Renji commented.

"He looks...younger somehow." Shinji muttered as he looked at Ichigo, illuminated in the moonlight. Kisuke nodded, wondering how someone so young could hold so much power. Even in his sleep, Ichigo's spiritual pressure was immense

As the shinigami looked at him, Ichigo shifted uneasily in his sleep. He curled up on himself and his eyebrows twitched into a frown.

"Wow he even frowns in his sleep." Renji snorted as he rolled his eyes. Byakuya merely watched Ichigo twitch before murmuring,

"I wonder what he is dreaming about." The other shinigami looked at him, surprised. They hadn't expected him to care. Rukia meanwhile, was looking at Ichigo and saw his lips forming the same word, over and over.

"Sorry."

Instantly, she knew. You can't sleep in the same room as someone for several months without picking up on things like this.

"I know what he's dreaming about." Kisuke glanced at her before returning his gaze to Ichigo.

"What's that?"

"His mother's death."

A rapid intake of breath was the only sound that followed Rukia's words. As the shinigami processed that, Ichigo was clawing at the ground and writhing in his sleep. This time, his voice reached the ears of the others so they heard his desperate mantra.

"Sorry. Sorry." Over and over, the same word until Ichigo suddenly froze and childishly begged,

"Please, don't leave. Don't leave me alone." Kisuke felt his heart twist and from the others expressions, he was pretty sure they felt the same thing. Ichigo murmured, "Please," one last time before his face relaxed and he dropped off into deeper sleep, free of dreams, and nightmares.

"Does-does that happen often?" Shinji muttered uneasily, unable to take his eyes off Ichigo.

"More often when it rains. But no, not usually. It must have been pretty bad tonight. Normally, you can't hear him beg." With that, Rukia returned to her branch, leaving the men to sit and think.

Kisuke was the first to talk.

"You know, normally, Ichigo seems to be able to carry the weight of the world with ease. I don't even stop to think about him or how... young he is. But then you see something like this and..." Kisuke trailed off, the others all thinking the same, except one.

"It's not that this causes him to lose his grip, or makes him unable because he is young." Byakuya stated, causing the others to look at him. "It is because of this that he takes on the world. It serves as a reminder, so he will never feel this way again, nor let anyone else." Everyone looked at Ichigo, his face once again serene, and wondered what else the substitute shinigami was hiding from everyone.

^v^v^v^v^v^

"Wake up, pineapple head." That, and a kick to the ribs was Renjis wake up call the next morning. He started and jumped to his feet, hands up to block anymore attacks. When the sleepy haze finally cleared from his head, Renji lowered his hands to see Ichigo smirking at him.

"Ichigo! You, uhh..." Ichigo frowned and tilted his head to the side.

"What? Do I have blanket marks on my face?" Renji blinked a couple times before stuttering out a response.

"N-no I just, uhh... w-well." Renji had no idea how to tell Ichigo that he watched him have a nightmare. About his mother's death no less. Renji was saved by a smack to the back of his head. Renji rubbed his head and turned to see Shinji smirking at him. The warning in his eyes was clear.

"Don't even think about telling him." Shinji glanced at Ichigo before grinning and saying,

"What Renji here is trying to say is that orange hair and bed head don't mix." Ichigo blushed and ran a hand through his unkempt hair. His hair was always spiky, so it wasn't really an exaggeration.

"Was that really so hard to say? Jeez!" Ichigo walked away from them as Kisuke appeared beside Renji. The three of them watched Ichigo turn the corner on the porch, scowl already in place for the day. His walls were up and no one was to be let inside. The scared and lonely child would have to be ignored until the world was saved.

Or until the next time it rained.

Fin

A/N: Woot! This is my first story on Fanfiction so please review and tell me how I did. Thanks!