So… new story! I really shouldn't be doing this. It isn't as if I don't have enough stories to work on already. But the idea popped up and it wouldn't leave, so I thought it was only fair that I would not be the only one having to deal with it. At least this chapter made me practice writing a little kid's POV, which is surprisingly difficult.

Special thanks go to Cywscross for inspiring this fic with her story 'Sight'. With her permission I am borrowing her idea for Ichigo's ability. Cywscross, thank you!

Enjoy!

Ichigo blinked. There was a lady in the shop.

He was three and his mom had taken him to a candy shop because he had been a good boy, waiting so patiently at the hospital while the doctors checked her tummy. They had been to this shop before, but Ichigo had never seen this lady. She was standing quietly near the back of the store, a bored look on her pale face.

She was a very odd lady, dressed in a beautiful costume. A kimono in all shades of red and gold, multi-layered like a princess' robe, and with delicate pins and combs in her long black hair, keeping it pinned in elegant loops on the back of her head. Like his mom's old Hinamatsuri dolls. She was pale, with crimson lips and eyelids, the deep, vibrant red enhanced with a glistening dusting of gold. She was very pretty.

She was also wearing a wide hat with red veils hanging from the rim. If she hadn't been turned his way he wouldn't have been able to see her face. It was almost as if she was hiding. Except the fabric wasn't really the right colour for that.

"Hello," Ichigo greeted the lady, eyes wide and curious. "Didya know that it's rude to wear hats inside?"

The lady blinked. Frowned a tiny bit as she looked around. A thin eyebrow rose. She looked down at Ichigo. "… Excuse me, what did you say?"

"Okaa-chan says it's rude to wear hats inside," Ichigo told her. "Otou-chan says 'Kaa-chan's always right." His hand brushed the long, semi-transparent veil. It was so light it almost didn't feel real. "Didn'ya know?" he asked curiously.

"… You can see me," the lady murmured, ignoring Ichigo's statement. She tapped her chin with a fan, looking thoughtful. The ret tassels at the tip brushed her cheek. She snapped it open, hiding her lower face behind scarlet folds decorated with patterns in bronze and gold. Cherry-red eyes stared down at him over the rim. "What is your name, boy?"

"… Ichigo," Ichigo answered. "Okaa-chan says it means First Protetor, 'cause I'm gonna be a big brother." He puffed up proudly.

"Ichigo," she repeated slowly, as if exploring the shape of the sounds.

"What's your name?" Ichigo asked.

She regarded him for a long moment, making him squirm and feel as if he'd done something wrong.

"What would you call me," she asked curiously, "if I did not answer that question?"

Ichigo thought about it. Shrugged. "Red lady."

She chuckled, soft and low. Her fan made the sound quiet and secretive. "I suppose that is not too far from the truth." For the first time, Ichigo saw her eyes crinkle in a smile. "Yes," she decided. "That will be quite acceptable."

"Huh?"

She bent forward, sitting on her haunches so she could look him in the eye. This close, her hat – which she still hadn't taken off, much to Ichigo's bemusement – shadowed both of them, the veils concealing them from the rest of the world.

"From now on," she told the three year old, "You may call me Red Lady. It is a pleasure making you acquaintance, Ichigo-kun."

Ichigo blinked. "Why not your real name?" he asked with the blunt innocence of a child.

Another crimson smile, this time almost nostalgic. "That is not my way. I never give my name, Ichigo-kun. If you wish to call me by my true name you will have to earn that right."

"Why?"

"Maybe one day you will understand," she said absently, fingers fluttering butterfly-light over his hair in an almost-pat-on-the-head. "Until that day, you could say it is merely because I desire it this way."

With those words, Red Lady rose and walked to the door at the back of the shop, just as it opened and his mother stepped through. Ichigo thought they were going to walk right into each other, but before he could call a warning Red Lady passed through his mother like a ghost. His mom didn't even seem to notice that someone had just walked through her!

Ichigo stared after Red Lady, wide-eyed and awed, until his mother told him to stop daydreaming. He grinned as he grabbed a bag of his favourites. He couldn't wait to tell his mommy about the pretty ghost lady!

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Ichigo's mom was enamoured with the idea of a pretty ghost lady in the candy shop, happily joining Ichigo in his speculations on where Red Lady might come from. At the moment she was placing bets on a really good cosplayer with a love for quaint little candy shops who had died a tragic death and had decided to seek out comfort among the sweets. Ichigo supposed that if his mother thought so it was likely true.

"But Ichi-chan, I didn't see her," his mom complained playfully. "Couldn't you have asked her to wait? I would have liked to talk to her."

Ichigo shrugged. "I don't think she wannet to."

His dad just listened to their conversation with amusement. "I'm pretty sure the owner of that shop would know if there was a ghost in his home," he told Ichigo. "He knows a lot about ghosts. He wouldn't have missed her, especially if she's as pretty as you say."

"Maybe they live together," Ichigo said, remembering the silly blond man with his green clothes and silly hat. "He's got a weird hat too. And a fan. But hers are prettier."

His dad laughed. "Maybe they do. And they all eat candy together and hide it behind their fans so nobody knows. And they've got a secret stash beneath their hats so nobody can steal it."

Ichigo's eyes went wide. "You think?" he asked, awed by such an incredible idea. He tried to imagine it. "So that's why she didn't take her hat off! 'Kaa-chan, can I have a hat and fan too?"

While his mom burst into giggles his dad pouted at him. "But Ichigo, then we wouldn't know when you're eating candy, and then all the candy will be gone! And your poor old Otou-chan won't have any, and your poor Okaa-chan will have all her nice meals left over because you would be all full of candy! you're already my sweet little kiddo, you don't need to be any sweeter!"

Ichigo wrinkled his nose. "I wouldn't eat everything. Just a little. And I eat 'Kaa-chan's food!"

"Not your vegetables, you don't."

"Greens are icky," Ichigo agreed.

His dad swept him up in a hug. "Aww, but they're good for you! How else are you going to be a big Onii-chan? You'll just stay tiny and scrawny and then your little siblings will need to eat extra so they can take care of their tiny Onii-chan!"

"Nu-uh! I dun' need greens!" Ichigo protested, wriggling in his dad's hold. "I'm gonna show!"

His parents just laughed. Ichigo pouted. No one was taking him seriously.

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Ichigo didn't know it, but later that evening his parents discussed this 'Red Lady'.

"You're sure it isn't a ghost?" Masaki asked her husband.

"Nah. If it was, Kisuke would have taken care of it," Isshin reassured them. "He may slack off with the konsou from time to time, but he wouldn't let one of them remain in his shop. Ichigo is safe."

"I hope so," she said. "I know that it is normal for children his age to have an imaginary friend, but with Ichigo…."

Isshin laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I know. I hate not being able to see them too. If it helps, I'll tell Kisuke that we think Ichigo saw a ghost. If there is one he'll get rid of it."

Turned out that Kisuke hadn't detected any ghosts in or near his shop. But, like Masaki's said, Ichigo was the right age for imaginary friends.

Both parents were relieved at the reassurance. Ichigo's imagination was hardly going to be a danger to him.

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The next time Ichigo saw Red Lady at the candy shop he complained about his parents unreasonableness in regards to vegetables and candy. She laughed and poked fun at him, but at least she offered him some advice after she was done.

"You know Urahara Kisuke, the owner of this shop?"

Ichigo nodded fervently. It was hard to miss the cheerful man who his mom always had tea with while he chose what sweets he wanted. "Silly man with floofy hair and hat and clogs."

She smirked at that description, a pretty moon-shaped curve of red beneath laughing eyes. "That one exactly. Tell him why you think he wears that atrocious hat and fan of his and he will help you. Do not tell him about me though."

Ichigo blinked. "Why not? Are you playin' a game?"

Red Lady chuckled. "Hm, yes. Yes, we are. He is not aware of my presence and I am curious to see how long it will remain that way now that you can see me." She bent a little closer. "He thinks he is very clever, but I rather would see how quick he can figure this out. He could use the practice and it would be amusing. It can be our little game with him."

Ichigo snickered. "Okay," he promised with a grin. "I won't tell."

"Good," she purred. "Now, let us see if we can convince him to help you acquire some items."

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It was tricky to sneak behind his mom's back to talk to the funny man, but with Red Lady telling him what to do and when, he succeeded.

Urahara looks surprised to have a little kid pull on the hem of his haori, but shook it off and sat down on his haunches so he could look Ichigo in the eye. "Why, hello there, Kurosaki-kun," he said cheerfully, his fan tucked away and a friendly smile on his face. "Is there something you need from lil' old me? Your mother is looking for you right now, you know. Are you looking for a specific type of candy? Do I need to refill some of my stock?"

The man's smile was infectious. Ichigo smiled back, feeling a little shy. It was only thanks to Red Lady standing next to him that he found the courage to say, "I wanna have a hat and a fan, Urahara-san."

Urahara blinked at him. "A hat and a fan?" He tugged on his green and white had and took his paper fan from his sleeve. "Like these?"

Ichigo nodded. "Yep."

"Why?" the blond asked curiously.

"'Cause then I can eat candy and 'Kaa-chan and 'Tou-chan won't see. 'Tou-chan said you do it too."

Urahara laughed at his reasoning. Grinning, he asked, "Did he? My, how rude of him." He adopted a woeful expression. "Your father is a cruel, cruel man, Kurosaki-kun, accusing a poor, innocent shopkeeper of such a heinous crime. How could I ever let such slanderous accusations pass?"

Ichigo snickered. The blond was almost as silly as his dad. Urahara shook his head, giving him a conspiring grin. "I think I've got just what you need." He stood up, brandishing his fan dramatically. "Follow me, Kurosaki-kun! I will gift you with the most miraculous gadgets you could ever wish! You will be concealing your gluttonous habits from your parents in no time at all!"

"Yeah!" Ichigo cheered, pumping a fist in the air. As he trailed after a whistling Urahara he whispered to Red Lady, "What's glutt'nus mean?"

Red Lady looked down at him from behind her fan. "That you eat too much."

Ichigo frowned and gave her a weird look. How could you ever eat too much candy?

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Ichigo's mother very nearly collapsed from the sheer hilarity of seeing her tiny son dressed up like a mini-Urahara. He was wearing a navy bucket hat with white stripes and fuzzy black trimmings at the rim, a similarly coloured haori that almost reached his ankles and had frankly ridiculous pockets that were nearly splitting at the seams from the amounts of sugary treats stuffed inside, and a white paper fan that was too big for his hands to hold properly. Since he had not mastered the art of angling his fan to conceal his face she could see his cheeks bulging like a chipmunk's as he chewed on what she was sure were far more sweets than she would ever allow him in one go.

The real Urahara was standing next to him, a wide, shit-eating grin on his face as he presented Ichigo almost proudly. "Voilà," he declared with a flourish.

"Voilà what?" Masaki giggled. "My poor boy! He looks like you!"

"I know! Isn't it great?" Urahara teased. He patted Ichigo on the head, accidentally-on-purpose shoving the hat over Ichigo's eyes. Ichigo grumbled something, but it was muffled.

Masaki sighed and firmly clamped down on the urge to let out another giggle as Ichigo gave Urahara a baleful look as he pushed his new hat back in position. Unable to resist she pulled her camera out of her bag and snapped a few pictures. This was just too cute!

"If he gets cavities I'm blaming you," she warned the ridiculous shopkeeper. Urahara just grinned unrepentantly.

From the corner of his eye, Ichigo could see Red Lady smirk.

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The fact that he was emulating Red Lady – and, by incident, the weird shopkeeper – was apparently reason for Red Lady to seek Ichigo out. Before that he had only met her at the shop, but now she randomly turned up in his room and when he was out playing. Only ever when he was alone though. She didn't want people to see him talking to her.

"People would not understand," she explained to him one day, when he was playing on his own at the local playground. "Your gift will make them uneasy. It is better to be careful who you allow to know about it."

"Gift?" Ichigo asked, momentarily pausing in his efforts to build a tepee from twigs. He'd just thought it was because of the silly game she was playing with the shopkeeper.

"Your ability to see what other cannot."

"Like you?"

"Indeed."

Ichigo frowned. "But how do I know what people can see?"

Red Lady paused. "You cannot distinguish between me and ordinary people?"

"Distingis?"

"Distinguish. To be able to tell the difference between me and them," Red Lady clarified with an dismissive wave.

"Well, you wear weird clothes," Ichigo pointed out reasonably.

Red Lady gave him a vaguely amused look. "Regardless of attire. Am I not hazy compared to others? More transparent? Do I not give you any odd feeling at all?"

Ichigo shook his head. "Nu-uh. You just look like you."

Red Lady gave a thoughtful hum. "And that person?" she asked, gesturing at an old man sitting on a bench on the other side of the grassy field of the playground.

"No," he said. "Is he a ghost too?"

Red Lady was silent for a while. "He has a chain hanging from his chest," she replied finally.

"Huh? Really?" Ichigo looked a bit better. Yes, there was something dangling from the man's chest! "Cool!"

"Hardly," Red Lady sniffed. "It means that he's dead."

"Oh." Ichigo thought about that. "Can we talk to him?"

Red Lady gave him another long look. "You could talk to him, yes."

"You can't?" Ichigo didn't understand. "But you're a ghost too."

Red Lady smiled. "Not quite. I am a spirit, not a ghost. No one should see me except other spirits. And even they cannot, if I should choose so. You are the one exception."

Ichigo thought about that. "But don't that get lonely?"

Red Lady shrugged. "It is rather the other way around. Before we met there used to be only one person I could talk to, and we only speak when he comes to a special place to meet me. With you added it rather gets quite busy." She spotted his wide, horrified eyes and sighed. "I suppose you make things less boring," she allowed.

Without warning Ichigo jumped to tightly hug her waist. Red Lady was too surprised to do more than freeze at the unexpected touch. With his face buried in her kimono, he missed the look of complete and utter shock that flashed across her face.

Ichigo almost felt like crying for Red Lady. She was so old she was already an adult, and she only ever talked to one person? That sounded horribly lonely. She was so nice, Ichigo didn't want her to be alone! "I'm always gonna talk to you," he promised her. His voice was muffled by the heavy fabrics of her clothes, but he knew she'd heard him when he felt her stiffen. "You can visit me lots and you don't hafta be bored anymore."

After a long silence, Red Lady huffed. She awkwardly patted him on his head, hesitant and careful as if she wasn't sure how hard she should do that to make him feel her touch without hurting him. "That is kind of you, Ichigo-kun," she said. "But hardly necessary."

Ichigo looked up and channelled all the stubbornness and determination he could into his expression. Red Lady's lips twitched at the look on his face.

She heaved a put-upon sigh. "Well, if you insist…." Her lips curled, wild and wicked, like the cat from his mother's favourite story. "I do have some ideas for what we could do."

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A couple of weeks later Ichigo was kinda sorry about telling Red Lady to visit often. Not enough to tell her to stop coming, he meant it when he said he didn't want her to be lonely, but he had no qualms about whining at her. Mom said big boys didn't whine, but Red Lady always wanted to play games that were no fun at all. Her favourite one consisted of staring at people and trying to guess if they had a chain in their chests without looking at their chests. It had been fun at first, but she wanted him to play it all the time. It was boring.

Red Lady was not impressed and just told him that whining was unsightly, and that if he had time to whine then obviously he wasn't playing seriously.

It was mean, how she always made him sound like a little kid whenever he complained too much. He was almost four!

He really wished something interesting would happen, like in the stories his mom read him. It wasn't right, playing games with a ghost and nothing happening. He bet it was because the game was too boring for even monsters to show up.

Ichigo brightened as he spotted a new person entering the park, who as walking as if he was looking for someone. Ichigo tugged on Red Lady's sleeve and pointed. "That one! That one is a ghost!"

She followed his finger and raised a brow at him. "Let me guess," she said dryly. "You identified that one by his appearance, didn't you?"

"Nu-uh. By his clothes," Ichigo said smugly.

She rolled her eyes and sighed, just as the new ghost spotted them. Ichigo nearly bounced on his seat in excitement. The ghost had seen them! And he looked just as weird as Red Lady! Like a person from one of his mom's stories. Old and short, with long white hair and a white beard and moustache. He had some kind of shield on his back, like a turtle, that was kept in place with strings of big beads. They were almost as big as Ichigo's head! The ghost also had a staff in his hand that looked like a snake, and it was taller than he was. Ichigo thought it was a bit silly to carry a staff that big, but he suspected that it would be rude to say so.

Red Lady waited till the new ghost was in hearing distance before she called, "What an unexpected surprise. To what do I owe this visit?"

The ghost looked between her and the exited Ichigo. "Your own absence. So this is where you've been. I was wondering where you'd wandered off to. What's with the lad?"

Ichigo took that as his cue to ask the question that was burning on his lips, "Hello! I'm Ichigo! You look weird. Are you a friend of Red Lady?"

The old ghost stared at him for a moment, as if he had never seen something like Ichigo before. "… Well, that answers that question." He stroked his beard, studying Ichigo with an thoughtful air. "Greetings, lad. Red Lady you call her? You can say that I've known her for a very long time. I take you're the reason for her absence lately?"

"… I think?" Ichigo looked at Red Lady.

"Astute as always," Red Lady said to the ghost with a regal nod of her head. "Where you searching for me for a reason?"

"None beyond curiosity," the old ghost admitted as he sat down on the grass.

"Are you a ghost too?" Ichigo interrupted, grinning with enthusiasm. "Red Lady says she's a special kind of ghost. Are you like that?"

The old ghost raised a thick, bristly eyebrow at her. "'Special kind of ghost'?" he asked with amusement.

Red Lady rolled her eyes, somehow making the gesture elegant and haughty. "I told him I am a spirit, which he apparently classified as a 'special kind of ghost', as he put it. I have to wonder why I bothered correcting him at all."

The old ghost let out a rumbling chuckle. "Well, in a way, he isn't wrong–"

"Except in all the ways that matter," Red Lady muttered.

"– but you're not exactly right either, lad," he said, moving his attention to Ichigo mid-sentence. "We're not ghosts, and you'd do well to remember it. If you have to call us anything, call us spirits."

Ichigo frowned. "But I call her Red Lady, and she said that's okay," he protested, pointing at the spirit in question. Red Lady made a swipe at his outstretched finger with her fan, but by now she had done that so often to get him to quit pointing at people, that he pulled his hand back in time.

"I'm not talking about us personally, lad," the old ghost – spirit – replied with amusement.

"Oh." Deciding he didn't feel like puzzling out the meaning of that comment, Ichigo asked, "Does that mean I can make a name for you too?"

The old spirit looked surprised, before his expression of indulgent amusement returned. Raised a curious brow at Red Lady.

Red Lady just fanned herself, pretending she didn't see his look.

The old spirit huffed and shook his head, the way Ichigo's mom sometimes did when his dad was being too silly. "I don't see why not," he answered Ichigo.

Ichigo cheered and then scrunched his brow, giving it some serious thought.

"Mr. Turtle?" he offered after several minutes of contemplation.

Red Lady made a small disapproving sound. "If you are going to call him after an animal, at least pick tortoise."

"Whatsa tortose?"

"Tortoise. It is very similar to a turtle, but a turtle lives mostly in the water while a tortoise lives on land."

"Oh. Okay." Ichigo grinned at the old spirit. "Can I call you Mr Tortose?"

By then the old spirit was laughing quietly. "You can, lad," he chuckled. "Mr Tortoise truly isn't the worst you could have picked."

"I's thinking of 'old man'," Ichigo admitted. "But 'Kaa-chan says its rude to talk about people's ages."

Red Lady's face twitched just a little, as if she had to make a lot of effort to keep from laughing. She snapped her fan open, demurely covering her face. Her eyes were amused crescents.

"Hm, she's right that I do prefer Mr Tortoise over being called an old man," said the old spirit with a smile, not offended at all. "Though I suppose I should have seen that name coming. We are a fair bit older than you."

"Huh. Does that mean I can call you Old Man?" Ichigo wondered, not having bothered to understand much of the old spirit's words.

With Red Lady's quiet laughter in the background, the old spirit's smile turned a little strained. "No. Please call me the other one."

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At first, when Mr Tortoise had declared that he'd be joining them for now on, Ichigo was happy. That dimmed quickly when Mr Tortoise made clear that he liked Red Lady's game of 'Alive or Dead?' just as much as Red Lady herself.

Maybe he shouldn't have been surprised. Mr Tortoise was an old man, and old men liked playing boring games, right? Especially games they didn't need to get up for.

"Otou-chan says my 'Kaa-chan's gonna give birth soon. She's really big and 'Tou-chan says they're gonna be cramped if they stay much longer," Ichigo told them, after he'd guessed wrong for the fifth time that day and had abandoned the game in favour of looking for spring flowers for his mom. "You wanna come see the babies?"

Mr Tortoise hummed. "That is wonderful news for your family. Just tell us when they're born and we'll drop by."

"I rather doubt your parents would leave them alone long enough for a proper visit," Red Lady said dismissively, but she had a thoughtful look on her face. "It will be best if we wait until your siblings have grown a little before trying that."

Ichigo shrugged. He was used to Red Lady's preference for secrecy by now. He didn't really care when the spirits would come as long as he could show them whose big brother he was going to be.

Satisfied with their promise, he continued to randomly pick flowers until Red Lady gave an aggravated sigh and dragged him over so she could teach him a bit about proper flower arrangement.

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It took several months and a lot of nudging from Ichigo, but then the two spirits finally came see his little sisters. The baby monitor in the twins' bedroom had made Red Lady wary, but Ichigo had promised that he would not say anything that might give his parents a clue to the spirits' presence. She was still sceptical, but she did truly seem curious about his sisters, so in the end she had relented.

Ichigo nearly bounced to his little siblings' crib, a proud grin on his face as he gestured the spirits to hurry up. Mr Tortoise chuckled and Red Lady rolled her eyes, but both obligingly approached the crib to see.

"Yuzu and Karin," Ichigo informed them happily, pointing out which of the babies was who.

"Hm, how tiny," Mr Tortoise said contemplatively, as if he'd never seen such young babies before.

Red Lady didn't comment. Instead she leaned over the crib to study the girls. Ichigo leaned over the edge of the crib too, gently petting Karin's head. He loved how soft her hair was. Like baby bunny fur, only thinner.

Karin made a soft birdlike sound as she woke up. Sleepy baby eyes blinked, the focus as clumsy as the small, grasping hands. But when the little girl finally succeeded, her eyes didn't focus on Ichigo for more than a few seconds.

They focused on Red Lady.

In the short moment that Red Lady was too stunned to react, little Karin reached out to grasp Red Lady's veil and tugged on it with a squeal of delight. Mr Tortoise looked as if a fish had slapped him.

Ichigo, not realizing or caring what it meant, laughed loudly at their faces.

Hope you enjoyed and till next time! Have a very Merry Christmas!