A/N: And so here we are, correlating with the Bleach Timeline, this is the start of The Lost Shinigami Arc. After this chapter, I'm going to write what happens in between the timeskip which will explain a lot of things, so I suggest you read it, so you're not lost and confused.

Emil- Of course, I'm determined to finish this fic and my other one, hopefully by the end of this year! You should read the deleted scenes to find what happens between the last chapter and this one! I'll be updating that the deleted scenes soon!

Madame Hearts- I haven't written the smut scene yet, but when I do I'll post it onto AO3, my user name is Lulu_vb on there!

Enjali- You'll probably understand more of what he feels when I write the deleted scenes of what happened between the last chapter and now, it will have a lot of explanations in it.

But here's basically the breakdown of Ichigo's thoughts. Aizen threatened his babies a number of times, which made Ichigo very unsafe and terrified for them. In his mind, the Soul Society isn't safe, there's always some kind of trouble there that could potentially harm his babies. As irrational as his fears are, he was traumatized by what happened and feels that the only way to keep his babies safe out of harm's way was to leave. So he did. Hope that helped to clear some things out?

0

14 months later…

Hearing the birds chirping outside, Ichigo opened his eyes and looked up the ceiling to see sunlight shining in. Guessing it was time to get up, he sat up on the bed, and looked out the window from the second floor of the Inoue Family Clinic as he yawned. Eighteen months had passed since the battle with Aizen had ended and he still had nightmares sometimes of the events that passed, however truth be told he had never felt this safe before he came to live in the World of the Living. Everything was so much safer and quieter here than in the Soul Society. It had taken him a while to adjust to this, but now that he had, he has grown to enjoy it.

"Ichigo, Kon, rise and shine! It's morning, time to get up!" Hearing his sister's voice cheerfully yelling downstairs made him purse his lips and smile as the smell of waffles drifted up to his nose. His sister always got up even earlier than him to make the family breakfast. She decided early on that it was her duty to make the meals and to help him with his kids. It was sweet, he could never refuse help, especially since now he wasn't exactly getting help anymore from his mom anymore. Everything was so different now, it was like a new life for him where he's human instead of a Soul Reaper.

NAME: Ichigo Inoue

HAIR COLOR: Brown

EYES: Brown

OCCUPATION…

High School Student

He is no longer affiliated with the Soul Society.

"I'm tired!" The boy sitting on the bed next to his groaned as he sat up. He felt bad for Kon; the boy could no longer even ghosts anymore. It was the price he paid for defeating Aizen and for that, he was eternally grateful to him. Even if the idiot annoyed him more than half the time. Orihime and him owed their new life to him that was for sure. Thanks to this guy, they were now his cousins from Osaka. It was a good thing that Kon had two cousins that had the same names as them, though his new disguise annoyed him greatly. Unlike his sister, who was already a girl, he had to pretend to be a different gender. Though it was only thanks to Kisuke's invention that he only had to wear a special bracelet that he made to look like a girl. In reality, when he wasn't wearing that bracelet, his Gigai still looked male.

"You're one to talk." He replied to him indifferently as he got up off the bed and went to his closet to change into his school uniform. The girl's uniform was annoying as always, though that was for sure. He buttoned up the white shirt, before adding the bow onto his collar. It was all so girly, but for appearances sake, he had to pretend that he was a girl. The Soul Society was looking for a male Soul Reaper with short orange hair. What did he look like now in his disguise? A human female high school student with medium length brown hair. When he finished, he put on the skirt and finally added the black knee high socks onto his legs. Last, but not least, he picked up the bracelet on his nightstand and put it on, completing his disguise. "Hurry up, we still have to drop off the babies at Urahara's shop."

00

Coming down stairs, he smiled when he saw Sora trying to feed his youngest daughter and it looked like he wasn't succeeding much, judging by how annoyed the older man looked. "Here, I got it." He told his pseudo cousin and sat down next to the little girl with a big grin on his face. "Alright, Hikari, open up." He coaxed her as he made the spoon fly around, before bringing it to her mouth. It was adorable; this little five month old girl rarely let anyone feed her, only Orihime, Yoruichi, and himself. Just as the spoon finally went inside the baby's mouth, he cheered for her joyously, making her giggle a little. She was definitely Byakuya's daughter that was for sure. In truth, she didn't look anything like him, with her straight, beautiful growing hair and grey eyes. "Good girl, I knew you could do it!"

The older male next to him sighed and shook his head as he went to sit next to the other babies'. "You're so good with kids, even when I was younger and Kon was little, I wasn't as good as you!" Sora complained half heartedly as he watched the other feeding the little girl, before he turned towards Akira with a grin on his face. "How do you do it?" He asked his cousin curiously as he took the now empty bowl of baby food from the high chair that the boy was in and turned to Aoi, who was also done eating her food. Only Makoto and Hikari were left to eat the rest of their food. But Ichigo thought that was to expected, after all, the twins were already a year and six months old, while his younger son was a year and two months old.

The now brown haired "girl" chuckled as he continued to feed his daughter. "What can I say? I'm their mother, after all." It was true, he was a single mother of four now and while he had help from Orihime, Kon, Sora, Urahara, and Yoruichi on a daily basis, he was the one who mainly took care of them. He looked up to see Kon coming down the stairs while rubbing his left eye and shook his head. "Well, finally. Took you long enough, jeez." Looking back down at his little girl, he smiled in amusement as Sora began to scold his younger brother about punctuality. It was highly amusing to him, especially since it wasn't him getting scolded anymore. Even though he actually kind of missed getting scolded by his husband at times, it was nice being on the other side of things. Sora was a good brother, in his opinion. He cared very much about Kon and even let Orihime and himself stay in their home readily after they told him that they were his cousins when they first came to the World of the Living. That was more than a year ago, now Kon, Orihime, and himself were in their last year of high school, and as far as he knew, the only people who knew that Orihime and himself were Soul Reapers were Kon, Urahara, Yoruichi, and the three humans that came to save Orihime's life that time in the Soul Society.

"Don't worry about it, Sora!" Orihime giggled as she came from the kitchen with two plates in her hands. She was already wearing her school uniform and it seemed that both Sora and his sister already ate their breakfast, that just left the babies', Kon, and himself to eat before they went to Urahara's shop to drop off the babies' in their care. "I can go to Mr. Urahara's shop with Ichigo." It really amazed him sometimes; she really stepped up when they care here. It was like she wanted to atone for her mistakes or something, and knowing her, it was probably true. The brown haired girl must have felt truly depressed when she was in the Soul Society, after everything that happened. Truthfully, she was a lot happier now than she ever felt before, excluding their childhood days of course. He could really see that it was for the best that she left her old life; he truly wished that he could say the same for himself. He liked living here, but he missed the father of his children so much that it hurt sometimes. But he supposed that everyone had to move on at some point in their lives.

000

When Orihime and he finally got to Urahara's shop with the four babies inside the two double strollers, he knocked on the shop door and went inside. "Hey, Mr. Hat and clogs! Yoruichi, are you here?" He yelled for them along with his sister, who brought the other stroller in after them. "We're here to drop off Kira, Arisa*, Koto, and Hikari before we go to school." He put his hands on his hips when he finally saw the purple haired Soul Reaper coming for them with a grin on her face. During the time that he was in the World of the Living, he finally got to know the famous Yoruichi Shihõin and Kisuke Urahara, and he had to say that they're not what he imagined them to be; they exceeded his expectations of them. Urahara gave him a job on Fridays after school, and on the weekends. On the other days, about three months ago he got another job as a waiter/waitress and worked there after school Monday through Thursday to support his babies. It wasn't easy, but it was his chosen path in life and he was determined to see it through.

"Well, finally, I was beginning to think you wouldn't show." She chuckled as she came closer to them and bent down to say hello to the three toddlers and the baby inside the strollers. "You can drop the act, you know. Renji isn't here right now. I told him to take care of some hollows, he should be back later." He was really grateful for her help in all of this, even going so far as to go along with tricking his best friend into thinking he was a different person entirely, though in the end he did end up befriending the guy anyways as Kon's cousin Ichigo. She picked up Aoi first and set her on the ground, before doing the same with Akira and Makoto. "Shouldn't you be going now? You two don't want to be late for school, do you?" She asked them in amusement as she picked up Hikari and set her on her hip as she watched the three toddlers walk around. Her words made Ichigo blink and look at the time, before mumbling a thanks and running out to get to school with his sister right behind him.

0000

Ichigo smiled in relief when he saw that they made it in time, sometimes when he dropped off the kids at Urahara's with Kon, they came late to school. It really pissed him off when they did. Not only did their teacher get mad at them, she also made them stay after class, which was something he couldn't really afford. He sighed when he spotted Kon talking to that brown haired friend of his and continued on to where his class was. That guy kept flirting with him, thinking that he was actually a girl. It pissed him off, because the guy just couldn't get the hint and he didn't like him. What an idiot.

"See you later, Ichigo!" Orihime called out to him as they reached his classroom and waved at him as she continued to her own classroom. They were separated into two different classrooms this year, unlike last year. But it was fine; she was with the guy she liked most, after all. He went inside his classroom and nodded to Tatsuki as she greeted him, before going to his seat by the window. He loved sitting by the window, watching the clouds during school hours; it was nice to daydream.

When the teacher finally came in, she started to take attendance, listing the names alphabetically. "Asano, Keigo?" She called out from the attendance sheet and looked at Keigo, who answered her back with much enthusiasm as possible, which he didn't even think was possible. Then again, the guy was hyper as ever, what other kind of result did he think he would get? Humans were really strange at times; even more so than the Soul Reapers in the Soul Society and that was saying something! "Inoue, Ichigo?" He raised his hand and nodded once she looked at him and then moved on to his "cousin". "Inoue, Kon?" She asked before moving on to the other names to take attendance.

After that, he drifted off into thought as the lesson began. He hadn't been to school since he went to Shinto Academy in the Soul Society, at that time he had to study how to become a Soul Reaper, but here in the World of the Living, he had to learn completely different subjects. But it was a good thing that he got the hang of it or he would've been screwed. When he heard some commotion outside his classroom, he looked towards the corridor and saw Uryû running while the teacher was yelling at him. Since Kon lost his powers, it seems like that glasses guy is now the one on hollow duty, excluding Renji, of course who was on duty in the World of the Living. From what Kon told him, the guy that was supposed to be on duty in Karakura Town wasn't as competent at his job, so both Renji and that Quincy guy stepped in. Not that he cared, not anymore at least.

However, he did expect Rukia to be the one who came to Karakura Town, but she hadn't visited even once since he last saw her. Instead, Renji came, but since he perceived him to be a human, he hadn't told him anything about the Soul Society, just a few comments here and there about his life and the people living in it. Of course, the guy had been suspicious at first, but after a few weeks he seemed to give up on the idea that he was anything, but human. He was sure that it was pretty much thanks to his disguise as a girl, otherwise he was sure the redhead would have figured it out. He had to give it to Urahara; he was much more competent than he seemed at first. The Soul Society had tried to find him for a long while, but no one ever bothered him, he was that was Kisuke's work as well. He was just glad that his kids were safe, that was all that mattered, since it was the entire reason that he did all of this. For them to be safe, and they finally were. It was such a relief.

00000

When it was lunch time, he followed his cousin and that Keigo guy up to the roof, before sitting down right next to them. It was nice and quiet up on the roof, that's probably what he liked about it. He learned his lesson when he first came to live here, the humans were annoying him just a tad too much, plus seeing his sister flirting with that Quincy was just too much to bear. He knew that she liked him and that they had most likely already started dating, but she was his twin sister and that made him feel a little protective of her. But then again, his sister would never want him to interfere, so he compromised by moving to the roof during lunch time. Besides, if he had to endure anymore random love confessions from random guys that he didn't even know during lunch time, he was sure that he would snap. He didn't want anyone flirting with him or asking him out, he just wasn't ready for that; he wasn't even sure that he would ever be ready to move on from Byakuya. He hadn't seen him for a year and two months, he wondered what the man looked like now.

"So, have you guys thought about your plans for the future?" Keigo's voiced boomed, making Ichigo snap out of his thoughts and look towards the duo with curiosity in his eyes. The future? Right, he hadn't even thought about that. He wasn't sure what he would do, it wasn't exactly like he knew all the jobs that humans did. Besides that, it had been hard for him to admit that he would probably never be a Soul Reaper again. It was hard to face the future, but he knew that he had to and that he had to choose some kind of career for himself. Perhaps he could just for Urahara? Or even with Sora in his clinic, though he didn't know much about medicine and how to treat injured and sick people, especially in the World of the Living.

"Huh?" Kon asked in confusion as he pursed his lips thought and looked down from the railing to the other boy next to him. "Oh, you mean like after high school?" Clearly, that boy hadn't thought about his future, just like him. He wondered if Orihime thought about her future. He supposed that she could potentially work with Sora and would probably excel in that area, unlike him or Kon. Then again, maybe Kon would surprise him for once? It wasn't like he could be a Substitute Soul Reaper again; they were both in the same boat, except that one of them left that life behind voluntarily, or as voluntarily as it could be considered.

"Duh! Sure that's what I mean! What else is there?" Perhaps to him, but neither Kon nor him were normal, which wasn't the case for Keigo who was just a human who could see spirits. Then again, Kon was normal now, he couldn't see spirits anymore, he couldn't even detect any spiritual pressure anymore either. Sometimes, he wished it was the same for him, at least then he could actually live normally as a human, but he guessed that it was just too much to ask for now. Being an actual Soul Reaper Noble and all, not everything for him, though his sister seemed to do just fine with that.

"Hmm…" Kon replied as he looked back towards the buildings in front of him and shrugged. "We still have some time." Typical answer, but he had to admit, as much of an idiot the guy could be, he agreed with him. They did still have some time left to figure things out, though he wasn't sure if that was even enough time for him. He would have to talk to Urahara and his sister about this, because to him it was just too confusing. He didn't know enough about being a human to know which job would fit him.

The brown haired boy sitting next to him got up and leaned on the railing as he pursed his own lips. "Well, you know after this semester we'll start getting career counseling." He told him and turned to look at Kon, before looking down at him and smiling. "So, pretty soon you'll have to think about that stuff." Really? He didn't even actually know what career counseling was, all of this just confused the hell out of him. When he turned back to look at Ichigo, he was looking at him with a teasing look on his face, before he slid down to sit again. "You had good grades to start with, but then you bottomed out." Pfft, well that was something; it was a good thing that he had good grades and wasn't in the same situation as Kon, though both their situations sucked.

Kon looked away and glared as he drank his juice. "Stop reminding me. I had a lot of stuff going on last year, it couldn't be helped." His eyes trailed over to Keigo for a second before looking away again with a scowl. "And besides, I'm still above average." Was he? He didn't know, but just looking at his supposed cousin, he wouldn't be one to guess that. Honestly, all of this was just nonsense to him. He already passed his own exams back in the Soul Society, it sucked that he had to do this again. All of this was just a pain sometimes, but a cover was a cover, he supposed.

"What about Rukia?" That question had both Kon and himself spitting out their drinks. The only difference was that he tried to hide it; he wasn't even supposed to know Rukia. Orihime and him were supposed to be Kon's cousins from Osaka that just saw ghosts at times, like his cousin used to be able to do. He wasn't supposed to anything about Rukia, beyond what Renji told him that is. "I wonder how she's doing these days?" He had to admit, he was curious as well. Though he supposed if anything bad happened to her, Renji would mention something. He seemed to enjoy talking about that girl when he worked at Urahara's shop.

Kon turned to look at the other boy when he laid down on his side and raised his eyebrow. "What's Rukia got to do with anything?" It seemed that Kon was just as confused about the other boys question as he was. Where the hell did that come from? Sure, he thought about Rukia a number of times, but he never voiced his thoughts. And even if could, who would he voice it to? Kon knew just about as much as him about the Soul Society at this point and there was no way in hell he could ever ask Renji. That guy would be suspicious as hell if he asked anything, and he really didn't need that especially not right now.

"I was just thinking she could at least stop by once in a while to say hi to us." The other boy sighed, before hugging himself and pouting as he looked up at him, as if Ichigo knew anything. Though he knew that Keigo had absolutely no idea who he really was, and thank god for that. "Since she left she hadn't even dropped by once to say hello, that's pretty cold!" The boy complained and looked back up at Ichigo who turned to look at him fully. Now that he understood, he also thought that it was cold of her not to even come by to see Kon. Or even look for him, but he guessed that when Renji told him that he couldn't find his carrot top friend, she didn't have the will to go check herself, if only to end up being disappointed. But that was all just speculation in his mind, in truth; he didn't know what was going on in Rukia's mind.

Kon sighed as he turned around and leaned his back against the railing. "She's not being cold; she just got relieved of her Karakura Town duties." While that was actually true, she could have asked permission to visit anytime she wanted, which made him think that she didn't really want to visit all that much. She most likely didn't want to be reminded of all these sad memories, losing her best friend and her other friend hurt a lot, he knew that from experience. He decided to keep his mouth shut and let the guy think what he wanted, it was better this way. "Her not coming back here is normal."

The other guy turned around to look at Kon again as Ichigo sighed and closed his eyes, hoping to just forget their conversation. All of these memories, they were just so painful sometimes. "Don't you miss her?" While that question wasn't aimed at him, he wanted to answer it anyway. Of course, he missed her. Every day, in fact. But nobody asked, as they shouldn't, so he just kept his mouth shut just like the good "girl" he was pretending to be.

"Of course, I don't miss her. After sixteen years, I finally get to live my life as a normal human; I hope it stays this peaceful until I die." The taller boy replied to the one on the ground and pushed himself off the railing to walk away. What a liar he was, there was no doubt in Ichigo's mind that he missed her, he missed being a Soul Reaper, just like Ichigo did. But it was painful as hell for him, as well. He understood the other boys feelings quiet well, because even if they weren't the same, they were very much alike. Being the sympathetic guy that he was, he wasn't going to breech this subject with the other boy anytime soon, or ever since it wasn't really relevant to their lives at the moment. The guy could keep telling himself that he always wanted to just be normal and that was fine and all, but the truth was that Kon was in denial. Because right at that moment, Ichigo could see the devastated person that he was. But he supposed they both got exactly what they wanted, even if it was ironic.

"Hmm… Got a good point there, I don't really want to go through scary stuff again like that either." Keigo replied to him as he watched him walk away, before turning to Ichigo once he was out the door. "Hey, Ichigo?" Keigo asked him with a grin on his face and scooted closer to him, making him a bit on comfortable. It was times like these that he wished the former substitute wouldn't have left him alone with this idiot. "You wouldn't ever leave me like that right? You'll always stay here with me?" What a moron! They weren't even dating and the guy was making a fool out of himself, like usual he supposed. He might as well end up being here in Karakura Town for the rest of his life, but he wasn't about to stay with this guy.

Standing up, he brushed his skirt from the dust on it and turned to walk away. "Just keep telling yourself that."

000000

Ichigo sighed as he pulled down his work skirt and sighed as he saw some perverts looking at him. It was shitty that he had to work in these conditions, but he supposed that since it earned him money, he shouldn't complain about it. There weren't that many customers today, which he was happy about even if it did lose him some tips. But Mondays weren't usually busy; it meant that he would be able to go home early today.

"Hi, welcome to the Maiden Café, what can I get you?" He asked the customer that had been waiting for five minutes while took care of the last order. The guy had wavy, long black hair and brown eyes with a scar running vertically to the side of his left eye. He was also really tall, much taller than his husband that was for sure. The guy even towered over him. He had seen the guy before at the café a few times, though he never really took notice of him all that much. To be fair though, he didn't really take notice of anyone that came in. He just didn't really care all that much.

The guy smiled and leaned closer to him as he put his hand on his chin. "Well, Ichigo, was it? I'll take some black coffee and a cherry pastry." Well, that was simple. Sometimes the orders seemed to be long and annoying, he was glad this guy was making his life a bit easier and not having serve an entire meal. Day in and day out, it was almost always the same with some customers. He supposed that he was used to all of this, though. It was different from his past life, but he had spent enough time in the World of the Living to get used to things. "What do think? Is the cherry pastry tasty?"

Getting caught off guard by that question, he smiled at the man and nodded. "Of course, all of our sweets are tasty. The owner uses her family secret recipes." He wasn't usually asked these questions, but he had tried the pastries that were being sold her, if only to indulge the owner who insisted that he eat them. She was nice and he really did love what was made here. It definitely beat the convenient store that he used to go to shop for food. "Why don't you try it and see for yourself?"

"I think I will." He replied to him as his grin widened and he tilted his head to the side. "I'm Shūkurō Tsukishima, by the way. You could call me Shūkurō, if you want?" That took Ichigo aback as he did a double take at the guy. Was he flirting with him or was that just his imagination? He hoped it was just his imagination; he didn't want this guy or anyone else to get the wrong idea. He wasn't really interested in dating anyone, besides the obvious fact that he was a guy who looked like a girl. "Why don't we go grab some drinks after you finish your work, Ichigo?" He asked him sweetly as he practically purred his name.

Shit! He really was hitting on him, wasn't he? Damn, now he had to let the guy down and at his work, no less. He really hoped this wouldn't affect his job. "Uh… I'm sorry, but I'm not really interested, uh… Shūkurō." He told him uncomfortably with a forced smile on his face. "But let me get that coffee and pastry for you, okay?"

0000000

When he finally got home that night, he put the kids to bed first as they've already been fed, courtesy of Yoruichi. By the time he brought all of them home, with Renji's help of course, they were exhausted. But then again, so was he. Today had been trifling with that weird guy that hit on him; the guy wouldn't leave alone and kept trying to get him to go out with him. It was like he didn't know the word no. How annoying.

After he got into his pajamas, he took off his bracelet and put it on his nightstand as turned to look Kon, who was almost asleep. He was just as tired as him, though he didn't know nor really care what kind of job the guy had. "So, did you do anything tiring today?" He asked him curiously as he sat down on his bed and watched Kon laying down on his own bed.

"Not really, I just met someone." Was his reply, before he turned towards the other side and closed his eyes. "Goodnight, Ichigo." He told him with a yawn as he snuggled into his blankets. Really, Kon was such a mystery to him sometimes. He smiled as he shook his head, before taking a look at the picture on his nightstand.

"Funny, so did I." The older boy replied to him as he picked up the picture and gazed into the eyes of the man who stared back at him with cold and calculating eyes. "Goodnight." He whispered as he leaned in and kissed man in the picture, before putting it back onto the nightstand and turning off the lights. He laid down on his side with his back facing Kon as he felt tears prickle in his eyes, before he squeezed them shut and willed darkness to overcome him.

*- Arisa is what Ichigo changed Aoi's name to as a disguise for her.

A/N: So, what do you guys think? Please comment on this chapter. Tell me what you liked and what you didn't like, etc… Also, I have another pole on my profile on what kind of fic you want me to write after I finish this story and Please Don't Forget. This story has about 20 more chapters left in the main story, give or take. It's ending soon, and my other story has about 20-25 chapters in total for it, so it won't be long either. So, if you could vote on my next story, I would appreciate it! ^_^ Please review!