Ten Years Later

"Do you have your lunch?"

"Yes, Dad."

"Is your sweater in your backpack?"

"Yes."

"Do you have all of your books?"

"Dad, I'm going to be late!" Mamiko wined at me, wiggling a bit beneath her backpack straps.

"You'll be fine, kid. Give your dad a kiss so we can go," Ichigo said, keys in hand. Mamiko obeyed, standing on her tiptoes to peck my cheek and hugging my neck as she did so. While I by no means asked for this show of affection, Ichigo could see well enough that I wanted it and had no qualms asking for me. After all, fourth grade could be very unforgiving. It was only natural for me to be a bit anxious about it (though for some reason Ichigo thought it wasn't, resulting in his newest nickname for me—mother hen).

"Love you, Dad," Mamiko said as she detached herself from me.

"I love you too, Mamiko. Have a good day." She nodded, running over to the door and waving goodbye to me one last time before opening it and stepping out onto the street.

"I'll see you in at the clinic," Ichigo mumbled, planting a quick kiss on my lips just as Mamiko poked her head back inside.

"Guys! You can be gross later. I'm gonna be late!" she exclaimed with impatience that she must have picked up from Ichigo. The man in question simply smiled, chuckling a bit before kissing me once more just to annoy her then heading out the door, Mamiko leading the way with a huffed, "Finally!"

Once I was alone, I allowed a small smile to ghost my lips as I walked from the entryway back to the kitchen. It was a mess from the breakfast I'd prepared earlier as well as from making Mamiko's lunch. Quickly I set about cleaning up, wanting to be done quickly so I could head over the Kurosaki clinic. Seven years ago we'd moved out, much to Isshin's (loudly expressed) displeasure, but each day we went back, Ichigo as a doctor and me filling his old position as book keeper. Originally I'd not planned to work, but once Mamiko entered kindergarten, I'd found myself alone in an empty house with a lot of time on my hands. At that point Ichigo was still acting as secretary at the clinic, talents and schooling wasted as he filed papers and signed patients in. Me taking his place made sense, and Isshin was quick to agree to it ("The family legacy is continuing!") so the switch was quickly made.

True, I'd fallen into a domesticity I would have found disgusting a few years before, but I am actually happy with my family. Of course there are difficulties that we face as a same-sex couple with a child, but we find ways around it. Mamiko takes it all in stride, her energy reflecting that of her mother. For instance, to avoid the confusion of having two fathers, she calls me Dad and Ichigo Daddy, though when she was very young she called me Mommy, which Ichigo found hilarious. I was considerably less amused. Gender confusion aside, things had settled into a comfortable normal.

Once the kitchen was clean, I straightened up my clothing and set out to the clinic, which was just the street over from our home. It seemed that in order to make up for our total lack of contact with my family (most of whom were in jail), we were over-compensating with Ichigo's; we worked with them, were practically neighbors, and we had dinner with them at least once a week. Yuzu and Karin were like big sisters to Mamiko, and between them and Isshin she was surrounded by so much love, she would never be in want of it.

Smiling softly at that thought, I unlocked the clinic, ignoring the closed sign. I'd turn it around when the clinic opened in a few minutes, but until then I liked the knowledge that it was just Kurosakis, away from prying eyes. The need for privacy that had been ingrained in me from a young age still existed, though I put it aside to act as secretary. As soon as I stepped into the blissfully quiet office, however, it tended to become otherwise, and today was no exception.

"Hey Ora, that you?" Ichigo yelled from the other room, striding in a moment later.

"Of course it is." He grinned, swooping in for another small peck on the lips.

"Squee! You guys are so cute!" a high-pitched female voice interrupted us. Shit. I'd forgotten that the twins would be at the clinic today. Yuzu was a kindergarten teacher at a school that was off today, and Karin was in town for a short visit.

"Yuzu, what—" Ichigo started, eyeing his now-grown little sister who was currently gazing at us like we had fallen from heaven.

"I mean, it's been, like, ten years, and you two still act like you just got together! It's just adorable!" she went on, showing no signs of stopping. "And you work together, and you have the cutest little girl, and…"

"Geez, Yuzu, quit fangirling over your brother. It's creepy," Karin cut in. My head snapped to her where she leaned on the doorframe, hands in pockets and looking more like her older brother than she'd ever admit to.

"Aw, Karin, you're no fun! Don't you think they're cute?"Yuzu pouted, turning to face her very non-identical twin.

"Sure. Almost as cute as that hobo in the park who talks to pidgins."

"Uh… hi, guys," Ichigo said awkwardly, stepping away from me. Though a grown man, he had never really outgrown his shyness around his family when it came to showing affection.

"Hey Ichi. Mami at school?" Karin asked, stepping forward to slap him on the back.

"Yeah."

"Are you going to the meeting she has with the principle at two?" I asked suddenly, remembering the note she had come home with yesterday.

"Today?" he asked stupidly, momentarily forgetting his sisters. I barley suppressed the urge to roll my eyes at his stupidity.

"Of course today. I told you yesterday that I couldn't get someone to fill in for me," I reminded him as comprehension gradually lit his eyes.

"Uh, right…"

"Um, Ichi-nii, Ulquiorra-nii," Yuzu cut in nervously, "I could fill in for you and that way you both could go." I looked expectantly at Ichigo, who I was sure would reject the idea.

"Okay. I'll run that by Dad." He still surprises me after ten years—occasionally.

"Um… why are we here?" Ichigo asked, sitting beside me in the empty principal's office. Wordlessly I handed him the note scribbled on a small, crinkled, yellow piece of paper.

"Would the parents of Mamiko Schiffer-Kurosaki please come for a meeting with Principle Nara at 2:00 tomorrow to speak about her recent disobedience. She has violated the school rule against fighting three times," it read in neat, practiced cursive.

"I blame this on you."

"What?" he squawked indignantly, looking around guiltily once he realized how loud he had been.

"This is a habit she learned from you." He had been a bad example in this area since her birth, often causing a scene when we were insulted for being so open with our lifestyle.

"No it's not. I told her that only Daddy is allowed to beat up ass holes who say bad things about you or her."

"Oh, yes, that has clearly been affective."

"Hey! It's not like she's killing people. She's only ten!"

"That's entirely—"

"Um…" someone cleared their voice, interrupting our bickering. We both turned to see the principle walking in, a middle-aged woman with a tightly coiled bun of black hair. With purposeful strides she walked to her desk, sitting down to face us where we were perched on two stiff-backed chairs.

"Hello Mr. Schiffer," she said, looking at Ichigo. "Mr. Kurosaki," she said to me.

"Er, I'm Kurosaki, but you can call me Ichigo," Ichigo awkwardly pointed out. We had this problem often.

"Oh, excuse me," she said, seeming totally unflustered. Something told me it would take a lot to shake her.

"Mrs. Nara, we'd like to apologize for our daughter's behavior."

Sharply she turned to me, brown eyes pinning me under her gaze. "Thank you, Mr. Schiffer, but I'm afraid that won't be enough. Mamiko has gotten in three fights within the last month. We cannot let that slide."

"Of course. What can we do for her?" I asked, wanting nothing more than to get out of here as quickly as possible.

"Hm…You look familiar. The name is very familiar, too. What do you do?" she asked, catching me completely off guard with her sudden subject change.

"I work at the Kurosaki Medical Clinic."

"That's not it."

"Maybe it's that he used to be an Aizen," Ichigo interjected darkly, mouth set in a scowl. Though he hated reminding anyone of my past (least of all himself), it was more painful to wait around for someone to get it so he tended to speed up the process.

"Ah, yes, so he did. That was very public, wasn't it, about ten years ago?" The calm reaction was surprising, but it did confirm my assessment that it would take a lot to shake her. At least she didn't immediately recoil, like some, or treat me like I was a murderer. Which technically I was, but why fixate?

"Yes," I answered stiffly.

"I have a nephew who met you. He spoke very highly of you. Perhaps you remember him—Rikichi?" For a moment I looked at her, a bit surprised to hear of the relation. Despite the fact that Ichigo had given up his duties as a Soul Reaper, we remained close to the Soul Society, Ichigo treating their wounds and both of us retaining our bonds with the people we knew, our friends. In fact, I had spoken to Abarai less than a week ago about Rikichi, who had gotten married and just had his first child, of course naming the unfortunate girl Renji. "I'm honored and all," he'd told me, "But, I mean…poor kid."

"Yes," I told the principle, elbowing Ichigo who was staring at her with his jaw handing down idiotically. "I heard he recently had a child?"

"Yes," she said, icy demeanor warming. "A girl named Renji. I believe you know her namesake as well?" Ichigo chuckled beside me.

"A bit too well, I think…" Renji, I had learned shortly after my rescue from a giggling Rukia, was involved with Captain Kuchiki, her elder brother. We often had Abarai and the younger Kuchiki over for dinner (Mamiko called Rukia "Aunt" and Renji "Uncle"), so recently we invited Captain Kuchiki over as well. The evening had been, in a word, a disaster, and Renji still blushed until his face matched his hair when he saw us because of something or another that had occurred. So many potentially mortifying things happened that night for Renji that it's difficult to know exactly which one of them made him blush.

"Well, he's such a vibrant and open person; it's hard not to feel like you know him as an old friend, yes?" It was sort-of sweet, actually, to see how hard the woman was trying to be supportive of her nephew's choice of idol.

"Uh… yeah. So, anyway, about Mami…" Ichigo ventured, glancing at his watch. Yuzu was filling in for me, but there were no other doctors to take his place, so he really did need to return to the clinic shortly.

"Ah, yes. Well, I suggest having her speak to the school's counselor about ways to handle her anger. Also, we believe this would be a good opportunity for her to speak with someone about the difficulties she may face as the child of same-sex parents," Mrs. Nara delicately suggested, folding her hands on her legs.

"Hey, what are you saying?" Ichigo growled, but I lay my hand on his shoulder. Ten years ago, I may have ignored the woman's advice, but I had learned since then (often the hard way) that many things were simply out of my control. I knew that this life may be difficult for her, and Mrs. Nara obviously knew what she was talking about, so perhaps it would be wise to take her advice.

"Thank you. That would be wonderful," I said, slipping my hand down to hold Ichigo's, if only to shut him up.

"Good. I think we should meet again after she speaks with the counselor. I'll have the secretary call you to make an appointment." I nodded, pulling Ichigo up and speaking before he could open his mouth.

"Very nice to meet you. Please send Rikichi our congratulations." After quickly shaking her hand and wishing her well, I dragged Ichigo from the office and out of the building.

"What the hell, Ora! She was insulting our parenting skills!" he yelled, though he was allowing me to steer him down the street without complaint.

"No she wasn't" I calmly corrected him. "She's a professional, accustomed to dealing with children. Any advice she gives us, we would be foolish to ignore." Ichigo stopped, bringing me to a halt as well. Chocolate eyes bored into mine, fierce and determined as ever, but hiding the smallest amount of insecurity.

"Do you really think that counselor knows how to raise our daughter better than we do?"

"I do not assume to know everything about parenting. Mamiko has Yuzu, Karin, and Rukia, but they are no replacement for a constant female presence in her life. Perhaps this will be good for her."

Ichigo sighed then continued to walk for a while, a distant look clouding his eyes. Though he said nothing, I knew he was thinking of his mother. He's grown up without her, which had always been so painful for him and still was. I'd grown up without a mother as well, but, unlike him, I'd not had the love and support of a family to help me. Looking back on my childhood and thinking of Ichigo's, I couldn't help but think that with so many people who loved her all around, Mamiko was incredibly lucky. In a gesture that would seem insignificant coming from anyone else, I reached out and brushed my fingertips against the back of Ichigo's hand. His gaze me mine and he smiled softly, shaking his head a bit.

"You're right, as always. I guess it's just hard to admit that I don't know what the hell I'm doing with Mami half the time. I don't even want to think about when she goes through puberty." I shuddered at the thought myself.

"She has Rukia and your sisters to explain to her… woman's things," I said delicately, waving a hand in gesture. Ichigo smirked, then chuckled lightly. Luckily we had a few more years until we would come upon that milestone. I walked as far as the subway station with him, but at that point we parted; Mamiko was getting out of school in thirty minutes and I had to be there to pick her up, so there was no sense in me going back to the clinic only to turn around again.

Sure enough, by the time I had made it back to the school (having taken a scenic rout in order to admire the fine weather) a steady trickle of children were pouring from the school, some to their waiting parents and others in small groups to the station or to nearby homes. I spotted Mamiko quickly, her black ponytail bouncing and bright yellow backpack glaring at me from the crowd. She was dressed in her school uniform, a pleated grey skirt with a button-up shirt. It was so hard to keep those white, especially on the girl who managed to make water stain.

"Hi, Dad," she greeted me once she was close enough to be heard. "Hang on a sec, okay?" Smiling at my slight nod, she turned back to say something to one of her friends, a little boy in her grade. For some reason she seemed more comfortable with male friends, having remained completely unaffected by the fear of "cooties" that most of her classmates suffered from.

"Okay, I'm ready," she informed me once the boy had nodded and trotted away to his own mother. "Is Daddy at work?"

"Yes. He had to go back after our conference with Mrs. Nara."

"Oh." She shrank back a bit guiltily; she knew why we'd had to go see her principle.

"We'll talk about that later," I told her, grabbing her hand as we crossed a street that was heavy with traffic. "Aunt Karin is here, so we're going to have dinner at your grandfather's house." At this news she lit up, any trace of remorsefulness forgotten as she happily swung our connected arms.

"Yay! Will Aunt Yuzu be there too?"

"Yes. She didn't have to teach today."

"What are we eating?" The inevitable question. It was a testament to her love for her aunts that it came second.

"I don't know. Aunt Yuzu is cooking." I paused as we walked on to the subway train, carefully looking around for any danger. Old habits die hard. "How was your day?"

"Good. Tome brought his pet frog to science class, and in art we got to use paint. Mrs. Kodaishi said that my rose was really good, the one I painted, but Tome said it looked like pink poop. I would have been really mad, except that Yatoro said he shouldn't go insulting other people's paintings when his own looked like an upside-down chicken with a squished hat on…" she continued like this for the entire ten-minute ride, describing every aspect of her day to me. I smiled lightly, nodding every now and again when she expected me to and taking in every word. Ichigo often made the mistake of tuning out when she rambled, and always paid dearly for it. The wrath of a ten-year-old girl is surprisingly strong. By the time we reached the clinic I had heard all about not only Tome's frog and art class, but also recess, reading time, and lunchtime.

She stopped dead in her story, however, as soon as she looked in the glass doors of the clinic and saw her Aunt Yuzu sitting behind the desk I usually occupied. Heaving the heavy door open, she sprinted behind it to engulf her tiny aunt in a hug, backpack still strapped to her.

"Hi Aunt Yuzu!" she exclaimed, giggling as the tiny woman held her in her arms and looked her over.

"You've gotten so big!"

"Auntie, you saw me last week," Mamiko reprimanded, smiling all the same.

"But you've grown even since. Come on, your Aunt Karin wants to see you." With a glance to me, she got up from her seat and followed Mamiko back to the house portion of the clinic.

"Thank you," I said softly before she left.

"No problem!" she chirped, leaving me to my position.

Dinner passed quickly, the whole family crowded around the table for the first time in a while. Mamiko chatted the entire time, shining as ever in her position as the center of attention. Ichigo and I both knew she was a bit spoiled (especially by Isshin), but as long as she was happy we couldn't bring ourselves to mind much. Regardless, her fighting was something we couldn't ignore, so as soon as everything had settled down and we were back at home, it was time to talk to her.

She knew it was coming, probably from the meaningful glance that Ichigo gave me before sending her off to brush her teeth and telling her we'd be in afterwards. Looking worried as she went, Ichigo turned to me, face serious.

"So what will we tell her?"

"That we are disappointed, and due to her unacceptable actions the principle has required that she see the counselor." Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"How many times do I have to tell you that 'cold and direct' isn't always the best approach?" he groaned in exasperation.

"Fine, then, what do you suggest?"

"Well—" Ichigo started, but was interrupted by a small voice behind us.

"Dad? Daddy?" Mamiko called, standing in her doorway dressed in pajamas. I felt my features softening as she gazed at us, probably knowing exactly what we were talking about. Sighing, Ichigo walked over to her, me following behind. Mamiko turned and got in bed, leaving the covers pushed down as I sat at the foot of the bed and Ichigo knelt beside her.

"We went to see the principle today," he started. Her face screwed up a bit, waiting for the punishment to come.

"Fighting is unacceptable, Mamiko. You know that," I added. "Why did you do it?" Suddenly her pained expression changed to a very familiar one of defiance.

"Tanaka Akemi called you guys… a very bad word. The one that that guy used that time before Daddy punched him." Ah, so he was where she'd learned it… A similar thought seemed to be going through Ichigo's head because he paled a bit and shot me a guilty glance.

"Um, what I did was very, uh, wrong and a, er… very bad example."

"It wasn't just that, though. He said that people didn't have two dads, that it was weird, and that you were bad parents for me to have." A saddened expression crossed he face before her resolve returned. "But I told him he was wrong, that you were the best and that his own parents must be bad if they let him say words like those!"

Pride tinged Ichigo's next words, try as he might to cover it up with forced disapproval. "You stood up for what you believed, which was good. But you still shouldn't have hit him. Fighting him won't make him believe you, it'll just make everyone upset."

"Your father is right. The principle wants you to see the counselor so that you can talk to her about why you were so upset."

"I don't wanna see her! Only weird kids do."

"It will be a good opportunity to speak with someone other than family about some of the things that are difficult for you because we're different. And she can help you learn ways to deal with people like Tanaka without fighting them." Mamiko huffed a bit but seemed to have accepted that the meeting was inevitable.

"Besides, it's a bit of time out of class," Ichigo interjected. I held back the urge to roll my eyes as Mamiko brightened a bit at this.

"Okay, then, fine" she mumbled begrudgingly.

"Good girl." Ichigo planted a kiss in her hair then stood as I rose as well. After Mamiko had settled herself in, I pulled up the covers, tucking her in as I had when she was smaller and still did occasionally.

"Good night, Dad. I love you."

"I love you, too." I kissed her forehead then walked over to the door, waiting for Ichigo. "Night, Daddy. I love you."

"Love you too, munchkin." Flipping the switch on the lights, I left her door open just a crack before heading with Ichigo to our room.

"That went well," he called from the bathroom as he changed and got ready for bed.

"Hm…" I changed myself, then joined him by the sink. "I told you it was your bad habit she picked up on." Ichigo made some odd noises, mouth too full of his toothbrush to properly defend himself. Smirking, I quickly finished up in the bathroom before joining Ichigo on the bed.

"She did pick up some more desirable qualities of yours, though, as well," I said off-handedly as I nestled in beside him.

"Oh, yeah? I'm surprised you'll admit I have any." This time I didn't restrain my eyes, letting them roll at him before they filled with sincerity.

"She has your determination, and strong belief in what's right." Our eyes met, pride and love for his child making Ichigo's a smoldering caramel color.

"But she's smarter than me, more like you in that way. I'd have never accepted having to go to counseling, thinking I had to go it alone."

Smiling ever so slightly, I leaned in and caught his lips with mine, letting him know that neither of us would be alone anymore. He seemed to get the message, taking over and kissing me soundly before we broke apart. With one last quick peck, he flipped the lamp off and we settled into bed, cuddled close, content to drift off to sleep and let a new day dawn.

A/N: Thanks for reading! This was the last little bit, written in fits and spurts over a long period of time, but hopefully it adds some closure. Thanks one last time for giving my story a bit of your time. And I've forgotten this disclaimer the whole time! I do not own Bleach. There.