HALLO! I am alive and back to posting up fanfics! Although...that's probably because I've almost finished writing this entire fic xD But I digress! This was one of my first Bleach fanfics I've writen, but the first I'm gonna post since I quite like this one, and hopefully you all will too! SO DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW! The more reviews I get, the more likely I'll upload chapters since I'm getting busy with University...onto the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of its characters...except for my awesome OC!

To Love a Fox

Chapter One

"Mummy?"

Small feet padded through the hallways towards the sound of muffled shouting.

"Daddy?"

Rubbing tired eyes, the young girl sleepily clutched her blanket to her as she made her way towards the door. Only just reaching the handle, her small fingers opened the door only for the shouting to abruptly halt. Both of her parents stared down at her with contempt she couldn't understand.

"What? Go back to sleep."

"B...But," she rubbed her eyes again, waking up more at the angry tone, "I can't sleep..."

"I said go back to bed, Amaya!" her mother shouted.

Tears welled up in her green eyes, quickly followed by sniffling as she clutched her blanket tighter. Why were they being so mean to her? Why were they angry at her?

The sound of someone quickly standing drew her blurry vision to a green and brown blur before she was scooped up into comforting arms. Blonde hair poked out from his odd hat, blue eyes shining warmly down at her.

"Come on my little Amaya, let's get you back to bed."

Rubbing the tears from her eyes, Amaya smiled happily up at him, snuggling into his arms as he walked, "okay Hara."

He chuckled, "Urahara or even Kisuke. Hara makes me sound like a girl!" he shut the door behind them, muffling the sounds of shouting once again.

Amaya giggled sleepily and before she knew it she was being wrapped up in her blanket and cosily placed on her bed. She giggled again as he kissed her forehead, messing her brown hair in the process before grabbing his sleeve to stop him leaving.

"Hara...why do mummy and daddy hate me?"

Her young mind didn't understand how his eyes had softened before he took up a seat next to her, "they don't hate you, Amaya...they are just scared."

"Of what?" she asked with a yawn.

Urahara didn't answer but luckily for him she had already slipped into the land of dreams.

-15 years later-

"Breakfast time at the zoo!"

The miniature gong rang loudly, announcing the time of morning for all inside the small shop. Not five minutes later was there a stampede of three - yes three people can be a stampede - barged into the room and leapt onto their seats around the table, slowly followed by a more dignified entrant. The smallest, a red haired boy with a bad attitude problem, was pounding the table with his fists, practically drooling at the thought of food. The second was only slightly taller, probably due to her high raven pigtails, silently waiting with more patience than the majority of the household. The third of course was older than the two kids but that didn't mean he couldn't act their age, parading around in his green and brown outfit, his slipper hat slightly askew on his messy blonde hair showing his rush to the call of food. Finally the last was seated, taking up a bit of space due to his towering stature that didn't over shadow his big heart, his glasses and uniform as immaculate as always.

"Hurry up Amaya!" Jinta almost grunted, his stomach growling loudly, "I'm hungry!"

"Unless you want feeding, shut it!" the retort floated back with warning that he took to heart.

Several times she had threatened - and followed through - to starve Jinta for not being patient. As she stepped into the room, balancing bowls along her arms with surprising ease, Amaya set them down with a smile before taking up her own seat. She had grown over the years, now eighteen years old and at five foot eight, Amaya had gotten through school with relative ease, although this was probably mostly to due with Urahara's tutoring over the years. Her long brown hair now stretched down most of her back and her emerald eyes had remained with their usual spark.

After her parents had died almost ten years ago, Urahara had taken her in and pretty much raised her, teaching all there was to know with the help of Tessai. Both had become a big part of her life, even Jinta and Ururu who she had later met. The Urahara's Shop was her home and she couldn't have been happier. Of course living with such people she had become involved with the stories of Shinigami and Hollows. Several times she had seen Hollows however Urahara had always been with her. He had explained that she had 'quite a reiatsu' - his words exactly - which explained how she could see Shinigami and Hollows. However unlike the other inhabitants of the shop she had now way to protect herself from the Hollows that seemed to find her reiatsu tasty.

"Something wrong, Amaya?" asked Urahara as he paused from shovelling food into his mouth, one of his blue eyes shadowed from his askew hat.

She chuckled and shook her head before tipping his hat back to its normal state, "nope. So what's first to do today?"

He smiled happily, clapping his hands together as he finished his breakfast, "clean up duty!"

Amaya wasn't the only one to groan.

While Jinta grumbled and cleaned the front of the shop with Ururu's help, Amaya was busying herself with labelling boxes in the back, checking the merchandise and fighting off Urahara's attempts to get her to go shopping.

"You know I hate shopping be it food or clothes!"

"But Amaya-chan!" he whined.

"Don't Amaya-chan me!" she put her hands on her hips, "now go up front and act like a shop owner!"

He pouted before shuffling back to the front of the shop leaving a smirking Amaya. Seriously, sometimes she wondered how he was older than her. Shuffling a box to the left, a piece of folded paper slipped out and into her line of sight. Blinking, she picked it up, thinking it probably to be some sort of receipt. However the paper unfolded into a large, detailed map of what looked like a City of sorts. Amaya almost did a double take as she saw the name of the place in the top corner. Soul Society. The most detail was given to the place in the centre, Seireitei.

"No way..."

Hearing someone coming, she hastily stashed it inside her shirt only to see Ururu round a shelf of boxes, innocently looking up at her.

"Oh, hi Ururu, is it for a customer?" Amaya asked curiously.

She nodded shyly, "a-and Urahara-san asks if you will go shopping."

Amaya was just about to refuse again only to get the 'puppy eyes' from Ururu that seemed to be her usual appearance and she found herself unable to resist. Sighing, she nodded.

"Alright, what are you looking for?"

"Soul Candy."

"Towards the back left...and I'll go shopping."

As she passed Urahara with the short, raven haired female shinigami she had seen before, Amaya smacked Urahara over the head.

"That's for sending Ururu to get me to go shopping!" she growled before leaving the shop.

Rukia blinked, watching Urahara rub his head whilst muttering "itai!" before replacing his hat just as Ururu returned with the Shinigami's purchase.

Still muttering in annoyance, Amaya - now laden with shopping bags - headed back to the shop. It was getting dark but she didn't overly care, she preferred the night and watching the moon and stars. That was until she heard the unmistakable deformed roar of a Hollow. And it was nearby. Despite herself, Amaya couldn't help but freeze, head turning this way and that to try and figure out where the Hollow was. Trust her to be out without Urahara and to attract a Hollow! It wasn't far to the shop. Maybe she could make it back before it found her. Walking again, Amaya kept going even as she felt the ground shake slightly from the Hollow's steps. Picking up the pace, the Hollow's too worryingly increased. Stopping quickly, Amaya's head whipped to the left just as a huge Hollow leapt over the trees of the park, landing right in her path. However...it didn't seem to be after her. Instead it was watching an orange haired teen fighting off his counterpart who was dressed in Shinigami robes. It was enough to make Amaya blink several times.

Thinking it safe to leave, Amaya barely took three steps before the Hollow turned its masked head towards her.

"Oh great."

"Hey you!" her eyes caught sight of the Shinigami Rukia from before running towards her, "get out of here! Run!"

The Hollow's fist flew straight for Amaya however it was suddenly severed, falling in a fountain of blood. A hand fell on her shoulder and she looked sideways to see Urahara smiling at her.

"Really, I can't let you out of the shop without having Hollow's chase after you."

She glared at him, "you can do the shopping from now on."

Jinta appeared with his huge, metal bat that smashed the Hollow into the ground before being swiftly followed by a barrage of deadly fire from Ururu's cannon gun. Large hands lifted the shopping from Amaya's hands and she thanked Tessai gratefully before watching curiously as Urahara hit the orange haired teen with his cane only for he boy to spit out a small candy and fall limp. The Shinigami boy leapt back into his body quickly.

"We'll be taking this faulty merchandise back now, free of charge," Urahara made to pocket the soul candy however Rukia stopped him.

"It's not faulty and I paid for that," she took it back from the confused shop keeper.

Amaya simply shook her head as the orange haired kid raised an eyebrow at her.
"Who are you?"

"Amaya Tsuragi, you?"

"Ichigo Kurosaki."

The brunette girl pulled a face for a moment, "Isshin's kid? I didn't know it was possible for that idiot to have kids."

Ichigo looked torn between laughing and looking confused.

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