I DON'T OWN BLEACH

A Kisuke/FemIchigo fic

Warnings, This will deal with a serious subject matter and have a certain amount of angst which I hope will be offset my some comedy. I hope everyone understands the small portions of Ichigo's character I will be pulling out for this story. No one can argue Ichigo is strong and has courage... I am simply leaning on and exposing possible reactions of the character after losing her powers. Thank you for reading^^

Hush, Hush

Ah, but let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Chapter 1; Reunion

"Kurosaki-san~!" Urahara pops through her open window his black haori falling over her face. "Hide me!"

"I have a door you know!"Ichigo barks, yanking the haori off her head and whirling around. "The landlord is going to think I'm shacking up with some guy!" She blinks looking around not seeing his annoying green hat and frowns. "What the hell!" She drops back down into her chair, her mouth wide open in utter confusion.

"I see you are speechless."

"What happened to you?" she tilts her head at the small green and white stripped hat. "You are two feet tall!"

"I-I don't have much time to explain, but it seems there was a little mix-up in my experiment last evening and well..." He snaps shut his hand fans smiling up at her. "I'm five."

"Holy freaking chibi-tan..." Leaning toward the small green clothed boy she lifts the hat off his head with two of her fingers. "You are..." dropping the hat back on his head she turns away from trying to hide the crimson blazing her cheeks. Adorable... Urahara-san looks so totally cute! Clearing her throat she stands up turning her back to him. "I assume you have some brilliant plan to fix yourself?"

"Not really." Kisuke quickly replies noting the tinge of her blush. "Not a clue~."

"What!" She whirls around on one socked foot finding him smiling. "You little-"

"Now, now Kurosaki-san. We don't have time for this." Kisuke hops up on her bed and sits down cross legged. "We have to deal with a bigger problem."

"Which is?" She get a smirk on her face and quickly adds, "Not your size of course. Nothing big about that. HAHA!"

"I am being hunted." he whispers flipping open his hand fan and gazing at her from just beyond the edge. "By..."

"By?" she whispers back, leaning toward him ready to share in the secret.

"Captain Soi Fon." He answers with a tiny smile.

"Ugh, What did you do this time?" Ichigo rolls her eyes hiding the effects of Kisuke's newly acquired cuteness is having on her. "He is smiling! Kyaa~!"

"It seems Yoruichi-san is missing and... I'm being wrongfully blamed."

"So... just get Yoruichi-san to tell the cat-stalker she is fine."

"I don't actually know where Yoruichi-san is..." Kisuke pulls off his now miniature floppy hat with a serious gaze at Ichigo. "She sometimes wonders off and doesn't tell me where she is going."

"Not good." She rubs her chin pondering what to do about all this when a knock on her window makes her eyes lift to the split in the curtain. She can make out the very pissed face of Soi Fon and her zanpaktou tapping on the glass. "Shit! Does Soi Fon have radar on you?"

"I'm totally powerless right now, no reiatsu..." He jumps down from the bed to crouch behind Ichigo desk. "She is just guessing I would come here."

"Quick! Get in my closet!" She slides the door open waving her hand inside. "Come on move it short stuff."

"Kurosaki-san, you are concerned for my safety?" He wraps his arms around her leg holding on tight. "I'm so happy!"

"G-Get off me!" She manages to grab him by the back of the shirt and detach the miniature man. Without a thought she tosses him inside the closet shutting the door before Soi Fon slides open her bedroom window jumping inside. "What brings you here Captain Soi Fon?" Ichigo says a little to quickly, a little too loudly.

"I'm looking for that man." she says with a deep scowl, her eyes flicking back and forth in Ichigo's room.

"W-Who would that be?" She replies feigning ignorance.

"Urahara Kisuke." Soi Fon folds her arms in front of her chest. "I know he is here. Just tell me where and I'll get him out of your hair."

"I don't know what you mean?" The captain is clearly insinuating Urahara-san is a burden and that kinda thing pisses her off. Watching the dark haired woman walk near the closet Ichigo leans nonchalantly against the door to block her from opening it.

"Urahara is nothing but a nuisance everywhere he goes and anything he creates, only makes trouble!" Her dark eyes stare at Ichigo as she grows more and more agitated. She knew they had some kind of bond! It's disgusting how he pawns all over Yourichi-san and now Ichigo-chan is covering for him. "Even you have cleaned up after his messes."

"That was two years ago." she replies quietly, her right eye beginning to twitch. "Move on."

"Everything in the winter war, everyone having to suffer and battle was HIS fault. He creates nothing but chaos, and soon as I get my hands on him..." Soi Fon clenches a fist smacking it into her other palm. "I'll-"

"He isn't here." Ichigo says fighting not to curl her lips up in anger. "So get out of my apartment."

Soi Fon's eyebrow lifts from the surprisingly venom laced response she stirred up in Ichigo. So that's how it is with them. Interesting. Stepping back through the second story window she glances over her shoulder at the orange haired substitute shinigami and smiles widely. "You better hope I find Yoruichi-san before I find him." With that said she vanishes through the window leaving Ichigo standing in her room with her hands in her pockets.

"Whew." Ichigo exhales a deep breath slumping down to the floor. The closet door slides open and she hears Urahara's feet hit the floor as he jumps down releasing the light switch's string he was dangling on. Hearing the light click off she turns around to see his chibi body hop up on her bed and peek through the red curtains of her window. "I don't sense her. She is gone."

Kisuke peers through the window his face, shrouded by his floppy hat, by sadness. "I'll be going now, Kurosaki-san. I have caused you enough-"

"Tch..." she almost growls, grabbing the back of his jacket and lifting him back down to the bed. "You aren't going anywhere until we figure this out." Oh she is so totally annoyed and bothered. Urahara has never once vanished on her behalf.

"But, Kurosaki-san."

"Why run off now? Because of what Soi Fon said?" Ichigo sits down at her desk tapping her fingertips to the wood surface avoiding his smaller form so she doesn't lose her nerve. "In the end it was you who captured Aizen. Isn't that enough?"

"Is atonement possible for someone like me?" He is being a little more honest then he would like to be with her. His habit of telling her just enough to point her in the right directions for her own answers suddenly feels arrogant and insulting to a woman who gave up so much to help a crisis he caused.

"Never know until you try." She says setting her elbow on the table and leaning her chin to her palm. Listening to his long silence she shuts her eyes and decides that the two of them should finally talk about what happened two years earlier. "If you are thinking 'I used her powers for my own gain' or some shit like that you can just go back to the shoten."

"But Kurosaki-san..." Kisuke looks at his small hands and curls his right fingers into a fist. "You lost your pow-"

"Listen here Chibi-tan!" Standing up she turns toward her small kitchenette in the corner and clears her throat scraping the last of her courage to reply without yelling at him. "We both did what had to be done. End of discussion."

"Your face afterw-"

"I don't miss it! I'm so relieved... I'm happy damn it!" She grabs her bath supplies and and stomps into the small bathroom exhaling a deep breath when the door clicks shut behind her. She is not sad. She doesn't miss it. She doesn't think about it at all!

Sinking down into the bathwater her legs bend as she curls her knees toward her chin. The only sound is the trickling of the faucet echoing in the small bath. She rubs her legs feeling the scab from an old wound on her thigh. No one will realize, no one will figure it out. Dropping her legs into the hot water, Ichigo slides her body into the deep old fashioned tub, her face contorting into agony.

Thank god she chose a college on the other side of Tokyo. Her friends all went to the community college in Karakurra Town so they could fight the hollows there. For the first time since leaving she is grateful for that small decision. "If I'm alone no one will see. They won't worry."

However the man trapped in a five year old's body in the next room is disrupting her patterns. After holding her breath as long as possible she pops out of the water and grabs her razor. She needs to figure out how to get Urahara-san to leave, to get him to go back to his normal size as fast as possible. He is a bit too observant for her tastes and he might figure out what she is doing. The metal blade is cold against her skin as she begins to shave her legs.

"Kurosaki-san? Are you alright in there?"

Comes a banging at the door making her jerk out of her stupor. Did she fall asleep? She drops the razor into a plastic dish and replies, "I'm coming."

She pulls out of the tub with a sigh. Outside she can hear a storm raging, rain pouring down on the roof of her apartment building, Kisuke clacking the keys on her laptop. The water in the tub is released to drain the faint swirls of blood vanishing down the plumbing with the tears she refuses to shed. Looking down at her leg and the trail of blood streaking a thin crimson line to her knee she curses and grabs a hand towel from the hook. "Shit." She looks at the cut across her thigh furrowing her brow, any deeper and she would need a handful of stitches. "Tch, like I need that right now." She wraps a bandage around it and pulls on her sleeping pants and a old t-shirt of her dads. "Dad... what would you say? Suck it up Ichigo? Be strong so your mother doesn't come back and kick your ass!"

But she sought power to protect her friends, her family. What the hell does a former substitute shinigami do with herself? Walking back into the main room of her small apartment she watches Urahara typing on her laptop like a possessed man... a tiny possessed man that is. "Hungry?" Ichigo asks walking just behind the small blonde sitting on a box so he can reach the keys of her laptop. "Want to order a pizza?" Her right eye twitches. She snatches the hat off his head and holds it up in the air.

"Hey!" Urahara grumbles standing up on the wobbly box swiping his hand up to get his hat. "Kurosaki-san, please return my-" he voice stops watching her place the hat on top of her towel wrapped head. Her arms fold in front of her bosom and her right foot begins to tap. Kisuke's eyes grow wide looking up at her flushed, freshly washed skin with awe. She has never looked more... what's the word he is searching for? How do you describe Kurosaki-san?

Catching him staring she rolls her eyes and picks up her cell phone. "Do-You-Want-To-Order-A-Pizza?" she stutters, dropping the hat over his eyes.

"Um, please. For some reason I'm quite voracious."

"Un-hun." She orders a plain cheese pizza with a salad plopping down on her western style bed. After hanging up she lays down on her pillow and watches his subtle movements as he scribbles in one of her notebooks. It's obvious he is working it all out. Almost feels familiar, her lips stretch into a small smile as she drifts to sleep. She dreams of a blue sky that fills with black. She isn't afraid of that darkness...

"Ichigo..."

Her eyes pop open to the dim light coming from the lamp on her desk. Her leg is stinging like a paper cut from hell. Looking down she can see the blood seeping through her pajama pants. With a start she gets up finding Kisuke asleep at her desk, the light shinning directly on his tiny pale face. She picks him up carefully and lays him on her bed. "I didn't know his eyes were blue like the water." she recalls seeing them looking up at her earlier in the evening.

Ichigo looks left and then right, her amber eyes reflecting the curiosity in her stomach. Her hand reaches out to touch the pale blonde hair covering his baby face. The light snore makes her hand jerk away, her orange head leans down to peek below the floppy brim. "Urahara-san?" she whispers her lips barely moving. With no reply she looks around the vacant room again then ever so lightly lifts the hat off his head with her thumb and forefinger. The sandy blonde hair is soft and tempting looking. She has never touched it but always wanted to. "What am I waiting for? I can do this and no one will ever know." Ichigo almost giggles, the feeling like she is getting away with some deep secret only making it all the more inviting. The pads of her fingers ever so lightly graze a blonde lock, it's silkiness surprising her. She leans closer pressing her lips to his cheek, her heart beating madly in her chest. "Kyaa! I kissed that pervert Kisuke! Wait... he is a five year old. I'm the pervert!" Losing her nerve she drops the hat back on his head, turns off the lamp and darts into the bathroom to redress her cut and put on new pants before Kisuke notices.

Opening the door to the washroom she peaks out finding the room pitch black but for the blinking standby light on her laptop. Creeping past the bed she sits down at her desk and decides to study. She can't bring herself to slip in bed beside Urahara-san, even if he is five... he is still Urahara-san after all. "Ugh, I'm thinking bad things about him, when I'm the one who behaved badly by kissing him in his sleep."

Two hours later;

Kisuke wakes with a deep yawn and scratches his belly. His eyes open in the dim light of the room as he feels his feet dangling off the end of the bed. "I'm big?" He stands up happily just before the sun peeks over Mt. Fuji in Ichigo's windows . "Kurosaki-san?" He walks over to her and taps her on the shoulder.

"Hmm?"

"I would seem... I fixed myself." Kisuke says looking around for his hat. Grabbing it off her nightstand he frowns at it's small size. "Awe My hat! It didn't grow with me." He puts it on his head and smile a crooked grin at her as she turns around. He comes face to face with a very sleepy Looking Ichigo with red rimmed glasses on her nose. "G-Glasses?" he can't stop the deep blush from tinting his face. Sleepy, disheveled woman, with glasses and frumpy hair... it's his ideal~!

"Yeah, I got em six months ago. Developed astigmatism. One of the draw backs of not being shinigami anymore I suppose." Ichigo replies shifting to stand up. "Well, now you can go back to Karakurra."

"Red glasses, really?" he swipes a hand over his chin looking at her closely. Nah, he is too curious. He takes her chin in his hand and moves it left then right, gazing at her face intensely. "Not many orange-haired people can pull off red but you do it nicely."

"Thanks... now get off me." Rising from her chair she moves over to the bed only to feel him trailing close after her. "What?"

"Did you do anything to me last night?" He is already trying to figure out how he changed back. So many questions... Only one Ichigo.

"N-No!" she flashes crimson stuttering. Oh my god! How does he do that? He couldn't possib-

"That's all right! I ran the web cam last night to see if anything strange happened." He swishes past her, his green haori flitting as he taps a few buttons on her laptop. "Let's just take a look-"

"That's my property!" She snatches the laptop yanking the cords away and quickly types in a password locking it down. "HAHA!" With a satisfied gleam in her eyes she sets it back on the desk. "Thank you Windows 7!"

"Oh now that delays my answers."

"Well I have class." Ichigo grabs her clothes and vanishes into the bathroom, only to reappear a few moments later. "You know your way out~!" she says as the sun begins to shine through the window. Grabbing her book bag and laptop she leaves with a wave for her eight o'clock lecture. Once on the metro she slumps in her seat relieved she won't have to deal with Urahara-san anymore.

Here we go! Review for me! thanks Fuzzi