With a Silent Step

Honey brown eyes fluttered open, staring into an unfamiliar ceiling. Where the hell am I?

Ichigo was awake in the back of her mind, talking with Zangetsu in the rainy inner world of Ichigo's own consciousness. It had been pouring with rain since the abduction that horrible night, and Shiro was pleased to have a chance to escape it. Rolling off of the futon, she climbed to her feet and looked around the spare room Ichigo used. As a guy, he'd been at Urahara's often, and the shopkeeper had finally just broken down and given him his own room. Orihime had apparently dropped by more clothes; two more brown paper bags were tucked discreetly into the corner, and a terrifying smile curled across Shiro's face.

Shucking off the nemaki someone had changed her into, she rooted through the bags in her bra and panties. To her amusement, Orihime had included both mismatched underwear and matching sets. She chose one of the matching ones in pale blue with white stars sprinkled across them, and changed, then picked out the smallest, girliest shirt she could.

-

Shinji stumbled out of the room he shared with Ishida - Urahara unable to kick either of them out while Ichigo was there - and down the hall to the bathroom.

After washing his face, he felt a little more awake, and jammed his hat onto his head before exiting back into the hall, on his way to see what Ururu was making for breakfast. A routine had settled quickly upon the household, and he whistled quietly as he walked by the open door of his room, just to annoy the still-sleeping Ishida. A door opened just ahead of him, and Ichigo stepped out. Shinji stopped whistling.

He hadn't quite gotten used to the other Vizard as a girl yet, and still tended to think of him as a guy. Ichigo had blown that away this morning. Her hair was done up in a clip, fountaining down her back in a spray of orange. She was in a tight, pink tee shirt with wings printed across the shoulders, and jeans that fit so closely that she had to have painted them on. On her feet was a pair of delicate, slipper-like flats, in matching pink. I didn't even know Ichigo liked pink. Or being a girl. What gives? Even being suspicious of Ichigo's odd behavior didn't stop him from walking up behind the boy-turned-girl and patting her ass.

"Looking good this morning, Ichigo-kun!" he said cheerfully. Ichigo turned to him, an odd expression in her eyes. She smiled flirtatiously, and put her hands up on his shoulders, staring mesmerisingly into his eyes.

"Oh, Shin-kun," she breathed, and her eyes flickered down his body and back up again. "I don't know why I never noticed before," as she spoke, her hands trailed softly down his chest, and he swallowed impusively. "But you... you're so..." they reached his hips, and grasped him through his trousers in an iron grip. "Stupid." Squeezing until his eyes watered, she leaned up close to his ear. "Touch me again, and I'll rip it off. Capische?" She gave a vicious twist to make her point, and he gasped out an affirmative.

As the other Vizard pulled away, Shinji noticed her eyes flash from brown to gold, and realized it was still Shirosaki he was dealing with. That explains the pink, he thought, doubled over against the wall in agonizing pain. Shirosaki put her hands behind her head and swaggered down the hall, whistling happily and swaying her hips until she turned the corner.

Ishida came out of the room a moment later. "Was that... Ichigo?" he asked sleepily, having barely caught a glimpse of the femininely-clad Vizard.

"No," Shinji wheezed. "Sh... Shirosaki."

Ishida took in Shinji's pained tone and posture, and then passed by him, laughing.

-

Shiro entered the kitchen and found Urahara at the table already, sipping a cup of the foreign coffee he favoured. "Good morning, Shiro-kun," he said pleasantly. Shirosaki grinned and seated herself at the table.

"Ichigo alright?" he continued. She nodded, and thanked Ururu who put a plate of food down in front of her.

"He was sleepin' for a while," she offered between bites. "He's in the back of my head still. Ossan's talkin' to 'im. Somethin' weird went on with our reiatsu in Seireitei," she added, and something in her tone caught Urahara's attention. He looked at her from under his hat, frowning slightly.

"Like what?" It sounded casual, but Shiro knew from experience that it hid a much deeper concern.

"I dunno," she said, and shrugged in a way that caused interesting ripples across her chest. She looked down to watch, and did it again, causing Urahara to laugh in spite of himself. "Anyway, he got real weak while he was there. Couldn't even pull out a bankai when they locked him up. I had to break him out of the whole place by runnin' through Hueco Mundo."

"They locked him up?" Ishida interrupted, wiping his glasses off on his shirt. He slipped them back up onto his nose and peered at Shirosaki.

"Prob'ly cause he pissed off the soutaichou," Shiro said pleasantly. "The guy's an ass anyway, but he immediately started mouthin' off about how Ichigo should have marched his ass right up to Soul Society and told everyone what happened. I betcha they prob'ly thought he was suddenly gonna go crazy and run amok through Soul Society on Kurotsuchi's orders. Well," she said, and grinned. "He didn't."

"What did you do now?" Yoruichi asked rhetorically. Jinta and Shinji were the last to arrive; Shinji seated himself as far from Shiro as the table would allow, which caused Ishida to smirk, Shiro to smile innocently, and Urahara to shift his gaze between the three of them with a parental 'I know you're up to something and as soon as I find out what it is, you're in trouble' look.

"I didn' hurt nobody," Shiro asserted. "I jus' scared 'em a little. Serves 'em right, too, lockin' my ass up like that. I'm a part of Ichigo, which makes me a captain, too!" She glared around at them, daring any of them to contradict her. Shinji, having learned his lesson well, avoided her eyes.

Ishida, however, allowed himself a few moments to stare while she was preoccupied. That's right, he commented to himself. Ichigo's a package deal. Whoever he ends up with is gonna have to deal with him being a Shinigami captain, and a ... and half hollow. He wondered if he could deal with Shiro's madness on a full time basis, then realized that Ichigo did. If he can do it, so could I, he finally settled on. If he was serious about his crush on Ichigo, he would have to deal with that side of him.

"Somethin' on my face, Quincy?" Shiro asked him mildly. Ishida jumped back to himself with a start, his face heating up.

"No, just thinking. Sorry." He busied himself with his breakfast, avoiding everyone's eyes.

"Don't think so loud, yer distractin' me," Shiro said, amusement colouring her tone. Surprisingly, the rest of the morning passed uneventfully.

---

Lunch time rolled around, and Ururu had simply ordered out for everyone, not really feeling like cooking. Shiro was still in charge, though she'd assured Urahara quite vehemently that when Ichigo wanted to come back out, he was welcome to - and that they'd know when he appeared because the first thing he'd do would be to change his clothes.

"Doesn't being dressed like that bother you?" Ishida inquired casually, wondering what had come over the hollow.

"Nah," she said dismissively. "This ain't my real body, so it don't really matter how it's dressed. Besides, it was fun to play with Shinji this morning."

The Vizard in question blanched, and Urahara passed the parental look around again, daring any of them to speak. Ishida coughed and tried to change the subject. After a while, Shiro rubbed the back of her neck.

"Man, my head hurts," she complained. Ishida rose to get her some tablets for the pain, and put his hands on her shoulders after setting it down.

"No wonder," he said, feeling her stiffen under him. "You're wound tighter than a coiled spring."

"I don' like people touchin' me," she warned, and he squeezed gently. Harmless, his touches said, and she allowed him to stay there.

When his hands began moving, though, she tensed up again. "Relax, Shirosaki. This is called a back rub. It's supposed to calm you down."

"Don' need calmin'," she asserted grouchily, but allowed the contact to continue once more. After a few moments, the oddness of being in physical contact with another being that wasn't trying to kill or be killed wore off, and she let herself relax slightly. His fingers fount a knot of muscle, and she hissed ferally, but as soon as it dissolved beneath his touch, she felt a peace spreading through her body. Laying her head down in her arms, she let him touch her, finding the tense muscles and working them until they released their tension. After a few minutes, she was dozing lightly. Ishida smiled to himself, blissfully unaware that they weren't the only people in the room.

Someone knocked on the door, and Shinji rose automatically to greet them. On his way past, he accidentally brushed her arm, and Ishida felt his hard work instantly undone as she tensed again at the contact. Sighing, he returned to his seat, Shirosaki looking at him curiously.

"What the hell'd you do to me, Ishida?" she asked, for once calling him by his name. Truthfully, Ishida had begun to wonder if the hollow side of Ichigo even knew his name.

"It's called a massage. I told you, it's to make you relax." He spoke as matter of factly as he could despite the desperate burn in his cheeks.

"Oh," she said, mollified. "Yer gonna have to do that for Ichigo when he comes back. I think he'd like it."

With that simple statement she sent the entire table into a riot as Ishida's face reached new heights of red, and Urahara, Jinta, Ururu, and Yoruichi all dissolved into helpless laughter. Shiro, unaware of the implications, just stared at everyone as if they'd lost their minds, and when Shinji returned loaded down with pizza boxes, he demanded to know what was so funny.

-[TBC]-

Just a normal scene at the house. Kinda short, but I suppose it could have been worse. Shirosaki is great fun to write. XDD I've had the scene in the hallway between her and Shinji in my practically from the first moment she first showed up. XDD