Careless Wonder (Ichigo Kurosaki; Bleach Fan Fic)

Chapter Three: Arrangements

Careless Wonder

Chapter Three: Arrangements

"You know," Urahara started as he looked down at the red haired teen. "You've really filled out these last six years… UMPF!" Urahara slumped forward holding onto his stomach from pain. Aria glared down at him with displeasure, a little vein popping on her forehead.

"You've haven't changed."

Urahara looked up at her with a pained smile, a little sweat trailing down the side of his face. "You haven't either," he groaned out. He winced when he stood up straight, tears of pain in the corner of his eyes. "Is that any way to treat your old master?"

Aria snorted. "You're not my teacher anymore, perverted jackass, so get over it."

"Aw, that hurts my feelings. After everything we've been through you still treat me like a stranger." He stuck his lip out like he was actually pouting, trying to make her feel bad. It didn't work.

"Maybe if you weren't such a pervert I might treat you with more respect!"

Urahara closed his eyes in thought as he shook his head with a smile. "Same old Aria." When he opened his eyes, he looked upon her with seriousness. "All joking aside I want to know your current situation. I know you've lost control again, that would make it the third time I believe, so how far has it progressed." It wasn't a question, Ichigo noticed, he was, in a way, demanding the answer out of her.

Aria sighed. Ichigo watched from the corner of his eye as she looked away from Kisuke, almost like she was trying to find the nerve to tell him the truth. Again, he saw her chewing on her bottom limp as she battled with whatever was making her hesitate with the question. He was starting to understand that was something she did involuntary when it came to situations such as this.

"Do you want to speak in another room alone?" He glanced over at Ichigo before settling his eyes on her once again to asses her reaction. Of course, that wasn't the case in why she'd hesitated.

"He already knows my situation. And… it's just…" Her hand darted up toward her head and took of her hoodie in order to lace her fingers through her bangs, getting the longer stands out of her face. "Damn it, Kisuke, I'm at my wits ends here. I don't think I can afford to lose control again, I might change all the way and be a mindless, emotionless monster that wants nothing more than to kill anything that it sees."

"And that bothers you."

She flashed him a glare before looking toward the ground at her white and blue sneakers. "Of course it does. Why wouldn't it. I don't even know why you would say something like that."

"If I remember correctly," Urahara began as he pulled an old memory from their past. "You wanted nothing more than to feel numb. To be emotionless and not care what goes on around you. To forget your past and not care of what the future holds for you."

Again, she flashed him another glare, but looked away from his all-knowing stare. Oh, how she hated that look. "I was young, stupid. I didn't mean what I said. If… if it wasn't for those memories, I wouldn't have survived this long." She cracked a smile, but it wasn't one of happiness or glee, more of sadness and mockery as she thought about her past self. "I probably would have committed suicide by now if…"

"If what?"

She scoffed. "Nothing. Doesn't matter now. All that matters is that I'm here now and I want to change, to be a better person, so to speak, and I wanted you to know so you can stop your foolish search for me when I leave again. When I overcome this obstacle I'll be more than capable of taking care of myself."

Urahara cracked his own smile as he looked down at his old student. "That's all I needed to hear. So," he turned sharply on his heel, waving them forward to follow him. "Who's hungry?"

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Aria eyed the rice and chicken that was placed in front of her. Her left crossed leg twitching up and down as her impatient stomach growled as soon as she smelled the delicious food. Urahara, on the other hand, broke apart his chopsticks and stared gleefully down at the food presented to him.

Ichigo eyed his own food but took the chopsticks and broke them apart nonetheless. "Don't you think this is a little much?" The bowl was larger than his torso, packed high with rice, chicken, and chicken gravy.

"Nonsense," Urahara said happily as he dug into his food first taking in a mouthful. When he swallowed he looked over at Ichigo's skeptical stare with a grin. "Besides, you need to eat more. You're too thin and boney, you need to add more muscle and fat to that deplorable body of yours."

"What the hell does that mean, Kisuke?!"

"Exactly as it sounds. Enough chatter and more eating!" He declared as he lifted his bowl near his face and began to scarf his food down.

"Tsh, like I'm trusting you. You probably poisoned it again," Aria snorted. Ichigo spat his food out, rubbing the chopstick against his tongue as he remembered Aria's story.

"What! Why would I ever do that! I'm shocked you would even accuse me of such a horrible thing!"

Aria growled and bared her teeth. "Don't play dumb with me, you remember perfectly well what happened last time! Jackass."

Urahara looked appalled by her accusation, tears forming in his eyes as he looked at the young girl he himself almost raised himself when she was a toddler. "That hurts my feelings." When she didn't flinch he smiled sweetly at her and reached forward with his chopsticks and took a piece of her chicken and some rice. He stuffed it in his mouth, chewed, then swallowed. After a second of Aria's continues stare he smiled at her with triumph and a thumbs up. "See. Not poisoned. Besides, Ichigo here will watch over you if I did do such a horrible thing to you. He's a bigger prune than you are."

"You're really starting to piss me off, Kisuke," Ichigo growled at the older Soul Reaper, his eyes narrowed and his own vein popping on his forehead.

Aria snorted. She reached down and grabbed the chopsticks, breaking them into two. Once placed in the right position she tentatively reached down and took a small portion into her chopsticks. She brought it forward near her nose, sniffed, turn her eyes to glare at Urahara and stuck the portion in her mouth, chewed and swallowed. She sat there a second with her eyes closed. Satisfied that the food wasn't poisoned she reached into her pocket and pulled out a salt shaker and began to shake more than half of its contents into her bowl before lifting the bowl in her left hand and began to pile the food into her mouth.

"Do you always carry around salt?" ichigo asked with a monotone voice. She looked up at him, glared, then continued to stuff as much food in her mouth as possible, ignoring his question.

Looked like she was hungry. Ichigo sighed but continued to eat as he thought over today's events. So, she was a Vizard like him and couldn't control her hollow side. She'd been on the run from who knows what, probably Aizen since she'd decided to show up a couple of days after his sentence, and was now determined to set things right. What that right was, he didn't know.

One thing he knew, though, was when she lost control something bad always happened and he couldn't help but wonder that that bad was something close to her. Something dear to her heart.

Urahara patted his stomach and he smiled down at the now empty bowls of his two visitors along with his own. "See, I only want what's best for you." He clapped his hands together and Ururu came in with bowls of soup along with the hot headed Jinta. They placed the bowls of soup in front of the three and left without a word.

"I think I had enough," Ichigo said as he pushed the bowl of soup away from him. He couldn't eat another bite even if he wanted to.

Urahara smirked at Ichigo, but soon turned his gaze to look at Aria. Ichigo followed his gaze and was surprised to see Aria's eyes partially glazed.

"You… Bastard…" She got out before her head flew forward and slapped into the soup below her, bubbles forming around her head.

"What the hell, Kisuke! What did you do?!" Ichigo yelled, getting up from his seat off the ground and ran around to see if Aria was alright.

"What? It was the only way for me to do..." he reached into his pocket and pulled out a black bracelet. "This." He snapped the bracelet around her wrist. Ichigo watched as it glowed and tightened, almost like it was melding into her skin. "There, now I know where she'll be at for as long as she has on my bracelet."

"You know she's going to be pissed when she wakes up, and how the hell did you poison her? You took a bit of her food, too."

A mischievous smile crossed the old captains' face as he looked down at the orange haired teen who was still crouched next to Aria's unconscious body. "You see, I knew the next time she wouldn't fall for my same trick so over the past six years I slowly built an intolerance!" He said matter of fact as he chuckled at his so called logic and intelligence.

"No wonder she doesn't trust you…" Ichigo mumbled. He looked down toward Aria and his face paled. Her face was still in the soup and there was no more bubbles surfacing around her. He quickly pulled on her collar and flung her back until her back hit the floor, her eyes rolling to the back of her head. "You killed her!" Ichigo leaned his head down until his ear was next to her mouth. His face paled blue and he shot up and pointed his finger at Urahara. "You idiot! Why would you let her head fall in the soup after you poisoned her?!"

"Calm down, Ichigo." He casually walked over to her and stared down. He brought his staff up over her stomach and he let it fall with a little added strength on his part. It hit hard and she lurched forward sputtering out all the soup she inhaled before falling back and passing out once more. "See, she's fine."

Ichigo slapped his hand to his forehead and brought it down slowly as he glared at Urahara. "Sometimes I wonder about you."

"Well, I think were done here." He clapped his hands together and rubbed them up and down like he was trying to warm them up. He walked to Aria's feet, bent down and picked up her feet. "Help me take her outside. I don't want her to break everything in my shop when she wakes up."

"No way am I helping you!" Ichigo yelled, his hands fisted.

"If you don't help me everything she breaks you have to pay for."

"And why do I have to pay!"

"Because she's your responsibility now. Aren't ya helping her fix her hollow problem?"

"That doesn't mean I'm her guardian or something! I'm only helping her out!"

Urahara smiled, his eyes staring into his from underneath his hat. "Then what are you to her?" He wiggled his eyebrow in a suggestive way.

Ichigo's face turned as red as a tomato.

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Before long, Urahara convinced Ichigo to help bring the unconscious Aria outside where they gently laid her on the ground. Her eyes began to twitch as she slowly began to come to. Urahara smiled at the two and took a couple of steps back, nodding his head toward Ichigo. "Thanks for bringing her here. I'll see you guys later." He turned to leave but stopped short when Ichigo, yet again, began to yell at him.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Urahara turned and smiled sweetly at the orange haired teen. "Oh, just inside so I don't have to deal with the consequences." And with that he ran and disappeared in his shop while closing and locking the door behind him.

"Kisuke! You bastard! Get back here!" Ichigo's fist shook in front of his face with anger as he glared at the shop before him.

Aria's eyes slowly opened, her vision blurred. She groaned, her hand coming to her head to grip it as it throbbed from Urahara's knock out medication… "KISUKE!" She basically screamed as she shot up from her spot and looked back and forth, her surroundings looking all too familiar. He left her outside again.

She turned around, her face red with anger as she glared daggers at the shop. Her eye caught Ichigo's who was staring at her with surprise. "What the hell are you looking at, carrot top?" She stomped forward until she was in front of his shop and banged on the door. "Open up so I can kick your ass, Urahara. I swear, the next time I see you you're going to pay!" She banged, kicked, scratched, and head butted the door but it wouldn't budge. Her breath came heavy, her forehead was placed on the door as she tried to calm herself down. Damn it. He got her again.

That was when she finally felt something constricting her left wrist. She looked down and saw the black bracelet sparkling up at her in a mocking way. She could almost hear Urahara's wicked chuckle. "What the hell is this?" She reached down with her other hand and tried to pry it off, but it wouldn't budge. She gritted her teeth, her anger boiling over. "DAMN IT, KISUKE!"

Ichigo followed at a pretty good distance behind the fuming Aria. Her body was hunched over, her hands dug deep into her pockets and her hood covering her light red hair. Darkness had fallen Karakura town which gave Aria's current disposition more ominous and lethal looking when she passed others walking through the street. If, by any chance, she looked up to any of the passerby's they would coward or flinch away from her intense angry stare. Ichigo could practically see the hate radiating off of her.

On occasions she would mumble Kisuke Urahara's name under her breath with distaste and Ichigo would strain to hear what she was saying, but was never successful.

He didn't bother trying to talk to her. He didn't want her anger turned on him. He couldn't even imagine what she'd say to him remembering the last time she was angry at him earlier for whatever reason wasn't even nearly as intense as right then. What she'd say to him made him shiver.

Finally, after the intense, awkward walk, it was finally over. Aria was the first to walk into the house, not even bothering to knock like she already lived there for a while. Isshin peaked over from the corner and instantly noticed the awkward, angry atmosphere surrounding the two teens. He walked into view with a pan of bacon in his hand and a pink cooking apron. "Didn't go well, huh?"

Aria glared up at the old man and sneered. "How did you guess?" her voice laced with sarcasm.

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Isshin gave Aria Yuzu's room. While they were gone to Urahara's, Yuzu brought most of her stuff to Karin's room. She didn't mind even when Aria offered to sleep on the couch. She said that she didn't mind sleeping in Karin's room and that it wasn't right for a guest to sleep on the couch. Aria gave in after a while, even though secretly she was glad that she wasn't sleeping on the couch and would have to wake up with a stiff back.

Aria glanced around Yuzu's room. It was still filled with soft, plushy stuffed toys. She didn't mind, it wasn't like she was going to be in there during the day. She sighed to herself and gingerly walked over to the bed and sat down, her hands gripping onto the soft comforter. It had been awhile since she last slept on something soft.

Isshin skipped into her room, his eyes sparkling with an unknown happiness. In his hands, though, were shopping bags. "Guess what I did when you were gone." He pulled out a pink sweatshirt with a bunny stitched to the front. "I bought you new clothes! I knew you didn't have any so I thought I would take the liberty and buy you some of your own!" He sounded way too happy. She stared down the bunny sweatshirt, her lip twitching and the cuteness of it. She closed her eyes and cursed the gods.

"Thank you, Isshin. You really didn't have to," she forced out with a crock smile.

"Nonsense. I wanted too!" He placed the bags near the door and waved to her with a chipper smile. "I'll let you settle in now. Don't hesitate to ask if you need anything." And with that, he finally left.

Aria sighed and fell backwards onto her new bed. She tried to think back on how she found herself in the predicament she was currently in. She didn't even plan on staying any longer than a couple of hours, and now… she was probably going to be stuck there for a month or two. But she couldn't pass up an opportunity like the one presented to her today. Isshin's son went through the same thing she was going through now. He was a Vizard like herself… that was what they called what she was, a Vizard. If someone as weak as him could overcome the hollowfication, then she could too.

She had to. She didn't want to have another incident again and lose complete control – forever.

She heard something shift to her right. When she looked up she just caught a pencil fall off the desktop table. Her eyes shifted over to the plush animals, one grabbing her attention immediately. She stood up and walked over to the table and reached out to grab a stuffed tiger like bear that seemed out of place from Yuzu's other, more girly stuffed animals.

She glanced back down at the pencil and then back to the smooth surface of the table. No way could something roll off without it being pushed.

She eyed the stuff animal again, something catching her eye yet again. "I didn't know stuffed toys could sweat." She glared down wondering what the hell this thing was.

"Uh..Uh-ahhhh. What? No! I'm a ….a new line of toy! Yeah, that's it! I'm a talking, sweating stuffed animal!" the thing stuttered out.

Her eyes turned red with anger, her glare deepening. "I wasn't born yesterday."

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Ichigo sighed as he walked up to his room after he had an interesting conversation with Karin. She, too, was a little worried about the new guest that was sleeping in Yuzu's room. They knew nothing about her and their father hadn't seen her for over six years, so why wouldn't he think that people would change over that period of time? Still, his father trusted her for whatever reason and even though he hated him and his antics most of the time… he still trusted his judge in characters.

He stood in front of his bedroom and let out another sigh. He thought back to their walk to Urahara's. He wondered what made her ticked off at him and lash out the way she did… well, if he was going to be forced to live with her for however long it was going to take, he'd better make amends now before it was too late.

He scratched his head as he walked over to Yuzu's room. The door was closed and he reached out to knock but stopped short when he heard voices inside.

"Where the hell is it?" she grumbled. He could hear muffled sounds of someone else but couldn't make out the…

"Stop it! Your hand isn't supposed to go in there!" Yep, that was definitely Kon.

He threw the door open and walked inside expecting the worse. "What are you doing?" Sitting on Yuzu's bed was Aria with her hand stuffed into Kon's mouth, her fingers wiggling around as she searched for something.

Aria glanced up at him, stopping her search momentarily to answer Ichigo. "Looking for the pill that's inside this stuffed animal. I didn't know you could do this, actually."

"UH, I don't think he likes that." Ichigo tried his best to stick up for his stuffed animal friend, but Aria shrugged it off.

"And I care, because?"

Kon finally pried her hand out of his mouth as he took in deep breaths of air. "Ichigo, please, save meefffff." Aria stuck her hand in his mouth again but this time it only took a matter of seconds before her hand came back out taking out the mod soul's pill with it.

"Here it is. So I was right, this is a mod soul." She rolled it around her fingers to examine it further. She never saw a mod soul pill before. It didn't look any different from a regular candy soul pill the soul reapers used. She stuffed it back into the stuffed animals' throat and set him down onto her crossed leg lap.

"What the hell is your problem!?" He pointed his finger at her accusingly before stopping when he got a good look of her face, then his eyes travelling down to her chest.

"That's so interesting. It makes me wonder how he can even move without a brain or skeletal structure to mod off of…" her hand was on her chin as she examined the plush toy. "Maybe it's because he's a mod soul to begin with. Normal candy souls probably couldn't do this." She reached down and grabbed his arms and pulled lightly. "Has good resistance, too."

"Hey, let me go. If you weren't so pretty I would have beat you up by now!" he cried out, struggling against her grip.

Ichigo crossed his arms and sneered at the plush animal. "Sure. That's the only reason, huh?"

"Of course it is. Why do you sound so sarcastic?!"

Aria finally let him go and he jumped backwards off her lap and turned toward Ichigo with fire in his eyes. "I don't like your tone of voice. You know very well what power I hold."

"Yeah, when you're in an actual body maybe, but in a toy you have no power."

And with that, Kon jumped up and karate chopped Ichigo across the head and then began his onslaught on his face. Ichigo vein popped up on the side of his head and he grabbed the disrespectful plush toy and threw him to the ground. "Will you stop that already? If it wasn't for me you wouldn't even be alive!"

Aria watched as the fight broke out between the two. She still had her legs crossed on top of the bed but now had her elbow on her thigh and her chin in her hand while she watched the two duke it out with amused eyes.

Maybe staying there wouldn't be as bad as she'd thought it was going to be