Uryuu woke to the sound of people moving about in the adjacent apartment. The empty adjacent apartment. That no one lived in.

With a groan he dragged a pillow over his head and tried to ignore the sounds. He didn’t want to be awake yet, not after the week he’d had. Another few hours of sleep and he might even start to feel human again.

But try as he might, the sound of movement and boxes thumping down kept him from falling back asleep.

(Dammit. He’d been looking forward to sleeping for once…)

Uryuu tossed his pillow away and crawled out of bed, scrubbing at his eyes and yawning as he stumbled into the bathroom. Might as well get up. Maybe eat something. With luck the new neighbor would settle in before long and Uryuu could go back to sleep.

(Or he could go to Hueco Mundo. His room in Harribel’s castle would be blessedly quiet…)

(Surely Urahara wouldn’t complain if it only for a few hours.)

(The man was insistent that he get sleep, after all.)

Uryuu yanked his sleep-shirt over his head and squinted blearily at the mirror, smoothing a hand over the pale blue feather markings across his ribs. The markings had expanded again, spreading across his chest and down his sides, nearly reaching his hips. He twisted his torso around to see some of his back, grimacing at the sight of the feathers stretching towards his spine.

He’d need to separate himself from the Kingfisher crystal soon, before his body gave out. Quincy or not, he could only sustain semi-activation for so long before it took its toll on him.

(He wasn’t pure enough to hold Kingfisher inside his body forever. Not like an Echt could.)

(Weakling…)

(Just like his mother— No!)

Uryuu clenched his jaw and turned away, focusing on his morning routine. He needed downtime badly, but there were four new-made sentai in his territory and some sort of Hollow threat out there that he didn’t know about. Now was the worst time to separate himself, when he might need the advantages of being more than human.

(He was always so helpless when he separated from Kingfisher.)

(So… mortal.)

(How did human sentai handle it?)

Not that it mattered. His body was growing exhausted and needed a rest, no matter what was going on. He just had to hope that the four new sentai were strong enough to handle whatever happened while he was recovering.

He yanked on fresh clothing and made his way to the small kitchen, going through the motions of preparing coffee while he listened to the muffled sounds of people moving in. It had been a while since anyone moved in or out, and the more Uryuu woke up the more curious he became; Urahara owned the building and he was… particular about who rented from him. So whoever was moving in had something interesting about them, Uryuu was certain.

The coffee maker gurgled to a halt and Uryuu poured himself a cup, debating the merits of investigating his new neighbor. He didn’t particularly want to see anyone for the next stretch of forever, but the lure of something new, something unknown drew at him.

A small look wouldn’t hurt.

Uryuu carried his coffee over to the door and opened it, only to blink at the chaos in the hallway. There were two doors open — his neighbor’s door and another down the hall — and more stacked boxes than he expected, which made sense if there were two people moving in at the same time.

Curiosity piqued, Uryuu leaned against his doorway and took a sip of his coffee, scanning the collection of people bustling about and moving things. A handful of teens, two younger kids, two adults, and…

Uryuu blinked and pinched his arm, but the sight didn’t change in the slightest.

Benihime glided down the hallway with a small box in one hand, while one of the teens carried a great stack of boxes at her side. She caught Uryuu’s gaze and smiled as they walked past, daring him to comment.

“Morning,” he mumbled to Benihime, yanking his gaze away from the box she was carrying. The idea that Urahara favored whoever was moving in enough that even Benihime was helping out was… terrifying. Who knew what it meant for him and his agreements with the man.

“Good morning, Ishida-kun,” Benihime replied with a tiny nod. “I do hope we didn’t disturb you too much?”

He snorted and cast a glance at the chaos in the hallway, then gave Benihime a dry look. “I’m awake, aren’t I?”

She laughed, bright and sharp and dangerous, and passed the small box to another of the teens before shooing the young woman on. “Feeling that poorly, then?” she asked as she glided closer, her crimson eyes narrowing as she looked him over. She reached out to grip Uryuu’s chin once he was within reach, tipping his head up and to either side so she could examine him. “You’ve worn yourself to a thread again,” she murmured darkly, nails digging into Uryuu’s skin. “I will be having words with Urahara about this.”

“It’s not his fault,” Uryuu grumbled as he carefully pulled himself from Benihime’s grasp and stepped back so she wasn’t towering over him anymore. “I’ve been helping some friends out. Nothing to do with him at all.”

Benihime’s eyes narrowed further and Uryuu knew he’d misstepped. “Perhaps you should consider how much of yourself you give to these… friends of yours, if this is how you return to us time and time again.”

Uryuu took a drink of his coffee to give himself a moment to think. “I just need some time to rest,” he offered, glancing up at her and then away to the people moving about in the hallway. “You know how I work.”

She followed his gaze and smirked, a mischievous spark appearing in her eyes. “I do. And that is why I do this.” She cast him a challenging look, then stepped back a bit and turned towards the hallway. “Kurosaki-kun, Yasutora-kun, come meet your neighbor.”

“What are you doing?!” Uryuu hissed at her as two of the teens broke away from the chaos and approached.

“Don’t you want to be neighborly, Ishida-kun?” she asked with a sly smile, then turned to give the two teens a much kinder one. “Boys, this is Ishida Uryuu. Don’t be put off by his scowls, he’s simply not a morning person I’m afraid.”

“I’m not a people person,” Uryuu grumbled into his coffee, ignoring the curious looks from the two teens.

“So you keep saying. I just think you’re selective.” Benihime tutted and ruffled his hair, using the motion to disguise the way her fingers tapped his head in a gentle reprimand for being rude. “Now then, Ishida-kun, this is Kurosaki Ichigo and Yasutora Sado, they’ll be living in the apartment next to yours. The one just down the hall is where their friends Inoue Orihime and Arisawa Tatsuki are moving in.”

“Tatsuki and I won’t be around all the time,” Kurosaki said with a shrug. “We still mostly live at home, but we’ve been wanting a bit more space to ourselves lately. So… we went looking for a good place where all four of us could live comfortably.”

Uryuu ran a hand through his hair to straighten out the strands and tried to figure out what he was supposed to say. “I see,” he settled on, glancing from Kurosaki to Benihime. “If there’s nothing else…?”

“No, I suppose not,” Benihime said with a sigh and a small shake of her head. “Off with you then, and be sure to eat something before you go back to sleep, Ishida-kun.”

“Coffee—”

“Is not a meal,” she reminded him tartly. “And you have spent far too long around Urahara if you believe it is.”

Uryuu shrugged and stepped back into his apartment. “If I have something in the fridge, I’ll eat. Otherwise, I’ll just deal with it later.” He fixed Benihime with a flat look, daring her to protest, then nodded once at his new neighbors. “I hope your move goes smoothly. If you’ll excuse me, it’s been a long week and I need rest.”

He shut and locked the door before anyone could comment, thoroughly tired of dealing with strangers. What Benihime had been thinking by introducing them he didn’t know and… and that should probably worry him. She was very much a reflection of Urahara, always with a plot or ten in motion, which meant that there was a reason they’d been introduced.

Something to worry about later, he decided as he dumped the dregs of his coffee down the drain and rinsed his mug. For now, he was too tired to give a damn.

Things would make more sense after he slept his exhaustion off.

(He hoped.)