Tatsuki idly toyed with the present Yuzu had placed at her side, wondering what Urahara had decided to get for her. When Orihime had called her up and announced that they were going to have a Christmas party at the Shoten, she’d expected food and maybe a tree, not Urahara’s pure, gleeful enjoyment in the whole affair from decorating down to presents.

Though the more she watched the others and their reactions to the festivities — especially Kaito and Ishida — the more Urahara’s enjoyment made sense.

(She still couldn’t believe they had once been the same person, no matter how much evidence there was.)

(No, she didn’t want to believe they had once been the same person, because she was neither a fool nor malicious; she wouldn’t wish the things Kaito had been through on her worst enemy.)

“Alright, everyone have a present?” Urahara asked as he straightened up from his crouch next to the tree and turned to check. He clapped his hands together with a grin and darted back to the table to sit down once more. “Good, good! Ururu-chan, Jinta-kun, how about the two of you start us off?”

Jinta cheered and immediately ripped into the paper, scattering fragments everywhere as he tore through it. At his side, Ururu peeled open her present with calm, careful fingers and set the mostly intact paper behind her once she’d gotten it free.

“Yeah!” Jinta proudly held up a video game that Tatsuki was certain had only just come out. “You really got it for me!”

Urahara chuckled. “Of course I did. Do you like yours, Ururu-chan?”

“Yes, thank you,” she replied softly, setting the origami book on the table in front of her and smiling up at Urahara.

“I’m glad. Yuzu-chan, Karin-chan, your turn.”

Tatsuki hid her smile in her mug of cocoa as she watched Ichigo’s siblings open their own gifts, Yuzu all careful and delicate as she peeled the paper off her small gift while Karin barely bothered to find an edge before she was tearing the paper off her larger box in great sheets.

At her side, Ichigo was watching his sisters with a fond cast to his expression, looking more peaceful than she’d seen him in years. His attention was entirely on his sisters, hands wrapped around his mug of cocoa and gaze never straying to the present Yuzu had placed at his side.

(She refused to ever take this change in Ichigo for granted.)

(No matter how much of a mess the spring and summer had been, it had left her best friend settled for the first time since his mother’s death. Settled because of Kaito and his father.)

(For that alone, she would forgive those two any number of transgressions.)

“Ichigo-nii, look, look!” Karin crowed as she dug through the box and pulled out a soccer ball, scattering packing peanuts all around her as she did. “It feels really nice, too.”

It did, Tatsuki had to admit; it wasn’t a physical feeling but something she knew was related to reiatsu. There was a sense of protection and strength to it, a watchfulness that felt kind, and she had no doubt that it was so much more than a ‘simple’ soccer ball, no matter what her eyes told her.

“I made it for you,” Urahara told her with a small smile. “Kaito can teach you how to use it properly, but it should help you stay safe.”

Karin made an excited noise and bolted to her feet, dashing around the table and launching herself at Urahara for a hug without a second thought.

Ichigo’s expression turned a bit sour as he narrowed his eyes at the ball, and Tatsuki didn’t hesitate to elbow him in the side. She leaned closer and murmured, “You’re being ridiculous. Wouldn’t you rather they can defend themselves? Things have quieted down but we can’t always be around, and who’s to say there isn’t more danger lurking on the horizon that we can’t predict?”

Ichigo sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck, but his expression did smooth out into resigned acceptance. “I know, I know,” he murmured back. “I just… they’re my sisters.”

“And likely to get into just as much trouble as you, especially Karin-chan,” Tatsuki replied, then laughed at the betrayed expression Ichigo sent her.

“Nii-san, I… I don’t want to be helpless,” Karin said as she pulled away from Urahara and frowned at her brother. She licked her lips and clenched her fists, gaze darting away to her gift once more as she whispered, “Not… not like before. I… I can’t…”

Ichigo leaned towards his sister and held out a hand. “C’mere, Karin. I promise I won’t go after them for teaching you. I just worry.” The minute Karin came within reach, he tugged her into his lap and hugged her tight, chin resting atop her head. “The idea of you getting hurt because you got into something you couldn’t get out of…”

“You could always help me teach her,” Kaito said as he slipped into the spot left open for him and set his mug and gift down. “I wasn’t going to turn her away when she came and asked if I would teach her how to protect herself.”

“I’m not going out and looking for fights, I just don’t want to be helpless,” Karin insisted as she wriggled free and settled in the narrow space between Ichigo and Chad. “Yuzu’s been learning from him too! Mostly just the escaping bits, though.”

“Escaping bits?” Ichigo asked with a glance at Kaito.

Kaito shrugged. “Well, they are young. We—” Kaito tapped his chest in indication of self-as-system— “We have been teaching them how to get away from Hollows and Shinigami, along with teaching Karin the basics of combat.”

Which was eminently sensible in Tatsuki’s opinion; she and Ichigo had been learning at a dojo since they were four, getting Karin started on combat basics was entirely understandable. And she really wasn’t sure how far she trusted most of the Shinigami that were still part of Soul Society, not after what she’d learned from Kaito. They sounded like the worst sort of negligent adults as a whole, which made Ichigo’s deadbeat father a lot more understandable.

If it was endemic to the society because no one really had children — and people who looked like children could be decades old — then not understanding how to parent made… a lot more sense.

It didn’t excuse the man, but it made it… less personal.

(Well, and there were a few Shinigami that she figured were alright, like Rukia or that red-haired loudmouth Renji that Ichigo sometimes hung out with.)

(She wasn’t very impressed with the rest however.)

“What do these do?” Yuzu asked as she held up the present that Urahara had given her.

Tatsuki leaned over to take in the hair clips in Yuzu’s hands. They weren’t so obviously infused as Karin’s soccer ball was, but there was still something about them that niggled at her senses.

“They should help you hide,” Urahara told her. “Your powers are still awakening, which puts you in vulnerable position, so these will give you the stealth you need but can’t yet manage on your own.”

Yuzu considered the hair clips in her hands for a moment, then carefully put all but one away in the box they’d come out of. She clipped the last one in her hair and then glance at the others around the table in curiosity.

Tatsuki suppressed a twitch as Yuzu went hazy to her reiatsu senses, there-and-not, like she was staring through a crystal figure. She felt much like some of the others at school did: a step above powerless but not much more than that.

“That is the weirdest feeling I’ve ever gotten,” Ichigo said as he stared at Yuzu with a small frown on his face. “It’s like you’re there but… not there?” He turned to Urahara, clearly waiting for an explanation.

Urahara grinned, fan flicking open to cover his lower face as his eyes crinkled happily. “Maa, maa, don’t worry your little head about it, Kurosaki-kun! I just included you and the others in the protections so you don’t become worried about not being able to sense your sister!”

The fact that Ichigo just accepted that explanation without further prodding made Tatsuki want to strangle him. She didn’t know much about reiatsu or the Shinigami science behind the power inherent in souls, but she knew enough about Living World science to know that a feat like that couldn’t have been easy to accomplish.

That Ichigo just accepted it as an of course Urahara would do that for him, either meant he was being overly accepting or that Urahara was just that good that of course he was capable of doing exactly that without trouble.

The thoughtful, calculating gleam in Kaito’s eyes meant that it was probably the second option instead of the first, and Tatsuki just wanted to groan in exasperation. She’d seen that expression on him before and it always meant that she had to drag him out of some experiment or inventing binge.

Kaito had spoken true all those months ago, when he said that he enjoyed the things his father had to teach him.

She picked up a few scraps of wrapping paper and crumpled them into a tight ball, reinforced it with a touch of reiatsu, and flicked it at Kaito’s head. The teen had the gall to lean to the side as if he’d expected it, shooting her a betrayed look like he couldn’t understand why she would do such a thing to him.

“No inventing sprees until tomorrow,” Tatsuki told him firm, wagging a finger at him as she did. “I know that look you just got, Kai, and the answer is no.”

“Father, Arisawa-san is being mean to me again,” Kaito mock whined at Urahara, amusement gleaming in his eyes.

“I wouldn’t have to be if you could resist going mad scientist for one day!”

“Well, with an example like Urahara-san to follow, I don’t know what else you expected,” Ishida chimed in as he moved the couple of meters to take his spot at the table next to Kaito. He shrugged when Kaito shot him a betrayed look and said, “I’m not foolish enough to take your side against Arisawa-san. I’ve seen the two of you spar. No thank you.”

Tatsuki flashed Kaito a triumphant grin as he rolled his eyes in fond exasperation and the whole group laughed cheerfully at their antics.

This day hadn’t been what she expected, but she was more than happy with the results.