Ichigo knocked on the door to Ishida’s apartment then tucked his hands in his pockets to wait. He could sense that Ishida was home — Kaito’s lessons in reiatsu control were good for that much — but he had no idea if he had interrupted something or not.

He’d give Ishida a few minutes before he tried again.

Not that it took very long for Ishida to answer; the locks clicked and the door swung open before Ichigo could start to get impatient.

“Kurosaki?” Ishida asked in confusion, a frown on his face as he gave Ichigo a once-over. He clearly hadn’t expected anyone to visit him and was still dressed in sleep pants and a loose shirt, his hair sleep-mussed and tangled. “Is… something wrong?”

“Nah, Orihime just wanted to spend some time as a group,” Ichigo said with a shrug, eyeing Ishida’s attire in bemusement. He’d never seen Ishida in something other than one of his two uniforms — school or Quincy — and it made him look… fragile. There was a certain weight that his uniforms lent him, a look of strength and poise that was entirely missing from the casual attire.

(It made Ishida almost as cute as Yuzu and Karin when they’d just woken up.)

(Ishida would kill him if he knew what Ichigo was thinking.)

Ishida narrowed his eyes, and for a moment Ichigo thought his friend had divined his thoughts, but he just sighed and turned away, gesturing for Ichigo to follow him in. “We spend lunch together almost every day,” he said in half-hearted protest.

“Kaito doesn’t, and she wants to spend time with everyone,” Ichigo said as he closed the door behind him and followed Ishida into the main room. He flopped onto the small couch that Ishida owned and waited, content to allow his friend whatever time he needed to get ready. “My sisters are there as well. Yuzu wanted to meet everyone properly, and I think Karin’s looking to challenge Kaito.”

“Why the hell would she want to do that?” Ishida asked from his bedroom. “Does foolhardy run in your family, Kurosaki?”

“Probably,” Ichigo agreed placidly, amused by Ishida’s offended tone. “It’s probably catching, too, judging by the things you’ve done as part of this group.”

“Mostly to save one of your asses!”

“Yeah, no. I’m not buying that one, Ishida.” Ishida had done far too many things on his own, without prompting, for Ichigo to believe that. His friend could protest all he wanted but he fit into their group just fine.

“What in the world did I do to deserve this group,” Ishida grumbled as he stalked out of his bedroom, hairbrush in one hand and the other running through his hair to tease out the tangles.

“Tried to challenge me to a Hollow-killing contest while Kaito was around.”

Ishida made a frustrated noise and pointed his hairbrush at Ichigo, trying to be menacing and falling far short. “You were doing more harm than good with your damn flailing attempts at doing a Shinigami’s duty. Taking offense at your efforts was entirely warranted.”

“Uh huh.” In hindsight, Ishida was absolutely correct about that, Ichigo could admit. Even with Kaito’s help, he really hadn’t been the most adept at taking care of problems without large amounts of collateral damage. “So you decided to show me up by… causing more chaos.”

Ishida grimaced and gave an awkward shrug as he finished brushing out his hair. “Okay, fine, not the best plan I ever had,” he admitted as he set his brush down and tugged on a coat, his lips pinched into a thin line.

Ichigo let the subject drop; Ishida’s squared shoulders and the way he couldn’t quite meet Ichigo’s gaze meant he was starting to tread the dangerous edges of guilt and self-recrimination, which was the last thing Ichigo wanted.

(Moments like these, it was easy to see the resemblance between Ishida and Kaito.)

(It was hard to accept that there was nothing he could do about any of it but be patient and supportive.)

(That inability left a bitter, bitter taste in Ichigo’s mouth.)

So he lazily rose from Ishida’s couch, smirking just enough to draw out a flash of exasperated amusement from his friend, and strode past Ishida to the door. He didn’t bother to linger as Ishida closed and locked his door, just moved down the hallway towards the stairs to the street.

Ishida caught up to him before he’d gone down half a flight and fell into step with him without comment. Once outside, they made their way towards the Urahara Shoten in silence, a familiar gap opening between them once there was space.

(Even without him around, they still compensated for Kaito’s presence.)

(Sometimes he wondered how Kaito felt about their habits…)

(Did Kaito even realize what they were doing?)

“Are you sure this was just Inoue’s plan?” Ishida asked warily as the shoten came within view, drawing Ichigo from his thoughts.

The store was covered in more lights than Ichigo had ever seen in one place before, all of them on despite it being mid-morning. Urahara had even tacked bits of greenery onto the building, which did manage to add dashes of contrast, but the whole thing was still… very Urahara.

“Is that… did Urahara cut a hole in his roof?” Ishida’s asked in a strangled voice, staring blankly at the roof of the shoten.

Ichigo pursed his lips and contemplated the way the top of a pine tree appeared to protrude from the roof, then shrugged. “Not a clue. Does it matter if he did?”

“Why is this my life.” Ishida pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, allowing Ichigo to tug him across the lot without a struggle.

“You enjoy it.”

“To my eternal regret.”

Ichigo laughed at Ishida’s defeated tone and slid open the door to the shop. “I got him!” he announced as he pushed Ishida into the room ahead of him and closed the door behind them. “Is that everyone?”

“Ah, thank you, Ichigo-kun! Good morning, Uryuu-kun!” Urahara said with a cheerful wave from his perch atop a ladder next to the massive tree that dominated one side of the shop. His other hand was overflowing with ornaments, as was the tree itself, and Ichigo had to wonder how many ornaments a tree could support before its branches started to sag.

(Surely Urahara was going to reach that limit soon.)

Ishida eyed the tree warily, clearly coming to the same conclusion that Ichigo had, but he had no chance to say anything about it.

“Ishida-kun, you came!” Orihime cried in welcome, emerging from behind the tree and darting towards him. She wrapped Ishida in an enormous hug, almost driving the air from his lungs, before pulling away and lunging for Ichigo in turn. “Thank you, Ichigo-kun!”

He chuckled and patted her head as her arms tightened around him. “Told you I’d get him.”

“You did!” She beamed up at him as she pulled away, bouncing on her toes as she looked between them. “That’s everyone, so now we can really start to have fun!”

“Sounds like a plan,” Ichigo agreed, arching an eyebrow at Kaito as he wandered out from behind the tree in Orihime’s wake, Karin at his side and an expression of bemused disbelief on his face as his gaze darted around the room.

Kaito’s arms were held awkwardly out in front of him, strands of tinsel looped around them and the ends held in either hand, and for once he didn’t even seem to notice Ichigo’s regard.

(It was as if he couldn’t believe the sheer exuberance of everyone else.)

(As if he thought it would all disappear if he so much as breathed wrong.)

(As if nothing made sense to him.)

“Welcome back, Ichi-nii!” Yuzu waved at him from her perch atop Tsukabishi’s shoulders, bright ornaments glittering in her off-hand. “Isn’t the tree really pretty?! Urahara-san says he even has presents for us!”

“Presents?” Ishida asked, startled out of his own bemusement by Yuzu’s words. “Why would he…?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Urahara asked as he hopped off the ladder and strolled over, ruffling Kaito’s hair as he passed. “You’re all good kids, after all.”

“Father!” Kaito’s expression smoothed out into familiar warm exasperation, and he shook his head in a futile attempt to get his hair to lay flat again. Not that it worked.

Karin snorted in amusement and reached out, liberating him of the loops of tinsel as she said, “Shaking your head’s only going to make that mop of yours worse, Kaito-san.”

“Harsh but true,” Kaito said with a dramatic sigh and pointed look at his father as he ran a hand through his hair to flatten it. “Thank you, Karin-chan.”

“Mou, but you look so adorable with your hair all floofed!” Urahara said with a pout, eyes gleaming with amusement.

“Hey, why’re you using her name?!” Ichigo protested at the same time. “You still refuse to use ours!”

Kaito gave Ichigo a dry look as Ishida covered a laugh with a cough. “And of course you are entirely capable of denying Yuzu-chan anything she wants,” he said, before reaching out to swipe at his father’s hat, fingers missing by an inch. “And stop calling me adorable, I’m not a kid!” he grumbled, not at all put out by missing.

Ichigo hesitated while Urahara laughed, glancing up at Yuzu — who was back to chatting softly with Tsukabishi as she hung ornaments — then shrugging in acceptance. It was true after all, he’d do anything for his little sisters, especially Yuzu.

“My point is made,” Kaito said as he ducked away from Urahara’s reaching hand and pointedly sidled around Karin until she was between them.

The way Karin planted her fists on her hips and stared up at Urahara in challenge was probably more hilarious to Ichigo than it realistically should be, but… well. It was Karin. And Urahara.

(The tinsel danging from Karin’s left arm really added something to the whole picture, in Ichigo’s opinion.)

(She looked like she was ready to toss it over Urahara at any moment.)

“Anyway,” Kaito declared as he ignored the silent drama going on next to him. “Anyway, since Father won’t let us do anything else until we’ve finished decorating this monster… shall we get to it, Ishida-kun?”

“Why do I have to help?” Ishida muttered without heat as he detoured around the standoff between Karin and Urahara and came to stand at Kaito’s side. “I don’t remember agreeing to this. Or knowing that this was happening.”

Kaito chuckled and nudged Ishida slightly with his shoulder, herding the other towards the tree. “Well, you still came, and the more of us that help out, the sooner this will be done.”

“Teamwork?” Ishida asked with a wry twist of his lips, picking up a box of tinsel as he passed it and carrying it over to the tree.

Kaito grinned. “Teamwork.”