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Soul mates were not an immediate thing. It wasn’t as if people said hello and suddenly found themselves bound to another person for the rest of their days.
Like any relationship, it took time for a bond to develop. There would be the pull, of course, that instinctive tug that the most sensitive felt. But almost everyone else needed to wait for the dreams to start.
It was dark, just the sound of fabric brushing around him. Ichigo could feel something flat and hard under him as he sat, and a touch told him that it was something rough. His feet were slightly slower, resting on something made of glass.
Though he wasn’t sure where he was, Ichigo realized what sort of dream this was. They even had a talk about it in school. At the same time they had the talk about puberty and what to expect, soul mates were explained. Ichigo remembered the whispers among the others for days. Tatsuki and him had even joked about it themselves.
So he understood what it was that he was in.
This was just the first dream. At least the first where he realized what it was. More details would come as the dreams continued. Hints of who his partner was, and their growing bond.
Thinking about it, Ichigo realized that this was the most likely time for that type of thing to start. Children didn’t have those sorts of bonds. At best, it was a familial one. Children were just too young and changing so much that they barely knew who they were, let alone who they might be as an adult. Even if the hint was there, nothing would come until they knew more about who they were.
It’s why most connections, even if the initial meeting was years in the past, never really began to form. While the bond may not occur at the original meeting, it would leave an impression.
For most, the dreams helped guide people to find that soul that had left such an impression on theirs.
The feel of silk brushing his hand was the last thing Ichigo recalled before waking up.
That was only the beginning. Every night, when he went to sleep, Ichigo had dreams. Most were dark, and he started to realize that it was from his partner. It wasn’t a bad dark. It was like the stillness in the early morning, when everyone was asleep and the darkness made everything seem calm and quiet. When one was cuddled up in the blankets and enjoying the moment after a busy day.
The smell of flowers drifted by now and then, and the soft touch of silken fabric and, at once more, sleek hair brushed over his skin.The back of his hand or over his shoulder.
As he got used to the dark, Ichigo slowly began to pick out more details, eyes adjusting to the shadows. He realized he was sitting on the ledge of a window in his sideways city, which made sense. There were walls now, draped with the fabric he heard brush against the concrete of the building as wind that had never been there drifted across the building. It was something bright, but muted in the dimness of the world at the moment.
Ichigo had a good idea of what color it was, but he wasn’t sure. However, this all made him very distracted.
The tap between his attention snapped back to reality.
“Ah, you must find me so boring to spar with now, Ichigo-san,” Urahara said with a mock pout, holding Benihime between Ichigo’s eyes. If Ichigo shifted forward at all, he’s have split the skin open on the gleaming edge of the blade. Then she was gone, settling back to rest on the blond’s shoulders.
“Sorry,” he said, relaxing as the pressure from the older man faded. Even after fighting people like Aizen and Yhwach, powerhouses that dwarfed almost every other blade he had ever crossed, Urahara was still the one who made shivers run down his spine when the man pressed down with his reiatsu. Maybe because he was the first to make Ichigo really flee in fear with just the weight of his power. Maybe because Ichigo knew that if Urahara wanted to kill him, he would.
Not that he actually feared the man like that. For all that Urahara could, Ichigo had all the faith in the world that he wouldn’t.
“What seems to be bothering you?” Kisuke asked, eyes curious.
“I just…” Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck, glancing away from other as he tried to find the right words. “Do they have soul mates in Soul Society?”
A pause. “We do. Though it is rare to find them. From what I understand, it’s far more common in the living world.” He hummed. “It’s one of the few ways for people to end up with their loved ones. No matter what their ticket says, when the second half of a soul pair dies, they go to where their other half is. Then they are born together again.”
Ichigo looked at the other, curious. “Really? I guess that explains why people are usually the same age.”
A smile from Urahara as he put Benihime away, absently petting her hilt a moment before gesturing for Ichigo to follow him. “That is the case in the living world. It may just be that the shorter life spans of living beings pushes things to happen faster. Thus the dreams.”
He made a soft noise of consideration. “While those who are soul mates tend to be on the higher edge of spiritual power, shinigami capable souls can sometimes find themselves waiting for soul mates for centuries.”
He glanced at Ichigo as he led the other back to the ladder. They went up, and Ichigo took a moment to slip back into his body before settling with Urahara in the kitchen. The other even took the time to heat up some water for them to make tea.
“Nobody is sure exactly what causes the difference,” Urahara finally continued. “Almost every person who is capable of becoming a shinigami does have a soul mate, be it platonic or otherwise. But given the life spans, it may take a while for their partner to appear. One theory is that they were all the souls who were living before the worlds were separated. Such a separation forced the strongest souls into pieces as well. And that some of those pieces were tossed between the worlds.”
He paused to take a sip of his tea. Not that Ichigo minded. It was rare for Urahara to go into detail like this, and Ichigo was always curious about how things worked in Soul Society.
“My personal theory is that, sometimes, a soul needs to lead a specific type of life in order for that connection to…wake up.” He arched his brows at Ichigo. “There have even been a few situations where a hollow and a shinigami have turned out to be soul mates. Usually vasto lordes who have broken their masks, but not always. Some rumors imply that such a pair tend to be swept up into a noble family, as they tend to produce very powerful children. Such shingiami usually were waiting a long while for such a soul mate to arrive.”
Ichigo knew his mouth was gaped open as he stared at Urahara. He could just imagine the chaos that would happen if someone like Grimmjow was soul bonded to someone like… He wasn’t sure. Soi Fon, maybe. The mental image made his jaw snap close as he winced.
Wait.
“You said all shinigami have soul mates?” he asked. “Then do….” He stopped himself before asking. It was rude to ask, as not everyone did. Though Ichigo grimaced. “Did Mom and Dad..?”
That got a small laugh. “They did. It was part of why I was able to stabilize her with his help. Their souls had already started to reach for each other, even with the hollow influence corrupting her.” Urahara smiled. “As for me, as I am sure you were going to ask, yes. I do. Though it is.. Complicated.”
That sounded bad. Thinking back about what he had learned about Urahara, Ichigo could just imagine the potential problems that Urahara had faced in regards of dealing with a soulmate while he was in exile and everything that had happened since.
“Though I take it you have started to have the dreams that living human have of their soul mates?”
Ichigo tucked his head down. Even if he was almost twenty it was still a little embarrassing to talk about. Which he knew was answer enough for Urahara. Though something about the question pinged in Ichigo’s brain.
“Do shinigami not have dreams?” he asked.
“Of soul mates? No.” Urahara smiled faintly. “We have another way.” He took another drink. “Did I ever tell you what my inner world was like, Ichigo-san?”
Confused by the sudden shift of tone, Ichigo shook his head, the question he had been about to ask lost for the moment.
“It’s a night garden. Full of gorgeous flowers, most of which have no equivalent in the real world, but smell so good that they could bring tears to your eyes and calmness to the soul. And a place to rest in the center, with comfortable couches and silk curtains that rustle in the quiet breezes of the night. Benihime is a princess, after all. She has a certain standard of living she requires, and her control over that space shows. Someday, you’ll be the same with Zangetsu as you both gain experience and control over how your world looks.”
Ichigo blinked slowly. Silk curtains and a garden of flowers in the dark?
“How do shinigami know their soul mates?”
The man didn’t answer. Instead, he set his tea cup down, and then shrugged out of his haori. That was enough to make Ichigo pause, a little distracted by the flex of the man’s shoulders as smooth actions as he did that.
Ichigo wasn’t blind, okay? Urahara Kisuke was a treat to look at, and he did enjoy that the man seemed positively allergic to tying his top close. Seeing him move so smoothly as he shed first haori, then let said top loose so that it fell from his shoulders was very appealing.
Though he was a little flustered to suddenly be in a smaller space with a basically topless Urahara. The man was covered in pale skin and paler lines of scars here and there. He also wasn’t overly muscular, sleek and slender. Ichigo had to not so subtly tuck his hands under his thighs to not reach out and touch.
Then Kisuke shifted so that Ichigo could see his back. Against the back of one shoulder was a scrawl of words. Something about them looked familiar, though Ichigo made sure to keep his hands to himself while reading them.
“This might sound cocky but, the battle, even if it gets bad, just hold out till I get there. I promise, I’ll take care of it.”
He read them out loud. Something about that line was so familiar.
“Shinigami don’t have dreams. Instead, we get words. Not the first words, or the last words. But something that our soul mate says to us that resonates with us. That line is etched onto our skin, something to hold onto over the long years of waiting. Words we might here when, for example, someone is coming back to help wage a war and save those he cares about.”
He glanced over his shoulder, eyes dark. “Have you been dreaming of gardens, Ichigo-san?”
Ichigo found himself unable to speak. Over a year. Urahara had known about this for over a year. Since Ichigo was coming back from training some with Squad Zero. But he had never pushed or hinted. Not until Ichigo was ready for it as well.
“I guess I should call you Kisuke from now on,” he said after a moment. Though he could only mentally pout as Kisuke laughed while pulling his clothing back into place.
“I suppose you should,” the man said, smiling, eyes bright again.