He lifts the corner of his hat up just a bit, enough that the dark shadows that usually obscure his eyes fall away, and the two of them can actually have this moment of understanding eye-to-eye, rather than have the emotional intimacy obscured by this simple little barrier that keeps Urahara's front so well-maintained.

It's easy to see why such a silly little article of clothing serves as a shield for him- when you can actually see his eyes, no amount of playful subterfuge and deflection can hide the fact that he looks deeply, deeply tired.

"Thank you." He smiles- it almost reaches his eyes, but not quite, and he slips the hat back down on his head in the hairsbreadth of a pause after he says it. "I am a shopkeeper, and I'd like to think that's the whole and sum of it now, but I haven't really had much luck. All those cliches they say about tigers and stripes hold true."

If he thought he could retire after centuries of correcting past mistakes and a single Winter War, he was sorely mistaken. ALASTAIR had other plans. And to be fair, had they not intervened, he would have found something else.