Author Note: I don't own Bleach, If I did I would be a very happy man. Also this fits into an AU in the sense that this takes place before the Annacar (sp?) attack but after the Bounto ark so its kinda like the first movie and the second OVA, out side the normal timeline of the series.

Chapter 1: The father is….

"It's January Dad, why do I have to go out on foot to get her the ice cream cake? It's 14 degrees….but noo, I had to go out and for some reason my gloves and coat are mIsshing." Ichigo muttered to himself as he walked back to his home holding a box with a vanilla ice cream cake with little Chappy faces on it and 'happy birthday Rukia' in the center. He didn't have candles, first of all he had no exact age, and second of all it wouldn't be right to ask.

He walked into the house and put the cake in the fridge. No one else was there yet except for his family and Rukia, obviously. She was eating a small protein bar, something that had been nagging at him for the last few months. She seemed like she was almost displaying signs of pregnancy, she was almost eating for two, he could have sworn she had tried to hide some mood swings here and there and there were times in the morning she was in the bathroom for a half hour without any water running. Isshian looked over the sofa at his son, and called over seriously and calmly.

"Ichigo, please come over here; we were waiting for you to tell you something…" Isshin said.

"Okay…" Ichigo said, but was worried a bit now. Karin and Yuzu where there too-this was definitely something big. Rukia was sitting next to Isshian with a mixed feeling look on her face.

"What is it?" Ichigo said.

"Well we thought it would be good to let you know this before the party starts in an hour or so." Isshin said and Rukia picked up, "Ichigo, I know I've already turned your life on its head once, so believe me I had no idea that this would happen…..Ichigo, what I'm trying to say is, you're going to be a father."

Ichigo's mouth hung open and went small eye, "Please, please tell me your joking…..oh god I should have noticed I shouldn't have pushed it off as me over reacting." His mind was boggled; he was only turning 17 later that year.

"Ichigo, I…I wanted to let you know earlier but there were so many possibilities that could have happened. Shinigami and humans having a baby is a very rare thing; it needs to be with both in a physical body, obviously one is in a gigai or both need to be on a spirit level. Also it's rare that pregnancy results. Finally I don't recall anyone talking about a female Shingami getting pregnant from sex with a human. The other way around I have, actually I think the last time it happened was only almost 20 years ago or so." Rukia explained.

"Well that's a relief knowing we won't be sore thumbs or something in the Soul Society….right?" Ichigo asked, just as he said it, he noticed his slip, but that was the least of his concerns.

"Heh, yeah right, get ready, you're gonna hear a whole lot of shit for it." Isshian said with a slight chuckle.

"How would you know old man?" Ichigo asked.

Isshian quickly replied, "And now is the time that Ichigo and I go to the other room and have a nice father to son talk for the next few minutes, and you three ladies stay out here. He grabbed Ichigo and pulled him into the next room.

"So….Ichigo finally scored. Never thought it would be with you." Karin said and added, "And he knocked you up too."

"Yeah? So, he's seventeen and I'm one hun….seven…seventeen as well. We were at a party one night, one thing led to another." Rukia said plainly.

"Yuzu, if I ever end up like those two kill me please, quickly." Karin said.

"Why, I think it's cute that Ichi-nii found someone he loves." Yuzu replied.

"Yuzu." Karin said.

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

Ichigo and Isshin walked out of the room a few minutes later, and Ichigo had a shocked/angered look on his face. Rukia's expression changed to a worried one.

"Guess what Karin, Yuzu!" Ichigo said in fake happy voice.

"What is it Ichigo?" Karin asked, not very enthusiastically.

"Apparently half of what we've known to be truth is a lie! Turns out grandma and grandpa on the old man's side of the family never really existed. Dude did a great job at faking his life…" Ichigo said and continued to explain the whole situation of how Isshin was a Shinigami, and Rukia got her personal visual aids to help simplify the explanation further. Karin seemed slightly surprised that her moron—or, well, who she thought to be a moron was actually a very important person at one time and, powerful. She had known about Ichigo's Shinigami activity for a while then, but never knew that her dad was a Shinigami.

Yuzu, on the other hand, was extremely shocked and had a hard time taking it in at first.

"So, I have just one question Rukia." Karin said.

"Go ahead." Rukia, still holding her last visual aid of a gigai and a soul, and how they are perceived by humans.

"Why do you drawings suck?"

Ichigo face palmed, expecting Karin to get bashed in the head by the drawing board as he had experienced on more than a few times. Instead, Rukia almost started crying but was able to hold it back.

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For the next hour they prepared the house for Rukia's birthday party. Rukia had told them it was going to be small, and by small they assumed five or six people. Instead, somehow, a fifth of her squad came in gigais, Renji. Then there were the given, Orihime, Sado, and Ishida, along with a couple of her classmates that Ichigo never really talked to or knew about.

"Rukia, we are having a talk about the meaning of 'small!'" Ichigo muttered as they welcomed the guests.

Ichigo was about to close the door when a pale hand grabbed the door and pushed it open. "Excuse me, but I believe I have a right to be here, and to be treated with respect Kurosaki," Byakuya said coldly walking in.

"I didn't know you were there." Ichigo said, but Byakuya didn't seem to pay attention to him and walked right past him. He walked to Rukia, looking at her and said, "Happy Birthday," still keeping his voice normal. To anyone who didn't know him, they would find it extremely rude and cold, but for him-this was something.

"Thank you, Nii-san, how did you manage to get here though? I thought you'd be busy at work, just like every other year." Rukia said, lowering her head slightly.

"I wasn't as overloaded today, I can't stay for long-only about an hour, and then I really should get back." Byakuya said.

"Well it's nice enough of you to come, thank you very much." Rukia said.

After a half hour of talking amongst everyone, Isshin brought the cake out with lit candles and placed it on the kitchen table. Rukia looked at the candles it read "1??" she made a mental note to kill Ichigo. Then again he did get a cake with Chappy on it; maybe she wouldn't kill him after all- what would she say to her child when it asked where daddy was? Her high school classmates didn't get the joke but everyone else who knew her did. She closed her eyes made a wish and blew out the candles.

"So what did you wish for?" Orihime asked.

"If I told then it wouldn't come true." Rukia said.

"Come on, it's not like anyone actually believes in that anymore…"

"Fine, I wished Ichigo and my child would lead a happy long life." Rukia said.

"Child?" Orihime looked confused.

"Yeah, a child. The product of a man and a girl. In six months I will have a child." Rukia said. Everyone who didn't know already in the room went dead pan silence.

Byakuya was repeating to himself in his head, "Please be a joke, a very bad joke."

After a minute it finally clicked with everyone one by one. Renji first, who blurted out, "HOLY CRAP RUKIA, YOU SLEPT WITH ICHIGO?"

"That is generally how one goes after having sex Renji, why are you so surprised at this?" Rukia said.

"It's just…what do you see in him?" Renji said, not saying that what he really felt like saying-about how he loved her, not wanting to complicate the situation.

"Renji, isn't this something we should talk in private? I'm sure that no one else wants to here this." Rukia said, slipping into her schoolgirl act.

After the whole shock calmed down, Rukia opened her presents. She got a stuffed Chappy doll from Renji, a How to Draw book from Ichigo, a few romance novels from Yuzu and Karin, a cook book made by Orihime, and various other things-small jewelry, and Chappy products from the others. Both Ichigo and Rukia kept a distance from each other, having mixed feelings about the day's current events. Ichigo also made damn sure he wasn't near Byakuya- the last thing he needed was the captain trying to kill him. The party lasted a few hours and then everyone left except Byakuya. Renji smacked Ichigo and said, "You better freakin' love her or I'll kill you before Byakuya does."

"Nii-sama, why are you still here? I thought you couldn't stay long." Rukia said, slightly nervous.

"We need to talk about you two." Byakuya said calmly.

The two nodded and along with Yuzu, Isshian and Karin, sat down on a sofa which had wrapping paper still on it from earlier.

"What is there to talk about?" Ichigo asked.

"About your marriage and future of course. After all, you have shown your affections for each other and your future child is proof of this." Byakuya said.

"Nii-sama, don't you think you are taking this a little extreme?" Rukia said.

"Not at all, you two are having a child and naturally that is an aspect of a family,-should you two not be wed it would make you look like a whore, sex is a serious thing and shouldn't be taken lightly." Byakuya said.

"Call her a whore one more time and I'll kill you, I'm not sure how things run up in the Soul Society but sex between a girlfriend and boyfriend isn't that uncommon here, it's the having a child part that is." Ichigo said, extremely angry at Byakuya.

"That may be true but Rukia is a Kuchiki, and we are of the Soul Society and a noble clan at that. It was hard enough having my clan accept her and my late wife, due to the fact that they were commoners. I might be the head of the clan, but it doesn't mean the rest will accept what I do blindly." Byakuya explained.

"Why don't we just have a wedding in the Soul Society, you know, to please your clan and the others but just let them work on their relationship on their own terms here in the real world?" Isshin suggested. Ichigo was still trying to get used to his dad being a Shinigami and the whole overly goofy appearance most likely being a façade.

"I will consider it, for now, however, in the mean time Kurosaki Ichigo, I expect you to be nothing less than a gentleman to my sister, and if I hear you are messing around with another girl I will personally kill you myself. Also don't threaten me again, or I will kill you." Byakuya said, "Now I must leave, I have important work and appointments to make."

"But I thought you would consider it…." Ichigo said, confused.

"That was toward the real world end of your relationship, either way, you two ARE getting married." Byakuya said, and took his leave.

"Great….well, now what?" Ichigo said. Rukia looked at him, "Think this is a bad time tell you but I accidentally threw up on your coat and gloves this morning….."

Ichigo, upset but not too busy thinking about the day's events to think to himself that the next hollow that attacked him would be one sorry SOB. He decided that.

"Its alright, I understand Rukia. Well, this is gonna be weird at school. I mean, you can only pretend you're not pregnant for so long at school."

"Let's cross that road when we get there." Rukia said.

"Yeah, we should focus on what you'll be wearing to the wedding." Isshin said, and was immediately met with a kick to the face from both Ichigo and Rukia.

End Chapter 1