Gahh. I wish I had my lappy back. I've been looking at new ones online and I think I've decided on an HP that I really like. It's the dv6-6190us, if you care. I'll be getting it in a couple weeks.

I hate typing on this thing. My dad's laptop has the most annoying keyboard. But so many of you reviewed that I thought I'd give you a new chapter!

I'm going to start putting review responses at the end. It keeps me sane not having to scroll through them while editing my opening AN. Plus I can respond in light of the new chapter.

According to traffic stats, about 7% of readers are reviewing. I don't know if that's good or bad, but over 10 reviews in a day seems pretty decent to me. Keep it up! If you review every chapter, you get a gold star!

Is anyone else bummed that there's no JUMP this week?

Some of you have asked how Ichigo's hollow came back. When Ichigo used the FGT, the different parts of his soul fused, being two parts of the same being, Ichigo's power. After he passed out, he reverted to his former state. As such, his hollow and Zangetsu are currently separated for the purposes of this story. We don't know if this is true in the canon yet, and frankly I don't really care because I quite like Ichigo's hollow and he will be developed somewhat as a character as this story unfolds.

I think I'm gonna get a lot of hate from this chapter, but I think it's a fairly realistic scenario, though it wouldn't necessarily fit into Bleach canon. Before you call Byakuya uncharacteristically nice, remember that despite many forum posters and fanfiction authors painting him as a heartless bastard, he's a pretty compassionate guy under his shell.

Speaking of Bleach canon, I just read Decide again along with Farewell Swords and chapter 424, I don't see how anyone could miss the IchiRuki there. She looks so sad when they say goodbye :(.

I'm gonna dive on in here now, and resolve that cliffhanger that so many of you complained about! Enjoy!

Ichigo stared at Byakuya, dumbfounded.

"Well? Answer me, Kurosaki."

"I…I…uhhh…I don't know?" He raised his voice, irritated. "That's a pretty personal question, Byakuya!"

"Your father told me of your…sleeping arrangements. I would hate to think that you were taking advantage of her, enjoying her company in some perverte-"

"You bastard! When did you speak with Dad! I would never do that!"

"Oh? Then what are your intentions concerning my sister, Kurosaki?"

Ichigo's head was swimming as Byakuya talked circles around him. He had a near irresistible urge to attack the man, remembering the last time the two had shared such an intense conversation, and one concerning Rukia no less.

"Come on, King! Let me at him! I want a fuckin' rematch!"

"My intentions," he said, a hand on Zangetsu as he lowered his tone, "are to protect the woman I love!"

If Byakuya was a weaker man, he would be hightailing it away from Ichigo, as many citizens of Seireitei who happened to be walking by at the time had already tried to do. Ichigo was releasing reiatsu like water through a sieve, and the power had already forced several nearby low-level shinigami nearby to their knees. Even Byakuya himself was surprised at the sheer power radiating from the boy, though it wasn't unlike the younger man to be this rash and aggressive. The head of the Kuchiki house raised his hand. "Calm yourself, Kurosaki. I am not your enemy." He gave him a dismissive wave "I merely asked a question, and your answer has been satisfactory. Your…openness about your affections for each other, however, is not. Had someone else seen the display that I did last night, had they known that she once more slept in your quarters, the Kuchiki would be faced with a massive scandal. Rukia is, of course, of age to be wed. For her to be seen with a man that was not a suitor would bring great shame to my family. As a matter of fact, a suitor was to be chosen for her when she returned from her mission in Karakura."

Ichigo scowled. "I doubt that she'd be interested in any noble 'suitors'".

"Which is exactly why I'm offering you the position."

"N-nani?"

"I believe our courtship rituals are similar to your "dating", if your father has informed me properly. You have proven yourself time and again to be both a powerful ally to the Gotei 13, and you have also gone to great lengths to ensure Rukia's well-being, even endangering your own life. If you wish to "date" my imouto, all you must do is ask. If you do not, I'm afraid my grandfather has a member of another noble family selected."

"Um..." Ichigo thought for a moment, and while he felt like things were moving way too quickly for his liking, he knew that this was the only way to keep some noble snob's paws off of Rukia. "I accept."

Byakuya would have chuckled were laughter in his arsenal of expressions. "I believe you misunderstand me, Kurosaki. You need to ask me."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Byakuya, can I date Rukia?"

"Not like that. Bow, Kurosaki Ichigo."

Ichigo bowed fairly low, huffing the whole way down.

"On your hands and knees, you are addressing the twenty-eighth head of the house of Kuchiki."

Ichigo did as he was told, swearing to every god he could think of that he would get Byakuya back for this.

"Now say: "Kuchiki-sama, I humbly request the underserved honor of pursuing your sister, Kuchiki Rukia, for the purpose of courtship."

"I'm not saying that!"

"Well, then I have good news for the Shihoin clan."

"!"

"That will do, I suppose. I will grant your request. Tonight, we will meet and discuss the parameters of your relationship. Please do not mention this conversation to my sister before then."

Ichigo jumped up from his place on the ground. "Discuss! Isn't she just, like, my girlfriend now or something?"

Byakuya felt the corner of his mouth quirk upwards. "You obviously have much to learn about our customs. I will send a hell butterfly for you this evening. Farewell, Kurosaki." Byakuya was gone before Ichigo could blink, giving the former daiko a chance to process what had just happened. He walked off blindly into Seireitei, still completely dazed by the preceding events.

Byakuya found himself quite close to smiling as he sped towards his division headquarters. That was…fun?

Later that day, Ichigo found himself back in front of the Kuchiki manor, glad to have gotten un-lost (with the help of a small black butterfly) after wandering through the Seireitei. He approached the door, which was flung open in front of him by an extremely angry petite shinigami.

"WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU!"

Ichigo paled at the sight of Rukia, half because of her anger and half because of his earlier conversation with Byakuya. He briefly noticed that she looked great in the lavender yukata she wore before he saw Byakuya standing behind her. The head of the house placed a hand on his sister's shoulder. "Please, calm down, sister. I believe your friend was lost in the Seireitei. Come, it is time for dinner."

Rukia shot a death glare at Ichigo before following her brother into the manor, a frightened Ichigo not far behind.

This was about to be hell.

Isshin, Urahara, and Yoruichi sat on the ground, peeking in through one of the many dining hall windows at the manor. One of Urahara's kido spells hid them from view, and Isshin had even brought popcorn.

"This is gonna be great! I can't wait to see the look on my idiot son and third daughter's faces!"

Kisuke and his "cat" both nodded, which bothered Isshin just a little. Watching a cat nod was…disturbing.

Rukia sat down at the table across from Ichigo, staring him down with her piercing violet gaze.

"Kurosaki-san," she began, making him wince, "it is generally considered rude when one leaves their host's home before saying goodbye, or even giving an indication of where one is headed." There was a lethal trace of sarcasm in her tone.

Oh, she was pissed.

Ichigo struggled to explain. "I'm sorry! I was…indisposed?"

"What does that even mean, baka!"

"It means I was busy, midget."

"YOU SHUT THE F-"

Byakuya coughed loudly and raised a hand. "Enough." He said, then looked at Ichigo. "Are you sure about this?"

Ichigo looked between Rukia and her brother several times before nodding with obvious hesitation.

Byakuya looked at his sister. "Rukia, I have received several offers from suitors from other noble houses. As you know, marriage of young noble women is dictated by the clan head." She nodded slowly, and Ichigo paled as he put the pieces together. Byakuya continued speaking. "This morning, Kurosaki Ichigo asked for your hand in marriage.

"I DID WHAT!"

Byakuya turned to Ichigo. "I believe you asked to court my sister. Is this not the same as your dating?"

"Well, you get married after dating someone a long time! And you date a bunch of people!"

"How barbaric," was all Byakuya said before turning back to Rukia. "As he is the hero of the Winter War and a powerful member of Soul Society, I accepted. I did this with your best interest at heart, I assure you, as I believed you would prefer him to a member of the Omaeda family.

Hang on, Ichigo thought, earlier he said Shihoin…

"You still haven't even addressed the fact that you deceived me!" Ichigo protested.

Isshin chuckled. "This is getting pretty good! Look at my third daughter's face! She's so cute and red!"

Yoruichi grinned, disturbing Isshin once more. "Ah, your son seems quite furious. Are you sure he doesn't prefer someone else?"

"Not a chance." Both men said in unison.

Rukia's mind was in a haze as Ichigo further argued with Byakuya. Married? I'm not ready for that! She looked at her brother who seemed to be fielding Ichigo's protests rather well. Was he really prepared to marry her off into some other family? Wasn't he happy with her just being Kuchiki Rukia? She got up and slipped out of the room, almost running over a food-laden Mina.

"Oh, excuse me Rukia….sama?"

The petite shinigami was already gone.

"…and that is why I can't get married!" Ichigo finished, slamming his hands down on the table. He then noticed that Rukia had left. "Look what you did! You scared the shit out of her Byakuya!"

Byakuya closed his eyes as his brow knit together. "You will address me as Kuchiki-taicho!"

Ichigo never heard him as he bolted after Rukia.

The girl sat on the egde of Sokyoku Hill, dangling her feet over the precipice as the evening sun set in the sky, coloring the clouds shades of orange and purple. She remembered the last time she had been in this place.

"Yo."

Rukia sighed, looking up at the remains of what should have been the instrument of her execution. She couldn't deny that she loved the boy, and she didn't doubt his feelings either. He had all but professed his love for her on the day that they visited Masaki's grave, the day that Ichigo became a permanent shinigami. But this was too soon. Marriage? She had never even given courtship a second thought, and she was fairly sure that she was unworthy of a noble arrangement, given her origins. She wasn't sure how she felt about Byakuya planning to marry her off either; She felt honored that he considered her a true noble, but also felt betrayed at the prospect of being sent to another family.

"Rukia-nee, help us make dinner for Daddy and Ichi-nii! Oh, too much salt, Karin-chan!"

"This is why you do the cooking, Zu."

"My three lovely daughters are making lunch for their sexy doctor father and his lazy idiot son!"

"Don't call yourself sexy in front of them, pervert!"

Rukia felt a smile forming on her face, thinking that maybe she wouldn't mind joining that family, in fact, Kurosaki Rukia had a nice ring to it. She shook her head. She shouldn't be thinking like this, it was ridiculous! She was pulled out of her thoughts by approaching footsteps, and turned to see who she already knew was behind her.

"Yo."

"Aww, they ran off!"

"If we hurry we can catch them. Race you!"

"Don't transform in front of Isshin-san!"

"How did you know I was here?" Rukia asked Ichigo, a much more relaxed look on her face than before.

"Ah you know, sensed reiatsu, yada yada."

Rukia smiled, violet eyes twinkling in the evening twilight as the waxing sun played off her porcelain skin. "But you suck at sensing reiatsu!"

Ichigo smirked as he stepped towards her, standing a few feet from the cliff's edge. "I could always feel you."

"Yoruichi! Cover yourself in my haori, you're indecent!"

"Shhh! They'll hear us!"

"Just put it on!"

"You know this is crazy, right? We're so young…" Rukia asked with a distraught look. Ichigo offered her a hand, pulling her up in front of him.

"Yeah, and I may not have known what I was agreeing to. But I'll be damned if I let some stuck-up noble prick have my Rukia." Ichigo responded, surprised at his own boldness.

"My, my – possessive, are we?" she smirked.

"Damned straight." He paused, choosing his words. "You don't get to leave again. Seventeen months, that was way too long."

"Yeah…it was. I'm sorry I got mad this earlier it's just…"

"Just?"

She looked up at him, eyes slightly moist. "That's the longest we've been apart since…since you lost your powers."

"Ah." Ichigo just squeezed her hand, not wanting to express with words the longing that the two of them had felt during their time apart.

"Yare, yare; they're standing rather close." Kisuke whispered, still upholding the invisibility spell.

"Come on, stupid son, you can do it! Make Daddy a grandbaby right here!"

"SHHHH!"

"Did you hear something?" Ichigo asked, turning a bit to his right.

"No."

"Ah." He gave her a rare smile. "Remember the last time we were here together?"

She smiled back at him, the last rays of sun playing off her features much like the flames of the phoenix. "It seems so long ago now…I said I'd never say it but…" She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek, arms wrapped around his neck. "Thank you for saving me, Ichigo. Thank you for saving the world."

"You know I couldn't have done it without you." He asked, placing his own arms around her back, their faces nearly touching.

"Just thought you deserved a hero's thanks, hero." She replied, blushing pink. "The hero always gets a kiss in your living-world films."

"Really? Because as I recall, it goes something like this." He told her, pulling her just close enough to capture her lips with his own. Rukia didn't react at first, but soon melted into the kiss, grabbing lightly on to his shihakusho as the two let all of the emotions of being apart for so long flow between them as their reiatsu washed over each other. She pulled back after nearly a minute, face flushed and eyes shining.

"I still think this whole…courtship thing is crazy. Don't you think we're too young?"

Ichigo smiled. "All of your opinions have been rejected" he said before kissing her again.

"MY SON IS A MAN! WHAT A MOMENTUS OCCASION! LET'S GO GET DRUNK AND CELEBRATE!"

Ichigo and Rukia quickly broke apart, Ichigo looking quickly around until Urahara's kido suddenly dissolved.

"WHAT THE FUCK!"

Ha. That was fun to write. The story is going to be slower paced moving on, so don't expect a wedding next chapter or anything.

So I planned on review responses but I really would like to get this chapter out today, it's 4:15 AM, I still have to separate paragraphs in ff's editor, and I can't write again till after work tomorrow which will be late. Because of this, I'm going to do them at the beginning of next chapter. So if you review this one and last one you get two responses next time, as well as a dollar sign next to your name for being an awesome pimp.

There's only so much I can offer, but I think that's a sweet deal. Oh also if you don't review, I'll send Gin to watch you while you sleep. Like literally just sit on the end of your bed and watch you. Smiling that big creepy smiling and saying "Bye-Bye." And he'll do it forever. And ever. And Aizen will be there telling you how you're a failure while looking like a big-ass butterfly.

Aw, shit. I won't be able to sleep now.

Until next time.

-Cero