Byakuya looked at his grandfather with narrowed eyes. When his grand father, the head of Kuchiki family, had been summoning him to come to the main house to talk about something important he had never thought that he meant this talk. Of course this wasn't the first time the old man talked about this, ever since his wife passed away—together with his unborn child—his grandfather had been trying to set him into an arranged marriage. Of course, until today, he had been turning down those proposals. At first it was because he was still not over Hisana yet but later he was just simply not interested. Usually he would managed to handle the situation but this time was different. The old man seemed to be more adamant than ever.

"It wasn't like I don't want to get married," Byakuya sighed, "I just didn't think that an arranged marriage would work for me."

His grandfather shook his head, "You married Hisana despite what I have told you. You married her on your own decision when you were twenty and look at you know. Thirty and single. You have to remember that you need to carry Kuchicki name but look at you... You live like a monk."

Byakuya talked calmly, "I was happy. I loved my wife and I would never regretted my decision to marry her. It was only for few years but I knew I was lucky to have Hisana as my wife."

"And you can be happy again," his grandfather said, "you need to re-marry."

The handsome man didn't say anything, instead he took a sip of his green tea. His grandfather would not understand the situation he was in right now. It wasn't like he didn't want to get married to anyone, in fact he had been thinking about it since few years ago. Four years after Hisana passed away, there had been someone he had his eyes on. He wouldn't mind to re-marry if it were with her. After he heard that she called off the engagement with her fiancée, he did plan to make a move on her but alas, somebody had been faster than him.

"You understand the situation, don't you?" the old man touched his beard, "You need to carry our family name. When you wanted us to adopt that girl into our family record, I approve, but she had no Kuchiki blood in her, and she is a woman, when she got married, she would eventually leave Kuchiki House. You are going to be the head of Kuchiki family, you need to produce a heir to continue the family line."

It was not easy to stay calm in this kind of situation. Byakuya was known for being calm, cool and level-headed but at this time, he found it was hard to control himself. He knew he had the responsibility but as stiff as he was, Byakuya believed that you needed love to marry someone and right now, there had been only one girl he had feeling for—not quite a love, but almost. He knew that if only he was given a chance, the feeling he kept for her could become love. After all, it was so easy to fall in love with a girl like Orihime.

"We have good relation with Shihouin family," and here Byakuya started to understand fully what his grandfather was scheming this time, "and it seemed like Yoruichi-san couldn't bear a heir."

"No."

The old man narrowed his eyed, "I haven't said anything, yet."

"You don't have to, the answer is no."

The old man shook his head, he knew his grandson was a hardheaded man, like all Kuchiki was, "Soifon-san is a really fine woman."

"That she is," Byakuya agreed as he stood up, his legs were kind of numb after sitting in that position for so long, "that's why she deserves someone better than me. Someone who would marry her and treasure her like I did Hisana. I have no intention to marry her. Or anybody you choose for me. I am sorry but I have to go now, I have a meeting with someone from the University."

"I can believe it, you got married and a father to be. Ha, never thought you were ready for that."

Ichigo snorted. Hearing that from the older man was kind of funny, "talk to yourself. I never thought that you will get married and have a kid. You didn't even like women."

Both men were sitting in the changing room of the fitness center. Both wearing white towel to cover their lower body. Ichigo was drinking a cold coffee milk while the black haired man was drying his long hair with another towel.

The man shrugged, "I didn't like women, I like a woman. I had been in love with her since twenty years ago and now that I got her and even made her have my baby, oh yeah I am so proud of myself."

Judging from the huge grin plastered on his scarred face, Ichigo knew that he wasn't joking when he told him that. Ichigo smirked and nodded. Actually he kind of understand that but still, it was surprising to know that the infamous monster in the field was actually a kind of man who would pursue his true love for years.

Kenpachi Zaraki was an ex soccer player. He played for different club than Ichigo but they were both playing for Japanese national soccer team for world cup seven years where Kenpachi was the captain. After he quit soccer four years ago, Ichigo got the captain band from him. The thirty eight year old man was a stay at home father now. Some times he would appear at the variety show on TV but most of his time spent with his precious daughter, a six years old girl he treasures so much.

"Want to see my daughter's photo?" Kenpachi didn't even let Ichigo to answer that. The man with eye patch had already pulled out his phone and unlock the screen to show his phone's wallpaper to Ichigo. The girl in the photo was a cute girl with pink hair and chubby cheek. She was being hold by a beautiful woman with dark long hair who was—without no doubt—his wife, "Isn't she really cute?"

Ichigo looked at the girl in the picture. Yes, it was true, the girl was really cute and it was a mystery how could someone like Kenpachi have a really cute daughter but when he looked at his wife, he thought he could understand from where the good genes came from. But still, how and why such a beautiful woman fell for a barbarian man like Kenpachi Zaraki would always be a mystery.

"I always thought that you were the type who played around," Ichigo gave back the phone to the taller man.

"I thought the same of you, but here you are now. Married and expecting." Kenpachi shrugged, "I love that woman, and thought it was embarrassing for some people to chase a woman who had told you that she wasn't interested, I don't let it bother me. I know that I want her since I was teenager and I know that we meant to be. So I wouldn't give it up."

Ichigo sighed, "you're lucky then. Isn't it hard to understand woman?"

Kenpachi snickered, "did I say that I understand her? Because, no, I don't understand her. Not even now. I don't know why she finally agreed to marry me. Maybe she thought that it was to bothersome to keep on turning me down," he grinned, "she finally gave up and married me. After twenty years!"

Ichigo put his now empty coffee milk bottle onto the wooden bench and frowned, "Don't you want to know her reason to marry you?"

Kenpachi still looked at his phone screen adoring her daughter, "why does it matter?"

"Well," Ichigo shrugged, he was thinking about his own marriage and his feeling about his wife's reason to be with him, "what if she was feeling forced? That she had no option other than to marry you? That maybe she didn't," he hesitated for three seconds "maybe she didn't love you?"

Instead of beating the younger guy into a pulp, the muscular man laughed loudly, he didn't seem to be offended at all by the question, "well maybe... But who cares. I don't care whatever reason she had in her mind when she agreed to marry me but one thing for sure, I am glad she did. She made me happy and I am doing my best to be a good husband and father for her and Yachiru, so who cares about her reason?" The man looked at Ichigo face and grinned, "Ah... are you worried about your wife? Well, be a man, Ichigo! You're the man in this relationship, you need to do what you had to do."

Ichigo snorted, "You're so out of character."

Kenpachi laughed again, "Am I?" he punched Ichigo's arm, "Maybe you just don't know me well." The older man stood up and started to get dressed, "well, the new season would start in few months, treasure the time you have with your wife now because believe me, once you got busy you will miss her like crazy."

Ichigo rolled his eyes.

This man was really out of character today.

Orihime seemed off these past few days and Ichigo wondered what had happened. She would smile nervously and refused to talk when he asked her what was wrong but deep inside he knew there had been something bothering her. He didn't want to force her to tell him, not if she wasn't ready to tell him. He didn't want to make her do or say anything she wasn't ready to, but still he was curious.

Now that he though about it, she had been like this ever since she met Rukia few days ago. He wondered if it was something Rukia had said to her. He swore if that midget had said something weird to his wife he would make the raven haired girl regret it. Orihime's hormones had been acting up lately and it was so easy to upset her in this condition. He didn't want to upset her. If he could, he wanted to keep her happy.

That was why he didn't tell her about his coming photo session with Soifon. He wasn't sure if Orihime were aware about Soifon attraction toward him. It wasn't like Ichigo was attracted to the younger girl—sure they were going on a date once before, but it was nothing serious, just a dinner and a goodnight kiss, nothing serious—so he didn't want Orihime to get the wrong idea.

But why?

Why did he not want her to get the wrong idea?

Because she was his wife?—but they would get divorced after the baby was born.

Did he really want that?

Nope. He didn't want that. All of sudden Ichigo realized what he really wanted. He was a lucky man, Kenpachi needed twenty years to make a woman he loved agreed to marry him, Urahara married the woman he loved but they couldn't have a baby, and Byakuya, the woman he loved and his unborn baby were dead—and he could do nothing about that. That was why, he was a lucky man. He was about to have a baby and he just realized that he fell in love with his wife. Maybe she didn't share the same feeling but Ichigo knew he would be damn if something happened before him had the chance to tell her his feeling.

Yeah, he would tell her about his feeling.

"Byakkun!"

Byakuya caught the little girl easily and soon the girl had attached herself onto the handsome man, both of her little hands around Byakuya's neck, strong enough to strangle the man. Her mother furrowed her brows slightly and apologized to the younger man. Byakuya just nodded and told her that it was okay. After all, it wasn't like he hated the girl. Sure she could be noisy sometimes but Yachiru Zaraki was an adorable little girl.

Byakuya sat down in front of the woman who was looking at the menu, still with the little girl latching onto him, "I am sorry I made you wait."

The woman shook her head, "no problem, I just came here earlier." The older woman passed the menu to the man and let him decided what to order before she gently scolded the little girl, "Yachiru, let Kuchiki-san's go. He needs to breathe too you know."

The pinkette pouted, but she let him go, instead she sat on his laps, "but I miss Byakun!"

"I am sorry, she always behaved like this when she was around you," the mother apologized as she watched the younger man called a waitress to give his order, "I tried to discipline her but Kenpachi is such a dotting father. He spoils her too much."

Byakuya didn't seem to be bothered at all though, he let the girl sat on his laps, "Well, it's okay, it's been sometime since I met her the last time."

Retsu smiled gently. She knew that despite his calm and cool behavior, deep inside Byakuya was a family man. When he had his own children, she could imagine, he would be no different than her husband. He would be a dotting father. If only he would take a chance to start a family. He was still relatively young after all, and good looking too, he would be popular amongst women but Retsu knew that it was not her place to comment about this, besides they met here because there are other things they needed to discuss.

"So," Retsu started after the waitress left, "the head of faculty had called you I guess?"

"About the project? Yeah I heard about that, I would refuse it though."

Retsu had expected this kind of reaction from the man, that was why actually she asked him to meet her in the first place. She needed to tell him this before he told the higher authorities that he declined to take any part in this upcoming project. She knew that Byakuya would rather lose his job than to work under the man he hated so much—not that she knew why exactly he hated him that much.

"Are you really sure?" The black haired woman smiled and muttered a thank you as the waitress came and put down their orders on the table, "the project is kind of... interesting. Have you read the proposal?"

"No," well just like what she had expected, "I saw the cover and there was "Sousuke Aizen"'s name on it. I don't need to read it any further. I am not interested in whatever project that man lead."

Retsu chuckled, "I see..." She take a sip of her tea calmly, "so, I guessed you didn't know that professor Inoue would also take part in this project?"

"Yeah finally the old bastards approved my project."

The blond girl sighed and furrowed her brows a bit, not really happy with what she had heard from her boyfriend. Not that she wasn't happy with that his project got approved because it means that he would get closer to his dream—and some extra money too for them if everything went as planned—but it also meant that he would be around that woman once more. His ex-fiancée, which she didn't know very well except from what she heard from him but already hated so much.

"Why are you making that face?" Sousuke smirked as he sat down next to his tanned girl friend, "jealous because I will be working with Orihime again?"

The girl frowned, "Because you don't need her anymore. You got them founding you, what good is she for you? There is that Kuchiki man and that old lady would work with you, why should you take her into your team?"

Sousuke laughed, not everyday the younger girl would be this jealous of anybody. Normally Tia was a cool and aloof, but lately he could see that the girl had been annoyed whenever he talked about his ex.

"Well, she is smart, that girl had a good brain," he took off his glasses and rested his back, "I could always use her to help me with this project. She would be a good help. Besides, don't you want some extra cash? Isn't there that new bag from winter collection you had been wanting?"

The girlfriend bit her lower lip and looked at him with a narrowed eyes, not really sure if she had to believe him or not, "why do you think she would agree to help you with this project, she is pregnant."

"Oh believe me she would be interested. I know her. She is always interested in this subject, believe me..."

She didn't say anything but she did rest her head on his hard chest. She had a bad feeling about it but tried to ignore it.

Everything would go just like what he had planned, she knew it. So why did she feel so insecure about this?

"Inoue-sensei is on vacation right now." Byakuya tried to calm himself. He almost dropped his teacup onto the poor Yachiru. He really wanted to tell the woman in front of him that Orihime Inoue was pregnant right now—and not an Inoue anymore, she was a Kurosaki now—but he knew it wasn't his place to give such information to anybody, "she is shouldn't be in any project."

"I know," Retsu leaned forward to wiped some cream off her daughter chin with a handkerchief, "but Aizen-sensei seemed to be sure that she would be interested. Well, maybe he is right. I am not that close with Inoue-sensei but they were dating before, right? I am sure Aizen-sensei knew that Inoue-sensei would join this project, that's why he included her name in the proposal."

Byakuya shook his head. Orihime and Sousuke had not only been dating for years but also engaged—and that was exactly why he hated Sousuke Aizen.

"This is not going to be good," Byakuya sighed, all of sudden he had an urge to punch something, preferably Sousuke's face, "why would he want to be around her at this time? There were other people out there he could ask to help. Why her?"

The older woman smiled, "well, if you want to know the answer, why don't you join in and see it yourself?"

Retsu didn't really know what had been going on but she was sure that this would be interesting.

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TBC

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Author's Note:

I am going to write a LONG author's note now, it is going to like a rant, you dont have to read it, really...

So I've been writing Ichihime Fanfics for 6 years now, and I love this fandom so much. I don't hate Rukia or any characters, I don't hate any pairing, I just couldn't stand to read or write them because they are not my preference, for example, I would never write Ichiruki.

I have another account where I posted my fanfic in my mother language, where I write in my profile "I don't take request to write some pairings "and I listed the pairings I won't write there (because I got many requests from readers).

I explained to them, I can't write any NaruHina (for example) is because I don't understand the character. I don't hate her. I just can't grasp her character. It is okay to make her side character but for main character, it is hard, especially because I like another pairing. Same to Ichiruki...

Then you know what happened? I got bashed. I got bashed and flamed and bullied. Some IchiRuki fans from my country go as far bashing my fanfic "Even Now" which they didn't even read. The laughed at it because I translated the story into bahasa Indonesia using different title "Ketika" which actually means "when/at the time". The think my English is horrible and so on and so on. I won't explain to them though that I chose different title because I think sounds better, not because I don't know the translation. Because if I translate it directly into bahasa Indonesia itu would be "bahkan saat ini/saat ini pun" and it doesn't sound catchy... well in the end I didn't bother to explain and 5 years had passed since then...

Do I still get bashed? Yep. I still get flamed even now. It makes me sad because it makes me started to look at IchiRuki fandom negatively. My best friend loves IchiRuki and we often joked about it and we debate sometime but no hard feeling, but why those other Ichiruki fans would go that far? That is so childish and I am so disappointed.

Why I talked about it now? Well because it is almost 6 years since I started writing fanfics in ffn and I want to let you know that many things happened but what keeps me strong is because I know there are many people out there who enjoy my stories despite my bad english, lack of reply, and very very late update.

Thanks for always reading. Thanks for reviewing. Thanks for staying with me!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!