Ichigo stepped outside of his home with a thunderous look on his face and bristled at the sheer amount of people standing on his front steps. Dear god... It was like half the soul society had decided to invade his home! There had to be close to twenty people standing there.

The captains, lieutenants- their underlings. Someone stepped into his line of vision and Ichigo looked up, and up and blinked at the bronze colored eyes of the wolf-like captain of the seventh division and tried not to let his expression show any signs of worry or unrest since he knew it would hurt the kind hearted warrior.

"Greetings Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Uh... Hi, Sanji-san." Ichigo said awkwardly as the giant handed him a medium sized bag and looked a little bit uncertain of himself as Ichigo looked down and blinked at the bag.

"Forgive the intrusion my young friend, but I was told that you had taken a bride and wanted to congradulate you both in person." Sanji said in his usual gently spoken tone. His lips turned up a little bit in a small almost shy smile. Ichigo smiled back and reached out a hand and laid it against the wolf man's arm.

"I see. Thank you for the thought." Ichigo said even as he wondered how he was going to explain a were wolf coming to visit, to Honey. Somehow he doubted saying something like, Honey, dear, this is my giant wolf friend Sanji, would go over well with his wife. Maybe I can play off his appearance as cosplay or something for a movie. Ichigo thought as Ukitake walked up wearing jeans and a pale blue sweater.

"Ichigo!" The man said happily as he bowed politely to the younger man before declaring happily, "We've brought food and gifts for you and your bride!"

Ichigo stared at him for a second, almost unable to comprehend the fact that he was wearing human clothes (after all the last time he'd seen the guy wearing anything remotely human had been when they had gone to the beach. and that had ended in a disaster where genetically spliced watermelons had attacked them) thus ending any ambitions that the substitute shinigami may have had to ever return to the beach.

Ichigo looked down at the bag, this one was bigger and heavier than the last one handed to him, and peeked inside at the veggie platter, sushi platter, meat platter and several other things that he was starting to stagger under the weight of.

Shit! How much food had they brought? He wondered idly as the door to the house opened behind him and Honey poked her head out just in time for him to fall on his ass in the door way, startling her a bit.

"Ichigo! Are you alright?" She asked curiously, her face gone a little pale as Ichigo saw several of the soul reapers move in and huddle around the door to stare at her.

"I'm fine." He gritted out as he flushed with embarrassment and got to his feet and carried the bags over to the little counter that seperated the kitchen from the living room and set them down as he heard several of the shinigami introduce themselves to Honey before she invited them in.

Several of them came in, Rangiku, Toshiro, Renji, Sanji (although he had to bend and contort his body in a frightening way to do so) Kenpachi was present, which frightened Ichigo to a degree when he started sizing Honey up in a familiar and chilling manner that the shinigami recalled from his first meeting with the man. Forcing Ichigo to quickly pull his wife away from Kenpachi, leaving the man looking at him with a slightly offended look.

As if to say, Hey! I wasn't really going to challenge her to a fight... After which Honey almost literally wound up face to muzzle with Sanji while Ichigo mentally kicked himself for not warning her about the wolf-man even as he introduced them and hoped that she wouldn't say anything offending to the man.

After all Sanji was self conscious about his appearance. Not only that but he was a good and loyal friend. Ichigo would hate to see his feelings hurt over a misunderstanding.

However Honey didn't seem at all bothered by the wolf-man. In fact the first thing she did after introductions was ask if she could touch his ears, surprising both Ichigo and Sanji. Ichigo was about to say something to his wife about how he wasn't sure Sanji would like having his ears tugged on when the wolf-man smiled and leaned down so that she could touch his ears. Earning a small girlish giggle from Honey.

Causing everyone in the room to relax and exhale the breaths that they had been holding without his realizing it. Looking around, he noted that everyone in the room had their eyes on Sanji and Honey. Some of them calculating while others were appraising.

Ah so that's it. Ichigo thought as it occurred to him just why Sanji was there. It wasn't just to congradulate him on his taking a bride, it was a test to see if his wife could accept some of the strangeness that seemingly followed the shinigami around. And it looked like she had just passed their test too.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or cry about that since he could already picture some of their future conversations. Like the 'ghost' one. The 'hollow' one and the 'Oh my god, what the hell is that?' one.

Yes he could already see those conversations and how they would end. Heaven help me. He thought as Rukia suddenly ran through the door and jumped on his back causing him to stagger a bit at the force behind her body hitting his while Byakuya stood in the door way to his home and watched his sister gush all over Ichigo before letting his eyes drift to the strange young woman in the room.

And everything in his froze as his mind started to register what he was seeing. There, laughing at a joke Renji had told, was an young woman who was the exact likeness of his late wife.