Rukia was not in the least bit amused. She was looking at a pile of paper on her desk that had been delivered to her from twelfth division regarding excessive use of the soul pager network. It listed all the text messages that had been sent and received over the last month as well as a note from Captain Kurotsuchi saying that if the excessive use of the paging system didn't come to a stop he would cut off the division's access.
"Well? What do you have to say for yourself Shin Amanada?" Her icy glare sent shivers down the new seventh seats spine.
"Um, I can explain…" He began.
"EXPLAIN?! Three thousand and sixty seven text messages in the last week alone?" Rukia was laughing on the inside but didn't let it show on the outside. "I know that you are seeing Ururu, but that does not mean that you can use your soul pager for texting her all day and all night. You and she have, by yourselves, almost managed to crash the entire soul pager system! Captain Kurotsuchi has threatened to cut the division off because of this massive amount of texting."
"Three thousand?"
"And sixty seven. Don't make me take your phone away. Yeesh, you're making me sound like some old mother, and I'm only one hundred and sixty five." Rukia looked disgusted.
"I may have a temporary solution for our problem. Ichigo said from the doorway. It seems that Kusanagi got pretty torn up yesterday by a hollow that was pretty strong. He beat it but he requires some recuperation time." He smirked. "So… I think that we should send our text happy seventh seat down to give him a little rest."
Shin's eyes got big as he heard the words. "SIR! You can count on me to fulfill his duties completely."
"Just remember, this is work. Not playtime for Shin." Ichigo winked dismissing the young shinigami.
After Shin exited the office Rukia looked at Ichigo. "Why did you reward him for creating this paperwork nightmare?"
He knelt down beside her chair and kissed her gently on the cheek. "Don't you remember when they finally desided that I needed a pager too? How many texts did we send that first week?"
"It wasn't that many." Rukia pouted.
"It was five thousand and ninety six. I remember very clearly because Yamamoto called me into his office after that and asked me to tone it down. That guy had a way of making a simple request feel like a command from heaven. As I remember Ukitaki sent you down to stay for a week after I got chewed out. From that point on we kept out texting down to a 'tolerable' level.
Rukia grinned. "That was a good week wasn't it."
"I'll say. I had just moved into campus housing and didn't have any roommates yet and classes didn't start until the following week. I still remember how you showed up in that very cute miniskirt with the purple silk blouse. I wanted to have you right then."
"I still have that skirt and blouse. Maybe I should wear them to dinner tonight." She teased.
"Byakuya would have a coronary or go bankai the moment he saw you dressed like that." Ichigo sniggered.
"Who said I was going to let Byakuya see it?" She countered.
"Don't you remember? We have to go to the mansion tonight for dinner and some final planning for the wedding." Ichigo asked in a deadpan voice.
"Damn, I did forget. OK, I'll find something a little more toned down for tonight." She sighed.
"That doesn't mean that you can't wear it after dinner." He leered at her.
"Hey sailor, are you trying to get lucky?" She giggled at him.
"Trying? I've been lucky ever since I met you. Now get rid of that paperwork and let's go and have some lunch and watch the squad practicing their kido on the training field. Maybe I'll learn something other than a binding spell."
"Hentai."
"Who was the first one to use a binding spell on whom? Hentai yourself." He laughed as she turned very red.
Kuchiki Mansion:
"Good evening Captain Kurosaki, Miss Kuchiki. Byakuya-dono is currently in the garden awaiting your arrival." The head butler ushered them into the garden then retreated.
Byakuya was silently observing the reflection of the moon on the koi pond. His hand would flick from time to time sending a small piece of bread onto the surface resulting in the koi coming up to snatch the proffered morsel. "You are both early. Is there something amiss?" He said without turning to face them.
"No, we're just early. That isn't bad form is it?" Ichigo asked in a relaxed manner.
"No. It's just unexpected of you, Kurosaki." Byakuya half turned his head to let them see his profile.
"Nii-sama, we finished our work early and desided that maybe we could just spend some time with you talking." Rukia slipped in attempting to keep the two from escalating their little game of who was superior to whom.
"Then let us discuss the reception motif you requested. Urahara was able to supply the requested rabbit ear hats. However I do not see the reason behind them." Byakuya reached inside his kimono and extracted a pair. "They seem to clash with my kenseikan." He placed the bunny ears on his head like he was donning a crown. One pink ear flopped forward.
Ichigo bit his lip to keep himself from guffawing outright. Rukia almost squealed in delight. "They're perfect! How many did you get?"
"Enough for the entire wedding party and all the guests." Byakuya answered casually.
"Where is my camera when I need it!" Ichigo screamed to himself.
"Something wrong Kurosaki?" Byakuya asked while raising an eyebrow.
"It's nothing, just making a mental note to myself." There was a slight glint in his eye.
"In that case don't hurt yourself." The glint was now in Byakuya's eye now as Ichigo's mouth dropped open in shock.
"Did you just make a joke?" Ichigo turned to Rukia. "He just made a joke!"
"Yes, it seems that you are rubbing off on him." Rukia said wryly.
It was hard to tell which man was more insulted.
Urahara Shouten
"Welcome young Shin, I understand that you are being sent to give Shiro a break to recover. You wouldn't be using this as an excuse to spend time with my sweet Ururu, would you?" Urahara asked from behind his fan. His eyes were lit up with mirth.
"Um, no sir. I'm here to work." Shin wasn't sure that telling Ururu's 'parent?' that he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible was a good thing.
"Well, in that case please accept this." Urahara handed Shin a slip of paper.
"What's this?" Shin opened the folded paper. "WHAT? This is a bill for texting services?"
"I'm sure that you wouldn't want to give that bill to Ururu now would you?" Urahara asked with a whimsical tone in his voice.
"Fine, put it on my account and I'll take care of it. Where is Ururu anyway?"
"She is upstairs making dinner as we speak. Shall we see what she has made for us?" Urahara ushered the young shinigami to the ladder out of the training room.
Ishida house:
"Why is it such a big deal? All I want to do is practice using the shun shun rikka more so that they don't wear me out." Mayuki asked as she pushed her glasses up her nose in a mirror movement of her fathers.
"There isn't any big deal Yuki-chan, it's just that you never had any interest in learning better control of them before." Her mother said quietly. "Is there some reason you have changed your mind?"
"Well… Yeah, I had to patch up Kusanagi after a fight he had with a hollow. I passed out after closing all his wounds." Mayuki looked down at the floor.
"Well I'll teach you what I know but maybe I should ask for a little help from an old friend." Orihime thought out loud.
"As long as it isn't that pervert Urahara, I don't mind." Uryuu said from the doorway.
"Oh no. Yourichi was the one that helped train me." Orihime said quickly. "Even now I wouldn't trust Urahara with our kids. He has a habit of turning kids with high spiritual strength into shinigami. Could you imagine though? A Quincy/Shinigami/Rikka?"
"I have a hard enough time with Quincy/Rikka children. Lets let the world adjust to this first. By the way, where is your brother?" Uryuu asked as an aside
"He is staying with Grandpa this week. He said something about learning from the best." Mayuki responded then she covered her mouth, "I'm sorry Daddy. I didn't mean it that way."
A moment's irritation crossed Uryuu's face before he smiled. "Don't worry about it. He's right. Grandpa can teach him things that I can't, and your mother can teach you things that I can't also."
Thirteenth Division Officers Quarters:
Ichigo sat down enjoying the comfort of his quarters and waiting for Rukia to come backfrom the restroom. "I got that movie you asked for from Urahara. It seems that he has as good a selection of movies as Netflux, plus he delivers a whole lot faster. I wonder how that old pervert does it."
Ichigo started the player and got the movie started and then paused it while waiting for Rukia.
She came out of the restroom and Ichigo's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. In the fifteen years that he had known her he hadn't noticed any changes, which was typical of a man, but she had changed slightly. She had grown a couple of inches taller and had filled out in more womanly ways. This made the current outfit that she was wearing extremely appealing to Ichigo's eyes.
She strolled over to the TV and bent over to look at something knowing that she was teasing him to no end. The four inch heels made her legs look impossibly long. "Are you sure that you want to watch a movie?" She winked.
Ichigo clicked the remote killing the player and TV then closed the blinds. "Come here you goddess."