Rimuru didn't bother resting that night after leaving Ichigo in her room.

He was too busy kicking himself for not being more aware of the fact that he had been pushing her a bit too much for a first day on the job.

He was still caught up on the fact that she had been on her feet all day, not taken any rests or breaks, and hadn't eaten anything either. And now that he was aware of what mistake's he had made, he would definitely do a lot better about those things the next day that she worked.

He silently vowed it as both a man and a ruler.

And with those thoughts firmly in mind, he planned out a few things to help him make sure that she wasn't pushed too much. Since he worried that if he did keep pushing her, that the poor girl would collapse or get sick.

So, the first thing that he was going to do was put a small desk in his office for her, complete with a nice and comfortable chair. And since Shion would become upset if he didn't do the same for her...well, he had no choice but to do the same for her. But that was okay.

He totally didn't mind at all since it was probably something that he should have done ages ago anyways.

The next thing that he would do is make sure that Ichigo left work at a decent time. The only exception to this rule would be if an emergency occurred. And even then, he would have to make sure that one of the empty rooms near his office was fitted with a lounge chair or a couch so that she could lay down and grab a few Z's if she absolutely needed too.

The next thing that he needed to take care of was her lack of appetite.

He understood that Shion's cooking sucked beyond belief and was disgusting as hell but that was no excuse to skip meals completely during a long, grueling day.

So, he'd have to make sure that there was plenty of fruits, and delicious things for her to munch on during the day, lunch, and dinner since that may be the closest thing to making sure that she didn't go without.

"Maybe I should start out with some candy, maybe?" He muttered to himself thoughtfully, his mind already awhirl with everything mentioned before deciding that he'd grab some stuff first thing in the morning and get to work on his tasks before tackling any actual work.

Ichigo didn't sleep for long once she finally did manage to doze off. Partially because her sleep schedule was still fucked from the time she and the others had been traveling. And partially because she wasn't sure if Tempest was upset with her or not.

Sure, she had understood that he was kind of upset about the lateness of the hour, and other things. But she hadn't been able to tell whether or not he was actually mad at her for letting things go on for so long without saying anything.

Sighing, because she felt kind of lost here, she went ahead and rolled out of bed and started to go about her usual routine. Bathroom, shower/bath, brush her teeth, do something with her hair, and get dressed for the day.

Once all of that was done, she walked to the kitchen and barely took a second to glance around when she saw Rukia sitting at her table with a cup of...something nefarious?

Ichigo's eyes glittered in the faint light of the room for a moment as she looked her friend over before suddenly narrowing her eyes and asked, "What are you drinking?"

"Coffee." Rukia replied, automatically perking up the second that she spoke, obviously expecting the start of one of their usual morning talks.

But she was disappointed when Ichigo made an annoyed sound and then turned on her heel and made a beeline for her and grabbed her cup away from her.

Causing Rukia to jump to her feet and shout in protest while Ichigo, being the mean and unhappy morning person that she usually was- put her hand on Rukia's head to hold her back as the woman tried, and failed miserably, to take back her cup while her friend drank it in front of her.

"Hey! What the hell did you do that for?!" Rukia shrieked at her in outrage and punched her in the stomach. Ichigo doubled over a bit at the impact of her friend's fist, but otherwise didn't really react to being hit since it didn't hurt her any.

Ichigo licked away what little bit of scalding hot liquid had escaped her mouth before rasping out, "It's bad for the baby." Rukia's annoyance melted away in an instant as her jaw dropped open. Wonder, and awe warring with joy within her as she asked,

"A baby?"

Ichigo hummed and slowly nodded her head, her citrine-colored eyes never leaving her friends face as tears welled up in Rukia's eyes and she smiled. "A baby? You're sure?"

"I'm sure," Ichigo said as she put the pilfered cup down on the table and smiled back before saying. "I can see it."

Rukia lifted her hands to her mouth and started jumping up and down in place excitedly as she asked again, "You're sure?"

"I'm positive Rukia." Ichigo reassured her with a chuckle as the smaller woman suddenly let out a shriek of happiness that was so loud that it likely started anyone nearby as she latched onto her with a death grip of a hug.

"It's finally happened! I'm going to be a mom!"

"Yes, you are."

"And Renji's going to be a dad!"

Ichigo laughed and held her friend tighter as she replied, "Yes, he is."

"Holy shit, holy shit- You're going to be a godmother, Ichigo." Rukia said with a wide grin. By this point Ichigo was expecting her to say something about Byakuya being an uncle. So, her response was automatic.

"Yes, I- Wait, what?"

"I-I gotta go tell Renji!" Rukia finally said, her violet eyes sparkling with mischief as she detached herself from her and practically ran out the door screaming for her husband.

Rimuru was on his way to his office when he heard the screaming and instantly snapped into action. He wasn't the only one either. He was met along the way by Ranga, Souei, and Benimaru.

All of whom had been heading their way into work and heard the screaming too.

None of them knew what to expect once they reached the area where the screaming was coming from. But at the very least they had all been expecting a disaster of some kind.

Like a fire. Or someone being injured or under attack. Instead, what they found were the four humans huddled together hugging, laughing, and shrieking excitedly.

Forcing himself to relax a bit, Rimuru removed his hand from the hilt of his sword and stepped forward as Rukia broke away from the other human's and ran over to them, carelessly.

"What's going on here?" He asked curiously. Wondering what the hell had possessed the lot to cause such a ruckus while people were still sleeping.

Or used to be anyways.

"I'm pregnant!" Rukia practically shouted at them as she jumped around in place. "We're going to have a baby!"

Rimuru's face lit up and he clapped his hands together and quickly grabbed the woman and hugged her, though he was careful not to hug her too tightly. She was expecting, after all.

"That's great! Congratulations." He said with a grin as he released her and did a quick health appraisal on her to check if she was right. Sure enough, she was.

And from the looks of it, she was several weeks along already. Awesome.

She grinned back at him and then made a weird, high pitch squealing sound that he was certain made the others flinch because of their somewhat sensitive hearing and then ran back to the others as Ichigo meandered over to him.

Rimuru lifted a brow at the girl since had genuinely thought that she would be asleep still give the early hour. "Why are you out of bed?" He asked as he crossed his arms over his chest and took a second to study her.

Despite not getting as much sleep as he may have liked, she seemed perfectly fine.

She was wide awake, dressed, and he wouldn't swear to it, but he thought that he could even smell the faintest hint of soap wafting from her skin. Which meant that she must have bathed recently too. So, she was obviously fine despite his concerns.

Which was great.

But she was still off work for the day.

The girl jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at her small, dark-haired friend as she replied. "I found her sitting in my kitchen this morning with coffee. So, I took it from her and drank it."

Rimuru wasn't really sure what he'd been expecting to hear, but he was pretty certain that that wasn't even in his top ten expected answers. Still, his lips twitched in amusement as he heard Souei and Ranga both comment on how evil it was to take one's coffee so early in the morning while Benimaru merely nodded his head sagely beside them.

And they were right. It was evil to take someone's coffee.

The slime monster was betting that both ogres had had their early morning pick me up had been stolen right out of their hands a few times themselves.

He would also bet that it was Shion who pilfered the stuff from his poor friends.

Quietly chuckling to himself at the mere mental image of such a thing happening, he almost didn't notice as Benimaru and Souei both decided to go on to work and left Ranga to escort him to the office whenever he finally felt like getting around to it.

Finally snapping his mind back to the present instead of imaging funny past misdeeds being carried out by his other assistant, he visibly brightened and blurted out. "Oh! I wanted to talk to you about a few things and go over some work-related stuff, if you have the time that is."

"I do." Ichigo said with a small nod as she let her eye flicker towards her friends. The three had stopped making so much noise and were now just joking with each other quietly.

"Okay, since we're already in front of your home- how about we go over everything here?"

"Alright," Ichigo said and then muttered to herself. "I still haven't had anything for breakfast anyways." And then flushed and looked at him in embarrassment as he smiled at her.

"Then how about we go over everything over breakfast." He suggested kindly as he reached out and wrapped his hand around her own and then started to gently tug her towards her home, sputtering and occasionally shooting panicked glances at the others since it had been a good long while since she'd had anyone outside of her immediate circle of friends in her home.

The night before didn't count since Rimuru had just been trying to be helpful and take care of her. So, she couldn't help but feel a tad bit nervous as he opened the door to her house and stepped back for a moment to let her walk inside first.

He couldn't help but notice that she seemed nervous to him. And he wondered if it had anything to do with certain events that her friends had mentioned the day of their arrival. The ones that had caused her so much trouble before that she had left her former home.

Then again, there was also the fact that he had shown up pretty suddenly and had more or less invited himself to her home. And she may be uncomfortable with someone that she didn't know well being in her home alone with her.

"It's okay," She blinked as he went on to say, "You don't have to be alone with me if it makes you so nervous. Invite your friends to come too if it'll help you feel more comfortable."

She took several moments to mull over his words before dropping her head a bit and saying hesitantly, "It's...not that I'm uncomfortable with being alone with you, Rimuru. It's just that it's been a while since I really trusted anyone outside of my friends to enter into my personal space, that's all."

He was quiet as he turned her words over in his mind a few times before slowly saying, "If you'd rather, we can do this somewhere else. Somewhere more crowded. At least until you feel..." He made a hand gesture at the open door in front of them before then adding, "That I'm more trustworthy of being in your personal space."

"No, it's fine." She said with a slightly pained looking smile. "It's just my insecurities nagging at me."

Rimuru hummed as she finally seemed to muster up the courage to step into her home and then turned and motioned for him to follow her as she asked, "What would you like for breakfast?"

"Whatever is fine. I'm not a picky eater." He replied as he stepped through the door and gently closed it behind him.